Tag Archives: blog

Popular eLearning Tools being used Today!

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Note:  all articles on this site are written by Jacqueline…

The goal of this article is to give a brief overview of some popular eLearning tools that I have used or have heard of.  First off, there are some great web resources that rate and compile eLearning technology, such as:

Top 100 eLearning Tools and

Jane’s E-Learning Pick of the Day

And here is my own short list of good eLearning choices:

Audacity:  is a digital audio editor and recording application that can be used to create podcasts.  It has a simple tool set that works well, and allows to you apply simple audio effects

 

Download audacity free here:

https://audacity.soureforge.net

And read a review here:

download.cnet.com/Audacity/3000-2170_4-10058117.html

SharePoint:  allows you to create a collaborative work environment and helps with communication between remote work groups.

Features include:

  • a shared workspace
  • a document management system
  • built-in customizable wiki & blog
  • lists and document libraries
  • built-in search functionality

Learn more about it here:

https://sharepoint.microsoft.com/Pages/Default.aspx

Articulate Presenter:  is a slide show tool that allows you to convert your PowerPoint presentations into an interactive Flash format.
Visit the Articulate site to learn more, and tune into the informative rapid eLearning blog hosted by Tom Kuhlmann.

https://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning

Adobe Captivate:  this is another screencasting tool similar to Camtasia Studio.  I have not personally used it, but the product does generally get good reviews.  Try it out at

https://www.adobe.com/products/captivate

and read a review here.

I would be interested to hear from readers who have used both Camtasia Studio and Adobe Captivate.  How do the two products compare?

Moodle:  is a free and open source “virtual learning environment” also known as an LMS or Learning Management System.  The environment is made up of different modules such as Assignment, Chats, Choices, Glossaries, Lessons, Quizzes and Surveys.

Learn more about it, and try out the demonstration site at:

https://moodle.org/about

Take note that the product needs to be installed on a web server, but there are some free Moodle hosting providers available such as www.keytoschool.com

Survey Monkey:  this is a free survey and questionnaire tool with good reviews.

Try it out at www.surveymonkey.com

Camtasia Studio:  I use this product to create online training videos, and show users how to do something that is easier to learn by watching, rather than reading.  This program is easy to use and you can render your video into various formats such as wmv and Flash.  You can also import audio and images, and add effects.

Try it out here:  https://www.techsmith.com

Jing:  this is a free screencasting tool also developed by TechSmith.  It is compatible for both Mac and Windows, and is ideal for quickly sharing vidoes online via the free hosting service www.techsmith.com/screencast.asp

Learn more about it here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jing_(software)

A Science Blogger Overview: Welcome to the Fascinating World of Marmorkrebs!

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Marmorkrebs1 copyWhile browsing through Twitter one day, I came across Dr. Zen Faulkes who is a scientist adept at using social media and blogging to communicate his research and ideas.

He is a Canadian researcher living in Texas doing behavioural research on the unusual crustacean creature, Marmorkrebs.  He is interested in the evolution of behaviour and nervous systems, and particularly the origin of new behaviours.  He uses Marmokrebs as his model organism for the following reasons.

  • They give lots of embryos year round, giving lots of research samples
  • They don’t need males to reproduce
  • They are good to use if you don’t have a lab set-up to maintain sea creatures
  • And, they are going to help Dr. Zen answer his evolutionary question:  why do crayfish have giant neurons that some other crustaceans don’t have (such as hermit crabs)?  (See his review paper: Faulkes, Z. (2008). Turning Loss Into Opportunity: The Key Deletion of an Escape Circuit in Decapod Crustaceans Brain, Behavior and Evolution, 72 (4), 251-261 DOI: 10.1159/000171488)

Marmorkrebs is an all-female species of marbled crayfish that reproduces asexually by parthenogenesis.

To learn more about his fascinating model organism, Marmorkrebs, visit this page:
https://marmorkrebs.org/

To learn more about parthenogenesis in general, check out this article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis

Please visit Dr. Zen’s faculty page to check out his many research articles.

https://www.utpa.edu/faculty/zfaulkes/


Visit Zen Faulkes on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/DoctorZen

Ant Pheromone Trails….

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I don’t know about you, but I’ve always found it fascinating to sit and watch ants (especially when I was younger and I had more time).  I always wondered where it was they were trying to go, and how did they know where to go?

The physicist Richard Feynman had also observed ants, and he talks about them in his book “Surely you’re joking Mr. Feynman!”  After conducting a few experiments, he concluded that the ants were following some sort of invisible trail, and that “when an ant has found some food, he leaves a much stronger trail than when he’s just wandering around.”  He also observed that the trail to the food becomes straighter as more ants follow it, and that it gradually “improves” over time.

The invisible trail is a pheromone trail:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ant

Ants communicate using pheromones that they lay down as trails, so that other ants can follow the trails to food sources.  The trail pheromone evaporates quickly so that when the food supply runs out, the ants know not to follow that trail anymore.

This article:

https://www.msoworld.com/brain/mag/2000/issue1/bpm1_9.html

states that ants exhibit a form of “positive feedback.”  Given the choice between two trails to a food source, over time the ants will prefer to follow the shorter one.  This is probably because ants on the shorter trail make more trips, and therefore lay down more pheromone so the pheromone on the shorter trail becomes stronger.

For more information on this topic, download this PDF entitled “Outsmarted by Ants” by Francis Ratnieks.

https://www.cs.unm.edu/~melaniem/courses/CAS09_files/Outsmarted.pdf

Fun with Google Insights!

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I enjoy statistics, and so I thought I would try putting some search terms into Google Insights to see if any interesting trends popped up.  Keep in mind that Google Insights only has data from 2004 onwards.

You can check out Google Insights here:  

https://www.google.com/insights/search/#

Dancing with the Stars:

I thought shows like Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance would increase interest in dancing in general.  But maybe that’s not the case?

swing dancing – loss of interest since 2004

salsa dancing – also a general fall in this search term

Epidemics:

swine flu – went from nothing to a staggering jump in March 2009, with media frenzy starting around August 2009.  The region with the most interest appears to be the UK, while the region with the least interest is Canada?  Come on Canada, get with it!

Food:

chocolate – of course, our good friend chocolate gives a nice steady state graph since 2004.

Career:

technical writing – Uh oh!  An absolute plummet in technical writing interest since 2004.  What about eLearning Developer, is that doing better?  Oh, I’m saved!  A staggering jump in April 2005, and interest appears to have stayed steady since.

video editing – with the invention of easy editing tools like Camtasia Studio and Adobe Captivate, has interest risen?  This one is hard to gauge, but with Uganada leading the regional interest.

Environment:

recycling – was there a surge in interest since the 2006 Al Gore Movie – An Inconvenient Truth?  There does appear to be a mild increase in interest since 2006, with the UK leading the pack for regional interest.  At least Canada isn’t last this time!

electric cars – and what about electric cars?  I see a spike in interest in February 2008, does anyone out there know why that is?  Interesting, since the movie Who Killed the Electric Car came out in 2006.

Recession:

lottery – has the 2008 / 2009 recession caused an increase in the national lottery?  Let’s find out!  Nope, interest in this term appears to have stayed at a steady state.

Music:

Britpop – and what about my favourite genre of music?  A bit of a decline actually, with Chile and Indonesia leading the regional interest list.

alternative piano – and what about the genre of music that I can actually play?  It appears to be at a steady state with only the UK and the US showing any real interest.