News and discussion, Νέα και συζητήσεις, Noticias y discusión

Richard Elliott's e-learning world, September 2010

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:02:29 GMT

by MoodleBites Admin.

G'day

Well only 6 days to ALT-C . I'll tell you all about it next month. I do like the way ALT uses Crowdvine as its conference networking site. Easy to use, configure, navigate and find what you want. It's even improved on last year. Well done to the ALT-C team!

iPad has finally reached NZ along with the iPhone 4, which had a good reception (no pun intended). A few queues formed and seems those that purchased are more than happy with their new technology. My erudite colleague, Thom Cochrane, has got his students working on developing Apps for both.

For those in Kiwiland in September, don't forget to register for the Sharefest in Hamilton, the ECHO 360 seminar and the LATENT seminar at AUT.

This months posting includes assistive technologies, free elearner survival guide, effective practices, history of the Internet, elearning software design tool, creating online units, location based learning report, voting boxes, web design glossary,design for learning resources, rubric for online instruction, conferences and Kiwihappenings.

CU in October.

1. Assistive Technologies for Online Learning from the elearnQueen blogspot

As always this is a blog that is worth returning to from time to time. This time there are some very good links to resources highlighting and various options for assisting online learners as well as those with special needs.

http://elearnqueen.blogspot.com/2010/08/assistive-technologies-for-online.html

and don't miss out on getting your own copy of the e-learning Queen's elearning survival guide. Excellent resource not to be missed. Only free for a limited time.

http://zenzebra.net/elearner-survival-guide.pdf

2. A Synthesis of Sloan-C Effective Practices, (December 2009)

The Sloan consortium provides a wide range of publications and resources, many of them free, about online learning. This particular publication was originally released in December 2009 and now has updated links for 2010. The content is very much USA material but as most of the principles and practices relate to online learning, it can be applied elsewhere.

http://sloanconsortium.org/sites/default/files/v13n4_moore_eps.pdf

3. The Internet

From time to time I am asked searching questions about the Internet and what it really is. My usual response is to provide a general answer (if I can) and then refer people to the site below. It was produced a few years ago and updated late last year. It's very comprehensive and has some fascinating facts and figures. If you really want to know all about the Internet, this is the place to go:

http://www.livinginternet.com/

Just so you can answer all the trivial dispute questions at the local pub quiz and tell you students things they don't know.

http://www.medicalbillingandcoding.org/facts-about-the-internet/

4. Elearning: Designing and Creating your Online Unit. A guide and resource for those developing online study materials.

This site and its associated resources have been developed by Victoria University in Australia. It's a 'gentle' online workshop which leads you through a series of steps to help you with the creation of your online materials. Useful and nicely presented.

http://tls.vu.edu.au/eLearning/default.html

5. The E-learning Circle – a holistic software design tool for e-learning
Line Kolås and Arvid Staupe, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

from the abstract:

'The article introduces the E-learning Circle, a tool developed to assure the quality of the software design process of e-learning systems, considering pedagogical principles as well as technology. The E-learning Circle consists of a number of concentric circles which are divided into three sectors. The content of the inner circles is based on pedagogical principles, while the outer circle specifies how the pedagogical principles may be implemented with technology. The circle’s centre is dedicated to the subject taught, ensuring focus on the specific subject’s properties. The three sectors represent the student, the teacher and the learning objectives.'

A very interesting approach and well worth the time to read. The discussion section raises some thought provoking issues

http://eleed.campussource.de/archive/6/2543/

6. Simple voting boxes to enhance learning. From IgnatiaWebs.

I found this item of particular interest. Way back in the late 80's I used a very primitive 'priority of response' system for quiz sessions in nursing science. Participants pressed a bell push connected to a bank of lights when they knew the answer to a question. Whoever pressed first saw their light glow on the bank and they answered the question and got the points. The motivational effective on the competing teams was electrifying, the student feedback very positive. It certainly made a huge difference to their learning and understanding of concepts and principles.

Nowadays the audience response systems are very sophisticated and versatile and have been proven to enhance student learning, even for my Aussie friends!

http://ignatiawebs.blogspot.com/2010/08/simple-voting-boxes-to-enhance-learning.html

7. Education in the wild: contextual and location-based mobile learning in action

A report from the STELLAR Alpine Rendez-Vous workshop series edited by Elizabeth Brown. A very comprehensive and useful resource on location based mobile learning:

http://mlearning.noe-kaleidoscope.org/resources/ARV_Education_in_the_wild.pdf

8. The Motive Web Design Glossary

This is a little different and could probably be classed as 'the odd one out'. However if you have listened to endless quotes of web jargon, acronyms and the like and nod your head wisely , you might want to check what you think you know. After all affordances are not all to do with the weekly budget. This is from NZ so must be good.

Extract from the site:

'We’ve compiled the Motive Web Design Glossary to demystify web communication. Coverage includes web: philosophy, business and marketing, usability, visual design, standards and technology'.

http://www.motive.co.nz/glossary/index.php

9. A rubric for online Instruction

A useful site if you are interested in creating rubrics for online assessment purposes. Provides a guide and some ideas on levels of content, competency and achievement and how they might be implemented in various courses

http://www.csuchico.edu/celt/roi/index.shtml

10. Universal Design for Learning: Editions by CAST

CAST is a non-profit research and development organization dedicated to Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL research demonstrates that the challenge of diversity can and must be met by making curriculum flexible and responsive to learner differences.

Just read one of the books shown on the Webpage and discover some interesting ways of bringing stories and meaning to life. Some students will find these resources very helpful. The hyperlinked 'pop ups' are both useful and informative as well as providing ways to test the student or readers knowledge. Fry you brain on the Shakespeare Sonnet.

http://udleditions.cast.org/

Conferences

11.1 ascilite 2010 'Curriculum, technology & transformation for an unknown future.' is the 27th annual ascilite Conference. The conference will be held in Sydney, New South Wales Australia. It is being jointly hosted by The University of Technology Sydney, The University of Queensland and Charles Sturt University

Full Details from

http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/sydney10/index.htm

11.2 mLearn2010

Dates
Submission
Posters/Demos: 15th September 2010
Pre-Conference Workshops: 19th October 2010
Conference: 20th-22nd October 2010

http://www.mlearn2010.org/

11.3 The 4th International Malaysian Educational Technology Convention 2010

ELECTRONIC EDUCATION: Towards an Immersive Learning Environment

26 - 29 September 2010,KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia

Extract from the site for potential presenters:

'This year we are not requesting for abstracts and contributors will submit full papers for evaluation. Selected papers submitted within the deadline will be published in a book by Pearson. The papers not selected for the book will be included in the Convention Proceedings, together with papers submitted after the 15th May 2010'.

http://imetc2010.yolasite.com/

11.4 JISC Online Conference Innovating e-Learning 2010
Bringing Innovation to Life: from adversity comes opportunity

The fifth JISC international online conference
23-26 November 2010

Full details from
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/elpconference10

11.5 NAVIGATE 2010 – Inaugural EQUELLA User Conference
September 9- 10, State Library of Victoria,328 Swanston Street, Melbourne, Australia

http://www.equella.com/

KIWI happenings

11.6 For the local KIWI's (and anyone passing through). Wintec in Hamilton will be hosting an elearning SharEfest on September 27 and 28th with Peter Looms as a Keynote. Peter has students in Hong Kong and in Denmark. One of Peter's presentations is liable to be on the nature and use of handhelds and the results of research being carried out on iPads and the like by his students in Hong Kong.

The main Web site for the SharEfest is at

http://sharefest.crowdvine.com/

You can create and account ,join in and view the programme.A lot of excellent presentations have been accepted.

Click on

http://etc.elearning.ac.nz/login/index.php

Registration information:

http://sharefest.crowdvine.com/pages/registration

11.7 AUT University in Auckland are hosting an Echo360 NZ Lunchtime Seminar on 8 September 2010.

Echo360 (www.echo360.com) develops lecture capture software for education - with over 500 institutions globally using its premier EchoSystem product.

Echo360's former Lectopia product is known internationally and well established in the Australasian region.

The seminar will include lunch, and cover the following topics:

Discussion of enterprise-level lecture capture

Demonstration of EchoSystem lecture capture for venue recording

Demonstration of EchoSystem Personal Capture for staff and students

Client demonstration of lecture capture implementation and use

Echo360 are also offering ten travel bursaries valued at NZ$200 for New Zealand residents who wish to travel to the event.

