Resources
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Arizona State University
Campus Information
Arizona State University at the Downtown Phoenix campus:
Phone: (602) 496-INFO (4636)
Email: askdpc@asu.edu
Arizona State University at the Tempe campus:
Phone: (480) 965-9011
Email: askasu@asu.edu
Location: University Drive and Mill Avenue, Tempe, AZ
Arizona State University at the West campus:
Phone: (602) 543-5500
Email: westinfo@asu.edu
Mailing address: PO Box 37100, Phoenix, AZ 85069-7100
Location: 4701 West Thunderbird Road, Glendale, AZ (On Thunderbird Rd. between 43rd and 51st Avenues)
Arizona State University at the Polytechnic campus:
Phone: (480) 727-3278
Contact Form
Mailing address: 7001 E. Williams Field Road, Mesa, AZ 85212
Location: Power Road and Williams Field Road, Mesa, AZ
For general information regarding ASU’s Polytechnic campus including information on admissions, academic programs, registering and other student-related services, please call (480) 727-3278 or email.
More information at: http://www.asu.edu/
Applied Learning Technologies Institute
The Arizona State University, University Technology Office, Applied Learning Technologies Institute (alt^I ) is dedicated to the advancement of higher education through research, collaboration, and action. The Institute brings together faculty, researchers, students, and professionals, working hand in hand with programmers, engineers, designers, and support staff, toward a common goal; ensuring the success of all learners.
Recognizing that insight, flexibility and contact are essential to the development and continuous refinement of an effective learning environment, alt^I functions in concert with the University Technology Office to enable a use inspired, research supported mechanism for innovation. At our core, alt^I is comprised of colleagues from a wide spectrum of backgrounds and experiences, from instructional designers to server-side programmers, graphic artists to applied researchers, gifted students to exceptional faculty and instructors, and a variety of hybrid talent in between. alt^I is an intentionally eclectic mix of expertise, experience, and perspective.
More information at: http://alti.asu.edu/
Distance Learning
These Distance Learning Resources promote quality in distance education and training.
International Association for Distance Learning
Resources available from the International Association for Distance learning
http://www.iadl.org.uk/resources.html
International Association for Distance Learning
http://www.iadl.org.uk
Industry News Online
Industry News Online
Call for Proposals or Papers
Call for Papers
due September 15, 2007
Abstracts for presentations from knowledgeable professionals in industry, government, military, and academia are solicited to provide presentations which would be part of a comprehensive conference program on the latest learning technologies as they are being applied to training, education and job performance improvement, including ways to implement technology, descriptions of education and technical skills applications, e-Learning, enterprise management, and instructional systems design, together with Knowledge Management systems. The submissions should be in the form of individual presentations, panel discussions, and pre-conference tutorials.
More information, click here: http://netscape.compuserve.com/homerealestate/package.jsp?name=fte/whitebread/whitebread&floc=LIV-1_T
Learning Circuits
Our Mission and History
ASTD launched Learning Circuits in January 2000. Its goal was to promote and aid the use of e-learning, creating a body of knowledge about how to use technology efficiently and effectively for learning. It delivers a fully interactive Website with discussions, demos and resources, and articles on a weekly basis. A bi-weekly opt-in email newsletter, LC Express, sends news, teasers, and links to subscribers. There are nearly 500 articles currently on the Website.
Readers-at-a-Glance
The core of Learning Circuits's readers are CLOs, trainers and training managers, line-of-business managers, technology and multimedia developers, training suppliers, and consultants. The 2003 survey finds that more than half (51%) of our readers are managers:
• training managers, 22%
• project managers, 15%
• product or division managers, 14%
Data shows that while 56.4% of our readers come from training, many work in departments outside the training function. Many readers work in HR (13.1%), IT (5.1%), sales and marketing (4.7%), and research (3.6%), among others.
Top vertical sectors include
• higher ed, 13%
• government, 10.6%
• financial services, 8.1%
• healthcare, 7.1%
More information at: http://www.learningcircuits.org/
eSchool News
If you have 30 minutes a month, you can learn everything you need to know about school technology by reading one great newspaper...eSchool News.
Dear Educator,
Keeping pace with school technology is tough! After all, who knew that being an educator meant you needed to be a student of technology?
Using technology effectively in schools is essential to providing quality education and preparing students for the challenges of the 21st century. And one of the best ways you can stay on top of school technology is reading how successfully schools are doing it day in and day out.
