The Regional Support Centre eMagazine provides news of funding, current projects, initiatives and examples of good practice in eLearning, and offers ideas and support for the HE, FE, ACL, WBL, 6th Form, OLASS and Specialist College Managers & Practitioners, that are supported by the RSC here in the Northwest.

1. October 2011

3. About & Comment The Regional Support Centre eMagazine provides news of funding, current projects, initiatives and examples of good practice in eLearning, and offers ideas and support for the HE, FE, ACL, WBL, 6th Form, OLASS and Specialist College Managers & Practitioners, that are supported by the RSC here in the Northwest. Note: - Although every care has been taken in the preparation of this eMagazine, no warranty is given by the author or the Regional Support Centre-Northwest as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained within it and neither the authors nor the RSC-Northwest shall be responsible or liable for any errors or omissions. If you have any comments and/or contributions to make, please send them... ...using the Online Comment/Feedback Formusing the QR code or link below

4. General Contact Details Support Desk... Duty Adviser Tel: 01524 510067 Email via QR Code or URL below... Address & Telephone/Fax Numbers... Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) AdvanceRegional Support Centre - NorthwestLancaster UniversityBailrigg HouseLancaster University CampusLancaster LA1 4YE Tel: 01524 510067 Fax: 01524 593 798 Web Address (URL)... http://www.rsc-northwest.ac.uk Continued on next page...

5. RSC-Northwest Contact Details Manager: Andrew QuarmbyTel: 01524 510071aq@rsc-northwest.ac.uk Events Co-ordinator & Administration... Sandra HarrisTel: 01524 510067Fax:0152 459 3798sh@rsc-northwest.ac.uk Administration Christine HulmeTel: 01524 510066Fax:0152 459 3798admin@rsc-northwest.ac.uk eLearning Advisers... Anita Holt (Further Education/6th Form Colleges)Tel: 01524 510062ah@rsc-northwest.ac.uk Colin Gallacher (Work Based Learning)Tel: 01524 510058cg@rsc-northwest.ac.uk Hilary Thomas (Higher Education)Tel: 01524 510059ht@rsc-northwest.ac.uk John Dalziel (Adult & Community Learning / Personal & Community Development Learning/OLASS & Sustainability/Green)Tel: 01524 510057jd@rsc-northwest.ac.uk Judy Bloxham(Further Education/6th Form Colleges)Tel: 01524 510061jb@rsc-northwest.ac.uk Keith Wilson (Technical)Tel: 01524 510065kwil@rsc-northwest.ac.uk Kevin Hickey (Specialist Colleges & Accessibility)Tel: 01524 510064kh@rsc-northwest.ac.uk

6. Disclaimer All the pictures and news shown on this eMagazine are the property of their respective owners. We don't hold any copyright about these pictures and news. These pictures have been collected from different public sources including different websites, considering to be in public domain. If any one has any objection to displaying of any picture and news, it may be brought to our notice by sending an email (see the QR Code or URL above ) & the same will be removed immediately, after verification of the claim.

7. News & Events Access Event information on the RSC Website (use the QR Code or URL below ) Access Latest News on the RSC Website (use the QR Code or URL above )

8. ACCA Global As the global body for professional accountants, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCAGlobal) provides support to their 147,000 members and more than 420,000 students; based in London, with administrative offices in Glasgow, they have an active presence in over 170 different countries. Take a look at "Teach Accounting" ACCA's e-magazine for teachers of finance professionals. Now published exclusively via email, it includes ACCA news, industry updates, resources and guidance for learning providers, as well as technical support and exam-related articles. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL above...

