So my last post should have made it clear that what I am ultimately hoping to promote/support for BC is an authoring and publishing system for open textbooks that:

• can enable collaborative authoring if desired
• can be done “out in the open” to enable as much as possible the conditions for serendipity to emerge, so that content can spread viral-ly, new co-authors and unintended readers happily stumble upon it
• results in all of a web, print and eBook version (maybe more!) being produced as automagically as possible – i.e making the material as accessible as possible to as many learners as possible
• is easy for authors and readers alike to use
• is free/cheap and open/extensible (and produces open standards-based content)
• limits the choices upstream of what authors and reusers want to do with the book as little as possible
• gets me dates (ok, this last one was just a test to see how closely you were reading)

That’s not asking much, is it?

Mediawiki and Wikieducator

Luckily, there are some real pioneers in our field who have blazed trails in this area that those of us coming along later can follow. One of those groups of pioneers is made up of the folks at the Mediawiki foundation and Wikieducator (and I’d be remiss not to mention the Commonwealth of Learning and Wayne Mackintosh in particular for funding a lot of this work.) They have created extensions to Mediawiki, the open source wiki software that famously powers Wikipedia, that allow one to collect pages together and publish them as a printable PDF book. In addition, they worked with a print-on-demand outfit called PediaPress to enable seamless printing of the results.

To see/use this in action you need only to visit the Wikieducator site. On the left-hand nav there’s a link to Add a wiki page to a book. That’s right – books aren’t predetermined but can be made on the fly to include whatever pages you like. That’s not to say the instructor can’t pre-assemble an official “text,” but whether it be a student personalizing it or another instructor wanting to adopt it, the book can contain whatever contents you choose.

But you needn’t try it only on wikieducator; the Collections extension is freely downloadable and installable by anyone wishing to run this in their own mediawiki. There is also a second, unrelated extension, ePubexport, available to convert a set of pages into an ePub.

Now before we get to far, let me make it clear, I am not suggesting you have to do this on your own or that you shouldn’t use wikieducator. Indeed, that should probably be your FIRST question to yourself if this approach seems appealing – why would I not use wikieducator? Not only is it likely to be better supported than what you will do on your own, there are already scores of folks involved, some of whom may prove to be future collaborators. In addition, they have done lots of work creating templates and styles that come in very handy. So many of us talk about the importance of communities but then forget we don’t always have to create them ourselves; often it’s a more a question of finding those that exist and joining in.

Trying it out locally

However, I did install Mediawiki and these extensions for our open textbook pilot, in part because I wanted to learn for myself how they worked and also see what parts could be customized or improved upon. As a test, one of my colleagues gave me access to a Desire2Learn-based course from the Applied Business Technology. I exported the course to get access to the source files. A few things to note here:

• hey D2L – your exports still kinda SUCK! I don’t know who thought it would be cute to transform file paths into file _names_ but it’s just a PITA.
• there’s no simple way I’ve ever found of getting from an IMS Content Package to a wiki (or much else for that matter, and thank goodness for that – it would mean someone outside of higher education was actually taking IMS specs seriously, pshaw!) There is however some html import tools for mediawiki that are useful. There are also web-based HTML to mediawiki conversion tools to that can be helpful too.
• that said, the truth is that all of the approaches that let you output to multiple formats depend to a lesser or greater extent on clean markup. So while you can get existing stuff in, its almost always better, if you have the choice, to simply author in those environments from the get go.

Here are some of the results of this initial test (trust me, the irony of the subject matter is not lost on me) – the site itself, the generated printable PDF and the ePub.

Now before you criticize, these were done with no additional attention paid to page templates, transformations or additional CSS. I also did some initial tests and it does look like the resulting PDF is editable after the fact with Adobe Acrobat X Pro, meaning there is room for manual improvements to the file in addition to refinements to the export process. And I was able to open and improve upon other automatically generated ePub’s with the Sigil WYSIWYG ePub editor, and in very short order was able to remove some of the cruft and other formatting and turn it into something reasonably usable.

So how does this approach fare? Let’s run it through the above criteria I described and see:

• collaborative authoring – in spades!
• can be done “out in the open” – the very definition of it
• results in all of a web, print and eBook version – yep
• is easy for authors and readers alike to use – let’s come back to this
• is free/cheap and open/extensible (and produces open standards-based content) – yep, yep and yep
• limits the choices upstream of what authors and reusers want to do with the book as little as possible – given XML exports and a multitude of wiki conversion tools, I’d say the answer was yes.
• gets me dates – still left to be seen

So this approach seems to hit on most fronts. The big question is – is it easy to do and will instructors and others supporting them be able to bridge the gap between there current workflow and approaches and this new one?

Well many folks tell me this is just too much to expect, editing mediawiki seems just short of rocket science. And I have to concede, there is always room for improvements – I am holding out great hope that the still experimental Mediawiki WYSIWYG editor will be a big step forward, but even turning on the bundled (but not activated by default) WikEd editor is a major step forward. Even something like the Word2Mediawiki extension can serve as a useful bridging strategy (Open Office also exports natively to Mediawiki.) And implementing page templates (and wiki gardeners – a potential useful role for students too) can also make things much easier. So yes, there’s room for improvements, but is mediawiki simply just too difficult in the end regardless of what we do to improve it? If so, someone should tell the faculty and students at UBC to stop doing the impossible – their wiki continues to astound.

