Archive for category eLearning 2.0
Free and Open Source Project Management Resources (on your own server)
Posted by enzofsilva in Technology, eLearning 2.0, social media on September 21, 2009
There seem to be many free desktop applications for project management out there. Funny enough, most of the ones I encounter seem to claim they are also “open source”. The average user normally doesn’t care whether a product is open source or not since they won’t be developers after all. But it is good to keep in mind that most open source products have a developer community that is comprised of dedicated, often fanatic =) folks that will work hard on improving the product in their spare time and you can also benefit from that ideal.
Here is a short list of desktop project management software that is, open and free:
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Online project management tools (free with some limitations) are now an easy thing to find since the Web has was labeled “Web 2.0″. Normally they include file sharing with version tracking and milestones. I have been pleased with Basecamp, but there are many similar products that are very similar and bring different features to offer that might be worth looking at. Many of them have applications available for mobile devices as well, making project managing accessible virtually from anywhere (where there is an internet connection):
Well, you get the idea… too many options… and prices are similar.
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Some people also use wikis for managing projects collaboratively due to their ease of use for quick edits, attachments, ability to have multiple users contribute at once. Timelines, milestones, file sharing, to-do lists, project design documents, etc. Can all be easily maintained on a simple wiki.
Many companies use internal wikis on their servers with different permission levels.
You might also want to take a look at pbWorks’ plans (former pbWiki), the free account is good enough for most people managing small projects. Right now they have a limit if 20GB for file storage, etc.
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The most interesting idea are actually team project management engines that you can simply install on your own Web server and keep total control over them (Basecamp clones). While you could pay activeCollab for access to their installation files and support, there are many free and open source options to explore before committing to purchasing anything :
ProjectPier - a php-based clone of Basecamp. Extremely similar look and feel.
DotProject – Although it looks more “raw” than others and certainly doesn’t bring the latest “Web 2.0″ look and feel out of the box, this project has a lot to offer including a ticketing system for bug submission and other support requests.
Collabtive – This server-side project management is very easy to install on your server. A little problem I found is that out of the box you can only share files up to 8 MB and I wasn’t able to find information on whether this can be changed or not.
Content Management Systems (CMS) like Drupal and Joomla are also so flexible that they make it possible for you to tweak them and add certain modules to a point where they work like (or better than) famous Web-based project management systems out there (aka Basecamp, GoPlan, etc).
OpenAtrium – Project Management based on Drupal.
ProjectFork - JoomlaPraise’s Joomla-based project management server-side portal (more hyphens, please?).
TeamBox – Ruby on Rails and open source team collaboration suite.
Other open source Web-based project management software that you can install on your server can be found on this post by nixCraft.
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You might also be interested in free open source ticketing systems. And here you go:
A list from, well, Open Source Help Desk List.com.
Did You Know 4.0
Posted by enzofsilva in Technology, Web 2.0, eLearning 2.0, learning, social media on September 17, 2009
All right… annoying version number aside, this is an interesting video similar to Shift Happens and other “trendy” videos out there about how social media and the Web are becoming even more important as more and more people get access to these technologies. And, well, of course, how knowledge is becoming less of an authoritative “institution” as social media makes it possible for “anyone” (that has the technology and means) to be authors of content.
Now, what else do WE need to know to have this supposedly democratic vision of knowledge creation impact even more how we teach, it already impacts how we learn…
Record Screencasts and Demos with no Downloads
Posted by enzofsilva in Reviews, Technology, Web 2.0, eLearning 2.0 on September 12, 2009
It is nice not to have to download any programs if you want to record simple screencasts and demos (and in SIMPLE steps) of your computer screen.
Here is an good review of ScreenToaster by Jane Hart.
What is even better is not to have to create yet a new username and password for yet another website. That is where ScreenJelly differs from ScreenToarter: although ScreenJelly works pretty much in the same way, you can simply login with your Twitter account… Well, if you don’t have a Twitter account yet, go get one and play with it at least to know what the hype is about…
ScreenCastle is another simple, one-button, Java-based screen recorder that works with not need for complicated software installation. It is based on Skoffer, which offer a useful option for the bloggers out there: if you are an advanced (well, somewhat advanced) user, you can use their API to build plug it into your existing website for even quicker recordings.
Best of all, these tools are free of charge (as of this writing).
Essential iPhone Apps for Students and Educators
Posted by enzofsilva in eLearning 2.0 on August 10, 2009
MacWorld published the “Ten Essential Back to School iPhone Apps”. While they chose very good apps, they might have left out a few other interesting apps as well. A possible improvement on the “top X apps for students” post idea would be to have different school levels (Pre-school, Middle School, High School, Higher Ed., etc.) AND different subjects in subcategories (General Apps, History, Math, Politics, Books, etc.) as well and list the apps that pertain to those categories only. This process would probably make it even more useful for students’ specific needs.