For event registration and bursary applications please see the website - http://www.lectopia.com.au/nzseminar-2010-overview.lasso

11.8 AUT University in Auckland are also having a Learning and Teaching Enabled by Technology seminar [LATENT} on September 30, with Steve Wheeler from University of Plymouth and Peter Looms from Denmark as guest presenters

To Register your interest in attending the day, please email Pam Wyse (pam.wyse@aut.ac.nz) with your name and institution, and payment if
required (orders for invoices will not be accepted).
Cheques should be made out to AUT University,

Contact Mark Northover for a flyer: mark.northover@aut.ac.nz

That's it. I'm off to ALT-C 2010

Richard Elliott
The Eternal Macademic
Auckland
New Zealand
--
Richard Elliott
Director
elearningWatch Ltd
Auckland
New Zealand

'Learning in the Driver's seat, Technology turning the wheels'

http://elearnwatch.falkor.gen.nz/

Richard Elliott's e-learning world, August 2010

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 09:05:03 GMT

by MoodleBites Helpdesk.

Hi everyone

I guess with all the current activity in elearning and education the year will continue to flash by. ALT-C is just around the corner and in NZ we have the Sharefest in September followed by Ulearn and then Ascilite in Aussie in December.

The debates and discussions on which LMS or similar system is the best for learning are always interesting. I like to keep an open mind. BlackBoard and Moodle are often the most dissected, discussed, debated and probably used.

There are many more systems out there and plenty of opinion as to why they are better than others. One of the links in this post will take you to a very interesting site that looks at 10 other LMS.

The comments section is highly enlightening. You may find yourself exploring an alternative to what you use already. eFrontlearning might be a good contender for a switch.

This months posting is a mixed bag and includes details on alternative LMS, a collection of PLE's (thanks to Thom Cochrane for this link), ebook reader for mobile access, pdf search engine, library resource, online assessment rubric and exercise. Mac apps, information literacy assessment, Curtis Bonk resources, European training survey Conferences and KIWI happenings.

1. Open Source LMS – 10 Alternatives to Moodle

http://barrysampson.com/2009/04/open-source-lms-10-alternatives-to-moodle/

http://www.efrontlearning.net/

2. Diagrams of Personal Learning Environment ( PLE's) : A collection from Edtech post.
Quite a remarkable smorgsabord of PLE"s reflecting similar but different thinking. Useful stuff to fry the brain

http://edtechpost.wikispaces.com/PLE+Diagrams

3. Stanza: A free electronic book reader

Extract from the site:

'Stanza is a free application for your iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Use it to download from a vast selection of over 100,000 books and periodicals, and read them right on your phone. It’s a wireless electronic library that stays open 24/7'.

For those of you into mobile learning, try it for yourself. There's more to it than meets the eye

http://www.lexcycle.com/

4. Ultimate Collection of Google Related Mac Apps. I guess not everyone has realised the power of the Mac in education, yet. This link takes you to an impressive range of Google and third party Mac applications for all sorts of activities. Must be one for you. Probably will work on a PC.

http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups/internet-roundup/ultimate-collection-of-google-related-mac-apps/#more-9260

5. Search for pdf on any? topic. A search engine that returns pdf files on your chosen topic. I tried ' elearning assessment' with mixed results, the odd one out of date, but some were useful. The Ads may put you off (some are embedded within the search results) but the site could be used to complement other searches

http://3pdf.com/

6. Online assessment rubrics and guides. There is a lot to this site and whilst it is aimed at K-12 the material and advice could easily be transferred to higher levels.

Choose a subject /grade from the drop down menu and follow the exercise through. Worth the time. Have a look at the rest of the site as well Formative assessment has some useful resources

http://www.exemplars.com/online_assessment/

7. Assessments of Information Literacy. There continues to be strong moves to include comprehensive information literacy and numeracy in courses on and offline. This site provides links to a wide range of assessment approaches for information literacy. Might give you some ideas for your own initiatives.

http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/infolitassessments.htm

8. Curtis Bonk in action. Dr Bonk was at the Australian Moodlemoot in July and his keynote is included in a long list of presentations and activities by the man himself. I guess you would have to have been there to appreciate the presentation. My colleagues who attended the session said it was very entertaining and informative. Plenty of more of his presentations to explore on the Website. Bookmark or RSS for updates.

http://www.trainingshare.com/workshop.php#Moodlemoot2010

9. European training survey. New Research from Cegos - staff driving skills development

An interesting report that provides questions, answers and data on how training is being driven and managed in four European countries. The data may be of interest for comparison purposes, to those of you in the education and training areas in countries other than those on Europe.

