Scotfeict

Getting started with serious games

Editor — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 11:26:52 +0000

This might be of interest to my passing visitors:

In this free lunchtime webinar organised by ALT with the support of the eLearning Network, Steve Harris and Scott Hewitt will take you through some key game mechanics and suggest how these can be used to meet the aims of serious games. This will include mechanics from video games as well as alternate reality games.

Find out when at: Getting started with serious games | Association for Learning Technology.

‘E-course’ to help hospital staff assist alcohol users

Editor — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 08:04:01 +0000

It’s good to highlight these small stories, showing the inroads that online learning is making into other areas. This is an example of how it is being used to keep practitioners up to dat ewith their skills.

‘E-course’ to help hospital staff assist alcohol users

Engaging Students with Twitter — THE Journal

Editor — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 07:56:30 +0000

Yesterday I found out that Twitter has been blocked in Edinburgh schools. Here’s yet another article on how Twitter can be used constructively in education. How are children supposed to learn about managing these social networking tools if they are blacklisted?

Engaging Students with Twitter — THE Journal.

Top Elearning Tips app for iPhone

Editor — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 08:29:16 +0000

What nice people they are at Kineo: their site is worth a visit in an idle moment.

They have now produced a nifty app for your i/phone/pad/pod touch that contains a collection of sound advice on the benefits of elearning, how to improve your elearning resources and other elearning related stuff. Well worth a quick download. Pity they use that flesh-creeping phrase ‘scoping for success’ in their screen dump.

Top Tips app for iPhone | Elearning Tips

Education: the virtual world can help students and teachers

Editor — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 09:02:51 +0000

A quick overview fro the Observer on the web in education. It could be a useful starting point for anyone who knows absolutely nothing about elearning.

via Untangling the web: education | Technology | The Observer.

Noteflight – Online Music Notation Software

Editor — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:06:56 +0000

I’ve been using this music notation software for my own purposes, off and on, recently, but it was after talking to my son that I realised I should tell more folk about it – especially if you are doing music at school. At my son’s school they use Sibelius for music. That’s fine, except that it costs a lot of money. This means that schools can’t afford to keep up to date with it, and parents can’t afford it either. Enter Noteflight.

It’s a lot cheaper than Sibelius, my son actually finds it easier to use than Sibelius, and it is totally web-based. This means that my son can work on a project at home, save it, and then carry on from where he left off on a computer at school. On any machine at school. That flexibility is so useful. And he can save files that Sibelius can read, if required. And being web-based, it’s cross platform, so even Windows users can use it.

I also notice that there are a number of educational tools in Noteflight. Scores can be shared, and comments made. Darn useful. Any school using Sibelius should look seriously at this software.

Noteflight – Online Music Notation Software.

Non-fiction ebook Writers Wanted

Editor — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 06:57:21 +0000

Ever wanted to write the definitive text-book on your subject?

The New Curiosity Shop is opening a new project – epublishing. We are starting with the theme of curiosity, naturally, and we are calling it Curious About. We are looking for writers to help develop a catalogue of short ebooks.

Each book would be around 10,000 words and will focus on a specific topic.

– to find out more visit:

New Curiosity Books

Hotseat

Editor — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 09:24:11 +0000

This is described as:

“a social networking-powered mobile Web application, creates a collaborative classroom, allowing students to provide near real-time feedback during class and enabling professors to adjust the course content and improve the learning experience. Students can post messages to Hotseat using their Facebook or Twitter accounts, sending text messages, or logging in to the Hotseat Web site.”

Which makes it sound rather interesting. Which leads to a big question:

“Tell me why we need a virtual learning environment in the days of social networking tools?

Hotseat at Purdue University.

The Writing’s on the Screen

Editor — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 09:49:31 +0000

Interactive whiteboards bring classroom teaching to life. Suddenly you have the whole of the Internet on your big screen, and it can bring a greater dynamic to your teaching. They’re more and more common in classrooms now, but I wonder how often they are used effectively, and how often used as a projection of the PC. The ‘interactive’ part of the name quietly ignored.

I thought I’d take a look around to see what is available on the web, to find some good examples of interactive whiteboards in action. Here’s a couple of sites:

Interactive Whiteboard Pedagog y

and

Interactive Whiteboard Resources

They are both valuable starting points. They are both schools based, and maintained by teachers in their spare time, but valuable nonetheless if you are interested in making more of the digital whitespace on your wall.

Update:

I posted a request for help from the good people of mirandanet, and they have come up with the following:

schools.edna.edu.au

www.juliecogill.co.uk

iwbblog

The Whiteboard Blog

especially:

Interactive Whiteboard project

These are almost exclusively from the schools sector, but are packed with some great ideas that can be applied in any area.

I’ll keep my eyes peeled for more, but I’d love to hear from anyone with imaginative uses of an interactive whiteboard.

History Teaching With Moodle 2

Editor — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 12:04:15 +0000

Here’s an interesting looking book, published by PACKT. The book was written by John Mannion who is: “Head of ICT in Teaching & Learning and also teaches History” at a school in Newbury, England.

I’ve received a review copy, so I’ll report back. Mean time, here’s a sample chapter to read:

History-Teaching-with-Moodle-2-eBook2

You can buy the book here: History Teaching With Moodle 2