I still think that Education iPhone apps have to do a lot of catching-up to do in order to achieve the same level of excellence of other apps such as the games we now see on the iPhone.
However, there are some other good apps out there for Education such as the “100 Words Series” to help you sound smart in that test or paper. The iPhone seems to be a good platform for word lists and dictionaries, thesaurus-like lists, etc. (even Dictionary.com has their own apps).
For Educators, check out this list of “Top 50 Apps for Educators” from the Online Education Database.
Waze, the Driver-generated GPS – Crowdsourcing Navigation – Free GPS for the iPhone
Posted by enzofsilva in eLearning 2.0 on August 8, 2009
Yeah, the concept of crowdsourcing has been everyone. The wisdom of the crowd is something that has been more in evidence lately and Web 2.0 technologies allow for people to get together and collaborate on products, websites, information gathering, etc.
Now it’s the navigation systems’ turn. With Waze, drivers submit new routes, traffic updates and more on ever-evolving maps.
And it’s free for the iPhone.
From their official website:
“What are waze drivers building?
Waze is a social mobile application providing free turn-by-turn navigation based on the live conditions of the road.
100% powered by users, the more you drive, the better it gets. Join the community of drivers in your area today!”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU9hVdb-rp8]
Adobe recruiting beta testers for Captivate on Mac!
Posted by enzofsilva in eLearning 2.0 on June 30, 2009
Metaverse Roadmap Overview
Posted by enzofsilva in eLearning 2.0 on June 24, 2009
I just came across a great article from the Metaverse Roadmap Overview with some interesting findings, discussions and survey results around virtual worlds, game-based learning, augmented reality and other innovative ways or using virtual world technologies mixed with “real world” ones to create new realities.
As stated in the article:
“Virtual worlds increasingly augment the economic and social life of physical world communities. The sharpness of many virtual and physical world distinctions will be eroded going forward. In both spaces, issues of identity, trust and reputation, social roles, rules, and interaction remain at the forefront.”
Opera Unite – Sharing Content Directly
Posted by enzofsilva in eLearning 2.0 on June 19, 2009
Opera Unite launched earlier this week, providing services that make it possible for users to share content seamlessly with one another via the Web with no need for uploads! Many tech blogs like TechCrunch are all over this.
Warning, *dork* attempt at a poetic verse: “The cloud just got lighter and can probably fly higher.”
Read the Introduction to Opera Unite.
Anyways, this is great news (and let’s see how long it lasts before someone makes it a security issue or unscrupulous hackers find a way to take advantage of the system). Right now, most of the applications that let you share content from your computer to the internet require at least an initial upload or are limited to small files, etc. The services offered in the Opera Unite bundle (with more to come since they are letting developers design apps to their service) create a direct connection through the Web to your audience’s computers without the need for an uploads or plugin downloads on the viewers’ side. Basically turning any home computer into powerful Web servers.
I love the idea of sharing with no FTP, no middlemen…
It seems to be a one way road still, meaning I give my friends access to certain folders (or websites) on my computer and they can see access those files. I am still not sure (haven’t done enough testing) to see if they can then put their own files in that folder I shared with them, making it a mutual file repository.
In the future, it would be interesting to see them design something that would allow for file EDITING online for easy simultaneous collaborative authoring, similar to what LiveDrive does with Zoho and iPaper integration.
from TechCrunch
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5hr-6cw4M8]
Create Web Apps for you Favorite Sites
Posted by enzofsilva in eLearning 2.0 on May 15, 2009
Too much information out there to keep up with…
What about creating your own Web Apps (browser-based applications) for your most visited websites?
On Windows, use Mozilla’s Prism. Click “download Prism for Windows on the following page and follow the instructions.
For Mac OSX, use Fluid, which works in a similar fashion to Prism but is made to be compatible and integrated with Mac OSX.
Crowdsourcing eLearning (Feedback)
Posted by enzofsilva in eLearning 2.0 on May 13, 2009
I understand crowdsourcing courses, lessons and other eLearning-related material can be a tough call for any sector (corporate, K12, etc.). But has anyone had any experience crowdsourcing the development of learning experiences from a user feedback perspective at least?
One question could be how is crowdsourcing feedback different from simply putting a feedback button on your website or a particular lesson or product? Crowdsourcing seems to be more powerful since instead of relying on static feedback submitted by individual users at a given time, when feedback is given in a community-driven platform, it can much more powerful. Users will spark discussions around one’s content in a dynamic manner, sharing their thoughts and ideas from perspectives others might not have considered if submitting a single “feedback ticket”.
So, again, has anyone used crowdsourcing for engaging the learners in the development process?
Services that use crowdsourcing for feedback and product ideas include (not limited to):
OK, I might need to stop here, the “idea/innovation management” crowdsourcing field seems to be the one that suffers the most from “cloning” in the social media era… almost like they ran out of ideas for innovative takes on the same topic… 
Here is a more comprehensive list of crowdsourcing modalities and websites.
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