A recent query from one of my younger grandchildren lead me to firstly explain and then later (because of course the are of the video-liking generation) hunting down a decent short explanation.

Try http://www.wimp.com/internetworks for a really good explanation in just over three minutes.

I am very grateful to the British Red Cross for their freely available booklet on this critical subject. Click here to read and access this and my own DSE equipment testing kit, both of which naturally are presented as Moodle course sections.

The VITAL network have produced some ‘portals’ for various subjects and you folks can gain a 30 day free trial at http://www.vital.ac.uk/portals – do try them out and let VITAL know how to make them better.

They also have some excellent resources at http://www.schoolzone.co.uk/webguide/

In a recent survey for Lancaster University, together with the India-UK Advanced Technology Centre, I was asked to look into the general factors about threats and the resilience operation of a possible future Internet. The writers considered the so-called STRIDE approach, which is a system developed for the classification of security threats. (more…)

The QR (or Quick-Response) Code is very widely used in Japan and is currently the most popular 2D-Code for Mobile Tagging. One of the most handy uses for this system in an educational or training environment is to link a specific URL which you require students to use. Uploading to a projector and displaying the QR Code via a static or Interactive White Board will allow delegates to snap the image with the camera on their mobiles and then access the information you have ‘hidden’ in the QR Code.

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Moodle is a brilliant open source eLearning platform which has a great many of the key tools that the trainer desires, right ‘out of the box’. Of course you could spend a long time installing, setting to work, testing and finding out about Moodle yourself, but where Spurgeon Training comes in is that we already know how to use it, how to make it work effectively and, most of all, how to create quick and effective training/teaching/learning tools & materials and then showing you exactly how to get the most out of them. (more…)

Xerte is a very well designed rapid elearning development system designed and built by the University of Nottingham. XERTE allows for the very swift construction of effective, eye-catching learning objects without requiring any programming skill. Moreover XERTE is extremely easy to learn. (more…)

Audio files can be very helpful in getting across difficult or important topics to trainees. People today are very used to listening to MP3 players and iPods. Your words of wisdom, especially if kept sharp and to the point, can be an excellent way of preparing delegates for a course, supporting a particular learning intervention, or supporting the consolidation following a training session.

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Writing and producing your own video is of course completely possible and in a later instructional journal note Spurgeon Training will open the box on that possibility for you, however for now let us master walking before taking on the more challenging feats involved in creating your own video broadcasts. (more…)

If ever there was a technology specifically designed to reinforce a nineteenth century view of didactic teaching, the IWB (Interactive White Board) has to be that technology. First it is more than just the IWB itself – commonly known as a Smartboard from the manufacturer Smart Technologies but also made by Promethian, Hitachi and many other manufacturers as well – you also require a data projector, wall installation and sound equipment (amplifier and speakers) and power supplies too. To be of any real value you will almost certainly also need a connection to the local network via which, if your network is correctly established, access to the Internet can be obtained, and also some form of mobile interface device such as voting clickers, wireless keyboards and mice and perhaps microphones and pens too. That is quite an outlay for an individual class or training room, at least £4,000 per room, most likely a little more. You will need to get quite a lot of improved results from the use of the equipment to justify that sort of outlay, whether you are measuring ‘success’ in ROI or examination grade uplift.

Regrettably, pushed by Government Quangos such as Becta and the DoE, and without much real thought as to the cost/benefit analyses required before undertaking such a major project, whilst many schools and colleges and most significant IT training companies have laid out their training rooms with this fashionable equipment and have borne that sort of outlay, all too often the IWB either lies fallow, is used simply as a projector screen or, even when thought has been given to trying to find some sort of interactive use, the IWB is still mostly seen being used for the sort of ‘quasi-interactive’ activity which whilst brilliant in Primary Schools, (moving illustrated piles of disassembled bones to make skeletons and then covering these with other organs to explain simple anatomy), by the time students are reaching the higher levels of Secondary School, College and/or Training Centre education, not only are such methods ineffective, mostly because it takes a long time for each individual learner to ‘have their go’, but also because, by this stage, more challenging ways of using the tool intelligently and efficiently have to be developed to meet the growing minds of the learners, and that development generally takes time, which is in short supply, and/or purchase of specialist software, which is even more expensive, especially in the short term.

Well everything of course is relative. If you are spending £4,000 or more in equipping a room, then clearly it makes sense to spend some time, and perhaps a little extra money on resources like time and shared room use, and allowing teacher/trainers to learn and develop suitable materials which they can use and to consolidate their time and skills such that they feel ‘at home’ with these expensive ‘toys’ and can use them effectively with all level of user.

Some ideas which:

have proved to be very helpful, and do not take endless time to create, include:

For jargon and technical language development and factual information
• the development of individual ‘Blockbuster’ type games (Give us a P, Bob!)
• the creation and classroom use of simple word searches
• the creation and classroom use of crossword puzzles

For deeper understanding and discussion:

• purchase or construction of layered diagrams of key objects or systems
• development of wiki materials for later in-class work
• use of very short ‘snippets’ of video or illustrated audio interspersed with classroom discussion
• short textbook definitions or passages as origins for brain storm activities
• student creation of ‘poster/display’ activity with class discussion
• ‘Kim’s game’ of actual and some false objects/tools of the trade
• simple spreadsheet based ‘business games’ or similar played on a weekly/fortnightly basis
• illustrations/animations of processes such as ‘flight’ or the ‘internal combusion engine’ with problems

Such a list can never of course be complete, brilliant teachers and trainers will always come up with other, better ideas than I can, but perhaps these few ideas may provide food for thought. All additions, ideas, views etc please comment below and if you would like to know how to actually create any of the ideas on my list just drop Spurgeon Training an ‘e’ at any time