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Moodle is an Airport, Not a Total Solution!

2009-11-12T08:55:00Z

No, it is not an Airport! It is more like a space station! If you ask a true learning professional, he or she will probably articulate Moodle as a virtual learning environment (VLE), or course management system (CMS), or worst case a learning management system (LMS). Whatever Moodle is, in this post Moodle is an 'Airport' (figurative speech that is!).

However, I am not going to spend the rest of this post proving the 'Airport' theory, but I will share some of my experiences and ideas on how we can get the best from Moodle, and not fall into the pitfalls (that I have faced over the years). As for the 'Airport' visualization, I will leave that to your creative imagination of reading between the lines. Let's begin!

MOODLE IS NOT...

A total online campus management solution for your University. If you are planning to use Moodle as a total online learning solution covering everything from online course registration, semester results generation, intelligent class scheduling, to alumni management, you are going struggle no matter how many Moodle plug-ins you discover and use. Instead, explore using other online tools out there (or perhaps let your team develop the tools necessary), which can be integrated with Moodle providing all the needs your online campus management system requires.
An excellent content development tool. In a nutshell, use it for uploading, managing and tracking your content, but please use other web 2.0 or rapid e-learning development tools to develop engaging and inspiring multimedia learning content. Although, you can create some simple web-pages, a crappy online book, who-ha podcasts, and a few other stuff using 3rd party Moodle plug-ins, many other content development tools out there can do a much better job than Moodle. No question about that! Since Moodle supports ZIP file upload and the SCORM mambo-jumbo, your options are pretty good to use practically any content development tool out there.
A concurrent users' king! I have felt it, and I have heard from every corner of the world that Moodle increasingly becomes a pain when the concurrent users size increases (say 60 or more!). I have heard and read that people have solved this problem, but again and again the number one complaint about Moodle is that they struggle to deal with scalability and large concurrent user sessions (e.g. 200 students doing online quiz at the same time). So, what is the problem? Is it the CPU or RAM specs issue, perhaps its' the network, database, or even a combination of things mentioned, or what? Click here for a white paper (PDF) from Moodlerooms to help you deal with it. But, Moodle should really simplify and be creative about informing and guiding Moodle administrators on how to deal with the concurrent users issue. If there was a wizard embedded in Moodle dealing with this issue, I would be really happy. Any other suggestions?
A web 2.0 tools sensation. I suppose Moodle 2.0 will be pretty good, but let's face it, purpose-built web 2.0 alternatives (e.g. Wikispaces) are worth considering before you get lost in Moodle's crappy blogging, wiki, etc. tools. They are usable, but no match for the real deals out there. Click here, to get some saucy tips on whether to use Moodle's embedded Web 2.0 tools, or go for the purpose-built web 2.0 alternatives. Yes, you might want to also check out Jane Hart's amazing list of +3000 potential learning tools to facilitate your learning environment. Finally, ZaidLearn's filtered down learning tools list, might be a good starting point.

In short, Moodle is an Airport, not a total solution!

WHY MOODLE ROCKS?
Although, Moodle sounds quite bad until now (in this post), it is certainly better than most other Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) tools that I have tried over the years. If you need a tool to facilitate your online course and learning environment, Blackboard is certainly out, unless they have dramatically improved since the last time I tried it (2008). Anyway, Blackboard is a commercial tool, and you certainly don't want to get into a mess spending tons of money, getting confused with all their product options, and finally ending up buying exactly what you don't need. A-Z, Blackboard is not my cup of VLE.

Sakai with its Java code and messy interface is out (unless I got some Java dudes to mess it up further!), no matter how many features they have. Angel? Looked at it once, and that is it. There are tons of other VLE tools you might want to explore, so perhaps you should use EduTools to assist you to get the right alternative or combination that meets your unique learning requirements and needs. EduTools is a pretty good free course management system comparison and selection tool to use, compared to the commercial alternatives that Brandon Hall and Bersin provide (last resort, if EduTools fails!).

If you are looking for a free hosted VLE (or LMS) alternative, CLICK HERE! If you are conducting your own little programs or courses, then a free hosted VLE might be worthwhile, but I would not recommend Universities or Colleges to adopt such tools on a large scale, because of the what-if scenario (collapses, becomes commercial, system failure, New Pro-version, etc).

Though, no matter how frustrated I have been with Moodle over the years, compared to other VLE tools, Moodle simply rocks (based on my experiences).

So, what is so special about Moodle?

First, the Moodle community is worldwide and nearly as fanatical as the Apple mafia. You will find fanatical Moodle fans and support (including excellent documentation and facilitation tips) wherever you practically go in the world, and that is really a major plus. And often the greatest fans, are actually the educators themselves. Ironically, educators are often the ones that make the most noise when it comes to using other VLE tools (e.g. Blackboard).

I believe the main reason, is that Moodle is easy-to-learn, easy-to-teach, easy-to-build and easy-to-use. Also, its embedded constructivist learning framework, and excellent set of basic learning tools are really powerful reasons for using Moodle.

