Ginger: the new Netvibes. I’d looked at Netvibes (along with PageFlakes) etc., when I first started using iGoogle. At the time, the main reason for selecting iGoogle was the fact that I could integrate existing google services easily. There was no other real reason – and from what I’ve seen, most are pretty similar. Ginger,…
Category: VLE
The Ed Techie: The VLE/LMS is dead
Martin Weller raises several points to support the use of a combination of Web 2.0 type tools, rather than an Institutional VLE. While I think that the points he raises are valuable, and that the combination of tools would make a good set (call it a PLE or not as you like!). I agree with…
Introducing EduGarage!
Blackboard officially launched EduGarage on October 23rd. This is a site that brings together all the developers working on Powerlinks for the assorted Blackboard products. It’s set up as a wiki, with forums etc. What I find particularly interesting is that they’ve announced it on the Blackboard blog, which is rather more feature rich (essentially…
Blogs as PLEs
James Farmer gives a presentation from the HigherEd Conference. He makes several good points, starting with the current situation that many users are in, they have WebCT or Blackboard as an existing system. One point he raises, which is often overlooked I think when people compare WebCT etc., with Blogs & a more personal setting….
Moodle on a Stick.
In the past, I’ve tried to put Moodle on a USB stick with WoS (Webserver on a Stick) as the server. I’ve never been able to get it going at Work; though I did get it going at home. I was still keen to at least see if I could try to get it working,…
Effects of Information Distributions Strategies on Student Performance in a CMS
Scott Leslie comments on a report by Margaret Lohman, looking at student performance when material was delivered to the students via a VLE (available pre-class), or handed out in class. Though the numbers involved are small, and they are all graduate students, the results are interesting. First, the studys findings provide little evidence to warrant…
PLEs, XCRIs, SUMs and other acronyms in Melbourne
Scott Wilson has yet another set of slides about PLEs – not quite the same set as I’ve seen before – and so has some useful extra additions. There are a few slides comparing VLEs & PLEs (I’d love to know what he said as he presented those slides!). You will, however, need to have…
Open Source at the Commons
Josie has got some information about an Early Day Motion (Software in Education: number 179) The motion reads: “That this House congratulates the Open University and other schools, colleges and universities for utilising free and open source software to deliver cost-effective educational benefit not just for their own institutions but also the wider community; and…
Sloodle
Second life meets Moodle. Intriguing. Via Stephen Downes…
Collaborative Notetaking
DyKnow seem to supply some collaborative notetaking software. It looks interesting, but, though I can find several places telling me that the *client* is free, I can’t seem to find the cost of the server – which it seems to need! There are other tools that I have found, that are free; for example: Google…