Monday, September 28, 2009

Connectivism and related concepts

I have been struggling with keeping up with the connectivism course and defining the concepts and determining how they apply to learning. I feel somewhat successful with seeing the connection between social learning theory, systems learning theory, and connectivism

Social Learning is defined as follows:

Social learning theory focuses on the learning that occurs within a social context. It considers that people learn from one another, including such concepts as observational learning, imitation, and modeling. (retrieved from http://teachnet.edb.utexas.edu/~lynda_abbott/Social.html)

Social Learning Theory posits that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling. The theory has often been called a bridge between behaviorist and cognitive learning theories because it encompasses attention, memory, and motivation. (retrieved from http://www.learning-theories.com/social-learning-theory-bandura.html)

Systems learning theory (team learning)

Systems learning theory: from Senge's concept of "team learning." Team learning in this context focuses instead on the transmission of both tacit and explicit knowledge throughout the group as well as the creation of an environment in which focused creativity can flourish. Three aspects of team learning were identified as follows: "the ability to think insight fully about complex issues, the ability to take innovative, coordinated action, the ability to create a network that will allow other teams to take action."

Other applicable theories/concepts:


Cybernetics is the theory of communication and control based on regulatory feedback. Further definitions include: "a science concerned with the study of systems of any nature which are capable of receiving, storing, and processing information so as to use it for control"-A.N. Kolmogorov

"Cybernetique= the art of growing"--A.M. Ampere

In the book Communities of Play the author Celia Peace identified communities of play in the context of communities of practice. Communities of practice can be defined as: Community of Practice (CoP) is the process of social learning that occurs and the shared sociocultural practices that emerge and evolve when people who have common goals interact as they strive towards those goals. (retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_practice). And as follows: community of practice defines itself along three dimensions:

  • What it is about – its joint enterprise as understood and continually renegotiated by its members
  • How it functions mutual engagement that bind members together into a social entity
  • What capability it has produced – the shared repertoire of communal resources (routines, sensibilities, artifacts, vocabulary, styles, etc.) that members have developed over time.

Pearce used the following definition for community of practice as "a group of individuals who engage in a process of collective learning and maintain a common identity defined by a shared domain of interest or activity." Furthermore the definition of community is offered as an association of individuals with a collective will that is enacted through individual effort.

What does it mean to learn? How long has it been since you have looked at the definition: Learning is acquiring new knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, preferences or understanding, and may involve synthesizing different types of information.

Another related concept is that of autopoetic systems which are 'structurally coupled' with their medium, embedded in a dynamic of changes that can be recalled as sensory-motor coupling. This continuous dynamic is considered as at least a rudimentary form of knowledge or cognition and can be observed throughout life-forms.

Finally the concept of "participative pedagogy," as defined by Rheingold is that "we must develop a participative pedagogy, that focuses on catalyzing, inspiring, nourishing, facilitating and guiding literacies essential to individual and collective life in the 21st century.

Ultimately connectivitism ties all of the above together, fundamentally connectivism is the acquisition and distribution on knowledge across a network of connections. George Siemens asserts that learning is primarily social while Stephen Downes that learning can occur without a society. Further observations identify learning as an immersion into one's community, that learning is social. Connectivism takes the above concepts and theories one step further and recognizes how the underlying technology facilities or provides a platform for the creation of a personal learning network.
















Monday, September 21, 2009

18 Free Online Art Education Resources

18 Free Online Art Education Resources

If you would love to explore your creative side by learning more about art, art history, drawing, painting, graphic design, or visual or performing arts but think you're limited by time and/or financial constraints, check out these 18 free online art education resources:

Art History

1. Introduction to Art History (University of Utah): focuses on how art has developed through history and various cultures.
2. About University Art History Courses: chronological descriptions of important periods in art history.
3. Art History Now & Then: links useful for learning art history in traditional and modern ways.
4. Free Online Art History Textbook: a great alternative to those huge, overwhelming college art history textbooks.
5. University of Wisconsin Resource List: geared toward college and graduate students, this is an impressive collection of some of the best art history resources on the Internet.

