I'd rather go canoeing !

Free online storage

Richard — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 09:49:44 +0000

The new online storage site Adrive is offering new users a staggering 50Gb of free storage just for signing up. The site is clean and quick and accepts most common file types including documents music and images. This site is going to prove a very useful companion to my Asus Eepc which only has 4Gb of onboard storage but is an extremely effective wireless operator.

New year

Richard — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:35:07 +0000

Here we go again. Back to work for the long slog to Easter.
Just to remind myself that there’s more to work than work here’s a pic of my first sunday lunch for 2008.
The view is looking west(ish) from the top of the Cross Country ski trails at Clashindarroch Forest near Rhynie.

Talking Photos

Richard — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:04:34 +0000

Convert any photo into a talking character!

PQ Talking Photo will do the job nicely.

Create animated characters from any photo you want.
Automatically match lip movement with voice.
Create your talking photo album, live avatars on blogs, funny greeting card, pets talk show, etc.

Session for the CST Team

Richard — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:11:43 +0000

On 30th October we ran a session on Blogging for the Curriculum Support teachers. Unfortunately our internet access was extremely slow and hampered our ability to deliver a slick session.

PageFlakes

Richard — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 09:40:34 +0000

Stumbled across this site when I was sent an email about Windows Photostory 3. More about that later. Pageflakes is a cusomisable personal website which uses WebParts or “flakes” to assemble the pages. You simply choose the flakes you want and drag them onto the page. You can put just about any content you like on the pages. Flakes are available for thousands of uses and interests, including news, sports, e-mail, local events, search, photos, music, videos – even interactive tools like a calendar and a to-do list – and just about anything else you do on the Web at school, work and at home.
You can share pages with selected individuals or with the whole world or just keep them private. The site is hosted in the US and is free for everyone. They seem to have a very clear privacy policy and there are no adverts.
In many ways this is like the Glow interface. You have a number of pages and you have control over the content and access to each page.
I can think of lots of uses for this and have seriously considered ditching “My Yahoo” which has been my homepage for the last 10 years or so!

What do you think?

Richard — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 11:05:27 +0000

A question I often ask myself !!

Today I received an invitation to fill in an on line questionnaire for a large organisation which supplies ICT services and equipment. As I worked through the questions I was trying to work out what they were going to do with the information gathered. It quickly became obvious – marketing! The questions had been constructed in such a way as to illicit positive information about the company.

“Do you think we are innovative? 1…..7″
“Do we put learners at the heart of our business? 1….7″ etc.

Surveys like this, when properly constructed can provide useful information about the services we provide or the classes we teach. One good thing to come from this questionnairre was the last page. It was a redirect to the site which created and hosted it – SurveyMonkey. What a good site. Expect more on this later.

Google launch new ISP service

Richard — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:25:14 +0000

Google TiSP (BETA)

Not satisfied with your service provider?
Feel like a mushroom?
Web access is slow and you’re bombarded with Spam?
This new service from Google is probably just what you’re after.

Its Back! – Glow returns.

Richard — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:50:49 +0000

Spent much of today exploring the Glow Portal. It has just been switched on for the 3rd pilot. I still find it hard to navigate around in there. I have the experience of finding something interesting, navigating away and then spending ages trying to get back. Still no VLE. I have been able to upload files and to link to content hosted outside. No point in posting a link to it – If you have a password you will know what it’s like. If you are still in the dark (along with a significant proportion of the teaching profession) there are lots of blogs discussing it and the LTS website has all the basic information.

Picture Grid Learning Object Creator

Richard — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 21:43:28 +0000

Quite a title for this really useful little utility from Ron Mitchell at the LondonOnline project. You can download the programme and use it at no cost. It creates very neat flash based drag and drop routines with embedded sound and jpeg images. I’ve put a quick example here. It took approx 5 mins to create this from existing material. The programme also creates a powerpoint and a word version of the file.

Glow Training delayed

Richard — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 10:24:34 +0000

The Glow initiative appears to be suffering some last minute hiccups – which is hardly suprising given the size of the project. LTS have delayed the training of Glow Mentors and have also suggested that the training be done locally rather than travelling to Stirling. Our own mentors here in Aberdeen came together for a brief update on 4th June. They are obviously concerned about the lack of progress and are beginning to appreciate the size of the task which lies ahead. We are currently looking forward to the launch of Glow at the Scottish Learning festival in September and to a local launch event in Aberdeen in the autumn.