CITations

It has been a busy semester break for CIT. Today, being the first day of the new Academic Year, we would like to announce the soft launch of Blog.nus, Wiki.nus and the Online Mindmapping Tool.

Blog.nus Access | More information
Blog.nus is a new blogging platform for NUS staff and students. Those who want to create a blog for academic, educational, research and administrative use can do so at Blog.nus. Of course, if you want a personal blog, there are many free services such as Blogger and WordPress.com instead.

Speaking of WordPress, Blog.nus runs on it. If you have used a WordPress blog (or most other blogs, for that matter), you will be able to use Blog.nus without a cinch. In fact, Blog.nus has several advantages, such as the ability to embed a wider range of content than the regular WordPress blogs. Also, there is a lot more storage capacity, more themes to choose from and more privacy options - stuff that's important to educators.

If you have any queries about Blog.nus, please contact Mr .

Wiki.nus Access | More information
Wiki.nus is our very own wiki platform for NUS staff and students. If you've ever required a wiki for collaboration, knowledgebase building or other educational purposes, Wiki.nus is your solution. Wiki.nus is powered by Confluence and hosted on our servers. It is single sign-on enabled, so you can sign in and create a wiki immediately in a few steps.

Wikis can be set to different levels of privacy e.g.
- Public access, public editing
- Public access, restricted editing (probably the most common model)
- Restricted access, restricted editing (excellent for collaboration)

If you have any queries about Wiki.nus, please contact Mr .

Online Mindmapping Tool Access | More information
Finally, we have our very own online mindmapping tool, powered by Mindomo. This allows staff and students to create and share mindmaps online.

Mindmap software allows you to do something that cannot be done with paper - editing the mindmap. You can also embed the mindmap in a web page or blog.

If you have any queries about the Online Mindmapping Tool, please contact Mr .

Wiki guru Stewart Mader provides pertinent advice on success strategies for wiki adoption.

In summary, he lists five points:

• Start with what you already do


• Go viral


• Invite senior leadership


• Find the champions


• Practice what you preach

As CIT looks for a wiki engine for the university community, we hope that we do not fall into the trap of "build it and they will come".

For academics who are keen to use wikis in the classroom, here are some case studies. Also, check out The Science of Spectroscopy's Using Wiki in Education.

| View | Upload your own

Wikipedia is often vilified for its accuracy (rather, the lack thereof), but it is still a very useful starting point for research. Uber-geek and PhD candidate Kevin Lim, who researches online communities, talks to high school students about how to use Wikipedia in the classroom.

He gives terrific advice, talking about Wikipedia clearly and accessibly. While the talk was tailored for the equivalent of Junior College students here, it's useful for undergraduates too.

You can view the video* at the top and follow with the slides (above).

Read Kevin's post at theory.isthereason.com.

* A pity it gets cut off during an interesting question at the end.

Microsoft has taken the plunge into the end-user eLearning market, where there is a perceived need for a pedagogically sound and easy to use eLearning course creation tool. Their effort is the Learning Content Development System (LCDS). Hat tip to Stephen Downes, who higlighted Jorge Goncalves' post about this.

Let's take a look at LCDS.

Walkthrough
LCDS is a free download. However, you must have a Windows Live account to do so. Installation was a cinch. Do note the minimum system requirements in the FAQ. While IE7 is supposed to be a requirement, LCDS works on the test system which had IE6 installed. Speaking of Internet Explorer, Mac and Linux users might want to check out eXe - the eLearning XHTML editor instead.

The interface is divided into a horizontal toolbar and three functional columns - course structure, templates and page.

The Course Structure column highlights the outline of the course. There are four levels in the hierrachy - Course, Module, Lesson and Topic. A toolbar allows you to add Modules, Lessons and Topics as well as enabling you to rearrange these.

The Templates column allows you to choose various presets from five categories - Interact, Watch, Play, Read, Try - for the Modules and Topics. These range from informational text and mixed media pages to interactive activities and games. Descriptions of these templates can be found in the help file.

The Page column displays the fields for each template. These will differ based on the chosen template. The screenshot shows the Introduction template (under the Read category). This template includes fields for instructor's photo, voice-of-expert (VOE) summary, ability to add an audio file and an accompanying transcript and two text fields.

You can preview your work by clicking the Preview button (on the right side of horizontal toolbar, indicated with a magnifying glass icon). An IE screen will pop up with the preview. You might have to allow the ActiveX control first.

