Wcel_Team

One-click access to Moodle files from within MS Office apps. Is this necessarily a good thing? Is it encouraging us to use Moodle as a filing cabinet?

Office add-in for Moodle allows individuals to upload (and download and edit) files directly to moodle from office. "You no longer need to use your web browser when working with Office documents stored in Moodle" is their statement, which is interesting in thaqt everyone else is moving to the web as the platform!

"open source, open hardware, open community" (via @malckiwi)

I wonder whether you could run Moodle on a stick from within a dropbox?

Very short report on the change of the role of unis in providing content based courses. Thin, but notes OU has 360,000 iTunesU downloads per week and that the VC of the OU says that the value of an institution would not be its course content but how it motivated and supported students.

Good 2 page intro to threshold concepts in learning.

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

"So you buy the hardcover and then pirate a homebrew e-book ...the interesting question isn't one of law, it's one of ethics"

Google version of this book that looks at various ways of enhancing teaching both online and f2f.

Press release by MS on Gates statements, including reference to Gen-I

Interesting start page in a different style from NetVibes and PageFlakes.

Short comparison of revenue and profit of these 3 players.

preview versions of the new Google document and spreadsheet editors and a new standalone drawings editor, all built with an even greater focus on speed and collaboration. To get a taste of what's new today, check out our video

New version of OffiSync that now supports real-time collaboration! (And thankfully you now download the entire installer.)

Tony Hirst embeds the real-time twitter backchannel discussion into the JISC10 conference keynotes (or if you prefer your video without subtitles http://www.jisc.ac.uk/events/2010/04/jisc10/keynotes.aspx). Something for WCeLfest2011?

"David gave a presentation on the current features and future directions of BIM. Without a doubt, this add on to Moodle will greatly assist teachers trying to use blogs with large cohorts of students..."

"There are countless websites offering images, video and audio files for use in education, but it's not always easy to know which sites are most useful or appropriate. This advice document discusses general tools and strategies for finding digital resources and looks at many of the sites you can use as reliable sources."

"Curatr is a new platform for delivering learning experiences over the web. Curatr advocates learning through exploration, taking a path through content that suits your individual needs, getting rid of the dreaded 'next' button once and for all." Due for release summer 2010.

Great post on moving to Google Apps for Education and some of the things they would do differently in retrospect.

Site that supported the transition to Google Apps by a school in the US. Some useful resources.

A list of observed worst practices when implementing ICT in education.