electro-textual

Well, all the enthusiasm around new gadgets for recording, documenting and sharing experiences at the recent ACE e-mentor day (plus a recent stimulus package from KRudd).. made me let down my guard and purchase the Medion graphics tablet from Aldi supermarket on my day off. (Apparently it’s a  rebranded Aiptek 12000U.)

Which turns out to be a really good thing, because not only do i now have a graphics tablet that works, but i’ve discovered that the older graphics tablet was preventing (macromedia/ adobe) Flash mx from working properly. For a long time now, my Victorian government-subsidised copy of Flash would completely crash.. on opening! i had renamed the application Crash Flash.

So imagine my relief on un-installing the drivers for my old AceCad tablet.. and finding that Flash is back in action. Best drawing tools of any image editor i’ve found!

(Still not the world’s best illustrator.. but i can fake drawing more easily now.)

Very weird to find hardware drivers interfering with software applications. But that’s windows for you. (Actually windows warned me not to install the original tablet drivers.. “Not Passed Security Check: STOP!” they said. Well, clearly i should have listened.)

Anyway, if you’re looking for a graphics tablet.. jump into Aldi supermarket and grab one ($80). i think it would be fun to use in a literacy classroom.. with laptop and datashow.. pass around on a long usb cable and give everyone the chance to draw, or “hand-write” on the big screen.

So a question for you, dear reader:

• Would you ever use a graphic tablet?
• What would you do with one?

photo credit: figlioDiOrfeo?

Amazing work from the network of Victorian ACE e-mentors. Each (ACE) region across Victoria has one (or 2) mentors to support teachers and organisations learning to develop their plans for e-learning at strategy and classroom levels.

On Friday there were demonstrations of “all things google” – how to chat with gmail, how to synch your google calendar, use the reader for following student blog feeds .. set up groups and sites, use the gmail app for your domain. (Coach Carole, Michael Gwyther, Sarah Phillips)

.. and a session on gadgets including the flip video camera (Lynne Gibb), the sanyo (not sony) xacti video cam (Jo Norbury), the LiveScribe digital audio pen (that link points to Alan Levine’s story about LiveScribe). i mentioned my intelli pen at that point but it doesn’t match Lynne’s live scribe for brilliance..

“Doesn’t yet match” i should say.. the intellipen has a microphone built in, but the firmware doesn’t use it yet. If it would record audio, it could be superior, because it writes on any paper and uses standard pen refills. The LiveScribe books are $30 each, on top of $250 for the pen – which doesn’t work without the special books.

Jo also showed us a sweet little data projector that fits in your pocket (Visimax). Nice work.

What i loved most about the demonstrations, was the way everyone whipped out their video cameras and documented everything !! Here’s Carole and Lynne taping Jo as she shows us the tiny data projector (above).

Plus, Jo showed us how to add extra video and flash capacity to microsoft powerpoint, using a software application called iSpring.

Lots of new ideas. How fun !! Thanks to all the e-mentors, and congratulations to Josie for continuing to build such a vibrant and strong network of amazing people.

PS: my screencast on using google bookmarks in iGoogle is on my wikispace.

AND: Coach Carole wrote about the day on her Baranduda Blog too.

PLUS michael gwyther shared his video of Lynne and her smart pen, in the ACE e-learning network Ning.. i wonder if i can embed the video here, or if you need to login:

Find more videos like this on ACE e-learning network (Login Req’d)

Seems to be working.. the ACE e-learning Ning network (join us) doesn’t keep everything completely private. But wait there’s more!! Lynne uploaded her video of Jo demonstrating the mini-projector:

Visit ACE e-learning network

photo credit: Amit Gupta

Over at PRACE we’re setting up flexible delivery for ICT (information technology) and VET (vocational education & training).

(Wrote about this before here, in an attempt to find someone who had the answer already.)

But who wants to invent the wheel.. we want to use existing learning materials. Where do we start?

So i compiled a big list of places to start searching for learning materials, including:

• Tied firmly to training packages, the Flexible learning toolboxes, from the Australian Flexible Learning Framework
• .. or the flexible learning toolbox “repository” (where you can select bits and pieces from said toolboxes)
• .. or a place known as “LORN” (also part of the Framework)
• AceBank (for Victorian ACE providers to share resources)
• Merlot dot org (a US and global network of sharing educators)
• Learning Federation (schools only, not adult education?).. via “Scootle“
• EdNA learning resources (an Australian collection that also searches other collections)

.. or various video tutorial sites such as

• wonderhowto – collects instructional videos from around the web.
• VideoJug is a similar site with plenty of “how-to” videos.
• you tube – the world leader in online video (but full of junk too).
• teacher tube is a popular educational alternative to you tube. Less rubbish.
• Video-tutes has a big collection covering many applications.
• Video tutorial zone appears to have a small range of word processor how-to files
• Lynda dot com has a big collection of training videos for software applications (introductory basics are sometimes free).
• About dot com has a range of training videos, including microsoft word and open office.
• Tech Tutor (.tv) has a range of software application training videos too.
• Plus: microsoft has their own set of self-paced learning resources.

