Twitter

Twitter 

Twitter is an online social networking service and micro blogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets".Twitter is a great resource for education. Educators can learn, share, collaborate, find help and have some great discussions. It is my go-to source when looking for help, advice, tips, tools, and resources for education.
A hash tag is a way of sorting and searching Tweets based on topic. There are tons of great educational hash tags, including #edchat, #edtech, #scichat, and more. Many of these hash tags relate to a scheduled conversation
Twitter in the Classroom

1. Sharing online resources (internet sites)
2.  Connecting to others around the world
3.  Publishing or sharing links to published work.
4.  Publicity for important events, blog posts, websites, podcasts, videos,    live meetings/discussions, etc.
5.    Twitter can serve as a resource to get help.
6. Twitter can serve as your support group when struggling with a difficult task
7.  Twitter provides a way to virtually attend confererences, workshops,     conventions, etc. (via #hashtags

NEWS GROUPS

NEWS GROUPS

          A news group is a system of discussion group in the Internet which allows users to discussion with people anywhere in the world on any subject. Newsgroups are developed from e-mails. These consist of a number of linked users so that an article posted on the group can be read by any member of the group. Also any member in the group in the group can post article on the subject. Thousands of different topics are available in the Internet, they are science, television programs, hobbies, software, etc.

          Major subjects of news group are divided in to subtopics and so the name of the news group usually consists of more than one part separated by dots. For example, the news group ‘alt.arts.movies’ is an alternate news group developed for movies.

          News group are divided in to moderated news group and unmoderated news group. A moderated news group controls the content of every article received, before broadcasting to members. This reduces the quantity of irrelevant articles, and the quality of articles posted on the news group is maintained. In unmoderated news groups, there is no control on the article posted to the group. Moderated news groups have the word moderated at the end of the name.

          The area of interest of major news groups are,

 Name                                                       Topics

ALT           This is alternative news group. It contains interesting articles.

COMP       This refers to computer network group. It contains articles related to computer.

MISC         This is a Miscellaneous news group.

NEWS       This newsgroup contains articles about the newsgroup itself.

REC This is the forum for discussion of articles relating to various recreational activities.

SCI   This newsgroup is meant for science.

SOC This group for discussing topics related to social science.

TALK        This group deals with varied and wide subjects.

Benefits of newsgroups

1.     A fast connection to the internet is not a requirement
2.     News articles don’t fill up the e-mail inbox
3.     Newsgroups can be searched by keyword
4.     Most news readers are designed to thread related articles .Threading means that the original article and its responses are kept together ,so that the entire discussion can be followed.
5. The latest news can be read during at any time ,since the news server automatically deletes old article even if it is not read . 

HotPotatoes

HotPotatoes

Hot Potatoes is to enable you to create interactive Web-based teaching exercises which can be delivered to any Internet-connected computer equipped with a browser. The exercises use HTML and JavaScript to implement their interactivity, but you do NOT need to know anything about these languages in order to use the programs. All you need to do is enter the data for your exercises (questions, answers, responses etc.), and press a button. The program will create the Web pages for you, and you can then upload them to your server

There are five basic programs in the Hot Potatoes suite:

·         The JQuiz program creates question-based quizzes. Questions can be of four different types, including multiple-choice and short-answer. Specific feedback can be provided both for right answers and predicted wrong answers or distractors. In short-answer questions, the student's guess is intelligently parsed and helpful feedback to show what part of a guess is right and what part is wrong. The student can ask for a hint in the form of a "free letter" from the answer.

·         The JCloze program creates gap-fill exercises. Unlimited correct answers can be specified for each gap, and the student can ask for a hint and see a letter of the correct answer. A specific clue can also be included for each gap. Automatic scoring is also included. The program allows gapping of selected words, or the automatic gapping of every nth word in a text.

·         The JCross program creates crossword puzzles which can be completed online. You can use a grid of virtually any size. As in JQuiz and JCloze, a hint button allows the student to request a free letter if help is needed.

·         The JMix program creates jumbled-sentence exercises. You can specify as many different correct answers as you want, based on the words and punctuation in the base sentence, and a hint button prompts the student with the next correct word or segment of the sentence if needed.

