Are you ready to try an on-line course?

I have to admit that I haven't tried an on-line course yet. But for some time I have been subscribed to email newsletters from CNet - an IT support website. One of these newsletters invites me to sign up for free (short) on-line IT courses. If you'd like to experience the world of e-learning go to the CNET website. On the left hand side of the page you will see a link to Learning Campus. You will see the forthcoming courses available. If you'd like to receive the emails to let you know what is coming, scroll down to the box announcing CNET's Free Newsletters and click on the link to see all newsletters.
Mary-Anne is going to venture in to the world of on-line courses - she is going to sign up for a course about teaching others how to use ebay. When she is 'accredited' we will offer ebay training during term 4.
Did you enjoy the Digital Story Telling workshop with Josie? If you'd like a little more control over your story you might like to experiment with Movie Maker (already installed if you have Windows XP). The principles are the same, but you can be a bit more specific, and add in blank slides for titles etc. Photo Story is very simple, and clearly shows how easy it is to create a great result even for complete novices.
Cheers
Jan

Maybe some interesting reading

When I was working in IT in schools I came across this on-line newsletter called From Now On, put together by a Jamie McKenzie. Apparently Jamie is a reknowned IT educator. He regularly visits Australia to present at conferences etc. I subscribed to the (free) newsletter - but have to admit I have't actually taken the time to read it for quite a while. Tonight I decided to have a look at the most recent newsletter, and came across this article regarding the pitfalls of on-line courses.
http://fno.org/jun06/online.html
It may provide some food for thought as we consider our options.

Hope to see a posting from some other team members soon.

Cheers
Jan

How is the research going?

Hi Team!

How are you going with your exploration of e-learning tools? If you have found something that you think would be really useful, how about letting the rest of us know via the BACE Space.

If you go to the LearnScope folder on the Server you will find a couple of documents containing links to other sites that you might find interesting. Either burn those documents to your LearnScope CD, or your memory stick. If you don't know how to do either - return your CD to me and I will do it for you. Better still, I will teach you how to do it!


Don't forget to let me know if Monday afternoon at 2:00 is not suitable for you to link up on-line for about an hour. Each link up will be one Monday afternoon mid-way between each face-to-face PD session. The next link up will be Monday 7th August unless it doesn't suit the majority. Following dates will be 4th September, 2nd October and 30th November.


Hopefully this will not ask you for a password when you try to add a comment. It is set to allow anyone to add a comment - but all comments will go to me first just in case an 'outsider' decides they want to join our discussion.


Hope to see some comments over the next few days.

LearnScope Session 1

We toured the Live Classroom. It appears to be quite user friendly. There is high interaction between participants and teachers. As teachers we probably need lots more skills to be able to use this effectively. Jackie said it is out of our comfort zone - but that doesn't mean we won't be able to use it in time. Internet connections and personal computer skills will impact on effective use.