Search Find Learn

Belfast-based Aurion wins International e-Learning Award

2009-12-02T03:34:00.001-08:00

Congratulations to Irish eLearning Company Aurion Learning and their client, the Family Planning Association (FPA), for winning a prestigious eLearning Age Award!

Aurion designed a groundbreaking sexual health and well-being e-learning programme for people with learning disabilities. Having spoken with Fiona Quigley throughout the development of this programme, I know that the challenges the whole team faced when producing such a great piece of learning. It's a masterpiece of tone, timing and delivery - and deserving winner of the 'Excellence in the production of learning content' category.

I'm really delighted for Fiona Quigley, who is Director of Learning and Innovation at Aurion. Fiona's one of my favourite girl geeks - one of few people I know who is keen to meet up of an evening and talk e-learning for a few hours. However, I'm sure the awards ceremony at the Park Lane Hotel in London's Mayfair was a bit more glamorous than our meet-ups in the Errigal Inn, on the Ormeau road in Belfast.

You can buy a copy of the programme from the FPA's website and you can see a demo of on Aurion's website.

Get more details on the Awards ceremony here.

So What's School For?

2009-11-11T00:24:00.000-08:00

Alanna Mitchell asks the big question in this article.

So is school

- for the transmission of culture and potted knowledge, akin to filling a CD-ROM?
- for fostering skills that will serve society down the road, or make dutiful employees?
- a strategy to make sure a nation's gross domestic product keeps rising?
- a sorting mechanism aimed at working out where in the class system a student ought to land?
- a way to encourage upward mobility?

She asks if school should it build character or endow morals? Is it a way for the new generation to question the values of the old? Or is it for making sure they don't?

As Mitchell rightfully points out, you could write a library full of books on this stuff. However, 2 issues stand out to me as big red flashing signals alerting us that a schools' reform is necessary:

1 Neuroscientific findings shows that the brain learns – or forms strong neural connections – when a child is in a calm, emotionally regulated state.

2 Neuroscience also shows that the brain is a platform on which intelligence can be built, rather than the determinant of a fixed intelligence.

I feel many schools fail on the first point, most particularly when children are taken from the much smaller, intimate primary school setting to an overcrowded secondary school.

As for the second point, it seems to me that education hasn't changed much from my days at primary school, where the emphasis was on figuring out who was 'brainy' and who was 'thick' and streaming us accordingly. While being streamed into the 'brainy' group worked for me and kept me from being bored at school, I'm not so sure it was so great for the children in the 'remedial' stream. Maybe the problem was that the kids in remedial seemed to believe that's where they'd be for life - not just for short-term special support in a specific area.

Mitchell quotes Guy Claxton, a psychologist at the University of Winchester in England, who argues that the brain as an organ is expandable, something to improve rather than prove, In theory, schooling should help that expansion happen. I don't think the system encourages this.

Read the article here.

Danish Students Surf Web During Exams

2009-11-04T05:55:00.000-08:00

So progressive Danish schools are doing what nobody else is doing - letting their kids take their exams using the Internet.

Check out the BBC's report for the full story - but here's a couple of things that grabbed my attention:

Will the students cheat? There's little stopping the students emailing each other for answers. But the teachers think the nature of the questions make it harder to cheat. Students aren't asked to regurgitate facts and figures - they're tested on their ability to sift through and analyse information.

According the the Danish Minister for Education, Bertel Haarder, Exams with Internet are an attempt to reflect daily life. He's proud that Denmark is leading the way, and hopes (bless him) other countries will adopt this system.

Have to say, I'm 100% behind Stephen Heppell, professor of new media environments at Bournemouth University who wants UK exams to be updated.

"Then they go into the exam room and all [their technology is] taken away and they're given a fountain pen and a sheet of lines paper and a three hour time limit. It's time to get real, isn't it?"

Paper exams felt out of date when I was sitting my GCSEs in 1993. What must it feel like now???

PS I found the cool legogeek image on David Muir's EdCompBlog.

Myngle - Language Learning Platform

2009-10-28T10:19:00.000-07:00

While in Amsterdam for the Maemo Summit 2009, I met up with Marina Tognetti, founder and CEO of Myngle.com

Myngle.com is a global language platform, where teachers and students from all over the world can teach and learn new languages. Myngle launched in December 2007. As of autumn 2009, it covers 51 languages with over 300 teachers and has 36000+ users from 162 countries.

Marina, an Italian who loves learning new languages, studied business and economics in Italy and then got strong corporate experience with stints at Proctor and Gamble, Philips and Sara-Lee. She left her role in eBay to create ‘an eBay for languages.’ She believes that everybody should have a chance to learn any language, no matter where they are located.

And Myngle does just this. Any student can learn any language online with live classes and real teachers. All teachers are carefully selected and trained by Myngle.

So how does Myngle work? Well, the student is king. You choose your teacher, your lesson time and price. You can try before you buy with a free trial. After that, you buy a learning package. You can opt for individual lessons or group.

