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Benefits Of Anything Under The Sun!

December 30th, 2009 · No Comments · Articles, Fun, Learning, Life

“In this is era of information over loading; an average person is heavily bombarded with too much information. As part of our effort to provide the most basic information in an uncluttered manner, we launched BenefitOf.net. The site contains articles that explain the benefits of various things and actions we are familiar with.”


You might also want to follow them on Twitter, too (Even less information overload!). Their articles are short, concise and relevant! Not bad! Here are few tasty ones to get you started:

That is great, however wouldn’t it even be better if each article also discussed the side-effects/negatives/cons/weaknesses/etc. besides the benefits to get a more balanced view of various things and actions we are familiar with. Exploring both sides of the story would be great, and it could still be short, relevant and crispy.

Yes, what are the potential side effects of University education? :)

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Avoiding Death by PowerPoint! (Karl Kapp)

December 29th, 2009 · No Comments · e-learning, Facilitation, Fun, Lecture, PowerPoint, Second_Life, Virtual_Worlds

In this audio narrated Breeze presentation (Adobe now!) above, Karl Kapp gives you some really useful ideas on how you can transform your PowerPoint slides, and use them to facilitate engaging conversations and discussions with your students.

Do you struggle to create engaging PowerPoint slides and presentations? Are your students bored with your lectures and tutorials? Is it PowerPoint’s fault (Is PowerPoint Evil?)?

PowerPoint is just one learning tool (with its strengths and weaknesses) among many. The key to facilitating effective learning experiences is mostly in the design. If you are crap at facilitating learning, no matter what tool you use, you are still going to be crap. Though, the tool might enable you to mash-up more attractive visuals, but it won’t take long before your students get bored and just doze off.

But if you combine attractive visuals (Apple style!) with excellent game play or instructional design (sparking learning discoveries and conversations!), more students will be motivated and willing to learn, which is a prerequisite for any real learning to take place.

Here are a couple of more interesting Breeze presentations from Karl the Man (Not a woman!):

You can find some more learning juice from Karl Kapp’s homepage. Finally, you just have to check out his blog ‘Kapp Notes‘, especially if you want to learn more about Virtual Worlds and ‘Learning in 3D‘. He is a great starting point and an expert with tons of experience :)

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SlideShare – The Very Best From ZaidLearn

December 27th, 2009 · No Comments · e-learning, edublogs, Fun, Learning, PowerPoint

Click here to view the blog post version, which provides more details (beyond visuals). I had a ball visually summarizing the best from ZaidLearn, and hopefully more educators will discover juicy learning tools, resources and ideas to transform their learning and teaching environments.

Actually, it would be great if more educators found time (5-15 minutes) to reflect their own learning and teaching using blogging as a reflective and sharing tool. Wishful thinking? :)

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Want to Build Dynamic Websites? 13 FREE Video Lectures!

December 22nd, 2009 · No Comments · Courses, Learning, Lecture, Web2.0

Lecturer:
Professor David J. Malan, Harvard

Course Description:

Today’s websites are increasingly dynamic. Pages are no longer static HTML files but instead generated by scripts and database calls. User interfaces are more seamless, with technologies like Ajax replacing traditional page reloads. This course teaches students how to build dynamic websites with Ajax and with Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP (LAMP), one of today’s most popular frameworks. Students learn how to set up domain names with DNS, how to structure pages with XHTML and CSS, how to program in JavaScript and PHP, how to configure Apache and MySQL, how to design and query databases with SQL, how to use Ajax with both XML and JSON, and how to build mashups. The course explores issues of security, scalability, and cross-browser support and also discusses enterprise-level deployments of websites, including third-party hosting, virtualization, colocation in data centers, firewalling, and load-balancing.

Video Lectures:

I have to admit I am really crap with coding, scripting, database, servers, etc. But, hopefully Professor David J. Malan can enlighten me more about how I can use Ajax beyond cleaning the toilet.

Why pay for a crappy lecture (workshop or course), when you can be taught by a Harvard Professor any time you want for FREE? Interesting question! Tough choice :)

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Finals Club – Lecture Notes From Students Instead!

December 18th, 2009 · No Comments · e-learning, Lecture, Notes, OER, Study_Groups

‘Store your notes online, collaborate with classmates, and share knowledge with the world.’

“The site bills itself as “the premier Web portal for interactive education,” allowing Harvard students to join online study groups and read annotated versions of the Great Books. But its most notable characteristic is that it pays Harvard students to post their lecture notes online …more
Drake Bennett’s article will tell you more about what really the Finals Club (Final Club?) is trying to achieve. So, does anyone own what universities teach?

First, if I was a lecturer I would be thrilled that students are taking down lecture notes from my lectures, and sharing it online to the world, especially if my original lecture notes are crappy. Also, I would probably have several student versions to choose from, and can refer to these versions to update my original lecture notes (if any at all!).

I suppose what really annoys some lecturers, is that students at the Finals Club are getting paid for ‘replicating’ their work, which they have spent years to document and articulate. But then again, isn’t it great that you are generating income for students. Also, now people around the world can learn from your hard work 24/7/365 days a year (previously only your classes!). But, I suppose lecturers should get some royalty to, for allowing all this to happen? That would be fair, unless you are a Harvard lecturer making a reasonably good living already.

