Category Archives: Pain, Fatigue and Stress

Evernote for organising courseware

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“In order to organise my courseware I use an online tool called Evernote.  This helps me to ‘clip’ useful information from websites and also to save some reminders. The app can be used online as a web app and also installed as a Chrome browser bookmark or Android and iPhone mobile or tablet app.  The offline app can then sync to your profile.” Andreas (MSc Web Science)

Keith Everett has provided a useful YouTube video about how he has worked with Evernote and he shows the Chrome browser bookmark as well as talking about linking with a mobile phone.

SwiftKey Android mobile app for speedy keyboarding.

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“SwiftKey mobile app for Android is super great with writing prediction. It can even create meanings from very incorrectly spelt words.  Great for speed writing an also for dyslexic users!”  Andrew (computer science)

SwiftKey have produced a YouTube video of their version 4 of the app where you can also write phrases with word prediction.

Adobe Reader remembers where you last viewed part of a document

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“I found it useful when revisiting lectures notes for exams to use Adobe Reader.  It can remember the last view of a document and when I re-opened it I am able to start revising from where I left off without having to look for items or remember the particular slide or page again.”

adobe reader preferences

adobe reader document settings

To check you have set up the settings for this to happen

  1. Go to Edit > Preferences.
  2. Choose Documents.
  3. Check the box marked, Restore last view settings when reopening documents.
The same is possible if you are using Foxit Reader Just select Edit > Preferences > General, and then enable Restore last view settings when reopening.

Using Google Drive and Group wikis for collaboration.

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“Another learning issue I have solved is related to collaborative learning.  This is solved by using Google Drive to share information and to collaborate as well as Group wikis on Moodle.” Andreas

Google Drive has Google Docs and many other file formats and apps that can be viewed from the browser or installed on a PC. Google has provided a YouTube video as an overview of the latest version of Google Drive.

A wiki is a good way to work on a project where there are many different areas to be discussed as these can be separated out, but appear all on one website with one web address.  Tabs can be used for the different areas as well as menu pages.  You can set up your own wiki even if you cannot access Moodle or do not have your own web pages – try PBworks as it is free and very easy to use.  You can decide who can edit the pages and you do not need to know any HTML.  There are more instructions on how to set up a wiki on the wikihow.com pages. Below you will see an image of some pages I have set up on PBworks.

pbworks sample page

Microsoft Office and OneNote hidden text to speech command!

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A freely available way of using text to speech in Word, PowerPoint and OneNote and even
Excel is possible thanks to the Microsoft Office ribbon command menu.  You can select text and have it read back.  This idea does not offer all that specialist programs can provide such as text highlighting, pausing etc. but it is a quick way to hear how a word, phrase or sentence sounds when you want a quick check.
Adding speech in Word

If you go to Quick Access Toolbar in the ribbon you customise it by choosing More Commands – select ‘Quick Access toolbar’ from the menu on the left > Then go to the top of the right hand window and make sure you drop down the command list to ‘All commands’ otherwise you will not see ‘Speak’  in the list – Add it and return to your document.

Choose speech iconWhen you have typed something or have a file to read – highlight the text and select the new speech bubble that appears in your Quick Access toolbar.  The text will be read aloud in any voice you have chosen from the Control Panel > Speech recognition > text to speech. 

control panel screen grab

This comes thanks to Jean

iPod Touch to record lectures.

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“I use the iPod touch voice record function to record lectures. In addition to paper notes, this provides a means of revisiting lecture material for revision, especially if concentration fails during the actual lecture especially if I am very tired during a lecture.”

The iPod touch voice memos “saved in a Recordings folder on iPod in the WAV file format. If you enable iPod for disk use, you can drag voice memos from the folder to copy them.”

iPod voice memoMacWorld has a useful article about recording voice memos on the iPod and iPhone with some notes about the different versions and the extra accessories needed for some models.