WOU's Summary of My Talke-Learning Talk (Slideshare)eBook - 69 Learning Adventures in 6 GalaxiesWHY WOU?I was invited to spend two days at Wawasan Open University (WOU) to meet some of the key people there and share ideas about e-learning and so on. It was a thrill to interact with everyone from the Vice Chancellor to the driver. After spending two days exploring WOU, its' slogan 'The people's University' is increasingly making sense ...about WOUBesides having fun interacting and sharing ideas with the people of WOU, I am still amazed with WOU's unique campus buildings, which truly demonstrates the fusion of old and modern construction. The picture above should give you a good indication of what I mean.In short, I enjoyed the learning adventure, and learned some valuable lessons on the way (hopefully vice verse) :)E-LEARNING TALKIn addition, I gave a 90 minute full-steam e-learning talk exploring some of the e-learning 2.0 (or web 2.0 technologies) tools, and discussed how they could be used to infuse a more social, collaborative and dynamic online learning environment. Yes, we even explored connectivism, and how we can use a network of diverse technologies to facilitate online learning.Why, bla, bla, bla, ... Here are the slides (on SlideShare):E-Learning TalkView more presentations from zaid.REFLECTIONThis time around, I slimmed down the participants' slide-intake from 100+ to 73, and was able to cover what I wanted to share (I am still learning!). We managed to even watch 4 short videos during the 90 minute e-learning roller coaster (which ended up with the '5-Minute University' video!). I am sure many were overwhelmed, but at least they got some idea what e-learning 2.0 is all about (before we have to deal with e-Learning 3.0! Don't we love such buzz words!).Besides talking about e-learning 2.0, I promoted again my eBook and blog. If you look at the stats above, you will notice that Malaysia is not the top country visitor to my blog (sadly enough!), and can only muster a fifth place. However, we should be proud that we are higher positioned than Singapore at least (this time around!).On a positive note, people from 185 countries, or 5,786 cities around the world have discovered ZaidLearn one way or the other (over the last 12 months). This just shows how interconnected the world is today. Amazing!Yes, believe it or not, I have even connected with a remarkable guy from Gaza Strip (Palestine), who is exploring 'learning 2.0' with 12-15 year old kids. He is even planning to write a book about e-learning 2.0 in Arabic. Couldn't CNN or BCC cover such positive stories, besides the depressing ones. Again, amazing!Oops, I need to pack, I am going on holiday to ... :)

SclipoFeatures Video About SclipoWHAT?Sclipo is a Social Learning Network for continuing education that offers apps for e-Learning (course manager, knowledge manager, webcam-based web classroom for live online teaching, etc.) integrated with social features. At Sclipo, any member can teach and learn, enabling informal or social learning online. Sclipo is for formal & informal teachers that find traditional eLearning (Moodle, Blackboard, etc.) solutions too complex and costly.FEATURES?Sclipo's principal social learning features:Academy & ProfileEvery member has an Academy and a Profile. The Academy is the space where a member teaches through educational apps like Courses, Library or Live Web Classes. The Profile (connected to Facebook) serves to socialize with people of common educational interests.CoursesThis app allows members to create and post courses they teach online through Sclipo, face-to-face or blended.LibraryThe Library is to store, manage and share educational content in any format - videos, documents, presentations, spreadsheets, etc.Live Web ClassesAllows to teach up to 100 students live through webcam, whiteboard and a document presenter. Students can participate actively through audio, video and chat. Teachers can present any document from their library. No downloads needed.PaymentsTeachers can charge students for their courses and web classes. Students pay teachers directly through PayPal.Facebook ConnectAllows to easily establish connections and publish a members activities (eg, post a course) to Facebook.Most features are free, some are for Premium Members, like Payments and the private Web Classroom (a public Web Classroom is free to use). Premium Members pay a flat fee. REFLECTIONThe interface design, ease-to-navigate and layout is 'Smokey' (meaning cool, fresh, and soothing to the eye and mind). I love the Learn-Socialize-Teach formula (categories) and features that go with it. Don't be lazy, check it out!In contrast to other social learning network sites (e.g. Ning), Sclipo provides an embedded virtual classroom tool enabling educators to conduct live online (web) classes with up to 100 students at a time. Though, you need to pay if you want your online class