An extract:

' While classroom training remains the most popular method across all countries, employees are being offered a wider choice of training mediums and emerging learning tools are growing in popularity.
The UK is leading the way in blended learning (41% versus 31% average) and mentoring (44% versus 35% average).
Spain and the UK are continuing to lead in their use of e-learning (with 56% and 53% of learners using it).
France is lagging behind in its diversity of learning techniques and does the least e-learning, with less than a quarter of employees using this tool'.

This is a pdf download

http://www.towardsmaturity.org/elements/uploads/Cegos_2010_European_training_survey_powerpoint_june_10.pdf

10. Library a La Carte: The more I got into this site the more I was intrigued by the possibilities this open source software offers. As a Librarian you might find the possibilities endless. You will probably need some technical help to set it up unless your are a IT guru to boot as well!. Worth considering.

http://alacarte.library.oregonstate.edu/about

Conferences

11.1 ALT-C 2010: "Into something rich and strange" - making sense of the sea-change 7-9 September 2010, Nottingham, UK.

*ALT-C 2010 programme is now live*:
http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2010/timetable.html

ALT's online booking system is now open for this event:
http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2010/registering.html

NOTE: Registrations close: 13 August

Conference fees: http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2010/delegate_information.html

Accommodation details: http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2010/accommodation.html

Social programme: http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2010/social.html

Keynote speakers

* Vanessa Pittard, Director of e-Strategy, Becta, UK;
* Professor Richard Noss, Co-director of the London Knowledge Lab and Director of the Technology Enhanced Learning research programme.
Keynote speakers
* Barbara Wasson, Professor of Pedagogical Information Science at the Department of Information Science and Media Studies, University of Bergen, Norway;
* Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University;
* Donald Clark, Board Member of Ufi, and former CEO of Epic Group plc.

http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2010

[taken from the] ALT Digest, a fortnightly publication from the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) http://www.alt.ac.uk/ ]

11.2 ascilite 2010 'Curriculum, technology & transformation for an unknown future.' is the 27th annual ascilite Conference. The conference will be held in Sydney, New South Wales Australia. It is being jointly hosted by The University of Technology Sydney, The University of Queensland and Charles Sturt University

You are invited to develop proposals for full papers, concise papers, posters and workshops.

Please note the deadline for full and concise papers, symposium
and workshops has been extended to 5 July 2010

Full Details from

http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/sydney10/index.htm

11.3 mLearn2010

Dates
Submission of Abstracts : 14th May 2010
Submission of Papers: 11th June 2010
Posters/Demos: 15th September 2010
Notification to Authors: 30th July 2010
Early Bird Registration: 30th July 2010
Pre-Conference Workshops: 19th October 2010
Conference: 20th-22nd October 2010

http://www.mlearn2010.org/

11.4 The 4th International Malaysian Educational Technology Convention 2010

ELECTRONIC EDUCATION: Towards an Immersive Learning Environment

26 - 29 September 2010,KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia

Extract from the site for potential presenters:

'This year we are not requesting for abstracts and contributors will submit full papers for evaluation. Selected papers submitted within the deadline will be published in a book by Pearson. The papers not selected for the book will be included in the Convention Proceedings, together with papers submitted after the 15th May 2010'.

http://imetc2010.yolasite.com/

11.5 JISC Online Conference Innovating e-Learning 2010
Bringing Innovation to Life: from adversity comes opportunity

The fifth JISC international online conference
23-26 November 2010

Full details from
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/elpconference10

11.6 NAVIGATE 2010 – Inaugural EQUELLA User Conference
September 9- 10, State Library of Victoria,328 Swanston Street, Melbourne, Australia

http://www.equella.com/

KIWI happenings

11.7 For the local KIWI's (and anyone passing through). Wintec in Hamilton will be hosting an elearning SharEfest on September 27 and 28th with Peter Looms as a Keynote. Peter has students in Hong Kong and in Denmark. One of Peter's presentations is liable to be on the nature use of handhelds and the results of research being carried out on iPads and the like by his students in Hong Kong.

