Launch of new community area Very exciting stuff going on in the new Community Networks area at EdNA. Good to see the Australian Flexible Learning Community having a go with moodle at last. Today’s the launch day – will my computer crash just as i get into Elluminate? Ha ha.
Category: ace
Government Monopoly on ‘dot-edu’ names For a couple of years, educational bodies could get free domain names. Now we have the flip side. Education.au has taken over the running of the .edu domain, and now they’re the most expensive domains you could possibly have. You can buy a .com.au domain for under aud$60 for two years. A .org.au for under $20 if you shop around. But the .edu domain name space has shot up from free, to aud$110. Why should schools pay more than private companies? I guess if you Read More …
Research into Flexible Learning in ACE Currently reading Josie, Glenda and Mary’s research into Flexible Learning in ACE, put together by TAFE frontiers in 2004. It’s a brilliant and thorough piece of research, and i hope it’s getting the attention it deserves – especially now as we have a major review into education in Victoria. From the ‘themes’ page, their research “showed overwhelmingly that flexible teaching and learning is flourishing in ACE – as it has for a long time”. Urban providers could learn to broaden their learner base using Read More …
NetWorking 04 Coming up – the most looked-forward-to online conference in Australia – NW04. Presenting with Frankie Forsyth on ‘free and open source software’ on Friday the 19th November. Were you touched by the DNA swindle? ".. Justice Finkelstein found that various domain name notices sent by Domain Names Australia (DNA) in July and September 2003 were, as alleged by auDA, misleading and deceptive." Our accountant said to me one day, "oh, i paid that invoice for our web something". Wait a minute, our account shouldn’t be due for another Read More …
LERN conference in Havana
Back from Cuba .. Well the LERN Conference in Havana was very exciting, very hot, and filled with whispers of radical dissent. What a lovely flavour! 600 delegates full of good ideas. Michael Apple’s keynote was definitely the highlight, setting the tone for the rest of the conference. He railed against the rise of the ultra-conservatives, and urged us educators to get fighting. Mary Kalantzis told us the reason for choosing Cuba – the country has very high indicators on all the UN tests for educational development. (A nation with Read More …
Wikipedia tops Britannica Thanks to Stephen Downes for this link – a comparison showing that the open source encyclopedia using "wiki" software is now more popular than encylops Britannica .. WikiPedia is run on contributions from volunteers. .. incidentally the same site that gives these stats lists (alexa.com) a range of open source/open content encyclopedias in their category page.
Review of ESL Sites Don’t know how many people know about this report – in 2002, the LearnScope team at Kangan Batman TAFE put together a thorough and very useful review of many online ESL resources. Get your copy Now! (whoops – sorry if you tried that link, doesn’t seem to be working – i’ll try & find another access point.) Using other people’s Scripts okay, i’ve been talking mostly about the big open source systems and the learning management platforms, such as GNU/Linux and Moodle, but honestly i think Read More …
Photo gallery for learning English! i’m very excited about a new open source script i’ve found .. to dynamically create a picture gallery! I think using images is vital for language learning – especially for a theme-based topic like the beach – people want to see the beach in front of their very eyes, and how relaxing is it to watch a beach scene! There are a few ideas for picture-gallery-related language-learning activities on the site – would be grateful if anyone has additional ideas. There are many scripts for Read More …
Now i’m sure there must be a Special Interest Group looking into Open Source, at the LearnScope Flexible Learning Community, but can i find it? No. Oh dear .. Can i find how to get into the special interest group section of the site? Hm, better look again ..
Learn by TV at Centrelink
Only one month into this Flexible Learning Leader experience and already i’m behind and struggling .. but hey, i’ll catch up any minute now .. The highlight of our Canberra meeting – apart from meeting 40 other FLL’s – was going into the heart of the Centrelink “on-air” live satellite TV training studios – what a buzz! Presenters with proper TV voices operating live TV that goes into every Centrelink office around the country. Some 25,000 employees getting their compulsory 3 hours a week training via interactive TV. *[Case Study Read More …