edu 2.0: welcome to the future of education

edu 2.0: welcome to the future of education: "...free, web-hosted learning management system." Also has "a library of educational resources contributed by our community" and a community network for educators/students.

Video Toolbox: 150+ Online Video Tools and Resources

Stephen Downes describes this site:

"This is a huge list of online video resources, including tools that support live video communications, online video how-tos, online video editors, video converters, video sharing sites, video hosting sites, video management, vidcat and vlogging tools, video mashup tools, mobile video, video search, video downloading services, and online television. Phew!"

Open Second Life

A project from a group of programmers not associated with Linden Labs. Hosted at OpenMetaverse.org, a site that hosts projects related to Open Source Metaverse development. About Open Second Life, John Goldsmith says, in a posting to BCEdOnline, they

"...are attempting to "reverse engineer" the Second Life server code, making it possible for anyone to set up and operate their own Second Life Virtual World. Open Second Life will use existing Second Life clients (which are a free download from the original Linden Labs/Second Life web site). While this project is still in the formative stages, it does provide hope to DE schools, teachers and others who want to utilize the educational research being generated by Post Secondary educators who use Second Life, to create more engaging learning experiences for their K-12 students but, in a more controlled setting."

Canada must “unlock potential” in adult learning

"'There are clear and well-substantiated links between lifelong learning, productivity and innovation. If Canada truly wants to unlock its potential, we must help workers engage in lifelong learning,' said Paul Cappon, the president and CEO of the Canadian Council of Learning."

Presentation: Digital Game-Based Learning

"In this podcast of the presentation "Generation G and the 21st Century," Richard Van Eck, associate professor of instructional design and technology at the University of North Dakota, discusses the theory behind the effectiveness of games in teaching and learning; what the past can teach us about if, how, and when to implement digital game-based learning; and what this will mean for colleges and universities."

The Ten Most Common Photographic Mistakes

From Andre Gunther Photography, "Here is a quick rundown of the most common mistakes people (like me) make that mess up a good photo or prevent us from taking a good photo...to kick off [the author's] series on photography techniques." These are good tips and I'll be keeping an eye out for the rest of the series.

Factors Motivating and Inhibiting Faculty in Offering Their Courses via

From the same journal/edition as I posted in the entry below, this paper reports on a study the purpose of which

"...was to discover what factors may motivate faculty members at small, private colleges to adopt distance education, as well as what factors may inhibit that adoption."

Visions Shaping the Future of Online Education:Understanding its Historical Evolution, Implications, and Assumptions

(Click the title to link to the paper.) The purpose of this paper from the Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration is to

"...present a historical background of online education, review its current status, and provide visions shaping its future in an attempt to understand its potential and limitations that will lead to the advancement of the scholarship of teaching and learning. Online instructors must understand the way online education has evolved over the years from previous conceptions of education and the wide array of implications and assumptions involved in the delivery of online education. Recommendations for the advancement of online education, including future research, are given."

Freebies Round-Up: Icons, Buttons and Templates

Some VERY AWESOME items here! I'm amazed they're free, they're so good. Check it out.

UBC Style Guides

Getting Started with APA Style: A site from the library at UBC, Vancouver, BC, Canada. The opening page has a really useful chart of sample formats for Reference list (which seems for most people to be the most difficult aspect of following 'style' formatting.

Similar assistance for MLA can be found in their Getting Started with MLA Style page

Teaching Digital Photography?

Visit DP Rounds ~ Digital Photography In The School. First visit their site of free Instructions. Good information, tips, and tutorial-like pages can be found under the headings of Photo Techniques, Photo Editing, and Photo Equipment. If you're teaching digital photography, they have a teacher's site as well. They offer "e-Rounds": student-ready handouts, integrated with web resources such as "how to" step-by-step instructions, downloadable exercises, showcase of high quality photo examples as well as student "best examples". Teacher-ready resources include teacher's notes, PPT presentations, a student CD, and on-line quizzes. Note: The school packages have a price tag, but reasonable. They also have an annual-fee-based access to their resource sites.

WebAIM: Captioning for Windows Media - Getting Windows Media Captions on the Web

A very helpful page from WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind) provides several methods to include captioning, illustrated with code. Discusses how to include a SAMI file, whether to embed or not -- Win Media Player 9+ do not "support embedded captions when the browser uses the embed tag to display Window Media content"; includes ideas for how to get around this issue.

Wikis in Plain English

Thanks to Common Craft I can show you the video here. The title of this post links to Lee Lefever's site (the video creator) where he displays the video.

We made this video because wiki web sites are easy to use, but hard to describe. We hope to turn you on to a better way to plan a camping trip, or create the next Wikipedia

Tips On Developing A Wiki Community

(If your monitor isn't wide enough for this blog page it looks like there's nothing in the middle column. Scroll down; I found the article halfway down the page.) There's no "about" or "intro"; the author jumps right in with the first in his list of tips. Definitely worth reading even if you're not creating a wiki but just using one regularly. Several comments about one of the tips; apparently in the case of wikis size does count. :)

Society for Teaching & Learning in Higher Education

STLHE "...is a national association of academics interested in the improvement of teaching and learning in higher education. Its members comprise faculty and teaching and learning resource professionals from institutions of post-secondary educaiton across Canada and beyond."

Podcast directory for educators, schools and colleges

"...the first and best UK directory to locate quality podcasts from over 390 carefully selected podcast channels for educational use - ideal for teaching and learning activities with children, young people and educational professionals. In our podcast directory, you can access educational content from over 4000 podcasts from different podcast channels."

Making iPod content interactive for education

Mobile Musings, a blog at K12Handhelds.com: This post offers links to programs that offer "...various ways to incorporate more interactivity into iPod content."

Custom Curriculum - K12 Handhelds.com

K12 Handhelds.com's page of FREE materials that you can download. Check out their free poetry unit.