·         The JMatch program creates matching or ordering exercises. A list of fixed items appears on the left (these can be pictures or text), wth jumbled items on the right. This can be used for matching vocabulary to pictures or translations, or for ordering sentences to form a sequence or a conversation.

G-compris

G-compris

GCompris is a completely free educational software suite which contains a wide range of activities. It offers various activities aimed at covering a variety of fields such as the functioning of the computer, using the mouse and keyboard, general learning, reading, writing, foreign languages, algebra, as well as various activities such as memory and logic games, scientific experiments etc. It consists of a large variety of activities for children aged 2-10 years.

Features

Currently GCompris has more than 130 activities related to:

·        Computer discovery: keyboard, mouse, different mouse gestures

·        Numeracy: table memory, enumeration, double entry table, mirror images

·        Science: the canal lock, the water cycle, the submarine, electric simulations

·        Geography: place the country on the map

·        Games: chess, memory, connect 4, oware, sudoku

·        Reading: reading practice

·        Other: learn to tell time, puzzle of famous paintings, vector drawing, cartoon   making

Molecular viewer

Molecular viewer

·        Application> science>Molecules viewer

The GChem3d application is a simple molecular structures visualizer. The application is also great for any high school or college student in chemistry courses. Molecular viewer (Gchem3d) allows the users to open and view molecules in SDF or PDB format files.GChem3d is able to display a molecule using four model types: the ball and stick model, the compact model, the cylinders model, and the wireframe model. Multiple bonds are displayed as such in the ball and stick mode. To change the mode, choose either View ▸ Balls and sticks, View ▸ Space filling, View ▸ Cylinders, or View ▸ Wireframe.

Stellerium

Stellerium

Stellarium is a software project that allows people to use their home computer as a virtual planetarium. It will calculate the positions of the Sun and Moon, planets and stars, and draw how the sky would look to an observer depending on their location and the time. It can also draw the constellations and simulate astronomical phenomena such as meteor showers, and solar or lunar eclipses

Application >science >Stellarium

We can examine the sky on any day, at any time: past, present, or future. We can watch the stars and planets move quickly across the night sky in a way that would not be possible outdoors, or even with a professional telescope. We can change our location, and see the sky from parts of the world we have never visited

Feature Highlights:

1. §  Realistic atmosphere, sunrise and sunset.
2. §  Realistic Milky Way view.
3. §  Plugin support for extending capabilities.
4. Powerful zoom feature with extensive keyboard controls

Ktech lab

K Tech Lab is a free software which helps to make different types of circuits  (electronic & electrical) and conduct experiments. Various electronic components like resistor, diode, switch, transistor, micro controllers etc. can be run using this software. Since it works in GUI mode, it is very easy to handle. The components required for electric circuits can be easily dragged into the work area using mouse. When we join the pins using mouse, the circuit is formed. The properties of each component is displayed when bring the pointer above it. Students are not able to do some experiments which involve real devices and consumables, even in groups. But these experiments can be done in KTech Lab environment. Thus loss due to the damages and lack of consumables can be avoided. Using this software students can easily form the circuits and can repeat the experiments a number of times. 

Chemical calculator

Chemical calculator

The GChemCalc application is a simple calculator for chemistry. It parses chemical formula to calculate raw formula, molecular weights, mass composition and isotopic patterns.

You can start GChemCalc in the following ways:

Applications menu >Choose Education ▸ Chemical calculator.

The GChemCalc window contains the following elements:

Menubar

The menus on the menubar contain all of the commands you need to work with GChemCalc.

Formula entry

This is where you can type a formula.

Results

The next three lines give the entered formula as parsed by GChemCalc, the raw formula and the molecular weight.

Notebook

The first page of the notebook gives the analysis as mass percent of the elements of the current formula. The second page displays the isotopic pattern. This page is hidden when the formula is empty.

SEARCH ENGINES

SEARCH ENGINES

A search engine is an interactive tool to help people locate information available via the WWW.  Search engines are actually databases that contain references to thousands of resources.  User interacts with the database, submit questions and ask the database if it contains resources that match a specific criterion.

