Project eLearning

'How Far Now!' October is Black History Month.

2010-10-24T04:27:00.000-07:00

Yes in the United Kingdom it is Black History Month so jerk chicken and rice with plaintain or jollof rice is being served in schools all over the country or they're experiencing the joy of African dance and drumming. Now I don't have documentary evidence of this, but if you do a search for 'black history month uk' you could easily get the impression that these are two of the favourite ways to celebrate the month.

When I was a young student we often bemoaned the fact that the only education we ever got that had any relevance to our personal and cultural identity focused on the fact that we were descended from people who were bought and sold like farm animals. Multiculturalism was something that came into schools by the time I was a mother. It meant that my children could now learn of people like Mary Seacole as well as Florence Nightingale or learn more about Diwali and Chinese New Year at school. The introduction of October as Black History Month at the time was like a natural progression and doesn't seem so unusual now. At first though I thought it wasn't for me as I'd taught myself Black History by reading autobiographies and biographies from Billie Holliday to Malcom X. I watched programmes like 'Eyes on the Prize' and anything related to African or Caribbean history and I repeated the phrase 'Black History is not just for one month'. Black History Month was for youngsters and people who didn't know any black history, in my opinion. Now I recognise that the month is for celebration and I think in celebrating we are also learning. In that sentiment I would like to think that educational institutions are doing more than serving Caribbean school lunches or enjoying a visit from a group of lively drummers and dancers from Nigeria. In my own place of work they are running a writing competition which is helping some teachers introduce the art of expression around a relevant topic such as the poems of Maya Angelou.

This year I found myself making a contribution to Black History Month quite by accident really as I never planned to do anything more than say 'Hello' to my Facebook family and friends in an African language. So my first status of October simply said, 'Jambo!' I didn't even check that it meant what I planned to say, taking it from memory of the few words of any African language I'd gathered in my youth studying people of African origin.

A few days later I said 'How now' which apparently means 'Hello' in Nigeria. This status sparked some good comments and even a correction as I was told by an African student it should read, 'How far now'. This activity was now quite enlightening so I continued with 'Etisen' Twi (Ghana), 'Bonjour tout le monde' French (spoken in some form in some African and Caribbean countries) and 'Tena-istellen' Amharic (Ethiopia). By Friday of that first week I'd decided to keep using my status for Black History Month for the whole month but only on weekdays. I was not explicit about what I was doing until directly asked and the positive response encouraged me to continue. I decided to choose a different theme for each week.

After greetings in other languages here some links and videos I shared under their themes:

Men of Note

Nat King Cole
One of my favourite songs for the season sung by one of the first voices I ever loved. Nat King Cole was one of the first biographies I chose to read simply because I'd always loved to hear his voice when I was growing up listening to my parents records. People of my generation will also tell you how our parents loved to play Jim Reeves music and country and western singers like Frankie Laine which mystified us as children. My favourite singer of all those is still Nat King Cole.

Elijah J McCoy

I simply asked the question, 'What well known phrase is said to originate from this man?'
The answer: The Real McCoy'.This sparked a lot of comments and most of them with the right answer. I guess it was an easy one.

Ernie Barnes

Another question: Can anyone tell me whose album cover (name of singer and name of album) did this artist create?

This was a bit hard as no-one got it so I posted the answer a few hours later: Ernie Barnes' painting 'Sugar Shack' was featured on Marvin Gaye's album 'I Want You'.

I was too young to be buying albums when this came out but I had a poster of the cover on my wall as a teenager and a few other pictures cut out of a magazine from this artist. In fact I have a couple of prints of Ernie Barnes to this day. Just love the movement in his work.

CLR James Library

Great news! During the second week in October news came out that made many local people happy. Since August we have been petitioning against a proposed name for a library which for more than 25 years is known as the CLR James Library. The council wanted to call it the Dalston Library. This news announced that the council has listened to the concerns of locals put forward by community group Black & Ethnic Minority Arts (BEMA) and agreed to keep the name of a man regarded highly across all nationalities and of particular pride to African Caribbean peoples included in the new name of the library. Click on the links to read more about CLR James, an influential writer, activist and raconteur.

The Honourable Derek Walcott
A son of St Lucia and a Nobel Prize winner. Just because I admire him. Here is one of his poems:

A Far Cry From Africa by Derek Walcott

A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt
Of Africa, Kikuyu, quick as flies,
Batten upon the bloodstreams of the veldt.
Corpses are scattered through a paradise.
Only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries:
"Waste no compassion on these separate dead!"
Statistics justify and scholars seize
The salients of colonial policy.
What is that to the white child hacked in bed?
To savages, expendable as Jews?
Threshed out by beaters, the long rushes break
In a white dust of ibises whose cries
Have wheeled since civilizations dawn
From the parched river or beast-teeming plain.
The violence of beast on beast is read
As natural law, but upright man
Seeks his divinity by inflicting pain.
Delirious as these worried beasts, his wars
Dance to the tightened carcass of a drum,
While he calls courage still that native dread
Of the white peace contracted by the dead.

