Copyright-Friendly Resources.

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

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

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

http://digitalmediaresources.wikispaces.com/

Learning tools powered by Google

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

YouTube for toddlers and preteens

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

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

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

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

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

Gamequarium

Gamequarium

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

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





http://gamequarium.com/

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.

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

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

More Free Tools

This blog seems to be undergoing a bit of a trend in open source software and things available via creative commons. I thought I'd share some interesting tools I've been reading about recently- all of them free.

Csounds: sound design, music synthesis, and signal processing for Mac, Linux, and Windows.

Plone is open source content management that easily allows you to organize web content for group projects and communities.



Plumi is a little piece of software that works with Plone, once you have Plone up and running.
Plumi allows you to create your own video sharing site! Currently, developers are even working on functionalities that will allow users to upload and download to/from Plumi sites using mobile devices.




For Chris Davis, in response to one of your previous posts- the Open Clip Art Library. This library is user supported- submit your own clip art and contribute to an archive of Creative Commons images, or download clip art when you need some.



Not really open source software, or creative commons assets, blip.tv is a really interesting site that provides learning and hosting resources for web shows and web storytelling. Newbies can learn the craft, and the more experienced web show producers can hone their craft. Free accounts are available, and their tools are good for Windows and Macs.


If you've never been to the Internet Archive, you simply have to go. Home of the Wayback Machine, the Internet Archive is a huge, digital library that is dedicated to providing access to all sorts of digital collections.

Resources for training

During our class on Thursday, someone had mentioned open-source as an alternative to the pricey alternatives for Instructional designers. I found an excellent resource at http://c4lpt.co.uk/Directory/ which lists a directory of open-source, freeware and commercial solutions to assist designers with developing courseware. This site lists everything relative to Web 2.0 and also provides a brief description of the product offering s and how they can be utilized.

It is increasingly difficult for our in-house training department to get funding for much needed applications to develop effective online curriculum. Through the use of open source and freeware we can develop training programs that "stand-out" and assist with making the case for ROI and gaining buy-in from the powers that be to consider the pricey alternatives. If you're searching for open source solutions, do check out this directory of resources and I hope that you find some tools to add to your arsenal.

Need Your Help!

I am currently preparing a presentation on Digital Media ethics. I have been researching this topic and there is, of course, an abundance of websites and wikis devoted to this topic. What I want to provide at the conclusion of the presentation are copyright-friendly resources. So far I have included the following:

Creative Commons
Wikimedia
Soungle
Flickr (Creative Commons)

If you know of any other royalty-free or copyright-free resources for image, videos, audio files, please leave a comment and let me know...and thanks a bunch!

Ways to Use a Wiki

We have been developing our wikis in this class, and for some, it is a new experience while, for others, it is not. I fall somewhere in the middle. Wikis and Blogs are not new to me and I visit many of them for ideas or inspiration. I have not, however, contributed to as many as I visit as a "spectator."

Just this week, however, I discovered a practical application for using a wiki in my classroom. Basically, instead of having my Digital Media Class teams keep a noteboook of their ideas and plans for their daily morning broadcast, I provided a wiki space (within Bb) for them to use for planning. The advantage is that each group can visit eachother's pages on the wiki and leave comments or suggestions on the ideas posted. They can also share helpful links.

One of the blogs I do read frequently is "Moving at the Speed of Creativity," written by Wesley Fryer and, in a timely fashion, he posted a list this week of "Ways to Use a Wiki." In his blog post, he included the list below:

1. Connect with parents through publishing student work
2. Homework groups with kids (ask questions)
3. Share lesson plans with other teachers and links
4. In lieu of a faculty meeting
5. Write a new school song collaboratively, brainstorm ideas
6. Put websites for articles students need to read, and then discuss it together online
7. Post homework assignments and makeup work for absent students
8. Schedules and calendars
9. Collaborative projects with other classrooms in the US or outside
10. Book reviews!
11. Science journaling
12. Study guides for the test
13. Science fair presentations
14. Collaboration to plan fundraisers or other activities
15. Diary of a science experiment
16. Literature response podcasting or video publishing
17. Book talks
18. Literature circle
19. RSS feeds for kid friendly publishing (let parents subscribe to updates)
20. Posting projects

Creative Training Delivery by Paul Harris

in the latest issue of T and D magazine from ASTD, Paul Harris highlights five "terrific training ideas" to make your delivery towards a business audience a little bit more creative:

1. "Laughing and learning" - Many business people are left brained, while most improvisational comedians use both sides of their brain. By learning how to use the whole brain (or at least tap into the right side occasionally), we can create more engaging ways to present information and break out of the PowerPoint mold. (Here at CramerSweeney, we are fortunate to have the resources of our own internal creative staff of art directors and multimedia/graphic designers!) Training is greatly improved by inserting some fun into it and emphasizing facts/information in creative ways - all with the goal of encouraging greater learning retention. (Take a look at a fun quiz that we created for our own website: Go to http://www.cramersweeney.com/, then click on the Smart Marketing IQ box in the lower left corner.)