Drawing and Painting

6. Arty Factory Drawing, Painting, and Designing Lessons: free, illustrated art lessons.
7. Draw Space Drawing Lessons: beginner, intermediate, and advanced lessons, including specific subjects like perspective, caricatures, animals, and faces.
8. About University Email Painting Courses: courses arrive right to your inbox and you can do them whenever you like!
9. Interactive Art School Oil Painting Mini Courses: 12 mini-lessons to get you started with basic techniques.
10. Larry's Art Watercolor Lessons: free lessons include those on color, perspective, masking fluid, and painting fish scales.

General Art

11. Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Art of Color: an exploration of the use of color in visual arts.
12. Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Philosophy of Film: a philosophical analysis of film art, including the advent of film technology and aesthetic problems of appearance and reality.
13. Minnesota State University - Philosophy of the Arts: examines the history of aesthetics.

Graphic Design

14. About.com Free Desktop Publishing Courses: list of free resources to learn desktop publishing from designing cards to creating newsletters.
15. Adobe Free Adobe Training Courses: try out Adobe products (like Photoshop) and get free training too.

Visual and Performing Arts

16. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Advanced Projects in the Visual Arts: Personal Narrative: investigates the use of personal narrative in cinema (as follow up to Introduction to Video)
17. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Theatre Arts Course: features materials and an image gallery detailing pre-rehearsal preparation through the final production of the Internationalist.
18. Tufts University Producing Films for Social Change: readings and discussions dealing with news, media ethics, the declining credibility of the press, responsibilities to the public, social justice issues, First Amendment principles, and more.

Also note that if you already have a bachelor's degree in any subject and are interested in pursuing graduate work in art or art history, some of the above-mentioned schools may also offer full online master degree programs as well.

Guest post by freelance writer Michelle Fabio, who has previously shared 10 Free Online Photography Courses, Tutorials, and Seminars here at the blog.



Michelle Fabio, Esq.
About.com Guide to Law School: http://lawschool.about.com
Life and love in southern Italy: http://bleedingespresso.com
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/michellefabio / http://twitter.com/lawschoolguide

Friday, September 18, 2009

Systems Theory and Connectivism ..is there a link?

As I listened to George Siemens and Stephen Downes discuss how they defined Connectivism, as a learning theory within their respective frames of reference, I started to consider how I would define it, what my frame of reference would be, even though some time and a lot of other things have occurred since my dissertation research I would say it would have to be systems theory. For those of you who are not familiar with systems theory it is: an interdisciplinary theory about the nature of complex systems in nature, society, and science. More specifically, it is a framework by which one can investigate and/or describe any group of objects that work in concert to produce some result. (retrieve from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_theory, 9/18/09) In essence, it is based upon the notion that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts...it got me to thinking about how connectivism which is defined as: the thesis that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections, and therefore that learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse those network, by Stepen Downes in his blog; Half an Hour. (retrieved 9/18/09) Further definitions of connectivism include the following; "a learning theory for the digital age," has been developed by George Siemens and Stephen Downes based on their analysis of the limitations of behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism to explain the effect technology has had on how we live, how we communicate, and how we learn...(retrieved from Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectivism_(learning_theory. )

Systems learning theory includes Senge's five disciplines which are: systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision and team learning.

Personal Mastery: Organizations learn only through individuals who learn. Individual learning does not guarantee organizational learning. But without it no organizational learning occurs....People with a high level of personal mastery live in a continual learning mode. They never ‘arrive’. (Senge, 1990)


Mental Models: Deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures and images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action... turning the mirror inward; learning to unearth our internal pictures of the world, to bring them to the surface and hold them rigorously to scrutiny. (Senge, 1990) Includes self-reflection, sharing with others, "mashing up," and knowledge creation


Building a shared vision: a shared vision is "something that inspires people and gets them to pull together for cooperative action. People really get energized by what their group is trying to accomplish...." (retrieved from http://www.healthyworkclimate.com/htm/Vision/sharedvisiondef.htm, 9/19/09)


Team learning: the process of aligning and developing the capacities of a team to credit the results as its members design---allows for rapid growth among team members or rapid learning---the use of technology allows for unique opportunities for teams to come together and practice the concepts of the five disciplines.


