The Faculty of Economics and Business is one of the top faculties of University of Zagreb. Their Bachelor Degree in Business (BDiB) is a 4-year undergraduate study program which was introduced in the academic year 2008/2009. It is the only economics and … Continue reading →

The 46 page research report on ‘Mobile pedagogy for English language teaching and learning: a guide for teachers’ is a practical and informative report. It was written by experts (Agnes Kukulska-Hulme, Lucy Norris and Jim Donohue) in the field that combine a strong theoretical background with experienced practical projects. Introduction The ideas in this guide are... Read More ›

Today is a continuation of this ongoing comparison. For a full comparison, check out this post. This week is all about audio! I’ll take a look at audio importing & recording, along with some peripherally related features. Feature Captivate 8 Storyline 2 Notes Slide Notes & Captioning Closed captioning is one area where Captivate definitely […]

I thought I’d start the year off with a colourful post. I’ve been doing some building in Second Life (SL) recently. I got stuck when I came to interpreting how the colour codes work when scripting some effects.Perhaps I should explain for those who are not so familiar with SL.All of SL, including the avatars that frequent it, is constructed from what are known as prims, or ‘primitives’ - polygonal three-dimensional shaped objects, like the ones Kallan demonstrates here.Of course, not all that can be seen in SL is made entirely from these primitive shapes alone. They can be distorted by an effect, called sculpting, to reshape, or ‘tortured’ by changing their shape and size by other means.Painting things in SLColouring, or painting prims can be done in at least two ways. Choosing a single colour by using the colour picker, is a way of painting. The S-shaped sculpted sphere, above, was coloured this way.Another is selecting a texture, which is really an uploaded image, and using this to give a defined pattern or intricate detail to the prim.The picture here shows my friend Lara Nguya wearing a pendant that is decorated and coloured using this texturing method.The standard RGB colour code is used. Each colour is defined digitally (8-bit) by its Red, Green and Blue components - shown as numbers between 255 and 0, in so-called vector arrays.The code for white is (255, 255, 255) and for black is (0, 0, 0). All other available colour combinations in the colour picker occur as permutations between these two vectors.ScriptsOne way of imparting effects to objects in SL is by using scripts. In Lara’s candle, for instance, she uses a script that gives the wick the effect of a flickering flame.When it came to scripting, I was completely baffled at first by colour codes and how they worked. Lara, showed me that an arithmetical code is used in scripting - different from the 8-bit coding used for colours in non-scripted prims.The arithmetical code embraces a similar RGB range of colours, with some minor limitation in the range of hues available.The RGB components are represented by numbers between 1 and 0, instead of 8-bit digital numbers between 255 and 0.An easy conversionLara explained it to me this way:Whereas 255 is the maximum number allowable in the 8-bit digital code, the corresponding maximum number is 1.0 for scripts and for some other uses in SL.This means that any RGB code has to be converted to the equivalent code before it can be used in a script. The numbers in the 8-bit digital codes must be divided by 255 to be corrected for use in scripting.The code for white used in script becomes < 1, 1, 1 > and the script code for black becomes < 0, 0, 0 >.(48, 128, 20)The arithmetic in the code conversion for sapgreen is as follows:48 converts to 48/255 = .19128 converts to 128/255 = .5020 converts to 20/255 = .08So sapgreen 8-bit digital code (48, 128, 20) becomes < .19, .50, .08 > .Another example is blueviolet. Its 8-bit digital code is (138, 43, 226). The code for the colour used in script is < .51, .17, .89 >.The same process can be used for any other colour expressed in 8-bit digital code.I am grateful for assistance and advice given to me by Lara Nguya.

Human Resources are the most important asset of a company. Learn about the benefits of using e-learning to provide them with continuous training. Don’t wait and try Eliademy for free during 30 days! If you want to discuss the specific … Continue reading →

Tom Spiglanin is a rocket scientist and helps other rocket scientists learn. The people he works with carry out research for the US space programs,  for the US Government, NASA and NOAA. About himself, he said: For over eighteen years, I’ve been developing learning strategies, educational products, and instructional designs for the Aerospace Institute, the educational... Read More ›

Today is a continuation of this ongoing comparison. For a full comparison, check out this post. Feature Captivate 8 Storyline 2 Notes PowerPoint Integration Integration is smooth and gives you a few options such as having slides advance automatically or with a mouse click. It also can "link" to the PPT so changes can quickly […]

At the beginning of last decade, I attended a session for teachers. The topic was pedagogy. There were about a dozen participants - teachers from early childhood through to senior secondary.The facilitator asked that we consider what was meant by ‘pedagogy’. We each wrote a few sentences about it on a sheet of paper, to be read and discussed later in the session.I was amazed at the diversity of ideas that were revealed. It seemed that from a significant group of teachers, no two had the same idea of what was meant by pedagogy. Some said it was to do with the lesson plan. Some indicated that it was about how things were taught.A few spoke of proven teaching methods and theory. Others mentioned how the learner could be involved. Of course, it could encompass all of those and more.But the miscellany of ideas brought forward was so varied that it was difficult for me to see any commonality among it at first. I wondered about this. I wondered that in a group of a dozen or so teachers, opinion about the meaning of pedagogy could be so disparate.Pedagogy a practiceFortunately, as the session evolved, things became more distinct. We agreed that pedagogy was to do with what was practiced and what was found to work best in particular learning situations. It was not some idea or strategy for teaching that was dreamed up on the spur of the moment. It does not work like that.Pedagogy is the product of a cycle practiced by a teacher, and this has components that can be considered as part of an action research cycle: theory and recognised practice - planning - application - evaluation - reflection.Wikipedia explains pedagogy as "strategies of instruction" and "the correct use of teaching strategies". It gives the literal meaning from the Greek as, "to lead the child." This description suggests a definite focus on how to go about teaching a young mind.I usually have adults in my cohort of learners. Some of them are at least as old as I am. Is using pedagogy appropriate when teaching adults too?Elearning resources and pedagogyCertainly, pedagogy has to be involved when digitally created resources are being chosen for a learner - scaffolding - level - cultural appropriateness - timeliness of use. It could be argued that this is when the ultimate pedagogical decision is made - whether to use a resource or not, and if chosen, how it is to be used.What relevance does pedagogy have in the creation of digital learning resources - of the type that may be designed and built by an instructional designer? Is pedagogy any use to the instructional designer? Should its application be restricted to the realm of the teacher?The construction of a resource and its pedagogical usefulness does not happen by chance. If it is sound enough for a teacher to contemplate its use when applying correct pedagogy to a learning situation, then it follows that a fair amount of pedagogy also has to be considered when the resource is built.What components of pedagogy also contribute to the considerations that are part of the creation of a resource? What pedagogy is appropriate? How much should involve both teacher and designer when pedagogical considerations are being made? What, if any, should be left to the teacher?

"The Open Education Handbook"(link to SlideWiki) is a collaboratively written living web document targeting educational practitioners and the education community at large and has been developed through a series of offline and online events. During its evolution the handbook has received contributions from organisations and individuals that span sectors and countries. The writing of the handbook... Read More ›