Archive for category Technology
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…
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).
Using LinkedIn to Find a Job
Posted by enzofsilva in Technology, social media on September 11, 2009
There are many interesting ways to use the LinkedIN network to your advantage. Here are some quick tipsl:
- Keep your info and “resumè” up to date
- Join networks in which you already have connections
- Join networks in your area of interest and expertise (well, this one is obvious)
- Add friends and colleagues you have studied with and that you have worked with
- These colleagues will be glad to write recommendations for you (under your profile) if you also write recommendation about them
- Request recommendations from colleagues
- Write recommendations for your colleagues
More resources and tips:
- LinkedIn for job seekers http://learn.linkedin.com/job-seekers/
- LinkedIn Job Search Tips http://jobmob.co.il/blog/gigantic-linkedin-job-search-tips/
- 10 Ways to Use LinkedIn to Find a Job http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2009/02/10-ways-to-use.html
Open Books and TextBooks Online, Free
Posted by enzofsilva in Technology, eLearning 2.0, learning, open source, social media on August 30, 2009
Taking after the movement of open source (free – as in freedom) software development, knowledge and information has also been “open sourced” (and crowdsourced) as new Web technologies allow for flexibility and ease of online collaboration in generating content.
Textbooks are now on the same route and here are a few interesting resources for those who are tired of paying absurd prices for academia content out there. Let’s t get all of our mind and expertise together and share knowledge more wisely than the good ol’ authoritative knowledge consumption models allow us to…
Question: Why don’t more experts and professors join the trend of open books?
WikiBooks – From the same company that maintains WikiPedia, this is an incredible collection of open books in any subject imaginable. Worthwhile.
Flat World Knowledge - This website’s goal is to share quality, peer-reviewed books in many areas of expertise. The idea is that faculty will publish the books under the Creative Commons license and allow students to access tailored, good quality content without having to pay the (sometimes) outrageous prices for textbooks. They already have some interesting content up. From their site, we have their definition of an open book: “It is a great book by a great author, peer-reviewed, professionally edited & developed, and published under a Creative Commons license. Faculty may tailor the book to their needs. Students may access the book free online or buy an affordable print, audio, or handheld format. Students get choice; faculty get control; authors earn rapid market share, greater royalties over time, and do some good!”
Open Book Project - They still don’t have much in their collection of books. But here is what they aim to accomplish and I hope they succeed: “The Open Book Project is aimed at the educational community and seeks to encourage and coordinate collaboration among students and teachers for the development of high quality, freely distributable textbooks and educational materials on a wide range of topics.”
Augmented Reality and Learning
Posted by enzofsilva in Technology, Web 2.0, eLearning 2.0, learning, mobile, social media on August 28, 2009
The dawn of augmented reality on a consumer level presents many possibilities for marketing, tourism and virtually any area of expertise. But what would be its impact in Education and learning in general?
Would the possibility of adding a layer of information and rich media atop an individual’s view of the world via his/her mobile device’s camera mean we are taking the next step toward “push” mobile learning (information automatically being displayed as available at the learners’ location)?
This could mean 2 things, at least:
1. Information readily available about places, people, objects anywhere, anytime.
2. Not just information devouring but also real, contextual learning opportunities via an immediate 4-dimensional, layered view of the world.
With easy access, people can start gathering information on just about anything and any place on Earth and make that readily available for others walking the path that has been covered with digital breadcrumbs.
With augmented reality on mobile devices, the world becomes one more layer with overlapped layers of information just-in-time and in real time.
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