Photo Story 3 for Windows

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

It’s fast, easy, and fun! Try it!

Find an Online College

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

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

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

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

More Good Free Programs

I know it's not my week, but I was reading the post below about free anti-virus programs and thought of some other great free apps. These are for opening .zip and .rar files as well as compressing files to .zip. These tools can be very useful when operating online. Despite broadband becoming more common, most mail programs still place restrictions on attachment sizes. The programs are Cam Unzip, which allows zipping and unzipping of files and ExtractNow, which allows you to decompress .rar files. I hope these help people out, I've been using them at work for months and haven't had any problems.

HP's Free Online Trainings

I recently read a Wall Street Journal article that mentioned free online training videos posted on Hewlett Packard's site. The videos range from training on HP software, Microsoft products, IT training, and much more. I found free videos for project management topics as well, which can be very useful for small businesses and beginners in the field of IT. For users not in the IT field, there are loads of helpful videos that cover a wide range of topics. Some of the interesting (and very helpful) topics I have found include: Linux (3 courses), firewall basics, and Wireless Networking with Bluetooth. Hope you find something useful.

The Digiteen Project

I have recently become involved in a project with my students that has changed the way I look at education and my curriculum in particular.

The Digiteen Project is a global hands-on project for middle and early high school students which was founded by Julie Lindsay (Qatar Academy, Qatar) and Vicki Davis (Camilla, GA USA) in 2008. This project studies digital citizenship with students researching current topics, writing a collaborative report on a wiki, and performing and documenting offline action educational projects to promote effective digital citizenship at their local schools. Topics of study include digital: access, communications, literacy, security and safety, etiquette, rights and responsibilities, law, health and wellness, and commerce.

The purpose of the project is to promote effective Digital Citizenship and responsible online choices. Students are participating from Australia, Qatar, Canada, Austria and the United States. Classrooms from India and Bangladesh are also expected to join the project shortly.

The digital tools used in this project are:

• Wikispaces - students collaborate on research of Digital Citizenship
  
  
• Ning - students are members of a social network so that they can get to know each other.
  
  
• Diigo - students & teachers use social bookmarking to share helpful resources.
  
  
• Elluminate - teachers meet weekly to discuss progress and help one another with obstacles.
  
  
• Google Groups - teachers belong to a group for communication and document sharing.
  
  
• iGoogle - teachers (and some students) share a start page consisting of shortcuts to relevant links, and rss feeds of updated project information.

So far my students have learned so much about the life of the students in these other countries. They have also learned how to use a wiki (including using the discussion tab on the wiki to propose and debate ideas for wiki content). As a result of this project, I have learned that I need to do better preparing my students for global interaction. They need to know how to communicate WELL digitally, how to use multiple applications/websites to get the job done, and how to contribute POSITIVELY to the digital society that they are so immersed in.

The Digiteen2008 Wiki will contain lots of information about Digital Citizenship and, upon project completion, will contain the offline action projects developed by the collaborative teams. Be sure to check back often to follow the project progress.

Maybe as you explore this project you'll have the same inner questions as I do... Am I really preparing my students for a digital life? Can my students really, truly collaborate with others? Are their skill sets ready for the collaboration? Do they know how to research? What can WE do starting in elementary school to build their skills?

iQity

I was recently contacted by Teresa Berry, contributor of iQity eLearning blog found on this website. She said she learned about our class blog through readers referring to our posts (Keep up the good work everybody!) and she wanted me to check out her blog. iQity was developed by Altair Learning Management, a company that kicked off online learning in our neighboring state, Ohio. I checked out their website and was immediately blown away by the beauty of it. My Bachelor degree in Art Studio has me conditioned to first see the aesthetics of a website, the contents second, but I was equally impressed with what they're doing. The company created a Learning Suite for schools that offers tools such as a virtual classroom, homeroom, lecture halls, gradebook and online assessments. The user interface is customizable allowing both teachers and individual students to create a look for their classroom that reflects their interests and school pride. I love the idea of this. We, as eLearning students, know what it is like to stare at a "dull" interface and understand the importance of the design
aspect as it relates to online learning. I also came across an interesting blog post about "The Great Worldwide Star Count," funded by the National Science Foundation. The idea is to get as many volunteers worldwide to check out a constellation in the evening sky and report how many stars they see. The reports are then used to map global light pollution (fellow amateur astronomy buffs know what a pain light pollution can be!) Teachers: There is still time to get involved in the count. Check out the activity guide. It looks like a really neat exercise that children would really enjoy. It teaches them a nice mixture of astronomy, global positioning using a Geocoder and reporting their findings with online technologies.
Be sure to check out the iQity website & blog and watch the iQity Learning Suite video to learn more about this amazing company.

While I was working on my Wiki I came across a great blog for students. It’s a blog for students by students. In this blog students post their thoughts and experiences looking for colleges.

The web site has links to the top colleges and online education articles. The blog talks about everything from degrees to student loans.

