“Ada Lovelace was one of the world’s first computer programmers, and one of the first people to see computers as more than just a machine for doing sums. She wrote programmes for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, a general-purpose computing machine, despite the fact that it was never built. She also wrote the very first description of a computer and of software.” (Finding Ada)

Ada Lovelace Day (March 24) is an international day of blogging (of all types) to about the achievements of women in technology and science.

So I am going to blog about Rebecca Blood. Rebecca was one of the early adopters of blogs and has been blogging since April 1999. I met her at Blog Talk Down Under in 2005 where I gave a paper with Lyn Boddington who died recently (Lyn you are missed). Rebecca is one vibrant, funny, enthusiastic, intelligent woman, so be prepared to be kept on your toes if you ever meet her.

Her blog provides a bio:

A respected thought-leader on the Internet’s impact on business, media and society, Rebecca Blood is an internationally known speaker and one of the world’s most cited authorities on blogging. She is the author of The Weblog Handbook, which has been called “the Strunk & White of blogging books”. It was chosen by Amazon as one of the 10 best books on digital culture in 2002, and has been translated into 5 languages. Her weblog, Rebecca’s Pocket, is consistently ranked as one of the world’s top blogs. She has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, Fast Company, the BBC, and National Public Radio and profiled by Time magazine. She lives in San Francisco.

In addition to her book, Ms. Blood has written a number of critically important essays on the theory and practice of weblogs and the intersection between blogging and journalism. Her work has been used in university courses around the world. She has been invited to write for the prestigious academic journals the Nieman Reports and Communications of the ACM. Ms. Blood has spoken for diverse groups, ranging from digerati and journalists to academics and Fortune 250 executives. In 2003, the UK’s Web User named her one of the Web’s “Hot Faces” (right between Beck and Bowie), and Sweden’s Internet World ranked her as one of the world’s Top Ten Bloggers. She was once Goth Babe of the Week.”

Here are some of her books on Amazon

These are my links for January 13th through March 12th:

• CAPE students creating virtual time capsules » Ventura County Star:
  Since September, Kavon's students have been identifying websites they believe reflect their culture and experience and have been archiving them as three separate collections: A Day in the Life of a Camarillo Teenager, A New Generation of Books and This is Our World.
• iPads Invade the Computer Lab — THE Journal:
  A private school on the Big Island of Hawaii not only adopted Apple's iPad for student learning; the school designed a whole facility around it
• A Day in the Life of a Connected Classroom | Edutopia:
  One example of a connected classroom
• Device helps Gulf Elementary teachers draw students’ participation | The News-Press | news-press.com:
  student-response system helps encourage student participation
• Facebook’s New Anti-Bullying Tools Create a:
  At Thursday’s White House Conference for Bullying Prevention in Washington, D.C., Facebook is announcing a new suite of tools to protect users from bullying
• NCCE Wrap-Up: Math Casting and Digital Storytelling – Digital Education – Education Week:
  how to use digital tools in math to create "math casts", and how to harness commercial and free, online digital tools to encourage students to tell digital stories.
• Return to Sender — THE Journal:
  Schools continue to deliver new graduates into the workplace lacking the tech-based "soft skills" that businesses demand. Experts blame K-12's persistent failure to integrate technology.
• Moodle Tutorials ::: Educating Educators:
• S.J. teachers school picks iPad over paper | Recordnet.com:
  Teachers College of San Joaquin will give iPads to all its incoming graduate students and faculty beginning this summer in a move to bolster classroom innovation as well as slash paper consumption by 92 percent.<br />
  <br />
  That should save the college $34,000 a year, enough to cover the cost of the tablet computers, Teachers College Dean Catherine Kearney said.
• Microsoft launches IE6 deathwatch – Computerworld:
  Microsoft has launched a deathwatch for its 10-year-old Internet Explorer 6 browser, saying it wanted to "see IE6 gone for good."
• New Games Link Tech and Reality – WSJ.com:
  Both major media companies and start-ups are experimenting with new tools that combine technology and reality in a bid to get children to engage with real-world objects. And researchers are already investigating whether the new tools help kids learn better than regular computer games do.
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• Technology helps children deal with autism in school – DailyHerald.com:
  From robots to telemedicine, 21st century technology is bringing the future into homes and schools across the suburbs — and at the same time leveling the playing field for students with special needs.
• Column: Does classroom technology improve student achievement | MLive.com:
  … just buying technology isn’t enough. It would be the same as buying expensive cookware and assuming that purchase alone will turn someone into a master chef. Good tools make the job easier, and at times are even essential. But the tools themselves are not the key; it’s the skill of the operator and how the tools get used.
• Better ways to reach parents than Facebook? | ZDNet:
• "Skype in the Classroom" Launches to Connect Teachers & Students Worldwide:
  Skype has also been embraced by many educators who are using it in the classroom in some innovative ways.
• Using Farmville to Teach Standards | Edutopia:
  Think of it as a resource for Maths, History, English …
• Online Kentucky Learning Depot to Align to Common Core – Digital Education – Education Week:
  The Kentucky Learning Depot, an online state repository of K-12 and postsecondary educational content, will be mapped to align with the K-12 common academic standards for mathematics and English/language arts, according to an announcement last week from education publishing partner Pearson.
• Cazenovia High School program tests uses of new technology with Apple’s iPad | syracuse.com:
  At Cazenovia High School, the Apple iPad is more than a must-have gadget.<br />
  <br />
  The touchscreen tablets are helping students connect with Shakespeare and rediscover reading.
• Can You Predict The Future Technologies in Your Classroom? – Leading From the Classroom – Education Week Teacher:
  Which technologies will impact learning in classrooms in one year or less? How about two to three years? How about four to five years?
• Educational Leadership:Teaching Screenagers:Teaching the iGeneration:
  Our children and youth are immersed in technologies that give them opportunities no previous generation has enjoyed. How will schools respond?
• News: Blackboard’s Next Phase – Inside Higher Ed:
  Blackboard built its e-learning empire on its learning management system, trading legal blows with some competitors and gobbling up others as it raced to satisfy demand for a technology that had rapidly become de rigueur in higher education.<br />
  <br />
  That period of conquest is now over. Last fall, close to 95 percent of institutions had some learning management system in place, according to the Campus Computing Project. Accordingly, Blackboard’s business strategy is changing: with the company adding four new, separately licensed products to its menu in the last three years, Blackboard expects that it will soon no longer rely on Learn, its popular learning management system, to bring home the bacon.
• How Will Technology Change Learning — and Teaching? | Edutopia:
  I am excited about the possibilities that technology can provide to facilitate and manage student learning. I'm also always hopeful that we can devise a technology tool that will make teachers and principals' jobs easier. What do you think? What will be the technology or the "killer application" that will revolutionize education?<br />
  <br />
  I'd like to share with you where I think we will find it and where we will not.
• Educational Leadership:Teaching Screenagers:Transforming Education with Technology:
  The U.S. Department of Education recently released Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology. Here, Karen Cator, director of the Office of Educational Technology, talks with Educational Leadership about the highlights of that plan and the national vision for schools.
• Twitter can SAVE You Time – The Tempered Radical:
  Crazy, isn’t it?  Who would have ever imagined that complete strangers connecting through streams of public instant messages could add so much value to one another’s lives?<br />
  <br />
  But it’s true—and it’s all waiting for you if you’re willing to give Twitter a whirl.
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• Directory of Learning Tools:
  Over 2,000 tools for learning and working in education and the workplace
• The eLearning Site: Jobs Forum:
  Add your eLearning jobs or post info about yourself for potential employers to find.
• Delicious Bookmarks Extension (Beta) – Google Chrome extension gallery:
  Delicious Bookmarks is the official Google Chrome extension for Delicious, the world's leading social bookmarking service (formerly del.icio.us). It integrates your bookmarks with the Google Chrome browser and keeps them in sync for easy, convenient access. Access your bookmarks in Chrome or anywhere in the world by going to www.delicious.com.
• AddThis – Bookmarking addon:
  Make sharing easy.Get more traffic with the most popular sharing platform in the world. Help your users share your content everywhere. It only takes seconds to get AddThis, and it's free!
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• BBC News – Universities too focused on research, says Willetts:
  Science Minister David Willetts has said the research-teaching balance has "gone wrong" in universities, after defending cuts to science research.<br />
  Addressing vice chancellors, he said he was shocked by how little teaching was valued in lecturers' promotions.<br />
  Universities that relegated the importance of teaching risked "losing sight" of their mission, he said.<br />
  Earlier, he defended plans unveiled on Wednesday to "raise the bar" on science research funded by the taxpayer.<br />
  On Thursday, during a speech on the future of higher education, Mr Willetts said: "It remains hard to shift the impression that what really counts in higher education is research. This needs to change."
• Wimba & Elluminate Named Top Collaboration Solutions in IMS LearnSat Survey:
  Wimba and Elluminate, two leading solutions for collaboration, were named as top solutions in the IMS LearnSat survey, Blackboard Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB) today announced, ranking first and third, respectively, in the Live Presentation or Collaboration category of the IMS Global Learning Consortium's 2009/2010 Learning Technology Satisfaction and Trends (LearnSat) Survey.
• Official Google Blog: Fly to…a whole new website for Google Earth:
  When you think of Google Earth, you might think about flying to the top of Mt. Everest, surveying the ancient Acropolis, or simply finding the house where you grew up. For the past five years, people all over the world have been discovering new places to explore through our community, blogs, news articles and Gallery. Now you can go to one place—our brand new Google Earth website—to find everything you’re looking for.
• 500 Internal Server Error:
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• 10 Useful iPhone Keyboard Shortcuts, Tips and Tricks – Yahoo! News:
  If you're a new iPhone user, you'll find this invaluable
• Support grows for compulsory Maori in schools | Stuff.co.nz:
  One in three Kiwis want Maori to become a compulsory school subject, a survey has found.<br />
  <br />
  But that will only be possible if the resources are first put into training teachers, the Principals Federation says.<br />
  <br />
  Research New Zealand released poll results yesterday showing 38 per cent of New Zealanders think Maori should be a required subject in schools.<br />
  <br />
  Four per cent did not have an opinion, while 58 per cent said it should not be compulsory.
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• WikiEducator L4C workshop July 21 – Aug 4 2010:
  Learning4Content – The "WikiEducator Gives Back" Online Workshop<br />
  (July 21-August 4, 2010)
• Top 25 Open Source Project Management Apps:
  If you are a project manager or if you plan to become one — or even if you cannot manage your personal day-to-day tasks — you might require some help from a software system designed to simplify and streamline any project or multiple projects. To help you keep your projects within budget, we’ve gathered a list of the top 25 Open Source project management apps on the market now. “Open Source” means that the apps are free to use, and that you can tweak the code to your advantage if you so desire.
• BBC News – Rise of the virtual conference:
  Virtual conferences are set to explode and steal a slice of the action away from real-life trade shows.<br />
  <br />
  A report last month by Market Research Media said the marketplace will grow to $18.6bn over the next five years.
• BBC News – Jamie Oliver to spend own millions on school meals:
  Jamie Oliver plans to spend millions of pounds of his own money over 10 years to improve food education and meals in UK primary schools, he has revealed.<br />
  <br />
  Individual schools could bid for "literally hundreds of thousands of pounds" to take measures including building gardens and new kitchens.<br />
  <br />
  He said he wanted to "touch 1,000" of the UK's 20,000-plus primary schools.<br />
  <br />
  Although plans were at "an early stage", he hoped the scheme would provide a model for government policy.<br />
  <br />
  Last month, a study by Oxford University and Essex University found that Oliver's campaign for healthy school dinners had boosted pupils' test results.
• BBC News – Robot trainer benefits stroke patients – study:
  Intensive therapy using a robot has helped patients improve arm movement years after having a stroke, according to a US study.<br />