Again brutish necessity wipes its hands
Upon the napkin of a dirty cause, again
A waste of our compassion, as with Spain,
The gorilla wrestles with the superman.
I who am poisoned with the blood of both,
Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?
I who have cursed
The drunken officer of British rule, how choose
Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?
Betray them both, or give back what they give?
How can I face such slaughter and be cool?
How can I turn from Africa and live?

Women of Note

Jean Binta Breeze
I met this woman briefly many years ago as she headlined a poetry evening I took part in. I watched her performance from backstage and realised that I had a long way to go before I could be as good as she. I remain in awe.
Here she is in performance a few years ago:

Mahalia Jackson

The video I used to feature this gospel great is from a movie which for me was all about the black woman and her daughter. The girl rejected her mother as she strove to pass herself off as white. Watching this movie as a young child made quite an impression on me. The funeral and the scene of the daughter's remorse always gets me. I've just recently started reading about the life of Mahalia and watching videos on YouTube of her performances.

Yaa Asantewaa
The first time I ever heard the name of Yaa Asantewaa, I was being taught by a Ghanaian friend about one of his nation's heroes. The fascinating thing for me was that it was a woman who fought for her people, a warrior queen was how I understood it then. I found some very good materials including a documentary and posted them to my page.

Sonia Lanaman

Don't ever hear her name mentioned anymore but Sonia Lanaman was one of my favourite athletes as a child. I cheered when she won and felt sad when she lost. I thought it time she got a mention.

Toni Morrison

Another Nobel Prize winner and one of my favourite authors. The first book I read by Toni Morrison was called 'The Bluest Eye'. Many others have been read since. I wish I could've had one of her books for study when I was a youngster instead of Chaucer or King Lear.

Here is a link to the Official Guide to Black History Month in the UK including an online magazine and teachers packs.

Got one more theme to choose for my Facebook statuses for the last week. Got any suggestions?

Thank you for reading.

Prezi! Zoom Over Slides.

2010-07-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

This discovery came via an email from a colleague. He described the content of the link as a possible alternative to PowerPoint. What I discovered was a tool that allows the user to zoom in and out to engage and explain the subject being presented in a very flexible way. I noticed that it also allows embedding to websites and can be downloaded and stored.

Anyone who uses Moodle may know that to include a PowerPoint slideshow in your teaching and learning resources is not a simple task. In the past I've attempted to upload a .pps file but this does not ensure it runs as a slideshow. You are taken to the edit window which is particularly annoying. Anything that is said to be an alternative to PowerPoint is something worth exploring especially if it would run better on the VLE or intranet.

Prezi was developed by Adam Somlai-Fischer and Peter Halacsy who felt that slides were limiting and wanted to be able to present and develop ideas in another way. I recommend you visit the the site and have a look at some 'prezis' available for public viewing. All prezis made by anyone signing up to the free option are made public.

Have a look at this video 'What is Prezi? - The official intro video' to get a better idea of how Prezi is so different from PowerPoint.

Before you go off to the Prezi site how about having a look at my first attempt at creating a prezi. Concentrating on inserting text, frames and paths, there are no pretty images. For someone who finds PowerPoint a doddle to use, learning to use prezi took some patience and perserverance. The Prezi Academy offers lessons for all stages from beginner to advanced.

Here is my first prezi made for the purpose of an online introduction to the learning centre and used on our college intranet and/or VLE. I decided to keep it very simple so there are no images or changes in font colours. Creating the paths and views was the trickiest part of the creating process. A number of attempts were needed to create a show with smooth movement from each point so you may feel it's a little overdone. I apologise if you experience any motion sickness.

Welcome to the Learning Centre on Prezi

Reviews - a small collection of reviews for more information

Layers Magazine

AppAppeal

Solid State UX - Zooming in on Prezi: A Review

A Learning Centre - A Facebook Page Proposal

2010-05-31T16:04:00.000-07:00

After my last post there have been some developments which led in turn to a re-think. I said before that I was not sure how a learning resource centre could use Facebook for social learning. Most of my elearning work recently was focused on creating resources for workshops that are being made available on our intranet and the VLE. Promoting the use of the learning centre is generally focused on these internal pathways.

Now our college has joined social media with an account on Twitter and a page on Facebook, a new pathway is open and I can consider social learning for a learning resource centre. I am using this post to outline a general proposal that could bring a social media aspect to providing learning resources for students and staff in any education establishment.

Why use Facebook? Pros and Cons

No need to ask people to join - aimed at those already using Facebook regularly. This means they are already familiar with how the site works. I would guess using my own observations, that many students (and maybe some staff) log in to Facebook more often than they log in to the VLE.
Many people are using mobile gadgets to access Facebook on a daily basis therefore it would be easy for them to receive updates
It is easy to set up and maintain a profile and page (or group) for social learning - there are lots of online resources to demonstrate how if you need instructions.
Set up with clear goals and strategies to minimise privacy issues. Use of Facebook by educational establishments can include teaching strategies to encourage making good choices on what we share and what is private and what is public, how Facebook changes may affect your privacy and strategies that safeguard internet use on all social sites.
Privacy - yes it is the hot issue! Don't underestimate it's importance! In our roles of safeguarding it is very important for colleges, schools etc use of social media to be wary of possible problems and deal with them. I hope that the strategy chosen will protect the privacy of all individuals. If you can see a hole in it please comment and point it out.
Risk of upsetting some who use Facebook for fun and don't wish to mix their education or work with pleasure. You may not get the activity you expect - so don't assume participation, just work towards it.