to be a private one. Now, that I don't like and this might turn educators off from using it initially before getting hooked. But, then again they got to make a living. Another twist; why not allow two (2) private classes for free every month :)Also, I believe Sclipo's virtual classroom tool (Live Web Class) needs to be more flexible (e.g. be able to resize interface feature components), and add several more useful features before educators and learners can express themselves more effectively. Perhaps they should benchmark this tool with other free (or partially free) virtual classroom options such as DimDim (can be installed on your own server) and WiZiQ (a free hosted virtual classroom). I have given some hints in the graphic above.Finally, instead of using Sclipo, we could use Elgg, Facebook or Ning, as an alternative option to create social learning networks. Also, we could mash-up Elgg with Moodle and DimDim or WiZiQ. However, to do that it would most likely require at least one technical dude to configure and manage the back end.Yeah, perhaps we should give Sclipo a chance, because it has managed to mash-up formal (courses) and social (and informal) learning in a unique, stimulating, engaging and effective manner.Enough bla, bla, bla. why not explore it yourself :)Latest News (15th May)"All members can now use their private live web classroom for free. (Before, only the public web classroom was free.) At this point, the only difference between Premium and Non-Premium members is that Premium can charge their students. Students pay teachers directly." - Gregor Gimmy (CEO, Sclipo)It seems like they listen to our frustrations. Cool! Got any other suggestions or complaints? :)

Free Drawing Lesson (blog)The Star - Prolific Artist (Article)WHO?Ruzaimi Mat Rani is currently lecturing at the Faculty of Architecture and Environmental Design, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). He has been interested in art and design ever since he was in primary school, and has over the years evolved into a master in pen and pencil sketching (especially landscapes) and has got his share of rewards and recognitions for it. Click here and here to know more about that. WHAT?Now, he has gone one step further and has created a blog to share his sketching knowledge and skills to people around the world. He has entitled the blog, "FREE DRAWING LESSON(S)". Here you will find pictures of many of his sketches (samples mashed-up above), and videos illustrating the drawing process, or how he goes about sketching these drawings. These short (1-2 minute) videos are juicy learning nuggets to get a quick idea on how you can sketch stuff such as gardens, buildings, rooms, furniture, and so on. But...HOW?How does he create such videos?He uses the stop motion technique, whereby he combines the scan processed pictures into a motion picture. He basically scans every step of the sketching process and then saves the scanned pictures into JPEG format (100+ pictures). Then, he uses Windows Movie Maker to combine the pictures together into a stop motion picture.REFLECTIONOh man, that is a lot of tedious work for a short learning nugget (you need real patience and passion to do such things). Let me just say this,"I respect Ruzaimi for his excellent art work, but I admire him for sharing it to the world for free."I hope more educators in Malaysia and Asia come out of the copyright closet and join the Copyleft and Creative Commons revolution, and engross the OER (Open Educational Resources) movement. Let's face it, most educators are not going to make much money doing the copyrighted stuff. And we will not become irrelevant if we do share our knowledge or content on the Internet (Hoarding knowledge is the old school! Sharing knowledge is power and the way to go!).Actually, it makes more sense to share our ideas and knowledge to the world using the Internet and all the excellent free learning tools available to us today. It requires our additional time, but the potential fruits are amazing if we really think about it.For example, by sharing our ideas and knowledge online, we could trigger unexpected connections and feedback from professionals (and learners), which will trigger us to reflect back what we have shared, and refine and improve further. That point alone is exciting enough for me!If you are really good, you might even be invited to speak, or conduct workshops in places you perhaps have never heard of. Yes, you might even make more money than going down the copyright road.There are many more benefits for sharing our knowledge and contents online, but if you ask me:Educators should share their knowledge and content to the world for free (unless their livelihood depends on it), because it is the right thing to do. With the Internet and easy-to-learn/use authoring tools we can potentially educate people all over the world (through the internet, mirror sites, or downloaded content), and help those that are not so fortunate out there.Yes, you don't need to spend millions on a commercial LMS, or additional millions on developing courseware that includes flying ducks and dogs with bells and whistles. Why not simply start with a blog, just like Ruzaimi did.Finally, let's spread stories like Ruzaimi's one to the world using our twitters, blogs, wikis, etc. It would be nice to see educators attract hits and viewing numbers like the Britney Spears and Jungle Jims'.Besides creating content, let's promote the excellent work of our fellow educators :)

