Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org

Graphs: Learning that Impacts Work

2009-12-26T21:24:00.000-06:00

Graphs appearing in this blog entry were inexpertly designed based on the data appearing in the publication cited below:

Straub, R. (2009). Knowledge work in a connected world: is workplace learning the next big thing? Impact: Journal of Applied Research in Workplace E-learning, 1(1). 5–11.

In this 21st-century work scenario, workplace learning becomes by default the dominant form of learning. We are learning in the workplace, whilst doing our jobs, most of it happening without being consciously perceived by either employee or employer as a learning process.

This informal learning is estimated to account for 70% to 90% of all learning that knowledge workers acquire, with the significantly smaller balance taking place through formal, off-the-job training (Cross, 2006). To further emphasise the point, research indicates that not more than 10% cent of formal off-the-job training is transferred to the workplace (Ford & Weissbein, 1997).

Key points:

If research looks at workplace e-learning as the ‘next big thing’ in isolation, it may, unfortunately, fall victim to the same flaw that underlay John Chambers’ prediction: it was not e-learning that was to become the next big thing, but rather the relentless need to learn and to innovate.
Tools and techniques for enabling and supporting learning can range from face-to-face, online and blended courses and interventions to the use of email, blogging, social networking and other tools, but it is critical that the means not be confused with the end.
Workplace e-learning, if understood as a set of technologies and capabilities, is simply a means to an end, where the end is to create superior value in an ever faster-moving, more complex and more unpredictable global marketplace.
Drucker, in his explorations of the subject spanning half a century, captured the essence of the knowledge workers by highlighting a number of distinctive traits they exhibit – for example, they know their tasks better than their managers do; they are highly specialised; they are connected to other knowledge workers in the same specialty knowledge field. They must be given objectives to serve organisational goals; however, they must be allowed to exercise initiative rather than simply being told how to reach the given objectives.
Knowledge workers define their job and communicate it to those who need to know. To achieve their potential they require high degrees of autonomy and control, which includes self-determination of learning needs and priorities.
The knowledge worker’s need for autonomy and the tension this can create is further emphasised by Davenport (2005), who outlines the challenges such autonomy brings: for example, it is very difficult for management to discern when knowledge workers are actually ‘working’, since they work through their brains rather than their bodies.
Tools and techniques for enabling and supporting learning can range from face-to-face, online and blended courses and interventions to the use of email, blogging, social networking and other tools, but it is critical that the means not be confused with the end.
Workplace e-learning, if understood as a set of technologies and capabilities, is simply a means to an end, where the end is to create superior value in an ever faster-moving, more complex and more unpredictable global marketplace.

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Vimeo for School District Video Streaming?

2009-12-26T08:52:00.000-06:00

Source: Vimeo.com web site

This morning, I woke up remembering a suggestion someone had made for a commercial web site...instead of hosting the video yourself--all that high def goodness in large packages--it might be a better bet to get Vimeo to host it. For $60 a year, you can get the Vimeo Plus account with a variety of features...

Pretty amazing when you consider everything you get...for $60 a year, or as they point out, 16cents per day. Here are some of the features I like (aside from what's shown above):

Customizable Player - Now you can customize almost every single aspect of the player. Don't want the playbar? Take it out. Want to choose what happens at the end of the video? Of course you do. There are so many options, it might just blow your mind.
25,000 free HD embed plays with purchase
Hide your videos from playing on Vimeo but allow embedded videos on other sites to see them (great for a school district posting videos on their own web site but not wanting them viewed on Vimeo)

Any school districts or non-profits using Vimeo Plus account for hosting?

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DiigoNotes - $99 Laptop

2009-12-23T13:16:00.002-06:00

Cherrypal
- Save big with the new Cherrypal Africa
  
  At just $99, the new 7” Cherrypal Africa is one of the best buys in the world of electronics. Created with developing countries in mind, the Africa is our latest step toward closing the “digital divide”, and we’re extremely proud of this achievement. Whether you live in Ghana or Texas, the Cherrypal Africa is right for you!
  Based on an 400 MHz processor, the “big enough” Africa is powerful enough to do what you need it to. From browsing the Internet to word processing, the Africa runs Windows CE and is the perfect size to take anywhere. Where do you want to go?