Research

Whether you are a Facebook user or not, it is very useful to do some research and find out others views on how to use the site for the purpose of social learning. It can help to define your institutions aims and objectives. For this post I used resources posted previously in Facebook - A Tool for Social Learning. For your convenience here is a list some of the resources used:

Facebook for Learning? Boleh! by Zaid Alsagoff

How to Use Facebook for Social Learning by the Centre for Learning & Performance Technolgies, Jane Hart

100 Ways You Should Be Using Facebook in Your Classroom by Online College

I found a good example of how one university Learning Resource Centre uses Facebook Page:
Queen Margaret University Learning Resource Centre

The aims and objectives define the purpose and proposed use of a Facebook page for a learning resource centre. These are my suggestions:

Aims

to promote use of LRC for research, study, books etc.
to promote resources available including online resources
to direct staff and students to internal resources
provide updates on special displays and books available to loan
to easily share reviews, experiences via comments etc.
to notify about surveys, book sales, opening hours being changed

Objectives

provide an alternative method of communicating with staff and students
engage and interact with users of the Learning Centre
reach more of the community who are already using Facebook

Page not Group - why?
I am focusing on creating a page because I believe it would serve the aims and objectives for the following reasons:

you have to join a group to become a member and if it is a closed group you must meet certain criteria to join
a page is easy to join as you simply have to like the page (click on the Like button)
page updates appear more readily in your news feed
pages allow you to add applications which would enhance the services and information offered
pages are the best option for a learning centre which supports staff and students

The presentation by Zaid gives all the details in the options available for groups and pages on Facebook. A closed group would not be necessary and I don't think there will be any need to message all members. Both of these are features of Facebook groups. Pages allow you to use apps such as Notes which can be used as a blog or you can import your blog from another site. If you wish page status updates can be linked to Twitter using a suitable application.

Privacy
For this project I would recommend that a profile is created specifically to maintain the LRC page. This would help to maintain a professional profile reflecting the team behind the page rather than one individual. Profile image and name should be determined by discussion and agreement of staff involved in the service.

When you like a page and comment on it you do not share any personal information other than your name and profile pic. As long as your profile is private the only thing you risk is inviting friend requests. I do not recommend staff accept friend requests from current students. This would be in line with safeguarding recommendations.

No doubt you are aware of the latest disquiet around Facebook and privacy. Check your privacy settings especially after any changes. I would recommend doing this regularly regardless. Best practice would be to posting only links and items you don't mind anyone seeing.

It is not the goal of this proposal to invite people to use Facebook but to reach those who are already using it.

Facebook and Students

Here is a link to a news item regarding the use of Facebook and how it helped to reduce 'students drop-outs' from the BBC News. Very useful to see positive practical experience of social media.

I thank you for reading my proposal and hope you have some comments and thoughts to share especially if you have any concerns on how taking this path would affect support for learning and student progression. I look forward to hearing from you.

Watch out for future developments.

Facebook - A Tool for Social Learning

2010-04-30T07:38:00.000-07:00

I found this resource via a tweet by @zaidlearn on Twitter. It is good to see what other educators are doing with social networking sites that are currently banned in some educational institutions. Twitter itself has already proven to be a great place to share links and news as well as share opinions, entertain and be entertained. I’ve learnt things too – recently I watched a webcast by @knitpurlgurl, one of the people I follow on Twitter and learnt how to crochet after many years of trying and failing. She is such a good teacher and she explained the steps so carefully and in great detail with support from her chat room of viewers. More colleges are joining Twitter although I am never sure if they have a strategy or are just doing it because they don't want to be left out. But this post is not about Twitter it is about Facebook.

Facebook is no longer banned for staff in our local community college but it currently is for students. Therefore it would be interesting to see if lecturers could be encouraged to demand that this ban be lifted on the basis of suggested use of Facebook for social learning. Not sure how it could be used in a learning resource centre so I am posting this for my own reference and a future resource. I am considered

The presentation here has some good advice for preparing to use Facebook as a learning tool. The presentation has audio and some information for anyone who is not on Facebook and never used it.

Facebook For Learning? Boleh!

View more presentations from Zaid Alsagoff.

As well as the presentation this website also includes links to background reading.

The Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies provides a free resource from the Social Learning Academy on How to Use Facebook for Social Learning.

And from more elearning resource sites:

100 Ways You Should Be Using Facebook in Your Classroom

100 Awesome Facebook Apps for Productivity and Learning

Happy Birthday Dr. King

2010-01-18T08:41:00.000-08:00

Dr Martin Luther King Jr – today in the United States today is MLK Day. It is a good day to teach younger ones of the history or remind ourselves of his oratory and his work.

Since 1986 Martin Luther King’s birthday is celebrated on the third Monday in January. Here is a collection of links (a mere sample) which express the essence of the man who is remembered not just in the United States but all over the world.

Quotations of Martin Luther King

More quotations

History Learning site

Nobel Prize for Peace

Images of Martin Luther King

BBC Learning Zone - Class Clips

Eyes on the Prize - the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

2009-11-15T13:54:00.000-08:00

In the late seventies or early eighties an epic series came on the TV which captivated my interest for weeks. I was a teenager growing up in London, my historical knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement to that date was via the biographies of Nat King Cole and Billie Holiday. After these I read the biography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr written by his widow Coretta Scott King. And then came 'Roots'. But I am not referring to that series. I am talking about a history of the Civil Rights Movement in a form I'd never seen before. 'Eyes on the Prize' was an education then and a few years later when it was repeated and I watched some episodes with my children.

Well I recently found this series on YouTube, available in 10 minute chunks making it suitable as a possible teaching resource for a History class. We are approaching the anniversary of the what is generally seen as the first action of the Civil Rights Movement in the US - the Montgomery Bus Boycott started on December 1st, 1955. It is an education for anyone to recognise and understand what it took to fight for what we often take for granted today. I wonder what children nowadays would think if they had to confront the issues faced by the Montgomery Bus Boycotters. You don't have to be American or even black to appreciate the determination and strength. It is an historical event worth teaching.

Making Moodle Courses More Like Web Pages

2009-10-27T15:12:00.000-07:00

I've been working with Moodle for just over a year and have learned to use it via online videos and presentations. I can create web pages in Moodle and have learnt how to embed videos and recently a PowerPoint presentation with animations into a course page. However anyone who is familiar with Moodle course pages is well aware how quickly you find you've created a page which requires seemingly endless scrolling to find information and resources. One of the first pages I was involved in suffered from this issue. It was resolved by hiding some areas and creating links to hidden resources. Still required some scrolling so I knew it could be improved further but not how.

Once in a while I'll do a random search looking for anything new on a given topic. I use this most often when I am at work to find out what other people are saying about some of the resources we use in education especially when it comes to our open source VLE. The abundant sharing of knowledge and skills supports beginner, intermediate and advanced learning. I rely heavily on the sharing of highly skilled people who have been using Moodle a lot longer than me and I share my discoveries with colleagues as well as record it here.

A couple of weeks ago I was looking for a challenge so I did a Google video search on Moodle. One of the top five results was a video from channel UsingMoodle on YouTube called Make your Moodle course page look like a webpage. Avoiding the 'scroll of death' was a topic that I was trying to tackle over a year ago and therefore was exactly the challenge I was looking for. Naturally I watched it right away.

I watched it a few times over before attempting to follow the instructions to change one of the course pages for which I am responsible. I would recommend watching the video and pausing at each step while working on your course page. The hardest thing in the whole process which is not obvious in this video is finding images to use for buttons. Moodle is a bit fiddly when it comes to images. You can't just copy a bit of clipart. I would like to be able to just copy and paste and then add a hyperlink like I would in Word. Moodle however insists on you uploading files into a storage area which I find a little irritating. However as this video demonstrates it is possible to avoid the 'scroll of death'. Anything that makes Moodle more presentable is a good thing.

Screenr - Screencasts an eLearning tool

2009-10-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

Books are great and training sessions are even better but when you have a limited time to learn and upgrade your own skills I for one am glad for the wealth of information available online. It is part of my job to make sure my skills are up to scratch with the software being used by students. Recently we were upgraded to Office 2007. We are all teaching ourselves and each other while dealing with the start of the new term. I tried to use some books but they give you tasks that may be great in a classroom but have no motivation for me when I am self-teaching.

Until last month I’d never heard of the term ‘screencast’. I stumbled across a site that allows you to record and share screencasts with your Twitter followers. I was searching for PowerPoint 2007 videos and found screencasts. What's a screencast? To answer that question I decided to look up a definition or two.

The first definition is from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A screencast is a digital recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration. Although the term screencast dates from 2004, products such as Lotus ScreenCam were used as early as 1994.[1][2] Early products produced large files and had limited editing features. More recent products support more compact file formats such as Adobe Flash and have more sophisticated editing features allowing changes in sequence, mouse movement, and audio.

Just as a screenshot is a picture of a user's screen, a screencast is essentially a movie of the changes over time that a user sees on his monitor.

Another definition from yourdictionary.com explains it thus:

Screen recording software that turns screen output into a video to teach an application or to promote a product by demonstrating features. Users can also make videos of screen sequences to log results for troubleshooting. Screencast programs may allow narration during capture, and advanced versions allow editing and annotation after the capture.

The site I discovered is called Screenr. There I found a number of very useful screencasts to help people like me who like visual explanations and demonstrations. One of the screencasters appears under the name elearning. He can also be found on Twitter as @elearning.

I used two of his screencasts to learn about some advanced skills and while doing so observed how to access the various tools and features of PowerPoint 2007.

The first one shows how to use gradient fills to “create interesting and dramatic lighting effects.”

The second one shows how to create "Interactive, animated scenarios using motion paths in PowerPoint 2007".

Want to see more? Visit Screenr

I think the effects demonstrated really make a difference to your slideshow. I created an instructive presentation using motion path animation and the gradient fills to great effect. As it is specifically designed for our students it is not suitable to share in this post but it is already being implemented on the VLE. With the help of elearning's screencasts and my transferable skills, I consider myself upgraded in PowerPoint 2007. I hope you find these screencasts useful. Now to tackle Excel....

eLearning Sucks

2009-09-20T02:29:00.001-07:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: I found this via David Hopkin's blog Don't Waste Your Time. It is a thought provoking presentation so I am posting this for future reference.

eLearning Sucks

View more presentations from Red Magma.

Learning to Use Office 2007

2009-09-10T07:11:00.000-07:00

In my experience as a Learning Resource Assistant (IT) the autumn term is traditionally a time for initial assessments. People wishing to embark on a new course, develop skills and hopefully change their lives in some way have to sit an online assessment program for English and Mathematics. For many this is quite daunting especially if they are not very familiar with using computers or have learning support needs. It is our role to support all levels of ability and we take our role very seriously. However we have our own learning issues to face.
We returned to work after our summer break to discover that Office 2003 is now upgraded to Office 2007. There is no time to wait for professional development so we are busy trying to find time to train ourselves in between assessment duty.

Students are starting classes soon and will require support in using the intranet and VLE with technical support and how to questions for applications. We are faced with the task of learning to use Office 2007 to a good level of proficiency.
There are other issues which I will not go into here but just say that it presents us with a number of challenges that will affect the quality of our support. For this article I want to look at the methods we are using in our attempt to become proficient in Word 2007.

Microsoft Word is the obvious starting point for upgrading our knowledge of the Office suite. Once we can use Word we expect to be able to transfer that knowledge and apply it to the other applications used by students to carry out research and produce coursework. There are a number of methods we are using to achieve this.

We work in a learning resource centre so we are surrounded by tools for learning. But the first thing I did was just open the application and jumped in. Then one of us found a book called ‘Teach Yourself Word 2007’ on the shelves. It’s written by Moira Stephen and although designed for beginners it is very useful for users experienced in Word generally with clear progression from the basics to IT proficiency. You can find out more about the series from their website.

Books are good because you can carry them around and dip into the section you want. You can have the book to refer to as you work through and this book has some useful images but this is an elearning blog so let’s look at a few elearning options for Word 2007.

1. Online videos are great tools for learning and I found some on this website There are just a few videos of a few minutes duration and the site does have a comprehensive list of features in Word 2007 to explore and discover. It explains something that for me was initially the most confusing feature of Office 2007 – the ribbon. After years of menu bars and drop-down menus it is quite a change but with a few video demos and some demos from colleagues I recognised that in reality those dialogue boxes were still there.
Here is the video that introduced the Office 2007 Ribbon...

We also have some learning resources available on the VLE but I found these difficult to use as I have to switch from window to window to carry out tasks and exercises. I did not get any positive reactions to these resources from my colleagues.

2. The Microsoft Office site also offers some learning tools but I am unable to use them at work as the video player uses Silverlight. Installing anything is prohibited on the college network so I am not able to tell you about that.

3. The application itself offers help as we would expect. One colleague pointed out a really useful item called Reference: Locations of Word 2003 commands in Word 2007. This is neither training nor learning tool but it is a good reference tool which shows the equivalent of Word 2003 tools in Word 2007. It's just what we need.

This upgrade experience illustrates how we take different paths to learning. One of us uses video and practices the application by creating documents and exploring tools by doing. Another of us uses the Teach Yourself book and learns by reading and doing the bits that are relevant or interesting to them. We are all sharing what we’ve learned so far with each other, demonstrating and therefore reinforcing our own learning by sharing. It turns out that we have all learned different things so while I have focused on inserting tables, clipart and objects like text boxes, my colleagues have focused on formatting tabs, using the quick toolbar and headers and footers for example. This is a good thing as we will be able to complement each other as we provide support for learners. How long before we feel as confident with Office 2007 as we do with 2003 is another matter.

Wonder How To Anything

2009-06-13T08:49:00.000-07:00

One of my hobbies is making greeting cards. It is a hobby I've enjoyed for about 18 months as I discover, learn and apply new styles and techniques in paper craft. You can read all about in 'My Other Blog'.

One of these new styles (well new to me, you understand) is an exploding card. It is a card for special occasions like weddings or milestone birthdays which also doubles as a box in which you can place a gift. I am in the process of making my first one.

The internet is not my only source for learning about making handmade cards. There is a wide selection of magazines and books on the subject but my favourite method of learning is through watching good crafters demonstrating. There are TV shows on QVC and a specialist channel Create and Craft which is also live online. The internet is without doubt the major provider of a wealth of instructional videos and I used this one to learn how to make an exploding card.

The Wonder How To website describes itself appropiately as 'The How To Anything site'. It is a one stop site for instructional videos on topics from Arts and Crafts to Science. I would add a word of warning as I saw some thumbnails for videos which were on dissecting. Not for the faint hearted and certainly not for anyone other than medical students, pathologists or the fascinated! I watched the video above on Wonder How To and embedded it directly from YouTube.

Many but not all of the videos are gleaned from YouTube so you will find videos from New Zealand as well anywhere else in the world.

If you are using the Firefox web browser you can also download a sidebar which will offer a choice of videos relating to the subject within your current webpage. You have the option of closing the Wonder How To sidebar and it is simple to re-open from the task bar.

