tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16949263356510939992023-11-16T03:57:50.352-08:00gabbera human voice in a digital worldgabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.comBlogger181125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-43007077617659658402013-06-24T03:51:00.001-07:002013-06-24T03:59:53.663-07:00I am here<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lovely little film promoting <a href="http://us.macmillan.com/BookCustomPage_New.aspx?isbn=9781429945776" target="_blank">a new book</a> discussing the shape of literacy in the 21st Century.</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="300" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/63680630" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="400"></iframe><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This could prove useful for those keen to use <a href="https://avosapi.delicious.com/api/v1/posts/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.scoop.it%2Ft%2Feportfolio-resources" target="_blank">e-portfolios</a> to promote creativity and alternative ways of expressing/assessing in education. Recommended by <a href="http://www.edutopia.org/blog/summer-reading-for-educators-2013-mark-phillips" target="_blank">Mark Phillips</a>, stumbled across by me.</span>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-61821827527213694472013-04-04T06:14:00.002-07:002013-04-04T06:14:35.554-07:00OcTEL begins<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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After dabbling with a few <a href="http://clipp.blogs.aston.ac.uk/category/moocs/" target="_blank">MOOCs</a> recently, I've decided to dedicate myself & time to the <a href="http://www.alt.ac.uk/" target="_blank">UK ALT</a> "MOOC" called <a href="http://octel.alt.ac.uk/" target="_blank">OCTEL</a>! It began today, so still time to sign up, if you're interested in participating. Looking forward to spending some virtual time with <a href="http://mashe.hawksey.info/" target="_blank">Martin Hawksey</a>, who appears to be the architect of this beast.gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com130tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-72374013814911651092010-11-17T06:14:00.000-08:002010-11-17T06:19:17.438-08:00inspiring mind maps<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">I'm currently working on a workshop displaying the presentation capabilities of mindmap tools. </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="400" scrolling="no" src="http://www.mindmeister.com/maps/public_map_shell/69326105/inspiring?width=600&height=400&zoom=0" style="overflow: hidden;" width="600"></iframe><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">The three tools I've used for presentations are;</span><br />
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<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1) <a href="http://www.bubbl.us/">www.Bubbl.us</a> - web based, collaborative, basic (free).</span></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjh0xmMkMZDNR4d0hzs49bn0jD36Xr9M93q49nYbzVcw__7AB4LbDvzk_IUESzYYcYsCuNuqK2t4RPpCpTVwN3s1JQmnJfuT0DLMPEoPgiOrOv9Jxjqrr_mkxVk7zE0nML5uOwSCvLJjgh/s1600/bubblus_barriers.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjh0xmMkMZDNR4d0hzs49bn0jD36Xr9M93q49nYbzVcw__7AB4LbDvzk_IUESzYYcYsCuNuqK2t4RPpCpTVwN3s1JQmnJfuT0DLMPEoPgiOrOv9Jxjqrr_mkxVk7zE0nML5uOwSCvLJjgh/s320/bubblus_barriers.png" width="320" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">2) <a href="http://www.mindmeister.com/maps/show/36451325">www.Mindmeister.com - a map of web 2.0 tools</a> - web based, range of useful features even with the free version. The premium version expands the feature set.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUwx8HcsbPTpkwuLuxvc0-mR8G-MxqXNEof3AGvkYNAqo2kMS0nlG9VqzsSq07I62c4UQQvQ0zKTQtUCYej0OKmhIg3bDmMnZG1-wpSiYAzm2VGmhIBgmL2coIbEikNwodVoriXc_wygZ3/s1600/Web_2.0_.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUwx8HcsbPTpkwuLuxvc0-mR8G-MxqXNEof3AGvkYNAqo2kMS0nlG9VqzsSq07I62c4UQQvQ0zKTQtUCYej0OKmhIg3bDmMnZG1-wpSiYAzm2VGmhIBgmL2coIbEikNwodVoriXc_wygZ3/s320/Web_2.0_.gif" width="289" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">3) </span><a href="http://www.thinkbuzan.com/us/products/imindmap/ultimate" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Buzan's iMindmap</a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> - PC based, but does have <a href="http://www.thinkbuzan.com/us/products/imindmap/iphone">an iPhone app</a>. As far as I'm concerned this one has it all, and stays true to the underpinning theories of Tony Buzans mindmapping principles. It works both as a brainstorming tool, as you would expect, but also then turns a mindmap into an impressive presentation. In presentation mode it looks not too dissimilar to <a href="http://prezi.com/hgjm18z36h75/why-should-you-move-beyond-slides/">PREZI</a>, zooming in and out of nodes as you traverse around your mindmap. It even exports the map to a Powerpoint version. The best I've used bar none.</span></span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As you can see from this example my techniques improved markedly after attending an approved Buzan mindmap session. <a href="http://www.mind-mapping.co.uk/make-mind-map.htm">If you adhere to the principle</a>s, it really does help improve memory, recall, and trigger ideas off from all areas of your grey matter.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj17NoqnlVoaCaZVuffuJaKdkzv3p4uO7NFpiEq_L0I3ng5ImcAcGbOumKiHCXU5vnw8sbap6wecgM4P7jdqox9xIEVm-Cw3lMlmGg-60-wWzyOKjIw_B5Pr09H3fHOrKbPifmWHZjse1C7/s1600/Engage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj17NoqnlVoaCaZVuffuJaKdkzv3p4uO7NFpiEq_L0I3ng5ImcAcGbOumKiHCXU5vnw8sbap6wecgM4P7jdqox9xIEVm-Cw3lMlmGg-60-wWzyOKjIw_B5Pr09H3fHOrKbPifmWHZjse1C7/s320/Engage.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">The best I'd recommend for teaching and learning was one I reviewed a few years ago, called <a href="http://www.mindgenius.com/">mindgenius</a></span>. The ability to export skeleton maps to word documents allowed students to rapidly work round ideas, then export nodes as word subheadings. Ideal planning tools for both visual learners and anyone coping with dyslexia.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com94tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-10353064764886418122010-11-03T04:30:00.001-07:002010-11-03T04:30:34.299-07:00E-portfolios in HEUseful video by a colleague of mine discussing the benefits of e-portfolios<br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PO2aP-fclfQ?fs=1&hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PO2aP-fclfQ?fs=1&hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-53794308445588598982010-10-25T03:23:00.000-07:002010-10-25T03:27:40.877-07:00Totally Totara<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.totaratours.co.nz/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/Totara-fruitripening_med.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="194" src="http://www.totaratours.co.nz/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/Totara-fruitripening_med.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Totara is the name of a new venture between Kineo + </span><span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Catalyst IT - A leading <a href="http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/">open source</a> company based in New Zealand, Australia and the UK. Catalyst are one of the core Moodle developers and have one of the largest Moodle development teams. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Joining this are the Flexible Learning Network - An innovative New Zealand based e-learning company that leads the Mahara e-portfolio project, the most popular open source e-portfolio system world-wide and often used in combination with Moodle. <a href="http://www.trainingpressreleases.com/newsstory.asp?NewsID=5749">Full press release here.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Totara will offer bespoke flavours of Moodle customised (as they do currently) to the corporate LMS market, integrating training tracking, etc, and now add personal learning plan in the shape of Mahara. IMO, HEIs & FE Colleges could benefit from these new ideas of Moodle / Mahara integration. This new venture also reinforces the increased awareness and uptake of Open Source solutions across the globe.</span>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-68201661971362095772010-07-27T05:44:00.000-07:002010-07-28T02:33:44.162-07:00ipad Vs iphone4<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiEXRu3EJhdfYwnOerxLhXaX5O2xZtB9Ck5JZg_9wAL9aLAvPC2PKG6r3hcwXw1madIInQM5VHc5q2dLI2hy9r_5KoKFLC10bWFoClomjfl0w49xouZzu1lDTc6vjqK5G9JSSH_UUXOlHs/s1600/mrs+tibbles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiEXRu3EJhdfYwnOerxLhXaX5O2xZtB9Ck5JZg_9wAL9aLAvPC2PKG6r3hcwXw1madIInQM5VHc5q2dLI2hy9r_5KoKFLC10bWFoClomjfl0w49xouZzu1lDTc6vjqK5G9JSSH_UUXOlHs/s320/mrs+tibbles.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><i>iphone 4 image</i> <br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">I found these stats in the image capabilities of the new iphone. I knew they had improved since Vs 1, but was surprised to see by how much. BTW, the new iphone 4 also has a front camera as well as the back one.</div><table bgcolor="black"><tbody>
