ZaidLearn Goes del icio us Takes a Break from Blogging!

• Link to Zaidlearns del.icio.us Links
• Digital Curator to the Stars & More on the Digital Curator (Jeff Cobb)
• The Digital Curator in Your Future (Steve Rubel)

"...I do believe that Zaid Ali Algasoff is in the process of firmly establishing himself as the e-learning curator of Southeast Asia. His recent Any Free Hosted CMS or LMS? (Yes, Obama Says!) is just one piece of the accumulating evidence...(Source)" - Jeff Cobb

WOW! My self-actualizing e-Learning curator ego is reaching the top of Mount Everest! Hmm, what is a curator anyway?

CURATOR?
"A curator, in a cultural institution context, is a guardian or an overseer. According to Wikipedia, he/she "is a content specialist responsible for an institutions collections and their associated collections catalogs. The object of a curators concern necessarily involves tangible objects of some sort, whether it be inter alia artwork, collectibles, historic items or scientific collections (Source)."

"Rubel argues that, in order to manage the massive amounts of information now flowing across the Web, the world needs digital curators, “people who are selfless and willing to act as sherpas and guides. They’re identifiable subject matter experts who dive through mountains of digital information and distill it down to its most relevant, essential parts (Source).”

I can live with that! But to tell you the truth, if I am really the e-learning curator of Southeast Asia, we are in big trouble! First, most of my readers are not from Southeast Asia, but instead they are from United States, Canada, Europe, India, Australia and a few Brazilians that cant get enough of this blog.

Also, my messy informal learning repository adventure is not exactly the most efficient place to find what you are looking for. I suppose you might discover something juicy here, but it is probably more by accident, or through a Google search, rather than systematically searching ZaidLearn. Nothing wrong with that, But I believe now has come the time that I also embrace my left brain of organization, and by doing so, I will hopefully nurture the whole brain for efficient management of my learning discoveries, which will hopefully lead to more effective learning.

I really appreciate and respect Jeff Cobbs kind reflections, but I still have a green mile to travel, to live up to such a billing effectively. Though, I love the challenge and until other e-Learning curators do show up in Southeast Asia (or is known beyond!), I dont mind taking the lead. So, here is my plan to move on...

del.icio.us?
To be honest, I should have gone del.icio.us a long time back. Dont ask me why I didnt (Stubborn to unlearn!)? Instead you should explore and enjoy my growing juicy collection of del.icio.us links (+160 and growing fast!) , which will make it easier for readers to enjoy my arsenal of recommended free learning resources and tools. Here are my most prominent del.icio.us tags:

• Favorite Tools
• OER (Open Educational Resources)
• OCW (OpenCourseWare)
• Podcasts
• ...more

Although, many of my del.icio.us learning resources perhaps should use multiple tags (e.g. MIT OCW, OER, Podcasts, etc.), I have tried as much as possible to use one appropriate tag for each resource, instead of giving them too many tags. I personally dont want to find the same learning resource in every tag (although it might correct!) while looking for stuff. Anyway, I am still learning the art of tagging, and hopefully it will improve as I embrace del.icio.us.

As I have been collecting juicy learning links (URLs) since 2001 (stored all over the place!), I have literally thousands of them to rediscover and add to del.icio.us. So, in the coming weeks I will be busy rediscovering, filtering (out!), and tagging my last seven years of learning, and creating my own little arsenal of del.icio.us learning resources and tools, which we all can enjoy.

A BREAK FROM BLOGGING?
In addition, I have decided to take a break from blogging for at least 2-3 weeks, so I can reflect (in peace!) what I have achieved and prepare for the second phase of ZaidLearn. Second phase?

I suppose anyone that has been reading my blog has probably been overwhelmed with all the learning resources and tools discussed and shared here. And to be honest, I am really getting bored simply talking about new resources and tools discovered, and believe that ZaidLearn needs to move on to focus more on what really matters in education. EFFECTIVE LEARNING!!!!!!

ZAIDLEARN 2.0
In the future, I will still share great resources and tools I discover, but that will del.icio.us take care of from now on. I suppose I will provide a weekly del.icio.us update on the juiciest stuff discovered.

So, what about the ZaidLearn blog? It will go on, but it will from the next post onwards (with the exception of weekly del.icio.us updates) focus on interesting topics and issues in relation to facilitating effective learning online. The posts will be short/long articles (500-2000 words) where I share my research, experiences, thoughts and ideas about learning (like I got much experience to share!). I predict that I will post 2-4 articles a month, meaning this blog will certainly not be as active as before, but it will hopefully be of better quality :).

My secret recipe (no longer!) for writing articles, will be roughly 4 days of research and reflection (in-between formal working activities), and then on the fifth day 1-4 hours of writing and editing, and Voila an article has been posted. I hope by using this formula, I can by year end (2008) compile these articles into an e-Book, which of course will be free to download (if anyone is interested!).

To put more pressure on myself (I love that!), I will challenge myself to write articles that are good enough to be published in the likes of Tomorrows Professor Blog (Stanford University) and New York Times (NYT). So, Rick Reis (Editor of Tomorrows Professor Blog) please consider my articles, although I am no professor (Need another 15 years for that one!). Anyway, all my articles will be published in ZaidLearn, and if they are really good, I am sure they will find their way to other interesting places, except peer reviewed journals. Why? I write with an unhealthy mix of emotion, logic, flavor, disruption and creativity beyond the scientific acceptance level of most peer reviewed journals.

Alright, enough! Have fun exploring my growing compilation of del.icio.us learning discoveries!

I WILL BE BACK! Soon! That is in 2-3 weeks time :)

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From Flipped to Gamified Classroom Learning!