Personally, I really like Moodle's:

Quiz Engine
Developing quiz questions in Notepad and reviewing the results using the 'Item Analysis' tool.
Calendar
All your learning activities and events (if added) is directly visible and automatically linkable from the calendar, making it easier to see how active your upcoming week or month will be.
Glossary
Once I used the Glossary tool to develop a search engine, which enabled users easily to search 100+ Courseware down to the topic level (Now, you might instead want to use Google Custom Search). It also allows people to comment and suggest entries, and even configure your glossary to become FAQs, Encyclopedia, Entry List, etc. Not bad!
Tracking
It generates complete and summarized reports on the students' progress, results, and utilization of Moodle. Although, it is not perfect, it gives you quickly an idea of students usage patterns, and whether they are really trying or not. The same applies to educators, too. Yeah, administrators can easily find out, whether the educators are really trying or not to explore Moodle. I have experienced educators who complain about using Moodle, without ever logging in.
Peer-Learning
It allows you to customize your rubrics (Scales), comments and rating scales features for many of the Moodle tools, including Workshop, Forum and Glossary. To facilitate deep learning you got to include a lot of reflection, peer-learning and (role) modeling, and Moodle has that intuitively embedded in many places (without many really realizing it!).

Besides these five basic giants above, the forum, questionnaire and assignment tools are also really useful and powerful.

Also, it is really easy to customize, design, and restructure courses in Moodle to meet our basic learning needs. Some educators get the thrill out of making their course homepage more attractive with some mind stimulating images.

Moodle courses only show what lecturers are using, so you don't get all those juicy buttons (e.g. quiz) that are totally empty when clicked. You can structure course content and activities according to the course outline, making it super easy for students to zoom in on what they want. Yes, you can edit, delete or move the course resources and activities straight from the course page, without needing to go to another webpage. Just click 'Turn Editing on'.

But I suppose what really makes Moodle super juicy and the defacto VLE, is that it can easily be integrated with so many other types of relevant learning tools, which include web-conferencing tools (e.g. DimDim), learning activity management system (e.g. LAMS), anti-plagiarism software (e.g. TurnItIn), 3D virtual worlds (e.g. Sloodle), and much more. As Moodle is used by millions of people around the world, you will find many really cool web 2.0 learning tools that have developed integration modules for Moodle (which makes totally sense).

However, how you implement Moodle depends a lot on your needs, requirements, available resources, and importantly who will actually be using it. So, tailoring your 'Moodle Airport' requires you to re-examine the learning context and sufficient human/financial/technical resources at your disposal. It is tough, but with Moodle you have many unique and valuable possibilities.

So, are you now realizing why Moodle is really an Airport, and not a total learning solution.

If you ask me, Moodle is a good meeting place (airport or space station), or a starting point where we get together to discuss and share ideas, before taking off using both inbuilt and integrated learning tools to experience engaging and enriching learning adventures beyond any single VLE can provide.

But then Joseph Thibault (in the comments section) crushes my Airport analogy, by saying, "...that "starting point" is probably the best. It's like a hub, where teachers can tie in all their other resources (and track their students use of them). That's the real value."

First, I was crushed by this valuable reflection, but then I was inspired to synthesize this latest reflection of the Airport analogy, into the "Airport-Hub" analogy. Lovely!

Finally, I have come to realize that the more I use Moodle (although increasingly discovering weaknesses and areas to improve), the more I love it, the more I want to use it, and importantly the more I want to promote it to educators and people around the world.

Until a more cost-effective, user-friendly, web 2.o friendly, and feature rich VLE for higher education pops-up, Moodle is probably the best way to go. Yep, if I want to fly, I would certainly prefer flying from a Moodle airport hub. What about Elgg? :)

Elgg at Harvard

2009-11-04T09:06:02Z

Shared by Anto
Elgg è arrivato anche ad Harvard... Beh.. da noi (http://lte-unifi.net/elgg) molto prima ;-)

The Fall Newsletter of the iste SIGilt newsletter, innovative learning, includes an article:

Transitioning from an LMS to an Open Source Social Network to Support Graduate Students

Here Stacie Cassat Green of the Harvard Extension School explains

"Last year, after ten years of teaching in the Technology in Education program at Harvard Extension School, Harvard University’s school for continuing education, my co-teacher and I switched our courses from a learning management system (LMS) to a social network and ended up transforming our teaching practice to better match our learning goals for our students."

They used Elgg to build The Yard, named after the famous Harvard Yard that serves as a
center for the learning community of traditional students.

You can read more about their use of The Yard on page 12 of the PDF: innovative learnng

Elgg at Harvard

2009-11-03T16:28:20Z

The Fall Newsletter of the iste SIGilt newsletter, innovative learning, includes an article:

Transitioning from an LMS to an Open Source Social Network to Support Graduate Students

Here Stacie Cassat Green of the Harvard Extension School explains

They used Elgg to build The Yard, named after the famous Harvard Yard that serves as a
center for the learning community of traditional students.