So I’m left thinking there is some real potential here that I want to pursue. I know there is technical work still to do. The bigger challenge, one that I’m not sure is surmountable, is the cultural chasm between the cult of authority in higher ed and the messy give and take that is a vibrant, collaborative wiki. It may well be that this is an approach that anticipates future potential benefits too highly over current realities of practice. That’s part of the reason we’re doing a number of pilots, to figure this out, and this is but one of a number of approaches being investigated. More on that in the next post. – SWL

(Author’s Note: This post was partly written, online I might add, while sailing across the Salish Sea. I just had to mention this as the fact that I could do this continues to blow my mind.)

By Audrey Watters

The learning management system upstart Instructure is unveiling Canvas K-12 today, a version of its platform aimed — as the name suggests — for the K-12 level. The company says that it’s already had over a dozen school districts adopt Canvas, even before this roll-out of a specially designed LMS.

Traditionally the LMS has been something implemented primarily by colleges and universities, but as more and more K-12 schools move to online learning and digital curriculum, there’s a growing demand at that level. It’s a hot market, and according to research published in December 2011 by Simba Information, “the LMS segment is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 7.3%, reaching $377 million by the 2014-2015 school year.”

As such, it’s hardly surprising to see some of the big education companies make their move to offer schools these services. The acquisition of Edline by Blackboard last fall made it clear that the learning management giant was serious about its push into that market.

But as the Simba research suggests, it’s a market that’s still up for grabs. While Blackboard still holds a little over half of the higher ed LMS market, Blackboard, Pearson and Moodle altogether share only about 30% of the K-12 market.

That provides an interesting opportunity for Instructure, which officially launched its cloud-based LMS this time last year.

Its new K-12 offering includes several new features aimed at this level: it contains Common Core standards and objectives so that it’s easy to align assignments with them. There are also analytics for districts, schools, teachers and parents to be able to assess student progress. And that parent piece is particularly important as parents will have access to their child’s information, and just as importantly, have access to Instructure’s messaging system — so you can get an SMS when your child doesn’t turn in a homework assignment or an email with the week’s spelling list and so on.

Despite competition from some of the big LMS players, Instructure has made some inroads into higher education. Can it do the same at the K-12 level? When I spoke to CEO and founder Josh Coates yesterday, he noted that the company’s recent trip to FETC made them realize that a lot of K-12 teachers are fairly unfamiliar with the idea of what an LMS even is. (That’s something that should make us ask if an LMS is even necessary.) Of course, Instructure isn’t selling to teachers (although it does offer a free product that any teacher can adopt). It’s selling to districts.

But that the LMS is a new(ish) thing to the K-12 level might just work in Instructure’s favor, even if the startup remains a relative unknown. If schools choose to adopt an LMS because of their move online, then a Web-friendly, user-friendly, cloud-based tool (with easy Google Apps for Edu integration) might just fit the bill. That is, if the price is right, something that makes the future of that K-12 market — what with shrinking K-12 budgets and options for free and low-cost alternatives (“apps” not “systems”) — more than a little uncertain.

Possibly related posts:

1. Sakai 3: What It Is and When To Move To It I have been getting a lot of questions from the...
2. ANGEL's Open Source Move ANGEL Learning has announced that they have incorporated TiddlyWiki into...
3. What Makes It Great? When I was in college, I was very fortunate to...
4. Instructure and Security Testing Instructure has had a very interesting reaction to the news...
5. Instructure Canvas: A New LMS Entrant We’re making progress on getting the Sakai conference keynote videos...

Instructure Makes Its Move into the K-12 Market by %%AUTHORINK%% on e-Literate

Am 1.3.2012 erhält educanet2 ein neues Kleid. Administratoren können bereits einen Blick auf das Testsystem werfen und ihre Meinung dazu kundtun. Es handelt sich um ein erfreuliches und überfälliges Facelifting. Die Funktionalität selbst wurde nicht verändert.

In a previous post, we looked at five free desktop image editors.  Here are a couple of additional free desktop applications shared by some blog readers. They both look very capable.

• PhotoPlus SE
• PhotoFiltre

A challenge with free software is that sometimes your organization isn’t comfortable with you downloading and installing applications that aren’t approved. This is where the online graphics applications come in handy. Of course, you’ll need an internet connection and hope that your organization isn’t blocking its use.

If you do a search, you’ll find that there are a lot of online image editing products. The problem is that many are spammy or full of ads that they’re useless for real work.

In today’s post we’ll look at five very capable online image editors. I tried to stay clear of the ones that were too ad heavy or seemed kind of spammy. I only added the apps I’d be comfortable using for my own work. 

Aviary

Aviary has a few image editing tools and offers a pretty complete solution for most of what you need to do. They also have a very active user community which is a plus and lots of tutorials.

• Aviary Feather is a basic image editing tool. You can crop, adjust the image, add some text, and apply filters.
• Aviary Phoenix is a more robust application and close to something like Photoshop with the layering and more complex editing capabilities.
• Aviary Raven is a vector editor similar to the free Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator.