How do we engage and inspire students/educators/learners to really learn, and then empower them with the belief that they can learn on their own (without needing to be always spoon-fed)? 

Self-learning and learning how-to-learn are probably the two ultimate things we need master to survive and be successful in the 21st century, which will eventually be known as the...

Source (Webinar recording)

THE FLIPPING CHALLENGE!

Are you familiar with the Flipped Classroom approach to learning?

Here is a video to introduce you to the biggest global learning trend and buzz word in education for the last few years (besides MOOCs, which is probably the learning buzzword for 2012):

In one sentence: You view the lecture (recording) at home, and then you come to class to do the homework (or learning activities), whereby the teacher(s) (and fellow students) are there to provide guidance and support (when necessary) during the learning process. WOW!

Source (Infographic)

That sounds great for school-level learning, but what about higher education?

Jackie Gersteins masterpiece graphic below (and articles/resources) provides some great ideas on how to make it really work for higher education.

Source: Collection of resources/Articles from Jackie Gerstein

If you ask me, I would argue that the flipping Flipped Classroom challenge is not making your lectures available online (which many are already doing), but creating electrifying and inspiring learning experiences during the face-to-face (F2F) learning sessions itself that is the ultimate challenge (and differentiating factor to give you a competitive advantage).

Also, in higher education, especially at Master and PhD level should we be spoon-feeding students with lectures (recordings) telling or showing them A-Z, so that they can replicate (or vomit out) the same stuff during their exams or assignments?

THE LECTURE

I suppose it depends on what you are teaching, but we also need to rethink what the real purpose of the lecture should be, and how we can make best use of it to engage and inspire learning beyond the spoon-feeding paradigm.

DONT MISS THIS LECTURE!

Alright, after exploring for a few centuries, we finally get the lecture right (for what we are teaching)! What do we do with the students when they come for the F2F (or online) learning sessions? 

If the lecture recording is already online (hopefully not outdated!), I suppose repeating it during a F2F (or online) session would not be the most productive way to go about it, would it?

But, before we get into that, have your students actually gone through the lecture recording before the F2F session?  I suppose so, I told them to do so (Keep on dreaming!).

You can assume that, but the reality is often very different unless you have infused some mechanisms to ensure that they view (and also understand) the recorded lecture(s) before they come to class.

Changing the students learning mindset (and habits) to explore lectures (or resources) online before class might take some time, especially if they are from the good old spoon-feeding paradigm.

To deal with this, you could for example keep track on who access the recorded lectures (especially if you are using a LMS) before class. However, clicking on a link doesnt mean that actual learning has taken place. However, having an online quiz after (or during) the recorded lecture could encourage more students to explore it, especially if it is a requirement to do it before the F2F session.

Adding a discussion forum, requiring for example all students to ask at least one question (or reflection) before class could help, too. Or you could construct a few online learning activities/challenges/assignments (e.g. WebQuest) to encourage students to think before the F2F session.

Finally, if you create sizzling online lectures, many students might even explore them without requiring any carrot or stick measures.  The lecture becomes the carrot!

As you see there are many ways to get students on board in a flipped classroom approach, and if you explore your creative mind, I am sure you will figure out even better ways to activate your students brain to think before they come for class.

Cool! But, what should we do with them once they come...?

CLASSROOM LEARNING

“If you wanted to create an education environment that was directly opposed to what the brain was good at doing, you probably would design something like a classroom. If you wanted to create a business environment that was directly opposed to what the brain was good at doing, you probably would design something like a cubicle. And if you wanted to change things, you might have to tear down both and start over.” 

-John Media

Designing inspiring Learning Spaces will increasingly be required as we want to move F2F (or online learning) learning sessions beyond the lecture format to empower more effective student learning experiences.

Changing the physical classroom is probably more complicated as that would also require extensive monetary investments and time to make it happen. Lets assume that you have your good old classroom or computer lab, which by nature might not be really conducive for interactive or collaborative learning (e.g. seating arrangement).

If you ask me, I would argue that we can still do learning miracles in a boring classroom setting if we stretch our imagination beyond our usual Blame everything else, except ourselves. So, what can we do during a Flipped Classroom session?

• Q&A
  Encourage students to ask questions to clarify what they didnt understand from the recorded lecture (or required readings).
• Case Study (or Problem-Based Learning)
  Yes, even Harvard uses Case Studies to empower deep learning and understanding of the subject matter. We could discuss a Case Study with the students, and even break up into groups to encourage more involvement and diverse opinions.
• Learning Activities
  Build learning activities to apply what has been learned in the lecture. Here students dont have to be stuck in the classroom. They could always be asked to venture out individually or in groups to the library, labs, outdoors, etc. and then return to share their discoveries and findings.
• Online Classroom
  If you cant afford the transformation of your physical classroom, you could always use a  web-conferencing tool to engage students to learn using a variety of features (e.g. poll, whiteboard, chat, screen/application sharing, etc.). It is an alternate and cheaper solution that has no borders.
• Etc.
  I leave that to your imagination!

All these approaches above can be useful to empower more effective learning experiences. But, personally I want the students learning experiences to be more challenging, competitive, inspiring and fun, so I would...

GAMIFY CLASSROOM LEARNING!

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Extract Images From PowerPoint Files

Muh. Darwis » How To Extract Images From PowerPoint Files By darwis You received a PowerPoint presentation(PPT/PPS) from one of your friends and the images used in the presentation are awesome. You would like to extract those images and use them in your next presentation. How will you extract the images ... Muh. Darwis - http://blog.uad.ac.id/darwis/

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