The main Web site for the SharEfest is at

http://sharefest.crowdvine.com/

You can create and account and join in. Click on

http://etc.elearning.ac.nz/login/index.php

and submit a paper/ interactive session/ round table/ group activity or workshop asap!

NOTE: Closing date for submissions is August 24th

Registration information:

http://sharefest.crowdvine.com/pages/registration

11.8 AUT University in Auckland are hosting an Echo360 NZ Lunchtime Seminar on 8 September 2010.

Echo360 (www.echo360.com) develops lecture capture software for education - with over 500 institutions globally using its premier EchoSystem product.

Echo360's former Lectopia product is known internationally and well established in the Australasian region.

The seminar will include lunch, and cover the following topics:

Discussion of enterprise-level lecture capture

Demonstration of EchoSystem lecture capture for venue recording

Demonstration of EchoSystem Personal Capture for staff and students

Client demonstration of lecture capture implementation and use

Echo360 are also offering ten travel bursaries valued at NZ$200 for New Zealand residents who wish to travel to the event.

For event registration and bursary applications please see the website - http://www.lectopia.com.au/nzseminar-2010-overview.lasso

That's it until September dawns.

Richard Elliott
The Eternal Macademic
Auckland
New Zealand

--
Richard Elliott
Director
elearningWatch Ltd
Auckland
New Zealand

'Learning in the Driver's seat, Technology turning the wheels'

http://elearnwatch.falkor.gen.nz/

Sobre MoodleBites para profesores

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:41:29 GMT

by Carlos Bernal Granados.

Cordial saludo. Soy Carlos Bernal y desearía matricularme en el curso de MoodleBites para profesores en español, pero quisiera saber antes dónde encuentro información concreta sobre el curso, contenidos, fechas de inicio, etc. Muchas Gracias.

Richard Elliott's e-learning world, June 2010

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 06:02:41 GMT

by MoodleBites Helpdesk.

G'day

Seems as if volcanoes are getting a bit restless around the globe, I hope none of ours in New Zealand try to join in. On the elearning front, mobile learning is getting more press these days as the potential for some of the newer mobile devices for creating interactive personal learning environments begins to be realised. I noticed that John Traxler is Professor of Mobile Learning in the UK. A sure sign of shifting focus and support for emerging technologies which can make a real difference to student learning.

I saw some exciting development in the use of 3D simulations for training modules for heavy vehicle drivers last week. Not unlike an interactive game but with a very strong educational/ training/safety/ compliance focus. Lot of potential for online learning. Well done to urban voyage in New Zealand (http://www.urbanvoyage.com] run by Richard Elliott would you believe (he's a bit younger than me, but with a name like that he must be good).

In this months posting there's an article on e-learning and one on portfolios, flexible tools for managing digital resources,a link to the latest edition of JISC inform, teachers TV exercise, an online free application produced in NZ (aren't we doing well?) for construction and peer review of multiple choice questions, a learning design tool from the Aussies, web site investigator, Research and Evaluation Skills Training (PREST) series and conferences .

1. Enjoyable e-learning - is it an oxymoron? by Clive Shepherd. An interesting overview of elearning in an unusual format. worth watching and listening to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjNwSvqnjUs&feature=player_embedded#!/

2. Unleashing the Future: Educators 'Speak Up' about the use of Emerging Technologies for learning

http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/pdfs/SU09UnleashingTheFuture.pdf

3. The Visual Understanding Environment (VUE)

Extract from the site

'The Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) is an Open Source project based at Tufts University. The VUE project is focused on creating flexible tools for managing and integrating digital resources in support of teaching, learning and research. VUE provides a flexible visual environment for structuring, presenting, and sharing digital information'.

http://vue.tufts.edu/index.cfm

4 JISCInform

JISC Inform is a publication produced by JISC to raise awareness of the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to support further and higher education (FE and HE) in the UK.

