Blog Enhancements

To my readers,

I've added a couple of enhancements to this blog:

Quote of the Day, from The Free Dictionary: This is their daily quotation (appears at right of this blog under my LinkedIn Profile). There are other pieces of code on this site that can be added to a website/blog (games, word exercises, etc.) - look under Webmasters for Free Content.

Followers - this blog can now be followed via Google Friend Connect (appears at right of this blog under the Quote of the Day).

Thanks, Manishankar!!

Twitter eLearning List

To all Twitter Users:

Twitter now has lists, which are in effect subgroups of your followers that you set up for a particular reason (and a follower can be assigned to more than one list). Lists can be public (and can be followed as if they are Twitter users themselves), or kept private.

For example - I set up a public list that shows the Tweets of my followers (people and companies) who are interested in eLearning:

@tedkopp/elearning

Please feel free to follow the list and/or me - if you do follow me, and are interested in eLearning, I'll add you to the list!

It's the Latest, it's the Greatest, it's the...

LearningExpress Library! If you are a member of your local public library, you may have free access to LearningExpress. This site has a lot of online training, in diverse subjects such as courses for students (elementary school through college), MS-Office products (2003 and 2007), job search help, even US Citizenship preparation!

One glitch that they are supposedly going to fix - you can't save your place in the MS-Office courses, so you need to keep track of your own progress. Otherwise, these courses seem very comprehensive. If you are doing a computer class, it does help to have access to two computers - one to take the class, one to actually try out what you are learning.

If you've tried a LearningExpress class, please post your thoughts here.

pcLearning4U is Open for Business

To my loyal readers, and anybody else who hath stumbled upon this blog:

As part of my efforts to learn more about learning (and to obtain additional dirty filthy lucre, moolah, dinero, etc.), I have founded pcLearning4U, a new company dedicated to bringing individual personal computer instruction to Richmond, VA people of every age.

Instruction topics include computer basics, introduction to MS-Office products, and uses of social media, among others.

Please visit the pcLearning4U Site for more information. If you are a Facebook user, please also visit our Facebook Fan Page and become a fan!

Thanks - Ted

Jammed Garbage Disposal

You may be asking, what does a jammed garbage disposal have to do with eLearning?

Well, folks, we had just bought a new disposal a couple of years ago, and a narrow glass bottle fell into the darn thang, and it jammed, so instead of calling the plumber (or even the store I bought it from), I consulted the Internet (the "e" part) and Googled "jammed garbage disposal" for solutions (the "Learning" part).

Found this link - this in effect was the courseware. Among other things, I learned that the humming sound was the circuit breaker keeping the motor from overheating - in other words, electricity still flowed into the unit. They then suggested that I turn the central hex opening at the bottom of the unit to manually turn the motor and see if I could loosen the obstruction. Problem - I didn't have the correct size Allen wrench to do this. Solution - I found a sorta L-shaped thingy for a replaceable-head screwdriver that just happened to fit the opening.

So then I started to try to turn the motor, and the dang thing wouldn't budge. Then it budged a little. Then a bit more. Then a bit more as I heard a grinding sound as I turned it - hoping I was grinding the glass piece by hand, rather than stripping the gears. Tried running the disposal - still nothing but a humming sound. Finally, the thingy spun in a complete circle w/ no resistance, turned on the water, turned on the disposal - success! Last but not least, it handled cat food and coffee grounds as good as new.

Lessons learned:

• eLearning is all around you
• Feels good to not have to spend the money to call a repairman!

Domo Schola Doctrina Gratis

Yo, has your favorite blogger gone way around the bend? Heck, no - I just want to call your attention to a very interesting article in Popular Science's September 2009 issue:

Home Schooled - Free University

The author, Josh Dean, attempts to craft his own curriculum based on the online offerings of several universities (including one you may have heard of, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and other sources. He "went" to his "college" for a month.

Among other things, Dean describes MIT's OpenCourseWare program, which offers over 1800 courses online, for free, not for credit. Of course, if you want tangible items, such as textbooks, you have to pay for them. He also describes taking Romanian from a company called Before You Know It and how it won't help him on a future trip to Ecuador, how two college graduates tried to cobble together an "alternative grad school" from MIT's OCW, and his adventures in learning computer languages.

Finally, be sure you read Dean's five Free Online School Rules at the end of the article! Note also that the online version of this article includes links to MIT's OCW, and to nine other sources of free online courses that PopSci likes.

The Malware Warning is GONE

As some of you may know, any attempt to link to this blog during the last week was met with a redirect to a Malware Message page.

After much frustration, including requests for help on Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., it finally dawned on me to do the following:

The malware message page included an option to check a box to proceed anyway, at my own risk. In no way am I recommending that you do so in a similar circumstance (this is completely up to you), however, since I have very good confidence in my security software, I took the chance. Also, the malware was being reported on a linked-to site (blog.designers-x.com), not this site.

I then looked for the offending site, found it on the Blogroll, and removed it from the Blogroll. All is working OK now - yay!

The Group Scoreboard is now also up-to-date.

Thanks for your patience - Ted

P.S. - if any of you know the owners of the designers-x site, please notify them that they have a malware problem.

Blogroll - Keeping it Fresh and Tasty

Hey folks, you don't like stale rolls, do you? I've added a few new entries to the blogroll, including Moodle Tutorials.

Check out the roll, and keep in mind that no butter, cheese, or other fixins are required to enjoy this roll! Also, if you know of other eLearning-related blogs that would be appropriate for the roll, please post them here and/or send me the links.

