10 Trends to Watch

10 Trends in e-Learning that are worth watching.

1. Cloud Computing

   1. Sub Notebooks based on Linux that are primarily designed for cloud computing. http://eeepc.asus.com/global/

   2. Cloudo where your desktop is online. http://www.cloudo.com/

   3. Storage on Websites is cheaper. You can get 125 GB for $10 a month

      1. www.CanadianWebHosting.com

   4. Google, Yahoo and MSN for online computing

      1. 6.7 GB of email space in Gmail.com

      2. Online Offices

         1. http://docs.google.com/

         2. www.thinkfree.com/ or

         3. www.zoho.com/

      3. Notebook and sharing

         1. www.google.com/notebook

      4. Calendars

         1. http://www.google.com/calendar

2. Communications -

   1. Email effectiveness is decreasing. As a communication channel it is clogging up with volume and spam.

   2. The server load to filter spam is becoming enormous.

   3. RSS Feeds and readers could become a second channel of communicating but it still have low acceptance. www.google.com/reader

   4. Instant Messaging is not taking over yet. www.pidgin.im/

3. Social Networking is growing.

   1. Using social networking to enhance learning is emerging with significant potential – www.facebook.com

   2. The central principles are very interesting.

      1. The learning is in control of their postings and how has access to them. Personal Learning Networks.

      2. Centralizing on lifelong learning journals

      3. Wiki like technologies are maturing into full power collaboration tools for

         1. Writing

         2. Calendaring

         3. project management and coordination

         4. Content Repositories and Knowledge Management system.

   3. Second Life and simulated learning environments. Www.secondlife.com/

      1. Symposium on virtual environments in biology, medicine and history.

4. FOSS

   1. Technologies that are developed and maintained by large communities of users and not vendors.

      1. Open Office is becoming a real alternative. - www.openoffice.org

   2. Tools like Drupal and Joomla that allow for very powerful online learning environments to be developed and used. - www.drupal.org or www.joomla.org

      1. Based on Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP platforms.

   3. First emergence of Linux based commercially availability personal computers with only free software on them. http://eeepc.asus.com/global/

      1. Expansion of the One Laptop per Child initiatives. http://laptop.org/

      2. Royal Bank giving them away.

   4. Older and more mature systems are becoming too large and unwieldy and difficult to maintain and keep nimble.

      1. Blackboard is one and Windows is another example.

      2. $500 laptops where Windows license is about half of that. and MS Office is about the same.

      3. Windows is bogging down with Virus, spyware and firewall security

5. Open Content movements

   1. More and more expertise is being shared for free.

   2. Creative Commons Movement http://creativecommons.org/

   3. MIT, OU UK and my other PS institutions are sharing their course content with the public. http://www.opencontentalliance.org/

   4. Electronic libraries and books being available to public for free. http://books.google.com/

6. Portable Apps and PC

   1. USB Memory flash drives now 8 GB and affordable.

   2. USB Hard Drives pocket up to 250 GB – Put your whole life on it and carry it in your pocket.

   3. USB Not pocket size 1 TB and affordable.

   4. Open Office and other apps that can run from a USB drive and

      1. Portable Apps Linux coming soon. http://portableapps.com/ or http://www.portablefreeware.com/

7. Smart Phones

   1. Personal Media Players, Cameras, PDA and merging with Cell Phones

      1. Dell stopped making their pocket computers.

      2. Smart phones are emerging as significant players

         http://www.blackberry.com/

8. e-Learning authoring tools are more sophisticated and affordable.

   1. Authorware 12 years about was $3000 now there is eXe for free and Captivate for $500.

   2. eXe request less time in training and free http://exelearning.org/

   3. MS giving one away. http://www.microsoft.com/learning/tools/lcds/default.mspx

9. Generation of learners that have grown up with computers, computer games, the Internet.

   1. My 6 year old is already using Webkins. http://www.webkinz.com/us_en/

   2. Other online metaverses like

      1. Second Life http://secondlife.com/

      2. World of War Craft and many more. http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/index.xml

      3. The Sims http://thesims.ea.com/

      4. What are they learning in these environment?

      5. How do they find learning in school?

10. Time shortage

    1. Everyone is so busy

    2. 5 Minute presentations

    3. Little time for reflections

    4. Greater demands on instructors and learners.

       1. Multitasking

       2. Scope of knowledge required is growing.

    5. Connectivity to knowledge is becoming more important than knowing the knowledge.

Blackboard's new Grade Center

Check out this short Flash movie that high lights the cool new features of Blackboard's new Grade Center. This is an overhauled grade book that is coming out in Blackboard 8.0. Click here to play the clip.

Richard Baraniuk: Goodbye, textbooks; hello, open-source learning

Here is a very interesting TED Talks from Richard Baraniuk who gives us his vision of the future of textbooks, and open-source learning.

It is 19 minutes long but worth a view and thinking about. Go to http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/25 to see it.

Rod

Freedom Writers Movie

This is the first movie review I am posting on this blog but if you have seen the movie Freedom Writers you should rent it and view it. I was very impress with this movie about a teacher who found a way to reach out to several students through the appropriate application of educational technologies, including journal writing. The film was quite watchable and speaks a lot to the passions of teaching and what I believe teaching should really be about.

