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globeandmail.com: Where the browsers are going
The Browser Wars and Trends
“By launching a browser whose main purpose is to run Javascript easily and quickly, Google is hinting that the future of the Internet lies in computing “in the cloud” — at least as Google sees it. Then again, it can be argued that Chrome is being offered as the self-serving browser of choice for Google’s own web applications, such as Google Docs, Gmail, Google Sites and so on.”
WebTools For Teachers 09/10/2008
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Another interesting place to host files. Via Jane Hart
WebTools For Teachers 09/09/2008
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FileFactory – free file hosting
Free file hosting – useful for student assignments. Link to large files, and don’t overload blog or wiki storage. This one claims embedding possibilities.
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File crunch :: Free File Host – Upload, download, share and comment!
Free file hosting – useful for student assignments. Link to large files, and don’t overload blog or wiki storage.
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Making the Election Video: Behind the Scenes | Common Craft – Explanations In Plain English
“Every video starts with a script. If there is “secret sauce” it happens in writing the script because the script drives the video. We use Google Docs to collaborate until we feel like the script is close to finished. Then, we start looking at a thumbnail storyboard. “
WebTools For Teachers 09/06/2008
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I use sxipper on my laptop; it’s great. The only problem is when I use someone else’s computer, I sometimes can’t remember my user name and password.
WebTools For Teachers 09/05/2008
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Sugata Mitra shows how kids teach themselves | Video on TED.com
“Sugata Mitra talks about his Hole in the Wall project. Young kids in this project figured out how to use a PC on their own — and then taught other kids. He asks, what else can children teach themselves?”
Just over 20 minutes – fascinating implications for educating 8 to 12 year olds. -
Google on Google Chrome – comic book
Fascinating lesson on browsers – I understood parts of it, got a hazy idea of other parts, and didn’t ‘get’ some parts at all. Still, it expanded what I (not a tech-person at all!) know. Not available for Macs yet.
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Offered through some educational institutions – the growth of online courses is amazing. But then, teaching is advanced and ‘thick’ communication, and the web is the most advanced communication tool developed by humans! via Stephen Downes
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Interesting-looking tool for business, etc.
WebTools For Teachers 09/03/2008
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For sciece teachers and interested parents – learning games – via Stephen Downes
In My Lifetime
I have seen history made …
WebTools For Teachers 08/29/2008
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Ignatia Webs: Social Media makes this course stand out
“a great example of combining several relevant Social media to enhance a course” via Stephen Downes
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Ever Notice?: Gain: AIGA Journal of Business and Design: Design & Business: AIGA
What you see is what you get! (Or hear, or smell, or feel, or sense) Interesting disussion. via Stephen Downes
udutu – Free, Easy, and Perhaps Unnecessary
udutu – The price is right, free if you don’t use their server.
It’s fairly straightforward to use –
You can put it up on Facebook and learners can access it there –
The teacher’s view above and the learners’ below –
I like udutu’s encouraging course creators to use the assessment tool for learners to self-assess, rather than scoring with it. It allows learners to repeat going through the materials as often as they want.
I like the ease of use with no coding, and only some figuring out needed. The small “course” I created took 2 to 3 hours and was based on a pre-existing PowerPoint, an udutu suggestion. That’s pretty quick for a first try.
I like the appearance, what the pages look like.
I have two provisos:
- For a highly factual content course, it might be a good fit, but for a course with a lot of student input, the kind I usually teach, it could be too prescribed.
- As the early WebCT did for me, udutu could provide a kind of scaffolding for teachers new to using the web in their teaching. However, having read Weinberger’s Small Pieces Loosely Joined – http://www.smallpieces.com/ – at an impressionable stage in my learning about the web, I prefer to use separate applications linked to each other. For my fall course, students will be using a class wiki, which will be linked to a class community blog, which will be, of course, linked back to the wiki. Within the wiki and the blog, there will be other links
- to web applications needed to complete the course
- to tutorials and information about those web applications
- to student-chosen links
- to assignments
To me, this is the most efficient way to set up a class, and it matches the overall web culture, as I understand it. Students will be living, learning and working in that culture in their futures, so why put them in a tight framework in this part of their learning.
So udutu might work for some purposes, but not for my current ones.
WebTools For Teachers 08/28/2008
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udutu | Create simulations online with ease.
“udutu’s WSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) online learning software makes it easy to produce media rich, engaging online courseware at minimal cost and without having to rely on programmers…” via Michael Specht, via Stephen Downes
Learning Living 