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 :)

Salman Khan Uses Microsoft Paint to Inspire Learning

• The Khan Academy
• Khan Academy YouTube Channel
• Via Helge Scherlund
  

THE KHAN ACADEMY

Salman Khan (Sal) founded the Khan Academy with the hope of using technology to foster new learning models. The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere. They currently have 1600+ videos (growing fast!) on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, and finance which have been recorded by Salman Khan.

SALMAN KHAN

SIMPLIFY

Sal knows his stuff (pretty well!), and has a great ability to simplify what he teaches using story telling with a laid-back approach (conversational style). As far as I know, his formula to create learning content is quite unique:

1. Microsoft Paint is his blackboard (Who needs PowerPoint?), which he uses to draw and illustrate step-by-step what he is explaining.
   
2. He records the narrated lessons using a screen recording software (Here are a few free ones!).
   
3. When recorded (and edited), he uploads his recordings to YouTube (YouTube Channel).
4. Then he links his recordings or lessons to The Khan Academy website, which indexes the hundreds of videos as he likes.

No real cost required (excluding his website), except his precious time. I suppose he figured out that instead of teaching a few people here and there (again and again), he could educate the world (doing it once!).

Alright, he is not going to get A+ for graphics, but I would give A+ for creativity, pedagogy, passion, knowledge sharing, and efficient development. How many educators have produced 1600+ videos (x10 = 16000 minutes/60 = 266.7 Hours), or more than 266 hours of e-learning content in a few years?

Yes, I also love the way he has chunked most of his videos into digestible 8-12 minute lessons, which are perfect for learning-on-the-fly.


INSPIRE

It is inspiring to see Sal share his amazing knowledge to the world in such a creative and efficient way. I suppose he deserves an Oscar for knowledge sharing :)

Here in Malaysia and Singapore, parents spend millions (if not billions of) dollars on tuition for their kids to score great grades. What if we could inspire geniuses here who have a knack of simplifying content to do similar kind of initiatives. By doing so, we can level the field a bit more and enable perhaps some of those who couldn't afford tuition to have a chance to compete and do better. Well, you still need a computer device and Internet (unless the content is downloaded), but it would still be a great start.

In other words, we don't actually need to spend millions to produce quality e-learning content and learning experiences. With today's free web 2.0 technology, we could do it practically with no significant initial cost (except for our time).

For example, we could use Google Sites to develop our website, free screen-recording (casting) software to capture our lessons, and use YouTube to upload our content (or perhaps Google Video, if our videos are longer than 10 minutes). If we are developing PowerPoint presentations, we could use SlideShare (and link uploaded audio, which can be synchronized with the slides. Audio upload alternative: Internet Archive). Another PowerPoint (convert-to-Flash) upload alternative would be SlideBoom, which also captures the PowerPoint animations.

These are just a few possibilities of many we can use to share our knowledge and skills to the world. I suppose the biggest struggle today would be to find the time to do it (and the appropriate tool(s) to use) :(

On a positive note, Sal has found the time and his work is inspiring. He fits well with my new learning motto (and adventure):

Simplify Ideas, Inspire People! :)



LATEST UPDATE
Since this article was posted in 2008, Salman Khan has evolved his unique teaching approach to use the following learning tools:

"I use Camtasia Recorder ($200) + SmoothDraw3 (Free) + a Wacom Bamboo Tablet ($80) on a PC. I used to use ScreenVideoRecorder($20) and Microsoft Paint (Free)... (Source)"

Thinking Back to The Future!

First, I would like to wish all Muslim readers a belated Eid Mubarak (Eid-al-Adha), and a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year for readers celebrating those events.

2008

Some people might be wondering, "how come ZaidLearn has been so quiet for more than a month (since 10th November)?". Partially, it is because I have been busy reflecting since then about this year and how to move forward in 2009. Also, since my last post I have conducted two e-learning workshops in Saudi Arabia (17-19 and 22-23 November), had a spiritual journey (Umrah), a two week terrible flu experience (but Insha-Allah a cleansing one), and delivered a lecture on critical thinking at the Ministry Of Health Malaysia Tutor's Conference, besides work and family pleasure.

