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12 Dozen Places To Educate Yourself Online For Free

28/4/2014

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If you’re interested in learning something new, this article is for you.  Broken down by subject and/or category, here are several top-notch self-education resources bookmarked online over the past few years.

Subjects include:

Science and Health

Business and Money

History and World Culture

Law

Computer Science and Engineering

Mathematics

English and Communications

Foreign and Sign Languages

Multiple Subjects and Miscellaneous

Free books and reading recommendations

Educational Mainstream Broadcast Media

Online Archives

Directiories of Open Education

Accessed Here



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Finds of the week

25/4/2014

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Windows XP: Interesting Facts to Remember
This is an interesting collection Windows XP trivia. It's a short and good read. :)
Thanks go out to Mary at Spiceworks for the site suggestion :)


4 Ways To Factory Reset Your Windows Computer
Sometimes a computer needs to be restored to factory conditions, whether it's a virus or some other reason. I like this article because it lists what key you need to press at boot up for various manufacturers. It's good to note that restoring computer to factory conditions means that all your programs, documents, windows updates, etc. will disappear. Back up anything that's important to you before restoring a computer. This isn't mentioned in the article but you can make an image of your hard disk drive. That gives you a cloned copy of everything on your hard disk drive. There are detailed direction from Gizmo
here.
If you know what you are doing check out our
Best Free Drive Cloning Softwarecategory.

Check User Name Available At Multiple Sites
Check to see if your desired username is available at dozens of popular Social Networking and Social Bookmarking websites.

15 Brilliant Websites That Will Inspire And Change Your Life
This a quite a diverse list of sites, most anyone will find something of interest here.


19 Perfectly Camouflaged Animal Photos by Art Wolfe I've always liked camouflaged images. When I saw these 19 photos by long time favorite photographer Art Wolfe I had to share. :)

20. MapFactor: GPS Navigation — Free Mobile App of the Week

For Android
Size: 9 to 11.5 MB
Download: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mapfactor.navigator


Information from Gizmos

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How to Lockdown Your Facebook Account For Maximum Privacy and Security

24/4/2014

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This walk-through will show you how to configure your Facebook Account and Privacy Settings:


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List of useful websites for adult literacy

23/4/2014

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Recommended Websites      

 

NALA – Write On

Writeon.ie

This is NALA’s interactive website to help people improve their reading, writing and numbers skills online. The content is pitched at FETAC Level 2 and Level 3. Users can study at the own pace and in their own time to improve their skills or get a national qualification.

http://www.writeon.ie    

 

Worksheets and video clips from NALA’s Read Write Now, Really Useful Guide and Written Off series are on this site. Very useful if you are looking for something in particular from the Read Write Now Books or would like to watch an instruction video.

www.resources.writeon.ie

 

Information related to the RTE programmes on Literacy. Printable and online exercises.

www.readwritenow.ie

Literacy Tools

Literacy tools are for adults who would like to improve their spelling, reading, writing, number and computer skills.

http://www.literacytools.ie

Tipperary ETB Adult Learning Scheme

This website has lots of useful Tutor resources and guidelines, including information on local services and a Tutor Forum.

http://www.southtippals.com/tutors.htm

BBC Skillswise

BBC Skillswise

 

This section of the BBC Skillwise website will explain the sounds of English, recognising letters and words, skimming and scanning, reading and understanding.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/topic-group/reading

 

BBC Skillswise offers free maths resources, including explanations, videos, quizzes and games.  It is designed primarily for tutors to use as a resource, selecting activities for their learners.  However, many tutors have shown their learners how to use it and navigate around it to learn and practice.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/topic-group/numbers

Handwriting, filling in a form, writing a letter

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/topic-group/writing

For working on a variety of spelling games and printable worksheets.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/topic-group/spelling

 

Family Learning

Family Learning UK

Here you will find lots of information and links to useful resources to explain various aspects of the UK school curriculum.

http://www.familylearning.org.uk/

Clare Family Learning Programme

Clare Family Learning Resource Pack was published in 2000 to support parents helping their children's emerging literacy and numeracy skills. As courses were piloted, research carried out and resources published, the Clare Family Learning Project became nationally renowned for its programmes, training and materials.

http://www.clarefamilylearning.org/

Numeracy

Telling the Time

This site offers three interactive activities to help work out the time and understand time.  The interface is adult friendly.  Activities include: Telling the time, AM or PM and the 24 hour clock.

