The midden

One of the highlights of ALT-C this year.

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Half an Hour: The Future of Online Learning: Ten Years On

This posting by Stephen Downes provides a useful summary of where we are at now and how we got here. He re-visits a previous article written in 1998, noting that many of his earlier predictions have been remarkably accurate. The main areas he discusses include:

new [...]

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AccessApps is a collection of over 50 open source and freeware assistive technology applications for Windows PCs, that can be used directly from a USB memory stick without the need to install anything onto your computer.
The applications have been collated by the two Scottish JISC Regional Support Centres (Scotland North & East and Scotland [...]

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Jane Hart, head of the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies, has produced a useful list of the most popular tools used by learning professionals. The list is a mix of proprietary, open source and web-based tools. She has also grouped them by type, and given other suggestions of similar tools in each category.

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Richard Baraniuk is a Rice University professor with a giant vision: to create a free, global online education system. In this presentation, he introduces Connexions, the open-access publishing system that’s changing the landscape of education by providing free coursework and educational materials to everyone in the world. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 19:18)

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This is an excellent list of tools for online collaboration from the Mashable Social Networking News.

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Miro is a free, open-source internet TV platform developed by the Participatory Culture Foundation and designed to make mass media more open and accessible. It was previously called Democracy Player and aims to make online video “as easy as watching TV”.
Miro combines a media player and library, content guide, video search engine, as well [...]

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Sloodle is a project to integrate Moodle with the 3D immersive world that is Second Life. A Moodle course would then be transformed into a 3D virtual classroom where you and your learners could meet and carry out activities such as discussions, experiments, presentations ….everything you would do in a f2f classroom. The Sloodle website [...]

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Open source and open access resources have changed how universities and colleges , and prospective students use software, operating systems and online documents for educational purposes. This article from the Online Education Database discusses some of the more obvious successes.

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