There are over 1600 videos under the subject Education with subcategories of Humanities, Legal Issues, Math, Science and Teaching. There are some useful videos like the one following and there are some dubious ones which I hope examiners are aware of as they reveal secrets that help people to cheat at exams! This one however gives some useful tips on preparing to take exams, something that many students, all over the world are currently engaged.

For personal development I think Wonder How To is a very useful resource and I shall be using it for my own hobby development. Not sure I would recommend this for institutional use though.

101 Free Learning Tools

2009-05-18T11:45:00.000-07:00

101 Free Learning Tools

View more presentations from zaid.

This is a great presentation from Zaidlearn. A great list of learning tools.

Twitter in Education

2009-05-12T09:48:00.001-07:00

Twitter in Education

View more presentations from hopkinsdavid.

Twitter is everywhere. Who can say they have not heard of Twitter as the profile of this social media micro-blogging site grows as more and more individuals including some celebrities, organisations and more seek to join in the 'Twitterverse'. But as David Hopkins says in the presentation, it is not about celebrities, it is about you. He offers good advice to educators who may be considering how they can harness the site for teaching and learning.

The best piece of advice is aimed at people who are new or are still thinking about joining; know your purpose for joining Twitter! It could also be applied to those of us who are accomplished Tweeters.

Included is a video from Comon Craft which I myself watched when I asked the question, 'What is Twitter?' 'Twitter in Plain English' was recently in the news as it formed part of a feature on CNN!

A New Term and More Moodling...

2009-04-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

I spoke last time about my reasons for joining the Moodle Meet community on Ning. Since then we've had the Easter Break and the summer term began with beautiful weather. Much as I wanted to sit outside and enjoy the sun it was back to the business of developing our elearning resource bank on the VLE.

One of my main purposes for joining Moodle Meet was to learn how to achieve goals that come from tinkering, using the tools available to create a user friendly learning area. The user experience is at the heart of creating resource banks. As I read somewhere this week, if the content and the look of the site is not appealing, no one will use it. One of the issues to which I pay most attention is the number of clicks or the amount of scrolling it takes to reach a goal. It is one of the golden rules of web design and I think it is appropiate to consider this even if it is just for your VLE.

There is a link on the Moodle Meet page called Moodle Tutorials. It could be called Moodle TV!! There are channels with videos to show you how to achieve your goals and in the process develop new skills and knowledge. This is great for any moodler of any level. You can join but it is not compulsory to have access to the videos. If you do join then you can rate videos and make comments rather like YouTube or Vimeo.

I had posted a video from CommonCraft to our eLearning Forum. Well I posted a link to the video to be exact. While this was fine it meant that it would take require four clicks from selecting the main resource to watching the video. I wondered if there was a way to embed a video as I was used to doing on my blogs and so on. It would cut out at least one click and be more inviting to the user to actually watch the video.

One of the channels on Moodle Tutorials is called Moodle 1.8 not that I am certain which version of Moodle being used in our institution but I know it is not the most recent version which I think is 2.0 - please correct me if I am mistaken. Back to the point, this channel had the video to teach me what I needed to learn. In it the speaker takes you through the steps to embed videos on your Moodle platform with clear directions and demonstration. Watch the video for yourself.

The CommonCraft video was the first resource to be added to our Information Literacy area. CommonCraft make video 'Explanations in Plain English'. It is called 'Web Search Strategies in Plain English' which will be useful for anyone teaching Information Literacy. Following the Moodle Tutorials video I created a web page with the CommonCraft video embedded in it. See that video below.

Moodle Tutorials is a great site for people like me who are relatively new to Moodle. There are easy to use resources that the boss won't mind you watching when they see what you start producing in the goal of developing elearning resources and making it easy and pleasant to use for everyone.

MoodleMeet - Why I joined this community...

2009-04-04T03:27:00.000-07:00

It is almost a year since I began using Moodle the learning platform used in the further education college where I work. During this year gradually developing knowldege and skills gained from previous experience of another platform Digitalbrain it was not difficult to do the basics. However in a short time I was given more permissions and required to create two courses. I took advice from colleagues and websites like moodle.org and Moodle Docs.

I have now created two courses and while I have had fun doing it, even creating a logo to improve our presentation, I want to know more. So looking for instruction I visit bloggers like Jane Hart and Moodle Girl Mel Gibb who always provide good information about resources and current discourse around e-learning. Mel Gibb is a member of MoodleMeet which how I found out about it.

It is only a few days since I joined so I have not done much except update my profile and add a badge which you can see at the top of the page. I signed up for the opportunity to learn from people who've used Moodle longer than it has been in the college.

I read recently that developing staff skills in using technology is a very important aspect of improving the students use of technology resources. Staff are in post for years and students naturally move from one situation to another. But staff skills are not always being developed to match with technological advances. This is one of the reasons why I have decided to take control of self-development in the hope that I may share any knowledge I gain not just with the community but more important, with colleagues who may not feel as motivated about elearning skill development. The video below is the first one I watched on MoodleMeet. It is a good introduction to what Moodle is and how it is used and who uses this open source learning platform.

This video is from YouTube as I had problems embedding the one from Moodle Tutorials. It was a good thing because it led me to discover an updated version of Moodle Presentation.