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Impact - A New Journal

2009-12-23T01:36:00.001-06:00

An announcement from the Editor in Chief...my only objection to this new journal is that they'd have a greater impact if they'd put the articles in HTML rather than PDF. Sheesh.

It is with great pleasure that I write to you to announce that the long awaited and much anticipated inaugural issue of Impact: Journal of Applied Research in Workplace E-learning has now been published at http://journal.elnet.com.au/impact. A copy of the issue's Table of Contents is included at the end of this message.

The inaugural issue, the theme of which is "Current issues and future directions in workplace e-learning: Mapping the research landscape", is a 'bumper' issue containing no less than 14 refereed articles written by authors from France, the UK, Ireland, the USA and Australia. The full text of all 14 articles is available to all those who register for a free account at http://journal.elnet.com.au/index.php/impact/user/register

The publication frequency of Impact will increase to bi-annual in 2010, followed by quarterly in 2011 and subsequent years. Manuscript submissions are now being accepted via the online submission system for the first regular issue of the journal (Vol 2, No 1 - to be published in July 2010) - Please see the "About" section of the journal's Web site for information about the journal's focus and scope as well as detailed guidelines for authors.

The second issue of Impact in 2010 (Vol 2, No 2), which will be published in December, is intended to be a special, themed issue on the topic of e-learning evaluation and transfer. More details, including a formal Call for Papers, will be made available in early 2010. Meanwhile, expressions of interest can be sent to impactjournal@elnet.com.au.

Looking forward to reading it!!

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Being Professionally Published

2009-12-22T21:20:00.001-06:00

Doug Johnson (Blue Skunk Blog) shares in Where to Start as a Writer for Professional Publications some advice:

Twice in the past week or so, I've been asked how one can become a Professional Published Author and make millions of dollars in royalties and article sales.
I am afraid writing for professional publication is not the most lucrative endeavor. On an hourly basis, being a Wal-Mart greeter probably pays better (and is more respectable)...

Oh, I always write the article first and then send it to publishers rather than contact publishers to see what they want. Aim for about 1500-2500 words. Most magazines have some sort of editorial guidelines if you look for them

We need fresh voices in the field and print is a good way to reach many who don't read much online. And I still think there is some degree of gravitas that accompanies publication in an edited, print publication.

I still remember the excitement I felt from my first publication in a national magazine, the thrill (and indignation) from getting a check for $200, even though my article was trimmed down, the lead re-written, and the title changed. Over the years, I've cranked out a few articles, and done it for fun and, yes, for the same reason Doug mentions above (bold).

The more bloggers come online, though, the less value I see in print publications. For example, my Download a la Mode column which ran for a few years, off and on, is now easily overshadowed by the wealth of DAILY updated, awesomely written and illustrated content. That column is now worthless except as a way to point people to online resources.

Of course, wisdom remains in short supply as does the ability to share what you have done, successfully or not, to the benefit of others who must follow the path you have stumbled on. I'm inspired by this excerpt from The Bridge-Builder by Will Allen Dromgoole...

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim, near ,
"You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way;
You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide-- Why build you the bridge at the eventide?

The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said, "There followeth after me today
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;

Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."

For me, writing articles for publications helps reach a wide audience of learners, people I might never reach with my blog. As a result, I'm grateful when an editor somewhere deems my writing worthy enough by HIS/HER criteria to pay me for my writing ($250 to $700) but I write whether I have an editor or not, a publisher or not. It is an amazing idea that the work that I value, others find value in. Yet, would knowing that Download a la Mode articles would not be as helpful stopped me from doing the learning necessary to write them? Not at all!

