links for 2009-11-10

• Are These Kindle Killers? — andrew's Blog
  ebooks

VoiceThread + WordPress + VodPod = Simple solution for sharing digital narrative and reflection

In an online course I am teaching with Helen Barrett, we are asking students to create digital narratives and share them on their bPortfolios. The “blogging” portfolios are created with WordPress Accounts.  Some students are creating digital narratives with VoiceThread.  It looks like we might be able to use VodPod to quickly capture a VoiceThread and share it in a WordPress bPortfolio.  More testing needs to be done but here is a quick example.

more about “VoiceThread – Group conversations aro…“, posted with vodpod

Favorite Open Educational Resources

http://s3.amazonaws.com/estock/fspid9/16/98/75/2/sharealike-1698752-o.jpg

I’ve been using free educational resources in my presentations for a few years.  Several professors have asked me for a list of Open Educational Resources (OER) that I have shared in various workshops. Here is a list of ten of my current favorites:

1. EveryStockPhoto.com – Search engine that can be used to find free images on the web. http://www.everystockphoto.com/
2. Incompetech is a collection of Creative Commons licensed music. http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/
3. iTunes U is a collection of audio and video content from higher education faculty around the world that can be freely used for educational purposes. http://deimos3.apple.com/indigo/main/main.xml Many SPU professors are freely sharing their work in iTunes U. You can find it at: http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browsev2/spu-public
4. Khan Academy provides 800+ YouTube tutorials covering math, science, and finance problems. http://www.khanacademy.org/index.html
5. MERLOT is a peer-reviewed searchable collection of online learning materials. http://merlot.org
6. Search by Creative Commons provides a convenient way to access search engines that include CC licensed materials. http://search.creativecommons.org
7. Webcast.Berkeley is a collection of podcasts and webcasts from the University of California Berkeley. http://webcast.berkeley.edu/
8. Wikimedia Commons is a media repository for public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips). http://commons.wikimedia.org
9. YouTube EDU is a collection of videos and channels from higher education institutions http://www.youtube.com/education?b=400
10. MIT OpenCourseware is a website that contains almost all content from MIT courses. http://ocw.mit.edu/

Residency Certification bPortfolio Tutorial – Entire Presentation

This screencast walks Seattle Pacific University Residency Certification students through the necessary steps to create their bPortfolios using WordPress. (66:35)

links for 2009-11-05

• The World's First Social eReading Software | ReadCloud
  Social networking software for ebooks.
  (tags: education web2.0 socialnetworking ebook curriculum social reading literacy k-12)

links for 2009-11-04

• Top 5 Sites For Free Sound Effects Downloads
  May be useful for digital storytelling or digital narrative projects. Students could add sound effects on a separate audio track that would support their narrative. An audio editing program that supports multiple tracks (e.g. Audacity) would need to be used so there could be background noises, such as the sound of traffic while the story is being told.
  (tags: audio free digital_storytelling SPUEDTC6535)

Evaluation of the Use of Semantic Web Technology in a Collaborative Learning Environment

This screencast is a presentation given by Andrew Lumpe and David Wicks at the 2009 Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning in Orlando, Florida. The presentation objectives are to:

• Describe the application of a semantic web technologies in a collaborative learning environment.
• Report the results on student learning.
• Provide recommendations for future research and applications of semantic web technologies in educational environments.

(32:20)