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I've been thinking. If the highest level of e-learning is augmentation of existing teaching and learning capabilities, then why not investigate cloud supercomputers - the logical extrapolation of today's cloud computing. Imagine the learning possibilities if students could easily run simulations using real-world data to investigate real-world phenomena or even social ones, to see what would happen if you tweaked certain environmental / historical conditions. Then teachers could use the various simulated outcomes as a starting point for discussion purposes - e.g. if everyone on earth had a car, what would happen to the earth's temperatures in the next few years? and then ask further questions from there using fundamental principles. Less time spent on tedious models, and more time spent observing systems interactions, may help make the next generation of It sounds like a very high-level concept, but I think a practical example is when I used the speech-to-text convertor feature of an English dictionary app on my iPhone to help a boy learn how to pronounce words correctly. It turned a boring dictionary into a fun interactive game for him, and he learnt a few new words along the way. Just some food for thought this holiday season. Merry Christmas!

Pretty cool tool for clean HTML conversion from word document.

When I think about "infrastructure", I normally think about roads, wires, sewerage and so on. But how about educational technology and instructional design? From reading Don Norman's musings about infrastructure, I realized that if we want our technological implementations to be successfully adopted, very often it's essential to also consider the infrastructure needed to support our tech designs and implementations. Personally, I think infrastructure for education and instructional design need not always be physical things. They could be intangibles such as having to update a database, notify the relevant people in charge, call this person or that to come unlock the computer lab, etc. My mum's been a teacher for 40+ years. She's great. But she really hates the computer. Not because of the learning needed to use Microsoft Word. She's quite fine with it. But it's all the non-Microsoft Word things that she has to do - reboot, turn the computer on, manage the files, etc... - that makes her scream.  "It is time to work on infrastructure. It threatens to dominate our lives with ugliness, frustration, and work. We need to spend more time on the designs for infrastructure. We need to make it more attractive, more accessible, and easier to maintain. Infrastructure is intended to be hidden, to provide the foundation for everyday life. If we do not respond, it will dominate our lives, preventing us attending to our priory concerns and interests and instead, just keeping ahead of the maintenance demands." - Don Norman Food for thought: What are some underlying "infrastructure" (tangible and intangible) that I may encounter in an educational technology project? Are there existing infrastructure that I can take advantage of to minimize time and $? How can we minimize the amount of infrastructure maintenance needed?

For all of us who want to improve our writing skill, here's an article worth reading - I found it helpful.

Teaching with Facebook is a way for me to engage my students, since many of them will be on the site before, after, and during any lecture. More than engagement, using Facebook allows me to build a bridge between my classroom curricula and what my students are doing outside the lecture hall. I must admit that student expertise with digital media often exceeds my own, and my attempts at using Facebook function as a common language that sets up my classroom as an experimental space allowing students to take risks, make connections, and participate with an alternative teaching style. As much as there are a number of other Facebook educators-there is even a Facebook groups for educators-I am certain that on my university campus I am the only instructor using this social network. My university administration has accused me of subverting our institutional course management system. They are correct. Facebook may be a commercial enterprise, but I argue that students can maintain a Facebook identity after they leave university. The work done in our lecture as represented in our Facebook group is something that lasts beyond a typical university course management system. In other words, access to the information, discussion, links, and learning is not cut off once the course is over.

Not fantastically making use of AR but the word "Singapore" rings a bell.

The economy has changed, probably forever. School hasn't. School was invented to create a constant stream of compliant factory workers to the growing businesses of the 1900s. It continues to do an excellent job at achieving this goal, but it's not a goal we need to achieve any longer. In this 30,000 word manifesto, I imagine a different set of goals and start (I hope) a discussion about how we can reach them. One thing is certain: if we keep doing what we've been doing, we're going to keep getting what we've been getting. Our kids are too important to sacrifice to the status quo.

Instead of a compass telling you exactly which direction to go, it acts as a facilitator, allowing you to work out your own route - and discover new things along the way. This can serve as a metaphor for our 21st-century style of facilitated and directed e-learning. How can we use and even reverse the default affordances of a mobile phone to enhance exploratory and creative learning? Based on the above reflection, here's one random idea for stimulating creative learning using mobile apps: - Language: As you walk along a path, the phone automatically generates a "cloud" of words extracted from geolocated tweets associated with the location that you are currently on, and invites you to contribute your own tweets about your own location.

We go through days like these sometime. Here's 8 creative tips that will ensure you never use this horrendously destructive word ever again. 

Money issue about developing an mobile app heh. They have interesting ways to cut back budgets too in this new platform... like getting interested developer to buy in your idea , hiring interns, taking reference to existing applications etc. O'Reilly released many good technical issue books hence I think their words proved some credibility.

check out the other free tools challenge on the right.