Why elearning?

What is elearning and why the push for elearning? What are some common practices? What can it do for learners? Does it make us smarter or dumber? What's your view? One thing I know for sure is that we cannot just let things be. We will lose all our students if we do not acknoledge that students of today are different from those of yesterday. We have to harness technology and engage them:)

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A new vision of students today...

A new vision of students today - digital natives so different from students of yesterday. It's the same the world over, in the States and here too in Singapore....

Second Life - on the Web!

Yep, got myself another life on the virtual world by signing up for a Second Life account. Been quite an experience so far...... teleporting to other worlds and chatting with one avatar. Still learning about the usefulness of virtual worlds and how to harness it for education purposes. Some sites visited included CDC Island, Meteora, NOAA, and NP island.

Some things I learnt :

You can chat online with whoever's on the island and it will appear on everybody's screen. You can press the talk button to communicate.

You can also do a bookmark of an island while you are on it. Just click on the World tab and then select landmark. To see this, just go to my inventory and check out the landmark folder.

You can also click on the search button (bottom toolbar) and then select the events button, pick a category, like education and then type in say, economics or French and search for say a lecture or something. Alternate catergories include things like shopping :) and culture etc.

If you zoom out on the world map (bottom tool bar) you can see the virtual world with green dots denoting where pple are, and the pink stars where there is a lot of activity. Just click on these dots and you can be teleported to the selected location. Voila! Or if you are already at an island, then click on mini-map to see where other pple are in case you want to be teleported next to them.

As for connecting with friends in second life, click on the communication button and a text box will pop up.

Once that happens, you can search for your friends by keying in their second life names. When you have found them, just click on the add button. An invite will be sent to your friend. If accepted, you will have a virtual friend whom you can go on virtual tours with. You can teleport your friend to right where you are. You can see if they are online by clicking on the communication tab.

Ay yes, to hide your own name (in case u need to), just go to preferences and change one of the options in there.

So much for the time being, hope to attend a lecture on economics on Second life soon. By then, hopefully, I would have learnt how move less clumsily on second life. Hey, I really enjoyed the flying bit :)

Learning about Skype

Ok, some more free stuff on the web that I found useful. Skype - you can connect with friends over the internet using their voice call or video call facility. And surprising, the voice quality is really good. Nice and clear. Lucky thing the web cam worked after I swopped my computer with another one that someone returned to the office :) No problem if you just do a two-party video call, but once you do add people (that's the button on the top right-hand corner), the video goes poof and you end up with a three-party voice call instead. Not too bad really, but they should have made it quite clear upfront that the video calls are just between 2 parties and no more.

Surprised me to that when you add people, you can select up to 24 participants to join your call. But if the group gets too large, it would be quite difficult to tell who's speaking isn't it? One probable use for this skype facility would be doing like a video call in class - an external speaker could be invited to speak on a certain subject, and this call could be projected on screen. Could be used during elearning week/business continuity week too, for students to ask questions, or for colleagues to interact outside of the office. Ah.....Oh yes, must remember to click on that video icon to turn on your video function. And you could also do a grouping, so that you call all relevant parties at one go too.

One other feature on Skype would be the Share screen feature where you can open up a document and show it to the other party online.

Here's the link to Skype The latest version is 4.1. Here's the user guide on Skype for video calls.

Some useful videos to explain graphs in IEF :)

These videos are provided by Phil Holden and available on Youtube.
1)Producer Surplus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MinxczZXtKA&feature=related

2)Consumer Surplus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTxniCLYgok

3)How tariffs work
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSQTbd2iJtY&feature=PlayList&p=B86750878E31892A&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=28

4)How quotas work
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSQTbd2iJtY&feature=PlayList&p=B86750878E31892A&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=28

5)How subsidies work
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NykcR3RhyR4&feature=related

6)How current account deficits lead to depreciation of a currency
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCjwXz7ZXwU

7)The components of the current account
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKRBpJZ92QM&feature=related

Still on Web 2.0 tools - Twitter

Looks like Twitter has a gone big time in Singapore! Attended a course at TLC on 8 July to learn what's so cool about people wanting to send out tweets (140 characters). Looks like there there's no need to even create an account if I didn't want to. I could just do a search on the twitter home page if i wanted to learn about the latest buzz about stuff in town. Anyway, I did create a tweeter account for myself, well not that I have really interesting stuff to tweet about (oh well, at least not right now:.) Well, I am hoping to learn how to use this tool to complement classroom learning in the future. Here's my url on tweeter: http://twitter.com/ttwizz

Will log to an online class sometime this week to see how people use tweeter for learning via an online lesson at http://www.wiziq.com with Preetam.

Musical rendition of Demand and Supply

This is a great way to learn - singing about the concepts instead of memorising them.
Enjoy this one on the law of demand and supply.