You can read more about their use of The Yard on page 12 of the PDF: innovative learnng

Measuring your SlideShare success

2009-11-04T09:04:29Z

Shared by Anto
Utili statistiche, iper-narcisismo o semplicemente niente di meglio da fare?

I know that a lot of my leads for speaking engagements have come through SlideShare. People who invite me tell me that they actually found my ideas through SlideShare and were convinced I would be a good speaker or sparring partner for their case. Until now I haven’t really thought how to analyze what works and what doesn’t. I just know what presentations are viewed most often.

Anyway, my experience is that by sharing your presentations you will get more than you would get otherwise. More leads and valuable feedback. The downside is that you become conscious that giving the same presentation twice doesn’t help your online distribution at all. You have to keep on changing and that’s great for everybody.

I took the views, downloads and favorites stats of all of my presentations and put them on a spreadsheet. This was easily done by looking at the document stats at LeadShare (business extension on SlideShare to encourage leads).

Then I looked at the following things:

The relative percentage of downloads compared to views. The assumption is that people are more likely to download the presentation if they find it useful.
The relative percentage of views + downloads for a single presentation compared to all views + downloads for all presentations. This gives you a good overview what presentations are actually leading the way (or have got most exposure).
The relative percentage of favorites to views + downloads for a single presentation. The assumption is that people will favorite a presentation because they love it or want to store it for later reference.

Of course it’s hard to get an objective view here, because:

Certain good stuff is picked up by more popular bloggers and some perhaps even better stuff sometimes never gets picked up at all.
A great enhancer for traffic is also the moment when your presentation gets featured by SlideShare. This has happened to several of my presentations.
In the other hand, time is here an issue: my presentations are published in around two month intervals since October 2006, not all of the presentations have been available for the same time.

Therefore, the view, download and favorite counts are not good enough indicators of how you are doing, but rather the relative percentages I’ve been calculating. Below you can see my current situation on SlideShare:

The most popular presentation by far is my Web 2.0 Business Models presentation with 40.35% of all traffic. This doesn’t mean it’s the best presentation. If you look at some of the relative percentages, you can see what presentations likely generate most value to their viewers.

Most downloaded presentations compared to views:

18.39% – Web 2.0 Business Models
13.07% – Vision of the future: Organization 2.0
11.43% – Culture Matters – The cultural requirements for Web 2.0 powered innovation, networking, and collaboration
10.69% – Innovation and Microinformation
09.48% – Age of Real-Time: Future Trends in a Digital World

Most favorite presentations compared to views+downloads (I have highlighted the ones that are also in the most downloaded chart):

2.34% – Collaborative Edge: Real-Time Social Technologies in Organizations
1.69% – In the age of real-time: The complex, social, and serendipitous learning offered via the Web
1.40% – Age of Real-Time: Future Trends in a Digital World
0.92% – Vision of the future: Organization 2.0
0.91% – Using Social Technologies to Run Better Events

How would you improve these stats?

Lufthansa MySkyStatus

2009-10-16T17:56:00Z

While you're in the air, MySkyStatus sends altitude, location, departure and arrival updates automatically to your Facebook and Twitter pages >>>

The Finnish Education System Rocks! Why?

2009-09-26T22:48:00Z

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
- Nelson Mandela

FUTURE LEARNING FINLAND

A couple of weeks back (16th September), I attended a Future Learning Finland one-day seminar & networking session. Finpro had invited a few dozen people from Malaysia for this session. Their goal was basically to share and market their world class Finnish education system and related educational products and services, and also gain more insight into the current and future learning trends and needs in Malaysia. Basically, it was an opportunity to learn, network and explore potential educational business/collaboration opportunities with each other.

Though, how come they invited me of all people? I found out during the seminar that one of the Finpro consultants had actually discovered me searching for information about e-learning in Malaysia. I suppose they saw me as a good source to find out more about the current and future e-learning trends in Malaysia. Anyway, whatever reason, I was just happy to be part of it, and make some noise.

READ THIS FIRST!

But before sharing with you some of the things I learned about the world class Finnish education system, I would strongly recommend that you explore Amran Noordin's excellent 6-part series, where he compares Singapore and Finland's schooling models (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6), summed up nicely in his diagram below:

In short, Singapore and Finland have become world renowned for their education systems, but interestingly they have achieved their success using quite different approaches (to say it mildly!). To get the juicy details of both, please read Amran Noordin's 6-part series mentioned above.

MY LEARNING NOTES

During this one day session of sharing, networking and exploring opportunities, I learned a lot (and scribbled a lot of notes, too) about why Finland's education system is so good (well at least according to them and many others around the world).

The first clash of cultures (Finland and Malaysia) started even before the learning session began. The main representative from the Ministry of Higher Education (MOE) came 30 minutes late, and the seminar could not start before he came.

If you don't know, Finnish people in general are very time conscious, and you should have seen how stressed out they were waiting for the main dude from Malaysia. Since we started 45 minutes late, most of the Finnish presenters swooshed through their presentations, and made a point reminding the audience that they will be on time, and not overuse the time been given. In short, even though they were extremely polite, I could see on their faces and body language that they were rather pissed off with the scheduling being put to shambles due to the initial delay.

