Archive for category Technology
Google Forms Branching – Digital Story Telling
Posted by enzofsilva in Educational Games, Technology, Web 2.0, eLearning 2.0, learning, social media on July 26, 2010
The Google Apps team published a blog post explaining improvements to the Forms tool allowing form creators to easily configure branching of pages depending on the respondent’s choice for every question.
This feature has a lot of potential for digital story telling. Teachers or students can create interactive stories that evolve with the reader’s every choice.
In fact, the Google Apps team emphasizes this possible use on that same blog post with the sample interactive adventure “The Hunt for the terrible Dr. von Schneider”. To interact with this story, just click this link and then click “Choose this template” on the next page. This will add the form to YOUR spreadsheets. Go to your http://docs.google.com account and open the “Copy of Choose your own adventure form” spreadsheet. Click “Form” and “Go to live form” on the tool bar. Voilà!
It is a short little adventure but it illustrates the concept fairly well.
Based on the Google Apps team’s post, as easy as 1, 2, 3:
1. To create a story, go to Google Docs and create a new form with an enticing choice at the beginning.
2. Check the box next to Go to page based on answer while editing the question. Select the corresponding pages they should be directed to based on their answer.
3. Users can be sent back to the same page after being split apart during the story. Under the Add Item menu, select Page break. Then, select what page you’d like your form respondents to be directed to under the drop down menu in the page break.
Uses of the iPhone/iPod/iPad in the Classroom
Posted by enzofsilva in Educational Games, Technology, Web 2.0, eLearning 2.0, learning, schools on June 16, 2010
I came across a short presentation by Grace Poli from Union City High School on Slideshare.net. The presentaion focuses on practical ways for using the iPod Touch in class, but of courses the uses of all of Apple’s mobile devices are interchangeable most of the time since they have similar technical specifications.
Here are some highlights and resources from the presentation.
Resources and Ideas
- Apple Learning Interchange – http://ali.apple.com
- Learning in Hand – http://learninginhand.com
- iPods in Education Webcast – http://macenterprise.org
- iPods in Education: The Potential for Language Acquisition – http://e2t2.binghamton.edu/pdfs/ iPod_Lang_Acquisition_whitepaper.pdf
Unexpected Uses of the iPods
(http://www.oculture.com/2007/04/10_unexpected_u.html)
1. Train Doctors to Save Lives – American College of Cardiology indicates iPods are used to listen to recorded heart sounds to teach medical students how to better recognize different conditions 2. Bring Criminals to Justice – United States federal district court has started using iPods to hold copies of wiretap transmissions in a large drug-conspiracy case 3. Get Yourself Into Serious Shape – TrailRunner is a free program that helps you plan your route and then loads your iPods with maps, distances, and time goals
4. Tour Around Great Cities – iSubwayMaps lets you download subway maps from 24 major cities across the globe. They range from New York City, Paris, and Berlin to Moscow, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Audio tours of New York and Paris downloard Soundwalk narrated by a celebrity for $12.
5. Calculate the Right Tip – TipKalc helps you figure out the tip and grand total
6. Record Flight data – LoPresti Speed announced plans to use iPods as flight data recorders in light aircrafts (will have the ability to record over 500 hours of flight time data)
7. Throw a Meaner Curveball – Pitcher for the Houston Astros, started using video iPod to review pitching frame by frame to improved overall techniques 8. Learn Foreign Language – University students are using iPods to record lectures, take notes, and even create electronic flash cards 9. Memory Stick – save your Microsoft office files 10. Wikipedia – download one of the largest encyclopedias on your iPod (FREE)
More ideas from other practitioners can be found in the Apple Interchange Learning Community which I highlighted in a previous post.
GroceryiQ – Grocery Shopping at Your Fingertips
Posted by enzofsilva in Technology, mobile, social media on March 19, 2010
My wife and I installed the GroceryiQ app on our iPhones this past week. Perhaps one of the most useful apps I’ve ever installed.
We have a centrally shared shopping list that gets updated dynamically across our iPhones. so, when we add or check off any items, it gets updated immediately for both of us. If we want to divide and conquer, we go to separate areas of the store and get it done more quickly while having fun. Shopping fun? Yes: this app lets you scan items’ barcodes and add them automatically to your list, or you can just start typing an item’s name and it autosuggests entries for you.
Next: they need to make it more of a game with a point system. Would sure be fun to do a “shopping scavenger hunt” for products, for instance, with my wife and friends in my network.
