aclJohn's Software Finds

Many Learning providers have and/or are considering using Moodle as their VLE (Virtual Learning Environment).

Many learning provider practitioners and other stakeholders lack confidence and have concerns about course production and/or where to start.

Their answer is to create a “sandbox” to try out Moodle; another solution is to give practitioners a complete Moodle installation on a memory stick.

Chrissie Turkington's "Chrissie's Muses" Blog provides guidance on how to c...

The PDF-To-Flash Page Flip, provided by Codebox, lets users convert any PDF file into a flippable flash book format.

Users simply...

• upload a PDF file (maximum 10MB file size);
• configure the...
  • page layout settings (page width, height etc);
  • interface settings (panel, button, background colours etc); and
• click "Start conversion" at the bottom.

Once the conversion is finished...

• download the zip file;
• extract it; and
  
• open the index.html file...

to view your documen...

Do you or your learners edit audio clips for a presentation or a podcast?

Are you avoiding this because you would need to fire up bloated sound editors that you and/or learners don't know how to use?

If you must have some background music and or sound effects, then check out Soundboard a small 47KB download; a simple desktop application that lets you add multiple clips anywhere in a presentation and/or recorded audio track easily.

Users can...

• add up to 18 clips (wav audio...

It can be so annoying, when a stopwatch, at some point, is needed - there's never one around!

Well... Now there is!

Online-Stopwatch provides a range of simple, Fast Flash Online Stopwatches and Online Countdown timers, always available when they are needed.

Visit http://www.online-stopwatch.com/ to access these time pieces.

I know that many practitioners would like a way to keep the stopwatch above all windows, no matter what they were doing – word processing, surfing the net, e...

I've written about Nitro pdf reader before but I feel it is time for an update...

• Create PDF files;

• comment and review;

• save PDF forms;

• extract text and images;

• type text directly onto the page; and more.

Start working with PDF files the way you always wanted.

Watch this video clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LbPJwIJ1rQ...

Free download: http://www.nitroreader.com.

SnackTools is a suite of rich Internet applications that aims to offer user-friendly tools for creating web content.

As the technology advances rapidly, learning provider stakeholders are starting to use Internet-enabled devices regularly. This is one of the main reasons for the rise in popularity of web-based applications.

Most learning providers have a web presence and are looking to create rich content.

SnackTools currently offer...

• BannerSnack - A high-quality application for ...

This application is a simple calendar.

DoneCal, a project started in September 2010 by Peter Bengtsson, can be used to keep track of future events or to record past events. A suggestion from the developer is to use it as an calendar-based alternative to timesheets.

It's free and all entered data can be exported.

Users can share their calendar with other people simply by giving them their unique sharing URL.

In reality, DoneCal is a database of event entries with a calendar as the us...

Gizmo's Freeware is a non-commercial community website staffed, we are told, entirely by volunteers.

In their words...

In my experience many freeware programs are as good as or better than their commercial counterparts but finding the most appropriate program can be challenging.

Gizmo's Freeware...

• is different from other download sites in as much that they actually help users sele...

The United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Free Software Portal provides access to documents and websites which are references for the Free Software/Open Source Technology movement. It is also a gateway to resources related to Free Software.

Find out more by visiting http://www.unesco-ci.org/cgi-bin/portals/foss/page.cgi?d=1.