True Knowledge = Wow!

I have recently added this addon onto my firefox browser, but also available for users that use windows browser.

The True Knowledge answer engine is a technology capable of answering questions put to it on any topic. If you simply type in a question onto google, such as ‘how old is bin laden?’ The answer will appear at the top of the page as you can see from the screen shot from below. An image will be displayed along with the answer.

I really thought this was a great addon which allows the user to find the information instantly. The best thing about this addon is that the knowledge base will continue to develop and it will get to a stage were users can find out data instantly without having to click through links and finding the data.

True Knowledge is a pioneer in a new class of Internet search technology that’s aimed at dramatically improving the experience of finding known facts on the Web. Our first service – the True Knowledge Answer Engine – is a major step toward fulfilling a longstanding Internet industry goal: providing consumers with instant answers to complex questions, with a single click.

Picking up where search engines leave off, True Knowledge’s path-breaking Answer Engine automates the laborious, time-consuming work that users generally must do to get final answers to their questions. True Knowledge does this by structuring data in a way that enables computers to work and think like humans do, drawing inferences and conclusions when needed to find the information that’s requested. Another key differentiator: True Knowledge is tapping subject matter experts around the globe to build its information repository – bringing together the benefits of machine-driven automation and people-driven intelligence.

Leading search engines, portals, and content sites all benefit from working with True Knowledge by providing users with more complete and immersive environments for finding information and with a more finely tuned approach to contextual advertising. With a Cambridge-UK-based based business and technology team, True Knowledge will debut its service globally in 2009.

Content Accessibility – Virtual Environment

One of European Schoolnet network is a virtual school (VS), which allows teachers from all across the World to exchange materials and carry out discussions with each other. VS were launched in 1998 and the objective was for teachers to share content and use relevant content for their work.

I think it’s useful to take note that we in the county are moving towards a learning repository within Worcestershire along with giving the flexibility for teachers to share content not only within the Worcestershire’s framework but also globally through the NDRB. The amount of benefits of generating and using materials from across the World really appeals to educators.
The security elements are very much important as copyright will need to be taken into consideration. Teachers knowledge about copyright is minimal and educating teachers will be a task to ensure materials generated to share with others is their own material and not of someone else’s.

I look forward to reporting back on the development in the future.

Microsoft is back with a bang!

Been a while since I last updated my blog!

I have talked about Windows 7 in the past and how I was comparing both Windows Vista and Windows 7. I have looked at the latest stats and have found out that US computer giant Microsoft have won back its crown as the number one consumer brand within the UK.

The World is going through tough times with the economy along with swine flu, which seems to be increasing and news are started to be populated of how severe the illness might become.

The number two consumer brand in the UK was Rolex followed by Google whom dropped to third. Last year 2008-2009, Google were the top consumers within the UK.

The list of the top consumers for years 2009-2010 is listed below:

TOP 10 SUPERBRANDS 2009/10
1.Microsoft
2.Rolex
3.Google
4.British Airways
5.BBC
6.Mercedes-Benz
7.Coca-Cola
8.Lego
9.Apple
10.Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source:Superbrands UK/The Centre for Brand Analysis

Define e-learning

The language of e-learning continues to expand, as is evident by the burgeoning number of glossaries of e-learning terms that are emerging. E-learning systems are big business, education authorities are centring attention on their use in schools and there is interest in the effective use of e-learning for specific ethnic groups of learners. But there is much discussion on what e-learning should consist of. Some opinion holds that it should not necessarily exclude the use of printed text, while others believe that inclusion of the internet is not essential. E-learning is often considered as a means of permitting access to learning by using any or all of the following technologies:

* TV
* mobile phone
* webcam
* e-mail
* DVD/CD
* website
* telephone
* audio-conferencing
* audio graphics
* video-conferencing
* podcasting.

Simply the provision of passive learning material that’s electronically based, such as a pdf posted on the internet, is not commonly considered e-learning. This is similar to the provision of text material as a single means of learning where no opportunity is available to ask questions or to enter into discussion.

