February | 2010 | Free Resources from the Net for EVERY Learner

February 19, 2010
by Paul Hamilton
2 Comments

UDL At A Glance

The video embedded below is a fabulous free resource that will be invaluable if it contributes to significant positive change in the life of even one learner.

Every learner is uniquely gifted, and has his or her own unique set of learning needs. I’ve concluded that a one-size-fits-all approach to learning has done more harm than good in the lives of countless children who have been subjected to it. I never have to look far to find heart wrenching evidence of this reality–individuals who have “learned” in school that they are incompetent failures.

There are no magic bullets, and our model for schooling is inherently flawed; but the situation is far from hopeless. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) offers both a research-based theoretical framework and a practical approach that can go a long way toward meeting the unique needs of the individual learners in our classrooms.

The video below offers an excellent introductory overview of UDL. Following the link above will take you deeper. If you are not familiar with UDL, please take a serious look.

February 12, 2010
by Paul Hamilton
5 Comments

Firefox, Firefox! Why do you update so often?!

Firefox, I’ve loved you well since since the day we first met back in 2003. I’ve been a loyal lover, too, and content to overlook your minor flaws. I’ve proclaimed your praises far and wide. So, why oh why do you insist on trying so hard to improve yourself? Your frequent upgrades are driving me mad!!!

[CAUTION: This post is a rant! There is eventually helpful advice here, but I have some frustration to get off my chest first.]

Firefox is my preferred browser because I believe it to be the browser that offers more to make the Internet accessible to all users than any other browser. This is the result of numerous built-in features and addons–especially addons. I’ve written about some of these addons in numerous posts, as you’ll see if you type Firefox into the search bar at the top of this page. There’s no disputing that I’m really a very big Firefox fan.

At the moment, I’m a frustrated Firefox fan! That’s because Firefox has updated to a new version–AGAIN! This means that some of the addons that I most appreciate won’t work with the latest version. That, in turn, is because the good people who develop the addons, often out of the kindness of their hearts, have to spend time updating their addons to make them compatible with the updated Firefox. This is a process that has been repeated too many times for me to keep track of.

At the moment, three of my favorite addons won’t work with the latest version–CLiCk,Speak, HyperWords, and the IE Tab. This is particularly annoying to me because one of “my” school districts is finally willing to begin making Firefox available to learners.

The good news is that the incompatibility situation is only temporary. In time, the addons will almost certainly be updated and made compatible. There’s also a temporary solution to tide us over. We do not need to install the latest version of Firefox.

If we’ve installed the latest version of Firefox and our addons won’t work, we can uninstall it. (We won’t lose our bookmarks or other personalized data.) Then we can go to Oldapps.com to download a previous version of Firefox and install that.

There! Now that I’ve got all that off my chest, I feel much better.

February 10, 2010
by Paul Hamilton
1 Comment

MyStudyBar — Study Tools in Your Pocket!

I’ve raved here repeatedly about AccessApps from RSC–the suite of free digital tools that can be downloaded and run from a flash drive. It’s difficult to overstate the power of having the tools you need available to you wherever you are, regardless of what computer you use. Now Craig Mill, of RSC, has done it again with another portable suite of study tools.

MyStudyBar is a floating toolbar of free open source applications that can be downloaded and then easily installed on a flash drive for use on any Windows computer. In his introductory video overview, developer Craig Mill makes the important point that although these applications are intended primarily for learners with “literacy difficulties”, the tools have the potential to support ALL learners. To this proponent of UDL, Craig’s statement really resonates.

The MyStudyBar toolbar offers applications for mind mapping, screen masking, word prediction, a talking dictionary, text to speech, and voice recognition. (The voice recognition requires the built-in speech recognition that comes with Windows Vista or Windows 7.) I’ve embedded Craig Mill’s overview video here. In follow up posts, I’ll discuss each of the tools on MyStudyBar.

It is worth mentioning, that MyStudyBar does not have to be run from a flash drive. It can also be installed on any PC and run from the desktop.

February 2, 2010
by Paul Hamilton
1 Comment

PDFMYURL.COM — Turn web pages into PDF’s

Judy O’Connell pointed us to a truly valuable tool on heyjude the other day.

PDFMYURL can be an invaluable tool for anyone doing research online. As its name suggests, this application turns web pages into pdf files. This can be especially helpful in situations where web content is required when a person cannot be online. Or, when someone wants to embed a web page on a wiki or blog.

Web pages can be turned into pdf files with virtual printers such as PDFCreator, but I think it’s slicker and quicker to use PDFMYURL, especially with the available bookmarklet that can be added to the browser’s Bookmarks Toolbar.

With the help of embedit.in, I’ve embedded an eSchool News article that I first turned into a pdf file with PDFMYURL.