MET course weblog

Good Evening ETEC 522,

Please note that the ‘Conclusion’ tab for Module 5 has now been populated with the final version of our collaborative mind map as well as the results of the survey we asked you to complete at the beginning of this week. 

Thanks so much to all who participated and made these activities a success :o)

I have come across some podcasts at iTunes U.  Look up the Oxford Internet Institute and under that a podcast with Bernie Hogan (Sociologist and Social Network Analyst) on “Facebook: The Strength of Weak Ties”.  It looks at and perhaps offers a different view of Facebook and the relationships we have there vs our other relationships.

Facebook is #1 in UK and Canada, MySpace is #1 in US, Orkut is #1 in Brazil and India.

He looks at what happens when people do not participate in FB (for example, within a family) who miss certain interactions because they are not engaged. He talks about how some people equate being online = not being social while others feel the are being social on the internet.

Issues of equality, context, and information overload are also addressed.  Enjoy!  Sharon

Pardon me if this is posted somewhere- but where do we submit Assignment #1, and does the 2500 words include the resources?
Thanks
Bev

Hi everyone –

Just a reminder that the deadline for A1 is end of day (Pacific Time) October 18th.   Please email me if you have any questions regarding your approach or progress in A1.   And when it is done, please email it to me – I’ll respond to confirm that I’ve got it.  That’s:  david dot vogt at ubc dot ca.

And if anyone is still looking for an A1 topic, here’s a news release that appeared in my inbox today about Odijoo.   It’s been around for awhile, but they’re apparently looking at a new business model.

Good luck!

DavidV

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Free eLearning platform ‘Odijoo’ released to market

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Oct 13, 2009 – Odijoo, the first ever online learning platform to give trainers their own secure space from which to create, deliver and monetize online courses, was released last week. Odijoo, which means “teacher” in Swahili, is a free to use web-based application that combines course creation, learning management, hosting, e-commerce and social networking tools.

Unlike other online learning solutions, Odijoo allows small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) to have their own private, personalized and secure “Odijoo campus”. A campus is an online storefront, where users can store, administer and promote their Odijoo courses. Campuses are designed for smaller businesses and organizations, that need to train their employees under a tight budget.

“Odijoo is designed to help companies get their training online in a matter of days without third party consultants,” says Shevy Levy, the visionary behind Odijoo. “SMBs can finally afford to reach their learners and with the campus feature, can do so from a single secure online place.”

After over a year of development, Odijoo was released in early October of 2009. The application is free to use and can be accessed at www.odijoo.com.

About Odijoo
Odijoo is a free web-based eLearning platform that allows users to have their own personalized online space from which to create, publish, share and monetize online courses. It is a SaaS-based (Software as a Service), end-to-end software, providing on-demand access to course creation, learning management, hosting and social networking services, all from one place. For more information, visit www.odijoo.com.

Contact:

Alon Margovskiy

Marketing Department

alon.margovskiy@odijoo.com

Hello Everyone:

After having read this article, I could not help but wonder why entrepreneurs would want to put a lot of money into Web 2.0 companies unless these entrepreneurs simply have an insatiable appetite to create a monopoly within the Web 2.0 world, thus preventing others from building web-based empires.  Perhaps it is a matter of conquering cyber space, or making a name for oneself, or steering viewers to their companies over others, or getting people hooked (so companies can charge in the [near] future).

Whatever the reason(s), it is a high stakes game, for there is little or no revenue, despite on-line ads (which I, for example, never pay attention to anyways even though they are geared towards me based on my cyber hits).

Overall, I am thankful that there are some reputable Web-based companies that require payment for their services and/or products, for I find them valuable in my teaching profession.

Cheers,

Barrie

Hello Everyone:

CrowdTrust is more than a Community of Practice (CoP) in that this Web 2.0 company calls for the collective knowledge and wisdom of everyone, not just participants from a single industry or professional arena.  Here, industry leaders could utilize the wisdom of the crowd to help explore the various issues and challenges pertaining to urban sustainability in any given community, for example.

CrowdTrust provides space where one’s personal creative commons can become more meaningful and more valuable to you and to others so that things that matter most to an organization, for example, could be explored in a much more cooperative and collaborative manner.

