Archive for October, 2007
October 28th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Promoting Academic Integrity in Online Distance Learning Courses, Robert T. Kitahara and Frederick Westfall, Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT), Vol. 3, No. 3, September 2007. Abstract: In committing to provide a quality education using online Distance Learning (DL) as the delivery mechanism, a university must face new challenges to ensuring academic integrity in the behavior of its students. In addition to the predictable challenges associated with the online format of DL courses there are additional challenges stimulated by the attitudes of the current student population and the increasing permissiveness of our society. This paper introduces issues relevant to promoting academic integrity with an example of a university’s published Standards of Conduct, exemplifies the nature of the problem with recent cases of academic dishonesty, reviews the current literature highlighting the extent of the problem, and assesses a technology-based approach to its solution.
October 25th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
iLearning Forum 2008. The iLearning Forum 2008 will take place on Monday 4th February and Tuesday 5th February 2008 at the Palais des Congrès de Paris. This event is the largest international and European eLearning conference in France and attracts policy-makers, human resource managers, trainers, teachers and suppliers of learning technology solutions from all over Europe and worldwide - over 30 countries were represented in 2007. Following from eLearnExpo, this will be the 7th year that eLearning professionals from France, Europe and overseas are brought together in Paris to explore learning technologies. The theme of this year’s event is “Learning in the 21st century”.
Access to the exhibition as well as the Exhibition Presentation Area is free. Pre-registration is recommended for quick and easy
access to the event.
Conference themes: Designing eStrategies for learning organisations, Designing learning spaces with advanced learning technologies, Exploiting the full potential of digital identity and Improving quality of learning with technologies.
October 18th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
The Economist Debate Series:
First Debate, Oct. 15th-23rd, 2007: Effectiveness of Technology - Does new technology add to the quality of education?
In favour of the proposition is Sir John Daniel, President and CEO of The Commonwealth of Learning. Opposing the motion is Dr Robert Kozma, Emeritus Director and Principal Scientist at SRI International.
Second Debate: National Competitiveness - Should countries compete to attract qualified students regardless of nationality and residence?
Third Debate: Social Networking - Does it bring positive change to education?
October 15th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
OLAT (Online Learning And Training) is a web-based open-source Learning Management System (LMS) based on Java and completely free of charge.
The development of OLAT started in 1999 at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, where it is the strategic learning management system and deployed on the main OLAT server. The University of Zurich leads the further development and has a team of 12 developers pushing OLAT to the next level.
See the OLAT feature list or the documentation section to get more information about OLAT.’
OLAT main features:
It is open-source and therefore free of charge
The Java based framework can handle over 700 students simultaneously on one standard Linux server
OLAT uses cutting edge AJAX/Web 2.0 technology
It is multilingual (UTF8) and offers translations for over 15 languages
OLAT supports eLearning standards such as SCORM, IMS Content Packaging or QTI
October 15th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
New JISC publication explores the learner’s perspective on e-learning. ‘A new publication from the JISC e-Learning Programme, In Their Own Words, has been launched at ALT-C in Nottingham. Synthesising outputs from Phase 1 of the Learners’ Experiences of e-Learning theme, it gives striking insights into learners’ motivations, beliefs and intentions about using technology in learning.
Designed as a flexible package to assist others in understanding the learner’s perspective on e-learning, In Their Own Words also provides a range of resources for internal institutional use. These include two pull-out information sheets on the social software and personal tools and technologies used by the learners participating in the studies, and a CD-ROM containing the original reports from the studies, five video case studies and a series of short guides summarising key messages for different sectors and roles.
In Their Own Words will primarily be of interest to managers, academic practitioners and technical staff in further and higher education, but is also of relevance to researchers and systems and tools developers.’
Learner Experiences of e-Learning: Phase 1 and Phase 2.
October 14th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
This post is a little bit far away from online learning but it is Sunday and a friend has called my attention to this concept and I like it! A Spanish immersion school located at Costa Rica (Playa Tamarindo) offers not only Spanish language courses but also surf and scuba diving programmes. The overall idea is to study Spanish in the morning and take surf or dive classes in the afternoon. Very refreshing and motivating! Learn Spanish & Surf Partnership School offers several options, the site is very informative and is undeniably an original option for those interested in Spanish immersion learning.
October 9th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
The eLearning Guild’s Handbook of e-Learning Strategy. ‘In many organizations, there is a need to better identify and document a comprehensive learning strategy and to answer the question, “What should we be doing in order to support improved learning and performance?” This e-Book will help you make a broad, fundamental connection between learning, e-Learning, and your organization’s mission, business objectives, and the bottom line. Chapters address everything from crafting a focused strategy, to keeping your strategy focused, to change management. Refocus on e-Learning strategy and insure that your e-Learning technology and methodology investments pay off and so you can achieve your e-Learning goals.’
The Insider’s Guide to Becoming a Rapid E-Learning Pro. ‘One of the great benefits of rapid e-learning is the ability to create e-learning courses much faster and easier than ever before. However, going faster and making your job easier are not the only considerations. That’s where this free 46-page ebook by Tom Kuhlmann comes in.’
October 7th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
‘Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a freely available teaching tool designed to be a student’s first exposure to object-oriented programming. It allows students to learn fundamental programming concepts in the context of creating animated movies and simple video games. In Alice, 3-D objects (e.g., people, animals, and vehicles) populate a virtual world and students create a program to animate the objects.
In Alice’s interactive interface, students drag and drop graphic tiles to create a program, where the instructions correspond to standard statements in a production oriented programming language, such as Java, C++, and C#. Alice allows students to immediately see how their animation programs run, enabling them to easily understand the relationship between the programming statements and the behavior of objects in their animation. By manipulating the objects in their virtual world, students gain experience with all the programming constructs typically taught in an introductory programming course.’
October 2nd, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Sketchcast. ‘Sketchcasting is a new way to communicate something online by recording a sketch, optionally with your voice speaking. Any sketch can then be embedded on your blog/ homepage for people to play-back, and you can also point people to your sketchcast channel here (or let them subscribe to your sketchcast RSS feed).
Sketchcast is new but it’s based on an old principle: the whiteboard (or the napkin in a bar) on which you sketch something to get a concept across… or to just have some fun. Sketchasting was invented by Richard Ziade on July 23rd, 2007.
Richard Ziade blog: basement.org
October 1st, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Art Education 2.0 - Using New Technology in Art Classrooms. ‘Art Education 2.0 is for art educators at all levels who are interested in using digital technologies to enhance and transform teaching and learning in their classrooms. The aim of Art Education 2.0 is to explore ways of using technology to promote effective art education practices, encourage cultural exchanges and joint creative work, and support artistic projects and curricular activities deemed important by members. Art Education 2.0 is a social network created by Craig Roland on Ning.’
Ning in Education - Using Ning for Educational Social Networks: the social network for those using the Ning social networking platform in education.
Ning social networks tagged ‘education’