Google it?

Of course, there’s always your standard google search.

Related collections of learning materials

• BBC Skillswise have many language and literacy resources (here’s their site list)
• the BBC has a site called “RAW” where you can learn eg about a computer, or computer basics.
• Department of education, employment and workplace etc have policy documents and case studies.
• Educause, an education journal online, has articles relating for example to learning materials.

..

A question for you dear reader:

• what valuable collections of learning materials have i missed?

..

photo credit: liangjinjian

(Yes, this photo came up under the tag “learning” at flickr.)

Inspiring adventures from Dale Pobega of Duke St community centre in Sunshine Victoria, who has recently started using blogger to engage and educate his English as a second language (ESL) students.

Great to see Dale using the tremendous resource “Online Banking“. This resource came out of Olympic Adult Education about 6 years ago, and remains one of the best online resources for adult numeracy.

There’s a few broken elements on the site (eg the bulletin board no longer exists, and the sim bank doesn’t work).. but much of it works as intended. You can also still order the accompanying booklets from Olympic Adult Education (i think, via this page).

While you’re following Dale’s ESL blog, look out for the way he uses Voxopop with his students.. very encouraging use of a good technology.

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Question for readers: what’s the best numeracy resource you’ve found online?

.

Links:

• Dale’s ESL Blog
• The online banking learning resource from ..
• Olympic Adult Education
• Dale in the ACE e-learning Ning social networking place (login req’d).
• my delicious links for numeracy.

.

photo credit: (creative commons at flickr) Thanks: Kevin Steele.

Imagine my delight when Jane the wonderful VCAL co-ordinator at Preston Reservoir Adult Community Education (PRACE) said she wanted to try out flickr for building a slideshow on our website!!

1) Jane had already chosen the photos to go online, and copied them into a folder on her desktop. We used a free image editor called XNview to re-size and optimise for the web. XNview is great because you can do the whole folder in one “batch process”.

..

(More details about xnview over on my wiki page .. including the screencast i made for Jane, and a couple of accompanying “how-to” documents.

(i’m experimenting with a new kind of instruction, where i don’t write the instructions, i just give out the video and a document with visuals / screengrabs. The person learning then must write their own instructions as they watch the video. What do you think??)

..

2) Jane had also signed up for and signed in to flickr / yahoo in preparation for the upload.

3) So we ventured to the flickr upload page .. and discovered that you can upload a whole folder in one go, these days!!

4) After uploading, Jane tweaked the tags in the flickr organiser application, adding VCAL, PRACE, education and youth etc .. and we were ready to see the slideshow.

5) In flickr, when you view your photostream as a slideshow, you can find an “embed code” that lets you play that slideshow anywhere on the web.

So if you visit our PRACE youth / VCAL page, you’ll see the photos.

One great thing about the flickr slideshow, is that the next time Jane wants to upload more photos into her flickr stream, they’ll automatically be included in the slideshow (i think).

Yay Jane!!

photo credit: (creative commons at flickr) Thanks for “Definitive Car“.

Ann H, one of the amazing ACE e-learning practitioners on the research circles adventure, wrote that she had had some progress with blogs and wikis in her classroom. But the learners weren’t so happy with the look of a wiki, they wanted something more like a print-style magazine.

A couple of ideas emerged for someone wanting the “look and feel” of a magazine.

1) the visual book (“MyEbook“)that Dale looked at a few weeks back
2) a site called Issuu gets good reviews: example showing optical illusions.

(That second review is worth a look, as it asks the question, “how web2 is an on-screen magazine?”)

You need to upload PDF files into Issuu, but you can turn any document into a PDF via the pdfCreator printer driver.

What about going for a digital story approach: use the images and voiceover to accompany the (separate) text version – make the web and print versions different and complementary (?). Alan Levine has 50 ways to tell a story using web2.

Some other “flip-book” or apps for embedding magazine-style documents include:

=> scribd can embed many different kinds of documents into a wiki (first upload into scribd, then paste the “embed code” onto your wiki page),
=> slideshare turns different kinds of presentation slides (eg powerpoint, openoffice impress, osx keynote) into web-based presentations .. and you can also add voiceovers! Here’s an example:

Remember Delia’s brilliant session at the e-showcase, “The power of e” ..?

good luck, michael

photo credit: cammy?claudia