WHY?The other day I was searching for a juicy resource list on my blog, but I struggled to find it. Now, if I am struggling to find something on my own blog, what about you?To avoid such scenarios happening again (at least to me!), I have created a 'Master List' below containing all the juiciest resource lists compiled on ZaidLearn. Trust me; some of these resource lists are really yummy. Interestingly, some of these resource lists have been referenced by several University/College/School courses around the world including United States, Canada, England, Australia, and South-Africa. Actually, a couple of the resource lists below have been embedded or referred (linked) to from more than a hundred sites or blogs out there (try to guess which one, or Google them to figure it out). It is really amusing and motivating (to the ego).Besides being resource lists, you will discover some wacky graphics, stories and ideas mashed-up to stimulate the right-hemisphere, while the left-hemisphere systematically enjoys mostly static lists of amazing links. Enough!!!Are you ready, Let's...FIRST69 Learning Adventures in 6 Galaxies (E-book)A collection of 69 learning nuggets (articles) from ZaidLearn compiled into an ebook. This ebook is divided into six learning galaxies (or themes), which are: Learning, Teaching, Stories, Free e-Learning Tools, Free Learning Content and Free EduGames.ZaidLearn's Delicious Collection1200+ juicy links to amazing free learning tools and resources.LEARNING TOOLSA Free Learning Tool for Every Learning Problem?A collection of the best free learning tools using a Q&A approach. It has proven to be the most popular post on this blog, and has been featured in more than a hundred blogs and sites around the world. Also, you might want to check out the delicious version, which includes more tools, but does not filter them out using a Q&A approach post.101 Free Learning ToolsA SlideShare presentation exploring 101 excellent free learning tools to facilitate learning and teaching.Free Screencasting Tools For Tony!"Toast! Cut! Cam! Jing! Flow! Wink! You name it, they record it!" A list of free tools to create screencasts (screen-recording or capturing everything happening on the screen).Any Free Online Survey/Polling Tools?More than a dozen FREE online survey/polling tools.Any Free Hosted CMS or LMS? (Yes, Obama Says!)A few free hosted LMS that you might want to explore, before considering investing hardcore money on a commercial alternative.Text-to-Speech to Enjoying Traffic Jams!A few FREE text-to-speech tools to get you started (Warning: They usually offer a commercial version or upgrade option, too)Use Bloom's Taxonomy Wheel for Writing Learning OutcomesDo you have problems writing learning outcomes/objectives for your content or courses? Or more specifically, do you have trouble finding the right ACTION VERBS to describe what you want your students to achieve from the course, module, topic or unit? Try Bloom's taxonomy wheel(s) :)50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story (Alan Levine)Alan Levine reviews lessons learned in exploring 50 web sites (tools) for creating content via slideshows, timelines, media mixers, comic strips, and presentation makers.CONTENTUniversity Learning = OCW + OER = FREE!A compilation of 250+ University learning related OpenCourseWare (OCW) and Open Educational Resources (OER).101 Open Educational ResourcesA visually stimulating SlideShare presentation that explores 101 Open Educational Resources (OER).The King Kong List For Free Medical Online Resources!A juicy collection of free medical resources, games and courses that you might want to use for your personal learning, or embed in your course/training/program as supplementary or core resources to enrich the students' learning experiences.Amazing Free e-Learning eBooks CollectionA collection of free e-Learning ebooks.Your Top 10 Videos (That Inspire Us To Rethink The Way We Learn)?My current top 10 list of videos that inspire us to rethink the way we learn and educate. This post also encourages others to list and share their top 10 favorite videos that inspire us to rethink the way we learn and educate in the 21st century.A Growing List of Free Learning Tutorial Sites!A simple raw list of links to EXCELLENT SITES (with short descriptions) that have or link to tutorials