Alternative to iPad

I have been lucky enough to have worked with iPad for sometime and I really would be lost without it. However this I feel is a really good alternative and at a fraction of the prize . The 7inch Android 2.1 Scroll Multi Touch Screen Tablet for £159.00 has many of the features of i pad. These include touch screen, landscape and portrait mode. The tablet has a built in web cam and speakers so you can listen to music, watch videos and view photos. The best part for me is the capacity to be able to add your own peripherals be2 x USB ports for adding your own e.g. external Hard drives.-- HDMI out for connection to a monitor or HD ready TV so you can view your movies on the big screen.-- Micro-SD slot – so you can expand the storage of your device up to 32 GB as you fill it up with movies, games, music & photos.

Take a a look at http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=506956&C=brilliant1&U=xmas%20promo%202010&T=android%20tablet%20SL&gclid=CJ6kkf6l86UCFQse4QodXlXzoQ

Alternative to Delicious

There are rumours that Yahoo may be with drawing the free social booking marking site Delicious it may be worth taking a look at another alternative if the rumours turn out to be true.This in itself is a lose to the e -learning world if the rumours turn out to be true you might want to take a look at is Mister Wong.

Mister Wong is very similar to Delicious you import your bookmarks from Delicious into Mister Wong and you can use public book marks and create books. MR Wong will allow you to translate in some different languages. One of the Pros for Mister Wong is that the navigation is really simple to use. http://www.mister-wong.com/

This may be an alternative however it may be the case that if enough people Twitter or Facebook against the lose of Delicious Yahoo may continue the service.

Are you blogging?

Well after a couple of years of blogging, I now feel that I am able to reflect on this and say that on the whole it has been a positive experience and a learning curve.

For the first time user, choosing a blogging service could be tricky as their are a few to choose from. However Blogger has been very simple and straight forward. Customising gadgets such as email subscription or links to You Tube could not be easier. The best part for me is that you can get an answer to a problem really quickly either through Blogger itself or from the many forums that are available to post a question to online.

So the benefits to me as an e-learning advisor incluide being able to post out information quickly and hit a lot of people at one time. Filter news to what I feel is suitable and relevant.

The downside sometimes I feel that it's a bit quiet and I would like more feedback from the audience. There is obviously the time issue but so far the time spent writing the blog is well worth the effort.

So the big question is would I use this with my leaner's? Well the answer is easy Yes!. Blogging could of helped me within a Learning Provider in so many situations these include:

• Keeping in touch with mobile learners ( learner's within the workplace)
• Area for the learners to talk to me outside of the classroom
• Revision
• Reflection
• News items
• Problem solving

These are just a few of the advantages can you think of any more?

Using technology to increase community engagement and development

The Learining and Skills Improvement Service are offering grants of up £5000 to community to engage to learning providers to pilot the development of technological mechanisms in order to engage with the wider community to gain an understanding of their needs and aspirations. This is not about working with existing learners, but about engaging with those who may feel that the provider ‘is not for them’ and to understand the reasons why.
The provider should have a proven history of using technology and wish to build and extend current practice in order to further their links with the community. The closing dates for applications is the 3rd of December. To find out more information go to http://www.lsis.org.uk/WorkingWithLSIS/Opportunities/funding-Opportunities/Pages/default.aspx

Wordle

I came across Wordle through another blog the author describes them as "Word clouds are fantastic and often quite beautiful ways of presenting information"

This could be useful way to present a large amount of text in a pictorial way. You could also use them to collate and store text.

However for a dyslexic learner they may not be that easy to understand.

To generate word clouds from text you can use http://www.wordle.net/create – it’s free and fun. If you want to save your word cloud to use in a presentation or document, just do a screen print and then edit it down to the size you want in Paint or any other simple graphics package.

Innovation Funding from LSIS

The fourth round of innovation funding opened on the 01 September 2010 and closes on the 29th of October 2010. The funding is open to organisations in England whose primary function is as a provider of further education and training. Eligible providers will be organisations funded by the Young People’s Learning Agency (YPLA) or Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and subject to inspection by Ofsted. The only eligible Higher Education Institutions are those with learning and skills provision funded by the SFA and subject to inspection by Ofsted.
Bids, for up to a maximum of £50,000, will be invited from consortia of provider organisations for projects which are genuinely innovative and which have the potential to significantly enhance the practice and performance of the learning and skills sector. LSIS will particularly welcome bids from providers working through cross-sector and extra-sector consortium arrangements. Bids from individual provider organisations will not be accepted in this funding round.
LSIS will continue to encourage innovative bids on a variety of topics that address the strategic priorities of the sector. However, for this funding round we will particularly welcome consortia bids that address specific issues and problems in defined locations - based on the principles of Total Place*

More information on the Innovation funding can be found at http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/fif

iPad

I may be have been bitten by the i Pad bug, however so far I can't find anything that I dislike. Earlier this week I attended the Techshare conference at the ICC in Birmingham this was primarily regarding Accessibility issues. However the iPad was very alluring, the presenter Robin Spinks from the RNIB highlighted all the advantages these include :

• Portable
• Light weight
• High quality LED
• Fast Processor
• Touch Screen
• Virtual Keyboards

On closer inspection today I find you are able to carry out normal every day tasks like email, Internet use, playing games reading e-books I am also able to use the notes apps for very basic word processing. Robin described the i pad as a 'tool to share' as the iPad is very engaging and most definitely for content consumption. The question that Robin left us with is it a replacement for the Netbook on reflection I would probably say that the Netbook and the I pad are similar but definitely different . The iPad has a lack of expandability, you cant upgrade the iPad in any way and very poor for content creation.
However having said all of that the iPad is a different experience to the Netbook, i feel immersed in the graphics and believe that this is a different experience to any laptop, or net book