OpenLearn E-Learning Course (Database Design)

Database design seemed like an interesting topic to my nerdy life, so I decided to give it a whirl. I thought that it was a pretty good course that described what a SQL database is and what it was used for. The introduction was an easy read with some great functionality that caught my eye. They outlined diagrams in a different color, they gave critical thinking questions through the passages, while also giving the answers to each of them. So you read the question, and below you can click on the solution link which pops down the answer below. I found this very helpful.

The second functionality I found to be extrememly helpful was the organization of the information. There wasn’t any long paragraphs that bored you, they were broken up into smaller paragraphs with bullet points, critical thinking questions, etc. I especially liked the nice figure diagrams to go along with the section. They also had links in the paragraph to go to each figure diagram.

I feel like I learned alot about organization techniques in this course. I find that it did not have any video / audio to help me out with. But one of my favorite all time learning sites is www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/videotraining/ . They do a great job of code examples, video, and audio.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Social Tools & E-Learning

Can social networking tools such as MySpace and Facebook be turned into an e-learning intstrument to help people learn something new?

The answer is YES! Social networking sites are filled with exceptional functionality that allow users to post information about anything for people to use. Users can also setup groups, meetings, and online chats for others to view. For example, if you wanted to teach people about cooking, you could begin to just put new recipes and tutorials for creating new dishes. From just doing what you love, and share, users are already beggining to teach people new and exciting things.

There is a great article from http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2007/10/facebook-as-learning-platform.html , where he talks about “Facebook as a Learning Plateform”.

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Switching gears, I would like to talk about something new that I have experienced, and has really been a big help to me. This new technology is called Adobe Acrobat Connect (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatconnectpro/). This allows users to log in anywhere in the world using Acrobat Connect, and connect to a video discussion. I recently was able to connect to a video discussion by Jonathan Campos about “Turning MXML components to ActionScript 3.0″. This could be a great tool for teachers outside of class.

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And last, I would like to see more web blogs being turned into a learning environment. I believe these are very versatile and dynamic, but not dynamic enough. Sure you can post new articles, and comment on other peoples, but where is the instant user 2 user interaction? I think this is where blogs need to be heading in the future. Blog 2 Blog chatting, group rooms, and blog mashups. Mashups are web applications that combine data into one area for easy viewing. Examples of these are Digg.com, and Igoogle.

Filed under: E-Learning

E-Learning Commercial

This is a commercial that started playing about 3 months ago and blew me away when I saw it. The entire commercial really expresses what we should be striving for, and how schools should look up to students, instead of the other way around.

Kaplan University Commercial:

Filed under: E-Learning

E-Learning Inspirations

Here are some sites that have helped me tremendously in learning new things, including Adobe Flex.

• Flex in a Week

This is what really gave me most of my knowledge when it came to the technical aspect of Flex and all the different things it could do. Its subdivided into 5 sections, and each section is of different concepts. Each video is a simple screen capture with powerpoint notes and voice overlays.

• Adobe Flex Cookbook

This is where you go to find the strange problems you can never figure out. Chances are if you are having the problem, someone else has already had it and figured it out for you. This is where you can see all those different problems with examples.

• Good-Tutorials

This site taught me everything I know about Photoshop. They do a great job of picking out the good tutorials from all over the internet for you, so you don’t have to. They have a good rating system along with comments after each tutorial.

Blogs

• Flex Examples

Flex examples does a great job of giving you information and giving you the examples and code to go along with it. They come out with new material every day, and it really helps with some cool stuff.

• Ajaxian

Ajaxian is a great coding blog on the latest and greatest. They do a good job of giving you examples with code and giving  you the outside source with it.

• Net Tuts

This site is a very cool site that gives you information that is very useful to any web developer.

Filed under: E-Learning

E-Learning Project Ideas

My first thoughts into going and creating an learning project was immediately to go with an Adobe Flex idea. I’m currently learning it myself and thought it would the logical choice to pick from a student perspective.

If I was to do a something that included Flex, I would create a HTML website with embedded swfs and text to go along with it, along with having screen captured tutorials. The topic would cover simplified flex examples that deal with anyone that wants to begin learning Adobe Flex.

Along with having examples, I would want the project to be a collabarative effort with other web developers willing to help. A great source that does this already is at Flex Cookbook. Its a site that anyone can contribute new tutorials/examples for other people.  I believe this a great way for people to learn and share. This feature would help on many levels.

Filed under: E-Learning