After having viewed the pitch for CrowdTrust, I could not help but think how profitable this venture could be for schools, for example, where the wisdom of the crowd – students, teachers, parents, community stakeholders, administration, and other staff members – could explore and solve various issues, matters, and challenges that inherently exist in any school community.

After all, as with urban issues around sustainability, for instance, school issues around operations and functionality could be deal with by way of collected intelligence, which CrowdTrust secures in its company space.

In sum, in partnership with all stakeholders, I would utilize CrowdTrust in my school because I believe that, through collective knowledge, expertise, information, experiences, and ideas, school issues and matters could be solved much more effectively.

Cheers,

Barrie

MindLeaders http://www.mindleaders.com

 My workplace has brought MindLeaders into our organization and is piloting its use with our IT department, so my exposure to this is limited to the past 2 months. MindLeaders is a company that has over 25 years experience designing elearning programs. The courses cover topics from software skills to leadership, from workplace and food safety to programming and network administration.

 Market Focus

-Commerical, Government and Educational Sector

 Types of Offering

– MindLeaders offers services, content and infrastructure.

– offers over 3000 e-learning courses (software skills, business skills, compliance training, technical training)

– learning platform – central learning management system

– reference library containing over 13000 electronic copies of books

– online mentors accessible 24/7 to respond to learners questions

– tech labs allows learners to practice IT skills in a safe live environment

 Who is the Buyer?

-Learning is bought centrally by corporations, government or educational sector for employees or students

 Global Markets

-The company is based in Ohio with a global market. In 2007 they merged with ThirdForce a company in Ireland and England. The website indicates they have over 1000 clients in more than 30 countries. I would assume that their global audience would be found only within those countries with solid internet infrastructure. The courses are in English so the learners would need a command of the English language.

Development of the Market

-MindLeaders offers partner opportunities to resell the elearning courses and the learning management platform. As in the case of my workplace, one reason we went with MindLeaders is the economic reason, to send IT staff to off site in class courses is expensive and often involves several consecutive days out of the office. With MindLeaders they can access the courses for a fraction of the price and take as many courses during a year as they like, not to mention read the books in the reference e-library. In this situation, MindLeaders substitutes other forms of learning due to cost. However, MindLeaders also can be seen as working with a well developed learning system to extend the reach and upgrade credentials of employees in such areas as business skills and technical training.  

Code Baby

The company I work for, the University Health Network (UHN) has started using Code Baby over the last year.  The company’s by-line is that their products will ‘Digitally Engage Your Learners with Attention-Grabbing Content.  The product allows you to create digital instructors for your eLearning courses and will integrate with your existing LMS or courseware.  We currently use these characters in 3 ways:

 1)     To walk students through course modules as a digital instructor

2)     As characters in serious games that simulate various situations in the hospital

3)     As a character UHNi who delivers 1 minute learning nuggets each week that can be played as podcasts or using any mobile web enabled device.

 Face #1:  Market Focus

ü      The Corporate Market

ü      The main focus is their product offering for companies to enhance their eLearning and/or web presence with the use of 3D characters (they prefer not to call them avatars as they believe their offering is much more sophisticated and integrated than being a mere avatar)

 Face #2:  Types of Offerings

Code Baby offers both content and services

ü      Content – the software that creates interactive digital characters for eLearning

ü      Services – there are 4 services:

• Art – creating custom 3D characters and their elements
• Creative – custom conversations that are planned, scripted and storyboarded
• Training – training for customers
• Support – support packages for customers

 Face #3:  Who is the Buyer?

I would say that there are really on 2 options here, Learning Bought for Learner and Learning Bought Centrally.  Our group is an example of Learning Bought Centrally.  This was bought and will be used by the entire Toronto Central LHIN (Local Health Integration Network), which is basically all of the hospitals in the city of Toronto.  However, I could also see individual companies buying this software for their learners to augment their existing eLearning offerings.

 Face #4:  Global Markets

The market I see this playing to would be mostly the Wired Anglophone.  There was no information that I could see in regards to facilitation for languages other than English.

 Face #5:  Development of Market

Market Supports Export Oriented Learning Technologies & Substitution of Imports

 Market Supports Import of Content & Infrastructure

 Face #6:  Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

 Learning Technology Works with a Well Developed Learning System. 

We already had a well developed eLearning system when we started to use Code Baby.  It works well with our current offerings and helps to enhance their appeal.