Knol

Google has now launched it's own alternative to wikipedia - knol. A Knol appears to be an encyclopaedia article, written by a named 'expert', as opposed to the anonymous collaboration that goes between wikipedia articles. However, anyone can write one - you do need to sign up with a google username. I bet google give prominence to this source in their search results, much as they have with wikipedia for the last couple of years, so you probably can't avoid it. You may find it a useful alternative, but you may want to wait a while. Why?

Obviously, today's the first day of it going public and there seem to be, umm, hundreds of articles (compare with nearly 2.5 million in the English Wikipedia). Hopefully, as it grows, it will keep the focus of a well edited encyclopaedia, rather than the free for all of trivia in many of the wikipedia articles.

However, they do need to check the copyright. I went to the article at the top, on Type-1 diabetes. Appears to be written by an expert in the field, though the term 'moderated collaboration also appears'. It has a creative commons licence attached, but all the photos have copyright/all rights reserved under them. So, can we use this information freely or not?
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Worth Ripe Nut

... and at least 299 other anagrams of Truro Penwith.

You see, I was struck by our new domain name, truropenwith.ac.uk, which I sort of read as trur open with, which I'm sure could mean something.

Anyway, easypeasy.comwas the first site that I came across that offered to turn any phrase into an anagram. Want some more?

• Interrupt who


• Turnip her two


• Winter hop rut


• North pure wit


• Truth wine pro

and several that cannot be repeated here. Give it a go here if you want to set a few puzzles.
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So called "Low Threshold Applications"

Came across this piece of jargon today, defined as:

"A Low Threshold Application (LTA) is a teaching/learning application of information technology that is reliable, accessible, easy to learn, non-intimidating and (incrementally) inexpensive."

(from The Teaching, Learning and Technology group/ which has a list of 50 ideas/tips/applications/little tutorials, though with an American focus.

Anyway, the emphasis is on things that are easy to learn, easy to use, free or cheap,or likely to use things that are already on your computer.

Please tell us what you'd add to this list....

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Got this one from Learning Times, an online community of teachers.
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Arse Feeds

Well, RSS* feeds are those headlines you see in some websites - it's a list of links to the most recent newsitems on various other websites. Look right and there are 2 feeds form other blog sites sites - eLearning Stuff and Connected Learning. They get updated when the original sites do.

I could have headlines from anywhere and in other places I have feeds from news sites like the BBC and the Guardian, from entertaining sites and from other blogs.

Anyway - you need two things:

1. A site with a feed. Look for the little orange symbol, like the one the one above. Generally, if you click on this it'll take you to the feed page, which will show you a list of headlines.
2. A feed reader. There are loads of them around - some are programs, some are websites, some are things that'll let you download news to your phone. Modern browsers, like Internet Explorer and Firefox have them built in.

My personal choice of reader is iGoogle. Have you noticed that there is a link on the google page that says Sign in, anothe says igoogle. Click on the link for igoogle - it'll show you a version of the google search page with more info on it. Click Sign in to do that or create account, then look for Add stuff on the page - you'll find loads of feeds to add, and somewhere to add your own.

Some links:

• Plain English video from Common Craft
• Add Feeds to igoogle home page
• RSS feeds from the BBC

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(*Alliteration courtesy of el Reg, the website which bring us all the news of the Jesus Phone and the Girl on the Beach with the Asus PC)

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Shrink documents with big images

This from the department of learning something new every day.

You know how it is, you put loads of images into a Word document or a PowerPoint Slide show, without thinking about their size. Next thing you know, the file is huge, it's running slowly and too big to put into moodle.

Here's how to compress them.

• Click on an image, and the picture toolbar should appear; if not, right-click on the image and choose -Show picture toolbar.
• One of the icons there is compress - clcik on it
• Choose Compress all images andd web/screen (for slideshows) then OK.
• This will save loads of space without loosing a lot of quality.

Full details from my source of this at Dave Foord's Blog

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Three BIG Moodle questions

Do you want to know the single most common moodle question I get - how do I make such-and-such a teacher on my moodle course. Try this:

• Log into moodle and go to your course, where you are a teacher or the creator
• In the admin block, click on Assign Roles (it's probably on the left of your page).
  
• You'll see a list of roles - click on the one that says Teacher.
• From the list on the right, click on your teacher (you may need to search for him or her).
• Then click the little arrow pointing to the left to add the teacher. That's it.

Follow the same route to remove teachers, only select them on the left and click on the arrow pointing right.

Question number 2: How do I remove a course?Sadly, YOU don't - ask an administrator. However, you can keep students out.

• In the admin block, click on Settings
• Scroll down the page and look for Availability
• Select This course is not available to students
• Then click on Save changes

Question Number 3: Help - I forgot the enrolment key

You'll also find this in the course settings. Remember, if you protect your course with an enrolment key, it's up to you to tell it to your students. Read more!

Welcome to the Foothills of eL

Here I am writing to you from a little FE college in the far West of the UK (ok, a little FE college that's now part of a bigger one). eL is short for eLearning, which is short for something else, I suppose.

Anyway, I should have done this ages ago - a blog of ideas for using eLearning and ICT in teaching, in a college. I'm speaking to my colleagues, but anyone else is welcome.

There are plenty of blogs around to keep you up with the cutting edge of eLearning - have a look right for headlines from a couple of the best. Read more!