Colleges Evolve with Social Media

http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=1014273576&gid=138011&type=member&item=86975053&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailyillini.com%2Findex.php%2Farticle%2F2011%2F11%2Fteaching_with_social_media&urlhash=yOOq&goback=.gde_138011_member_86975053

MIT Free Online Courses

http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=993375216&gid=138011&type=member&item=86453040&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Fchronicle.com%2Farticle%2FMIT-Will-Offer-Certificates-to%2F130121%2F&urlhash=hE9B&goback=.gde_138011_member_86453040

http://voicethread.com/share/2161900/Ok. Let's see if this opens up.

Ready Zone:Discovery Education

Online VoiceThread posts

Blending Courses with Apex Learning

There are two components to this blog.The first one is about using Apex in the classroom.

 APEX LEARNING
Apex learning is an online course that has all of the subject areas for grades six through twelve. There can be approximately 12 units for a one credit course. Within each unit you will find four to five subunits. The basic assessment format includes quizzes, and tests which include computer scored and teacher scored. Most schools that use Apex will have a site coordinator that will assist the teachers with any technical problems.

In my opinion, the student should complete all of the subunits in each section.There should be enough content in order to make the course valid for one credit hour. The main question is, are the students going to get enough content knowledge by just taking quizzes and tests. If you look at the other subunits and each main unit, there are other additional subunits that I feel are very effective in terms of understanding content knowledge. Every subject in apex learning has a practice section. I have evaluated the practice site sections and I like the information that is presented.  The practice section has mostly equations, essay questions, and illustrations that have to be completed.

The assessment section under the computerized test, gives valuable information for evaluating the students performance. you can use the test results as a room remediation tool for the students whereby they have to correct the answers that they got wrong. Also, the assessment can be used as a review sheet for the students taking the final test.

 Voice Thread 


I stumbled on this program a few months ago but never got a chance to take a look at its components and its functionality. After investigating and playing around with it. I recorded a couple of videos and I noticed it it has some interesting aspects. First of all you can upload a PowerPoint and then comment on it in several ways.You can type in your comments with a particular icon, and then invite other students or guesst to also make comments on the particular PowerPoint or illustration that you have uploaded. All of your guests can look at the comments that were listed around the screen. Another advantage is you can create a video that shows your picture interaction with audio. If you don't want to show your personal video on the voice thread, then you have the option of just recording your audio. There are couple of advantages that I've noticed in voice thread. The first one is how easy it is to upload a file, comment and then publish it.

Check back for some embed voice thread presentations.

Craig M. Levan Ed.D

voicethread.com
 

Russian Bloggers

Мой счет blogger перечислил российских зрителей на моем blog. Так позволяет, слышат это от русских.

Voice Thread: Give it a try!

voicethread.com/share/2421163/

I just produced a test run using voice thread. This is a sharp product. Click on the link and give it a try.
Let me know how you could use this product for online education.

The top online education companies

http://2008.virtualschoolsymposium.org/exhibitors.php

This a list from the virtual symposium.

Web conferencing for sports

Most of the web conferencing that is promoted on the web is geared towards making money in the social networks. The ads for web conferencing will promote free webinars that will add the hook at the end of the presentation, and then asks you to sign up for a course which will benefit your business. That course isn't free. My question is this. Why can't you use a web conferencing site, such as coursesites.com and present a workshop that can have 50 seats in attendance? Think about it. Would this work?

High Tech Tutoring

As you know the format for tutoring is to travel to the clients house with your materials, tutor the student for 1-2 hours and then set up another appointment. Next, you would leave the clients house and return on another day.
I don't like this format. How would you like to sit at home, turn on the computer, tutor your student and shut down after an hour. Or, sit at home, tutor 10 students online, make $450 dollars in an hour, and then make another appointment. Do you like this idea? I knew you would. Any questions? 

Vision

http://tltimages.fototime.com

Vision

Vision
http://tltimages.fototime.com

Wedding photography
http://tltimages.fototime.com

Motivational, posters, and executive pictures

News about Learn Central

Subject:  LearnCentral Important Announcement

Following the acquisition of Elluminate and Wimba by Blackboard we have been working hard to meet our commitments to our combined user communities including exceptional customer service, a unified team, and a collective product roadmap.  In July, we were excited to deliver to you Blackboard Collaborate 11, a product that inherited the best from both the Elluminate and Wimba platforms but which was simpler, easier to use and truly designed by the educators that use it.  

Over the past year, we have also looked closely at our community networking project, LearnCentral, and have decided to close LearnCentral on December 31, 2011.

While LearnCentral held much promise as a general social networking platform for educators, we recognize that it never became the preferred destination for educators, and we don't believe that continued development would provide significant benefits that aren't available to educators through other services. In addition, we have learned from our clients that they prefer us to focus on the web conferencing, instant messaging, and voice authoring products which are our core capability. 

