Part 1 - Teaching Habits That Inspire You Out of Learning? Part 2 - I Have Bragging Rights, Because I Am ...? Part 3 - Is PowerPoint Evil? Part 4 - No Stupid Questions! I am Serious! Coaching Critical Thinking to Think Creatively! "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."- Albert Einstein"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning."-Bill Gates"Education is the process in which we discover that learning adds quality to our lives.Learning must be experienced."- William GlasserIn this 5-part learning series, we have already looked at several teaching habits that could inspire students out of learning, which I am not going to repeat here (read and synthesize the other parts, if you want to know!). In this last part or episode (for sure!), we will explore one of the greatest challenges in teaching today, which is assessing the potential and ability of the student. This time around, I will zoom back to my secondary and high-school days in Norway to share with you some nutty, but useful stories to reflect and draw lessons from.THE WHITE PAPER!In secondary school or 7th grade (Norwegian style!), we had a music teacher who was a failed singer. Her voice was simply horrible, but that did not stop her from singing in every class. She would always scold me when I did not sing along, and when I did sing along she would scold me even more for not following the tune. Until today, I still hate singing. Although, I don't blame her fully, she certainly had some impact on my fear for singing.In general, I believe sincerely that she hated my guts, and fully deserved to as I was no cup of tea either. She always reminded me how much better my big brother was. As I had a reputation to keep (at that time!) that was fine by me. However, what struck me until today was not really her singing (or mine for that sake!), but the way she would test our knowledge level on music and instruments. For example, she would hand out to us a piece of paper with definitions of several instruments and then ask us to memorize it for the next class. In the next class, she would give us a blank piece of paper and ask us to basically rewrite the whole paper again without referring to it. Then she would mark us based on how much we had memorized. No doubt memory and memorization is important today too, but perhaps if we were asked to play and learn an instrument, or be able to discuss our feelings, preferences and experiences with instruments, we might have learned more. Coming to think of it, such exams are not much different from what we often get today. The only major difference is that we have a few hundred pages and a few dozen questions to digest before the exam.Hmm, let's move on to the next story before we close this learning series adventure for good. BRAVO!The second learning reflection journey takes me back to my French language classes in high school. Now, my French teacher was a person that could outshine Mr. Bean any day. I really felt sorry for this old dude. Not only did he have extremely poor eye-sight and hearing, he was also a real nerve rack. You get kind of stressed out by just looking at him.In many ways, he was a legend in the making. The rumor has it that he once mistook a sandwich for a blackboard eraser (a student prank!), and then tried to clean the blackboard with it. Students used to always pull pranks on him, such as putting a lot of mayonnaise on the door knob. He would fall for it every time. But he was a good sport, and would continue class as if nothing had happened, every time. Though, it did not stop there! Since he had poor eyesight, he would map out the students in the classroom on a piece of paper, enabling him to know where who sat. By doing so, he could easily keep track of the students in the class. Or perhaps not! Students being students would always change their positions and he would simply go nuts, reminding us to sit in the same place every class. Some students would also sneak out during class while he was teaching. If he asked questions to missing students, other students would quickly answer on the students' behalf.The most memorable funny incident was even posted in the students' yearbook that year. Since I witnessed it with my bear eyes, I can testify that it really happened. What happened?During one class while the French teacher was lecturing, one student decided to sneak out. However, this time around the student was really creative. He put his chair (upside down) on the table and then covered it with his thick winter jacket, and sneaked out quietly. Later during the class, the French teacher decided to ask the missing student a question. Oh man, we thought he was busted this time around! The French teacher asked the question, but no one answered. Then he went closer to the missing student's desk ( probably about 3 meters from it) and asked again, but still no one answered. Alright, now he is busted! But then the teacher said (in Norwegian), "Oh Christian has decided to be quiet today. Usually, he is so talkative. Alright, can anyone else answer the question?".We all looked stunned at one another in disbelief. Is this teacher for real? I suppose he discovered what really happened in the students' yearbook (Hmm, not sure teachers read such books). Or perhaps he always knew, but acted as if nothing had happened (as usual!). Nope, I doubt it! But then again, nothing could beat his class test or exams. In general, you usually find a few students cheating when there are exams. However, in his class I would argue that 90%+ of the students cheated on his exams. In other words, it is difficult to find students that don't cheat on his exams.The French language book we used for the course, also had an accompanying 'Teacher Guide'. The 'Teacher Guide' included sample test questions and answers. Interestingly, our amazing French teacher would basically copy/paste questions for our exams from this guide. Students being book wise knew that the' Teacher Guide' is also sold in the bookstore without hassle. Need I say any more!Since this amazing teacher could hardly see or hear, students would bring the 'Teacher Guide' to the exam, and answer the questions with flying colors. You might be thinking, 'Did you also cheat?'