Sunday, May 31, 2009

Wikis

This weeks blog is about Wikis. A wiki is a website that facilitates the creation and editing of linked webppages. These are often used by groups of people for collaborative work.

There is a wealth of wiki software available and I do not propose to say which is the best merely to an example and highlight some uses for these.

One popular and easy to use site which provides wikis is Wetpaint.com which is free to use. Although advertisements are placed on wetpaint wikis, these can be removed from education sites. Wetpaint has links to some sample wikis for education which can provide examples of how these can be used. I particularly liked the Knowledge Media which has some interesting links.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Interactive resources

Classtools.net was created and is maintained by Russel Tarr, Head of History at the International School in Toulouse. This site provides free, customisable templates which users can edit to create educational games and activities and then these can then be embedded into blogs and websites.

Click here for full screen version

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Free Images

Finding appropriate copyright free images for teaching resources can be very time consuming. Today's site started life as a project in 2005 when tourism lecturers were asked to contribute photographs adn similar digital media that could be used freely in education.

The Image Enriched Learning in Tourism Project provides a vast database of images relating to tourism, links to alternative images sites and also provides guidance in the use of imagery in lectures.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Online Courses

Hewlett-Packard provide free online classes covering a range of topic areas. These classes are usually 4-8 lessons long and can be completed at your own pace within the time-frame set by HP.

The lessons can be completed at your own convenience and include activities, reading, quizzes and assignments. HP also provide a Discussion Board for participants to communicate with each other for the duration of the course. The courses offered change over time so even if you do not want to do one on offer at the moment it is worth looking back later for new courses.