L&T Podcast #1: ‘New methods of knowledge sharing?’

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Throughout the creation of The Compass, a toolkit for the enhanced design of learning activities, it was frequently noted that contemporary methodologies starkly resemble the traditional practices of many Indigenous Peoples. In order to further explore this paradigm, Karen Moir interviewed Marc Steinlin on the matter.

Marc is the Founder and Director of Ingenious Peoples’ Knowledge (IPK) and has extensive experience working with Indigenous Peoples in the past. In this podcast, a variety of methodologies are discussed within the context of modern learning trends.

Podcasting can be used in a variety of circumstances to enhance learning activities. This example was produced with a simple Skype recording plug-in in combination with easy to use open source editing software (Audacity).

The Compass will be launched in January 2011. The launch of the on-line tool will be announced at this blog and a hard-copy will be accessible for staff from Learning Resources and Information.

Listen here to the podcast with Marc Steinlin

Karen Moir

augmented reality and data visualization

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo&feature=player_embedded]

Online Educa

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Next week DELTA is participating and representing the Centre at Online Educa; the largest global E-learning conference for corporate, education and public service sectors, held in Berlin annualy. You will find us actively contributing and presentating at:

the pre-conference gathering of the UNeLearn  group : “Collaborating on e-learning within the United Nations Systems”
– the OpenECBcheck meeting where quality e-learning standards are currently applied on one of our courses within the field of Lifelong E-Learning
– the Battle of the Bloggers on Wednesday 2/12 where we will share and discuss our thoughts about contemporary e-learning trends

We are looking forward to this encounter with more than 2000 e-learning professionals and a wide arrange of interesting e-learning topics.

Building toolkits about learning, training and knowledge sharing.

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DELTA is currently in the final phase of the orientation toolkit, called Compass dealing with innovative learning methodologies and technologies embedded in the entire learning management cycle. One of the outputs of this toolkit is a set of instructional sheets on how to use participatory learning methods and techniques in your own context as a trainer.

The need of knowing how to use participatory learning, training and knowledge sharing methods and tools is currently present in a lot of organisations and institutions. It is one of the practical questions that we are currently capturing during the inter-agency UN knowledge fair, held now in Turin.

The experience and expertise we have used for the COMPASS we want to re-use to develop tailormade toolkits adapted to the context of other organisations/institutions. Feel free to contact us if you have knowledge sharing toolkit plans in your future agenda.

Off-line E-learning?

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Looking at the Internet Penetration Rates internet is becoming more accessible worldwide. However some regions do still face access issues (connectivity, infrastructure, …). An argument institutions use to put e-learning initiatives on hold. Much wiser is to walk on parallel tracks and provide alternative off-line strategies until internet access can be guaranteed. This blogpost is an invitation to join our list of  off-line initiatives, useful in bandwidth poor contexts.

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Quality and E-learning in capacity building

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Having a validated quality framework to evaluate your e-learning courses is crucial and essential. During our yearly Lifelong E-learning course we have evaluated several quality schemes such as:

Quickscan : “A quick orientation to all the relevant aspects of e-learning as part of a full assessment procedure including the entire manual that gives you access to 33 e-learning benchmarks.

Open ECBcheck: A new accreditation and quality improvement scheme for E-Learning programmes and institutions in international Capacity Building.

The last quality scheme is exactly focused on E-learning programmes in International Capacity Building. It is based on a low cost concept of assuring and certifying quality for technology enhanced learning activities.  It provides international e-learning benchmarks that can be consulted through several interesting tools. ITC-ILO is actively contributing to this initiative. Have a look at the:

–         Open ECBCheck Toolset for self assessment of institutions which are running programmes.

On-line facilitation. In search for inspiring models.

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For on-line facilitation a lot of e-learning experts refer to the E-Moderation model of Gilly Salmon as a good start to structure your e-tivities.  More information on the model you will find here, including the picture which you can find below.

The L&T Blog wants to update you with several facilitation models and e-moderation strategies that can inspire you. The first one is a guide published by the Centre of Educational Technology (CET). It obtains a course model, week-by-week learning activities, general guidance for the e-coaches and specific guidelines for the different learning activities.  Go to the course and have a look ! Feel also free to share your e-moderation strategies.

More about self-guided e-learning?

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The most visited post on this blog is about self-guided e-learning. For us a connection point to provide you with additional elements about this topic. We do it based on three questions you have sent to us in the last months:

1. Where can I find interesting resources on self-guided e-learning or rapid e-learning?

The Rapid E-learning blog of Articulate is an interesting starting point. You can download a free e-book with e-learning basics or you can consult their massive collection of interesting blogposts on practical e-learning tips.

2. Are there any interesting pedagogical models to shape self-guided e-learning in a more interactive way?

There are several initiatives that move self-guided e-learning beyond the linear slide-based approach. It mainly depends on what type of e-learning course you want to design. Two interesting approaches we can refer to are:

the scenario based learning approach & action mapping (see presentation below)

[slideshare id=398877&doc=actionmappingbasics-1210528860465639-9]

3. What does it cost and what kind of return of investment do I get ?

Difficult question and a lot of interesting answers. To start with you can consult the following article which collects data on “the cost to develop one hour of training“, based on a benchmarking exercise within the e-learning industry. For articles on return of investment we do refer to Tony Karrer, who posted an interesting collection of articles on his e-learning blog.

Feel free to send us any additional questions or comments.

Open Educational Resources for development

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EDUCAUSE recently published an article on seven things you need to know about Open Educational Resources. A nice reminder to highlight the importance of learning materials that are freely available for use, mixing and redistribution. This can include any educational material (textbooks, e-learning modules, course readers or other learning content).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjajtXb1PYQ]

For capacity building training institutes it might be useful to have access to these digital repositories. This blogpost sums up a series of important OER initiatives that can be consulted and where open educational resources can be downloaded for free.

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E-learning Africa

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DELTA is attending and presenting at the E-learning Africa conference currently hold in Lusaka, Zambia. More than 1200, mainly Africa e-learning professionals are gathering to share, to collaborate and to learn from each other. We will microblog about the projects, presentations and workshops that will be discussed here. A lot of other e-learning professionals will be blogging as well (using the hashtag #ela2010) . In this way you all have to chance to stay connected from a distance.