Partnering for Professionalism - e-learning networks

I am now updating these resources via Squidoo

2007-08-31T16:30:00.000-07:00

I have created a number of Squidoo lenses to provide
regular updating of these resources on online
learning and e-learning.

Here are the links:
http://www.squidoo.com/onlinelearningresources

http://www.squidoo.com/digital-storytelling

http://www.squidoo.com/mobilelearning

http://www.squidoo.com/e-assessment

http://www.squidoo.com/educationpodcast

http://www.squidoo.com/e-portfolios

Have you been using the free Squidoo platform
in your teaching?

Be inspired by Lensmaster Evelyn Saenz who states:
"My passion is teaching and finding ways to teach
children in fun, hands-on, creative ways. The unit studies
I make on Squidoo reflect my view that learning should
be integrated and no skills should be taught in isolation."

To see Evelyn's innovative lesson plans, CLICK HERE.

I've also created a lens on Squidoo Marketing
Strategies that you can draw on to develop and
market Squidoo lenses about your courses, your teaching
and yourself:
http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

On these lenses, you will find links to my free
email course on developing and marketing
Squidoo lenses.

Registration for this e-course also comes with a subscription
to my weekly ezine where I offer updated Squidoo
marketing strategies and hints.

My e-book on Squidoo marketing can be found
here:
http://www.squidoomarketingstrategies.com/

Ron Passfield
Brisbane Australia
rpassfield@optusnet.com.au

e-portfolio:
http://www.ronpassfield.com/

Market your blog or online course with Squidoo

2007-01-31T16:28:00.000-08:00

Squidoo is a fairly new social networking site with a
difference. It has a very professional look about it
and provides the opportunity for anyone to create
a "lens" on their work.

Squidoo donates a percentage of their advertising
revenue to charity.

You can create as many lenses as you want - and its
free.

Here's some good examples:

Alternative learning systems:
http://www.squidoo.com/learningsystem/

Self-directed, distance learning:
http://www.squidoo.com/BFU-edu

National parks and monuments:
http://www.squidoo.com/nationalparksandmonuments

On wine:
http://www.squidoo.com/wineo

How to sing:
http://www.squidoo.com/howtosing

Innovation:
http://www.squidoo.com/associationinnovation

For resources on how to use Squidoo, check out this site.

Squidoo is ranked 6/10 by Google so having your website
or blog linked to Squidoo via a lens will help your own search
engine ranking.

Technorati Tags:
Squidoo, online learning, blog marketing, Squidoo lens, marketing online learning

Robin Good's Resources: reviews of web conferencing tools plus....

2006-12-07T17:50:00.000-08:00

Robin Good (alias for Luigi Canali De Rossi) provides a wide range of
resources that can be accessed free. Here's a sample:

1. Robin Good's Official Guide To Web Conferencing And
Live Presentation Tools

The guide involves over 650 Web pages and 800+ color screenshots
covering 23 tools with 22 comparison tables across the whole range
of features and facilities. Luigi states that it is updated to
October 2005 (but I notice a review of Groove - Feb. 2006).

This resource can be accessed here:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/reports/webconferencing/guide/

or by clicking here.

The table of contents is available here.

[The subsequent posting on Adobe Acrobat 8 (Acrobat Connect)
gives you some sense of the depth of the reviews provided.]

2. Mastermind Explorer

This is a monthly newsletter sharing new tools, technologies and
providing access to critical unexposed information to facilitate
positive change, through better communication and more
effective learning.

Here's some features of this monthly newsletter:

- More than 30 pages of reviews and useful content
- No ads
- Independent (truly)
- Unique articles and exclusive content not available elsewhere
- RSS Newsfeed (for each one of the research categories covered)
- Daily news blog (Sharewood Tidings)
- All content archived and searchable online
- Text only - compatible with all email clients
- Only some rights reserved - Creative Commons license
- Over 8200 subscribers in 50 different countries
- Free - no strings attached
- A work of passion and good research

Here's Robin's (Luigi's) stated philosophy:

MasterMind Explorer supports Open Source tools, valuable
Shareware and Freeware, non-profit projects, alternative tools
to large software monopolies, Grassroots tools and technologies.

For more background on the content/purpose and Luigi himself
can be found on the sign-up page here:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/mastermindexplorer.htm

Here's a post that you might like to reflect on over the
Chrissie break (it asks some challenging questions):

Learning: Will my kids still go to College?

Review of Acrobat Connect - Online Collaboration and Web Conferencing

2006-12-07T17:39:00.000-08:00

Online Collaboration And SOHO Web Conferencing:
Acrobat Connect Is The New Reference

by Robin Good, 7 December 2006

This is Robin Good's assessment of Adobe Acrobat 8 (Adobe Connect)
which was released on 6 December 2006.

Here's the introduction:

"Yesterday, Adobe officially announced the release of the new
Adobe Acrobat 8 which carries now within itself the fertile seed
of easy-to-use real-time online collaboration for just about everyone.

The new Acrobat Connect not only facilitates instantaneous
document exchange and review but makes web conferencing and
collaboration instantaneously accessible from the hundreds of
millions of existing Acrobat users out there.

Yes, the breakthrough news for the new Adobe Acrobat 8, which
is a major new upgrade from the preceding version, is not so much
the cool and highly usable new interface or advanced new commands
but rather the premier integration of the core Macromedia Breeze
technology, now labeled Connect, into every single instance of
Acrobat Reader and Professional versions.

To me this, is really "the announcement of the year" for the web
conferencing and online collaboration industries. Nothing that has
happened in 2006 has had or will have the impact that the
introduction of Acrobat Connect (Macromedia Breeze under disguise)
technology will have on the use, adoption and popularization of
such collaboration and conferencing tools."

For the full article, click here or click the title of this post.

Illinois Online Conference (IOC) for Teaching and Learning - February 14th to 16th 2007

2006-12-07T13:42:00.000-08:00

Below is an invitation from Stephen Garran to join the 2007
conference.

Even if you are not intending to present or participate, I would
strongly recommend you visit the "live archives" from
the 2006 conference. The conference papers and Powerpoint
presentations are embedded in an active blog.

I had a browse and created the post on collaborative learning
from one quick look. There are heaps of useful resources here
- all you have to do is subscribe for free to get a username and
password:
http://home.learningtimes.net/ioc2006

Here's Stephen Garren's invitation to the
2007 conference:

"Presentation proposals are being accepted for the 5th Annual
Illinois Online Conference (IOC) for Teaching and Learning.
Featured speakers include Tony Bates, Margaret Maag,
Chip Banks and Jonathan Finkelstein.

For more information, go to our website at:
http://www.ilonlineconf.org

Submissions will be accepted through December 13, 2006.

The conference will be held February 14-16, 2007. Please
submit your proposal here:
http://www.ilonlineconf.org/index.cfm?page=callForProposals

This year the Curriculum, Technology, and Education Reform
(CTER) Online Master of Education Program from the University
of Illinois will feature a hybrid conference live from the University
of Illinois in Champaign and through the IOC community.

Presenters and participants online will be given access to both the
IOC and CTER conferences. This conference - which is attended by
participants from all across the globe - is held entirely on the
Internet using: live virtual classrooms, recorded
presentations, email, web poster sessions, synchronous
chats, discussion areas, and other Internet technologies.

IOC was created to focus on issues and concerns of K-20 classroom
faculty and related technology support, learning resources, student
services, and workforce development professionals.

IOC 2007 takes place in a LearningTimes Online Conference
Community - an online environment in which groups of participants,
both small and large, gather electronically to learn, collaborate and
network. Not sure how an online conference works? Want to
experience the conference community before registering?

Highlights from last year's conference are available at:
http://home.learningtimes.net/ioc2006

For more information, please contact:
Stephen P. Garren, Director of Learning Technologies
Center for Technology and Professional Development
Lake Land College, 5001 Lake Land Blvd.Mattoon,
IL 61938 Phone:(217) 234-5459 "

Storytelling & Collaborative E-Learning

2006-12-07T13:14:00.000-08:00

This 15 page pdf by Janet Salmons, PhD, covers:

Storytelling styles for the collaborative online classroom
A taxonomy of collaborative learning
Align storytelling activity to collaborative skills development
Use discussion questions to stimulate meaningful exchange
Exchange online through digital storytelling
Webliography on collaborative e-learning

The pdf is available here:
http://www.vision2lead.com/Storytelling.pdf

If you are into collaborative learning, Janet's blog
for educators is well worth a visit with articles on
collaborative/team learning, blogs and team learning,
teaching with virtual teams, visual mapping and learning
through stories:
http://blog.elearn2lead.com/

Some of the resources she shares include the following:

Concept Maps and Shared Concept maps -
Cmap- http://cmap.ihmc.us/
ClaiMaker - http://claimaker.open.ac.uk/
(specifically designed to construct and map arguments
and debates)

Stanford on iTunes U: Revolutionizing Curriculum and Communications

2006-12-07T12:55:00.000-08:00

Report from Apple.com: Profiles in Success

"Palo Alto, CA - In April of 2005, Stanford University joined a
select group of pioneers. As a founding member of the
Apple Digital Campus Exchange, the university began exploring a
future in which pervasive computing and the use of devices such
as iPod would play a significant role in education. Soon after, the
university launched its "Stanford on iTunes" initiative, which
gave users an easy way to access rich digital materials. Now,
Stanford on iTunes U offers a wealth of audio and video content
to the university's academic community worldwide.

Stanford on iTunes U first got underway when Stanford's Vice
Provost for Undergraduate Education began exploring the
possibility of delivering course content to students via an
iTunes site. Soon after, the Office of University Communications
recognized the potential to deliver recorded lectures and other
campus events to alumni and the general public through an
iTunes U site. Given the university's enormous repository
of content, this new medium immediately proved invaluable
in keeping the Stanford community connected."

For the full report (3 pages) go here:
http://www.apple.com/education/profiles/stanford/

PS. The Apple Digital Campus Exchange is well worth a visit:
http://www.apple.com/education/hed/adc/exchange.html

I had a browse and subscribed to a series of podcasts on
learning Italian - free resources provided direct to my iTunes
for easy download to my iPod.

Social Networking: Five Sites You Need to Know

2006-12-05T23:29:00.000-08:00

Here is an excerpt from Fred Stutzman who has a blog
dedicated to his thoughts about information, social
networks, identity and technology:

"In preparation for some upcoming research, I've been
surveying the field of Social Networking sites. The only way
to characterize growth in the field is explosive; while I don't
have actual numbers on how many social networking sites
are out there, my informal survey shows we are talking at
least hundreds, with more coming online each day.

In the span of a year, social networking has proliferated
- hundreds of millions of users have accounts on SNS-enabled
sites. Indeed, social networking is now "just another feature"
of many sites - we're coming to expect sites to be SNS-enabled.

At this point, you're probably familiar with the major SNS
players - MySpace, Facebook, Classmates.com, even
Friendster - as there are hundreds of emergent SNS players,
what are sites you need to pay attention to? "

Here's Fred's annotated list:
http://chimprawk.blogspot.com/2006/06/social-networking-five-sites-you-need.html

Technorati Tags: social network sites, social networking, SNS-enabled sites, social networking

Internal Tags: The power of MySpace and the MySpace generation

Understanding Learning Networks: Stephen Downes

2006-12-04T17:43:00.000-08:00

Presentation to Universite de Moncton, November 2, 2006.

This presentation is an excellent resource - great Chrissie
reading!

It brings together lots of seemingly disparate ideas in the area
of online learning/e-learning.

You can download the Powerpoint presentation here:
http://www.downes.ca/files/udem.ppt

The presentation is also available in MP3 format here:
http://www.downes.ca/

Stephen covers topics such as:
Web 2.0
- content creation & posting
- collaborative writing
- content syndication (RSS networks)
- aggregators
- webtops
E-Learning 2.0 (diagram)
Personalised learning environments
The Future of Online Learning

This is a great way to review your own learning for the
past year and review the connections between the different
elements. It also gives some insight into where online
learning is headed.

Technorati Tags: learning networks, Web 2.0, RSS, online learning

Internal Tags: The power of MySpace and the MySpace generation

Mobile Learning Journal

2006-12-04T16:49:00.000-08:00

Mobile Learning: An Online Reflective Journal on Mobile
Learning Practice

by Leonard Low

I have re-visited this online journal (blog) and continue
to be impressed.

If you want to keep up-to-date with what is happening with
mobile learning, here's a good place to start:
http://mlearning.edublogs.org/

You can subscribe to the Leonard's newsletter or receive RSS
feeds by going here:
http://mlearning.edublogs.org/contact/

Here's some recent posts that give you a flavour of what's on offer:

Mobile Learning goes retro
Bluepulse: Aussie innovation best mobile media platform ever?
Top 10 Freeware Apps for M-Learning
PortableApps Suite: Take your tools anywhere
Augmented reality m-learning concept
Mobile phone convergence (humour)
iTube: Get YouTube [educational] videos for your iPod/PDA

When you are visiting don't forget to check out the great
listing of categories/subcategories provided on the right
side of the blog.

Technorati Tags: mobile learning, mobile learning freeware, iTube, m-learning

Internal Tags: M-Learning: Overcoming indifference and lack of support, M-Learning: Skills audit and checklist for developers and students

PFP Blog Survey

2006-11-23T12:18:00.000-08:00

Please contribute to the survey on the PFP Blog:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=862452935998

Why are we doing this survey?

The PfP Blog is currently funded by the Australian
Flexible Learning Framework, Queensland. It was
previously funded by LearnScope and the Department
of Education and Training.

In order for the Blog to continue into 2007, we
need to assess its value for you as a VET
practitioner. We are interested in how it has
contributed to your professional development
(and that of others) and how it has assisted you
in your work.

We really appreciate your time and effort in
completing this survey at this very busy time
of the year:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=862452935998

Ron Passfield

Indigenous Engagement - national forum

2006-11-23T01:43:00.000-08:00

WHEN: 9am - 4:30pm, 5th December 2006

WHERE: Mecure Hotel, Brisbane

COST: $99 (including GST)

REGISTRATION: To register online click here.

To download the registration form click here.

PROGRAM: To view the program click here.

MORE INFORMATION: indigenous@flexiblelearning.net.au

If you cannot attend, you may be interested in the reports
and mp3 summaries of the four cases being showcased:

Jobs for our mob: Indigenous e-learning for mining and construction skills
Top End Groove: e-learning for cultural tourism
E-governance in Indigenous Communities
Homeland micro e-business: e-learning on very remote Indigenous communities

Technorati Tags: indigenous engagment, e-learning, e-learning for cultural tourism, indigenous e-learning

Survey - Social Software for Learning

2006-11-22T22:27:00.000-08:00

STOP PRESS - SURVEY CLOSES 30 November 2006

The Australian Flexible Learning Framework is funding
a research project focusing on the use of social
software for learning.

The current research investigates how social software can
best support teaching and learning in VTE and the learning
and development of VTE practitioners.

It’s being funded by the Research and Policy Advice and
Knowledge Sharing Services projects of the Framework.

The researcher is Val Evans Consulting and work is well
underway. You can monitor progress through the Social
Software Research Wiki and Blog.

The current phase of the research is the launch of the
Social Software for Learning Survey which aims to target
a broad audience - those who are less familiar with the
concepts as well as those who use social software frequently.

We’d appreciate your support by -
1. participating in the survey yourself
2. referring your networks to the Flex e-news story

You are also strongly encouraged to contibute to the
Social Software Research Wiki and Blog.

Contributions, insights, responses to specific research
questions or just general musings, related to this contemporary
subject are welcomed.