. I am sad to say... Not only did students bring the guide, but they also placed it on the table as if it was an open book exam. Of course, the French teacher never saw or heard any unusual sounds during the photocopying session. Some bright students would deliberately write a few mistakes, or customize things that were easy to change. At least it did not look too obvious.I once got a 'BRAVO' comment in my exam, and he was really impressed with my answers. I was thinking that the only one that should be getting 'Bravo' is the teacher's ability (or ignorance) to figure out what was going on.Looking back, I had wished I would have focused more on learning French than just thinking about scoring for the exam. Today, I probably remember less than 10 French words or phrases. And that is after 2 semesters of learning French. What a disaster! But then again after watching Father Guido Sarducci's Five Minute University it begins to make sense.In the final analysis, we educators should do more to construct assessment approaches and measures to minimize the possibility for such things from happening. Indirectly, some of our assessment methods might actually encourage students to cheat.THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE?If you ask me, infusing 21st century thinking into the teaching and learning environment is NOT the ultimate learning challenge. These things can be learned and embedded reasonably fast. However, infusing more constructive and relevant assessment methods might actually be the thing that stops many educators from making the necessary changes to nurture 21st century thinking and inspire students to reach their potentials.The old assessment paradigm of only one correct answer (whether tick or essay!) is more efficient to implement and requires less thinking on the educator's behalf to administer.But, how do you measure: Creativity in an objective manner?Critical thinking in an objective manner?The quality and potential of an idea?An open ended question?An opinion?Potential?Ability?LEARNING? Today there are several alternative assessment methods we can use to minimize our own subjectivity in evaluating our students creative and innovative work. The fuzzy maps below, provide several assessment and thinking activities to explore, and I will leave it to your 'Googling' to find good materials related to them. Until now, I have been pumping you with tons of learning resources in this 5-part learning series, but now I will only share two excellent resources to inspire you further: Teaching Tips BlogAn excellent venue for inspiration and resources to spark your imagination with new ideas to engage and facilitate effective learning. Michael Wesch and the Future of Education In this presentation, Michael Wesch breaks down his attempts to integrate Facebook, Netvibes, Diigo, Google Apps, Jott, Twitter, and other emerging technologies to create an education portal of the future. Michael Wesch Course Portal (using Netvibes): Mediated Cultures: Digital Ethnography. In addition, you might and should explore his famous "Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Using Us" video, which explores the evolution of knowledge creation, management and sharing in creative and stimulating way. I suppose I have come to the end of this learning psycho therapy, and I am looking forward now to focus more on the future of learning again. I hope that some of the stories shared can inspire us to reflect our own teaching (although they might be extreme!), and hopefully enable us to weed out things that might inspire students out of learning. The more I learn, the dumber I realize I am. It is amazing, humbling and refreshing :)"Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave."- Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

Link to Google LivelyGoogle Lively Trailer (YouTube)Lively - Google's Contribution to the 3D Social Web? ZaidLearn's del.icio.us Virtual Worlds GOOGLE LIVELY?A free browser-based 3D virtual environment that enables easy integration to social networking tools such as MySpace, Facebook, OpenSocial, and Google gadgets like Picasa and Youtube. With Google Lively, users' friends lists, feeds, and logins are tied directly to the social network. In addition, virtual environments are embeddable on any Web page with a snippet of code that can then be viewed as a full 3D environment, based in part on Emergent's Gamebryo engine, after downloading a roughly 9 megabyte plugin (Source).THINGS I LIKE...Firstly, there is no need to create a new account to get started. With my Gmail account I can simply register using it. Secondly, you only need to download a small plugin before you can explore Google Lively for real. One up on Second Life! However, comparing Second Life with Google Lively, is like comparing Nintendo Wii with Sony Playstation 3 (or Xbox). Different galaxies and wars, targeting different aliens! While Second Life brought us new 3D virtual learning possibilities, Google Lively will bring virtual worlds to the masses. At least that is what they are targeting with this easy-to-use tool. If we want to compare Google Lively to other virtual worlds, I suppose we could compare it with Vivaty and IMVU, which are more similar.Thirdly, Google Lively is also really easy to learn and use. No user guide is needed, trust me! Within minutes of discovering it, I was able to create my own cool avatar and virtual room; without much hassle. Basically, you can create or assemble your own stuff from a huge catalog of available shells (rooms), furniture, clothes, etc. Actually, you don't really create new stuff, but instead mash-up yourself and environment from available virtual goods from the fast growing catalog. This catalog is being nurtured and expanded by Google's development team (led by Jeff Matsuda, formerly at Warner Bros.) and a 200+-person team of international contractors. Fourthly, Google Lively can be easily integrated with existing social networking tools such as MySpace and Facebook. Also, users can add content from Google sites like YouTube and Picasa. I suppose Google Lively will eventually be integrated with Google Earth and the rest of the relevant Google gadgets. I can imagine transporting myself to Oxford University (England) in Google Earth and having a Google lively chat