<tr bgcolor="lightyellow"><td>iPhone 4</td><td>5.0 MegaPixel</td><td>2592x1936</td><td>1280x720</td><td>Back-Facing</td></tr>
<tr bgcolor="lightyellow"><td>iPhone 4</td><td>VGA</td><td>640x480</td><td>640x480</td><td>Front-Facing</td></tr>
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see this site for full technical spec': <a href="http://www.edepot.com/iphone.html">http://www.edepot.com/iphone.html </a>& more here: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_4#Camera">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_4#Camera</a><br />
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Before I mention my new iphone4, I 'd like to point you in the direction of 3 ipad reviews to bring you up-to-date on the best gadget of the century :</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><ul style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><li><a href="http://clipp.blogs.aston.ac.uk/2010/06/ipad/"> http://clipp.blogs.aston.ac.uk/2010/06/ipad/</a> </li>
<li><a class="external external_icon" href="http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/pdf/intermedia004.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/pdf/intermedia004.pdf</a></li>
<li><a class="external external_icon" href="http://wblwestmids.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-ipad.html" rel="nofollow">http://wblwestmids.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-ipad.html</a></li>
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</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Now back to my new work <a href="http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/">iphone4</a>. I took delivery of it yesterday. Out f the box, it's less curvy than my old (orginal version 1), but on first inspection the interface is much improved. The most obvious difference is the obligatory 4 digit passcode needed to accces it. Not a bad idea. </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I re-instated my itunes account to begin download new apps. More about those on following posts. </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I tested the camera and video functionality yesterday and was impressed by the ability to shoot video and images from the same app. Not sure of the quality yet, but I do know there's an imovie app that enables simple video editing on the move. I'll try that soon. ~ I've just downloaded the first images and; I'm very impressed at the quality (much improved - see above).The video clips I shot yesterday are also very good quality - apart from the fact that I shot them in portrait format - and I should have used landscape! I'll upload one of those videos to vimeo and embed it in this post shortly. But again the video quality looks outstanding for a mobile phone :OD</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Now to add the Blackboard and Pabblepad apps. I'll update you on those and others in the near future. I'll also put up another post about the video capabilities of sed iphone, soon.</div>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-4627339102961827692010-07-21T13:35:00.000-07:002010-07-21T13:40:47.223-07:00the attitude or the technology?Just noticed this <a href="http://chronicle.com/blogPost/What-Belongs-in-a-21st-Century/25642/">short article on Wired Campus </a><br />
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So I've just copied it >>><br />
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"Faculty members and information-technology staff members alike say technology is useful for teaching and learning, but professors take a narrower view of what technology belongs in today's classroom, according to a report released on Monday by the technology company CDW Government Inc.<br />
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Eighty-eight percent of the 303 faculty members surveyed said technology was essential or useful for student learning, and over 60 percent said they used electronic materials in their teaching, according to the report.<br />
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The most popular tools cited by professors were e-textbooks and online documents, with faculty members reporting far less enthusiasm for other electronic tools. Under a quarter of faculty members surveyed use wikis or blogs in their teaching, and only 31 percent of professors surveyed considered online collaboration tools "essential" to today's classroom, compared with 72 percent of over 300 IT employees surveyed.<br />
That suggests an interesting gap between technology staff members and professors when it comes to how smart classrooms need to be. How wired should teaching spaces be?<br />
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It's only a short article but really resonates with the situation here in the UK education arena. i.e. some see the benefits of the technology, and strive to create environments to nurture 21st century learning expereinces. This is often hampered by differeing levels of support (both IT and senior management) .<br />
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The comments about the reluctance to grasp the significance of collaborative platforms also does not surprise me - sadly. The thread of comments posted under the article could have been penned by any UK educator - which is also quite scary. I advise you to read them - very insightful to see the interpretation of technology enhanced learning from differing perspectives. I especially like this comment :<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>If you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.</b></span></div><br />
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My advice is to get back to basics and work from curriculum up - redesign to incorporate these (collaborative) learning methods - or they'll always be bolt-on. And also ensure the support mechanisms are in place - implementing technology is <i>so</i> about the people and so <i>not </i>about the "systems"<br />
Use the JISC infokit to help redesign your courses - you know it makes sense !o) , it really is very good :<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1340933407"><br />
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<h1 class="sah1" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255); color: black;"><a href="http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/curriculum">Transforming <span class="sah1" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #772277;">Curriculum Design</span> and <span class="sah1" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #33aabb;">Curriculum Delivery</span> through Technology</a></h1>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-8308782005871307372010-07-09T07:35:00.000-07:002010-07-09T08:05:02.976-07:00Bb merger frenzy<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"></meta><meta content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"></meta><meta content="Microsoft Word 12" name="Generator"></meta><meta content="Microsoft Word 12" name="Originator"></meta><link href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Cbracek%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"></link><link href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Cbracek%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx" rel="themeData"></link><link href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5Cbracek%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml" rel="colorSchemeMapping"></link><style>
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</style> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAje_dULz_AHP0CXpC_TmBQXyyUuXnZQWhSxypkWQlB9gVYLQfH8aMz4qy1o0iT2rKOg3nilGFXQfhFgrZG7dlQGqvXjfcdNLfLPSAggpL1v013eI0DS3V548BGzeTjDdbNXgd_Uy7fJG5/s1600/blackboard2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAje_dULz_AHP0CXpC_TmBQXyyUuXnZQWhSxypkWQlB9gVYLQfH8aMz4qy1o0iT2rKOg3nilGFXQfhFgrZG7dlQGqvXjfcdNLfLPSAggpL1v013eI0DS3V548BGzeTjDdbNXgd_Uy7fJG5/s320/blackboard2.jpg" /></a></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Bb - ellumninate- Wimba - become one!</b></div><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">Blackboard (VLE) announced this week a pair of acquisitions in the “synchronous learning and collaboration” software business - Elluminate Inc. and Wimba Inc. - for a combined $116 million in cash. </div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">The provider of enterprise software for the education market said the two companies combined provide services to more than 2,600 institutions in the K-12, higher education and professional education markets.</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">Wow, this is big news. But is it good news or bad news? That of course depends on your stance. If you have Elluminate or Wimba already, could you be facing the support debacle that transpired after Blackboard took over WebCT a few years ago. Not good, and I think Bb are stil suffering the fall out from that poorly managed merger. Let's hope they've learned their lesson?