Though, I found out later that the MOE representative actually had to attend another meeting earlier in the morning, and was delayed because of that. But, keep this in mind, especially with Finnish people (and Germans, British, Americans, Japanese, etc.):

PUNCTUALITY IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!

Yeah, and if you want to present and convince Finnish people, please use research data and findings to back up your ideas and proposals. It was also interesting to compare MOE's presentation about Malaysian education with Dr. Heikki's presentation about the Finnish education system.

While the MOE's presentation talked about vision, mission, and some current student mobility programs (the objective was probably more to market the Malaysian education system, rather than tell the full story), the Finnish counter parts covered basically everything about their education system, including a few centuries, current and future scenarios, and reasons why its education system evolved that way, and the secrets behind its current success. Although, it was comprehensive, it was told in a very constructive and time-efficient manner.

BEING EFFICIENT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!

Based on what I saw, Finnish people strive to be very efficient in whatever they do, and that includes giving presentations. No swimming here and there, just get to the point and solve the problem. We have a lot to learn here, as we often let our emotional feelings and ego take control, and forget about solving the real problem.

If you ask me, I felt most of the presenters lacked a bit in terms of exciting the audience with what they had to offer. In layman terms, they were a bit stiff, monotonous, and perhaps too efficient in delivery (the initial delay is probably one reason). Don't get me wrong, they were very well-rehearsed (like a program), but you need some emotional outbursts and connections to really touch the audience (well, at least me!).

Oops, let's get back on track...

SECRETS TO SUCCESS
What is the secret to Finland's success (5.3+ million citizens only)? NOKIA! Besides that?

Basically, due their tough environment (just look at their neighbors and climate!) and limited natural resources (except for large forest reserves), they have had no choice but to invest in educating their brains (Just like Singapore!).

INVESTING SIGNIFICANTLY IN EDUCATION IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!

Here are five reasons, why Finnish people have been, and are successful:

Quality education with equal opportunity
High level of investments in R&D for technology development
Good regulatory framework and efficient public service
Open economy: competition has to prevail
Social model: social market economy, welfare society

As we are talking about education in this post (and blog), I will limit my observations and reflections to that next. If you want rough notes regarding the rest, click here for more details.

Besides free and universal high-level education from comprehensive school to university (6% of GDP directed to public education), Finland stresses also equal opportunity for all, irrespective of domicile, sex, economic situation or mother tongue. Teachers are required to be trained in dealing with low-achieving students, as well as students with disabilities and learning difficulties.

The fact that education is free, including travel expenses, welfare services, accommodation, books and other school material, means that students can focus more of their time on learning, rather than all the other distractions that might come with it.

However, besides all the student rights to this and that, students also have three main duties that they must fulfill, which are to attend classes, obey discipline, and complete their courses and programs. I suppose most education systems will have something like this documented, but in Finland it is strongly emphasized, and it is probably working better there than in most other countries.

They are really proud of their students' PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) achievements, where they are ranked number one in the world in most categories. To be honest, I had never heard of PISA before this event (Except the Italian one!). How ignorantly ignorant can you get! I am still learning!

Interestingly, a teacher must have a master's degree to teach in Finland, and also have a lifelong learning program mapped out for them. They emphasize a lot on lifelong learning, and it is kind of embedded into the their learning culture.

TEACHER EDUCATION IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!

More importantly, the teacher profession is highly valued in Finland, meaning more people with the right attitude, mindset and skills will apply for such jobs, and in the end you will get better qualified and passionate people educating the future people of the country. I suppose that is why the Norwegian education system (where I studied), especially the schooling system is really crap (hopefully better now!). I remember most of my teachers as miserable creatures, who had failed in what they set out to be in life.

For example, my music teacher really wanted to be a singer (But her voice was horrible!), and due to her failure we students had to suffer. She really hated our guts, too! I had a gym teacher that used to throw his huge key chain after us, every time we pissed him off. He even threw a hammer after one student, but luckily he missed. If you wonder why Norway until today cannot create and innovate globally renowned products and services like the Swedes and Finnish dudes can, I suppose their lack of appreciation, dedication and emphasis on education is one reason for that. But then again, Norway is blessed with all sorts of natural resources (especially oil and gas), and therefore is one of the richest countries in the world. I can't imagine what Norway would be today, without their oil and gas. Let's get back to Finnish education...

In contrast to Singapore (please read Amran Noordin's articles. Links above!), Finland don't rank students or schools, and they don't emphasize on standardized nationwide examinations that drive students, teachers and parents nuts. I suppose Singapore's model is good for nurturing a competitive mindset, and encouraging students to work hard (and memorize everything you can think of). However, I believe the side effects are too many, and we need to question whether they are really preparing students for the 20th century, or for the 21st century (now and future)?

