Learning Monitor, August 2009
The appearance of the newsletter here is pretty much the same as it would be in your inbox. Subscribe to receive it there.
==========================================
Mission to Learn’s Learning Monitor
August 2009
Volume 2, Issue 6
==========================================
IN THIS ISSUE
1. Quote of the Month
2. This Month’s Features
3. A Note from the Editor: The Future of Education
4. Views, News, and Insights
5. The Learning Smorgasbord
–> Webinars & Facilitated Learning
–> Collections & Search Engines
–> Science & Math
–> Education
–> Computers & the Internet
–> Healthcare & Medicine
–> Business
–> Language & Culture
–> Art & Art History
–> Games
–> Odds & Ends
6. Contact Info
7. Subscription Management
——————————————
1. Quote of the Month
——————————————
If you think the fallout in the newspaper business was dramatic,
wait until you see what happens to education.
- Seth Godin
——————————————
2. This Month’s Features
——————————————
A multimedia web-book about art and art history. This was a 2009
Webby award winner – and deservedly so. Well worth a visit.
***
The Ultimate Self-Education Reading List
A great list of books and blogs related to self-education from
Jamie Littlefield at Self-Educated Scholar (a blog you need to add
to your RSS Reader if you haven’t already).
***
FolkSemantic
A site for finding and recommending open educational resources
via Downes
—————————————————————————
3. A Note from the Editor: The Future of Education
—————————————————————————
I asked in a recent blog post on Mission to Learn whether open
education has “crossed the chasm” and headed into the mainstream.
Maybe it has, maybe it hasn’t, but it is certainly headed that way.
Perhaps more to the point, I think broader public recognition of
how education is changing has grown significantly over the course
of the past year.
That Obama wants to set aside $500 million in federal funds to
create new online courses for community colleges is one important
indication of this shift. That some of the most popular blogs on
the Internet – Mashable and Seth’s blog, for example, have taken up
the “future of education” as a topic lately – is another.
Closer to home, the stream of new learning resources on the Web -
and the legions of people dedicated to creating, curating, and
sharing them – shows no sign of slowing. You will find another
great selection of resources in this month’s Monitor
On a more administrative note, it has become clear to me that
putting the Learning Monitor out once a month just isn’t possible
for me right now. So, I am shifting to twice a quarter, or roughly
every 45 days. You can expect the next Monitor on or around October
15.
Monitor with #learningmonitor on Twitter. Unfortunately, I
neglected to set this up in my RSS reader, and Twitter only
maintains the archive for a limited time, so I lost contributions
from a couple of readers. Apologies for that. I will have them
tracked properly in the coming month and I encourage you to tweet
any resources you find and tag them with #learningmonitor.
learning resources, please drop me an e-mail at [email protected].
All the best,
Jeff Cobb
Mission to Learn
http://www.missiontolearn.com
http://twitter.com/missiontolearn
——————————————
4. Views, News, and Insights
——————————————
Here we are…there we are going
Interesting (as always) thoughts from George Siemens on open
education and the future of education.
***
Thoughts from marketing guru cum social critic Seth Godin on the
direction in which education is headed. The quote of the month
above is from this post.
***
We Learn More from Success than Failure | LiveScience
Monkey’s learn more after a success than after a failure, according
to a new study.
***
2030: Technology and Knowledge Ecosystems
A good post from Conversation Agent about a study recently
conducted by the Institute for the Future on he model of
self-contained research parks and incubators that dominated the
last fifty years of technology
***
Open Education, Open World – Podcast with Curtis Bonk
A podcast interview with Curtis Bonk, author of The World is Open:
How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education
———————————————-
5. The Learning Smorgasbord
———————————————-
An eclectic selection of delectable learning. All of it either free
or at very low cost.
***************************************
Webinars & Facilitated Learning
***************************************
As noted in the last issue, I’ve dropped trying to track and
post upcoming Webinars, as a general rule, but I will occasionally
post ones here that I think are of particular interest.
If you are new to the [open courseware] community or if you are
contemplating starting an OCW project within your organization and
want to learn more about it, attend our Webinar! If you are an
experienced OCW project manager, then participate in the discussion
and share your insight with the rest of us. Each month, we have an
expert in various fields of OER projects giving a 20-minute-talk.
We will follow with an informal discussion on the subject. We hope
that sharing the expertise and facilitating more discussion within
the community will strengthen our projects and activities.
via @openednews
***
Connectivism & Connected Knowledge 2009
George Siemens and Stephen Downes will be offering another round of
the open course they offered last fall. If you are interested in
how learning happens in a hyper-connected world, this is the place
to be. The course starts on September 14.