Systems theory is merely the frame of reference in which I place connectivism to better understand how the concept can be applied to learning. I can apply the discipline of personal mastery to connectivisim because it makes sense that in order for the individual to contribute to their network he or she first has to be an active learner, open to external opportunities to learn and continuously learn. From this putting aside any biases or barriers in order to better learn from others is necessary in accepting the critical elements associated with being open to the ideas of others in one's network. In this way one builds a "connections," develops a connectivism learning mindset, and contributes to team learning.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Connectivism cck09

ast night was my first class for Connectivism facilitated by Stephen Downes and George Siemens. Along with about 50 other students on Elluminate I was quite excited and honored to be included in this "ground breaking" opportunity to participate n an open education/course-ware class. Even though this class is open we still have certain expectations and requirements that we have been asked to meet in order to enhance our learning experience, one of them is that we blog or conduct some other collaborative initiative in order to achieve the outcomes of the course. Actually that is the easy part for me! I have the following sites with blogs: cathyandersonblog.com, www.cathyanderson.com and I am on Twitter as cathlanderson.

To be honest I had forgotten that this class was starting this month until I checked my email yesterday notifying students about the evening's Elluminate session. What delighted me a great deal was that very morning I had been spending some time researching different collaboration tool available via Web 2.0 and what had initiated that was the fact that I had been reading the 2008 Horizons report the night before. I am intrigued by the rise in Collaboration tools via the web in addition to the variety of other tools I have been researching, when I have a chance to "squeeze" that into my day. In addition to researching these tools I have also been testing another tool, Evernote in order to keep and organize my findings.

Connectivism is a new learning theory coined by George Siemens. According to Stephen Downes' blog Connectivism is; the thesis that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections, and therefore that learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse those networks....shares with some other theories a core proposition, that knowledge is not acquired, as though it were a thing. Hence people see a relation between connectivism and constructivism or active learning (to name a couple). Given this I see a real connection between my research on collaborative web tools and the focus of this course. Further linking my search for collaborative web tools I jotted down the definition of collective intelligence, which I see linked to connectivism as wel, from Wikipedial it is...Collective intelligence is a shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals. Collective intelligence appears in a wide variety of forms of consensus decision making in bacteria, animals, humans, and computer networks. I like the fact that this definition also notes the "competition" that sometimes needs to occur as this does not denote "group think," or the "hive mind" type of thinking that is defined as inWikipedia .." a type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas. Individual creativity, uniqueness, and independent thinking are lost in the pursuit of group cohesiveness, as are the advantages of reasonable balance in choice and thought that might normally be obtained by making decisions as a group.

The Horizon 2008 report notes that "the way we work, collaborate and communicate is evolving as boundaries become more fluid and globalization increases. Further driving these changes is the portability of tools that we can use to access content and the Internet which will facilitate and enhance our ability to collaborate and work together. Other notes that I made on the report that are integrated with the course are:

The renewed emphasis on collaborative learning is pushing the education community to develop new forms of interaction and assessment


The "academy" is faced with a need to provide formal instruction in information, visual and technological literacy as well as in how to crate meaningful content with today's tools

The growing use of Web 2.0 and Social Networking ---combined with collective intelligence and mass automation is gradually but inexorably changing the practice of scholarship



Doing this sort of research on the web is sometimes exciting, but more often than not overwhelming and the availability of these tools is no exception. Evaluating and separating the useful from the useless, as Barry Dahl would say, is the challenge. It is a time of great change in how we work together, access information (or how information comes to us), on the web, and the tools we use to access that information, and how we build knowledge. I can think of no better time to be an "addicted" researcher and have a passion for education and "trying" to follow these trends.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Open Education Resources

Overview of the Open e-Learning Content Observatory Services program (OLCOS) and Open Education Resources

The OLCOS state aim “at building an (online) information and observation centre for promoting the concept, production and usage of open educational resources, in particular, open digital educational content (ODEC) in Europe.” According to the report on the OLCOS, Open Educational Resources, Open Eduction Roadmap, published in January 2007 the purpose is to “carry out a set of activities that aim at fostering a set of activities that aim at fostering the creation, sharing and re-use of Open Education Resources—(OER). The following overview will define the terminology associated with OER and OLCOS, identify the range of sites that provide open education resources, the development of WEB 2.0, Web 3.0 and the benefits and challenges associated with OER. This report addresses the need ‘to foster open practices of teaching and learning that are informed by a competency based educational framework.”

