Note Taking Tools

The other day I wrote about Personal Learning Environments (PLEs). I mentioned there are several tools, commonly known as Web 2.0 tools, which people can now use to help them establish and maintain their PLEs. Over the coming days and weeks I am going to be writing about many of these tools. The first group of tools I want to address is note taking tools. As the name indicates, these tools can help users improve their productivity at taking notes. I used to be one of those people who wrote out all his notes with pen and paper. If I decided to use technology, I would fire up Microsoft Word and take notes with it. Or maybe if I did not have my laptop with me, but had access to another computer connected to the internet, I might compose an email to myself using webmail and take notes with that. Both of those methods were improvements over pen and paper; however, they were a far cry from what is currently available to those who desire to be most productive.

Now days I use Google Notebook as my primary notebook tool. I like that it is a web-based tool - one of the many Web 2.0 tools - and available to me from any computer when I log in to my Google account. Of course I usually have my notebook computer with my wherever I am. However, in those instances when I do not have my computer with me I can easily log on to another computer and access my notes. I can also easily share my notes with others and they can collaborate with me. This provides huge benefits that are not as easily achieved with a non-web-based tool. Google Notebook also allows me to have multiple notebooks and to search all of my notebooks similar to how I search the web with Google. One of the most attractive things for me initially was that it is free. I really dislike spending money on software only to find out it does not do what I wanted it to do.

Of course there are a number of other notebook tools available. In her Directory of Learning Tools, Jane Hart lists over 40 Note Taking/Sharing and Whiteboard Tools. I also looked at some other Web 2.0 tools which combine note taking capability with other functions. I briefly tried both Backpack and Zoho; they seemed more complicated to use than Google Notebook, though admittedly I did not spend very much time with either of them. Perhaps if I were to give them time I would find that they had extra functionality which I could use. Then again, maybe I would not.

For now I will keep using Google Notebook. If you don't currently use a notebook tool, try it out.

Innovations In Learning (IIL07)

Christine Martell was one of the presenters at the Brandon Hall Innovations in Learning conference in Santa Clara last week. Several of my other favorite bloggers were also there. Christine wrote about a presentation she facilitated at the conference. In "What is innovation in learning?" Christine writes about using what many would consider a low-tech approach to training. She split her participants up into four groups of 3 to 5 people. She gave each group a series of photographs and tasked them with creating a shared vision of "What is innovation in learning?"

Each group approached the problem differently and each came up with a unique, innovative solution. What is most interesting to me about her approach is that, in Christine's words, "it allowed a group of strangers to get to the underlying issues in an innovative way and in less than ninety minutes." She used a simple tool that made it possible for several people to share their own education and experience to arrive at answers. She also commented that one of the recurring themes in the conference was "‘it’s not about the technology, it’s about the learning’."

Christine finished up her article by writing,

"As trainers, course designers, e-learning specialists, etc, we cannot allow ourselves to be lulled into thinking that technology is going to solve the problems for us. A thirty year-old bicycle will get you two blocks down the street just as well as a Ferrari. The real challenge is knowing how and when to use the different technologies to deliver the most impact."

I heartily agree with her. Although I love technology and often endeavor to use a technological solution, I want to be sure and match the best solution (considering time and budget constraints) to each situation.

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Allure of new technological tools

Often when we become aware of new tools we try to use them in familiar ways; we try to adopt the new tools to our tried-and-true methods rather than change our methods to take advantage of capabilities the new tools provide. This has occurred with many or all of the technological tools now being used in an educational environment. It is happening now with wikis. This does not happen because people are not clever enough to figure out how to use the new tools. Often it is because people are just too busy or otherwise distracted to take time to investigate how to best use the new tools. Or it occurs because people become enthralled with the allure of the new tool and they do not adequately consider how to best use it. They fail to do an analysis to determine if they even should use it.

Here is a case in point. What came to be Macromedia Breeze was originally called Presidia; it was made by a company with the same name. Originally about all it offered was a way to add audio to PowerPoint presentations and stream them to the web. After Macromedia bought the company they made many improvements to the product, effectively making it into a new “tool”, and renamed it Breeze. The company I worked for continued to use the new tool, Breeze, the same way we had used the old tool, Presidia. We failed to capitalize on any of the new capabilities.

Before individuals start to use wikis they must make a conscious decision to figure out how to best use them in their particular circumstance. If they use them just for the sake of using a new technology they will gain very little benefit and will possibly cause many negative consequences.

the right technology

This evening I completed chapter four – Technologies and Media – in Distance Education: A Systems View by Moore and Kearsley (2005).

