References and links

The sites listed include examples, information, downloadable tools, tutorials, play spaces and explanations. Most are free or open source but some are cost based. If there's a cost attached or they are free 'add on's' to a cost based tool then there's an '*' at the end to let you know.

Blogs (web logs) and moblogs

• Blogger a blogging tool to set up your own blog
• Cmap listing lots of great educational Blogs
• EduBlog Insights has great ideas about Blogs and how to use them
• Jo Murray’s blog
• Kirsty Sharp's blog from a practitioner and Flexible Learning Leader's perspective
• Leigh Blackhall’s wiki blog
• Michael Coghlan's blog focusing on voice technologies (VOIP)
• Motime blogging tool to set up your own moblog (mobile blog)
• Nancy White’s blog
• Peter LeCornu's blog
• Stephen Downes' blog

 

Communities to join and/or create your own

• GeoCities offers free (advert supported) websites
• Networks of the Australian Flexible Learning Community These are in EdNA Groups and you'll need to register i.e. become a member (free). The networks are free to join and cover everything from Mobile learning to specific training packages like the TAA.
• Learning Communities Catalyst Internet tools, spaces and tutorials including Learning Circles - a relaxed and informative way for people to come together to discuss issues in a non-threatening environment.
• Learning Times or Learning Times Australia International community of education and training professionals. You'll need to become a member (free).
• LearnScope and Reframing the Future communities of Australian VET practitioners, both have stacks of information and funding opportunities too.
• My connected community (mc2) offer free (for some) websites/communities.
• Our Community a national gateway for Australia’s 700,000 community groups. Provides a gateway for resources between community networks and the general public, business and government i.e. info on establishing partnerships, managing resources, insurance, available grants, using technology in communities and specific software for community organisations.
• Telecentres in Western Australia and Online Access Centres in Tasmania plus many Libraries provide access to internet connected computers for communities.
• Wet Canvas community for visual artists.
• Yahoo! Groups offer free (advert supported) websites and listservs, instant messenging and voice.

 

Free resources to enhance/enable your e-learning

• Absolutely all free clipart for ways to spice up your text. Go to the categories area on the left, all links to Clip Art.com are to a fee based service so avoid them all.
• Acronyms, emoticons and smilies
• ANTA toolboxes are low cost e-learning products (approx $400), or you can download free learning objects to use.
• Australian War Memorial customises stories to suit curriculum needs.
• Digital imagery provides ideas and sites for finding images on the web. It is free and for educational use.
• Flickr is an online space to access, store, sort, search and share photos.
• Learning Place (The) Education Queensland provides free and cost based courses, resourced, networks and spaces.
• National Library of Australia provides links to National Profiles for Australian Schools and Teacher guides, plus collections in other institutions.
• Pelion Consulting Pty Ltd site for trying out Moodle, discussion boards, chats and wikis and some great links to online resources on the left hand menu.

Journals, email lists and information about RSS feeds to access information easily

• eLearning Resources and News Current news & resources for managers, developers, and facilitators of elearning and a weekly blog summary email.
• Knowledge Tree e-Journal for good practice, great ideas and contacts of people who are doing it.
• Learning TRENDS by Elliott Masie is Published by The MASIE Center, Inc. To subscribe click on the Subcribe button.
• OLDaily E-learning links and commentary by Stephen Downes in a daily (almost) email.
• RSS feeds - all you wanted to know about it. Click on the url that the link brings up.

Leading Practitioner Sites

• Best of the Australian Flexible Learning Community 2001 to 2004 selected goodies on technology, teaching, professional development and more.
• Flexible Learning Leaders -2000 -2004 for more resources and reports from the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. Some of specific interest include Emma Deutrom, Centrelink, J. Easterby-Wood, Dept of Health and Community Services and Frankie Forsyth, Pelion Consulting Pty Ltd.
• George Siemen's site on e-learning includes a model of how it all works.
• Gilly Salmon's site covers e-moderating in discussion boards and offers a 4 week fully online e-moderating course (course*).
• Marc Prensky-visit to learn about digital natives and game playing.
• Marty Cielens provides a great list of Open Source software for educators.
• Nancy White- provides a full of resources for online facilititators -check out her blog and the Online Community Toolkit. Nancy also offers online facilitation courses. (course*)
• Pelion Consulting Pty Ltd is where you can try out Moodle discussion boards, chats and wikis and explore some great links to online resources in the left hand menu.
• Stephen Downes- provides a blog and current information on the e-world, sign up for his OLDaily regular email letter.
• Thaigi and Marie Jasinski to get some ideas for other games and facilitation online for free, plus you can subscribe to a newsletter.