This is a great resource for high school students. The goal is to make them find the perfect school that fits their needs!

http://www.online-college-blog.com/

iDVD

Over this past summer I became addicted to Expert Village, so much so that I even reccomended that it be placed in an online high school couse that I had created! You can learn how to do pretty much anything on there, from riding a bike to cooking Knocchi. (I am impressed if you can tell me what Knocchi is. it's a Servant family staple.)

Anyway, Expert Village put up a tutorial on how to play with iDVD. While i'm not totally enamored with the user interface of the MAC (sorry Dr. Nich!) I think thier software is pretty out there in a cool way.

anyway, IDVD is a a pretty cool yet simple program that you can upload projects and iPhoto slideshows and export them to DVD. iMovie projects, scene selection menus are automatically created with chapter markers that are set in a Movie. iDVD also has a Media section that provides an iTunes library, iPhoto library and Movies folder. There is a map view, which shows the current project's menu system in a graphical form. You can also hide or show the 'TV safe area' (because old televisions often cut off some of a video's outer areas). iDVD can also upload to Final Cut Express and Final Cut Pro.

It's actually a pretty cool program to play around with if you have a Mac. One thing you can do is Creating intro Animations to play with homemade movies or other mash-ups.

Matt Nichols has a pretty cool tuotial on how to do just that.

Creating Introduction Animation in iDVD

Sorry about the post order Dr. N. I forgot my own last name. :)

Class Information for the Week of Oct. 26 to Nov. 1

Good Sunday Morning to everyone!!

Just a reminder that this is the week for A - K bloggers  (if your last name begins with A - K you post this week).

Also, everyone's wiki part is due to be completed by Saturday, Nov. 1st  (by midnight).  I know I have been a bit loose with my criteria for this project, but I wanted everyone to have as much flexibility as possible as you research and create your wiki pages.

There are some basic criteria for the wikis:

1.  Each wiki should have an "overview" page with a short overview of the topics presented and the group members listed.

2.  Each page in the wiki should be accessible from a link in the navigation panel on the left side of the screen.

3.  Each individual wiki page should have the author's name at the top of the page, and a brief summary of the specific topic.

4.  Each individual wiki page should have a "table of contents" of hot links to different sections of information on the page.

5.   Be sure all references to sources are included, and hot links to additional resources are included.

6.  Be sure your information is complete, thorough, and comprehensive.

I must say the wikis are looking very good, and I think you will be very impressed with the work everyone has done!  I'll be posting the links to all the wikis next week so you can share your work and information with each other.

Hope the week goes well for everyone and I'll be talking to you on Thursday evening in class.  You know, there have already been some rather mysterious and haunting sounds in the air - definitely Halloween week!

Cheers, Dr. N

 

More Mathematical (and other) Resources

While I was working on my lessons for the blackboard project, I felt it was necessary to include resources for students. Everyone has been providing such great resources, but I’m beginning to wonder: If we provide our students with so many resources, will they use them or will they be overwhelmed? I narrowed a list to six resources for mathematics and included a quick statement about what they include. Then if students want to add more, they may. For those of you that would find mathematics resources (there are other subjects in some as well) of use, here is my list:
http://www.mathwarehouse.com – provides interactive tools for practicing prerequisite skills (algebra, geometry, etc.)
www.purplemath.com – includes examples and easy-to-understand explanations on a variety of mathematical topics.
http://www.hippocampus.org/?gclid=CM6l65_gw5YCFQNfFQod3Wt1wg – multimedia source for calculus topics (lessons to watch and listen). There are other subjects at this site as well.
http://mathforum.org/math.topics.html - from Drexel University, this encompasses a wide range of mathematical topics at a number of levels. All sorts of goodies in this resource.
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ - “ the web’s most extensive mathematics resource”. This site is a bit more technical and may be hard to understand at times, but it really does have almost everything.
http://free.ed.gov/subjects.cfm?subject_id=186&toplvl=33 – breaks math down into the five areas that the PSSA tests on: Algebra, Data Analysis, Geometry, Numbers and Operation, and Measurement. Calculus IS on there! You have to search around for what you want, but Algebra will lead you to a calculus application. This is a really comprehensive source. Not all of the links are equally engaging, so again, hunt around. This site also provides other subject lessons and activities.
I hope you find these useful! I’m actually going to use a few of these and other topic-specific sites this week in my calculus class. These resources are free, so we only need technology that will support it – and we have that.

Geode, Location Application for Firefox

Mozilla’s Geode is an experimental extension that adds geolocating capabilities to the ever popular Firefox browser. It features GPS abilities in locating waypoints and points of interest especially useful in business travels. Educational applications can include geospatial awareness, calculation of distances, and places of historical or general interest to the community.

Google Translate

It looks like the theme for the week is all about Google. Not to disappoint my blog is about yet another tool this powerful resource has to offer. Not all websites are in English, but just because they're not in English doesn't mean that we can't read and enjoy the content. Google has an excellent tool to translate any web page into English or Spanish or Czech or any of the major languages spoken throughout the world. While there may be minor errors in exact translation by all accounts this is a useful tool for those attempting to expand their horizons and see what others have to say even if it's not in their own language. This site allows you to translate text or an entire web page. I translated our blog from English to Spanish and although I'm not completely bi-lingual from what I could understand the translation was about 95% accurate.