with Tim Berners Lee. Fifthly, you can easily express yourself with a couple of clicks, whether orally or physically. For example, the available portfolio of animations enable you to puke, stick out your tongue, kick someone down, dance, jump, scream, be happy, and even get really angry. In short, I am sure you can evolve your emotional intelligence by exploring your true self with all these animations, which are just a few clicks away.Sixthly, the virtual rooms operate kind of independently, meaning you can't build a huge wall or a naked statue in front of another person's virtual property to annoy or blackmail them. Instead, you can discover new spaces or virtual rooms searching the catalog of rooms. Actually, Google lively is not really a virtual world, but a fast growing bunch of separate virtual rooms.Finally, it could be a great place to socialize, make friends and have some fun. Enough! let's move on!THINGS I DON'T LIKE...First, I am not going to encourage my young kids to socialize there (at least for now)! Although, we cannot create our own animations and stuff, we are of course allowed to use our imagination to explore the rest. Of course that is exciting, but then again not always appropriate for everyone. For example, one virtual room I found, was entitled "Free S.." (you can guess the rest!) with a metadata description saying, "Title says it all". I suppose sooner or later the community will self-regulate itself from such things (or encourage more!), or perhaps we could have different virtual worlds consisting of specific themes or areas of interest. Also, if we strip Google Lively down, it is not much we can do in terms of constructive learning (Then again that is not its main agenda either, as far as I know!). Currently, it is basically avatars, rooms, chat and a growing catalog of all sorts of virtual goods to decorate our virtual spaces. It is basically a chat system that you can visually spice up. Though, being Google I am sure they will increasingly add or integrate more features (e.g. forum, virtual classroom, whiteboard, puzzles, games) and provide more flexibility to users in terms of constructing content and learning possibilities. In short, it is quite limited for synchronous and asynchronous learning. I suppose Second Life is still miles ahead here! Yes, I would like to have my virtual lab enabling me to visualize, demonstrate and collaborate on experiments with my students. Also, it would be nice if we were provided with more features to protect ourselves from cyber bullies out there. As I was wondering in one of the rooms, I saw with my naked eyes a Russian mafia looking avatar slamming a beautiful young lady several times to the floor. Then he went on to beat up a 3-foot white teddy bear. Although, they were probably having fun exploring all the cool animations we can do, I am not sure a Professor would appreciate such treatment during a visit to the student's virtual lounge. I can imagine how a lively lecture or tutorial might turn out in such an environment. When a student gets bored with the Professor's lecture, he goes over and kicks him to the ground, and then pukes all over him. Then the rest joins in! At least the Professor might get the point that his lecture probably needs improvement. But then again, the Professor was kind of distracted by the beautiful avatar girl in bikini.You might also get frustrated with a new pop-up for every virtual room you visit (and a request to login again every time). Interestingly, I was in three different rooms at once, using three different avatars. Yes, I can imagine the lecturer being happy with a full class of virtual students, and then later finding out that all the students cloned themselves away to another room. Oh, I forgot to mention that my Firefox browser slowed down and simply crushed during my Google Lively adventure. This could be due to several reasons, so I will not dwell upon it here.LMS + LIVELY = LEARNING + JOYLet's take off our negative hat, and look at the possibilities a browser-based 3D virtual environment can bring to our online learning environment. I can imagine integrating Google Lively (Student Lounge) with Moodle. Alright, with the existing features it might not be the right place to conduct lectures, tutorials, lab experiments, etc. However, most LMS that I have explored do not have an exciting online space for students to simply to hangout, connect, socialize and make friends. Using a LMS can often be a lonely experience, but tools like Google Lively could spice that up (at least for the students). But then again some lecturers might get a shock of their life when they visit the virtual student lounge for the first time (Imagine! Perhaps they should be banned from there!). I suppose if some of the avatar animations could be excluded, or educators were given some super powers that would help. At least they might avoid a potential virtual physical or sexual harassment. Hmm, by the time we establish all the rules of virtual engagement, students would have vanished to other virtual rooms were they can be their virtual self. In other words, perhaps students should set up their own rooms independently from their educational institution and LMS. Anyway, since Google is behind this Lively 3D virtual world, we can expect a lot of interesting new enhancements and features in the near future. It wouldn't surprise me if we soon are provided with an easy-to-use virtual learning toolbox, with all sorts of interesting features and tools, empowering us with dynamic possibilities to facilitate engaging learning.However, I couldn't help noticing while searching the catalog that every virtual item had a 'Price' tag hanging over it. Although, all the virtual goods are free for now, would that remain when things get more juicy? :)