URL:
Innovation
25 Web Sites to Watch
Organizers, Searchers and Optimizers
The Web has so much information that it's hard to keep track of everything. These sites will help you pull content together and move around the Internet more efficiently.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,132787-page,3-c,sites/article.html
Nano-learning (n-learning)
Nano-learning (n-learning) is the future
On our way to the airport for my return flight to Melbourne recently, Bob Corderoy and I were talking and reflecting on the increasing number of terms that we were introduced to in the last few years purporting to describe new and innovating ways and theories of describing the teaching and learning process. We took out our crystal balls and would proudly proclaim that "nano-learning (n-learning) is the future".
So, what is n-learning?
This is the next BIG thing in the natural regression progression: from learning, distance learning (d-learning), flexible learning (f-learning), electronic learning (e-learning), blended learning (b-learning), and of course the most recent addition, m-learning.
More information at: http://elearningrandomwalk.blogspot.com/2005/11/nano-learning-n-learning-is-future.html
Mobile Learning
M-learning
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
M-learning, or "mobile learning", now commonly abbreviated to "mLearning", has different meanings for different communities. The term covers:
- learning with portable technologies, where the focus is on the technology (which could be in a fixed location, such as a classroom);
- learning across contexts, where the focus is on the mobility of the learner, interacting with portable or fixed technology;
- learning in a mobile society, with a focus on how society and its institutions can accommodate and support the learning of an increasingly mobile population.
Although related to e-learning and distance education, it is distinct in its focus on learning across contexts and learning with mobile devices. One definition of mobile learning is: Learning that happens across locations, or that takes advantage of learning opportunities offered by portable technologies.
More information at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-learning
Motorola Swings to a Loss
Motorola Swings to a Loss
As Handset Sales Slide
Motorola Inc.'s mobile handset struggles continued in the second quarter, indicating the telecommunications equipment maker will likely take several years to turn itself around.
Motorola is attempting to rebound from a string of disappointing quarters bogged down by pricing pressure and an aging product portfolio. After a murky forecast for the year, Wall Street appears to be resigning itself to the notion that a recovery is further off than previously expected.
"We remain on the sidelines as Motorola's issues are likely to extend into 2008," said Philip Cusick, an analyst at Bear Stearns, in a note. "We believe management is taking appropriate steps, but the problems are far steeper than many imagined."
More information at: http://support.remote-learner.net/index.php
No Child Left Behind
AZ News and Information
Arizona Department of Education
Academic Achievement Division
News and Information
One Mind for Research Campaign
At One Mind For Research, that’s precisely what we exist to do – with the support of every major agency, research organization, research lab and advocacy group involved with brain functionality.
The human brain has been called the last frontier of medical science. Today, the elements for making dramatic inroads are here. The time is now for a collaborative, concerted effort to create the greatest breakthroughs in the history of neurological exploration.
Are you ready to be a part of it?
Social Networking, Collaboration, and Communities of Practice
A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of relations, such as values, visions, idea, financial exchange, friends, kinship, dislike, trade, web links, sexual relations, disease transmission (epidemiology), or airline routes.
wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network
Engaging the “Social Networking” Generation
How to Talk to Today’s College-Bound Juniors and Seniors
The Internet has changed the college recruitment landscape in nearly a blink of
an eye. Many of the rules of enrollment have been rewritten or even discarded
as prospective students turn to the Web as their source of college information.
More information? Use this link: https://www.noellevitz.com/NR/rdonlyres/425D56C3-9ACD-4A90-9782-F70ED7AC3CF2/0/EExpectationsClassof2007.pdf
Moodle
Moodle is a course management system (CMS) - a free, Open Source software package designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities. You can download and use it on any computer you have handy (including webhosts), yet it can scale from a single-teacher site to a 50,000-student University. This site itself is created using Moodle, so check out the Moodle Demonstration Courses or read the latest Moodle Buzz.
For more information about Moodle, use this link: http://moodle.org/
Second Life
Introduction
Second Life is an internet based, virtual reality in 3D, entirely build by its own residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 7,760,554 people from around the globe. Developed by Linden Lab, a downloadable client program enables its users, called "Residents" to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network, Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade virtual items and services from one another. Residents can also own or rent land and build virtual buildings there for their online presentation.
The possibilities and fast development is reason for more and more companies and organizations to have an online presence in Second Life.
More information at: http://www.madcarters.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Eduserv to Fund Research into eLearning in New Virtual Worlds
" PublicTechnology.net - UK
... Sloodle (an open source project integrating Second Life and Moodle) to provide the tools required for the support and management of student's learning. ..."
http://sloodle.com/
IBM@Play on Second Life
Review: IBM@Play on Second Life Product Information
Review by Tim Hall and Frank Nguyen
Product: IBM@Play on Second Life
Type: online simulation
Company: IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
Link to Second Life
Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 9,696,031 Residents from around the globe.