Pixlr

Pixlr has all of the standard features you’d need. I like some of the pencil drawing effects and it can output to Flickr and Picasa. I find it really easy to use and one of my favorites of the online tools. They also offer Pixlr Express, a streamlined editing tool.

Splashup

Splashup is an image editing tool and photo manager. I like that I can bring in images from sites like Flickr and Picasa, which I already use. It has all of the core features you’d expect in an image editing application. They also offer Splashup Light for download.

• Tour of features

Sumo Paint

Sumo Paint is a very capable tool and comes with all of the core editing features. They also offer a Pro upgrade that gives you a desktop version with additional features.

• User community
• Tutorials

Simpler Tools

The following tools are honorable mentions. They do a decent job with simple edits but don’t have all of the features of the applications above.

• Photoshop.com offers simple image editing, but not the layering that you get with its desktop cousins. 
• Picnik is already integrated into a number of sites. You’ll find it in Flickr and Picasa.  It’s easy to use and has a lot of filters. Of course, I just found out that Picnik is being shut down. I believe that it will make its way back in Google+.
• Dr.Pic seems to have all of the basic features. I like the framing feature. My guess is the Polaroid frame would work well with some elearning screens.

As you can see, there are plenty of options for free graphics editing. And you have a good choice between desktop applications like I mentioned in the previous post, or go with an online solution.

• February 13-14: Atlanta (Training Magazine).  I’ll be doing a session on PowerPoint and we’ll have two Build-A-Course sessions.

• February 22-23: St. Louis (ASTD). Rapid E-Learning Workshop.  This is a great deal for a full-day workshop that also includes a full breakfast and lunch. PowerPoint Doesn’t Have to Be Boring.  We’ll follow the presentation with a free Articulate jam session.

• March 21-23: Orlando, FL (Learning Solutions Conference)

• April 10: Jacksonville, FL (NEFL ASTD). Details coming.

• April 17: Virginia (SEVA ASTD). Details coming.

• April 5: Portland, OR (OpenSesame). An E-Learning Heroes Roadshow workshop where we’ll look at ways to build elearning courses and learn some great PowerPoint tips. Excellent price and great coffee!

• May 17: Orange County California. Details coming.

• May 24: Articulate Conference hosted by Leeds.  Also will present a rapid elearning workshop.  Details coming.

• October 4: Seattle, WA (ASTDPS). Details coming.

• October 17: Bloomington, IL (CIC-ASTD). Details coming.

Un des aspects particulièrement intéressant des outils web 2.0 est de permettre a priori de partager des contenus, mais aussi de collaborer facilement. Cet aspect est un élément motivant pour leur utilisation dans un contexte éducatif. Malheureusement, la plupart des outils web 2.0 exigent une inscription préalable pour pouvoir être utilisés. Même si cette étape [...]

Google

Google has revamped its site for educators, creating a redesigned repository for all its educational tools and resources for teachers, schools, and students.

The newest feature is News and Calendar, a listing of all events and deadlines for Google’s education endeavors.

Google also created an online booklet called Google in Education: A New and Open World for Learning, which lists the company’s initiatives and programs within the education realm, such as the Computer Science for High School program — university-created workshops for local high school and middle school computer science teachers teachers.

“We’re hoping educators will use this year-round for ideas on how to enhance teaching and learning,” said Google spokesperson Rachel Durfee.

And for those who jumped on the Google+ bandwagon, a specific Google+ page for educators.

The main Google in Education link offers much of the same content as before, but it’s better organized and redesigned. The Teachers site leads to Google’s many apps that can be used for teaching specific subjects, as well as design and collaboration tools. It’s divided by K-12, higher education, and examples of how education systems across the country are using the tools. The site also offers a list of professional development links, including webinars, online workshops, and tutorials, which are primarily centered around Google products and services. The Student Showcases link lists student-created material, such as worldwide panoramas using Google Earth and Sketchup models of homes, towns, and robots.

Schools and districts can find links to YouTube for Schools, which allows students to access YouTube EDU while blocking non-educational videos; App Engine, which hosts school web apps on Google’s system; and Google Apps for Higher Education, a free suite of hosted email and collaboration application.

For students, the site offers a list of awards and competitions — think YouTube Space Lab and Google Science Fair; programs like Summer of Code, which offer stipends for student code developers and Computer Science Summer Institute for high schools seniors about to start college; tools like Google Apps for Students, like Google Docs and Gmail; and Google tools, which include every app and tool the mega-search site has created.

Apps and software is one thing, but the company’s hardware is also making its way into more schools. Last week, Google announced that three school districts in Iowa, Illinois and South Carolina are using only Google Chromebooks, the Web browser-based laptop, and that hundreds of schools across the country are deploying them in classrooms — a total of 27,000 in the hands of students.

“Students love the tablet. I am not going to hide that from you,” said Diane Gilbert, an English teacher at Kelly Mill Middle School in Blythewood, S.C., who’s taught with tablets in her classroom in a recent CNET article. “My goal is to have students publish their work–create and publish. The [Chromebook] is more alike to a laptop or a desktop in the ability to publish.”

