40 apps in 40 minutes

For the latest Norfolk e-learning forum I decided that we should run a session on open source and free software tools. There are so many well known open source and free tools in use such as Moodle and WordPress that setting up the session was a challenge.

I settled on 40 applications in 40 minutes. A whirlwind tour of 40 of our favourite free applications that would hopefully offer something for everyone! I had a list of personal favourites that I needed to add to and spent a few afternoons searching the web for some new additions. After only a few hours I was amazed and the sheer number of free apps and also the quality of the apps. One of the first new apps I found was the awesome highlighter, a brilliant website that lets you mark up and highlight a website – allowing you to copy & paste, save the link and share with colleagues. A really simple idea with so many applications, you can use it in the classroom, presentations theatre or during development meetings.

40 in 40 was pretty fast paced and there wasn’t much time to look at anything in detail other than a couple of videos that I created in xtranormal and animoto to show what was possible.

The response to the session has been great with several people adding their own applications to the list and more commenting that they didn’t realise how many of these apps were available on the internet.

During the session I worked on the basis that if you didn’t like an app or wouldn’t find it useful there was another coming in less than a minute! We published the list on the real projects website alongside our other resources.

My top 3 are

• Awesome highlighter
• Xtranormal
• Animoto

There are so many ways in which you can use the applications and it was great to listen in on some of the discussions afterwards. I’ve seen xtranormal used an an online icebreaker, animation software, for product demonstrations, adverts and for teaching! The awesome highlighter can be used by the web designer and client or the teacher in class.

As I come across more I’ll add them to the list!

We are finalising the details for the Game Based Learning event. The event will be ticket only as we have had a lot of interest. A number of people have already booked and to register your interest please book by emailing info@realprojects.co.uk or using the contact form http://www.realprojects.co.uk/contact.php

We are expecting that the event will be heavily subscribed so please reserve your place.

The event will be taking place at the Financial Services Academy in Norwich.

ok….so its taken a while to organise the first event of the year but everything is now in place!

The first e-learning forum of 2009 will take place on March 18th at the St. Andrews Financial Services Academy in Norwich. Richard Hubbard from Renaissance Learning is going to be demonstrating the AlphaSmart Neo 2. Richard is bring along a whole set of Neo’s so that people can actually participate in this session. Over the next few days we’ll be emailing out an invitation with more details of the event.

If you are interested in coming along and don’t think you are on the email list please use the contact form at http://www.norfolkelearningforum.co.uk/ or http://www.realprojects.co.uk/contact.php to request a place.

We’ll also have a quick review of new material and products from Learning Technologies and Bett.

When I first has the idea to set up an e-learning forum in Norfolk I wanted to make sure that we listened to the people who came and improved the event. I’ve been able to move the event from an idea that I had last year to something that is well supported and valued by those who attend.

Reading this…you might be thinking….how does he know it is well valued!

At our last event I invited the customer feedback company, during the event they ran 2 live trials using their mobile phone feedback system. They asked a simple question about whether people found the event worthwhile and would they recommend the event. It was pleasing to see so many people post comments and then to read the positive ones! I still want to make improvements to the event and continue to improve the sessions.

The feedback system allowed us to view real-time feedback and we were able to collate the most feedback that we have ever had!

Jonathan Newcombe from the Customer Feedback Company was our guest speaker at the norfolk e-learning forum. He delivered a great session on the mobile phone feedbadck system demonstrating how companies such as Tesco are using the feedback system and the many possible uses for it.

When I first met Jonathan we talked about what they did but it wasn’t until I saw the technology being used that I actually began to understand how it could be used and how many potential uses there were. Since that first meeting we’ve had loads of ideas abotu how it can be used and we are going to have an open day at our offices so more people can come and see some of our ideas.

The session today must be one of the only ones I have been to where you were asked to leave your mobile phone on! I didn’t hear any comedy ringtones so a lot of people must have been on silent!

After the session there was an excellent debate on the possible uses of the feedback system for a range of education and commerical uses. A number of attendees stated that organisations that the worked for were already using or were looking at ways in which the technology could be used.

We were also able to give out a 3 free whitepapers which were provided by Rob Hubbard, Real Projects and The Customer Feedback Company. For more information on the forum including how you can attend please visit http://www.realprojects.co.uk/about.php.

Last week I went to a great event hosted by the Norfolk Network. At the event James Duez from the feedback company spoke about his experiences of running a succesful e-learning business and also his current project: The Customer Feedback Company.

James and his team demonstrated a great piece of technology that captures instant feedback sent via a mobile and displayed via a dashboard. The possibilities for this technology are vast, from feedback to workplace assessment. I enjoyed the session so much that James has agreed to come and speak at the next e-learning forum.

Mobile technologies and handheld learning are developing radidly with Africa being the fastest growth area for Mobile Phone ownership. The Guardian also ran an article about parents wanting to receive more information about their children’s performance via mobile phone. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2007/sep/18/link.link17)

We are currently finalising the details of the event which will be on the 23rd October. The norfolk elearning website will be updated with details of the event in the next couple of days so look out for the booking details.

For more information:

http://www.thefeedbackcompany.com/

http://www.realprojects.co.uk/about.php

http://www.norfolkelearningforum.co.uk/

phew…after what seems like months of writing, designing and coding we have managed to upload our new website. We’ve added a lot more content about what we do and improved the layout of the pages. 

This is the third version of the site and we’d welcome any comments about the site.

I’d forgot how tricky it is to get everything together for a new site!

At our last elearning forum our topic was Second Life. Andy Powell from Eduserve presented from within Second Life to our forum members who were all watching on a big screen. It was very interesting to see the reactions of the gathered audience to Second Life and the presentation format.

Andy gave a really interesting presentation but I thought that it must have been really hard for him as he couldn’t see the reactions of the audience…at the same time the audience couldn’t really see any emotions from Andy other than those displayed in Second Life. After the event I spoke to a number of people who were looking at Second Life for the first time who were disappointed. They had expected so much more in terms of visual appearance and functionality. Such is the depth and complexity of how second life can be used that we didn’t really get the time to show that its about more than the graphics.

From our perspective the most interesting thing was the way the presenter within second life had to interact with a real world audience. Several of the forum members were interested in using it to develop scenario based learning, while others were worried about the unrestricted nature of the world.

Last week we had a great few days where Ryan joined us in the office. Ryan has just completed his computer games degree and came in to work on a new project. We were interested to see whether we could apply any of the techniques from games design to elearning design.

The result? Excellent, we were all really pleased at how things went. Some of the ideas were superb, ways of presenting information that we had not thought of before. Ryan also found the experience worthwhile as we could share our experience of building learning models. The end result was a great set of ideas that we have presented to our client. We are hoping to build on this experience and develop closer links with the Norwich School of Art and Design Games Degree.

We have just been finalising the date of the next norfolk elearning forum. It has been set for 08:30 Thursday 23rd October. The event will take place at St. Andrews House in Norwich. If you have an interest in elearning or learning technologies please feel free to come along. The event is free but we do ask people to register first. Our friends at the Norfolk Network has offered us the use of the event system so that should make things a little easier!

We are in the process of finalising our speaker for the next event and we will post details as soon as we have them.