Closed-Captioned Video
I created the video below and then added sub-titles, or close-captions (CC). By clicking on CC (if it is on a video's menu bar), you will be able to see its closed-captioning. CC assists people with impaired hearing to understand spoken words but, also, fascinatingly, can assist those learning to read a new language or their own.
I used Screencastify Lite, a free Google Chrome app that put a widget in the upper-right corner of my screen. When I click on its film option, the program films what I am doing on the screen and adds a little video on the upper right, as you can see!
Screencastify conveniently downloads the result to YouTube with a click. Then I edited YouTube's "automatic" transcribing tool, and you can see the finished product here.
We are learning the beauty of making the web accessible to everyone through Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which means that people with all abilities can access the web! If everyone's happy, everyone is happy!
This page is full of artifacts, or cool things made using online tools. They're also available elsewhere on the website within a more reflective academic context. I've learned to make these online artifacts as a result of eLearning's primary focus of student-directed learning; I've been motivated to learn how because quality online learning prompts students to grow from the inside out. The certificate program I've earned through these classes culminates in student teaching an online class, which happened to be the first online class I ever took! What a valuable experience it was to intern in E-learning for Educators with Maggie Rouman as my mentor teacher. It was fun, too! The other part of finalizing the graduate certificate process is the Practicum, which is the wrapping-it-all-up class with our advisor, Dennis O'Connor. Dennis has been a joy to work with because he has a ball with online learning! And so has inspired me. I hope you enjoy these different examples of fun with eLearning!
Fun With eLearning!
To see actual photo, click here. Photo credit by kind permission of Juan Garcia-Araez; El Golfo, Lanzarote
Ruth Virginia Barton, 9/9/15, E-Learning Practicum
MOOCs and Mobiles Serving Educational Transformation in Africa?
I'm taking a look at how MOOCs and mobile technology have the potential capability of transforming access to higher education in Africa, and thus, due to its people's passion for education, Africa itself. Two articles Dennis curated, Worldview Stanford's Why MOOCs will Transform Africa and the Canvas Network's Instructional Design for Mobile Learning, relate very much to each other in terms of fulfilling the hunger for higher education in Africa.
There is a high demand for MOOCs in Africa, according to this article's author, Nancy Murphy, (2015) who says the United Nations' Millenial Goals have been "wildly successful" in narrowing the educational gap between women and men. This rise in the rate of women's education correlates directly with an increase in "family and national economic stability and growth." It is estimated that in the next ten years internet access in Africa will progress to 50% of the population and the number of smart phones will multiply by six times. MOOC's have the potential to narrow the educational gender gap even further because of their accessibility, especially to women, and the educational push is on: among other educational institutions, Ms. Murphy writes, the Open A Door Foundation she mentors in and the free online University of the People are education examples of substantial encouragement for evolving higher education in Africa.
The meteoric rise of smart phones in Africa, you say? Well, the second article, about a MOOC called Instructional Design for Mobile Technology (now closed), addresses the "growing and powerful trend" of online learning through mobile technology. The article's authors (2015) ask, "How can we leverage the affordances of mobile technology in ways that make sense for our teaching methods and student learning?" The course addresses instructional design principles, pedagogy, research-based design framework, and simple content and instructional tools, all relating to eLearning with mobile technology.
This profound correlation between access to mobile technology and MOOC education in Africa bodes extremely well for potential eLearning students in that beautiful, eager-to-grow continent. In all my limited but powerful introductions to people from African countries, I have found a very common attribute: an ardent appreciation for education. My observations lead me to believe that any accessible eLearning tools available to African students - especially women - may be just enough of an educational tool to push Africa over the evolutional edge into abundant learning and all the fruits that grow within such a lush educational garden.
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Canvas Network. Instructional Design for Mobile Learning (free MOOC offered until June 6, 2015.). Bartoletti, R., Kilgore, W., & Power, R. Retrieved 9/9/15 from https://www.canvas.net/courses/instructional-design-mobile-learning .
Murphy, N. Feb. 26, 2014. "Why MOOCs will Transform Africa." Worldview Stanford. Retrieved 9/9/15 from http://worldview.stanford.edu/blog/africa-mooc .
O'Connor, Dennis. Scoop.it! curation "E-Learning and Online Teaching." University of Wisconsin-Stout - Learn to Teach Online: http://www.scoop.it/t/e-learning-and-online-teaching/?tag=mooc . Both of the above articles "scooped" 9/9/15.
Welcome to my Scoop.it page, called brain-based e-learning. Scoop-it is a form of social media through which we can explore, curate (collect), and recommend online resources. Have you ever wondered how to negoti-ate the ridiculous amounts of online information? Would you turn to a trusted friend, colleague or teacher to find out? Scoop.it is a way to do just that. I combined my favorite parts of education to make mine: brain-based learning and online learning, to make brain-based e-learning!
Scoop.it!
Click on the image next door and you will see my Online Golden Rule. (Click on Go to Link at the bottom for a larger version.) When we learn - or produce most work - online, it's primarily through through the written word: we write to maximize understanding! There's also a fascinating quote of feminist and author Gloria Steinem from an interview she did with Chris Hayes on MSNBC (Steinem, 2015). Click on the smaller page to return here, or close the tab on the larger version to come back.
Where in the World Are We?
Survey through Survey Monkey
One day during my Assessment in E-learning class I realized after being inspired by a classmate how valuable it could be to set up an interactive Google map displaying where in the world we all lived! It was wondrous to me that we had classmates all over the world. I wrote about it on my blog, too (4/11/15). I also decided to include places where people have lived, as that is so interesting, too.
I created an anonymous survey on Survey Monkey, a free Web 2.0 online treasure. I emailed it to all my classmates, advisor and instructors, asking them to fill it out. You will see the results in my interactive Google map, Where in the World are we? Here is the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/626KDM7. You can take it, too, and your results will be recorded, too! Just click.
This is what it looks like:
If so, please read these easy directions.
If you would like to add your past or present location to this interactive map, click on those corner brackets on the top right. You'll come to another map, which is the more interactive one! Click on the directions at the top left of that map and follow them to interact.
If you prefer to simply play around with this map, just hover the cursor. It will turn into a hand. Drag the hand around to get to where you want to go, then double-click to focus in closer. Use the lower-left plus and minus signs to zoom in and out.
When you're done, close the map by clicking on the X of the tab the map is in. Then you'll be back in this website. Thanks for sharing our beautiful world with me!
Would you like to interact with this map, Where in the World Are We?
Syllabus for The Home School
I have been starting an online school for social and emotional healing. It is embedded in this website under the HomeSchool tab in the menu above or on this page. One of the school's features is this syllabus I devel-oped for an online mini-course introducing students to social and emotional safety. Within the precepts of this safety, the students and teacher develop an online discussion board to support their emotional healing together, as part of this online school. Click on the Syllabus to
enlarge it then click on the
upper right to pop it out.
Here is a PDF.
Do you know how to use Skype? Then you don't need this Skype tip sheet! 8) A tip sheet is a way to give directions for using a new thing -- in our case, a new tech thing. A group of us in Collaborative Communities created this tip sheet together. My part is at the end and stems from figuring Skype out after running into a bunch of brick walls! Click on the Skype tip
sheet on the right, then click
on the upper right icon to
open. Here's another PDF:
