Funny Blog Post

This is yet another blog that I read from the Common Craft. I thought it was sort of funny. Also someone posted a comment and a link to this article. I just thought that with the technology we have today, you'd think airport security would be a little tighter. Check it out...but not if you're flying anywhere for the holidays!

More from Google Labs

When I logged into my google account this morning I saw a message that google labs had cooked up a couple of applications that I thought might benefit the group--at least anyone who uses a google account.

Their first offering is one that acts as a task function

Keep track of what you need to do with a lightweight task list right inside of Gmail. Just click and type to add new tasks, convert emails into tasks, and (most satisfyingly) check them off as you're done.

The second is pretty cool. It allows you to send SMS messages from your gmail account...

Send SMS text messages right from Gmail. You chat from your comfy computer and reach your friends on the go; they get your messages as texts and can peck out replies on their little keyboards.

sort of like twitter in reverse.

These quotes were taken from this announcement page.

PowerPoint Presenter Option

I was looking for an option that was free in lieu of buying the Adobe Presenter software. I found iSpring. It has a lot of the same features. I haven't got to check it out, but I have heard of it before. I will let you know more later in the month- I will be trying it out for use in my classroom.

Google Operating System on the way?

An article on the Boy Genius Report states that there are signs showing Google may be working on it's own operating system. Recent net traffic from Google headquarters shows about 1/3 of Google's employees are accessing the web with an operating system that has had it's identifiers removed. Whether this is a sign of Android coming to desktop, an all new OS or Google just playing with our minds remains to be seen.

Lots of Free Stuff

There's nothing like finding free stuff and what a great thing to add for my last Blog entry for this course...


I found this really list of resources to tons of free stuff from software to free courses that you can sign up for. There is so much that this website has, that it is a bit hard to describe. You can find free virus and spyware to free CAD software, free dictionaries and joke sites, free eBooks, sweepstakes, and free education. It is really worth checking out!





Freebyte!

Instructional Game vs Computer Game

I was working on the 10 blog posts required for the class with Dr.Kapp where i came across this interesting post about the comparison between a Computer Game to a Serious or an Instructional game.
When a designer or developer looks from the angle of the gaming, two formats of the game are meant for entertainment, but interesting debate would be does serious game has to compete with a computer game to make it more captivating and motivating? Certainly it would be a designer's dream to build an application that would be designed to perfection showing rich graphics and animation. But when analyzing this component one has to focus on certain factors like the time frame for the project, hardware used, learners, type of organization and the instruction itself.
Looking at these factors from a designer's perspective will certainly lock the components that can be used to make the prototype work. But certainly a designer has varying options to make the solution interesting and appealing for the client. Even the budget allocated for the project can lock the hands of the designer. But a good designer can figure out ways to create an attractive and working solution within the allocated budget. The key to achieve this goal, pretty much depends on the common sense, and the good or bad experience from the past projects. To be more precise its all the life experiences will make one grow perfect.
To sum up, instructional or serious games can take certain inputs from its elder brother(computer game) to build an interesting and attractive game to captivate and motivate the learners keeping without loosing the very purpose of instruction.
Please check this interesting post related to the current topic.
Learning circuits Blog

Keeping Employees Engaged - eLearning Alternatives

In the September/October 2008 issue of ELearning Magazine there was an article title Motivating Employees with Online Learning. The article focused on the low employee retention issue faced by FedEx Express with it's "frontline employees." The article mentions this issue was addressed in 2004 and continues on to discuss some of the key "factors" according to HR Development Manager Karl Guenther. The article then talks about the next steps taken, thenthe solution that was implemented, and finally the outcome as of 2006.

The "factors" that Karl Guenther points out in the article can be true for any large corporation. Because FedEx has over 290, 000 employees, it made recognizing and fixing those "factors" more challenging. The factors mentioned were:

• Productivity - Most employees were permenant part-timers and not eligible for "on the clock" training and if they weren't working they weren't productive.
• Motivation - This lack of eligibility caused employees to be less enthusiastic about self developing.
• Marketability - The current program only allowed for those with higher education more promotional chances or career opportunities.
• Resource Contraints - Because of the lack of finances and/or time availability, the employees didn't seek company educational opportunites.
• Low Awareness - Employees just didn't know about existing educational offerings such as "Skill soft" or "Tuition Reimbursement."

In the end, FedEx created the College Credit Consurtium, which works with 17 colleges and universities throughout the U.S. By creating this consurtium the program offers things like:

• Free college credits for sucessful completion of e-learning courses.
• Deferred billing.
• Ability to skip terms without penalty during peak work seasons.
• Flexible degree progams.
• Custom curriculum development.

According to the article this blended approach to employee education has shown an increase in employee participation and ultimately employee retention. In 2006 the article states that participation was up to "15,000 employees" which is about "75%" of the FedEx Express division. This out of the box approach to e-Learning should be a model for other midsized to large corporations to help retain the talent they have.

Second Life's Hype Cycle

This picture shows the Gartner Hype Cycle graph for 2008. I wanted to point out the position Second Life (and other public virtual worlds) is at in the cycle. This was the most recent depiction that I found with virtual worlds. It shows VWs (Virtual Worlds- not Volkswagens) past the Peak and heading into the Trough of Disillusionment. The basic idea is that VWs are at the make-or-break point right now. The near future will tell whether or not Second Life and other VWs will find their niche in the public sector. I'm curious to see what Linden and other VW companies will do to market their products as effective tools in order to be productive technologies/applications of technology.