Reviewer's Impressions
While LCDS seems simple to use at first, non-technical users will immediately embark on a steep learning curve. The general layout of the programme is intuitive. However, it stops short there as users have to figure out several things for themselves e.g. Templates only apply to Modules and Topics, not Courses and Lessons; the functions of each template is not explained, neither are the fields within each template.

Possible areas of improvement
- Cross-platform and cross-browser compatibility. Not everyone uses Windows and IE.
- Remove the Windows Live account requirement.
- Contextual help where possible. Perhaps the text fields should not be empty but have explanatory notes, which go away once the user clicks the field.
- Re-categorise templates for better consistency.
- Automate the publication process.
- Improve publishing options for those who do not have access to a SCORM-compliant Leaning Management System.

Conclusion
LCDS seems to be early in its development. Still, there is a solid enough base to build upon. In the mean time, as mentioned earlier in this post, there is the Open Source and pluggable, eXe, which is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

| View | Upload your own

Uber-blogger and Lecturer N. Sivasothi (a.k.a Otterman), over at the Department of Biological Sciences, shared his lecture preparation methods with NUS librarians last Wednesday.

With his trusty Mac, he gathers information and materials from readily accessible, reconfigurable and redistributable content via del.icio.us, Flickr and numerous video sites such as YouTube.

You can check out the slides from his presentation above and he's created a Google Document with the links mentioned during the talk.

Siva also briefly touched on his use of NUS Module Blogs for a student assignment. You can read the students' blog posts about animal behaviour. He also runs a module blog for LSM1303 Animal Behaviour, which is where a lot of the online material he gathers gets featured after lectures.

P.S. And if you really want to know why he is an uber-blogger, check out this video at theory.isthereason.com. (Just skip a little past the first bit.)

Even though the initial buzz about Second Life (SL) has subsided, the virtual 3D online environment still piques the imagination of several people in NUS. In the near future, the University will establish a foothold in Second Life through the NUS Second Life Committee.

In the mean time, what is an educator to do if he or she wants to use SL?

Linden Labs, the creators of SL, are aware of the educational possibilities of virtual worlds. To awaken educators to the various classroom uses of SL, they have SimTeach, their official educators' resource. This wiki site is a good primer for educators who want to begin exploring SL.

Besides the official educators' resource, Jo Kay and Sean FitzGerald run the independent Second Life in Education wiki. This site offers an extensive list of educational uses of SL. They also offer lots of pointers and resources for educators interested in using SL for teaching.

If you're the type who subscribes to blogs, Second Life and Education (SLED) will keep you up to date with the latest educational developments in Second Life.

Everyone has sat through presentations which were hindered by PowerPoint slides. Slides plastered with the entire text of the presentation. Slides with confusing and over-complicated graphics/charts. Slides which add no value to - or worse, detract from - the speaker's words.

To counter ineffective use of PowerPoint slides, Information and Experience Design Consultant Coleman Yee shares a fairy tale. He tells the story of a beautiful princess who discovers PowerPoint pitfalls and pointers, ultimately learning to KISS.

Video (direct link) via Kevin Lim.

The buzz about Second Life goes unabated. Recently, NUS Computer Centre announced that it is currently working to establish a NUS student community in Second Life. It will be "designed by students, for students" as John Yap, FASS ITU Media Producer, notes in an article in The Ridge Online.

Second Life, like most online innovations, also possesses potential for teaching and learning applications. To that end, The Chronicle of Higher Education's Wired Campus highlighted a new orientation island, developed by the New Media Consortium, which is targeted towards students and educators.

If you are already on Second Life, you can visit the New Media Consortium's Education Orientation Island via this link.

Stephen Downes highlights a website detailing educational uses of Second Life. It highlights numerous Second Life projects covering a variety of subject areas.

P.S. NUS is hiring students for the NUS Second Life project.

The Google Earth Blog lists various ways you can use Google Earth in the classroom and points Google Earth educational resources.

These include National Geographic content, Juicy Geography and Google's own educational uses site.

If you've been wondering about the possibilities of Google Earth for teaching and learning, read the article.

You can also embed interactive Google Maps in your blog or website. Here are the steps:

1. Go to the area you want to feature. Click Link to this page.

You will see a pop-up, as shown below. If you are happy with the default size (425 by 350 pixels), you can copy and paste the code from Paste HTML to embed in website to your blog/website. If not, go to the next step.

2. You can customize the embed size. Click Customize and preview the embedded map. You will see a pop-up as shown below.

Choose a map size or a custom size, if you want specific dimensions. Copy and paste the code in your blog or website. Remember that you must be in HTML view when pasting the code into a blog post. That's all there is to it!

