Michelle Gallen : Weblog

My top ten e-learning tools

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:01:05 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.

Get fit with e-Exercising

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:20:19 GMT

http://www.liquidelearning.com/2007/09/get-fit-with-e-exercising.html

In schools, obesity levels are rapidly rising and teachers face pupils hostile to traditional competitive sports.

The solution? Dance Revolution!

According to the BBC, this computer dance programme has got teenage girls in Luton into the gym and working out.

I can't see how the actual idea is all that different from me following my yoga dvd at home, rather than in a guru-directed class, except that the pupils dance on individual mats, that score their performance.

Students can compete against each other, or simply work towards a personal best.

Now, wouldn't it be interesting if we could create a great big touch-sensitive gym floor, that enabled us to load a variety of exercise programmes into its system, rather than using a series of dance mats?

Or if we could create an interactive multi-angled camera system that films and interprets your 3D performance, rather than just your foot position?

Although, I'm not sure I really need the computer saying 'Michelle, you need to stretch 22% more into the Plough Pose to achieve maximum flexibility'.

Carry On Learning - Laughter and Memory

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:20:19 GMT

http://www.liquidelearning.com/2007/09/carry-on-learning-laughter-and-

I've recently had to attend some workshops on business skills. I learned best in the workshops where the facilitators were humourous. This made me curious about how I learn...so I've been reading more of my How the Brain Learns book (David Sousa). Here are a few laughter and learning facts:

- Laughing gets more oxygen into the bloodstream...oxygen is pure brain fuel.

- Laughing causes a surge in endorphins - these are the body's natural painkillers, and they give you a feeling of euphoria.

- Endorphins stimulate your brain's frontal lobes. This can lead to increased focus and attention span.

So laughing not only gives you a physical feel-good effect, it makes you feel better mentally.

Laughter also decreases stress, boosts your immune system and relaxes muscle tension.

I don't usually associate training or teaching with laughter. I'd say most people are the same. But I do know that my favourite teachers at school were the funny ones. Children like to laugh. School is boring. The funny teachers were popular.

I'm not an ideal training candidate. I'm not used to spending a day at a table, listening to other people's presentations. I get bored if the content is too familiar or badly presented...I need to get up and walk about, or sit on the floor, or 'get away' to focus myself...I need to eat something frequently - not just a biscuit with a coffee break - I mean I need chocolate and nuts and something to drink just about every hour...

So seeing how some trainers and presenters have managed to keep me engaged during all-day presentations has been interesting. And I've found that even if I can't get up and move around, eat or break away, I can still stay focussed if the trainers are funny.

Two trainers who made a great impact were a classic double act - Martin York and Peter Miller from G4H - a UK firm who specialise in sales and marketing execution.

Martin and Peter jokingly introduced themselves as Ant and Dec. Throughout their extremely well-polished workshop, they punctuated theory with insider anecdotes and humour.

I stayed engaged because I didn't want to miss the jokes or anecdotes, but the laughter meant the learning experience was powerful, positive and memorable. It also helped that their content was strong and concise.

And Aidan Harte of Optimum Results, Ireland was also good trainer. I'd a bad start to this workshop, having not had enough food and no nibbles with me. I then missed the mid-morning snack and ended up having to go until lunch without food...not good!

But Aidan's use of anecdotes and humour to underline points got us all laughing and bonding, contributing more stories and facts to the shared pool.

Laughter enhances Learning. Now where can I learn how to be funny?

Talk Irish - new website

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:01:10 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!

Howcast.com - instructional video channel

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:34:24 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, 26 Jun 2008 02:31:18 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, 24 Jun 2008 01:31:08 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, 23 Jun 2008 01:00:11 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, 23 Jun 2008 01:00:11 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, 23 Jun 2008 01:00:11 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.