Educational Web Tool of ReAnNaMaChe Educators

4. Merlot

MERLOT is a free and open online community of resources designed primarily for faculty, staff and students of higher education from around the world to share their learning materials and pedagogy. MERLOT is a leading edge, user-centered, collection of peer reviewed higher education, online learning materials, catalogued by registered members and a set of faculty development support services.

MERLOT's strategic goal is to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning by increasing the quantity and quality of peer reviewed online learning materials that can be easily incorporated into faculty designed courses.

MERLOT’s activities are based on the creative collaboration and support of its Individual Members,
Institutional Partners, Corporate Partners and Editorial Boards.

Integral to MERLOT’s continuing development of faculty development support services are its:

• Building and sustaining online academic communities

• Online teaching and learning initiatives

• Building, organizing, reviewing, and developing applications of online teaching-learning materials

MERLOT maintains its currency through ongoing and continuing communication with its worldwide supporters in a variety of ways, including the annual MERLOT International Conference, the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT), member publications, news, and our new Voices website to enable MERLOT users to communication with others.

Source: http://taste.merlot.org/

d St� P g @ X� . Widgets can also add productivity and/or fun to your start page. A common example of a widget on a start page are RSS readers used to deliver the headlines from your favorite blog or news source such as Yahoo! News or CNN.

· Social Networking Profiles. You can use widgets on a Social Network to tell more about yourself, such as listing out your favorite books, or have compile your favorite songs into a play list to play for visitors to your profile.

To use a web widget, you must copy the widget code to your website, blog, start page or social networking profile. Some widget galleries help out by automating this process for you.

Source: http://webtrends.about.com/od/widgets/a/widget_guide.htm

5. Evoca

Evoca is a unique beast in the podcast software jungle in that it provides multiple recording and publishing options not found in other podcast software on our lineup. It also features social media and feedback options that are absent on other products in our side-by-side comparison chart. Unfortunately, they left out a key feature – editing. That omission seriously compromised the usability of the program.

Evoca allows you to build your podcast entirely from within the cloud. There is no application to download or install on your machine. In fact, the podcast software doesn’t even require you to store your sound files on your local hard drive. We like the cloud-based nature of this podcast software. You’ll never have to worry about losing your hard work if your hard drive fails or is hit by a virus.

This podcast software offers multiple options to record your sound files. First is the traditional microphone interface. No surprises here; connect your microphone and hit the record button. Say your piece, then hit stop. Evoca stores the podcast in its data banks for publishing and makes it available to download in the event you wish to edit it with a program like Audacity.

You also have the option to record via Skype. If you’ve never used Skype before, don’t worry about it. Evoca has a great how-to page with written directions and videos walking you through exactly how this function works. Just register your Skype account with Evoca, connect your microphone and let the program do the rest. After all is said and done, the podcast software processes your sound file for publishing or download.

The recording feature we were most impressed with in this podcast software is the ability to record a podcast from any telephone. This feature eliminates the need for any podcast recording equipment whatsoever. Simply register your phone numbers (the podcast software allows up to 30) with your Evoca account and dial the numbers provided. The podcast software will walk you through some prompts then allow you to record your podcast as though you were talking to an old friend.

Evoca also provides the ability to embed a sound recorder directly onto your website

or blog. This allows your audience to record voice messages right from your website. This tool can be invaluable for audience feedback. It also provides another content source for your podcast if you wish to incorporate audience feedback into your show.

Evoca’s publishing options include your standard RSS feed for download by podcast catchers like iTunes. Additionally, you have the ability to post your podcast to popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. This social media function is unique to Evoca. Furthermore, Evoca allows you to design and publish a custom player. This player makes all the public recordings in your podcast account available wherever you wish to place the player, such as a blog or other website.

Like nearly everything in life, Evoca is not perfect. Any gains the podcast software makes in its innovative recording and publishing options are lost because of the complete lack of editing features. The podcast software does allow you to download your files for edit and upload them when you’re done. However, you must use third-party editing software like Audacity to complete this essential podcasting task or blog. This allows your audience to record voice messages right from your website. This tool can be invaluable for audience feedback. It also provides another content source for your podcast if you wish to incorporate audience feedback into your show.

