Michelle Gallen : Activity

My top ten e-learning tools

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:31:36 GMT

http://www.liquidelearning.com/2008/01/my-top-ten-e-learning-tools.htm

I listed my top ten e-learning tools on the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies. Check out the post here. Ignore the fact I look as though I am flexing muscles only an e-learning consultant could be proud of.

Talk Irish - new website

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:12:27 GMT

http://www.liquidelearning.com/2008/03/talk-irish-new-website.html

I've been really busy this week, trying to launch my new website, www.talkirish.com. I've finally got it up - although I'm still tweaking it - so make sure you go and check it out.

So what's www.talkirish.com all about? Well, it's an Irish language learning website, aimed at adult learners who have a cúpla focal or or no Irish. Right now, we're working hard to publish lots of free Irish language learning materials - such as podcasts, flashcards and language learning games. They're not live yet, but we're going to launch these as soon as we can.

If you're trying to learn Irish, or if you know someone who's trying to learn Irish, go to www.talkirish.com or sign up now for our podcasts. The more people I can sign up in advance, the more free learning materials I can provide on www.talkirish.com!

Can Apture make Educational Blogging Better?

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 08:50:09 GMT

http://www.liquidelearning.com/2008/08/can-apture-make-educational-blo

Apture provides a rich communication platform that allows publishers and bloggers to easily turn flat pages of text into multimedia experiences. I'm just a new user, so my review is going to focus on what they say, and what I've experienced so far.

You must sign up for apture, and then insert a line of code into your blog/website. Apture then detects you're using it, and opens a small editing toolbar, which allows you to highlight words in your content, and to search for related content.

Once you find the content, you can link to it. When a user visits your site, any linked content can be opened in a small window that you can reposition anywhere on your browser. Try it.

Apture Search and Content Selection
I've not used Apture for long - this post is an experiment in using it. But one concern I have is in how Apture searches for and suggests content for embedding. The default search provides content in these categories:

- video
- images
- reference
- News
- Maps
- Music
- Documents
- web pages

Good, useful categories. But the content it suggests within these is pulled from specific sites - so for images, you get flickr, yahoo image search and wikipedia (could they not get a deal with google images?). For reference they use
wikipedia, crunchbase, imdb and amazon. For news it's the Washington Post, BBC and BBC archive. I'm not sure how they made their selections, but I'd be concerned about a narrow search that might return narrow results.

Using Apture
As far as I can see, Apture lets you add all this rich media after you've posted your blog. I like this. Often I publish a blog a couple of times because even if I preview it, I don't get it quite right until its live. And with Apture, I can add content and tweak what appears. I like that approach.

Apture and E-learning
Apture makes it easy to prettify and enrich your blog posts. But a really interesting feature is apture's wiki mode. You can set this so that anyone with an apture account can come in and edit your content. I'd love to see how a group of students might enrich a basic text article - and what they'd learn in the process of doing so. The student as author is so much more engaged than the student as consumer.

Consuming Aptured Content
I've not been on very many sites that use Apture...so I'm testing it here and on my personal blog. It may happen that Apture is just plain annoying, rather than useful. Or it may happen that it is useful to blog readers, and keeps people on my site for longer (which would be of benefit if I made any money through that!).

Making Money with Apture
Apture claims that publishers can 'monetise' content that otherwise lies dormant but I couldn't quite figure out how. Apture themselves seem to be trying to make money through an ad system. Again, not sure how it works. And it doesn't seem aimed at bloggers. One of the reasons I've steered clear of ads on this site is that I would prefer control over the ads that appear. I want to know that the products or services that appear on this blog are good. However, I often recommend books, services and products to people. If Apture had a means for me to embed a link to the point of purchase, then perhaps I could earn a few cents from the recommendations I make. That would be nice. Sigh.

Howcast.com - instructional video channel

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 04:33:33 GMT

http://www.liquidelearning.com/2008/02/howcastcom-instructional-video-

I imagine 9 months ago, when Jason Liebman, Daniel Blackman and Sanjay Raman were still working on Google Video and YouTube at Google, they must've had a pretty clear vision of the product they wanted to launch. Because in just 8 months, they've conceptualised, coded, funded (to the tune of $8million) and launched howcast.com. The story's sexy. But is the product hot?

