Recently in III. Other Technologies Category
Wiki has been around for 10 years now, and much like blogs, it is another technology which educators are trying to adapt for use in their classroom.
This article (in a wiki also) shares some experience on the use of wiki in a university course, and students are giving positive feedback on the use of the technology in their course. Check it out.
Chanced upon this website while browsing the orange-covered "Engaging IT" CD produced by ETD in 2004, well, and it happens that this morning during meeting that the big word GAME was brought up.
I/We belong to a generation (may not hold true for everyone of the same age group though) of gamers where we have witnessed computer games giving off only beeps thru the good old PC speakers, to the 3D Live surround sound games today. Looking back, some of the facts that we gathered are from the games we have played. Hmm ... let me recall the optimum height to fly a F-16 for maximum fuel efficiency ...
Need more time to explore this website in evaluating its educational value, but the games are surely engaging :P
Funbrain.com, check it out here.
Spent some time today to look at podcasting, one of the hottest thing lately, and well to look at its possible use for teaching and learning of course.
In short, if we compare podcasting to blogging, a blog post is a typewritten post, while a podcast publish an audio clip. The content for both can be similar, it's the form that is different.
To begin podcasting, you simply need a digital device that is capable of capturing sound/voice. One commonly used piece of hardware by podcasting fans is the iPod. (origin of the pod in podcasting)
In this experiment, I used the built-in microphone of my latest toy. You need a software capable of capturing your voice and converting it to MP3 format. The freely available opensource software Audacity is the perfect choice. And here goes my 1st ever podcast!
Looking from the perspective of language(s) teaching and learning, podcasting is most useful for the developing of oral skills. Students can be asked to tell a story, to comment on any issue (just like in an oral exam), or simply to retell their day's event! These are but some possiblities. Teacher may also use podcast to give assignments, such as 'completing the story after you have heard this podcast'.
As this tool is most useful in the development of the oral skills, where Mother-Tongue Languages are concerned, it may be more suitable for the primary level, where they are still learning to speak/narrate. For the secondary level, the Normal(Techinical) students would benefit most as a large proportion of their examination is based on the oral component.
If you are looking into implementing e-learning solutions, you may want to read this article by Jane Knight first.
If you have used mindmaps, perhaps you have used them for all the 3 purposes that Nick Duffill has described in his posting?
Another online tool that allows you to instantly cut-n-paste any information from anywhere (www, working documnets etc). As pointed out by Will Richardson in his article, it is a great collaborative tool!
Some features:
1. Anytime, anywhere, anyone (who knows the name or url)
2. Hassle free: No username, no password to remember!
2. Notes can be saved and retrieved in future.
3. Get notified of new notes posted thru RSS feeds
Take a look at my sample note or create your own now! :)
The New Media Consortium (NMC) has published the above report which highlights six technologies with the underlying research suggesting these technologies will become very important to higher education over the next one to five years.
Take a dip at current and future development here.