  <br />
  Researchers from Brown University, in Rhode Island, used the machine to provide three months of training.<br />
  <br />
  The New England Journal of Medicine reported that many patients had improved quality of life.<br />
  <br />
  UK stroke experts said the advance was "exciting" but added that robots were still at early stages of development.
• BBC News – Microsoft debuts ‘fix it’ program:
  Microsoft has launched "Fix It" software that keeps an eye on a PC and automatically repairs common faults.<br />
  <br />
  The software basically adds the automatic diagnostics system in Windows 7 to older versions of Microsoft's operating system.<br />
  <br />
  The software, currently available as a trial or beta version, is intended for users of Windows XP and Vista.<br />
  <br />
  The package also tries to anticipate how security updates will affect a PC before they are installed.
• 100+ Motivational Techniques to Take Learning to the Next Level | Smart Teaching:
  Teaching online learners can come with its own set of challenges. Here are some ideas on facing them.
• Follow Finder by Google:
  Follow Finder analyzes public social graph information (following and follower lists) on Twitter to find people you might want to follow.
• Internet conditioned learners will change how we deliver instruction:
  … we learning professionals have two choices.<br />
  <br />
  1. Deliver old style, long and detailed lectures, provide copious reading assignments, and expect focused attention on you; or …<br />
  2. Replace lectures with mysteries and problems to be solved, replace reading assignments with topics to be researched via the Internet, and replace focused attention with texting and other social interactions.<br />
  <br />
  We may not want to pick the second option—it will certainly make our professional lives harder—but our choices are adaptation or decreasing relevance. We better make the choice before our learners make it for us.
• Twitter’s @Anywhere Platform Is Now Live:
  Twitter's @Anywhere platform was introduced at SXSW, but the microblogging service didn’t release the developer tools until today. Now anyone can integrate Twitter on their website.<br />
  <br />
  @Anywhere supports auto-linkification of usernames, hovercards (similar to ones we see on Twitter.com), follow buttons, tweet boxes and user login/signup options (a.k.a. Twitter Connect). All of these tools are meant to keep visitors Twitter-happy while on third party sites
• Content Aware fill in Photoshop CS5 for eLearning and Technical Documents:
  The new Content-Aware Fill enables you to easily remove any unwanted areas from an image, and it fills in the space left behind using the surrounding pixels and it even matches lighting, tone and noise.<br />
  <br />
  The real beauty in all of this is that you don't have to know a whole lot about Photoshop or graphic design to be able to use it. Simply make a selection, press Delete and voila.
• BigBlueButton Brings Video Conferencing to Classrooms:
  Many schools and universities are offering online learning as a way for remote students to attend classes, but effective learning often relies upon a student's ability to interact with the instructor and fellow classmates. BigBlueButton is a great interactive Web-conferencing tool for unifying classrooms and facilitating the teaching process.<br />
  <br />
  BigBlueButton is a free, open source, server-run project designed to run on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. It's built on more than 14 open source components like Asterisk, MySQL, ActiveMQ, and more. BigBlueButton integrates with open source content management system Moodle and a handful of other popular open source projects.
• Robot builders ready to face-off | Stuff.co.nz:
  A group of students from Auckland's Rangitoto College will travel to the United States next month to compete in an international robot building competition.
• BBC News – Facebook and Electoral Commission launch voter push:
  Social networking website Facebook has been brought in to get unregistered voters into the polling booth.<br />
  <br />
  In a tie-up with the Electoral Commission, Facebook users who visit the site over the weekend will be asked if they have registered to vote.<br />
  <br />
  If they say "No" they will be sent to a page linked to the Electoral Commission that lets them enter details online.
• BBC News – Dr Who enters new world of gaming:
  Doctor Who will be regenerating earlier than expected – this time into a character in a computer game.<br />
  <br />
  Writers from the hit BBC show have joined forces with videogame creator Charles Cecil to come up with four interactive episodes of the show.<br />
  <br />
  It is part of the BBC's drive to increase computer literacy among those who aren't regular net users.
• BBC News – Hewlett Packard outlines computer memory of the future:
  By Jonathan Fildes<br />
  Technology reporter, BBC News<br />
  <br />
  Memristors<br />
  17 memristors captured by an atomic force microscope<br />
  <br />
  The fundamental building blocks of all computing devices could be about to undergo a dramatic change that would allow faster, more efficient machines.<br />
  <br />
  Researchers at computer firm Hewlett Packard (HP) have shown off working devices built using memristors – often described as electronics' missing link.<br />
  <br />
  These tiny devices were proposed 40 years ago but only fabricated in 2008.
• BBC News – Apple reveals new iPhone features:
  Apple has given a preview of some of the 100 features that will be included in a new iPhone operating system to be launched later this year.
• Official Google Blog: Google Earth helps discover rare hominid ancestor in South Africa:
  Today, scientists announced a new hominid fossil discovery in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa. The discovery is one of the most significant palaeoanthropological discoveries in recent times, revealing at least two partial hominid skeletons in remarkable condition, dating to between 1.78 and 1.95 million years. We are especially excited because Google Earth played a role in its discovery.