The research team is particularly interested in
your stories - share your stories, musings and/or your
visions , and add your links to the research wiki or contact
the researcher, Val Evans:
valevans@bigpond.com

Alternatively, you can contact Paula Johnson:
Paula.Johnson@det.nsw.edu.au

Knowledge Sharing Services and Research and Policy Advice
Projects

Technorati Tags: social software, Web2.0 technologies, social software for learning, social software research

The Power of MySpace and the "MySpace" Generation

2006-11-22T19:57:00.000-08:00

One of the EdNA network groups has been discussing the power of
MySpace and the MySpace Generation.

At one stage, this question was asked:
How many of you in the community, have a myspace, facebook or
Xanga [site]?

Stephen Downes' response to this question throws some light
on the possible future online environment and the challenges
it presents for educators. Stephen is happy for this information
to be shared in the PfP blog:

"I do, have had for a couple of years now. I have accounts on
LiveJournal, Friendster, LinkedIn, MySpace, Bebo, Orkut,
Tribe and a bunch of others. The technology isn't that complex,
and they all work more or less the same, only the marketing is
different.

Most of these sites are blocked in school divisions and even at
the TAFE level. This of course in no way prevents students
from accessing them, even during school hours (as contact
may be maintained by mobile) but it does prevent them
from being used to support learning.

I would not invest heavily in any of these spaces, as they are
a transition phenomenon. A transition to what is less clear
- YouTube overtook MySpace as the most popular website a
few months ago, but growth flattened after the Google
acquisition, as you can see on Alexa:
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?url=youtube.com

I would also not bother taking the time to block them - such
action is in my view merely a pandering to fearmongers, and
not an effective tactic - but that is another story.

My own view is that we are moving toward permanent
personal presences on the net. That is, a person's online
presence would not be site-based, as it is with any of these social
networking services, but would be access based. It would either
be a part of their web client (ie., a part of their browser, the way
Flock does it) or a shell or webtop through which they access
other resources.

The reason for this is that it produces a single identity that
can be used across a number of different sites. This means that,
once the access point is created, users no longer need to log
on (contrast this to 'single signon' systems that are being
developed for the education sector, that work only at schools
or universities).

It also means that a person's network of connections can
extend across the internet, not mattering at all on which
service they use. Hence, if a person uses service A as a webtop,
they can still include their friend in their network, even if that
friend uses service B.

It also allows identities to be (semantically) attached to content.
It may be surprising, but there is no widespread usage of an
'author' field in metadata today; although RSS and Atom support
this, most content editors don't fill it in, because there's no point
- either the author information is not available, or it can't be
used by the aggregator (there is not enough use of formats other
than RSS or Atom to make their use of the author field relevant).

Moreover, there is no 'place' to link to, nothing that constitutes
an authors presence online (even where author fields are used,
as in Dublin Core, only base strings are used (foolishly) and not
web addresses).

It is taking longer than it should to develop such a system -
and meanwhile, the number of site-specific Web 2.0 applications
begins to proliferate - because there is no good business model.
These sites thrive by locking in traffic into their own services,
and hence, are not interested in infrastructure that allows travel
between sites (this is also what motivates the education sector
systems, such as Shibboleth, but nobody will admit it).

Preliminary work is being done toward this sort of infratructure
in the development of the Person al Learning Environment (PLE): http://www.cetis.ac.uk/members/ple/

... although it still continues to be a bit application (and education
focused). In the wider world, there is some hope OpenID,
http://openid.net/ will take hold, although its functionality is
severly constrained.

Yadis, http://yadis.org , represents a nascent attempt to create
a common standard. PeopleAggregator,
http://peopleaggregator.com/ , is attempting to develop the
network, but is again too site-heavy.

What these trends mean for the education sector is
that in a few years we can expect students to arrive in our
classes with an already established web identity.

What this means is not only that they will have their own email,
instant messaging, voip and other addresses (which they will
much prefer to use over any school system) they will also
have their own tools for creating content (significantly -
they will have these tools, they won't need to have them
provided).

They will use a variety of services - for video, for example,
some may use Premiere to create video while others may use
Bender, and some may post to Google Video and others to
YouTube.

It will be increasingly difficult for education systems
to continue blocking these sites - I read on a discussion
board yesterday the recommendation to "take your students
out of class" in order to allow them to upload their video
creations.

Some schools may consider creating their own versions of all
the services (and will pay Blackboard (who will claim to have
invented it) a fortune for the software). But this approach will be
seen as barren and sterile - you cannot create an internet out of
a classroom population; even with today's mega-classes, the
population is just too small (reseach the 'one percent
phenomenon' of people commenting to listservs, posts and
websites).

On the other hand, opening learning to the students' web
environment opens up numerous possibilities for the
educational system. Because their work is now being
performed in public, rather than in the hothouse of the
classroom, students are much more motivated (this is
a most commonly documented result of the use of
blogs in the classroom). (Though it should be noted that
this increases stress, and that some students may not
want their work displayed - this is why they need to have
personal control over their environment).

It also opens up many more networking possibilities.
The obvious is that conversations with students around the
world may be encouraged. But more importantly, students in a
given field will begin to interact with practitioners in the same
field.

We already see this happening on discussion lists (such as this
one (or would, if it were more open)). This allows practitioners
to take on the role of (informal) teachers through the process
of performing their work.

In the long run, what we will find is that this capacity leads
to much more continuity of community than today.

With students and workers increasingly mobile, following an
increasingly fickle employment market, it has been difficult to
maintain family and community ties. Permanent web presences
and communities offers an obvious counter to this trend.

Sites like Flickr, especially, allow people to maintain family
connections, instantly sharing photos. Skype and other
communications tools allow them to converse in real time,
bridging time and distance.

A lot of people focus on the 'MySpace generation', as though use
of this technology were an age-related phenomenon. Empirically,
it is - the bulk of users tend to be from a certain age group. But
age is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for use. A major
secondary group of users is the elderly, who have seized on the
internet as a means of breaking through isolation and boredom,
and to restore tenuous family connections.

Nothing in principle prevents adults from becoming as adept as the
younger generation. It requires, though, adapting to what might
be called net values. It requires being able to adapt to the
coexistence of multiple points of view, with no real mechanism for
determining 'the truth'. It requires giving up the capacity for
management and control, giving up the idea that you can enforce
compliance (how could you, when they can simply log off?)
and make people do things, even if it's good for them.

It requires that you become less inclined to create walls and borders
around your life, that you do things (like take notes and conduct
meetings) online and in public, rather than privately, as used to
be the case.

This is what makes the new online environment such a
challenge to teachers and administrators. What the
internet brings to the new generation is a set of affordances not
previously available, and with these affordances comes a new
attitude and behaviour, one which embraces autonomy,
diversity, openness and interaction."

(Emphasis added and paragraph structure changed to increase
readability on the blog.)

Show parent
See this post in context

Technorati Tags: MySpace, student web presence, flock, PLE

Internal Tags: MySpace for education

Showcasing E-Learning in Practice

2006-11-08T15:25:00.000-08:00

November Online Event: Showcasing
E-learning in Practice

20 - 22 November 2006

Registration now open
http://networksevents.flexiblelearning.net.au

Focus of the event is on showcasing:

* latest developments in Australian e-learning, including
new ideas and approaches
* practical implementation of e-learning for different
client groups
* engaging newly interested people (the 'second wave')
in using e-learning in easy and exciting ways.

Keynote speakers:

Avril Henry
Tuesday 21 November
1:00 - 2:00pm AEST

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young
Wednesday 22 November
9:00 - 10:00am AEST

The event is FREE and open to those new to e-learning,
along with those of you with some experience.

Everyone needs to register (even if you registered for the
last two online events).

To register go to:
http://networksevents.flexiblelearning.net.au

Induction sessions: These workshops are really useful
in getting to know the features of Elluminate to enable
you to fully participate in the live synchronous sessions.

Thursday 9 November at 11:00am – 12:00noon AEST
To access the first Induction Session go to:
http://tinyurl.com/ymdw5n

Thursday 9 November at 3:00pm – 4:00pm AEST
To access the Induction Session go to:
http://tinyurl.com/y4syuw

More information:
For any enquiries regarding registration and participation
for this online event and also for assistance with
Elluminate, contact the E-learning Networks project
office.

Email: networks@flexiblelearning.net.au
Phone: + 61 2 6207 4832
Website: http://flexiblelearning.net.au/networks

The Knowledge Tree - Going Communal (Edition 11)

2006-11-08T15:07:00.000-08:00

The Knowledge Tree - an E-Learning Journal

Edition II - Going Communal

This edition’s main focus is looking at what it means to be in
community on the Web, that is, examining what is community
or communion, the structures being used to create Web
communities, the types of communites that are emerging,
the processes used to facilitate online communities, the
elationships being formed within Web communities and
the uses of Web communities in education.

Key content:

Blogs and Community - launching a new paradigm
for online community?
Nancy White

Blogging at the Chalkface
Alison Gotts

Moodling while mobile: an interview with Leo Gaggl

Thinking beyond pen and paper:
an interview with Jenny Ashby

Book review: Mobile Learning: A handbook for educators
and trainers
Ian Robertson

Technorati Tags: blogs, blogs and community, blogging, moodle, blogging, mobile+learning

Digital Storytelling: Enabling an autistic child to communicate

2006-09-29T15:05:00.000-07:00

Lynne Gibb reported this story in the discussion
on digital storytelling in the EdNA eLearning
Network forum. Understandably, Lynne is happy to share
her story about the power of digital storytelling:

"I used DST last School Holiday Program with children
ranging from Grades 1 - 6. It was a knockout success!
The greatest success story was an autistic boy (11 years)
who had been at the program for 4 years and hardly ever
said a word. He spent hours looking through pctures of
himself from all his previous programs and put them
together into a sequence of his own choosing then proceeded
to astound everyone as he started to talk about all the
things he had done in the pictures, starting in a quiet
tiny voice and eventually getting right into it and
putting on funny voices, raising his voice and shouting
even laughing would you believe!

It was amazing. he even put pictures of other children
in there and said they were his friends - and the amazing
thing was, they came and looked over his shoulder as he
worked and he let them. He even started communicating
with them, laughing and giggling. It was astounding.
When his story was shown to his mother she couldn't
believe her eyes. It was the biggest breakthrough he
had ever had! There is definite power in storytelling
and Photostory 3 is an easy and quickly rewarding program
for children of all ages. Even the grade ones managed it
quite successfully."

You can experience the power of digital storytelling
by viewing and participating in the EdNA group discussion.

Also check out Carole McCulloch's reflective digital story
on YouTube about the Bonegilla migrant camp from the 50's;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hrpNorgKao

Carole tells her story about its development in the network
discussion about the use of YouTube for sharing digital stories.
(see the following post).

YouTube: social networking by sharing videos and reviews

2006-09-29T15:04:00.000-07:00

Kerry Trabinger recently started a discussion around the
use of YouTube for sharing digital stories and videos.

The discussion began with an excerpt from the YouTube
website:

'YouTube is a place for people to engage in new ways with
video by sharing, commenting on, and viewing videos.

YouTube originally started as a personal video sharing
service, and has grown into an entertainment destination
with people watching more than 70 million videos on the
site daily.

With YouTube, people can:

* Upload, tag and share videos worldwide
* Browse millions of original videos uploaded by
community members
* Find, join and create video groups to connect
with people who have similar interests
* Customize the experience by subscribing to member
videos, saving favorites, and creating playlists
* Integrate YouTube videos on websites using video
embeds or APIs
* Make videos public or private—users can elect to
broadcast their videos publicly or share them
privately with friends and family upon upload

YouTube is building a community that is highly motivated to
watch and share videos. The service is free for everyone'.

(Note: over 40% of YouTube videos are watched via MySpace)

You can view and join in the network discussion here:
http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=9438

MySpace for Education??

2006-09-29T13:57:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of noise on the airwaves lately about MySpace
and its downside. There have been heated debates about whether
teachers should create MySpace sites and invite students as
"friends". A search on Google for "MySpace and Education" will
take you into the thick of it!

However, can educators afford to ignore MySpace?

Chris, from the Dearborn Public School, explains the issue:

Students are moving beyond our current website and webpages.
They are into social networking. While most schools are just
getting websites, students are into myspace and collaborating
online in ways we just can’t imagine. Whether good or bad,
social networking on the internet is how students communicate.

Here are some facts provided in
The Myspace Marketing System ebook (sells for $27 US):

MySpace receives 2.5 times the traffic of Google
230,000 new users join everyday
MySpace is the number 1 site for viewing videos online
Myspace is the number 1 referrer of traffic to Google
MySpace accounts for 80% of all visits to online social networks
there are 105Million members signed up to MySpace

(This explains why Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace for $580Million
in July 2005!)

Contrary to popular belief, 52% of MySpace users are over 35.

Chris, from Dearborn Public School, has the dream to create an
Online Community for his school (parents, teachers and children)
that mirrors MySpace with its combination of
social networking, blogging, RSS, video and podcasting.

He explains this vision here:
http://apps.dearbornschools.org/dpsblog/?p=18

I gather from his blog postings that he has struck some difficulties
but the vision will become reality somewhere soon.

The Brisbane City Council, for example, currently provides
resources (websites, interactive databases and online learning)
to enable the formation of online communities under its
program:
Brisbane Communities Online

The challenge still exists though:
How are educators going to respond to MySpace?

Technorati Tags: MySpace, MySpace and education, Online Communities, educational communities online

Electronic Portfolios and Digital Storytelling

2006-09-29T13:55:00.000-07:00

Dr. Helen Barrett has established herself as an
international expert in the area of Electronic
Portfolios.

She describes an ePortfolio as follows:
An ePortfolio is a purposeful collection of work that
demonstrates effort, progress and achievement over time,
stored in an electronic container (CD, DVD, WWW). In this
context and in terms of the technology, a digital story
is a digital video clip, told in the author's own voice,
illustrated mostly with still images, with an optional
music track added for emotional effect. Rhetorically,
a digital story is a personal narrative that may show
the author’s identity: strengths, weaknesses, achievements,
disappointments, learning experiences, passions, and
hopes for the future; in other words: reflection.

Helen's site contains comprehensive resourcess on
ePortfolios including tutorials, examples, equipment
needs, research papers, presentations and links.

Her site can be accessed here:
http://electronicportfolios.org/

In a recent article, Helen discusses the link between
digital storytelling and ePortfolios. She explains
the purpose of the article as follows:

I address two issues in developing digital stories
in ePortfolios: Why? and How? or the Multiples Purposes
for adding digital stories to ePortfolios and the
emerging Web 2.0 tools that can be used to develop
digital stories. Where I have examples of digital
stories, I have provided web links.

The body of the article also contains web links to
resources and tools for both ePortfolios and Digital
Storytelling.

This article is hot off the press and well worth
reading. You can access it by clicking on the
title below:

Digital Stories in ePortfolios: Multiple Purposes
and Tools

This is one of her numerous publications, many of which
have hotlinks embedded.

The ePortfolio site is located at:
http://electronicportfolios.org/

Technorati Tags: ePortfolios, education digital storytelling, Electronic Portfolios, digital storytelling

Wikipedia: Public domain image resources

2006-09-28T23:35:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia provides a list of sources of public domain images
that can be accessed for use in digitalstorytelling.

Wikipedia advises users to check the licence statusof images
provided in each of the different sources.

Check out this resource here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain_image_resources

Technorati Tags: digital storytelling, education digital storytelling, videocast, public domain images

Tech Head Stories: Digital Storytelling

2006-09-28T19:26:00.000-07:00

Storyteller and educator Hilary McLellan has compiled
an extensive list of stories, sites, projects, and
publications related to digital storytelling.