</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">So where does that leave Bb now? In a very strong position I'd say. My take on it is that the corporate and education sectors are using VLE's much less given the rise of web 2.0 apps and of course the rise of Moodle giant slayer. This fall in their bread and butter market and the impending explosion of live webinars would have certainly dented share dividends. Corporate training budges are being routinely decimated in this economic climate, which now makes it a neccessity to use webinars (Connect Pro, Dimdim, Wimba and Elluminate, etc) to train many staff with them leaving their home or office. Mi££ions can be saved.</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">Of course those just wanting Elluminate or Wimba as a stand alone product may face a price rise? Or those who need them to plug into other VLEs may be thwarted in the future - by being forced into using Bb just to get Ellumniate or Wimba? Who knows? Or will one of these tools go to leave just the best from Wimba & Elluminate, that would not be such a bad thing?</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">Uncertain times, but definitely a bold and visionary move by Bb to keep it's market share by investing in synchronous technology - now we (well most) have the bandwidth to exploit these tools.<br />
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BTW, if you need an alternative webinar tool like <a href="http://dimdim.com/">DimDim.com</a> , <a href="http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Synchronous_webcasting_tools">visit my page on all things webinars.</a></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"></div>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-58168397000783630122010-06-28T03:43:00.000-07:002010-07-09T07:16:51.280-07:00Tin eyeJust been told about this new "image plagiarism" tool : <a href="http://www.tineye.com/">http://www.tineye.com/</a>. It helps you reverse search for an image. Useful also for catching up on the results of those Friday afternoon Photoshop tennis sessions (b3ta.com)<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="600" scrolling="no" src="http://tineye.com/widgets/scream/?size=large" style="border: medium none;" width="500"></iframe>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-19014270353280776352010-06-25T08:15:00.000-07:002010-07-09T07:38:27.934-07:00logisphere<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Today I had a bit of fun "reviewing the new and; very funky<a href="http://www.zdnet.co.uk/reviews/cameras/2003/12/08/logitech-quickcam-sphere-39118356/"> logiech SPHERE webcam</a>. Not the most technically indepth review, but as you can guess I liked it. Oh and BTW it was recorded using the simples Iflip video camrea. The face tracking function kinda works, if U don't dance around the office! Ideal for those webinars?</div><br />
<object height="300" width="400"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=12847895&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=01AAEA&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=12847895&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=01AAEA&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/12847895">review of logitech sphere webcam</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/kevbrace">kevbrace</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-62396203696105313072010-05-18T02:21:00.000-07:002010-05-18T02:21:15.827-07:00AggregatedI attended a lecture by Professor Phillip Long ( one author of the <a href="http://wp.nmc.org/horizon2010/">2010 Horizon report</a>) last week. Read the full story on a new Aston blog : <a href="http://clipp.blogs.aston.ac.uk/2010/05/aggreagted/">http://clipp.blogs.aston.ac.uk/2010/05/aggreagted/</a> -<br />
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Plenty of links to look at - and especially on sharing course material ( as he was one of the instigators of the<a href="http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm"> MIT Open courseware initiative.</a>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-56070517227001476402010-04-26T02:25:00.000-07:002010-04-26T02:32:14.460-07:00irubric & rcampus<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After trawling through another of my regular <a href="http://www.google.com/alerts">Google Alerts</a> on e-portfolios this link caught my eye. It began as an interesting link to a web based tool to create a set of rubrics for assessing e-portoflios: called <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.rcampus.com/rubricshowc.cfm?sp=true&code=Q4W438&">irubric</a> . </span>Very neat idea, for those just embarking on the use of assessed e-portfolios. And for those (like me) who are not exactly sure what a rubric is :</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0099cc; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A </span></i><b><a href="http://help.rcampus.com/index.php/Rubric" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #002bb8; text-decoration: none;" title="Rubric"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">rubric</span></i></a></b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> is a scoring tool that's generally used for subjective and authentic assessments. In subjective assessments, rubrics help create a certain level of objectivity. As a result, learners are more clear about the expectations prior to assessment and are clear about their areas of weakness and strength after the assessment. In authentic assessments (which are usually subjective), rubrics help educators communicate and assess levels of performance.</span></i></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">More on the above at URL</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><a href="http://help.rcampus.com/index.php/Rubrics"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">http://help.rcampus.com/index.php/Rubrics</span></a></span></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span> </i></span></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Which also reminds me of the </span><a href="http://digitalstorytellingsynthesis.pbworks.com/Assessment-criteria-for-digital-storytelling"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">rubric wiki (for digital story telling) </span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">developed by the CEAL team in Cheltenham - again this is a proven framework you can pick up and adapt for your own cohorts.</span></li>
</ul></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span> </i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Moving on to </span><a href="http://www.rcampus.com/index.cfm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Rcampus</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> - from the above irubric pages, I noted that they host e-portfolios and courses (like a VLE) all for free :OD - why pay more? Looks V good (at first glance) For more info watch the vid : </span></div><div><br />
<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8IluLiY3488&hl=en_GB&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8IluLiY3488&hl=en_GB&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div><br />
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</div></span>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-85691474396906396482010-04-21T07:26:00.000-07:002010-04-21T07:26:05.674-07:00distance nursing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.army.mil/women/images/nurses/nurse1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.army.mil/women/images/nurses/nurse1.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At last, a positive report on a real success story of how distance learning can really make a difference to education. Lead by the UK's most experienced distance learning organisation. Take note all - distance learning actually works if well designed (using synchronous + asynchronous modes) and very well supported.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/apr/20/nurse-training-distance-learning">Read the full story.>>>>>>>>>></a></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">The quality and consistency of support provided on distance-learning programmes is crucial to minimise dropout rates. On the OU nursing course, students are assigned a tutor for each module they take, while another supports individual students throughout their four-year period of study. OU-trained personal mentors, typically a registered nurse, support and assess students in the workplace.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">"<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">The workbooks direct your learning, but you got a tutorial every month by video link. We also met our tutor face-to-face once a month with the rest of the group," says O'May. "There were also phone tutorials, emails and online forums. It worked fantastically well.