Learning Styles questionnaires
Research suggests that understanding what style of learner you are may help you to apply this style to new things, and develop coping strategies to compensate for weaknesses or capitalise on strengths. I tested my ‘learning style’ on a freely downloadable spreadsheet from the FERL website http://ferl.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=8035. I turned out to be a ‘pragmatist’ (no comment!). The 40 questions are based on work by Honey and Mumford (1997). (Just remember to enable ‘macros’ in your spreadsheet programme when opening the questionnaire.) For another questionnaire, based on a different set of learning styles (mentioned in Ros King’s article on page 5), see http://www.vark-learn.com/english/index.asp.
Academics and Blogging
There has been a lot of discussion recently about the use of blogs (web-logs see a short history of blogging at: http://www.unc.edu/~zuiker/blogging101/index.html) both for publicly-minded scholars and for use in teaching and reflection. Some of you may have noticed the article in the Guardian recently (www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1310111,00.htm) and an interesting discussion about academics and blogging on Crooked Timber (www.crookedtimber.org/ archives/001522.html). At the recent ALT (Association of Learning Technologists) conference there were also a few presentations on mobile blogging (updating blogs using SMS or pictures from mobile phones). Here’s a useful link to get you started – www.moblogging.org/.
Greater Clarity in Copyright
With a Creative Commons license, you can keep your
copyright but allow people to copy and distribute your
work provided they give you credit.The license is currently
being rewritten for use in the UK and could be a significant
move forwards for those interested in making their
educational materials publicly available and reusable within
a clear and simple legal framework. A complete suite of
licenses is due for launch on November 1, 2004. You can
read more about this initiative here:
http://creative
commons.org/projects/international/uk/.
Streaming media tools
A couple of useful tools for those of you who use streaming media files (either audio or video) from the web in your course websites. Freecorder (http://www.replay-video.com/freecorder/index.php) is a free program that enables you to record internet audio. Basically you can record anything that comes out of your PC speakers. The program saves the output as an MP3 file which you can upload, given the appropriate copyright clearance, to your webpages or VLE. Have you ever wanted to get your students to watch a small segment of streaming video on the web but had to link to the entire clip? The Virtual Snipmachine is a web-based video editing tool that allows you to run the clip in a web interface and select the exact segment of the clip that you want your students to watch. The tool then generates a URL for that particular segment which you can insert into your course website…very nifty and no media files to upload! Although the tool is in Dutch there is information and access to the Snipmachine available in English from: www.edusite.nl/webstroom/english/12112. You can try out the snipmachine using a Realplayer streaming video clip from the rich archive of the Caribbean Writers Summer Institute at the University of Miami .
Macromedia Breeze
Turning PowerPoint slides into professional looking interactive online learning materials is what Breeze is all about. This program, from the creators of Dreamweaver, comes in 3 modules: presentation, training and meetings. The presentation module actually runs within PowerPoint and enables you to record your voice, add interactive quizzes and surveys, video etc.Wizards guide you through the development process and your resulting masterpiece is published in Flash format for incorporation in your online system of choice. There is a 15 day trial available from the Macromedia website: www.macromedia.com/software/breeze/.
(All hyperlinks to external sites have been removed from this archived newsletter to avoid broken links)
