Online data for children and young people

News

By

-

March 8, 2006

A Children's Information Service (CIS) team has been out and about promoting its new online directory for children and young people. The Bexley directory is an information bank of children and young people's services available in the borough. The team encouraged as many people as possible to log on and take a look at the new facility, the first of its kind for Bexley.

This new directory holds a vast amount of information for anyone that works with or cares for children and young people. The search facility allows users to find exactly what they are looking for and the easy to understand guidance makes it completely user friendly. The CIS team has spent the past few months drawing information from a range of different services for the directory. The final version lists everything from out-of-school clubs and childminders to information for disabled children and sports activities. The CIS used technology pioneered by Leeds Council to develop the directory. Extensive work has gone into the new listings that were tested by young people, parents and carers before going live.

SANAKO launches mobile wireless IT classroom

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

March 8, 2006

SANAKO has introduced a fully mobile IT-based cross-curricular teaching solution – the Wireless IT-Classroom.

The mobile solution consists of a laptop cart complete with wireless access point and SANAKO Study 500 teaching software available for installation. Optional laptop PCs can be purchased from a preferred supplier. This ingenious Wireless IT-Classroom allows teachers to quickly and easily set up a modern IT-based learning environment in any space, even in ordinary classrooms with no IT facilities. In institutions with wireless environments, the laptop cart with PCs pre-programmed with Study 500 software can expand the reach of technology-based learning even further.

The cart itself can accommodate up to 24 laptops, and is compatible with nearly all of the products from leading laptop manufacturers. It comes equipped with power supply and security features and laptops must be outfitted with wireless network cards (WLAN 11g) to offer the optimal wireless connectivity for use with Study 500. Teachers can simply wheel the trolley into the desired teaching area, distribute laptops to students and IT-based teaching can begin – no need to wait for expensive and time-consuming furniture and hardware installation.

The wireless cart and teaching software allow Sanako and its partners to give educational institutions access to a complete solution for technology-based teaching, including cart, teaching software, wireless network and laptops, or any combination of elements as needed. This is the ideal solution for institutions that want to maximize their IT investments – the mobile laptop classroom can be readily shared among many teachers and learning groups in an easy and convenient fashion. Customers get an important bonus in being able to fully secure their mobile teaching environment with doors that lock independently.

SANAKO Study 500 is an inexpensive entry-level solution that creates a stimulating and interactive teaching environment, which makes use of Internet and IT resources to bring any lesson to life! It can be easily modified to meet specific teaching needs, simply by installing additional software modules that introduce supplementary learning or teaching activities.

Intel helps students engineer Saudi Arabia’s digital future

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

March 8, 2006

Intel Corporation's vaunted Digital Transformation Initiative for the Middle East reached an important milestone in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the announcement of an internship programme aimed at some of the Kingdom's brightest science brains.

The King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran has joined hands with Intel to offer its best students special placements at Intel facilities as part of the Intel Engineering Excellence Program. This program will enable Intel and KFUPM to address the needs of skills development and knowledge transfer, which will in turn contribute towards enhancing the overall Professional standing of the KFUPM graduates.

The Intel Engineering Excellence Program is part of Intel's Digital Transformation Initiative and the first chapter of this initiative has been launched in the Gulf's largest economy. It helps students in ICT-related fields gain unparalleled work experience and training, provide the building blocks for information-based economies, creating job opportunities and improving competitiveness in the global digital marketplace. It also underscores Intel's long-term commitment to promote technology skills, knowledge transfer and economic development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the rest of the region.

Running for three to six months, the internships are only open to Saudi Nationals. Intel will offer handpicked students internships at its sites around the world. The internships will be implemented through the KFUPM's Cooperative (COOP) Program, which aims to bolster the practical experience of students prior to graduation and equip them with the necessary vocational skills to excel in the workplace. The Intel Engineering Excellence Program seeks top science and engineering undergraduates, post-graduate and doctorate students whose studies encompass relevant subjects in the Information Communication Technology sphere, such as computer science and engineering, wireless communications, and electrical engineering.

A managing committee will review applications, and a policy specialist will monitor the program to ensure internships match the evolving ICT objectives of the Kingdom. This committee will specify technical areas of interest to guide the selection of students, and the most promising candidates will be picked through a series of interviews. A sophisticated reporting and evaluation structure for the internships will also be put in place. In October 2005, Intel announced its Digital Transformation Initiative for the Middle East, which encompasses programs tailored to improve digital accessibility, education, entrepreneurship, and specialized competencies.