Not only will it translate pages that you supply, you can search for pages in other languages by a specific topic. Basically Google translates your query into another language and returns all matches, similar to if you had just went to Google.com and entered a search term. Not only does it find pages that match in another language it translates it back to English. No more language barriers. How cool is that?? If your interested in a specific language translation hover your mouse over the translated text and the translation pops up in a window. Who knows, you may even be able to teach yourself a second language with this tool. One limitation I did find is that it couldn't translate embedded images, but hey use your imagination!

There's also a gadget you can add to your own toolbar to instantly translate any page. What will they think of next??

Here's an elearning Blog that was originally in Spanish but I used Google Translate to get it in English Spanish Blog

If you run into a page that's not in your primary language, have no fear Google Translate is here (I know it's kind of cheesy but it fit ;~) Check it out here http://translate.google.com/

Professor Google

I am planning to research a new topic or some interesting information or facing problems related to any subject first thing that strikes my mind is “Google”. Quickly type in the key words and can get lots of related information or possibly solutions to my problems. I have thank God and the Google team for being so kind by helping lots of people like me.
Search engines are by themselves great sources of information with almost providing or implying to the resources needed in learning. From a student perspective I can say almost 25 percent of the students across the world rely on Google for their solutions. Its great source of information if tapped properly an individual can take maximum benefit from this vast store of knowledge.
Thanks again Google team for providing such a powerful search engine. Keep going with your good work.

Dressing for e-Learning

Here is an innovative way to dress for success when you conduct or attend a teleconference. You can be comfortable in your favorite tee and lounge pants while presenting a business-like appearance. Check out Businessbibs at "http://www.Businessbibs.com". When I saw an advertisement for Businessbibs, I thought it was a spoof. But if you go to their website, you will see a selection of "bibs" to dress up your favorite "around the house" outfit.

143 Free Learning Tools

I found this website when I was researching information for my Centra presentation. It has 143 sites that you can visit to tap into everything from free authoring tools, photo editing, storytelling, quiz makers, etc. Hot Potatoes is listed here as well as EclipseCrossword.
The website is:
http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dg46x272_2103d58wg2d9

Time Intensive...Planning Intensive

Over the past few years, I have developed a much greater awareness about the use of technology in the classroom. Educators have become really good about adding technology to the lesson, but we are still in the process of mastering effective uses of technology. Mastering effectiveness seems to really be hitting home this semester! I thought I would be able to integrate good instructional practices through the development of an electronic course, but I have realized that I am far from mastering the effective practices of online instruction!

As I begin to develop my blackboard course, I realize that it is really difficult to incorporate the many instructional strategies I use as a classroom teacher in order to engage and enhance the learning of my students. My instructional strategies are not the only thing that goes by the wayside as I develop an "online" course. The ability to plan a few days with a degree of flexibility is completely gone! To sit down and develop an entire course that will keep my learners engaged so that they learn is a much more difficult task that I thought it would be. I must admit that the process requires me to really identify the objectives of the course and the main points of information that I MUST get across to the learners. I need to know the end before I really begin!

I can truly say that getting a grasp of developing online courses has added a new dimension of insight to the roles of the teacher in traditional learning. The concept of planning is something that is done in traditional schools, but it seems to take the back seat in most cases. Most student teachers long for the day they graduate so they no longer need to write the lengthy lesson plans as units, but maybe this is something that should be forever written in my book!

Web Apps on the Go!

Jott.com is a website that allows you to call they're number and connect to your favorite webservice. Whether it's Twitter, Facebook, Outlook or Remember the Milk, you can make a to-do list, post on someone's wall or Tweet!

I can think of lots of ways to use this for work and for school...I'll have a to-do list that's days long if I create an account here.

Voki

As I was working on my blackboard course for class, I was looking for something to "jazz up" my announcements pages. I remembered that some of my co-workers have avatars in their courses that speak to the students when they log into the class. I discovered this free site where you can very easily create animated avatars called Vokis to post anywhere on the web. It's incredibly easy to create, although I will warn you, it can be a little addicting trying out all the features and voices. There are so many options that you can customize your character. I wanted to share the one I created with everyone! You can either type things for them to say or actually speak and record your own voice.



Get a Voki now!



If you'd like to create a Voki of your own, go to here!

Now for something a little different...

Now we all love E-Learning and such...but many times our windows based PC computers don't. Many major computer problems are caused by lack of proper updates, inadequate programs, and primarily Spyware. I bring this subject up now as I've had to repair two computers for friends that in the past week. They suffered from a mix of Trojans, that downloaded installers, and attacked the machines with fake programs. One repair was successful, one was not. It is very expensive to get computers repaired, another bill that everyone does not need.

