Custom Open Access EdTech Journal Search

Open Access Week has officially come and gone, but as the tiny_librarian notes From the Stacks, that doesn't mean we should stop talking about it. So in the spirit of keeping the conversation going I'd like to draw attention to the Open Access Learning Technology Journal custom search engine.

Data driven by George Veletsianos' Google docs spreadsheet of Open Access EdTech journals the result is a search engine that returns scholarly results—with no need to ever reach for your credit card. Try it now!

What would Einstein do?

Einstein once said, “I never teach my pupils, I only provide the conditions in which they can learn” which suggests he would have been very interested in the findings of this U.S. Department of Education report. The meta-analysis and review of online learning studies concluded that:

…on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction. (p. xi)

While the study does not endorse the online medium as superior, it stresses that the different learning conditions (e.g., time spent, curriculum, and pedagogy) afforded by the online environment have, in combination, produced significant learning benefits for students (p. xvii).

Although don't be surprised to see no significant difference over traditional classroom teaching if you provide the same learning conditions online—expecting otherwise would, as Einstein supposedly said, be insane!

If it's good enough for Obama

...or 10 reasons why you should share your documents on SlideShare:

1. The White House is using SlideShare.
2. Sharing is as easy as emailing your documents to SlideShare.
3. Embedding documents into Moodle is as easy as copy-and-paste.
4. No worrying about file formats or size—your documents are readable on 99% of computers and require very little bandwidth.
5. Easily embed YouTube videos inside a presentation.
6. Synchronise your presentation with any MP3 audio file.
7. Control who sees and downloads your documents.
8. Discover other SlideShare users with similar interests.
9. Instant m-learning—view your presentations on mobile devices.
10. Your presentations are stripped of transitions and animations.

Why is this last point advantageous? Recent research suggests that even the presence of animation to incrementally present information can negatively impact student learning.

See you on SlideShare!

Role playing in Moodle

Have you ever thought that the multiple choice quizzes in Moodle would provide a convenient method of formative assessment—if only you had the time to create the questions. Well what if, as Mary Parke suggests, you had your students create the questions?

In Moodle 1.9 you can assign your students the role of Question creator.

You could then ask students to:

• contribute a question or two on the topic they have just studied, or
• create questions that test their peers' knowledge of a presentation they have given.

You then group the questions into a quiz which the students take for homework. There are lots of useful things a teacher can do with roles.

flek-suh-buhl lur-ning

No I'm not slurring my words, I'm just trying to define flexible learning. Here at Wintec:

Flexible learning is defined as offering education and training in a manner that best meets the needs of students, whether this be in the standard face to face classes, after-hours (evenings and weekend) classes, block courses or blended learning through a variable mixture of face to face and distance delivery strategies such as paper-based, video and e-learning technologies.

Maybe a picture would help? (They’re worth 10,000 words after all!) Mark Nicols blogged about (and incorporated into his first e-Primer) this diagram which removes some of the confusion surrounding many of the terms used to describe today’s teaching and learning landscape.

The e-learning continuum (Bullen & Janes, 2007, p. ix)

When considering the diagram it’s important to bear in mind that the use of digital technology is not a prerequisite for flexible learning—a face to face evening class, paper-based distance education and a fully online course can all be considered flek-suh-buhl lur-ning.

Welcome

Bending over backwards to make flexible learning work for you and your students? Hopefully our regularly updated news, tips and tricks will help make flexible learning less of a stretch.

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