http://circlelearning.com/muse/ en-us Nucleus CMS v3.32 � Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://circlelearning.com/muse//nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://circlelearning.com/muse/ http://circlelearning.com/muse/index.php?itemid=19 Set them Free to Learn

Here is an excellent entry in the Rapid e-Learning blog that discusses why freeing the navigation in your online courses is so valuable. Our task is instructing adults and not surprisingly they respond very well to being treated as adults.

At Circle we believe that free navigation is one of the most important approaches you can take to making your learning valuable. effective and well received. Check out Tom Kuhlmann's excellent comments on the subject at the Rapid e-Learning Blog
]]> General http://circlelearning.com/muse/index.php?itemid=19 Tue, 5 Aug 2008 12:38:42 -0400 http://circlelearning.com/muse/index.php?itemid=16 Ohh! The wealth of the web!
These are two top "tops" that may interest you.
Check out TED's 7.5 minutes video of snippits from its all-time Top Ten Videos.
They may amuse, intrigue and inform - or, at the very least, stimulate.

You may not have met TED before. Let me introduce you.
Launched in April 2007, Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED), has as its mission to spread ideas and provide access to free knowledge or, as they say, to "ideas worth spreading"

As a consequence, TED invites the gifted and often inspired to speak at their annual four day conference (sold out well in advance!) in Long Beach, CA. TED has expanded well past their original themes, now including commentary on business, science, arts and global issues. Thinkers, entertainers, teachers and doers are encouraged to give "the talk of their lives" - in18 minutes max.

In keeping with its mission, TED wants these ideas shared and discussed - hence TedTalks.
And now, as of June 2008, they have compiled TED's best! an enticer to explore their Top Ten TEDTalks.

I invite you to exercise your mind.

Not the top 10, but rather 70!
These are "The 70 Signs of Intelligent Life at YouTube".
Bemoaning the difficulty of finding educational and thought provoking video on YouTube, Open Culture, "your guide to smart media" has complied a list of its own. They include quick links to BBC, PBS, The New York Times, The Nobel Prize, TEDTalks, the World Bank, Al Jazeera English, (although the link was down when I tried), and many more for a total of 70. Encouraging, don't you think?

And now, as a further refinement, this blog has more recently gathered 10 Signs of Intelligent Life at YouTube (Smart Video Collections)
Annotations are provided for such sites as UCBerkley (where you can watch complete university courses), @GoogleTalks, Philosophers and Thinkers, UChannel (from Princeton) and again TEDTalks and The Nobel Prize.

Helpful and need I say, thought-provoking! ]]> General http://circlelearning.com/muse/index.php?itemid=16 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:59:49 -0400 http://circlelearning.com/muse/index.php?itemid=10 What's Web 3D? What influence will it have on online learning?
The web is evolving, way past Web 2.0, according to Dr. Tony O'Driscoll of North Carolina State University's College of Management. And this evolution creates endless possibilities for the learner and learning!

In webvolution, O'Driscoll describes the evolution of the Web from 1.0 to Web 2.0, and to Web3D. In a quick 10-minute synthesis of Web history, he explains how Web 1.0 democratized access and Web 2.0 democratizes participation. Then he introduces Web3D. Here participants collaborate as they did in Web 2.0, but with a difference. In Web 3D, participants are able to create not just 2D content (such as documents) but 3D content, such as avatars, buildings, kiosks for displays, universities, etc. The claim is that this online world (inworld) is limited only by imagination.

Second Life, (a video introduction to Second Life is here) a technology specific to Web 3D, carries with it many applications for learning.

For example, Check out the promotional video for the Ohio University Second Life Campus

OR
Take a look at Educational Uses of Second Life. 3 female avatars lead a tour as they get an orientation, visit historical sites and show how learning could be in Second Life.

In Virtual Social Worlds and the Future of Learning O'Driscoll makes the case for learning in Web 3D situations: in Virtual Social Worlds (such as Second Life) he says, learning can be truly experiential, effective and profound.

So what will be the impact of Web 3D on learning? ]]> General http://circlelearning.com/muse/index.php?itemid=10 Fri, 23 May 2008 19:43:35 -0400 http://circlelearning.com/muse/index.php?itemid=8 Never one to waste time, the busy online learner, with the help of the Web, can now make use of "text to speech technology" or TTS.

They can transfer Information from the web to an iPod / MP3 Player, and listen to it, wherever they go. With their loaded player, inveterate learners can use their commute time more productively and continue to learn while out for a run or in the gym. Knowledge workers, students, doctors, and lawyers consider TTS!

Several sites offer this service:
Text2Go from Tumbywood Software, near Melbourne, Australia, is designed to integrate Internet Explorer and iTunes. It comes with free tutorials and purchasable voices of higher quality than the original, in many different Asian and European languages.

Another web-based text to speech service is Read the Words. With 15 different speakers to choose from - male or female, with American, British or Indian accents, or a speaker in Spanish or French, it can also be used to help with translation or learning a language. A bit of a "heads up", though, I found the avatar's voice a bit unnerving: abruptly and seemingly from nowhere, her voice was a startling greeting upon my arrival on the site!

Vozme is a simple online 'text to speech' program. It can be installed as a iGoogle gadget, a Facebook widget, or as a service on a website. Type in any English, Italian or Spanish text and it plays as an audio stream. It can convert Web Pages, Office documents and PDF files into MP3 files.

Will TTS be helpful for the online learner? For some, it is an easy way to maximize use of time. Also, TTS tools may facilitate or expand language proficiency. For others, specifically online learners with visual disabilities, using TTS technology may well be essential.
]]> General http://circlelearning.com/muse/index.php?itemid=8 Tue, 13 May 2008 13:22:24 -0400 http://circlelearning.com/muse/index.php?itemid=2 The Semantic Web -
If you've been reading up on web trends recently, perhaps you've been puzzled by the term semantic web? Most of us associate semantics with word meaning.
Helpfully, Manu Sporny defines the term and its application to teaching and learning in this animated explanation on YouTube

Tim Berners Lee provides a more detailed definition of the semantic web and a discussion of its potential in this Technorati video

Approaches to Online Learning
Rowin Young on his blog, Rocket Surgery, describes a new non-techie example of social networking: a knit and crochet community, called Ravelry. Many have joined the site, at present, thousands, with over seven thousand on a wait list.
As Young notes, such well designed sites as this, attracting users presumably not particularly versed in computer literacy, drawing users from around the world and supporting its community, could provide learning communities with a valuable model. Unraveling User Choices

Shared Information Drops
Scott Wilson on his blog discusses Drop.io featuring simple private exchange points called drops. The service has no email signup and no accounts. You can use it to store and share anything (pictures, video, audio documents, etc) privately. The site is neither searchable nor networked, however it has an RSS feed to tell you of recent additions. Wilson figures it might be very useful as a place to hand in assignments. Read his blog entry.

Cohere
Cohere is one of the learning tools offered by the Open University (UK). Web based, it generates map layouts of ideas. Cohere visually organizes and enables learners to make connections between ideas, and then share these connections with others. At some point, it seems easier to view and do rather than read about this experimental learning tool.
Here is a short video that shows Cohere in action.

That's it for our first minor collection of some of the newest ideas on the learning web. Tell us what you think and check back regularly for updates and additional information resources.]]> General http://circlelearning.com/muse/index.php?itemid=2 Tue, 6 May 2008 19:43:26 -0400