Archive for April, 2007
April 30th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
2007 European LAMS Conference. ‘Following the success of the First International LAMS conference in 2006, the focus of the conference is on designing for the future. Where will Learning Design take us now? How is LAMS shaping up? What are the challenges for individuals and organisations? Importantly we want to capture the experience of those who have used LAMS and share some of the lessons learnt in higher education, the K-12 sector, vocational and professional education.’
The 2007 European LAMS conference will be held on July 5th at University of Greenwich University, London, UK.
LAMS Foundation. ‘LAMS is a revolutionary new tool for designing, managing and delivering online collaborative learning activities. It provides teachers with a highly intuitive visual authoring environment for creating sequences of learning activities. These activities can include a range of individual tasks, small group work and whole class activities based on both content and collaboration.’
The LAMS Conference follows the Designing for Learning Conference (4 July 2007), which is being held at the same venue earlier in the week. ‘Effective design in a technology-rich environment is characterised by activity-based learning, with learners having increasingly more choice over the technologies they use. Promises of enhanced flexibility and improved learning are now being realised through 21st Century ‘new build’ and the adaptation of existing physical environments. This conference considers how learning and teaching practices need to change if these opportunities are to be realised.’
April 28th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Elgg. ‘Elgg is an open source software platform designed to allow people to easily connect and share resources. Established in March 2004 by Ben Werdmuller and David Tosh, Elgg allows you to create a social network and host it on your own infrastructure, modifying the features to fit your specific needs.
Users establish personal digital identities and connect with other people, collaborate with them and discover new resources through their connections. Plugins allow users on different social networks to collaborate, and provide specific functionality for tasks like project management, mobile browsing and collaboration through user-controlled wikis.’
Elgg Features and User Manual
April 27th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
So You Want to Teach Online? ‘This program is a broadband learning tool intended for those individuals who wish to learn more about online learning. The modules address your role as an instructor, online pedagogy, copyright and assessment. You will notice different methods of presentattion and different technologies that will help you generate ideas for your own online courses.’
April 25th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Pokémon Learning League - Interactice, Animated Lessons for Elementary Schools. ‘Pokémon Learning League is a web-based series of standards-driven, interactive animated lessons for grades 3-6. Guided by an esteemed Advisory Board, the series leverages sound educational practices and Pokémon’s sustaining popularity with children to help teach Science, Math, Language Arts and Life Skills topics in a uniquely appealing manner. Comprised of a narrative tutorial (watch), guided practice (try) and an interactive challenge (apply); each lesson delivers a supportive and scaffolded learning environment for students. Pokémon Learning League’s engaging and flexible format offers educators an innovative supplemental resource to reinforce their teaching.’
Pokémon Learning League Named a Finalist for Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers. ‘Pokémon Learning League, the new online educational suite of animated, interactive lessons in core curriculum for grades 3-6, has been selected as a finalist for a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP). Developed by Pokémon USA, Inc., Pokémon Learning League has signed up more than 18,000 registered users since it was launched in October 2006.’
Association of Educational Publishers (AEP): 2007 AEP Award Finalists
April 24th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Open Access Learning Environments, Kenneth Mentor, Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, Vol. 10, Spring 2007. From the abstract: Educational institutions are increasingly adopting “closed†learning environments that hide learning materials in password-protected areas. While this may be a logical solution to a range of problems, much is lost in this mode of course delivery. Although there are logical reasons for moving toward closed environments, we may be erring too far on the side of caution. Educators and administrators are encouraged to consider the advantages of alternative models that respect the need for privacy while opening learning opportunities to a wider population.
Many of today’s online learning environments are private. This privacy is the consequence of institutional decisions that have resulted in the closing of learning environments to all but those who have officially enrolled in an institution or particular course. While many of these decisions are logical from an administrative standpoint, educators interested in making learning opportunities available to the masses may have a different perspective. While the Internet creates the opportunity to publish learning opportunities that are available to millions, at relatively low cost, educational institutions are increasingly responding to issues of privacy and intellectual property by hiding entire learning environments behind passwords.’
April 24th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Read/Write Web: The World Of Wikis. ‘A Wiki can be described as a website that allows visitors to add, remove, edit and change its content. The invention of the Wiki is credited to a guy called Ward Cunningham, who in 1994 developed a site called WikiWikiWeb. It was/is a place to collect information on people, projects and patterns in software development.’
