Archive for May, 2006
May 30th, 2006 by Jorge Goncalves
Evolving e-learning: main conclusions of the Helios yearly report 2005/2006. ‘Nowadays a high number of organisations are professionally collecting, analysing and producing information on e-Learning (i.e. EUROSTAT, Eurydice, IEA, OECD, EUN Insight, Eurobarometer, as well as observatory projects within the e-Learning and IST Programmes) using different methodologies and providing different outputs, in terms of timing, geographical coverage, and target users. Organising and giving coherence to the information and results produced in the field appears as a rather difficult and exercise, unless the major efforts carried out in e-Learning observation in the last few years are taken into account and the best practices coming from these actions are integrated in a coherent and effective way. This is precisely the mission of HELIOS, an integrated research and development project, funded under the e-Learning Programme of the European Commission aiming to establish a sustainable observation platform to monitor the progress of e-Learning in Europe vis-Ã -vis policy objectives and to forecast future scenarios of its evolution.’
Helios - European eLearning Observation System - Observing, Surveying and Reporting
Download the HELIOS Report 2005/2006, “Evolving e-Learningâ€
Tags: HELIOS, eLearning, HELIOS Report
May 30th, 2006 by Jorge Goncalves
Skills for Access : The Comprehensive Guide to Creating Accessible Multimedia for e-Learning. ‘This web site provides you with a comprehensive resource on issues relating to multimedia, e-learning and accessibility. Whether you’re new to e-learning, want to know more about specific accessibility issues, or are an expert multimedia developer, we believe you’ll find information relevant to your needs.’
Case Studies. ‘The following case studies explore the experiences of people from two different perspectives - of disabled people using multimedia resources in e-learning and developers sharing their experiences in implementing accessibility solutions for e-learning projects.’
Technorati Tags: eLearning, Multimedia, Educational Technology
May 30th, 2006 by Jorge Goncalves
E-Learning: A Guidebook of Principles, Procedures and Practices. ‘This guidebook will help readers to systematically approach their engagement with e-learning, irrespective of the educational sector or level within which they may be working. The content of this guidebook has been carefully selected to enable readers to consider all the issues in relation to e-learning. Besides the great deal of resources that are included in this guidebook, its unique feature is the opportunity it provides readers to “tell us a story†about their experiences in relation to the issue or subject under discussion. Telling a story requires readers to pause, slow down, reflect, learn, access and share their experiences or connect in a meaningful way with others. These are opportunities designed to remind readers of relevant experiences, which will enable them to reflect upon their experiences and those of other colleagues. These will enable readers to make better sense of what this guidebook recommends.’
Download Guidebook (PDF)
Technorati Tags: eLearning, eLearning Book
May 30th, 2006 by Jorge Goncalves
Tools for the Teks: Classroom Audio Podcasting. ‘Education in the twenty-first century should focus on the development of authentic literacy skills for students. Learning to read, write, listen, speak, critically analyze information and communicate ideas using a variety of modalities is vital for children of all ages. Some of the most frequent complaints of writing teachers, however, revolve around a lack of student motivation to write. How can teachers increase students’ desire to express themselves effectively and appropriately? One of the most basic and powerful ways to increase student motivation to write and communicate is to change student perceptions of audience. Some students are motivated to write to please their teacher and earn a high grade, but that is not the case for everyone. Instead of asking students to write exclusively for an audience of one (the teacher) using technology from the mid 1500s (a pencil) teachers can now challenge students to publish for a global listening audience via a classroom podcast.’
Technorati Tags: Podcasting, Classroom Podcast, Educational Technology
May 29th, 2006 by Jorge Goncalves
UNESCO at 60: Focus on Distance Learning. ‘UNESCO is celebrating its 60th anniversary over 60 weeks, with each week devoted to a theme. The week of 29 May-4 June is dedicated to Distance Learning.’
Technorati Tags: UNESCO, Distance Learning
May 28th, 2006 by Jorge Goncalves
Education Podcast Network. ‘The Education Podcast Network is an effort to bring together into one place, the wide range of podcast programming that may be helpful to teachers looking for content to teach with and about, and to explore issues of teaching and learning in the 21st century. Most of the producers of these programs are educators, who have found an avenue through which they can share their knowledge, insights, and passions for teaching and learning and for the stories that they relish and teach.’