You can visit her site here:
http://www.tech-head.com/dstory.htm

The site provides a number of categories of resources
which include the following:

* Key Digital Storytelling Web Sites
* Digital Storytelling Educational Programs
* Books, Articles & Research about Digital Storytelling
* Digital Storytelling Tools and Resources
* Digital Stories and Archives
* Dramatic Storytelling in Electronic Games
* Interactive Story Environments
* Teenagers' Journal/Stories
* Story Resources Online
* Tools for Digital Storytelling
* Digital Photojournals
* Educational Projects
* Community Projects
plus....

Check out these resources here:
http://www.tech-head.com/dstory.htm

Digital Storytelling Finds Its Place in the Classroom: Using PLACE to develop literacy

2006-09-28T15:58:00.000-07:00

This article is by Tom Banaszewski • Educator/Multimedia Author,
Maria Hastings School, Lexington, MA.

It describes the Place Project designed to build children's self-expression
and writing skills.

Tom explains it best when he writes:

Nothing is foolproof, but I have yet to find anything as motivating and
influential on students' self-expression as helping them tell stories
about an important place. The added dimension of video provided
a meeting place for these students and their creativity.

The article goes on to explain step-by-step how to use "Place" in digital
storytelling. It also highlights the community-building benefit of
storytelling about place.

Tom also provides guidelines on iMovie:
iMovie Tips: Managing the iMovie-Infused Classroom

The article, published in MultiMedia & Internet@Schools Magazine, can
be accessed here:
http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan02/banaszewski.htm

Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling - Comprehensive Site

2006-09-28T15:32:00.000-07:00

This site has been developed by Bernard Robin, PhD, Instructional
Education Program, College of Education, University of Houston.

If you really want to get into digital storytelling and explore
the process and how to get started, this could be the site for you!

The resource section alone is very comprehensive and should keep
you busy for a year or so!

The site has a number of main pages (hotlinked below):

If you do nothing else, put this site in your reference list!
http://www.coe.uh.edu/digital-storytelling/default.htm

Digital and Traditional Storytelling - Jason Ohler

2006-09-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

Jason Ohler's site provides public access information as well
as information for a workshop on digital storytelling.

The site is geared towards the classroom teacher.

There are two main parts to the discussion of digital
storytelling:

Part I - Storytelling, literacy and learning

This part of the digital storytelling focuses on using storytelling
to advance literacy and learning.

It discusses different types of stories, provides examples and
suggests some guidelines for literacy development.

Here's James perspective on the theme -
Digital, Art, Oral and Written literacies- the DAOW of literacy -
are crucial for personal, academic and workplace success in
the Digital Age and blend very well in a digital storytelling
environment.

Click here for this part:
http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/index.cfm

PART II - Technology, techniques, resources

This is the part of the digital storytelling site that focuses
on hardware, software, resources and techniques.

Here the focus is on how to create digital stories:
http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/storytech.cfm

Student Podcasts: Podcasting for teaching ESOL students

2006-09-20T23:02:00.000-07:00

Rosa Ochoa describes herself as an ESOL teacher of adults
at TAFE, Sydney Institute. She is interested in encouraging
students to use podcasting as a means of using English in a
real way to communicate with other learners, teachers or
people who may share their personal interests.

Rosa has drawn a lot of praise for her efforts in this area.
She has created a podomatic blog called "Let's Talk".

Rosa describes Let's Talk as:
...a space for a group of ESOL students, mostly new
arrivals (AMEP), to braodcast short audio files recorded
by them to practise their English.

Rosa's site is well worth a visit. She explains that she uses
podomatic for the students' podcasts but often imports onto
podomatic, mp3 files done with Audacity/iriver.

In a recent post to the Cool Resources for E-Learning
Forum, Rosa explains further:

For my other podcasts I use an iriver mp3 player (with a
good microphone). I edit the files with Audacit y or with
Adobe Audition 1.5 (which allows me to mix music a bit
better than Audacity).

The biggest problem I face is the fact that we can't use
podomatic at TAFE to record.

Why not visit Rosa's "Let's Talk" site and post a
comment.
Your comments will help the Google ranking of her site
(which already has an impressive 3/10 ranking).

Here's the link:
http://rosao.podomatic.com/

BTW the podomatic site offers the following free:

500 MB of storage and 15 GB monthly downloads
Podcast and Videocast support
Listener call in line
Podcast Templates - See podomatic examples
Record video and audio online
Viral marketing tools
Podcast listener and download statistics

Technorati Tags: podcasting, podcasting in education, videocast, ESOL students

Internal Tags: Cool Connections Conference - Podcasts of sessions

Elluminate Recording: An Introduction to Podcasting

2006-09-20T22:48:00.000-07:00

Kerry Trabinger recently pointed out the following
recorded Elluminate session produced in August
2006 by Michael Abulencia (RMIT):

Talking to the World in 15 Minutes: An Introduction
to Podcasting.

This very popoular recording goes for slightly over
an hour but comes highly recommended.

When you click on the link you will be taken to
Elluminate where you will be asked to download
the software (academic version).

Click on this and wait a few minutes while the
Elluminate display is set-up with its whiteboard and
controls.

This recording is well worth the short wait.

You can download this recording here.

Pedagogy for Podcasting (with sample)

2006-09-20T20:02:00.000-07:00

Rob Reynolds offers a number of guidelines for
educational podcasting based on his own
experience podcasting and learning in language
classes.

He recommends:

appropriate length
informal tone and high energy
importance of context and review
options for different learning style preferences
flexible delivery options

Rob explains these concepts HERE

He also provides a sample podcast
that he describes as follows:

Today's podcast is a sample review lesson
created for first-year Spanish students
(but you don't need to know Spanish to listen!).
My intent with this podcast is to provide a
good example of podcasting as it can be used
in education, along with some pedagogical
guidelines for creating such content.

You can check out the sample HERE.

New Practices 2006 : Broadcasting e-Learning

2006-09-20T19:49:00.000-07:00

This New Practices in Flexible Learning Project was raised
recently by Glenda McPherson in the Cool Resource for
E-Learning Forum.

The Broadcasting e-Learning project is explained as follows:

The project aims to establish models that will assist
organisations embed online casting into delivery of
education and training programs within the vocational
education (VTE) and adult and community education (ACE).

Online casting is the distribution of multimedia files, such
as audio or video recordings, over the internet for playback
on mobile devices such as mobile phones, MP3 players
and PDAs.

The Consortium and respresentatives involved are:

* Terry Taylor (AMES - Adult Multicultural Education Services)
(Project Manager)
* Brad Beach and Vanessa Marsh (Gippsland TAFE)
(online casting within TAFEs)
* Delia Bradshaw (ACE, Victoria)
(online casting in community organisations)
* Michael Coghlan (Educational Researcher SA)
(online casting in industry and business RTOs)

Technorati Tags: online casting, connectivism, networked learning, education technology

TAFE SA Adelaide North - Podcasting Project

2006-09-20T18:02:00.000-07:00

Allison Miller, E-Learning Co-ordinator TAFE SA
Adelaide North explains the project as follows:

We are aiming to have MP3 recorders available,
either in each Program Area or borrowed from
the Library, where an educator can simply attach
the recorder to themselves and record a lecture,
a guest speaker, an interview, give instructions
for assessments etc.

Once the recording has been done then the
recorder would then be giving to an Admin
Support Officer to upload into the pod-server
(still being investigated), which will then 'cast'
to subscribed students. We feel this approach
will enable a wider group of educators
to utilise podcasting, especially for flexible or
distance students.

We have a few names of TAFE SA people using
podcasting who we will also utilise their expertise,
and we are very interested to hear from
anyone who is using podcasting as an
e-Learning tool - about what works well,
hiccups, student feedback etc or of any
contact details of people we should be
talking to about podcasting.
(emphasis added)

You can visit the work in progress via the
project blog.

The Next Generation Goes to College

2006-09-20T17:28:00.000-07:00

The Chroncile of Higher Education had an interesting
article about the new cohort of learners hitting our
schools and universities.

Here's the catch line:

Tech-savvy 'Millennials' have lots of gadgets,
like to multitask, and expect to control
what, when,and how they learn. Should
colleges cater to them?

The article challenges the preparedness of education
institutions to cater for the "millennials" and debates the
issues surrounding new learning styles.

You can grab the article here

Podagogy: Where podcasting meets teaching & learning

2006-09-20T16:58:00.000-07:00

Podagogy is a new word to add to your vocabulary.

This blog explores the potential of podcasting, RSS, and other
technologies for delivering instructional content and academic
support.

The blog creator explains the derivation of the term
"podagogy":
By combining “podcasting” and pedagogy I’ve come up
with podagogy. My initial intent for creating a
“frankenword” like podagogy is to provide a term
describing the act or practice of using podcasting to deliver
instructional or academic support content in Higher
Education and Online Education.
See the Wikipedia entry for podagogy.

Besides the ongoing discussion of the development of
podcasting in education, this site offers the following
useful links:

Podcasting in Education
7 Things You Should Know About Podcasting
Educational podcasting directory
(Podcastingnews.com)
Education Podcasting Network
(epnweb.org)
Podcasts for educators, schools and colleges
U.K. directory)
Resources for educational podcasting
(Bernie Dodge, webquest guy)
Podcasting Library at the e-Learning Centre
(excellent U.K. resource)
Podcasting in Education
(Apple)

You can visit the site here:
http://blog.podagogy.com/?page_id=49

Technorati Tags: podcasting, podcasting in education, podagogy, podcasting library

Internal Tags: Podcasting at the BBC

Information Resource about e-Learning

2006-08-30T13:50:00.000-07:00

The e-Learning Centre is an information resource
for learning and development professionals and
academics and staff developers.

This UK site has a Google ranking of 6/10 so
it is content rich - a great resource for
research, case studies and products.

Resources are grouped under 5 broad categories
with sub-groupings:

Library
showcase
products and services
events
bookshop

Here's a sense of the magnitude of this site.
The sample entry below is one of 100 entries on
"blogging and RSS". Blogging and RSS is one of
20 subcategories of "Technologies and Trends".
"Technologies and Trends" is one of 10 categories
in the library.

RSS Ideas for educators (pdf)
By Quentin D'Souza From TeachingHacks.com
Added: 8 February 2006
Reviewer's Note: A great document on what RSS
is and how to use it

The Showcase section provides e-learning case
studies in four main areas:

General interest e-Learning Showcase
College and University e-Learning Showcase
School e-Learning Showcase
Workplace and Professional Development
e-Learning Showcase

Here is one of over 130 entries in the schools
e-learning showcase:

Maths is fun
"Keep your students entertained while they
learn mathematics."
Added: 26 June 2006
Reviewer's Note: There is material here for
every year of school.

Teleconferencing resources - paid and free telebridges

2006-08-29T23:16:00.000-07:00

A number of participants in the PfP Network
have asked me about the teleconferencing
service that I have used for facilitating
group discussions with people who are
geographically dispersed.

Basically, I have used telebridges
in a number of locations, including those in
some TAFE Institutes around Australia.

Telebridges are easy to set up and can be
a low cost option. Access to a telephone is
all that is required in terms of equipment.
All callers dial into the same telephone number
(the bridge) and are automatically connected
to each other.

Bridges do not require an operator but may
require a PIN number. They usually require
booking in advance.

I have been using a telebridge in the US which
I have access to through Browyn Buck at a cost
of AU$30 for an hour. Bronwyn is willing to
provide access for the same rate to PfP Network
members. Please email me if you want Bronwyn's
contact details.

Since this telebridge is in the US, all
participants will need a phonecard with low phone
rates to access the bridge. I have been using
Daybreak lately and have also used
RateSaver. Most cards can be purchased
at the local "corner" store. With Daybreak, which
has low connect costs and a low rate per minute,
I can participate in a one hour teleconference in
the US for under AU$2.

FREE Teleconference Facility

I recently came across a FREE teleconference option
through the search engine, BigDaddy. If you join
BigDaddy, you get access to a free teleconference
facility for up to 25 people at a time. There is
no need to pre-book. You receive an access code and
PIN which you can give to your course/class
participants to access the facility. You can access
the facility at any time for any for any length of time.

You and your participants will still need a phonecard
to gain cheap access to the facility in the US.

Click here for the free teleconference facility.

Note: This page will take you to an advertising
page asking you to sign up for a free account.
With the SearchBigDaddy free account you get
access to your own teleconference room, plus $50
in pay per click advertising, a search portal,
and top keyword position to advertise your program(s).

Once you have joined BigDaddy, the teleconference
facility is accessible through the affiliate menu
on the left of the page.

Teleconference Protocols

Telebridge Teleconferencing, which also provides
paid teleconferencing services in the US, has
drawn up a set of protocols for teleconferences/
telebridges.

These are useful guidelines (including the ones
about what to do with your dog and heavy breathers):
CLICK HERE
to access these guidelines.

(Note: the frequently asked questions page, accessible
via the menu at the bottom of the website, is very
informative)

Presenting and Speaking via Video Conferencing

2006-08-29T22:32:00.000-07:00

This resource, Presenting and Speaking via
Videoconferencing, developed by Julie Waldman,
was written to support teachers to develop good
teaching and presentation practice in their use of
videoconferencing technology. It is also relevant
to web conferencing.

The guidelines incorporated in the report were
developed through a literature review and then
trialled within an international videoconferencing
seminar series. They are are well grounded in
both theory and practice.

You can access the 4 page pdf Guide by
CLICKING HERE

Networked Education for the 21st Century

2006-08-29T21:52:00.000-07:00

Networked for Learning: Enabling 21st Century
Student Success

Produced by ENA (Education Networks of America
and InfoTech Strategies (2006)

This 52 page pdf report sets out to address
some fundamental questions:
* Are schools focused on the right outcomes?
* Will today's students be prepared for the types
of jobs they will encounter in the 21st Century?
* Or will schools prepare them for a world that
no longer Exists?

The Networked for Learning report
addresses these questions in the light of how
life has changed for today's students. The
report concludes that " The 21st century requires
a new model for education that relies on increased
collaboration and a new approach to managing
technology infrastructure."

Here is an excerpt from the Executive Summary:
" A new model - networked education - is one
of the most effective ways to support 21st
century outcomes.

The world has changed dramatically in the last
decade, but education has not kept pace. However,
a new model for 21st century learning is emerging:
networked education.

In this model, networked communities, networked
tools and the Education-Managed Internet Service
Provider (Ed-MISP)converge to transform the way
all students learn and teachers teach.

Students participate in more personalized,
equitable learning opportunities. Teachers rely
on a vast array of resources that help make
education more relevant to their students.

Parents are much more connected to their
children's educations than ever before.

Dynamic education opportunities are being
created that are also cost-effective to
implement.

And the results are truly groundbreaking."

For the full text of this report,
CLICK HERE

The “Four R’s” of Mobile Learning by Leonard Low

2006-08-29T20:11:00.000-07:00

Leonard Low in a number of posts on the EdNA
mobile learning forum proposed his "Four R's"
Model.

He explains that The "Four R's" model is
focussed on the immediate learner activities
that can be deployed by a teacher using mobile
platforms. It can be used to classify the
capabilities of various mobile devices (see
below).

THE "FOUR R's"

# Record: The learner may use a
portable device to capture, preserve, memorise,
note, or create information. The information
recorded may be in response to a prompt from
the portable device itself; or in response
to a stimulus from their situated learning
environment or their teacher. The information
may be recorded to the portable device itself;
or the portable device could serve as a conduit
for storing the information remotely.

# Recall: The learner may use a
portable device to recall information, events,
experiences or stories, stored on the portable
device (e.g. iPod recording), or by using the
device as a conduit to access information or
fellow learners and teachers remotely (e.g. on
the internet).