Myngle was born while Marina was working for ebay – she’d been trying to learn Chinese. She’d been to school for 3 months for 2 hours a week, in a class of 25 learners. It just didn’t work. But private lessons didn’t work either – Marina had to select teachers by trial and error – unlike ebay, where you know what you’re getting, and the feedback is recorded.

Marina believes you really need a person to interact – to learn and correct. You don’t learn in a normal exchange. She believes your teacher will push you in one-to-one interaction. However, Myngle teachers adapt to your needs – if you like to learn by focussing on grammar rules, they’ll work with you on that.

Myngle is very selective when choosing teachers. Anyone can apply, however, teachers are personally screened – and Myngle guarantees that every one of their 300 teachers is good. All Myngle teachers have great experience in offline and online teaching.

Marina explained to me that Myngle students tend to be older and more serious than your average social learning network student. They’re often learning for business purposes. They’re spending money and want results – language learning is a serious investment for them.

Myngle’s try before you buy approach is really working for the website – according to Marina, a huge majority of those who try, buy. They love the service. But then Marina’s philosophy on customer service is to ‘always overdeliver’.

Myngle was started up with Marina’s personal finance. It has since secured two rounds of funding, and is in the process of securing a third. Marina and her team spent 2008 getting the site features just right and ensuring quality would be high. They spent 2009 focussing on marketing and customer service. 2010 will be all about the customer – reaching out to as many more language learners as Myngle can.

Interestingly, Marina observed that ‘Education is the only non-consumer centred industry in the world’. She believes this is wrong – and indeed can explain many of the educational failures we experience. She believes that the education sector is changing. The customer is taking control. They can now choose the teacher, method of learner, the time and place.

This approach leads the learner to eventually only needing an independent assessment as a means of certifying the learners knowledge – Donald Clarke has an interesting post on that here.

I’ll be testing Myngle out while I’m in Paris – I’ll review how I found their system.

You can follow Myngle on twitter @myngler

Hungry to learn across the world

2009-10-27T13:11:00.000-07:00

That's the title of a BBC article telling the story of 16 year old Babar Ali - the world's youngest headteacher. Every day, he teaches hundreds of students in the village of Murshidabad in West Bengal.

Babar is a student himself. Every morning, before school, he has to help with household chores. Then he catches an auto-rickshaw to travel part of the way to school. He walks the last mile or so.

Babar's school is free, but his family have to pay for a uniform, books and transport - which all adds up to £25 a year. This is £25 too much for a lot of families.

After Babar finishes his school day, he comes back to his small village, and teaches what he has learned to 800 children who are too poor to afford the school fees. Babar is not alone. Ten teachers have joined him - students like himself - to teach what they know to other children.

This is an awesome story. Children who are hungry for knowledge feeding what they know to those who are even more deprived than they are.

But the title of the article is misleading. Children across the world are not hungry to learn. Time and again I've heard teachers comment that their biggest problem is in motivating students to want to learn.

Seeing as motivation is one of the key factors in effective learning, this is a worrying problem. So what is it about the kids in our schools? Why aren't they hungry for knowledge? Is it because they live 24/7/365 in the middle of an information feast, and they're gorged to the point of indifference?

No iPhone = Boredom and Anxiety When Travelling

2009-10-23T09:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had to go from Belfast to the East Midlands of England for a business meeting. The travel arrangements had been hastily done, and were not ideal. At 7am, the airport security man looked at me strangely and said 'No mobile?' as I flung my netbook, keys and 'liquids' out for scanning.

No mobile. Indeed I hadn't. And no time to go back and get it. I knew I'd most information that I needed on my netbook, so I didn't panic. In fact, I was a bit curious to see how I'd get along. A case of planes, trains and no-mobiles.

As it turned out, I didn't get along terribly badly, but not terribly well either. I'd 2 main problems. (a) boredom and (b) anxiety

Let's look at (a) boredom first.

I use my iPhone for listening to language learning MP3s (loving Michel Thomas at the moment), gaming, reading books, twittering, email and browsing the web. And these are all things that fill those endless endless snatches of downtime when you're travelling.

Standing in the slow coffee queue waiting to put your breakfast order in? Check tweetie. Sitting eating your breakfast in the cafe? Check emails, browse tweets. Waiting to board the plane? Catch up on news. On the plane? Plug into Michel Thomas French while playing Bejewelled and you land in England a wiser woman than you were in Ireland. And so it continues.

I was deprived of all this. So I bought a magazine. Scientific American Mind, to be precise, at the ridiculous cost of £4.70. An hour later, I'd read everything in the magazine, even the pointless letters to Editor that all talked about articles I hadn't and couldn't read.

Reading this magazine really brought home the fact that print is dead for me. I bought a magazine that looked relatively interesting. But in fact only maybe 30% of it was something I enjoyed reading. The rest of it I would've skipped over online. And the bits I enjoyed were stymied by the fact I couldn't learn anything more - I couldn't click deeper.

After finishing the magazine I was still left with about 12 hours of travel. If I wanted to read something educational on my iPhone, I could have read for HOURS and not paid a penny. If I wanted to spend £5, I really would've got a whole lot more value for money on the apps store.

Now, let's look at (b) anxiety.

