Want to learn more about eLearning? Here are some places to start
What follows is a personal selection of starting
points, starting with two major web resources:
Educause - a US nonprofit
association whose mission is “to advance higher education by promoting the
intelligent use of information technology”.
Includes the excellent 7 Things You Should Know About... series
of 2-page briefings on emerging learning technologies and related practices.
This vast web resource includes an online journal, podcasts, and reports such
as the Horizon Report 2009
which identifies and
describes “emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching,
learning, research, or creative expression within learning-focused
organizations”
JISC - a UK body that “manages research and innovation programmes in the use of ICT in teaching, learning and research to build knowledge; develop services, infrastructure or applications; and provide guidance and leadership”. This vast web resource includes briefing papers, reports and Inform 24, a quarterly magazine raises awareness of the use of ICT to support further and higher education. Examples include a short briefing on Creative Commons Licences and a report from the Learner Experiences across the Disciplines (LEaD) project, a study of the use of learning technology by first-year University students, concentrating on the critical transition needed to study effectively within a University environment.
Books: Handbook
for Emerging Technologies - Peter Tittenberger and George Siemens (March 2009) have designed this resource for
educators planning to incorporate technologies in their teaching and learning
activities (can be downloaded as a PDF document to print). Other books from IT Carlow Library:
·
on
aspects of eLearning (by Gilly Salmon, Diane Laurillard, Roger Schank, D.R.
Garrison and Terry Anderson, David McConnell, and more – see for example Dr Stephen Bostock’s (2007) e-Teaching: Engaging
Learners Through Technology London: SEDA)
·
as
chapters within books on teaching and learning (see for example Phil Race’s
(2005) Making learning
happen London: Sage)
Journals: British journal of educational technology,
On the Horizon - strategic
issues for education, Educational technology & society, The
Internet and Higher Education, Computers
& Education, Journal of Technology, Learning, and
Assessment, and the Journal of computer assisted learning
(for further research on any aspect of education, the free ERIC database is recommended)
Websites and blogs:
·
Centre for Learning & Performance
Technologies - established by Jane Hart as a place to keep track of
learning trends, technologies and tools. Here you will find a number
of free resources about learning tools and technologies, including a Directory of Learning Tools, Top Tools for Learning
2009 and A Guide to Social Learning.
·
Stephen’s Web - unsurprising many eLearning experts blog. Canadian Stephen
Downes’ blog is good, with short thoughtful posts on online learning, content
syndication, and new media.
·
Irish Learning
Technology Association - website for a community of professionals committed to the development
and exchange of knowledge by sharing expertise and the promotion of best
practice in technology-enhanced learning, includes EdTech conference papers and
links
Previous Sites of the Month
March - Reuseable Learning Objects from the RLO CETL
Reuseable Learning Objects (RLOs) are high quality interactive multimedia resources,
that is short online activities that integrate sound, animation and text with things to do.
February - slideshare.net
Slideshare is an online repository for presentations. "SlideShare is the best way to share and find presentations.
Share publicly or privately. Add audio to make a webinar." Presentations can be embedded in websites, blogs and your Blackboard courses.
February - LexisNexis News & Business
Use to find full-text of newspaper and magazine articles (legal,
news and business information service with 2 billion documents gathered from 28,000 sources)
December - Flickr
Add images to your presentations and handouts using Flickr, the online photo management and sharing application
November - OpenLearn
The OpenLearn website gives free access to course materials from The Open University.
Areas include study skills, engineering, maths, science, IT, business, law, and languages.
These can be hyperlinked to or downloaded, adapted and embedded in your Blackboard site.
October - The Common Craft Show
A good source of short videos, including topics such as wikis, blogs, social bookmarking, twitter, RSS and more.
If you have any suggestions or
questions, please contact Damien Raftery, eLearning
Development Officer