There are some excellent articles in this edition. They are short and an easy read. I thought the article by John Traxler on mobile learning very informative and the one about the iPhone and bringing history to life quite fascinating. This is a pdf download:

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/publications/inform/2010/inform27.pdf

5. Teachers TV and the behaviour challenge. This is an interesting 'exercise' on managing behaviour problems within the classroom [thanks to Peter Looms for the link] Not sure I would contemplate some of the solutions or even be brave enough to take the class! I followed the antics of Michael. Could be useful for ideas and ways of handling potential and real problem students.

http://www.teachers.tv/behaviourchallenge

6.PeerWise. is a freely available online tool to support the construction, display and organisation of student-contributed assessment questions developed by Paul Denny, Department of Computer Science, The University of Auckland)
Extract from the site:

'Students of a participating course develop multiple-choice questions with associated explanations and contribute them to PeerWise. These questions are then available to other students in the course and can be answered for revision purposes, critiqued and discussed, and rated for difficulty and quality'.

An excellent tool already in use by schools and universities around the world

http://peerwise.cs.auckland.ac.nz/

Stuart: of course in Moodle you can just give Students the permissions to do this

7. Learning Design tool. From the Australian Flexible learning framework. The Learning Design Tool is a FREE online resource which guides you step-by-step through the four essential stages to write high quality, learner-focused course content, and to create your own learning design template. Check you have the requisite technology, download the software and experiment with your learning design

http://toolboxes.flexiblelearning.net.au/ldt/index.htm

You might want to have another look at the free repository of learning objects as well:

http://toolboxes.flexiblelearning.net.au/repository/index.htm

8. Campus Technology: Is Portfolio Evidence Useful?

An interesting article which provides some useful comment on the value of portfolios. Comments by readers provide some extra dimensions to the debate. See what you think

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2010/05/19/is-portfolio-evidence-useful.aspx

9. Information Forensics. This site has been developed to help investigate the accuracy, currency and nature of information found on the Web. It calls itself the Web Site Investigator.

It's a very comprehensive site with lots of exercises and training modules to help hone your skills in determining whether information you are looking at is real and reliable.

Extract from the site

"There are many ways unreliable information comes to appear on the Internet. This training helps you identify clues about the source of information and its content'.

Well worth spending some time going through the various investigator training modules. They are not complicated and provide very useful guides, help and ways of analysing the information on websites.

http://21cif.com/wsi/

10. The Practitioner Research and Evaluation Skills Training (PREST) series is published by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) in collaboration with the International Research Foundation for Open Learning.

Extract from the site:

'The PREST training resources provide practitioners working in open and distance learning (ODL) with convenient access to basic knowledge on how to conduct research and evaluation in their everyday work. Written for ODL practitioners by ODL practitioners, the interactive materials aim to develop practical skills through engagement in research tasks that draw on research and evaluation methods from education and social science, but use illustrative examples from international open and distance learning contexts'.

Some really excellent resource material for your students or yourself. You can also import them into Moodle along with a tutor tutorial on how to use the files in their courses.

Keep scrolling down the Webpage to see all that is on offer.

http://www.col.org/resources/publications/trainingresources/Pages/PREST.aspx

Conferences

11.1 ALT-C 2010: "Into something rich and strange" - making sense of the sea-change 7-9 September 2010, Nottingham, UK.

ALT's online booking system is now open for this event:
http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2010/registering.html

Presenters Registration deadline: 28 June
Early Bird registration deadline: 5 July
Registrations close: 13 August

Conference fees: http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2010/delegate_information.html
Accommodation details: http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2010/accommodation.html
Social programme: http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2010/social.html

Keynote speakers

* Vanessa Pittard, Director of e-Strategy, Becta, UK;
* Professor Richard Noss, Co-director of the London Knowledge Lab and Director of the Technology Enhanced Learning research programme.
Keynote speakers
* Barbara Wasson, Professor of Pedagogical Information Science at the Department of Information Science and Media Studies, University of Bergen, Norway;
* Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University;
* Donald Clark, Board Member of Ufi, and former CEO of Epic Group plc.

http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2010

[taken from the] ALT Digest, a fortnightly publication from the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) http://www.alt.ac.uk/ ]

11.2 ascilite 2010 'Curriculum, technology & transformation for an unknown future.' is the 27th annual ascilite Conference. The conference will be held in Sydney, New South Wales Australia. It is being jointly hosted by The University of Technology Sydney, The University of Queensland and Charles Sturt University

You are invited to develop proposals for full papers, concise papers, posters and workshops, due date Monday 21 June, 2010

