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Showing posts with label elearning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elearning. Show all posts

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Set of Useful eLearning Tools



The Learning Tools from UBC Arts ISIT are a set of useful eLearning tools that can be used to enhance teaching, while also providing a different learning approach for your students.

Although, several of the tools are specifically geared towards language learners, most of them can be used for any subject area.

The tools include:


Saturday, January 16, 2010

Blogs for e-Learning Tools & Tips

The Digital Learning People

The Digital Learning People have compiled a very useful list of their top 50 blogs for e-Learning tools and tips.

The blogs are grouped into the following categories:
* Sharing Technology
* Sharing Resources
* Sharing Business Strategies
* The Total Picture

I was delighted to be informed by James Atkinson that my companion blog, Free Resources for Education, had been included in the Sharing Resources section! Although quite a few of the blogs were familiar, I still managed to find some new gems! Nice job James :-)

The Digital Learning People also include some other very useful compilations including:
* 25 Tips for Students & Teachers Using Google Wave
* 25 Essential Google Chrome Tips for Digital Learners
* 25 Excellent Social Media Sites for Teachers


Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Create Dynamic Classroom Portals

SchoolRack

SchoolRack enables you to set up classroom portals for your students and parents to use. There is a reasonable selection of included themes to choose from.

Each student/parent creates their own individual account. They can then search for and join their school as well as joining your class group (either manually or through a generated code).

Not only can you post assignments for students and parents to read and download, but you can also use the inbuilt discussion board, calendar, internal messaging and online assignment collection and assignment grading feature.

It is, also, very easy to include any embeddable content, such as videos and widgets, from other websites. All these  features, help to make SchoolRack a dynamic two-way learning platform, which can be used inside and outside of the classroom.

Your published site, including added files etc, is publicly visible and can be accessed by anyone who knows your website address - in the form of http://schoolrack.com/sitename

This also applies to the topics on the discussion board, which can be read by anyone although only your group members can contribute to the discussions. It is worth noting that 'password protected sites' are available for the paid version but not for the basic free version, being reviewed here.

SchoolRack is very easy to use and for those that have not gone down the Moodle route (or something similar), then SchoolRack has plenty to offer!


Saturday, August 8, 2009

The Social Learning Revolution at Scilpo

Sclipo

Sclipo is a newly created social network designed specifically for those in education.
Sclipo's main social learning features include:
* A Profile which connects you with people of common educational interests.
* An Academy where you teach through the use of the other educational applications.
* A Courses application which allows you to create and post your courses.
* A Library where you store, manage and share educational content in any format.
* A Live Web Class allowing you to teach up to 100 students live through webcam, whiteboard and document presentation.  Students can participate actively through audio, video and chat.
* A Live Web Meeting room for audio and chat only meetings plus upload image files.
* Facebook Connection allowing you to easily connect and publish to Facebook.
* Payments Option (premium service) enabling you to charge students for your courses and web classes -  directly through PayPal.

The Sclipo platform looks promising. For me, the strongest features include the facebook connection (including single signon), the live web class and the live web meetings. As well as this, keeping track of the courses you are following and teaching is very well set out and a good message updating system is  included.

I would, however, like to see a desktop sharing element added to the live web class to allow for live demonstration from websites. I would, also, like to see a feature in the Library enabling embedded content. With so much creative commons content already available on the Internet, it should be easier to use it without having to download and upload again.

All in all, Sclipo is well worth checking out!



Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Top 100 Learning Tools 2008

The Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008, compiled by Jane Hart, has been finalised for this year. The list is based on the contributions of 223 learning professionals from around the world.

And, making it to number 1 is the highly versatile social bookmarking tool Delicious.


 

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Friday, September 5, 2008

Designing e-learning?

Designing e-learning is another great video that is well worth watching - all 46 minutes of it!

Dr Itiel Dror gives a very humorous and stimulating presentation demonstrating how the brain's cognitive architecture underpins learning. The lesson is to optimise your learning by fitting it to the brain.

Dr Dror argues that an understanding of how the brain works is essential in learning design. "New learning technologies make it possible to deliver a great deal, but they also make it possible to fail spectacularly, especially if we focus on the technology rather than on the learner".

I really liked these two examples which show how the human brain is a "limited machine". To get the most out of the video make sure you participate in the 'audience' activities by following Dr Dror's instructions.

Enjoy :-)


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Designing e-learning? Don't leave your brain at home!

Designing e-learning is another great video that is well worth watching - all 46 minutes of it!

Dr Itiel Dror gives a very humorous and stimulating presentation demonstrating how the brain's cognitive architecture underpins learning. The lesson is to optimise your learning by fitting it to the brain.

Dr Dror argues that an understanding of how the brain works is essential in learning design. "New learning technologies make it possible to deliver a great deal, but they also make it possible to fail spectacularly, especially if we focus on the technology rather than on the learner".