It is sometimes difficult for me to keep in mind that the technology is not as important as the design. Great technology coupled with poor design will yield little better than mediocre results. Also, “technology” in relation to distance education can refer to a variety of mediums ranging from print to internet delivery. No one technology is best in every situation. Rather, designers must select the best technology for a given learning objective and learner. Older technologies are not necessarily bad; newer technologies are not necessarily good.

According to Moore and Kearsley, print is still the most pervasive technology used in distance education (p. 73). This surprised me at first until I thought about the fact that many of the leading distance education universities in terms of enrollment are not in countries that enjoy high percentages of access to the internet. Instead they are in countries like Turkey, China, Indonesia, and South Africa. In these areas print is the main delivery medium for distance education courses.

As mentioned above, the key is selecting the right technology for the application. There are many learning objectives where print is perfectly acceptable, and quite possibly even preferable. There are other objectives for which a good graphic, picture, or video clip is best. For other objectives perhaps an audio clip or interactive audio discussion might be the best approach to get the message across. Designers should not let themselves get tied into any one technology. They will be best served if they use a mix of technologies to portray the learning objectives for which they are designing.

Moore, M. G. & Kearsley, G. (2005). Distance education: a systems view (2nd Ed.). Belmont, CA: Thompson Wadsworth.

m-Blogging

Here is another copy of a post to my EDTEC 572 class blog.

I read something last semester about mobile blogging, also known as m-Blogging. There are some companies in Japan that market educational programs to cellular subscribers. It is a good method for language (Kanji) instruction. See this link for article describing m-Blogging usage in Japan. Does anyone know of companies here in the US, or elsewhere, that use m-Blogging for training or educational purposes? How could m-Blogging be used? Comments? Yes Minjuan - I like technology tools and learning how to use them.

More about technology tools

The following two paragraphs comprise a copy of a post I made to the EDTEC572 blog site. I am really enjoying learning about different tools to use for educational purposes. This is great.

Late this evening I found a few more educational technology resources. The first is the e-Learning Centre’s Guide to e-Learning. It has a great section on Blogging and RSS. From there I located How to use weblogs to create engaging learning experiences. From that article I went to the Australian Flexible Learning Community web site. These sites appear to offer much good information about using technological tools for education. The e-Learning site, as the name indicates, is dedicated to e-Learning; nevertheless, many of the tools and principals it showcases can also be used in F2F classes.

One reason I like these sites is because they both offer an international perspective on educational technology. In his article about creating engaging learning experiences Maish Nichani states, “…if you want to get up-to-speed in your field, just subscribe to the weblogs in your domain and read them everyday for at least six months.” I intend to read these sites regularly and to gain from them as much knowledge as possible.

john s.

Emerging Technologies

I read several articles today about emerging technologies being used in education. Many of these were links from my EDTEC572 class, Technologies for Course Delivery. I also viewed a Breeze presentation referenced in one of the articles. The presentation is "Connecting Learning Objects with RSS, Trackback and Weblogs" by Alan Levine, Brian Lamb and D'Arcy Norman. It is available at: http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/show.nmc103/. This was a great introduction for me to the world of RSS, something I previously knew next to nothing about. As a result I think my next big project for my site - either my web site or my blog site - will be to add RSS feeds from several sites I am interested in. Stay tuned.

I also learned much more today about wikis including where the word came from. "Wiki wiki" meaning quick in Hawaiian. More importantly I learned more about how a wiki can be used to foster collaborative learning. It is also a useful means to foster a sense of community among any group. I can think of many applications for wikis.

I need to take more time to digest what else I read today before I discuss much of it.

My expectations (copy of 572 post)

Below is a copy of a post I made to the EDTEC572 class blog site. I will copy all such posts here.

"Hmmm.

When I first signed up for the course I thought it would concentrate on how to use various technologies to design e-Learning courses, or simulations, or even virtual reality representations. I was a little disappointed when I found the focus of the course was instructor-led training. However, after giving it a small amount of thought I realized how very practical (and worthwhile) a class focusing on using technology to improve instructor-led training is. Considering that well over half of all training conducted in 2004 is still instructor-led, learning how to use technology in those classes is surely an important pursuit.

Therefore, I suppose I hope to learn more about how to incorporate various technologies into instructor-led classes that I design and develop. I want to learn how to make better use of audio, video, blogging, and various other blended-learning techniques to improve, enhance, and strengthen the educational outcomes of all classes I am involved with.

If we design some type of Computer Based Training we expect to use many technologies to enrich the class. However, we limit ourselves if we choose to not use many of the same technologies in an instructor-led class. I hope to learn how to overcome those limitations in this class."