Rent it and enjoy it.

Rod

Podcast Recordings Available for the Future of Eduation Conference

The podcast link is now available for the MP3 recordings of the presentations from this conference hosted by George Siemans and University of Manitoba. Click here to learn more about the conference.

I really appreciate these presentations being made available through MP3 because even though it is online, I could attend any of the sessions live because I have been just too busy this week. I also find it restrictive that I need to use Elluminate to view the archive recordings. I love the MP3 recordings because then I can load them into my MP3 player and listen to them anyway. I can also share them easier.

The URL for the Podcast list in RSS is http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/foe-2007/podcast/index.xml which came up right into my Google Reader, which even offered to play them for them. Nice.

Thanks George.

Rod

Changing Learning Systems - Elliot Masie

Elliot Masie has released a free online presentation in Flash about the issues and challenges of changing your learning systems. Click here to access it. Are you a WebCT or Blackboard user and wonder about changing LMS over to something else, then check out this presentation.

"Changing Learning Systems: Forces & Disruptions"

Changing Learners
Changing Content Models
Changing Business Processes
Changing Learning & IT Models
Changing Marketplace

This content is based on our research with our 240 member Learning
CONSORTIUM. We are tracking a rate of more than 30% of corporations in
LMS and LCMS "reconsideration". This on-line module includes my audio
comments on the key business drivers that are impacting LMS selection and
change.

Rod

27 tips for teleconferencing

Anne Zelenka, posted a posting on Web Worker Daily about 27 tips for teleconferencing. There are many very useful tips here that apply to learning conferences. Check it out at http://webworkerdaily.com/2007/01/28/27-tips-for-teleconferencing/

Group Effectiveness Video

This video clip is about 12 min long and in Flash format for easy access over the Internet. This presentation reviews and illustrates the principles of effective groupwork. It can be applied to all types of teams.

This clip was produced by the Media Production Services unit at Mount Royal College. It is being shared to the public for learning purposes so feel free to show it to your classes if you find it useful. It is being streamed out using the MRC Breeze server so it should be quite viewable even on a dial-up connection. The URL is http://breeze.mtroyal.ca/p33333291/

The presentation is very well produced and speaks to common issues and concerns that students have when working with a group to complete an assignment. Well, you may want to skip over the animated introduction.

Inventing the Future by Patrick Perri

Patrick Perri is a computer science instructor at Mount Royal College and he has recorded a very interesting presentation about the future of computer and information technologies. The presentation is just under 57 minutes in length but is in Breeze so you just
Click here is access Inventing the Future

Post a comment to give feedback on Patrick's view into the future. Do you agree or disagree? What is you view of the future.

mLearning 2006 Conference

Back in October, I attended a very interesting conference in Banff all about mLearning. This was the 5th annual world conference about mLearning. If you are not familiar with mLearning this is Mobile Learning, so like eLearning but with the focus on using Cell Phones, PDA, Tablet PCS and other wireless devices for learning.

There were many very interesting presentations at the conference and the organizers have just posted most of the presentation PowerPoint slides up onto their website at http://www.mlearn2006.org/program/

I observed that the number of Canadians at the conference was low compared to the delegates from other countries. This may be due to that apparent lead that countries other than the USA and Canada seem to be ahead of North America when it comes to mLearning.

Ray Kurzweil: The Future of Technology

Ray Kurzweil is an inventor and futurist that has some very interesting views of the future of technology. Click here to view a 23 minute online presentation of Ray’s view of the future of technology and where this is all going in the next 10 years.

I found his predictions very interesting, especially as it will impact on educational technologies. Check it out and post a comment.

Over 90 Free Computer Tools for Learners

I made a presentation at the AOC Online Learning Symposium last week about 50 Free Computer Tools for Learners. By the time I got the presentation ready, the count was over 90. I have post the list of tool to my portfolio site so click here to access it.

I put this list together is order to inventory all of the useful and free computer tools I have been finding that would be useful to students if we put them into their hands. I realized that most of the Ed Technologies that we focus on are not really that useful to learners. Tools like Blackboard, WebCT, Breeze Presenter and others are more for supporting teachers and administration then to actually have learners learn. The list is organized by typical functions that student perform in order to learn.

So here is my list. Let me know what you think of it.

I have already had feedback on tools that I could add to the list so I will continue to add them but you can add them too but adding a comment below.

BTW, the list was created in FreeMind, a very cool and free mindmapping tool.

I am working on a similar list the would focus on tools to support teachers. I will post it here when it is ready.

Teaching Teaching & Understanding Understanding

Here is a very interest short film about teaching and understanding. It is in the context of Universitys but can be applied to most other learning contexts. This film is being shared freely on the Internet and can be accessed at http://www.daimi.au.dk/~brabrand/short-film/

I think the message in the presentation is great and well presented. We talk a lot about these ideas with instructors but this film really illustrates what we need to do to help students learn more effectively. Please post your comments on how you found the film.