The Debate on Instructional Design Models

I know I've mentioned this site in class, and I'm sure Dr. Nicholson has as well, but in case you haven't checked it out already, I thought I'd post a bit on Elliott Masie's LearningTown.

Elliott Masie is an instructional design guru-founder of the MASIE Center, and essentially the go to guy when it comes to cutting edge learning development and best practices.

LearningTown is a huge online forum that brings together people from all walks of the instructional design and technology industry. Members have individual profile pages and use the site to network, participate in threaded discussions, message each other, share resources, and join groups of like minded professionals. As part of a class activity in Dr. N's eLearning Concepts and Techniques course, we all joined the site and did some perusing and investigating.

There are tons of interesting discussions on nearly any topic related to instructional design and technology you can think of, but the one that stuck with me the most was a question posed by Elliott Masie himself: Do We Need A New Instructional Design Model?
Follow the link to follow the discussion.

Various professionals talk here about the "real world" of instructional and course design, what works, what doesn't, and how the industry is changing. It's a great way for students and professionals to keep a finger on the pulse of the industry, pose questions to a large community, or just read a lot of interesting opinions and resources.

Holiday E-Cards

It is that time of year, and I have not found a more fun site than http://www.elfyourself.com/. After I picked myself up off the floor from laughing, I had made a card of my kids and I dancing in elf suits. OK, maybe I've been hitting the holiday e nog to hard, but this was funny, I don't care who you are. give it a try and I"m sure you will be the hit at your next get together.
Enjoy,
Bill

Sony Playstation Home

This week I was given the privilege of beta testing Home for Sony Playstation 3. It is very similar to Second life, the characters are customizable and the overall feel of the community is the same.

The MAJOR differences are the PS3 has HIGH QUALITY graphics and SECURITY that comes with Home existing on a protected game platform.

I have not used either platform enough to say who the winner will be. I think that this could be a more protected environment that schools could take advantage of in the future.

http://www.us.playstation.com/PSN/Home

Alternative to Photoshop

Paint.net

So this blog could have come about two or three weeks ago for the purpose of our Blackboard project. For me, I had trouble coming up with a course banner, and even something for the group Wiki project. I don't have Adobe Photoshop and have no idea on how to use it (I hear its difficult). Adobe Photoshop is not free, but Paint.net is! It is compared to Photoshop and Microsoft Paint and considered the free alternative. "It is a powerful editor with support for layers, blending, transparency, and plugins." (from Wikipedia) There are tutorials that show you how to create excellent graphics. I watched the tutorial on how to create a collage. Check it out! (here is a snapshot of the interface)

PC Pandora

I just had to post this!

I have been thinking about really implementing the Mac laptops that I have in my classroom on a more consistent basis- like everyday. But like most teachers, I want to be able to keep my students off of the websites that I do not want them on. This put me on the hunt for a software that monitors student activity on networks. I know of many companies that you can pay for the software, like Vision, but I know that our budget is tight. So, I started hunting for free computer monitoring software. There is a lot of them that offer free trials, but one is actually giving this monitoring software away to schools districts on an application basis to help fight cyber bullying and predating. PC Pandora calls it their SAFE SCHOOLS program. This company is giving back to the community in a very positive way-- Check it out!

instructables.com = Greatest. Site. Ever.

I recently stumbled upon the site of instructables.com, and it may very well be the greatest stumble I have ever had.

instructables.com is a site where you can learn to make just about anything... And I do mean anything. There is a step by step tutorial for making such necessities as "Build the Starship Enterprise from useless office supplies" or "build a (somewhat) historically accurate Viking Costume " or "how to make a Universal bike light battery out of a Parmesan cheese container."
I eprsanlylam excited to try the USB Batman Spotlight, where you can make the bat signal out of a USB lamp.

This site is like the Red Green show on steroids.

Instructables

What's the Best CMS?

Having just created a course in Joomla, I am curious about the other content management systems. This CMS was difficult to work with mostly because I had a lack of training. From the way it sounds, udutu would have been much easier to work with. Joomla also had several templates from which to choose and start. Changing things around did not so much require knowledge of programming languages, but rather an understanding of the infrastructure. There are so many interactive things I wanted to incorporate but did not know how and could not have learned on my own in a timely manner. So, this post is more or less to pose a few questions: Which content management systems you have used and which have been easy to work with? Which ones were best for interactivity?

Free Course Authoring Tool

I found a free web-based elearning authoring tool with a WYSIWYG interface. The tool is called udutu (pronounced (You do too). The nice thing about this tool is that you don't need advanced programming knowledge because there are several templates available for use. Aside from content development you can develop interactive quizzes, scenarios and assessments and provide instant feedback to the users of the system. Often as trainers there is a need to collaborate with SMEs and since this tool is web based with no need to install software, collaboration is made that much easier. As you add items to udutu you are also developing a library of reusable objects. No more reinventing the wheel. Publishing is also a breeze because udutu is SCORM compliant and you can either host on your own LMS or post on their site for a fee. Take a look at a brief overview here.

Microsoft Releasing Free Anti-malware Tool

Microsoft in the second half of 2009 will be releasing a free anti-malware (rootkits, spyware, trojans and viruses) tool code named “Morro”. They are releasing this suite of software due to the increasing demand of PC security.

The current consumer security offering, Microsoft Live OneCare will be discontinued at the latest on June 30, 2009. The new Morro suite will use many of the same technologies found in Live OneCare. It will lack several features currently found in the Live OneCare suite (printer sharing and automated PC tune-up) in order to minimize the use of system resources.