I personally believe (based on my shallow understanding) the Finnish education system has managed to infuse discipline, hard work, and competitiveness, but at the same time also infuse the right balance to nurture critical skills required for the 21 century, which include communication, collaboration, creativity (innovativeness), critical thinking, problem solving, digital literacy, flexibility, adaptability, global care/awareness, and emotional intelligence.

In addition, the Finnish education system is rather decentralized and schools are given a degree of freedom (independence) to develop their own curriculum. The problem with having a centralized system and curriculum, is that if you get it wrong, the whole country will suffer. Also, with a top-down model, it is difficult to quickly innovate and spark changes to the curriculum that is needed to deal with the increasingly disruptive learning world that we are experiencing today. However, in a decentralized system, schools can easily change and adapt as they learn, and also they have more freedom to explore and try out new things, without needing to worry about ranking of this and that.

Actually, ranking of schools and students is a disaster (if you ask me), if you really want to encourage universities, colleges, schools, students, and teachers to openly share, learn, discuss, reflect, and collaboratively innovate. It can be done, but it is very difficult because of our internal urge to be the best, or be better than our neighbors. In the world of sports, I can understand it, but for education I believe that might not be the best solution to move forward.

For example, If I want to be higher ranked than you, then probably I would want to keep some of the juicy stuff secret from you. Otherwise, you might overtake me, and if the government is nasty, give me less funds to innovate further. However, if ranking is put aside, we can instead focus on transforming the education system, nurturing dynamic learning clusters, and becoming a learning nation together.

Finally, Finland emphasizes big time on research and development (around 4% of GDP), and have interlinked companies with the Universities to collaborate on new innovations. Whatever they do, their approach is very scientific, which of course includes how they are continuously improving their education systems.

The only thing I felt was really missing from this seminar, was learning more about Finland's e-learning initiatives and success stories, which was not really discussed.

MOVING FORWARD

So, how can we transform our education system right here?

Here are three (3) small suggestions to consider (more will be elaborated in a future post):

Focus less on exams, and more on learning.
Exams should resemble and test what we want them to learn (authentic). Not how much they can memorize. They need to be able to understand and apply what they learn, otherwise what is the point? Group/Individual project-based exams, using well constructed assessment rubrics would be a good start (peer-assessment next!). And let them use all the tools they need to complete the project, because in the real world we would use the tools necessary to solve the problems and challenges we face. Why just give them a pencil/pen and paper (oh, I forget the eraser)? Of course, if it is a memory test, it makes sense :)
Focus more on teacher education, and less on centralized content/curriculum.
You can have the best curriculum in the world, but if your teachers stink, I 99% guarantee you that you will fail. However, if you have a crappy curriculum, and great teachers, I can guarantee you that you will 99% succeed. Because, the great teachers will transform the curriculum and inspire the students to learn. In short, invest in teacher education, hire the best people to educate, and let them innovate the curriculum as they facilitate and learn together with the students.
Focus less on investing on flowers and big buildings, and more on equipping educators and students with the learning tools needed to transform the way they learn.
The Internet is the 21st century's oxygen for communicating, collaborating, and learning (without it, you or your institution is going to suffocate into ignorance and irrelevance). If you can afford it, spoil the educators and students rotten with learning devices and great Internet access. Provide training online and face-to-face often, exploring with them how they can utilize all these learning tools to transform the way they learn. If you are looking for world class inspiring free learning content, click here for starters. For free learning tools, click here for starters.

Can we do it? Yes, we can! But do we really want to? You decide? If you ask me, my answer would of course be... :)

Disabilitare “finestra riavvio” dopo gli aggiornamenti automatici

2009-09-24T08:28:05Z

Shared by Anto
una di quelle piccole informazioni pratiche che possono cambiarti la vita :-)

Gli aggiornamenti automatici di Windows sono abbastanza frequenti.
Può capitare così che, durante una sessione di lavoro, vengano automaticamente scaricati e installati aggiornamenti e poi si debba procedere al riavvio per renderli effettivi.

Per evitare questo possiamo procedere in due maniere.

Digitare cmd nella finestra Start->Esegui per avviare la prompt dei comandi e poi scrivere il seguente comando
sc stop wuauserv
Usare un tool gratuito chiamato Auto Reboot Remover che disabilita il riavvio automatico dopo l’aggiornamento

Link: Auto Reboot Remover [via Tech Salsa]

SyberWorks Media Center Presents a New Article: Best Practices for Building Student-Friendly Courses

2009-08-07T06:52:59Z

Shared by Anto
Condivido l'osservazione di Stephen sulla difficoltà di dare indicazioni prescrittive in campo educativo.
Sono numeri un po' buttati là: perché proprio cinque lezioni di 30 minuti? Nel complesso però il post segnalato offre indicazioni che si possono definire "di buon senso"...

