Another short post

This post is via a Google App on iGoogle that appears to work quite well on the iPhone.

Reclaiming the Blog

I realise that it has been a long time since this blog was updated. I am experimenting with different methods of updating so it might become more active. This post come direct from my iPhone via Mail2Blogger.

E-Guides Conference

Spent a happy day in Nottingham at the E-Guides national conference. Talked about iGoogle among other things. A question was raised about using twitter search with learners to weed out all their personal stuff and just see course related posts.

I guess that what I would do is use my favourite twitter gadget (I use BeTwittered) on an i-Google tab. Then think up a unique tag (first four letters of college name followed by a couple of random numbers would do the trick; so #Coll56 might be my tag.). Then when when you 0r your learners post make sure you/they put this code in the text (don't forget the # key to turn it into a Tag).

Now when you go to your gadget or Twitter account you can just click on the tag to see all the tagged posts and nothing else. With Betwittered I can click on the pull down menu above the posts to choose Search and type in the tag without the #. The only advantage is that it keeps the results in my BeTwittered gadget. I'm not sure it's worth the extra effort!

Don't forget www.ping.fm to set up multi posting to all your microblogs. And the use the Ping.fm gadget on i-Google.

Hope that helps!

Magnify and click!

I have been on the lookout for a magnifying glass that I can use for presentations and if you follow my notebook link for e-learning you will find three examples listed. One, however, stands out over the others. Transinsight Labs offer the Lupe magnifier free. Not only that but it offers some nice shapes in the form of old fashioned magnifying glasses with handles. These are ideal for highlighting on-screen points. But the oval shape offers a great choice for personal viewing - and has transformed my Asus eeepc screen! Above all else you can click through so no more annoying switching on and off. I recommend this very highly. Don't go out without one on your laptop!

Go to http://www.transinsight.com/lab

The Asus is still going strong

I have remembered that I have not reported here that I converted the Asus eeepc 701 to Windows so that I could use PhotoStory3 for training. I miss Linux, and I have severely restricted the on-board memory, but that is more to do with using MS Office than Windows.

So the configuration is now 4gb on-board with another 8gb SDHC which handles My Documents, all temp files (including internet) and all program files with the exception of Windows and Office. Currently running a 500 mb page file and have about 550 mb reported free space on the ob-board memory. I do not run Outlook - all mail is fed into Google while I am travelling.

I reckon the next step would be to get a dual boot going and use Linux most of the time. Open Office will sit happily on the SDHC unlike Microsoft Office which insists on sitting on-board. Any advice welcome.

Learning Reflections: Is "Blended" really dead?

Learning Reflections: Is "Blended" really dead?

Interesting debate! When Caxton printed his first book there must have been someone who immediately jumped up and started talking about Blended Learning. Even the phrase "chalk and talk" infers the use of more than one learning tool being used. So you might think that I would consign the term to the bin forthwith.

Not so! I believe that to make any concept acceptable you have to package it and then let people unwrap it for themselves, discovering ideas and developing pedagogy on the way. Only then can we lose the packaging. We need to keep the phrase until we all understand that it's only natural to use all the tools at our disposal.

Same applies to e-learning.

Examples of eLearning 2.0 : eLearning Technology

Examples of eLearning 2.0 : eLearning Technology

This caught my eye. It confirms much that we already know, but it sparked some great debates in the comments.

Snippy

Have you got Snippy yet. This simple but effective piece of Windows software puts a pair of scissors on your task bar. click on them where ever you are and cut out any freehand shape using the pen cursor. Paste the result into MSWord or MSPowerPoint (or any similar package) and you have instant clips.

Go to get it at here

You will need to save the software - if you just run it from the site it will disappear next time you start up your PC.

Happy Snippy!

Nigel

Small but perfectly formed - Asus Eee PC

I have recently been able to get my hands on an Asus Eee PC - the 4 gb version. This little notebook has proved to be an ideal travelling companion. You can read all about it here

Running a version of Linux, the initial screen is fine for many users - simple, effective and easy to navigate. It is possible to install Windows, but lurking behind the set up is a full desktop that will give a Windows feel without hogging valuable memory. So my first stop was unlocking this (you will find all the links to be able to do this below). Once the desktop was up and running (and it includes a toggle to get back to the Easy Desktop) I started on some of the other changes to really make the Eee PC a useful piece of kit.

Having forgotten to power off after a meeting in Manchester and drained the battery, my next task was to force a shutdown when the lid was closed. This is great for a quick exit to catch a train, although most times I do try to go through a clean shutdown. If I forget or am in a hurry then I know no harm will come to the notebook. It does tend to get warm during use, and if you put it away in its protective pouch without shutting down you will end up with a pretty good handwarmer. Best to be safe!

I noticed that some windows were too large for the screen and I had to guess where the OK button was. For some reason the window would not move above the top of the screen. Again this was fixed after a visit to the unofficial website set up for Eee PC users. Now if I want to move a screen to find the lower command buttons I hold the ALT key while moving. Works perfectly!

Getting the webcam to work with SKYPE was just a case of updating the shipped Skype program. If this still does not work for you then follow the link below this post to install Skype Beta 2.0.

Before you do anything else it's probably a good idea to buy a chunky flash drive. I invested in a 4gb from JOGR, copied all my files from my main machine, and now use this as my work drive for all my machines. But make sure you back this up - I have a briefcase on a Freecom 80gb external drive to my main PC - so just plug in the flash drive and back it up at the end of every session. So I am not using any of the spare memory on my Eee PC.

I also store additional programs on the flash drive. Which brings me to the next task. Getting windows programs to run on a Linux system is quite possible using a piece of free software called Wine. This took longer to set up but I proved the potential by downloading and running Hot Potatoes happily. Photostory 3 still won't run - I suspect Microsoft have something embedded that stops it, but if you know how to do this then let me know!

To make Wine work easily I downloaded Rox-Filer after fully installing Wine. Now, if I want to run a windows program, I use File Manager to navigate to the .exe file and double click. This brings up the Run With window - just pull down the Open With box and select Wine. Not all programs will run correctly, but most seem to be fine (Sadly not Snippy). Incidentally, don't put a short cut on the desktop to un programs unless you are sure that you will always have your flash drive as the same drive letter.

And to crown it all I use my Eee PC as a dumb terminal for a citrix link via Logmein.com to my office machine. So I can demonstrate and use any software remotely, including Office 2007. If you are worried about screensize for presentations then another miracle of the little notebook is the fact that it reconfigures its display when linked to a projector. You can set up the display manually as well just by going to the control panel on the start menu and selecting display.

Do I like it? Yes - and the rest of the family are fighting me for it!

Rather than give you direct links for each of the topics mentioned above I have given the link to the main Wiki of the Eee User site. Just scroll down looking for the links on the left hand side of their site to find the topic you want to work with. You don't have to do everything in one go - start with a simple one like shutting the lid. It might be best to get your full desktop up and running with the moveable windows before trying to work with Wine - as it is easier to follow the onscreen directions.

Here's the link to the Eee PC User Group

Nigel

The Digital Learner

This video from TeacherTube is thought provoking.

Drag and Drop

I like the flexibility of using Word for creating simple but colourful drag and drop exercises.

There is, however, a problem when drag and drop exercises are created using text boxes. The learner has to be able to click on the text box correctly, being sure not to select the text, but just the frame. This requires high levels of mouse control and for some learners this is too difficult.

An alternative is to use WordArt for all text that you want to move. This is possibly easier, but I am still not happy. I get annoyed by the flashing that occurs as the crosshair disappears and reappears when moving between letters. And, annoyingly, the WordArt toolbar pops up whenever I click on the text.

So what do I use? Simple - I create the text in Paint and paste it into Word. Just use the text tool, remembering to change the size and style of the font. You can crop the picture before leaving Paint, or do it afterwards. It takes seconds to create any text and you can use colour as well.

Sometimes it's easy to picture a solution!

Science fun

This is the reason why I push Youtube as an educational tool!

Back to Blogger!

One of the reasons why I have abandoned this blog is the navigation toolbar which allows visitors to view other blogs at random (by clicking on Next Blog).

Thanks to a neat piece of coding from Derya Netter I have been able to remove the bar and no longer have to worry about visitors navigating away to be faced with inappropriate content.