- From the moment you enter the World you'll discover a vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. Once you've explored a bit, perhaps you'll find a perfect parcel of land to build your house or business.
- You'll also be surrounded by the Creations of your fellow Residents. Because Residents retain the rights to their digital creations, they can buy, sell and trade with other Residents.
- The Marketplace currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the in-world unit-of-trade, the Linden dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at several thriving online Linden Dollar exchanges.
Use this link to access Second Life: http://secondlife.com/
Realization Free and Open Island on Second Life
Second Life is an internet based, virtual reality in 3D, entirely build by its own residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 7,760,554 people from around the globe. Developed by Linden Lab, a downloadable client program enables its users, called "Residents" to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network, Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade virtual items and services from one another. Residents can also own or rent land and build virtual buildings there for their online presentation.
More information at:
http://www.madcarters.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Second Life Radio Station Emerges
Second Life - Virtual World Radio Network http://www.vwrn.net
Second Life' radio station emerges http://news.com.com/8301-13577_3-9765807-36.html
Second Life is Emerging as a Powerful New Medium for Social Interactions
Second Life is emerging as a powerful new medium for social interactions of all sorts, from romance to making money. It may be the Internet's next big thing.
By Jessica Bennett and Malcolm Beith
Newsweek International
July 30, 2007 issue - It's 1 a.m., and the "Dublin" nightclub is packed. Women in trendy ball gowns and men in miniskirts dance to Bon Jovi. Simon Stevens spins his wheelchair across the room, then leaps up and starts dancing, a move he can execute only here in Second Life, a 3-D virtual world that Stevens roams on his PC screen, using an avatar—a graphic rendering of himself, liberated from his cerebral palsy. "I flourish in Second Life," says the 33-year-old, who heads a disability-consulting firm called Enable Enterprises, out of his home in England. "It's no game—it's a serious tool."
More information at:
Use of Social Networking Tools
eSchool News Online reports that "96 percent of teens use social-networking tools
Survey reveals schools have a huge opportunity to harness technology for instruction "
More information at: http://www.eschoolnews.org/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=7304
Web 2.0
In studying and/or promoting web-technology, the phrase Web 2.0 can refer to a trend in web design and development — a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services (such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies) which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users. The term gained currency following the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004.[2][3] Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use webs. According to Tim O'Reilly:
"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform." [4]
Some technology experts, notably Tim Berners-Lee, have questioned whether one can use the term in a meaningful way, since many of the technology components of "Web 2.0" have existed since the early days of the Web.[5][6]
An IBM social-networking analyst, Dario de Judicibus, has proposed a different definition which focuses more on social interactions and on architectural implementation:
"Web 2.0 is a knowledge-oriented environment where human interactions generate content that is published, managed and used through network applications in a service-oriented architecture." [7]
Source: Wikipedia.com
Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0
© 2008 John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler. Text illustrations © 2008 Susan E. Haviland. The text of this article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 43, no. 1 (January/February 2008): 16–32
Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0
More than one-third of the world’s population is under 20. There are over 30 million people today qualified to enter a university who have no place to go. During the next decade, this 30 million will grow to 100 million. To meet this staggering demand, a major university needs to be created each week. —Sir John Daniel, 1996
The world has become increasingly “flat,” as Tom Friedman has shown. Thanks to massive improvements in communications and transportation, virtually any place on earth can be connected to markets anywhere else on earth and can become globally competitive.1 But at the same time that the world has become flatter, it has also become “spikier”: the places that are globally competitive are those that have robust local ecosystems of resources supporting innovation and productiveness.2 A key part of any such ecosystem is a well-educated workforce with the requisite competitive skills. And in a rapidly changing world, these ecosystems must not only supply this workforce but also provide support for continuous learning and for the ongoing creation of new ideas and skills.
Webkinz
Webkinz World is where tweens can care for your virtual pet, answer trivia, earn KinzCash, and play the best kids games on the net!
More information at: http://www.webkinz.com/
Software Applications
Software Applications for eLearning!
Open Source or Free Applications
A wide variety of free tools are available for eLearning!
Jared Palmer's List of OS Apps
see: http://tk09.astd.org/Session%20Handouts/TK09%20Web%20Posting%20-%20W308CS%20-%20Jared%20Palmer.pdf
Stephen Downes List of Free or Open Source Applications for eLearning
Jane Hart's articles and list of free applications for eLearning.
