ZaidLearn: learning tools

Showing posts with label learning tools. Show all posts

Friday, October 31

8 Free Screencasting Tools For Tony!

"Toast! Cut! Cam! Jing! Flow! Wink! You name it, they record it!"

"...I'm now back to searching for a free tool that works to create screencasts that I can use for my blog. I don't do it very often, so it needs to be free. The best thing would be if I could also do it while recording voice from myself and someone else. In other words a screen sharing tool with voice and screen recording. And it needs to be low cost or free."- Tony Karrer

Here we go, Tony:

Flowgram
A new communications platform that lets anyone package and share anything on the internet. A flowgram combines the advantages of slide presentations and screencasts with an interactive user experience that fully exploits the fact that almost all the information we might ever need is already on the web. Using the zero download Flowgram Maker, creators can assemble and annotate web pages, photographs, videos etc on any topic, and add a voice narrative which provides context, emotion and consistency.
FreeScreencast
RECORD your screen, UPLOAD, and SHARE online with ease!
Jing
Snap a picture of anything on your desktop. Record a video of what you do, or what you see, Instantly uploaded. Share in email, IM, or blogs.
Webinaria
Create and share software demos online with their screen recording/ screencast software.
ScreenToaster
Is a free online screen recorder, enabling you to record your screen activity, publish the video on the Internet, and stream the recorded video in Flash.
WebKut
Is an AIR application that allows you to capture web pages, or parts of them in a very simple way. It provides you 3 capture options: the entire page, the current view, or only a selection.
CamStudio
Enables you to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs) .
Wink
A Tutorial and Presentation creation software, primarily aimed at creating tutorials on how to use software (like a tutor for MS-Word/Excel etc).

Tony is already using Jing, which means that there are another seven for him to explore. Hm, I am pretty sure that Tony is familiar with most of the tools suggested here, but are you?

Have fun exploring free screencasting tools! If you got any other free cool screencasting software to suggest, show me the URL. And then...

As a result of this wonderful learning conversation (comments) and exploration (adventure), we have discovered several more free screencasting tools, which are:

Screencast-O-Matic
Is a Java-based application that anyone can use to create screencasts of their screen with no additional software to download. Without even registering to the site, you can record anything that happens on your screen just by setting the capture size, choose if you want audio included, and click go. When done, you can publish the screencast online or download it in .mov format. Free to use.
uTIPu
Record and share your screen in a video. You get unlimited public video sharing, 250MB private video sharing, and you can upload directly from TipCam.
Capture Fox - Firefox Add-on
You can capture your screen and record your voice to make screencasts (tutorials, e-lessons, etc.).
oRipa Screen Recorder
Is a handy tool to record your Windows desktop activities in real time and save it as a video file. oRipa Screen Recorder also captures anything you can hear on your PC, such as, music and talking through the PC's microphone.
ISU (I Show You)
Is a free software for Windows platforms that enables you to easily record a sequence of operations in real-time as you perform them on your screen. After the screencasting session ends, you can edit your recording by drawing on it, adding notes, or recording a voice over narration. When done, you can send it to your friends via email, messenger or any other application.
Debut
Is a free screen capturing software for Windows that anyone can use to capture video or still images from any device. The setup comes in just 400kb and, after you install it, you can capture any part of your screen, or even capture videos from a webcam. You can export the video in any format and save the screenshots in JPG format. Debut is completely free to download and use.
AviScreen
Is an application for capturing screen activity (ScreenCast) in the form of AVI video or images. Beside the usual options defining the capture area, AviScreen has a unique feature called “follow the cursor”. Using this mode you can produce a video or image of relatively small dimensions while covering all mouse activity over the whole screen area.

And if that is not enough, Nico Canali De Rossi and Luigi Canali De Rossi (aka Robin Good) has done a great job in comparing many of these screencasting tools mentioned above (comparison table), enabling us hopefully to make a wiser and quicker choice. In addition, as a result of exploring their great post (2nd November), I discovered another interesting tool called Tablefy. This tool enables people to easily publish and compare their data online (dynamic comparison tables). The irony of this whole learning adventure is that their post was published a few days earlier than mine (27nd October, 2008) , meaning if I had found it earlier, it would have saved me...

But then again, we might have missed out on some of the screencasting tools not mentioned yet in their post.

In short, learning and discovering together and apart makes a screencasting lot of sense :)

Friday, October 17

Mathway Teaches Us How to Think Maths Step-by-Step

Mathway solves our math problems with step-by-step explanations. It is for students, parents, and teachers, and covers the following math subjects:

Basic Math
Pre-Algebra
Algebra
Linear Algebra
Trigonometry
Precalculus
Calculus

In addition, it also provides Graphing and Glossary definitions.

I love the fact that it not only gives us the results, but teaches us the process step-by-step, too. Although, results are important, it is only when we master the process that we can really apply what we learn to other problems, scenarios and contexts. If we understand the process we can use the knowledge, skills and competencies learned to create new value added ideas, processes, services and products.

Isn't that what we want our students' to able to master in the era of learning, creativity, innovation and invention? :)

Tuesday, October 14

PhotoFunia Uses Face Detection Technology To Good Effect!