Promote electronic resources to peers across the UK, and beyond by assisting their teaching and allowing them to repurpose the work to suit their needs

· Many projects need to disseminate resource outputs to comply with their funding. Jorum can help fulfil this requirement.

Sharing your resources can benefit others who teach and learn, and allow them to learn from your expertise. Sharing your resources can also act as a showcase for you and your institution.

Source: http://podcast-software-review.toptenreviews.com/evoca-review.html

o-han� � o t @ X� alibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

Evoca also provides the ability to embed a sound recorder directly onto your website

http://podcast-software-review.toptenreviews.com/evoca-review.html

:vglayo� � < m @ X� =0 width=10 height=10 src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\pc\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.gif" alt="http://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/mag-glass_10x10.gif" v:shapes="itxthook0icon"> or blog. This allows your audience to record voice messages right from your website. This tool can be invaluable for audience feedback. It also provides another content source for your podcast if you wish to incorporate audience feedback into your show.

http://podcast-software-review.toptenreviews.com/evoca-review.html

nb� � n s @ �x n>Promote electronic resources to peers across the UK, and beyond by assisting their teaching and allowing them to repurpose the work to suit their needs

· Many projects need to disseminate resource outputs to comply with their funding. Jorum can help fulfil this requirement.

Sharing your resources can benefit others who teach and learn, and allow them to learn from your expertise. Sharing your resources can also act as a showcase for you and your institution.

6.Jorum

Through Jorum, you can find, share and discuss learning and teaching resources, shared by the UK Further and Higher Education community.

Jorum is a JISC-funded Service in Development in UK Further and Higher Education, to collect and share learning and teaching materials, allowing their reuse and repurposing. This free online repository service forms a key part of the JISC Information Environment, and is intended to become part of the wider landscape of repositories being developed institutionally, locally, regionally or across subject areas. We use a modified version of DSpace for Jorum.

Jorum is run by Mimas, based at the University of Manchester.

The word ‘Jorum’ is of Biblical origin and means a collecting (or drinking) bowl.

Jorum is a service in development, now run solely by Mimas, the National Data centre at the University of Manchester, and funded by JISC. Prior to 1 August 2011, it was run collaboratively between Mimas and Edina, the National Data centre at the University of Edinburgh.

Jorum case study

Jorum hosts and points to a wide range of learning and teaching resources in various formats, ranging from simple files and links to external resources, to more complex learning objects, including content packages and open courseware. The Jorum Collection Development Policy provides further information.

Sharing and repurposing resources allows teaching staff to not only save time in lesson planning but encourages best practice amongst the teaching community.

Finding resources in Jorum

Searching and browsing for resources in Jorum is easy, via the search box at the top of each page of the website. You can enter any search term, which will return a list of any resources matching your search criteria.

Anyone can search for and download resources from Jorum, providing you respect the terms and conditions of use as specified in the resource's licence, and Jorum's Terms of Service.

You will not need to log in to view and find resources in Jorum that have been deposited under a Creative Commons (CC) licence, as these are “open access”.

Jorum offers open Creative Commons licences

Creative Commons (CC) licences

Creative Commons (CC) licences permit varying degrees of copying and reuse of content, and can be used to license resources known as Open Educational Resources (OER). Anyone can download, reuse and repurpose OER within the terms and conditions of use in the resource’s CC licence. Resources shared under these licence options are the most flexible and the one that is required for use in the OER Programme. All content released under the OER Programme will have the tag ‘ukoer’.

There are a number of reasons to use Jorum

· Jorum offers a ‘keepsafe’ for resources; securely stored and professionally managed

· Participate in the advancement, embedding and sustainability of e-learning across the UK

· Promote electronic resources to peers across the UK, and beyond by assisting their teaching and allowing them to repurpose the work to suit their needs

· Many projects need to disseminate resource outputs to comply with their funding. Jorum can help fulfil this requirement.

Sharing your resources can benefit others who teach and learn, and allow them to learn from your expertise. Sharing your resources can also act as a showcase for you and your institution.

Source: http://www.jorum.ac.uk/