Author Archive: Tim
Online-convert.com – convert media files into other formats
Convert media free, fast and online from one format into another. No software installation needed. Some very useful Video converters, Ebook converters, Audio converters, Document converters, Image converters. I’m converted.
Musicovery
Music can enhance our mood (or really wreck it!) Have you ever wanted to tailor an internet radio station to the particular mood you’re in at THAT moment? To listen to something new in a particular style, and not just a 30 second clip? To listen to an internet radio station WITHOUT that irritating host?
A lot of our listening pleasure is provided, at the moment, by Musicovery.com … Create, and enhance, a classroom mood.
Choose your style, choose your frame of mind, click and unwind. (Crumbs! I should be writing their marketing blurb!)
There are 325 called Sarah!
The Museum Of Obsolete Objects
While our daily lives become more and more digital, some things just vanish. They simply disappear. We can remember them by visiting The Museum of Obsolete Objects, a fascinating, and slowly developing, YouTube channel.
From the quill and the abacus, through morse code, to the floppy disk, typewriter and cassette, there are videos of some interesting artefacts in action. (I am starting to feel old!)
Syncspace
SyncSpace, by Infinite Kind provides a FREE infinite, zoomable, drawing space for iPad and Android that can be shared in real time over the net.
A collaborative whiteboard, planning space, drawing board. Turn on synchronization and send a link to the document to others who will be able to see your drawing and also make changes using SyncSpace. This can be done across the web, not just a network.The resulting drawings can be posted to Twitter and Facebook or emailed as a PDF, or saved for later editing.
SyncSpace has an offline mode which can sync all your changes with others editing the board once you are back online. A useful teacher & pupil tool.
Moonbase Alpha
NASA has gone back to the moon! You can become an explorer in a futuristic lunar settlement…
In MoonBase Alpha anyone can take the role of an astronaut working to further human expansion and research. Returning from a research expedition, you witness a meteorite impact that cripples the life support capability of the base. With precious minutes ticking away, you and your team must repair and replace equipment in order to restore the oxygen production to the settlement.
Moonbase Alpha is a NASA-funded multiplayer game scenario with 20 minutes of play set on a hypothetical lunar outpost in 3-D immersive setting.
An educators’ guide contains lesson ideas for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The challenge is best suited to middle school aged voyagers.
If you head off in to space, please send back some communication about what you discover.
A (warm) whisper or a warning from the Wiltshire woods
Dear Mr. Tim Rylands,
I suspect that, when you visited Wilton and Barford Primary school in the company of an extremely holey walking stick of odd appearance, you were not entirely honest about the stick’s provenance. From a very reliable source who must remain anonymous, I hear that a certain Giant Grimface in a far distant mountainous region had his magic flute, of all things, removed from his castle following his rather vicious beating administered with the flute to a lazy servant, and somehow this much prized possession was secreted under the scarlet cloak of a creature of human countenance who slipped away under cover of darkness, never again to be seen in the Darklands. Later on, the trailing stems of a sturdy bean plant were discovered protruding from a dark hole leading down into the area known as Planet Earth.
As an intrepid reporter, I took it upon myself to follow this trail with great caution down to Planet Earth, to a corner of an area named Wiltshire previously known as part of the realm of Wessex in a rather delightful green island whose name was not known to me. The twisted stems led me to an establishment containing many young earthlings under tuition. Disguised as an earthbound creature myself, I discovered a large room of these earthlings listening attentively to an earthman who was displaying what I recognised immediately as the missing flute in front of a large picture of our blessed Darklands, claiming that the flute was (horrors) a walking stick. By observation and acute listening, I discovered that the earthman was named Mr, Rylands. Not wishing to be the cause of alarm among the young earthlings, I slipped away & retraced my steps.
What is not generally understood among the constellations is that Darklands has a good connection to the cyber clouds in which resides the wonder Google. Hence I am able to communicate my intense wish that you return the precious flute to its rightful owner. Giant Grimface is not always of good temper I must admit, but I must report that he is far more agreeable when he has his magic flute to play so that he can watch the trees dancing to his tunes and the birds flying a beautiful aerial ballet. Since you require a walking stick, I have attached a most serviceable and attractive one to a length of rope you will find dangling in a corner of the earthling school gardens, and I humbly beg you to tie our beloved flute to that same rope so that I can return it to its master. From this act, I shall obtain an exalted position at the office of the Darklands Gazette and there will be much rejoicing in our land.
Yours in gratitude and hopeful expectation,
Paula of the Red Hair, (Senior Roving Correspondent, Darklands Gazette)
(Thank you to Paula Hargreaves, also a governor at Wilton and Barford Primary school, for joining the mythological spirit of our visit). Mr Walker is on his way, (Yes. Really!) though he may have lost his song, … ready to be raised for some rightful rest.Elastoplast Stories
Enthusiasm can create leaks! Children often put their hands up with an excitedly loud wooshing of breath. I often, jokingly, ask their teachers if they have any sticky tape or plaster to patch up under their arm to stop the air escaping, otherwise, as they are so enthusiastic, they might be flat by the end of the lesson.
This nudges me to remember the Elastoplast Stories website.
Elastoplast, the sticking-plaster manufacturer, has designed a fun website for kids. The idea behind the interactive micro-site is that every injury tells a story. Pupils can let their imaginations run wild, by adding bears, crocodiles, dinosaurs and little snippets of text to create fantastic animated stories.
The site is easy to use with a simple click and drag of choice of background, creatures, people and of course plasters on to each of story panel. You can even personalise your panel with the editing tools.
See a delightful example called ‘The Escaped Giraffe‘ (he’s made of plasters of course) for inspiration.
Fry’s Word List
The Fry list of 1000 words are “the most frequently used words for reading and writing” listed in rank order.
Kristy Cofer’s site offers the chance to test reading of the words, and for children to listen to the (first three hundred) words and have a go at spelling them.
A good assessment tool and a chance to revise these spellings too?