There is no clear definition for Spyware, it isn't even known under one name. It is also known as Adware, Malware, and Badware. Trend Micro defines Spyware as "Spyware is any piece of software, installed or employed without a user’s knowledge, that watches, logs, and reports on that user’s electronic movements."

Now that we have a brief idea what it is, how can we prevent it or remove it?

Anti-Virus : Many people do not know that commercial anti-virus programs tend to stop updating after one year. Ensuring your Anti-Virus is up to date can help prevent Spyware from being installed. Some programs that are free and I recommend are:
AVG Free: AVG is free, updates frequently. Including some Anti-Spyware features.
avast! antivirus Home Edition: Free, modern looking Anti-Virus. User interface is very different from your usual Anti-Virus.
AntiVir Free Antivirus - Small, Lightweight, and Simple Anti-Virus.

Anti-Spyware: While many free Anti-Spyware programs do not provide real time protection, they provide excellent removal features for already infected systems.
Spybot Search & Destroy - While not the most effective program the program catches most common Spyware and provides system immunization features.
SUPERAntiSpyware Free Edition - Horrible name, superior removal. This program is not as well known as others, but I have thrown allot of Spyware at this program, and it was removed most problems easily.
Spyware Blaster - While not a scanning program, Blaster will allow you to immunize your system against various spyware, adware, and browser hijacker.

Windows does offer their own Anti-Spyware program, Windows Defender, and its own Anti-Virus program in the Windows OneCare Suite, but neither are recommended as it is generally found they do not do a very good job.

Other measures that can be taken to protect your PC:
Run Windows Update: Many rouge programs attack your PC using holes in both Internet Explorer and Windows. Patching these holes will at least partly protect your computer.
Dump Internet Explorer: If your using Internet Explorer, your opening yourself up for attack. Internet Explorer is not highly secure with un-patched holes being common place. Other browser options including Mozilla Firefox should be considered as alternatives.

Good luck!

Storytelling game - adaptation

When reading over one of the postings on storytelling, I read the familiar opening "Once upon a time." This was not a terribly surprising phrase to stumble upon, but it reminded me of a card game with the same title. The game is now more than ten years old, but the methodology is timeless. And my remembering it is, perhaps, timely for a discussion of group storytelling as a mode of learning. From the Atlas website:

Once Upon a Time
The Storytelling Card Game

Named to GAMES Magazine's Best Family Card Game section in 1997, Once Upon a Time is a game the entire family will enjoy. The players create a story together, using cards that show typical elements from fairy tales. One player is the Storyteller, and creates a story using the ingredients on her cards. She tries to guide the plot towards her own ending. The other players try to use cards to interrupt her and become the new Storyteller. The winner is the first player to play out all her cards and end with her Happy Ever After card!

I have played this game and it is great fun. This concept of storytelling is, of course, not at all new. To make it relevant to e-learning I have been kicking around ideas for possibly making digital "cards" that would have story elements pertaining to whatever the subject matter is for a given lesson. Any suggestions?

And yes, last name is D, but I apparently was mixed up. Besides I wanted to post this anyway!

Googling over Google

I recently wrote a paper for another class and stumbled upon the awesomeness of Google. I was trying to find published papers and articles on my subject matter and I found Google Scholar.

What is Google Scholar?
"Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. Google Scholar helps you identify the most relevant research across the world of scholarly research."

I thought this was a great resource and I will be using it for years to come.


http://scholar.google.com/

Literacy & Technology

Just returned from the KRSA Reading Conference in King of Prussia. I heard a great speaker Dr. Donald Leu from the University of Connecticut. He spoke in depth about the need for a connection between literacy and technology. He spoke about how our country is far behind the times in preparing our children for future endeavors in the world of technology. Please take a moment to check out the website related to Dr. Leu and the University of Connecticut. There are many useful links depending on what you are interested in reading about.

http://www.literacy.uconn.edu/littech.htm

Google Tutor!

Check it out! - Google Tutor

Google just gets more amazing by the day - now you can even find how-tos and advice on all of Google's awesome tools right on (you guessed it!) Google!

You can even:
Your choice! It doesn't get any easier.
Entries are tagged so that you can easily find what you are looking for and comment!


Here's one example to get you started:

News for Class

Good Sunday morning!

Just a reminder of our new "alternating weeks" approach for blog postings.  This week (Sunday to Saturday) only those people whose last name begins with K - W should post.  

And for everyone, keep reading and commenting on the new posts!

Cheers, Dr. N

Wetpaint - a free wiki and website tool!

Yet another great resource has been found! Its called Wetpaint!click on the logo to get to wetpaint.com

Wetpaint.com is a site that allows users to create wiki's for educational or personal purposes. Currently Wetpaint hosts over a million different wikis built by variety of different users, from individuals to small organizations, clubs, interest groups, educators and anyone who has information to share! Topics vary in the same wide range with their creators.

Wetpaint was started in 2005 as an idea of a group of friends thought "why not make it easy for groups of people to share information, experiences and build social communities around anything they want?" Their motivation for this emerged, as one of them was suffering from cancer and they were looking for information online on how other people coped with a similar situation.

