Teaching with Games

Final report of a study/project by FutureLab. "The Teaching with Games project was a one-year study designed to offer a broad overview of teachers' and students' use of and attitudes towards commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) computer games in schools. It aimed to identify the factors that would impact the use of these entertainment games in school and describe the processes by which teachers plan and implement games-based learning in existing curricular contexts. Finally, it aimed to provide recommendations for future games-based learning approaches in schools for teachers, developers and policy makers."

knowschools

"This is the place for teachers who work online or are new to online to work and share together." From their newsletter: "is devoted to resources and skills needed to use technology in the classroom as well as building skills with these technologies and facilitation when working with students in a virtual environment."

knowmoodle

A new community devoted to all things moodle. Links to moodle resources as well as moodle courses and facilitation skills.

Second Life + Education (a new page on my site)

Click the title to link to my newest page in my Resources site.

Communities and Institutions & Organizations already in SECOND LIFE

This site lists (so far) Universities, Colleges, Schools, Organizations, Libraries. It a wiki site ~ "feel free to log in and add your own content. For a more extensive description of [Second Life] projects, see Second Life: Universities and Private Islands."

7 Principles of Good Practice in Undergrad Education

Honolulu.hawaii.edu offers these for their own faculty. "How can students and faculty members improve undergraduate education? Many campuses around the country are asking this question. To provide a focus for their work, we offer seven principles based on research on good teaching and learning in colleges and universities."

Back to School with the Class of Web 2.0

"TOOLS" is the topic of this first of a 3-Part series of articles. "The following is a compilation of Web 2.0 products that I’ve personally researched and tested. These services are grouped into two main categories: Tools and Office Applications. Some more specific services include: organizers, gradebooks, research tools, document managers, diagrams, and more."

Dimdim: The world's FREE web meeting

"Dimdim is the Open Source web conferencing company. With Dimdim you can show Presentations, Applications and Desktops to any other person over the internet....Attendees can use either Internet Explorer 6 or Firefox 1.5 while Presenters can use Internet Explorer 6 on Windows (XP/2000/2003) only. Firefox porting for Presenters will be available soon. Please understand that this is Alpha version with known issues and bugs and our development team is squashing them. This release is meant for technically skilled early adopters."[my emphasis]

Best of the Best Web 2.0 Web Sites

"What makes a site a Web 2.0 Site? Web 2.0 is the second coming of World Wide Web. New and improved sites that make the web their platform, provide users a way of interacting with each other, and organize and categorize their content are perfect examples of Web 2.0. Below is a list of web sites that are the best of the best!"

Learning Resources for Civics and Citizenship Education

This week the WWWTools For Education newsletter is featuring the topic of Civics & Citizenship. LOTS of links and information on the topic of civics in several countries. Includes links to collections of resources and classroom resources. A civics glossary. Advocacy links. Civics in the news, including some links dealing with the USA election this week. Resources for Professional Development.

Blackboard & Google become partners in search 'appliances'

Today's article from Blackboard Media Center.

PowerPoint compression tools

Diehard MS Powerpoint fans are always looking for ways to optimize the usually-big files for browser use inside online courses, etc. These two tools were mentioned recently on the webct users' list. Each one was praised highly by the person who recommended it. Both have a free trial and a low cost when you want to purchase it.

PowerPressed

Optimise & compress PowerPoint® files up to 95%
No proprietary plug-ins or viewers are needed.
The .ppt file format remains at all times.
A true plug-in… no stepping in & out of PowerPoint®.
Simple to use… no expert knowledge required.
Easy to install & manage.

PPTminimizer

Reduces your PowerPoint® file size by up to 96%.
Your original presentation doesn´t get modified; PPTminimizer creates an optimized copy instead.
Transparent Integration in Outlook®, Windows-Explorer® and PowerPoint®!
Save time: No need to zip/unzip anymore.
Due to the integrated E-mail function of PPTminimizer, the presentations can be sent directly after the optimization.

ESL Resources for Instructors and Students

Check out this newest collection of links on my Resources site.

Bedford Handbook Online Resources

Lots of free goodies here at the "companion web site for The Bedford Handbook. Includes online resources for writing, gramma, and research. No charge. No activation code required." Includes peer review tools, grammar helpers, writing and research tools, and special sections for Instructors & students.

OpenLearn at Open University

(Britain)From a BBC News article: "The OU is making its educational resources available free on the net for anyone in the world to use. It aims to make 5,000 hours' worth of material available by April 2008 - not only for learners, but for educators to adapt and use for their own purposes." Open University says, "Open content provides the opportunity for access to high-quality learning materials which would not otherwise be available and affordable to many groups within both the developed and developing worlds...We want to lead the learning revolution, experimenting with new models of content and technologies. OpenLearn is a huge step towards this aim. The philosophy of open access and sharing knowledge - a cornerstone of this project - matches the founding principles of the Open University."

The complete work of Charles Darwin

"The largest collection of Darwin's writings ever assembled...contains every Darwin publication as well as many of his handwritten manuscripts. All told there are more than 50,000 searchable text pages and 40,000 images. There is also the most comprehensive Darwin bibliography ever published and the largest manuscript catalogue ever assembled. More than 150 ancillary texts are also included, ranging from reference works to contemporary reviews, obituaries, descriptions of Darwin's Beagle specimens and important works for understanding Darwin's context. Free audio mp3 versions of his works are also available."

Education meets Second Life: virtual world education departments

About 4 or 5 years ago my partner was "addicted to" the multi-user micro world, Ultima Online. They called it a "game" but it was a full, rich underworld, populated by millions of people of all ages, but dominated by youth. At the time, we (both of us teachers) thought what an amazing education tool it could be if we were to set up a school within that world. A "real" (academic) school where students could earn real-world graduation credits. Why not?.... the game already used real-world money for property transactions and more. Students could earn not only course credits and degrees for the "real" world, but in doing so could also earn other items that would be of value to them in their virtual world.

Of course, we didn't take that idea any further, and now in 2006 the rest of the "real world" is catching up to our idea. Will they acknowledge that we were the first to think of it? Ya right. Nevertheless, I'm glad it's finally happening. Academia, welcome to your Second Life.

Second Life lands B.C. campus

Sloodle - 3D Learning Management System

Women of Web 2.0

"Women of Web 2.0 is for all who are using the tools of the internet whether it be in a classroom setting, leading seminars, authoring books, maintaining blogs or wikis, or just enjoying the tools of the internet in an educational and exciting way."

Robin Good's Official Guide to Web Conferencing and Live Presentation Tools

A rich resource for web conferencing Systems reviews, comparisons. Also: recommended solutions; key strengths & weaknessees; functionality; terminology; and a directory of vendors. One-stop shopping :)

WebCT VISTA - Adding News Feeds to your Course

A tutorial from Georgia Southern University.