Social Media Threat to Education?
Posted by enzofsilva in Technology, Web 2.0, eLearning 2.0, learning, schools, social media on March 11, 2010
“CNN Sees Facebook as Major Competitor” says Mashable’s writer Jennifer Van Grove in an article today. Even though it seems reasonable at first “well, people are getting their news first on Facebook”, media giants like CNN should look deeper into social media platforms as OPPORTUNITIES to reach more people with their news. Similar to what Mashable and many others already do, publishing their feed on Twitter, Facebook and many other channels. Readers will most likely read short blurbs from their friends about news of interest on social networks and, if the news are really interesting they will go to major websites to find more details about it. If the news giants already have their feeds going into popular social media channels, people will actually retweet, respost, spread the link, taking readers back to the main news site. CNN seems to miss the point…
And so do many people in charge of K12, Higher Education, eLearning departments at corporations, and other “authorities” in Education: they see social media as a threat instead of an ally in doing what Education is all about, constructing communities of practice, taking knowledge to the masses, letting people construct knowledge, reach out to other learners… Many times when they use social media, they simply clone a popular service inside walled gardens, missing on the wealth of knowledge already out there.
Educators fail to see even major services like Facebook, Youtube and Twitter as learning communities and channels for knowledge creation and distribution perhaps because their policies are based in “old school” (pun intended) paradigms of authoritative learning. “What will happen when we admit Wikipedia can be a legitimate source of knowledge?” “What will happen when we let our learners loose on video sharing sites?” “I don’t even understand microblogging, how can I use it in the classroom/as the classroom?” and other questions are asked by friends of mine in Education all the time. Let’s not forget our roles as “facilitators” in the new media era…
What are questions and answers YOU might have about using social media in Education?
Why don’t we see more of social media applied to learning experiences?
Where have you seen it? Have YOU used social media to facilitate learning?
Is HTML5 the Future of eLearning?
Posted by enzofsilva in Technology, eLearning 2.0, learning, mobile on February 25, 2010
In the past few years we have seen the rise of the Apple (iPhone/iPod/iPad) vs. Adobe (Flash) wars. For many reasons (that I don’t agree with), Apple doesn’t seem to want Flash to be enabled in their mobile devices even though many websites rely on the technology to deliver interactive experiences.
Accessibility (for users with disabilities) is also a challenge when using Flash to create interactions in websites in general and in eLearning courses.
HTML5 seems to solve some of these problems by allowing universal access to interactive screens that you would normally see only in Flash. See these HTML5 interactions by Remy Sharp.
Now, a simple question (maybe not so): are eLearning professionals going to embrace HTML5 and wean from Flash altogether?
Time to Know – Interactive Core Curriculum
Posted by enzofsilva in Technology, learning, schools on February 2, 2010
Time to Know is a startup company providing interactive core curriculum for the 21st century.
Using Constructivism as it departing point, Time to Know employs a blended learning approach to delivering State-standard core curricula. The program promises to foster critical thinking, independent learning and better outcomes through an inquiry-based discovery process.
Instead of the traditional authoritative role, teachers using this program are supposed to take the active role of a facilitator while students explore and learn.
T2K: a Paradigm Shift in K-12 Education from Time To Know on Vimeo.
Watch Le Web Live December 10 2009
Posted by enzofsilva in Technology, Web 2.0, eLearning 2.0, social media on December 10, 2009
About Le Web:
“The real time web is taking the world by storm! Twitter has grown exponentially in one year with an extremely simple service that does only one thing: keep you in touch with what your friends are doing, in real time. Facebook entirely redesigned its most important assets, its home page and opened its feed to third parties. Given the growth of the Twitter and Facebook ecosystems with thousands of applications and new uses, startups as well all major players are adapting their services to compete in this environment. There was the static web, the social web and now here comes a new web: the real-time web.”
Broadcasting Live with Ustream.TV
Ustream – Broadcast Events Live From Your iPhone
Posted by enzofsilva in Technology, Web 2.0, mobile, social media on December 9, 2009
Ustream just changed the way we broadcast events to our crowds.
With their newly released Broadcaster application for the iPhone you can use your iPhone’s camera to broadcast any event right into your interactive UStream channel. Polls can also be started and closed from within the iPhone app.
A great service to try in todays virtual workspaces, to teach a class, or simply to include a friend in some event they can’t be attend.
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…
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