The Jing On screen Video Capture

Did not really have the time to explore Jing during the Web 2.0 course, but hey, was enlighted with tips and tricks at one recent Mel Bytes session. This is what I tried to do - using Jing to explain how to do sound recording in MS Powerpoint 2007. This sound recording feature wasn't available in the 2003 version, and we had to download something (can't remember what!) from Mel in order to add a voice-over to the slides.

I have uploaded the file on to the Screencast website

This is the link to the material uploaded in Jing Recording_a_Narration_in_PPT2007

Not sure why, but the video appears skewed to one side, and ahem, you can't see quite so well! Got to figure that out..

week no.10 - reflection time :)

Yeahh... this is it! Have given myself many pats on my back for EFFORT! Yup.... hasn't been easy plouging through the 23 things over the last couple of months. Many a times, I wasn't sure if I was clicking on the right thing, and also my Ie went bonkers as I must have downloaded some things I shouldn't have. Too many add-ons I think.

i haven't quite finished exploring all these web 2.0 tools but this course has certainly been such an eye-opener. Some tools were really COOL and easy to pick up and others ... I am still figuring out what exactly they do.

I have not exactly had time to do the following and am not sure I know what to do:

1. Join a Ning connection.
2. Do a Jing Capture.

Can someone point me in the right direction, pleaseeeeeee. Also. I haven't really quite grasped Technoratti yet, and would like to find out more. Will probably attend a Mel Byte programme to learn more. In fact, now that I have some knowledge about these web 2.0 tools, it going to help me decide which of those Mel Byte programmes will be useful to attend. The challenge will of course be infusing the relevant web 2.0 tools into the curriculum so that teaching and learning can be enhanced. Ah... exciting times are ahead....

Oh yes, forgot to mention in my earlier post that we do use Wimba podcasts in Mel currently to do 5 min summaries of individual lecture topics. Easy to use and good for aiding recap of key concepts.

Week No. 10 - ebooks and audio books

These are the websites I visited and found some FREE stuff - e-books for downloading and audio books I could listen in to.

The British Library

Many Books

World Public Library


Lots of classic books to read (like Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll, old photos, transcripts; there's even this tool you could download so that you can flip the pages of the e-book, just like an actual book. For this other website, strangely I couldn't locate the download button, although I had wanted to do so for an Excel 2007 for Dummies book. Hmm....

This is the website: The school library

Have subscribed to a feed on Google Reader so that i get free short stories (audio) -Weekly Classic Short Stories from Librivox.. Just go to this url: http://feeds.feedburner.com/WeeklyShortStoriesFromLibrivox

Week No. 9 - Podcasts

Signed up for an account on Podcast.com. This website seems much easier to navigate and understand than others like Podcast.net and Podcastalley.com. Hmmm... the website for Yahoo Podcasts seems to be inacessible, page not found or something. Well, essentially Podcasts are like radio talk shows. You can listen to these talks via the web using your computer or download them to your MP3 player, if you wish to. A useful learning tool which forces students to really concentrate if they want to be able to catch what's going on. Maybe a good tool to use when we want to do a short summary of key points of a lecture. Might be less suitable if the module is highly technical and makes frequent references to stuff like diagrams, drawings, calculations and the like.

Here's a link to a podcast that I have found on Podcast.com - news updates from The Economist- http://podcast.com/show/5356/ Have just added this feed to my Google reader.

Hopefully with all these accounts and what-not I have created, I don't get all the usernames and passwords all mixed up :)

Week No. 9 - Update on RSS feeds

I have subscribed to a couple of news feeds on Today Online and the Straits Times. Instead of having to go these websites to get the news I want, I get them right on IE,by clicking on the star icon and the RSS feed icon.

These are the two latest bits of news today.

From the ST Money Desk, " Mazda to cut salaries." and from the Straits Times, "Government mulling tapping the national reserves." Here are the URLs for these 2 feeds - http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIFILES/rss/break_money.xml and http://www.todayonline.com/rss.asp

Or you might want pull your feeds into your Google Reader account by subcription to these feeds....

Watch this video to undertand more

Week No. 9 - videos

Found this video on "Tsunami" while exploring the yahoo video website at http://video.yahoo.com/

Brings back chilling memories of the devastation caused by the huge waves. We were in Phuket too, just a week before the Tsunami struck, and it could have been us. I vividly remember my hubby canoeing the 2 boys out to the open sea, leaving mum and I frantic on the beach. My heart goes out to all who have lost their loved ones in this disaster. It should never happen again. Ever.

Another Tsunami @ Yahoo! Video

Other video hosting websites include http://teachertube.com and jumpcut and Gogglevideo

Good to know that there's more beyond Youtube. Am currently using quite some Youtube stuff in my module, Microeconomics, just to make learning more varied for students. There's one on pollution in China, another on price controls in Zimbawe. Even students are sharing Youtube clips in class during the Discovery and Share segnment in class.