Select an Effect
Select Your Photo
Here We Go!

Seriously, it is that simple! Alright, PhotoFunia needs to add more juicy templates to really get me super excited. But it is a good start.

Then you might ask (after testing it), "But how did you that?" My answer: PowerPoint 2007 and Paint!

As I realize that I will be hyper busy with workshops and presentations for at least one month, I will have little time to really sit down and write long (boring) blog posts. But instead, I will be posting 1-2 amazingly short learning nuggets every week that explore things that really give me learning goose bumps. This photo magic tool is exciting, but they need to add more cool templates. As that is probably the easy part, expect more to come soon :)

Thursday, August 14

101 Free Learning Tools

TOP 3 POSTS
Let's get right to the point! The three posts below, have been found and viewed more than any other posts on ZaidLearn:

On a positive note, my new eBook is catching up very fast with the 'Three Musketeers' above. Interestingly, the 'Three Musketeers' have one major thing in common, and that is that they all contain long lists of juicy learning resources (tools, content and games). Yeah, we all like juicy lists of learning resources! Especially, the learning tools list (No. 1) has been very popular, and has been quoted by several blogs and sites. Actually, it has even been translated into Spanish. The OER/OCW list (No. 2) has also turned out to be quite popular, and thanks to Tony Hirst's great idea, we can all search the 250+ sites (haven't counted, but that is what others have said) from one entry field. WOW, it feels great!

101 FREE LEARNING TOOLS
Actually, not! I revisited my Learning tools list yesterday, and was not impressed one bit! To deal with this stressful situation, I have revised the list to focus more on learning tools (and less on resource sites). Also, this time around I have made the learning tools list more visual, and you can explore it right here:

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: tools learning)

If you would like me to give a talk on this '101 Free Learning Tools' crash course, please give me a buzz. 101 learning tools should take approximately 101 minutes, if no questions asked. Anyway, you have the Slideshare (and PDF) version to play around with. If you ask me, I prefer to learn on my own rather than being taught. It is really fun to mess up and learn the hard way. It sticks longer, too!

I will create the text version of this 101 crash course soon, when I get back from another non-blogging vacation. No, I am not going on vacation, just taking a vacation from blogging so that I can learn and work in peace (Blogging is addictive, and can distract you from your work! What a discovery!). At least there is a new eBook and a revised learning tools list to enjoy while I learn how to think again. Finally, if you are really hungry to figure out what I will be discovering in the coming weeks, you can always explore my delicious learning adventure. Yes, I will be updating this one during my non-blogging holiday. Peace :)

Wednesday, August 6

69 Learning Adventures in 6 Galaxies (My First eBook)

Download the eBook (13.2 MB)

"69 Learning Adventures in 6 Galaxies"

At the beginning of 2007, I sat down to have a discussion with myself about what I wanted to achieve (working and academic wise) by the end of 2008. By the end of this self-reflective discussion I had managed to draft two hedgehog goals to achieve. The first hedgehog goal was to write a book about learning (by July 2008), and the second one was to start my PhD adventure (by December 2008).

As I was approaching July 2007, I realized that my book and PhD aspirations were getting nowhere. So, to get the ball rolling I started to blog about learning (ZaidLearn) on July 18th, 2007. Since then (until August 6th, 2008) I have posted exactly 300 articles or learning nuggets on the blog. The first 128 learning nuggets were imported from my past (failed) learning adventures (including an e-Learning Community Portal). In other words, since I started last year I have posted 172 new learning nuggets. The length of each learning nugget has varied from a whopping 5000 words to a few hundred.

Then a couple of weeks ago (July 22nd, 2008), I realized that perhaps it was time to revive at least one of my hedgehog goals for 2008. Although, I had not been writing a book consciously, I had been blogging for one year about learning. After re-exploring my blog I thought, “Let’s redefine my primitive perception of what a book should look like, and create a book (or ebook) out of my posted learning nuggets.” First, I decided to include all my new learning nuggets (172), but then I realized that the book would evolve into a 500-page monster. Oh man, I used to have a writing phobia when I was a kid, and today I even feel sick if I haven’t written something interesting for a day. What a turnaround!

After a lot of filtering, I have settled for 69 learning nuggets posted on ZaidLearn, which I believe readers might find useful to their own learning. To make it a bit more convenient to find what you are looking for, I have divided the book into six learning galaxies (or themes), which are:

Learning
Teaching
Stories
Free e-Learning Tools
Free Learning Content
Free EduGames

Click here to Download the eBook

OR READ IT RIGHT HERE:

69 Learning Adventures in 6 Galaxies - Upload a Document to Scribd

Wednesday, July 16

Spice Up Your Boring LMS with Google Lively?

GOOGLE LIVELY?
A free browser-based 3D virtual environment that enables easy integration to social networking tools such as MySpace, Facebook, OpenSocial, and Google gadgets like Picasa and Youtube. With Google Lively, users' friends lists, feeds, and logins are tied directly to the social network. In addition, virtual environments are embeddable on any Web page with a snippet of code that can then be viewed as a full 3D environment, based in part on Emergent's Gamebryo engine, after downloading a roughly 9 megabyte plugin (Source).