TeacherTube version YouTubeGoogle Video PART 1In part 1, I explore 4 (of 10) secrets to great teaching, or ingredients to become a great teacher. What are the ingredients of a great teacher? Well, when I complete the 2-part series you will at least know my standpoint on this issue. My findings is basically based on what I have observed, read, experienced and learned over the last few years in Higher Education. Yes, you are certainly free to agree or disagree with all my ideas and thoughts about great teaching. What really matters, is not being right or wrong, but taking this wonderful opportunity to be part of a messy global conversation (in audio format) about this issue. Here, enjoy part 1 (not sure about that!), and hopefully part 2 will be out sometime next week:ZAIDLEARN EXPLORES AUDIO & VIDEOThis is probably the first time most of you hear me speak. I have to admit that I speak much faster normally (I tried hard to slow down, and probably sounded a bit too slow this time around.). Also, I did not use any script, as I wanted it to be as natural as possible. I used PowerPoint to create the slides, and interestingly (exploring!) used Adobe Presenter to record the audio (Recommendation: For audio recording, use Audacity, which is easy-to-use and has more features). Finally, I used Windows Movie Maker (first time using!) to integrate the PNG converted PowerPoint slides, and the audio (MP3) files from the published Adobe Presenter presentation. Although, Windows Movie Maker is quite limited in terms of features, I actually enjoyed using it. To explore uploading possibilities, I uploaded my 10-minute presentation to YouTube, TeacherTube and Google Video. The Google Video output is not good, but the YouTube and TeacherTube outputs are alright. I suppose I will explore slidecasting on SlideShare later, after I have completed part 2.SELF-EVALUATIONMy voice is a disaster and the PowerPoint slides need a face lift! Yes, perhaps I should include more music (to spice it up!), pictures, and flower it with a bit more animations. A video showing me babbling would be interesting, too (not really!).Though, I really enjoyed exploring my voice, and hopefully I will create many more videos (learning nuggets of 10 minutes or less) sharing my ideas, thoughts and reflections about learning in the near future. Hopefully, someone out there will be listening and joining the conversation. I suppose it is about time that ZaidLearn speaks out, besides rambling this and that with written words only.I AM STILL LEARNING, and hopefully I will evolve. In the meantime, please be patient as I learn how to talk (on the Tube) :)

10 Secrets to Great Teaching (Part 1)Google Video version (Part 2) Presentation Slides (SlideShare)PART 2In part 2, I explore the remaining six (6) secrets (of the 10 discussed) to teaching, or ingredients to become a great teacher. The 10 keywords associated with the 10 secrets are highlighted in the graphic above. I will let the narrated presentation (below) do all the talking for now. Perhaps I will write a paper about the 10 secrets to great teaching in month or two, after more discussions and reflections with great people like you. In the meantime, have fun watching me babble and mumble about great teaching (Not sure about that!): I tried to upload the video to TeacherTube, but without success until now (size issue?).Anyway, as long as we have Google Video, why worry!Hopefully, more people will join this discussion and scrutinize their own teaching to become better teachers. Teaching is a life time journey, but it would be nice to discover a bit of wisdom as early as possible. I suppose if we put our reflective minds together, we can do great things about our own teaching, and help for example others to facilitate more efficient and effective AHA moments (Synthesize and simplify content or learning so that students understand).If you are looking for the slidecast version (2 parts-in-one) and presentation slides, you can find it right here:view presentation (tags: learning teaching education creativity)SELF-EVALUATIONIn part 2, I actually wrote a script before recording (for testing purposes). For learning purposes, I found that writing a script got me to focus and think clearer about what I wanted to say. Writing a script is like rehearsing your presentation again and again. However, I am not sure if my arguments are more solid this time around. Anyway, I am not exactly defending a scientific paper, but instead I am having a conversation about great teaching with myself (You got to start somewhere!).Did this narrated presentation take longer time to develop? Yes, a bit only! Actually, if you are producing a long video or can't type fast, I would recommend that you record on-the-fly without a script. However, if you have sufficient time allocated to create a script, it is actually not a bad idea. Perhaps a compromise would do, meaning you don't necessarily create a full-script, but a sufficient one to assist you to say what you want to say, the way you want it to be said. As for recording the audio, I used Audacity, which is simply a sensational free audio recording tool.Overall, I am reasonable comfortable with writing and mashing-up slides, but I probably need a few more narrated videos under my belt, before I can feel good about my own voice. Though, hopefully the next learning videos I develop are shorter learning nuggets, which are less than 5 minutes a piece.Oops, I forgot to mention the importance of having fun and a sense of humor while inspiring your students to learn. Yes, it is going to be a long learning process, and 'I AM STILL LEARNING' :)

Download the eBook (13.2 MB)"69 Learning Adventures in 6 Galaxies" At the beginning of 2007, I sat down to have a discussion with myself about what I wanted to achieve (working and academic wise) by the end of 2008. By the end of this self-reflective discussion I had managed to draft two hedgehog goals to achieve. The first hedgehog goal was to write a book about learning (by July 2008), and the second one was to start my PhD adventure (by December 2008).As I was approaching July 2007, I realized that my book and PhD aspirations were getting nowhere. So, to get the ball rolling I started to blog about learning (ZaidLearn) on July 18th, 2007. Since then (until August 6th, 2008) I have posted exactly 300 articles or learning nuggets on the blog. The first 128 learning nuggets were imported from my past (failed) learning adventures (including an e-Learning Community Portal). In other words, since I started last year I have posted 172 new learning nuggets. The length of each learning nugget has varied from a whopping 5000 words to a few hundred.Then a couple of weeks ago (July 22nd, 2008), I