I get anxious when I don't have enough information. This is particularly true of travel. Without a mobile internet connection to check my travel details, I had to go from coach to train station to train station to taxi just *hoping* that things would be OK. They weren't as it turned out - I missed most connections by five minutes, and spent hours sitting around waiting for the next one.

Then when I got onto a train I'd no real clue where I was, how long it would take me to get to the next point, or what was going on. I spent a lot of time being anxious. And what with having nothing to distract myself, I had a lot more time to be anxious!

The *sort-of* upside

The *sort-of* upside to all this was what happened when I had to ask people for help or information. I was shocked at how lovely everyone was. Everyone was hugely helpful, funny and kind. One gentleman told me I had the loveliest accent. Another wished me Bon voyage. I entered into little mini-conversations with strangers.

Of course, I have spontaneous social contact with strangers all the time online, but that's not such a novelty.

iPhone fail

Incidentally, I forgot my iPhone because it hadn't charged properly *again*. I woke up at 4am to find a very hot iPhone with a quarter charge. I had to disconnect it, let it cool down, and try again that morning as I got ready to go. This has happened twice now. And both times have been directly before I had to fly to England for an all-day meeting. What's going on?

Google Wave Explained

2009-10-17T01:59:00.000-07:00

by someone who hasn't got an invitation...

UK Police to get SmartPhones

2009-10-16T11:02:00.000-07:00

BBC news reports that the most UK police forces are to be equipped with smartphones by March 2010.

Gary Cairns of the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) explains that officers with smartphones spend about 30 minutes less per shift in the police station than officers without smartphones - leaving them free for frontline duties.

The cost of the scheme is £80million - and it costs about £270 per officer, per year. 85% of officers offered smartphones take up the offer - although the BBC reporter seems to think this is a bit weak, I think it's pretty impressive. I wonder what the figures would be like if every UK teacher was offered a smartphone? Or every student?

So what's smart about these phones? Well, the article doesn't mention what type of phone the officers will get. But they will enable officers to access key databases, like the Police National Computer and other information like criminal records, vehicle details, briefings and photographs of wanted or missing people. And they'll let officers transmit information back to base.

Officers are interested in how GPS technologies can help them do their job - for instance, tagging streets with 'useful' information about who lives there, and what they're known to the police for.

A bit big brother? Yes. While I can imagine how useful a googlemaps-police criminal database mash up app would be in the fight against crime, I know that people make mistakes. And how am I to check what information a police app might have on me? How can I correct inaccurate information? And how is information police might gather by mobile validated?

Each phone is password protected, and can be remotely wiped, making them fairly secure - but not impregnable. It would be scary to think of what would happen with a smartphone in the wrong hands. But the pros probably outweigh the cons here.

Finally, I wonder do these phones have facebook and twitter disabled? Officers might be spending 30 minutes or more in the frontline, but how useful is that if they're sitting in a parked car, eyes glued to a little glowing screen?

www.talkirish.com Wins an Irish Web Award

2009-10-11T01:41:00.000-07:00

I'm delighted that my social learning network, www.talkirish.com, won the Best Education/Third Level website at the Irish Web Awards last night.

A huge thanks to the judges and organisers and of course the Talk Irish team and community. It's so cool to have won something like this - hope it helps us get decent funding so we can grow the site faster with even better content.

Irish Web Award Shortlists

2009-10-04T13:24:00.000-07:00

I'm really excited because both this blog and my social learning network www.talkirish.com have been shortlisted for 6 Irish web awards between them!

www.talkirish.com has been shortlisted as:

- Best New Web Application/Service
- Best Discussion forum
- Best Education and Third Level Website
- An Suíomh Gaeilge is Fear (Best Irish Language Website)

And www.searchfindlearn.com has been nominated both as Best Technology Website and Best Education Website.

Unfortunately, I can't make the awards ceremony this weekend, as I'll be at the Maemo summit in Amsterdam (annual get-together of the Maemo Community. Technology enthusiasts, apps developers, and platform developers meet to network, share their latest innovation, learn about future trends and just have fun).

And tonight I'm in London, getting ready for 3 days at the Handheld Learning conference - I've got my shiny new iPod touch ready to play with. I'm so excited about getting my hands on other handheld learning devices and getting to chat to as many other learning geeks as possible. Anyone fancies meeting up just tweet @michellegallen

Fart Apps are Fun, but News, Games and Book apps are Sticky

2009-09-26T09:35:00.000-07:00

I saw this short article on NYtimes - a report on user retention rates on various category of apps.

Flurry Inc (an app-tracking San Fran start-up) tracked more than 1,800 apps and 75 million consumers on iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and JavaME. They wanted to see if users returned to use an app within 30,60 and 90 days.

I think the results were fairly predictable:

* News & reference apps are used the most — more than once a day at a rate of 11 times per week.
* Social networking apps are used six times a week.
* Health and fitness apps are used 7 times a week.
* Games are used 7.4 times a week.
* Book-related apps are used 10 times a week.

I was a bit surprised to see that social networking apps are used only 6 times a week, while book-related apps are used 10 times a week. I thought I was the only mobile bookworm - people seem surprised if I tell them I'm re-reading Ulysses on iPhone at the moment, having started with Les Miserables and worked my way through several shorter texts.