OER is defined as access to open content, including meta-data that is provided free of charge for educational institutions, content services, and the end users such as teachers, students and lifelong learners. It is intended that the content is liberally licensed for re-use in educational activities, favorable free from restriction to modify, combine and re purpose the content, consequently that the content should ideally be designed for re-use in the open content standards. The development of Web2.0 complimented OER very well. OER is based upon the collaboration of teams in reviewing and ensuring the quality of resources. Given that Web 2.0 is various defined in this article by O’Reilly as fundamentally user driven, collaborative, user designer, interactive, and dynamic. Further definitions of Web 2.0 can be found in Wikipedia, expanded by the advent of personal learning environments which is defined as: systems that help learners take control of and manage their own learning. This includes providing support for learners to set their own learning goals,manage their learning; managing both content and process,communicate with others in the process of learning, and thereby achieve their learning goals. Guides such as this Web2practice maybe helpful in further defining the role of Web2.0 in teaching and learning. “Web2Practice is a site which provides guides to emergent technologies and innovative practice,” retrieved from the website.
OER provide benefits to the following stakeholders: Instructors, learners or students, and employers
Personal Learning Environments are further defined here by Graham Atwell as recognizing that learning is ongoing and seeks to provide tools to support that learning. It also recognizes the role of the individual in organising his or her own learning. Moreover, the pressures for a PLE are based on the idea that learning will take place in different contexts and situations and will not be provided by a single learning provider. Linked to this is an increasing recognition of the importance
of informal learning.

Open education resources and learning object repositories provide access to resources which a learner can use for creating his/her own personal learning environment in order to achieve certain learning outcomes. OER may include free and open textbook sites, learning object repositories, documentary and video sites, document sites, etc. A list of some of these is as follows;

Open Education Resources:

iBerry is a non-profit making, private website providing information and resources for learners, educators, researchers and anyone else with an interest in Higher Education.

Learning object repository:

Merlot: a leading edge, user-centered, search-able collection of peer reviewed and selected higher education, online learning materials, catalogued by registered members and a set of faculty development support services. MERLOT’s vision is to be a premiere online community where faculty, staff, and students from around the world share their learning materials and pedagogy.

New Media Consortium maintains this directory of learning object repositories on the web.

Online books and textbooks:

FlatWorldKnowledge: Our peer-reviewed books are written by experts, professionally developed and supported by supplements. There the similarity to traditional books ends. Our books are free online in multiple formats (softcover, audio, self-print versions) and open-source so you can modify them to fit your course.

OpenTextbook: Open Text Book is a registry of textbooks (and related materials) which are open — that is free for anyone to use, reuse and redistribute. It is run by the Open Knowledge Foundation

Video:

Top Documentary Films: TDF offers full watchable documentaries and information on documentaries by quoting reviews from trusted sources. In case you decide to buy your favorite documentary film, or you want to get some more information on some of the docs (documentaries) there is a store available for that. Documentaries are classified in categories and you can easily find what you are looking for.

The Internet archive: The archive maintains a moving images library of free movies, films, and videos. This librayr contains thousands of digital movies uplaoded by Archive users which range fromclassic full-length films, to daily alternative news broadcasts, to cartoons and concerts. Many of these videos are available for free download.

