What's new on "Paul's E-learning Resources"

A power management tool for laptops & net books, more Moodle resources & 2 new countdown timers.

2009-11-05T23:37:00.005Z

Added to the PC Care page:

If you have a laptop then you might be familiar with the concept of "Power Plans", these dictate how much power your laptop consumes and you can changed them depending on whether or not your laptop is plugged into the mains or not.

On my machines I use Aerofoil to automatically disable power hungry settings on my machines when they are just running off the battery, when the machines are plugged back into the mains then Aerofoil re-enables these settings so that my machines are always running at optimal settings.

Click here to learn more about & download Aerofoil

Added to the Moodle page:

LearnOnline | University of Canberra - This is a great collection of tips, tricks and tutorials for educators wanting to get the best out of Moodle.

Added to the Countdown Timers page:

E.gg Timer
Online Stopwatch

That's all for today.

Thanks for reading!

Cheers.

Paul.

Office 2007 cheat Sheets, Easy linking to PDF files & 2 nice PowerPoint add-ins

2009-09-21T19:00:00.001+01:00

Added to Microsoft Office 2007 Guides page:

Printable "Cheat Sheets".

Custom guide has released printable PDF guides for many popular applications, inclusing Office 2007 - you can access them all here:

>> Click here to download the printable guides <<

Added to the PDF Tools page:

Embed or Link to PDFs easily

If you want someone else to read a PDF easily then you can upload it to Google Docs so they can read it on any piece of on-line enabled hardware, without having to have a PDF reader installed.

If the PDF is already hosted online somewhere else then you can use Google's Embeddable Document viewer to allow your recipient(s) to view the PDF document online easily. This also works with Power Points presentations that have been uploaded somewhere!

>> Click here to learn more about Google's Embeddable Document Viewer <<

Added to the Presentation Tools page:

YouTube Video Add In - Similar to Authorstream this lets you insert YouTube videos into Powerpoint slides, this one is useful to use if you already know the URL of the video you want to use.

If you want to search for a video withough leaving Powerpoint, then use AuthorStream.

LiveWeb - Another free Powerpoint add-in, this one lets you insert a live webpage into a powerpoint slide.

On-line sound & video editors plus a guide to getting more out of Dropbox

2009-09-20T20:49:00.000+01:00

Added to the Sound Recording & Editing page:

Myna - a free on-line audio recorder and editor.

Added to the Online file storage page:

Lifehacker's guide to doing more with Dropbox

Added to the Video Editing & Creation page:

Pixorial - This site has free & paid for plans. It lets you upload up to 10 gigs worth of video for free and then edit it using their online video editor - worth a look.

New diagramming software, url shorteners & new tutorials for Mind 42 & Jing

2009-09-10T22:21:00.006+01:00

Hello!

I’ve added some more resources to the site, I hope you find them useful.

Added to the Diagramming software page

Creately - A nice free online chart & diagram maker, with this site you can make unlimited diagrams for free as long as you are happy for them to be publicly viewable.

Added to the mind mapping page

An series of tutorial videos on how to use Mind 42:

http://stmarycommunityschool.wikispaces.com/Mind42+Tutorial+Page

Added to the Jing page

A new guide to getting started with Jing:

http://content.screencast.com/users/jinghelpcenter/folders/pdf/media/c37e4f4c-bdb5-4647-9c50-14bf0385511a/jing-welcome%20guide.pdf

Added to the url shortener page

Bit.ly - Currently the world's most popular URL shortener, it also lets you define custom short URLs and so is my top pick.
J.mp - Powered by Bit.ly, this gives you even shorter URLs than it's bigger brother.

My thanks go to Salman Usman the Academic E-learning Developer at Kingston University London for contacting me to suggest I add Bit.ly to my site - thanks Salman!

My team’s new website & blog

2009-09-07T23:43:00.001+01:00

Hello.

This post isn't about an update to my resources site, but to let you know that the e-learning team that I’m part of has launched a new website & accompanying blog outlining it’s services to staff, students and external clients (i.e. you!).