Chromebooks are set up to use the Google Apps and other software found on Google’s Education site.

Vor eine paar Monaten bin ich auf eine interessante App (für iPhone und iPad) gestossen: Coach’s Eye ist zwar für allem Sportlehrerinnen und Trainer gedacht, könnte sich aber auch zur Beurteilung von Auftrittskompetenz, für Beobachtungsaufträge, etc. eignen. Direkt aus der App lassen sich Bewegungsabläufe als Video aufnehmen. Anschliessend lassen sich diese Videos in Zeitlupe abspielen oder mit dem sog. Jog/Shuttle-Rad einzelbildweise vor und zurück spulen. Bei Bedarf kann der Coach/die Lehrerin auch direkt auf das Video zeichnen und optional einen Audiokommentar dazu aufsprechen. Die so bearbeiteten Videos können abgespeichert oder per E-Mail oder via Webplattform weitergegeben werden.

Florian Wanzenried (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter im Bereich «Bewegung und Sport» an der PH Zürich) hat Coach’s Eye im Unterricht mit Studierenden getestet und dabei folgende Erfahrungen gemacht:

Plus

• Einfache Bedienung
• Gute Qualität des «Einzelbild-Modus»
• Ermöglicht bessere Qualität des Feedbacks: Sofort nachdem ein Studierender einen Bewegungsablauf vorgezeigt hat, kann dieser gemeinsam im Detail betrachtet und besprochen werden
• Gutes Kosten-/Nutzenverhältnis (auch für Studierende erschwinglich)

Minus

• Es wird nur die Bewegung und nicht der Ton dazu aufgenommen. Dies schränkt die Nützlichkeit z.B. für Tanzaufnahmen erheblich ein
• Unübersichtliche Anordnung/Sortierung der gespeicherten Aufnahmen innerhalb der App
• Gewöhnungsbedürftige Navigation mit dem Jog/Shuttle-Rad

Ich bin gespannt, in welche Richtung  Coach’s Eye weiter entwickelt wird. Wenn man zusätzlich zum Videobild auch den Ton aufzeichnen könnte, liesse sich diese App auch ausserhalb des Sportbereichs noch vielseitiger einsetzen. Coach’s Eye ist für CHF 5.- im iTunes-App-Store erhältlich.

Es war schon mal erstaunlich, wie gleichlautend die etablierten Zeitschriften-Portale das Apple-Event letzten Donnerstag angekündigt hatten, als “Apple will/kann/wird das Schulbuch/den Schulbuchmarkt revolutionieren/neu erfinden” (zeit.de, stern.de, spiegel.de usw.). Nun hat Apple also drei neue Produkte vorgestellt: iBooks 2, iBooks Author und iTunes U, d.h. die Version 2 der iPad-App iBook mit lernspezifischen Erweiterungen, eine (kostenlose) Entwicklungsumgebung zur Erstellung digitaler Bücher und iTunes U als App mit dem Zugriff auf (kostenlose) Kurse vieler Bildungseinrichtungen. Hat sich mit Apples Produktvorstellungen tatsächlich etwas verändert?

Apps oder iBooks? Ich hatte schon zwei schöne eBooks auf dem iPad, nämlich Die Elemente von T. Gray und Our Choice von Al Gore, nur dass es sich dabei eigentlich nicht um eBooks handelt, sondern um Apps, also Programme, die mit entsprechenden Entwicklungstools erstellt wurden. Für iBooks 2 gibt es gratis Life on Earth von E.O. Wilson, um damit die Funktionalitäten zu demonstrieren, die mit den neuen eBook möglich werden, wie Bildergalerien, interaktive Diagramme, Notizen (übertragbar in Lernkarten). Die eBooks sind damit den o.g. Apps mindestens ebenbürtig, eher noch flexibler in der Nutzung.

Mit iBooks Author hat Apple zudem ein Entwicklungswerkzeug vorgestellt, das nach meinem ersten Eindruck den Autoren das Erstellen von eBooks deutlich erleichtert; es erinnert stark an das Layout-Programm Pages (ausführlich testen konnte ich iBooks Autor noch nicht; bin froh, es überhaupt auf meinem alten Rechner mit OS X 10.6.8 dank einer hilfreichen Anleitung zum Laufen gebracht zu haben). Das wird vermutlich ein echter Fortschritt gegenüber den bisherigen Werkzeugen sein - unsere eigenen Gehversuche u.a. mit Calibre, Sigel und InDesign waren doch eher mühsam. Soweit, so gut.

Interaktivität: eBooks sind immer noch Bücher. Ihre Interaktivität beschränkt sich nach wie vor auf die ersten drei Stufen der Interaktivität (nach Schulmeister, 2005), also Objekte betrachten und rezipieren, multiple Darstellungen betrachten und rezipieren sowie die Repräsentationsform variieren. Den Inhalt der Komponente beeinflussen, Objekte bzw. den Inhalt der Repräsentation konstruieren und Prozesse generieren sowie konstruktive und manipulierende Handlungen mit situationsabhängigen Rückmeldungen sind damit nicht möglich, was sich auf die realisierbaren Lehrformen auswirkt. Die iBooks unterstützen damit im Wesentlichen expositorische und erarbeitende Lernaktivitäten. Explorative und expressive (artikulative) Aktivitäten (nach Mellar et al., 1994). sind damit nicht möglich.