There are many search engines available on the web.  A web search engine presents the user with a place to type in a search string, which may be a word, a phrase, a date, or some other criterion, and a way to submit the request. After the user gives the search string the search engine searches and returns a list of resources that match the criteria. Some of the popular search engines are

Yahoo!, Google…, MSN, Rediff, etc

E-MAIL

E-MAIL

The system of communicating messages in electronic form is called electronic mail or e-mail. E-mail service is the most widely used service in the internet. The message reaches its destination through several computer networks. The electronic mail system requires a communication network.

          E-mail system acts as communication tool. Messages through e-mail can be in different forms such as text, image, sound, database, spreadsheet or an application. This is very fast and it reaches its destination within seconds. If messages cannot be delivered within a reasonable time limit, they will return back to their sender indicating the reasons for non-delivery. Received messages remain in the computer until they are deleted.

          E-mail address is also known as the electronic address which gives unique identity to each user. The address is made up of more than one part such as the user name, followed by a special symbol @, followed again by the name of the

 domain in which the user has an account. Each mail user can use his mail id and password to access his mail account and use it for sending and receiving mails.

          E-mail consists of two parts. One is the header and the other is the body. The header portion contains special information about the mail such as address of the sender, time at the message sent, the path through the mail had traveled. The second portion of the message is the actual message appears here. Files can also be sent as attachments to messages. The attachment file can be a document, an image, a video file or an audio file. There are several organizations offering free e-mail address. The user has to login to the site of the organization and complete and submit the online registration from get a unique e-mail identity account.

Free e-mail sites are:

          www.yahoomail.com

www.hotmail.com

www.rediffmail.com

www.lycos.com

WORLD WIDE WEB

WORLD WIDE WEB (www)

World Wide Web is the name given to a large collection of information, pictures and other data, which can be accessed through the Internet. It is the most active and the fastest growing part of the Internet.

          World Wide Web is based on client/server architecture. Web client programs are called browsers. In the beginning, browsers were text-based and were difficult to use. Later graphical-based browsers were developed. These were simple and easy to use and the web began to grow and get popular.

          In the Internet, information is stored in different files in different computers. Each file is called a web page. Web pages can have text, image, animated figures, audio clips or a combination of all these.

DOMAIN NAME

DOMAIN NAME

In the internet world, each computer connected to the network is identified by a unique address, known as electronic address or domain address. This is actually the address of a device or user connected to the Internet or any other network servers and organizations. The commonly used domain names are,

.com – commercial organization, .org – non profit organization

          .edu – educational,                        .gov – government

          .net – network service operators,          .int – international

Those using country specified domain names use code that identify the country. Examples are,

.in – India, .au – Australia, .us – United States, .uk – United Kingdom

BROWSERS

BROWSERS  

Browsers are client program working on the user’s computer. They communicate with web servers and enable us surf the Internet, sent and receive mails and read news.

          Internet explorer is a browser created by Microsoft. Details of websites visited are stored in the browser. This forms the history list. Internet Explorer has a good user interface and has several good features.

Internet

Internet 

The Internet is a worldwide collection of interconnected computer networks. Today’s most personal computers are linked to millions of computers via the Internet, also called Net. The networks are in government agencies, commercial businesses, colleges, and every other type of organization. Literally billions of pages of information, images, songs, videos, and so on are readily accessible to anytime with a personal computer and Internet access.

          Several educational institutions, organizations and business houses have established their own sites. Even government organizations have their own official web sites. Through this sites people can interact with the government. This has popularized the concept of e-governance. Now, many banks established the one line banking through the Internet.

          Major internet services are, electronic mail, Internet telephony, World wide web (www), Internet chat, News groups, etc.

Computer Simulation

Computer Simulation

Computer simulation is the technique for representing the real world by a computer program. It is the imitation of reality by using computer program. Simulations are one of the most effective ways to learn.  They are based on a simple, but effective, learning strategy -- practice makes perfect.