Howstuffworks: How Wikis Work. ‘Chances are that you have heard of Wikis by now - they seem to be popping up everywhere. For example, the most famous wiki is called Wikipedia, a massive online encyclopedia. Wikipedia has become so large (more than a million articles) that you run across it all the time in Google. It is so popular that it is now one of the Top 100 web sites in the world! Despite their popularity, Wikis seem very strange to many people. Where does all the information come from? Is it reliable? What stops people from vandalizing a wiki until it dies? These questions and many others will be answered as we dive into the world of wikis…’
From WikiWikiWeb site: Choosinga Wiki and Wiki Farms
April 20th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
ProProfs Online Free SAT Exam Study Center. ‘The site features a comprehensive collection of SAT preparation material (covering all three major areas of the exam) that includes study guides, flash cards, practice questions, and even simulated exams. Quizzes, videos, blogs and interactive forums are also provided. The ProProfs SAT School also uses Web 2.0 technologies like Wikis to continually improve by being open to the e-learning community for editing and content contribution. Discussion forums, online file exchange, creation of quizzes/flashcards, student blogs and tagging of resources are also supported. All SAT Test Prep Study Aids are totally free for students and educators.’
April 17th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Making Online Learning Mandatory. ‘Starting this fall, all students at Northwest State Community College, in Archbold, Ohio, will be required to take at least one online course to graduate. More than 60 percent of last year’s graduates already took one or more online courses, but administrators and college trustees want all students to be well versed in independent research and discovery — skills that employers demand, they say — and feel that online education is one way to accomplish that.
Northwest State Community College: Classes Offered on the Internet
April 17th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
MIT World Webcast: Relearning Learning - Applying the Long Tail to Learning, by John Seely Brown. ‘In a digitally connected, rapidly evolving world, we must transcend the traditional Cartesian models of learning that prescribe “pouring knowledge into somebody’s head,†says John Seely Brown. We learn through our interactions with others and the world, he says, and there’s no more perfect medium for enabling this than an increasingly open and organized World Wide Web.
While the wired world may be flat, it now also features “spikes,†interactive communities organized around a wealth of subjects. For kids growing up in a digital world, these unique web resources are becoming central to popular culture, notes Brown. Now, educators must begin to incorporate the features of mash-ups and remixes in learning, to stimulate “creative tinkering and the play of imagination.â€
Wikipedia: The Long Tail. ‘The phrase The Long Tail (as a proper noun with capitalized letters) was first coined by Chris Anderson in an October 2004 Wired magazine article to describe certain business and economic models such as Amazon.com or Netflix. The term long tail is also generally used in statistics, often applied in relation to wealth distributions or vocabulary use.’
Wired: The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. ‘Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.’
The Long Tail Blog
April 16th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Wanted: Single standard for open-content licenses. ‘New effort aims to unite open educational resources (OERs) under a common framework for permissions. The movement toward open course materials for education has created something of a problem: Although a number of repositories have been set up to allow users to download sharable online content, many of these sites contain materials that use different licensing agreements. Now, a new initiative from the nonprofit Creative Commons aims to solve this problem. Called CC Learn, the project seeks to create a single, standard licensing framework that can encompass all open educational resources.’
Creative Commons Opportunities: CC Learn Executive Director. ‘CC Learn is looking for an Executive Director.
April 15th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Is Education 1.0 Ready for Web 2.0 Students?, by John Thompson, Innovate, Vol. 3 (2007). ‘Web 2.0 is here. Internet users are not only finding information on the Internet; they are also creating and uploading content. What will be the impact on colleges and universities as more digitally savvy students, those who are accustomed to Web 2.0’s two-way information exchange, enter their halls? Beginning with an exploration of the meaning and application of Web 2.0, this article considers how Net Generation students with Web 2.0 expectations will reshape institutions of higher education.’
April 11th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
‘The EDUCAUSE Board of Directors invites nominations and applications for President and CEO of EDUCAUSE, the association for information technology in higher education. With offices in Boulder, Colorado, and Washington, D.C., EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association [IRS 501(c)(3)] whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. The current membership comprises more than 2,100 colleges, universities, and educational organizations, including 200 corporations, with over 16,500 active members.The application deadline is May 31, 2007.’