Presentation at the 2007 CIO & Digital Library Forum, National University of Singapore.

• Blogger | Free blogs
• Wordpress | Free blogs
• EduBlogs | Free blogs for educators & students
• Flickr | Photo hosting
• YouTube | Video hosting
• TeacherTube | Video hosting for educators (unlimited)
• SlideShare | YouTube for PowerPoints
• Reason & Persuasion | John Holbo's module blog
• NUS Module Blogs powered by Community Server
• A Blogger's Blog: Exploring the Definition of a Medium by danah boyd
  
• Matrix of some uses of blogs in education | Scott Leslie
• The street finds its own use for things | Henry Farrell's five uses
• PC1432 | Physics IIe module blog
• LSM1303 | Animal Behaviour module blog
• CL2280 | Basic Translation module blog
• NM3216 | Game Culture (Design) 1 module blog
• NM4210 | User Experience Design
• A view from Singapore | Christopher Fahey on the NM4210 student blogs
• s/pores - New Directions in Singapore Studies | E-journal
  
• Urban Transport Issues Asia | Paul Barter's professional interest blog
• QBlog | Office of Quality Management blog
• Raffles Museum News | RMBR news blog
• Using NUS Module Blogs
• Blogs as Personal Learning Environments | James Farmer
• Wikipedia | Most famous wiki
• Wikispaces | Free wikis
• PBwiki | Free wikis
• Wikimatrix | Compare wiki engines
• Using Wiki in Education | Suggested uses from The Science of Spectroscopy wiki
• NM4209 | Game Design II wiki

Photo credits

• Winston Avich http://www.flickr.com/photos/winstonavich/189032152/
• Matthew Chastain Wright http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattwright/264740907/
• Christoph Gommel http://www.flickr.com/photos/cgommel/43850223/
• Alan Levine http://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/19490596/

Turnitin Bibliography by Charles P. Nelson via Stephen Downes

Charles has written and collated a rich treasure trove of Turnitin (an online plagiarism detection service) resources. While it is touted as a solution to a problem, not all educators approve of Turnitin's methods and philosophy. The bibliography reflects boths sides of the story. Charles also shares his thoughts about Using Turnitin, concluding that: "Turnitin, used properly, can be one tool among others, not simply for catching plagiarism, but more importantly for teaching students how to use sources appropriately."

If you're a NUS faculty staff, you can use Turnitin. Log in to IVLE, click Resources on the left hand toolbar, then click the Plagiarism Prevention link. (P.S. I am at a loss as to why it is labelled 'Plagiarism Prevention' here.)

Academic Culture eModule, Centre for Instructional Technology, NUS

Since we are on the topic of plagiarism, you might want to check out the Academic Culture eModule. This self-contained interactive module introduces university students to the academic norms, values and practices. Through video-based scenarios and interactive questions, students learn about Academic Conventions, Academic Inquiry and Academic Ethics. The eModule is freely accessible, so do have a look.

A Teaching with Technology White Paper: Podcasting [download pdf] by Ashley Deal via Stephen Downes

A useful primer on podcasting in education. This includes a look at what podcasting is, how it can be used in education and some examples of classroom use. This primer brings to mind a recent post I read by Jacob Christenson, reflecting on the reasons his department's podcasting project failed.

Free Geography Tools via Google Earth Blog

The Free Geography Tools blog is about the latest in "free tools for GIS, GPS, Google Earth, neogeography, and more".

• Annual Survey on Infocomm Usage in Households and by Individuals for 2006 [pdf]
• Technorati | Blog search engine
• Blogger | Free blogs
• Wordpress | Free blogs
• EduBlogs | Free blogs for educators & students
• Flickr | Photo hosting
• YouTube | Video hosting
• TeacherTube | Video hosting for educators (unlimited)
• SlideShare | YouTube for PowerPoints
• Reason & Persuasion | John Holbo's module blog
• Matrix of some uses of blogs in education | Scott Leslie
• The street finds its own use for things | Henry Farrell's five uses
• PC1432 | Physics IIe module blog
• LSM1303 | Animal Behaviour module blog
• CL2280 | Basic Translation module blog
• NM3216 | Game Culture (Design) 1 module blog
• NM4210 | User Experience Design
• A view from Singapore | Christopher Fahey on the NM4210 student blogs
• Urban Transport Issues Asia | Paul Barter's professional interest blog
• QBlog | Office of Quality Management blog
• Raffles Museum News | RMBR news blog
• Using NUS Module Blogs
• Blogs as Personal Learning Environments | James Farmer

Click To Play

You must have seen That Orange Button. It's everywhere.