Snag films: is committed to finding the world‘s most compelling documentaries, whether from established heavyweights or first-time filmmakers, and making them available to the wide audience these titles deserve. SnagFilms.com is a website where you can watch full-length documentary films for free, but we’re also a platform that lets you “snag” a film and put it anywhere on the web. With a library of over 850 films, and rapidly growing, you’re bound to find films that resonate with your interests. We make it easy for you to find a film that shines a light on a cause you care about. You can then open a virtual movie theater on any web site, so any one can watch your favorite SnagFilms for free.


Virtual reality:

Virtual body: Just found this one today!

The Forbidden City: Beyond Space and Time is a partnership between the Palace Museum and IBM. The goal of the project is to provide the means for a world-wide audience to celebrate and explore aspects of Chinese culture and history

Second Life sites such as: Frank Lloyd Wright Museum, Sci-lands, Goethe Institute, Caledon, The Tut exhibit, and business maintained sites

Semantic Web Initiatives such as

Folksemantics

Aardvark

Twine

Olnet.org To search out the evidence for use and reuse of open educational resources…..stated purpose from the website; the aim of OLnet is to tackle gathering evidence and methods about how we can research and understand ways to learn in a more open world, particularly linked to Open Educational Resources (OER) but also looking at other influences. We want to gather evidence together but also spot the ideas that people see emerging from the opportunities.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Open Education Resources

Overview of the Open e-Learning Content Observatory Services program (OLCOS)

The OLCOS state aim "at building an (online) information and observation center for promoting the concept, production and usage of open educational resources, in particular, open digital educational content (ODEC) in Europe." According to the report on the OLCOS,Open Educational Practices and Resources. OLCOS Roadmap 2012, published in January 2007 the purpose is to "carry out a set of activities that aim at fostering a set of activities that aim at fostering the creation, sharing and re-use of Open Education Resources---(OER). The following overview will define the terminology associated with OER and OLCOS, identify the range of sites that provide open education resources, the development of WEB 2.0, Web 3.0 and the benefits and challenges associated with OER. This report address the need 'to foster open practices of teaching and learning that are informed by a competency based educational framework."


OER is defined as access to open content, including meta-data that is provided free of charge for educational institutions, content services, and the end users such as teachers, students and lifelong learners. It is intended that the content is liberally licensed for re-use in educational activities, favorable free from restriction to modify, combine and re purpose the content, consequently that the content should ideally be designed for re-use in the open content standards. The development of Web2.0 complimented OER very well. OER is based upon the collaboration of teams in reviewing and ensuring the quality of resources. Given that Web 2.0 is various defined in this article by O'Reilly as fundamentally user driven, collaborative, user designer, interactive, and dynamic. Further definitions of Web 2.0 can be found in Wikipedia, expanded by the advent of personal learning environments which is defined as: systems that help learners take control of and manage their own learning. This includes providing support for learners to set their own learning goals,manage their learning; managing both content and process,communicate with others in the process of learning, and thereby achieve their learning goals. Guides such as this; Web2practice maybe helpful in further defining the role of Web2.0 in teaching and learning. "Web2Practice is a site which provides guides to emergent technologies and innovative practice," retrieved from the website.


OER provide benefits to the following stakeholders: Instructors, learners or students, and employers
Personal Learning Environments are further defined here by Graham Atwell as recognizing that learning is ongoing and seeks to provide tools to support that learning. It also recognizes the role of the individual in organising his or her own learning. Moreover, the pressures for a PLE are based on the idea that learning will take place in different contexts and situations and will not be provided by a single learning provider. Linked to this is an increasing recognition of the importance of informal learning.

Open education resources and learning object repositories provide access to resource which a learner can use for creating his/her own personal learning environment in order to achieve certain learning outcomes. OER may include free and open textbook sites, learning object repositories, documentary and video sites, document sites, etc. A list of some of these is as follows;



Open Education Resources:

iBerry is a non-profit making, private website providing information and resources for learners, educators, researchers and anyone else with an interest in Higher Education.


Learning object repository:

Merlot: a leading edge, user-centered, search-able collection of peer reviewed and selected higher education, online learning materials, catalogued by registered members and a set of faculty development support services. MERLOT's vision is to be a premiere online community where faculty, staff, and students from around the world share their learning materials and pedagogy.