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/time/

LLU

Free, customisable templates for practising numeracy skills. Designed to be used in a blended approach to learning, they provide tutors with an additional resource to enhance classroom delivery. http://llu.rkl.org.uk.peppermint.arvixe.com/

Maths Online

This website provides lots of maths materials and puzzles.

http://www.mathsonline.org/

Maths Challenge

Maths Challenge is a site providing a wide range of maths questions and tasks on everything from ‘what is a prime number’ to rectangle construction. Users can email a maths challenge or questions to the site.

http://mathschallenge.net/

Making Cents

This site is here to help anyone who is looking for simple answers to basic questions about money. We have 7 money related topics on the left. When you click on a topic you will be brought to a list of questions we have answers to. All our answers are provided in 2 minute or less videos.

http://www.makingcents.ie

Maths4Us

We all use maths everyday, often without realising it. We estimate time, use money, plan journeys, garden, carry out DIY, shop and cook. All these involve maths! Click on some of the resources here to test your knowledge and find out more about everyday maths topics.

http://maths4us.org/help-with-your-maths/

Maths4Life

The Maths4Life project promotes active learning in mathematics.  It has produced numerous resources that can be downloaded from here.

http://www.nrdc.org.uk/publications_details.asp?ID=105

Ideas and worksheets that make real life maths more visible.

www.haveyougotmathseyes.com

 

Maths Printables

 

www.math-drills.com

www.teachingmoney.co.uk/eurosite/euroindex.html

www.ictgames.com

 

Spelling

Spell Zone

It is well known that English spelling is very hard. Are you one of the many people who had problems with spelling at school? If so, Spellzone could help you improve your spelling.

http://www.spellzone.com/single_adult_spelling.cfm

Spell me right - App

Play Spell Me Right (TM) which is a spelling bee like word scramble game. Your goal is to figure out correct word spellings. This is one of the most popular word game on Android Market, and it is free without any annoying ads. If you love word scramblers, spelling bee, crosswords, scrabble, word search, hangman, or other word games, you'll love this amazingly fun game.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.applimobile.spellmeright

Words for Life - UK

This new website Words for Life gives you an idea of what communication milestones your baby and child might reach as they grow. There are ideas for fun activities you can do together to help your children develop their skills.

http://www.wordsforlife.org.uk/

 

Look Cover Write Check method of learning a new word.

www.ictgames.com /lcwc.html

 

WordTalk is a free text to speech plugin. It contains a talking dictionary to help decide which word spelling is most appropriate.

www.wordtalk.org.uk/home

 

Various ways to help with spelling  

www.aaaspell.com

We all can read

Students watch a video introducing each lesson, then listen to the audio file in each lesson that corresponds to the text. All of the instructions, all of the information, all of the drills necessary for a student to master the reading and spelling process are presented in a tightly-structured format. Students proceed one-lesson-at-a-time through all 644 online lessons and complete the over 400 worksheets embedded within our online curriculum.

http://www.weallcanread.com/phonics-for-adults.html

ESOL

English for Everyone

The materials found on this website are all the handmade product of members of the Read Theory team. The team consists of a handful of professional writers and educators, many of whom have received advanced degrees, are published authors and award winning teachers.

http://www.englishforeveryone.org/

 

 

One Stop ESOL

About the site: This site contains a lot of tutor resources and advice. It has a comprehensive selection of resources for all skills and all levels. There is a range of beginner lesson plans and tips for teaching grammar as well as a comprehensive ESOL support section with a piece on how to integrate IT into ESOL classes. Students and practitioners need to register to use, but it’s free. Who is it for?

