REFLECTION!I am about to begin my PhD journey (no destination yet!), and will therefore have less time to think-out-loud in this blog (Work, Studies and Family stuff will probably keep me busy!). If I feel good about my PhD proposal (probably ready by December 31st) I will be creatively applying in 2008 for scholarship from all the top Universities in the world (At least Harvard and Cambridge!). I suppose I will have a high rejection rate, but we all know that experiencing and learning from failure is the best feedback to improve, so I can't wait. It will be an adventure of joy, laughter, sadness and reflections, which I will cherish for life!
In general, less time for this blog, means probably more juice. So, I suppose my blog will have more posts (nuggets of juice!), less reflections and more visitors. We will start with my new weekly top 10 discoveries (or stories), which are selected based on my subjective learning adventure. Here we go!
TOP 10 DISCOVERIES
- On Getting Great Ideas (YouTube video: 70 min)
Murray Gell-Mann is one of the largest living legends in physics (he also coined the term "quark"). He’s also been described as The Man With Five Brains, and it’s no puzzle why: He was admitted to Yale at 15, got his PhD from MIT at 21, and is an international advisor on the environment...etc. It was a great honor to watch this man think, talk and joke (wisdom!) for 70 minutes! Actually, what I enjoyed most about this video was how the nine dots puzzle was solved with one line (Previous best method is four lines). Talk about creative thinking! - What Everybody Ought To Know About Using PowerPoint for E-learning (Tom Kuhlmann)
"What makes an elearning course effective isn’t the authoring tool as much as it is the person who designs the course. That means a creative instructional designer can use PowerPoint coupled with a rapid elearning tool to build very effective elearning courses." - E-Learning Showcase (Jane Knight)
If you are looking for e-learning ideas and samples, this is a great place to visit. - Where to Find Free Images and Visuals (Robin Good)
"...the best resources of grassroots free images online is the Stock Exchange at http://sxc.hu/, It's an impressive collection of many high-quality photos taken by amateur photographers from around the world..." Keep this excellent mini-guide by Robin Good in your favorites, because you will need sooner or later! - The online learning idea book ( Clive Shepherd)
95 proven ways to enhance technology-based and blended learning'! Clive discusses 12 of the juiciest ones, meaning I will not spend my money to figure out the other 83. - Scottish Learning Festival 2007
All the keynote speeches from the Scottish Learning Festival 2007 have been recorded. Have fun learning! - Ten Discoveries That Rewrote History (Open Culture)
A great learning resource! - Slidestar- Site for Sharing Instructional Resources (Joseph Hart)
"Slidestar is a beta site created to facilitate the sharing of slides, powerpoint files, graphics, lectures, and other learning resources..." I suppose I still prefer Slideshare as a slide sharing tool. It just takes too long to load the Flash-based interface. I suppose SlideStar could learn a few tricks from Google in creating a light easy-to-use interface and super fast search! The idea is noble, but the tool needs massive improvement to succeed. But, I am sure they are humble enough to realize this and do something about it. - 9 Best Practices for Implementing a CMS (Dian Schaffhauser)
Software publisher OmniUpdate estimates that only 15 percent of colleges and universities have deployed a Content Management System (CMS) to update the content on their sites. Why? Besides figuring out the why question, please use open source solutions for CMS as there are plenty of great options (e.g. Joomla). Explore this list, before going for commercial ones. - Has Stephen Hawking Been Wrong For The Last 30 Years? (Open Culture)
Shouldn't this have been asked 30 years ago!
Wasn't that more fun :)
God bless your PhD venture. Do you still remember me? The guy from TAR College? I am working on my PhD at Sheffield while working full time at TARC. It's tough!
ReplyDeleteOf course I remember a 'Knowledge Ranger' :)
ReplyDeleteI remember we started a Yahoo groups knowledge sharing adventure, which fizzled out within a few weeks(LOL!).
So, you have been reading my blog in silence :)
Anyway, thanks for your support!
Yeah, it is going to get tough, but I have discovered that the tougher it gets going (in terms of research) the more energy I get, so I am really looking forward to the challenge :)
The key is to choose a topic (Found already! But, top secret! LOL) that you can imagine researching (with joy) for at least 3 years and it has some value (to mankind or nature) for another 10 years at least :)
But, first I need to construct a juicy PhD proposal that would attract a bit of interest :)
Finally, I hope you soon finish your PhD so I can call you Doctor :)
Nice to hear from you again, and hopefully we can have another passionate discussion about learning sometime in the near future
Warm Regards,
Zaid