The package will be able available for the Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems via download.

The only problem with this suite is many independent reviews have found Microsoft’s current offerings for Anti-Malware, the OneCare Anti-Virus and Windows Defender, lacking in capability and often missing infections. Let’s hope that Microsoft has improved their overall product for this release.

Source: Microsoft discontinuing OneCare, will deliver free security offering instead

SearchWiki

I will freely admit that I'm addicted to Google. I'm not sure how I survived without gmail, Google Docs, iGoogle page, Google Maps, and even basic Google searches before the site was around. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't use Google for something. It seems that they are always adding new features and apps that make using Google even more fun and useful.

I noticed when I logged in the other day that they've added yet another new feature called Searchwiki. Basically, this will allow you to customize your search results, save your results, and make notes about the search pages that you find. This brief video from Google can explain it better then I can.



I haven't gone and played around with this at all in my own Google account, but I thought it looked interesting. It seems like a form of social bookmarking. I could see myself using this to save the sites I go to often or to make a note to remember something about a site. The possiblities could be endless!

Sloodle

+ =

Sloodle is an open source project that brings together Moodle (an open source course management system) together with Second Life (3D Virtual World) to provide interactive game-technology and various tools for supporting learning in the virtual worlds.

Moodle and Second Life as illustrated by the following image:








To learn more about Sloodle, YouTube has many videos explaining how they work together.

Here is video that will walk you through Sloodle. There are many, many videos posted.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bkKumVecK0&feature=related

There is also a Sloodle wiki that will include many resources for Sloodle.
http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/sl/index.php/Sloodle

If you are interested in learning more about Sloodle, there are introductory classes that run in Second Life every Wednesday at 5:00pm EST in the SLOODLE classroom.

--Lynn

Google Chrome

I guess you might have seen Google Chrome doing big roars in the world of bites for being the new light browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.

Features of this new browser include:

• One box for everything
  
  Type in the address bar and get suggestions for both search and web pages.


• Thumbnails of your top sites
  Access your favorite pages instantly with lightning speed from any new tab.


• Shortcuts for your apps
  Get desktop shortcuts to launch your favorite web applications.


• Safer downloads


• Better crash control......But I am not sure how long will this last. As we all know firefox was very efficient for crash control when they started in 2004 but after all those plugins its now a heavy application almost capturing more than half of my memory resources and susceptible to wild crashes.

Check out the notes from the developers themselves on why they built this browser.
"A fresh take on the browser
At Google, we spend much of our time working inside a browser. We search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser. And like all of you, in our spare time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends - all using a browser. People are spending an increasing amount of time online, and they're doing things never imagined when the web first appeared about 15 years ago.
Since we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if you started from scratch and built on the best elements out there. We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that's what we set out to build.
So today we're releasing the beta version of a new open source browser: Google Chrome.
On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn't the browser that matters. It's only a tool to run the important stuff - the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.
Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today's complex web applications much better . By keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built V8, a more powerful JavaScript engine, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers.
This is just the beginning - Google Chrome is far from done. We've released this beta for Windows to start the broader discussion and hear from you as quickly as possible. We're hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux too, and we'll continue to make it even faster and more robust.
We owe a great debt to many open source projects, and we're committed to continuing on their path. We've used components from Apple's WebKit and Mozilla's Firefox, among others - and in that spirit, we are making all of our code open source as well. We hope to collaborate with the entire community to help drive the web forward.
The web gets better with more options and innovation. Google Chrome is another option, and we hope it contributes to making the web even better.
But enough from us. The best test of Google Chrome is to try it yourself."
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.....................................
You guys simply rock what would be Google's next project. A Operating System?????????????Who knows time will tell.........Sayonara....adiós....GoodBye folks.

It all adds up!

In lieu of a burgeoning finiancial crisis, (if you really consider it a crisis, and not just a media ratings driver) it seems sensible that training directed at financial and money management would be piggybacking this "crisis".The National Council on Economic Education (NCEE) is a nationwide network that leads in promoting economic literacy with students and their teachers. They have actually created an interactive learning game (sans poor graphics) that is targeted at teens to help them do basic personal finance tasks, such as understanding credit, interest rates, how to live on a budget, etc.

It's called "it all adds up" and it's a serioes of games and simulations geared with a pedialogical approach to teaching personal finance.

After playing a few of these games, it's pretty clear that these games are not just beneficial for teenagers. in fact, if more people understood some of these basic concepts, we probably could have avoided the housing crash, IMHO.

It's actually practice on basic common sense practices that get lost in the shuffle a lot of the time. The only downside is the games are hardly but free, whoever created them perhaps rushed a little bit too much putting this stuff together, or maybe they just didn't have a budget. it's hard to say. Still, it's worth a run through if you still think you can afford that BMW. :)

It All Adds UP!

http://www.italladdsup.org/

http://www.ncee.net/

Pretend this was posted last week....

I've been reading the eLearning blog that Dr. Nic suggested and it's really interesting. First of all, I was surprised by how informal most of the posts are. I guess I thought that because these people are presenting at the conference, they would be very professional and well, kind of dry. But they are far from it! I think I even saw a smiley face " :) " in one of them. Ha ha. I enjoyed Patti Shank's post about Past Promises and Present Challenges of eLearning, found here. And also, the comments in response to her post by Curts Bonks. I even enjoyed reading Thomas Reynold's post about j-walking and open container laws in Las Vegas. The interview with keynote speaker, Dr. Ellen Wagner is great, too. She even shows us some of the produce she grows in her garden! It's hard to imagine her getting busted for j-walking in Vegas. If you haven't checked it out yet, do so, there's a lot of great information.

