Media and Learning 2013

LibriVox is a project which objective is to make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet (generally podcasting). It has a database-driven catalog where every podcasting project can be found using the search page.
Once you have found and clicked the link for a book/recording you want to listen to, there are several things to note about the individual catalog pages. Each catalog page contains a description of the book, and helpful links about the book and author. You can also find a link to an online source for the text, if you wish to read along.
You'll find that you can download files in several places. You can download the individual chapters by choosing 128kbps MP3, 64kbps MP3 (smaller file size), or the Ogg Vorbis files. You can also find a link to a zip file of the whole book at the top. Another option is to find the recording with !BitTorrent, but not all recordings have been seeded.
The first step before you listen is to get the audio files onto your own computer. Once you have found an audiobook that interests you, there are many ways to download the files, and save them onto your computer. Each chapter is offered in three (3) formats: 64 Kbps MP3, 128 Kbps MP3, and Ogg Vorbis.
The audio files are hosted by the Internet Archive (see http://www.media-and-learning.eu/resource/internet-archive)
It is a totally volunteer, open source, free content, public domain project.
Librivox contains books in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and a few other languages.

Wikiversity is a learning community which aims to further the discovery and distribution of knowledge by helping people to learn and to share learning resources. Users can use Wikiversity to find information, ask questions, or learn more about a subject, to explore knowledge through advanced study and research and also to share their knowledge about a subject with others by building learning materials.
Wikiversity is available in 15 different languages, with a different number of learning resources for every language, varying from a few hundreds to over 20k.
The library of learning materials is growing and contains materials of all types, including a wide variety of multimedia course materials. They are designed, not just for self-study, but also as material which can be used in your classroom.
Everyone can create and revise teaching materials. Anyone can participate in the learning activities. Everyone can take a course. Everyone can teach a course. There are no entrance requirements and no fees. All content in Wikiversity is written collaboratively, using wiki software, and everyone is welcome to take part through using, adding and discussing content.

Pixabay.com is a collaborative repository for quality public domain images. People can upload photographs or graphics to the website, and they will be screened to see if they are suitable for distribution. The images so uploaded will go under Creative Commons Deed CC0 into the public domain.
Although it is not possible to claim ownership of any image in its original state or license them granting exclusive rights as they are, it is possible to adapt and use the images also for commercial purposes without attributing the original author or source. For details about this, look the page of terms and conditions.

In this section of the official website of the European Union it is possible to find the summaries of EU legislation on every subject. The linked page gives an overview of the legislation on IPR. The act the page refers to is the directive 2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the enforcement of intellectual property rights.
The page is available in 15 languages.

Tux Paint is a free drawing program for children (3 to 12) that combines an easy-to-use interface, fun sound effects, and an encouraging cartoon mascot who guides children as they use the program. It is used in schools around the world as a computer literacy drawing activity.
The program runs on multiple platforms. It’s simple interface presents a number of useful drawing tools and at the same time relieve the user of the need to think about the technical details.
Sound and visual helps are available: fun sound effects are played when tools are selected and used and a cartoon mascot appears at the bottom to give tips, hints and information.
Parts of Tux Paint have currently been translated into almost 100 languages.
Stamps, starters and brushes are stored using popular open formats (PNG, SVG, Ogg Vorbis, etc.) allowing parents and teachers to create their own content for use at home or in the classroom - even using completely free tools.
The 'Tux Paint Config.' program allows parents, teachers, and school technicians to alter Tux Paint's behaviour using a simple, easy-to-use graphical interface.

The Learning Resource Exchange (LRE) for schools is developed and coordinated by European Schoolnet (EUN, http://www.eun.org) and enables schools to find educational content from many different countries and providers. Anyone is able to browse content in the LRE federation of repositories and teachers that register can also use LRE social tagging tools, rate LRE content, save their Favourite resources and share links to these resources with their friends.

Other info about the project at http://fire.eun.org.

e-Bug is a free educational resource for classroom and home use that makes learning about micro-organisms, the spread, prevention and treatment of infection fun and accessible for all students.

The website is divided in three sections for Junior Students, Senior Students and for Teachers, where lesson plans, student worksheets, activities and presentations are available. All activities and plans have been designed to complement the National Curriculum. The student pages complement the teacher resources by providing online games, revision pages and more to continue the learning experience at home.

Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy to create animations, interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art. The outcomes can be stored and shared on the web within the Scratch system.
It is not only an ideal tool for the creation of simple and attractive interactive and/or animated learning objects, but it also serves as a learning instrument for young people. By using Scratch learners learn not only to create and share Scratch outcomes but more importantly they learn mathematical, logical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.
Scratch is at first sight a bit difficult to learn, but there is a (short and simple) manual that helps everyone getting started within minutes. It is not a full blown animation tool but it is a lot of fun and very rewarding to work with.
Scratch is developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab, with financial support from the National Science Foundation, Microsoft, Intel Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Google, Iomega and MIT Media Lab research consortia.

amara (formerly known as Universal Subtitles) is a community platform that allows for easily captionning and translating of the videos one produces, by seeking assistance from the viewers. Subtitling not only increases the geographical appleal of the vides by adding language versions, but also has the additional advantage of making videos accessible for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. The subtitling (translation and subtitle text addition) is done by volunteering viewers, like a wiki: easy, free and fast with no software to install. As of today August 15 2011) over 117000 videos have already been subtitled with Universal Subtitles.

Amara gives individuals, communities, and larger organizations the power to overcome accessibility and language barriers for online video. The tools are free and open source and make the work of subtitling and translating video simpler, more appealing, and, most of all, more collaborative.

The benefits of captioning and subtitling are immense:
- Captions make videos accessible for viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing
- Translations make it possible for all of us to watch video in languages that we don't speak
- Video creators get: better SEO, more views, access to a far bigger (potentially multilingual and global) audience, accessibility for deaf and hard of hearing viewers, and more

Amara is composed of three main parts:
- A subtitle creation and viewing tool (aka the widget)
- A collaborative subtitling website
- An open protocol for subtitle search/delivery

Promethean's aim is to unlock the potential of human achievement in education and training at all ages around the world creating, developing, supplying and supporting leading edge, interactive learning technology.
Promethean Planet is a large teacher online community of unparalleled peer and technical support as well as a warehouse of premium and free resources - including interactive lessons, games, educator forums, and training courses. Resources are organized by subject (Math, Science, History, Language Arts, Vocational Skills...) and age range. There are also a lot of tips and best practice.