• Fixes for 64-bit Adobe Reader preview handler and thumbnails:
  Fed up with problems with 64-bit Adobe Reader preview probs in Outlook Get this fix & donate
• Maori school’s pupils shine in NCEA results | Stuff.co.nz:
  A Maori-immersion school in Christchurch has recorded a 100 per cent pass rate for all three NCEA levels.
• BBC News – Apple iPad users report wi-fi problems:
  Some owners of the newly-available iPad have reported problems with connecting their devices to wi-fi.
• Free Stuff – Educational Technology – ICT in Education:
  The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book!<br />
  <br />
  * 87 projects.<br />
  * 10 further resources.<br />
  * 52 applications.<br />
  * 94 contributors.<br />
  * The benefits of using Web 2.0 applications.<br />
  * The challenges of using Web 2.0 applications.<br />
  * How the folk who ran these projects handled the issues…<br />
  * … And what they recommend you do if you run them.<br />
  * What were the learning outcomes?<br />
  * And did I mention that this is free?!
• BBC News – Oliver campaign ‘raised results’:
  TV chef Jamie Oliver's campaign for healthy school dinners boosted pupils' test results, researchers say.<br />
  <br />
  Primary pupils in Greenwich, London, who took part in the Feed Me Better scheme, got better results than those in neighbouring boroughs, they found.<br />
  <br />
  The study by Oxford University and Essex University also found them less likely to be off sick from school.
• BBC News – Teachers bullied by ‘hate sites’:
  Pupils are inceasingly using social networking sites to bully and undermine teachers, according to claims at a teachers' union conference.
• BBC News – Teaching support ‘raises results’:
  Schools that increase spending on teaching assistants have improved results, a report suggests.<br />
  <br />
  But the Training and Development Agency for Schools study says it could be the children who are not getting extra support who are benefiting the most.<br />
  <br />
  This may be because it allows these pupils to concentrate on the teacher, without being distracted by others.
• BBC News – Pupils ‘give feedback on iphones’:
  Pupils have been given iphones to give instant feedback on lessons, a teachers' conference has heard.<br />
  <br />
  Iphones were handed out at a secondary school in Kent as part of a "quality assurance" week, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers was told.<br />
  <br />
  Pupils were encouraged to write comments about teachers and opinions about lessons and send them to the senior management at the school.<br />
  <br />
  The union said gathering feedback in this way "lacked transparency".<br />
  <br />
  Backing a conference motion calling for better guidance on how pupil observation was conducted, John Rivers, an information and communications technology (ICT) secondary school teacher from Kent, said he was contacted for advice by colleagues at the unnamed school in question.
• BBC News – India launches children’s right to education:
  A landmark law which makes education a fundamental right for children has come into effect in India.<br />
  <br />
  It is now legally enforceable for every child to demand free and elementary education between the ages of six and 14 years.
• BBC – Newsbeat – Controversial DVD censoring system to be launched in UK:
  A controversial new DVD system that can censor films is to be released in the UK later this year.<br />
  <br />
  ClearPlay allows parents to filter material with options to remove scenes containing blood, violence, offensive words and blasphemy.
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• Academic Earth – Video lectures from the world’s top scholars:
• Descendancy for John Tibbal: Shauns Family History:
  Tibbles back to 1650
• Auckland University campus goes smoke-free | Stuff.co.nz:
  Students and staff at Auckland University can no longer slip outside for a quick puff.
  The university has become a smoke-free campus, inside and outside, and smoking has been banned, even in areas once designated as smoking areas.
• BBC News – Hi-tech exam cheating increases says Ofqual:
  More than 4,400 people were caught cheating in last year's GCSEs and A-levels in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the exams watchdog says.
• BBC News – ‘Internet addiction’ linked to depression, says study:
  There is a strong link between heavy internet use and depression, UK psychologists have said.
  The study, reported in the journal Psychopathology, found 1.2% of people surveyed were "internet addicts", and many of these were depressed.
  The Leeds University team stressed they could not say one necessarily caused the other, and that most internet users did not suffer mental health problems.
  The conclusions were based on 1,319 responses to an on-line questionnaire.
• BBC – dot.Rory: Fast broadband – an election issue?:
  At the weekend, the Conservatives unveiled their plans to ensure the rollout of superfast broadband – or "up to 100mbps to the majority of homes" by 2017.
  Last summer, the Labour government outlined its vision in the Digital Britain report, now making its way through Parliament in the form of the Digital Economy Bill, which also sees superfast broadband reaching 90% of the UK by 2017.
• KnowledgeWorks Foundation – Future of Learning:
  KnowledgeWorks has developed two forecasts highlighting the key forces that will influence public education in the coming decade. Each forecast is a powerful tool for engaging with the future. The forecasts do not predict what will happen, but rather serve as a guide to the as-yet-unwritten future. They are designed to help us see connections among things that once seemed unrelated and to help us consider the challenges that are facing all of us today within the context of wider patterns of change.