What is a Podcast? - Podcast Wiki
Technorati Tags: Podcast, Educational Podcasts, Educational Technology, Wiki
May 28th, 2006 by Jorge Goncalves
The SCRIBE Initiative - Instructional Technology and Learning Services (ITLS), San Antonio ISD. ‘SCRIBE - Students Composing, Reflecting and Investigating with Blogs in Education! – is borne from a simple vision. Technology can powerfully enhance the human voice, enabling us to communicate and collaborate in ways previously impossible. Unleashing the power of the human voice, the human spirit in classrooms is what we are about as educators. Blogs and podcasts can help us accomplish that in easy, non-technical ways. In addition to using blogs and podcasts to communicate and build virtual academic communities of learners, digital storytelling can also bridge the divide that exists between home and school experience, grandparent and grandchild, as well as cultural differences. Storytelling also enables students to take ownership for their own experiences and share those in appropriate, safe ways with a worldwide audience.’
Technorati Tags: SCRIBE, Digital Storytelling, Educational Blogs, Podcasts, Educational Technology
May 28th, 2006 by Jorge Goncalves
Commonwealth of Learning. ‘Open and Distance Learning for Development: the Commonwealth of Learning is an intergovernmental organisation created by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning/distance education knowledge, resources and technologies. COL is helping developing nations improve access to quality education and training.’
Draft Three-year Plan, 2006-09 - Learning for Development
Knowledge Resources - Open and Distance Learning for Development
Technorati Tags: Learning Online, eLearning, Distance Education, Training, Learning, Commonwealth
May 25th, 2006 by Jorge Goncalves
Technology transforms voc-ed . ‘Hands-on, high-tech experience leads to surge in enrollment. The opportunity for hands-on experience with high-tech tools in a wide range of new fields - from DNA forensics and robotics to golf course management - has helped fuel a near 60-percent surge in vocational education enrollment nationwide in the last five years. But this surging enrollment comes at a time when federal funding for vocational education is again in jeopardy.’
OVAE - Office of Vocational and Adult Education. ‘The OVAE website has information, research, and resources to help prepare young people and adults for postsecondary education, successful careers, and productive lives. It is our goal to provide you with useful and timely information that will enhance your knowledge of vocational and adult education programs and issues.’
Education World: Vocational Education Center
Technorati Tags: voc-ed, Vocational Education
May 24th, 2006 by Jorge Goncalves
eCornell. ‘eCornell is an online learning company established and wholly owned by Cornell University, one of the world’s leading educational institutions. eCornell serves the executive and professional development needs of individuals and organizations through exceptional online education programs developed by the faculty of Cornell. Our learning and user-experience designers work closely with faculty experts at Cornell University to develop and deliver learning experiences that are both engaging and effective.’
eCornell: Course Catalog
Blended E-Learning. ‘eCornell brings together traditional and Internet-age models of learning to deliver a new proposition; a neglected but high-value neighborhood of e-learning.’
Technorati Tags: eCornell, eLearning, Online Courses
May 24th, 2006 by Jorge Goncalves
Effectively Evaluating Online Learning Programs. ‘Effectively evaluating online learning programs starts with two simple ideas: Apply tried-and-true approaches, and take advantage of the opportunity to use new ones. In practice, while there are many effective approaches to evaluating online learning programs, many organizations do not know these approaches or how to apply them.’
Technorati Tags: Online Learning, eLearning, Online Learning Evaluation
May 23rd, 2006 by Jorge Goncalves
EduTools: Course Management Systems (CMS) Reviews. ‘This site was built to assist higher education in using a more rational decision making process to review the many options for a course management system. This site reviews each product by researching and describing more than 40 product features. When considering several products and their features, the number of items to consider quickly adds up. Decision makers cannot do a problem this big in their head. In fact, memory span limits us to consider just 7 to 9 things at once. Considering these facts, the site allows you to step through a number of processes to consider all the aspects of a course management system.’
Product List
WCET’s EduTools homepage
Technorati Tags: CMS, eLearning, eLearning Platforms, Online Courses