*************************************************
Collections & Search Engines
*************************************************
range of free online educational videos and other resources across
a variety of topics.
via @russeltarr: SqoolTube Educational Videos (RT @dianadell)
***
Impressive collection of videos across a wide variety of topics.
“Remarkable speakers, researchers and scholars present
revolutionary thoughts and discoveries on ResearchChannel.”
***
topics. “We have a simple (but not easy) mission: Revolutionize
education. Our goal is to create a platform to allow live learning
to take place over the Internet anytime from anywhere. Most
importantly…for anyone. We’re the first people (we know of) to
create something that’s totally open and community-driven (rather
than closed and transaction-driven).” This is not free – the tutors
do charge in most cases – but the pricing is reasonable.
Insights
***
FolkSemantic
A site for finding and recommending open educational resources
via Downes
******************
Science & Math
******************
5 TED Talks on Science that Will Blow Your Mind
From Mashable: “Some of the most entertaining, informative and
mind-blowing science videos on the web come from TED – the
Technology, Entertainment, Design conference. Most of the best
talks are now freely available on the internet, but sifting through
hundreds of video clips to find the real gems can be hard going. To
make things easier, here are five of my favorite TED Talks on
science.”
***
university or are an elite member of the science and engineering
inner circle, you’re probably left out of most of the exciting
research explored by the world’s greatest scientists. But thanks to
the Internet, and our list of 100 incredible lectures, you’ve now
got access to the cutting edge theories and projects that are
changing the world.”
via @openculture
************
Education
************
Jamie Littlefield at Self-Educated Scholar (a blog you need to add
to your RSS Reader if you haven’t already).
***
Adult Learning: From Theory to Practice
A free, three-part on line course in adult learning. “The first
module of the course looks at current adult learning theory, while
the second module relates this theory to the practice of adult
education. It also covers a variety of factors that influence adult
teaching and learning. A third and final module provides tutors
with some thoughts on and tools for dealing with the myriad of
factors that influence adult teaching and learning.”
***
“GamesCanTeach is a non-commercial project of Web Courseworks. Our
goal is to promote game-based learning by bridging the gap between
academic research and practice, enabling game-based learning
practitioners, academics, developers, teachers, trainers, and
everyone else who cares about game-based learning to keep up on the
best ideas being generated by the casual Flash game development
community, engage with the insights of academic research into
game-based learning, bring those two realms together in their work,
and, have fun doing it.” You’ll find a nice collection of casual
games on the games page.
****************************
Computers & the Internet
****************************
from various universities.
***
Create a simple Joomla 1.5 template
From R3ALISTIC, “a blog site all about tutorials, design, ideas,
and daily web trends.”
******************************
Healthcare & Medicine
******************************
50+ Open Courseware Classes on Fitness and Nutrition
From Massage Therapy Careers, “Nutrition and fitness are two very
important aspects of health, and there’s a lot of information about
them available online. Some of the best information is found
through Open CourseWare classes, offered by universities and
organizations. Here, we’ll take a look at more than 50 of the
resources that you can use to get an education in fitness and
nutrition.
***
The King Kong List for Feee Medical Online Resources
Zaid at Zaidlearn has a talent for catchy headlines – and for very useful lists.
“Here is a juicy collection of free medical resources, games and
courses (still under construction!) that you might want to use for
your personal learning, or embed in your course/training/program as
supplementary, or core resources to enrich the students’ learning
experiences.”
***
25 Free Open Courseware Classes About Your Health
“Do you want to know more about your health, but were afraid to
ask? You can learn more about what affects your health (and, how
your health affects others) in a variety of free open courseware
classes, offered by some of the major universities throughout the
U.S. The following twenty-five free open courseware classes are
define by categories that cover chronic and infectious disease,
public health and mental health and environmental health issues.”
**********************
Business
**********************
Authority Rules: The 10 Rock-Solid Elements of Effective Online
Marketing
“When it comes to online marketing… Authority is what works.” A new
free eBook from Copyblogger – someone who definitely carries some
authority in the world of Internet marketing.
