this week activity

aliaa — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 23:07:51 +0000

Today we as a group start to work through module activity guide 3.
We also find a short online course, which hopefully would be done by next week.

edublogs update

aliaa — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:35:02 +0000

After experiencing difficulty logging into my blog for two weeks, I found an appropriate time to reflect on my e-learning experience at UTS during the last two weeks.

I start my e-learning experience at UTS by setting my delicious, netvibe & Edublog and completing my module one from e-learning experiences activity guide. After completion of module one student are divided into different groups to start the module two from the activity guide in wikispaces. unfortunately I couldn’t log into my blog to post my written report on Saturday 06/09/2008.

10 September 2008

Today for the third week, I couldn’t log into my blog to upgrade it. we (module two group)also did some research to complete module two activity assessment on wikispaces. I also updated my delicious and netvibe public pages.

17 September 2008

Today after two consecutive weeks I was not able to sign into my edublog to update it. In some sense when I think about e-learning and attend of delivering the courses online, experiences like this; having difficulty logging into the specific website will raise a question about accountability and reliability of online delivery in my mind. Question like; what if after many hours of time, which spent to generate an online course, the technology fails and prevents people from being able to join that online course?
What if the person or people involve with creating that online course had to go through all that hassle again?
This could be some of the major disadvantages of online delivery.
Cheers for today, hopefully I will be able to log in and add all this information.

e-Learning Activity 1

aliaa — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:43:39 +0000

Activity 1.1 Defining e-Learning

What is e-Learning?

Definitions of new terms are often influenced by their usage in common language – industry and subject matter experts will all offer their meaning on terminology that is evolving with market demands change.

Based on your current knowledge and experience: What is your definition of e-Learning?

§ Any learning that includes the use of (but isn’t necessarily dependent on) computer technology.

§ Transfer of knowledge using technology.

§ Behavioral change.

§ Acquisition of new skills.

Compare your definitions with the following:

“e-Learning is instruction that is delivered electronically, in part or wholly – via a Web browser, such as Netscape Navigator, through the Internet or an intranet, or through multimedia platforms such as CD-ROM or DVD. Increasingly – as higher bandwidth has become more accessible – it has been identified primarily with using the Web, or an intranet’s web, leveraging the Web’s visual environment and interactive nature.”

Brandon Hall, nd, FAQs About e-Learning

http://www.brandonhall.com/public/faqs2/faqs2.htm

“Instructional content or learning experiences delivered or enabled by electronic technology.”

“A Vision of e-Learning for America’s Workforce”, ASTD,

June 2001

Readings:

Reading 1: Tsai, S. & Machado, P. 2002, “e-Learning, Online Learning, Web-based Learning, or Distance Learning: Unveiling the Ambiguity in Current Terminology”, eLearn Magazine, July.

http://elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=best_practices&article=6-1

Reading 2: Cher Ping Lim, 2001, “What Isn’t e-Learning?” TechKnowLogia, May/June, pp11-12.

http://www.techknowlogia.org/TKL_active_pages2/CurrentArticles/main.asp?FileType=HTML&ArticleID=267

Reading 3: Downes, S. (2005), “e-Learn 2.0” , eLearn Magazine online

http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=29-1

Reading 4: Taylor, Donald H. (2007) “It’s time to drop e-Learning” TrainingZone.co.uk , 11 July

http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=170224

Review your earlier definition and understanding of e-Learning – now, based on the readings - has your definition altered in any way? Why?

Activity 1.2 Glossary of Terms

Read the article on the following website:

“e-Learning Alphabet Soup: A Guide to Terms”

http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art1_1.htm

Why do you need an e-Learning Glossary?

The main purpose is to up to date with new terminology , acronyms and jargon associated with Web2

Where do you start searching?

Online via search engines (e.g. google, yahoo, etc)

How do you judge their relevance and credibility?

By checking a few different websites

Record the URLs of Glossaries:

http://zope.cetis.ac.uk/

http://www.learningcircuits.org/

http://www.e-learningguru.com/glossary.htm

NB: These URLs will be added to your social bookmarking site later!

New terms I have learnt:

Backbone

§ A high-speed line or series of connections that forms a major pathway within a network. The term is relative as a backbone in a small network will likely be much smaller than many non-backbone lines in a large network.

Java

Java is a network-friendly programming language invented by Sun Microsystems.

There is a forum set-up in UTSOnline for you to share new words/terms – or to ask the group for definition & clarification of meanings.

Activity 1.3 Technology Options

The following are some of the components used in e-Learning – can you add to this list?

q √Synchronous technologies

q √Asynchronous technologies

q √Video conferencing

q √Online quizzes

q √Email

q √Chat / IM

q √Discussion forums / bulletin boards

q √Web conferencing

q √Interactive TV

q √Simulations

q √Multi-user games

q √Virtual worlds

q √smart board

q √Moodle

q √Wikispaces

Tick the components you have had some experience with.

Can you define them?

If not – use one of your glossaries from Activity 1.2 to find out what they are!

Throughout this subject your lecturer will attempt to arrange a variety of exercises that will employ some of these components.

Methods of delivery:

In your work context:

What experience have you had with e-Learning?

Working with wikki spaces and moddle.

Creating PowerPoint Resources for online delivery.

Describe the methods of delivery you have experienced?

Online delivery

Adobe Connect.

How do these relate to the definitions of e-Learning outlined in the earlier readings?

They are well correlated to the definitions of e-learning

Activity 1.4: Resources: e-Zines, e-Journals, e-Newsletters & weblogs

What is an e-Zine?

Is the short term for electronic magazine. E-zines are web sites that contain articles and other components of typical print magazines.

What is an e-Journal?

An electronic version of a journal that is found and read on the Web

What is an e-Newsletter?

An electronic newsletter, published on-line, often distributed through e-mail to a list of subscribers

Why read other people’s weblogs?

We may find information which could be useful

How do you judge their relevance? Credibility? Authenticity?

Do they link to other sources, their credibility, validity of their information,

Where do you start searching?

Google, yahoo.

How do you subscribe?

RSS them or bookmark them

Useful URLs:

e-Learning Magazine

http://elearnmag.org

Training Magazine

www.trainingmagazine.com

Learning Circuits – ASTD magazine

www.learningcircuits.com

Others…..?

Activity 1.5 Bookmarking and Aggregation

What is social bookmarking?

The ability to save and categorize a personal collection of bookmarks and share them with others. Users may also take bookmarks saved by others and add them to their own collection, as well as to subscribe to the lists of others.

How could it be used in this subject?

Students can share their knowledge with each other

Go to the Subject Documents tab in UTSOnline and open the Technology Framework folder.
There is a document called “ Delicious “ - follow the guidelines to create a Delicious account.

Watch this short video from CommonCraft:

http://www.commoncraft.com/bookmarking-plain-english

What is Aggregation?

The process by which data values are collected with the intent to manage the collection as a single unit

What is RSS?

Really Simple Syndication. A family of web feed formats used in web syndication. These are an XML based system for aggregating information from blogs, news and frequently updated websites

How can these be used in this subject?

By informing students with any changes and keeping them up to date

Go to the Subject Documents tab in UTSOnline and open the Technology Framework folder.

There is a document called “Netvibes” – follow the guidelines to create a Netvibes account.

Activity 1.6 Weblogs

In this subject each student will be using a weblog to publish all their work – including assignments.

A wiki has been set-up to assist you with this process.

Refer to UTSOnline, in the Subject Documents tab, in the Technology Framework folder for a link to this resource.
Activity 1.7 Advantages & Disadvantages of e-Learning

Based on your readings and research so far in this subject –

What do you believe are some of the Advantages of e-Learning?

Convenience and Portability
Cost and Selection
Flexibility
Higher Retention
Greater Collaboration
Global Opportunities

What are some of the Disadvantages of e-Learning?

Learners with low motivation or bad study habits may fall behind
Without the routine structures of a traditional class, students may get lost or confused about course activities and deadlines
Students may feel isolated from the instructor and classmates
Instructor may not always be available when students are studying or need help
Slow Internet connections or older computers may make accessing course materials frustrating
Managing computer files and online learning software can sometimes seem complex for students with beginner-level computer skills
Hands-on or lab work is difficult to simulate in a virtual classroom

We will review your comments throughout the course – make additional entries or amendments whenever you find information that you believe is an advantage or disadvantage to e-Learning.

Read:

“The Benefits and Drawbacks of e-Learning”

http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art1_3.htm

Assignment 1

aliaa — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:13:47 +0000

Followings are my delicious, edublogs and netvibe URL’s for assessment 1.

http://delicious.com/ali_alahmadi

http://aliaa.edublogs.org/

http://www.netvibes.com/aliahmadi#General