The NYtimes comments that 'it’s only a matter of time before Apple tries to turn the iPod touch/iPhone into e-book readers'. Bit of a strange statement when you consider that the iPhone is already an e-book reader. Perhaps what they mean is Apple might exploit the iPhone/iPod touch by providing a pay-per-download service for printed matter.

I for one would be an avid customer. I've already been extremely frustrated with Amazon's Kindle app - not available to UK customers, which has left me ordering printed books that take ages to deliver, when I want to read them NOW. These are the type of book I know I'll read quickly, just the once, and will give away. The type of book I want on mobile.

If Apple are quick enough and their library big enough, Apple iBooks could become yet another way for me to spend mobile money.

Apture - New Features

2009-08-25T12:16:00.000-07:00

Apture released an updated version in May 2009. Main improvements are

* new interface
* smarter suggestions to your search terms
* much faster interface with a drag and drop menu
* quick browse interface is faster
* better visual effects (it's prettier)

But a big change and interesting change is the ability to connect multiple pieces of content. So you can now connect one Apture link to multiple pieces of content - e.g. YouTube or Wikipedia or Twitter.

This layering of embedded content is a great addition - it means I can offer readers several different ways of getting additional information - e.g. video plus text.

Apture are always willing to listen to users, so if you try it out and have an idea for an improvment, you can always tweet at the Apture CEO - @tristanharris.

Top Ten Learning Tools on Mac/PC

2009-08-20T02:06:00.000-07:00

1 Twitter - via Tweetdeck on mac and PC - sure, 40% of tweets might be 'pointless', but I think Twitter's great because I can see what other people like, when they like it. It's way more personal than an RSS subscription. And as someone who's always preferred the hit to the album, the poetry anthology to the poetry collection, Twitter gives me the popular, the interesting, the weird and wonderful.

2 Google search - I use Twitter for serendipitous learning when I don't know where to go for something to do - it's a lucky bag. But Google search is my first port of call for research, learning something particular or straight facts.

3 youtube - fantastic for learning something about almost anything - videojug rarely features in my video learning. I also LOVE embedding great youtube content into courses.

4 blogger - Blogger enables my blogging. And blogging forces me to organise my thoughts and discipline my thinking. What a shame a handicapped iPhone has ended my mobile blogging days.

5 gmail and google calendar - I know they're two different products, but for me they go hand in hand. I get a meeting request, I check times and slot it into my google calendar. I can synch this with my iCal and iPhone. I'm fierce organised these days ;) And after several years of using gmail, I'm appreciating google's amazing storage and search capacity. I feel like the elephant that doesn't forget.

6 Google documents - I work on Mac and PC, and am frequently on the move. I work with remote teams and clients. Google documents are great for creating and sharing documents and spreadsheets.

7 Google Chrome browser - I'm loving Google Chrome for PC. It's light, fast and intuitive. And not available on Mac :(

8 Apture - a must have for the blogger, I've been a huge fan of Apture since it's first release. And it keeps getting better - more reference sources, different types of media for embedding, twitter handle embeds and more. I'd really love it if I could embed Apture in some of the e-learning tools I use - saves on explaining every little thing, and is fantastic for informative snippets and hot links.

9 Wikipedia - if I know nothing about a topic, I usually make wikipedia my first source. Then I research on Google or in books to get more facts and context. But wikipedia is a fantastic, amazing information resource.

10 www.talkirish.com - what can I say about my Irish language social learning network? I've learned an incredible amount from this project - from how to finance a start-up, how to create, disseminate and promote free language learning materials, how to build and engage with a learning community and much more. I've learned how difficult it is to actualise a vision. And that even simple changes can take a long long time, but make a big difference! More than anything, creating www.talkirish.com has taught me if you want to learn, you have to do.

My Top Ten Mobile Learning Tools 2009

2009-08-18T13:06:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year I ditched my Nokia N73 for an iPhone. Anyone who knows me, knows I have 'issues' with the iPhone. Probably because I was a power user of my Nokia N73. I had the bluetooth keyboard and Mobile Office suite, which meant I could edit and write documents or blog posts on the go - I even wrote chunks of my 100,000 word novel on my N73. I had a great data plan, my google maps and mail, Opera browser and my slovoed French dictionary. Sorted.

Switching to the iPhone has been both amazing and irritating.

On the upside, the apps are brilliant. Wifi connectivity means I can really exploit learning online. And because my iPhone is with me all day every day, I can learn anywhere I want. Add earphones to create a great language learning device.

But the iPhone has a huge handicap in that that Apple haven't approved a keyboard input device for it. This hugely limits the device's capture and learning potential. I can use it to learn passively, but can't take notes in meetings or conferences, or use it to capture the stuff in my head. I don't understand how Apple can expect the iPhone or iPod Touch to be taken seriously as an educational device without proper text input.

