Periodic Fable

Sunday, 31 December 2006

Happy New Year

What will the year bring in e-learning and on the Web?

Viruses, spam, indifference to and frustration with new technology and a lot of people missing the point and failing to see the potential...

and, I hope, a few of those moments where someone goes away from a technology workshop with that glow in their eyes as they realise what the technology can do to support their students' learning. A few of those moments when a student thanks you, the teacher, for all you've taught them, and you, the teacher, know that they found it within themselves to do the learning, you just facilitated it.

I'm expecting more penguins in my life this year too...

posted by Helen Whitehead 7:35 PM

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Thursday, 28 December 2006

Upgrading Moodle

Hurrah!

I've upgraded my Moodle installation. I had a heartstopping moment when I found that my access had mysteriously changed from Administrator to Teacher and I couldn't edit anything! I spent a few worried minutes searching through my records to see if I had any other administrator passwords.

However, it turned out there was just one more bit of the upgrade to complete, and then I was an Administrator again. Phew!

So now we have Moodle 1.7 ready to teach the "Season of Inspiration" online writing course starting 17th February. Now where is that book on how to use Moodle....?

posted by Helen Whitehead 8:18 PM

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Tuesday, 19 December 2006

Managing time - for online tutors

Elearning A-Z: the letter T for task and time Video by Dave Feiden on time management for students taking online courses

In her blog, Lifehacker.com, Gina Trapani recommends the downloads, web sites and shortcuts that save time.

Dilbert cartoon

Web Worker Daily: 11 tips for time management in a web worker world

Wiki - Strategies for Managing the Online Workload

Managing Tutor Workload: paper by Julia Duggleby from ALT conference in 2003

Managing the online workload PDF of a presentation

posted by Helen Whitehead 1:42 PM

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Monday, 18 December 2006

Interactive Christmas

OK, another trivial post in a "serious" blog - but there is a point to be taken from these frivolous sites. It's quiote simply how incredibly easy it is to take part in these things (Web 2.0 I suppose it all is) now.

http://www.elfyourself.com/

allows the user to upload and adjust a photograph and audio recording to create a Flash animation. It must be backed up by a good deal of server space. The interfaces are simple to use and make (I think) just the right number of assumptions about how much someone who is interested in this friviolous piece of Christmas fun is likely to know about creaing and editing pics. For young people nowadays, it's second nature.

The "elf yourself" link would have been more relevant last year, when my job title was "ELF" (E-Learning Facilitator). As I am now a penguin the message-writing penguin at
http://www.star28.net/snow.html is more relevant...

And there is always the creation of snowflakes
http://snowflakes.lookandfeel.com/
And from one of my favourite web artists, an elf Christmas carol:
http://www.zefrank.com/xmas/

posted by Helen Whitehead 10:14 AM

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Wednesday, 6 December 2006

Penguins are the "in" theme this winter!

With the new film "Happy Feet" opening and Penguin Week on Channel 5 this Christmas, it's clear that penguins are THE theme for this winter. So the Adelie project (the e-learning research project, named after a species of penguin, at the University of Leicester on which I am working at the moment) is right in fashion...

The film "Happy Feet" features a tuneless baby Emperor Penguin (Mumble) who is rejected by his fellow Emperor penguins only to be embraced by a posse of wacky Adelie penguins called the Adelie Amigos. Comparisons should NOT be drawn with our Spanish-speaking Adelie team member!

From 18th December Penguin Week on channel FIVE will air every evening at 7.15 pm. Filmmaker Nigel Marven meets and documents four different species of penguin in their own environment - the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia. These will include King, Chinstrap and Gentoo penguins - will the fourth species be Adelie?

posted by Helen Whitehead 10:18 AM

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