</span></b>"</div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">From 2012, the OU will offer nursing degrees as part of the government's policy to make nursing training degree-standard. But entry criteria will remain the same so that healthcare workers seconded by their employers are still able to study for the degree."</div></span>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-6957397947564047062010-04-19T07:59:00.000-07:002010-04-21T07:30:07.590-07:00LEAPing ahead<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLLYdgAhQq7pgrZ3ytVm1R8hjQ3rkwHAHAqUjxbYzR41wE2RiHKfYdZVdG3wYdDwBf4vVQgcTZybFkpbIE8s7KuyPT-AmvFLSD0BtKPuqks_1Sg7Au2ATX80QjI1MOo2V19c_vzh58sjoy/s1600/jisc-logo-white.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLLYdgAhQq7pgrZ3ytVm1R8hjQ3rkwHAHAqUjxbYzR41wE2RiHKfYdZVdG3wYdDwBf4vVQgcTZybFkpbIE8s7KuyPT-AmvFLSD0BtKPuqks_1Sg7Au2ATX80QjI1MOo2V19c_vzh58sjoy/s320/jisc-logo-white.gif" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9lAuWkVR7Ulaohwl6UBh2vUvR3iLAzoQfai_E8rV6a_BQqca_eLONhi53IC8MLa_mt7rpwCeXgYKve6aT5blV3Ly0UpdvBq377MrTHc7B8HIuWfjQRxdaDY0w2U8NFfgH65ymbK52qE3Y/s1600/ep-home.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9lAuWkVR7Ulaohwl6UBh2vUvR3iLAzoQfai_E8rV6a_BQqca_eLONhi53IC8MLa_mt7rpwCeXgYKve6aT5blV3Ly0UpdvBq377MrTHc7B8HIuWfjQRxdaDY0w2U8NFfgH65ymbK52qE3Y/s320/ep-home.jpg" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/e-portfolios">JISC</a> have recently (March 2010) issued a new briefing paper outlining the latest advances in the LEAP2A standards.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">"Leap2A is an open specification for transferring learner-owned information between different systems. e-Portfolio tools and systems are now widely used by learners to present evidence of learning, achievements and abilities for many purposes, including application for a job or university, assessment or professional accreditation. During their studies, these learners may invest significant time and effort in collecting, selecting, reflecting on and presenting the information included in their e-portfolios, so it is vital that their work doesn’t disappear or become unusable as learners move to another college, university or into the workplace."</span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Two large eportfolio platforms are already on board/helping to develop; Pebblepad and Mahara.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/briefingpapers/2010/bpleap2a.aspx#downloads">Read more and dload the paper....</a></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; line-height: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">while I'm on the subject of eportfolio's, there's a neat little <a href="http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2010/03/ple-vs-vle.html">PLE Vs VLE blog post</a> (with commoncraft inspired video) by Steve wheeler (Plymouth Uni)</span></span></span>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-43527767980349225822010-04-16T03:30:00.000-07:002010-04-19T02:11:46.083-07:00e-safety tips<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrhYVDmJHc7JJmpV0ZO81NKtZ-ItvDfGwOSmcuxIo495STexRuSHdXzIxKp98JQCJNQi3lM1Z1vNDh2wUrjigw7ogPhWe4zexdfDCHjuAFoBa10fTZPKcrC1MbmQwPvNppprWZFtmlkUYB/s1600/sl-esafety02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrhYVDmJHc7JJmpV0ZO81NKtZ-ItvDfGwOSmcuxIo495STexRuSHdXzIxKp98JQCJNQi3lM1Z1vNDh2wUrjigw7ogPhWe4zexdfDCHjuAFoBa10fTZPKcrC1MbmQwPvNppprWZFtmlkUYB/s320/sl-esafety02.jpg" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I attended a very informative e-safety CPD session the other week. All based in Second Life. It was a standard type session using PPT (see below), but enhanced with some videos and peppered with live chats discussing topics in question. Thanks to Jane Edwards and Carol Rainbow for running the engaging and informative session. We advise that organisations put some guidelines and protocols (see links below) in place for staff and students, don't just ban everything as knee jerk reaction to the onslaught of web 2.0 use. </span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong style="display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 4px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 12px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/kevinbrace/e-safety-slcourse2010adultsimagesacknowledged" title="E safety-course_2010">E safety-course_2010</a></strong></div><div id="__ss_3733544" style="width: 425px;"><div style="text-align: center;"><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=esafetyslcourse2010adults-imagesacknowledged-100415060840-phpapp02&stripped_title=e-safety-slcourse2010adultsimagesacknowledged" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=esafetyslcourse2010adults-imagesacknowledged-100415060840-phpapp02&stripped_title=e-safety-slcourse2010adultsimagesacknowledged" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object></div><div style="padding: 5px 0 12px;">View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/">presentations</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/kevinbrace">kevinbrace</a>.</div></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Related e-safety links:</span><br />
<ul><li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-81qwY_nTlo">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-81qwY_nTlo</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/aug/07/sexting-teenagers-mobile-phones">http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/aug/07/sexting-teenagers-mobile-phones</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071106133103.htm">http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071106133103.htm</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDBDUX7KPT0">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDBDUX7KPT0</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/ManageContent/ViewDetail/tabid/243/ID/1317/e-Safety-Background-Video-for-England.aspx">http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/ManageContent/ViewDetail/tabid/243/ID/1317/e-Safety-Background-Video-for-England.aspx</a></li>
</ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just passed onto me : Reading University have developed a suite of resources, (a game & exercise) that help to understand how to manage your digital identity. <a href="http://thisisme.reading.ac.uk/pg/pages/view/39/">Called This Is Me.</a></span></div>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-30904899768245682362010-04-16T03:01:00.000-07:002010-04-19T02:18:13.287-07:00Titanpad<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisFx-Bxdha4kCiIyGEepkR0AEOv1ZOWBfB6J3EuX-WG4jvNu7acmb0jB6TzlXOe9Ps_gAFJvrw6utfesqXuEECEIfRSImJ8WmwXa_D9Cp1ozG5e6xdl31agMGHx8rA1cCIA6F3C-rVdDyL/s1600/titan-pad.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisFx-Bxdha4kCiIyGEepkR0AEOv1ZOWBfB6J3EuX-WG4jvNu7acmb0jB6TzlXOe9Ps_gAFJvrw6utfesqXuEECEIfRSImJ8WmwXa_D9Cp1ozG5e6xdl31agMGHx8rA1cCIA6F3C-rVdDyL/s400/titan-pad.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just found out that etherpad has been finally shut down - but now replaced</span><a href="http://titanpad.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> by Titanpad.</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> It does exactly the same as etherpad, i.e. real time collaborative editing. Kind of like a wiki - but "live" - scary, but fun. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There's also </span><a href="http://ietherpad.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://ietherpad.com/</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - which Iwas told is now a fully Open Source version of the now defunct etherpd? Not sure of that tho'?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So also </span><a href="http://www.wallwisher.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">www.wallwisher.com</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> , which is also fun and works like post it notes in your browser - again in realtime - and shared.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nb. Google purchased etherpad technology to make google Wave. Which is nice. And I've just been informed that the <a href="http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.org.uk/mashe/2010/04/a-real-time-collaborative-education-with-google-docs/">old etherpad team are working on Google doc's</a>. Which we also like :OD</span></div><img src="C:\DOCUME~1\KEVINB~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\Snippy0001.jpg" /><img src="C:\DOCUME~1\KEVINB~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\Snippy0001.jpg" />gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-73488790643318067082010-04-16T02:27:00.000-07:002010-04-16T02:47:51.786-07:00Online Learning Task Force<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6tdd3GU7OmOwE7W5hPH4LrPe6FdLN-TUsvrv92GOy_yX5Efnk9T3L2eQ5QIlkfOBINKuqc5fVWqroflmG1cN_haILr18T9cs2YEyVmi_pvL7sSqcRnMbp16QCSNFWCXW27imA6ASZdIJy/s1600/hefce-logo.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6tdd3GU7OmOwE7W5hPH4LrPe6FdLN-TUsvrv92GOy_yX5Efnk9T3L2eQ5QIlkfOBINKuqc5fVWqroflmG1cN_haILr18T9cs2YEyVmi_pvL7sSqcRnMbp16QCSNFWCXW27imA6ASZdIJy/s320/hefce-logo.gif" /></a></div><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've just skimmed through the <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/learning/enhance/taskforce/OLTFdiscussion_paper.DOC">March 2010 update</a> of the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/learning/enhance/taskforce/">HEFCE Online Learning Task Force</a>. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Makes for some very interesting reading. Basically it boils down to 3 things that need to be adhered to;</span></span></span><br />
<ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 18px;">Do the market research (who is doing what well, & learn from others mistakes), the OU is obviously a good model to learn from, and conversely so was the UKeU!! Often I see HE going "off on one", blissfully ignorant of the good practice that's gone before by others who've done this well (Ultraversity is a good model, as it Sheffield College Net trainers courses, so is Oxford Brookes, to name but a few). P<a href="http://www.atimod.com/e-moderating/5stage.shtml">rofessor Gilly Salmons 5 stage model </a>& <a href="http://www.atimod.com/e-moderating/intro.shtml">emoderators books</a> are a good place to start.</span></li>
</ul><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 18px;">"Traditional" distance courses are built around a vocational model, relying heavily on adult leaning and work based motivational needs (see also Maslow). Paper behind glass would form the basis of this experiences. This model is a cost saving model. I'd guess very little moderator/facilitator interaction or even less peer2peer engagement. Good online/distance learning takes time to nurture & support and promote student centred & active learning. It is not cheap, and requires skill & time to design and support. I repeat, it it not a cheap alternative to F2F delivery.<br />
<br />
<br />
</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 18px;">And finally, this interim report acknowledges that effective pedagogy and the supporting organisational infrastructure is the key to successful online/distance learning.<br />
</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 18px;">The technology is here, now all we have to do is catch up. See also USA, North America & Australia for exemplars of effective distance learning :O)</span></li>
</ul><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Snippets from the report.....</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Online learning: the current picture in the UK....This research suggests that:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a. More should be done to provide a simple taxonomy of the wide range of</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">student experiences that currently fall under the broad title of ‘online distance</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">learning’.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">b. The vast majority of online distance learning offered by HEIs is focused on</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">postgraduate-level provision.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">c. Most online distance learning can be identified as professional development,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">or as having a strong vocational focus.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">d. It can be challenging for potential students to find out about online distance</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">learning courses, with information often hidden in complex institutional web-sites.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Where details are available, they frequently fail to provide the full range of</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">information that a potential student needs to make a decision about studying</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">online.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">e. We need to improve the market intelligence available to give a clearer picture</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">of the position of UK online distance learning in an international context.</span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and further more :</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have examined what lessons the UK HE sector can learn from previous online</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">learning ventures, whether successful or ones that no longer exist. ...some interesting points noted so far include:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. It is important to clarify the purpose of the venture, including a viable, robust</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">business model.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Building on existing success tends to be most effective: in general it seems</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">wise to grow in, and from, subject areas and markets where institutions have an</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">established reputation.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Clear leadership and ownership is required to maintain strategic focus and</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">avoid an attitude that online learning is an ‘add-on’ or peripheral activity.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally these excerpts caught my eye:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is also clear that technology platforms are not a barrier to success. The OLTF does not intend to dedicate significant attention to this area. We intend to pay more attention to business models to ensure sustainability and cost-effectiveness, and to pedagogical good practice to support academic quality.</span></li>
</ul></div><div><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...the importance of good pedagogy to the design and delivery of excellent online learning, recognising similarities and differences between on-site, blended and fully online models different organisational structures and business models that are used to support the development and expansion of online learning for the benefit of newer entrants..</span></li>
</ul></div></div></div>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-4176419486736692212010-04-09T02:18:00.000-07:002010-04-09T02:18:36.481-07:00E-Portfolio Watch<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">An eportfolio offers a rich reflective tutor/student feedback loop, which promotes effective learning. The e-portfolio continues to grab the attention of many academics in HE, FE, and Work Based Learning (WBL).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our recent webinar on WBL<sup>1</sup>, which we ran with Stanford University covers this use of eportoflios in some depth. Their <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>community of practice offers a wealth of useful resources</span><sup><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">2</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Complimenting an existing VLE with an individual learning plan</span><sup><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">3</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> (ILP), or adding a link from VLE course to a personal e-portoflio (Mahoodle</span><sup><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">4</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">), are now being recognised as effective practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Susi Peacock’s e-portfolio page</span><sup><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">5</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> at Queen Margarets University, reinforces the need to plan, pilot, and offer a contuining suite of support mechanisms to all stakeholders. This level of support will help to ensure a healthy adoption of e-portfolios. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>E-portfolios offer efficient communication channels personalised to the learner needs, that no other “platform” has managed to crack. JISC continues to update the online infokit</span><sup><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">6</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> on effective practice with e-portfolios, by adding new case studies. See also our comprehensive wiki page on the subject</span><sup><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">7</span></sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Useful links:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt;"></div><ol><li><a href="http://bit.ly/work-based-folios" title="http://bit.ly/work-based-folios"><span style="color: #3366bb; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">http://bit.ly/work-based-folios</span></a></li>
<li><a href="http://epac.pbworks.com/"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">http://epac.pbworks.com/</span></a></li>
<li><a href="http://moodle.ulcc.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=107">http://moodle.ulcc.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=107</a></li>