But input handicaps and a few other gripes aside, here are my Top Ten Tools for Mobile Learning:

1 Tweetie - fantastic for short bite-sized learning and gossip when your head's frazzled at the airport.
2 Safari - it's a proper mobile browsing experience.
3 Stanza - oh wow - over 25,000 free books for me to snuggle up in bed with!
4 BYKI French for language learnin - great for vocab but limited for grammar.
5 iXpenseit - a budget tracking app, which is helping me keep track of my spending and teaching me where I go wrong - excellent stuff (note that iXpenseit is limited, and I think there are better apps that have more capability for dealing with multiple bank accounts, your mortgage, loans etc)
6 iPod on iPhone - I've got over 5 hours of French and Irish language resources and audio books on my iPod - means I can learn on the go. I've also been using the lyrics feature for both listening and reading my Irish language learning.
7 Mail - this is one of the loser aspects of the iPhone - I can get my mail, but Apple's Mail app is nothing like as useful or powerful as Gmail's mail app for Symbian. I can't search my archive, it uses up tonnes of data and is slow.
8 Google search - sometimes I want to know how to cook aubergine without leaving the cooker in the kitchen…google search + iPhone = instant knowledge while stirring a pot.
9 Google maps - bigger screen + good data plan = excellent journey planning and exploration. Also, I'm way more confident about wandering around more because I can't get 'lost'.
10 Calculator - I think people often take for granted the hard-working apps like the touchscreen calculator app on the iPhone - but it's a fantastic tool - and is easy to use and access.

As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks Are History

2009-08-09T00:39:00.000-07:00

That's the title of Tamar Lewin's NYtimes article on the changing face of education in the USA. But the title's a bit of an exaggeration. In fact, much of the article simply talks about how teachers can now access 'online' texts - known as 'flexbooks'. These open-source and federally approved online texts are seen as having a chance at revolutionising American education.

The CK-12 Foundation develops free “flexbooks” that can be customized to meet state standards, and added to by teachers. In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced an initiative to replace some high school science and math texts with free, “open source” digital versions.

Well, with the quoted $100 a textbook price, this can only be a huge boost for those kids from poor families. $100 for a textbook!?!

Reading this article made me uncomfortable. It's because the author makes a common mistake - she doesn't seem to understand what the role of a teacher is.

Lewin states that 'educators say that it will not be long before [books] are replaced by digital versions — or supplanted altogether by lessons assembled from the wealth of free courseware, educational games, videos and projects on the Web.' It praises the Beyond Textbooks initiative, which encourages teachers to create and share lessons, including PowerPoint presentations, videos and research materials. And what do teachers use to create these lessons? 'Reliable' Internet sites.

Hmmmmmm. Are the teachers being taught which websites are 'reliable' and which are not? Is there a list of 'approved' websites? How are these materials being checked? Even with the best will in the world, an author needs an editor's guidance. A teacher's bias always creeps into the classroom - it's easy enough when working from approved course materials and a strict curriculum. But when the teacher can compile lessons themselves from 'approved' sources the opportunity to weight a subject towards your bias may be irresistible. And who's training the teachers in becoming digital authors and publishers?

Lewin mentions the move to open-source materials, which is well under way in American higher education. President Obama has proposed investing in creating free online courses to help improve community colleges. The idea of 200 or 300 kids taking courses online, at night, 24/7, whenever they want is mooted. And of course this is seen as a very real threat to US schools. Bricks and mortar schools could be made obsolete by brilliant $200 courses 'made by the best teachers in the world'.

As an instructional designer, I have an issue with that statement. Brilliant online courses are not generally authored by teachers. They're authored by instructional designers, working with a team of subject matter experts, designers, coders and information architects, and overseen by an editor. Actors, video and audio engineers often have a vital role. Teachers can play the part of subject matter expert or advisor in producing e-learning courses, but a teacher producing a course from scratch on their own is about as effective as an instructional designer being plonked in front of 30 children and trying to teach.

Teachers are not instructional designers. They are not (generally) authors. They are not designers, coders or information architects. They're teachers. And don't they have enough of a job without foisting the role of digital authors and publishers on them as well?

I don't care if textbooks become history. What I hope doesn't become history is the strict editorial and academic processes that produced the content in textbooks. The trust that a child could have in the information they're being given. The expertise it takes to produce a well-crafted and authoritative learning resource. Something that has become much more complex - NOT easier - given the wealth of choice in our digital publishing age. Just because anyone can write, film, edit and broadcast a movie online now, doesn't mean that we're all suddenly Spielberg.

Consumption and Creation - Eating the Internet

2009-08-07T02:01:00.001-07:00

The BBC's Chris Bowlby discusses a report that found that 'spending on information technology is more important to Britons than anything except food'. More important even than holidays abroad.

Much has been made of Web 2.0 giving us an ability to create and share as well as passively consume. But it's well documented how few people actually create and contribute instead of just consuming.

So the idea that the British will protect spending in two major areas of consumption makes sense to me. And I can see parallels between our consumption of food and consumption of online content. While all the ingredients are there in the average supermarket for anyone to create a gourmet organic feast for fifteen, how many times do we enter the supermarket with fine intentions, only to exit laden with ready meals, packets of crisps and tubs of ice-cream?