In this article, Harris mentions that improv-based training helps businesses enhance how "people adapt to changing environments, process information, work in teams, and collaborate across functional and geographic boundaries...The methods address an ever-evolving range of client situations and needs." Improv games teach workers more flexible responses to situations.

2. "Hit me with knowledge" - Harvard law professor Charles R. Nesson says, "Poker is a great game for learning how to size up things for yourself, get intorisk management, and channel aggression. A student who can hold his own at a poker table, I have no worries about when they enter the real world."

My 14-year-old son loves poker. I suppose I should be encouraging him to play more often - and let him teach me Texas Hold 'Em! Nesson has even formed the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS) among some Ivy Leagues, to promote poker as a learning tool. He also belives that poker skills can really help high school kids with math. Poker teaches you numeracy, probability, risk assessment, and subtleties vs. complexities.

3. "No, you first" - How can we increase socially responsible behavior on our roads? London and other Western European cities tried something new on their roadways. They removed traffic lights and signs so that no one would have right of way. You would expect chaos to ensue. Lo and behold, by making sure no one had the right of way, accidents dropped 44%! Drivers and pedestrians suddenly began relying on eye contact with each other rather than signs. Imagine roads with no signs telling traffic to stop, yield, or merge, and no lines on the roads to guide traffic - these are called "naked roads." These naked roads actually dramatically improved harmony on the roadway. Now everyone looks out for each other!

4. "Point-of-need learning" - Knowledge (more than training) is increasingly becoming the answer to what workers really need on the job. Learning content providers will need to become capability providers. Instead of providing customers with proprietary content/training, companies will be teaching skill transfer capability - as 80% of learning happens on the job, not in the classroom. It's all about bringing training to people's workspaces.

5. "A virtual community blossoms" - As I have written in previous blogs and Harris reports in T&D, virtual 3D worlds "have emerged as a bona fide educational tool." Organizations have begun using Second Life (a popular virtual environment) as a "place of engagement" - for employees and instructors to interact in formal or informal settings, and public or private spaces; role play; access resources; and engage in collaborative learning.

Podcasting. Great, but how?

Most of us have at least a vague sense, if not a solid understanding of what a podcast is, though this, like everything else in information delivery spheres, is in a constant state of change. Podcasting, in a brilliant illustration of this phenomenon, quickly moved from voice-only to video podcasting (though both maintain strengths in certain areas).

As I think the quality of a podcast truly lies in the production, I will look for a solid yet simple digital video production resource for a future posting. For now, let's focus on the nuts-and-bolts of how to create and publish a video podcast.

A pretty good (in that it keeps thing simple), though slightly dated resource can be found at streaming media http://www.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=9314

While this tutorial is rather mac-centric, the sense of process remains the same, and pc's are given some press time, too.

A gem at the end (pg 4) of the article is a list of video podcasting resources. Now where is that camera...

Teacher eLearning Resources

While I had previously heard of wikis and what they are in “textbook terms,” the common craft explanation was much easier to understand. Both informative and entertaining, they really stated what wikis are in plain English! I will have to share this with my colleagues who are involved in the CFF grant who are as confused as I am with all the technology applications that we do not know how to use. This sparked a search for other easy to understand or use contexts of eLearning. One website that I came across that has decent applications for teachers is http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/elearning/. It lists some online resources for specific concepts one might be teaching; I was excited to come across one that I just used last week in my classroom called GeoGebra!

One Company's eLearning resources

This is my first Instructional Design (ID) course. What I find interesting is with the advent of "Al Gore's" Internet (ha ha), designing eLearning courses can be made easier because of it. A designer can find more resources to help them create an effective and engaging course right on the Internet!

I work at a large financial firm and am currently interning in their ID area. What's neat is the wealth of resources both internal and external they provide to IDs on their intranet. While they do have proprietary resources, the fact that an internal web page was created to help you as the designer succeed!

Below are a few of the Internet resources they provided which I thought were cool! I hope you find them helpful.

Random Name Generator:
http://www.kleimo.com/random/name.cfm

Scenario Based eLearning:
http://www.learningcircuits.org/2002/may2002/kindley.html

So this is only a couple of resources. In addition, we attend regular training sessions (WBT and Instructor Led) about designing courses. I hope you all find the information I shared useful. Talk to everyone in class!