Thinkfinity!

Thinkfinity is an educational resource provided by the Verizon Foundation and all materials are absolutely free. There are eight resource providers shown below that are currently affiliated with Thinkfinity - each image is a link to that tool. All of the tools allow you to search for lesson plans by state standard, by grade level, by interactivity, etc and most of the lessons offer interactive media resources and some even have primary sources digitized for viewing. Such incredible resources! Link directly to Thinkfinity or check out sites of interest below:

Job Hunting during an Economic Recession

If you are like me and graduation is fast approaching it is Job Hunting time! However, the current global economic situation is dicey at best and jobs might become difficult to come by. Here are some helpful tips. Happy job hunting and good luck!

Find a Job You Love
onmoneymaking.com's advice in finding a career you will enjoy.

Use the Right Words
A CareerBuilder CNN article that lists 25 words that could actually hurt your resume and hinder your application.

Job Search Rules
A CareerBuilder CNN article that discusses seven exceptions to job search rules.

Use RSS Feeds
A Lifehacker article describing on how to set up RSS to email feeds for job searching

Example Resumes
Emure, a resume site, aids "first-timers" in developing resumes and cover-letters.

Create a Video Resume
Education Portal's tutorial on creating a video resume.

Get Ratings and Reviews of Companies
glassdoor.com is a site dedicated to what current employees have to say about their employer.

Does Client Size Matter?

I've been selected as the Lead ISD on a project with the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) and I must say, I am a little nervous about working with this client because of the size of the corporate university and the size of the contract. This paper, titled "Size matters—but not
in the way you think" that I stumbled across, explains how Instructional Designers should use the size of their client to their advantage. The author says that for all of us who plan to become Instructional Designers and create courseware for large organizations, there is nothing to worry about. I consider this to be good information for recent graduates in the field of Instructional Technology.

Second Life vs. Reality

Where are priorities placed?

I don't know about you folks but I have enough trouble trying to keep myself sane in reality let alone in a cyber-relationship too. This article and its related links go to show how wrong things can go either in real-life or with a fantasy relationship. This article and the links with it just blew my mind. Now I see why I haven't visited this Second Life site. I guess you can take anything too far. I want to know where these people find the time to spend on developing these online relationships when real life is so time-consuming. They must not do anything with their free-time other than this Second Life site - affairs, divorces, rehab, killings... these are all a bit much for me to understand. Read this article and the associated links and see what you think.

Second Life Affair ends in Divorce

Instructional Gaming Presentation Resources

Here are some of the resources I used for my November 13th presentation.

Discovery Education Hidden Message Puzzle program (Classroom Resources tab) retrieved from http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/ on 2008-09-10.

Soapbox: Learning to Play to Learn - Lessons in Educational Game Design retrieved from http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050405/zimmerman_01.shtml# on 2008-09-12.

Games in Education Video retrieved from http://www.seriousgames.org/ on 2008-09-12.

Teaching Facts and Concepts with Online Games podcast Kapp, Karl retrieved from http://iit.bloomu.edu/dit/pages/podcasts.cfm on 2008-09-12.

The Effectiveness of Instructional Games: A Literature Review and Discussion.pdf, Hays Robert T., Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division retrieved 2008-09-14.

Casual Games and eLearning for Adults breeze presentation Kapp, Karl retrieved from http://breeze.bloomu.edu/casualgames3/ on 2008-09-24.

Designing Interactive Sites/Online Courses

It is amazing how much we learn by experiences we encounter! During this course, we have discussed many issues regarding the development of online courses in terms of planning, reusability, interactivity, styles of e-learning and more. One topic that we have not talked about is color.

In observing a student teaching a lesson to a class on Monday night, I saw a great lesson on adjectives and adverbs. The student prepared a descriptive paragraph and color the adjectives and adverbs. All of the adjectives were type in red, and all of the adverbs were typed in blue. The students were asked to find things in common among the red words. At this point, I watched a student quickly begin asking questions to his partner. A few minutes later, we realized that the student was color-blind and couldn't identify which words were in red text.

Ah! How does this play into the development of online courses? I think it brings about a very important topic of which I need to consider when I develop an online course. To provide a little more insight on the topic, I would like to pass along a website that was sent to me. It provides suggestions from a gentleman who is colorblind.

Enjoy thinking about a new dimension of design that could help a student be more successful! http://particletree.com/features/interfaces-and-color-blindness

Blurb Booksmart

The Title sounds like I am going to share some really high tech information, doesn't it?

Well, I may....

I found a website for photobooks that really met all of my needs (trust me, that is hard to do for an avid scrapbooker). I know that there are a lot of services out there now that offer photo book services with prices ranging from fair to one where you would expect each page to be made of gold. Usually, you get what you pay for, but Blurb may be the solution.

Blurb is a photo book building software that you download on your computer to create photo books. You can upload photos to the website and share them with other Blurb members, as you can do with other photo book websites, but you can also take your photos directly from Flickr, Picassa, and SmugMug right into your photobook. You can also seemlesssly integrate photos from your iPhoto library. You can also collaborate on the building of a Groupbook using the Blurg website as a media. How neat is that! This could mean so may different uses for print, both in education and the corporate world. I get excited just thinking of the different possible uses it could have for my high school and the neat projects that you could have-- a collaborative yearbook that it accessible online, history book for class or of the high school, poetry publications, cookbooks for home economics, story books for child pyschology classes...