Week 8 - The Library Thing

Checked out the library website.

Here's my library :)





This is a free website where you can catalog up to 200 books (just key in the title, if you know exactly what it is, or you can input a keyword and do a serach). It's lie your personal library - complete with displays of book covers. You can also give the book a rating, and write a review if you wish. Perhaps before purchasing a book, you can go into the website, and see what others have to say about it (do a book review or post a message). If it's interesting or useful, etc. Also, with a system of tags, you can locate books of the same variety, if you are searching for a particular topic, say "parenting" or "children". You can see who's reading the same sort of books you have tagged and possibly connect with them. (I have just clicked on this tab - add a friend, and well, email has been auto sent out to someone who also used an ADHD tag).

Good website for authors to connect with their readers and for publishers to distribute free copies of new books and get readers to review them.

I have added 4 books to my library and created a widget to showcase them in my blog. Captain Underpants is a good read if you are in a mood for comics and need to destress, hi-action and the kind of stuff which would turn you right back to a kid.

Week No. 8 - online productivity tools

Did a fair bit of exploring of Google Docs today.

This is a really fantastic tool - you can edit your documents (word docs, spreadsheets or slides) anywhere, anytime and the documents are stored online. A very powerful tool for collaboration. There's no need for copies of email flying all over the shop with everyone not knowing which the latest version is. And yes, it is another free web tool by Google.

Here's a little powerpoint presentation I have created using Google Docs. In it I have listed down all the interesting features of Google Docs. It's really easy to do - after you have created your presentation, one click on the "publish" button and voila! - the URL willbe created. You can then just cut and paste the link here in your blog to publish it.

Managed to do a little e-chat(yet another useful feature in Google Docs) while running through the presentation online with hubby :) Tested out the "Start presentation" button and then the "Take control of presentation" - you can view your document online with other people whom you have invited as collaborators and then chat with them like you are discussing work online and make the necessary amendments.

I like this tool :) Definitely a great idea for students to know how to use this tool for projects.

Week no. 7 - still on Wikis (Fun in the sandbox)

Been a hectic week this week; what with going through test questions, e-learning week questions, questions for the tutorial! Plus lectures for this week and Open House duty! Am I glad this is the weekend...phew!

Did some exploring of two free wiki websites; Wikis do seem really easy to use...
Here are two of them that I sort of looked at (check out the videos which show you step-by-step how to make use of the features in Wiki.

http://www.wikispaces.com
http://www.wetpaint.com

This really does level the playing field - there's no more need for HTML or any special language or programming to do web pages anymore :)

Ah yes, had fun composing some stuff and adding a para to the Dog and Cat story in the Wiki sandbox of Classroom Learning 2.0. Found it pretty hard to read and make connections to the stuff in there as it must have been edited so many times, and hmm, where's the story really going?? It's hard to tell. Maybe that's one difficulty with Wikis, anyone can edit it, and if you don't agree, you can re-edit it over and over again.

I guess that's how students should look at each other's write-up in a project, everyone should provide inputs to making a report better. In the end, the report has to reflect some kind of consensus aomong all team members. Just got to be careful that too many hands do not spoil the broth.

Week No.7 - Wikis

Wikis seem like a good e-platform to provide students with space to do their project work. Students can post their preliminary research on the assignment topic so that tutors can provide feedback on it before they actually plunge into a project topic. And as they deepen their research and find out more about a topic, they can add on, delete, edit their report as they go along. This is a really useful tool to increase the collaboration element amongst students. Although everyone may take charge of researching on a sub-topic, the Wiki allows for all members to see what each other has contributed and easily edit it if necessary. Of course, all group members must be willing to give up a little control over the parts that they have written, so as to improve the overall quality of their project work. With the Wiki, everyone knows that what's posted on the wiki is the latest version of the report. No more need to name and rename your document, v1,v2,v3 etc!


Links can be added too, to provide depth to the students' research efforts. Useful videos or images can be embedded too. This is certainly more interesting and interactive than the usual hard copy reports than we have been receiving.

We are toying with the idea of starting a wiki for students to do their MIEC assignment next semester. Once students have selected suitable news articles to do their analysis, we can get them to post their articles and a draft outlining the key concepts they wish to discuss on the Wiki. Tutors can then go see if the article is appropriate before the students do the actual report. (Presently the students have to meet with us face to face to show us their articles and draft, and it's not always easy to find a common time to do this) The report can be done via the Wiki, and tutors would be able to monitor the progress of students in their assignment. If students really go off track in their analysis, tutors can provide some guidance by say, asking some questions to point students in the right direction.

Found some useful tips on Wikis from one of the resources provided in Classroom Learning 2.0. Check this out:

http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Wiki+Hall+of+Fame

I am wondering if we could restrict the viewing of a particular Wiki on Mel to just the group members. This will help deter copying or replicating of ideas across various groups.