New Media Consortium maintains this directory of learning object repositories on the web.



Online books and textbooks:

FlatWorldKnowledge: Our peer-reviewed books are written by experts, professionally developed and supported by supplements. There the similarity to traditional books ends. Our books are free online in multiple formats (softcover, audio, self-print versions) and open-source so you can modify them to fit your course.

OpenTextbook: Open Text Book is a registry of textbooks (and related materials) which are open — that is free for anyone to use, reuse and redistribute. It is run by the Open Knowledge Foundation



Video:

Top Documentary Films: TDF offers full watchable documentaries and information on documentaries by quoting reviews from trusted sources. In case you decide to buy your favorite documentary film, or you want to get some more information on some of the docs (documentaries) there is a store available for that. Documentaries are classified in categories and you can easily find what you are looking for.


The Internet archive: Welcome to the Archive's Moving Images library of free movies, films, and videos. This library contains thousands of digital movies uploaded by Archive users which range from classic full-length films, to daily alternative news broadcasts, to cartoons and concerts. Many of these videos are available for free download


Snag films:

is committed to finding the world‘s most compelling documentaries, whether from established heavyweights or first-time filmmakers, and making them available to the wide audience these titles deserve.

SnagFilms.com is a website where you can watch full-length documentary films for free, but we’re also a platform that lets you “snag” a film and put it anywhere on the web. With a library of over 850 films, and rapidly growing, you’re bound to find films that resonate with your interests. We make it easy for you to find a film that shines a light on a cause you care about. You can then open a virtual movie theater on any web site, so any one can watch your favorite SnagFilms for free.




Virtual reality:

Virtual body: Just found this one today!

The Forbidden City: Beyond Space and Time is a partnership between the Palace Museum and IBM. The goal of the project is to provide the means for a world-wide audience to celebrate and explore aspects of Chinese culture and history


Second Life sites such as: Frank Lloyd Wright Museum,


Semantic Web Initiatives such as

Folksemantics


Aardvark

Twine

Olnet.org To search out the evidence for use and reuse of open educational resources.....stated purpose from the website; the aim of OLnet is to tackle gathering evidence and methods about how we can research and understand ways to learn in a more open world, particularly linked to Open Educational Resources (OER) but also looking at other influences. We want to gather evidence together but also spot the ideas that people see emerging from the opportunities.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Discussion resources for The World is Open

The World is Open How Technology is Revolutionizing Education By Curtis Bonk

Books such as Bonk's nudge education towards change, perhaps nudge is not the right word, but if education moves a nudge it's a huge leap. Education maybe open but it's definitely not flat..there are tall peaks and low valleys..the peaks being new initiatives such as the University of the People, Peer 2 Peer and, of course MIT. What Bonk has done is to take a systems view of these initiatives. Each of these, viewed individually may not seem so disruptive on its own. Taken as whole these initiatives are rapidly changing traditional education.



This book is written in order on conceptualize the following: We All Learn

W: Web Searching in the World of EBooks
E: E-Learning and blended learning
A: Availability of open source and free software
L: Leveraged resources open courseware
L: Learning object repositories and portals
L: Learner participation in open information communities
e: Electronic collaboration
A: Alternative Reality Learning
R: Real time Mobility and Portability
N: Networks of personalized learning



What follows is a short list of resources which I found on the web that I felt related to each of Bonk's key points. I was excited to find some semantic resources for one or two of these. One that I did not include here is Twine which I discussed in an earlier post.



Web Searching in the world of eBooks


Access Text Networking:

The AccessText Network facilitates and supports the national delivery of alternative electronic textbooks to higher education institutions for students with documented disabilities.

AccessText provides these textbooks by leveraging an online database powered by Intuit QuickBase® and incorporating publisher-provided information on thousands of textbook titles.


Open Textbook Initiative


Open Text Book is a registry of textbooks (and related materials) which are open — that is free for anyone to use, reuse and redistribute. It is run by the Open Knowledge Foundation.


