Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom:

Subscribe to YouTube video tags via RSS

If you regularly search YouTube with the same keywords such as Audacity or podcasting, you may be interested to know that it is possible to create an individual RSS feed so the results appear in your reader automatically saving you time and keeping you updated on useful clips.

Simply paste the following feed into your reader and change the word example for the search term you are interested in.

e.g. feed://www.youtube.com/rss/tag/example.rss

The screenshot above shows what happened when I subscribed to the tag Audacity in Google Reader.

Sidmouth Folk Week 2008

For the last ten days, I've been enjoying the traditional charms of Sidmouth Folk Week 2008, discovering new and exciting music, learning tales of skulduggery from English history, watching street entertainers, battling the elements and partaking in a cornish pastie or two.

Hope you enjoy the slideshow.

MFLE - Modern languages blogs latest posts

Despite vowing to have a break from blogging while at Sidmouth Folk Week 2008, here I am at a conveniently located internet cafe in Sidmouth town centre sharing another post with you!

The Modern Foreign Languages Environment from LTScotland, an inspiration for many language teachers, has created a useful page which includes a selection of the latest posts from UK MFL blogs.

A good starting point for finding out up to date information and thoughts on language developments from practicing teachers and MFL specialists.

Why not add its RSS feed to your reader now?

A week off in Sidmouth

For the next week or so, I'm going to have a break from blogging and join in the fun camping at the Sidmouth Folk Week 2008. Expect some photos on Flickr, upon my return and the odd tweet. See you soon.

How to make money from your blog

Here are some suggestions on how to make money from blogging. A good idea or is this selling out?

Watching Seesmic videos through Twhirl

Twhirl, the useful desktop client for reading Twitter posts can now also let you watch video posts from those people you are following on Seesmic. To add your Seesmic account, follow these steps.

Click on the configuration icon in Twhirl.

Click Open Accounts.

Click on the dropdown menu and select Seesmic. Enter your Seesmic screen name and press return. Click Connect to open your account.

Enter your Seesmic password and click login.

Twhirl will now display your Seesmic posts in one window and your Tweets in another. The ability to record Seesmic video posts from Twhirl will be coming soon. Watch this space.

A match made in Devon

This morning at 11.30, my mate Chris Fuller married his sweetheart, Alice Mann (pictured left) on a beautiful day in Westward Ho!, Devon. Here are some images of this most memorable of days.

Moblogging across India

When my colleague Susan Peoples told me she was spending the whole of the summer holidays travelling around India on her own I suggested it would be a good idea to set up a blog so she could keep a diary of her trip and let others share in her many adventures. A two hour after school training session later and she was good to go, equipped with all she needed to moblog successfully.

Today, I was delighted to read that Susan has already started to update 42 days (and curried breakfasts) in India and that her Rough Guide is proving useful. Despite a few transport issues, she seems to be aclimatizing well and is in good spirits.

People have already started leaving comments and I'm sure she would really appreciate a few more, (hint, hint!)

I also showed Susan how to run Skype off a USB stick so she could ring her parents cheaply while away with the French department's Logitech USB microphone which should prove handy.

We may see some photos at some point as well. If not, they can be uploaded on 'the traveller's' return.

Seriously though, I'm really looking forward to catching up with Susan face to face and finding out more about this once in a lifetime trip. I'm also glad that a bit of technology has been able to enhance her experience further still.

Hope you enjoy reading about Susan's travels over the next five weeks, but she's not the only one of the Nodehill bloggers to have been moblogging, oh no. Read on to find out more ...

Richard Lashley pictured next to Susan above during this year's Walk the Wight event (thanks to Sam Downe for the image) also attended my after school moblogging session and has been blogging himself silly during a cycle ride across England. A painful, if not thoroughly enjoyable experience, I'm sure. Well done to you both.

Text messaging from Skype

The latest version of Skype lets you send individual or group text messages to any mobile for less than a penny making it a cheap way of keeping in touch with friends or for writing personal reminders to yourself.

In the Options menu, you can choose to be identified by your Skype username or mobile number when sending an SMS message, but if you want your recipient to reply to your text you will need to do the latter.

   

Read this guide and FAQ for more information and make sure you keep your credit topped up.

Let your mouse jog the web

Jog the Web is an effective tool for organising sets of associated links in one place in the form of a slideshow. Similar to SplitURL, I can see this being useful for webquests, researching sites on a particular topic and for presentations. Thanks to Marie-France Perkins for the link.