# Relate: The learner may use
a portable device to communicate with other
systems, information or people; for example, with
other learners, or with a teacher (i.e. in a
learning relationship). The learner can use the
device to communicate directly and synchronously
(e.g. mobile phone conversation), or access
asynchronous communication services (e.g. web
discussion board or weblog).

# Reinterpret: The learner may
use the portable device to process existing data
so that it is transformed into new information,
or restructured, reformed, or “remixed” to
demonstrate new learning (e.g. data searches or
data mining, data processing or trasformation,
information aggregation such as RSS)

Here's Leonard's explanation of how the
"Four R's" can be used to classify
the capabilities of various mobile devices:

iPod:

* Recall: primary function: audio, text
from local device, (possibly video and images in
some models)
* Record: cannot perform mobile record
(content is changed by PC docking)
* Relate: cannot be used to relate
* Reinterpret: limited - ability to
search files based on ID3 tags

Mobile phone:

* Recall: model-dependant, may include
both local and distributed content including
documents, audio, video, images, RSS...
* Record: model-dependant, may include
both local and distributed storage including
moblogs, audio, video, images...
* Relate: primary function, may include
SMS, MMS, email, voice calling, and IM/chat/forums...
* Reinterpret: limited

...and also to classify various
learning activities and experiences on
the various platforms, e.g.

Mobile phone:

* Recall: learners can use mobile phone
as a means of storing data locally, or accessing
it via mobile web (WAP). Examples include
accessing a snippet of information saved as text
on their mobile phone, or performing a Google
mobile search from their phone over WAP...
* Record: learners can save photos,
video, and audio to a remote, web-based service
using built-in mobile email or MMS available on
many phones. The same content can also be saved
to a blog with textual annotation (moblogging),
or could simply be stored locally for later
recall...
* Relate: learners can message or dial
in to remote information services, call or
message teachers or other learners...

More information, examples, etc. on each of
the "Four R's" is available on Leonard's
blog:
http://mlearning.edublogs.org
(...there is a category on each.)

M-learning Skills Audit Checklist for developers and/or students

2006-08-29T19:51:00.000-07:00

One of the EdNA discussion groups is currently
focusing on the essential elements of Mobile
Learning and checklist for M-Learning Skills
Audit.

Some useful links and comments are given below:

The start of a checklist for mobile device
literacy has just been posted by the very
excellent Stephanie Rieger at the Keitai Blog.
CLICK HERE
(Leonard Low)

...a great general e-learning list that Leigh
Blackall posted up in the
tourismhospitalitynetwork
CLICK HERE
(Kerry Trabinger)

Flashmobs : SMS Applications To Mobilise Youth Learning

2006-08-29T19:21:00.000-07:00

Flash mobbing is emerging as a new trend in mobile
technology applications.

In this post from the EdNA discussion forums,
Alex Hayes describes an application of this
approach to mobile learning:

"A couple of years ago I was working with a bunch of
young people in an off campus location youth center
in Western Australia delivering three certificates
in General Education ( CGVE ). The pace and diversity
of learning experience which these students brought
to this environment was nothing short of inspirational
for me, who, after years of working within the Justice
sector had seen a great deal of the negative effects
of incarceration on young people.

Having read some of Howard Rheingold's musings on
the potential for SMS messaging to mobilise people
(flashmobs )to attend / participate in public events
I decided to give it a go myself. Part of the semesters
budget was assigned to a trial Telstra SMS portal which
distributed ( and received ) messaging and had an
inbuilt calendarised function which allowed for preset
messaging.

You can now do such things through a number of other
platforms such as RedOxygen, Optus Redcoal and any
number of telco personal login environments. Some
have a capped daily limit to avoid spamming and so on.

What struck me at the time and still inspires me, is
the ability to network people easily and with
immediacy. I setup a range of scenarios which brought
my students together at various locations at
differing times all of course with a pre-empted
permissions granted type arrangement. We 'visited'
an art gallery, attended a political function,
mapped graffiti in a localised area to mention
just a few.

The students all had phones ( half of them hardly
had confirmation of where they were living at any
time yet had a phone) and the concept went from an
idea to immediate and sustainable success. The
results of these networked activities lead on to
a number of fantastic student generated activities
which included a networked art event, creative
workshops and any number of great occasions such
as planned BBQ's, birthday celebrations and the
like.

What really got me going was the fact that,
despite the students hectic and often tragic
lifestyle or life based experiences, the use
of simple text messaging brought them into a
networked occasion and after a number of events
the students started to get the idea that they
could generate these activities themselves,
as they already were in 'reality' for minimum cost.

I've heard from Robyn Jay at NSW Learnscope that
we are due to meet at Byron Bay youth facility
this coming Friday to explore this flashmob
concept further working with students and course
facilitators . I can see great potential for
mapping the m-learning journey using such means
to realise learning outcomes which are heavily
imbedded with numeracy, literacy and other
related foundational competencies.

I'll be posting some feedback and links to
some occasions through the
NSW Learnscope wiki, blog and podcasting
platform, and invite you to
interact with the discussion. If you have any
similar experiences then I'd be keen to hear
from you."

Flickr: The Promise of Social Networks

2006-08-17T18:47:00.000-07:00

The Promise of Social Networks

By Derek E Baird

[Flickr and e-learning applications]

Excerpt:

"... While not originally developed as an education tool,
Flickr, and other social networking technologies have
the ability to play an important part in student motivation,
retention and learning—especially in distributed learning
environments. Social networking technologies and media
are important tools because of their ability to foster
interaction and communication between students.
This is especially important in online learning communities,
where students may have limited face-to-face time to build
a support network with their peers."

Note: Useful article with examples of the use of Flickr in online
learning.

You can access the article by clicking HERE.

Technorati Tags: Flickr, online learning, social networking, student retention

Internal Tags: social bookmarking, tagging

Manual for Movie Maker 2 and Digital movies for PDA's

2006-08-14T21:17:00.000-07:00

Manuals for Movie Maker 2 for Digital Storytelling

Carole McCulloch recently pointed out these manuals that
were developed by Robyn Jay during the TAFE
Frontiers funded project DST for VET and ACE in 2004.

The manuals in PDF format can be accessed here.

Carole in her post raises a number of questions:

"...As you know I have been working on various
strategies for implementing the digital storytelling
methodology into VTE practice for some years now.
The latest iteration of this is the use of Movie Maker 2
for compressing movies for playback on Pocket PCs.

This is done quite simply by choosing the Pocket PC
option (and choosing the screen size required) in the
final movie saving segments.

If you need any materials for doing this you'll find
them in the Digital Storytelling Network.

...My question for the group is; how far have we explored
this particular method of resource development for
PDAs? Do others have some examples or Pocket
PC movies for sharing?

Another related question is; how far have we explored
the use of digital movies as assessment tools for our
classes? Do others have some examples of digital
story or movie assignments?"

YOU CAN JOIN THE DISCUSSION BY CLICKING HERE.

M-Learning: Overcoming indifference and lack of support

2006-08-14T20:24:00.000-07:00

Caryl Oliver recently made this posting to the M-Learning
discussion group (EdNA groups). So if you are feeling
discouraged, take a look at this and Marie Jasinski's
comments that follow.

"How do you eat an elephant?

One mouthfull at a time.......

...It was really disheartening to read about the reality that
happens to so many innovators who are 'encouraged' to pursue
their interests - provided they still do all the other things they
are burdened with and provided they require no resources
from the organisation!

...Which brings me back to my question at the top. My
elephant was the overwhelming indifference to
my enthusiasm for mobile learning and even more
underwhelming response everytime I proposed
incorporating new and emerging technology into
teaching practice.

By small steps, however, I did break through:

- I worked with our coffee academy exclusively to produce a
series of digi-lessons and games for PDAs.
- I lent units to anyone who wanted to play with them for a
while - it didn't produce much except an awareness and
understanding.
- Everytime a teacher did something with a group of students
I insisted on getting a digital story format report. At the end
of the year I showed a compilation to the whole Institute.
- When I wrote our vision for the day in the life of William
Angliss student in 2010 I produced it in digital story format
, with the CEO as the voice.
- To the horror of most teachers I gave 12 XDA IIs units
to VCAL students and they have rewarded me a thousand
fold.
- On Open Day our Event Management students ran the
surveys on PDAs - and had to give a special demo session
to groups of parents who were so impressed!

Each little bite, seemingly so insignificant in the
overall scheme of things has created two
important things:
- A growing whisper of curiousty and more calls asking me
to get groups started on some of the new technologies and
ideas.
- A decrease of the fear of trying new technology for fear
of the learning curve involved.

And with the process started this way I can afford to sit
back and look at the bigger picture which, in our case, is
the infrastructure required to accommodate over 400
students who will, this semester, be submitting at least
one assignment by means of digital story telling.

To see the really positive response from students and
teachers, to see VCAL students becoming re-engaged
and to see people walking towards me when I talk about
these new technologies is what makes it worthwhile.
And now, to actually have our IT department right behind
me and supporting the introduction of infrastructure to
facilitate the technology means I am really getting into
the meat of the elephant now!

If it seems too hard to keep battling those who resist
making changes then try my favourite quote from
Janet Holmes a Court:

Resisting change is like holding your breath
- if you succeed you die! "

(Emphasis added - click here for full text and context.)

Marie Jasinski , another powerhouse innovator in flexible
and online learning had this to say in response:

Hi Caryl,

What a woman! Great post - thanks for the insights! The word that
comes to mind when I think of your great achievements - and
those of Marcus, Leonard, Leigh, Vicki, Alex, Terry - and the
host of other innovators exploring the value of different
technologies for learning, is CONATION! I love that word!

"Conation is derived from the Latin verb conari,
meaning to strive! It refers to the act of striving,
intentionality, of focusing attention and energy
and acting with a purpose to achieve a goal. In other
words, conation is about stickability, staying power,
strength, stamina and survival".

(More about Connation HERE)

It's having the will, grit and determination to keep plugging away
- taking it on and seeing it through. To see it through is the
challenging bit I reckon. Sometimes it's about ducking and
weaving and staying under the radar hoping you won't be
found. Sometimes it's being in the full spotlight speaking
in a loud voice. And having the wisdom to know when
to do what!!

The people I particularly admire are the movers as well
as the shakers - those who choose to move on and upwards
when their current context no longer enables growth and
adventure - and watch them fly!

So THANKYOU for providing the opportunities, sharing
your expertise so generously and blazing the trails.
It is much appreciated! "

NOW THERE'S A PLUG FOR JOINING THE DISCUSSION GROUP!

M-Learning Discussion Group: Models of Mobile Learning

2006-08-14T01:21:00.000-07:00

Leonard Low is facilitating a discussion group on:

Models of Mobile Learning: Learner Centric vs Techno-centric

Here's Leonard's explanation of the focus of the discussion group:

"A number of models of "mobile learning", or m-learning identify it
as a subset of e-learning, including:
the main Wikipedia entry on the topic.

These models focus on how digital convergence and miniaturisation
now allows us to access electronic resources using small, portable
devices such as mobile phones, iPods, and PDAs.

The risk to my mind, however, is that educators may view
m-learning through the mindset of the devices with which it is now
so strongly associated - what I term a "techno-centric" approach
to m-learning. The focus becomes providing learners with PDAs
or mobile phones, without an understanding of the learning
methodologies and activities these devices enable.

In my opinion, the focus should be on the learning process, rather
than the learning platform. This position is supported by the
statement:
"it is the learner who is mobile - not the technology"

(a reflective outcome of the European 2004 MobiLearn project,
cited:
Sharples, M. et al (2005) Towards a theory of mobile learning )

One way to understand this paradigm is to realise that mobile learning
precedes e-learning by over a decade. E-learning became popular
following an increase in the affordability of personal computers in the
mid-to-late nineties.

A decade earlier (in the mid-eighties), we were
- listening to audiobooks and lecture recordings on our cassette
walkmans and car tape players,
- calling up classmates on the phone to ask for help with homework
outside of the classroom,
- taking photos of relevant learning experiences, and
- writing in portable reflective and visual journals -
albeit on paper.

I posit that these mobile, learning activities (and many others) were
no less valid than the "mobile learning" activities enabled by digital
devices today.

What the new generation of mobile devices facilitate is more
convenient, portable, and immediate access to very similar tools.
Given this link between "new" mobile learning and "old" teaching
practices, we can use our understanding of best-practice teaching
and learning to stimulate and derive powerful ideas for education.

In this thread, I'd like to explore the idea that practical mobile
learning activities can be informed by, and derived from, our
understanding of teaching and learning theory, mobile learning
activities that have not previously been digitally based, and
e-learning standards and practices.

Your thoughts are welcome at any time."

Podcasting, Wikis and Blogs: Learning at the BBC

2006-08-14T01:01:00.000-07:00

Video Presentation by Nigel Paine, Head of BBC Learning and Development

"We’re hearing the buzz around Podcasting, Wikis and Blogs for education but what about real applications? An informal interview with Nigel Paine provides fascinating insight into how these technologies have revolutionized knowledge sharing at the BBC and showcases how datpresenter™ easily captures informal conversations, presenting them as clear, accessible content for rapid sharing."

(P.S. Be patient with the "Ask Ninja" segment - it does move onto wikis and blogs)

Social Bookmarking and Tagging

2006-07-20T13:30:00.000-07:00

1. Social Bookmarking and Taging

Social Bookmarking and Tagging have been the subject of
discussion in a number of online learning forums for a number
of months.

Before the advent of Web 2.0, our only option for bookmarking
a website or blog was to use our browser's bookmarking facility.
With this facility you could add bookmarks randomly or "tag "
them by assigning them to a specific bookmark folder you
created.

The disadvantages of this private bookmarking approach were
that no one else had a access to your "favourites" and sometimes
when you changed or upgraded your browser you lost the lot!

As the name "social" bookmarking suggests the facility now
exists to store your bookmarking on public sites to enable you
to retrieve it whenever you want and to also make it accessible
to others.

When you store your bookmarks on one of the social
bookmarking sites you have to "tag" the bookmark with a
descriptive label (like you did with your browser folder),
so that you can find it in future and so that others can have
access too.

What emerges are organic communities of interest that
coalesce around a "tag" (and this is the real "hook" for online
learning networks).

Many people are using tags for their blog entries (see
below). You can use external tagging (by linking to social
bookmarking sites) and/or internal tagging (by linking
internally to related topics in your blog). Stephen Downes,
for example, uses internal linking extensively.

2. Social Bookmarking Sites

Some of the more common social bookmarking sites are:

* Del.icio.us - the favourite among bloggers; it was the
pioneer and is now owned by Yahoo.

* Furl

* Digg - focuses on technology news; uses submit stories
(links) for review by users whose votes determine placement
of the story.

* Yahoo's Web 2.0

* BlogMarks

* Technorati - major player; it combines content from
bookmarked sites with blog posts; used extensively in
Internet marketing and e-commerce.

(Technorati is also a site that you can ping to let them know
that you have updated your website or blog).

3. Tagging for Traffic: Internet Marketing and
E-Commerce

While social bookmarketing and tagging are in their relative
infancy within the online learning community, their use is
exploding in the areas of Internet marketing and
e-commerce.

The reason behind this is that tagging generates traffic
both from the social bookmarking site and from the search
engines. For example, your page ranking in the Google
search engine is improved if you have reciprocal links
with higly ranked sites like Technorati.

So now we have the emergnce of tagging optimization
alongside the established practice of
search engine optimization.

Lisa Ann Ginger, research assistant for a leading Internet
marketer, has produced a free, 9 page pdf document to
explain the basic approach to using tagging to get traffic
to your website or blog:
Tagging for Traffic:
Take Back Control from the Search Engine Monopolies

(Yes, the top Internet marketers have their own research
assistants, web traffic analysts, copywriters, programmers,
admin staff and forum moderators/help desk coordinators.)