We are making this announcement at this time to make sure that those of you using LearnCentral have ample time to make plans for using another service, a number of which are listed below and that also offer features similar to LearnCentral. These are free, established social networking projects, and should serve you well.

If you are sharing or delivering instructional content, please take a look at the Blackboard CourseSites platform, where you can create interactive websites to support learning and collaboration. While typically geared toward delivering instruction, it can also be used to share, discuss and develop curriculum and teaching best practices. In addition, CourseSites offers access to a 50-seat Collaborate room.

We know there are likely to be questions about the transition, some of which are answered below.  We have also opened up a discussion thread at http://www.learncentral.org/forums/site-announcements/learncentral-sunset-discussion for you to ask about anything that is not covered here.

vRooms:  The free, 3-person vRoom program will continue, but with a modified entry point. Your existing vRooms will be available until December 31, 2011. Before that date we will send an email to all LearnCentral users with specific information on how to sign up for a new vRoom through the main Blackboard Collaborate site.

Elluminate or Blackboard Collaborate Recordings:  All recordings that you may have added as resource links in LearnCentral will continue to be available, however, the links to access them will change. The recording links on LearnCentral actually point to the native recording files stored elsewhere. If you launch a recording, you’ll notice the true URL in the browser address bar which starts with https://sas.elluminate.com/ - After, 12/31/2011, you will need to access these recordings with the https://sas.elluminate.com/ links, so please ensure you separately save the URLs for those recordings if you have not already done so.

Uploaded Content:  All uploaded content in LearnCentral portfolios will be unavailable after December 31st.  Please make sure that you download any content in your portfolios that is important to you.

Host-Your-Own-Webinar Program:  The host-your-own-webinar program will be discontinued.  Any already-scheduled events can be held up until December 31, 2011, but the regular weekly email promotion will stop this week. If you’d like continued access to recordings of past events, please follow the process listed in the “Elluminate Recordings” section above.  Again, we recommend looking at CourseSites as a free alternative that may serve as a replacement for users of this program by using the free 50-seat Collaborate room in CourseSites.

We want to thank you for choosing to be a valued member of the LearnCentral public community for educators.  We hope you've been able to connect with your colleagues and make new ones, to share and discover valuable relevant resources, and to participate in online discussions and live webinars.  We have enjoyed working alongside you for the past three years, and we appreciate all that you have done to support education.

Sincerely,

Maurice Heiblum

President

Blackboard Collaborate

Free Webinars

If want to attend the Free Web Conferencing for October, then you will need to sign up or send an email to Destination Training.  ( mydestinationtrainer@yahoo.com)

Topics

• Survival Skills for Teachers
• Classroom Management
• How to develop an Online Course.
• Getting Paid for you Online Courses

Select the topics and confirm through an email. I will send you the information as to the date and time.

Florida Virtual School

http://www.inacol.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=9798
This was posted in the iNACOL forum. It gives a brief description of the Florida Virtual School.

What is your favorite motivational picture?

Describe your favorite motivational picture, and if I have it in stock I will send it to you. FREE!

Information for Military Students

http://www.inacol.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=9747

The iNACOL website will give you information on the status of military online education.  

FREE TUTORIALS

In the next few weeks I will be offering free tutorials on the following subjects:

·        How to get an online teaching position.

·        Selling your courses on line.

·        The HOT jobs in online education.

This offer will be available to those who subscribe to my blog at www.mydestinationtrainer.com.

SUBSCRIBE

AND GET THE INFO FOR FREE

Using Voki for Online Courses

As you look to the right of my post you will see that I created a Voki. You can create your own avatar and ad the text or  record your own message. You can also use it by recording a message from on your own phone. Voiki is easy to design, and you have many options in terms of male-female, or clothes, backgrounds and a whole bunch of things that you can utilize in order to make it interesting for your on line class, blog, or business. You can use it to introduce new lessons, or directions, and you explain different points in a website. Many businesses use of Voki instead of the spokesperson.Try it out.

A Great Opportunity for Creating your own Web Conferencing

I am creating a course using coursesites.com and came across a platform called learncentral.org that is sponsored by Elluminate.com. Learn central appears to be a network similar to LinkedIn but geared more towards the field of education. Learn Central is offering a FREE -host your own web conferencing that is non-commercial and user friendly. It has all of the gadgets that you could possibly think of, along with invitational system that can incorporate your contacts. Your web conferencing scheduled event will also go out to the members listed in the Learn Central data base. Try it and let me know if you like this system.

Focus

http://tltimages.fototime.com

Do you have Vision

Ask about our motivational posters.

Sports Pictures

Ask about our motivational, and sports posters.

Survival Skills for Teachers

Sign up for a free web conferencing event. Send an email to mydestinationtrainer@yahoo.com

Ride like the Wind

Motorcycles of North Georgia

Feedblitz vs Feedburner-need feedback

I changed from feed blitz to feed burner. Feed blitz is so complicated. It has more buttons then a lap top. So far feed burner is easier too use. Post a comment if you had the same experience.  