After all, just as Doug built that bridge for me, so do I labor for the learners with youthful attributes that must follow...and just because someone else has done it, no reason why I can't, too.

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Reflecting on Juxtapositions: Moses and the GTA for Admin

2009-12-22T20:40:00.005-06:00

Image Source: http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2009/12/google_apps-300x296.png

Over the last week, a few folks have been having a conversation about the Google Teacher Academy (GTA) for Administrators...the next one I know about is in San Antonio, Tx on March 5, 2010. GTA describes itself in this way:

The Google Teacher Academy for Administrators is a FREE professional development experience designed to help K-12 educational leaders get the most from innovative technologies. Each Academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google's free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and learn how to apply examples from our innovative corporate environment.

Upon completion, Academy participants become Google Certified Teachers who share what they learn with other K-12 educators in their local region - and around the world. This GTA will be held in San Antonio, Texas, right before the ASCD conference.

In reviewing the agenda, folks like David Jakes and others have pointed out that this training isn't any different than what teachers experience, replete with Read/Write Web tools and less about leadership. David Jakes writes the following:

Why do a teacher academy for administrators? I guess it could imply that everyone is a teacher, or it could simply mean the organizers did a bad job of crafting a title.
It’s a different audience with a different need. And if they don’t know the tools by now, which is a reality, they [administrators] shouldn’t apply. . .The time has come for a different kind of experience, moving beyond tools. Tools could certainly be included in the context of the day, but it needs to be more.

I don't agree with David's rationale, here. Simply, administrators need to learn the tools and they may find no better context to do so, no better impetus to access globally useful tools than through a GTA for Administrators...something that teaches them what they SHOULD know, that their teachers MAY ALREADY KNOW (not likely), in a SAFE, LEARNING ENVIRONMENT that AFFIRMS their willingness to learn. The badge of honor is not that they learned the tools but that they made the effort to step up and learn how GoogleApps are usable in K-12 teaching, learning and leading environments.

My middle school principal in a small, urban district in San Antonio, Tx was a technophobe. He believed our students should be using it, but he kept a flip-chart in his office, and never used the computer that sat perpetually powered down on his desk. He organized budgets to support technology but couldn't ever use an Excel spreadsheet. Once, though, he made the effort to learn and sat down with teachers. He was easily befuddled and his lack of familiarity with technology showed. He excused himself after 20 minutes, citing some reason or another. It's an attitude I've seen time again--administrators willing to support an innovative practice without the ability, wherewithal to achieve it.

It reminds me of Moses and Joshua overlooking the Promised Land (Deut 34). Moses got us here, but it was Joshua who would lead us forward into the change. Both are essential to the mission, yet only one is malleable and open to the changes needed. One is held back by their own past actions and failure to be true to primary mission...not that power comes from tools and how we use them but the collective benefit accrued that is irrespective of any one person's effort.

Imagine that...there are some admin who will see the Promised Land of the Read/Write Web, but will not be able to cross into it.

And the Lord said unto him,
        This is the land which I sware unto Abraham,
            unto Isaac,
            and unto Jacob, saying,
                I will give it unto thy seed:
                I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes,
                but thou shalt not go over thither.
:5 So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab,
    according to the word of the Lord.

If the GTA for Admin is a way of helping administrators see the Promised Land, a way for them to better understand the work of teachers, then it is valuable in itself. Or, if like Mel Gibson's portrayal of Lieutenant General (Ret.) Hal Moore , it intends for the administrator to lead his men into battle, to model what real leadership is like, it may be a start in a safe environment.

Or, if we must examine all the options, poor ones as well, it may just be that this is a way of getting educators to adopt GoogleTools before Google hikes up the cost of its web-based services and tools for K-12 educators. In fact, the sum of an argument against Google's Teacher Academies--whether for teachers and administrators--can be found in the following question:

What better way to hook K-12 Education than to offer its services for free, build up an educator network that advocates and has high profile speakers to push its product, and then leverage that new found "friendship and goodwill" to help pay for Google-based services in the Cloud?