If you are interested you can check out the site here:

http://sites.google.com/site/uwnshsstells/

And if you’d like to subscribe to the latest news from the team via RSS, email or Twitter then you can do that here:

http://sites.google.com/site/uwnshsstells/stay-updated

Announcement over, normal business will resume shortly.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers!

Paul.

Print out documents as PDF files, create collaborative note walls & make free online webinars.

2009-08-31T14:34:00.004+01:00

Hello!

3 more updates for you today:

Added to the PDF Tools page:

PDF Creator

Another tool that does the same job as Cute PDF & PDF Forge - this is the one I use on a daily basis.

Added to the collaborative whiteboard page:

Wallwisher - This lets you create an online notice board that students can leave messages on as virtual "post-it" notes.

The notes can include images and movies as well as text and once a message has been posted it can be moved around the board easily - well worth a look!

Added to the presentation tools page:

Zentation - This is a nifty website that lets you synchronise powerpoint slides with youtube videos to create free on demand webinars.

Using this site you can video a lesson or lecture and then combine it with the powerpoint that was used during the session so that students can experience the lesson again any time they like.

Cheers!

Paul.

More guides & support for using Delicious, Google Reader & Skype

2009-08-20T11:36:00.009+01:00

Added to the Delicious page:

A video showing teachers & students how they can get the most out of Delicious.

Added to the Google Reader page:

“How to use Google Reader

There is an excellent series of video tutorials at e-how.com that show you how to get started and then get the most of Google Reader - Click here to access them.”

Added to the Skype page:

A nice new video explaining what Skype is and what it offers:

That’s all for today!

Cheers.

Paul.

New Second Life Resources

2009-08-16T22:14:00.015+01:00

Hello!

I've added some new resources to my Second Life Resources mini site:

Added to 'Further Reading' page on the Second Life Mini Site

UWN School of Health & Social Sciences' Introduction to Second Life - A free on-line guide I put together for colleagues and students who are new to Second Life.

Second Life for educators - A great online presentation created by Dr Ashley Tan of the National Institute of Education, Singapore for the purposes of introducing Second Life to teachers.

Education Case Studies - A collection of case studies showcased by Linden Labs on how Second Life is being used to enhance education all over the world.

Added to the 'Essentals' page on the Second Life Mini Site: Run Second Life in "Text only" mode.

If you have trouble running the main Second Life viewer you can visit Ajaxlife .net or try downloading and installing Metabolt, both are "text only" Second Life clients - especially useful for students who do not have PCs or Macs powerful enough to run the main Second Life client.

Ajaxlife will run from a web browser where as Metabolt needs to be downloaded and installed before you can use it.

That's all for today.

Thanks for reading!

Paul.

Jing added to the "Essentials" page, Dropbox added to online file storage & a new JISC guide to teaching in Second Life

2009-08-09T03:00:00.004+01:00

Hello!

Some more updates for you.

Jing Added to the "Essentials" list

After using Jing almost everyday for over a year I've decided to move it onto the "Essentials" list on the site. for those of you who don't know, the essentials list contains the websites & software that I believe every teacher should be aware of.

Click here to view the whole "essentials" list.

Dropbox added to the "Online File Storage" page

I must thank both @Pixelcult and @evanrichards for letting me know just how useful Dropbox is - thanks guys!

Dropbox gives you 2 gigs worth of free online storage which should be more than enough for most people (although you can purchase more via one of their paid plans).

The nice thing about Dropbox is that it works on Windows, Linux & Mac systems and integrates itself seamlessly into your desktop - making it really easy and intuitive to use.

Click here to get a Dropbox of your own

Added to the "Further Reading" page of the Second Life mini site:

JISC's "Getting Started in Second Life" - A guide written by university lecturers for university lecturers explaining how they can enhance their students learning by making use of Second Life.

My thanks go to Helen Hodges at RSC Wales for letting me know about this guide via the RSC Wales Teaching & Learning blog - Thanks Helen!

That's all for today.

Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

Paul.

Lots of new updates added!

2009-07-28T19:00:00.000+01:00

Hello!