Online conferences and events

• Connecting Up Conference annual conference of CommunIT brings together communities, businesses and governments.
• EdNA Online to find out what online conferences are available
• Net*Working 2004 online conference with archived recordings for viewing/listening

Open Source Learning Management/Content systems

• Atutor an open source Learning Management system (needs downloading to a server)
• Claroline an open source Learning Management system (needs downloading to a server)
• Moodle - an open source Learning Management system (needs downloading to a server), you can have a look at the features in a mock course here too

Preparing for e-learning

• Accessibility is a useful guide to ensuring any resources you develop are accessible.
• 2005 Australian Flexible Learning Framework has fabulous resources for support and information re flexible learning.
• Flexways (go straight to the skills checklist if you are pushed for time)
• Guide to writing for the web from an accessibility viewpoint
• Play the AQTF game with your team
• Ready Set Go! A student guide to online learning, check out the great frequently asked questions (FAQ) section.
• Simple ways to deliver flexibly by Peter Allens
• Spam legislation for businesses
• Top tips for online facilitation
• Webquests examples, explanations and ideas
• 10 Years After - Stephen Downes NAWeb speech (opens in Powerpoint) - to get an idea of the web and its influence.

VOIP Tools and Podcasting

• Audacity open source tool to record voice and audio
• CompuEd voice and virtual classroom tool*
• Elluminate voice and virtual classroom tool *
• Ivocalise voice and virtual classroom tool *
• Michael Coghlan’s blog focusing on voice technologies(VOIP)
• Podcast audio recording and playing on the net
• Skype online voice telephony and and chat facility
• SMSPup provides free web-based mobile text messaging (SMS) services to Australian mobile users (in exchange for receiving occasional promotional emails).
• Wimba voice messages *
• Yahoo! Messenger online voice, video telephony and chat facility

Web Tools and Download sites

• Arachnophilia free web editor
• Clipmarks Clip, tag and save any information from web pages you visit (released by the same people who created Amplify - which is no longer available)
• Cmap for concept mapping
• Cool Tools range of e-learning tools and resources and ideas for new and experienced users
• Del.icio.us for storing and sharing your bookmarks (favourites) on the web
• Eclipse crossword puzzle generator
• Email addresses (free) useful for those who don't have an email address.
• Firefox Open Source web browser (similar to Internet Explorer)
• FreeMind for mind mapping
• Furl save, share and recall anything you find online
• GPL license used by many OS applications (scroll down past the Moodle licence)
• Hot Potatoes tutorial site for range of quiz tools and examples of quizzes.
• I40 Cheap and reliable Internet Service Provider - based in United States of America
• Meet-o-matic online scheduler to set up a meeting with colleagues or friends.
• OpensourceCMS to find, try and play with open source software and tools. This site was created to give you the opportunity to 'try out' some of the best php/mysql based free and open source software systems in the world. You are welcome to be the administrator of any site here; allowing you to decide which system best suits your needs.
• Photostory - free add on to XP use it to create digital stories. * XP costs but the add on is free
• QuickTopic for creating your own web based, one off, online group discussions
• Scrapability - a rich resource of 'how to' guides, ideas for projects and examples of digital scrapbooking.
• Survey Monkey for creating online surveys
• Thunderbird Open Source email software (similar to Outlook)
• Tiny url for making long urls into little one
• Tucows for free downloads
• Writely a web word processor for collaboratively writing and editing documents

Wikis

• NetworkedLearning - fabulous resource on all aspects of Knowledge Sharing with Distributed Networking Tools - covers webfeeds, social software, networked learning, tags, and read/write web. Click on the link on the left to bring it up.
• Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, great for checking out new internet terms and jargon
• Wiki spaces create your own wiki - write something and then ask a friend or colleague to edit your work.

Glossary and Definitions

One of the best places to check definitions online is wikipedia - the online encyclopedia. ICVET also has an extensive list of e-learning terms and explanations.

• Asynchronous
  An asynchronous online activity is one occurring independent of time or location. Examples include email and discussion forums where messages are posted independently by participants and stored for later reading and response by other participants.
• Open Source
  The term 'open source' means that the source code (actual computer code) of the software is freely available for all to see and modify. Thus, you can not only download and use the software for free, but also can tweak the software and customize it to your needs.
• Personalised learning
  This is about meeting the needs of learners, with reference to their best way of learning, and their interests. In the world of VET, this can include negotiation about how learners will learn, what they will learn and responding to their needs and applying to and working in, their context (extract from Kirsty Sharp’s blog).
• Pull technology
  To access the information offered you have to log on to the net and ‘pull’ the information to you. Examples include static websites. If you are using pull technology you may need to push ‘triggers’ to participants to encourage access, e.g. email them re new postings in a discussion board.
• Push technology
  The information comes to you, usually via your email box. Examples include alerts of new messages or the whole messages delivered to you. The technology pushes or delivers the information to you or requires you to actively go to get it.
• Social constructionist pedagogy
• Synchronous
  A synchronous online activity is one occurring in real time i.e. it’s independent of physical location but occurs at the same time. Examples include a text or voice chat or video conversation.