that explore learning tools and online learning.Is PowerPoint Evil?This post explores a lot of interesting free online resources to inspire you to create great PowerPoint slides and do amazing presentations.Do You Want To Learn English As A Second Language (ESL)?A list of interesting ESL resources that I have discovered until now, and most of them are free. Whether you want ESL content for your IPod, or you want to do an online quiz to test your knowledge, trust me, there are enough resources to last you a few life times (and more).Do You Want To Learn Arabic?5 useful free sites to learn Arabic.EDUGAMES101 Free EduGames101 Free EduGames that inspire us to learn while having fun. Click here for the updated EduGames list on Delicious.88 Free EduGames to Spice Up Your Course!88 FREE EduGames (Educational Games) that sounds and looks interesting for Higher Education.PEOPLEThe Juiciest Learning Professionals on Twitter?The main reason for assembling this list, is to help people looking for top learning professionals on Twitter.27 Inspiring Women EdubloggersA SlideShare presentation exploring 27 inspiring women edubloggers.25 EduBlogs You Simply Don’t Want to Miss!25 EduBlogs that will assist you to keep track of the present and future of learning, teaching, content and technology.10 Top ETL Blogs You Simply Don’t Want to Miss!My top 10 favourite ETL (Education + Technology = Learning) blogs that takes up my time (late 2007), as I struggle to learn more about education, learning technologies, and importantly the art of 'Learning How to Learn' more effectively.WOW! Have fun rediscovering the juiciest learning resource lists on ZaidLearn :)

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."- Albert EinsteinAgain I am trying to suck out the juiciest posts in ZaidLearn and make them easier to access and share. In the last post I focused on the juiciest resource lists on ZaidLearn. This time around, I am focusing on learning stories posted. Here is a collection of my favorite bedtime (learning) stories on ZaidLearn:TEACHING THINKING Coaching Critical Thinking To Think Creatively!"I very much enjoyed this article, a longish description of how the author (Zaid Alsagoff) revamped a critical thinking course. It wasn't so much the content of the article (though as someone who has taught critical thinking dozens of times I had an inherent interest). Rather, what interested me was the storytelling, the way the author let me into his thinking process. This isn't the sort of article that requires you to agree or disagree with it; we are clearly and entertainingly being told what was done, and why. Would he do it differently next time? Still, we can compare the thinking with our own, compare the process with our own - and that's exactly what I did, and why I enjoyed it. Be sure to click on the slide shows in Slideshare, such as this one."- Stephen DownesTEACHING HABITS In this 5-part series, I reflect specific teaching habits that inspire students out of learning. Is that possible? Here we go:Part 1 - Whiteboard And I Are One! Part 2 - I Have Bragging Rights, Because I Am …Part 3 - Is PowerPoint Evil?"Of course, PowerPoint is not inherently evil, it is just poorly used. For those who are interested in using PowerPoint well, this article has a lot of material that will be of interest." - Stephen DownesPart 4 - No Stupid Questions! I am Serious!Part 5 - Show Up to Throw Up! 21st Century Thinking?Solution: 10 Secrets To Great Teaching (Part 1 and Part 2)ADVENTURESHarun Yahya - An Invitation To The TruthBlackle And My Inspirational Sandcastle Adventure!Scivee And The Origin Of 'Yes We Can!'27 Inspiring Women EdubloggersThe Secret - Get 100.000+ Followers On Twitter In 24 Hours! E-LEARNINGE-Learning 2.0 Workshop (Stephen Downes)"It would be pretty hard to write a more comprehensive (and kind) summary of my workshop than this by Zaid Ali Alsagoff, who deserves by thanks for acting as my videographer and assistant during the strenuous two-day event. What I like about this post was that the lessons were 'meta' - not so much the bits about web 2.0 technology discussed during the session, but rather about the attitude and perspective on teaching their deployment represents. In my own mind, what we accomplished was best represented in two photos, this one at the beginning of the first day, where everything was ordered and proper, and this one near the end of the second day, where real learning was happening."