E-learning has immediacy

A key feature of e-learning is that it is interactive. It uses a two-way or multi-way exchange of information that gives immediacy to the learning process and has the potential to provide the synergy that is absent when a student attempts to learn from passive resources alone. Numerous types of feedback can assist learning but not all of them are considered interactive:

* self-assessment (passive – needs motivation)
* online feedback/assessment (interactive – can be immediate)
* teacher feedback/assessment (interactive – can be immediate)
* peer-to-peer assessment (interactive – can be immediate)
* peer-to-peer discussion (collaborative – can be immediate).

Local Authorities Partnership Day

On 16th June 2009 I had the chance to travel to Daventry for a conference, which was held by RM. This gave RM the chance to share its latest product news and information with us in the local authorities. The were numerous of presentations carried out during the day. Some of the presentations that interested me were:- Network Solutions Update, Internet Treends and Technology Futures and also EasyTrace.

One of the key reasons I attended this conference was particularly to see how much impact Microsoft surface will have within the education sector. Teaching and learning is becoming very much digital and it was very enlightening on how effective Microsoft surface can be. I asked many questions to the person who works with Microsoft that travelled from America to demonstrate the product. The technology is very bulky and heavy and has wheels at the base so that it can be moved around.

Microsoft use C Sharp to program their applications, which was interesting to identify as I have previously studied C programming, which is not used as much now in society. Microsoft are still developing applications for educational purposes and hope to get everything rolled out by December 2009. RM are trying to get a contract with Microsoft in order to bulk sell their products to RM, so that they can be re-sellers. Watch this space!

technology in the classroom

Many software providers and local authorities keep drilling the need for technology within classroom. I believe strongly that technology is important and definitely supports teaching and learning when deployed within a learning institution.
A third of teachers struggle to use the technology the schools are equipped with and want more support and training, which was quoted from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER).

NFER’s fire teacher voice omnibus survey, which was completed by about 1,000 teachers, including heads and newly qualified classroom teachers, shows widespread of use of information technology in schools: 80% said it had made a different to the way they teach.

But a “sizeable minority” (33%) felt they lacked the necessary skills to exploit the technology available to them and needed more support and information to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) in lessons, NFER found.

A third of the teachers surveyed said lack of resources and poor reliability discouraged them and limited their use of ICT in schools.
But NFER said when compared to research conducted in 2004, the findings suggest that teacher competence in using ICT has improved overall.

Two thirds (67%) said they had the ICT skills to exploit the technology available to them and 62% said ICT helps to raise pupil attainment. Teachers also said ICT leadership in schools could be improved. Just 27% of respondents felt that the leadership of ICT pedagogy in their school was inspirational and only 44% said that their school is innovative in its use of ICT.

NFER’s Maria Charles said: “The first TVOS survey has given us a valuable insight into the views of teachers. We hope to be able to continue addressing current issues within teaching in further surveys.”

I believe that technology needs backing and for the technology to be supported by teachers. Schools spend a lot of money on new technology, but fail to fully use the product to full capacity.

There are many ways in order to improve the usage of technology in schools. Training is a very important and the teachers need to be very comfortable in using a specific technology to enhance their teaching and learning. If technology deployed within a classroom fails it disheartens the teacher and potentially the teacher will be reluctant to use the technology again.

Gulp Gulp Glogster!

This morning I came across Glogster which is a free membership service that allows you to be creative and generate posters and then share them online with others. I felt this would be very much useful within schools either primary or secondary education. This approach could be useful when reviewing a specific topic and allowing the individual students to go away and draw up a poster using Glogster in order to potray what they have learnt during the course of the specific module. The benefit of having to share with peers and teacher gives the ability to send feedbacks to the individual either being positive or negative and how the poster could be improved.

Glogster provides an excellent method for designing an attractive home page for your wiki. Identify which pages you would like to appear as links on your home page. Next, create your glog with links to those pages. Save your glog, grab the code, and embed it on the home page of your wiki. Click here for a simple example of this best practice in use.

