Great this OER

http://www.col.org

Every so often I discover a little gem and I thought I would both share this and add it my blog for quick reference later. A purpose built course to facilitate the sharing of good practice in Open and Distance Learning (ODL). Let the sections get you all excited because the contents amount to over 200 pages and a 3 day training package that can be tailored to meet your own requirements. All free to use with some perfectly reasonable restrictions:

The content contained in this facilitator’s guide is available under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License.
You are free to:
·    Share – copy, distribute and transmit the work
·    Remix – adapt the work.
Under the following conditions:
·    Attribution – You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
·    Share Alike – If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same, similar or a compatible license.

So if you are interested in ODL it is well worth a look.

Commonwealth of Learning - Training Educators: "Training Educators to Design and Develop ODL Materials (VUSSC course) 

• Module 1: Principles of Open and Distance Learning (ODL)
• Module 2: Instructional Design Models
• Module 3: Needs Analysis
• Module 4: Developing a Learner Profile
• Module 5: Methods of Delivery (including learner support)
• Module 6: Developing Content for Open and Distance Learning
• Module 7: Assessment in ODL
• Module 8: Developing a Student Guide
• Module 9: Relevant Technologies
• Module 10: Course Evaluation
• Module 11: Other Key Issues Associated with ODL Material Development

The complete course is available for download below in a useful word format this could save hours of work and help you get started, 'good old OER'

Training Educators to Design and Develop ODL Materials (March 2008) .doc (5MB)

Where's my bloomin bookmark?

I have been using delicious for a number of years and recently transferred all bookmarks to Google Bookmarks. Now I am looking at DiiGo. I have to confess I set up a Diigo profile by accident last year and didn't really get on with it. Now I have re-visted it and it is much better. This leaves me with bookmarks all over the place but I don't suppose that matters.

I have now imported all my delicious bookmarks to Diigo and plan to experiment, as it took me a while to find the how-to I have linked to it here, it's quite straight forward
http://www.diigo.com/import_all/prepare?service=Delicious
I have also imported all delicious bookmarks to Google which is more straight forward 'Import Delicious bookmarks' is at the top of the page.

So which tool am I going to use then?

My gut reaction is to get used to Diigo and use the tags more diligently rather than the first thing that pops into my head that way I may be able to find a link a lot quicker. But I like the way delicious works and I am a big google fan so I am now in a quandary. Do I use them all, I don't think so for now I am still using delicious because of the speed of adding links and importing to google bookmarks so I guess DiiGo will have to wait for a while.

Now where that bookmark on 'The Global Digital Divide' gone?

What an earth is a MOOC

As if there aren't enough things to remember, along comes another a MOOC is a Massive Open Online Course and sadly I haven't got time to look further into this. One example is the South Eastern Europe Teachers Association http://www.seeta.eu/ but one MOOC that look quite interesting was 'Digital Storytelling' http://ds106.us/

I will leave Nicky Hockly to give more details on what actually constitutes a MOOC on her blog. http://www.emoderationskills.com/?p=312 because I have work to do but I wanted to make a note of this to come back to.

To Blogg or not to blogg that is the question

As a blogger for several years I can't remember what Started me off so many have come and gone and I have a few hidden away for personal reflection and anger management that get a visit occaisionally but I am certainly glad I started. It now forms a useful resource to reflect on my study. This combined with my google docs gives me an online presence that should last as long as Google.

I will leave the explanation to worldcraft who have a range of plain english videos to help explain blogging to the uninitiated. See Below.

I have a question though, what happens to my blogg when I am no longer around? Will it just sit ageing and contributing to the ever increasing data mountain or will it be scooped up and deleted. Makes for an interesting thought, will it be possible to update my blog from the next world after all some people experience paranormal activity, strange occurances, things moving etc. Surely it is possible for a wandering spirit to operate a keyboard. Then again I guess nobody would believe it.

Sorry a bit of a spoof blog posting tonight I have had a difficult day and have latched on to a thought I generated in the forum this evening. I am off to research this before I retire.

A6: Mapping digital media to four facets of learning

One of the main criticisms leveled at the use of many tools in an educational context is that it is technology-driven; i.e. that the focus is often on the tool. Arguably, the focus should be on thinking about the pedagogy and what the student is supposed to achieve as a result of undertaking the activity,and only then mapping the activity to particular tools.

The following example relates to a piece of groupwork on course T215.

Group activity to design a prototype web site on a given subject in this case a Photography Club.

The aim is for the   group (7 Students) to discuss the contents, share the workload and set targets for the completion of the site

Tools and a description of their use in a particular context	Types of learning
	Thinking and reflection	Experience and activity	Conversation and interaction	Evidence and demonstration
Discussion forums used as to plan tasks and discuss content			ü
Wikis used to formalise the process and set milestones and list the shared responsibilities		ü	ü	ü
Video clips used as demonstration to aid the task of using Wordpress.		ü
Elluminate or Skype used for online discsussions and meetings.		ü	ü
Blogs used as personal reflection and record of activity.	ü
Wordpress used to develop the site content		ü		ü