An Overview of E-Portfolios

An article from Educause Learning Initiative.

"Three types of e-portfolios are described in this report: student e-portfolios, teaching e-portfolios, and institutional e-portfolios. ...This report defines and categorizes e-portfolios, offers examples of higher education e-portfolio implementations, reviews e-portfolio technology, and addresses adoption issues."

Playing to Learn

"Video games are a medium whose impact and influence on the daily lives of children continues to grow. Platforms (from cell phones to interactive television to handhelds) are expanding, providing opportunities for games to be pervasive throughout time and space. Good game design and supporting materials can exploit the benefits of this technology and make electronic games a powerful medium for learning. The games of tomorrow promise to be better at both entertaining and educating as long as we are ready to use them."

Talkr -- Listen rather than read

Talkr converts text-only blogs into podcasts in MP3 that you can listen to on your iPod. It can also convert from text to speech any material you can capture in an RSS reader. In combo with your RSS reader, Talkr can keep tabs on your feeds and send audio to your computer as those audio files become available.

Accelerated Learning Techniques

"Cercone Learning Internationa helps to provide tools to open the genius mind in each child or adult. The Cercone Learning Optilearning System utilizes color to promote and improve the learning process in all areas of life."

What's In A Blog?

(The above is an American School Board Journal 'Cover Story' link. So if it's no longer active when you try it, go to their Archives page and look for July 2005, Cover Story.)

"This is a story of potential -- not of how K-12 administrators and school board members are flocking to blogging. They aren’t. School leaders tend not to be “early adopters” of new technology."

Supporting Different Learning Styles in an Online Learning Environment

"Educational institutions are quick to offer distance education programs as an alternative for students who, for myriad reasons, cannot attend a more traditional program. This trend is evidenced by the fact that over 80% of educational institutions in the United States offer some form of distance education. Unfortunately, attrition from these programs is reaching epidemic proportions and, if educational institutions are to fulfill their commitment to offer courses equivalent to their traditional counterparts, they must investigate ways to address the learning needs and styles of different types of learners."

Building a Successful Blended Learning Strategy

"There seems to be reluctance in transitioning instructor-led training (ILT) to a blended learning format. This may be due to resistance on the part of the organization or training department to change existing classroom session formats. Another reason I believe is more prevalent is not knowing how. [This] case study is an example of how our training department made a very successful transition prior to knowing what blended learning meant."

Easy Text To HTML Converter 2.0

A FREE tool from Softpedia.

"Provides fast and easy conversion of Text Files (in *.txt, *.rtf formats) and Text Blocks pasted from Clipboard to HTML."

Internet Explorer 7 will have RSS Tools

From this article in PCMag,

"On 06.24.05 Microsoft announced that it will introduce new technologies designed to promote the use of RSS. The company plans to include RSS readers in two new versions of its Internet Explorer Web browser—one for the Windows XP operating system and one for Windows XP's successor, codenamed Longhorn."

e-Portfolios

Developing and Implementing a Methodology for Reviewing E-Portfolio Projects:

"A report encompassing a review of existing e-portfolio software applications in use in the UK, and a synthesis of literature reviews on e-portfolio systems."

Sakai: an open source LMS

Relavitely new open source Learning Management System. Also, if you're interested, read this recent review/critique by Michael Feldstein. Sakai developers have participated in the resulting discussion, responding to Feldstein's criticism of the discussion tools.

Are the basics of Instructional Design changing?

Article author Stephen Downes says,

"I wrote this item, first, to underscore the role of philosophy as informing educational theory, and second, to highlight the difference between online learning and 'traditional' distance education. I argue that the theory of distributed representation has a profound implication for pedagogy, as it suggests that learning (and teaching, such as it is) is not a process of communication, but rather, a process of immersion. Put loosely, it suggests the idea of teaching not by telling or even demonstrating but rather through the creation (or identification) of an environment into which a learner may be immersed."