According to the PR, howcast.com is a new How-To Video Site for Consumers, and directors program for emerging filmmakers. What it feels like is videojug.com - another site that's got lots of FREE how-to videos like How to Paint a Wall, How to Get Paid for Donating Plasma How Not to Get Mugged, etc etc.

The idea is slightly different - consumers are supposed to watch and share instructional how-to videos. The content is scripted by professionals, then filmed (for $50) by emerging filmmakers who also share 50-50 in the ad revenue. And then we're all supposed to participate - to rate, to comment, to suggest, to subscribe etc, while the ad guys sign up to buy relevant ad space.

howcast.com's technology's more advanced - when watching a video, you can follow step by step, play them in slow motion, zoom in on certain areas, or print a text guide.

Jason Liebman, CEO and co-founder of Howcast wants to bridge the worlds of user-generated content and professional vidoe and thinks 'instructional video is a perfect place to start.'

Well. The site's slick. It looks good. It embeds great community features. It's got a good search engine. It's got a hint of sleek apple design. They've got a revenue model for their content. And the logo's got the must-have 'beta' label attached.

Howcast.com isn't doing anything new. But will it take off? I blogged videojug.com last year. A great site, great concept, but I don't use it (not even in approaching all those DIY jobs I keep mucking up in my flat). I can't see why howcast.com haven't ticked every possible box for an Internet start-up. But only time will tell if it will work.

And although I searched and searched, I couldn't find a video on How To Secure $8,000,000 funding for your cool Internet start-up company. Although if I did, I suspect it might open with the words, 'First, resign from your job at Google...'

Freestyle Mobile e-Learning

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 06:31:18 GMT

http://www.liquidelearning.com/2008/05/freestyle-mobile-e-learning.htm

I was in Morocco recently for a holiday. It struck me that in the family homes I visited (Fez, a village near Khénichét outside Sidi-Kacem, and Casablanca) that the dominant technologies were satellite television and mobile phones.

The TVs always seemed to be tuned into American movies (I only saw horror or action movies) or programmes like 'Real Life Survival Stories' or 'The World's Dumbest Criminals' with Arabic subtitles. TV was watched passively, with little comment.

Some of the phones in use were modern, some were ancient bricks. But every house had at least one mobile phone, and it was obvious every adult aspired to own one. Everyone expressed great admiration of the phones we had with us - not for what they looked like, but much more for what they could do - surf the Internet, send and receive email.

I visited a small village school in the North of the country. The classroom was basically equipped - desks, books, a blackboard. There were no computers. In the family homes I stayed in, I saw just one, quite old laptop. And Internet access wasn't cheap - I saw one package advertising access for approximately 20 euro per month (the average daily wage in Morocco is about $3.50).

Education is hugely important to the average Moroccan - it can greatly increase a person's earning power. So acquiring knowledge is important. In classrooms where books are precious and computers are non-existent, it seems to me that mobile phones allied with an affordable data plan could become a leading learning technology.

Learners learn best when the knowledge is necessary, relevant and timely. I know that I use my mobile phone on the go to get the facts I need for the situation I'm in or am about to face.

And these facts aren't delivered via bite-sized SCORM/AICC compliant e-learning modules. They're freestyle - thrown at me by Google and consumed in text format. And no matter how low-fi this solution is, it fits my needs and it works. Of course I'm not earning any points in an LMS. I'm not getting tested on my retention. But I'm getting more done, and doing things more effectively in real life.

I guess I'd like to teach the world to browse, with affordable data plans...

LexDex - online and mobile flashcards

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:00:46 GMT

http://www.liquidelearning.com/2008/03/lexdex-online-and-mobile-flashc

LexDex is a new mobile and online language learning tool I found recently. It's pretty simple to use (though a bit buggy at the moment).

LexDex is a website with a database specialising in language textbooks. You can browse the database, select a textbook and use LexDex to output the content to flashcard for online or mobile study.

First you have to create a profile (which refreshingly just requires your email address and mobile/cell phone number). In order to output to mobile, you have to choose your phone make and model.

After that, I found it quite easy to search for a textbook, and to select a chapter, then select the words I needed to learn. LexDex does output them to online flashcards,mobile flashcards or as a study guide.

The online flashcards are quick to generate and are pretty standard, although I couldn't get the audio file to work. Maybe this is coming soon?
The study guide is just a HTML page with the words you're trying to learn in table format - you can also output to PDF, although I imagine have an editable doc is more important.

