All posts by James Clay

vle

Moodle taking the lead in the secondary sector

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Moodle (the open source VLE) one of the most popular VLEs in the FE sector is proving to be a real hit in the secondary sector.

The Guardian reports that:

Schools are becoming increasingly attracted to open source virtual learning environments (VLEs), according to a report by the British Educational Suppliers Association (Besa), which also reported a solid increase in spending on the software packages that assist the development of personalised learning.

The report, Personalised Learning in Schools, questioned more than 600 schools in England and found Moodle, a free e-learning platform, was now the second most popular in schools, but with the preference split between primary and secondary. Moodle was the virtual learning platform of choice among secondary schools and the third most popular among primaries, after Digital Brain and My Grid for Learning.

However are they going for Moodle because of the benefits of the open source system, the flexibility and the fact that it “works”, or are they attracted because they believe that it is free and are under the impression that this means free as in no cost.

Anyone who has every run a VLE realises that when you take in all the costs of running a VLE, the licences are a very small part of the overall cost of the implementation, development and operational costs of running a VLE.

Hopefully those schools which are using a VLE (and that means any VLE not just Moodle) are not relying just on the efforts of a sole enthusiast and have a scalable and costed implementation plan. Anyone can install and run Moodle (personally I have three versions running on a single Mac mini) however it is a different story when that implementation needs to be accessed by hundreds of learners from across (and outside) the institution.

m-learning, mobile

Fujitsu LifeBook U810 Tablet PC

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A few reviews of the Fujitsu LifeBook U810 Tablet PC have emerged.

Fujitsu LifeBook U810 Tablet PC

This is another one of those UMPC (ultra mobile personal computer) devices which started arriving last year but are now making waves, especially in the mobile learning world. Unlike traditional PDA devices, these usually run a full version of Windows and with appropriate connections can be used with a “normal” monitor, keyboard and mouse, and used as an UMPC when out and about.

Compared to the Samsung Q1 and the Sony UX1XN (which I have used) the battery life on the U810 is much more impressive, over five hours.

I am slightly sceptical Fujitsu devices, I used a p1510 LifeBook Tablet PC in a previous job and was not overly impressed in the main as it got very very hot (and had a poor battery life).

Certainly we are now seeing a lot more UMPC formats now.

apple, iphone, news

iPhone launched in the UK – November 9th

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Apple have announced that they are launching the iPhone in the UK. It will go on sale on November 9th on the O2 network.

“We picked the best one, the most popular carrier, it’s O2. We’ve since lowered the price of the US phone of the 8GB phone, in the UK the price of the iPhone is £269 including VAT.”

That’s a lot of money for a phone, be interesting to see what the data costs will be?

apple, iphone, news

UK iPhone Launch???

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As I write it’s about five minutes before the Apple event at the Apple Store in London gets underway.

Generally it is accepted that this will be the launch of the iPhone in Europe.

It will be interesting to see if it is a 3G version or whether the fact that O2 have been upgrading their network to EDGE will mean that the UK iPhone will still be EDGE only.

Not long to wait now…

firefox, keynote, video

My Top Ten Applications for e-Learning

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My top ten applications which I use to create and support the use of e-learning are…

Keynote – a superb presentation package, not matter how many times I start creating a presentation in PowerPoint, I virtually always end up in Keynote. The latest version (iWork ’08) is a real improvement on the previous version and I will admit I do like the audience going “ooh” when I use the cube transition.

Toast – not only a superb disk burning piece of software, but extremely capable of converting a range of video file formats and doing it well. Another useful video conversion tool I have started using is VisualHub.

EyeTV – though Windows Media Centre (and now Vista) has a much better interface, the versatility, the editing and exporting functionality make EyeTV the only real choice when it comes to recording and editing television. Combined with Toast and VisualHub you suddenly can record, edit and watch that video wherever, whenever and on whatever you want.

Dreamweaver – steep learning curve, but if you need to get your hands dirty with HTML and websites then this package is perfect. Though I do like Dreamweaver, I know with web tools such as WordPress and Drupal tools such as Dreamweaver are becoming less essential than they were in the past.

Fireworks – For manipulating images for the web then I go with Fireworks every time. Can also be used to create simple animated gifs. I do use PhotoShop, but for web image editing I always start Fireworks first.

Firefox (with Safari a close second and Flock in third place) – I can’t work with non-tabbed browsers, so on the PC it’s Firefox all the time, on the Mac I mainly use Safari. Safari with it’s .mac integration allows me to share my bookmarks over multiple computers and over the web. Now Safari (in beta) is available for Window and I like how Safari for Windows looks almost exactly like Safari for the Mac. Flock is for me relatively new and I do like the integration with online tools such as Flickr, del.icio.us and WordPress.

Continue reading My Top Ten Applications for e-Learning →

jisc

Digitisation Podcast

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The JISC have released a podcast on the large digitisation programme.

The £22m JISC digitisation programme is making available a wide range of vital scholarly resources to UK education and research. One of its programme managers is Alastair Dunning who, while talking to Philip Pothen for this podcast, discusses what the programme is delivering and why the international conference in Cardiff represented an important landmark both for the programme and for wider attempts to make available scholarly resources of national importance.

Find out more.

jisc, psp

Are you ready to play?

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I dragged myself from my PSP to wonder if playing games is such a waste of time…

PSP

Today I still walk around and ask students to stop playing games on the computers in the Library.

Some students tell me that they are undertaking a course in Computer Games Design at which point I throw them out…

The JISC have recently published a guide on using gaming for learning.

Since the earliest times, games have been used to support training and learning objectives. With the development of computers and more recently the Internet, there has been increased interest in how leisure games and simulations can be used to support learning.

A newly-published report Learning in Immersive Worlds: a review of game-based learning explores the increased attention being paid to games to support learning objectives, presenting the findings of a literature review and a set of case studies of game-based learning from everyday practice contexts.

The JISC-commissioned report finds that computer games could have an important role to play in learning but that for learning to take place, games must be related to learning outcomes and be relevant to real world contexts of practice. Factors that influence learner motivation include, the report suggests, the player’s sense of challenge, the realism of the game, opportunities to explore or discover new information and learner control.

A copy of the full report of Learning in Immersive Worlds: a review of game-based learning is available with other guides from the JISC website. It makes for interesting reading.

news

Comic Life for Windows – Third Beta

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Comic Life IconPlasq have launched their third beta of Comic Life for Windows.

Here is Comic Life Windows beta 3! Please UNINSTALL your old version of Comic Life BEFORE INSTALLING the b3 version. Remember it is still a beta. So remember anything can still go wrong! We do try our best to make it as reliable as possible – but as it is a beta, we do ask that you are cautious and don’t recommend using it for time-critical work in case anything goes awry.

You can find the download, new beta serial number and release notes in this forum post here.

I do like Comic Life on my Mac and I am pleased to see a version for Windows.