Tag Archives: Internet

Concepts map links within a blog post.

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Collaboratively or individually produced concept maps included as a link within a blog post… If this sounds interesting read on for a free solution.

This is a link to a test map

It was created online at…http://www.bubbl.us

A link was generated within the online tool that was then added to this post.

– It can be a private mind map or collaboratively authored.

– It can also be exported as an image (.jpg or.png).

– It is free – A map image can be exported without creating an account but to save, share etc a – free – account needs to be created.

If students were using a blog to discuss/respond/reflect they could produce the mind map and then create a post with a link to the mind map image as I have done here.

Similarly it is another option for collaborative brainstorming activities between researchers, co-authors etc.

It’s worth a look 🙂

Xtranormal

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Xtranormal is a great tool to create a short movie. All you need is a script. That’s right just a script, no cameras, no lights and no actors, it’s all animated on screen before your eyes. The web-based version is quick and easy to use. I made this is about 5mins.

So go ahead and try it yourself at xtranormal.com.

iPad replaces paper, not laptops (from Inside Higher Ed).

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http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/07/12/golub

This was a good read. In a nutshell:

“The crucial question for academics is: What in our current arsenal will the iPad replace? After using the device, the answer surprised me: the iPad makes a lousy computer replacement, but it does a great job of replacing paper.”

The author Alex Golub also discusses the potential for the iPad and iTunes to revolutionalise access to journal articles that we currently rely on our uni’s library to supply, and make it much easier to just get the articles we want (as opposed to the piles of stuff the publishers bundle in to the subscriptions that we never want to wade through, but have to, to get to the stuff we want.)

Helping your Community of Users

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Some great things are happening with the Edublogs pilot. We can now see great communities breaking out.

One particular Administrator of these communities has made a quick little video to help their users.

Adding comments and posts

What else are you doing to help develop your community of users?

Dropbox – a cloud with a difference

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Synchronisation of files across multiple computers & mobile devices, web-based access to files, managed sharing of folders with other dropbox users, url creation for public documents for emailing links, web-album generation, event history tracking of your dropbox (file restoration) etc …

Well worth a look and a boon when travelling and you need access to storage or sharing items with international contacts.

Hosted externally, which brings along its own considerations, but this type of thing would have great potential for groups of students working collaboratively on a group assignment, sharing progress between themselves and tutor etc…

Currently free for up to 2GB of storage, plans beyond that.

https://www.dropbox.com/


Dropbox

Omnium – great collaborative online space

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This is a great product developed here in Australia by the University of NSW, College of Fine Arts (COFA) about 5 years ago. http://omnium.net.au/

I like their metaphors for the different spaces. Each student has a “filing cabinet” which is their personal files.

To share these they “publish” them to “The Wall” which is a shared gallery space for the equivalent of your workgroup/workspace, where you can add comments. This works best when the files are images or video (which is what it was designed for, developed by/for the College of Fine Arts.) Then if the teacher thinks your work is great, they can publish it to a “Class Wall” for the whole class to see.

The best work in the class can be published to a Public Wall, ie a virtual art gallery space that anybody can view. Great promo/marekting for COFA.

Would you like to be able to promote your student work in this way? With their permission of course…

omnium

Grad Diploma Education

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 I met with Sharon Tindall-Ford from Faculty of Education today regarding  The Grad Diploma Ed. It’s an intensive 10 month program with about 350 students in each intake ie per year. It is taught across 4 different campus: Wollongong, BB, SH and Bega.

The students spend 55 days in the classroom – about 20% of the total learning time.

Their program consists of core subjects from Wgong in the main plus eduStream for large classes and some video conferencing (vcf). Sharon said they are moving away from co-ordinators in each location, hence they have an ESDF project to harness appropriate technologies for Multi-location teaching, and ongoing professional development for interactive teaching ie 2-way approach even in the large classes. Richard Caladine working on this aspect with Tess Snowball. They are looking to move from eduStream to interactive vcf even for the large classes.

New requirement: Sharon wants to offer scheduled syncronous staff/student consultations to facilitate feedback and reflection on the classroom prac experience. Could be one-on-one, could be scheduled for tutor to whole tutorial, could be opt-in sessions on key topics eg Maths lesson plans, Classroom management. Also good for interventions for students struggling and under strees, to keep them in the program.

Who else wants this kind of facility?

Brainstorming eLearning tech innovations with John

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I ducked over to the Innovation Campus for lunch with John Glynn, head of the Business School. We talked blogs and collaboration spaces for communities of students, mobile applications and competitive advantage, case and role-based learning and e-simulations, alumni blogs and videos, and busted a few subtly racist myths of international student habits.

I feel the spirit of innovation growing on campus, and it’s a great place to be.