Some people might like this item, but to me it illustrates the difficulty with the 'best practices' approach in learning. For example, one recommendation is this: "A course should consist of at most five lessons, each 30 minutes long or less. Most online courses should never run longer than 2 hours, and if one does, it should be divided into more than one course (each containing 20-30 minute lessons)." While this may be "best" for a certain set of students, it seems to me that this would vary a lot from course to course, person to person. Wouldn't it? Dave Boggs, The Boggs e-Learning Chronicle, August 5, 2009 [Tags: Traditional and Online Courses] [Link] [Comment]

Democratic Group's Proposal: Give Each Student a Kindle

2009-07-27T13:43:49Z

Shared by Anto
Quanto abbiamo discusso di e-book... qualche settimana fa!
Ora questi fanno due conti e scoprono che (forse) è possibile consegnare un reader ad ogni studente..
Sì, però perché proprio il Kindle???
Però l'idea che ogni ragazzino abbia il suo "dispositivo personale" si fa sempre più strada...

The Democratic Leadership Council, identified by the NY Times as "a left-leaning think tank" (which it isn't really) has proposed "that government should furnish each student in the country with a digital reading device, which would allow textbooks to be cheaply distributed and updated." One wonders, why not put actual netbook computers into the hands of students, something that would be cheaper and would free them from Amazon's proprietary format and restrictive APIs. Brad Stone, New York Times, July 15, 2009 [Tags: Books] [Link] [Comment]

Un kindle in ogni zainetto

2009-07-15T22:25:44Z

La proposta del democratico (www.dlc.org) Thomas Freedman di dare un kindle a ogni studente è talmente ovvia che mi chiedo come mai ci sia voluto tanto a proporla. Le motivazioni sono: semplicita e rapidità di aggiornamento a basso costo, tutela dell’ambiente e della schiena dei ragazzi e la possibilità di rendere molto più attraenti i [...]

Does Anybody Still Use Second Life? And If So, How Much Is It Worth Today?

2009-07-04T11:05:02Z

Shared by Anto
Lo stato dell'arte su Second Life. Pare che ci ..sia vita!! :-)

Analyst firm Next Up Research has published an extensive report on Linden Lab, the San Francisco company behind virtual world Second Life. The research is based on aggregate data and is available on SharesPost, a site set up to trade shares of privately held companies (if you register, you can download the report for free from that page, or you can find other valuation reports on companies like Facebook and LinkedIn). The report goes rather deep into the valuation of the Linden Lab, which it pegs at somewhere between $658 million and 700 million.

Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning

2009-06-30T03:20:29Z

This report will get a fair bit of attention: Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning (.pdf). It joins a long list of meta-analysis by researchers like Abrami, Bernard et al. (.pdf), Tallent-Runnells et al., Zhao et al., and of course the original “no significant difference” site. The current report - by US Department of Education - is focused on the K-12 market and states that some online learning (blended) is actually superior to only face-to-face learning. Conclusions of this type likely won’t convince anyone who is antagonistic to technology use in classrooms. At minimum, the report provides a sweeping overview of how various researchers have tackled the effectiveness of technology in schools over the last decade. The questions we ask in research are sometimes more interesting than the findings…

La tassonomia di Bloom rivisitata

2009-06-29T23:01:19Z

C’è qualcosa di particolarmente affascinante nelle tassonomie.. sarà che ci danno l’impressione di mettere ordine nel mondo? Avevamo già tentato, con Corrado Petrucco di aggiornare la tassonomia di Bloom, nel vecchio “Internet per la didattica”, adeguandola all’Internet del 1998..come resistere quindi a questo nuovo tentativo di adeguare la tassonomia di Bloom all’Internet del 2009? Bloom’s Taxonomy [...]

4 Simple Tips for Recording High-Quality Audio

2009-06-02T08:16:47Z

Good audio is critical to your elearning success. You might be a great instructional designer and create the most engaging courses possible. But it all falls apart if the audio quality in your course is not very good.

In an earlier post we looked at when it makes sense to consider paying for professional narration. If you have the money, this is a viable option. However, many of you are like Old Mother Hubbard and your cupboard is bare. If you do have a limited budget (or you want to do the narration yourself) then here are some tips to help you do the best job possible.

Today we’ll look at the microphone and recording environment. And in a follow up post, we’ll explore ways to get the best sounding narration.

1. Invest in a good quality microphone

When it comes to microphones, you typically get what you pay for. A good mic is going to give you good audio quality. This isn’t to say that you can’t make do with an inexpensive microphone. I’ve worked for plenty of organizations that had no money and forced me to buy my microphones at an unnamed electrical store. For the most part, they worked fine, especially if you follow some of the tips below.

But the truth is that when you compare the acceptable low-quality audio with similar narration recorded with a better microphone, there is a noticeable difference. The good news is that you don’t have to spend a lot to get a decent microphone for recording narration. I’ve had success with a Plantronics headset and my Samson desktop mic. I think the Blue Snowball mic looks cool and it has also gotten very good reviews from those I know who use it.

Personally, I prefer a desktop mic because it gives me more control over the audio quality. Plus, I find it kind of gross sharing a headset mic if I have to record someone else. But that’s just me. Some of you grew up in the 60’s and probably don’t mind sharing mics.

