iGoogle YouTube

iGoogle is Google's rebranded and 'souped-up' personalised home page. It is easy to use and looks likely to become a popular platform for bringing together a personally selected collection of web based communication and information sources.

If you think of household cleaners when I mention 'Ajaz', be advised.. the Ajax behind all this wizardry - is a combination of clever web programming tools (look here if you want the techy stuff) that together make the web more interactive and responsive, allowing users with no programming knowledge, to pull in content and customise the web pages they view.

The user-friendly and responsive interface of iGoogle may offer a familiar entry platform for the Web 2.0 beginner. A potent mix of personalisation and access to the social software/collaborative tools typical of Web 2.0 such as blogs (set up feeds from your favourites) shared web notebooks and YouTube videos. Have a play - add some pages and select the gadgets you want to see your latest webmail, group mail or chat, view news channels or make your own photo show.

Screen shot = My 'sensible' home page!

IT (still) works!

Various projects (including MOODLE), studying and other stuff have got in the way of my blogging over the last couple of months. So, I need to catch up with news of lots of web 2.0 goodies. Before it gets too serious though - and for all those who find IT frustrating and a little stressy - some gifts.....

Try this! - http://moodle.tokem.fi/file.php/1/MoodleManuals/Teacher/bubblewrap.swf

If the bubble wrap doesn't help, why not try MOODLE?

Make a start with this online manual from The Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences in Finland:

http://moodle.tokem.fi/mod/book/view.php?id=17183

Thanks to Adam, Amanda and Bob for this link!

Puzzle Corner

What's this..

got to do with this?

To find out click the answer

To find out more click here

Open University launches OpenLearn

The Open University launched OpenLearn today. (Click the title -to take a look.) The latest in a series of prestigious educational institutions to offer open access to online educational resources.

Their learning platform is based on MOODLE too!

What do you think the increasing availability of informal educational opportunities means for traditional educational institutions?

Google Notebook and FURL - Online Research and Bookmarking

GOOGLE PULLING THE STRINGS (or pulling it all together?)

Bit of a quandary here; if a strength of the Internet is its 'democratised' content, the
long tail, its diversity etc why am I extolling the virtues of Google’s efforts to draw us into its seamless tapestry of useful services and digital domination!



Well, I find it very useful to have a view of my latest email, a search engines, my Google Groups, favourite feeds and Google Notebook all on one page and accessible from anywhere I have the Internet. The personalised view of Google’s home page allows a user to choose to view a personalised selection of content presented in 'blocks', and to arrange the chosen blocks on the page.

This content could be from Google, for example their web-based calendar, Google email, GoogleGroups or third party 'widgets' offering varying degrees of usefulness/amusement. These blocks can be added or deleted and moved around on the page at will.

One I find very useful is Google Notebook. It makes the processes of scanning web pages and saving notes for later very simple. Organising the notebook into sections, adding headings or creating multiple notebooks was a little clunky at first but worth the effort. Material can be moved around by 'drag and drop' making this a useful tool for organising web research.

Ease of access is the key here; with Furl (presents as a social bookmarking tool) I have a button on the toolbar and - except for extra clicks demanded by the 'popup blocker' – it works great. Furl archives a copy of the web page as seen and also notes the url. It files this information in folders the user can create and name.

I am finding Google Notebook complements Furl. It is even quicker to access with a right button click (or from the little blue notebook icon it installs in the browser toolbar) and allows me to select text/images on the page and file them with their source reference and any notes I wish to add. The latest innovation is the ability to share a notebook online, either making it public or available to specific people (with a Google account). Individuals can also be given the right to edit a notebook. Clippings are saved with their source appended to them, which is useful if you are doing any kind of web research. The screen capture above shows my notebooks with a view of the latest one I am using for a course. Note the little people icon next to H808 indicating this notebook is published, a useful way of sharing research efforts.

Not sure if I shall go on using both tools but at the moment I find I do.
Best points:
I especially like Furl’s ability to save the page I look at today – not just the URL.
I especially like the Notebook’s ability to print out my clippings and notes – still like my bits of paper!

Take a look and let me know what you think about these tools or if you have found something better!

Gravesend by Night

Just practising blogging directly from Picasa and showing off this sunset photo from exotic Gravesend!

Good v. Evil

OK - but the title got your attention!

I posted this elsewhere tonight but thought I'd copy it here as should be of interest to anyone who thinks theInternet has any relevance to learning...

................

Hardly surpising that this skipped under our radar given the content of news programmes these last few days. Anyway, you could be forgiven for checking the calendar when hearing this - but no - it is not April 1st., the US Patents Office have actually granted a 'Broad Patent' to Blackboard Inc the supplierof the eponymous learning management sysytem.
Blackboard have applied and been granted a patent for:

"A system and methods for implementing education online by providing
institutions with the means for allowing the creation of courses to be taken by
students online, the courses including assignments, announcements, course
materials, chat and whiteboard facilities, and the like, all of which are
available to the students over a network such as the Internet."

As a slow fury erupts amongst educational bloggers - read Stephen Downes for a comprehensive listing as of 3rd August - my favourite reaction so far is this post from Jay Cross which ends with:

"By the way, I'm filing a patent on learning. It's a process by which the brain
of a human being connects neural pathways in response to outside stimuli. The
patent includes, ipso facto, hearing, sight, smell, taste, talking and feeling.
If you don't cease learning immediately, you will hear from my attorney..."

Could get interesting...

Google Notebook

http://www.google.com/googlenotebook/overview.html

This link will take you to a page about Google Notebook. Launched a few days ago this is the latest offering from Google to make our web-lives easier!

It is a useful way of creating your own web-based notebook to keep clippings, website addresses, images etc in one, easily accessible place.
You can add notebooks, edit them, delete them and if you like share them.

There are other tools available but this looks very easy to use.

Web 2.0 or 'the web grows up'

I have made reference to Web 2.0 before but really it is such a HUGE topic every time I go to post more about it I get cold feet!

But sometimes it pays to procrastinate - someone else might do the job for you..
Terry Freedman is an educational consultant based in the UK. He has got together fourteen of the brightest and best international writers on educational technology to contribute to a book on all this. They each have submitted chapters to

Coming of Age: An introduction to the new worldwide web

The web is changing - remember this earlier post from the Guardian.

The educational potential of these changes is huge as you will see from the contents of this book. I bet you can't read some of this without being tempted to have a go!

Now the really good news ..you can read all about it for free...

This link will download the freely available Coming of Age as a a 2mb pdf file

New Staff Resource from NIACE

The Staff Development e-Learning (SDELC) is a tremendous new resource for all who work and teach in adult and commuity learning.

Although still under development you will already find a wealth of material, advice and guidance on this comprehensive site.

If you are an e-guide you will be familiar with the quantity and quality of material made available through this initiative, this site gives easy access to all of these resources.

Plenty here for managers too - an excellent section on the leadership of e-learning.

Please note NIACE makes these materials available strictly for educational and not commercial purposes.