Wednesday 29 August 2007

encoding eLearning course on HIV/AIDS for mobile devices

Today I have been busy with encoding an eLearning course for mobile devices. The pictures sometimes give me problems because I need to compress them too much for the slides to be useful.

Friday 24 August 2007

mobile learning conference

Preparing a presentation on mobile learning for a conference 2, 3 October 2007 in New Brunswick, Canada.




Getting all ITM's mobile learning projects into a creative, informative presentation takes a bit of time and thought.

Thursday 23 August 2007

reviewing offline player possibilities for LMS

A disadvantage in using courses that are centralized in a LMS is the fact that learners who are not connected to the web constantly have a setback. This setback can be lifted by offline players that enable learners to get only the statistical data synchronised. That way the learners can get all the eLearning courses on for instance a cd-rom, but the results of their assignments, as well as the data on what they have read can be synchronized once and a while through an internet connection.
The offline players that are tested at the moment:
Meridian
Meridian
blackboard backpack
Harbinger

What we look at is: their possibility to be integrated in different LMS's, need to download contents, the possibility to deliver content on a cd-rom/USB, SCORM compliance, quick support system, size of the data that is synchronised, user friendliness and of course the price. At this moment the Harbinger one is definitely in the lead.

Monday 13 August 2007

comparing Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce

Comparing Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce, gave me a better idea of the things I could use them for. Just read the table to get a quick idea of the differences or look at the video.

Why use it for eLearning purposes:
To inform your learners of the latest developments in eLearning software;
To announce a course that is starting;
To remind them there is a deadline approaching;
To give them more of a team spirit, we all know it is difficult to get a community spirit going and these microblogging systems help with that;
To give learners in low resource settings the possibility to add ideas to a discussion;
To ask a question and get a lot of answers;
To inform learners of a spontaneous get together;


Why I want to use it?
Because it enables students from low resource settings to become part of an online group through their mobile phones. And because it is fun!


Twitter

Jaiku

Pownce

Rss available

Rss available

Rss is bugged

Mobile support works great

Mobile support only for Nokia smart phones for the moment, but the java version for the rest is in development

No mobile support

One message template

One message template

Some templates for sending specific things: events, links

Limited amount of characters to be written

Limited amount of characters in the post, unlimited in the comments

Limitless approach to the message that can be send.

No grouping

Grouping is possible with channels, you can easily become a member of existing channels.

You can group persons in sets

No attachment option

No attachment options

Attachment options

You can see a thread of the direct messages

The threading is very interesting: although the posting is limited to 140 characters.

Comments are possible and the comments can be as long as you wish.

Threads visible by clicking the title or choosing what you want to see.

posting and commenting characters are unlimited.

Public timeline

You can explore public jaikus.

No public timeline, which leaves you disconnected to potential interests.

api documentation available

Api available

Api is not there yet, but it is promised for September 2007

web based

web based

Web based and desktop feature, BUT this requires installing Adobe Air.

Support, but not immediately linked to a community, it’s more of a FAQ-page

Very nice support community

No immediate link to a support community

Limited notifications

Notifications limited to mobile or sms

More notification options

you can not easily customize your profile

Only limited adjustments in your profile are possible

You can customize your profile

You can personalize the background + color scheme

Your own background image

You must select one of the fixed themes




The nice specials

Great Firefox extensions

Very nice location feature

You can forward a note

Add feeds to your Twitter e.g. with Twitterfeed

You can integrate other feeds (e.g. your twitter feeds J










Wednesday 8 August 2007

Gnomedex video's

Looking at the Gnomedex 7.0 video repository to check out the knowledge and the speakers.

In the meanwhile putting a course in eXe for the low resource health specialist Maria Zolfo.

Monday 6 August 2007

video exploring day

This year we will start vodcasting (video on demand) at the institute. We were already dabbling with it, but ... it is coming along now and we will soon start with informative movies for our new students.

In a later stage these students will be motivated to publish their material.

In this quest for easy access and information I came across the amazing ustream.tv.

This was send around and a couple of organisations I am in (mainly gender empowering ones) will be using this to get their conferences live online.

The Web surely works amazingly quick.

in house our aim is to:

- publish some vid's on what ITM looks like and what the students can expect
- publish vid's of some major individuals at ITM;
- and publishing video's that relate to the research that is done here;
- broadcast live.

this way we can augment the digital Web2.0 impact of ITM.

I really love Web2.0.

Wednesday 1 August 2007

writing material

Gathering all the eLearning stuff I collaborated, so I can put it in a map and out there.

It is so important to be structured, yet the organic way of life is promoted on Web2.0. I have no nack for structure and sometimes that gets to me.