MoodleMeet is a social network created in Ning by Laurie Korte.
"Come join other Moodlers to network, share, work, collaborate, ask questions, get ideas, learn, make discoveries, etc." Initially I will be focusing on getting ideas, learning and making discoveries before I start asking questions that have already been answered. I will also post my experience in this blog as I moodle. If you are a Moodler join MoodleMeet and let's be moodlers together.

Discovery Channel : The Human Body Explorer

2009-03-14T17:32:00.000-07:00

The Discovery Channel website has a set of links called Features. This post is about one of the links in Features called Inside the Human Body

The main page offers a choice of four areas to explore.

Sight

The double screen offers a video on the right pertaining to the subject of sight. The left screen asks you to configure the human eye using the pieces provided. Simply drag and drop. Each element of the eye is annotated. A fun task that is also a learning tool.

Strength

Again a double screen with a relevant video on the right and an animation on the left. The animation illustrates the pressure in lbs that is exerted on the knee joint when doing one of three activities. It also allows you to type in any weight and see the immediate effect!

Sensation

Once again a double screen. The left screen takes you through the processes of the human nervous system. The illustration is brilliant. See for yourself

Brain Power

This is a memory game where you have to match up the cards. Easy to understand. The images on the cards are all pertaining to the human body and not just the brain.

This was an interesting find. I think it could be useful not just in the classroom and not just for children either. The animations alone make this a site worth sharing. I hope you enjoy the discovery.

Charles Dickens for eLearning!

2009-02-20T17:00:00.000-08:00

Type the name Charles Dickens into a search engine and you will be met with millions of results. One of the best sites and given the thumbs up on a Google search is David Perdue's Charles Dickens Page. It is a treasure trove of information not limited to the man and his work. Historical context is provided to show how the author was informed and inspired. The site includes contemporary maps and images of settings related to locations in Dickens work.

I found David Perdue's page a few years ago when Bleak House was the current dramatisation on BBC1 and thus inspired me to use the internet to find out more about the author. The wonder of the words of a Charles Dickens tale is a fond memory of an earlier age.

My stern and rather scary headmaster read 'A Christmas Carol' to the whole of the junior school over a number of weeks. I never looked forward to assembly so much and never were so many children so quiet for so long in an assembly hall as during those few weeks leading up to Christmas that year. That marked the beginning for me. Since then I've watched TV and film adaptations and read the actual novels too. When searching the net in between episodes of Bleak House on the BBC that winter I found sites that offered full texts of his work like Charles Dickens Online. David Perdue's page is however one I do return to every now and again when I want to read some interesting information surrounding various favourite characters.

Like Sairey Gamp in Martin Chuzzlewitt. This is said not to be one of his best by people who are said to know better but I enjoy the story and the various characters. For Mrs. Gamp there is a brief but informtive description and the option to see a picture as illustrated in the original publication. This follows for all of Dickens characters, though not all with image option.

I recently introduced this site to my manager as one of my favourite sites but possibly one we could consider as an elearning resource to direct students towards. It was a positive experience because he was immediately intrigued with what was offered. A link could be added to our Virtual Learning Environment for our own learners. It is regularly updated so it is a site you can visit again and again and not feel as if you've seen everything. I would recommend this site as a good resource for students of Dickens and for anyone who loves Charles Dickens and just wants to know more.

Has anyone got any better elearning sites for Charles Dickens? I would be very interested especially if you reckon your choice is better than David Perdue's Charles Dickens Page.

A Tasty Sprout. Get it Free - while you can!

2009-02-18T13:02:00.000-08:00

Today I found a sprout I like and I think you might like it too. Forgive me if you already know about this. I just discovered this today and it is one of my aims to share and post possible elearning tools on this blog (see my very first post). Sprout is not specifically aimed at elearning but it has possibilities as you will see and I include it for this reason.

Sprout is a builder of web content that is easy for teachers, students and anyone who wants to create a widget for their website. Content can also be put on a wide variety of social media and networking sites including Blogger, Facebook and MySpace. It's free and you need no coding experience. What more could an educator or anyone else want?

Watch this video to see and hear more:

Sproutbuilder.com has more information including video presentations of what you can build.

'Build, Publish, Manage' is Sprout's 1,2,3 of how easy create rich web content. It is in what it creates that makes Sprout an attractive tool for anyone wishing to make stimulating and motivating content for visitors to their sites or for students or for any audience.
Sprout lets you create your own:
- widgets
- mini-sites
- banners
- mashups

Sprout's been around for about a year, gathered from browsing news and reviews. Current news is not pleasing though - it is that Sprout will soon start offering service on a fee basis only so one attraction for cash strapped educators will be lost. Maybe in the current climate Sprout will wait awhile before demanding fees. In the meantime you should get using Sprout while you can. I know I will.

A couple of hours later...
I made my first sprout choosing one of my hobbies as the focus. It was very easy to use. Images, backgrounds and templates are available but you can also upload your own images and store them as assets.

I published my sprout to my Facebook profile. Once published any changes are automatically updated so you only have to embed the code once. It can be shared and embedded on other sites. Now working on another with education as elearning as the focus. Have a go yourself!

Help! I need to learn how to use the VLE!

