Macro and micro impacts of training of teachers in technology

Recently I attended a meeting wherein a training programme for teachers on the use of technology in classroom was discussed. The teachers are provided training on various technology tools. They learn how to use collaborative tools and share resources. After training when they go back to their institutions, they are not able to make use of skills obtained during above mentioned training as the institution does not have adequate computers, Internet or other infrastructure. Even the products they created during the training sessions, can be demonstrated to the students or others for want of access to Internet.

What solution(s) can you offer for such a scenario?

Open Educational Resources: Development and Challenges for India

On 1 February 2013 I gave a presentation on "Open Educational Resources: Development and Challenges for India" at 5th Annual CO13 (Connecting Online for Instruction and Learning), an online event conducted by Integrating Technology for Active Lifelong Learning (IT4ALL) via WizIQ

In this presentation I elaborated on the initiatives to the development of OERs in India and the challenges therein.

Here is the video  recording of my session: 

Keep visiting for update on this topic and many more....Thank you!

A simple way to make video of presentation slides

In July 2012 I visited Port Blair (Capital of Andaman & Nicobar Islands) to conduct a workshop "Master Trainers of Primary Level" to train the teachers teaching in primary schools in Andaman & Nicobar Islands on the use of Wiki-CAL (Computer Aided Learning). 

One of the tasks (as a measure of attainment level) for the participants was to showcase their work outputs they did during the workshop. They created wiki pages and presentation slides. 

In some cases a difficulty was reported by them to record the audio and then embed them to the slides, if it is a continuous narration.

I had used TipCam (a screen recording software) previously and thus asked the participants to try this one. They were asked to give commentary while running their presentation and recording it via TipCam.

After some trials they were able to make a 'talking movie' of their presentations. 

...if you donot hear audio in these two video clips, please donot break your pc...while reloading these the mic was mute  :-)
updated version will be here soon... thanks for your patience..

Here is the presentation with voice:

 

Hope you liked the experiment.

Thanks,

Ramesh Sharma

 

Do you create flowcharts, mind maps and other diagrams for your class or administration

Dear Colleagues

FREE EDUCATIONAL ACCOUNT FOR UNIVERSITIES

I hope not only for your teaching-learning, even for administrative purposes you might have used flowcharts, mind maps and other diagrams.

LucidChart is the website which can help you in this task.

Many universities are looking for cost-effective alternatives to expensive software packages like Microsoft Visio. Lucidchart is currently offering LucidChart free of charge for 2011 to professors or faculty who request an account for usage in a class or department. These educational accounts are the equivalent of our Team accounts and come equipped with all the premium features.

Hence as a faculty member you can make the request for your class or request an individual account.
See details at

https://www.lucidchart.com/pages/education/university

with best wishes
rcsharma

Want to convert .pdf to .doc or .rtf?

Dear Colleagues,

At times you may have felt the need to convert pdf to .doc or .rtf.

This utility does this work to great satisfaction (I checked it already with a complex pdf) and results were good.

http://www.pdftoword.com/

Site says:
The Most Accurate PDF-to-Word Converter

Using our PDF-to-Word conversion technology, you can quickly and easily create editable DOC/RTF files, making it a cinch to re-use PDF content in applications like Microsoft Word, Excel, OpenOffice, and WordPerfect.
Best of all, it's entirely free!


In addition to this, you may find this useful to you:

http://www.pdftoexcelonline.com/

The Most Accurate PDF-to-Excel Converter

Use PDF to Excel to quickly and easily create highly-editable XLS files, making it a cinch to re-use tables and spreadsheets from PDF files in Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice, Google Docs, and WordPerfect Office. Best of all, it's entirely free!

PDF to Excel Online

Enjoy the conversion!

R C Sharma

Tool useful to English Language Teachers and Students

Russell Stannard

This tool is amazing. It allows you to convert any website into a clickable page that will immediately connect to a dictionary that gives you the meanings of the words. It also collects the words in a history list and allows you to play games with them. See this to believe it!!!

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/lingro/index.html

 

Created by Russell Stannard for Teacher Training videos.com

www.teachertrainingvideos.com

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Tool for your web-conferencing needs

Dear Friends,

For your teaching - learning you may find the need to have web-conferencing facility.
Elluminate is a good tool for that (of course, there are some pricing options for that).

The Blackboard Inc. has launched LearnCentral™  where you get:

    A free 3-seat Elluminate virtual meeting room
    Thousands of community-generated learning resources
    A professional learning directory of your peers
    To participate in LearnCentral events and webinars

To sign up for a free, no obligation three-user version of Elluminate, please visit http://www.getvroom.com


Happy web-conferencing!!


Ramesh Sharma