Microsoft seeking ways to help illiterate

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

March 6, 2006

Working with a local advocacy group at a research lab in India, Microsoft has developed a prototype of a system that would connect illiterate domestic workers in India with families seeking their services. The system uses pictures, video and voice commands to tell women what jobs are available, how much the jobs pay and where they are.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times that the goal is to help the women see how technology can make finding work more efficient, as the first step toward creating broader tools to help illiterate people benefit from technological advances. The software was on display as part of Microsoft Research TechFest, an annual gathering of employees from the company's various research and development centres. The researchers, located in China, India, England and the United States, provide the company with a mix of far-flung technology and more practical applications. Researchers on the Indian project say they have had to overcome their preconceptions about how the technology should work, and why people would want to use it.

Learn Japanese for IT opportunities

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

March 3, 2006

The IT sector of Kerala is seriously contemplating giving Japanese language training courses to professionals.

A handful of language experts 'from the land of rising sun' have come forward to offer training for software engineers and testers who opt for Japanese firms. In the wake of 9/11 incident, software firms have shifted their focus from the US to Japan, which is ranked second in world economy. Hence, the number of students learning the language has shot up in Kerala to take advantage of the opportunity.The Alumni Society of AOTS (ASA) Kerala, at Aluva, too has been involved in Japanese language promotion since its inception in 1989 and has two study centres in Kochi. It is part of a worldwide network of voluntary service organisations whose members have specialised knowledge in technical and management fields acquired from Japan through the Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship (AOTS), Tokyo.To tide up with the situation, IT majors such as Wipro, Infosys, TCS and outsourcing firms are here now make the hey while sun shines.

Digitalisation of European Libraries

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

March 3, 2006

The European Commission aims to achieve not a single database, but rather integrated access to the digitised material of Europe's cultural institutions. < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

The European digital libraries initiative addresses all types of material: books, audiovisual material, photographs, documents in archives etc. Archives and museums will be invited at an early stage to contribute and make their material accessible and usable through the European digital library.

Good news for the digital learners

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

March 3, 2006

Google and the British library the world's greatest research library are joining forces to offer researchers, students and academics desktop delivery of millions of full text scholarly research articles.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

From yesterday, searches on Google scholar will include links to the British Library's document delivery service. Search results will be matched against the Library's holdings and where a match is made, users will have the option to obtain articles held via the British Library's online document ordering interface, British Library Direct. Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library said that the library exists for everyone who wants to do research and it gives priority to initiatives that make collection more easily accessible. By partnering with Google Scholar, the British Library will enable users to identify and locate relevant articles more effectively than has previously been possible. They will provide a swift and easy means for users to have the required items delivered straight in their desktop. Below each successfully matched Google Scholar result, a 'BL Direct' link will appear. Users that click on the link will be taken to an online ordering form already populated with the bibliographic details of the desired article enabling copyright fee-paid supply to the desktop. Until now, online subject searches yielded many results that could not provide researchers with access to full text. By linking Google Scholar's search software with one of the world's largest document supply services, users can now complete the discovery-to-desktop-delivery process. Particular subject strengths in the British Library's research collections include medicine, pharmacy, engineering, science, food and agriculture, economics, environment, law and education. Articles that are available from the library can be delivered direct to users' desktops via Secure Electronic Delivery. Google Scholar enables users to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research.

Online images tackle child issues

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

March 3, 2006

A national children's charity has developed an image vocabulary to enable disabled children to express their feelings and help protect them from abuse. 'How it is' is an image vocabulary which users can browse online. It was developed to help children communicate about a range of important issues.

There are widely recognised gaps in existing symbol vocabularies, which reflect the social position of disabled children and contribute to their increased vulnerability to abuse. For example, children may be able to communicate about the National Curriculum but cannot say ''leave me alone''. The images allow children to be negative, to assert themselves and to describe a range of incidents including painful things that may have happened to them.

A Sussex-based consultancy developed the vocabulary, funded by the National Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). There are 383 images available in the set, which can be browsed online, printed or downloaded. The CD is free, subject to availability. It is possible to purchase the set as a CD-ROM and booklet for

Schools’ ICT spending booms in England

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

March 2, 2006

Schools spend more than five times as much on computer-based resources as on books, recent figures suggest. An analysis of how state schools in England spend a total

Open source software for educational ICT

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

March 2, 2006

Up-to-date advice for all colleges and universities in the UK about open source software is now available. The Joint Information Systems Committee realises that almost every further and higher education institution in the UK is making using of open source software. With the European Commission and the UK Government giving its support to its development and deployment, it has become a central issue for institutional management of IT systems and services in education.

'Open source' refers to software whose source code is openly available to be modified by end-users, in contrast to proprietary software. While such software is already in use in colleges and universities, it is rarely yet part of institutional policies and strategies and there are still a great many misunderstandings concerning it.
In this latest publication, JISC – supported by its advisory service OSS Watch – advocates the use of open source as the default for software development as well as providing guidelines on copyright, licensing, trademarks, patents and development practice.

LATEST NEWS

Top Trending News

Top Trending Categories