Lisa has also written a more comprehensive e-book on
tagging for traffic that is for sale via Clickbank:
Tagging Secrets: How to Flood Your Sites with Traffic
on Demand

4. Visual Social Bookmarking

A relatively recent development in the area of social
bookmarking is the emergence of public sites that accept
visuals (screenshots or single images). The approach to linking
images to bookmarks ranges from showing a screenshot of the
bookmarked site (e.g. Blinklist) to letting the user add a single
image along with the bookmark (e.g. Kaboodle).

Of course, online shopping merchants quickly caught on to
the power of visual bookmarking to display their products
and generate traffic to their websites.

The potential of marketing online learning via
visual social bookmarking is relatively unexplored.

If you want to know more about visual social bookmarketing
sites and/or their application to online marketing and online
shopping, you can download the June 2006 issue of the free
Affiliate Classroom Magazine which has an article titled:

Online Shopping Meets Social Bookmarking
by Katalin Torok

The tags for this posting (both external and internal are given
below).

PS: if you want the relevant html code please email me.

Technorati Tags: online learning, social bookmarking, Internet marketing, tagging, tagging optimization, Affiliate Classroom Magazine

Internal Tags: Blog and Ping Tutorial

Success University: Self-Funding, Online Personal Development

2006-07-19T23:19:00.000-07:00

Success University represents a new wave in online learning - the
self-funding, personal development program.

The basic concept is that you earn while you learn. You can earn
an income by promoting the Internet-based program that
provides your learning and tuition. The income from your
promotions not only defrays the costs of your training and
tuition fees but also creates an ongoing income.

Students of self-funding, development programs become affiliates
or associates of the training provider.

Self-funding, development programs have emerged in areas such
as language teaching and IT training.

Success University is the premium, self-funding, personal
development program at the moment because of the breadth of
its offering, the quality of its faculty,the multiple methods of
delivery, its guided training program and the income potential
offered.

The core features are as follows:

* online personal development education via streaming audio
and video, recorded conference calls, automatic e-mail lessons,
e-books, downloadable workbooks, live conference calls with
leading experts and an electronic library.

* a faculty of the world's leading experts in personal development
such as Robert Allen, Denis Waitley, Lisa Jeminez, Jim Rohan, Zig
Ziglar, Asha Tyson, Tony Alessandra, and Patricia Fripp

* an affiliate program incorporating online marketing tools and
training by leading Internet marketers

* a multi-faceted commission payment system on multiple
levels.

This is the direction global education is heading in. Many US
universities, and even niche colleges offering online education,
are using affiliates to help market their programs. The commission
offered in these cases is considerably less than that offered by
Success University. The usual method to pay affiliates in the
education industry is on the basis of pay per lead (PPL) , pay per
click (PPC) or pay per enrolment.

What we are seeing is the intersection of online learning
and Internet marketing and this trend will accelerate given
the incessant innovation in Internet marketing and affiliate
marketing that is occurring at the moment.

Technorati Tags: online learning, Success University, Internet marketing, self-funding personal development,success

Mobile Technologies and Learning

2006-06-29T18:22:00.000-07:00

Mobile Technologies and Learning: A Technology Update and M-Learning Project.

by Jill Attewell

Free publication of the Learning and Skills Network, UK, 2005

This is a report of one of the largest research projects undertaken on mobile learning and its use to engage young people who have become disengaged learners. It involved 250 young people (aged 16-24) in the UK, Italy and Sweden.

The "m-learning" project aimed to investigate "whether mobile technologies might engage 'hard to reach' young people (the NEETs' group) in learning and offer help to those with literacy and numeracy problems".

There is an excellent news report of this project that gives an overview of its goals, processes and successful outcomes at:
http://www.checkpoint-elearning.com/article/1441.html

The full PDF report (176Kb) can be downloaded free by CLICKING HERE.

Converting Disengaged Learners to Active Participants

2006-06-29T17:27:00.000-07:00

Transfiguring It Out: Converting Disengaged Learners to Active Participants

by Marcia L. Rock

TEACHING Exceptional Children, 2004, 36 (5), 64-72.

Marcia cites Arthur Coombs who suggests that "self-belief" is "perhaps the most important single cause of a person's success or failure educationally".

Marcia's approach can be encapsulated in one of her early comments:

"This article addresses the challenge of disengaged students and provides teachers with a "transfiguration" model that uses a practical and robust strategy to transform disengaged learners.

Let's examine the inclusive education environment and why we need to transform the way we work with all our students to set learning goals, create a workable plan, use motivating activities, and reflect and evaluate along the way." (bold emphasis added)

The full PDF text of the article can be found by CLICKING HERE.

Txt Me: supporting disengaged youth using mobile technologies

2006-06-29T16:45:00.000-07:00

This is a New Practices in Flexible Learning 2004 project managed by Jill Jamieson.

I mentioned this project in January but the project site was updated in February and is well worth revisiting in the light of our current focus on disengaged learners.

The project site now provides video clips, pdf reports, case studies and guidelines for the use of mobile learning to engage learners.

The project is described as follows:

The project recognises that mobile phone use has become a pervasive communication tool among youth culture, and has aimed to develop recommendations and guidelines for VET providers on using this communication technology to support a sustainable learning culture with disengaged youth. Specifically, the project sought to find new ways to engage, motivate and sustain lifelong learning skills for these learners.

The project tested the hypothesis that m-learning strategies and mobile phone technology motivates and supports the retention of disengaged youth in learning programs and facilitates the development of lifelong learning skills through supporting collaborative, networked learning environments.

The overall goal of the project was to integrate readily accessible mobile technology into a vocational learning environment for the benefit of disengaged learners. (emphasis added)

You can access the project site here:
http://pre2005.flexiblelearning.net.au/projects/txtme.htm

************************************************************************

If you are interested in mobile learning, you might like to revisit earlier postings we provided on this topic:
http://www.online-learning-and-teaching.blogspot.com/

Just visit this blog and use the search box at the top left hand corner of the blog to enter your search term and then click on "SEARCH THIS BLOG".

Delivering What Students Say They Want On-Line

2006-06-28T23:05:00.000-07:00

Delivering What Students Say They Want On-Line: Towards Academic Participation in the Enfranchisement of e-Learners?

by Richard Hall, 2006, Department of Academic Quality, De Montfort University, UK,
The Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 4(1), 25-32.

Topics covered include:

notions of learner enfranchisement
enfranchising e-Learners: battery-farmed or free ranging?
the role of teamwork in franchising e-Learners
the impact of e-Learning on the student learning experience
managing expectations: towards cohesive rules of engagement
the value of currency and interactivity
towards academic engagement

The article in pdf format can be found at the following URL:
http://www.ejel.org/volume-4/v4-i1/hall-richard.pdf

Research Reports : Learning Needs of Young People

2006-06-28T22:17:00.000-07:00

Surrey Lifelong Learning Partnership has commissioned reports that focus on the learning needs of those young people who either do not continue in to learning post-school, or who drop off learning with one or two years, or who do not find appropriate training once they are in employment.

Two particularly relevant reports are:

1. Engaging Reluctant Pre-16 Learners - Adrian Norton

factors contributing to under-performance of 14-16 learners
types of intervention to combat reluctance amongst young people
features of successful reengagement schemes
solutions in Surrey (case studies)
key ways to re-engage reluctant learners

2. Young People in Retail Employment - Rachel Papworth

attitudes to a retailing career and to learning and school
experienced negative elements of retail employment
experienced positive elements of retail employment
training and development needs
research findings
initiatives to address the issues

Both reports are available on the Surrey Lifelong Learning Partnership site:
http://www.surreyllp.org.uk/site/research/youngpeople.htm

Engaging Tourism and Hospitality Management Students

2006-06-28T20:17:00.000-07:00

Steve Parker has provided a slideshow presentation on flickr.com covering an innovative project designed to actively engage Tourism and Hospitality students at the Illawarra Institute TAFE.

T&H students organising a Car Wash event management task at Wollongong campus used technology to record the event:

a mp3 recorder (ipod) to interview each other
a digital camera to take pictures and video.

You can click on each photo in the slideshow for comment and corresponding audio.

The project outcomes:

photos and audio can be used as part of assessment portfolio.
students themselves created a resource about event managment.
students loved using technology
students were comfortable with recording and interviewing each other
students helped each other clarify and discuss their own learning outcomes during the recording process

Click here to access the slideshow.

Inclusive E-learning Project: Australian Flexible Learning Framework

2006-06-28T20:01:00.000-07:00

The Inclusive e-Learning Project aims to increase the uptake of e-learning in target areas. Research conducted by the 2005 Project found engagement, participation, completion and employment outcomes to be major issues for learners with disabilities and young learners.

The 2005 case studies identified e-learning as pivotal in providing access and inclusion for this diverse group. In 2006 the Project will again focus on e-learning for two target groups:
- learners with disabilities
- young people in the 15 - 19 age group (including VET in Schools, disengaged youth and school-based apprenticeships).

The project site provides links to :

case studies
research - students with disabilites (including adaptive and assistive technologies in elearning)
research - youth policy and elearning
2006 projects

The Youth Policy and Program Research Report is well worth a read. The findings of the report cover:

Features of young learners
Pedagogy, andragogy, heutagogy and constructiveism
Issues relating to the delivery of e-learning
Rural and remote issues
Indigenous
New technologies - M-learning, multi-authoring via the web, MP3 and audio devices

The report also has 29 pages providing descriptions and hotlinks to papers, case studies and reports that formed the resource material for the report.

Learners in a Changing Learning Landscape: New Roles and Expectations

2006-06-28T19:40:00.000-07:00

There is much written about the use of online and mobile technologies to enage youth learners.

However, these new technologies themselves can lead to disengaged learners if the participants do not have the requisite skill set and/or the learning environment is defective. Here's a group that tried to explore some of the issues in October 2005.

On October 21, 2005 ten people gathered together at the Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, Florida, to hold a six-hour workshop, asking themselves and each other questions about what should be expected of today's learners as regards their competencies, attitudes and general disposition. The results of the workshop session informed a two-hour Presidential Panel Session the following day. The panel session was open to all attendees of the 2005 International Convention of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology. The initiative to organize this event came in the wake of an ongoing research project of the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction (ibstpi) to identify and validate online learner competencies.

Here are links to some of their reflections:

Preparing learners for creative global collaboration - Deb LaPointe, University of New Mexico

What makes a good online course? - Michael Spector, Florida State University

The impact of design and facilitation on learners' expectations in an online learning environment - Diana Stirling

Reflections on Learning and Learners: Four levels of learning - Jan Visser, Learning Development Institute

How do we create online learning environments that support the conditions necessary for learner success and that enhance lifelong learning development? - Christina Rogoza, Nova Southeastern University

Reflections on Seeking the 'Invisible' Online Learner - Michael F. Beaudoin, University of New England

Five Thoughts on Online Learning and Preparation for the Twenty First Century - John Bransford, University of Washington

Reflections on the online learner competencies - Ileana de la Teja, Laboratory of Cognitive Engineering and Learning Environments (LICEF)Tele-universite/UQAM, Montreal

Blended Learning and Online Tutoring: A Good Practical Guide

2006-06-06T23:37:00.000-07:00

New Book Release : April 2006

About the Author:

Dr Janet Macdonald is Learning and Teaching
Coordinator for the Open University in Scotland,
with particular responsibility for blended
e-learning and tutor-mediated support. She has
first hand experience of being both a distance
student and tutor, and now provides both online
and face-to-face staff development for others,
including a course for online moderators.

Her doctorate was on online course design and assessment, and she has directed a variety of studies in this area, most recently in the area of appropriate blended strategies for supporting students.

About the Book:

This book adopts a pragmatic and commonsense approach to blended learning, by situating the use of online media within a well-grounded teaching and learning strategy. It provides practical ideas for the successful implementation of blended strategies, including good practice in both asynchronous and synchronous tutoring, appropriate assessment design for developing successful blended learners, and innovative approaches to professional development for distance tutors. It is illustrated with a wide variety of examples and comments from students and practitioners in both distance and campus based environments in thirteen different countries.

The book is available from Gower Publishing by clicking HERE.

Assessment and Collaboration in Online Learning

2006-06-06T22:46:00.000-07:00

by Karen Swan (Kent State University), Jia Shen (New York Institute of Technology) and Starr Roxanne Hiltz (New Jersey Institute of Technology)

Journal of Asyncrhronous Learning Networks (JALN), Volume10 (1), February 2006.

Introduction

"The theme of this paper is the importance of assessment to learning; that what is assessed is what is valued, and if you value collaboration as an instructor, you need to find ways to motivate students and to assess collaborative activity.

However, in most online courses, traditional instructor-centred examination remains the primary means for assessing student performance, and collaborative learning is undervalued and so marginalized. This paper addresses that issue.

The paper begins with an overview of the changing nature of assessment in education and addresses assessing collaboration online - why it is important and why it is difficult. It then explores in greater depth two common and quite different kinds of online collaboration, collaborative online discussion, and collaborative small group projects.

Finally, findings from a recent dissertation which introduced and measured the effectiveness of innovative collaborative examination procedures are summarized. In each of these areas we lay out the issues, theoretical and practical, involved in assessing online collaboration, as well as give examples of how to assess (and so encourage) individual and group work for differing sorts of activities." [emphasis added]

The research paper can be found HERE.

Issues in on-line delivery: Quizzes and discussion groups

2006-06-06T22:33:00.000-07:00

This resource looks at uses for quizzes, short answer questions and discussion groups and is produced by the University of South Australia.

It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, provides tips for success and traps to avoid, and identifies the necessary skills for each approach.

You can access the resource HERE

FLAG Research - Assessing Online

2006-06-06T21:56:00.000-07:00

This is a link to a summary of the report, Creative, quality online assessment produced by R Booth, B Clayton, P Hyde, R Hartcher & S Hungar. The research investigates issues in quality online assessment in VET both in Australia and internationally.

The report discusses challenges for effective online assessment, benefits and forms of online assessment.

Literature Review of E-Assessment

2006-06-06T21:44:00.000-07:00

Literature Review of E-Assessment by Jim Ridgway, Sean McCusker and Daniel Pead

Stephen Downes take on this review is given below:

"Funny how things work in the blogosphere. This report has been out for more than a year (I hadn't seen it, though; I don't really follow assessment issues). It's quite well written, and packs some zingers (like: "In the worst case, to be able to invent and create something of value is taken to be a sure sign of feeble-mindedness; where as to opine on the work of others shows towering intellectual power"). Anyhow, this item was reviewed today in e-learning reviewa, covered in the Authentic Assessment Website, and finally, mentioned in Michelle's Online Learning Freakout Party Zone, which is where I saw it. Go figure. More literature reviews from Nesta (which needs an RSS feed). [Tags: Online Learning, Web Logs, Assessment, Research] [Comment]"

[Stephen's lack of interest in assessment issues explains why I could find little on this topic on his blog]

Cheating in Online Assessment: Beyond Plagiarism

2006-06-06T21:28:00.000-07:00

Article by Neil Rowe

Abstract

Online student assessment features in many distance-learning programs. The prevention of plagiarism has been the subject of much attention, but insufficient attention has been given to other problems of dishonesty in online assessment. We survey the types of problems that can occur and what can be done about them. We believe many educators are unaware of these problems, and most countermeasures proposed are insufficient.

Click HERE to access this article.