<li><a href="http://tdm.info/train/mahoodle.html"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">http://tdm.info/train/mahoodle.html</span></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.qmu.ac.uk/eportfolio/index.htm"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">http://www.qmu.ac.uk/eportfolio/index.htm</span></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/e-portfolios"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/e-portfolios</span></a></li>
<li><a href="http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Eportfolios">http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Eportfolios</a></li>
</ol>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-36851630332066279172010-04-09T02:15:00.000-07:002010-04-09T02:19:09.693-07:00E-Learning lessons from the private sector<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">My attendance at the biggest UK coporate e-learning event earlier this year promised to be full of pragmatic tips and inside advice from companies</span><sup><span style="line-height: 115%;">1</span></sup><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> still suffering from recessional induced cuts in training</span><sup><span style="line-height: 115%;">2</span></sup><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> budgets. What I discovered was a refreshing undercurrent, whereby companies are adopting new technologies, such as; Huddle</span><sup><span style="line-height: 115%;">3</span></sup><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> and blogs</span><sup><span style="line-height: 115%;">4</span></sup><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">, to create internal knowledge sharing communites. These types of innovative approaches e.g.Dare2Share</span><sup><span style="line-height: 115%;">5</span></sup><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">, were spreading like a viral ad, as most in the UK are reappraising their underacheiving Learning Management Systems (LMS), or adding (free) Web 2.0 tools into the mix. Companies such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers were making significant training savings using live webinar tools</span><sup><span style="line-height: 115%;">6</span></sup><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> such as Adobe Conenct, or Elluminate. Technolgoy is being used to save money, improve both business and training effiencies, but it’s needed a recession to literally force this! BECta</span><sup><span style="line-height: 115%;">7</span></sup><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> in conjunction with the Towards Maturity project</span><sup><span style="line-height: 115%;">8</span></sup><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> have released two new related reports on Work Based Learning. They both stress the importance of measuring impact</span><sup><span style="line-height: 115%;">9</span></sup><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> and sharing effective practice</span><sup><span style="line-height: 115%;">10</span></sup><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> to help us all implement and embed ILT effectively. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Useful links:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt;"></div><ol><li><a href="http://www.elearningage.co.uk/"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">http://www.elearningage.co.uk/</span></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/</span></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.huddle.net/"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">http://www.huddle.net/</span></a></li>
<li><a href="http://wordpress.org/">http://wordpress.org/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtVYkEdGtfo"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtVYkEdGtfo</span></a></li>
<li><a href="http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Synchronous_webcasting_tools">http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Synchronous_webcasting_tools</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.nextgenerationlearning.org.uk/">http://www.nextgenerationlearning.org.uk/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/09/02/what-every-ld-professional-needs-know-about-e-lear/">http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/09/02/what-every-ld-professional-needs-know-about-e-lear/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/09/28/towards-maturity-efficiency-indicator/">http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/09/28/towards-maturity-efficiency-indicator/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/09/12/evidence-change/">http://www.towardsmaturity.org/article/2009/09/12/evidence-change/</a></li>
</ol><ul></ul><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><br />
</o:p></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">1.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></div>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-27032426526226361342010-04-08T08:12:00.000-07:002010-04-08T08:12:11.505-07:00Creating an ePortfolio with Wikispaces<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is how to do it. Nice & easy. Web 2.0 = PLE. Why pay more, when the web does it for free. And note this is not using any HTML/scripting, it's just editing, copy , paste, insert, link. No more difficult than using a word processor. Neat solution to creating a simple e-folio :oD.. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I tried the same with my <a href="http://sites.google.com/site/kevsnotes/">CMALT folio recently using the now defunct Google pages.</a></span><br />
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<object height="525" width="660"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5osJCF909qQ&hl=en_GB&fs=1&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5osJCF909qQ&hl=en_GB&fs=1&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="660" height="525"></embed></object>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-41176578222272346132010-04-08T06:14:00.000-07:002010-04-08T06:16:37.110-07:00HE-dupunks<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The blurb of this book caught my eye, initially sounded like a rant to begin with, but looks like a useful read into the future of connected learning via the internetwork. </span><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/29556018/DIY-U-Edupunks-Edupreneurs-and-the-Coming-Transformation-of-Higher-Education" style="-x-system-font: none; display: block; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px auto; text-decoration: underline;" title="View DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education on Scribd"><br />
</a><i>"</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #363636; font-family: arial, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"><i>The future lies in personal learning networks and paths, learning that blends experiential and digital approaches, and free and open-source educational models. Increasingly, you will decide what, when, where, and with whom you want to learn, and you will learn by doing. The university is the cathedral of modernity and rationality, and with our whole civilization in crisis, we are poised on the brink of a new Reformation."</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #363636; font-family: arial, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"><i><br />
</i></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #363636; font-family: arial, 'helvetica neue', helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"><i><br />
</i></span></span><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/29556018/DIY-U-Edupunks-Edupreneurs-and-the-Coming-Transformation-of-Higher-Education" style="-x-system-font: none; display: block; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px auto; text-decoration: underline;" title="View DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education on Scribd">DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education</a> <object data="http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf" height="500" id="doc_650065717253466" name="doc_650065717253466" rel="media:document" resource="http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=29556018&access_key=key-kv9jmo16rp1r8b76kpe&page=1&viewMode=book" style="outline: none;" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/searchmonkey/media/"> <param name="movie" value="http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf"><param name="wmode" value="opaque"><param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="FlashVars" value="document_id=29556018&access_key=key-kv9jmo16rp1r8b76kpe&page=1&viewMode=book"><embed id="doc_650065717253466" name="doc_650065717253466" src="http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=29556018&access_key=key-kv9jmo16rp1r8b76kpe&page=1&viewMode=book" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="500" width="100%" wmode="opaque" bgcolor="#ffffff"></embed> </object>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-50657114124162583752010-04-08T05:29:00.000-07:002010-04-08T05:29:15.109-07:00Office Add-in for Moodle<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> Just stumbled across this... what a fab idea? Does this mean we can now author some simple (interactive) learning objects (i.e. drag & drop) in MS Office & bang them directly up to Moodle? Or is that a bad idea? Puts the terminology "rapid elearning" in a whole new light :OD</o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p><br />