Some of the cool Wetpaint features include:

• Easy 1-2-3 creation
• Many facilitating tools for content creation and collaboration
• Public and private sites
• Onsite messaging
• Addressbooks
• Automated links
• Templates for different site types
• Site search
• RSS feeds and email notifications
• Personalized profiles
• and most of all IT'S FREE!

Us as instructional design students and professionals can really take advantage of a tool like Wetpaint. As we are stepping out of the shelter of the University it is extremely advantageous to have a website or online porfolio to portray our accomplishments and show off our work. Creating a personal wiki, like Wetpaint, can be an easy and affordable option to get your name out there. Rather than paying for a domain name and a server and spending hours writing html and css codes (Dr.Doll, Please don't get mad...), a free and easily editable wiki sounds like a tempting idea! So, check it out! ;)

Educational Simulations

After presenting the multimedia principle, I couldn’t help but search for more applications of useful simulations. I found http://www.techtrekers.com/sim.htm. This site looks like it has a bunch of great links for interactive tools, and it does, but you have to search for them. This is a common misfortune of which I warned fellow teachers when we were creating webquests: a resource or site that you find now is not necessarily going to be there when you use the webquest.
At the time of my search, these were a few interesting resources that were working:
Math and physics applets (9-12) This site contains java applets that are designed to help students visualize important concepts in mathematics and physics. Applets include simulations and demonstrations of sound waves, membrane oscillators, and vector fields.
http://www.falstad.com/mathphysics.html
The learning equation (9-12) This site presents 15 applets for exploring mathematics topics in geometry, trigonometry, and probability. Each applet has detailed directions for use and suggestions for exploration. http://members.shaw.ca/ron.blond/TLE/index.html
Calculus (11-12) This site contains interactive java applets that demonstrate concepts from calculus. The page has three main sections that cover topics concerning limits, derivatives, and integrals. http://www.ies.co.jp/math/products/calc/menu.html
ExploreMath.com (8-12) This site features interactive activities designed to help students visualize and explore a spectrum of major mathematical concepts from elementary algebra through pre-calculus.

Multimedia Presentation Resources

Resources and References from the Multimedia Principle Presentation:
Clark, R.C., & Mayer, R.E. (2008). E-Learning and The Science Of Instruction (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.
http://www.elearningguild.com/pdf/2/091002DES-H.pdf

Images courtesy of:
http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/edu/safety/tornadoguide.html
http://www.essdatarecovery.com/tornado.asp
http://skydiary.com/kids/tornadoes.html
http://www.ies.co.jp/math/products/calc/applets/heihen/heihen.html
Google Images
http://www.workingsimulations.com/new_lexicon/tourdesktop.html
http://esminfo.prenhall.com/science/geoanimations/animations/Tornadoes.html

Online spreadsheets....there are many!

I was really struggling with my blog topic this week and didn't know where to start. I've just been exposed to Google Docs and their online spreadsheet, as well as NumSum, and decided to research this a little more. What I came to find that there are at least 12 more online spreadsheet programs! They are:

http://badblue.com/

http://blist.com/

http://editgrid.com/

http://exxprsscorp.com/

http://inputwebwizard.com/

http://jotspot.com/

http://numbler.com/

http://peepel.com/

http://sheetster.com/

Simple Spreadsheet - part of the Simple Groupware Solutions

http://thinkfreedocs.com/

Zoho Sheet - part of the Zoho online software applications

Some of them do cost money and others are free. In most of the applications you can upload an Excel file and easily share with others. Numsum is a social spreadsheet - think of it as a "blogsheet" - it is completely open to share with the public and have others comment on it. Blist, pictured above was designed to make spreadsheets more eye-appealing. Rather than just creating another spreadsheet with boring data, they offer templates to make it look exciting, i.e., wedding planning and fantasy football sheets. Make sure you check these out!

Working with SME's

Since most of us will someday have to work in collaboration with a Subject Matter Expert (SME) I found this blog to be very useful. I wanted to share it with the class. The Rapid eLearning Blog, one of our class blog links, is fantastic. I subscribe to it and I'm never disappointed when I read the new posts. They're always brilliant and incredibly useful. Enjoy!

Courses on-line

on-line course design is the future of education. There is so much information on how to effectively structure an on-line class. I found a site that lists a variety of different on-line course design structures, from syllabus creation to student evaluation.

Enjoy.
http://www.ibritt.com/resources/dc_instructionaldesign.htm

eLearning for Kids

This eLearning website offers free courses for kids of all ages on a Global level. The non-profit site categorizes the courses by topic and by age-range (ages 5-12). eLearning for Kids offers courses on Math, Language Arts, Science, Computer Skills, English Language, and Health and Life Skills. I thought this site was a very useful tool for parents looking for extra education for their children or lessons prior to beginning school. I thought it was remarkable what this company is doing for the education of our children. . . . for free! There are many ways to "donate;" click here to find out how.

