Monthly Archives: November 2007

Archiving and caching online sources

One of the problems with citing online sources is that often Web archiving is still in its infancy. In the area of the arts which I have done a lot of work in, creative sites often disappear because of the shortsighted and underfunded nature of projects – putting a website

Risk analysis of e-learning projects

I have recently been doing risk assessments of some e-learning projects we have in train. There are some risks that seem to cross all types of projects in a variety of contexts. When assessing risks of e-learning projects I consider: * Likelihood (high, medium, low) * Potential impact (high, medium,

My new HTC TyTN II

I’ve been {playing with} learning to use my new PDA/wonderphone: the HTC TyTN II (winner of several Best PDA and Smartphone awards). It has two cameras (both video cameras), voice recorder, music, Windows mobile with various programmes including Word, Bluetooth and wifi capability, synchs with my Outlook on the laptop

Links for week commencing 12th November

Real-world e-learning software

I asked some practitioners what e-learning tools the staff in their institutions actually found useful. Here are some of their answers:

Course Genie
This is a product from Wimba (who have a site of good products) which allows staff to generate web pages from Word documents. It runs from within Microsoft Word as an add-on, so it’s possible for many of the formatting features of Word to be used. Various resources can be linked to the central web file created automatically by Word so learners can read materials, view presentations, search the internet or take quizzes as part of one learning “package”.

MonkeyJam
Freeware animation software: designed to let you capture images from a webcam, camcorder, or scanner and assemble them as separate frames of an animation. It’s also possible to import other images and sound files. Will export as an .avi file.

Content Generator.net
Flash-based e-Learning quizzes, games and applications (more use with school-level than FE or HE)

  • Content generator
  • Multiple Choice quiz generator
  • Match-up quiz generator
  • Penalty Shootout generator
  • Walk the Plank generator
  • Interactive diagram generator

Free basic level of multiple-choice generator, with licenses for more complex games (e.g., football shootouts) from £25-300 depending on individual or institutional licence.

Toufee
Flash moviemaker. Non technical users can quickly create impressive multimedia items in Flash, including movies, banners, presentations, slideshows, and e-cards. Free Trial for 30 days then $5 per month.

Decisions on the mobiles and PDAs

OK, so it’s taken me a while to make the decision! My colleague has purchased a Nokia 95 (as recommended in this blog by James Clay). I am about to play with this one, and if I like it I’ll buy it! HTC TyTN So I will soon be better-connected

Links for week commencing 5th November

The Bazaar – Homehttp://www.bazaar.org/The Bazaar – portal for Open Source for Learning in EuropeThe Bazaar is a community portal for people who want to use, exchange and share Open Source Software and resources to support learning. Distance Learning through Telematicshttp://www2.plymouth.ac.uk/distancelearningThe University of Plymouth’s e-learning website, containing regularly updated pages of