THINGS I LIKE...

Firstly, there is no need to create a new account to get started. With my Gmail account I can simply register using it.

Secondly, you only need to download a small plugin before you can explore Google Lively for real. One up on Second Life! However, comparing Second Life with Google Lively, is like comparing Nintendo Wii with Sony Playstation 3 (or Xbox). Different galaxies and wars, targeting different aliens! While Second Life brought us new 3D virtual learning possibilities, Google Lively will bring virtual worlds to the masses. At least that is what they are targeting with this easy-to-use tool. If we want to compare Google Lively to other virtual worlds, I suppose we could compare it with Vivaty and IMVU, which are more similar.

Thirdly, Google Lively is also really easy to learn and use. No user guide is needed, trust me! Within minutes of discovering it, I was able to create my own cool avatar and virtual room; without much hassle. Basically, you can create or assemble your own stuff from a huge catalog of available shells (rooms), furniture, clothes, etc. Actually, you don't really create new stuff, but instead mash-up yourself and environment from available virtual goods from the fast growing catalog. This catalog is being nurtured and expanded by Google's development team (led by Jeff Matsuda, formerly at Warner Bros.) and a 200+-person team of international contractors.

Fourthly, Google Lively can be easily integrated with existing social networking tools such as MySpace and Facebook. Also, users can add content from Google sites like YouTube and Picasa. I suppose Google Lively will eventually be integrated with Google Earth and the rest of the relevant Google gadgets. I can imagine transporting myself to Oxford University (England) in Google Earth and having a Google lively chat with Tim Berners Lee.

Fifthly, you can easily express yourself with a couple of clicks, whether orally or physically. For example, the available portfolio of animations enable you to puke, stick out your tongue, kick someone down, dance, jump, scream, be happy, and even get really angry. In short, I am sure you can evolve your emotional intelligence by exploring your true self with all these animations, which are just a few clicks away.

Sixthly, the virtual rooms operate kind of independently, meaning you can't build a huge wall or a naked statue in front of another person's virtual property to annoy or blackmail them. Instead, you can discover new spaces or virtual rooms searching the catalog of rooms. Actually, Google lively is not really a virtual world, but a fast growing bunch of separate virtual rooms.

Finally, it could be a great place to socialize, make friends and have some fun. Enough! let's move on!

THINGS I DON'T LIKE...
First, I am not going to encourage my young kids to socialize there (at least for now)! Although, we cannot create our own animations and stuff, we are of course allowed to use our imagination to explore the rest. Of course that is exciting, but then again not always appropriate for everyone. For example, one virtual room I found, was entitled "Free S.." (you can guess the rest!) with a metadata description saying, "Title says it all". I suppose sooner or later the community will self-regulate itself from such things (or encourage more!), or perhaps we could have different virtual worlds consisting of specific themes or areas of interest.

Also, if we strip Google Lively down, it is not much we can do in terms of constructive learning (Then again that is not its main agenda either, as far as I know!). Currently, it is basically avatars, rooms, chat and a growing catalog of all sorts of virtual goods to decorate our virtual spaces. It is basically a chat system that you can visually spice up. Though, being Google I am sure they will increasingly add or integrate more features (e.g. forum, virtual classroom, whiteboard, puzzles, games) and provide more flexibility to users in terms of constructing content and learning possibilities. In short, it is quite limited for synchronous and asynchronous learning. I suppose Second Life is still miles ahead here! Yes, I would like to have my virtual lab enabling me to visualize, demonstrate and collaborate on experiments with my students.

Also, it would be nice if we were provided with more features to protect ourselves from cyber bullies out there. As I was wondering in one of the rooms, I saw with my naked eyes a Russian mafia looking avatar slamming a beautiful young lady several times to the floor. Then he went on to beat up a 3-foot white teddy bear. Although, they were probably having fun exploring all the cool animations we can do, I am not sure a Professor would appreciate such treatment during a visit to the student's virtual lounge.

I can imagine how a lively lecture or tutorial might turn out in such an environment. When a student gets bored with the Professor's lecture, he goes over and kicks him to the ground, and then pukes all over him. Then the rest joins in! At least the Professor might get the point that his lecture probably needs improvement. But then again, the Professor was kind of distracted by the beautiful avatar girl in bikini.

You might also get frustrated with a new pop-up for every virtual room you visit (and a request to login again every time). Interestingly, I was in three different rooms at once, using three different avatars. Yes, I can imagine the lecturer being happy with a full class of virtual students, and then later finding out that all the students cloned themselves away to another room.

Oh, I forgot to mention that my Firefox browser slowed down and simply crushed during my Google Lively adventure. This could be due to several reasons, so I will not dwell upon it here.

LMS + LIVELY = LEARNING + JOY
Let's take off our negative hat, and look at the possibilities a browser-based 3D virtual environment can bring to our online learning environment. I can imagine integrating Google Lively (Student Lounge) with Moodle. Alright, with the existing features it might not be the right place to conduct lectures, tutorials, lab experiments, etc. However, most LMS that I have explored do not have an exciting online space for students to simply to hangout, connect, socialize and make friends. Using a LMS can often be a lonely experience, but tools like Google Lively could spice that up (at least for the students).

