Web 2.0 tools
I came across this post today highlighting some of the best Web 2.0 tools for students to help them through the coming year. Alot of these have potential for collaboration amongst students and teachers and also for individual use as handy additions for people like me who spend a lot of time on their computers! I am already a huge fan of Google Apps so I won’t mention them here, but some of the other applications really stood out as either good alternatives to Google Docs, etc or as useful standalone enhancements. (And because a lot of them target student users, there is a lot of Facebook integration).
Zoho is probably the nearest thing to Google Apps in the sense that it gives you the majority of the features of Microsoft Office but online so that you can share your files and save them for access from any computer. Zoho is also compatible with another handy tool, Box.net which offers 2GB of free storage for your files. You can upload documents, videos, zipped files, etc and can edit your documents and photos online using Zoho. While this sounds complicated, it’s not – it took me less than 5 minutes to create both Box.net and Zoho accounts, upload some files and make edits.
Another handy tool is ChunkIt. Now I had never heard of this tool and was intitially a bit sceptical of another Firefox extension bulking up my browser window, but I was pleasantly surprised. ChunkIt allows you to search inside your initial search results for extra keyterms and displays the results with the highlighted keyterm surrounded by the actual text from each link. Mighty handy when searching for actual relevant information. A demo can be seen here.
As for the rest, Quizlet and ProProfs offer some quick and easy solutions for making flashcards and quizzes with ProProfs offering a bit extra like blogs, wikis and other collaboration tools. And one that looks quite interesting, Jott, which enables you to send voice messages which are transcribed into text for reminders, emails and to-do lists. While this service is only available in the US and Canada, an alternate UK version is available with Spinvox, unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a service available for Ireland as yet.
Take a look at the applications here and on the original blog and feel free to add any applications that you find useful – do all these mean we are getting lazier or more efficient?
Roisin
Amazingly realistic CGI
The team at Image Metrics – who produced the animation for Grand Theft Auto – claim to have overcome the “uncanny valley” in producing computer-generated animated human faces which don’t weird us all out. The video evidence (see here) is pretty extraordinary but is this just a more advanced form of rotoscoping (it all begins with a video of a real person talking apparently)?
Gearóid
CIT Masters in Media Design
Applications are still being accepted for CIT’s new MA in Media Design. More info on the programme available here
Regards,
Gearóid
Conference announcement
The second European Conference on Games-Based Learning (ECCBL 2008) conference will take place in Barcelona on the 16th and 17th of October. It’s one of the very few conferences of its kind in Europe which focuses exclusively on the topic of games and learning and all in all promises to be an interesting two days (in a really nice location too)…oh yes and I’m one of the speakers. Blurb from the organisers below:
The conference will address elements of both theory and practice of all aspects of Games-Based Learning, and offers an opportunity for academics, practitioners and consultants involved in the field to exchange ideas. The programme for the event will include an extensive range of peer-reviewed papers, including keynote presentations from leaders in the field.
We hope you find the conference a great experience and we warmly encourage you to join us at ECGBL 2008!
Microblogging
While I feel that the benefits of blogging speak for themselves in online education, especially since I’m writing in one right now, (incidentally see here for a list of 19 excellent elearning blogs) what of this newfangled craze of microblogging?
Microblogging takes the ability to blog to other mediums such as text messaging, instant messaging, email and MP3. Whereas blogging provides one with a means to provide information online through regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or graphics or video, microblogging, as the name suggests, provides the opportunity to write and publish brief text updates either to be viewed by anyone (or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user) through a blog, on mobile phones, email or even RSS. The champion of microblogging at present is Twitter. But there are alternatives in, Spoink, Jaiku, Loopnote and Dodgeball.
But are there any practical applications of this tool to elearning? Or is it just the newest internet fad to appear?
Google Launches Lively
In today’s fast moving ICT world it may now be thought a little late in the day to make a posting about Google’s new virtual world Lively (originally launched back at the start of July); there may still be a few out there however (like myself) who have yet to come across it and, given the great degree of interest in the use of Second Life for education purposes (see here for example and here), it may be worth TELCop’s time to keep an eye out on this one. First impressions are that it’s much more basic than Second Life (fewer features, much more basic graphics) and also maybe a little buggy (it seems to keep crashing on me) but rooms can apparently be embedded in a Web page (haven’t got this far yet myself) and there is integration with lots of other web2.0 stuff like Facebook, and MySpace. Some of the features it seems are based on consultation with university students, Google say:
Prior to this release, we worked closely with Arizona State University. Based on feedback from ASU students and with help from the Google Desktop team, we added support for playing YouTube videos in virtual TVs and showing photos in virtual picture frames inside our rooms. Better yet, the gadgets you have in your Lively rooms can also run on your desktop.
Reaction as yet appears mixed but with Google behind it and this kind of clever integration it may be we’re about to hear a whole lot more about the new services within and outside the TEL world.
Regards,
Gearóid
New ebook from Athabasca
The nice people people in Athabasca University have just released the 2nd edition of their excellent Theory and Practice of Online Learning book under a Creative Commons license. Download it here
Regards,
Gearóid
Profiles
Name: Catherine Kane
Centre for Learning Technology
Name: Catherine Bruen
Title: Manager, National Digital Learning Repository
Name: Gearóid Ó Súilleabháin
Title: Elearning Manager
Name: Roisin Garvey
Title: Multimedia DeveloperRegister
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