I really liked these two examples which show how the human brain is a "limited machine". To get the most out of the video make sure you participate in the 'audience' activities by following Dr Dror's instructions.

Enjoy :-)


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Monday, August 25, 2008

Basic Computer Concepts with Microsoft

Microsoft Digital Literacy


Microsoft Digital Literacy provides eLearning in five distinct courses:
* Computer Basics
* The Internet and the World Wide Web
* Productivity Programs
* Computer Security
* Privacy and Digital Lifestyles

Although the courses are heavily text based, useful videos and practical interactive simulation labs are also included and they can either be taken online or downloaded for offline study.

The recommended time to finish each course is 2-3 hours after which time you can take the corresponding online assessment.  There is also a Certificate Test, covering topics from all five courses, which leads to a printable personalized Digital Literacy Certificate if you pass.

Despite much of the material being based on Microsoft products, it is a very useful resource for a 'beginners ICT' class.



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Friday, May 30, 2008

Online Course Authoring with Udutu



Udutu is a sophisticated online course authoring system that enables you to create highly interactive eLearning courses.

By using the mydutu tool, you can "design and implement online training and courses without any knowledge of technology". Being able to import existing PowerPoint presentations into your new course is an added bonus.

You can carry out quite extensive authoring as explained by Udutu: "In addition to conventional animation based interactivity templates it has a unique conditional branching capability that allows you to create complex scenarios, simulations, and remedial learning situations. It is a robust multimedia platform for a corporate training and development program. It supports all major types of graphic, sound, and video formats, and will automatically optimize any multimedia for the web without third party applications".

Interestingly, Udutu recommend a minimum screen resolution of 1024 x 768, although they do provide templates for 800 x 600 resolution.

Once completed, you can download the course as a zip file, which you can then easily install on your own server or copy to a CD. The course runs in a web browser.

Have a look at the 'Build Effective Online Courses' created by Udutu, which shows you just how a finished course works and also provides a great lesson about building effective online courses.


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Saturday, April 19, 2008

Study with the Open University

Openlearn at the Open UniversityOpenLearn is a place where anyone can access free online learning with The Open University.

Subjects are divided into various categories including Arts and History, Business and Management, Education, Health and Lifestyle, IT and Computing, Law, Mathematics and Statistics, Modern Languages, Science and Nature, Society, Study Skills and Technology.

Living with the internet: keeping it safe is just one excellent example from the IT and Computing section.

OpenLearn also provides a 'labspace' where users can reuse and remix the open education resources.

Labspace is a great place to collaborate and contribute as it "makes many different open educational resources available to you, all of which you are encouraged to take away, re-use and remix to suit your needs as an educator".

OpenLearn Labspace


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Friday, December 28, 2007

Sharing on the eLearning Guild

eLearning Guild LogoThe eLearning Guild is a "member-driven online information center and Community of Practice where anyone involved in the design, development, and management of web-based educational or instructional content (e-Learning) can identify and access resources needed to ensure that their organizations' projects are successful".

eLearning Guild BooksIn fact, the eLearning Guild provides a professional peer network where members can "focus on expanding their own professional skills, knowledge, and expertise".

At the eLearning Guild, membership is "all about members sharing with, and learning from, other members".

Associate membership is free and provides for, among other things, access to every issue of the 'Learning Solutions e-Magazine', which is "packed with ideas, strategies, and techniques that you can actually use".

Members also have access to the entire archive of over 235 past issues.

The eLearning Guild provide free ebooks packed with helpful tips, information and links to further useful sites - for members and non members alike.

The latest, published in Dec 2007, details 162 Tips and Tricks for Working with e-Learning Tools.

Other titles include, among others:

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Monday, December 24, 2007

WiZiQ - Virtual Classroom Platform

WiZiQ Logo

WiZiQ is a free virtual classroom tool. WiZiQ is "equipped with live audio-video communication, chat, content sharing, and session recording capabilities". No download is required as WiZiQ works in any web browser and on any operating system.

WiZiQ Teaching WiZiQ also has a social networking aspect as you can communicate with other teachers and students with the same subject interests.

You can upload and share your own PowerPoint presentations as well as finding content created by other members.

Multiple choice WiZiQ tests have, recently, been added to the site.

In addition, free public sessions are offered on an ongoing basis and recorded completed sessions are available for viewing.


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Friday, July 13, 2007

An affordable and reliable VLE

MoodleLast year we were able to start using a VLE thanks to the development of open source software Moodle. Products such as Blackboard and WebCT being well out our price range. We are using version 1.6 which is proving to be very useful. The new version 1.8.2 contains a number of improvements that make the application more flexible and stable.  The only main drawback is that I cannot get the email feature to work with Google Apps. We are using the standard edition which allows us to set up Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Talk accounts for all our students using our own domain name.


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