Characteristics of Computer Simulation

·        Model Based: Simulations are based on a model. This means that the calculations and rules operating the simulation are programmed. These calculations and rules are collectively called "the model", and it determines the behavior of the simulation depending on user actions.

·        Interactive: Learners work interactively with a simulation's model to input information and then observe how the variables in the simulation change, based on this output.

·        Interface driven: The value changes to the influenced variables and the observed value changes in the output are found in the simulation's interface.

·        Scaffolded: Simulations designed for education should have supports or scaffolds to assist students in making the learning experience effective. Step by step directions, or small assignments which break the task down to help students.

Advantages of computer simulation

u Can portray realistic situations

u Motivating leaners by making learning fun and interactive

u Critical situations can be investigated without risk.

u It is cost effective.

u immediate feedback

u Students involved

u Make the impossible possible

u Save the money and other resources

u Allow repetition

Disadvantages

u Can be costly to buy and maintain computerized simulators

u Limits number of people who can access the learning at the same time

Ubuntu

Ubuntu 

Ubuntu  is a free, open source operating system available for use on desktops, laptops, and servers.  The word "Ubuntu " is an old African word meaning "humanity toward others”. It is one of the most popular Linux distributions and it is based on Debian Linux.

Advantages of Ubuntu  operating system

1.     Ubuntu  OS is 100% Free- the operating system is free to download and install, Ubuntu  operating system is an open source meaning that you can freely distribute it and even edit the code behind the operating system if possible. 

2.     New versions gets released often- unlike any other operating system designing company, Ubuntu  releases a new version of Ubuntu  OS, after every six months. The newer version always comes with many updated features and security against malwares. 

3.     Ubuntu  operating system is easy to use- Ubuntu  OS is documented well and searches are performed fast and easily. With Ubuntu , you can create a dual boot without encountering much problems. With Ubuntu , creating a partition and then sharing with other operating system is easy.

4.     . Hardware recognition- Ubuntu  operating system is compatible with almost every computer and the virtual environment. So you can install Ubuntu  easily in almost every computer brand available
Iit takes less installation time and boot up time

Windows Operating system

Windows Operating system

Windows operating system is a most popular Operating system for computers. Windows Operating system designed and produced by Microsoft Corporation. Similar to other operating systems, Windows makes a computer system user-friendly by providing a graphical display and organizing information so that it can be easily accessed. The operating system utilizes icons and tools that simplify the complex operations performed by computers. Estimates suggest that 90% of personal computers use the Windows operating system. Microsoft introduced the operating system in 1985.

Some programs are included with Windows. Some examples:

·        WordPad - to write simple documents

·        Photo viewer - to look at pictures

·        Paint - to make simple drawings

·        Internet Explorer Web browser - to use the Internet to look at web pages and download files.

·        Windows Media Player - to listen to music and watch videos.

Operating System

Operating System

The operating system is collection of programs that control all hardware and other resources in the computer system. With out operating system a computer is useless .It is the operating system that operates and controls the CPU ,memory, various input and output devices such as keyboard ,the mouse the monitor ,the printer ,etc .It is responsible for smooth and efficient operation of the computer .

Functions of operating system

Now a days operating system are very complex .the operating system control all hardware and other resources in the computer and also does the following jobs ;

1.     File management:- The operating system create and manages the directory system on the secondary storage devices .It also has commands to copy ,rename ,move and delete files and directories on the secondary storage devices .

2.     It contains a text editor that can be used to create simple text files .

3.     If the computer system is capable of running multiple programs simultaneously .The operating system switches the computers resources from one program to another

4.     It maintains an internal real time clock known as system clock .This clock is used to display the current dare and time .This clock is used to mark the date and time of creation or modification of files

5.                 It acts as an interface between the user and the computer .It accepts commands  and instructions from the user and executes them. The computer develop a an error ,the operating system displays suitable error message.

6.     it includes several tools and utility programs to help the user .

Popular operating systems for personal Computer

1)   Disk operating System (DOS)

2)   Windows 3.1

3)   Windows 95

4)   Windows 200

5)   Windows XP

6)   Widows vista

7)   Linux

8)   Unix