And with every resource and means at our fingertips to create fabulous online content or participate in world-changing campaigns, all too often a foray online simply results in a catch-up of gossipy or news sites, a browse through bargain goods, with perhaps a quick burst of twitter and facebook as the equivalent to a high-fat, high-sugar fix.

I find it way easier to consume than create. It can take me hours to make something 'good' in the kitchen. I can demolish it in minutes. It can take weeks, months or years to build something 'good' online. And locust-like audience driven by twitter or the like can consume it in days, then move on.

I read recently that the average person in the Western World today is overfed and undernourished. That resonated on two levels. Both for belly food and for brain food. I consume vast amounts of information these days. But somehow it just feels a bit weak and watery...I'm bloated but hungry. Twitter is great, but I find it's like snacking while you're cooking. Sometimes when I come to the main meal, I've found myself full-up on trash.

I want nutritious online content! Content that feeds my brain. And I want to produce that type of content for other people.

But creating something good takes skill, time and patience. The confidence to try and fail. An open mind to accept the 'you put too much salt in it' feedback. And for me, it takes the willpower to shut off the fat pipeline of easy-to-consume content so I'm left alone with the raw ingredients and a pressure cooker of the mind.

Handheld Learning Conference 2009

2009-08-04T03:18:00.000-07:00

I've booked my ticket for the Handheld Learning Conference 2009 - hopefully my payment went through in time to qualify me for a lovely free iPod touch! I'm really looking forward to getting to listen to some top-notch speakers like

* Ray Kurzweil, Inventor and Futurist
* Malcolm McLaren, Artist
* James Paul Gee, Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University
* David Braben, Founder & Chairman, Frontier
* Professor Elizabeth Hayes, Arizona State University
* John Davitt, International Learning Advocate, NewTools.org
* Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, CEO and Co-Founder of Tinker.it
* Tim Brighouse, Former Commissioner for London Schools
* Donald Clark, e-Learning Expert
* David Cavallo, Chief Learning Architect, MIT OLPC
* Tim Rylands, Teacher & Innovator

And I believe the very interesting Major Roy Evans who's doing fantastic mobile e-learning for the British army will be popping along too.

Am I Using Safari Wrong?

2009-07-08T04:02:00.000-07:00

My browser is a key part of my working life - for searching, learning and organising. I'm a FireFox user. I have been since it started outperforming Opera a few years ago.

I love Firefox. I love the way it allows me to save my bookmarks and access them from any Firefox browser on any computer (yes, I know all about Delicio.us, but I just never ever fell in love with the site). I love the way I can can customise Firefox with lots of widgets. I love the way it remembers all my passwords and information. I love the way I know loads of shortcuts. I love the way it makes my work easier.

However, I use Firefox on both my netbook and my Macbook Pro. And while Firefox's performance on the Macbook Pro is good (although not as fast as Safari), it's woeful on my Netbook. It just gobbles up any available memory until my netbook is strangled. Tabs take forever to open and the whole browser just isn't responsive.

I've tried Internet Explorer again. But it's a joke - I really don't understand how Microsoft with all the resources they have, can produce a browser that just Doesn't Work.

I've downloaded Safari for PC. Yes it's faster. It doesn't gobble memory. It's quick and easy to use. But it doesn't seem to me that I can customise it. E.g. I can't bring my Firefox bookmarks with me (and I don't want to hear a 'serves you right for not using Delicio.us). Last time I looked, it didn't support Alexa. Like a lot of mac stuff, it seems hard to 'add anything'. And I just don't feel comfortable using Safari. Not even on my macbook pro where it somehow feels 'unnatural' to use Firefox.

Whatever about using Firefox on my macbook pro, I can't stick with Firefox on my netbook. It's just Not Working. So. Has anyone got any hints on how to pimp my safari browser? Or should I work with Google Chrome for a bit (seeing as they're releasing a Chrome OS shortly)?

iBooks and eReaders

2009-07-07T08:46:00.000-07:00

I love books. I studied English Literature at Trinity College Dublin, and did an MPhil in Publishing Studies in Stirling, Scotland. I've just written and published my first novel on www.lulu.com. And perhaps because of my great love of books, I've steered clear of experimenting with e-book readers.

However, I've just finished reading Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. It's a book I've always meant to get around to reading, but just somehow never managed to pick it up and get through it. Perhaps the size put me off. Les Misérables is a hefty tome. Big fat 300 pager. It's difficult to slip that into your handbag.

But the size of the book didn't put me off this time. Because I read it on my iPhone. Shortly after discovering I could download the entire works of Shakespeare with the Shakespeare app, I discovered the Stanza app.

Stanza enables anyone to download a range of reading material - from over 25,000 FREE books from the Project Gutenberg to the latest geek reads from O'Reilly.

I'm not sure why I started with Les Misérables. Perhaps it was its length. I didn't find it all that surprising that I would enjoy re-reading Shakespeare on the iPhone, but reading a huge long old novel? A definite challenge

But no. It wasn't. The challenge I found was to stop myself from slipping out of everyday life and into Les Misérables at every possible moment. I don't usually carry around the books I'm reading - they're stuck by my bed, on the sofa, wherever. Both fortunately and unfortunately, my iPhone goes everywhere with me - bed, beach, plane, dinner table and bar. I found myself addicted. Les Misérables is a wonderful novel. I was dipping into it constantly.

