eLearning course development software
These days I’m sorting through online course development software. I’ve been using Lectora, and frankly, its clunky, “we only support Windows” approach to both course development and learner accessibility is so stubbornly 1990s that I’m breaking up with them. On my short list of tools to consider are, of course, the Adobe tools (Captivate, Presenter), Articulate, and Softchalk Lessonbuilder. The problem with the Adobe tools is that I like little components of each of these tools, but there isn’t one that does everything I want. I think they are hoping Captivate will be the eLearning development tool of choice, but really it’s best for screen capture. And if I’m going to just do screen capture, I’d prefer Camtasia. Articulate seems cool, but it’s a bit pricey and it looks like to get a real person to do a demonstration for me I have to pay $199 for a training. Softchalk Lessonbuilder seems to be pretty cool. They have a new version coming out that supports multi-language development and adds a few more activities. It was originally developed for K12 teachers, but looks like it might be useful for us. It also has the benefit of being only one tool, not four (like all of the others).
Blackboard approaches the dark side
Blackboard just won a lawsuit against a Canadian-based learning management system called Desire2Learn and is well on their way to becoming evil.
In 2006 Blackboard was awarded a patent that covers a single person having multiple roles in an LMS: for example, a Teaching Assistant might be a student in one class and an instructor in another. <http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/02/1217219&tid=155> Mr. Small (the trial lawyer for Blackboard) said Blackboard never claimed to have invented the course-management system. What the company did invent, he said, is “a course-management system where a single user with a single log-on could have multiple roles across multiple classes.” For instance, a person who was a student in one course and a teaching assistant in another could log on once and access all of his course materials.- Francis Long of Knowplace
Blackboard promises to play nice with open source or as they say “home-grown” course management systems as long as they aren’t bundled with proprietary software. But we’ll see. Having multiple roles in an LMS is often critical for the LMS administrators to function. So, to quote another organization that I watch with doubtful hopes that it won’t take over the world, to Blackboard I say…”Don’t be Evil.” -Google.
Whereigo: GPS-enabled adventures in the real world
January 17, 2008, 1:38 pm
Filed under:
community,
culture,
design,
development,
entertainment,
mashup,
openness,
socialsoftware,
travel,
web2.0 Marion has brought me out of blog writing funk by showing me Whereigo…
Wherigo is a toolset for creating and playing GPS-enabled adventures in the real world. Use GPS technology to guide you to physical locations and interact with virtual objects and characters -Whereigo site
This allows for legitimate crossover interactions between humans, locations, and literally anything a person can imagine virtually. I can see this being big with virtual gamers, but also with people like my mom who takes tours to Europe every summer. My mother can take a tour of people to the Louvre where they go on a treasure hunt for famous artwork. There are very cool applications with history, as well… Imagine taking a 6th grade class to an Anasazi ruin in the Four Corners area. As they walk through the ruins, they encounter a 12 year old Anasazi boy going through a coming of age ritual and become a part of his experience.
Location anchored virtual experiences. Cool. Marion put together a tour of Temple Square in Salt Lake City. If you are traveling this way, download it and enjoy!
Predicting Cultural/Ethnic Violence
Researchers in Massachusetts have developed a mathematical model that can accurately predict where violence will break out between members of different cultures/ethnicities.
“We identify a process of global pattern formation that causes regions to differentiate by culture. Violence arises at boundaries between regions that are not sufficiently well defined. ” link
I also recently read an article in Good Magazine about a game theorist who also, very accurately, predicts human behaviour based on mathematical models. Maybe we aren’t as independently minded as we thought.
Open Source Learning Management Systems
The United Nations has pulled together a pretty good list of open source learning management systems. I’m drawn to dotLRN, it supports collaborative engagement among learners and has Blogger support along with all the other expected learning management system features.
Adobe Flexbuilder is free for students and faculty
The free and somewhat open movement continues… Adobe is handing out Flex Builder 2 licenses for students and faculty. Noble, and self-serving… the best, most sustainable model as far as I can tell.
The Flex Builder 2 integrated development environment (IDE) is part of a powerful toolset for designing and developing rich Internet applications (RIAs), an essential part of Web 2.0. link
Women influence more than we realize
A new book on the roles of ultra-orthodox women in Israel connected with something I heard at the Open Ed. 2007 conference.
“It is our belief that the changes effected in women’s positions in the home and in community relationships have the potential for working broad modifications in the community as a whole.” -Kalekin-Fishman and Scheneider in Radicals in Spite of Themselves
This sounds a lot like Fred Mednick’s admonition to start with the women when it comes to providing sustainable support to developing cultures. There is something that resonates with me about that. Women are already intricately involved in the lives of their families and their communities. When that involvement reaches outside of their community, their influence can’t help but be felt…particularly as that involvement comes as women take on increasingly visible, well-respected roles.
Participative media continues to inform us about Burma
A couple of days ago, the Burmese military government shut off internet access in Burma in an attempt to curb the flow of information from Burmese bloggers, photographers, and others who have provided rich media coverage of dramatic protests by Buddhist monks and their supporters. However, reports of violent and deadly response to the protests from the military government continue to emerge as web users find alternative ways to send images, video, audio, and information. link
The overturned bowl is a visual image of refusal to take donations from the military government.
Check out the Wikimedia story today “Thousands of Monks in Burma to be imprisoned, Thousands more reported dead“
Remix Remix Remix by Brian Lamb
Brian pointed out that access to the past is cheaper than access to now. Copyright barriers cause members of the Open Education movement headaches. The push for Creative Commons licensing and the struggle about the non-commercial cause consume our attention and resources. But the issue of copyright is seen as something very different outside this community.
I recently came across a pretty cool bundle of instructional materials produced by an organization called Youth for Human Rights. The produce a booklet that sums up the human rights in one or two words as a heading, an image, and a short subheading. There are pages that say: No Slavery, No Torture, Freedom of Thought, Right to Education… and one that says Copyright.
Coming from an Open Education perspective, seeing Copyright on level with Right to Education just seemed a bit odd.