But then again some lecturers might get a shock of their life when they visit the virtual student lounge for the first time (Imagine! Perhaps they should be banned from there!). I suppose if some of the avatar animations could be excluded, or educators were given some super powers that would help. At least they might avoid a potential virtual physical or sexual harassment.

Hmm, by the time we establish all the rules of virtual engagement, students would have vanished to other virtual rooms were they can be their virtual self. In other words, perhaps students should set up their own rooms independently from their educational institution and LMS.

Anyway, since Google is behind this Lively 3D virtual world, we can expect a lot of interesting new enhancements and features in the near future. It wouldn't surprise me if we soon are provided with an easy-to-use virtual learning toolbox, with all sorts of interesting features and tools, empowering us with dynamic possibilities to facilitate engaging learning.

However, I couldn't help noticing while searching the catalog that every virtual item had a 'Price' tag hanging over it. Although, all the virtual goods are free for now, would that remain when things get more juicy? :)

Friday, July 4

ZaidLearn's New Learning Space = Netvibes?

NO TIME!
I have been kind of busy the last two weeks implementing a lot of work related e-learning crap, and sadly have found no time to sit down, reflect and write something that is even more crap :)

Hopefully, I can complete my 5-part learning series next week.

EXPLORING NETVIBES
Though, I did manage to find an hour or two during this week to explore Netvibes, and to my surprise it was really fun. In short, Netvibes is a personal news aggregator with RSS and Atom support (That is how Google summarized it, or intelligently extracted it out).

If you ask me, Netvibes is user-friendly, useful, fast, feature-rich, flexible, cool, and you don't need any user guide to get some results (at least I didn't!). Now, that is the kind of tool I like!

However, I am still working on it, and hopefully next week I will add some more interesting content (Or RSS feeds) to my new learning space (and spice it up!). Just need to find the time!

CLICK HERE to view what I am babbling about, and find tons of interesting (free) learning content, tools, edugames and blogs in a stimualting manner. Information overload? It depends!

NEXT PAGEFLAKES?
Hmm, I suppose I will also explore Pageflakes before I decide whether Netvibes is one of the right tools to manage my online learning adventure. I like Pageflakes's short description: "Social personalized homepage - the easiest way to read, see, discover and share your favorite things on the Web (another Google extract)."

Whether it is really the easiest tool enabling us to read, see, discover and share our favorite things on the Web, I really don't know. I suppose, we will have to explore it to find out! Google, Yahoo, MSN, Facebook (hmm, Bloglines and the rest of the RSS collection dudes are also in the game!) have their own tools to shout about. In short, we are kind of spoilt for choice. The question is not "Whether there is...", but "Which one should we...". So, we still have a headache :)

I suppose I will give you some updates regarding Pageflakes after completing the 5-part learning series.

Until then, have fun exploring ZaidLearn's New Learning Space :)

P.S. I had a few problems using Netvibes with Internet Explorer (IE), but it worked like a bull with Mozilla Firefox. Another reason for dumping IE!

Wednesday, April 2

A Free Learning Tool for Every Learning Problem?

Let's explore the idea that there is at least one excellent free learning tool (or site) for every learning problem, need or issue!

I want a FREE:

Easy-to-use and secure Internet browser? Firefox
e-Mail system? Gmail
Social bookmarking tool? del.icio.us
Social bookmarking tool with collaborative learning features (groups, forums, etc.)? Diigo
Tool that enables me to capture, visualize, organize and share my bookmarks? SimplyBox
Tool to translate text or a webpage? Google Language Tools
RSS reader? Omea Reader
Online RSS reader? Google Reader
Online Calendar? Google Calendar
Tool to aggregate all my resources, mail, RSS feeds, etc, in one place? Netvibes, iGoogle or Pageflakes
Platform to incorporate all my favorite tools within one environment? Elgg
Learning Management System (LMS)? Easy, Moodle
Hosted LMS? Here are SEVEN!
Tool to assist me in evaluating and selecting a LMS? EduTools
Learning Activity Management System? LAMS
Collaboration tool? Connect with Ning
Social Networking tool? Tricky one! Facebook
Tool to create study groups and manage group projects? GroupTable
Tool to keep track of my schoolwork (assignments)? Soshiku
3D online virtual world where I can socialize, connect and learn? Second Life
Content Management System (CMS)? Joomla
Tool to create my own website? Webnode
Virtual Classroom? DimDim
Hosted Virtual Classroom? WiZiQ
Tool to broadcast myself to the world? USTREAM
Tool to make calls from my computer? Skype
Videoconferencing chat service? Vawkr
Content authoring tool? How about two? eXe & CourseLab
Alternative to Microsoft Office? OpenOffice
Online suite of office tools? Google Docs or Zoho
Tool that accurately converts my PowerPoint to Flash (including animations)? iSpring Free
Web authoring tool alternative to FrontPage and Dreamweaver? NvU or KompoZer
Personal online notebook? Google Notebook
Blogging tool? WordPress! Why aren't you using WordPress? Good Question!
Blogging tool for educators? Edublogs
Directory of edubloggers from around the world? International Edubloggers Directory
Microblogging tool? Twitter
Microblogging tool for education? Edmodo
Microblogging tool for companies? Yammer
Wiki tool? PBwiki
Encyclopedia, which I can add to or edit? Wikipedia
Community dedicated to collaborative development of free content? WikiEducator
Audio recording tool? Audacity
Tool to record and host my audio recordings online? Odeo Studio
Tool to transform media into collaborative spaces with video, voice and text commenting? VoiceThread
Tool for storytelling? Here are 50!
Screencasting (recording) tool? Wink
Hosted screencasting tool (more options)? Jing or Flowgram
Mindmapping tool? FreeMind
Tool to brainstorm and create mindmaps online? Bubbl.us or MindMeister
Easy-to-learn 3D authoring software tool? Google SketchUp
Alternative to 3D Studio Max? Blender
Photo/image editing tool? GIMP or Picasa
Online photo/image editing tool? Splashup
Tool to create cool personalized images? Custom Sign Generator Widgets
Image Resizer? Dosize
Watermarking tool? uMark
Screen Color Picker? ColorSchemer
Tool to highlight text in a webpage? The Awesome Highlighter
Tool to create flowcharts, diagrams, technical drawings? Gliffy
Tool to create comics and cartoons? ToonDoo
Tool to create animations? GoAnimate
Tool to make screenshots from different browsers with one click? Browsershots
Tool to create PDFs from any Windows program? PDFCreator
Online file conversion tool (e.g. Word >PDF>PowerPoint)? Zamzar
Tool to share my slides? SlideShare, SlideBoom or authorSTREAM
Tool to share my videos? YouTube or TeacherTube
Tool to share any type of file with unlimited storage capacity? Internet Archive
Online science research sharing portal? SciVee
Online community to share and discuss instructional teacher videos? TeacherTube
Online community to share, discuss and learn about the uses of educational technology? EdTechTalk
Online community to test my big ideas? Big Think
Tool to download videos from any video sharing site (YouTube, Metacafe, etc.)? ClipNabber
Self-publishing tool (books, papers, articles, etc)? Scribd
Tool to share my pictures? Are you joking! Flickr
Space to upload and share my files? eSnips
File hosting solution that allows me to share files up to 250MB each? FileCrunch
Online quiz tool? ClassMarker
Tool to create interactive quizzes and puzzles? Hot Potatoes
Tool to create web and print-based crossword puzzles? EclipseCrossword
Inquiry-oriented lesson tool? WebQuest
Multimedia flashcard software? MemoryLifter
Online polling tool with a bit of fizzle? Polldaddy
Online survey tool? Click here to choose!
Tool to create Flash games (templates)? ClassTools.net
Investment Simulation Game? Virtual Trader
Interactive 3D business simulator? INNOV8
Game to understand cancer better? Re-Mission
Game to understand the scientific method and 21st Century Skills? River City
Game to understand variable manipulations for urban management? SimCity
Game to understand social studies better? Quest Atlantis
Game to understand world hunger and efforts to alleviate it? WFP Foodforce
Game to learn more vocabulary and help hungry people? Seriously! FreeRice
Range of interactive tools to help me understand maths concepts? Shodor Interactivate
Step-by-step math problem solver? Mathway
Tool to publish my data online and create comparison tables? Tablefy
Tool to create my own search engine tailored to my needs? Google Custom Search Engine
Human-powered search engine? Mahalo
Metasearch engine with visual display interfaces? What! Here is KartOO!
Search engine that groups the results by topic via automated clustering technology? Vivisimo
Science-specific search engine? Scirus
All-in-one research search tool? Schoolr
Tool to help me collect, manage, and cite my research sources? Zotero
Tool that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to my website? Google Analytics
Tool to search, discover, rank and compare different sites around the world? Alexa
Tool to search the full text of books? Google Book Search
Tool to search for scholarly literature? Google Scholar
Tool to search for patents? Google Patent Search
Tool that sends me email updates of the latest relevant Google results (e.g. e-Learning)? Google Alerts
Energy saving search engine? Blackle
Online visual dictionary and thesaurus? Visuwords
World digital library? World Digital Library
Tool to build and distribute my own digital library? Greenstone
Site to find and search across all OpenCourseWare (OCW) courses? OpenCourseWare Consortium
Repository and learning network of Open Educational Resources (OER)? OER Commons
Site to get the latest updates on OER and OCW? OER Blogs
Portal to non-formal OER and training resources? Open Training Platform
Encyclopedia of video tutorials to help me learn any software? Edumax or Wikivid
e-Book to learn more about e-learning 2.0? Learning 2.0 eBook
Site to learn more about rapid e-learning? The Rapid e-Learning Blog
Site to learn more about Online Course Development? Hitchhiker’s Guide to Course Development
Crash course in learning theory? Click here!
Database of Learning Theories? Click here & here!
Tool to help me understand and use learning styles effectively? Learning Styles Online.com
Repository of creative and critical thinking tools? Mycoted to the rescue!
Route to learn more about the 21st century skills? Route 21
Repository of how everything works? HowStuffWorks
Repository of lectures from the world's top scientists? Videolectures.NET
Directory of academic open access repositories? OpenDOAR
Site covering today's top social, political, and tech issues? FORA.tv
Site to improve my learning skills? Study Guides & Strategies
Gaming tool to help me learn ICT? ReviseICT.co.uk
Tool to improve my typing skills? Peter's Online Typing Course
Tool to improve my reading skills? ZAP Reader
Interactive courseware to improve my workplace skills? ALISON
Multimedia site that enhance our understanding of war and its history? Maps-of-War
3D human anatomy visualization tool? Visible Body
Tool to learn languages? Mango
Tool to explore the World? Google Earth
Tool to explore the Universe? WorldWide Telescope
Tool to visualize human development? Gapminder
Tool to answer all my questions? Answer.com
Site with talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers? TED is a good starting point!
Article to reveal the secrets of the super-learners? Click here!
Link to the most innovative web 2.0 (and 3.0) lab in the world? Google Labs
Tool to stumble upon and discover great websites, videos, photos, etc. ? StumbleUpon
Daily newsletter that keeps me updated with the latest news on online learning? Stephen's OLDaily
Site dedicated to tracking the changes occurring in education today? Open Education
Site to update me on the latest free instructional resources for Higher Education? EduResources Weblog & Educational Technology
Site to discover delicious free tools, resources, and sites? ZaidLearn's Del.icio.us Discoveries
Site to make you shut up? About time! Here we go:

25 (must-have free) Tools: Professional Development Programme (Jane Knight)

In short, for every learning problem (or issue) we have today, there is probably a free tool or site out there that enables us to solve it. If not, I am pretty sure some genius out there is constructing it right now. If no one is doing it, perhaps we can do it.

Another challenge is to integrate all our learning tools efficiently and effectively into our learning spaces. On the positive note, more and more tools are creating integration modules to widely used systems like Moodle and Facebook, so it might not be so difficult after all. Also, with OpenID we can increasingly login to all our favorite websites without much hassle. Single-login to all our learning tools! Now that is something we all can appreciate! Remember one password! Tough one!

If you want to experience my learning adventure as I discover, perhaps you should subscribe to my Del.icio.us Learning Adventure! Otherwise, you could always wait a week or two for the updates in this blog. Have fun 'Socratic Tooling' to solve your learning problems and issues :)

Tuesday, March 4

Any Free Online Survey/Polling Tools? (1st Weekly del.icio.us Update!)

"...There are still millions of students and educators in the Schools, Colleges and Universities around the world who are doing research, conducting surveys and spending a lot of time collecting data, providing them often with little time to analyze and reflect the findings (critical/creative thinking aspect!). However, by providing them with a free easy-to-use online survey tool (alternative or complimentary option to their research) with basic features to create and conduct online surveys, collect the data, and display the results/reports in text and visual format (with exporting options to Excel, SPSS, etc.), could do miracles from an educational point-of-view... (Source)"

I did once write an online letter to Google (October 12th, 2007) about our need for a free easy-to-use online survey tool, but I never got a reply. I suppose they get millions of e-mails every day, so why answer my one, unless the idea is really great (and innovative!), or I am NEO. With the exception of Google's polling tool in Blogger, I have yet to see any innovative progress from them. Microsoft seem to be too busy with their upcoming WorldWide Telescope (WWT) (Great surf-the-galaxy tool!), and who wants to get locked into Facebook's limited 70+ million user community doing polling and surveys (Confidentiality! Yeah, we can trust Facebook!). Yahoo? No idea! In short, the big players seem to be slow on this front, or perhaps they are planning to acquire one soon from the growing crowd of innovative online survey tools already out there.

FREE ONLINE SURVEY/POLLING TOOLS

Here are more than a dozen FREE online survey/polling tools (Selected using my sixth sense!), which you might want to explore further (Source):

SurveyMonkey.com
Powerful tool for creating and running web surveys (including visual reporting). The free version provides several limitations (e.g. limited number of questions and respondents), but if you are creative you can do your stuff. Anyway, the commercial version is quite affordable (if needed), so why worry!
Polldaddy
Create free online surveys (e.g. market research) and polls. Excellent for polls!
FreeOnlineSurveys.com
Create online surveys, polls and questionnaires for any number of uses.
fo.reca.st
Allows you to design free online surveys, collect responses from the visitors of your blog or website, analyze them and finally present the survey results.
SurveyGizmo
Web surveys, Polls, Forms, Quizzes, Landing Pages. Free and commercial version.
Quibblo
A free tool that enables you easily to create your own quizzes, fun surveys & tests online.
Kwik Online Surveys
An easy-to-use survey development tool that enables you easily to send surveys & questionnaires by Email, YouTube, Facebook or posted on online Forums.
Pollograph
An easy-to-use survey authoring tool. Free accounts can publish up to 5 free online surveys. The thing I like about this tool is that there is no limit to the number of questions you can include in each survey. Also, there is no limit to the number of responses that you can gather in each survey.
eSurveysPro
It offers both a free and commercial version. But I like the fact that the free version enables you to create and conduct unlimited surveys and have unlimited responses.
LimeSurvey.org
A good open source survey tool. You need to download and install on a server. It includes +20 different question types, and basic statistical and graphical analysis with an export facility.
VTSurvey
Is a web-based tool which enables end users to autonomously create and run online surveys, feedback or registration forms (4 question types). You need to download and Install on a server. Although, it has limited tools, question types and reporting features, it is extremely easy-to-use.
BuzzDash
Create and share polls. Built upon individual polling modules called buzzbites™, BuzzDash provides a real-time forum where people can solicit, measure and share opinions on nearly any issue.
Zoho Polls
Can create and share polls.