9. A Fun Way to Learn a New Language Lyrics Gaps aims to help users learn a language through songs; it could be a fun way for students to practice their listening skills and writing skills in the language that they are studying. Each song has a few activities accompanying it. The activities ask learners to fill in the blanks in the songs with the correct word or words that are missing. Currently there are activities available in ten languages. Registered users are encouraged to develop and contribute their own activities in the user community; LYRICSnMUSIC <http://www.lyricsnmusic.com/> may assist in this process. Lyrics Gaps doesn't provide the most rigorous of activities, but make a nice break from traditional ESOL/EFL/ESL etc., language practice activities. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

10. Blitz School Blitz School offers educational workshops with exciting activities to help learn about World War II. Based in Greater Manchester, their website offers valuable resources. Take a look in the Free Resources section for a fascinating video lesson, fact files about a number of objects from the period and lots of other teaching resources. Based around the QCA unit 9 history topic "what was life like for children in the second world war?" Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

11. CC:to me CC:to me is one of those bookmarklets that "makes my head hurt"; there are so many things practitioners and their learners can do with it. Why wasn't an idea as simple as this implemented earlier. As its name suggests, it allows users to... email stuff to themself via a bookmarklet; drag and drop text, images, videos and more from the web onto it; cc:to me then emails them all flawlessly along with the webpage URL. Currently free (sign up needed); pro accounts (coming soon) will bring goodies like multiple recipients (ideal for collaborative work) and more. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

14. Create webpages mirrors TextMirror is a free, online tool for creating text mirrors of webpages. It also has a searchable mirrors archive... Are learners or practitioners trying to read articles on a website blocked on Learning Provider networks? If yes, then they can read that article with ease thanks to TextMirror – a service that converts websites into plain text. All they have to do is enter the URL of the website they want converted; the conversion is all done on TextMirror’s own server. Find out more and/or access those blocked Educational Resources by using the QR Code or URL below...

15. CSI Web adventures CSI Web adventures, based on the CBS TV show CSI: Crime Scene, provides resources that allow learners to experience several different types of forensic analysis. CSI Web adventures also provides links for practitioners, and their learners, of forensic science. These include... General Forensics DNA (Forensic Biology) Toxicology Firearms and Tool Marks Examination Digital Forensics Forensic Anthropology Forensic Pathology Forensic Art Fingerprints and Other Forensic Games Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

16. Dial-e in 5 mins This is a very brief five minute narrated Prezi presentation from Simon Atkinson that provides a quick overview of the Digital Artefacts for Learner Engagement (DiAL-e) framework. The presentation provides a context for the work, suggesting that faculty might benefit from a framework which supports their use of video (and other digital content) by giving primacy to its intended use (what the learner 'does' with it) rather than merely its subject or discipline relevance. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

18. DYMO/Mimio DYMO/Mimio Interactive Teaching Technologies... Do you own a Mimio interactive whiteboard? Yes - then you’ll be interested in this YouTube channel containing several useful videos on how to use the Mimio software. Find out more and/or watch the clips by using the QR Code or URL below...

19. eBible For those engaged in "Thought-Beliefs" courses/study/evaluation etc. eBible is an online tool that makes reading and going through different aspects of the Bible very simple. Users can... search through sections, read specific books and chapters, add notes, highlight sentences and do so much more. Practitioners could also use it to link to Bible verses in a VLE or blog or other web presence. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

20. Engineering Interact Engineering Interact is a site for younger learners designed by the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. Engineering Interact offers five games designed to teach students physics concepts. The games address concepts related to... light, sound, motion, electricity, and space travel. Each of the five games presents students with a scenario in which they have to "help" someone solve a problem. The games require learners to learn and analyze the information presented to them. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

21. Fakebook: from classtools.net Create a fun, interactive, fictional profile... Another excellent resource from Class Tools - Get learners to organize information that they know and or find out about a famous person by Creating a fake Facebook profile for them. Learners could also create profiles for characters in novels that they are studying/reading for literature courses etc.