</o:p></span></div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="mso-cellspacing: 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;"><tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt;"> <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">The Microsoft Education Labs team have just launched the <a href="http://www.educationlabs.com/projects/officeaddinformoodle/Pages/default.aspx" target="_blank" title="Find out more and download the Moodle add-in for Office">Office Add-in for Moodle</a> (or should it be the Moodle Add-in for Office?). This launch builds upon the success of the availability of the <a href="http://www.educationlabs.com/Projects/moodleproduct" target="_blank" title="Find out more about the Live Services plug-in for Moodle">Microsoft Live Services Plug-in for Moodle</a> which launched last July. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">The idea behind the add-in is simple. Now, when you got to <strong><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Open</span></strong> or <strong><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Save</span></strong> a file in Office 2003 or 2007, you can select to ‘Open from Moodle’ or ‘Save to Moodle’ directly. This makes it easier for your users to use Moodle natively, and hopefully will encourage them to make better use of your Moodle installation. (If you have a SharePoint-based learning platform, you get <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/ukschools/archive/2009/12/15/top-10-reasons-office-2010-is-good-for-schools.aspx" target="_blank" title="Find out about "Save to SharePoint" in Office 2010">similar functionality in Office 2010</a>)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<h3><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The “Office Add-in for Moodle”<o:p></o:p></span></h3><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600"
o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f"
stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"/> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"/> </v:formulas> <v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"/> <o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"/> </v:shapetype><v:shape id="_x0000_s1026" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="View Slide Show"
style='position:absolute;margin-left:0;margin-top:0;width:243.75pt;height:213.75pt;
z-index:251658240;mso-wrap-distance-left:0;mso-wrap-distance-top:0;
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mso-position-vertical-relative:line' o:allowoverlap="f"> <v:imagedata src="http://www.educationlabs.com/projects/OfficeAddinForMoodle/PublishingImages/1MoodleMenu.PNG"/> <w:wrap type="square"/> </v:shape><![endif]--><img align="left" alt="View Slide Show" height="285" src="http://www.educationlabs.com/projects/OfficeAddinForMoodle/PublishingImages/1MoodleMenu.PNG" v:shapes="_x0000_s1026" width="325" /><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Uploading files to Moodle is now much easier. The Office Add-in for Moodle (OAM) is an add-in for Microsoft Office (versions 2003 and 2007) that allows teachers to open and save Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents to a Moodle website. Today, teachers who use Office and Moodle have to switch back and forth between their web browser and Office applications. With the OAM, teachers can create, open, edit, and save Moodle documents from within the Office applications. You no longer need to use your web browser when working with Office documents stored in Moodle.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">So what do you need in order to start using the add-in? OAM does not require anything to be installed on the Moodle server (note we only tested against Moodle versions 1.8-1.9). Anyone who is the teacher or owner of a Moodle course can install the add-in and access their documents. Once installed, the add-in adds two menu items to your File menu (Office 2003) or the Office Button menu: <strong><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Open from Moodle</span></strong> and <strong><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Save to Moodle</span></strong>. In order to browse course files on your Moodle you will need to first tell the add-in the address of your Moodle and the credentials you use to log in. Once added you can view the list of courses you are enrolled in. Naturally, students and others can access the content directly from Moodle as they normally would. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">We focused on teachers and content specialists first, since we know most documents posted to Moodles come from teachers. We’ve gotten some requests already about adding support for students and assignments, but we want to hear from you. So check it out, and let the EducationLabs team know what you think and if there’s anything you want them to work on. In order to get this beta tool in your hands right away and to get feedback before this gets fully locked down, we decided to roll this out before embarking on synchronization with other add-ins and other Moodle functionality. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> <o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">It’s worth browsing on the Education Labs site for other projects recently released <a href="http://www.educationlabs.com/">www.educationlabs.com</a><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_s1027" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="image"
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mso-position-vertical-relative:line' o:allowoverlap="f" o:button="t"> <v:imagedata src="http://blogs.msdn.com/blogfiles/ukschools/WindowsLiveWriter/4696a4393e73_8AE4/image_3.png"/> <w:wrap type="square"/> </v:shape><![endif]--><a href="http://www.educationlabs.com/projects/officeaddinformoodle/Pages/default.aspx" target=""_blank""><img align="left" alt="image" border="0" height="41" src="http://blogs.msdn.com/blogfiles/ukschools/WindowsLiveWriter/4696a4393e73_8AE4/image_3.png" title=""Find out about the Moodle Add-in for Office"" v:shapes="_x0000_s1027" width="132" /></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.educationlabs.com/projects/officeaddinformoodle/Pages/default.aspx" target="_blank" title="Find out more about, and download, the free Moodle add-in">Find out more about, and download, the free Moodle add-in</a> <br />
<em><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"><a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/ukfe/archive/tags/moodle/default.aspx" target="_blank" title="View blog posts tagged 'Moodle'">Read other posts on Moodle on this blog</a></span></em><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"><img border="0" height="1" id="_x0000_i1025" src="http://blogs.msdn.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=9991652" width="1" /><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
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<a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/ukfe/archive/2010/04/07/launch-announcement-new-moodle-integration-for-office.aspx">View article...</a><o:p></o:p></span>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-65961345927146407412010-03-29T01:17:00.000-07:002010-03-29T05:00:26.790-07:00Helen Talks to TED<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Helen Barrett talks about eportfolios. Geoff Rebbeck from Thanet College is quoted in this. Well done Geoff, your ideas are an inspiration to us all - even to Helen Barrett the spiritual mother of all </span><a href="http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Eportfolios"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">'folios!</span></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><object height="405" width="500"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ckcSegrwjkA&hl=en_GB&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ckcSegrwjkA&hl=en_GB&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="500" height="405"></embed></object></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Meanwhile on a vaguely related <a href="http://escalate.ac.uk/">ESCalate</a> article; </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tracy Johnson, a lecturer in study skills and a qualified personal coach, <a href="http://escalate.ac.uk/6853">asks if Personal Development Planning can fit easily into the academic curriculum</a> or whether it resides more comfortably within the employability agenda.</span></span>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-48525314879544882062010-03-26T03:08:00.000-07:002010-03-26T03:57:15.858-07:00Good CoP<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.altcexchange.edu.au/system/files/785/AeP2_Logo_web.