http://www.onestopenglish.com/esol/

London online

This has plenty of excellent virtual activities on it. Shopping at the market is a good one for low levels. Students can operate a lift and put the right change in a shopkeeper’s hand. The themes, such as friends, food and drink and neighbourhood are very topical and there are virtual activities on every theme covered. There are teacher’s notes accompanying each unit. Who is it for? ESOL practitioners and students

http://www.talent.ac.uk/londononline/welcome/home/index.htm

Island Voices

Islands Voices holds over 150 online ESOL listening recordings (including authentic speech interviews) and 75 video clips all CEFR-referenced (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages), with transcripts and listed by theme and language content in 4 online PDF catalogues. The documentary clips give a plain language introduction to a topic or event and are complemented with more challenging authentic speech interviews.

http://guthan.wordpress.com/about/

British Council

About the site: This is a huge resource which is full of worksheets, lesson plans, resources and tips for all aspects of ESOL. There is an automatic gap-fill exercise generator which is easy to create and print off. There are a large range of articles on listening, speaking, reading, writing, pronunciation, vocabulary, games and teaching resources. On the ‘Learn English’ section of the site there’s a lot of video content with ‘real world English’ and plenty of listening activities and exercises.

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/

BBC World Service Learning English

This is an excellent self-study site with audio, video, lesson plans and worksheets. It’s particularly good for pronunciation, idiomatic English and day-to-day English for the workplace. It has up-to-date news and sports stories with reports from around the world on a broad range of subjects. Tasks reinforce good learning strategies for listening with good pre-task exercises. Who is it for? ESOL students and practitioners.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/

 

 

Puzzles & Wordsearches 

Puzzle maker

For making word searches, crosswords and other puzzles.

http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/

 

Miscellaneous

Interactive Literacy and Numeracy

This website stands out amongst the rest in terms of ease of use and rich multimedia content. The website is games based so it is quick and fun.

www.ictgames.com

Worksheet  Generator

www.literature.org – Website where you can find a variety ofstories

www.toolsforenglanish.com – Paste your story into this website and you will be able to create wordsearches, cloze sentences, questions and answers.

 

Help My Kid Learn

A website packed full of fun activities to help children learn every day.

http://www.helpmykidlearn.ie

Khan

Academy

Khan Academy is an award winning site with numerous demonstrations of how to practice maths, science and finance exercises. There are thousands of videos on everything from arithmetic to banking and money. This site is ideal for independent learners.

http://www.khanacademy.org/

Skills Workshop

The Skills Workshop provides free adult literacy and numeracy resources.

http://www.skillsworkshop.org

Powerpoint Presentations

Free presentation in powerpoint format and free interactive activities

www.pppst.com/index.html

 

Wikipedia

Up to date information on any imaginable topic. The language can be a bit technical and difficult for literacy students. It may help to use the information but simplify the text.

www.wikipedia.org

 

 

You Tube

Up to date information on any imaginable topic in video form. Use it to listen and learn about a topic, then write a summary with the student. With a little creativity it has great potential: learn about ‘Phonics’ ‘How to cut hair’ or ‘Repair a car’.

www.youtube.com

 

SNIP

Programme can be downloaded for free. Aimed at improving reading and spelling using high frequency words. Literacy Programme Part 1, 2, 3

www.snip-newsletter.co.uk

 

Just World

Basic level worksheets that deal with social justice issues.

www.justworld.ie

 

Dyslexia

Increases readability for readers with dyslexia.

www.opendyslexic.org

 

Time and Date

Create your own calendar. Good site for numeracy.

www.timeanddate.com/countdown/create

Information from:

Isabelle Dumont

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Easily and Safely Eject USB Drives and Memory Cards

22/4/2014

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Sometimes you want to disconnect a USB drive or a flash memory card but Windows says it can’t be removed because it’s busy. Or maybe you just don’t like the “Safely Remove Hardware” function that sits in the notification area. If you are looking for a better way, you might try an open source alternative that will let you quickly and safely disconnect USB drives, even in some cases where Windows says you can't. It’s a free portable program called “USB Disk Ejector” and it makes safely ejecting drives about as easy as it can get.