Full Details from

http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/sydney10/index.htm

11.3 mLearn2010

Dates
Submission of Abstracts : 14th May 2010
Submission of Papers: 11th June 2010
Posters/Demos: 15th September 2010
Notification to Authors: 30th July 2010
Early Bird Registration: 30th July 2010
Pre-Conference Workshops: 19th October 2010
Conference: 20th-22nd October 2010

http://www.mlearn2010.org/

11.4 The 4th International Malaysian Educational Technology Convention 2010

ELECTRONIC EDUCATION: Towards an Immersive Learning Environment

26 - 29 September 2010,KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia

Extract from the site for potential presenters:

'This year we are not requesting for abstracts and contributors will submit full papers for evaluation. Selected papers submitted within the deadline will be published in a book by Pearson. The papers not selected for the book will be included in the Convention Proceedings, together with papers submitted after the 15th May 2010'.

http://imetc2010.yolasite.com/

Richard Elliott
The Eternal Macademic
Auckland
New Zealand

Richard Elliott's e-learning world, May 2010

Sat, 08 May 2010 03:38:07 GMT

by MoodleBites Helpdesk.

G'day

It's been so pleasant weather wise that I even sat on the beach looking for good stuff around technology in education . Didn't find any on the beach apart from the odd sand pit and a wave of excitement. However, it seems that Apple iPad [http://www.apple.com/ipad/] sales have already exceeded expectations and reports on its use are gradually appearing. I'm attempting to follow the pros and cons of it's use in education. There's already lots of positives being reported and the odd negative. May will be the time we will get our hands on at least one in this corner of the globe (we hope). If it adds to the smorgasbord of technology that makes a difference to and improves student learning, it's got to be worth having.

Shame about Ning removing free offerings. Fortunately there are a number of other free places to host your group and its activities.

This month's posting has links to a Web 2.0 projects book, a range of links and sites to animation in biological and science subjects, free technology for teachers, two new publications from BECTA in the UK, teaching goals inventory, ipads in education, basic skills resource centre, blooms taxonomy resources, an education repository for maths and science, books online and conferences.

1. The amazing Web 2.0 Projects book edited by Terry Freedman.

A lot of effort has gone into to this down to earth, no nonsense ebooklet on the use of Web 2.0. Perils, promises and exciting projects. Essentially for all ages but with an emphasis on the younger ages . It has some very useful tips, guides and advice on the use of Web 2.0 applications. It's well worth downloading and its Free.

http://www.ictineducation.org/free-stuff/

2. I'm always interested in the visual dimension for teaching and learning and especially where quality animation is used to describe or explain difficult concepts, principles and actions.

This site has a wealth of information and inks to some of the best animations for those of you who like and/ or teach biological subjects

http://robswatskibiology.wetpaint.com/page/Anatomy+&+Physiology+Weblinks

and if you still haven't had enough have a look at some( or all) of the links from this site

http://www.academicinfo.net/biologyed.html

3. Free Technology for Teachers. I've put this one in due to the recent announcement by NING that it is discontinuing free offerings. This site provides some useful evaluation of various sites that could be used as alternatives to Ning. It also has some other interesting resources if you have time to have a womble around. Comments by contributors also identify other useful resources

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/04/ning-ends-free-networks-try-these.html

4. Two publications recently released by BECTA:

Learning platforms: Steps to adoption.

Extract from the site

'This guidance is to help schools use the learning platform as part of everyday practice. It allows teachers and schools to identify successes, plot progress and plan to transform their school by using the learning platform and other technology. The model is based on Hooper and Reibers's theories about adopting technology in the classroom.

The framework defines five levels of development: aware; develop; adopt; integrate; transform.'

Whilst it recommends the use of the guide for Schools , there is plenty of useful information in the document that could easily be transferrable to higher education

This is a free pdf download

http://publications.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=42120&page=1835

and

Using technology for assessment
Extract from site :

'Assessment for learning and formative assessment are becoming an increasingly important feature of learning and teaching. Regular assessments help teachers to support individual needs and enable young people and those that support them to monitor their own progress. Technology has an important role to play in facilitating assessment for learning'.

Again this is a useful document with some good ideas and guides as to how you might use technology to assist with the assessment of students skills and competences.