Assessing Online: The Manual

2006-06-06T19:13:00.000-07:00

These resources were developed by the following project team:

* Helen Bayne (South West TAFE
* Clinton Smith (Tafe Frontiers)
* Terry Taylor (AMES)
* Lilian Austin (Swinburne Uni, TAFE Division)

The Resources included in this website are:

The Guide - how to plan, analyse, design, develop, deliver and evaluate online assessment
Case Studies of online assessment
Research 0n online assessment

Check out the site here:
http://designing.flexiblelearning.net.au/assessing/index.htm#guide

Beyond Text: Using Your Voice Online

2006-05-16T19:05:00.000-07:00

This resource developed through a New Practices in Flexible Learning 2005 project is getting rave reviews in the 2006 E-learning Networks Community Forum.

The project "has explored the application of online voice technologies in different learning contexts and with different learner groups to develop some models of practice and practical guides for teachers in the Australian vocational education and training (VET) sector wishing to move beyond text and integrate online voice technologies into online delivery, assessment and support services."

The website has three major sections:

Case Studies - incorporating audio/visual stories, online learning activities and underpinning pedagogy
Facilitator guides - overview of online tools and how to integrate them into teaching and learning
Future directions of voice online

You can check out this great resource here:

http://btresource.flexiblelearning.net.au/index.html

2006 E-learning Networks and Facilitators

2006-05-16T17:43:00.000-07:00

This 6 page PDF document gives you basic details of the EdNA e-learning networks and facilitators involved:
http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=17423

The 2006 e-learning networks include:

The train and assess remote and virtual workers network (teleworkers, home based workers, mobile workers)
Small business e-learning tools network
E-assessment in a teaching and learning environment network
Talking About Voice network (VTE practitioners who currently use or intend to use online voice technologies to enhance learner experiences and outcomes)
CCDLearn (network of community cultural development practitioners and trainers in local government and community)
Emergency Managment Training network
eCommunications 2.0 (exploring Web 2.0 tools)
Web 2.0 networked learning community (Community of Practice exploring Web 2.0 technologies in education)
Construction teachers network
NetSPACE (online communication amongst 6 independent school clusters in WA)
Ve-learning network (TAFE Qld online support platform for Learnscope 2006 projects)
PD for working with Personal Digital Assistants PDA (emerging technologies initiative across all TAFEWA colleges)
Trainers Professional Development Network
E-learning applications for disengaged youth ( focus on 15-19 year old client group and related production technology and digital media arts skills)
EquitE Online (teachers/trainers from the adult ESL and Adult Basic Education fields interested in blended learning and voice tools)
Adult Literacy volunteer tutors network (Qld based)

UK Podcast Directory for Educators, Schools and Colleges

2006-05-16T17:00:00.000-07:00

Educational podcasting for teaching and learning

This is the first UK directory for podcasts for educational use - each listed podcast is ideal for teaching and learning activities with children or young people at home, school or college.

With more and more audio, enhanced and video podcasts on the Internet, you need to access quality educational podcasts for teaching and learning.

This site is accredited by BECTA as a registered content provider for Curriculum Online.

In this directory, educators can freely access educational content in over 2500 podcasts, with search facilities to locate podcasts in subject areas.

The directory creators affirm:
All the listed podcasts are "family friendly", sourced world-wide and are good examples of educational podcasting from schools, colleges and educational professionals to support effective teaching and learning in this digital age as well as professional development and information.

You can access the site here:
http://recap.ltd.uk/podcasting/index.php

The podcasting for educators site includes:

- a heap of resources on how to create podcasts, get them onto the Internet, access channels and RSS feeds:
http://www.recap.ltd.uk/podcasting/info/resources.php

- podcast "educational channels" giving you access to podcasts developed at home, in schools and colleges by children, young people, teachers and parents:
http://recap.ltd.uk/podcasting/schools/schoolpodcasts.php

- subject-specific podcasts:
http://recap.ltd.uk/podcasting/subjects.php

- alphabetical listing of all podcasts (channels):
http://www.recap.ltd.uk/podcasting/channels/podchannels1.php

OSSwin project - Open Source Games for Windows

2006-05-16T16:47:00.000-07:00

The OSSwin Project provides a registry of Open Source Games for Windows in the following categories:

adventure/ role playing
arcade/classics
action
board games
card games
first person shooter
platform
racing
puzzle
real-time strategy
simulators
sport
strategy
quiz
word games

These open source games can be accessed at:
http://osswin.sourceforge.net/games.html

The OSSwin Project :Open Source Software for Windows

2006-05-15T21:41:00.000-07:00

The OSSwin Project, Open Source for Windows, provides a huge range of open source software for every conceivable purpose:
http://osswin.sourceforge.net/

Here's a list of categories of what is available:

audio editing tools
business software
CAD software and Electronic Design Automation (EDA)
CD writing
compression/zip
Databases
desktop environments & windows shell replacements
dictionaries
drivers/hardware
educational
emulators
encyclopedia
filesharing
FTP clients
firewall and NAT
file systems
graphics
instant messaging
internet voice chat
IRC clients
mail & news
media players (audio & video & codecs)
networking tools
NTP clients
office tools
operating systems
postscript viewers
programming
remote access
Science & Maths (including mathematics, biology, geographic information systems)
security, privacy and protection
server software
SCP clients
stream downloaders
text editors
utilities
video capture/processing
VJ software
webbrowsers
webgrabbers and download managers
X-servers

Click the link below to access the software:
http://osswin.sourceforge.net/

For more information on Open Source visit the Open Source Initiative.

Catalog of Free and Open Source Software for Education

2006-05-15T20:53:00.000-07:00

Open Source Victoria provides a Catalog of Free and Open Source Software for Education via a pdf file (13MB, 80 pages).

The Catalog covers the following categories of software for education:

Office productivity applications
Graphics
Desktop publishing
Multimedia
Scientific applications
Mathematical applications
Human languages
Computer programming
Educational games
Computer infrastructure for schools
Information systems solutions
Primary school children

You can download the Catalog here:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~cybersrc/about/education_FOSS_catalog.pdf

Using Games in the Classroom - Resources

2006-04-27T21:46:00.000-07:00

Here is a resource site from the EdNA Groups "games as Pedagogy" (GAP) wiki:
http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/mod/wiki/view.php?id=15918

This resource includes research articles, games and links with the focus on games as pedagogy.

The Practicalities of Implementing Game-Based Learning

2006-04-27T21:06:00.000-07:00

The following post by Marie Jasinski is reported here with Marie's agreement.

Marie wanted to make the point that her focus in this comment is on the issues involved in creating and utilising game-based learning. Her main point is that "the practicalities are more of a challenge than the promises - it IS a hard slog!"

Marie has made a major contribution to LearnScope and the Australian Flexible Learning Leaders Program over a number of years. Her interest is in " interactive strategies for training, research and performance improvement contexts for both face-to-face and online environments".

Marie's website is well worth a visit:
http://www.designplanet.com.au/

Here is her comment on the EdNA Groups 2006 Networks Community Forum - discussion on e-learning games:

" I'd like to make a comment about some practicalities of implementating digital game-based learning in the vocational education and training sector. This is from a professional development perspective and from triumphs and challenges of using digital games since 1998. These include email games, role-play simulations, and 'mini' flash games.

Implementing digital game-based learning can be a hard slog and the more complex the game type, the harder it is. This is because as you move up the scale from mini games to complex games, different stakeholders become involved and they can influence the outcomes as their perspective can be quite different.

Here are some of the complexities I have experienced and I'd be keen to hear if anyone has had similar types of experiences:

- IT services are critical allies: If there are firewalls, or access blocks placed on words like "games", or narrow mindsets regarding IT rules and regulations, there's a lot of groundwork to do to build good relationships, educate the IT gatekeepers etc. This can be time consuming and not always productive. One of biggest games can be getting access to the games in the first place!

- Cost: "How much does it cost?" is one of the first queries regarding games, especially from managers who hold purse strings. It takes a fairly enlightened manager to see game-based learning as an investment rather than a cost. The added complexity here is that there are many games and tools available for little or no cost. They may be 'mini' games, but they are also a great introduction as these types of games can be easily integrated into existing e-learning programs.Here are a couple of examples of free or low cost games I've cobbled together for Hospitality and Bakery and Health Care.

- Competition: A great selling point for games is "engagement". With the rise of Web2 and social software and other methodologies like digital storytelling, interactive fiction etc, there are many engaging alternatives to games. It's interesting to note the rise of digital storytelling as a learning tool rather than a learning product. Have a look at Marvin which is moving ahead in leaps and bounds.

- Marketing: One of the most engaging and immersive e-learning experiences for me are web-based role play simulations. I never really understood what engagement was until I started role playing! This points to style preference. Role plays are not strictly games, but would meet all the "engagement" criteria. They are text-based so perhaps not as seductive as many of the games on show here, but the more emergent process, the "empty space design" requires high doses of imagination. The investment is in the design and facilitation - they are time rich - but they are reusable and easily adaptable. For example, one of the roleplays we designed in 2000 on sexual harrasment, has been facilitated over 20 times and every time its different. Other text based games like Game of Games on goal setting are very engaging as are Thiagi's award winning interactive storytelling. Yet these text based narrative games don't get the same press, though are excellent methodologies in a training setting. I suspect there is room for a more rounded representation of different game types.

- Complex and mini games: I've discovered the hard way that 'mini-games' are so easily dismissed (and if you promote them you can be too). Yet the starting point for many practitioners into game-based learning is through 'mini' games. I facilitate workshops on the use of mini games like powerpoint games and flash games and also digital games that can be played in the face-to-face settings, and experience first hand the benefit they have in complementing either class-based or e-learning programs. They are especially effective if they are used as learning tools rather than learning products (learners as designers). A great way to encourage learners to engage with dull but need to know content. There's a lot of promotion about complex games promoting higher order learning. No argument there. But let's not forget that a lot of learning in VTE is lower order learning. There's a lot of facts, procedures etc that people do have to come to grips with and ANYTHING that helps increase fluency must be a benefit. Just think compliance training!

- Games designers and game users: As a games user, it can be quite daunting working with game designers with high tech everything including the language! Especially if you are not really interested in the technology, but in what it can offer! Games designers are often vendors - they want to sell their products. It can be a big investment to buy a game, so the free trial periods are so important. However, the service and the conversations and the human component is really what gives confidence. In my experience Kevin and his team have been very generous in providing an excellent service and this is much appreciated. It's OK to ask dumb questions. I think the master of generosity is Thiagi.

BTW, if anyone is trialling the business game, here is a usability template that may help you focus and would provide excellent feedback to Kevin and the team."

Reaching Younger People Who Think Differently

2006-04-27T18:57:00.000-07:00

Nintendo Children and Twitch Speed

Marc Prensky discusses 'Twitch Speed' a phenomenon of the digital age. Prensky argues that students do not suffer from short attention spans - they actually have developed (through electronic games) the expectation of faster delivery of content.

Marc's article, titled "Reaching Younger Workers Who Think Differently", identifies 10 major cognitive style differences exhibited by those born after 1970:

Twitch Speed vs Conventional Speed
Parallel Processing vs Linear Processing
Random Access vs Linear Thinking
Graphics First vs Text First
Connected vs Stand Alone
Active vs Passive
Play vs Work
Payoff vs Patience
Fantasy vs Reality
Technology as Friend vs Technology as Foe

The full article can be accessed here:
http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/page2298.html

http://www.games2train.com/site/html/article.html

Marc Prensky on Games Based Learning - Keynote Address and Powerpoint

2006-04-25T22:54:00.000-07:00

Marc Prensky, is the founder of Games2train, designer and builder of games, and author of the critically acclaimed Digital Game-Based Learning and Don't Bother Me, Mom - I'm Learning!

Marc was Keynote Speaker for "The Role of Digital Games in Promoting Higher Order Learning", 2-3 March 2006 Adelaide.

Marc's website is at:
http://www.games2train.com/

Audio and video podcasts of Marc's seminar and Ms Powerpoint presentation from Marc's workshop can be found here:
http://www.tsof.edu.au/events/masterclass/mprensky/#podcasts

Books on eLearning Games and Simulations

2006-04-25T22:36:00.000-07:00

Sivasailam Thiagarajan (better known as Thiagi) recommended the following books on the subject of eLearning games. Thiagi has made significant contributions over a number of years to both LearnScope and the Australian Flexible Learning Leader's Program.

For an insight into Thiagi's eduational philosophy and the his own game resources visit:
http://www.thiagi.com

Books strongly recommended by Thiagi:

* Both these books explore the concept of GBL - Games Based Learning

Engaging Learning by Clark Quinn (who has some Aussie connections)

Learning by Doing: A Comprehensive Guide to Simulations, Computer Games, ... by Clark Aldrich

* Here are two interesting books by James Paul Gee:

Why Video Games Are Good for Our Soul

What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning and Literacy

* Here's another book with hard data that demolishes the notion that video games will rot your brain:

Got Game? How Gamer Generation Is Reshaping Business Forever by John C. Beck

* Another intriguing book (with interesting chapters on video games):

Everything Bad Is Good for You by Steven Johnson.

Team Play Learning Dynamics

2006-04-25T22:19:00.000-07:00

Helen Routledge, Research Manager at Team Play Learning Dynamics has extensive experience in the serious games/games based learning field.

She introduced two games based applications in her recent posting to the EdNA eLearning Discussion Forum:

"Eduteams" - aims at teaching core skills such as problem solving, working with others and communication to students aged 11-14 years.

"Infiteams" - focuses on soft skills in the workplace and is used for team building and leadership development.

These commercially produced games can be accessed through:
http://www.tpld.net

The site also provides a statement on the essentials of game based learning and a FAQ (frequently asked questions) on games based learning.

The Business Game - free trial

2006-04-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

Kevin Corti recently offered access to his Business Game to the EdNA discussion forum on eLearning Games.

I contacted Kevin to see if we could have access to the Game for the PFP Network Group.

His agreement comes with one condition:
"Sure, go ahead. Can I ask one thing however? Could you try to get as many people that use it to perhaps drop us a line with their thoughts, observations etc. They can be as open and harsh as they like. We are planning to create a number of variations of this game to cover SME/start-up training, Intro to Finance, General business awareness (for employees in larger enterprises) and an introduction to marketing. Feedback from your network now could help us make sure that the GBL we create is as good as it possibly can be."

The game, titled "The Business", was designed to help teachers in the UK to deliver enterprise education to, in the main, 14-16 year olds.

The game is available from:
http://www.thebusiness-game.com/

To access the game simply visit the site and click on "user login' and then, when the login page loads, enter the following access code:
555-1234-0430

The only tech requirement is that your PC has the Macromedia Flash player 7 at minimum. The site will detect if this is not the case and, if not, send you off to Macromedia to download it.

The web site carries a walk through, overview etc and you can download the 40-page Teachers Guide.

Kevin Corti can be contacted for feedback at:

kevin.corti@pixelearning.com

His other contact details are as follows:

PIXELearning Limited,
The Innovation Centre,
Coventry University Technology Park,
Puma Way, Coventry, CV1 2TT

TEL: +44 (0)24 7623 6971
FAX: +44 (0)24 7623 6024
MOB: +44 (0)784 114 3972

WEB: www.pixelearning.com

Power-Point presentation : Serious Games Implementation

2006-04-25T20:04:00.000-07:00

Kevin Corti, UK games-based learning expert, provides the following MS Powerpoint presentation (6Mb) that discusses the nature of games-based learning, why it is important and how to implement it.

This entertaining and informative presentation is well worth viewing:
http://tinyurl.com/eb48d

Game Based Learning - International Speaker - Kevin Corti

2006-04-25T19:48:00.000-07:00

The EdNA Groups 2006 Networks Community Forum recently engaged Kevin Corti, a Game Based Learning expert from the UK to act as a catalyst for the discussion on E-learning games.