LinkedIn Courseware Development Subgroups

now has subgroup capability! As a result, I am considering adding some subgroups to the LinkedIn Courseware Development Group.

Please feel free to post any subgroup suggestions here. Thanks for making this group very popular (as of this posting, there are over 700 members)!

iMoodle and Moodlers - New Ning Groups

I just joined two new Ning-Based Moodle groups: iMoodle and Moodlers - the badges are below:

Visit iMoodle


Visit Moodle - Moodlers

All the usual Ning features are here, including setting up a "My Page" specific to each group. If you are already in other Ning groups, you can join without building an initial profile. If you like either or both of these groups, join and invite others!

NineHub - Moodle - BannerFans

Announcing the latest greatest fantastilicious Moodle course!

NineHub is a very good site for building Moodle courses. BannerFans is a very good site for building banners. Why not combine the two? The result is:

BannerFans Banner Creator - Introduction

Please try this course, and put all suggestions and comments in the course's Discussion Forum. Hope you enjoy!

A Blogroll is not something you get at the bakery

Do you have, or know of, any good blogs related to courseware development? If so, please post them here, and if they appear to be relevant to this blog, I'll add them to the Blogroll (located just below the Blog Archive).

Thanks in advance for your contributions!

deLearning - the new Learning

Dear Readers,

It is my sad duty to inform all of you that eLearning has been abolished, effective immediately. After a careful review by some of the most well-respected minds in business and academia, this decision was made, for the good of mankind and other forms of life.

To undo the abject harm caused by the use of computers in the learning process, a new technique has been developed: deLearning. This technique will encourage all people to ditch the convenience of online learning to go back to doing things the way they were done for thousands of years. An application has already been placed with the United States Treasury to use some of the stimulus money to acquire old abacuses, slide rules, and other non-energy-expending (think green!) devices from museums and return them to active use. Also, as part of this new program, bean counters everywhere will have to use real beans. Last but not least, everyone will be taught how to use their fingers to count again (those with disabilities will be accommodated).

deLearning support groups will be set up. These will meet (in person, of course!) in small groups - a typical introduction will go something like this: "My name is Ted and I learn stuff over the computer" - the rest of the people will respond, "Hi Ted". Computer deprogrammers are also encouraged to attend these meetings to help the members overcome this gripping addiction.

Finally, since deLearning is in its infancy, please feel free to post any suggestions here that the Committee may be able to use to fine-tune the process. It is April now - all ideas are appreciated, from wise folks and from Fools.

Your humble blogger, Ted

LearnHub Courseware Development Community

LearnHub (which I first mentioned in this blog in April 2008) now has its own branch of the Courseware Development group. Please take a look around and join if interested. Also, if you would like to contribute lessons (including PowerPoint presentations) and tests to the community, please feel free to do so (I put a test there as an example - those of you who looked at the previous blog entry may be familiar with it!).

Is There an Emmy for Best New Group on TV?

Yup - we're TV stars now - how about that one, folks! Thanks to Mike Langford, Mr. tweetworks, the tweetworks branch of the group was mentioned on Tweetworks TV, Episode 46! In particular, we're mentioned just after the 12-minute mark of the 19-minute show. Cool!

While you're there, you may want to listen to the entire broadcast, as well as some of the other episodes (this is all part of Mike's blog - links to other episodes, as well as other parts of the blog, are available on the Episode 46 site).

Enjoy!

eLearning is so big, it has its own Planet?

E-Learning Planet is a new eLearning site started and run by a fellow who goes by E-Learning Tyro. This Chennai, India-based site has a lot of very interesting features, including some lessons!

Take a look around and post your thoughts here - if you have any suggestions for additions and/or improvements, please email or tweet Mr. Tyro. Thanks!

eLearning Research - Brandon Hall

This company is an excellent source of eLearning information. You can subscribe to their free newsletter, which gives you free access to some of their reports. So far, I've looked at the eLearning 101 and Learning Technology Products 2009 reports, and found those to be very interesting and informative.

There is also a Facebook Group for those of you on Facebook who are interested in this subject.

MyLinkingPowerForum

For those of you who are members of Vincent Wright's groups: a branch of the Courseware Development Group has been set up on MyLinkingPowerForum.

Please look around and join if interested!

Thanks - Ted

tweetworks Courseware Development Group

For those of you on Twitter: since Twitter doesn't have a Groups capacity in its own right, I've set up a branch of the Courseware Development Group on tweetworks - please click this link to join, or to just look around. Thanks - Ted

LinkedIn eLearning Groups

Did you know that, in addition to the Courseware Development Group, there are several other groups on LinkedIn that are related to eLearning? Here are just a few (the ones that I belong to):

• (E-)learning network
• eLearn
• eLearning Advocates
• Instructional Designers
  
• Moodlers

I hope you find these useful!

Twitter

Are any of you using Twitter for eLearning purposes of any type? If so, please explain as a comment to this post.

Thanks - Ted.

Personal Experience: HP Learning Center

I recently took a free online class via Hewlett-Packard's Learning Center: JavaScript: web programming basics. Although the class was not very detailed, it did give a good overview of various aspects of using JavaScript, in a reasonable amount of time (it took me about four hours to complete). Also, the price was right!

The Learning Center now has over 100 free classes, including those that deal with Microsoft products. If you take any of these classes, please feel free to post your comments here!