I had thought I'd dislike the fact that I can't 'feel' the book and 'know' how far along I am. Stanza feels like a phone. I like how my phone feels - not a problem. Stanza tells me to 2 decimal points, how far into my novel I am. And the strange thing is, I very quickly learned to 'know' where I was in the book, after just a few flicks in and out of Stanza's tracking bar.

I did find it difficult to track the characters in the book, however. In a printed book, if I find myself forgetting any of the novel, I'll flick back to a previous point, refresh my memory and move on. It's hard to 'flick' in Stanza, although you can select words for definition etc.

After finishing Les Misérables, I downloaded and read Jack London's Call of the Wild one Saturday morning in bed. Then I went a bit crazy and downloaded 20 more titles. I haven't paid for any content yet, although I'm curious to see how usable a tech book will be on the iPhone.

When reading from Stanza I couldn't help but think back to my childhood, where by the age of ten I'd read every book my parents owned and every book I was allowed to read in the local library (I wasn't allowed an 'adult' ticket until I turned 16). When I turned sixteen, I was able to fill my mind with the best my local library could offer - rows and rows of Catherine Cookson and Stephen King.

I can't help but wonder how I would've turned out if I'd had an e-book reader as a child. I would've had a world library at my finger tips. Thousands upon thousands of books. Maybe I would've read everything Stephen King had ever published by the time I'd turned 17, but maybe I would've also been able to read Lord of the Rings, Little Women, and countless other titles as well.

But e-book readers not only have a ridiculous name, they're expensive. And they're not made for sharing. So although my parents could manage a system whereby all six of us kids could share the computer we had, I couldn't picture them getting 6 kids to share an e-book reader? Every child needs their own device.

But what a difference one e-book reader per child could make to a child's self and directed education.

Google makes us Smarter (and Dumber) but Teabags Tell the Future

2009-07-02T15:11:00.000-07:00

I've just read 2 great articles (and one OK article written as a response).

First read Nicholas Carr's Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Then read Jamais Cascio's Get Smarter (Is Google actually making us smarter?)

Finally, if you're mad keen, read Andrew Brown's response - Google isn't making us dumb - or smart. That's the problem.

I read and enjoyed all three articles. And after reading them I got to think about what I learned drinking tea. I drink yogi tea. It's strong, spicy stuff, that takes 7 minutes to brew. I usually manage to squeeze a couple of cups from each bag.

There's a label attached to each yogi teabag. Each label is printed with a short saying, designed to enlighten the casual tea drinker. I've always read my teabag and meditated briefly over the sayings - they repeat so you get to know them. Then one day I read the following saying for about the hundredth time:

"We are spiritual beings having a human experience."

And suddenly, like a punch to my gut, I got it. I was breathless for a few moments. I realised just what that saying meant. I got right inside the skin of it. It wasn't something the teabag taught me - it was something I understood. Something I felt. It changed something inside me.

You can know or learn facts. Google will always know a lot more facts than you, and be better at distributing them.

You can host knowledge. Google will always host more knowledge than you. But there's an outside chance you might be better at passing your knowledge directly on to an individual.

But so far, where Google fails, is in understanding. For now, only we can do this.

What will happen the day that Google begins to understand?

"I am a digital being having a human experience."

That'll be really something.

Handheld Learning Conference 2009

2009-06-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

The Handheld Learning Conference claims to be the world’s leading event about learning using mobile and inexpensive access technologies. Over 1,500 international delegates got together last year.

This year's conference is themed around "Creativity, Innovation, Inclusion & Transformation" in part because 2009 is the European year of creativity and innovation (which was news to me). It runs from Monday 5th to Wednesday 7th October 2009.

Lead speakers include:

* Malcolm McLaren, Agent provocateur and artist
* James Paul Gee, Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University
* Professor Elizabeth Hayes, Arizona State University
* Gordon Shukwit, Director of IT and Learning Technologies, Apple Inc
* John Davitt, International Learning Advocate, NewTools.org
* Tim Brighouse, Former Commissioner for London Schools
* Donald Clark, e-Learning Expert
* David Cavallo, Chief Learning Architect, MIT OLPC
* Tim Rylands, Teacher & Innovator

HHL promises to bring together experts from the education, technology and entertainment sectors.

Education, technology and entertainment? Hurray! This sounds like a magic mix. Kind of like a geek cocktail for me!

The conference is spread over three days, to demonstrate, debate and explore how mobile technologies such as phones, entertainment devices, GPS locators, and netbooks can enable "transformational improvements" in learning across schools, home, further education, training and business.

I'm not sure what 'transformational improvements' are - hope there's not too much of this type of marketese at the actual conference - but I am interested in seeing how mobile technologies can help us all do things better.

Here in Northern Ireland we're hoping to get as many companies and organisations as possible together to organise a subsidised Trade Mission to the conference - lots of folk are already signed up. So if you're a ROI or NI learning company and you're interested in attending the conference, let me know ASAP.