Kevin co-founded the UK-based PIXELearning, a games-based eLearning tools developer.

Kevin's paper introduces games based learning issues and gives examples of how e-Learning games are used in business. His paper, titled, " Games-based learning: a serious business application", can be found here:
http://www.pixelearning.com/docs/seriousgamesbusinessapplications.pdf

In the paper he showcases 7 games currently being used by industry bodies.

Invitation: Elearning Industry Evening - Educational Games

2006-04-06T23:05:00.000-07:00

Learning is all Fun and Games, Seriously

Wednesday, 12 April 2006 5.15 - 8pm AEST [presentation 5.30 - 7pm AEST]

AIMIA SA and ElNet are proud to present an e-learning webinar discussing educational games. Moderated by Michael Coghlan using Live Classroom, speakers will include Adelaide's Marie Jasinski from Design Planet and Brisbane based expert Naomi Waldron.

Marie Jasinski uses game-based approaches for training, research and performance improvement contexts in both face-to-face and online environments. She enjoys her role as a crash test dummy for games developers who have figured out that if she can use a game, anyone can. Her particular interest is in low cost, reusable templates that can easily be adapted to a range of contexts. She will explore the challenge of finding affordable games tools, which trainers can personalise and plug into their program design, using examples of what works for her clients. Marie will argue that it is not the game, but how you use it that is a key to success. She is current writing a book on this topic with her colleague Sivasailam Thiagarajan and invites you to take part.

Naomi Waldron is an Instructional Designer at TodayCorp, and has a professional interest in educational and serious games. She will present a session on scoping, designing, and assessing the impact of serious games. She will talk about current developments in the field around the world, draw on her experiences of using and evaluating serious games, and discuss her recent experiences in designing educational games.

Join us for a stimulating discussion, followed by a chance to meet and mingle with other industry professionals at the city venue locations (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide), refreshments provided.

Visit the ElNet website for further information and venue details. Click here to register now.

Ebook Compiler - free download

2006-04-06T18:42:00.000-07:00

The Active Ebook compiler enables you to create ebooks as .exe files.

This free version allows you to create as many ebooks as you wish as long as you do not sell them.

If you wish to sell your ebooks, you need to register your copy of the Active Ebook Compiler.

Download the free version here:
http://hop.clickbank.net/?ronpass/wildcom2

The software is a powerful professional quality tool, that makes it simple for anybody to get started in E-Book Publishing.

If you can create web pages - then you can create and publish E-Books.
(and even if you can't, modern word processors usually include a "Save As HTML" feature).

Simply create a set HTML files containing the information you want to sell, and then run Activ E-Book Compiler - and you'll have a self-contained Windows Program (".EXE") which users can download and run, to view your E-Book. You can even restrict access to parts of your E-Book with passwords, include links to relevant web sites, or sell advertising space in your E-Book.

Anybody with Windows 95 or better, and Internet Explorer 4 or later, which is of course the vast majority of web surfers, can use your E-Books.

The software includes an amazing range of features that allow you to easily create great E-Books.

Download a fully working version of the software for free.

Refer the Joint Venture Marketing posting for an example of an ebook I created recently.

I developed the ebook/report in Ms Word with each chapter as a separate document. I then saved each document as a html file (via MsWord) and stored them in a "source folder".

Then I opened the ebook compiler and told it where the source files were and it created the ebook/report in 30 seconds.

Ebooks are excellent marketing and educational tools as they can have hotlinks, images, and colour and are created with a computer generated table of contents and internally linked pages.

You can get your free copy here:
http://hop.clickbank.net/?ronpass/wildcom2

Joint Venture (JV) Marketing with a viral ebook or report

2006-04-06T16:07:00.000-07:00

Joint Venture Marketing has become a major tool for internet marketers to obtain leads and prospects for their products and services.

The basic elements are:

* someone who has a high internet profile hosts a JV giveaway
* they invite other internet marketers to participate in the JV giveaway
* the JV partners offer gifts (ebooks, software, etc) to people who visit the JV Giveway website
* visitors can acess any gift provided they subscribe to the mailing list of the relevant contributing, JV partner

This is a fast way to build your mailing list of prospects who in turn become subscribers to your autoresponder (e.g. weekly ezine or newsletter).

The JV partners promote the Giveaway event and people visit the site and subscribe. Visitors, in turn, promote to their own lists and friends.

An example:

* I wrote a viral ebook/report on the 30th and 31st March (using an ebook compiler)
* I uploaded it to the Easter JV Giveaway website on 1 April
* Visitors to the JV website subscribed to my mailing list and downloaded my report

The Easter JV Giveaway involves over 1200 partners and over 300 gifts.

The link for the relevant Easter JV Giveaway (hundreds of ebooks and software) is:
http://www.easterjvgiveaway.com/success/go/938

Every hour of every day since I April I have been getting messages like this:

Autoresponse Plus Subscription Thursday, 7 April 2006 5.55am

Autoresponse Plus Subscription Thursday, 7 April 2006 5.53am

Autoresponse Plus Subscription Thursday, 7 April 2006 5.38am

Autoresponse Plus Subscription Thursday, 7 April 2006 5.13am

As I worked in Adelaide over the past four days, my mailing list was automatically filling with new propects from around the world who were downloading my ebook/report. This is also occurring as I write now.

This demonstrates how you can get almost instant global distribution of information and at the same time build your prospect mailing list. My autoresponder is taking over now and sending the new prospects my weekly ezine automatically. Additionally some of the prospects will be sending my report to people on their mailing list and so it goes on....

You can get a copy of my report, The Blog Report: How to Make Money from Your Blog at:
http://tinyurl.com/k2bns

(This is a zipped, EXE file that works like a pdf file. It contains links to ebooks and software as well as tips and articles on the creation and marketing of blogs.)

2006 VET Symposium Series - Workplace Learning (No.1)

2006-04-06T14:09:00.000-07:00

2006 VET Symposium Series

No 1 - WORKPLACE LEARNING

The VETCONNECT 2006 Symposium Series has been designed to provide opportunities for VET workers to engage with contemporary themes in teaching and learning including those arising from reform associated with the release by the Department of Employment and Training of Queensland Skills Plan: A White Paper.

The first symposium in the 2006 VET-CONNECT series will focus on workplace learning and is open to everyone interested in reshaping how learning occurs in the workplace – teachers, trainers and assessors; managers and policy makers; employers and industry advocates.

The symposium is designed to provide you with opportunities to hear about the latest research and innovative approaches in workplace learning and to discuss and debate issues around the future of workplace learning including:

* Developing effective workplace learning partnerships
* Creating effective workplace learning environments and designing innovative delivery strategies
* Tailoring learning products for use in the workplace
* Developing and using effective and meaningful assessment approaches
* Recognising and certifying workplace learning

A full report on the symposium (including outcomes and recommendations) will be prepared and provided to every participant.

When? Friday 5 May 2006

Where? Conference Facility, Ground Floor, 111 George Street, BRISBANE

How much? $100

How do I register?

Download a registration form from the Symposium website:

http://www.vetconnect2006.com

contact Matthew Patten on 07 3368 2644

REGISTER NOW – NUMBERS ARE STRICTLY LIMITED

Creating An Internet Profile or Presence

2006-03-26T11:53:00.000-08:00

One of the key characteristics of effective internet marketers is their capacity to create a profile or presence on the Internet.

If you think of the leaders in the field of elearning and flexible learning, they are typically people who have created a profile - whether as the digital story guru, the podcast specialist, the blog/wiki expert or some other profile.

They have made their expertise known through their websites, blogs, wikis, forums, conference papers, articles, reviews of tools/software and their case studies.

This is how they become known and are able to sell their courses, ebooks and other services (and those of their organisation or Institute).

We may have a natural reluctance to be "out there", but an internet profile or presence is critical to internet marketing.

I have written a number of articles recently in this area that you may find useful. It may be helpful to substitute "internet marketing" for "affiliate marketing" in these articles:

6 Great Reasons To Build An Internet Profile

How to Smash the Glass Ceiling

Leverage Your Writing

Step-by-step videos: How To Create An Internet Marketing Website

2006-03-26T11:17:00.000-08:00

Ultimate Website Videos: Step-By-Step Videos Reveal How You Can Start And Profit From Your Own Websites Today!

This free series of videos is provided by Ewen Chia, creator of the Secret Affiliate Weapon.

The video tutorial package is worth $427.00

These video tutorials will show you how to start and profit from your own website. There’re a total of 17 video ebooks containing hundred of hours of step-by-step ‘how to’ videos in this 4-module package.

Here’s a list of what you’ll receive:

Module #1: Website Design Videos

Module #2: Website Tune-Up Videos

Module #3: Website Conversion Videos

Module #4: Website Traffic Videos

Download Your Free Copy Now

http://tinyurl.com/oozq8

NOTE: The initial ebook (pdf file) is 148KB. The actual unzipped version of the download file with the 17 videos is 15.5 MB. If you have a slow connection or limited memory capacity, the size of this file may present problems.

These videos could also be used as an education tool.

Internet marketing and online learning: viral articles

2006-03-19T20:40:00.000-08:00

There is increasing discussion lately about the integration of ebusiness and elearning.

In my travels around Australia I have observed that the VET sector has one key strategic weakness - a general lack of knowledge of internet marketing (despite producing world-class elearning products).

I have seen leading edge, collaborative, curriculum development centres shut down because of a lack of funding. Yet, global marketing of the elearning education products could have produced enough revenue to maintain and grow such centres. E-learning removes physical barriers and makes the global market accessible - but, you still have to let people know what you have to offer.

One of the major internet marketing techniques that has emerged over the last few years is the use of viral articles.

The concept is that you write articles about your focal area and place them on your website/blog and as well submit them to article directories (of which there are about 400, with more starting every day!). Here's an example of an article directory:
http://www.ezinearticles.com/

People visit the directories looking for articles on various topics and some include them in their ezines or email them to friends, and the recipients, in turn, repeat the process...and so you have viral marketing in train that costs nothing and lasts for years. Some of the world's leading internet marketers have used this strategy for many years.

Key features of these articles are:

usually about 500-1000 words in length
do not include web links within the article
focused on one key theme/sub-theme
provide information for consumers/students - not hard sell

Each article contains a resource box at the end which provides information about the author and a call to action (e.g. visit my site, subscribe to my newsletter, request more information, etc) and a hot link to your website/blog. Here's some editorial guidelines which represent fairly common practice amongst article directories:
http://www.ezinearticles.com/editorial-guidelines.html

There are other significant marketing benefits that accrue from writing and submitting articles. If you set them up right, they can help to increase the Google page ranking for your website/blog. If you include a link to your website or blog and submit your articles to directories, you will have an external link from the directory back to your website/blog. Many of the article directories have high page rankings in Google and Yahoo because they are content-rich sites. External links to your site from these highly ranked sites helps to boost your own site's ranking. If you store the articles on your own site, this too can increase your site's ranking as well as assist your students.

Articles can also help to put you at the top of Google's listings for searches on your relevant keywords.

For example, I have created a blog to focus on affiliate marketing and offer my services as an affiliate marketing coach:
http://www.affiliate-marketing-coach.blogspot.com/

When I submit my articles to directories, they in turn submit them to the search engines. I also submit my blog to search engines, blog directories and RSS directories.

If you search Google for the keyword term, "affiliate marketing coach", usually at least three of the first 10 listings on page one, will point back to my blog or one of my articles. Some links will be from article directories, while others will come from blog directories. At the time of writing this posting, five of the top ten Google listings (of 2,500,000 listings) for the term, "affiliate marketing coach", link back to my blog or one of my articles.

The secret, however, is the way you incorporate the chosen keyword in your articles and your site. For example, my keyword "affiliate marketing coach" is:

the title of my blog
in the URL address of my blog
in the resource box of all my articles (e.g. "Ron Passfield, Phd, affiliate marketing coach, ...")

Owners of article directories will ask you for the title of your website/blog, the URL and provide you with the opportunity to write a brief resource box in your article. So the secret is to have "all roads pointing to...your keyword".

When you write articles and publish them on your site and in directories, you create credibility for yourself, your courses and your organisation. You also enhance your personal profile - but that's another story/posting!

If you are reticent to start writing articles, you might like to read my article:
Activate Your Chakras to Improve Your Article Writing

2006 E-Learning Networks Community Forum

2006-03-19T20:16:00.000-08:00

There is an active group forming in the General Forum of the 2006 Networks Community (an EdNA Group).

The group is up to the "introduce yourself" stage but already there is evidence of a rich lode of resource people covering areas such as literacy, e-assessment, Janison vs WebCT vs Blackboard, as well as a number of people engaged in online delivery of the Certificate IV in TAA.

It might be a good time to join this group and link up with other people Australia-wide who are working on areas that you are interested in. You need to register and you do so by going directly to the General Forum page where the current major discussion is under the topic, "A Very Warm Welcome" (how apt!):

http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/mod/forum/view.php?id=11857

Literacy Resources

2006-03-02T16:16:00.000-08:00

I understand that 2006 is the Year of Literacy.

So I have decided to focus this week's posts on the literacy theme.

If you visit my online learning and teaching blog, you will find the following posts:

Literacy Exchange - World Resources on Literacy
Literacy, Learning and ICT - Research, resources and software
Literacy Activities and Resources - Schools
Literacy Site - Fiction and Narrative - Online Picture Books
Literacy Live - Edna Groups
Self-Directed Learning and Adult Literacy Resources
Directory of Online Resources About Information Literacy
E-learning and Literacy: Woodland Grange Primary School

You can access any of the items above by visiting the blog at:
http://online-learning-and-teaching.blogspot.com/

E-Learning Facilitation - Funding Opportunities

2006-02-13T20:15:00.000-08:00

1. E-learning Networks Facilitation

In 2006 you can apply for funding of up to AUD $7,500 to facilitate an online network that enables participants to develop knowledge and skills in e-learning.

Up to 20 such networks will be funded and selected from around Australia and range across many vocational and technical education (VTE) subjects and client groups.

To be eligible to apply, you need to be working within a registered training organisation (RTO), or within an organisation affiliated with a RTO.

The selected networks will be different from the networks funded in 2005, though past facilitators are welcome to apply to facilitate a new network.

E-learning Networks applications close: Midday (Eastern Standard Time) Friday 17 March 2006.

Applying for E-learning Networks funding in 2006 (discussion forum):

Are you planning on applying for E-learning Networks funding in 2006 and would you like to learn more about it? Then meet and discuss your options, ideas and how to apply with Cathy Baxter, project manager of Networks Project at the online discussion forum:
http://tinyurl.com/92mmw

2. Facilitation Services

Expressions of Interest are called for facilitating 3 online events coming up in June and The Networks Community Forum. Facilitation services applications close COB (AEST) Friday 24 February 2006.

3. Editorial Services

A proposal is sought to produce and publish the content of an e-learning online journal - The Knowledge Tree: an e-Journal of Learning Innovation. Editorial Services applications close COB (AEST) Wednesday 1 March 2006.

For further information and application documentations for the above funding opportunities please visit the 2006 Networks Community Forum or Networks Homepage

Live Conversation - Using Elluminate

2006-02-13T18:19:00.000-08:00

Now is your chance to try out Elluminate via the Australian Flexible Learning Leaders virtual office in Learning Times Australia.

Instructions for downloading Elluminate are provided below.

Live Conversation: 28th February

Preparation: Read the lead article 'Managing Emergent Work: Revisiting Jazz Lessons', and join the live online conversation with international co-authors Ann Majchrzak, Dave Logan, Mathias Kirchmer and Ron McCurdy on the role of improvisation and shifting leadership in the management of global business projects.