But for me, the best part was having the freedom of not being held to the pre-set designs and templates, but still have the software to help you easily build a custom book.

Check it out:
Blurb

Repurposing Tools

Somehow or other, the wonderful and convoluted maze of hyperlinking led to me elearnity, which is a UK-based consulting service for corporate learning innovations. Like most corporate entities with an online presence, elearnity maintains a blog. I confess that I find most corporate blogs to be boring regurgitations of corporate speak, designed to market to a target audience. The Rapid E-Learning Blog, for instance is so biased in how it filters in comments, and while I enjoyed my first 6 months of reading it, eventually I realized that it's author was basically just writing variation after variation of leveraging Powerpoint and how great that is for a tool like Articulate. I realize the author is employed by Articulate, so some marketing copy is bound to be on the blog, but if you already know how to do some great things with clipart and the pixel real estate of Powerpoint, and you can appreciate a good job aid over a full course, the Rapid E-Learning blog gets old pretty quickly.

Sometimes however, a corporate blog throws you a curve ball and comes up with something really interesting.

In this case, the elearnity blog suggested tapping into the power of viral marketing and using it as a learning tool. Specifically, the author noticed SplashCast, which creates "embeddable entertainment." The full text of the blog post can be found here.

What interested me about the post wasn't so much SplashCast as it was the idea of repurposing tools that have already proved their success. We're often on a race to find the newest, most cutting edge web 2.0 tool, and there's certainly a lot to be said for bringing these tools and their innovations to learners, but what about using something else, that's already proved effective or even addictive, and using it for eLearning rather than its intended purpose? Kind of like repurposing a game for elearning, but in this case, taking the ideas behind viral marketing, and repurposing the marketing tool for socially transmitted education.

NASA - A Great Website for Educators and Kids Who Love Science, Math, and Technology!

I found a terrific website for anyone who is interested in Science. NASA has a website that features video clips geared to kids K-5, 6-8 and 9 to 12th grade. They are short, 5 to 10 minute video clips that are designed to inspire kids to learn more about science, technology, math, and engineering and are free to every student and teacher in the country! There are over 220 NASA eClips that range in topics (K-5) from What is a Tide, What is Weather, Digging in Moon Dirt, and The Math Behind How Gears Work. For 6th to 8th graders the topics cover subjects such as Lunar Habitats, Hurricane Hunters, Scale Models and Ratios, and Solar Power on Earth. Ninth to twelfth graders can learn about Space Food, How Global Positioning Systems Work, NASA and NASCAR, and Invention of the Doppler Radar. There are also videos for the general public such as how NASA technologies help archeolgists discover ancient artifacts in the NASA 360: Episode 4 video. I watched a few and they are fascinating and I learned a lot like there are always 24 satellites circling the earth but 12 only available to you (for GPS) because the other 12 are on the other side of the world! And the new applications that scientists are finding out that GPS is useful for that it was never designed for! Curious? Go check out the site, there is something for everyone!

Web 2.0 or Web 2.No?

I found this interesting article referencing the economic crisis and what it could mean for Web 2.o technologies.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7714453.stm

Online Design

While reading chapter 10 in the William Horton book, I chuckled a few times. The section on unnecessary scrolling made me think immediately about those 2-column articles as PDF’s that are sometimes required reading. Not that I am lazy, but I find it difficult to determine where to scroll to and so I just print out the articles. If the document is a book’s length, I try my best but do not usually get a full understanding of what the piece may have said. Times like these make me reflect on the assignments I give my students and whether some don’t do their homework because it is more of a hassle than it’s worth.
One other thing I considered when reading this chapter was to redefine my terms of legibility. I make it clear to students that if it is not legible, it may very-well be marked wrong. (Unless this is a learning disability, in which case we find another way to communicate). This term “legible” implies the ability to read the text or neat handwriting. There is always that one person who wants to write yellow on white paper and argues that they wrote very neatly! Some of these online design ideas really do apply to pen and paper settings as well. A contrasting color scheme is necessary not only for the visually impaired or colorblind, this is one design element that is crucial for everyone.

R5 Productions

R5 Productions
This website is, in my opnion, the best compilation site for indie shows in Philly. R5 allows users to access info using Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. Some of the Philly venues that are listed on this site are the 1st Unitarian Church (my favorite venue!), Starlight Ballroom, Johnny Brendas, and The Barbary. The site displays show-listings for each day, offers sample music downloads for the bands playing in that show, a link to purchase tickets to the show, and a brief review of each band. This is a great site for finding new music on the indie scene. Since R5 uses "social networking" tools, I figured it was a good opportunity to post about the site. Enjoy!

Hate Vista? Next Windows may be sooner than you think.

It has been rumored since early in the year that Microsoft wanted to get it's next operating system, Windows 7, finished by mid-2009. It now looks that Microsoft has made it official they'd like to have Windows 7 on the market for the 2009 holiday season. I would assume this is in response to Apple's Snow Leopard and the luke-warm consumer response to Vista. Here's hoping Windows 7 works better than Vista and isn't nearly as delayed.

Vista Service Pack 2 Beta

For those of you who use Windows Vista for your e-learning purposes, Service Pack 2 is right around the corner. Though SP1 was just released in the spring, SP2 began Beta testing on Wednesday October 29th with release date to be determined. The package will contain the usual "reliability, performance, and compatibility" fixes a windows service pack includes.