When choosing a microphone, your best bet is to go with a unidirectional mic. It records sound from one direction. This is great for recording narration because it only picks up the sound coming from the narrator, so you won’t get a lot of the ambient noise.

2. Maintain a consistent environment.

In an ideal world, you have a recording studio where you can control all of the sound. But since it’s hard to get your boss to fork over $5 for a stock image, you might not convince him to provide the money for a recording studio. In that case, you’re going to have to get creative when you record.

The more you control the recording environment the better quality audio you can record. One key is to develop a consistent routine for recording. It never fails that you’ll have to do retakes at a different time. By maintaining a consistent environment and procedures you’re better able to match the audio quality.

Try to use the same room and maintain the same settings on your computer and the microphone set up.
If you’re using a desktop microphone, use a mic stand and measure the recording distance so that the next time you record you have the same set up.
Use a screen to help prevent the popping p’s that plague so many amateur recording sessions. You can even make your own in no time and little cost.

3. Get rid of as much of the ambient noise as you can

Unless you’re a member of Quiet Riot, you want to get rid of the noise. There’s very rarely a time when there is complete silence. This will be very apparent as you listen to your recording and start pick up all sorts of noise. In fact, there are some organizations that actually pipe in “white noise” to make it easier to concentrate and be less distracted by surrounding conversations.

In either case, you want to get rid of the noise you have control over.

Unplug office machines. Turn off fans and air conditioners.
Place your microphone away from your computer. You might not realize it, but your computer makes a lot of fan noise (not cheers as in celebration of you, but the actual fan that keeps the PC cooled).

Tell everyone around you to be quiet. Put signs on the door. Hire an airplane with one of those banners to fly by your office telling people to keep it down. Do whatever you have to do to get rid of the noise. If that doesn’t work, consider the Hume technique. It’s based on actor Theodore Hume’s approach to quieting the recording environment. It’s a subtle, yet effective approach. It definitely gets the point across.

4. Dampen the sound

In a recording studio, the walls are designed to absorb the sound waves. You can do something similar. In addition to sucking the life from your bones, cubicle walls are designed to absorb sound. In fact, I’m generally pleased with my audio recordings and I just record it in my home office which has a small cubicle set up.

We once converted a storage closet into a makeshift recording room. We placed rails on the walls and hung some blankets from them. This also came in handy in case we were stuck in the building overnight.

I also know some people that built a portable studio using a PVC pip frame and curtains. They could quickly assemble the frame and then hung the curtains to it using shower curtain rings.

Another trick is to make a portable sound booth like the image above. Of course, you could always buy a Porta-Booth if you’re not comfortable with your knife handling skills.

Keep in mind, you’re building rapid elearning courses and not producing sound for a Hollywood production so you don’t need to be an audio expert. But you should learn a enough about audio and how to record to do a good job. This blog post is a good start, but it’s just the beginning.

Next week week we’ll look at how to do your own narration. In the mean time, what are some other tips about microphones and the recording environment? Also, what books or other resources would you recommend for those who wanted to learn more? Feel free to share them by clicking on the comments link.

Tidbits:

I’m at the ASTD 2009 International Conference & Exposition this week. If you happen to be at the conference, swing by the booth and say hello. I’ll be doing some demos and can help you with some of those nagging rapid elearning challenges.

Download your free 46-page ebook: The Insider's Guide to Becoming a Rapid E-Learning Pro

4 Simple Tips for Recording High-Quality Audio

2009-06-29T21:36:59Z

Shared by Anto
Capita sempre più spesso di registrare audio "casalinghi". Qualche consiglio per migliorare la qualità non guasta

Today we’ll look at the microphone and recording environment. And in a follow up post, we’ll explore ways to get the best sounding narration.

1. Invest in a good quality microphone

2. Maintain a consistent environment.

Try to use the same room and maintain the same settings on your computer and the microphone set up.
If you’re using a desktop microphone, use a mic stand and measure the recording distance so that the next time you record you have the same set up.
Use a screen to help prevent the popping p’s that plague so many amateur recording sessions. You can even make your own in no time and little cost.

3. Get rid of as much of the ambient noise as you can

In either case, you want to get rid of the noise you have control over.

Unplug office machines. Turn off fans and air conditioners.
Place your microphone away from your computer. You might not realize it, but your computer makes a lot of fan noise (not cheers as in celebration of you, but the actual fan that keeps the PC cooled).

Tell everyone around you to be quiet. Put signs on the door. Hire an airplane with one of those banners to fly by your office telling people to keep it down. Do whatever you have to do to get rid of the noise. If that doesn’t work, consider the Hume technique. It’s based on actor Theodore Hume’s approach to quieting the recording environment. It’s a subtle, yet effective approach. It definitely gets the point across.

4. Dampen the sound

I also know some people that built a portable studio using a PVC pip frame and curtains. They could quickly assemble the frame and then hung the curtains to it using shower curtain rings.

Another trick is to make a portable sound booth like the image above. Of course, you could always buy a Porta-Booth if you’re not comfortable with your knife handling skills.

