August 29th, 2010
VUE or the Visual Understanding Environment is a freely downloadable concept mapping programme, available under an Open Education Resource license. It is a project by Tufts University and is available here.
Tags: concept mapping, freeware, oer
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April 24th, 2010
Just came across this website, which seems to offer free English courses. The site says it earns revenue from advertising and offers free courses in study skills, English, and a range of other skills. Drop me a line if you’ve used this site before.
Tags: English courses, freeware
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April 21st, 2010
Nothing to do with language or teaching but too good to miss:Lonely Planet is giving a way a number of free city guides as Iphone Apps - part of a campaign for travellers stranded because of the volcanic ash cloud. Only until the end of Thursday so be quick!
Tags: freeware, mobile
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December 2nd, 2009
In a recent article by Neville, Shelton and McInnis in CALl Journal (vol 22, no 5, 409-424), the authors make a game designed to teach German vocabulary, reading, and cultural skills to beginning university students available for free. The game can be found here.
Here is a description of the game:
Game Introduction
Karin Moller is an American foreign exchange student living in Freiburg im Breisgau and studying computer science and German at the Albert-Ludwigs University . On a free Saturday she decides to take a sightseeing trip to Munich. Before she can depart by train, however, she must first park her bicycle, buy a train ticket, get something to eat and drink, find a book to read, and locate the correct train platform. And what what will she do about the mysterious homeless man that everybody is talking about at the train station?
Game Research
The constructivist learning environments afforded by digital games provide students with personally-tailored and highly motivational instruction, enhance student responsibility for learning, and promote student free inquiry and exploration. Included within a second language acquisition program, digital games possibly can increase knowledge retention and transfer rates. In Fall Semester 2007 Ausflug am Wochenende nach München was used to teach German vocabulary and culture to beginning university students. Included within the experiment scope was a measurement of the cognitive load imposed by the IF game, the sense of presence provided by the game, analysis of the knowledge retention and transfer rates, and the role of player sex in game interaction. You are free to use the game for your own research purposes.
Tags: call, freeware, games
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December 13th, 2008
From www.lifehacker.com, one of my favourite websites, a list of the 46 best free software applications:
The 46 Free Desktop Software Applications, Webapps, and Projects We’re Most Thankful For
Firefox (see also: The Power User’s Guide to Firefox 3)
VLC Media Player (see also: Master Your Digital Media with VLC)
Ubuntu (see also: Hardy Heron Makes Linux Worth Another Look)
Open Office (see also: A First Look at OpenOffice.org 3.0)
Pidgin (see also: Ten Must-Have Plug-ins to Power Up Pidgin)
Launchy (see also: Take Launchy beyond application launching)
Digsby (see also: Digsby Improves Performance, Supports LinkedIn)
Gmail (see also: Our full Gmail coverage)
Adium (see also: Adium Chat Improves Menu Bar Item, Corrects Your IM Grammar )
CCleaner (see also: CCleaner 2.0 Decrapifies Your PC)
Picasa (see also: Organize your digital photos with Picasa)
AutoHotKey (see also: Turn Any Action into a Keyboard Shortcut)
Google
Quicksilver (see also: A beginner’s guide to Quicksilver)
GIMP
Foobar 2000 (see also: Roll your own killer audio player with foobar2000)
Thunderbird (see also: Eight killer Thunderbird extensions)
7-Zip (see also: Top 10 Windows Downloads, #10: 7-Zip (file archive manager) )
DropBox (see also: Dropbox Syncs and Backs Up Files Between Computers Instantaneously)
uTorrent (see also: Our complete uTorrent coverage )
Winamp (see also: Our complete Winamp coverage)
Google Apps
AVG Antivirus (see also: AVG Free Anti-Virus 2008 Released, Much Improved)
Evernote (see also: Expand Your Brain with Evernote)
IrfanView (see also: Download of the Day: IrfanView (Windows) )
Opera (see also: Opera Updates to Version 9.6, Gets Faster, Adds Features)
Chrome (see also: The Power User’s Guide to Google Chrome)
Google Calendar (see also: Black-belt scheduling with Google Calendar)
HandBrake (see also: HandBrake Media Converter Gets Even Better)
Skype (see also: Our complete Skype coverage)
Linux (see also: Our complete Linux coverage)
Paint.NET (see also: Top 10 Windows Downloads, #3: Paint.NET )
Ad-Aware (see also: Cleanse thy PC with Ad-Aware)
Avast Antivirus (see also: Download of the Day: Avast anti-virus)
Google Docs (see also: Our complete Google Docs coverage)
LogMeIn (see also: Use LogMeIn for remote tech support)
Transmission (see also: Manage Your BitTorrent Downloads with Transmission)
TrueCrypt (see also: Secure your data with TrueCrypt)
Amarok (see also: An Early Look at Amarok 2)
FileZilla (see also: FTP File Transfer Across Platforms with Filezilla 3.0)
Notepad++ (see also: Top 10 Windows Downloads, #6: Notepad++)
PortableApps.com (see also: Download of the Day: PortableApps Suite 1.0 (Windows))
Rocket Dock (see also: Download of the Day: RocketDock (Windows))
Spybot Search & Destroy (see also: Spybot Search and Destroy crushes evil)
UltraVNC (see also: Tech support with UltraVNC SingleClick)
VirtualBox (see also: VirtualBox 2.0 Adds 64-bit Support, Updated Interface)
Tags: freeware, opensource, software
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October 17th, 2008
Google pack allows you to choose the software you want and installs (and updates) it for you automatically. Although you could also install each of the programmes yourself, this really does make things a lot easier.
I find this collection wonderful for teachers who work in smaller schools, without IT support, or who have little or no access to paid software. The Google applications provide all standard applications teachers need to offer word processing facilities, browsing, blogging, mapping, communicating, and much more.
Especially for teachers not confident with IT matters, this is a helpful tool.
You can find it here.
Tags: freeware
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