Fazit: Sicherlich sind iBooks eine deutliche Weiterentwicklung gegenüber klassischen Lehrbüchern, aber dennoch perpetuieren sie klassische Vermittlungsformen und nutzen noch nicht das Potenzial handelnder Erfahrungen in realitätsnahen Lernumgebungen. Es bleibt also spannend, wie Lehrmittelverlage auf Apples Angebot reagieren, aber auch wie Lehrkräfte dessen neue Möglichkeiten nutzen. Ich warte aber mindestens so gespannt auf die ersten Ergebnisse des Projekts Technology Enhanced Textbook, bei dem die von mir genannten Mängel der iBooks im Fokus von Neuentwicklungen stehen.

Last month, I chose Desmos as one of my picks for best new education startups of 2011, in no small part because of the company's mission to create educational software so that interactive content is Web-based and works across multiple devices and platforms.

In light of my recent screed about Apple's recent education event -- the app-ification of iTunes U, a new proprietary file format for e-books, a purported education "revolution" that's iOS-only -- it's probably pretty clear that I believe strongly that if we are to invest in technology tools that we must do so in ways that are accessible and interoperable and that actually benefit learners. And with that, folks, I give you... the World Wide Web.

So, clearly, when Desmos launched last year, I was thrilled, particularly when co-founder Eli Luberoff showed me a little side project his team was hacking on: a free, Web-based graphing calculator.

Despite all the fussing and fighting about whether or not we should let technology into the classroom and who should pay for it when we do, fact of the matter is a lot of schools do still require students (students' families) to purchase a graphing calculator. And for decades now, one company has dominated that market: Texas Instruments. Prices vary, but on average you're looking at spending at least $55 on a graphing calculator for your high school student -- and that's at the low end of a gadget market that quickly gets pretty damn spendy.

So the launch of a free graphing calculator is a blow to that hardware monopoly no doubt. And the graphing calculator that Desmos has built isn't just a quick and dirty graphing tool (such as what you get now if you type an equation into a Google search). It contains features you won't find elsewhere -- things like dotted lines for graphing inequalities; slide bars for variables; support for polar inequalities; trace, intercepts, roots, and intersections. Luberoff has been maniacally wonderful (wonderfully maniacal?) about getting this all right -- no surprise as he was a double math and physics major at Yale.  He's also been a math tutor, so he understands what it means to have a tool that aids teaching and learning.

But one problem, up 'til now, with the app: it was Flash-based, rendering it unusable on iOS devices (and undermining the company's mission to make tools that work across all platforms).

No longer. The calculator has been redone in HTML5 (no easy task, I should note) and is now available at abettercalculator.com.

There are a few more features now too: you can make an account and sign in so that you can share your work and save it to your personal library.  This means you can access your math graphs anywhere -- from any Web-connected device*. (* that uses a "modern browser."  For those that use IE, you can still access the old Flash-based calculator here.)

Luberoff says that the company is going to be putting a lot more effort into furthering the development of this tool (it may well be, in fact, the direction that Desmos will now take, focusing on this calculator rather than its broader approach to interactive software tools). He's asking for folks who find bugs or have suggestions drop him an email.

Last year, Google decided to shutter Google Labs, a place where a number of incredibly wonderful experimental projects lived.  Among the projects that got the ax was one of my favorites:  Google's Android App Inventor.  

Sure, The New York Times' David Pogue gave it one of his most scathing reviews ever.  But as this was something designed in part by Hal Abelson, one of the people behind Scratch -- no doubt, the single best learn-to-program projects available to this day.  And as such it was terribly disappointing to see the Android App Inventor be shelved.  Much like Scratch, App Inventor presupposes zero programming knowledge, and yet while teaching computational thinking, it also allows users to build something they find both useful and important -- in the case of Scratch, it's animations and games.  In the case of App Inventor, it's mobile apps.

After announcing the closure of App Inventor (news I broke here), Google handed over App Inventor to MIT, along with a sizable donation to help fund a new mobile learning inititiative.  

We haven't heard much publicly about the project since then (although those who are part of the App Inventor Google Group know that the questions "When? WHEN!?" have been fairly rampant)

Well, "when" is "now" when it comes to the release of the Android App Inventor source code.  Google and MIT have just announced its release, and the source code is now available here.

In a blog post on the new MIT site, Abelson writes

Google and MIT are pleased to announce the initial free and open-source release from Google of the App Inventor source code at http://code.google.com/p/app-inventor-releases/.

There's little supporting documentation yet, and we’re not accepting contributions to the code now. That will happen later, after the MIT Center of Mobile Learning opens their App Inventor server to the public. We hope to nurture a robust and active open-source project eventually, but for now we don't want to distract the MIT developers from their efforts to complete and deploy the large-scale public server. In the meantime, we’ll update the code periodically to match what’s running at the latest MIT experimental system. We've also created a Google Group here for people working with the code to relate their experiences with the code, ask questions, help each other, etc.

