This week, we discussed online alternatives to a classroom: Moodle, Wiggio, SecondLife and Elliminate - exciting stuff!! As before, these notes are a mixture of information supplied by our "23 Things" moderators, lecture notes, forum notes andm research notes.
MOODLE
http://moodle.org
Moodle = Modular Object-Orientated Dynamic Environment is a free and open-source e-learning software platform, also know as a Course Management System, Learning Management System (LMS) or Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It was developed to help educators create online courses with a focus on interaction and collaborative construction of content. - Wikipedia
Interesting/useful resources
Other useful information
- Free, easy to use and set up, great tools, great support, tracks participants - but requires a lot of nurturing
- App sharing
- Is auditable - can track anything (teaching, assessing, etc) that happens within that LMS course (e.g. how often student went into the course, when ...)
- Can use Moodle in conjunction with other tools and embed them within your course (e.g. YouTube, etc)
- Doesn't use a lot of server space
- Has some great themes that are easy to modify
See separate posting for more info
POODLE
- Portable Moodle designed to allow for the delivery of Moodle content offline - especially for those students who are in a low-bandwidth and no-bandwidth areas
- Poodle is a PortableApps based program. It uses Firefox, Portable Edition and a portable web server to deliver an offline Moodle experience. It is primarily designed to be used on a USB flash drive (i.e. the stick basically becomes a server)
- These students will not be able to participate in forums, tests, etc, and won't be able to access any course modifications.
- Educational institutes can expand their training to offline students in a format they are familiar with. Learners no longer need to find a computer with an internet connection - only a computer!
- A recorded presentation about Poodle
Other LMSs
- Open source and commercial (e.g. Sakai, Chamilo, ATutor, Claroline):
WIGGIO
Wiggio is a free, online toolkit that makes it easy to work in groups. On Wiggio, you can share and edit files, manage a group calendar, poll your group, post links, set up conference calls, chat online and send mass text, voice and email messages to your group members. Each group member can define how they want to keep informed of group activity. For a complete overview of what your group can do on Wiggio, click on the video above.
Interesting/useful resources
- Wiggio video - explains what Wiggio is and what it can do (above)
- Wikipedia - for more detailed information!
Other useful information
- "Incorporates key elements of the functionality of tools such as Skype, Poll Everywhere, Outlook, Moodle, Google Docs and Drop box for example. Although it may not have the full functionality of those more specific tools." (Cheryl)
- Great toolsets - but doesn't track student participation (i.e. not auditable)
- Free
- Toolsets include:
- Comments - discussion groups
- Events - manage events with a shared calendar
- Files - upload files, create files (word or excel) or upload links for sharing
- Meetings - hold virtual meetings (with audio, video and whiteboard), conference calls or a chatroom
- Messages - send email, voice and text messages
- Polls - poll your group in real time
- To-do lists - create a group task and assign roles/jobs
- iPhone App available
- Very helpful for online collaboration such as writing strategic or business plans or other group work, assignments or tasks (Grant) - ideal for project work (Steph).
- Great for use by academic groups, business groups, sporting groups, family, charity, etc
- Not a social network tool, but a productivity tool (EContent Magazine) that is fantastic for student use
- TechCrunch compared Wiggio to Yammer and Basecamp, but noted that Wiggio was targeted more towards College students.
- Yammer is an enterprise social network that is used for private communication within organisations or between organisational members and pre-designated groups.
- Basecamp is a web-based project management tool that offers to-do lists, wiki-style web-based text documents, milestone management, file sharing, time tracking and a messaging system.
- Sharing files safely, simply and quickly - a teacher's blog!
SECONDLIFE
SecondLife is a 3D virtual world created by its Residents that was launched in 2003. Residents are able to socialise - participating in individual or group activities.
Interesting/useful resources
Cons
- You need to have a very good computer with a very good internet connection and a very good graphics card
- High demand or high resource "resource" - consequently many organisations are very hesitant to allow it on their networks
- Not an education site with warnings - therefore, there is the potential to come across strange people
How SecondLife is being used in education:
- Frequently updated lists of education articles and websites using Second Life
- Sim Teaching - SecondLife Education Wiki
- Learning from Online Worlds: Teaching in SecondLife - a research project at the London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, University of London
- SecondLife can be used in the classroom (Robin M. Ashford) to give students an educational opportunity not normally available to them in the real world:
- Classroom simulation (participants actually enter the class and sit down) - cadaver studies????
- Role playing
- Scavenger hunts
- Guided tours
- Tutorials
- Professional networks
- Collaboration
- Language lessons
- Learning by doing
- Co creation
- Real world simulations
- Quizzes
- Distance education
- Can embed YouTube videos, flickr pages, images, etc in a movie theatre or auditorium!!
- Some examples:
Other interesting information
- Possible uses: creating a business world (i.e. marketing campaigns, creating goods); designing and creating objects (e.g. fashion, architecture)
- High CPU usage
- Haven't quite established as to how to use this educationally for my students!!
- Getting started videos - this one or this one
Other virtual world options
- A lot of educators have left LS to use other options:
WEB CONFERENCING AND VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS
Previously known as Elluminate, Blackboard Collaborate is an online collaboration space that allows people to hold live synchronous sessions. Members can use a chat space to type text messages and receive responses from others. They can also use a microphone to speak with each other. A whiteboard is available for slides and other types of messages.
Interesting/useful resources
- The website has some great resources and Blackboard has some great tools
- Can join up for 30 day free trial
- Yearly fee for 50 classroom apparently not that expensive
- Resource for checking further information on using virtual classrooms at http://synchfacilitation.wikispaces.com
Educational uses
- To introduce topics for the next session
- Can use to show YouTube clips
- Great for discussions
Other programs