After all, consider Discovery Education's "Discovery Educator Network" (DEN). Isn't such an effort exactly about generating excitement from educators who recognize the value of a product (e.g. united streaming) then tell their friends? But there should be no surprise there.

Building an online, vibrant global community that can create, connect, collaborate with each other is exactly what everyone of us should know how to do. Of course Google or Discovery Education are going to do this around THEIR tools, their services...that's the common thread that binds them. And, as Diane Main points out in the comments of David Jakes' post, the experience of becoming aware won't hurt administrators:

...admins should also be aware of what teachers would be encouraged to use these ideas for and how teachers may already be trying to push to have change take place in their schools or districts.

Some administrators have been out of the classroom long enough to not fully realize how the student experience has changed . . . or perhaps desperately needs to change . . . in their own schools. Many admins are fantastic, current, and involved. But I have known a few who got as far as they could in their positions and then just dug in and stagnated.

I’m hoping that some of them could be reached by these programs and perhaps be the catalyst to energize their teachers to look into ways we can change how students experience school these days.

The time to have conversations about learning, teaching and leading, what's possible, what's not are critical...consider Sylvia Martinez' blog post about communities of interest or practice...what would GTA for Admins be?

These groups of people learn to do their work not by lectures, but by everyone working together, from experts to newcomers, and most importantly, by talking about their work together. The concept of “Legitimate Peripheral Participation” is key to the idea of communities of practice. This is when newcomers learn needed skills by doing work that is on the periphery of the community, and as they prove their competence, being invited into more important roles. The other part of legitimate peripheral participation is how newcomers move into the community through talk. The shared stories of the community, particularly war stories told by experts, are part of the experience.

Is there a way for admins participating in GTA to learn needed skills by doing work on the periphery of the community, proving their competence? Is there any mechanism for inviting them into more important roles, and how are those roles biased in light of Google's (a corporation) push into schools for profit-making (it must come eventually, no matter how many free GoogleApps for Educator sites are put in place for K-12 schools)?

Although David certainly gets us there in asking some questions, they are Google-focused. Here are some questions I'd like to see answered--and not necessarily be the one answering them if I'm attending!!--by GTA for Admins organizers, if such answers can be found:

How can GTA Admins facilitate change in their own campus, district-level environments? One of the biggest challenges facing leaders is their unpreparedness to bring about change. This is a key topic that supersedes any discussion about using Google for data gathering, or achieving state/federal mandates, saving money, building personal learning networks, etc. IMHO.
How can we help GTA Admins--or any admin in schools--to realize that transformational leadership is a personal choice? Often, my experience has seen campus and district leaders who are merely "cogs in the machine," locked into a top-down model (what Robert Quinn calls a "frozen bureaucracy") that dictates what they are to do, whose agendas for "transformational learning" are determined by outsiders disconnected from the realities of public schools. Such a dysfunctional model limits who we can be, discounts the use of GoogleApps and other tools because they involve conflict that is undesirable.
How can we help GTA Admins re-examine the cultural values of their school community? Simply, what is it that we have come to value and how can we think different, do different things than we've done in the past that are aligned to those values?

Reviewing the GTA for Admin tools can be an empowering experience for individual admins, as well as those they serve. Learning how to use Google Sites, Blogger, and other publish at will technologies that empower collaboration are awesome experiences. Administrators need those experiences.

But more importantly, they need to know how to bring about personal transformational change, learn how to engage in conflict that aligns actions to cultural values or redeems values that have lost it. I may know 100 tools, but if I don't know how to bring about change in the complex environment of K-12 education, I don't know how to interact with others in my leadership environment, then I am an uncut diamond caught in the rock.