I found I could output a limited number of flashcards to my mobile. The process worked - I got an sms with a link to my flashcards, and I downloaded and installed the java app. Pretty soon I could view my cards on a clean, easy to use GUI. There was no audio. But when I decided to download a second set of cards, I got into trouble. Both files seemed to have the same name, so I couldn't get the second set of cards to work. LexDex still feels like a beta product.

LexDex was designed specifically to produce mobile flashcards for foreign languages. But now the team are expanding towards other subjects and are developing games. The tool was created by 3 Americans - Edward Kim, Joseph Constanty and David Pauker. They recently graduated from university and are now living in Shanghai, China. To date, LexDex has not been used by any universities or businesses, although the team are working on developing partnerships with local schools in Shanghai.

I've mentioned that LexDex use a team of databasers to input all the information from text books for use on the site. The input is checked before publication to the site. I'll admit my main concern about this website and tool is the copyright issues behind behind this.

When I asked LexDex for more info on their relationship with publishers, I was assured that publishers have been 'pretty receptive' to the idea of LexDex using their books to create flashcards, as they see LexDex as a complementary tool rather than a supplementary one. LexDex openly states it does not intend to replace the teacher, class or even the textbook, but to help students study.

I imagine the idea of generating more sales of a textbook through LexDex does appeal to publishers. However, LexDex does not actively promote the sale of any of the textbooks from its site. I imagine it would be easy to hook up to the Amazon book store, so users can purchase the textbook they aim to study, if they don't already have it. LexDex haven't (yet?) implemented this step.

And what will happen if any of the publishers decide that they want in on the revenue stream from the flashcard sales? LexDex will soon be charging a very reasonable $7 per book for the ability to access and create flashcards for 6 months. Although it's early days, and there can't be a huge revenue stream in this tool alone, I can see publishers in a tightly-squeezed publishing industry eventually demanding their slice of this pie.

Learn about ancient Celtic Law...and how to make money on a leap day

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:30:18 GMT

http://www.liquidelearning.com/2008/02/learn-about-ancient-celtic-lawa

I didn't know that St Patrick and St Brigid were the two who started the whole tradition of enabling women to propose marriage on a leap day.

Apparently St Brigid had a chat with St Patrick about letting women have the right to propose to a man. And the cautious St Patrick ruled that woman could certainly propose to a man. But only on a leap day, which falls once every 4 years.

In Scotland, the tradition developed that if a man rejected a lady's proposal on a leap day, he had to pay a fine, ranging from a kiss to a new silk dress.

And did you know that if you're proposing to a man, all you need is a football, not a diamond ring. Are men really so easily pleased?

Anyway. I'd advise anyone to have an enlightening 3 minutes with this videojug.com production, and then to spend the next 12 hours either hiding from ladies, or stalking gentlemen.

voxswap.com - social networking and language learning?

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:30:18 GMT

http://www.liquidelearning.com/2008/02/voxswapcom-social-networking-an

Just thought I'd squeeze a post in before I head off to the Mournes (outlook is mixed: forecast of blizzards, ice and hot toddies).

I joined voxswap.com a few weeks ago. It's the first British language learning community I've found. It's very new - having had its official launch on January 17 2008. It was founded by husband and wife team Sean and Nicole Hargrave.

The site's recently achieved a core community of 600 users. They're aiming at 1000 users before long. It's built on kwiqq.com.

voxswap.com - what does it aim to do?
To connect millions of people around the world who have an interest in learning or improving a language.

voxswap.com - what does it offer?
Voxswap feels very much in beta. There is a community, yes. And you can use an internal email, chat and a discussion board. Then there's the virtual keyboard, which enables people to add characters and accents that are foreign to their keyboards (and there was me just figuring out which magic key combo could give me an accent). But there's not much else.

voxswap.com - how do you learn?
There's no free content offered on voxswap yet, or any other kind of content. I'm actually not sure how they fund themselves, as there are no ads either.

voxswap.com - did I make friends?
I signed up for French and Irish. Needless to say I've not been overwhelmed with Irish learners looking to connect. But I've not actually made any other friends. LONELY.

voxswap.com - does it work?
I've spent a lot less time on voxswap.com than on any other language learning community. But that's because there's not the community, content or features to engage me.

