Facilitating online

I have just signed up for Sarah Stewart's Facilitating online course which starts later this month. I had intended to do it last year but we all know about the road to hell and good intentions! Anyway, hopefully I'll get myself more organised this time around. I'm looking forward to being forced (although that's probably too strong a word) to reflect on online learning in a slightly more formalised manner, and I'm equally looking forward to meeting other people involved in online education and learning from them. As an instructional designer I spend much of my time developing materials for online delivery, and it will be wonderful to think more deeply about how to facilitate the delivery of these more effectively. Although I love e-learning, it's a world that I landed in almost by accident, and much of what I do is based on feel or instinct, rather than any sound theory!

Plagiarism awareness

This was posted on David Hopkins' blog this morning. Sometimes all the sincerely earnest academic talk in the world isn't as valuable as one clever video presentation! Imagine working where there were budgets for this sort of thing!



Access the translations by clicking this button, or select 'cc' if viewing on Youtube itself.

Wallwisher

It's been a while since I've come across a really clever, easy to use freebie, but Wallwisher definitely fits the bill! It's a really clever site designed to allow users to post (sorry) post-its on a 'wall'. I'm currently usnig it to gather ideas from staff for content on some new curriculum papers and it's working really well. It's incredibly simple to use, it only allows 160 characters, so people have to be pithy and get to the point, and it allows viewers to see all the ideas at a glance - no clicking, no scrolling. The site designers suggest using it for party invitations and the like, but I can see that it has great potential for students' pre-learning; brainstorming, reflecting on the lessons, and the like. It would even work well for primary school children.

This screenshot shows postings by lecturers listing key content for a new paper. Wall editors can edit the appearance and re-arrange the sticky-notes, and there's even an option to moderate postings before they appear on the wall.

Wallwisher is still in beta, but it's well wort a visit.

Mea culpa!

I have completely neglected my blog for the last few months, so imagine my shame when, on returning to it this week, I discover comments that have been awaiting moderation since JANUARY! I harp on all the time about the importance in e-learning of timely responses to emails and comments from students, so clearly, it is a case of do as I say, not as I do. Mea culpa!

It hasn't been an empty six months, though. We're finally getting Questionmark up and running at UCOL, and every time I use it I am impressed by what an incredibly powerful piece of software it is. It is certainly revolutionising the way we do online assessments within the School of Nursing, and it has amazing potential as an adaptive learning tool too. What I particularly like is the fact that I can build simulations and learning content in Captivate, and embed these into Questionmark as the basis for assessments.

We recently took delivery of a fancy new simulation mannikin from Laerdal (admittedly a doll that groans and breathes seems somewhat creepy to me) and the intention is to install an interactive whiteboard in the skills lab, and then create simulations and scenarios using Captivate, Questionmark and the mannikin to really challenge the student nurses in their learning! What with Flip video cameras, laptops, podcasts and live viewing, the e-world is our oyster!

Image: http://beginnerbaby.com/blog/?p=100

The Future of Education?

Apparently this video was originally commissioned by DoringKindersly as part of an internal training/marketing session, but it's 'gone viral', and with good reason. Although I no longer work in publishing, it struck me that one can substitute 'education' for 'publishing' and the message is as appropriate for those of us in e-learning and education. What do you think?



The Future of Publishing - created by DK (UK)

Virtual International Day of the Midwife

Sarah Stewart is an educator, midwife, Second-Lifer (see the SLENZ project here) and all-round collaborative-e-learning-evangelist. I have followed her blog for a while, and am always interested in the scope of her work. Currently she is organising the Virtual International Day of the Midwife, a 24-hour online event of sharing and collaboration, and I got to design the logo... see it on the top right of my blog.

It's always fun to get the chance to do something a little out of the ordinary, and I love to play in Photoshop, so thanks, Sarah, for the opportunity!

The best things in life are free...

If you're anything like me, you're probably counting the costs, both financial and to the waistline, of the festive season which has passed. In the spirit of giving, I thought it apt to look at some of the useful freebies I found out there last year!

I recently received an invitation to Google Wave (thanks, Donna!) and after my initial glee at being one of the supposedly select few, I have to say that I can't see what all the fuss is about. But maybe that's because I'm not the world's greatest social networker.

Subscribing to blogs is a great way to find new free stuff, usually the blogger has already done the hard work checking out new programmes and applications, and identifying the pros and cons along the way. Jane's e-learning pick of the day is a great site, if you can keep up with it, and David Hopkins (Don't waste your time) can be relied on for thoughtful consideration of e-learning tools and developments. Some suggestions for tools that I gleaned from Jane's picks last year are Screentoaster, Sliderocket and  Lovely Charts... all of which offer good quality online resources for free.

The best freebie I learned of last year though was as the result of a chance mention by Peter Vanderbeke, MD of GoVitual Medical Simulations (more about this another time) in Auckland. Dropbox is a fantastic online file-sharing service - not only can you access your files from any computer, anywhere, but you can also share folders and files with other people. This has been invaluable for a group of us at UCOL who worked over the Christmas shutdown developing resources for papers launching in February. It provided us with a single, collaborative space where everything was stored and backed-up; earlier versions of documents remained accessible; and best of all; documents which I accidentally deleted whilst having a new-year purge of my desktop were easily restored with the touch of a button! Dropbox offers 2Gb for free, more for a subscription. I'm sorely tempted!

On a more expensive note, I recently upgraded my home computer to the 'latest and greatest', and I'm revelling in the increased speed and all the bells and whistles that come with it. At last I have space to install Premier Pro, Captivate and the Adobe Design Premium without everything coming to a grinding halt. (If only these were free too!) Flicking between programmes is instant, and I find it hard to tear myself away from work. The fun I can have! Windows 7, however, underwhelms.

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/akabilk/ / CC BY-NC 2.0