Nice one Derya!

If you are a Blogger user you can do the same by following this link. If you have been using the same template for a long time you may first want to update it. This will make it easier for you to find the right place in the HTML page to add the new code.

http://tinyurl.com/2sy2mh

Nigel

Wink - Free software that will capture your imagination!

I have been playing with a piece of free screen capture software available from www.debugmode.com. Wink enables users to capture screen shots which are then rendered to become a flash presentation. We have all produced handouts taking learners through step by step instructions to complete a task. Now you can show them the whole task in a video clip, but at the same time you are able to overlay navigation buttons and text boxes explaining what is happening.

Although this software is fairly intuitive to use, there is quite a bit to learn. I started with a simple capture process and just found it fairly straightforward. However, learning how to capture a process and then add the overlays for navigation and explanation took a bit longer to get to grips with. What is impressive is the quality of the image produced and the size of the compressed files. Two files are created – one is the flash file and the other is an HTML document for launching the flash presentation in a browser.

So, what is my verdict? I will continue to use SnagIT from www.techsmith.com for simple screen shot capture. But Wink scores for moving images. Download the free software and look at the two tutorials. You will be impressed!

Nigel

Google Groups

I keep an eye on what the guys at Google are getting up to. Now they have introduced a beta Group discussion board. I have tried it and found that setting up the site is much easier than some of the other public discussion boards around. The site is clean and easy to navigate, with the usual Google sponsored links on the right hand side of the screen. The discussion group can be set up as a public board with anybody being able to add posts, or as a semi public board with "read only" status. Additionally you can set up a totally private board that will not be listed and where participants need to be invited to join.

My verdict? This is an excellent way of introducing learners to a discussion forum, particularly for tutors who don't yet have access to an institutional learning platform. They will be familiar with the look and feel of Google and will find that stepping forward to a Google Group will not be an intimidating experience. As with all public systems there will be a vast list of groups that need to be avoided, but these can be bypassed by giving learners the group URL.

Try it out at https://www.google.com/accounts/Login

You will need to register as an account holder for Google, but this is a very simple process.

More on PowerPoint

I know that many creators of PowerPoint presentations like to use Action Buttons to navigate slides. These are particularly useful if learners are using the PowerPoint themselves and gives unambiguous navigation commands for going forward, backwards, ore even restarting from slide one.

However, I can usually tell if creators have laboriously placed the navigation buttons on each slide. This takes time and can be very frustrating. If you don't get the button in exactly the same position on each slide your viewers will see the tell tale jumps as they move from one slide to another.

Save yourself a lot of time and effort by creating a Master Slide (View, Master....., Slide Master). Place the action buttons on this slide (and at the same time you can place logos and other design features that are the same for all slides) and you will be delighted to find that every subsequent slide created has perfectly positioned buttons by default.

Once in the Slide Master View you will find the Action Buttons in the Slide Show Menu. PowerPoint provides a selection of buttons for most actions, but when you bring the button on to the slide an editing window opens to allow you to change the action if you wish.

For absolute perfection make sure that any button created is of a standard size. Switch on the grid lines if you have a more recent version of PowerPoint.

If you want a full set of instructions for using the master slide and action buttons then add a comment and include your e-mail address.

Back Again!

The last few weeks have been a little difficult because of a virus. Actually a trojan which is not at all damaging, but spies on the computer. You get a feeling of being watched once you know that it is there. Sadly spyware is all over the place now, and one can never really be sure of getting on top of the problem.

Our usual, well known, antivirus software did not seem to be much help in detecting and getting rid of this particular virus. So we went looking for an alternative.

We have downloaded the free software from Grisoft and been running this in the office for the past few weeks. I have to say that it does seem to have done the trick! The disturbing thing is the number of viruses that it locates during the day. It makes me wonder what was happening before.

We have also noted a major difference in the number of viruses that are picked up depending on how we access a website. Normally we channel everything through AOL and the security level is very high with no viruses getting through to our system. But then there are times when we want to use Internet Explorer on the back of our AOL link. And this is when the problems start, even with the highest security controls imposed we are still under constant attack. So now we only use IE when absolutely necessary and then only for short bursts. And the Anti Virus software is kept busy!