Some new features included in SP2 include:
Windows Search 4.0
Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack
Blu-Ray media recording capability
Windows Connect Now (WCN) (Improved Wi-Fi Configuration capabilities)

Source: Windows Super Site

Beam me up, Scotty.

As I was glued to my TV on Tuesday night watching the election coverage, I discovered that many stations had really gone all out with their technology usage during their broadcasts. Instead of static maps and boring political analysts, some stations were using smart boards, interactive graphics, and wonder of all wonders, holograms. In case you didn't happen to catch any of CNN's coverage, they were using holographic spokespeople to report from different locations around the country. They even beamed in a hip-hop celebrity (Will I. Am from the Black Eyed Peas) to discuss his support of President-Elect Obama. I think this new technology could really open up some interesting ways to report the news. Imagine having a reporter that's station in a war zone or on location after a devastating natural disaster being able to be holographically shown on the news. Who knows, maybe we could one day have our favorite reporter beamed into our own living room to interact with.
In case you missed seeing this, here is a video of CNN's new technology in action:

Online Storage Solutions

I've learned my lesson a long time ago, ALWAYS back your data up. If you are like me and constantly back your documents up to multiple locations, I've got some news for you. Ever need another alternative storage spot? How about an online storage solution? With IDrive.com you can get 2gbs of free online storage space. All you have to do is install some software and create an account. Your storage space will be encrypted and feature an intuitive interface that resembles Windows Explorer. Other options include a IDrive Pro with a 150gbs of online storage for 4.95 a month.

Click here for more information.

Copyright-Friendly Resources.

I just want to remind everyone that there is a wiki listing copyright-friendly resources. A colleague and I began this wiki to prepare for a presentation about Digital Media Ethics.

Please check it out and better yet, join it and add some of your own favorite resources. Pass it on, I'd love to see it grow.

The wiki also contains information about Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons. It's worth checking out for the video clips alone!

http://digitalmediaresources.wikispaces.com/

Out of the Woods into Technology

As a newcomer to social networking I have found last weeks presentations extremely helpful. Three years ago I met a lovely woman who asked me to contact her via e-mail, at that time I had let my e-mail account go, and was doing my best to live without the use of technology. I had no telephone, no television, and no computer. I was practicing a specific type of hatha yoga around 5 hours a day and was working as a associate manager of a vitamin and herbal medicine department. I had little time for technology and didn't miss it. But owe how things change, the day i met my now fiance, i opened up a hotmail account and soon after purchased a cell phone. I am now in my final semester in a technology heavy instructional design program and have come full circle (everything but a television:-) and feel more balanced as a result. Social networking sites were once a pet peeve of mine, tools for tennie bopper wanna be rocks stars but now I am seeing they can be amazing tools for keeping in contact with long lost classmates, co-workers, and even possibly new friends. Although i still find the overwhelming number of quizzes and mindless things I am sent, I no longer feel a disdain towards what I now feel is a helpful tool and a powerful medium for connecting our world. Thank you

Learning tools powered by Google

Google has always been in the spotlight for the powerful search engine. Apart from being a search engine Google provides a variety of tools, to organize data online free of charge.
Top tools
http://groups.google.com
To share information in a group.

http://www.google.com/calender
organize your work using calender

http://images.google.com
Share pictures and images with your loved ones

http://books.google.com
Search online e-books and printed books online.

http://www.google.com/bookmarks
Bookmark your favorite websites.

http://www.google.com/ig
iGoogle
personalize your stuff using iGoogle

http://www.blogger.com
Blog your views with your friends and online community around the world.

http://www.google.com/reader
Read all your news and favorite websites in one place with Google Reader.

http://sites.google.com/
Design your own websites using Google.

http://docs.google.com
Share and view douments with friends world wide.

Pedagogy and Webagogy

The Masie Center has developed a book titled 701 e-Learning Tips to provide e-Teachers and e-Developers basic ideas for creating a successful learning learning experience. Some of the topics in the book include:

1. Getting Started: The ABC’s of “e"
2. Content, Content (Not ToMentionContent)…How To Best Design & Deliver It
3. The Name Of The Game: Integrating & Rolling Out Learning Solutions

My favorite chapter was "Pedagogy and Webagogy". This section provided tips such as:
1. Use a webcam when you are delivering.
2. Hold virtual office hours for students to contact you.
3. Offer spaces for small groups to learn together. Build a team atmosphere.
4. "Get the e-Learning to be the e-Teacher" to keep high levels of engagement.

Social networking sites dos and don'ts

In light of last weeks presentations I thought I would post something relating to Social Networking. I found this great article on CNN about employers and social networking. The article mainly talks about employers using the social networking sites to learn more about their job candidates.

22% of employers say they use social networking sites when evaluating candidates and 9% intend to use these sites soon. Only 16% of workers with these profiles have modified their pages with potential employers in mind.

So, if you want to use your profile to get hired here are some dos and don’ts to remember:

• Do keep your profile updated regularly
• Do join groups selectively
• Do have your profile cleaned up before you apply, not after
• Don't badmouth your current or previous employer
• Don't mention your job search if you are still employed
• Don't forget others can see your friends
  
  

So, if you belong to any of these social networking site and you are looking for a job, polish up your profile!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/11/05/cb.social.networking/index.html#cnnSTCText

YouTube for toddlers and preteens

There has been a lot of debate about time spent in front of the television and determining how much computer exposure is good or bad for children. I'm not completely leaning one way or the other but I do think that television and internet exposure can be a viable educational tool, if and only if it is monitored and limits are put in place. One website that has become increasingly popular is YouTube it offers a wealth of video resources and people have become famous from their postings.