Although, the online learning adventures have brought me joy and some success, I can't say that of my last learning adventures in the physical world. Somehow, they have been way below what I had envisioned (a real wake-up call!). Though, I was really impressed and humbled by the amazing hospitality and kindness I received in Saudi Arabia (Thank you so much!). Everyone, from the Director to the hotel driver were simply amazing. Although, the workshops didn't work out as well as I had hoped, I do hope that they benefited from them in one way or the other. Yes, those two workshops (3+2 days) with a Umrah smacked in between was really exhausting (of course my fault!). I am for sure not planning to try something like that again (at least not as a one-man show!). Hm, on the last day of the second workshop, my brain simply malfunctioned. At one stage, I was babbling things that weren't making any sense at all. Oh I forgot, I was even interviewed by one of the Saudi TV Channels on the second day of this adventure. 10.00 pm local time, no make-up, 5-hour jet lag, meaning 3.00 am Malaysian time. In other words, I must have looked really tired! In short, I have produced a laundry list of things that I could have done better (or have avoided).

Then a couple of days ago (21/12), I conducted a lecture about critical thinking at the Ministry Of Health Malaysia Tutor's Conference in Kuantan. Again, it was another speedy energetic inter-galactic infusion-of-confusion kind of delivery. In short, it was a mess (from a learning point-of-view), but hopefully they benefited from the slides and some of the points I made. Though, I would like thank and congratulate the hosts for their hospitality, caring and understanding. One of the organizers even apologized to me on behalf of some of the tutors who fell asleep during the lecture.

Whether it was the dinner (just before the lecture), their long journeys to the event that day (from all over Malaysia), or my confusing lecture that was to blame is something that could be debated, but surely it has changed my plan and hedgehog goals for 2009.

To sum up 2008, I would say that the ZaidLearn online learning adventure has been quite successful (No mood to discuss it, but you can Google 'zaidlearn' to figure it out), but the worldly adventures have been rather a big question-mark (lectures, workshops and work)!

To transform this big question mark (failure!) into success, will be my major hedgehog goal for 2009. So, the Learning Innovation Lab and PhD adventure (unless I can align it with this hedgehog goal) will be put on hold. This time it is personal!

So, what is my hedgehog goal for the near future?


THE ZAIDLEARN METHOD
Why me? Why now? But, then again, everything happens for a reason, and hopefully this is the case here. I am still learning (the hard way! As usual!). But then again, no point crying about it. I suppose the best thing to do, is to zoom in on the problem (me!) and transform it into a learning opportunity. So, after a couple of shaky learning adventures I have decided to dedicate 2009 to mastering the art of simplifying ideas (or content) and inspiring people to learn. Some might argue that people can only inspire themselves to learn. So, if that is the case, I need to master the art of triggering people to inspire themselves to learn. But first, I need to trigger myself to inspire myself to learn.

By the end of 2009, this learning journey (or approach) will hopefully be known as the ZaidLearn Method (Simplify Ideas, Inspire People!). I am not sure if I can get a PhD on that (unless I complexify the simplifying!), but hopefully I will increasingly be able to simplify my ideas (and content), and connect with learners in new and inspiring ways, as I learn.

I was thinking, what if I could learn how to simplify content like the Zen, and inspire people like Obama. What if I could apply this to... Not everything can be learned (nature vs nurture!), but we will never know unless we challenge ourselves beyond thinking about it!

For years, people have been telling me to focus, and perhaps now I have found an area that at last excites me to focus (for a longer period than a few hours!), besides the personal mind enforcement kind of approach. If I am not mistaken, I wrote somewhere about doing a PhD entitled 'The Lecture' some time back (here it is!). I suppose now this prediction might even come true. Well, not perhaps the PhD part, but the journey to mastering the art of lecturing. This time it is about survival!

2009 here I come! Only God (Allah) knows where that will end! But, at least the hunger to learn is back in me. Yes, I am back, hopefully on the right track :)

The Learning Innovation Lab (Part 2)

• Keynote - SlideShare Version
• Keynote - PDF Version (77 MB)
• IMETC Event

Smart Education: Converging Technology, Pedagogy and Content

"One of the things that really delights me in this field is seeing people who have taken to these new technologies and new approaches achieving genuine success. I've seen it a number of times with colleagues I almost envy, so widespread is their impact and their reach (every time I feel a twang of competitiveness, I remind myself that I already have a great career, I don't need another, so I can celebrate someone else finding success in the marketplace). Anyhow, now I am seeing it again as Zaid Ali Alsagoff gives his first (no doubt of many) keynotes. Zaid joined me for my two-day session in Malaysia earlier this year and was a huge asset as we led a group of educators though numerous web 2.0 technologies. His slide shows and resource lists have been receiving acclaim, and that's what his talk is based on." - Stephen Downes