Storytelling Guidelines - Resources

Once Upon a Time

The following are the wonderful resources that I used in my Centra presentation about Storytelling:

http://www.21centuryconnections.com/node/562

http://www.storycenter.org/cookbook.pdf

http://noisebetweenstations.com/personal/weblogs/?p=2211

http://www.jakesonline.org/photostory.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storytelling

http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2007/09/storytelling_the_key_to_making.html

http://www.aaronshep.com/storytelling/Tips.html

http://www.artsedge.org/content/2347

http://competitivevoice.blogspot.com/2006/06/fundamentals-of-digital-storytelling.html

http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu

http://www.stevedenning.com/Main_types_story.html

Free IceBreaker

I came across this free download we could all use for centra presentations, on line learning and other applications. With the recent presentations on learning tools, games, etc. that we have been sharing with each other, this seemed to be right in line.
I hope you can find some ways to use this (or part of it) in the learning you design.
Let me know!
http://training-games.com/newslettergames/IceBreakerTrivialRevelationsGame.pps

Blog devoted to K-12

http://www.edutagger.com/

Edutagger is a bookmarking site that provides a wealth of links to educational tools for teachers, parents and students. Contributors post links relative to education and others can search, comment and access these websites. Edutagger then separates the links by popularity and recent postings. People who are registered on the site then have an opportunity to vote on the relevancy and usefulness of the site. Based on these votes, a site can be added to the popularity tab. The beauty of this site and most blogging sites is that no amount of individual Internet searching (google etc.) can result in the collective resources contributed by others with similar interests.

Here are a just a few of the links I found using edutagger:

Math

http://www.mathguide.com

http://www.nctm.org/resources/default.aspx?id=230

http://www.funbrain.com/

http://whdb.com/2008/learn-programming-online-for-free-75-open-courseware-collections-from-the-ivy-league-and-beyond/- Learning programming from home

As I mentioned earlier, there are a wealth of sites here. If you 're looking for some interesting resources, don't reinvent the wheel check edutagger and see if someone has already posted a link to what you're looking for.

Digital Story Telling Resources

As requested - here are the links to the resources on digital storytelling from my recent presentation:

I suggest starting here - as all the other links are posed in my delicious collection as well as many others:

http://delicious.com/JennyKay5/digitalstorytelling
(my delicious links on digital storytelling)

http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/mathematics.html
(educational uses for digital storytelling)

http://tech-head.com/dstory.htm
(links to key digital storytelling sites)

http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/learnshops/digital/examples.php
(other cool examples of digital video stories with voiceover)

OpenOffice.org 3.0, Set to Release Soon!

OpenOffice.org is a free office suite that is widely used across multiple Operating Systems. The current stable release is 2.4.1. However, OpenOffice.org is set to release version 3.0 with a bevy of new features. One of the biggest features is support with Mac OS X. OpenOffice.org will run like an Aqua application and will include functionality Mac OS X accessibility APIs. Another nifty OpenOffice.org feature is added functionality with Microsoft Office 2007 with import filters. Here is a comphrensive new features list for OpenOffice.org 3.0.

For those who want to jump right into the fray here is the download page for OpenOffice.org 3.0.

Cyber-Children...

I was reading and came across a posting about "the rise of cyber-children." These are children whose parents introduce them to computers and the internet at a very young age. In the UK, children as young as 18months - two and half years old are using keyboards and mouses to click around on the computer. At such a young age, does this really give a child advantages of being more computer savvy than other children their age?

What's your take on this?

In my opinion, a child that young does not need to use a computer. Allowing them to click around and stare into a monitor that could start eye damage early can't possibly be helpful in their development. Once a child reaches the age of 3 or 4 they should be able to use one of those "Leapfrog" children's computers.

http://jrocas.com.ph/archives/what-age-should-a-child-start-to-use-a-pc/

UEN (Utah's Education online)

In writing a piece for my wiki project, I cam across a unique and interesting site for K-12 learning. The Utah Education Network (UEN), has an area on their website, which is dedicated to various grades. The initial portion of the site is broken into 3 general grade levels (K-2, 3-6, and 7-12). As you select the grade level, you are presented with the subject topics for that grade level, such as Math, Science, Technology etc. After selecting the subject the student is then presented with a tabled format list of games that could be categorized further (i.e. Science might be broken into Earth, Chemistry, etc.).

Each of the games is in one of three formats; flash, shockwave, or java. They load pretty quickly and can be fun. Yes, I've played several and was quite addicted. I'm from the gamer 1.0 generation and if I had this type of learning back in my day (did I just say that), I would have done much better in school. All kidding aside, this site really has their curriculim layed out well. I've book marked it because I found several brain teasers (soduku, tower of hanoi, cryptograms, etc.). I think as long as the site is maintained, students will find it engaging and enjoy their learning. Go ahead and try it, go to the site and see if you don't get addicted in a good way! Their site is located at http://www.uen.org/News/article.cgi?category_id=2&article_id=1352.

