Move on... Nothing to see here...

This blog, Creating e-Learning, has reached a natural conclusion
I think. While it started being devoted solely to e-learning and
branched out into e-assessment it has evolved into a smorgasbord of education links, useful software and general outpourings covering my work with Ayr College, the Scottish Qualifications Authority and the Scottish Further Education Unit.

It
has made sense, therefore, to spin off my blog and rename it. I'll keep the
original blog here, and might even make some updates, but my
main blog efforts will be over on Feeducation from now on.

Hope you stay with me.

Tony

Computing and Information Technology Conference

Image via Wikipedia

Now, I know that there's no need for any more sweeteners to tempt you to the conference on Thursday the 25th of June at Central College in Glasgow but...

A little bird has told me that Microsoft might just be offering a nice XBox 360 as a prize. So, don't sign up. I want to win it...

Open Source in Education

Image via Wikipedia

I've never understood why more educational institutions don't go for open source solutions.

We are in education and not training so it's principles not specific tasks that are important.

This is an interesting article on the problem:

IT PRO | Becta, open source and education: Too little, too late?

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Online Notepad

Image via Wikipedia

There is a new entry to the online notepad replacement to add to Google Notebook, Yahoo Notepad, et cetera, et cetera.

Helipad is essentially a wiki but you might find it useful. Try it here:

Helipad - Product overview

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Private Sector eLearning

Image via Wikipedia

This company have worked with several companies including National Instruments, the World Bank, Intel, Canon USA, The US Air Force, SAP, and Harvard Business School.

Their case studies and demonstrations are a good way of sparking ideas.

Enspire Learning: Demonstrations & Case Studies

SCQF at the Computing Event - Central College - 26th June

Image via WikipediaAs you may know the SCQF will be at the SFEU Computing event at Central College on the 26th of June. We've just added the presentation details to the programme.

They'll be presenting on - SCQF: The learning spine? The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework has been described as the learning spine of the Skills Strategy. What is the SCQF? Who is it for? How does it work? Find out more in this workshop.

There are still a few places left so go book and I'll see you there.

But I'm Sure I Put It Away Safely!

Image via Wikipedia

How many times have you safely stowed the user manual for your shiny new gadget only to find that you have no idea where that safe storage area is when you come to read the thing? What, it's just me? Never mind.

SafeManuals.com has a bunch of PDFs of manuals available for your (OK my) perusal.

Find your user guide, user guide, instruction manual or owner manual instantly !

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News Feeds to Your IM

(One of) the downsides to e-learning and e-assessment is the sense of isolation engendered. It can be nice to alleviate that with e-mail and chats to at least feel as though you are in a more social workplace than your front room.

What do you do, though, when none of your friends can play? I use IMFeeds to get RSS feeds piped directly to my IM window. I can then feel as though somebody wants to talk to me...

IM Feeds Beta - Welcome

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Blogging Tools

Image by Tom Raftery via Flickr

For a long time I've relied on ScribeFire to create and publish my blog entries. It integrates well with Firefox making it a one-click job to blog anything I've come across.

What's more difficult is finding other things to go with the post; images, links, tags and so on. (And when I say difficult I mean time-consuming.)

Zemanta have come up with an answer. Their tool will find (free) images, links to relevant stores, add in hyperlinks and all sorts of other nice things. Give it a try:

Blog me up! | Zemanta Ltd.

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Microsoft Digital Literacy Materials - Now with Added SCORM

Image via Wikipedia

For those that haven't come across it before the Microsoft Digital Literacy Curriculum is a complete set of notes for teaching Microsoft Office 2003 and 2007 in both XP and Vista modes at levels up to Higher and are also useful for things like IT Applications at Level 7. It also includes materials covering:

1. Computer Basics
   
2. The Internet and the World Wide Web
   
3. Productivity Programmes (Word processing, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Databases)
   
4. Computer Security and Privacy
   
5. Digital Lifestyles

The complete set of notes has now been SCORMed for use with your VLE (like Moodle). More information and download from here:

The UK Further Education Blog : Digital Literacy Curriculum: Now Available as SCORM Objects

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Computing and Information Technology Subject Network Conference

Image via Wikipedia

UPDATE: The final programme for the event has been published with the following confirmed speakers:

Cally Beck, Academic Program Manager, IBM UK
Joyce Henderson, Team Leader, Learning and Teaching Scotland
Steven Grier, Microsoft Education Manager (Scotland), Microsoft
Margaret McKay, eAdvisor, JISC Regional Support Centre
Graeme Clark, SOLAR Project Manager, SQA
Bobby Elliott, Qualifications Manager, Scottish Qualifications Authority
Gerry Toner, SCHOLAR Programme Director, SCHOLAR
Margaret Cameron, Project Manager, SCQF
Colin Maxwell, Lecturer, Adobe/Adam Smith College
Sarah Hall, Senior Executive, Careers Scotland
Jane Richardson, Regional Development Manager, Oracle Corporation UK
Vanessa Ranaldi, Project Manager, Microsoft/Scottish Qualifications Authority
Michelle Henderson, E2C Programme Manager, CompTIA
Mark Clark, eAdvisor, JISC Regional Support Centre
Michael Kowbel, Scottish Manager, e-skills UK
Jackie Graham, Information Systems Technologist, COLEG
Marjorie Quigley, Regional Director EMEA/APAC, ComputerPREP
Tony Gurney, Computing and IT Subject Mentor, SFEU

I've been told that two thirds of the places have been booked so if you want to attend you should sign up as soon as possible.

-- ORIGINAL POST --

As part of my work as Computing Subject Mentor with the SFEU I've been putting together a conference for Scottish FE computing practitioners. The blurb follows:

Following the heavy hints of last month I can now confirm what many of you know. The
Computing and Information Technology Subject Network
Conference
will take place on Thursday the 26th of June.
This free event takes place at Central College in Glasgow and includes
presentations and exhibits by many public and private sector
organisations including (in no particular order): IBM, Learning and
Teaching Scotland, Microsoft, JISC, SQA, SCHOLAR, SCQF Adobe,
ComputerPrep (CIW), Oracle, CompTIA, eSkills, Leckie & Leckie and
COLEG.


Places are strictly limited and going fast so to book your
free place at this event (and earn yourselves a days CPD) click over to
http://www.sfeu.ac.uk/events/show/2526


I look forward to seeing you there.



Events

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Free Desktop Sharing

Image by SeanOsteen via Flickr

There are lots of different versions of applications for sharing desktops. Yugma works with a Java virtual machine to bring this to Windows, Mac and Linux boxes. Try it here:

Yugma Desktop Sharing for Mac, Windows, Linux (exe), from Yugma - Free Downloads on ZDNet | Shareware, Trialware, Evaluation Software

Scheduling Meetings

Image via Wikipedia

I recently blogged about a new tool for finding good meeting times. This has, inevitably, meant that I have been inundated with links to lots of similar services. Like this one for example:

Plan your next team meeting with When is Good - Download Squad

Do a Google search - it's probably easier...

Meetings Made Simple

I seem to spend half my life in meetings and the other half arranging them. That's why a tool like TimeBridge is invaluable.

TimeBridge takes care of the nitty-gritty of matching calendars to enable multiple attendees to quickly and easily synchronise their availability.

No details are shown - just busy or not so it's simple to view everyone's calendar without being scared that people will see the time you've blocked out to take Tiddles the cat to the vet.

See what I mean here:

http://app.timebridge.com/mytime/tonygurney

and then sign up here:

TimeBridge

Set Up Your Own Video Hosting Site

Want to distribute your e-learning videos? Video.Show may be the solution. Check it out here:

Set up Video Hosting Site in minutes - Microsoft Silverlight lets you do a Youtube ! | Tech Bytes at Use Bytes

Adobe - Digital Video: Foundations of Video Design and Production

Adobe have created a year long curriculum guide for video design and production.

Find out more here:

Adobe - Digital Video: Foundations of Video Design and Production

Adobe - Digital Design: Foundations of Web Design

Adobe have created a year long curriculum guide for web design. It covers the basics of Dreamweaver and Flash.

Find out more here:

Adobe - Educators : Digital Design Foundations of Web Design

Syncronise Google Calendar with Outlook

I hate Outlook. It's a memory and processor hog and it forces me to work the way it wants to work rather than how I want to do it.

That said almost everything "speaks" Outlook and for that reason it can be a useful information hub. If you can get the information in and out.

For a long time I used Yahoo applications and they included a synchronise program that let me synch calendar, contacts and notes with Outlook. Having bitten the Google apple I've found it difficult to re-create that.

It's become a little easier with a new Google application to synchronise Google Calendar with Outlook.

Such small increments, such little time...

Google Calendar Sync: Getting Started

Extract the information from a PDF

Ever been sent a PDF with information you want but lots of extraneous material you don't?


PDFTextOnline delivers the content without the fluff

As it says,



"PDFTextOnline is a free service that will give you your day back. With
no login or account required, you just browse to- and select your PDF
file, click the magic button, and PDFTextOnline takes it from there."

Try it here:

http://pdftextonline.com/

Use a web app like a "real" one

Use GMail? Wish it worked like an application on your desktop? PRISM
from Mozilla, the fine folk who brought you the Firefox browser, takes
web apps and presents them in an application only interface with no
confusing browser menus or toolbars.



Check it out here:

Mozilla Labs » Blog Archive » Prism