One problem is that there is no filter and a 9 year old doing an innocent search on YouTube could see some pretty controversial and inappropriate results. With this in mind totlol was developed for the 13 and under crowd.

Here's an excerpt from the website "Totlol is a video website designed specifically for children. It is community moderated. It is constantly growing. It is powered by YouTube. All videos were submitted, screened and rated by parents. The selection is huge and if you like, you can participate too."

The most porpular and recently added videos are listed, you can search for videos and there's also a section where parents can screen videos awaiting approval. There are fun videos and loads of educational videos. For all of you "school house rock fans"...Yes it is there! I hope you'll take a moment to check it out and if you know anyone with children please share this resource.

http://www.totlol.com/index.php

iPods in Education

http://www.apple.com/itunes/

Earlier in the semester I posted a blog entry about iTunes U. While iPods are not necessary to view postings in iTunes U, they sure are a cool way to take your classes 'to go'! There is much debate about whether or not iPods belong in classrooms. Too many people, even educators (sometimes especially educators), see iPods simply as a distraction.

If one takes the time to check out these educational examples, instances, and plans for iPod implementation in the classroom, I can't imagine the argument could continue. The education possibilities for the iPod are endless - not to mention totally fun!!!

Educational iPod possibilities!

Getting Organized With Milk!!

“Remember the Milk” is a free personal productivity and time management tool that helps users to organize and manage their tasks. It allows the users to manage and add tasks easily, receive and set up reminders, organize, prioritize and locate tasks as well as share your lists and tasks to co-operate with others.

Some tools that “Remember The Milk” interacts with to make this all possible are Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps, iPhone/iTouch, iGoogle, Google Gears (to make offline functions available) MilkSych (allows synchronizing with Blackberry and Windows Mobile devices) and Twitter (“micro-blogging” tool for sending updates via SMS, IM, the website and email). With these collaborating tools and partners “Remember The Milk” can organize your tasks, send reminders to your computer or mobile device as text or instant messages, RSS-feeds, or emails.

This site application looks really neat! I think it would be a wonderful resource for someone (including me) who sometimes has a hard time juggling between deadlines, to-do lists and managing tasks and time. The basic account is free and the Pro-account that comes with some extra features costs $25 annually.

Give it a try and tell us how it works! I know I’m curious!

Gamequarium

Gamequarium

Here is a really neat resource of educational videos for younger learners. Gamequarium was a link I found after reading an article about IT Specialists and the first word that would come to mind is "cute". However, it is very comprehensive and has icons on the top of the page that indicates what videos you can watch (there is a sombrero that represents Spanish videos and a piano icon that you click to learn to play the piano. These links take you to multiple resources of videos located on the Internet.

Don't get me wrong, I've seen many sites like these, but they really emphasize the video, or technical component of the resource. So if you're an educator who teaches younger students, check it out!





http://gamequarium.com/

Girls and Technology

TECHNOLOGY, GIRLS, TECHNOLOGY, GIRLS

I feel, after completing research for many of my assignments and attending the KSRA Reading Conference in October, that the United States is definitely behind the times with the use of technology. Okay, maybe not the entire United States - but definitely some specific locations. I found a website based out of Queensland, Australia that actually believes girls can and should become more involved in ICT endeavors. They have actually created a website devoted just for girls interested in ICT. The entire website has many useful links associated with technology and the way they incoprorate within the educational system.


Main Site Visited:
Department of Education, Training and the Arts --- Queensland

Visit these links that are also posted there:

Girls in ICT Information

Girls in ICT Website

Rethinking HOW we Think

Greetings from the top of the World. This is the largest building in the world (over 188 stories high) located in Dubai. You can almost see the curvature of the earth!


Carol Lattimore, PH.D. published a great article back some time ago in a magazine called "the meeting professional". She interviewed Dr. Howard Gardner who, according to Carol has influenced cognitive development across the globe. He holds the esteemed position of Hobbs professor of cognitive education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education as well as professor of psychology at Harvard. In this candid interview a few great ideas around How we think were impactful for me this year.

• Dr. Gardner has a multidimensional approach to human intelligence and identified at least eight varieties of intellect that operate differently in each learner


• His theory of MI (Multiple Intelligence) has, according to the author, "Redefined how educators think about the measure of intelligence and how they approach the task of engaging and motivating students".


• In his new book "Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People's Minds" he points to a few important pieces, however what I'm looking forward to reading is what he refers to as "the seven levers of change".

Some good points to consider as we build Adobe Presenter, Centra, and other projects that was pointed out in this article and that is "What do we want our learners to remember and use in six months or a year from now?". I think the better we get at answering that question, the more impactful learning we will create.

Instructional Design in Second Life

Hijack Alert!

My post today contains a link to another blog called "knowledgework." While I am posting to a specific post in that blog (here), the blog itself is also a valuable resource--for the same reason ours is! The postings there are often very similar to ours in content and type. There is a lot on elearning there.

This specific link is to a post about instructional design in virtual worlds. I found this while looking for some last-minute wiki info. Basically, the blogger found the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) location in Second Life to have some effective instructional design techniques built into their SL space. Anyone with a SL account may want to search the ASTD space and give it a look.

Fotki: A New Kind of Photo Repsitory

As an avid scrapbooker, I am consistently looking for the best deal for photos and different ways to share them with family and friends. I was searching for more competitors to compare rates against and came up with Fotki. I usually use photo respositories like Shutterfly, Snapfish, PhotoBucket, and Flickr. However, this photo sharing and printing resource has many abilities. Not only can you house your photos and share them with other memebers of Fotki (like many other photo respositories), but you can use RSS feeds to link your photos to your blog and get updates with the new photos you upload. How awesome is that-- it is a lot less work if you keep family members up to date on current pictures of your children or you!

