Academic Earth Gives you Learning Goose Bumps!

• Link to Academic Earth
• FAQs

WHAT?

Academic Earth is an educational video website with the goal of enhancing the usability and expanding the awareness of OER, focusing first on video lectures.

MISSION?
Giving everyone on earth access to a world class education.

OBJECTIVES?

• Centralizing the best video resources from multiple sources into one easy-to-search hub.
• Applying the latest best practices in usability and design.
• Integrating crowd-sourcing and wiki tools so users can enhance the experience for future users (these features to come).

WOW!

Currently, there are over fifteen hundred videos from MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale there. As they are adding more every day, you can imagine the rest! Also, many lectures are grouped into courses, providing us added convenience to access. In addition, when the "Download to iPod" option appears you can download a QuickTime version of the lecture (click on the "Download to iPod" link and select "Save Target As..." or the equivalent for your browser).

Yes, they even allow you to grade (A, B, C, D) the lectures, which is quite cool. Lecturers are graded instead of learners or students. Wouldn't that be a cool school? We learn, no grades except for grading our lecturers. In other words, students can relax and learn, while lecturers get stressed out with their grades (for their lecturing ability). Though, I suppose they could add a comment feature to each lecture, enabling us to give our 23 cents when wanted or needed.

The interface is soothing and it is easy to find stuff (Playlist, Subjects, Universities and Instructors). Besides the normal embed and share feature, we are also provided with a 'Citation Info' feature, which makes it extremely easy for us to reference our lecture discoveries (replicate!). Interestingly, a 'Feedback' option follows us everywhere we go, indirectly reminding us of their eagerness to get feedback and improve further.

If I was allowed to grade this site, I would give it a delicious A. Surely, one of the best lecture finding sites (or lecture aggregators) I have ever visited :)

A Growing List of Free Learning Tutorial Sites!

• Wiki-version - A Growing List of Free Learning Tutorial Sites

I was thinking the other day, why not create a simple raw list of links to EXCELLENT SITES (with short descriptions) that have or link to tutorials that explore learning tools and online learning. Here is my initial list, but I am quite sure there are many more great resource sites out there. So, if you have anyone to share, please post them in the comments section and I will add them. Ops, shouldn't we be using a Wiki for this kind of activity (Collaborative list creation)? Click here, if you want to add using the wiki-version.

Here is the initial quick list:

• Learning 2.0 Programme
  This blog has been set-up as part of PLCMC's Learning 2.0 project to encourage staff to experiment and learn about the new and emerging technologies that are reshaping the context of information on the Internet today.
• An Introduction to Social Learning(Jane Hart)
  Provides you with a practical approach to getting started with using social media for both formal and informal learning - either in the form of best-of-breed stand-alone tools or in an integrated suite of social media tools.
  
• ELearning T4T (WikiEducator)
  eLearning Training for Teachers is a project node for the collaborative development of "just-in-time" tutorials to help educators implement eLearning successfully.
• WebTools4u2use
  The purpose of this website is to provide a place for K-12 school library media specialists to learn a little more about web tools that can be used to improve and enhance school library media programs and services, to see examples of how they can be used, and to share success stories and creative ideas about how to use and integrate them. Hundreds of free and inexpensive web tools are available for school library media specialists to use that can make us more productive, valued, and, perhaps, more competitive.
• Paul's E-Learning Resources
  This E-learning resources website is developed and maintained by Paul Andrews (Learning Technologist). On this site you will find his favourite links to free on-line services that allow you to provide your students with enhanced learning opportunities which you can then embed into, or link from, your school/college/university's website, course blog or VLE/MLE.
• iLearn technology (Kelly Tenkely)
  Is an edublog dedicated to giving teachers practical tips for integrating technology into the classroom.
  