***
A collection of business simulation games assembled by the
Association for Business Simulation and Experiential Learning
***
How to Use and Create Audiocasts – A Step-by-Step Guide for
Nonprofits
A free video from CharityHowto. Find a number of other free and low
cost video “how tos” for nonprofits in the catalog
http://www.charityhowto.com/videos.php
***
100 Free Tools to Create Your Own Personal MBA Program | Online
Colleges
From OnlineColleges.net” “From business books to lectures, getting
a business education in your spare time is easy with the right
resources. Here are 100 free tools to create your own personal MBA
program.”
***********************
Language & Culture
***********************
Learning Sign Language Free Online
“…start learning Sign Language FREE online with this 6 day
course. This course is a great start to learning American Sign
Language with Interactive software, which has many advantages over
traditional text books. Start Learning Sign Language with software
that helps you learn the way nature intended… through
interaction.” This one requires that you fork over your e-mail
***
15 Free Resources for Learning Business English
“There are many different resources online that can help you with
business English. From free podcasts and courses to interactive
exercises and vocabulary lists, the web has almost everything you
need. Here are 15 free resources to explore.”
***
15 Places to Learn Spanish for Free | Spanish Only
A guest post from the ubiquitous Karin Schweitzer on the Spanish
Only blog. “If you want to learn Spanish at your own pace or if you
just want to increase your knowledge outside of the classroom,
there are plenty of resources online that can help. Here are 15
free sites, podcasts, Twitter feeds, online lessons, courses, and
social networks for Spanish language learners. Most sites are for
beginners, but sometimes even an intermediate learner can get
something out of them.”
***
Learn Russian for free online course index
Set of links to 10 different online exercises to help you learn
Russian.
**********************
Art & Art History
**********************
A multimedia web-book about art and art history. This was a 2009
Webby award winner – and deservedly so. Well worth a visit.
***************
Games
***************
(Note: Any games that appear in other sections are repeated here
for convenience.)
“GamesCanTeach is a non-commercial project of Web Courseworks. Our
goal is to promote game-based learning by bridging the gap between
academic research and practice, enabling game-based learning
practitioners, academics, developers, teachers, trainers, and
everyone else who cares about game-based learning to keep up on the
best ideas being generated by the casual Flash game development
community, engage with the insights of academic research into
game-based learning, bring those two realms together in their work,
and, have fun doing it.” You’ll find a nice collection of casual
games on the games page.
***
Top 100 Learning Game Resources
From the Upside Learning Solutions Blog:
When writing the whitepaper about Casual games, I did a fair bit of
research and looked at several hundred web links. While doing so, I
documented a few of the better ones. I’d been mulling posting these
to the blog. So here they are – a Top 100 Learning Game Resource
list. If you are already developing learning games, these links
will broaden your horizons, as they did mine.
******************
Odds & Ends
******************
keyboarding skills. You can learn to type and practise typing for
free on its typing tutor program.
***
SARE National Continuing Education Program in Sustainable
Agriculture
two are currently complete. “This continuing education program is
designed primarily for Cooperative Extension and Natural Resource
Conservation Service personnel (particularly new staff members),
and other agricultural, natural resource and community development
professionals. It emphasizes core concepts and a basic
understanding of sustainable agriculture, its goals and its
relevance to every farming and ranching operation – large or small.”
via Beginning Farmers
***
LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain
and release the audio files back onto the net. Our goal is to make
all public domain books available as free audio books.
RT @bookoven: @LibriVox now has a catalog of 2,500 (!) free, public
domain audiobooks
***
50 Awesome Ivy League Lectures All About the Future
From OnlineCollege.org “These tough times call for forward
thinking: looking toward the future, as well as considering how we
can improve it. Ivy League lectures online offer a look at issues
including science, politics, economics, and more. Here, you’ll find
top notch lectures in these topics and beyond that will have you
thinking of days to come.”
***
Daily Lessons in Science, Literature, Love, and Life. This is a
series of photos featuring featuring Dante Shepherd, the blog’s
author, and a chalk board. Almost always entertaining, and
sometimes quite educational.
***
Astonish Yourself: 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday
Life
From Publishers Weekly “Philosopher and Le Monde columnist Droit’s
strange and delightful little volume explores some of the biggest
questions in philosophy with exercises instead of terminology-laden
tracts, by encouraging readers to discover the ways in which small
or familiar acts-fasting, prowling, playing, telling a stranger
she’s beautiful-can become “the starting point for that
astonishment which gives rise to philosophy.” Each of the 101
exercises is carefully, even lovingly explained, with duration,
necessary props and intended effect listed first.” This one costs
$10.40 for the paper back at Amazon. Seems well worth it.
via BoingBoing