Lots of new updates for you today – I hope you find them useful:

Added to the Twitter Page:

100 Serious Twitter Tips for Academics
TwitCam - This free service lets you broadcast live streaming video, all you need is a webcam and a Twitter account.

Added to the image editing page

Pho.to - This site has many free options and services that you can make use of to edit, enhance and present images.
I especially like the 3D gallery maker.

Added to the Moodle page:

A new video that you can show to people to explain what Moodle is and how it can benefit both students & teachers - Click here to watch it.

Added to the accessibility page under Text To Speech:

Added to the PDF Tools page:

Smart Soft PDF to word converter - This is a bit of free software that you can download, it does exactly the same thing as the website mentioned above.

Added to Screen Grabbing & Recording page:

Screen Jelly - Another "one button" website that lets you record your screen just by clicking one button.

That’s all for today!

Cheers!

Paul

Embed videos into PowerPoint's easily, make scanned text editable (OCR) & an improved navigation system added.

2009-07-27T13:11:00.008+01:00

Added to the Presentation Tools

Author Stream - This is a free add on that lets you quickly and easily insert YouTube videos into any PowerPoint.

New Site Features:

Expanding navigation system added - following an update to Google sites I've added in the new collapsible navigation menu to the site, this lets you access "sub" pages quickly and easily by clicking on the little grey triangles that indicate a topic can be expanded.

eg:

Click the image above to enlarge it
New page added: Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

On this page you will find links to websites and resources that let you convert scanned text into editable text.

GDocsBackup added to the Google Docs page

2009-07-14T17:26:00.002+01:00

Hello!

One update for you today, but it's really helpful re: Google Docs.

One of the main concerns that people have re: Google Docs is that they won't be able to access their work if they cannot connect to the internet.

GDocBackup solves this issue.

By using this free utility you can download all of your Google docs as Microsoft Office files to your local machine any time you like.

You can learn more about it & download it for free by clicking here.

Cheers!

Paul.

Twitter guide book, ways to visualise Tweets, Google’s Royalty free image search & a free local phone number that calls your Skype account

2009-07-06T09:00:00.000+01:00

Added to the Twitter page:

Mashable's Twitter Guide Book: http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/
Twitter Visualisations example using Visible Tweets & a link to 6 more visualisation tools.

Added to the Royalty Free Images page:

Google Picassa Creative Commons Image Search - Similar to the Yahoo search above, this one uses Google's search engine to find royalty free images that you can use.

You can jump straight to the Picassa Image search by clicking here.

Added to the Video and Audio conferencing page:

Ring 2 Skype - this lets you set up a local rate phone number that people can dial using a normal telephone and then talk to you and your students in the classroom/lecture theatre your computer via Skype.

That's all for today!

Cheers.

Paul.

New page added: PC Care & Maintenance

2009-07-04T16:11:00.000+01:00

Hello!

As a response to the numerous requests I get from colleagues about how they can keep their home computers running smoothly, I've added a new page to my site.

Although it's not strictly about e-learning, it does contain links to free software that staff and students can use to keep their machines running as trouble free as possible and thus facilitates on-line or blended learning when accessed from home.

I hope that's not too tenuous a link!

Anyway, you can access the new page here:

http://sites.google.com/site/technologyenhancedlearning/pc-care-maintenance

Cheers!

Paul.

A large collection of educational videos, 2 great services from Aviary & an easier way of linking and embedding high quality YouTube videos.

2009-07-03T13:02:00.010+01:00

Added to the "Using Ready Made Online Videos" page:

NeoK12 - This site offers a collection of educational videos that can be found at many specialized destinations on the Internet all categorised by subject.

Added to the "Image & Photo Editing" page:

Falcon - Designed to work as a standalone editor or for use with its screen capture Firefox extension Talon, Aviary's Falcon lets you edit text, crop, rotate, resize images, and more, all within your browser. You can watch a video of Falcon in action here.

Added to the "Screen Grabbing & Recording" page:

Talon -Take & edit screenshots of websites really easily by adding "aviary.com/" in front of the URL of the page you wish to capture, or just paste the URL into the box provided on Talon's main page.