"ZaidLearn has been an active blogger, focusing on open learning and open tools. Great to see he is giving (has given) his first keynote address to a Malaysian conference. As Stephen Downes states, it’s great to see people achieving genuine success in the pursuit of new tools/approaches in education. Congrats Zaid!" - George Siemens

WOW! Again, WOW! Thanks Stephen Downes, George Siemens, Ismael Peña-López, Clayton Wright, Helge Scherlund, Mohamed Amine Chatti, Dr. Gordon, etc. for the best wishes and for believing that I would do well. I don't know if I want to celebrate or cry, but surely this kind of support and belief in me should boost my confidence and ego (and hits to my blog).

Also, I do hope that Stephen is right that this was my first of many keynotes to come, because...


SELF-ASSESSMENT

I FAILED to:

• Manage my time (although I finished on time)!
• Explore all the 100+ slides (Mission Impossible, which I predicted earlier)!
• Say all the things I wanted to say (Only 45%)!

So, should I have rehearsed more? I suppose. Should I have used a detailed script? No way! I prefer not using a detailed script (beyond the slides), because then I say and learn new things while I am giving the talk (Did I just say that? WOW! Oh, that didn't sound right! Let's try again!). Also, by not using (or following) a detailed script, you have more flexibility to adapt or connect to the mood and learning needs of the audience. In short, I prefer talking rather than reading to the audience. I suppose one can memorize detailed scripts, but unless we can act like movie stars, I am not sure that is the best way to connect with the audience.

Anyway, on a POSITIVE NOTE I believe I managed to connect with many of the participants and smash in a few critical points, especially regarding what kind of learning skills we need to nurture in our students. In addition, I didn't see any one falling asleep during my keynote, which is positive. But then again, I was the first speaker at the whole event, so you would expect people to be fresh and awake. Based on some feedback and comments from others, my keynote was light, entertaining, informative, useful, and inspiring (according to Richard Lowe who missed it, but had been informed so. Well, that is what he told me.).

Interestingly, I signed three (3) autographs after my keynote, which is roughly two (2) more than during my whole failed football (soccer) career. It was rather embarrassing, because my handwriting is really horrible (left-handed squabble), and you would think that even a five year old could come up with a more professionally looking autograph. It was a ‘What, are you kidding me?' kind of experience.

In conclusion, I would say that it could have gone better, but it could also have gone worse. So, Al-Hamdulilla I can sit back and enjoy the memories with a flat 'B'. But, I do hope I will get more chances Insha-Allah in the future (I enjoyed it very much!). Also, I have come to realize that 20-minute presentations are not my cup of tea anymore. Though, I will have to learn how to say what I want within an hour or so, because I doubt I will ever get more than that during future conferences or conventions (Yeah, who wants to listen beyond that anyway?). I just need to be more precise and concise, while I entertain and inspire (I wish!).

Enough about my subjective self-assessment (Me, Myself and I)! Let's talk about...


LEARNING
The great thing about speaking first is that after you are done, you can focus on learning, discussions, and networking without any worries. And that is what I did, from start to finish. There were presentations on educational gaming, pedagogical agents, project-based learning, problem-based learning, 3D animation, ICT training for teachers, smart use of multimedia technology, distance learner’s readiness, Net generation, using drama to teach fasting, and much more. I suppose the presentation that touched me most, was the 'smart use of multimedia technology to highlight the plight of Orang Kanaq - Malaysia's most endangered ethnic group of Orang Asli (YouTube video)'. Let's make a difference!

Though, I would have loved to see more presentations (research) on educational blogging, wikis, social bookmarking, podcasting, virtual worlds, and open educational resources. Hopefully, we will see more of this in the coming years.

I truly enjoyed the other keynote speakers, especially Prof. Richard Lowe’s wonderful talk on educational graphics or graphicacy, and Toh Han-Son (who was nicknamed the handsome Korean) keynote on Google applications for education. He is actually Malaysian (Chinese) as far as I know.

What I liked about Professor Richard Lowe’s keynote was how he simplified the idea on creating pedagogical sound educational graphics. An ideal educational graphic should be easy to understand and stimulating (motivating) to the mind. Interestingly, he reminded us that in a content development team, it is ultimately the Instructional Designer (ID) who is responsible for the pedagogy (instructional design) of the graphics. Sometimes, we take for granted that the subject matter expert (SME) or graphic designer is able to construct an instructionally sound graphic (wishful thinking!). Also, he reminded us that we need to educate students on how to analyze and understand educational graphics (beyond the entertainment value). As we are overwhelmed with graphics, animations, movies and other visuals from an increasingly visual learning world, I suppose we need to eventually include courses (or topics) for students to explore educational graphics, so that they can maximize their learning from them.

Toh Han-Son (Hanson), currently Google’s only consultant in Malaysia gave a mind-awakening presentation about Google applications for education (Gmail Calendar, Calendar, Docs, Sites, etc.), and I was surprised to learn that everything he was offering was totally free (including customization of the Gmail address to the University’s unique address). Microsoft, how do you beat that?

Luckily, I got the chance to chat for more than one hour (after dinner) with Toh Han-Son, and the MBA Graduate from Oxford did not disappoint. I soon realized that this left-handed humble, but eager-to-learn, intelligent, sharp and determined dude is certainly more appropriate for Google than me. No contest! In short, Google got the right man :)

Besides that, I joined Richard Lowe’s short adventure to find a rubber tree and visit the beach in Kuantan. Well, I also had my own agenda, which was to buy some Keropok (dried fish that we fry). Dr. Arif and his wife (Dr. Rosnaini) were the perfect hosts and in the end we found one single rubber tree out there somewhere. I would probably need a GPS for rubber trees to relocate it again. Although, there was no rubber to see, Richard was thrilled anyway. I love his attitude to learn and enjoy these small magical moments.

For me, visiting the beach was certainly the biggest thrill in this short 2-hour learning adventure. I really enjoyed the cows, especially the one that strolled alone on the beach. It looked so relaxed walking by itself on the beach. Actually, everyone looked so relaxed, and no one really seemed to care where that cow was going (everyone was enjoying and minding their own business). I suppose the cow was having its afternoon stroll on the beach. It was both an amazing and weird moment to treasure!

Finally, I was surprised to learn that many were really pleased that a Keynote Speaker would participate from the start to the end of the convention. Believe it or not, I got applause from the remaining participants before the closing ceremony thanks to the entertaining announcer (picture), who brought it up. He (Abdul Aziz) has an amazing ability to create jokes-on-the-fly, and say things that touches both our logic and emotions in a meaningful way.

So, if you are a Keynote speaker and have the time, stay around to learn, discuss and show your support. It means a lot to the organizer and the other participants.

In a nutshell, I learned a lot and made some great connections! Hopefully, they will evolve into dynamic collaborations that will transform the Malaysian learning space over time. Why not?

And again, I would like to thank everyone involved that made the convention and my stay a learning adventure to treasure. Terima Kasih!


LEARNING INNOVATION LAB

Two (2) days after returning from the convention, I got a fuzzy new idea about a ‘Learning Innovation Lab’ that could transform the learning landscape in Malaysia (and beyond) by 2011. I believe this could be the project that could facilitate my second hedgehog goal, which is to do my PhD. I have been searching for a PhD research topic that I would never get bored of, which can be implemented while researching, and would have meaning beyond the 3-5 years it would take to acquire a PhD.

Let’s say it is my second and third hedgehog goal smacked together. So, even if I don’t achieve my PhD for it, this project will have value beyond it.

So, what is the ‘Learning Innovation Lab’? To be honest, it is still in liquid form in my head, but I can tell you that to implement this project I probably don’t need money to invest in software or hardware at least, and it will be influenced by Connectivism (one way or the other). It will utilize a network of existing and future technologies to facilitate a transformational learning space that infuse collaborative learning, thinking, teaching/facilitation, learning tools and open educational resources beyond the course paradigm. The learning networks and nuggets will be fluid and organic, facilitated by passionate learners and educators. The way it is facilitated will be as dynamic as Google’s search algorithms, which practically change every day. In other words, It is always exploring, learning, reflecting, adapting and innovating.

To facilitate disruptive or transformational learning innovations (instead of just incremental ones), this learning innovation lab I predict will be mostly facilitated by dynamic and motivated PhD, Masters and Bachelor students around the country (and perhaps around the world) who are inspired to transform the way we learn and think.

I might be dreaming “Yes, We Can!”, but that is a dream I am not afraid of failing (or spending my research time on). Failure will be one of the key elements that nurture disruptive learning innovations that are necessary to facilitate the impact I am imagining right now. Anyway, my idea is still fluid, and I might even have to change the title, because I noticed (via Google) that a Dr. Redmond has used the term 'Learning Innovation Lab' already (2004). Anyway, the title can easily be changed later if any problems, but the key here is the idea, which is still a work in progress.

I hope to conceptualize the ‘Learning Innovation Lab’ soon, and let’s hope there will eventually be PhD scholarship opportunities to support it. It might sound like many ongoing projects already out there, and it probably is in many ways. As the whole world is engrossed in revamping learning systems, this learning innovation Lab will continuously try to make sense of these initiatives, and will mostly use collective/connective human intelligence to nurture learning environments that not only have substance, but attract those that we struggle to involve and inspire. Now, if we can attract, involve and inspire beyond the already self-motivated/directed learners, I would argue that this future lab is a success. Now, that is a challenge that hopefully leads to a PhD, too!

On Saturday, I will be traveling to Saudi Arabia for another learning adventure (Part 3), and will be taking a one-month break from blogging until 24th December.

Though, I will probably still be updating Zaidlearn’s Delicious learning space, while I am engrossed and busy learning in Saudi Arabia (and conceptualizing the future lab).

Finally, I didn’t get into this education business to have personal glory (although, nice to the ego!), but to play my little role in transforming the way we learn and think, enabling us to fulfill our dreams of facilitating a cleaner (Al-Gore are you reading?) and better world. Whether I can achieve that or anything, God (Allah) only knows :)

My First Keynote (Part 1)

• SlideShare Version
• SlideBoom Version
  
• PDF Version (77 MB)
• IMETC Event

FIRST KEYNOTE

On this coming Wednesday (5th November), I will hopefully be giving my first keynote presentation at the 2nd International Malaysian Educational Technology Convention (IMETC). If things go as planned, I will be the first speaker at the event, which should generate some big butterflies in my stomach. But strangely enough, I am actually looking forward to it (at least for now!). And currently my biggest worry is to be able to discuss (in human understandable way!) my 100+ slides within the one hour given. Now, that is a challenge! Hopefully, I will be able to say the things I want to say.

"Rehearse and use a script, please!" Good idea, but I wan't it to have a natural flow (A learning conversation with the audience and myself), so no script, except for the slides (Though, if I was a President I would use one!). I hope my ideas and reflections will be free flowing guided by the spicy slides. It will be an interesting experiment, which will be revealed in Part 2. Also, Part 2 (next post) will discuss and reflect all the things I would have learned during this 3-day learning adventure. No, I am not yet ready for any live UStream show!


PRESENTATION SLIDES
In the keynote presentation, I will first discuss a bit about how my first ebook entitled '69 Learning Adventures in 6 Galaxies' came to life. Then, I will explore some learning or thinking skills we need to nurture in students and ourselves to be successful in today's fast evolving innovation world. I will also look at some of the educational challenges we might face, and explore a case study on how I revamped a critical thinking course. Finally, I will look at some possibilities and conclude the learning overload session. In short, we are all probably going to get dizzy (learning overload!) one way or the other. Anyway, here are the slides to enjoy before the actual event:

69 Learning Adventures in 6 Galaxies

Interestingly, the slides have already been featured on SlideShare homepage (within 3 hours upon upload). So, at least the slides seems to be a bit interesting. Let's hope the actual keynote presentation also turns out to be interesting, engaging and useful to those attending the event.

I suppose after all my past workshops and 20-minute presentations (taken a 2-year break from that!), I kind of look forward to this great opportunity to talk for one hour (or less) to a bunch of people about the things I have learned over the last few years. And for that, I am truly grateful to God (Allah) and would like to also thank the organizers for giving me this opportunity. Thank you so much!

Until part 2, have fun trying to make sense of my slides. If they don't make sense, perhaps you could invite me to give a talk. Though, I would prefer if I was given 2 hours. Meaning, we will have approximately one hour to discuss, reflect and learn together. Now, that is where the real learning will take place :)

8 Free Screencasting Tools For Tony!

• Free Screencasting Tools List (Updated)
  
• Tony Karrer's blog

"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:

• Screenr
  Create screencasts for your followers as easily as you tweet. Just click the record button and you'll have your ready-to-tweet screencast in seconds.
  
  
• 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:

• Screenjelly
  Records your screen activity with your voice so you can spread it as a video via Twitter or email. Use it to quickly share cool apps or software tips, report a bug, or just show stuff you like.
  
  
• 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 :)

Do You Want To Learn Arabic?

• ArabicPod
• Madinah Arabic
• Learn Arabic (speak7)
  
• Babel - Arabic
• Arabic.org

Arabic is the mother tongue to over 225 million people in Africa and Asia, and there are as many as 246 million non-native speakers (source). Arabic is spoken throughout the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Mauritania, and Chad. In short, learning a bit of Arabic makes whole lot of sense, whether you are doing it for religious, social or business purposes.

LEARN ARABIC FOR FREE?
Here are five (5) learning spaces to get you started:

• ArabicPod
  
  This website created by Mohamed Moshaya and Ehab Saleh is dedicated to providing innovative and effective methods for learning Arabic. They use web 2.0 technologies such as podcasts, videos, games, etc. to provide a rich learning experience. Although, they only launched recently (March 2008), their free online lessons have been downloaded more than a million times. You will really enjoy their podcasts, which involves two guys having an engaging chat while learning Arabic (Thumbs up!). I also like that one can rate and provide comments to each podcast, which again facilitates learning conversations and continuous improvement. All of their audio podcasts can be freely listened to and downloaded. For most of the other content, there is a subscription fee which is setup to cover the costs of running the website. I hope that some noble investor will come in soon to cover the costs, so that we all can enjoy the rest for free.
  

• Madinah Arabic
  This free site has been designed to teach the Arabic language inspired by one of the most popular courses being used today - the Madinah Book Series by Dr. V. Abdur Rahim which is used by Madinah University to teach English speaking students the Arabic language. This course will eventually contain (under development) everything an individual needs to learn the Arabic Language (Classical and Modern Standard) from complete beginner to advanced level. If you prefer a straight-to-the-point kind of course (efficient learning!), you have found it right here. I don't mind that the audio provided is being chunked to phrases and words, but it would be wonderful if we could also download the full lesson in one MP3 file (conveniently access lessons on our IPods and Mp3 players). But, besides that it is a splendid and noble initiative.
  

• Babel - Arabic
  
  This is an online course in Arabic. It teaches you basic sentences, how to write, how to count and introduces Arabic grammar. All with sounds! This course will teach you about 400 of the most common words in Arabic. All lessons are the product of cooperation between an Arab native and a non-Arab who have managed to learn the language.

• Learn Arabic (speak7)
  Learn Arabic for free, their lessons are available to anyone who wants to speak Arabic, from grammar, vocabulary, expressions, phrases and more.
• Arabic.org
  Here you can learn the basics in Arabic language, and they also offer professional Arabic translation and calligraphy services. Interestingly, this Arabic owned small firm is located in New York City (of all places). They want to create an online site devoted to Arabic. It will be interesting to see how this evolves. They should also consider offering Arabic courses on ITunes (free and commercial versions).
  

Whether you are 10 or 72 years-old, I suppose you might find one of these four learning opportunities a useful starting point to learn the basics in Arabic. I like the variety of approaches each initiative has taken to facilitate learning. Some people might want to learn through learning conversations (e.g. ArabicPod), while others might want to learn efficiently in a book-style format with audio support (e.g. Madinah Arabic). Either way, these five learning initiatives provides us with different approaches to satisfy different learning styles. Why not use all four to get us started?

Finally, click here if you want to learn Arabic in less than 9-minutes (video). WOW!

Do you have any better suggestions to learn Arabic online for free? I am still a beginner :)

ZaidLearn's PowerLink Collection Smashes The 1000 Barrier!

• Delicious Version
• Diigo Version

"Imagination is more important than knowledge..."
Albert Einstein

IMAGINATION!

WOW! Dear President Obama, thank you so much for your support and encouragement. I am literally flattered to get your recognition and appreciation for my historical achievement. "Zaid, I have been a fan of your site, ever since you discovered my little secret. Your discovery led me to your work, and I have been following ever since."

Sometimes I wonder where I get my imagination from! Nurturing our imagination is a critical learning tool to facilitate creativity, innovation and invention (perhaps the most important!). Imagination is an amazing visualization tool, and many people apply this to improve their abilities and skills in the real world. For example, great footballers (soccer players) often use their imagination to visualize how they might score before a game, and it often helps them to make the right decision when the real opportunity comes along.

However, imagination is also important to our mental health and happiness. When we were kids, we could have lots of fun with ourselves using our amazing imagination. I remember scoring the winning goal in the FIFA world cup final, slam dunking Shaq in his face, running the 100 meters in 4 seconds, winning Wimbledon without picking up a tennis racket, beating Mike Tyson in the first round, fighting aliens in galaxy Gaga, etc.

But then when we grow older our imagination and dreams seem to fade away, and the real world hits in. We come to realize that perhaps we will not be able to achieve such remarkable things that our imagination inspired us with when we were young. Our urge to greatness (Freud), or urge to feel important (Carnegie) in the real world becomes a burden, which leads many into depression, and some to mental hospitals... (Enjoy your imagination!)

I will continue this interesting 'Imagination' stuff in another post, but now let's get back to...

POWERLINKS

I am glad to announce that my PowerLink collection has smashed (or broken) the 1000-barrier. In other words, the PowerLink collection consists now of more than 1000 links (or URLs). If you are looking for juicy learning resources, I strongly recommend (Isn't this shameless self promotion!) that you subscribe to one of my PowerLink collections (Delicious or Diigo). Currently, there are 130+ delicious users already subscribing to the delicious collection. It is called 'fans' there, which I find kind of annoying. 'Followers' would probably sound more appropriate. Perhaps they could let us change the term to whatever word we like. Now that would be cool!

Though, you don't need to be a delicious or Diigo user to subscribe. Instead, one can for example copy/paste the link (e.g. http://delicious.com/zaidlearn) into an RSS Newsreader (e.g. Google Reader) and swoosh you will get the latest updates as I discover. Better yet, if you think that I discover a lot of rubbish, and only want to for example subscribe to the new learning tools I discover, you can subscribe to a particular tag (http://delicious.com/zaidlearn/Tools). Here are three tags that might be interesting to subscribe to:

• Learning Tools (200+)
• EduGames(100+)
• EduBlogs (70+)

But, why subscribe to ZaidLearn's PowerLinks? Excellent point! Actually, there are many other great link collectors out there (Hint: check my delicious network for a few) with more links and fans (I mean followers!) than me (by a couple of miles!). In other words, you should subscribe to them, too.

So, why I am sharing all this with you. Actually, I want you to enjoy all the great learning resources I discover, which might not be reflected on this blog. Although, one can post daily updates from delicious or Diigo, I prefer not to, due to some funny mind boggling preferences. Also, one can actually find the latest updates on the right side column of this blog (somewhere there!), but that might not be so clear to most readers.

So, can you please answer the question? Alright, my PowerLink strategy is not to index and collect everything under the sun. Google does a great job at that. Coming to think of it, my PowerLink strategy is similar to how Warren Buffett might invest into a stock or company (Buffettology). In other words, when I look at a learning resource, I ask a few critical questions, and if they fail to meet them, I am not going to add them. For example, if I can't imagine visiting the link in a few years time, I will not add them to my PowerLink collection.

For example, there is no problem in indexing a few thousand learning tools, but how many of them would you really want to use? So, instead I only index those tools that I find useful, or really get me excited (and are FREE as far as I know!). For experts in the field that might sound annoying (they might want the full list), but for new comers it is often a blessing (or curse if you miss out) in disguise (No time!). It all depends! You might want to call it ZaidLearn approved learning resources. Nope, that didn't sound good.

Anyway, one way or the other, I do hope the PowerLink collection helps people out there. If it does, I am happy!


PRESIDENT?
Finally, I have decided to run for the President of the United States in 2012. "Have you gone pot! You are a foreigner, it is impossible! Even worse, you are a Muslim! They would...!" You got a good point there, but it is nice to imagine sometimes, what if? I firmly believe I could have done a better job than Bush (mark my words!). But, let's hope that President Obama is a positive change for America and the rest of the world. "He is not the President yet!" Can you imagine Palin becoming the President of United States? "You mean MCaine!" Is that any better? :)