To my knowledge the only other service that provides this kind of same RSS feed with photo editing, sharing, and printing is Flickr. However, most services are starting to include these MANY ways to share your photos. Either way, they are both great resources. Check them out!

Global Blended Learning

In the October 9 print edition of The Economist (the publication is a great way to get the news while you ride the train to work), the Middle East/Africa section included a short story on the Talmud. The Talmud is a record of Jewish customs, law, history and ethics. It was originally compiled in Babylon, in the 5th century. Traditionally, orthodox Jews and Jewish scholars have found the text unwieldy. Physically, it weighs in around 72 volumes. Intellectually, it has challenged its readers for centuries. Originally written in Aramaic, people that study that Talmud often spend hours (and years) deciphering the meaning and interpretation of the Talmud. Add to all that intellectual struggle the many centuries of commentary and interpretation in any number of languages, reading and understanding the Talmud is a lifelong endeavor for many. Even the 11th century commentary, designed to make the text more accessible, and written by Rashi, a French Rabbi, do not elucidate the text easily for most readers.

The Economist's article focuses on "The Art Scroll Talmud," and its electronic approach to making the Talmud more accessible to readers around the world. Art Scroll, under Mesorah Publications, publishes books and translations and their associated commentary. According to The Economist:

Fifty-odd scholars in the United States and Israel, working alone but linked electronically, provide a colloquial translation of the text grounded in Rashi’s commentary, plus a digest of other, often conflicting commentaries. They use electronic archives of Talmudic literature that can be reached by key words and concepts but cannot produce the creative analogies and fine distinctions that are the stuff of Talmud study.

The Art Scroll Talmud is available in English, and Hebrew, and should eventually be available in French and Russian. The Economist goes on to say that many people around the world now study the Talmud- even on commuter trains (amusing for me, since I read about it on a commuter train). There is a page-a-day program, so thanks to the electronic collaboration amongst scholars, people can read one page a day, the same day that thousands of others are reading the same page.

This is an interesting approach to blended learning that exhibits what electronic collaboration is really capable of. Often, we think of blended learning situations as they apply to the course, the learning unit, or the curriculum. In this case, the blended learning approach took over 20 years to compile the Art Scroll Talmud, and it is still ongoing, in a universal manner that links diverse people all over the globe.

The full text of The Economist article is available online, and in keeping with the many conflicting commentaries on the Talmud, the comments associated with the article are far reaching in their topics and offer up the conflicting views of the article's readers.

Note that if you're reading this on a Saturday, the Art Scroll website won't be available- it observes the Sabbath, and the full breadth of the site is not available until sundown.

Photo Story 3 for Windows

What is Photo Story? Photo Story is software, which you can download FREE from Microsoft, that will enable you to tell a story with your digital photographs. It is simple and easy to use and you can literally create your first Photo Story in about 10 minutes, replete with photo captions and music! It is as easy as 1-2-3. First, you download the software from the following web address http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=92755126-a008-49b3-b3f4-6f33852af9c1&DisplayLang=en . After you download (or run) the software, simply accept the defaults and the program is installed and ready to use. When you first open Photo Story, Begin a New Story is the default so click on Next and the next screen will prompt you to import your pictures. You will then browse for your pictures on your pc. It will then ask you if you want to remove the black borders from your pictures, which I recommend. You can click next and then you will have an option of adding titles to your picture, the placement of those titles, and the color and size of the font (so the words don’t get lost on the page). Go through all of your slides, and when complete, click next and you will be given the option to narrate your pictures. Click next and you can create music (music already there by Mozart, Beethoven, 80’s music, etc) or you can select music that you already have on your pc. Pick the music you want and your Photostory is complete. You can then chose to save your project to play back on your pc, email it to someone, or, with special software, make a dvd of your photo story. There are also great, advanced features like transitions from slide to slide that you can play with and learn as you go in addition the ability to add audio to your slides. As with any Microsoft product, there are great tutorials you can go through to learn this simple, fun product.

It’s fast, easy, and fun! Try it!

Find an Online College

I know this isn't truly about e-Learning but I was sitting recovering from minor surgery today and saw this TV ad that allowed a person to research online colleges and universities to earn a degree. I thought it's probably some type of scam. Reluctantly I went to their site http://www.94earnmydegree.com/ and looked at it.

While I wasn't overly impressed, it was neat to see that in three (3) easy steps someone interested in earning a degree (Certificates through Doctoral) online could be directed to a university or college who offers their concnentration of interest. On my first try I was sent to University of Phoenix and thought, oh it's really their website using new marketing techniques. However, as I chose different areas of studies and degree types, I was taken to places like George Washington University and Kaplan University.

Basically here's how it works. You answer 3.5 questions. Okay your saying how do you answer a half a question? Simple the first question is What area of study. Once you choose the area of study the "half" box is populated and you choose what concentration within the area of study. The second question is what degree type, again certificate program through doctoral. The final field to complete is your zip code. Once you select submit, you are brought to a university or college matching the criteria you entered where you can complete the form and click to request information.

This type of online search could eventually change how students, usually working adults, decide on which college they want to attend online. Although this seems to be slighted toward the working adult, I could see how high school students might start to think more about attending and receiving their degree online. So go check it out!