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.

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.

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.

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

Click To Play

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.

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.

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.

Edublogs goes 2.0

The great edublogs-site has its 2nd birthday AND they go 2.0!

Social Software is Super!

claiming

what I should have done some time ago:
Technorati Profile

continuing the quest for a visual scroll software

For a couple of months I have been searching for a software that I would describe as a visual mindmap meets google earth through a sketching pad and with tags.

I am someone who sketches/doodles a lot (not good, but still I love it). I make visual mindmap's, but not textual ones. The only problem is up until now I did not find a software that gave me the possibility to use my visual mind. I discussed this with other keen software users with a visual mind and they all do the same: they draw in their moleskin notebooks and afterwards put it into text for their computer or they scan it, but then they cannot search the items they scanned.
Of course not the drawing is a problem, I use a designpad to put my sketches on digital format, but there is no software to my knowledge that enables a google earth like mapping of visuals. One map on which I can add my new sketches: kind of a tapestry diary of drawings.

The software I would love to work with would be one that combines the Asian scroll kind of drawing (it never ends, keeps on going) with links to relevant material. So it would be mindmap meets google earth through a sketching pad and with tags.

It is something like the sketch book of artists, like Frieda Kahlo: she drew sketches constantly in her diary and used only a minimum of text. For her, her mindmap were the sketches. So if she could save all her sketches immediately on a computer and afterwards search her sketches for tags, it would (in my mind) have sort of a google earth like effect) then those sketches ideally should be linkeable, enabling the sketch to represent textual content.

Because I am not a software developer, it is difficult to get this idea across, but… I am going to try something – if possible – with the gnomedex community. Fingers crossed.

In the meanwhile I am waiting for an important confirmation for an offline eLearning software try-out.