Posts tagged ‘ICT’
A Free Learning Tool for Every Learning Problem?
Zaid Ali Alsagoff posted a great list of free learning tools. Zaid has suggestions for almost every learning issue and below are some of them:
- Microblogging tool? Twitter
- Directory of edubloggers from around the world? International Edubloggers Directory
- Wiki tool? PBwiki
- Encyclopedia, which I can add to or edit? Wikipedia
- Audio recording tool? Audacity
- Tool to host my audio recordings? Odeo
- Tool to transform media into collaborative spaces with video, voice and text commenting? VoiceThread
- Tool to tell a story? Here are 50!
- Screencasting (recording) tool? Wink
- Hosted screencasting tool? Jing
- Mindmapping tool? FreeMind
- Tool to make screenshots from different browsers with one click? Browsershots
- Easy-to-learn 3D authoring software tool? Google SketchUp
See the full article here.
TeachMeet North East London 08 Event
FutureLab has posted up another Education & Technology event:
“19 May 2008
Redbridge Teachers Centre, Ilford
TeachMeet NorthEast London is a chance for education stakeholders to share effective, exciting and innovative uses technology in schools in an informal environment. If you come for the evening, then you can either present, or just listen to inspiring presentations on ICT in schools. People attending previous TeachMeets before have found them to be inspirational and a great form of CPD.”
According to the TeachMeet site you can also join the event via Flashmeeting and there is a Facebook page too.
Are Schools Inhibiting 21st Century Learning?
Dave Nagel on Project Tomorrow Speak Up survey findings:
“Teachers were apparently even more enthusiastic about gaming, as 65 percent indicated that they thought educational gaming would be an effective tool for students with different learning styles and would help engage students in coursework. More than half said they’d like to learn more about educational gaming, and some 46 percent said they would “like to receive specific professional development on how to effectively integrate gaming technologies into curriculum,” according to the survey.”
Author: Dave Nagel, T.H.E. Journal, 19th April 2008
Full article available here.
See also Project Tomorrow website.
Teachers on learning curve
TECHNOLOGY is changing the way we learn. That is a given as school students — the ubiquitous digital natives — come to class equipped with skills and expectations unparalleled in schools 20 years ago.
To Dale Spender, an educationalist and an expert on the impact of digital technologies on learning, the shift is fundamental: “There has been a switch from passive to active learners,” she says, “and active learners need a different range of support staff.”
Author: Kirsten Lees, The Australian, 5th April 2008
A student not engaged is a student not learning
I believe technologies that engage and motivate students by offering opportunities for self-direction, inquiry, discovery, and creativity are the best way to meet the needs of all students. One of the most significant things I’ve heard said about 1:1 laptop programs is that when you walk into the classroom, you can’t tell who the Special Ed students are or who the GATE students are… because everyone is fully engaged and working at their own level.
Some technologies that might be readily available to most teachers and which might help provide this sort of individualized engagement include commercial off the shelf videogames with educational value (such as the Sims series, the Tycoon series, or the “Age of…” series of games), read/write web tools (such as blogs, wikis, and podcasts), and multimedia creation programs (for editing images, audio, and video). These things are nearly free and ubiquitous and ought to be used creatively in support of the base program.
Author: Mark Wagner, Educational Technology and Life Blog, 7th April 2008
Full article available here.
Wikis Make Learning Wicked Fun
The notion of techies huddled in isolation in front of monitors has given way to the concept of sharing data and/or ideas across the office or across the ocean. Students, professionals, or like-minded hobbyists can now be linked on line by more than mere discussion boards or chat rooms. Wikis now give a venue for virtually anyone to collaborate on line.
How can I utilize them for students?
The idea of a collaborative creation space for students has limitless possibilities. Students can create a biology on-line textbook. In Literature Circles (Harvey Daniels) students can culminate the process with a set of “Cliff Notes” on the book studied. Students can collaborate with a school across town or across the country to create any kind of a project. For ideas, visit Wikispaces’ “Examples of Educational Wikis”, which is itself a Wiki and as such can be amended by users.
Author: Jon Orech, TechLearning, 1st April 2008
Full article available here.
Virtual Voices – Event in Bristol
Futurelab is running a workshop on Create-A-Scape at this event, which is organised by South West Screen
10 July 2008
Watershed, Bristol
How can we develop young people’s voices so they become the content creators and storytellers of the future? Virtual Voices brings the media industry together with young media makers and their teachers or tutors to attempt to answer this question and many others…
What will it be like?
The event will include inspiring speakers, involving workshops (including one on Create-A-Scape run by Futurelab) and hands-on activities. See www.swscreen.co.uk/virtualvoices for more information as the programme is finalised, or sign up to the Virtual Voices e-mailing list by e-mailing virtual.voices@swscreen.co.uk.
Author: FutureLab, 7th April 2008
Full post and more information available here.
The Many Virtues of the Virtual Lab
Very interesting article on virtual labs and their uses in science classes with limited lab equipment:
“Thanks to rapid development in information technology, all real life situations can be simulated on your very computer screen, loaded with programs such as Java, Flash, Real media etc. With increasing number of e-learning companies and academic websites offering virtual laboratories, it is easier today than ever before, for a science teacher to use virtual lab. He simply needs to download the virtual experiment from the World Wide Web or buy it as part of an e-learning package from product manufacturers. Virtual labs can help the teacher and the taught, to a significant extent. Let us visit a few virtual classrooms.”
Author: P.R. Guruprasad, TechLearning, 1st April 2008
Full article available here.
Desire2Learn Launches Web Services for Learning Management
CMS/LMS developer Desire2Learn this week launched Web Services 1.0, a set of Web-based enhancements for the D2L Learning Environment and D2L Learning Platform. Modules included with the 1.0 release include “organization structure management, enrolment management, and gradebook entry and lookup,” according to the company.
Author: Dave Nagel, T.H.E. Journal, 6th April 2008
Full article available here.
Homeschooling on the rise in the US, thanks to adundance of online resources
Homeschooling Innovations and Networks
The continued growth of the number of homeschooling families has led to a proliferation of resources and networks that facilitate homeschooling. Twenty-five years ago, a family that wanted to homeschool would likely have had limited curriculum and instructional options. Today, the options are nearly boundless. A Google search on “home schooling” produces more than 13 million hits.[21] This demonstrates the wide range of instruction options and homeschooling networks that parents can access when they choose to homeschool their children.
Parents can find and purchase curriculum materials through online exchanges and other networks.[22] Hundreds of Web sites, blogs, and books are devoted to supporting parents who homeschool. In some cases, parents can access free or low-cost instructional products to teach their children. Other options include online learning services such as K12.com, which offers professionally developed courses online for relatively low monthly fees.[23] Across the United States, a growing number of for-profit tutoring providers are in operation, such as Kumon and Sylvan Learning Centers, which offer parents opportunities to provide supplementary instruction to their children.
Author: Dan Lips and Evan Feinberg, The Heritage Foundation, 3rd April 2008
Full article available here.
Gaming & Learning 