Click here to see a demo.

Added to the "YouTube tools" page:

How to embed high quality YouTube videos - A nice article from Lifehacker that shows you how to link to, and embed "High Quality" YouTube videos.

New Twitter Resources Added

2009-06-20T23:28:00.009+01:00

Added to the Twitter page:

A new video from Common Craft that explains Twitter Search in plain English.
Twitter Apps - A nice collection of free web applications that you can use to enhance your Twitter experience.
Top 5 ways to share videos with Twitter - Jennifer Van Grove outlines five ways in which you share online video via Twitter.
Jane Hart's guide to getting started with Twitter.

TwitDoc - Share files easily via Twitter.

Polleverywhere - Conduct real time polls with your class which they can respond to by mobile phone text message or Twitter - the results are then shown live in a web browser or as part of your powerpoint slide.

Cheers!

Paul.

You can follow my team on Twitter...

2009-06-18T20:19:00.004+01:00

Hello!

Just a little e-mail to let you know that I've set up a Twitter account for my day job so that you can follow what I and my colleagues are up to re: e-learning & ILT if you want to.

You can follow us here:

https://twitter.com/SHSSTELLS

And you can learn more about the team itself here:

http://hss.newport.ac.uk/displayPage.aspx?object_id=9863&parent_id=9862&type=PAG

Many thanks!

Paul.

New Plagiarism Detection resources added

2009-06-11T15:15:00.002+01:00

Hello!

Some more free Plagiarism Detection tools have been added to the site:

Online Scanners

Downloadable Scanners

http://www.scanmyessay.com/
Scans all documents in a directory on your local machine.
http://www.plagiarism.tk/
Scans a group of documents to see if plagiarism has occurred between them.
Plagiarisdetect Word 2007 plugin
Scan documents from within Microsoft Word.

Credit goes to Sebastian Donner for writing this excellent article showcasing all of the above tools.

Cheers!

Paul.

A new Plagiarism Detection page & another free tool for splitting up PDF files.

2009-06-07T16:11:00.009+01:00

New page added: Plagiarism Detection

Presently this new page has a link to http://www.plagium.com, a free online service that teachers can use to see if students are trying to pass off other peoples work (that's available online) as their own.

Added to the PDF Tools page:

PDFTK Builder

Free Downloadable software that you can use to extract pages from a PDF, collate them and save the result as a new PDF file.

You can watch a tutorial video on how to use PDFTK Builder by clicking here.

PDF Hammer, Prezi & Stupeflix all added to the site.

2009-06-04T11:47:00.003+01:00

Hello!

Some more nice tools the you may find helpful have been added to the site.

Added to the PDF Tools page:

PDFHammer - This site lets you split up PDF files and the save the result as a new PDF file.

Added to the Presentation tools page

Prezi - This is a great site that lets you create interactive 'zooming' presentations, you need to see one for yourself to appreciate it.

Click here to view an example Prezi presentation.

My thanks go to Helen Hodges from RSC Wales for pointing Prezi out to me!

Added to the Video Editing & Creation page:

Stupeflix - Similar to Animoto, this site lets you upload images, videos, mp3s and text to then create a professional looking video.

Cheers!

Paul.

3 new free image resources & a new way to link to specific parts of YouTube videos

2009-06-03T12:02:00.008+01:00

Added to the YouTube Tools page:

Tubechop - Similar to the previously added Splicd and YouTubetime, this site lets you create a link to a specific part of a Youtube video, so students don't need to watch the whole thing in order to get to the bit you want them to see.

Added to the Royalty Free Images page:

Yahoo Creative Commons Image Search - By using the creative commons filter built into Yahoo's image search you can find royalty free images that you can make use of for free.

You can jump straight to the Yahoo Image Search itself by clicking here.
Iconza - This is a nice site that lets you customise a set of icons for use with your MLE or school blog.
Free Vector Download - This site lets you download royalty free vector images.