realized that perhaps it was time to revive at least one of my hedgehog goals for 2008. Although, I had not been writing a book consciously, I had been blogging for one year about learning. After re-exploring my blog I thought, "Let’s redefine my primitive perception of what a book should look like, and create a book (or ebook) out of my posted learning nuggets." First, I decided to include all my new learning nuggets (172), but then I realized that the book would evolve into a 500-page monster. Oh man, I used to have a writing phobia when I was a kid, and today I even feel sick if I haven’t written something interesting for a day. What a turnaround!After a lot of filtering, I have settled for 69 learning nuggets posted on ZaidLearn, which I believe readers might find useful to their own learning. To make it a bit more convenient to find what you are looking for, I have divided the book into six learning galaxies (or themes), which are:Learning TeachingStoriesFree e-Learning ToolsFree Learning Content Free EduGamesClick here to Download the eBookOR READ IT RIGHT HERE: 69 Learning Adventures in 6 Galaxies - Upload a Document to Scribd Read this document on Scribd: 69 Learning Adventures in 6 Galaxies

SlideShare PresentationSlideBoom versionScribd Version140+ Learning ToolsTOP 3 POSTSLet's get right to the point! The three posts below, have been found and viewed more than any other posts on ZaidLearn:A Free Learning Tool for Every Learning Problem?University Learning = OCW + OER = FREE!75 Free EduGames to Spice Up Your Course!On a positive note, my new eBook is catching up very fast with the 'Three Musketeers' above. Interestingly, the 'Three Musketeers' have one major thing in common, and that is that they all contain long lists of juicy learning resources (tools, content and games). Yeah, we all like juicy lists of learning resources! Especially, the learning tools list (No. 1) has been very popular, and has been quoted by several blogs and sites. Actually, it has even been translated into Spanish. The OER/OCW list (No. 2) has also turned out to be quite popular, and thanks to Tony Hirst's great idea, we can all search the 250+ sites (haven't counted, but that is what others have said) from one entry field. WOW, it feels great!101 FREE LEARNING TOOLSActually, not! I revisited my Learning tools list yesterday, and was not impressed one bit! To deal with this stressful situation, I have revised the list to focus more on learning tools (and less on resource sites). Also, this time around I have made the learning tools list more visual, and you can explore it right here:View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: tools learning)If you would like me to give a talk on this '101 Free Learning Tools' crash course, please give me a buzz. 101 learning tools should take approximately 101 minutes, if no questions asked. Anyway, you have the Slideshare (and PDF) version to play around with. If you ask me, I prefer to learn on my own rather than being taught. It is really fun to mess up and learn the hard way. It sticks longer, too!I will create the text version of this 101 crash course soon, when I get back from another non-blogging vacation. No, I am not going on vacation, just taking a vacation from blogging so that I can learn and work in peace (Blogging is addictive, and can distract you from your work! What a discovery!). At least there is a new eBook and a revised learning tools list to enjoy while I learn how to think again. Finally, if you are really hungry to figure out what I will be discovering in the coming weeks, you can always explore my delicious learning adventure. Yes, I will be updating this one during my non-blogging holiday. Peace :)

101 Free EduGames - Part I101 Free EduGames - Part II101 Free EduGames (SlideBoom version)101 Free Learning Tools75 Free EduGames to Spice Up Your Course!SLIDESHARE GLORY!Wow! After discovering that my visualization of the No. 1 Musketeer has become a big hit on SlideShare, I simply had to take a break from my non-blogging vacation to blog about it and share some more learning juice. Since the 14th of August (until now), the '101 Free Learning Tools' presentation has been featured on the SlideShare homepage, viewed 6000+ times, downloaded 1900+ times, favorited 100+ times, and embedded into 30+ sites. And more importantly, I have received a lot of great feedback, which has nourished my learning and knowledge sharing ego to new heights!In the graphic above you can see some more SlideShare achievements, which makes me kind of happy. I really enjoy sharing learning resources in creative ways, but of course when there is a growing receiving end with hoops of appreciation, it just makes learning and sharing even more fun.In addition, my new eBook '69 Learning Adventures in 6 Galaxies' has also received some good reviews (Jane Park, Joseph Hart, Jeff Cobb, Bryan Chapman and Tom Hanson) and has been viewed 2800+ times until now. Not great, but acceptable :)In short, it is more fun to share knowledge when you can feel the excitement from the receiving end. So, should I be happy and proud? No way! Until I have reached Olga Potty in Zukiland, I will hopefully continue my quest to share great learning resources and explore new ways to facilitate effective learning. Why? One reason is because I learn faster and more effectively that way. Another reason is that via my blog, I am increasingly able to connect and communicate with great educators and people around globe. Sharing knowledge is power! Who doesn't like to connect and communicate with a person that loves learning and sharing? I arrest my case!101 FREE EDUGAMESTo be honest, I prefer long lists of resources and tools in text format (efficient to access and explore), but I suppose not all share that opinion. But then again, sometimes we need to visualize and engage to excite the learner to explore further. So, I have decided to visualize the other two Musketeers, starting with '101 Free EduGames' below. The great thing about it, is that when I conduct workshops from now on, participants will probably get learning orgasms with all the free learning juice blitzed during the sessions in a visually stimulating manner. Now, let's enjoy 101 free EduGames:PART I (1-50)View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: learning games)PART II (51-101)View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: learning games)Click here to download the PDF version (93 MB).Click here to view the updated text-based 'Delicious' EduGames collection (My favorite!).As for the remaining Musketeer (101 Free OER), you will probably have to wait at least another two weeks, as I will be returning to my non-blogging vacation for a while. The '101 Free OER' presentation will be tricky, as I am planning to extract my favorite 101 out of more than 250 sites. For those that want the full list of OER/OCW can simply click here :)

