Google Personalised Homepage

Google seem to be having some difficulties with their personalised home page at the moment.

http://blog.outer-court.com/forum/94001.html

I hadn’t realised how much I depended on this page until it disappeared! I’m sure they have a back up and will restore it soon.

Digital Playground

Worth a read 

“The Internet in 2016 will be an all-encompassing digital playground where people will be immersed in an always-on flood of digital information, whether wandering through physical spaces or diving into virtual worlds.”

http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-6175973.html

E-Learning in the 21st Century

Here’s an extract from a thought provoking post by Janet http://brandon-hall.com/weblogs/janetclarey.htm

“In E-Learning in the 21st century authors Garrison and Anderson, recognized pioneers in distance learning said:

The future is for those who are ready to assume control and responsibility for their learning; those who have acquired the critical thinking and learning abilities needed to cope with the ‘too much information’ age. Those who have learned to manage learning and create; those who are will to act upon their learning and who are ready to shape change and not be the victims of it.”

Best Freeware Utilities

Interesting site here that lists the 46 best-ever freeware utilities http://techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm

So many choices, so little time!!

George Siemens; using technology in learning

George Siemens at the University of Manitoba suggests 3 stages of using technology in university level courses. They are;

Augmented (use of blogs,wikis,podcasts,email,webCT & discussion forums to extend in-classroom participation) Classes are still held face to face at this stage.

Blended (use of alternative presentation and collaborative technologies) Here he suggests online sessions replace some, but not all face to face sessions

Online (entirely delivered online, using LMS or a combination of tools to evaluate, collaborate, converse & present)

The challenge is finding ways to support learners in moving from one stage to the next.