22. GCompris GCompris is an open source educational games and software suite ideal for Initial Teacher Training (ITT) and Family Learning Practitioners; it contains a wide range of activities aimed at the 2 to 10 year age group. GCompris comprises of over 100 individual games offering various activities such as... the functioning of the computer, using the mouse and keyboard, general learning, reading, writing, foreign languages, algebra, ...as well as various activities such as memory and logic games, scientific experiments etc. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

24. Google Swiffy If you are practitioner, you will probably be worried, with so many iOS devices that can’t support flash, that many of your resources are past their "usefull to learners shelf life" - outside the learning environment that is! Naturally, practitioners feel stuck, but with Google’s Swiffy, they can convert Flash SWF Files to HTML 5 to help them reach a wider learner-base. Note - Swiffy uses SVG, a standardised format for vector graphics. SVG features used by Swiffy are supported by Webkit-based browsers such as Safari (on desktop and mobile)... ...and Google Chrome.At the time of writing this, Firefox 5 has almost complete support for SVG, but does not support SVG fonts. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

25. Glean Comparison Search: An Educational Research and Search Tool Glean Comparison Search is a designed to help its users explicitly explore differing points of view about a topic, and through lessons, come to understand how their own confirmation bias might be impacting their research work. Another useful Information Literacy Tool - The GLEAN Comparison Search engine is an online tool that allows learners to compare search results for "positive" and "negative" perspectives side-by-side. For example, if users search using the term "e-portfolio" they will be presented with lists of positive and negative terms. Clicking on those terms will change the results and give them quick comparison options. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

26. Gradebook | LearnBoost LearnBoost claims to be the best grade-book software on the web - and it’s free! Although aimed at schools this has potential for practitioners working in the Further Education and Skills sectors. What do users get? Gradebook: easy inputs, statistics, standards, grading, weighting, etc.; Attendance: Track, notice trends, and print off records; Lesson Plans: helps connect planning and instruction to grading and assessing; Create lesson plans, align to imported standards, and add enriching media and picture files; Reporting: easy-to-interpret charts and reports automatically update, giving practitioners information required; Parent (substitute Employer) & Learner: enabling employer and student accounts and users will create inroads for communication and collaboration.; and Other Goodies: seating, schedules, calendars etc. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

27. How to Create a Chrome Web Many learning providers may use Google Chrome and would like to have "Their own Web App"(s) for their website and/or VLE and or other web presence. This How-to helps them to do just that. Find out more and/or create your own web app by using the QR Code or URL below...

28. ICT Planning Ian Addison has created this guide to ICT - with sections on... Blogging & Working Online; Research; Digital Literacy; ICT in Maths; Animation and Video; Art & Image Editing; Presentations; Sound & Music; Modelling & Simulations; Control, Programming & Game Design; ESafety; and Early Years. Also includes information, web links and suggested resources within each section... ... and references to expected levels/benchmarks, for Family Learning Practitioners, that children should aim to reach at different ages. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

29. LYRICSnMUSIC A Lyric and Music Search Engine for Music People by Music People. Looking for... lyrics, for video clips, ...of a particular song or to purchase that song/track/album? Well LyricsNMusic is a free to use website that lists details of a song on a single webpage. These details include the song’s lyrics, videos, Wikipedia results, and links from iTunes and Amazon. Saving you time! Find out more and/or find those lyrics by using the QR Code or URL below...

30. Merriam-Webster's Word Central Games Functional Skills/Key skills/English etc., Interactive word games, from the Merriam-Webster website, that are great for an Interactive White Board (IWB)... Alpha-bot- has an engaging method for spelling words, challenging spellers of all ages. Listen to the audio then drag, drop and click your way to success! Robo-Bee - Learners control the flight of the Robo-Bee through a garden of synonyms, antonyms, spelling, and usage puzzles! This one works much better on Internet Explorer. Bigbot - ideal for the younger learner; word-automated machines with an appetite! Challenges learners to find the antonym or synonym for different words - fun for the kids. Jumble Kids - has potential as a fun lesson starter. The game has 10-12 Jumbles to choose from and seems they have a new Jumble each week. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