If you want a more comprehensive list of survey/polling tools, mashing-up both commercial and free ones, I strongly recommend that you visit Jane Knight's amazing directory of learning tools (including 50+ survey/polling tools! Trust me, this list will grow!).

Oops, I got to get back to my vacation from blogging. If you are wondering again what I am doing during my holiday from blogging, CLICK HERE. Yes, I am building my arsenal of del.icio.us links (230+ and growing!). I have been collecting great links since 2001, so I got a lot to filter and add :)

Thursday, February 28

ZaidLearn Goes del.icio.us & Takes a Break from Blogging!

Link to Zaidlearn's del.icio.us Links
Digital Curator to the Stars & More on the Digital Curator (Jeff Cobb)
The Digital Curator in Your Future (Steve Rubel)

"...I do believe that Zaid Ali Algasoff is in the process of firmly establishing himself as the e-learning curator of Southeast Asia. His recent Any Free Hosted CMS or LMS? (Yes, Obama Says!) is just one piece of the accumulating evidence...(Source)" - Jeff Cobb

WOW! My self-actualizing e-Learning curator ego is reaching the top of Mount Everest! Hmm, what is a curator anyway?

CURATOR?
"A curator, in a cultural institution context, is a guardian or an overseer. According to Wikipedia, he/she "is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and their associated collections catalogs. The object of a curator's concern necessarily involves tangible objects of some sort, whether it be inter alia artwork, collectibles, historic items or scientific collections (Source)."

"Rubel argues that, in order to manage the massive amounts of information now flowing across the Web, the world needs digital curators, “people who are selfless and willing to act as sherpas and guides. They’re identifiable subject matter experts who dive through mountains of digital information and distill it down to its most relevant, essential parts (Source).”

I can live with that! But to tell you the truth, if I am really the e-learning curator of Southeast Asia, we are in big trouble! First, most of my readers are not from Southeast Asia, but instead they are from United States, Canada, Europe, India, Australia and a few Brazilians that can't get enough of this blog.

Also, my messy informal learning repository adventure is not exactly the most efficient place to find what you are looking for. I suppose you might discover something juicy here, but it is probably more by accident, or through a Google search, rather than systematically searching ZaidLearn. Nothing wrong with that, But I believe now has come the time that I also embrace my left brain of organization, and by doing so, I will hopefully nurture the whole brain for efficient management of my learning discoveries, which will hopefully lead to more effective learning.

I really appreciate and respect Jeff Cobb's kind reflections, but I still have a 'green mile' to travel, to live up to such a billing effectively. Though, I love the challenge and until other e-Learning curators do show up in Southeast Asia (or is known beyond!), I don't mind taking the lead. So, here is my plan to move on...

del.icio.us?
To be honest, I should have gone del.icio.us a long time back. Don't ask me why I didn't (Stubborn to unlearn!)? Instead you should explore and enjoy my growing juicy collection of del.icio.us links (+160 and growing fast!) , which will make it easier for readers to enjoy my arsenal of recommended free learning resources and tools. Here are my most prominent del.icio.us tags:

Favorite Tools
OER (Open Educational Resources)
OCW (OpenCourseWare)
Podcasts
...more

Although, many of my del.icio.us learning resources perhaps should use multiple tags (e.g. MIT OCW, OER, Podcasts, etc.), I have tried as much as possible to use one appropriate tag for each resource, instead of giving them too many tags. I personally don't want to find the same learning resource in every tag (although it might correct!) while looking for stuff. Anyway, I am still learning the art of tagging, and hopefully it will improve as I embrace del.icio.us.

As I have been collecting juicy learning links (URLs) since 2001 (stored all over the place!), I have literally thousands of them to rediscover and add to del.icio.us. So, in the coming weeks I will be busy rediscovering, filtering (out!), and tagging my last seven years of learning, and creating my own little arsenal of del.icio.us learning resources and tools, which we all can enjoy.

A BREAK FROM BLOGGING?
In addition, I have decided to take a break from blogging for at least 2-3 weeks, so I can reflect (in peace!) what I have achieved and prepare for the second phase of ZaidLearn. Second phase?

I suppose anyone that has been reading my blog has probably been overwhelmed with all the learning resources and tools discussed and shared here. And to be honest, I am really getting bored simply talking about new resources and tools discovered, and believe that ZaidLearn needs to move on to focus more on what really matters in education. EFFECTIVE LEARNING!!!!!!

ZAIDLEARN 2.0
In the future, I will still share great resources and tools I discover, but that will del.icio.us take care of from now on. I suppose I will provide a weekly del.icio.us update on the juiciest stuff discovered.