However, if students listen and learn, and write down their own interpretations (of what is important) of what was taught or lectured, why not? Let’s face it, most lecturers have basically done the same learning from other resources (probably spent more time, used more references, and mashed-up masterly to often conceal the contributions of others). Am I wrong?

Why are we wasting our time worrying about copyright or copyleft? Let it go!

Anyway, to succeed increasingly now and in the future, having access to information is not the decisive key, but the ability to make sense of this information, and use it to innovate, invent, and make things happen is. The real question we should be asking at this critical era of mankind is, “how can I make sense of this and use it to change myself and the world for the better?

Now we are talking! Life is too short to worry and protect every word and idea (e.g. lecture notes) that we have basically mashed-up with our own flavor from other people’s work. Let’s move on!

Besides lecture notes, students still want to learn from the lecturer (probably more than ever!), because surely lecture notes (including video lectures) can’t answer all the questions they might have. Until lecture notes can answer every question a student mind of inquiry has, lecturers will still be the kings of the University :)

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Build Brain Games On-The-Fly with ProProfs!

December 17th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Edugames, Fun, Learning

“With thousands of games to choose from, ProProfs Brain Games has something fun for everyone, including bloggers, teachers and students, parents searching for a way to spend time with their kids, or even just casual gamers looking to flex their mental muscles.” – Sameer Bhatia, Founder & President

ProProfs Brain Games allows users for free to create their own custom games and share them across the Web quickly by uploading them to blogs and social media. Custom Brain Games makes it possible for bloggers to encourage visitors to spend more time on their site by presenting their text or photo content in the form of a game or puzzle. Teachers can engage their students by integrating a lesson plan into a custom game.

Why didn’t I have such things when I was a student? But then again, we are always learning something, and doing it in the form of a brain stimulating game certainly does not harm (does it?). Excuse me, I am off to play and build some brain games on-the-fly :)

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10 Trends To Watch In 2010! E-Learning Vending Machines?

December 15th, 2009 · No Comments · e-learning, Fun, Juice, Trends

What about an E-Learning vending machine (that pre-downloads through the internet, and stores all e-learning content and activities). I bring and insert my thumb-drive or Mobile device (or it burns on a CD). If it is a thumb-drive it of course cleans it up (reformat if necessary to ensure that the machine is virus free), and then I can select (Jukebox style!) and download whatever e-learning content that is relevant to my learning in seconds (instead of via the WWW or World Wide Wait). Imagine having such vending machines in small villages and jungles around the world.

No, just imagine having it at your learning campus. I think I like that idea :)

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5 Higher Ed Tech Trends To Watch in 2010!

December 14th, 2009 · No Comments · Annoying, Articles, e-learning, Education

Via Tony Bates

After reading the article, perhaps you should also read Tony Bates reflections regarding the ‘amazing’ trend predictions. What do you expect coming out of a higher education technology magazine called Campus Technology. It is in the name, Tony! The worst part, it isn’t even predictions :)

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Search By Sight With Google Goggles

December 8th, 2009 · No Comments · Google, Search

Via MG Siegler

“Use pictures to search the web”

No need to type your search anymore. Just take a picture. Actually, you just need to point your phone (camera) at something, and let the information (learning) flow start!

Next time you are curious about what that is (whatever or wherever it is!), if it is tagged, GPS and Google Googles will take care of business (Field trips to next level!). This makes QR code look like an outdated dinosaur. Wait, why not use both to good effect :)

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Top 125 Workplace eLearning Posts of 2009!

December 8th, 2009 · No Comments · e-learning, Lists


“The Top Posts as defined by
Social Filtering - meaning by everyone involved directly or indirectly in eLearning Learning. You can see more detail of how this works here in Curator Editor Research Opportunities on eLearning Learning.” - Tony Karrer

So, how did ZaidLearn do?

No. 6.
75 Free EduGames to Spice Up Your Course! (Actually, 99 Free EduGames!)
No 26. ZaidLearn: Use Bloom’s Taxonomy Wheel for Writing Learning Outcomes-
No 34. The Secret Recipe to Delivering World Class Lectures
No 40. Any Free Hosted CMS or LMS? (Yes, Obama Says!)
No 45. Your Top 10 Videos (That Inspire Us To Rethink The Way We Learn)?
No 65. The Juiciest Learning Professionals on Twitter?

Not bad! Six (6) ZaidLearn posts made it on the Top 125 list (or top 65!) . Ironically, Moodle is an Airport, Not a Total Solution! did not make the list, although it is probably the post that has made most who-ha the last couple of months (If it had been posted earlier in the year, I am pretty sure it would make the list). Anyway, since they are using social filtering and some auto-calculation formula, I can’t complain. Actually, I am just thrilled to have a few posts on the list!

Anyway, enough about ZaidLearn! This Top 125 list will provide you a social filtered collection of useful and valuable e-learning related blog posts that came along during 2009 (including December 2008).

What about ZaidSwoosh posts? It is not registered on eLearning Learning! If it was, it would probably be too swoosh-delicious to be considered :)

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