31. minutephysics's Channel Simply put: cool physics and other sweet science. all in a minute! Useful video resources for Science Practitioners Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

33. Page O Rama Want to post online for all stakeholders and prospects to read but you don't have a blog and you just can't be bothered putting one together for what's essentially going to be a one-off announcement? Yes! Then Page O Rama comes highly recommended. Lets users have a webpage created and published without having to get near a single line of code, and it wont cost users anything. Page O Rama is a browser-based webpage creator and whatever is created will go live the second the "Save Page" button is clicked. By submitting an email address when creating the page, it can be modify after publication too. Page O Rama has the undeniable advantage, over similar online tools, of letting users create full HTML pages, complete with content such as images. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

34. PrimaryWall - Web based sticky notes There are a lot of different online notice boards available these days. Online notice boards are a neat way of getting a shared space to collect ideas from learners during a "blue sky"/brainstorm session. Or for a practitioner to post resources for a topic. Learners could ask questions which can be answered by fellow learners and/or their teacher/assessor/practitioner etc. PrimaryWall is ideal for Family Learning, concieved by a teacher and built for schools; deliberately kept simple, fast and user friendly. The font size of the notes is quite large when typed to make it easier for younger users. Some lesson plans and ideas for practitioners are provided on the site. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

36. SocialBro- Explore your Twitter community "With SocialBro you can manage and analyze your Twitter Community." An ideal tool for those Learning Providers engaged in Marketing using Social Media. Providing data that help evaluate "success" of Social Media Marketing Projects and much more. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

37. Sandfields Comprehensive School, Free Resources for Practitioners Looking for some useful Flash resources that can be used on an Interactive Whiteboard? Sandfields School has produced some including clocks and timers plus games such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire. These come as downloadable... Flash files which can be run offline; and PowerPoint templates for games such as Blockbusters. These resources are completely free and can be edited to suit individual needs by editing the xml files. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

38. SlideShare: HTML5 not Flash Popular presentation sharing web site SlideShare has abandoned flash and shifted entirely to HTML5–you can now view SlideShare on any app that has an HTML5 compliant web browser. Is this a first step away from flash? Good news for learning providers, and their learners, using iPads etc. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

39. Teaching Library The Teaching Library is a place to find free teaching ideas and lesson resources, all linked to books that can be used in the classroom. Each book has ideas for uses in different areas of the curriculum, along with related video content and downloadable materials. Ideal for Initial Teacher Training and Family Learning Practitioners Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

40. The Children's University of Manchester Resources for Initial Teacher Training and Family Learning Practitioners. The Children's University of Manchester shares, with the wider community, and particularly primary schools, the excitement of the knowledge created through its pioneering research activities and teaching and learning practices. Resources include... online interactive learning materials for use on whiteboards or PCs; video clips which will bring the University to your desktop; downloadable resources; and educational games. Content is aligned with, and complements existing Key Stage 2 web-based learning resources. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

41. Tikatok Across the Curriculum Writing lessons and project ideas for Family Learning. This free monthly series of activities, project ideas and learner worksheets integrates writing across a variety of subjects from maths, science, social studies, art, and more. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

42. Trello Trello is an online collaboration tool helping users perform tasks in a productive manner. Users can create boards, add lists and cards which contains description about the tasks, share the tasks with a group of people and work on it in real time, add labels and more. Users can also track the activity on the board through Trello’s user friendly interface and monitor who is making changes on the board. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

43. Troubleshoot Wireless Network Connection Problems by Yourself You can read & learn our step by step diagram for how to troubleshoot a wireless connection by yourself. If it is hard to remember, you can even print it and have it available when needed. Some smaller Learning Providers, without IT Support, will at times experience Wi-Fi network problems. The 7Tutorials tutorial website provides a set of handy flowcharts to help walk users through their wireless networking problems; guiding them towards Wi-Fi solutions. The charts cover everything from the basics (is the router on?)... ... to the more complex (does your device support the wireless mode in use by the router?). The flowcharts cover just about every common wireless configuration issue Learning Providers may run into. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL above...

44. Tucoola Tucoola is a great site for parents and children with great content for the family and an information center with details regarding the development progress of their children. If Family Learning Practitioners are looking for some basic skills practice activities it's worth bookmarking Tucoola. The site has a section of single user activities for younger learners and section of two user activities for parents to play with their children. Activities include things like simple jigsaw puzzles, checkers, and basic number games. The site can be used without registration, but the option to access activity reports for their children might be an appealing feature for parents; such parents will need to register themselves. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL above...

45. Vimeo Music Store Vimeo Music Store find music tracks which can be used in videos, presentations etc. almost 45,000 tracks browsable by various genres, tempos and moods. powered by Audiosocket, a music licensing company which is providing Vimeo with over 30,000 tracks, and Free Music Archive (FMA) offering up to 11,000 songs licensed under Creative Commons. Vimeo Music Store provides users with 3 types of licensing options: Free Creative Common Licenses, $1.99 per track for personal, non-commercial web use and $98 per track for commercial, professional web use. Just search the genre or type of music you are looking for and Vimeo Music Store will show the tracks available. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

46. Vocabulary "Vocabulary.com helps you learn new words, play games that improve your vocabulary, and explore language." Whether learners are posting a quick tweet or applying for a job, When they communicate on or offline, vocabulary and the quality of the writing are a key part of the impressions made. It’s important, to learners, to be able to communicate clearly and come across as intelligent human beings. This free website - Vocabulary.com - claims it can help users improve their vocabulary by figuring out which words they don’t know, and then concentrating of teaching them (without spending time on stuff users already know). The first step is a multiple-choice test aimed to assess current vocabulary. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

47. Web 2.0 & Hosted Services for Schools Providing ICT support to schools here in the UK Primary Technology also offers a huge collection of online resources that Family Learning Practitioners can take advantage of. Tools include... PrimaryWall; PrimaryPad; Primary Games Arena; My School Holidays; Safe Search; Satpin; Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

48. WebAIM: Web Accessibility for Designers The follow quote from the website says it all... "The focus of web accessibility is often on web development – the things that happen in HTML, CSS, or JavaScript after a site has been designed visually. Optimal accessibility should start much earlier, as part of the visual design process. We have created an infographic that highlights a few important principles of accessible design." Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

50. WhoIs Project The WhoIs search tool is designed to help learners evaluate the source of the information on a particular website. The intent of GLEAN's WhoIs search tool is good and worth showing to learners as long they are aware that the implication that .org domains have more validity than .com domains is questionable and, under "what can you learn from its ownership", in many cases the WhoIs registry often takes you to a domain by proxy registry that masks the real ownership of a domain. ".ac.uk" information also seems to missing from their servers. Find out more by using the QR Code or URL below...

52. Resources and Archives aclJohns Website &Blog Portal http://www.acljohn.com/ Dipity Timeline http://www.dipity.com/acljohn/ Only2clicks http://bit.ly/ppcIHX Pearltreeshttp://pear.ly/Hhwv RSC-NW TV Channel http://www.livestream.com/locus Scoop.It – Technologies http://www.scoop.it/t/technologies/ ShoutOmatichttp://shoutomatic.com/acljohn Spreaker Radio Station http://bit.ly/nSLYjE The ACLjohn Daily http://paper.li/ACLjohn YouTube Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/acljohn

53. Find, Try, Evaluate & Share (FiTES) You are the experts in your field of work, management, administration, practitioners etc., and you know what works for you! By sharing not only will you raise the awareness of your colleagues but you should also benefit from their submissions. By doing this, you will all be supporting & stimulating innovation in learning, teaching and administration. Share your resources by completing the form available at http://bit.ly/o6yiwlor Use your iPhone, Android, iPad, etc. with the QR code above...