In truth, here's what I'm looking for as a public school administrator:

Witness Google's vision for education as expressed by the GTA facilitators and contrast it with my own, my organization's.
Build relationships--expand my personal learning network--with other educators participating in the San Antonio GTA for Admins.
Allow myself to experience the enthusiasm and excitement of the GTA for Admins
Go through the process of applying, creating a video, etc. even though crafting a "creative" video is not one of my recognized strong points.

Admittedly, these are simple take-aways. If the GTA for Admins could give me a solid process for achieving the leadership and transformation questions asked earlier, then that would be terrific...but unlikely. Google has organized itself around TOOLS, around APPS...it's taken care of the technology but left the transformation leadership in our hands...where it should be.

Ah...to end with a Moses analogy here, too. It's not about the tools, it's about the power and your use of it.

use the "staff" too much, you won't get the benefits of the work...or, focus on GoogleApps too much, and you'll never achieve the benefits of true leadership.

Does this analogy work? A little...it's fun, though, to think of Moses the Lawgiver as a modern day administrator caught up in the tools, wielding his power inappropriately and not following directions rather than learning the true use of the power granted to him/her by the tools available. Is Google, God in this analogy? No. But certainly transformational leadership is a higher-power, the communal good of the people and right ways of behaving in the community of global learners.

Related Blog Posts on the Subject of GTA for Admin: (compiled by Brian Van Dyck)

Google Academy for Administrators - strength of Weak Ties blog on GTA for Administrators

9 Dots - DJakes presentation at GTA - DJakes GTA presentation & Notes

Badge of Honor - DJakes thoughts on conference/workshop corporate Badges

Response to Badge of Honor - by Paula White

The Age of Google - The blogpost by one of Alec Couros's students. Understand that Nathan is only 19 - 20 years of age, and Alec posted the link to this on Twitter to get feedback for his student from GCTs that had genuine experience within the GCT community.

DEN Connecticut Blog ~ Google Academy for Administrators - found on Discovery Education network

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Setting up a New Acer Aspire One

2009-12-22T16:21:00.001-06:00

Recently, a friend purchased an Acer Aspire One. Great netbook to use, but I have to admit, I had a similar reaction to Seth Godin's post:

Apparently, a computer is now not a computer, it's an opportunity to upsell you.
First, the setup insisted (for my own safety) that I sign up for an eternal subscription to Norton. Then it defaulted (opt out) to sending me promotional emails. Then there were the dozens (at least it felt like dozens) of buttons and searches I had to endure to switch the search box from Bing to Google. And the icons on the desktop that had been paid for by various partners and the this-comes-with-that of just about everything.

One of my first steps was to install the following:

CCleaner (to help get rid of stuff and clean the registry out)
Panda Cloud Antivirus (free antivirus that works on the cloud, appropriate for a netbook connected 100% of the time to the Web)
7Zip
Filezilla FTP client
FSCapture for Image Captures
The GIMP for image editing
MalwareBytes for antimalware
MediaCoder and XPCodecs
OpenOffice 3.x
PhotoStory
SpywareBlaster
SumatraPDF (lite alternative to Adobe PDF Reader)
TrueCrypt for creating encrypted drives for private data
VLC Media Player for handling everything
WinFF for video/audio conversion

and, regrettably,

iTunes and Quicktime

My final act is to make a file system archive (FSA) of the whole drive so that I can restore it when problems occur...and let's face it, since it's Windows, there will be problems. I also had to uninstall a bunch of stuff that came with it...MS Office 2007 trial, Norton, McAfee, and a few other things. Using CCLeaner made it an easy process.

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What have you done with students? Teachers Teaching Teachers

2009-12-21T21:55:00.000-06:00

When other podcasters might be worried about cooking the turkey, wrapping presents, standing in line at Honeybaked Ham Co, Paul Allison is sending out messages like this one! Tune in if you can!

Break out the microphone and ear-buds, and get ready to skype in to Teachers Teaching Teachers on Wednesday, December 23, 2009.

We will be asking you to tell us about something you did with your students this year.. something that was new for you... something that you want to keep exploring in the coming year.