This is a free pdf download

http://publications.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=42228&page=1835

5. A teaching Goal;s Inventory: A little exercise for you. This has been around for a while but it can be useful to answer the questions and see how you rate against others and where your focus really is. Might get you to think.

http://fm.iowa.uiowa.edu/fmi/xsl/tgi/data_entry.xsl?-db=tgi_data&-lay=Layout01&-view

6. IPad Learning Lab by the Masie Center.

If you are interested in informed comment, ideas, suggestions and opinion on the use of the ipad in education, it's worth bookmarking this site . There's some interesting developments highlighted over the first three weeks of use. Most are pretty positive.

http://www.ipadlearninglab.com/

7. Adult Basic Skills Resource Centre for students and tutors

1200 free Functional Skills resources (Functional Maths, Functional English) and Skills for Life resources available on this privately owned site

http://www.skillsworkshop.org/

8.Bloom's Taxonomy. A range of links to examples, ideas and practical resources related to the use of Bloom's taxonomy

http://www.edselect.com/blooms.htm

Have a go at creating learning objectives with the differentiator. Needs a bit of patience.

http://www.byrdseed.com/differentiator/

9. AMSER: Applied Math and Science Education Repository. A site from the USA funded by the National Science Foundation and develop in conjunction with a team of project partners led by the Internet Scout.

Lots of interesting stuff here and bound to be something of interest to you and your colleagues

Extract from the site:

'AMSER is a portal of educational resources and services built specifically for use by those in Community and Technical Colleges but free for anyone to use'.

I followed the path 'educational technology/technology/ and located
50 Tips and Tricks to Create a Learning Space in Second Life

If you need a new life, find out how!

http://amser.org/

10. The Online Books Page. This site has over 35,000 free books and is updated daily with new additions. There's lots of historical stuff and books on almost every subject. Easy to access and download.

I have a particular interest in the life and times of John Hunter (1728-1793) and found an excellent copy of Masters of Medicine: John Hunter, after a very short search. The site also provides links to a vast array of archives and indexes of other online book sources. You could spend forever.

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/

11. Conferences

11.1 ALT-C 2010: "Into something rich and strange" – making sense of the sea-change. 7-9 September 2010, University of Nottingham.
Conference Co-chairs
* Vanessa Pittard, Director of e-Strategy, Becta, UK;
* Professor Richard Noss, Co-director of the London Knowledge Lab and Director of the Technology Enhanced Learning research programme.
Keynote speakers
* Barbara Wasson, Professor of Pedagogical Information Science at the Department of Information Science and Media Studies, University of Bergen, Norway;
* Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University;
* Donald Clark, Board Member of Ufi, and former CEO of Epic Group plc.

Bookings will open early May.
See

http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2010

[taken from the] ALT Digest, a fortnightly publication from the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) http://www.alt.ac.uk/ ]

11.2 ascilite 2010 'Curriculum, technology & transformation for an unknown future.' is the 27th annual ascilite Conference. The conference will be held in Sydney, New South Wales Australia. It is being jointly hosted by The University of Technology Sydney, The University of Queensland and Charles Sturt University

You are invited to develop proposals for full papers, concise papers, posters and workshops, due date Monday 21 June, 2010

Full Details from

http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/sydney10/index.htm

11.3 mLearn2010

Dates
Submission of Abstracts : 14th May 2010
Submission of Papers: 11th June 2010
Posters/Demos: 15th September 2010
Notification to Authors: 30th July 2010
Early Bird Registration: 30th July 2010
Pre-Conference Workshops: 19th October 2010
Conference: 20th-22nd October 2010

http://www.mlearn2010.org/

11.4 The Irish Learning Technology Association (ILTA) will be holding its 10th Annual Irish Learning Technology Association Conference, EdTech 2010, at the Athlone Institute of Technology on May 20th - May 21st 2010.

Its got some really good keynotes, Elliott Masie, Jane Hart and James Clay (who was a keynote at ascilite 2009). Good choices!

For more information:

http://www.ilta.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=64&Itemid=197

That's it until June arrives on the doorstep

Richard Elliott
The Eternal Macademic
Auckland New Zealand
>>>>>
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Richard Elliott
Director
elearningWatch Ltd
Auckland
New Zealand

'Learning in the Driver's seat, Technology turning the wheels'

http://elearnwatch.falkor.gen.nz/