USB Disk Ejector works in Windows XP on up, both 32- and 64-bit. It requires no installation and can be run from anywhere convenient. The developer’sdownload page is here. The download is a 0.95 MB ZIP file containing the executable file and an HTML information file. It’s probably best to extract it to a separate folder. A CFG file containing your personal settings will be created when you first configure the program.

The program can be run by clicking the executable or by creating a shortcut. Another option is to minimize it to the notification area (system tray). You can do a straightforward ejection by using the simple interface shown in the first graphic or you can configure a number of additional options by clicking “More” to open the dialog shown in the second graphic. The program works for external USB disk drives as well as USB flash drives and memory cards.

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Get Tips on How To Improve Your Writing

20/4/2014

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Next time you need to write a long email message or some other document, or maybe a letter, try running the text past Hemingway before you send it.  Not Ernest, of course, but the free web-based text analysis tool that shares his name.

Hemingway checks your text, tells you what reading level it scores, and gives you tips on how to improve your writing.  In the example below, for example, it suggests changing "all of" to a simpler "all".  Not all of its suggestions are as sensible, but it's still a fun exercise, especially with the kids' homework maybe!

Hemingway is available as a desktop app, but the easiest way to use it is via the free web-based system.  Just go to www.hemingwayapp.com and paste in some text from your PC, for instant feedback.

Thanks to Gizmos

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Future learn

19/4/2014

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Future Learn offers a diverse selection of free, high quality online courses from some of the world’s leading universities and other cultural institutions.

Logo consisting of a ladder on the left and the words futurelearn on the right.

From the site description:
"Our aim is to connect learners from all over the globe with high quality educators, and with each other. We believe learning should be an enjoyable, social experience, with plenty of opportunities to discuss what you’ve studied, in order to make fresh discoveries and form new ideas.
Courses are delivered one step at a time, and are accessible on mobile, tablet and desktop, so you can fit learning around your life, rather than your life around learning."

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Compose Music Directly On Your PC. No Paper Required

15/4/2014

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Once upon a time, writing music involved the use of music notation paper (with those familiar 5 lines), and lots of pencils and erasers.  Nowadays, you can do it much more easily on a computer, using software that's really just a musical version of a word processor.  

Start with an empty sheet of notation paper, then drag notes onto the page at the appropriate point.  You can move the notes around with the mouse if you make a mistake, and you can hear your work in progress at any time just by pressing the Play button.

If you've never tried writing music this way, or indeed if you've never tried writing music at all, Forte 5 is a well-known notation software product for Windows which is available as freeware for a limited-functionality version.  Despite being free, it has everything you need in order to try creating your own tunes.

Forte 5 Freeware is available for download at http://www.fortenotation.com/en/products/writing-scores/product-overview/(check out the last column on the page, and the download link at the bottom).  It runs on all recent versions of Windows, at the 26 MB download is malware-free according to Web of Trust and VirusTotal.  Note, however, that you may be asked to restart your computer after installing it.

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Top 5 Best Android Apps to Save Battery Life

10/4/2014

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These are the best battery saver Android apps in Google’s Play Store. These aren’t your average run-of-the-mill power saving options — we’re looking at apps that actually work as intended and help your device make better use of its battery.

That said, here are the top five best battery saver Android apps.

DU Battery Save

DU Battery Saver easily comes in as one of my favorite battery saver Android apps. It seems to work better than most built-in power saving options, and has a whole lot more features to take advantage of than some of the more average power saving apps.

There are various intelligent mode and pre-set options that you can set up to make sure you’re using as little battery as possible. Du Battery Saver even has a few of its own widgets to make things easily accessible. All in all, DU Battery Saver is one of the best battery saving Android apps you can get.

Easy Battery Saver

Another great battery saver Android app is Easy Battery Saver. In some ways, it works the same Du Battery Save does, but it’s unique in that it gives you a quick status of your battery levels on the main page, giving you fairly accurate analysis on how much more use you can get out of it.

One of the best advantages of Easy Battery Saver is that it lives up to its name — being user friendly is probably one of the best things about it. It’s definitely one of the best battery saver Android apps out there.