SlideShare versionSlideBoom versionPDF version (46 MB)But first, I would like to wish all Muslim readers...RAMADAN MUBARAK!For those of you who have no idea what Ramadan is, you can click here for starters."...It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims do not eat or drink anything from dawn until sunset. Fasting is meant to teach the person patience, sacrifice and humility. Ramadan is a time to fast for the sake of God, and to offer even more prayer than usual. In Ramadan Muslims ask forgiveness for past sins, pray for guidance into the future, ask for help in refrain from everyday evils and try to purify themselves through self-restraint and good deeds."Non-Muslims often think that fasting is a burden to Muslims, but we mostly look forward to it, and really enjoy the daily little struggles. Besides the obvious reasons (health, spiritual growth, empathy, bonding, sharing, awakening, discipline, etc.), I love this month because my brain neurons (or synapses) become more active, stimulating new creative connections during it. Also, my energy level increases. However, this energy increase does not seem to apply to many of my Muslim colleagues (I suppose I am bit different in that sense!). One reason could be that the blood circulation to the brain increases during fasting, while the stomach and digestion organs are taking food-free yoga lessons during the day (Can a doctor please explain 'why'?). In short, I love the month of Ramadan for many reasons.e-LEARNING eBOOKS COLLECTIONI suppose to continue with the spirit of learning and sharing during this special month, I have compiled an 'Amazing' collection of free e-Learning ebooks in a quite visual stimulating chunked manner (Instructional Designers please evaluate!). Well, whether it is 'Amazing' or not, I leave it up to you to decide. I suppose I used that word to attract your attention, and if you are reading now, I suppose it is kind of working. This time around, I have dumped SlideShare for SlideBoom to stimulate your mind to explore a bunch of interesting free e-learning related ebooks, and sites to find more ebooks:Click here to download the PDF version (46 MB).Here are the quick links (my favorite! Easy to access and replicate by others!):LEARNING 2.0Educating the Net GenerationLearning SpacesTheory and Practice of Online LearningOpen Educational Resources Handbooks: One, Two, ThreeThe Insider's Guide To Becoming a Rapid E-Learning ProTop 100 Tools for LearningMASIE’s Free eContent!FREE eBooks from The eLearning Guilde-LearningGuru's 5-Minute SummariesICT in Schools: A Handbook for TeachersE-Learning Concepts and TechniquesComing of Age: An Introduction to the New WWWKnowing KnowledgeMoodle E-Learning Course DevelopmentUsing Moodle FREE Guide to Online EducationInformal LearningEngaging Interactions For eLearningThe Cluetrain ManifestoStephen Downes Papers, Presentations and BooksKINEO Magic!Learning Technologies (250+ Articles!)Horizon ReportsClive's 33 ColumnsCreating Learning CommunitiesDigital EducationWeb-TeachingBrandon Hall Free Resourceselearningeuropa PapersLearning Circuits Field GuideseLearn Magazine Articles ArchiveEDUCAUSE BooksGoogle Book SearchProject GutenbergScribdLearnOutLoud.comLibriVoxGreat Books IndexCIA World FactbookFreeBookSpotFreeTechBooks.comOnlineComputerBooksFree-eBooksManyBooksGlobuszBookYardsThe Online Books PageWikibooksFree eBooksSLIDEBOOM ROCKS!SlideShare is still my favorite free slide-sharing site, but SlideBoom is quickly becoming my next favorite one. What do I mean? I will be using both from now on. For the sake of giving SlideShare a wake up call, here are five things I like about SlideBoom, which SlideShare currently lack (hopefully they will upgrade soon!): First, you can upload PowerPoint 2007 files (.pptx), meaning you don't need to convert to PDF or .ppt before uploading (if you are using Microsoft Office 2007).Your original presentation keeps its features after conversion, including content style, animation effects, transitions, embedded audio and embedded video. This is a major weakness in the existing version of SlideShare, which really annoys me. To keep my presentations intact, I have to upload them as a PDF file.The uploading process is faster and more pleasant (well at least from my notebook and network). I suppose they have fewer users and uploads to manage. It will be interesting to see SlideBoom tackle this, when the user/viewer tsunami comes.The presentation seems to run smoother in the browser, and you can even create annotations (using pen, highlighter, eraser, etc.) to any SlideBoom presentation to point out its key ideas.The heart of SlideBoom is based on iSpring (An add-in PowerPoint to Flash converter), which enables you to convert PowerPoint to Flash offline, speeding up the process, while retaining the presentation's original effects better. Having said that, SlideBoom's presentation size is currently limited to 30 MB (easy to upgrade!), while SlideShare enables 100 MB per presentation. In terms of users and presentation views, SlideShare still rocks big time! For example, the most viewed presentation (as of today) on SlideBoom is only 3100+, while SlideShare's most viewed presentation is a whopping 1.6 million+.In a slideshell, I will not give up on SlideShare just yet, but you never know in the future. Anyway, why not use both! Perhaps I should consider a third free alternative. Got any suggestions?Oops! You might be wondering, "what happened to the '101 OER' presentation I was talking about in the previous post?" Coming soon hopefully. What happened to your non-blogging vacation? Al-Hamdulilla, Ramadan awakens again my need to share amazing learning resources quickly.Oops, one more juicy item! I have updated the 140+ free learning tools list with one more juicy learning problem solver (in addition to SlideBoom). Hint: Unlimited storage :)