Learn Central Web Conferencing

I am creating a course using coursesites.com and came across  a platform called learncentral.org that is sponsored by Elluminate.com. Learn central appears to be a network similar to LinkedIn but geared more towards the field of education. Learn Central is offering a FREE -host your own web conferencing that is non-commercial and user friendly. It has all of the gadgets that you could possibly think of, along with invitational system that can incorporate your contacts.  Your web conferencing scheduled event will also go out to the members listed in the Learn Central data base. Try it and let me know if you like this system.   

Camtasia Tutorial

http://www.techsmith.com/learn/camtasia/7/ppt-addin-toolbar/

If you are looking for ways to convert your slides to video and add various notations, then you should review this tutorial. This program would a perfect tool for engaging students for online courses.

New post

The stressed collective staggers against the consenting body.

New Post

Trim it down to size with a light bulb

Online Education: The best advantages.

See if you agree with the following advantages:

• Less arguments in the classroom
• Precise documentation of all grades
• A complete analysis of all test questions
• It's easier to add or embed video.
• A complete record of all discussions e-mails and blogs
• More effective feedback from the students
• It's easier to change the format and save new documents 

Send me an e-mail if I have missed a few advantages.

ONLINE EDUCATION: What's going on?

Google Plus

Will the next online gizmo please stand up? Just when you thought you had the social networks under control, and they fit nicely into your classes and your life- guess what? Google plus is here, and it is ready to wow you into a frenzy of applications that are bound to take up more of your time. Well, you can be the judge. I included a link that has an article written by Jeremy Littau, where he gives a brief description of Google Plus. Don’t forget to click on Brad King’s post located at the end of the article.

Feedback

Please post your comments

http://www.jlittau.net/?p=1621

http://www.linkedin.com/in/clevan

twitter@c1952l

Georgia Department of Education

http://admin.doe.k12.ga.us/gadoe/StaffDev.nsf/MainFrameWeb?OpenFrameset

Classroom Management course presented by Destination Training

Odijoo LMS

Odijoo is a unique LMS program that makes it easy to create your online courses. Odijoo gives you access to the following options:

• Create Online Courses
• Publish Online Courses
• Share Online Courses
• Sell Online Courses
• Syndicate Online Courses
• Create elearning Campuses Online

I haven't found an LMS program that allows a member to syndicate or create a corporate campus. Syndicating a course allows the developer to create, host, and publish an online course for free. A member can host the course in Odijoo's market place, charge any fee price, and receive 90% of the fee, and 10% goes to Odijoo.   
Odijoo's campus allows you to create a branded, customized private campus, with your own domain name, that presents your companies unique presentation. You can open your campus to any Odijoo member and sell seats to your course. You can invite your students, clients, or employees to your campus  and allow them to enroll in any training course that is listed.
Check out the you tube video below.









http://youtu.be/XkPjwfVtyYQ

New LMS

Litmos is an interesting LMS that is geared towards the corporate world. It has some unique gadgets that would be of particular use for companies that want to develop training programs for professional development. The tracking system and the user friendly screens make it very easy to develop a training program that will generate reports with specific information for the team leader. It also has a neat function that will generate certificates that show completion date, title of the course, and other bells and whistles that would reinforce a positive assessment for the employees.

There is another section that would allow training developers the opportunity to sell their courses online. Litmos is equipped with an ecommerce section, that facilitates course enrollment, confirmation of charged fees, and a complete report system that keeps track of your registered student’s course completion.   

Litmos is not free. So make sure this program will be cost effective.

DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE TO MY BLOG

ALSO

http://www.eventbrite.com/org/1086827911

Publishing your online course

The software market for publishing online courses looks like 160 acre flea market. There are more products to choose from then ever before. So how do you select the best product for your course?

First, you will have to decide your target audience. A large university will need an LMS that can handle a large staff along with the student population. In this situation a tech department will be needed in order to supply the support for all the issues that occur within the system. The cost of these programs will depend on the number of courses and the anticipated student population.

For smaller groups that want to produce professional support, k-12 courses, or sell online courses, I would suggest Brain Honey (brainhoney.com). This is a great system for those that have a difficult time adjusting to complex software. I call it the “myopic no tech syndrome”.  There is a free registration that is geared towards teachers that want to blend their courses, and a fee base registration that is set up for large school systems. You will have to decide which one will work for you.

Brain Honey is easy to use, set up and implement for any course that you want to create. I use brain honey for the course I developed for Georgia Department of Education. This course is located on the GDOE website and has a fee for taking the course. After the students register for the course, I go to Brain Honey and add them to the roll, give them the log on information and they are ready to start the course.

NEXT WEEK

BLENDING COURSES WITH APEX LEARNING