2009-02-08T11:33:00.001-08:00

When the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) was installed on your educational institution's network, did you receive a day or even two, of training including a workshop where it all seemed to make sense? Off you went with good intentions of making your teaching and learning materials available online. This is the future you thought. This is elearning.
Then you returned to your daily schedule and somehow you just never got back to the VLE until your manager makes it one of the tasks for the week that you make sure your resources are uploaded to the VLE.
You login to your learning platform and you get out and browse through your notes from the special training session (or two). You're trying to recall the actions that brought you success in the camaraderie of the training room. You may be fortunate and remember or find your notes actually help you to achieve your goal and you succeed with self satisfaction. What if you are not so lucky?

Uploading Office files is the usual starting point and though relatively simple demands assistance and support and a little bit of that camaraderie. Colleagues who are more advanced in their understanding and use of the learning platform installed in your institution and have admin rights to create courses are in a good position to provide support for their colleagues. Really good teachers are in need of support when facing the demands of elearning and their role in it. Elearning need not be a stumbling block if the technology fit help the struggling team members through the barrier.

Teaching staff can learn from each other and collaborate to gain a firmer grasp of the elearning tool they have at their disposal. I have used Digitalbrain in the past but I am currently working at a college that uses the open source application Moodle. Other platforms include Blackboard and WebCT but I have no experience of these as yet.

I found this presentation while looking for learning tools to teach myself Moodle. It gives a good overview of what is possible on this learning platform.

Moodle: a free learning management system

View more presentations from Ken Ronkowitz. (tags: free blackboard)

It is obviously our role to teach and support the learning of learners but it is also good practice to assist and sometimes teach colleagues how to achieve their goals in elearning.
Staff are sometimes worried about revealing that they do not know how to, for instance, successfully upload a file to the VLE especially to their managers who expect that having had the training they can do the task.
By the way the problem with uploading files is one I dealt with recently. It turned out to be a simple case of ensuring the files were uploaded from the network drive and not from a USB flash drive.

As I am myself learning through practice about creating courses and adding resources. I am developing my skills and knowledge by trial and experience. I have also searched the internet for online resources to teach myself how to use Moodle and get the best out of it and hopefully as a result provide very good elearning resources for our learners. You may find the following links useful for your own elearning and information about Moodle and VLEs in education.

Moodle4Teachers

Moodle: Teacher Documentation

Virtual Learning Environments

Moodle Guide for Beginners

Moodle Girl's Blog

Training the Web Worker Way - Moodle

VLE's Slow to Take Off

Exploratree - for enquiring minds.

2009-01-21T07:20:00.000-08:00

Exploratree is free web resource that provides a library of thinking guides, similar to mind maps. There are lots of ready made layouts available or you can create you own. The resource is useful for not just teachers and students but for anyone who wants to organise their thoughts or are doing some research. I think the possibilities are endless.

"Thinking guides support the thinking or working through of an issue, topic or question and help to shape, define and focus an idea and also support the plaaning required to investigate it further" from 'About Exploratree'.

As well as adding and formatting text regular, bold or italic, you can add images to you guide and change colours and shapes. Share your guide with others via email and they will be able to work on the guide adding collaboration and group work to its possible use. It can also be printed in any size from A4 to A0. They can be used as part of a presentation to illustrate thought processes and so on. Another option is to create your own from the blank template and upload it to share on the Exploratree website.

Looking for web resources that are useful to staff and learners is a part of my job and one that spills into my free time. Exploratree is a resource that I found to be immediately useful. I am currently using it to organise my thoughts on elearning.

Exploratree is currently in beta so Futurelab will welcome any suggestions and comments you have to make the next version better. The one down side I will mention is the introductory video did not work so I had to work out how to use it without any help. However it is quite simple to use if all you wish to do is edit a ready made guide.

The iPhone Could Be The Ultimate Study Machine

2009-01-18T13:22:00.001-08:00

The iPhone Could Be The Ultimate Study Machine

Posted using ShareThis

The E-Learning Curve Blog: Towards a Definition of E-learning

2009-01-05T16:34:00.000-08:00

The E-Learning Curve Blog: Towards a Definition of E-learning

Web 2.0 from Slideshare

2009-01-04T08:04:00.000-08:00

The SlideShare Presentation gives a clear overview of Web 2.0. There are many other presentations on this topic on Slideshare so this may not be the best but it very accessible. I found myself on Slideshare when I googled 'education and social media sites'. I wanted to embed the presentation in my post but it ended up in the wrong blog. I have posted my problem and await a response. In the meantime I have worked around the problem and you can find the presentation in the sidebar. Look for more posts on my experience of using Slideshare as part of my research in elearning and gathering materials if I decide to continue with this account.Slideshare allows users to upload presentations and share or not with the Slideshare community. It also enables sharing of presentations with your contacts who are not on Slideshare using email.

Purpose of My Mission

2008-12-29T10:13:00.000-08:00

The reasons for creating this blog are:

to provide a focus for my elearning interests
as an aid and resource for my elearning knowledge and research
to assist self development in my educational role as an elearning developer
to link to other useful sites
to express my own thoughts and opinions on the topic
to include social media, web 2.0 blogs to explore current opinion and discussions
maybe I'll actually do a Masters in eLearning and this may encourage that.

That last point is said in some humour but true all the same.