So, what about the 'ZaidLearn' blog? It will go on, but it will from the next post onwards (with the exception of weekly del.icio.us updates) focus on interesting topics and issues in relation to facilitating effective learning online. The posts will be short/long articles (500-2000 words) where I share my research, experiences, thoughts and ideas about learning (like I got much experience to share!). I predict that I will post 2-4 articles a month, meaning this blog will certainly not be as active as before, but it will hopefully be of better quality :).

My secret recipe (no longer!) for writing articles, will be roughly 4 days of research and reflection (in-between formal working activities), and then on the fifth day 1-4 hours of writing and editing, and Voila an article has been posted. I hope by using this formula, I can by year end (2008) compile these articles into an e-Book, which of course will be free to download (if anyone is interested!).

To put more pressure on myself (I love that!), I will challenge myself to write articles that are good enough to be published in the likes of Tomorrow's Professor Blog (Stanford University) and New York Times (NYT). So, Rick Reis (Editor of Tomorrow's Professor Blog) please consider my articles, although I am no professor (Need another 15 years for that one!). Anyway, all my articles will be published in ZaidLearn, and if they are really good, I am sure they will find their way to other interesting places, except peer reviewed journals. Why? I write with an unhealthy mix of emotion, logic, flavor, disruption and creativity beyond the scientific acceptance level of most peer reviewed journals.

Alright, enough! Have fun exploring my growing compilation of del.icio.us learning discoveries!

I WILL BE BACK! Soon! That is in 2-3 weeks time :)

Monday, February 25

SciVee and The Origin of 'Yes, We Can!'

Link to SciVee & Overview of SciVee (Video)
Via Tom Hanson through e-mail (Editor - Openeducation.Net)

SciVee?
SciVee is an online science research sharing portal that invites scientists to make their research known by combining their published scientific article with a corresponding video into an online presentation called a “SciVee pubcast.”

FEATURES & BENEFITS?

"Pubcasts enable scientists who view them a deeper comprehension of a publications teaching points than would be possible from reading an abstract alone. Scientists can gain a quicker comprehension of more publications in substantially less time with the aid of a video presentation provided directly from the author. Once a large database of pubcasts are made available on SciVee, viewing multiple pubcasts on the same topic will enable scientists to gain access to a broader sampling of relevant research thereby possibly expanding their breadth and depth of their scientific understanding (Source)."

According to SciVee, a pubcast of your research paper (peer reviewed scientific journal publication?) can increase the breadth of your audience, readership of your paper, feedback from peers, and possibly the likelihood of citation(s).

EXAMPLE?
Here is the cream example of success at SciVee: Structural Evolution of the Protein-kinase Like Superfamily was one of their first posts on July 19, 2007, and since then it has been viewed (or clicked on) more than 100,000 times.

REFLECTION!
According to YouTube viewing standards the cream example would probably be considered a disaster, but then again if say 5-10 of these viewers would actually cite the paper in theirs, it can be considered a great success from an academic research point-of-view.

Anyway, researchers should not be too concerned about the viewing numbers, popularity, ratings, and other ego-boosting activities. If the research can benefit mankind or nature in any way, we should have enough motivation to do our thing, and with tools like SciVee we can share, promote, discuss and reflect our research with the SciVee world. If we are lucky it will spark more interest here and there. You never know, someone like Bill Gates might be willing to sponsor millions of dollars if he believes in your work.

On the other side, I really found SciVee to be a really slow learning adventure! I am not sure if it has something to do with my PC and network, or with their server capacity and user traffic, or perhaps they are using some form of poor video compression technology. Whatever it is, it would probably be a good reason for why I will probably not access this site again (unless I discover a great SciVee research project searching in Google!). Perhaps, all the videos could be hosted on YouTube, and embedded in SciVee, so that SciVee could be lighter and easier to access for other important research activities such as discussion and reflection. Imagine exploring SciVee with a Google speed factor. Now that is something that gets me excited. In other words, SciVee has interesting content and discussions, but it needs to speed up the access factor to have my vote of approval (Who cares about your vote!)! Just making a point!

ORIGIN OF 'YES, WE CAN' ?
I am not sure if Bill Gates will invest millions of dollars in my important non-scientific "Origin of 'Yes, We Can!'" weekend project. I am in the midst of researching the origin of Obama's (or his team) inspirational and successful 'Yes, We can!' slogan and campaign (Example: 'Yes, We Can' song). Ever since I heard Obama say those three famous words, I felt that I had heard it before somewhere. And this weekend I got the AHA-moment while listening (actually singing along! Great song!) to my 2 1/2 year old son singing the famous Bob the Builder song (or chorus), ' Bob the builder, Can we fix it? Bob the builder, Yes we can!

Could it be that Obama was inspired by Bob the Builder? If this is the case, he should give due credit to Bob the Builder for his contribution. If not, shame on Obama! Hmm, lets' give Obama the benefit of doubt for now. Perhaps, also 'Bob the Builder' is guilty of plagiarism. Therefore, I believe that this project is of great significance. Why? Because we need to know the truth and origin of this motivational and inspirational 'Yes, We Can!' phrase. It could b