Connexions


a place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc

. Anyone may view or contribute:

  • authors create and collaborate
  • instructors rapidly build and share custom collections
  • learners find and explore content




Examples of Affordable, Free and Open Textbooks

This page contains a vetted list of affordable, online educational resources that might be used in place of an expensive, commercial textbook. The focus of this list is usability; each resource was recommended by at least one professor who has assigned it. For links to other more extensive collections and repositories, see our links section.




http://www.maketextbooksaffordable.org/statement.asp?id2=37833




eLearning and Blended Learning

There are a variety of eLearning resources, free, open and with paid subscriptions on the internet.

Blended Learning: This page provides links to some resources on blended learning - that is a learning solution created through a mixture of face-to-face and online learning delivered through a mix of media.

Bonk referred to Notschool.net in the book which is: an international 'Online Learning Community' offering an alternative to traditional education for young people who, for a variety of reasons, are unable to engage with school or other complementary provisions such as home tutoring or specialist units.

eLearning according to Wikipedia may be defined as: a term which is commonly used, but does not have a common definition. Most frequently it seems to be used for web-based distance education, with no face-to-face interaction. However, also much broader definitions are common. For example, it may include all types of technology enhanced learning (TEL), where technology is used to support the learning process.

There are resources available such as eLearning Guild for professionals in the field of eLearning design.

ELearn Magazine


Availability of Open Source and Open Software

Open Source:
Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.


Leveraged resources open courseware


John Hopkins OpenCourseWare Initiative: project provides access to content of the School's most popular courses. As challenges to the world's health escalate daily, the School feels a moral imperative to provide equal and open access to information and knowledge about the obstacles to the public's health and their potential solutions.

The most current development in this area is folksemantic semantic website that pushes your education interests and needs to you. According to the website for the Center for Open and Sustainable Learning Folksemantic is:

"a project to create tools that increase the impact of open education resources by helping people find, filter, collaborate around, and remix them. As part of the project, work is underway to integrate the OCW Finder, OER Recommender, and Luvfoo. Plans are to improve these tools and add collaboration, personalized recommendation, widgets, and publishing features. COSL is holding an online meeting on March 26 to describe the Folksementic project and solicit input."


Learning Objects repository and portals

Flexible Learning Toolboxes (Toolboxes) are high quality, cost effective interactive e-learning and assessment resources featuring scenarios, images and activities. They are designed for use by training providers, industry and business and support online delivery of recognised training packages for the vocational education and training sector.



Learning Objects, Learning Activities: LOLA is an exchange for facilitating the sharing of high-quality learning objects. It contains materials for use across the curriculum, with a particular focus on modules for Information Literacy



Museums: an exhaustive list of museums on the web



Learning Participation in Open Information Communities

Students/learners creating learning objects such as YouTube videos, flickr, and scribd docs. These types of sites seem to proliferate on the web.

Electronic Collaboration


According to the Business Dictionary this is the: Process of monitoring, critiquing, and cooperating in a project or program by using internet, emails, groupware, etc.



Alternative Reality Learning:


Innovative learning games: alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive experience that uses the real world as a platform to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions"Alternate reality games leverage social technologies to some degree or another for game designers (known as puppetmasters) to provide information to participants, and for participants to communicate with leash other during the process of the game. ARGs are sometimes described as the first narrative art form native to the Internet, because their storytelling relies on the two main activities conducted there: searching for information, and sharing information."


Virtual reality education website


R
eal time Mobility Learning and Portability

Define as fromWikipedia: Mobile learning is: Any sort of learning that happens when the learner is not at a fixed, predetermined location, or learning that happens when the learner takes advantage of the learning opportunities offered by mobile technologies.

Mobile learning institute: Nokia, a world leader in mobile communications, and the Pearson Foundation sponsor the Mobile Learning Institute, which delivers engaging, personalized, project-based learning right to classrooms and community centers across the United States


Networks of Personalized Learning

Personalized Learning Space

This space is for folks interested in the idea of making learning (online, blended, or hybrid) more personalized. This includes not only learning design and instruction, but also the tools and technologies that can be used to make learning more personal.

Refer back to Folksemantic