People who create modifications from this code base are free to use the term “App Inventor” and the puzzle-piece Android logo in their work. MIT will be releasing its own versions under the name “MIT App Inventor”, which is reserved for the systems actually coming from MIT.

Enjoy the code, and Happy Inventing!

Um die in diesem Blog begonnene Diskussion um elektronische Schulbücher fortzuführen, hier ein Hinweis auf Flexbooks, die auf kibs.ch näher vorgestellt werden:

«Mit flexiblen digitalen Büchern können die Lehrmittel dem Unterricht ohne grossen Aufwand angepasst und rasch weitergegeben werden. In den USA werden Flexbooks heute schon in hunderten von Schulen und Universitäten erfolgreich eingesetzt.» (Oliver Ott, PH Bern)

In diesem Zusammenhang interessant: Apple hat für Donnerstag, 19.1.2012 zu einem education-focused media event eingeladen. Verschiedene Gerüchtebörsen vermuten, dass Apple «das gedruckte Schulbuch digital zerstören» möchte:

«Now, ArsTechnica claims that one of the key components of Thursday’s announcement is a new publishing tool for eBooks. The current state of software tools continues to frustrate authors and publishers alike, with several authors telling Ars that they wish Apple or some other vendor would make a simple app that makes the process as easy as creating a song in GarageBand.» (AppleInsider)

I’m always asked what skills a rapid elearning designer should have.  One of the most important skills is basic image editing.  You don’t need to be a professional graphics designer.  However, you should be able to do some basic editing.  Because of this, an image editing application should be in your tool chest.

Today we’ll look at five free desktop applications that you can use for basic image editing.  But before we explore the free tools, a good budget-friendly option is Photoshop Elements.  It’s relatively inexpensive and should be able to do what most people need for elearning.  Plus, it’s a great starting point for those who are interested in learning more about Photoshop which is still the main application for graphics.

If you still want to go the free route, here are some good choices for desktop tools.  They range from simple to a bit more high-end and sophisticated. 

Picasa

Picasa is a pretty simple solution, but one that may work for some of the basic tasks like cropping and image enhancement (especially if you take a lot of your own photos).  You don’t get layers and some of that type of editing, but you do get a lot of image enhancing features.

One of the features I do like about Picasa is that I can use it to tag and catalog the images on my computer or network drive.  It comes in really handy when looking for assets.

• Getting started guide.

PhotoScape

PhotoScape is a tool that I’ve liked for a while because it does quite a bit. However, I’ve been reluctant to recommend it in the past because the licensing agreement used to be for personal use only. However, now it looks like that’s no longer the case.

It’s a great product and does a lot more than some of the other tools.  You don’t have layers, so composing images isn’t possible; but there are a lot of nifty filters and other features that add value.

They also have a mole removal feature which could come in handy if you work in the espionage industry.

• Overview video
• Tutorials

Paint.net

Paint.net has really developed into a nice application.  It does most of what you expect from a graphics editor and is more than capable to handle all of your elearning needs.  It’s the one that I usually recommend first.

• Beginner tutorials
• Plugins to extend the application

PixBuilder Studio

PixBuilder is a pretty standard image editor with support for multiple formats and layers.  A couple of nice features are the low memory and portability.  That means you can load it on a USB drive and run it from there rather than install it on your desktop.

• Features
• Community

GIMP

GIMP is a powerful application and closer to Photoshop than the ones mentioned above.  It’s the perfect application for the person who wants more capability, but doesn’t want the expense of Photoshop.  It’s also got a very active user community.

• Tutorials
• Community

There you have it—five free desktop applications that range from simple editing to high-end capabilities.  If you need an image editing application and are working with limited resources, I’m sure you’ll find that at least one of these tools will meet your needs.

Tidbits

I’m working on two workshops for the Pacific Northwest—Portland in April and Seattle in October.  I’ll have details soon.

Upcoming Events

• January 25-27: Las Vegas (ASTD TechKnowledge 2012).
• February 13-14: Atlanta (Training Magazine).  I’ll be doing a session on PowerPoint and we’ll have two Build-A-Course sessions.
• February 22-23: St. Louis (ASTD). 
  • 22: Rapid E-Learning Workshop.  This is a great deal for a full-day workshop that also includes a full breakfast and lunch.
  • 23: PowerPoint Doesn’t Have to Be Boring.  Will follow the presentation with a free Articulate jam session.
• March 21-23: Orlando, FL (Learning Solutions Conference)
• April 10: Jacksonville, FL (ASTD). Details coming.
• April: Virginia (SEVA ASTD). Details coming.
• April: Portland, OR…details coming 
• May 17: Orange County California. Details coming.
• May 24: Articulate Conference hosted by Leeds. 
• May 21-25: Somewhere in the UK.  While in the UK I’ll try to visit a few other cities.  Details coming.

Le plugin zotero (gestionnaire de références bibliographiques) sera prochainement installé par défaut sur les machines des 7 bibliothèques participant au projet prioritaire Bibup. Ainsi, une fois les références enregistrées avec un iPhone, les étudiants et étudiantes pourront rapidement rapatrier leurs références depuis le site http://www.unifr.ch/go/bibup. Pas de tags pour ce billet.

Every week, Steve Hargadon and I sit down (virtually) to talk about the latest ed-tech news. I always find our conversation to be one of the most thought-provoking exchanges I have all week.

You can listen to last week's episode (in which we discuss my predictions for 2012, my rant over on e-Literate, the week's ed-tech news, and more) below. You can subscribe to the podcast feed here.

January 6, 2012 podcast

What Is Search+?

Google unveiled a major change to its search functionality today, one that Venture Beat's Jolie O'Dell describes as "the biggest change in a decade." Dubbed "Search+" Google is taking steps to make its search more "social" -- although as that + symbol indicates, "social" in this case really just means "Google+."

Search+ will integrate into its search results information taken from your Google+ Circles -- links, photos and status updates (including status updates that are not public but that are shared within the limits of Circles). These will appear as "personalized search results." (Recommended reading: Wired's Mike Isaacs' "With Search+, Google Fires Another Shot at Facebook")

Why It Matters for the Web

Google+ has already raised some concerns, long before the introduction of Search+. ReadWriteWeb's Jon Mitchell recently ranted that Google+ was "messing up the Internet," in part by returning search results that prioritized Google+ -- or rather a link shared to G+ -- over original content -- namely to where the link would have originally taken you. The announcement of Search+ today has prompted additional dismay from various tech journalists and industry observers. "This sucks for the web," notes Federated Media's John Battelle. (It certainly sucks for Twitter.) The Atlantic's Alexis Madrigal wonders if "in the race to protect its flank from Facebook, Google will lose track of why we loved them in the first place." And investor and former Techcrunch writer MG Siegler asks in his headline a question that he thinks the FTC might be considering too: "Antitrust+?"

But not everyone seems so disturbed by the news. To the contrary, Wired's Steven Levy (author of In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives) wonders if the new features mean that Google has finally burst the "filter bubble" that Eli Pariser described in his book of that same name. Levy argues that because Search+ allows you to opt-out of these personalized search results, letting you view the non-personalized results, that there's actually more transparency and users have better control over their search results now.

Indeed the new Search+ will allow you to toggle between "Search Plus Your World" and "No Personal Results." The latter, according to Google, means "no results from your friends, no private information and no personalization of results based on your Web History. This toggle button works for an individual search session, but you can also make this the default in your Search Settings. We provide separate control in Search Settings over other contextual signals we use, including location and language."

How Will Search+ Work in Schools?

Last summer, eSchool News published a story raising concerns about social search and students, making many of the same arguments about the filter bubble that Pariser describes in his book. In other words, students' worldview will be limited, not broadened.

At the time, I felt as though the article overlooked one of the most important elements of these new social signals and how they will impact students' searches: namely, students typically aren't logged into their social accounts at school. They aren't logged in to Facebook. They aren't logged in to Google+. (They might be logged in to a Google account if the school has Google Apps for Education and/or if students are on their own devices.) As such, in most cases students' searches -- on public, shared machines at school at least -- won't include these new algorithms. (You can read my full response to the article here).

Even with the changes to Google search today, it's worth pointing out that Google+ is still off-limits to those under age 18. 

That means Search+ won't offer any "personalization" for most searches at student make at school -- good news, perhaps, for those concerned that it will (at best) muddy search results.

But I wonder if keeping students away from social search is necessarily a "win." After all, students will have to negotiate these signals when they're using their own computers. I'd argue we already fail to help students understand how search works. Students (and adults, of course) do not critically assess the information they find online; they confuse SEO ranking with accuracy; they don't know how to use CTRL-F to search within a webpage. Search literacy is incredibly important, and we already struggle with it -- even though "search" (not "social") remains the most popular online activity.

It's not clear if that toggle button that Levy and Pariser like -- the ability to see personalized and non-personalized results -- will appear to K-12 Google Apps for EDU users.  If it does, it's certainly a good opportunity to talk about the ways in which the search engine works.  I've asked Google to comment on how Search+ will alter its Apps for EDU users' search experience, but I haven't heard back.  (By the sounds of it, it's been a busy day in the 'Plex.)

Souvent, en début de semestre, les enseignants de l’UNIGE nous demandent quelle plate-forme d’enseignement ils devraient utiliser pour mettre leur(s) cour(s) en ligne: Dokeos ou Moodle ? C’est pour répondre à cette question que nous avons produit un tableau comparant les deux plates-formes. Ainsi, vous pourrez savoir quelle est la plate-forme la plus appropriée pour [...]

Les technologies au service de l’enseignement et de l’apprentissage De plus en plus d’enseignants utilisent les plateformes d’enseignement et d’apprentissage, telles que Dokeos ou Moodle, mises à disposition par leur université, pour y déposer des documents ou proposer des activités dans le cadre de leurs cours. On appelle « dispositifs de formation hybride » ces [...]

Every month, we review some of our favorite educational apps that have been released or updated. You can find all the posts in our series here. Below you’ll find a mixture of iOS, Android and Web-based apps.

SCRIBBLE PRESS

Scribble Press is an iPad app that lets you build and illustrate your own e-books. The app offers numerous story templates and drawing tools, guiding you through the story-writing and book layout process. The books that are written with Scribble Press can be shared with others — either via Facebook or Twitter or email. They can also be posted online on the site’s gallery, although books remain private unless shared there. (iTunes link). iOS, Free.

SQUAD

Squad is a collaborative code editor. In other words, it’s a tool designed to make it easier to share and work together on programming projects. Squad’s tools can be used by both experts and learners, and the company recently launched Squad for Education, a version designed to be used with large groups in a computer lab classroom setting. Squad supports over a dozen programming languages, including HTML, PHP, JavaScript, Python, C, and C++. Web, licensing costs depend on number of students.

MINDSNACKS – LEARN CHINESE (MANDARIN)

The mobile language learning startup Mindsnacks launched its Mandarin iPhone app this month. As with all the Mindsnacks titles, the app offers various games to help learners review and boost their vocabulary knowledge. While the app is initially free, you do need to upgrade in order to unlock all 50 of the levels. Mindsnacks’ Spanish language learning app was chosen by Apple as one of the best education apps of 2011 (iTunes link). iOS, Free.

MINI MINUTE

It’s hard to pick one app from the new educational game-maker Airy Labs to feature here, particularly as the startup updated all seven of its apps this month. The startups mobile games all feature delightful artwork and game-play, built by a smart team of cognitive neuroscientists. One of its apps, Mini Minute, helps children learn to tell time. It features a Stonehenge-like ring of rocks which the player must defend against invading monsters. (iTunes link). iOS, Free.

EXPLORIMENTS

Long known for its Flash-based educational content, Exploriments launched 3 science education apps for the iPad this month: Weight, Mass and Force of Gravity (iTunes link), Fluids – Archimedes Principle, Buoyancy and Flotation (iTunes link), and Electrostatics – Coulomb’s Law (iTunes link). The apps offer simulated experiments with a wide range of variability and interactions. In the case of the Fluids app, for example, users can change the size and density of objects, as well as the density of the fluids. iOS, Free – $2.99)

VAN GOGH’S DREAM

Created by the Van Gogh Institute, the Van Gogh’s Dream iPad app is meant to explore Vincent Van Gogh’s artwork and writing in a new and interactive way. The app includes a complete catalog of the artist’s 80 Auvers paintings, his last letter to his brother Theo in its original version (as well as in transcription and in translation). The app also includes several testimonials from art historians and other artists. (iTunes link). iOS, $9.99

EDUCREATIONS

Educreations is a new app designed to make it easy to create, narrate, and record whiteboard video tutorials and to share them with others. A Web-base version of the app has been available for some time now, but the native iPad app was released this month — and it’s easier to write on a whiteboard with your finger than it is with a mouse. There are several other interactive whiteboard apps available on the iPad, but Educreations’ app offers several features that set it apart from its competitors: lessons can have multiple pages; you can add images to the tutorials — from the iPad camera, from its Photo Library, or from Dropbox; you can move and resize images while you record. The ability to create via a Web browser — any Web browser — and not just via a tablet is a really important thing to consider too when looking to adopt this tool for a classroom. (iTunes link). iOS and Web, Free.

Anything we missed?

Let us know in the comments!

With only a few more days left of 2011, this is the first of a series of posts reviewing the past year and look forward to 2012.

From nearly 500 links to articles, blog posts, slideshows, reports and (this year also) infographics that I saved in my 2011 Reading List, I have produced a list of the 100 articles that I enjoyed or that impressed me most in 2011.

This is my 4th Top 100 articles list, and this year I’ve added a quote beneath each link to give you a taster of what it is about.

In fact just reading the quotes themselves will give you an indication of what this year has been about for me: i.e. it has not been about the social media tools per se, but how they are impacting personal, professional and organisational learning practices and behaviours.

To the right you will see this year’s Wordle that summarises the main themes in this year’s list (click on the image to see it full size).

And now for a link to the list itself: TOP 100 ARTICLES OF 2011

Sorry, ein eher technisches Detail. Nicht Techies können hier mit Lesen aufhören. Aber endlich kann ich auf eine aktuelle Firefox Version umstellen. Ich habe hunderte von Tabs offen und im Firefox bis 3.6 hat mir das Add On BarTab geholfen, den Speicherverbrauch des Firefoxes trotzdem im Zaum zu halten. Dies wurde aber nicht weiterentwickelt, darum NochKeinFirefox4FuerMich, NochKeinFirefox5FuerMich ...

It seems that many people like tools lists, if the fact that there have been over 110,000 views of the 2011 Top 100 Tools for Learning presentation via Slideshare since 13 November is anything to go by!

So here is my Christmas present to you – 50 More tools!  This time the ones that didn’t quite make it onto the 2011 list.  25 of the tools have actually already appeared on previous Top 100 Tools lists (in 2010, 2009, 2008 and/or 2007), but 25 are completely new to the list.  There should be something there for everyone’s learning needs – in the workplace, education or even for pleasure.

Below is the embedded presentation via Slideshare.  The textual list is available on the 50 More Tools page

Happy Christmas!

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