SlideShare versionSlideBoom versionPDF version (64 MB)Text-based OER List101 OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER)...Is another 'Visualized Link Collection' (or link visualization) to spice up our learning and teaching. If you prefer a less graphical version, all the OER or free resources visualized can be found in the text-based OER List, which even includes more resources for us to explore. I have to warn that the visualized OER collection might give you a 'information overload' kind of learning experience. Perhaps, the best thing is to swoosh through first, and then explore it in details to find something interesting. Actually, the best thing now is for me to shut up, and let you explore the 101 OER for yourself. Here we go:101 Open Educational ResourcesView SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: oer opencourseware)A WHOLE NEW MIND!You might be wondering why I bother taking the effort to visualize a bunch of juicy links. After doing four collections, I have come to realize that I am using 'A Whole New Mind' more effectively. Okay, I am just playing around with last year's buzz phrase and book by Dan Pink. But I did read this book recently, and I have to say that I have a long way to really grasp and nurture the kind of senses (skills, behaviors, competencies, attitudes, beliefs, etc.) required for the 'Conceptual Age' (at least that is what he calls it). But by increasingly nurturing both our left and right directed brains (One brain! I think!) we can evolve into more productive innovators, empathizers, problem solvers, designers, story tellers, bla, bla, you name it (Be creative!)... Why only three dots? Lets' add a couple more, and play with the colors and sizes ..... (Is this an innovation or what!).Did you watch and listen to Oprah Winfrey's 2008 Stanford Commencement Address (30 min)? An interesting and inspiring speech! Though, what really got me thinking was not the three magic lessons in life, but that she talked about the conceptual age and promoted Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind book (Yeah, every graduate got one copy, too. Now, that is cheap, but creative marketing!).So, what is the fuss about this book? Let me ask you three questions:What are the three major future trends in the global business economy?What are the three crucial questions we need to ask to succeed in any business?What are the six essential senses needed to succeed in the future? Let me see: 3 trends + 3 questions = 6 senses. Is that correct?Let's say you don't want or have time to read this book, here are a few brainless reflections to these three questions (Source):But, first you need to know that Dan Pink outlines four major 'ages':Agricultural Age (farmers)Industrial Age (factory workers)Information Age (knowledge workers)Conceptual Age (creators and empathizers)In short, we Asians should stop babbling about becoming knowledge workers, and swoosh towards becoming innovators and empathizers. If we can swoosh our left-directed brains with the right side, we will be amazing. We are already hardworking and have stored tons of facts in our brains, and by nurturing our creative mind, we can actually use all this stored fuel (knowledge) to innovate and become greener. Game on! Are we up to the challenge? Wake up! Get up! Don't give up the fight (I mean learning adventure)!Question 1 - What are the three major future trends in the global business economy?Abundance (consumers have too many choices, nothing is scarce)Asia (everything that can be outsourced, is) andAutomation (computerization, robots, technology, processes) Yes, even creativity will eventually be outsourced to Asia (I am not joking!). Today, you can even find 1-2 year old kids being sent to brain development programs such as Shichida method to stimulate their creative senses. Amazingly, you will even find mothers and fathers worried that their 2 year old kids are not progressing well (If no progress, I will change school/method!). Some are even nurturing their future kids in the wombs with brain exercises and Mozart. Never mind that Einstein could not speak until he was four. It will be interesting to see how these super geniuses will evolve into becoming the Asian Einsteins. Give the kids a break, and let them play (at least until they are 3) :)Question 2 - What are the three crucial questions we need to ask to succeed in any business?Can someone overseas do it cheaper?Can a computer do it faster?Is what I'm offering in demand in an age of abundance?Think about it! Yes, Yes, No, and you are in big trouble. Post it on your business wall, or it might collapse!Question 3 -What are the six essential senses needed to succeed in the future (Source)? "When these three questions above are present (question 2's questions), creativity becomes the competitive difference that can differentiate commodities. Pink outlines six essential senses:Design - Moving beyond function to engage the senseStory - Narrative added to products and services - not just argument. Best of the six senses.Symphony - Adding invention and big picture thinking (not just detail focus).Empathy - Going beyond logic and engaging emotion and intuition.Play - Bringing humor and light-heartedness to business and products.Meaning - Immaterial feelings and values of products."Educational point(form)-of-view:Next time we design a course, we should do our best to simplify the complexity (not the other way around!), and engage students to learn beyond memorization (Is thinking and doing aloud?).Also, we should not just stimulate the logical mind, but instead mash-up the boring stuff with stories (real stories, real people, happening in the real world! The Y-generation especially, loves the reality thingy!). If you are lazy, just link them to real case-studies or stories that you believe are relevant to the student's learning and course. There are tons of them on the web. If you cannot find them, be creative. Why just reflect real stories, why not act them out in class (offline or online), or convert them into a learning game on-the-fly. Have you ever wondered why you can watch a movie for 2 hours without trouble, but fall asleep within minutes during a lecture. On both occasions the learner is simply watching and listening. Why?If symphony makes no sense (another sweet jargon like blue ocean), think synthesis (Another jargon, but I suppose you are familiar with it). Yes, we need to nurture the students ability to synthesize (in addition to analyzing), or the ability to see relationships, patterns, connections and linkages from multiple sources. In short, big picture thinking or or making sense of many sources, and then putting them together in new and innovative ways. How do we do that? Think! Spice up your students learning with short videos, pictures, quotes, jokes, stories, etc. that challenge and provoke them to think. It should only take you a few minutes to find something on the net to spice up your teaching and learning space a bit. Show some empathy to how boring your lectures/tutorials might actually be. Imagine how you like to learn? Not surprisingly we often don't like to be taught, but we love to learn. Empower and engage your students to participate in the learning adventure. They might do a better job than us (teaching their own learning). Yes, there is no harm with a bit of play, or having fun while learning or teaching. Why not spice up the learning events with a bit of humor and engaging activities. Take your course seriously! Take your students seriously! Take your curriculum seriously! But, don't take yourself too seriously! When you loosen up, students will probably join you, and learning will be more fun and engaging. We mostly know this, but we somehow forget when reality creeps in.Finally, we need to find meaning in what we facilitate and teach. Students should know why they are learning whatever they are learning. Especially the Y(Why)-generation wants to know 'Why', or why bother! Oh, that makes sense! Now, I know why it is important to know this! I can use this knowledge to...! Why learn something which has no meaning to me? Or why teach something that has no meaning to the students? These things are not obvious, but if we can persuade and make sense to them why they are learning this and that, I suppose they will be more actively embracing it with their thinking minds.That was a few brainless (or right-directed!) reflections.Overall, Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind is a conceptual age mind awakening book, which I don't regret spending my time and money on. I really enjoyed his conversational light and easy writing style, which engaged both my logical and emotional mind. Did you know that he was previously a speechwriter to Al Gore? Now, you do!See, my right and left brains (hemispheres) are processing at the same time, and things are getting messy (order vs thinking flow!). Stop!I got one more collection to visualize (wait and see!), and then I will hopefully begin a journey of deep reflection (yeah right!) on how we can use the different web 2.0 technologies (e.g. blogging, wikis, podcasting, RSS, social bookmarking) to facilitate effective learning.I am still learning (a lot!) :)

SlideShare Version5-Part Link Visualization SeriesPDF Version (21 MB)"And then you take a look at Spaces, there is this great innovation that came out of nowhere. We have the number one blogging site in the world because of the innovation that's there." - Steve BallmerAfter spending the last year (Since July 2007) blogging about learning and connecting with great edubloggers (and educators), I can't think of another learning tool that has been so enriching in facilitating my own learning and enabling me to make sense of the amazing learning innovations popping up everywhere. Blogging is a wonderful tool to capture and reflect your learning, and share your thoughts and ideas to the world (or whoever is interested).Since there are more than 112 million blogs (tracked by Technorati) out there, surely we are going to struggle a bit to find juicy educational blogs or EduBlogs (if that is what we are looking for!). However, since I have found a few really juicy ones, why not share them with you in a visually attractive manner? So, if your logical mind is not triggered to explore, perhaps your right (or creative) mind will assist you. If you haven't slammed their blog URLs in your RSS reader already, you might enjoy this final (for now!) link visualized presentation. Nope, this time around no quick links. Let's enjoy my effort to stimulate your learning and connect you to new windows (beyond Microsoft) of learning.25 EDUBLOGSHere 25 EduBlogs that will assist you to keep track of the present and future of learning, teaching, content and technology:25 EduBlogs You Simply Don’t Want to Miss!To be honest, I could have easily added another 100 super duper EduBlogs, but I believe these 25 are enough to get you started on a learning journey that will probably connect (Connectivism!) you to a world of learning that perhaps you did not know exist. I suppose some of you are already familiar with most of the ones I have selected. If you have other great EduBlogs to suggest, please feel free to add them in the comment section. I would surely like to discover a few more juicy EduBlogs that can inspire my learning further.RECAP - LINK VISUALIZATION SERIESHere are the other four (4) link visualizations again (if you missed any): 101 Free Learning Tools 101 Open Educational Resources101 Free EduGamesAmazing Free e-Learning Ebooks CollectionClick here to discover the 5-part link visualization series and my other SlideShare presentations in one place.This link visualization series has basically sucked out approximately 80% of the wonderful learning resources found in my first ebook. So, if you missed it, or don't feel like reading or searching it for juicy learning resources, this 5-part series could do wonders.On the positive note, I will at last be taking a real holiday to hopefully reflect life and enjoy the remaining days of this wonderful month of Ramadan (fasting month), so I will probably not be blogging for the next 2-3 weeks. In the meantime enjoy the hundreds of learning resources found in this 5-part series, and have fun exploring other EduBlogs :)