Be ready to paint a picture for us of what it looks like when you are using this new (to you) tool, approach, or idea in your classroom.

For example, maybe you are using flickr in a new way, or maybe your students are using Diigo for the first time, or perhaps you've been using VoiceThread or maybe it's a new educational game that you've found success with. Maybe you've found a new way for students to do online research or read online.

We have not invited any specific guests. We want to invite YOU to jump in with YOUR STORIES as the year winds down.

Paul Allison, Susan Ettenheim, and Chris Sloan will moderate.

Join us at http://EdTechTalk.com/live at 9:00pm Eastern / 6:00pm Pacific USA Wednesdays / 01:00 UTC Thursdays World Times

Please be ready with earbuds and a microphone, if possible!

“The show’s success comes from our motto: Keep it real,” says Allison. “We always ask each other and our guests to ‘paint a picture’ for us, ‘describe what it looks like on Monday morning.’”
http://www.techlearning.com/article/26018

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TrueCrypt for Data Protection

2009-12-21T21:52:00.001-06:00

A colleague shared a response to my previous blog entry, Maybe I should be encrypting my data.

A quick way to get started with protecting your data is to use TrueCrypt.org ! Since I use TrueCrypt on Mac, Win and Linux machines, I've found it a great way to transport encrypted data and have it accessible across multiple platforms. Yet, how to introduce someone to TrueCrypt?

To that end, I sought out some tutorials on the web worth sharing:

Or, watch these videos that you start you from scratch:

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Computer Replacement Survey - Results are In!

2009-12-21T21:26:00.000-06:00

Regarding the Computer Replacement Survey I wrote about earlier, Richard Armand (Mesquite ISD) writes:

Thank you for participating and here are the results as of December 21. We have results from 11 states representing 33 districts. The results will update as other districts complete the survey. If you need to adjust your response please email the information.

One of the points worth mentioning is that Mesquite ISD has embraced the use of GoogleApps for Education, something other districts have not yet done, for data collection. It would be interesting to see the actual graphs generated by the Summary feature in GoogleDocs!

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Encrypt Your Gmail Email Messages

2009-12-21T21:21:00.001-06:00

Encrypting one's email--and messages--seems a bit paranoid, yet I find myself doing so for stuff I just don't want to drop in "plain text" in my inbox. As access to the cloud makes it easier to save stuff there, I find myself wanting to store some of my important documents.

My first experiences with Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) and later, GPG, were a pain in the rear. Setting up keys and all the mumbo jumbo never seemed to make much sense. What's worse, I could never find anyone to share my encrypted documents with (except for Wes Fryer and a security-conscious principal I worked for and mentored in all things DOS).

Over time, though, I've seen the tools evolve and get much easier to use. FireGPG is one of those add-ons to Firefox that makes encrypting your email in Gmail much easier, assuming you've done the work of setting up your own public/private key. Here's a brief description from their web site (you can also follow their progress via their blog):

FireGPG is a Firefox extension under MPL that provides an integrated interface to apply GnuPG operations to the text of any web page, including encryption, decryption, signing, and signature verification.

Since I use GPG encryption/decryption on every platform--Mac, Linux, Windows--I feel pretty comfortable encrypting material to myself that I wouldn't want folks to read or access.

For example, on my Mac, after setting up my private/public key, I installed FireGPG and then began composing an email in Gmail.

This image above basically shows me highlighting a message text, then right-clicking and choosing Encrypt from the pop-up menu.

and after you click on COPY TO CLIPBOARD AND CLOSE, you end up back in your Gmail Email Compose window where you can paste in the encrypted message:

You can also choose to encrypt attachments, which is a time-saver. Aside from that, the main benefit is that one doesn't have to mess with the desktop tools available on platforms like Macintosh which lag behind their Windows (GPG4Win) and GNU/Linux counterparts (sudo apt-get install gpa or KGPG).