Tidbits:

I’m at the ASTD 2009 International Conference & Exposition this week. If you happen to be at the conference, swing by the booth and say hello. I’ll be doing some demos and can help you with some of those nagging rapid elearning challenges.

Download your free 46-page ebook: The Insider's Guide to Becoming a Rapid E-Learning Pro

The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age

2009-06-29T21:13:14Z

Shared by Anto
Ecco cosa può succedere a chiacchieroni blogganti e simili..
Discutono dei massimi sistemi sulla pubblica piazza, poi però arrivano i giacchettoni e "pubblicano"...

I encourage you to read this report from the MacArthur foundation, published by MIT Press The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age (.pdf). If you’ve followed this blog - and many others with a similar educational technology focus over the last seven years - you won’t find much new in it. And that’s the problem. I like the report. It offers many insightful statements that I hope will be considered by leaders who don’t follow edublogs. Statements such as:

“We contend that the future of learning institutions demands a deep, epistemological appreciation of the profundity of what the Internet offers humanity as a model of a learning institution”…and
“participatory learning is about a process and not always a final product”…and
“We advocate institutional change because we believe our current formal educational institutions are not taking enough advantage of the modes of digital and participatory learning available to students today”…and
“Networked learning, however, goes beyond these conversational rules to include correcting others, being open to being corrected oneself, and working together to fashion workarounds when straightforward solutions to problems or learning challenges are not forthcoming”

I could offer many other similar statements. All of which have been discussed at great length on many sites and by many authors that I frequently reference. One of the first steps in publishing on a subject is to do a literature review. Type in “networked learning” into Google or Google scholar and you’ll see many individuals that have written at length on the subject: Chris Jones, Stephen Downes, Leigh Blackall, Martin de Laat…as well as entire conferences devoted to the theme. Or, when considering educational change and OERs, where is David Wiley? The list goes on.

The report irritates me because I’ve seen this happen several times: an existing field, and major thinkers within the field, is completely ignored as open, online conversations are squeezed into existing publication processes. This “reframing” of research builds on the intellectual work of others but fails to provide appropriate recognition as the message is shaped for a traditional audience.

OneLoupe Zooms Your Screen up to 9x

2009-06-27T15:36:39Z

OneLoupe is a free and portable software that help you zoom in on anything that appears on your screen. It enables you to zoom your desktop with a rectangular magnifying glass to read comfortably on screen. Simply click on the OneLoupe icon on your system tray, then move your mouse over the area of screen you want to enlarge. While the magnifier window is active, you can adjust the size of the magnifier, zoom in or out with the mouse wheel, or take a screenshot of the enlarged area. It is helpful for people with visual impairments or weak eyes, or something you want to take a closer look at. It is also very helpful to zoom between the slides during presentations.

How to use OneLoupe:

[LEFT] / [RIGHT] / [UP] / [DOWN] arrow keys – To increase or decrease the rectangular magnifying glass size
[+] / [-] – To zoom in or zoom out
Scroll mouse wheel – To zoom in or zoom out
[1-9] keys – To zoom 1-9x
[P] – Put the pixel value on the clipboard
[B] – Put the bitmap on the clipboard
Left or Right Mouse Click – To hide the rectangular magnifying glass
[ESC] – To exit OneLoupe
[H] – Set Hot-Key
[F1] – For help

OneLoupe is a freeware for Windows which when run resides in your system tray. No installation required. You can download the latest version of OneLoupe from here.

Beyond Management: The Personal Learning Environment

2009-06-26T11:24:28Z

Shared by Anto
ancora sul tema del PLE... Non passa di moda :-)

[Slides][Audio] In this presentation, I mix the presentation of the theory - chaos, complexity and mesh networks - with the practical technical development leading toward the personal learning environment. A second audio file is also available. Ed Media, Honolulu, Hawaii (Keynote) June 24, 2009 [Comment]

Colleges Consider Using Blogs Instead of Blackboard

2009-06-26T11:11:14Z

Shared by Anto
Le grandi università americane iniziano a guardarsi intorno: blog invece di LMS?

Summary of a Jim Groom talk to CUNY, in the Chronicle's usual restrained style. "The approach can save colleges money, for one thing. And true believers like Mr. Groom argue that by using blogs, professors can open their students' work to the public, not just to those in the class who have a login and password to a campus course-management system." True believers, hm? Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 25, 2009 [Tags: Blackboard Inc., Web Logs] [Link] [Comment]

The First Few Milliseconds of an HTTPS Connection

2009-06-15T21:44:23Z

This is a fabulous article that is well worth the half hour or so it will take you to read it. There will be parts you don't understand; don't worry about that, just plow through. The article describes the communications that bounce back and first in the first few hundred milliseconds of a secure connection. There are excursions into signing and cryptography, and information that makes the utterly ordinary seem amazing. If you have any interest in the technology, don't miss this article. Your brain cells will thank you. Jeff Moser, Moserware, June 15, 2009 [Tags: none] [Link] [Comment]