Group items tagged

"The development of the information society and the widespreaddiffusion of information technology give rise to new opportunities for learning. At the same time, they challenge established views and practices regarding how teaching and learning should be organised and carried out. Higher educational institutions have been using the Internet and other digital technologies to develop and distribute education for several years. Yet, until recently, much of the learning materials were locked up behind passwords within proprietary systems, unreachable for outsiders. The open educational resource (OER) movement aims to break down such barriers and to encourage and enable freely sharing content."

"Instructional Consulting is proud to present Dr. Curt Bonk, Professor in Instructional Systems Technology, Indiana University, in a video series addressing the design and best practices of Distance Education courses. The videos are about 10 minutes long and each topic is accompanied by a list of useful resources."

"Google's Chrome team made a number of major announcements this morning, including the unveiling of the long-awaited Chrome Operating System."

The University of Zurich has been trying to build an editor for eLML for a long time (nearly since the beginning of the eLML project). After two unsuccessful approaches a third approach based on the Mozilla Firefox Plugin technology led to success. In summer 2008 the first beta version of the Firedocs eLML Editor was released. So what is Firedocs? Firedocs is a webbased XML editor for Mozilla Firefox that the University of Zurich has developed for both its Content Management System UniCMS and for eLML, the eLesson Markup Language. Both the UniCMS and eLML are XML-based strategic tools of the University of Zurich and needed an easy to use editor. The Firedocs project has now become an autonomous open source project but it offers extensions for both eLML and UniCMS. The editor provided on this website is already compiled containing the eLML extensions you will need to create and edit eLML lessons.

Article by R Tolley on ePortfolios. There is much here that I disagree with, inasmuch that Tolley seems to be making claims that are now out of date. The fact that many people at a conference came from HE doesn't mean that HE is hijacking anything. There should be a disclaimer note attached to the text too since Tolley is a reseller for an ePortfolio system. That said, the article is worth having in the collection.

"In the context of a growing emphasis on eLearning, most commonly facilitated by enterprise-scale Learning Management System and a range of institutionally managed and supported communication and collaboration software tools, and in an environment of increasing emphasis on intellectual property rights management and quality assurance, how do universities (and other educational institutions) respond to the use of free, open-access tools in common use by their students? What are the potential educational uses of such tools? What are the current practices of use of these tools within educational institutions? What are the issues, risks and hidden costs? What are the advantages and benefits?"

Project site for open source webconferencing system. One to watch.

Video resources about using clickers (student response systems) at university.

Over time the learner has been the explorer of knowledge, its accumulator and skilled 'access-or'. In the 21st century challenges and demands are expanding and changing again. Our new society's environment is one of rapid communication, action and change, of intricate social activity and a huge potential for new knowledge. What are the models of the learner for this brave new world? How can higher education create these models and support the learners who aspire to them? This paper postulates four models of the learner of the future: * the collaborator: for whom networks of knowledge, skills and ideas are the source of learning * the free agent: utilising flexible, continuous, open-ended and life-long styles and systems of learning to the full * the wise analyser: able to gather, scrutinise and use evidence of effective activity and apply conclusions to new problems * the creative synthesiser: able to connect across themes and disciplines, cross-fertilise ideas, integrate disparate concepts and create new vision and practice. The paper describes an example of these kinds of learning and considers what they might imply for the development of learning in higher education in the coming century

A group looking to extend education beyond testing and into life skills. "A gulf has opened up between what education systems provide and what children and young people need. Our schools and colleges rightly try to to ensure that young people are literate, numerate and gain academic qualifications. But the emphasis on testing and passing exams often squeezes out other skills that are just as vital in today's world. The leading non-political and non-profit-making organisations that have come together to form Whole Education are determined to change this. They want all young people to receive a well-rounded education that they can relate to. They want all to learn practical skills such as communication and teamwork, to develop qualities such as resilience and empathy and to acquire knowledge that goes beyond literacy and numeracy to an understanding of our culture. A Whole Education will combine practical skills with theory, vocational and academic study for all young people whatever their ability."

The University of California, Davis has stopped using Gmail for its 30,000-member staff and faculty body. The university was trying Gmail for faculty and staff with plans to roll out service to the entire campus. But school officials say the e-mail system isn't secure or private enough to meet their standards.

"Using intelligent tutoring systems, virtual laboratories, simulations, and frequent opportunities for assessment and feedback, the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) builds courses that are intended to enact instruction - or, more precisely, to enact the kind of dynamic, flexible, and responsive instruction that fosters learning."

Interactive voting system using a Moodle plug-in.

First stable release in 2003 - the following description sounds uncannily familiar! "iPeer is an open source web application application that allows instructors to develop and deliver  rubric-based peer evaluations, to review and release student comments, to build progress report forms online, and to analyze evaluation results. iPeer features a built-in user management system, data import/export, and an easy-to-use installer."

"Gephi is an interactive visualization and exploration platform for all kinds of networks and complex systems, dynamic and hierarchical graphs.Runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Gephi is open-source and free"

"This report analyses tertiary sector e-learning provision at a system, sub-sector and course level from 2004 to 2008. The sub-sectors focused on in the report are universities and polytechnics and the course levels bachelors degrees and certificates (Levels 1-4). Participation in e-learning course at these levels over the same time period is analysed by focusing on the following learner groups: 18-19 year olds, the 40+ age group, Māori, Pasifika and European and females and males Author: Peter Guiney, Tertiary Sector Performance Analysis team (Ministry of Education) Date Published: May 2011"

Presentation introducing faculty to Athabasca University's social networking system (based on elgg?). I particularly like slide 10 showing a fourth integrative pedagogy.

Landing is an Elgg install (currently v1.7.7). Brighton University also have (had?) an elgg install, open for staff and students to create whatever communities they wanted. Noticed that New Zealand Ministry of Education is also an Elgg user (according to Elgg site)

"'Qualification inflation' is how governments avoid having to do anything about underemployment, and it generates a massive bureaucracy that has its own interests in perpetuating the system."

The move from a tutorial and learning system for the elite to the massification of lectures in the early 19th Century.