  In order to shape the future of learning, we must envision it together. The Institute for Creative Collaboration at KnowledgeWorks partners with teams, groups, and organizations to uncover how systems really work and to create new ways of thinking, learning, and working. Find out how we can work together.

• BBC News – The rise of the web’s digital elites:
  Ahead of a major series on the BBC about the impact of the web, presenter, social scientist and journalist Aleks Krotoski asks whether the web has already missed its greatest chance.

  The web is an extraordinary innovation, with the greatest potential to usher in social change since the invention of the printing press or the steam engine.

  Built upon a technology that is apolitical, unregulated and decentralised, it empowers everyone – men, women, children – to be creators of information, rather than passive consumers.

  It is also an enormous library of global consciousness, a digital collection of human knowledge from the past and the present and presented in an easy-to-access format.

  As a result, we now have the unprecedented power to create our own truth, and share it with everyone in the world. It has ushered in an equality of access that we have never seen before.

  But has its potential as a great leveller for the whole world already passed?

• HOW TO: Build a More Beautiful Blog:
  Whether you’re blogging for business or pleasure, now is the time to take your little corner of the web to the next level. Social media makes your blog more visible and valuable than ever, and the amount of resources available to beautify and streamline your blog is enormous, and ever growing.
• Symbaloo – start simple:
  Home page replacement
• BBC News – PlayStation 3 ‘hacked’ by iPhone cracker:
  A US hacker who gained notoriety for unlocking Apple's iPhone as a teenager has told BBC News that he has now hacked Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3).

  George Hotz said the hack, which could allow people to run pirated games or homemade software, took him five weeks.

  He said he was still refining the technique but intended to post full details online soon.

• BBC – Spaceman: Why hasn’t ET made contact yet?:
  He's absolutely convinced. Frank Drake has been scouring the sky for 50 years, looking for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.

  He's heard nothing… but he's in no doubt they're out there.

  Drake was a founder-member of Seti, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

• The Internet Strategist: Top 13 Ways to Drive Blog Readership:
  If you have a blog then you know that the biggest challenge next to content is readers. How do you get your audience, who are bombarded by hundreds (thousands?) of messages per day, to focus on your messages?
• Cloudworks – Motivating teachers to use technologies:
  Cloud created by:
  Gráinne Conole

  Technologies seem to offer lots to improve the learner experience, but are still not being used extensively by teachers.

  * What are the reasons for this lack of uptake?
  * How can we motivate teachers to use technologies more?
  * How can we support them in their use of technologies?

• BBC News – Google co-founders to sell shares:
  Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are selling 10 million of their shares, raising $5.5bn (£3.4bn) at today's prices.
• Top 50 Blogs for e-Learning Tools and Tips:
  If you want to learn a new language or if you want to know how that e-learning tool works, you have plenty of online help to reach those goals. The following list of fifty top blogs for e-learning tools and tips concentrate on technologies, resources, business strategies and more for teachers and students. We’ve even included a category that may inspire you to reach even further during 2010.

  The following links are listed alphabetically by blog title under each category. We use this method to show that we do not favor one blog over another.

• BBC News – Schools must embrace mobile technology:
  "Turned off devices equals turned off children. Sensible schools use mobile technology to their advantage, putting up a telephone number about an issue such as bullying and getting pupils to text their views," said Prof Heppell.
• Mastering Distraction « Cactus Wrangler – It’s tough. Distractions rule our lives – from social media and phone calls to other workers. Maybe you work at home and you have pets or children. Our hobbies and passions are more compelling than the work we have to get done.

  What do you do?

  There is only one answer. Discipline. Make some choices about priorities and Choose. Easier said than done. Here are a few tips that work for me.

• The Power of Educational Technology: 10 Tips for Beginning Bloggers – My brother has recently started blogging and asked me for some tips. I thought I would share them here. I started blogging in 2006 and it has been some of the best professional development for me that I have ever done. Blogging forces me to think, reflect and write about my experiences. Blogging helps me retain my learning and connects me to others who help and support me in my endeavors. If you don't yet have a blog, I recommend giving it a try. You don't have to blog every day or every week. Just establish a place Online to share your thoughts. If you give it a chance, I think you will find it a rewarding experience.

  Here are few tips to get you started.

A review of the evidence of the impact of digital technologies, on formal education. Includes sections on what the evidence says, and challenges for the future.

Thanks to Susan Sedro for alerting me to this:

I’m a great fan of Jane Hart‘s Learning Tools Directory which she started in 2006.

For 2010 she has completely revised the structure, reflecting how things have changed over the last 4 years. Go have a look, but in brief here are the 12 new categories (taken from Jane’s blog post)

1. Instructional Tools
   Tools for creating, delivering,  managing learning and/or providing a social learning environment.  Includes course authoring, testing, LMS, CMS and SLEs Currently listing 290 tools
2. Live Tools
   Tools for delivering live meetings, screen sharing and accessing/building virtual worlds.  Includes web, audio, video conferencing, live broadcasting, 3D/virtual worlds
   Currently listing 85 tools
   
3. Document & Presentation Tools
   Tools to create, host and/or share documents, PDFs, e-Books and/or presentations. Includes word processing, presentation tools, PDF convertors, document and presentation hosting sites
   Currently listing 177 tools
4. Blogging, Web & Wiki Tools
   Tools to create blogs, web pages/sites and wikis as well as provide interactivity on those sites. Includes blogging tools, web site tools, wikis, widgets, RSS feeds tools, forms,  web poll and survey sites
   Currently listing 255 tools
5. Image, Audio & Video Tools
   Tools to create, edit and/or host images, avatars, audio files, podcasts, screencasts and videos.  Includes image editors, images hosting sites, audio editors, video makers, screencasting tools, video hosting sites
   Currently listing 270 tools
6. Communication Tools
   Tools for a range of synchronous and asynchronous communication activities.Includes email, voice/video messaging, instant messaging, chat rooms, discussion forums
   Currently listing 151 tools
7. Micro-blogging Tools
   These tools are for real-time updating (140 characters at a time) both publically or privately, as well as a range of useful Twitter apps. Includes micro-blogging, back channel tools, Twitter apps
   Currently listing 141 tools
8. More collaboration tools
   These are (further) stand-alone tools suitable for individuals to work and learn more effectively with others – as well as on their own. Includes social bookmarking, calendar sharing, mind mapping, notetaking/sharing, whiteboards, research and other tools
   Currently listing 188 tools
9. Social Networking and Collaboration Spaces
   These social media platforms include public social networks as well as tools to create private collaborative, social spaces for groups or communities, as well as enterprise collaboration systems (with multiple group sites).  Includes public social networks, networking and community platforms, group spaces, Enterprise 2.0 systems
   Currently listing 107 tools
10. Personal Productivity Tools
    These tools are for an individual’s personal working, learning and/or productivity purposes. Includes mind mapping, information and time management tools, web search, and other productivity tools
    Currently listing 149 tools
11. Browsers, Players & Readers
    These tools are useful for browsing the web and accessing web content. Includes browsers, extensions, plugins, bookmarklets, toolbars, readers and players, online start pages
    Currently listing 68 tools
12. Mobile Tools
    These mobile tools are for working, learning and/or productivity purposes.Includes tools for iPhone/iTouch, Blackberry and Android devices
    Currently listing 47 tools
    

Oh and if you want to recommend a tool to be added to the Directory go here.

Blake, Denise A (2009) What I Learned from Teaching Adult Learners Online. eLearn Magazine.  Dec.

http://elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=105-1

Abstract:
One summer, I was asked to take over an online course (in a master of education program) that had already begun. I accepted the job, but with hesitation. I knew the course material because it was within my field of expertise, but I had never taught an online course or taught masters-level students.

I asked a colleague for help in determining what course material to use. Since my colleague had originally designed the course and had taught online for manyAdult learner years, I figured she would be the logical contact.

My colleague was a tremendous resource in determining both the amount and type of material to use. After spending a week sorting through and updating the materials, I posted the course requirements online. I had already contacted the students to let them know that they were not behind (seeing as I had taken over a course that was already in progress), and that I would be the new instructor. After that initial point of contact, I used email to correspond with the students and Blackboard to post assignments and the syllabus, and for discussions between students.

Because the class was a skills course on how to evaluate articles for a literature review, I had the students read articles of their choice (related to their thesis topics) and evaluate them according to specific criteria. They posted the articles and evaluations on Blackboard. Additionally, the students were asked to read other students’ articles and evaluations, and then comment on at least two postings.

I found that I had to be explicit in explaining what I expected for each assignment and in drafting the syllabus. I made certain that the students understood what was expected of them, such as what time the assignments were due and when their feedback on other articles were to be posted. This was one of the most challenging academic activities I have ever tried to do.

I was curious: What experiences have others had teaching online, and are they similar to my own? What did I need to know about masters-level students? And what exactly would I need to do to teach a quality online course?

In this article, I share my findings. In the end, I will reflect on how well my first online teaching experience went.

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A friend in the UK sent me this today.

I immediately had to find my partner and show it to her. Yes it captured my attention all right. And I went off to look at the web site mentioned at the end of the video.

Now if more of our teaching could be like that.

1. Grab and keep  the attention of students
2. Encourage them to work collaboratively
3. Facilitate self exploration for more information/knowledge

Hope you all have a great break.

• EduBlog Awards 2009 are underway. See how to nominate at http://edublogawards.com/the-edublog-awards-2009/ #
• Dilbert on Twitter http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-11-24 #
• Edinburgh Uni to offer graduation in 2nd Life for distance students http://tinyurl.com/yetdf5f #
• Freedom of information or just plain offensive? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8377902.stm #
• Google reader to allow favicons in subscription lists http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2009/11/let-your-subscriptions-personality-come.html #
• C4LPT Guide to Social Learning has been updated http://c4lpt.co.uk/handbook/ #
• 20+ Brand New and Incredibly Useful WordPress Plugins http://tinyurl.com/yh852bg #
• Mentoring for 21st Century Skills It’s all about the Learning New book Xmas hols reading http://tinyurl.com/yzkr89y #
• Attitudes in Britain toward the use of learning technologies are changing http://elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=opinion&article=126-1 #

• Paper submissions for next year's DEANZ conference (25-28 Apr) extended until Fri 11 Dec http://www.deanz.org.nz #deanz2010 #
• Are you tweeting from Hawkes Bay NZ? Let me know and I will add you to my list http://bit.ly/1ja4zU #
• Where To Upload And Share PowerPoint Presentations: Guide To The Best Online Services http://tinyurl.com/leegdh #
• free way to create crossword puzzles http://www.eclipsecrossword.com/ #
• Blogs in Education – great resources http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs/ #
• Is blogger.com down – can't login, can't even get page up #
• Great Key Note from @ChrisBrogan http://www.chrisbrogan.com/the-serendipity-engine-web-2-expo-speech/ #
• Second Life numbers waning "Half the time you're just wandering around talking to weirdos" http://tinyurl.com/yja99hb #
• YouTube introduces automatic captions for deaf viewers http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8369941.stm #

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The 2009 list is out from Jane Hart at the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies.

As always this makes a great read.