By the way, you can find my public key online here.

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Julin on the Go

2009-12-20T22:24:00.000-06:00

It's great to have "famous" relatives...here's one featuring Julin, who is my eldest brother's daughter being featured in a commercial:

City Bank Texas "My Choice: Bnk N Go" from RD Thomas on Vimeo.

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Moodle To The Rescue

2009-12-19T09:20:00.000-06:00

It's been a hectic few months (in fact, it's been busy all year, busier than I remember from previous years!) and this request almost slipped by me:

I have been charged with the task of creating staff development for the District...I read your recent entry "Creating an Oasis of Virtual Learning: 7 Steps to Avoiding the Mirage #moodle" with great interest. It's like you wrote with me in mind - timely and fantastic!

I intended to preview all of the courses that you listed with these purposes: To identify and customize those courses which I think that we could use, and to analyze and learn from the construction of the courses so that I can learn from your skills in order to create more effective courses for staff development.

What a wonderful opportunity to share the work we're doing and about. I had recently shared much of the work my team and I were doing--so as to "give back" to the generosity of others who had shared with us--but had taken down all the materials because of the recent security issues.

Slowly, those course have been going back online and being made available here as "backed up Moodle courses" you can restore. Find them online.

In the meantime, it's pretty amazing the resources we have access to for instructional design.

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Moodle Add On - Progress Report

2009-12-19T08:20:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Ken Task for pointing out a Moodle Add-On known as Progress Report. This video is particularly illuminating.

Ken points to the following information:

for students to keep track of activities completed.

See video:

http://bioinf1.sgul.ac.uk/healthinformatics/private/mdl-progress-tracker/

See Moodle Forum Discusson ...

Contributed modules and plugins -> Progress Tracker

http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=140187

Download the 2nd version (there is a bug two in the first).

http://moodle.org/file.php/5/moddata/forum/27/611980/progress_v1p1.zip

(may have to login for the above link)

It looks interesting but I haven't tried it yet...so you're on your own! 8->

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Texas EdTech Learning with Technology Corner

2009-12-17T23:45:00.000-06:00

TCEA recently announced their listservs were going down for maintenance. As I reflected on this, it occurred to me that I now had the tools I needed to create the kind of online space I had always wanted for TCEA to have for me as a technology education coordinator...so, I set out to do just that.

I took a look at several solutions but in the end chose to use Moodle...it was free, didn't require much setup and it's a great way to introduce folks. And, if later on, the whole site needs to be moved to another host, it won't be that difficult.

Here's my email to Texas Education Technology Coordinators/Directors...email me separately for the enrollment key:

Listserv down? In that case, for those of you that will need your daily technology fix, I'd be happy to welcome you to participate in the free, open discussion forums at the Learning with Technology Corner (LTC) Forums, open to Technology Education Coordinators/Director and anyone else who is on this list!

FEATURES

Frequently Asked Questions like the ones shared here
Ability to easily add YOUR question to the FAQ
Have forum postings sent to you via email, subscribe via RSS to ONE feed or read online--whatever meets your needs.
Upload documents you want to share with others, such as policies and procedures, as well as tutorials, etc.
Education professionals in K-16, including retired professional educators, are welcome

HOW TO GET THERE
1. Access it online at http://sn.im/ltcorner
2. Create an account
3. Use enrollment key of [REMOVED] without quotes to get in!

Or, if you get stuck, drop me an email at "mguhlin@gmail.com" with your email.

See you online!

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Catch the Web 2.0 Wave!

2009-12-17T15:00:00.000-06:00

Area 15 Conference
Catch the Web 2.0 Wave

January 11, 2010 @ Region 15 Service Center
Call for Participation and Vendor forms below

I'll hope you will join me at the TCEA Area 15 Conference!! If you can't be there physically, I'll be posting some of my courses/workshops online in the Conference Moodle so you can join in!

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Moodle SlideShow by Martin D

2009-12-15T19:55:00.000-06:00

Enjoying this preso....