Sean Hargrave has commented on socialmediaportal.com that he 'couldn’t find the site I was looking for, so I decided to build it.' I think Sean should take a good look at his non-UK competition. I've reviewed italki.com, palabea.net and livemocha.com in previous posts. I've also blogged about chinesepod.com, who have now branched into spanishpod.com. There's serious, more established competition from these and more.

Irish Blog Award Nominations

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:30:18 GMT

http://www.liquidelearning.com/2008/01/irish-blog-award-nominations.ht

I just found out that my blog has been long-listed by the Irish Blog Awards as one of the best technology blogs in Ireland. Now that they've made the list, I assume they're checking it twice. Wonder when I'll find out whether I've been deemed naughty or nice?

Check out the long-list here.

Livemocha - Language Learning and Social Networking

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:30:18 GMT

http://www.liquidelearning.com/2008/01/livemocha-language-learning-and

If your new year's resolution is to learn a language, you could check out livemocha.com. The site currently offers free learning materials for

- German
- English
- Spanish
- French
- Hindi
- Mandarin Chinese

LiveMocha describes itself as 'an exciting Web 2.0 startup' based in Seattle. They aim to 'ride one of the greatest macro economic trends of our time - globalization'. And they want to do this by leveraging social networking technologies.

As I write, Livemocha is in beta and aims to make money from ad revenue. However, they will add a subscription layer early this year that might cost $10 to $20 a month.

So does it work?

I'm not sure. I enrolled a few days ago to learn French. There are four French courses - 2 basic, 2 advanced. The two basic courses claim to provide 100 hours of learning. The advanced courses provide 30 hours each.

LIVEMOCHA LEARNING MODEL
I've just been through 6 basic lessons so far. The lessons follow a basic learning model:

- learn
- read
- listen
- magnet
- write
- speak

In LEARN mode, you see and hear new vocabulary, with images. In READ mode you read text, then select the correct image. In LISTEN mode, you listen to audio, then select the correct image. In MAGNET mode, you hear a phrase in your language, and you form a sentence using the words given to you.

In WRITE mode, you can use the vocabulary you've learned to write a short piece. You must then submit this to the learner community, where it will be rated. In SPEAK mode, you can record yourself speaking the vocabulary you've learned, and submit this for rating by the community.

HOW YOU LEARN
So technically, you're given a nice little model for learning. My problem is that you're expected to learn 40 pieces of information in each round. So you're given 40 slides which contain both new words and new words combinations.

It works fine for me, however, I studied French for years at school, and want to revise. I don't believe a complete beginner could cope with learning 40 new words/phrases from scratch. I mean, our brain usually likes to deal with no more than 7 new things at a time. Anything more than that slips down the back of the sofa...

LIVEMOCHA LEARNING CONTENT
I think that the write and speak modes are a great idea in principle. However, after covering basic vocab like 'it is, it isn't, she is, she isn't, girl, girls, flower, flowers', LiveMocha asked me to describe the first house I ever lived in. Which of course would require use of past tense and a wider vocabulary. This is frustrating and makes me think that the developers were lazy.

However, I submitted a few written exercises to see what would happen. I got email notifications that my exercises had been rated and commented on. And when I checked, I'd received useful corrections on the mistakes in my work.

I can't rate how useful the social networking side of the site will be for my learning. It interests me however and hopefully I can blog more about it later.

LIVEMOCHA - LANGUAGE LEARNING AND SOCIAL NETWORKING
I think that the social networking side of Livemocha works. It's easy to make friends. It's easy to contact people. The site is well supported with tutors. But then we have pretty much cracked social networking online: we all know how to connect people and get them talking.

The harder thing to crack I think is the formal learning aspect. And I'm not convinced by Livemocha right now. I'll keep plugging away (and will admit I'm strangely motivated by their leader board, which rates me in comparison to other learners). But I'm already bored by the templated content. And as much as I can network socially, I can't create my own learning materials, or add content. It's a closed learning experience.

LIVEMOCHA - THE VERDICT
Livemocha is currently disappointing me. The locked-down web 1.0 (or textbook) learning experience is linked to the fantastic potential of social networking. I wouldn't pay for content at this stage, but if things change, I'll be sure to blog about it.

Still - it's worth signing up while it's free to have a poke around!