- Stephen DownesSalman Khan Uses Microsoft Paint to Inspire LearningRuzaimi's Free Drawing Lessons Inspires Me to Sketch!Crashing The Workshop To Capture A Great Learning Moment! "In one session, Zaid himself shared that he recorded one session of a professor (if I can remember correctly), just the voice and then he added a PowerPoint presentation of the talk which I thought was brilliant and at no extra cost." - Christopher ChewFAMOUS PEOPLEThe World Is Flat 3.0 (Thomas Friedman)"I have a Dream (King)! Go Green (Friedman)! Yes, We Can (Obama)!" -Unknown Warren Buffett's MBA Talk Vs Evolution of Dance"Which is the better educational material, a speech by Warren Buffet, one of the richest people in the world, on investing, or a 6 minute video on the evolution of dance? The presumption of this post is that the 'crowd' got it wrong, viewing the dance video 59 million times and watching Buffett only 98,000 times. But I learned more about dance in six minutes than I learned about stocks in 60 - and I trust the dance video a lot more, because you can't fake this stuff. Buffett gives us folksy advice like "you should buy what you know" and questionable bits like "if you learned about Wrigley's 40 years ago, you still know everything you need to know." Um, what? I agree with the author that there are "many excellent free online learning resources out there that are not being fully utilized by the global intelligence learning network." But I don't agree that Buffett's talk is one of them - and this illustrates perfectly the folly of trying to plan this or of depending on presumed authority to make the choices for us (Lesson learned, thanks Stephen!)" - Stephen DownesFrom Public Speaking Class To CEO Of GoogleGuess who?How Do You Motivate Staff? (Steve Ballmer)"I have four words for you: I LOVE THIS COMPANY! YEEEEEAAAAAS"FUTURETWIT Outshines Twitter In 2013!FINALLY69 Learning Adventures in 6 Galaxies (E-book)"...Available for free download at Scribd.com, the book brings together key "learning nuggets" as Zaid calls them with the arbitrary number 69 representing what he feels are the best learning chunks to appear over the past year on his blog, ZaidLearn....what has always been critical for this writer is the amount of reflection Zaid puts into the role of teacher. He constantly reviews his own practices to determine the impact he is having on his students making him an outstanding role model for those aspiring to the profession..." - Thomas J. HansonTHAT'S ALL FOLKS!

PDF2Word OnlineVia CLC OnlineThe PDF-to-Word conversion occurs directly on the site and can be saved to a location of your choosing. You don't need to provide your email address. The Word document will be ready immediately after the conversion is done.Cool! However, I am sure there are several other interesting FREE PDF-to-Word converters out there.Indeed there is! Here is one: Convert PDF-to-Word"I have only found one so far that does a great job (Convert PDF-to-Word), it actually looks almost identical to the PDF file, it's an online converter, sadly enough it's with the email thing, but I can live with that when I get great results..." - Kim CelinderThanks for the suggestion Kim Celinder!However, what if you are looking for a free PDF-to-Word desktop application instead of an online version, do you have any options?Yes, try Smartsoft's free PDF-to-Word Converter (Thanks Nedelcho!). What do you think?Do anyone out there have even a better PDF-to-Word converter to suggest? :)

Starting point - 80+ Videos for Tech. & Media LiteracyMy Top 10 List (Vote or rearrange according to...)THINKINGI was last night exploring Dr. Alec Couros amazing list of videos for Tech. & Media Literacy, and then an idea popped in my wondering mind.Ironically and sadly, many of us are still trying to persuade our dear fellow educators to rethink the way we educate and learn (even until today! Believe it or not!), but often fall short for one reason or the other. Let's face it, not all of us can inspire like Obama.However, if we can't personally inspire mindset change, others perhaps can. Personally, I always use videos (usually short ones. 3-10 minutes) in my presentations to spark or inspire participants to think about, or rethink the way we learn and teach in the 21st century (It is already 2009!). Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But, overall participants get excited and appreciate whenever I have infused a relevant video or two in my presentations.However, the real challenge is to choose the appropriate video(s) for the learning event, while taking into consideration all the racial, cultural or religious challenges it might cause. But before even getting there, we need to discover excellent videos. Dr. Alec Couros has done the world a great favor by sharing with us his amazing list. Thank you!OBJECTIVEWouldn't it be nice if other learning professionals (or anyone for that sake!) shared their list of favorite learning videos with the rest of us. Let's virally share our favorite videos, enabling those that struggle to find such videos, find them more conveniently. To be a bit more instructionally sound, let's create an objective for this video discovering event:To list and share our top 10 favorite videos that inspire us to rethink the way we learn and educate in the 21st century. Besides the title, author and link (URL) to the video, please add