Synchronous Tools

In researching Synchronous tools for my preserntation I found a wealth of information on the future of Synchronous tools. www.voxwire.com/kolabora/emerge offers a wealth of information and a helpful video tutorial. I am most impressed withth enew providers ability to fine tune thier products to meet the individual needs of the communities they are striving to serve. If you are currently using any type of synchronous tools at your workplace you may be able to save your company some cash while getting a more appropriate set of tools to your specific needs.

Absolutely the funniest e-learning site ever!

I stumbled on this hilarious "e-learning" site that hosts thousands of How-To-Do-It-Yourself tutorials posted by members. Topics for these instructions vary anywhere from cooking, arts and crafts to gardening and... Well, pretty much anything that you can think of, and more.


How to fire shave, make drawstring shorts in 15 minutes, guitar picks, quiche or a thumb fan are just a few examples to describe the vast offering... :)

These little tutorials are constructed of step by step instructions with pictures and YouTube videos (not in all) as illustrations. The directions are generally easy to follow. This site is a great example of how easy instruction is to create and anyone can do it, but also shows how important concise and clear language is when creating the instruction, which is usually a task for us, the professionals of the field.

If you have a moment with nothing to do, or are just curious, visit this site. I can guarantee you'll get a good laugh out of some of the tutorials, plus there are some actually useful tutorials that can teach you neat new skills and tricks!

Enjoy learning!

http://www.instructables.com/

Google Blog Search

Google as adapted it's news search technology for blog posts. With its revamped Blog Search, Google can now better track the thousands of new blog posts made per day.

The search features greatly resemble your standard Google Search features including Search, Advanced Search, and Preferences. On the left side of the site, popular subtopics (Top Stories, Politics, US, World, Business, Technology, Video Games, Science, Entertainment, Movies, Television, Sports) are included for easier searching.

Kudos for Google making a simple, straightforward, blog search.

Links: Google launches 'Google News for blogs'

Second Life and IBM

Recently, IBM announced that it will be teaming with Linden Labs (creator of Second Life) to develop "enterprise solutions for security-rich, custom virtual world creation and collaboration" using the Second Life Grid platform.


This new solution will allow businesses and organizations to create private or public virtual environments. Basically, businesses can benefit from Second Life's virtual environment platform without the unwanted exposure that public 3D worlds present. Businesses can use this new platform to train employees, collaborate with partners and consumers, hold corporate meetings/events, compose product simulations, and much more.

Second Life Grid provides the corporate world with an alternative to Protosphere in the 3D marketplace. Businesses will be able to create custom environments, as in Second Life. Second Life Grid will allow businesses the freedom of creation and use that Protosphere limits for its users in the corporate environment.

Student Response Systems

I have recently begun my internship for my final MSIT requirement and I have been researching TurningPoint, a company partnered with Microsoft that manufactures Student Response Systems (SRS). A student response system is similar to the small hand-held devices used on the popular television game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire". These devices are a powerful tool for obtaining audience feedback during lectures and presentations and are great in the classroom to increase student participation. I am sure you all remember those huge lecture hall classes in college where you're in the last row in a room full of hundreds of students. It's hard enough to stay awake let alone pay attention! The SRS is perfect for keeping the class motivated and interested. Similar to the 30 second quizzes that Dr. Nicholson inserts into our Online Course Design class, professors can add a short quiz or single question to their PowerPoint lecture to keep students focused on what they're learning. Within seconds, the professor will have instant feedback from all students. This feedback can be used to determine learning retention or even interest in the subject. SRS may also be used to take class attendance, completely eliminating the time it takes for 100 students to say "here!" and can also track student participation points. If answers are graded, students will have to pay attention instead of messing with cell phones, iPods and other gadgets during class. Results are displayed in may types of charts and graphs, so the class will see what percentage picked "B" and so on. It makes learning fun and interactive. It is also an easy way for a teacher to determine what areas the students are having trouble with. If 75% of the class guesses the incorrect answer, it is clear to the instructor that the class needs a review of that information. Technology is really changing (and improving) the face of education. I can't wait to see what's next!

Video Production

As promised, I am following up on a previous post about video production. The last post was about video podcasting--a basic how-to. The info here is more focused on the production side of things. I know that I don't want to watch something that is rather poorly done, so why would anyone else want to see my bad video?

http://websitevideoguide.com/29/7-tips-for-better-videos/

http://websitevideoguide.com/video-production/add-quality-to-your-videos/

The first of these links provides some quick tips on "how to make it look and sound good," whereas the second offers some advice on how to add some production flair. Much of it is basic stuff, but if you don't know to think of it in the first place...

These basics can really boost the quality of your movies or video podcasts.