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.altcexchange.edu.au/system/files/785/AeP2_Logo_web.gif" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>Free book :OD</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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<div class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In 2009 the Australian ePortfolio Project < <a href="http://www.eportfoliopractice.qut.edu.au/">http://www.eportfoliopractice.qut.edu.au/</a> > conducted a series of semi structured interviews from 14 online communities across the globe. This research project was designed to elicit a picture of the types and methods of engagement afforded to these "virtual" eportfolio communities of practice (CoP). RSC East & West Midlands very own virtual eportfolio CoP < <a href="http://groups.google.co.uk/group/rscmeg?hl=en">http://groups.google.co.uk/group/rscmeg?hl=en</a> > was discussed in terms of platform types, level of management/ facilitation, and participation engagement. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">This type of facilitating and supporting subject specific "forums" either F2F, online, or both, has long been a strength of the JISC <a href="http://www.jiscadvance.ac.uk/">Regional Support Centres</a>, and we were merely continuing the good work already being carried out across the UK by all RSC's. The very nature of the online domain to support embryonic CoPs presents many new challenges, in terms of maintaining a manageable balance between facilitation, engagement by its members, and choice of platform. We were influenced by local successful CoPs, specifically as the elearning Best Practice run by Helen Walmsley(former RSC member), <a href="http://learning.staffs.ac.uk/moodle/login/index.php">http://learning.staffs.ac.uk/moodle/login/index.php</a> .<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">This collaborative venture between myself & Ben Williams (RSC East Midlands) also prove that cross RSC projects are essential, by reaping the benefits of sharing effective practice both internally and externally. It is hoped that others may learn from our experiences when considering supporting similar CoPs in their own areas.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">See also our <a href="http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Eportfolios">wiki page that covers all things eportoflio</a> , plus the <a href="http://epac.pbworks.com/">excellent EPAC - USA based wiki pages</a> - my original inspiration the <a href="http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/e-portfolios">http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/e-portfolios</a></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.techdis.ac.uk/resources/files/In-Folio%20logo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="144" src="http://www.techdis.ac.uk/resources/files/In-Folio%20logo.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">While I'm on the subject of eportfolios, I saw a demo of <a href="http://www.in-folio.org.uk/">in-folio</a> the other day. It's been funded by <a href="http://www.techdis.ac.uk/getinnovation">JISC Techdis </a>and developed (<a href="http://www.rixcentre.org/">by the RIX centre</a>)with UK specialist Colleges. I was impressed at it's ease of use and straight forward interface. Two years in the making, it goes from strength to strength, and was mentioned that it will be released as Open Source.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;">They have even developed an innovative image based log in function to assist those who cannot type. This project alone looks like it has potential to made logins easier for many (to eliminate the bane of multiple passwords) : <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://www.clippi.com/where.php">http://www.clippi.com/where.php</a></span></span></span></div>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1694926335651093999.post-82275166903720388642010-03-17T09:21:00.001-07:002010-03-24T08:35:41.682-07:00Maharan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG3m-NvHdNUESWtkBM9TFhFJnQcMacI8lNoieldGA3tyOM0MSOVCiZFdUFphoHZguBFoh5Ew0ifvpbmdDYkDDCuXpH-BL0ZuZPVdJbJOGperQKkXsC5RSGwlGHMOTQRvNkM7CBzfax3RMG/s1600/Mahara_Logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG3m-NvHdNUESWtkBM9TFhFJnQcMacI8lNoieldGA3tyOM0MSOVCiZFdUFphoHZguBFoh5Ew0ifvpbmdDYkDDCuXpH-BL0ZuZPVdJbJOGperQKkXsC5RSGwlGHMOTQRvNkM7CBzfax3RMG/s320/Mahara_Logo.png" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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<span xmlns=""><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Are you a Maharan? For those n00bs, who are wholly unaware of the parlance I've broken into, a "Maharan" is a dedicated follower/user of the <a href="http://mahara.org/">Mahara eportfolio platform</a>. Mahara is another best of breed <a href="http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/">Open Source</a> learning platform (like Moodle), that has been developed in Australia/New Zealand. Mahara has experienced meteoric rise to fame (again similar to Moodle) across the globe, due to its relative ease of use, ability to integrate into other systems (<a href="http://kev-brace.blogspot.com/2009/03/networked-hub.html">Mahoodle </a>or <a href="http://kev-brace.blogspot.com/2009/03/magoogle-or-is-it-moogle.html">MaGoogle</a>), and the growing acceptance of personalised of learning. The reason why I'm telling you this, is that I've just reviewed a very good <a href="http://www.packtpub.com/mahara-1-2-e-portfolios-beginners-guide/book">book that's just been published </a>by a good friend of mine Derrin Kent, and his dedicated team at <a href="http://tdm.info/">UK Bewdley based TDM ltd</a>. Derrin is an all round good guy and is very experienced at levering ILT/e-learning solutions for Work Based Learning, Colleges and local companies using Moodle or Mahara for teaching or training.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">That experience Derrin has amassed is precisely where the scenarios that support each chapter of </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong><a href="http://www.packtpub.com/mahara-1-2-e-portfolios-beginners-guide/book">Mahara 1.2 ePortfolios</a></strong></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> are drawn from. Derrin and his colleagues at TDM, have really gone out of their way to make this book appeal to all levels of interest and experiences, not just with eportfolios, but ILT in general. It is written in a relaxed, yet informative style which draws the reader into trying out the bite-sized exercises, which form the lion's share of the book. At every step each chapter builds confidence, gives clear illustrations, and positively reinforces the theory by real world scenarios. The reader is constantly encouraged to "have a go hero", buy jumping online to a Mahara sandpit, to learn by doing. Each step is explained and the chapters check learning, fully explaining the jargon and provide good examples of exactly why and how Mahara could (and should) be used.</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The first chapter, really set the scene <a href="http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Eportfolios">explaining eportfolios in genera</a>l, and the final chapters move into more tutor and administrator levels of Mahara deployment. But as a mere "user" myself I found these latter chapters equally clear and informative – especially the sections on using Mahara as a very capable e-assessment tool.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">What really sets this book apart from the plethora of computer manuals was the first appendix that guided the reader into the essential aspect of planning and piloting an e-learning platform, to ensure all stakeholders are consulted, and a robust evaluation plan is factored in. The final appendix even goes as far as covering basic installation of Mahara for those brave enough to try. But by the time you've dipped in and out of this book, you will want to. A thoroughly good read, that can be enjoyed by anyone interested in <a href="http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/e-portfolios">the potential of eportfolios</a> and a must for those who have Mahara and want to exploit its suite of features. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">On its own (either hosted or locally run) Mahara offers a robust set of features that pitch it up against most <a href="http://wiki.rscwmsystems.org.uk/index.php/Moodle">VLEs</a> for shear practical teaching and learning e-solutions. But... if you do co-join <a href="http://tdm.info/train/mahoodle.html">Mahara and Moodle (single sign on), then Mahoodle</a> can offer quite a powerful and flexible Open Source solution suited for most training and teaching needs.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Well done Derrin and all the TDM book authors, for a <a href="http://danmarsden.com/blog/2010/02/18/new-mahara-book/">well crafted</a> and <a href="http://www.moodleblog.org/?p=184">very informative book</a>.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br />
</span></span></span>gabberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14274535194621834929noreply@blogger.com0