Glogster has all the usual social software feature such as profiles, friends, tagging, commenting etc.

What I love about Glogster is the Post Modern bricolage-y way elements are combined into a non-linear presentation, allowing for the viewer to bring their own meaning and interpretation to the collection of sources and the relationship between them.

I have used the software to create my own poster in Glogster as you can see from below. I decided to create a Glog of when I went Go Karting with my friends from Birmingham University whom I still keep in touch with.

Jing Tastical!

Hi All,

I was forwarded this email off a teacher in the authority that told me about this fabulous free software that is worth downloading and checking out. Oh yeah did I mention FREE?! Shhh still have the student mentality.. But soon to change!

Jing is a screen casting software launched during 2007. Version 2.0 was released in January 2009. It lacks many features that proprietary screen casting software has. The software takes a picture or video of the user’s computer screen and uploads it to the web, FTP, computer or clipart. A URL is automatically created and can be shared with others to view or access the uploaded file. This brings the aspect of collaboration for pupils within a class.

I have been using this software and trailing the benefits of how it can be used within a class full of pupils. There are couple of things to note, this software enables users to snap a picture of the screen and then save it. The wonderful point to note is that there is a video recorder that records onscreen action! So if you’re either watching a clip or completing a hard task on the computer it can be recorded. One drawback is it only allows recording of up to 5 minutes.

I have yet to play around with the sharing aspect of the documents over the web or email. Having saved the documents already it will be easy to carry out sending documents via web or email.

Below is a great introductory video to Jing! Check it out!

Regards,

Rojon Ali

Windows 7 Another Flop like Vista?!

Hi All

This blog will focus more towards how unreliable Windows have been in recent times. I have been a loyal user for Windows operation system for over 15 years when I was introduced to Windows 3.0 in school. The love I first experienced for the computer system was surreal as I enjoyed all the packages ranging from Paint to using simple word compiler. The joy I got from not having to write on pen and paper was brilliant!

Today I face the problem of how technology has developed and the problem of selecting the correct operating system. I believe that Windows XP was one of the most brilliant operating system to date. I have been using Windows Vista for the past year and I tell you something the software is definitely trying to compete with Apple on the usability and visual aspect, but fails miserably on delivering great user experience and key objectives.

While using Microsoft Vista I have experienced few problems they include application compatibility issues and also the lack of proper drivers. I understand that when a new operating system is released it will have some kind of problem or problems. The important thing is to notice how proactive they are within dealing with the problem and how going about in order to rectify the problem. Unfortunately for Microsoft when they first launched Windows Vista they had many problems, lets just hope they do prepare effectively in order of launching Windows 7!

I have been put of Microsoft a little, so much that I tend to sit on my brothers Apple Mac laptop at home and have more enjoyment from it.

Having read on reviews and critics on Windows 7 it looks as if it might get back on track! Lets just hope Windows 7 will have great just like Windows XP. Windows 7 will be launched in January 2010.

The video below is great as it shows all the key things to watch out for on Windows 7.

Regards,

Rojon Ali

CEOP?! Whose CEOP!? Technology Safe for children?

I think it is best to make it clear that technology will continue to develop and technology users will get younger and younger. Technology has many benefits, but also allows many people to use the technology to abuse it.

The importance of actually ensuring children are safe on the Internet is very important and this helped me to actually get involved with an government organisation named Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre known short for CEOP. I am a registered ambassador with CEOP, which allows me to obtain materials and present to students/teachers/parents and improve their understanding in regards to children security.
CEOP are dedicated to eradicate the sexual abuse of children. CEOP are regarded as policing the Internet. CEOP track and bring offenders to account either directly or in partnership with local and international forces.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre is part of UK law enforcement and as such can apply the full range of policing powers in tackling the sexual abuse of children. But the organisation is very different in its set up not least because of the high volume of specialists who work alongside police officers but also because of the faculty approach that underpins our structure.

Below is a video that might interest you.

Many thanks.

Rojon Ali