Hot Election Topics and Sites

One of the biggest obligations of educators today is to teach social responsibility and to help create productive, informed members of society. As a result of that charge, the political and economic climate cannot be ignored. Our government classes, politics classes, and econ classes (maybe even math classes!) are trying to address today's issues with some measure of objectivity. Hence, there has been quite a scuttlebutt over Michael Moore's SLACKER UPRISING video. This piece of media advocates a particular party and is definitely not objective, but is being used with great appeal in classrooms because it speaks directly to and about our new voting age population - many of whom are still in schools.
I have started a collection (which grows by the day) of good links for addressing the election in our classrooms, one of which is the SLACKER UPRISING video (by the way, the entire movie can be currently downloaded at no cost in the United States and Canada), which can be nicely used as a teachable moment on target audiences, personal agendas, yellow journalism, and objectivity (or lack thereof).

Check out all of my delicious links on the election process at: http://delicious.com/JennyKay5/election

Open Source tools for e-Learning

Since the advent of computers, technology is on a rise, we see a variety of new applications, gadgets, new tools and lots of amazing stuff coming out of talented minds. There are a wide range of free tools available on the web, its available for free, all you need is a computer and an internet connection.
When it comes to content I like using Google to search most of my content as it gives a wide range of information,also i am fond of blogs as they have great source of reliable information. I would go to the wikis or Wikipedia to know about new material or stuff i am not familiar, as they are simply a superb source of information.
Where as it comes to a course management between a selected group moodle is the best place. Also there are other options like drupal, Plone, Joomla and CivicSpace.

For synchronous communications there are different methods of communication like Skype and Gizmo.And for authoring the open source applications like Xerte and Flex give added advantage to build informative content.
Lastly, the social networking, though i am not a fan of this approach and don't encourage people to get more into this because of high rate of risk involved, in spite of its own limitations, its a decent source for collaboration activities.

Games that make Leaders...

I recently read an article about how popular games like Halo for XBOX360 are being researched and finding that learners in business and education can somehow improve leadership skills. The article states "Video games let their players step into new personas and explore alternatives. Not only that, but people can try to solve problems they’re not good at yet, get immediate feedback on the consequences and try again immediately." These problem solving skills can continue once the learner is done playing. Learners have what the author calls "incentives to keep improving their performance." The article also stated that some games are not good for children because violent games can be influential in bad ways. I totally agree. I thought this was a good article because I have never heard games like Halo considered as tools for learning. http://wistechnology.com/articles/1504/

Economic impact and anxiety in the workplace

Along with the many learning distractions, I found on Learning Town a survey http://trends.masie.com/archives/2008/9/26/546-urgent-economic-anxiety-in-the-workplace-survey.html to find out the impact on the workplace.
As future (and current) trainers/educators we need to be sensitive to our audience and the many stresses occurring in their lives. Having talked about the many challenges of e-learning, it is really important to realize what the economy is doing to many of our students.
People are distracted by what is happening in congress and with our banking and financial system. Many of our corporate students have potentially lost in the last week (in their 401K and retirement plans) what the make a year.
Think about what this can mean to the attention span and interest of students in what they are learning. These are unprecedented times that we are dealing with and until things become a bit more stable, we need to be more understanding and offer a safe environment for learners.

Teaching with MySpace?

Several of my coworkers and I were having a conversation recently about the staggering number of people who have myspace and facebook accounts. Someone brought up the point that it would be great if these sites could be used for more educational purposes rather then just posting pictures and collecting friends. A challenge to teaching in today's modern, fast paced world is to get and keep student's interest on the lesson. Using something "cool" like MySpace or Facebook in the lesson might get students interested much more quickly. I found a video about a study that was done at the University of Minnesota that addressed the benefits of using these social networking sites on students.

http://www1.umn.edu/urelate/newsservice/Multimedia_Videos/social_network.htm

I thought one of the most interesting comments in the video was that parents and teachers help students learn how to use other "dangerous" tools, like how to drive a car, and that teaching with and learning about MySpace should be handled the same way. I'm sure this would be be biggest obstacle for a teacher wanting to use these sites in their classroom. Who knows, maybe in the future we'll see more teachers using social networking sites in their classrooms!

(I do apologize for not posting the video here directly. I think there was something wrong with the embed code on their site because it wasn't working!)

Interactive PowerPoint Presentation you say? Indeed.

How can you make the presentation created in PowerPoint more interactive? Well, if you have Windows and Office 2007, download and install pptPlex, a free Office add-on. The plug-in provides an alternate method of viewing the PowerPoint slides presentations. Instead of the traditional slide movement, pptPlex allows for a movable and zoomable canvas. It also allows for grouping of slides based on content. Here is the download link.

Check out the video here:

GOOD ONLINE COURSE DESIGN

The elements of good online courses are foreign to anyone who hasn't been exposed to them, obviously. But what about the student of online course design who is confused on whether the course he or she designs is good? Doug Madden of Honolulu Community College (HCC) lists the 17 Elements of Good Course Design. He discusses the Introduction of an online course to its' evaluation. The Faculty Development site at HCC posts the tag-line: "THE MOST COLORFUL, COMPREHENSIVE, EXCITING, AND AWARD WINNING, FACULTY DEVELOPMENT SITE ON THE INTERNET"

Check out his list.

http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/online/web-elem.htm