Sometimes, it has RSS written on it. Sometimes, XML. Sometimes, it looks like this:

What exactly does it do?

Well, let the good people at CommonCraft help to demystify That Orange Button in this 3.5 minute video.

I've thought long and hard about highlighting this post by a former NUS student. Kian Ann was a Computing student who has now gone full-time into promoting blogs for marketing. He writes about his sociology lecturer:

What the lecturer did was he used a blog for us to keep updated with his announcements, and used the blog comments for us students to post our questions. It was wildly successful. Because of the lecturer’s own participation (and its back to the basics - transparency, authenticity, and building relationships), it was fun for the students to discuss online. The lecturer also frequently posted jokes related to the module, so we could really enjoy studying the module.

Nothing wrong with that. In fact, I fully agree, which is why I run this blog. Kian Ann implies that files and resources uploaded to the blog have context - another very salient point. However, Kian Ann also has some criticism about IVLE and these Module Blogs. Once again, nothing wrong there.

The thing is, I generally agree with his criticism, particularly about IVLE.

What Kian Ann hints at, but does not fully express, is that learning management systems (LMS) such as IVLE are almost diametric to many Web 2.0 tools such as blogs and wikis. At its most basic, the former is a closed system and the latter are open.

What happens when a student leaves NUS? His/her account is shut down. And with it, access to the LMS. Hardly a model for reflective and lifelong learning.

Blogs and wikis, on the other hand are truly learner-centred and learner-driven. If lecturers and students are encouraged to blog their learning, what they have pondered and articulated remains with them. Almost as important, their blogs remain freely accessible on the internet, so that others can gain insights, responding and building on what has been expressed.

A little multimedia goodness for the weekend.

Shaping eLearning @ NUS is a nine minute Breeze presentation about the various means you can use to teach with technology. Take in all that the Centre of Instructional Technology has to offer.

If that's not enough to stir your imagination, you can view another nine minute presentation. This one is by George Siemens, Associate Director, Learning Technologies Centre, University of Manitoba: Starting to teach online. George has a few ideas about using social media tools for teaching (and learning, of course). [via Learning Technologies Centre Research Blog]

Stephen Downes comments on a Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC - a UK body promoting the use of ICT in teaching, learning and research) report by Paul Anderson:

If you are new to Web 2.0, this is an excellent introduction. The author depicts Web 2.0 not simply as a new set of technologies but also as the emergence of six major ideas: individual production and user generated content, harness the power of the crowd, data on an epic scale, architecture of participation, network effects, and openness. The author gets into the details quite well - there is, for example, a nice outline of AJAX, an informed discussion of SOAP vs REST, and a good sketch of the issues between Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web.

I keep up with developments in educational technology out of interest, as well as to maintain this blog and to be in the know. Here are a few of the blogs and news sites I read.

Christopher Sessums' Thoughts on learning, teaching and computing
Chris is a PhD candidate and Director of the Office of Distance Education, College of Education, University of Florida. He blogs his thoughts quite thoroughly, linking to the sources he cites. His posts are more like mini-essays, where he throws out ideas and waits for feedback. Reflective and insightful.

The Chronicle of Higher Education | The Wired Campus
This is a news site which features the latest updates in educational technology in the US.

Ewan McIntosh's edu.blogs.com
Ewan is a K-12 educator based in Scotland.  He highlights many uses of social media in the classroom, most of which are applicable or can be adapted to the higher education environment.

George Siemens' elearnspace
George explores "elearning, knowledge management, networks, technology, and community".

Kairosnews
EdTech news site.

Kevin Lim's theory.isthereason
Kevin is a Singaporean doing his PhD at the School of Informatics, University of Buffalo. He is a gadget freak and social media enthusiast advocate. He explores and shares the latest in social media and how it can be used in education. Currently, Kevin teaches at SIM. His classes make use of blogs and other read/write web tools.

Stephen Downes' Online Learning Daily
Stephen's blog is a daily annotated summary of significant developments in educational technology. One of the first edtech blogs I came across.

Tony Karrer's eLearning Technology
Tony is CEO/CTO of TechEmpower. He ponders about a range of elearning topics. He has lots to say about Rapid eLearning.

Will Richardson's weblogg-ed
Will is "Learner in Chief" of Connective Learning. He's a great resource for read/write web in the classroom.

If you're wondering how I keep track of the latest content on these blogs and news sites: I use Google Reader. I don't have time to visit each one daily, so I let the content come to me.

UPDATE Tony Karrer just listed his Top Ten eLearning Blogs.