More information at: http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?author=Jane%20Hart
State of eLearning
Arizona: The State of E-Learning: Some forward-thinking companies in the desert are making e-learning... hot, hot, hot. By Francine Hardaway, Ph.D.
Read more at: http://www.inxsol.com/America%20West%20Article.pdf
Learning technologies in the spotlight!
The Association for Learning Technology's annual conference, ALT-C 2008, brought together over 700 delegates and more than 100 speakers from all over the world. Catherine Dhanjal reports on some highlights from the conference.
Here are some highlights from the ALT conference: a report on two presentations from the business sector, and a fascinating seminar on the divide between businesses who use internet and communications technology (ICT), and those who don't.
More at: http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=191719&d=680&h=608&f=626&dateformat=%25e-%25h-%25y
The Future Online Learner Report
The Future Online Learner report explores the results of a recent survey conducted for the purposes of identifying future trends in adult online higher education and informing program development and marketing decisions. A national sample of adults who are not currently enrolled but are interested in continuing their education participated in the survey.
Diagnostics Plus, Inc. © 2007
More information at: http://www.diagnosticsplus.com/web/knowledge_center/PP/executive_summary.pdf
Technology
Technology Resources
Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
MUVE (plural MUVEs) refers to online, multi-user virtual environments, sometimes called virtual worlds. While this term has been used previously to refer to a generational change in MUDs, MOOs, and MMORPGs, it is most widely used to describe MMOGs that are not necessarily game-specific. A number of the most popular and well-known MUVEs are listed below, although there are a number of others. Modern MUVEs have 3D isometric/third-person graphics, are accessed over the Internet, allow for some dozens of simultaneous users to interact, and represent a persistent virtual world.
Where You Can Find Good, Cheap Tech Help
RAYMUND LANDEZ
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal.
From The Wall Street Journal Online
Most small-business owners can't afford consultants or an IT staff. For tech support, they draw on other resources: neighbors, friends, relatives -- anyone they know who might have a handle on a tech issue they don't understand.
But there are other sources that small businesses can turn to for reliable, inexpensive and even free tech support.
We interviewed technology experts about where to find the best help. We also asked small-business owners where they go to find the latest and most comprehensive tech information. In the process, we discovered not only what some consider to be the most helpful Web sites on tech matters for small businesses, but also government services that offer free consultations, and a business school whose students give free support to local companies facing network-security issues.
In other words, a lot of free help is available. Here's how to find some.
ONLINE
Arvind Malhotra, associate professor at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School, says he typically directs entrepreneurs to three starting points online. The first is baselinemag.com, the Web site of Baseline Magazine, a publication of New York-based Ziff Davis Media Inc.
The site focuses on how companies use information technology through news analysis and case studies and features tutorials and tools, including calculators that can help a business figure out the return on investment of tech projects.
Prof. Malhotra's second pick: CIO.com, the online arm of CIO magazine, published by International Data Group's CXO Media Inc. of Framingham, Mass. This site is geared toward chief information officers, but it's chock-full of information on new technologies, the professor says.
Next comes Informationweek.com, the Web site of InformationWeek magazine published by CMP Technology, Manhasset, N.Y. Informationweek.com is rich with news and other information that can give a broad overview of what's happening in the IT world, says Prof. Malhotra, who teaches classes on information technology and business innovation.
Last year, CMP also launched smallbizresource.com, a free technology-information resource for small businesses. It has articles about what computers to buy, what software is best for certain tasks, and evaluations of new technologies.
The site, which has generated almost two million page views so far this year, says it also provides tutorials on a range of topics, including setting up a wireless network.
"We're targeting people who work at home, at a home office or who don't have a dedicated IT staff," says Cora Nucci, editor of smallbizresource.com. While most of the information comes from the site's writers, there are links to other Web sites, too.
Recently launched Biz Tech-Connect (biztechconnect.com) offers free online tech training and information geared toward women and minority entrepreneurs. Faye Lone, founder of Faye Lone Creative Native Designs, based in Alexandria, Va., says she logs on to the site at night after her kids go to bed. Lately, she has been reading about financial-management software for her own Web site, fayelone.com, where she sells high-end Native American art and her interior-design skills. Biz Tech-Connect flags and reviews products Ms. Lone has found useful. Tutorials there have helped her learn how to design a more professional-looking and business-oriented Web site.
Biz Tech-Connect was founded through a partnership of Microsoft Corp., Cisco Systems Inc. and AT&T Inc., and is managed by the Information Technology Association of America, Arlington, Va.
Small businesses also can find free tools online from big companies like International Business Machines Corp., which encourages entrepreneurs to test emerging technologies from its labs. At ibm.com/alphaworks, for example, users can find a Web application called IBM Development Engagement Service, or DevEngage. This is a tool, found at services.alphaworks.ibm.com/devengage, with a simple user interface, largely using click and drag functions, that helps streamline daily tasks.
For instance, say your business orders lunch frequently from a local restaurant. You can build a Web-accessible online form where employees fill in their orders. The application tracks weekly or monthly costs, and helps the restaurant prepare the right orders in good time.
IBM handles the hosting of the application, which becomes accessible to a company after it registers on the alphaworks Web site.
"We are targeting business users with no technical skills," says Cynthya Peranandam, emerging-technology strategist for alphaWorks. The group uses feedback from users to potentially build a marketable IBM product.
GOVERNMENT
Another easy way to get tech help is from the federal government. In every state, current and prospective business owners can get management and technology support from Small Business Development Centers, which are partly funded by the Small Business Administration in Washington.
The Northern California Network of Small Business Development Centers, whose region covers the San Francisco Bay area, was a big help in the fall of 2005, when WeDriveU Inc., a San Mateo, Calif., chauffeur service, was looking to standardize the processing of driver assignments, invoicing and other e-commerce processes on a single online platform across its offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, as well as new locations this year.
For six months, Dennis Carlson, president and CEO of WeDriveU, worked with a Northern California SBDC consultant, who assessed the company's current systems and made recommendations. The SBDC then helped Mr. Carlson select a software provider and ensured its proper implementation. Everything the SBDC did was free.
"Because of them," Mr. Carlson says, "I had the confidence to buy the system," which cost $75,000.
"We know that business owners don't want to become tech experts," says Kristin Johnson, region director of the Northern California Small Business Development Center. "We want to make sure that the technology decisions they're making are financially sound."
The program works with 300 clients each year for as many as 40 unpaid hours per client on issues such as Web site security audits, financial management and technology purchasing decisions.
ACADEMICS
Sometimes students can be teachers, too.
This spring, the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis launched a cyber-security consulting program to help local entrepreneurs review and draft tech-security plans.
The university teamed up some 30 graduate and undergraduate business students pursuing accounting and information-systems degrees with nine small companies in the area, ranging from a two-person tax service to a midsize property-management firm.
One beneficiary was Indianapolis Appraisal Associates Inc., a real-estate appraisal company. The firm and its subcontractors, who sometimes work in remote locations, often exchange sensitive financial information electronically. Brett Martin, president of the appraisal company, says the students helped him devise a policy for ensuring that such communications were secure. They also helped make sure his Web site, www.appraisers.in, was in compliance with financial-privacy laws.
"I'm pretty computer-savvy, but I don't have time to dig into the details," says the 32-year-old Mr. Martin. "What's hard for a small-business guy like me is that it takes so many hours to read what you do for one thing. It's incredibly hard to keep up with."
Two students worked with Mr. Martin during the semester. They told him that he had an unsecured fax line that could present a liability unless a person in the office was trained to handle nonpublic information. They also suggested that files sent electronically be encrypted, and helped write a privacy policy for the Web site that tells consumers their personal information will not be shared with others.
"It was a good way to provide a student with a project and offer assistance to the community," says Eric N. Johnson, associate professor of accounting at the Kelley School of Business. Prof. Johnson, who also teaches the class in IT security assurance, says he plans to offer the program again next year.
Email your comments to sjeditor@dowjones.com.
eLearning Reports
Collection of reports, papers, and documentation.
Good News for Moodle
The American Association of Community College’s Instructional Technology Council (ITC) has just published its 2007 Distance Education Survey Results, covering data from 154 U.S. community colleges. And there’s a lot of interesting stuff in it. Here are the headlines that I drew from it:
More at:
http://mfeldstein.com/bad-news-for-blackboard-good-news-for-moodle/
Learning Impact 2007 Report
This report is provided to the general public of leaders and decision makers around the world focused on the same thing that IMS GLC is focused on: improving learning and education with the support of technology. It does not represent the views of any particular organizational participant and was not developed through sponsorship of any kind. This report reflects the best efforts of the IMS GLC staff to integrate an extremely diverse set of viewpoints and data presented at the Learning Impact 2007 conference, with industry backdrop gleaned from interactions with the IMS GLC Executive Strategic Council, Board of Directors, Members, and Subscribers.
We hope you enjoy this report and find it useful. We are always interested in your ideas and feedback. Most importantly, please join us for Learning Impact 2008 to be held 12-15 May at the Omni Downtown in Austin, Texas, USA. We are eager to add your name to the group of world leaders who are helping to set new and greater expectations for the role of technology to enable better learning.
More information? click here..