Time: February 28th, 2006 at 1pm (Qld time) [2pm Australian ESST (Daylight Saving), 28/2 at 4 pm New Zealand, 2/27 7p PST, 2/27 10p EST - United States].

Location: The Australian Flexible Learning Framework's virtual office in Learning Times Australia at:
http://home.learningtimes.net/lta?go=z1035514

You'll need a microphone and speakers or head set. Looking forward to meeting you online.

*********************************************************************************
INSTRUCTIONS FOR ACCESSING Elluminate

Elluminate Live! Helpful Hints

Please complete these steps at least two days before the event so that any technical difficulties can be addressed:

1. Join Learning Times Australia ( http://www.learningtimes.net/lta.shtml) if you haven't already (It's free).

2. Then go to http://home.learningtimes.net/lta?go=z1035514 and
(What can you see?In the left menu you should see Member Offices and you should be in the Learning Times Australia site.)

3. Click on Member offices: You'll see in the right frame a link to the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (AFLF) virtual office.

4. If you scroll down you'll also see Test Room and further down Guided TourEither of these latter two will set up you and teach you about Elluminate Live!
The software should then automatically download and install (about 5 minutes on broadband; 15 - 20 on dial up.)
If you can enter the AFLF or test room, enter text in the direct messaging area, write on the whiteboard, and the TALK button (lower left of screen) switches to ON THE AIR when you click it then you have a successful connection.
If the software does not automatically download and install it is likely that it is being blocked by a network firewall and you may need IT assistance.
For more help with live events contact Michael Coghlan at michaelc@chariot.net.au
The ‘conversations’ will run in conjunction with activities run by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework’s (Framework) E-learning Networks Project at:
http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/flx/go/pid/103

Click to view more about the ‘conversations’ and how to participate in the Networks Community Forum at: http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/course/view.php?id=40
You'll need to login to read (free).
For further information contact the editor, Jo Murray on tel: +61 (0)3 6253 6029 or email: jomurray@southcom.com.au

Podcasting Pilot - Potential Opportunity

2006-02-05T19:17:00.000-08:00

Just to let you all know about a potential opportunity for podcasting. Professional Practices Unit is considering conducting some pilot podcasting activities during the period March to June 2006. We are considering two types of activity - professional development for teachers (eg interviews with experts etc.) and resources for students.

The purpose of this post is to gauge interest in the concept of pilot projects and to ascertain who, if anyone, might be interested in working with us over the next few months. Your responses (and feedback from other sources) will help us to determine whether we proceed with the pilot or not.

Let me know your thoughts.

Peter Skippington

National Mobile Learning Practitioners Network

2006-02-05T15:51:00.000-08:00

In the previous post I mentioned the Mobile Learning Practitioners Network. This group is worth highlighting for anyone interested in mobile learning. This group is one of the many EdNA e-learning network groups.

If you want to keep up with the latest on mobile learning check out the Mobile Learning Practitioners Group.

Here's a sample to whet your appetite. It's a couple of items from the Pick of the Week section:

Mobile learning for people with disabilities, Adam Maxwell talks about mobile devices and accessibility, some great things on the wind

Mlearning Safari: the network goes to South Africa, A great new event for the Network

PDA Link List Resource, accessing internet favourites via your PDA, Alex Hayes asks the question and he is getting lots of ideas

(Excerpt from the Mobile Learning Practitioners Network)

Knowledge Tree Goes Mobile

2006-02-05T15:01:00.000-08:00

Here's a note from Jo Murray, editor of the Knowledge Tree, an e-journal of learning innovation and research:

"The latest research and innovation in global e-learning practice is mobile. In an exciting development, The Knowledge Tree: an e-Journal of Learning Innovation Edition 8,is now accessible via hand held mobile devices.
http://knowledgetree.flexiblelearning.net.au/edition08/

Edition 8 focuses on tensions in the convergence of e-learning and e-business. ...

Short industry-focussed video interviews feature e-business and e-learning experts, including Ghent University’s ‘Instructional Sciences’ Professor Dr Martin Valcke, with hints on corporate-education partnerships. Others offer insights on the e-business supply chain, new directions in mobile learning, induction by e-learning and practical approaches to e-learning.

Articles question when social interaction in corporate e-learning is necessary, investigate the gap in e-learning readiness between enterprises and training organisations, challenge the need for flashy multimedia and reflect on networking as a driver of e-learning.

Current research features a selection of useful e-business RSS feeds. "

NOTE: You can access previous research and innovation through the archive copies of the Knowledge Tree:
http://knowledgetree.flexiblelearning.net.au/index.html

From Jo:

"Details of how to set up and configure your particular mobile device [for accessing the Knowledge Tree] are available from the Mobile Learning Practitioners Network forum. Free registration is required. Any feedback from mobile device users on this experiment is be very welcome."

Thanks to Jo Murray
Managing Editor, The Knowledge Tree: an e-Journal of Learning Innovation

Flexible Learning Leader for Tasmania

Director
Pelion Consulting Pty. Ltd.
499 Bream Creek Road
BREAM CREEK TAS 7175
Ph/Fax: 61 (0)3 62536029
Mobile: 0427 026 990
Website: http://www.pelion.com.au

Web Audio Plus - audio creation program

2006-02-05T14:36:00.000-08:00

Following on from our discussion of Podcasting, I have included below a bonus for members of the PfP network.

The bonus is free access to Web Audio Plus, a web audio creation program that is currently selling on the Internet for $US37.

The program comes with a training video as well.

The link for the zipped files for this program is:
http://tinyurl.com/cqg6b

If you have Win.zip or equivalent, you will unzip the files as part of the download process.

I have created an audio through Web Audio Plus to explain the next steps in the download and instal process. To listen, click on the PLAY button below:

If you missed the training video in the installation process, here is another one by Gary Ambrose, who provided this as a marketing tool for his ezine subscribers. The video tutorial takes you screen by screen through the audio creation and upload process:
http://www.garyambrose.com/recommends/first-video

Mobile learning: research, case studies and guidelines

2006-01-29T21:11:00.000-08:00

I have created a number of posts on my Online Learning and Teaching blog that provide a range of resources in the area mLearning (mobile learning).

The postings are:

TxT Me: Supporting disengaged youth using mobile technologies (report of a case study plus recommendations report)
Hand-Held Devices in the Classroom (a great resource data base)
The Handheld Classroom: Educational Implications of Mobile Technology (research paper with projects, issues and the potential future of mLearning)
Enabling Mobile Learning (uses, lessons and trends in education)
M-learning and the new students' thinking (for teachers in schools especially)

and

mLearning: Doing the unthinkable and reaching the unreachable by Tom Brown, University of Pretoria, South Africa - 2005 Conference presentation on mLearning in rural Africa - this is an eye-opening, entertaining and enlightening presentation!!

http://www.online-learning-and-teaching.blogspot.com/

Where to start with ELearning - tools for small business

2006-01-29T16:58:00.000-08:00

There are two resources here: (1) an interview that describes an RTO case study and (2) a toolkit that provides links, tools and case studies.

Facing Your E-Learning Fears: Success Factors and Tools for Moving Small Organisations into Flexible Learning

Wendy Morrow and Kim Edgar

In this interview Kim and Wendy share their experiences of moving their small South Australian Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) into e-learning, outlining key success factors and describing the free tools they’ve developed and use to help others do the same.

http://tinyurl.com/aqt7j

E-learning on a Shoestring

Frankie Forsythe

This report is an E-Toolkit containing a wealth of ideas, annotated links and case studies on how to get started online and how to continue to develop creative online solutions! It features exciting pedagogy and an analysis of a range of low cost open source tools ideal for small RTOs. (October 2004. )

http://tinyurl.com/9flsz

Podcasting for Education - Trendsetters, Tips and Tactics

2006-01-18T19:41:00.000-08:00

I recently created yet another personal blog as a resource for teachers exploring online learning:
http://www.online-learning-and-teaching.blogspot.com/

My latest postings are focused on podcasting and provide articles, examples, trends, links and tips for podcasting for education.

The trends show how universities are using podcasts (and related technologies) to provide free courses on a global basis and also to market their offerings. For example, iTunes is now the repository for podcasts from Stanford University and "vodcasts" from Princeton University.

Another important trend is the convergence of other technologies with "podcasting". For example, "Apple recently introduced vodcasting technology in conjunction with the video-enabled iPod as a way of sharing video files over iTunes".

Podcasting for marketing, profit and fun

2006-01-18T17:08:00.000-08:00

Podcasting can be used for education, marketing, fun and profit.

The ebook, "Podcasting for Fun & Profit" is a comprehensive resource that shows you how to develop and publish a podcast.

The information in the ebook can be used to develop podcasts to market a course and/or your school/institute/training organisation. The information can also be used to develop podcasts to make money or to have fun (a great way to learn!).

This 83 page ebook is very comprehensive and is designed as a learning tool and incorporates a glossary of terms, chapter summaries, examples, graduated project tasks, action steps and "things you should know". It literally takes you by the hand through the processes of understanding podcasts, listening to them, creating podcasts and marketing your podcasts.

The core chapters are:

What is Podcasting?
Getting started by downloading and listening
Podcasting software and equipment
Podcast host sites
Creating successful podcast for particular markets or niches
10 Ways to make money with podcasts

The graduated project tasks are as follows:

Get set up and listen to a podcast
Preparing to podcast
Become a podcaster
Develop your podcast
Keep you podcast going

The ebook, Podcasting for Fun & Profit, can be downloaded as a zipped file at:

http://tinyurl.com/8lksu

(For some inexplicable reason, however, it will be quicker to download if you use the "post title" or "ebook name" hotlinks given earlier)

Podcasting for Education - an Introduction

2006-01-18T16:44:00.000-08:00

Podcasting is experiencing a major explosion at the moment in both education and internet marketing.

The term "podcasting" is drawn from a combination of the terms "iPod" and "broadcast".

Tony Vincent of learninginhand.com explains the concept further:

"Podcasting is a way to automatically download and synchronize digital audio files from the internet to iPods, Palm OS handhelds, Pocket PCs, or other devices that play digital audio files. These audio files are usually in MP3 format and can be recorded and distributed by anyone. Podcasts are free of charge, though you may need to purchase some software to make the download and synchronization process work seamlessly. There are podcasts recorded by educators for educators. There are also podcasts recorded specifically for students. And best yet - there are podcasts made by students!

A podcast will have a web address for an RSS feed [for broadcasting]. Software that downloads podcasts will check the RSS feeds of the podcasts you subscribe to. When a new podcast is added, the feed is updated and the software knows to download the new audio file and have it waiting for you."

Tony provides an excellent introduction for the beginner at his website:
http://learninginhand.com/podcasting/

You will learn about:

finding podcasts
subscribing to podcasts
listening to podcasts
creating podcasts

The section on creating podcasts covers:

preproduction
recording
postproduction
publishing

This is a great learning resource for people new to podcasting who want to employ this technology in their teaching!

An Aussie Christmas

2005-12-15T22:06:00.000-08:00

This is more like an Aussie Christmas scene - an Aussie mudmap!

(Courtesy of Bill Ockendon)

Web Page Language Translator

2005-12-14T16:18:00.000-08:00

Here's a Christmas gift.

This program will translate any web page from any one of the following 6 languages to any of the others:

Spanish
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
English

It translated one of my blog pages from English to Spanish in 30 seconds! I was then able to save the result as a html file.

Even if you are not working in the multicultural area, this could provide a good pastime for the Christmas holidays.

The link below takes you to a zipped file which when unzipped will reveal three files -

PT.exe
ReadMe.txt
Website.zip

LINK: http://www.yourdownloadcenter.com/eproducts/ronpass/PT.zip

You will only need to open the first one - PT.exe

(Unless of course you want to sell this program on the Internet for anything up to US$29.95 - then you will need the text file instructions and the complete marketing website provided)

Once you open PT.exe, it will take you through a simple install wizard and place an icon on your computer (yes, another one!).

Click the icon and bingo you get the following screen to play with:

Do you have people that visit your site and do not understand English? Or have you ever visited a site that was in French, Spanish, or some other language and had NO clue what it said? Well this script will use the fabulous translation routines at Google.com to convert these pages into something you and your visitors can understand!

Simply enter the URL you want translated, then select the language the page is written in and also the language you want it translated to. It will then create an html page that you can place on your web site that will automatically call the google routines and translate the page.

Translate From: English/Spanish/French/German/Italian/Portuguese
Translate To: English/Spanish/French/German/Italian/Portuguese
Page URL:
Page Title:

Options:
Create & Copy to Clipboard
Create & Save As Html File
Test Page First

Have fun! It is my fond hope that this could really help people working in the area of multicultural education and training.

Cool Connections - podcasts, digital stories, forums

2005-12-06T18:17:00.000-08:00

In her Networks: December Newsletter, Jyothi Jayaram has provided links for podcasts, digital stories and forums from the Cool Connections Conference 21-22 November, Sydney. Her summary is below.

Cool Connections showcased innovation in e-learning practices. It provided a wealth of sharing and knowledge building, as well as fostering opportunities for networking with practitioners from across Australia.

The work of a number of Projects from within the 2005 Framework was featured in the Cool Connections event, including: 2005 Networks of the Australian Flexible Learning Community; LearnScope; E-learning Creative Community Partnerships; Indigenous Engagement; Engaging Industry and New Practices in Flexible Learning 2005.

A number of these presentations are now available as podcasts from the links below. Keynote sessions were especially valued and available for your perusal.

The Elluminate keynote presentation by George Siemens on ‘Connectivism: Learning in a Digital Age’ created a lot of interest.

View the recorded session at – http://home.learningtimes.net/lta?go=1045877
Download and listen to the MP3 file from the Podcast at - http://castingthenetpodcast.blogspot.com/ (thanks to Stephan Ridgway).
You can also continue to engage with George in an online discussion forum! Go to - http://home.learningtimes.net/lta?go=1048098
George has also set up a wiki of useful resources:
http://www.connectivism.ca/wiki/CoolConnections
George will also be a featured speaker at IOC 2006 www.ilonlineconf.org

Podcasting: The Cool Connections event has been PODCASTED (thank you Stephan Ridgway!)

you can download and listen to the MP3 files at - http://castingthenetpodcast.blogspot.com/
also more podcasts of Day 2 under the November Archives link on the Casting the Net Podcast page.
For some photos of the event, go to – http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/coolconnections05/

For Digital Stories created during the event

Digi Dragons stories
Digistory competition

Cool Connections Conference, Sydney, 21-22 November 2006

2005-11-23T15:28:00.000-08:00

The Cool Connections Conference was an opportunity for participants from around Australia to showcase their e-learning initiatives which were funded under various programs within the Australian Flexible Learning Framework.

If funding for this PfP blogging activity continues, I will report in detail on the ideas, tools and resources offered during the Cool Connections Conference.

In the meantime, it is worth noting that the core topics covered were:
. building collaborative networks
. moblogging and mobile learning
. podcasting
. digital storytelling (major emphasis - more on this later!)
. e-portfolios
. e-learning for indigenous learners
. voice technologies
. e-learning in trades and management

The highlight of the Conference was an Elluminate Session with George Siemens (Instructor, Red River College, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada). We also had participants from Brazil and the USA joining the Conference group in this on-line session that incorporated video, voice, electronic whiteboard and three on-line moderators.

George's presentation focused on his concept of Connectivitism, that he describes as A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. George's Elluminate presentation is available on his wikki - it incorporates an excellent summary of online tools and their functions (with hot links):
http://www.connectivism.ca/wiki/CoolConnections

George's superb blog, Elearnspace, is well worth a visit. His menu buttons are particluarly seductive:
Starting Enabling Doing Evaluating Managing Resources Home

George's blog also provides an integrated model of e-learning:
http://www.elearnspace.org/