elearning

The fifth batch of the Free Online Ruby Programming Course conducted by Satish Talim, starts 3rd May 2008.

Already over 4000+ people from across the
globe, have learned Ruby through this course

Registrations close on 2nd May 2008 - so hurry.

I have been meaning to try webcasting for training from a very long time.

Today, I was finally able to try it for corporate training with a client. This is an account of our experience, hoping that it will motivate those who have been thinking of similar initiatives, to actually give it a try.

The topic for the session was related to object oriented software design, where we discussed the goals that we should have in mind when we design software. There were a total of 5 participants. We used Vyew (http://www.vyew.com) for collaboration. Vyew is an excellent free tool that supports slides, desktop sharing, desktop screenshots, and text chatting. It also has a voice conferencing facility that supports upto 20 participants. However we did not use this feature because participants would have had to make long distance calls to the conference call number. Instead we conferenced using Skype. One user had problems with his mic and could only hear. It was a slight limitation, but he got over it by asking questions over the text chat. I used Audacity to record the session. I used "Wave Out Mix" to record both ends of the conversation, but the incoming audio was not recorded properly, because the speaker volume on Audacity was slightly low.

“Empressr is the first Ajax/Flash-based web application that lets you create, share and store presentations online. It goes beyond current presentation applications by enabling you to incorporate rich media features, like streaming video and animation, to create and share the most dynamic presentations possible….”

“Not only is it free to use, Empressr has an intuitive wizard that assists you in selecting the text, fonts, images and multimedia assets you wish to use. You don't even need to register to create a presentation - only to save and upload assets to a presentation.”

What do you think is the future of education?
ELearning?... Classroom Learning?... or Blended Learning?

All of the above have their supporters and detractors. Without taking any sides, I think each methodology has it's pros and cons. What is effective depends on the type of course, background of students, and access to technology infrastructure. However, there is a trend that points towards the growing popularity of eLearning, and not without reason. A professor in UK has abolished classroom lectures and has replaced them with podcasts, forums, email, and the like. Read more about it here.

Wikipedia defines FOSS -Free and Open Source Software, as a “software which is liberally licensed to grant the right of users to study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code”.
FOSS can be used in setting up the ICT infrastructure in educational institutions like the server software and desktop applications, Library Management Systems and Learning Management Systems etc. In short it can provide softwares to host a ELearning Institution.The potential cost savings resulting from the use of FOSS is immense”…

Hi,

I am fairly new to itvidya as this is my second posting and I like this blog/forum quite interesting and very useful as this serves as one platform where u come to know of so many latest developments.
As I am an ELearning Consultant, I came across this site which provides all basic info regarding podcasting including how to incorporate it in your classroom teaching / corporate training. Please visit the following URL for detailed info.
http://engage.doit.wisc.edu/podcasting/

I recall reading, a long, long time back, a poem called "The Blind Man and the Elephant" ... this poem was all about how six people of "Indostan" look at an elephant and try to express their impression of their observation (pardon the mouthful here), and how each arrives at a different conclusion about the same object. This poem has been subseqently seen under different avatars and stories, but thats not of importance here.

At that time, I remember my curiosity getting all perked up, and much to the worry and chagrin of my parents, and their parents (nothing above that, thankfully), I would try to explore various objects in and around home with my eyes closed. My grandmom maintains till this day, that this is the reason I am wearing specs. Not a point of view that learned savants and docs agree to, but you cant argue with grandmoms, whatever generation you are in.

The biggest conundrum any organisation wishing to add "Knowledge" to its assets and bottomlines faces is that of differentiating between vital knowledge and just plain trash. Huge amounts are spent annually on storing data of all kinds as part of Knowledge. Emails, internal communications, memos, MoMs, you name it, the organisation has it.

All Knowledge pundits agrees that the key differentiator between good, core "knowledge" and just plain chaff thats exchanged within and external to an organisation, is the component called re-usability.

The moment one steps into this domain, Pundits pull out their tablets, indexed and normalized effectively, to come up with as many definitions to "re-usability" as they have for Knowledge.