Battery Widget Reborn

Battery Widget Reborn is another one of my favorite battery saving Android apps, mainly because it has a lot of features, a notification icon, and some really useful widgets.

Honestly, it’s one of the more thoughtful and well designed battery saving Android apps on Google Play. Additionally, it has the Dashclock Extension that lets you activate your camera flash to use as a flashlight. It’s not like those two features are a must have, but the Dashclock Extension is certainly a nice addition for us Dashclock users. For more info on Dashclock, click here.

As for more useful features, there are a few power saving options that automatically kick in during the night while you’re sleeping, such as turning Airplane Mode on. Overall, it’s one of the more useful battery saving Android apps, so check it out.

JuiceDefender

JuiceDefender has tons of different preset modes. For the most part, all of them work wonderfully, and one of the more unique things about JuiceDefender is that it scales the CPU when your device is idle. In other words, the processor isn’t taking as much power when you just aren’t using it.

It has an easy to use interface, it can turn mobile data off automatically, and most of all, it can extend your battery life for long periods of time. It’s also one of the most recommended battery saver Android apps. Most of the app is free, but some features will want you to purchase the Plus or Ultimate version. Either way, though, it’s one of the many loved battery saver Android apps.

Battery Doctor

Battery Doctor is one of the more popular battery saving apps for Android. Battery Doctor is nice because it not only is designed to speed up your device, but also features a built-in task killer to get rid of the apps taking unneeded space and power in the background, like bloatware that many Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and other carrier branded phones come with.

This battery saver Android app actually shows information very accurately. For example, it will show you how much battery power you have left after shutting down various features on your phone, such as Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi, and etc.

One of the best parts of this app is how accurately it gauges battery levels, and that’s probably one of the best features you could ever get so you actually have an idea of when your device is going to run out of battery, based on your consumption patterns. It’s nice to know how much time you have left, and can be very helpful.

Wrap Up

There you have it – some of the better battery saving apps for Android.  There are a lot of power saving apps out there, but some of them just don’t work as we want them, too. Of course, you don’t always need an app to save battery life. There are plenty of things you can do on your own to eek out that last bit of juice.

Often, basic things like changing your wallpaper to a darker color will help lower battery consumption. Getting rid of background data and live wallpapers can be a huge help, as well. And finally, the more apps you have installed, the worse your battery performance is likely to be, so be sure to keep only the apps that you actually use.

Final Thoughts

While these are some of the more advanced battery saving Android apps out there, it’s important to note that nothing will extend your devices battery life like you changing up your usage patterns. Any battery saving app that functions as a ‘task killer’ should be avoided at all costs. Android is a multitasking operating system, and, as such, keeps apps in the memory so that they can be accessed quickly. Android has been designed use up most of the available memory, and keeps often used apps in the background. If a manager (app) comes and closes them, they will simply reinitialize, and consume a lot of battery in the process.

Check out our best battery saving tips and tricks here, you’ll find some fantastic tips inside. 

Do you have any battery saver Android apps you’ve used in the past? Did you like them?


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Walton Magazine

10/4/2014

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Latest Issue:

Walton Magazine – Issue 5

Includes: Special on The Spaces Apps Challenge, Cancer Research in Ireland, The Age of All Things, Digital Health Apps, The European Space Agency, Back from the Dead, Digital Privacy and Social Media in Ireland

FREE until Sunday April 13th (Normally €2 per digital PDF copy)

 


Want to view this on your ipad! You will need a Download Browser, once down loaded you can use iBooks to view and read it.

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    Literacy in Ireland 

    In the past literacy was considered to be the ability to read and write. Today the meaning of literacy has changed to reflect changes in society and the skills needed by individuals to participate fully in society. It involves listening, speaking, reading, writing, numeracy and using everyday technology to communicate and handle information.

    Adult Literacy FAQ


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    Hi, my name is Loreto and I'm an adult literacy tutor.  I created this website to keep track of all things useful I have come across. Sometimes I am given a link by someone and if its not put on here it can be forgotten about. If you come across something you think is useful or even just fun, drop me a note to let me know and I will put it on here. Thank you for your time and I hope you find this website useful. 

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