Tim's Blog for Flexible Learning Environments and Online Education and Training

I have added tags to my blog. They are a new concept to me, but I find they are a fantastic way of indexing and linking posts, making a blog much easier to navigate and find the information you are looking for. This is especially the case for blogs with large numbers of posts.

Delicius is the prime social bookmarking site on the web. There are however, many many more sites that use this type of tagging. Some examples can be found here.

Filed under: Uncategorized  | | 1 Comment »

One thing that has been a gripe for me for many years is seeing so many so called ‘e-learning’ activities that involve little or no learning. Students in all subjects are being encouraged to create photostories, websites and blogs that have no huge relevance to learning.

At the basic level, it can be assumed that most students will know how to create a powepoint presentation, yet many teachers still have their students creating these as projects for just about everything. This often invloves students looking up an copying information from Wikipedia and collaborating photos found on google images. While this allows students to create some informative and visually appealing presentations, learning only takes place at level 1 of the explore section of the E5 instructional model.

To achieve a level 4, teachers need to allow greater inquiry and reflection in their students learning. There are certainly many ways that students can achieve this. Getting them to set up their own integrated wikis, if done properly can allow them to extend their thinking and evaluate the quality of the information they are sharing. There are also greater opportunities in this format for peer review and self evaluations. Having students create their own tasks also helps them to learn through inquiry.

There are some great ideas for creating quality learning content at this page, with resources including how to use digital storytelling in an elearning course and a set of elearning standards.

Filed under: Uncategorized  |   Tagged under Digital Storytelling, FLE, Wikis | 1 Comment »

To add to the points raised by Ted on Social Objects as Learning Objects, I can see direct parallels with the real world.
As I see it, social objects are those that involve some kind of interaction with other people, such as chat rooms.
These can also be learning objects as learning can occur in any social interaction. This is in the same way that in the real world many kinds of social interaction can involve learning.

Also, have a look at Micah‘s example of how a Social Object can be used as a Learning Object.

Filed under: Uncategorized  |   Tagged under FLE, Learning Objects, Social Objects | 2 Comments »

I have been having a look at an interface that I came across while looking at Juliet’s Blog, namely Symbaloo. It offers a personalised, visually appealing and easy to navigate portal for links, widgets, feeds, radio channels, search engines (including wikipedia or any search you like) and many other features using a simple drag and drop interface.

I strongly recommend having a look.

Also, you can check out this introductory video.

Filed under: Uncategorized  |   Tagged under FLE, Personal Learning Environments | 3 Comments »

Hi all,

well I haven’t been posting much lately, which is largely down to my new little distraction. My first child, Isabelle Perrin Veevers was born on Wednesday 7th April and has been taking up most of my time and energy.

Anyway, for the VLE I was thinking along the lines of a podcasting wiki filled with interactive podcasting activities aimed at achieving effective learning. It would also act as an environment for users to publish their work, share their feedback, and share their own podcasting ideas.

Filed under: Uncategorized  |   Tagged under FLE, Podcasting, Virtual Learning Environments | 3 Comments »

In relation to a discussion we had during the chat on Wednesday. There are a series of free vodcasts by George Wheeler in the iTunes store that help to explain digital recording, soundwaves, bits, audacity etc…

Filed under: Uncategorized  |   Tagged under Digital Recording, Podcasting | No Comments »

A podcast is an audio file that can be downloaded from the internet at the listeners convenience.

Here is my first attempt at a podcast.

Podcast

I should add my thoughts on podcasts from Gillian’s youtube video that in my opinion podcasts can be used effetively in the classroom. I think the best ones are the ones where studets make their own. I didn’t really see that the teacher reading at the front of the classroom had a huge benefit, but it was certainly something a bit different.
I would worry that if I podcasted allof my classes and posted them on itunes that my students wouldn’t listen in class as they could just get the information at home. It also doesn’t allow for interaction and group discussion.
Podcasting projects however, I think are excellent and can really make students think outside the zone.

Filed under: Uncategorized  |   Tagged under FLE, Podcasting | 1 Comment »

Well, now that it’s holidays I’ve finally had a good chance to look around all the different learning environments. I agree with Gillian that there are a lot to look at and a lot of things to check, but it’s also a good chance to look at several different formats.

I like ning because it has a bit of everything. It’s especially good having the live chat and everyone’s blog entries in the one spot.

Filed under: Uncategorized  |   Tagged under Blogs, FLE, Ning, Wikis | No Comments »

Well it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, but I’ve finally managed to get an RSS feed into my edublog .

An RSS, as I understand it, is a great way to follow numerous websites in one place without having to check them all individually. I can see a parallel with the current facebook layout. When I first used facebook, about two years ago, you had to check each person’s page to see what they had updated. With today’s version of facebook you can see everyones updates in one feed.

Getting an RSS into edublogs was not easy, and I thank Jess for all her help. For anyone who wants to insert an RSS into their edublog this is how it’s done:

1) You need to sign up for Google Reader.

2) Click ‘Add a Subscription’ and add all of the sites you want to appear on your RSS.

3) Click on each of the subscriptions and click ‘Share’ for all of the posts you want to appear in your RSS. Google Reader will indicate all new posts.

4) Click ‘Shared Items’, ‘sharing settings’ then ‘Add a Clip’. Select the hypertext that appears and copy to your clipboard.

5) In Edublogs Dashboard click on widgets and add a text box.

6) Copy the hypertext into your textbox and it should appear in your blog.

The problem I had at this point is that when my RSS appeared in the sidebar, I lost all my links. The only way I could find to get around this was to change my theme to one that had two sidebars. I couldn’t find an option to have a text box and all my links in the same sidebar.

It now all seems to work however

For more information on RSS check out this blog.

Filed under: Uncategorized  |   Tagged under Blogs, FLE, Ning | 1 Comment »

I have just been alerted, thanks to Glen, about a webbased tool called Jam Studio. It is similar in its design to the software Fruity Loops, only where you could pay $50-$200 for Fruity Loops, depending on the version, Jam Studio is free to use. It also has the added benefit that you do not have to install any software, and that your students can use it from home.

It is great for creating playalongs, for students to compose, and for students to practice improvisation.

Filed under: Uncategorized  | | No Comments »