• Resource Kit for Creative Communities (e-Learning)
  In this resource kit, community organisations can find helpful online guidance, ideas and tools for developing and facilitating e-learning in communities and regions. The kit includes suggestions and options on the why and how of e-learning. You'll find guidance on low cost tools and technologies, as well as ideas and stories to help you get started.
• Teacher Training Videos (Russell Stannard)
  These videos were created for teachers to help them to incorporate technology into their teaching. Just click and a video will open and take you through how to use that technology. These videos are for any teachers or lecturers, indeed for anyone interested in learning how to use the technologies.
  
• WonderHowTo
  Hand-selects and curates the best instructional videos from over 1,700 websites. It is your one-stop shop to browse, search, or network your way through the world of free video tutorials.
• EduTube
  Is a educational video search platform with an main aim to organize the best educational video content on the Internet. All content on EduTube is moderated and only relevant, educational content is permitted.
  
• Multimedia Training Videos
  A series of free learning videos (by Russell Stannard and Savraj Matharu) that explore Flash, Director and Photoshop.
• ItrainOnline Multimedia Training Kit
  Is a growing collection of "workshop kits" for face-to-face training. The materials use a standard set of templates, and offer building blocks for trainers to build their own courses.
  
• Teachers TV
  is a digital channel for everyone who works in schools. Their programmes cover every subject in the curriculum, all key stages and every professional role – from teaching assistant to headteacher. You can watch us on digital cable and satellite and programmes are also available anytime, on-demand and for free on this website.
• TeacherTube
  Its main goal is to provides an online community for sharing instructional videos. Here you will find more than 54,000 videos covering all sorts of subjects.
  
• ALISON
  Free Interactive Workplace Skills Courseware including Touch Typing Skills, European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL), British Computer Society (BCS) Unit E, Financial Literacy and e-Citizen
• The Moodle Academy
  Is designed to be a drop in centre for you to reinforce your Moodle skills. While we are thinking Moodle, we might want to check out Using Moodle 2nd Edition, which is the second edtion of the O'Reilly book "Using Moodle" by Jason Cole and Helen Foster.
• Moodle Tutorials
  Ops, can't get Moodle out of my head! Check out this collection of 2 Minute Moodles - an attempt to simplify and show how to use a range of Moodle features. The tutorials try not to assume too much previous knowledge and are presented for the pragmatical and not necessarily tech-savy users (Moodle purists please excuse).
• Drupal in Education Open book (hosted by e-Learning Institute)
  An open resource started by Bryan Ollendyke at the e-Learning Institute to talk about Drupal's place in education. Has a great CMS matrix comparing different CMS technologies that can all be used for education / e-learning. It is a living resource and has contributions from several PSU Drupal'ers though it's open to contribution from any / everyone. Good if you are interested in getting into Drupal for Education.
• Google Apps Training
  The Google Apps interactive tutorial provides clear audio and text directions and practice exercises for using six Google products; email, calendar, talk, docs, sites, and start page.
• Go-2-School
  A great resource for learning Google SketchUp and Google Earth.
• W3Schools
  Here you will find all the Web-building tutorials you need, from basic HTML and XHTML to advanced XML, SQL, Database, Multimedia and WAP.
  
• Edumax
  Edumax is an online learning website that provides free lessons on topics from personal development to computer programming.
• TechTutorials
  A directory containing thousands of free tutorials for IT professionals, hobbyists, and home users.
• 14 hours of Free E-Learning Strategy Tutorials
  Bryan Chapman, Chief Learning Strategist at Chapman Alliance does regular webinars on e-learning strategies. He posts these for free use from his website. They are a little bit hidden. You have to scroll down the page to find them. NOTE: Because many of the webinars are vendor sponsored, you may have to add your information before watching them, but they are absolutely free.
  

Contributors:

• Clayton Wright
• Mitch Weisburgh
• Bryan Chapman
  
• Zaid Ali Alsagoff
  

Let's build a great collection together (wiki-version)! Let's use our collective findings to help others discover these great learning tutorial sites :)