Google UK have released some resources for use in schools.
Resources include:
- Lesson Plans
- Discussion Groups
- Guides to Google earth
- Tutorials
- Gadgets and
- Projects
Worth a look I think.
Open Source VLE
I’d not heard about this one before but it sounds as if Moodle has some serious competition at last. If you’re looking at VLEs then it may be worth a look.
Neater Moodle
If you are a Moodle user you might be interested in using ’themes’ to make the interface fit with the school style a little more.
Theme Gurus produce themes for a number of open source systems, some are free, others cost.
Thanks to Janes e-Learning tip of the day for this one.
Windows Vista SP1
Microsoft have anounced their first service pack for Windows Vista. The software pack is due for release in Spring 2008 but no exact date has been given yet.
The article has a list of fixes and improvements.
New Scratch
Version 1.2 of the excellent Scratch program has now released.
Scratch 1.2 Release Notes
Interface Improvements
You can now insert blocks in the middle of a stack.
Project notes now scroll.
The upload dialog now has checkboxes for some common tags.
It is now possible to "unlock" (
> 
) sprites so that they are draggable in presentation mode and in the web player
Hidden folders are now not shown
Loads of other features
One Laptop per child
The competition for the OLPC computer is getting quite hot – which is probably a good thing.
The Nicholas Negraponte machine is called the XO and details are coming through now that the first units are shipping reasonably well.
This BBC article starts to go into some depth. In particular the screen works well in direct sunlight, the device is showerproof and battery life can be extended by using a black and white mode (selectable from the keyboard). Although the keyboard is rubbery (fank you velly much) apparently is is cuite responsive to the touch. Evaluation units have been getting good reviews.
The XO is capable of networking with other machines without any network infrastructure but I have yet to find details of how effective this is.
Death by Powerpoint
I’ve just come across this book and wondered if anybody has a copy and would do a review for us?
Does it offer any help with ’Audience and Purpose’ or is it more about fancy effects?
Better Than Bullet Points:
Creating Engaging eLearning with PowerPoint
Live meeting
If you are thinking about working with the Microsoft Live Meeting technology you may want to join in a demonstration.
Its this Thursday (6th December), 3.30-4.30pm
3.8M EeePCs expected
Asus says it’ll ship 3.8 million Eee PCs next year
As a comparison HP – the current biggest seller shipped about 6.3 million in the last quater – for all models.
Interestingly the EeePCs may be shipped with a cutdown Windows OS ($30 extra).
Everything Web2
All the sites you ever wanted with Web 2 tools for everything.
Look down the left hand side for all the categories – WOW
ICT Nuggets 