And if you fancy easing yourself into handheld learning with a sleek Apple device, get yourself signed up for the conference before July 31 - you'll get a free iPod touch when you arrive at the conference. Nice.

Erin McKean redefines the dictionary

2009-06-04T13:35:00.000-07:00

I got rid of my television about a month ago. It's been a strange, but good experience. First, I read more. Second, when I have a migraine, I go to bed to rest, instead of drooling on the sofa while staring at something mindless to distract myself from the pain. Third and most important thing, I learn differently (I'm using my computer and iPhone even more). Which is why I just spent a lovely hour or so on the TED talks website.

My favourite talk was Erin McKean's funny, geeky and intelligent plea for the lexicographical world to redefine itself.

Erin calls herself a dictionary evangelist. She focuses on the inadequacy of the paper dictionary as a reference form - it's clumsy, it's difficult to search, it's constricted by its physical size - it cannot encompass every word, which is why lexicographers choose the bestest words for inclusion.

Erin then points out that we have the Internet. A publication medium without boundaries. Yet what do most dictionaries do? They replicate the print medium.

Erin observes that lexicography isn't rocket science. But that the field of rocket science is now aided by hordes of passionate, well-informed amateurs, as are astronomy and ornithology and others. Yet lexicography continues its shut-off, closed in approach to collecting, defining and choosing those words that are 'good' enough or 'important' enough to get in the dictionary.

James Murray was the first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, a post he took up in 1879. Murray's quite the fossil. But Erin points out that if he were transported from the Victorian era to today, Murray would have no problem in getting a job. Lexicography has not evolved with the times.

So she makes a passionate plea for lexicography to open its doors to user participation, to open source, to not excluding words, to letting the passionate amateurs and word lovers and professional lexicographers to work together towards creating a big online dictionary.

What struck me when I watched this TED talk was that Erin states that computers haven't revolutionised the dictionary - they've just basically strapped a modern combustion engine onto a very ancient bike. Sure it goes faster, but it's not much better beyond that. Dictionaries need to change. They need to become more than print-based copies with easier, faster search fields.

But it's not just lexicographers who are guilty of this sin. Any established learning or communication method does this. Check out TV or radio professionals who squash their broadcasting tradition into 'digital media'. Much academic endeavour on the Internet has been stymied and slowed by centuries-old traditions being replicated online, instead of freestyling and making the most of new technologies. Sometimes things really do just seem to go back to a lecturer standing in an empty lecture theatre in Second Life, talking to themselves.

But this sounds like a rant now. I suggest you skip over to TED and watch Erin. Her talk is clever, funny, passionate and engaging. You're probably not a lexicographer, but I'm pretty sure what she's saying applies in many fields.

NOTE: My favourite Erin McKean quote 'a little-known technological fact about the Internet is it's actually made up for words and enthusiasm.'

How the Book Destroyed Community

2009-05-28T04:44:00.001-07:00

I found Dean Shareski through Mr Tweet. I enjoyed Dean's post on How the Book Destroyed Community on his blog ideasandthoughts.org. It's an interesting read, and follows the learning circle from scholar teaching students, to students learning from books, right up to now, where learners can read 'socially', using tools like Diigo to read a text and make note/mark text as they go for other readers. Check it out.

DIT eLearning Summer School 2009

2009-05-27T02:18:00.000-07:00

Muireann O'Keeffe let me know that DIT are running the 7th eLearning Summer School from Monday 22nd to Friday 26th June in DIT Aungier Street.

It's for anyone interested in e-learning. It covers strategies which will help you and your staff to make the most of current thinking and technologies.

Plans for this year's event are almost finalised and an outline programme for the week is now available.

The focus this year is “Get Flexible: Moving to an Online Environment” and it's expected that participants will complete the week with the basic elements of an online module in place.

Book online or call 4027866 for further information. The Summer School costs 395 euros for non-DIT staff. Numbers are strictly limited to 25.

BCS e-learning video debate

2009-04-30T04:18:00.000-07:00

The BCS has filmed a series of videos on e-learning videos with the following panel:

- Clive Shepherd, Chair of the e-Learning Network
- Samantha Kinstrey, MD of 2e2 Training
- Laura Overton, MD of Towards Maturity
- Lars Hyland, Director of Learning Services at Brightwave
- Jooli Atkins of Matrix FortyTwo and Chair of the BCS Information and Technology Training Specialist Group.

The panel feedback on topics like saving money through e-learning, is classroom training finished?, which learning technologies can help and how to get the learning blend right.

As interesting as these videos might be, I'm not a fan of producing video debates and just sticking them up online. There's no option to comment on these videos, no transcript for both accessibility and learning purposes, and as a learner, I was left with no sense of connection with the debate or the BCS. It's very much a broadcast of e-learning opinions that doesn't actually use any of the good advice given in the videos.

Have a peep at video 3 where Clive Shepherd very clearly states that he views Twitter as a communication tool, rather than a learning tool. It's not to say that Twitter can't help learning - but he's quite right in saying there are tools better suited to it.

Other debates in this series are:

IT's help in the Credit Crunch
Data Security and public confidence
IT policies and your green credentials
Solving the IT skills supply and demand cycle