If you are a personal user then you can do no worse than follow this link http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1 for the free download. It's well worth running this in tandem with your usual anti virus software.

Nigel

Properties Finder

I have said before that I am not the most organised of people. Recently I introduced you to Google Desktop and judging by the feedback I have had this is a “must have” piece of software.

However, we shouldn’t rely on Google to do all our housekeeping! From time to time Google gives me back so many locations that I still waste time trying to locate the file that I want.

So I have taken to being a little more sophisticated when I create a document. Office provides us with a Properties option on the File Menu. If you select this and then choose the Summary tab you can type in a suitable description in the Comments box.

To be able to see the comments when you use Windows Explorer you will need to set up folder details and options.

Open Windows Explorer
Select a Drive or folder. I chose the “My Documents” folder on my main drive.
Click on View, Choose Details
Scroll down the list of options and tick the box next to Comments
Highlight the Comments option and move it up the list by clicking repeatedly on Move Up. I place it after Type and before Date Modified.
Click on OK

Now you need to set this up for all the sub folders. Stay with the folder that you have changed. Now click on Tools, Folder Options, and select the View tab.
Click on Apply to All folders

When you open up Explorer you will be able to see comments about your files as well as the other details. And if you are really good you will use the rest of the boxes in the Properties Summary tab, and display those as well. Don’t forget that you can sort each displayed column just by clicking on the header.

That’s all. Except that you have 10,000 files already created that you haven’t got any comments for. You won’t go back to each one, but if you open or create a file then always set the Properties. Gradually you will notice the difference.

Nigel

Don't overdo the PowerPoint!

It's so easy, isn't it? PowerPoint offers a treasure trove of gizmos to wow your audience. From background templates that zing with colour, to a cacophony of sound that announces the latest arrival on the screen. You can flash, drizzle, slide, drop, fade, zoom, dissolve or even spin your events to make your PowerPoint look as if the entire production team of an epic film have been employed to create just this one slideshow.

Wonderful!

Well perhaps not so wonderful. It's true that PowerPoint presentations that just contain text can be very dull and boring. But sitting through the 1812 Overture whilst trying to absorb information is not the way to do it.

So here are some tips for a successful presentation.

The templates that come with PowerPoint tend to be a bit over the top. Design your own template that you can use for all your presentations. It could be at an organisational or individual level, but choose colours carefully and dicreetly. It may just consist of your logo and little else.

Don't put too many words on the slide. Bullet points are better than sentences. That way you will make more effort to expand the point as you talk and not just read the slide out to your audience!

Use Clip Art sparingly. Don't just stick a picture on a slide because you can! Do it because it emphasises or extends your the point you are making. If the point you are making is boring, then reconsider how you present it, but don't just add a picture that will simply act as a distraction from an already boring slide!

And animations go the same way! Neat, crisp transitions are better than falling stars and zooming texts.

Using a hyperlink is a good way of developing a topic during a presentation. But if you are always going to follow the hyperlink then consider ditching it in favour of incorporating the material in the slide show. This keeps the story flow going.

Finally, don't get carried away with the length! If everyone has fallen asleep by the time you finish then ........................zzz zzz zzz zzz

Nigel

More from Google

I have a theory that our choice of home page when we log on to the internet says a lot about our character. So how sad is it that my home page is Google! But I am not alone in this. Apparently we can be divided into two groups - those who think in terms of a search engine being the starting place for everything that we do, and those who have to look at their company website first.

That's an interesting question! What do you set your home page to, assuming you have a choice. Answers on the Elnet Forum please, under the Materials and Website section - the best replies will be highlighted here!

But here is something new from the Google Guys - predictive entry when searching. Only works worldwide at the moment, but I can see a real bonus with this. If I search for a subject such as Literacy I can keep an eye on the suggestions that pop up. So after tying "Liter" Google suggests:

literary terms
literature
literary criticism
literary devices
literature review
literacy
literary agents
literary guild
literary elements
literature circles

This may well lead me to places that I would not have thought about. Try it out for yourselves at http://labs.google.com/ but remember that this is not yet ready for general release.

Good Googling!