Moodle Pedagogy, at Online Educa 2009

View more documents from Martin Dougiamas.

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Not on Chrome for Mac

2009-12-13T07:43:00.001-06:00

Not on Chrome for Mac...that's the new story of life. As nice as Chrome is (it doesn't crash as many times as Firefox with no add-ons) is, it's not nice enough. Diigo is my "must-have" extension since I use it for blogging, etc. When, oh when....

In the meantime, go get Diigo toolbar extension for Google Chrome browser!

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

Graphs: Writing and Technology

2009-12-13T07:23:00.002-06:00

This is another installment in the "Graphs" series on trying to create graphs/charts of research data for easier sharing with others.

The 2009 Writing Survey--entitled "Young people’s writing: Attitudes, behaviour and the role of technology", authored by Christina Clark and George Dugdale from National Literacy Trust-- in the United Kingdom is described in this way:

This report outlines the findings from 3001 pupils aged 9-16 from England and Scotland, who completed an online survey in May 2009. It explores gender and age differences, and examines the link between socio-economic background (in terms of free school meals) and writing. Furthermore, it explores young people's writing with respect to mobile phone ownership, having a blog and having a profile on a social networking site. It concludes with practical and policy implications.

A few graphs based on the data (all errors of interpretation and graphing are mine):

Research Finding: Blog owners in particular as well as young people with a profile on a social networking site reported to be significantly better writers when compared to their counterparts. There was no relationship with mobile phone and self-reported writing ability.

Research Finding: Technology in the lives of children and teenagers has been much vilified in the media in recent years, with recurring stories of children or teenagers using text message ‘speak’ in essays and exams, and technology interfering with young people’s writing behaviour. However, echoing US research (Pew Internet, 2008), Table 5 shows that compared to their counterparts, owning a mobile phone has no relationship with the extent to which young people write numerous genres at least once a month. Although we did not examine the content of young people’s text messages and the degree to which text message ‘speak’ may affect writing, text messaging behaviour per se does not appear to alter the degree to which young people engage in writing a number of different writing formats.

...when asked how frequently they use a computer, nearly half of young people (49.6%) said that they use a computer every day to write for fun or for family/friends, followed by over two-fifths (22.2%) who use it to write for fun or for family/friends two to three times a week. Only a fifth (18%) of young people said that they use a computer every day for schoolwork, followed by over a quarter (27%) who use it two to three times a week to write for schoolwork.

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

EasyPeasy

2009-12-12T23:16:00.000-06:00

I just finished installing Ubuntu EasyPeasy--after Ubuntu 9.10 and Linux Mint-Helena failed to load--on a Dell Latitude 2100. It's working beautifully, after a slight hiccup that involved following these steps outlined in the EasyPeasy Forums:

The error:

I used EasyPeasy 1.5, when I try to used Updated Manager Error Occured: W: A error occurred during the signature verification. The repository is not updated and the previous index files will be used.GPG error: http://id.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty Rel...ease: The following signatures were invalid: BADSIG 40976EAF437D05B5 Ubuntu Archive Automatic Signing Key

W: A error occurred during the signature verification. The repository is not updated and the previous index files will be used.GPG error: http://ppa.launchpad.net jaunty Release: The following signatures were invalid: BADSIG 3B22AB97AF1CDFA9 Launchpad PPA for Ubuntu-X

The solution:

Open Terminal from Accessories, and do these following commands in Terminal
#sudo apt-get clean (enter your root password)
#cd /var/lib/apt
#sudo mv lists lists.old
#mkdir -p lists/partial
#sudo apt-get clean
#sudo apt-get update

#sudo apt-get clean
#sudo apt-get remove
#sudo apt-get autoremove
#sudo apt-get purge

After the solution suggested in the forums was applied, I checked out GetDeb.com to add a few of my favorite apps, including the following, as well as one I didn't know about it that looks great!

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin's blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure