The computer reads the text for you!

Some students like multitasking. They would like to study as they do other duties like for example cleaning their room, cooking etc…..Other students have impairments with vision.

What’s the solution? Well a program can transform words into sounds where the computer reads the contents of a page and transforms it into speaking...as if a person is reading the text!! Some students would prefer to study in this manner, because it helps them assimilate better the educational content. It helps them to face the lonely days of studying especially if they are living on their own.

Our solution works in Linux, Windows, Solaris, Android and Mac. It is called espeak. It can be downloaded from here. If one needs documentation, it is here. The forum is quite helpful for newbies. 

 

Moodle - Software learning management system

The internet is full of resources, webpages, music, notes etc...Some students do get lost or take a lot of time to find the right tools for learning. Others are easily distracted. Parents feel uneasy that opening the internet for students might lead them to meet other persons who are not teaches and who might teach their kids other subjects, which might hurt their children in one way or another.

How can all three (teachers, students and parents) meet online to continue learning? In other words, can they  have the educational technology all in one, safe place?

All three would like a place on the internet where students could revise the lesson conducted in class and find alternative help too in order to understand the lesson better. One can submit papers/written exercises online. Parents can watch their own child's progress. Teachers can have a private chat both with parents and students at the same time. 

Today we are presenting Moodle, which is a free and open-source software learning management system written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License. Developed on pedagogical principles, Moodle is used for blended learning, distance education, flipped classroom and other e-learning projects in schools, universities, workplaces and other sectors.

To download/ Documentation/ To setup/ To teach with moodle/ To find Support.

Visual Help (YouTube videos).

Open Educational Resources

It's an open secret that not many teachers or students would share their knowledge or experience. Others would never tell anyone from where they are getting all their information. Others seal their information and would make one pay if one wants to make use of it! Hence there would be a financial burden for some.

Through this blog, we have been gaining more attention from more readers towards an outward mentality approach where sharing is truly caring for others. Sharing means enrichment to the very person who shares because one can receive feedback and become richer. Readers would be enriched because the information is being shared. So it's a win win philosophy.

Though the term "open educational resources" has become widely used in recent years, not everyone is clear on exactly what it means.

According to the Hewlett Foundation, whose definition is considered the most official, says Lisa Petrides, the CEO and founder of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), "[open educational resources] are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources (OER) include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge."

Just visit the following webpage for further information:

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/higher-ed/What-Are-Open-Educational-Resources.html

QCAD, a free open source application for computer aided drafting

Students/Teachers who are involved with design lessons and exercises, find it difficult to find free programs which can express their drawings. Well we are presenting QCAD. What is QCAD?

QCAD is a free, open source application for computer aided drafting (CAD) in two dimensions (2D). With QCAD you can create technical drawings such as plans for buildings, interiors, mechanical parts or schematics and diagrams. QCAD works on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The source code of QCAD is released under the GPL version 3 (GPLv3), a popular Open Source license.

The current stable version of QCAD is version 3.15. If you wish to download it, click here. If you need documentation about how to use the program, go to this webpage. If you prefer youtube videos in order to master the program, go to this link. There is a facebook page too! Or a google plus page. You can have a free ebook about the program too!

A powerful music mixing program - Mixxx

Music is a universal language! Teachers can always use music in order to make lessons and studying much more interesting. There are teachers who teach music. Others teach communication through modern means. Is there anything open source and free? Yes there is! And it's Mixxx.

It has everything you need to start making DJ mixes in a tight, integrated package. Whether you're a basic learner in class or at home, you're DJing your next house party, spinning at a club, or broadcasting as a radio DJ, Mixxx has what you need to do it right.

Here are some interesting links:

download;

manual (online book);

forums (help from other users);

wikipedia (general information);

You Tube tutorials;

Kalzium

When students study, most of the time they are buried under an immense load of papers. It’s very easy to get lost finding the needle in a haystack! Well there are some programs which should help them make it easier to study! For teachers, it helps them with the presentation of a long and tedious list of information about elements. Well we’re presenting Kalzium.

Kalzium is an application which will show you some information about the periodic system of the elements. Therefore you could use it as an information database.

Kalzium has already some nice features but there are still a lot of things to do. We are currently coding quite lot to bring in some new and nice features and make it as fast and useful as possible.

You can help them by testing it or make proposals for new features or a better design. To download it just click here (redirected to other pages because you need KDE in windows). If you want to know more about it, go here. If you are interested in the contents, go here.

Zotero

How many times it happens that we're reading, listening or watching a video on the internet and we wish to save it for later use? Others do collect all these kind of media but then they'll forget where they had put them!

We need something free, open source and easy to use. Well, zotero is a great friend with everybody especially teachers and students. Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources.

Zotero is the only research tool that automatically senses content in your web browser, allowing you to add it to your personal library with a single click. Whether you're searching for a preprint on arXiv.org, a journal article from JSTOR, a news story from the New York Times, or a book from your university library catalog, Zotero has you covered with support for thousands of sites.

Zotero collects all your research in a single, searchable interface. You can add PDFs, images, audio and video files, snapshots of web pages, and really anything else. Zotero automatically indexes the full-text content of your library, enabling you to find exactly what you're looking for with just a few keystrokes. It is available for windows, mac and linux.

For downloads click here. For help click here.