Online guides for Twitter, Delicious & Jing

2009-06-02T16:00:00.005+01:00

Added to the Twitter page:

"Mastering Twitter" by Chris Dementrious - A nice PDF manual that shows people how to setup and use Twitter.
Top 7 Twitter Tutorials - A collection of videos & links put together by Ben Parr that show you how to get the most out of Twitter.

Added to the Screen grabbing & recording page:

A PDF Manual for Jing

Added to the Delicious.com page:

A written guide on how to use Delicious like a pro

A new chart making website, two more YouTube tools and some great audio & video broadcasting/conferencing software.

2009-05-10T00:29:00.008+01:00

The following has been added to Diagramming Software Page

Chartle.net - This is a nice site that lets you make interactive pie charts, graphs and maps that you can then embed into web pages on your VLE or blog.

The following have been added to YouTube Tools Page

Caption Tube - This site lets you add sub-titles and captions to a YouTube video.
Video2mp3 - This site lets you download the audio from a YouTube video as an MP3 file.

Finally the following have been added to the Video & Audio Broadcasting/Conferencing page

Voxli - Best used when you need to voice chat with a group of people whilst working collaboratively using another web application.

If you need to work collaboratively with a group of people using a site like Google Docs, it sometimes helpful to be able to talk with them whilst you do it. Voxli lets you create a voice chat room for you and up to 200 other people to communicate in. It's free and easy to set up, each chat room has it's own web address which you just end to people if you want them to join.
Procaster - Best used when you need to run "live" computer training to many people who can't actually be in the same room as you.

Procaster is a piece of software that you download and install onto your computer. It then lets you broadcast a live video stream of you webcam, or any piece of software that's running on your computer coupled with audio from a mic that you may have plugged in. Viewers can then watch the video stream on a normal web page and are even given a chat room to ask you questions in.

Whilst voice chat is not provided, if you run this alongside Voxli or Oovoo/Skype you have a very powerful remote training and support system.

This means you can easily run 'live' training sessions with people if you want to, and when you aren't running a live broadcast, you can configure the viewer to show previous training sessions or videos from sites like YouTube - it's brilliant and I urge you to try it!

Click here to watch a demo of what you can do with Procaster

More royalty free music & 3 new tools for screen grabbing and recording

2009-05-04T19:04:00.017+01:00

Hello!

The following resources have been added to the site:

Royalty Free Music Sites

Free Music Archive - Inspired by the ideas and ethos behind Creative Commons licensing, the tracks on the FMA are offered for whatever use you want.

Screen Grabbing & Recording

Free Screen Capturer - Another Screen Capture tool, the interface is nice and it also lets you take a series of screenshots and string them together to make a quick animation.
PrtScr

This lets you capture with freehand movements or by region, and annotate and draw on your snips on the fly.

Watch this short video to see PrtScr in action.

Screen Toaster

Like Screen Castle & ScreenCast-O-Matic, this is a free website that lets you record your screen.

Watch this short video to see Screen Toaster in action.

YouTube tools, a Doodle Wall, more online videos & broadcasting live video from within Second Life.

2009-04-22T12:57:00.012+01:00

Additions to the YouTube Tools page.

KeepHD - KeepHD lets you download videos off Youtube in both HD and mobile phone (3GP) formats.
YouTubeReloaded - Similar in function to Mix Tube however I prefer it's cleaner interface and resulting playlist which can be embedded into another web page or blog.
Youtubetime - This is similar to the previously added Splicd, it lets you link to a specific point in time in a YouTube video.

Additions to the Collaborative Whiteboards page

DoodleWall - This is a nice site that lets you create an online "wall" that your students can draw on.

Additions to the Online videos page

Lectr - This is a knowledge sharing community where members and visitors alike can watch lectures online as regards a wide variety of topics.

Additions to the Second Life mini site

A new page has been added to the Second Life mini site. On this page you will find resources that let you video events in Second Life and either broadcast them "live" to a web page or save and edit them for later playback via your institutions VLE or blog.

>> Click here to visit Recording & broadcasting video from Second Life <<

That’s all for now!

Cheers.