Comments for TEL@Tees

Comment on 11 (Almost) Free Mind Mapping Apps for the iPad by 11 (Almost) Free Mind Mapping Apps for the iPad | TEL@Tees | Sisterhood of the Silver Shoes

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:34:02 +0000

[...] See on blogs.tees.ac.uk [...]

Comment on 11 (Almost) Free Mind Mapping Apps for the iPad by Russell

Russell — Tue, 14 May 2013 08:03:18 +0000

Hi Jussi. Sorry, my fault for not being clear – this article is about “free” mind mapping apps. iThoughtsHD certainly looks great but it’s not free hence the lack of inclusion. Thanks for reading!

Comment on 11 (Almost) Free Mind Mapping Apps for the iPad by 11 Mind Mapping Apps for the iPad | advcompkg

11 Mind Mapping Apps for the iPad | advcompkg — Tue, 14 May 2013 02:37:19 +0000

[...] See on blogs.tees.ac.uk [...]

Comment on 11 (Almost) Free Mind Mapping Apps for the iPad by Jussi Luukkonen

Jussi Luukkonen — Mon, 13 May 2013 22:54:30 +0000

I was surprised to see that in the article there were no mention about iThoughtsHD, which is by far the best real MindMapping app for iPads. It is really easy to use, very flexible and can export/import sync almost any MindMap and other file formats.

Comment on 11 (Almost) Free Mind Mapping Apps for the iPad by 11 Mind Mapping Apps for the iPad | Sabi Karlssons Blogg

11 Mind Mapping Apps for the iPad | Sabi Karlssons Blogg — Sun, 12 May 2013 07:52:04 +0000

[...] See on blogs.tees.ac.uk [...]

Comment on OER and SoftChalk by Brittany

Brittany — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 13:48:09 +0000

Hi Russell,

I’m Brittany, the Marketing Manager at SoftChalk. Thank you so much for outlining your experience with using SoftChalk’s content authoring solution for the development of the HEA Recognition unit. It’s great to get feedback from our users and I’ll be sure to pass along the issues you mentioned to our development team.

There may be a way to do what you wanted to do in terms of your video and the organizing, but I’d have to know more specifics to give you a complete answer.

However, on a couple of the other points – I’d like to suggest that you try our new solution, SoftChalk Cloud. With the Cloud version of “Create” (the authoring tool), you can assign names to the pages other than Page1, Page2, etc. Also, some of the content collaboration features you and Gillian wished for are available via SoftChalk Cloud. I highly recommend checking out the 30 day free trial to see if it meets your needs.

Please email me if you have any other questions!

Comment on Looking Back by Gillian Janes

Gillian Janes — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 12:06:24 +0000

Ah thanks Mandy – and I know I speak not just for myself when I say we have been indebted to you for your contribution to the project – your involvement has certainly helped me develop my local external networks and provides some very helpful peer support.

Time will tell but we are hoping the technical skill needed to adapt the HEA Unit for use elsewhere is relatively minimal – or so my techi friend tells me – as it uses SoftChalk – however people will need a learning technologist I guess as I know I couldn’t do it!

Comment on OER and SoftChalk by Gillian Janes

Gillian Janes — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:53:53 +0000

As Russell’s ‘partner in crime’ in the development of the HEA Recognition unit I am sure I frustrated him more than he frustrated me. I totally agree that the bouncing ideas of each other definately worked. I must have frustrated him at times with minor – and sometimes major changes to content – some of this was unavoidable as the detail of what needed to be in the unit in practical terms was being developing and changing as the unit developed. The skill mix between us was crucial but it is a definate ‘chicken and egg’ situation – how to design text/activities/content that flows, makes good sense pedagogically and is user-friendly without the technical knowledge to really know what is achievable/how much work is involved etc. Although my having access to and basic skills in Softchalk would have meant I could potentially make minor changes to text etc instead of having to itemise and then send to Russ to actually do, I don’t think developing this additional skill-set would be necessarily be very helpful overall for academics.Getting started is the hardest thing – I think it was difficult for Russ to know which platform/format would be most appropriate without a decent formulation from me about the unit ie what I wanted it to do/type of content etc – but there are so many possibilities in terms of design, activities, potential content that I wanted to make sure what I was designing was achievable in an electronic medium – with plenty of time to play about with ideas and try things out this would be fine – but of course this is never the case.

Comment on Nervous academic by Gillian Janes

Gillian Janes — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:45:49 +0000

I can see why you are nervous but part of me thinks this is the risk any of us run when doing something different – it is scary – I am very scared that my homespun/rapidly developed videos – on a topic that is complex, individual and still evolving in practice – are being released as open source material but I also know I have benefited from similarly amateur productions/shared material and I value that. I suppose villification may not be that uncommon for those pioneers who question convention and go against the status quo -others potentially have a lot to lose plus critique is the lifeblood of academia after all. I haven’t looked at the detail so in terms of content some of the criticisms may be correct but there is no compulsion to use the material – as some commentators have noted – this is is a decision each individual must make. I suppose the other difference between the likes of the Kahn Academy and people like us sharing our resources is that – at least at this stage – we are very tiny fish in a large pond – although I guess Kahn thought the same when he first started – it seems to me it has only grown because others found it useful even if they didn’t necessarily agree with all of it – that in itself should say something?

Comment on 6 Free iPad Screen Casting Apps by Liam O'Hare

Liam O'Hare — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 16:42:54 +0000

I also like Speashtop Whietboard for Android (being an Android myself). It’s described at:

http://www.splashtop.com/press/splashtop-launches-whiteboard-for-android-the-only-interactive-whiteboard-app-for-android-tablets

It claims that it works with classroom whiteboards, including the Promethean ones we have here, but I haven’t tried that.