Hi Everyone
The weather it begins to turn colder on this side of the globe and rain it does very well. Time to get stuck in front of the computer and heat up the neurons by exploring the sites for this month. You might even want to while away your leisure time learning about Nucleic acids and Chromatin (see Openlearn).
In this posting, there are links to a new e-learning journal looking for some erudite contributions, another excellent publication from JISC Infonet and company, scheduling software, a couple of articles, one on mobile learning and another on e-maps.There are links to lots of FREE online tools and courses and interactive stuff plus a Google blog and a link to things pedagogical and the odd one out.
It doesn’t seem possible that June is only a month away. Until then:
1. A new journal has been launched and it has Rhozan Idrus as its chief editor. It’s called ‘ The International Journal of Excellence in eLearning”. Rhozan is looking for inspiring and thought provoking articles on e-learning and its future. So if you have something to publish that will appeal to a wide audience of e-learning practitioners, send in the manuscript. Details from
http://www.etqm.ae/journals/online_ver/elearning/issue1/index.aspx
2. JISC Infonet: Exploring Tangible Benefits of e-Learning: Does investment yield interest?
This is another excellent publication from a group of people who have their finger on the pulse of e-learning. The publication plus associated online case studies is the work of JISC infoNet, the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) and the Higher Education Academy. The project was funded by JISC. Well worth reading and absorbing the very useful information and insights into e-learning in action.
http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/publications/publications/info/tangible-benefits-publication
3. Timebridge: An interesting and useful tool for people who like to keep there schedules up to date and relevant to their busy life. This scheduling system plugs into google calendar or outlook and lets you invite people to a meeting, select four time alternatives, and then it books the meeting time that everyone can attend and puts it on your calendar. Check it out and it’s FREE.
Extract from the site:
“TimeBridge has introduced the first Personal Scheduling Assistant designed to help busy people find a time to meet, fast. This innovative, new web application works across calendaring systems, companies and time zones”.
http://www.timebridge.com/home.php
4. Google Docs Blog. Not sure how many of you have taken advantage of the ever increasing functionality of Google Docs? Always worth a visit to see what your are missing or could be using for educational purposes. Have a look at the latest development for presentations.
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/
5. Educause quarterly: Using E-Maps to Organize and Navigate Online Content. This is an interesting article that explains the use of e-maps for online learning (for both student and tutor). Some useful examples of what can be done are included.
http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/UsingEMapstoOrganizeandNa/46034
6. The Zaidlearn blog provides a list of over 100 FREE learning tools for every learning problem (perhaps not all) Interesting to note how many come from the Google stable This was released too late for the AprileWatch, but better late than never. Lots of other useful stuff can be found here, you can spend forever browsing.
http://zaidlearn.blogspot.com/2008/04/free-learning-tool-for-every-learning.html
7.Shodor Interactivate. This site provides a range of interactive tools to help students understand maths concepts. There are 149 tools to play with! Each tool has a section for the learner (explains the concept), a help section and information for the instructor.
Have a look around the site for other useful stuff like assessments. The levels of the various tool are from elementary to higher Ed all based on USA standards and curricula but easy to use elsewhere.
http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/
8. Campus technology: Mobile learning in higher education. If you are interested in mobile learning this article provides some insights. If you want to read the entire article without proceeding page by Webpage, click on the ‘printable format’ button on the left of the screen.
http://campustechnology.com/articles/61149/
9 The Virtual Centre for Innovative Learning Technologies (VCILT): From the University of Mauritius:
‘The virtual centre for innovative learning technologies (vcilt) is responsible for providing and developing on-line web-based education and telelearning at the university and throughout the country’.
This site has a wealth of information and links to a number of resources. The link below takes you to the section that deals with issues of pedagogy. it list them under several headings:
Knowledge Management, Activity Theory, Pedagogie de l’activite, Critical Pedagogy
Actor-Network Theory, Communities of Practice and Change Management.
Some of the stuff is a little dated but still useful and all the links I tried, worked.
http://vcampus.uom.ac.mu/vcilt/learn/change_pedagogy.htm
10. The Open University Open Learn site. If you haven’t been here before its well worth exploring. There is a huge range of FREE educational resources for students , educators , researchers and organisations. Interesting that one of the top ten units accessed is ‘Nucleic acids and Chromatin’. 12 hours of advanced stuff. Must be something in the air over there!
http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/home.php
11. Conferences
11.1 ALT-C 2008: Rethinking the digital divide
9-11 September 2008, Leeds, UK
ONLINE REGISTRATION opens on MAY 1st 2008
Keynote speakers:
* David Cavallo, Chief Learning Architect for One Laptop per Child, and
Head of the Future of Learning Research Group at MIT Media Lab;
* Dr Itiel Dror, Senior Lecturer in Cognitive Neuroscience at the
University of Southampton;
* Hans Rosling, Professor of International Health, Karolinska Institute,
Sweden, and Director of the Gapminder Foundation.
Key dates:
Presenters’ registration deadline: 6 June 2008
Early bird registration deadline: 30 June 2008
Registrations close: 15 August 2008
For sponsorship and exhibition opportunities got to:
http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2008/sponsor_information.html
or contact Hayley Willis, Events Administrator:
ALT-C 2008: Rethinking the digital divide
9-11 September 2008, Leeds, England
http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2008/
11.2 Elliot Masie’s invitation to be part of Learning 2008, 26-29 October Orlando, Florida
11.3 ASCILITE 2008: The ascilite 2008 conference theme is: Hello! Where are you in the landscape of educational technology?
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/melbourne08/index.htm
When:
Nov 30 – Dec 3
Where:
Deakin University
Burwood Campus
221 Burwood Highway
Burwood Victoria 3125
Call for Papers:
You are invited to develop proposals for full papers, concise papers, posters and workshops for ascilite 2008. The submission deadlines for all papers and proposals can be found at this link:
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/melbourne08/cfpdeadlines.htm
11.4 eLearning Forum Asia 2008 (eLF2008)
Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, is pleased to announce that it is hosting eLearning Forum Asia 2008 (eLF2008) from 29-30 May, 2008.
Details of keynote sessions and programme are now available at the website.
12. Odd one out
NewsMap: This is an unusual site with literally hundreds of ‘snapshots’ of the latest news headlines from across the globe. Hold the cursor over a particular headline and get a synopsis of the news item , or click on the headline to take you to the relevant Website for more detail.