a short description and why you selected that particular one (if possible).MY TOP 10 LISTHere is my current top 10 list of videos that inspire us to rethink the way we learn and educate:A Vision of Students Today (Michael Wesch)Created to inspire teachers to use technology in engaging ways to help students develop higher level thinking skills. Equally important, it serves to motivate district level leaders to provide teachers with the tools and training to do so.Do Schools Kill Creativity? (Ken Robinson)Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it.Did You Know? 3.0 (Created by Karl Fisch, and modified by Scott McLeod)"Widely viewed video by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod that gives light to the changes imminent in our emerging knowledge-based society. This is an excellent video for framing and introducing the new reality to students, teachers, faculty, and administrators." - Dr. Alec CourosThe Machine is Us/ing Us (Michael Wesch)"Web 2.0" in just under 5 minutes.Five Minute University (Father Guido Sarducci)Father Guido Sarducci teaches what an average college graduate knows after five years from graduation in five minutes. The video gives humorous critique to learning in higher education.Pay Attention (Darren Draper)This presentation, simply entitled Pay Attention, was created by Darren Draper in an effort to motivate teachers to more effectively use technology in their teaching.Teaching Teaching & Understanding Understanding (Claus Brabrand and Jacob Andersen) A 19-minute award-winning short-film about teaching at the University. It shows examples of good and bad teaching, and promotes constructive alignment learning approach using Solo Taxonomy to test students' level of understanding (deep understanding?).Brain Rules (Dr. John Medina)How do we learn? What exactly do sleep and stress do to our brains? Why is multi-tasking a myth? Why is it so easy to forget--and so important to repeat new information? Is it true that men and women have different brains? In Brain Rules, molecular biologist Dr. John Medina shares his lifelong interest in how the brain sciences might influence the way we teach our children and the way we work. In each chapter, he describes a brain rule - what scientists know for sure about how our brains work - and then offers transformative ideas for our daily lives.Debunks Myths about the so-called "Developing World" (Hans Rosling)You've never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, statistics guru Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called "developing world." Yes, we could learn a few tricks from him on how to inspire students to learn our topic for the day.PowerPoint Extreme Makeover (Dean Shareski)How do you use PowerPoint effectively? Using Camtasia studio, Dean Shareski shows you what you can do to make your PowerPoint presentation more attractive, engaging and effective.A Brave New World-Wide Web (David Truss)I know it is a top 10 list, but I just discovered this excellent learning video, and want to include it here (so I don't ever forget it!). It makes you reflect about how technology is changing the way we learn and teach, and is a great video to kick-start a discussion on using technology to facilitate learning.YOUR TOP 10 LIST?Wouldn't it be cool if we could do something similar to Jane Hart's Top 10 Tools Lists of Learning Professionals 2009 for inspiring learning videos, and then do the top 100 and hoopla, hoopla, hoopla...! Jane, if you are reading this post, I would recommend that you take charge (seriously!) of this project (no money involved, just 1000s of more hits!). We could replicate, or reuse your template for learning tools, and do one for videos, too.If not, we could use a wiki. If anyone has already posted their 10 top videos (or whatever list), please feel free to share it with us (in the comments section).In short, I believe this inspiring project 'in the making' could be really helpful to many enlightened and inspired educators (but perhaps not inspiring to others) out there that are looking for sparks (e.g. learning videos) that could inspire their fellow educators to rethink the way they educate and learn.Educators who have shared their top 10 lists, or favorite learning videos (until now):DigiZenAlfredo CalderónTracey Mollins(Click their names to discover more juicy learning videos.)Let's get busy sharing our favorite learning videos with the rest of the learning world :)

Starting Point - Jane's Twitter Applications ListTHINKING There are more than a 150 3rd party applications that work with Twitter that could be useful for teaching and learning (at least according to Jane's master list). However, how many of us have the time to explore all, or figure out which one is appropriate and useful for our own learning and teaching.Though, why not use our collective intelligence to share with our readers our favorite 3rd party twitter applications, and perhaps help a few busy educators out there who are already struggling to figure out how to use Twitter (itself) as an online learning facilitation tool.MY FAVORITESAlright, I am pretty new to 3rd party Twitter applications, and I am very much still learning, so don't expect miracles from my current favorites. But the juice will grow as I learn. I mean as 'WE' learn collectively! Here we go:TweetMemeIs a service which aggregates all the popular links on twitter to determine which links are popular. Tweetmeme is able to categorize these links into categories and subcategories, making it easy to filter out the noise to find what your interested in.TwitterFeedExcellent tool to feed your blog, social bookmarks, etc. to Twitter.TweetDeckIs your personal browser for staying in touch with what’s happening now, connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook and more. TweetDeck shows you everything you want to see at once, so you can stay organised and up to date.DestroyTwitterIs a compact though robust Twitter application built to run on Mac, Windows, and Linux using Adobe AIR. It consists of a series of canvases that constantly update to keep tweets up-to-date using notifications that appear when a new tweet arrives. DestroyTwitter uses a minimal amount of memory compared to its AIR-based alternatives without sacrificing functionality and performance. As a result, it can easily run in the background as an automated process. True, but the application title is a disaster :)Happy TweetsIs a measuring stick for how positive, or happy, a particular Tweep is. Enter the Twitter username for you or one of your buddies, click the "get happy" button, and you'll find out how happy your Tweets are. This is surely useful for miserable teachers. They can get it slapped in their face. Though not sure if it is scientific :)StrawPollTiny polls in 140 characters or less. Ask Your Question, then track With the new StrawPoll Platform, you can use your own Twitter account to ask the questions you find interesting.More coming soon!YOUR FAVORITES?What about you? What are your favorite 3rd party Twitter applications for learning and teaching? Let's discover and learn collectively! I am sure a lot of beginners like myself would appreciate if more 'Twitter King Kongs' out there come out and share their juiciest twitter applications lists. It could be a top 10 list, or a top 5 list, or a top 1 list (oops, that is not a list!), or even a top 100 list. And if you could include a line, or two for why and how it is being applied for teaching and learning, now that would simply be awesome (for sure!).Perhaps you have already shared them on your blog, or in your Twitter world. If you have or planning to, please share them with us in the comments section, or on Twitter, or whatever Google finding tool you are using. If you mention 'ZaidLearn' somewhere in the post, hopefully I will discover it by myself (no need to tell) :)All findings will be listed here (or the comments section below):100 Tips, Apps, and Resources for Teachers on Twitter (Suggested by Mireille Jansma)Have fun exploring 3rd party Twitter applications that could potentially rock your learning and teaching world :)

88 Free EduGames to Spice Up Your CourseFlash Countdown Timer GeneratorUnless you can decode the following text, and figure out what it really says: ACLHQKHZWIt is not sufficient to only guess or provide the correct answer; you also need to explain the decoding process, or how you got to the correct answer. In other words, to master the art of learning, it is not sufficient to know the answer only (which can be easily memorized! Ironically, understanding often not needed!), but we must also understand the process to getting the answer. By understanding the learning process, we can potentially apply what we have learned to other contexts, situations and scenarios.Going further we should be able to reflect deeply what we have learned, and mash it up with other things we have learned to innovate/invent new stuff.You might be thinking, who cares if this post (or message) faces total destruction, "why should I care!" True enough (you can find EduGame lists elsewhere). But wouldn't it be nice to figure out the correct answer. If you get it right (including the decoding process), I am confident Google or Microsoft job hunters out there will be interested know more about your amazing algorithmic decoding brain. Am I right, Hanson Toh (Malaysia's only Google Consultant)?Anyway, the puzzle above is just some fun, before the real purpose of this post, which is.... 88 FREE EDUGAMESto let you know that I have updated the Free EduGames list, and that you can access it by clicking here.Since several sites out there are using the old link, I will keep that one updated instead of creating a new one. This makes whole lot sense, except for AdSense (which I don't use anyway)!Have fun discovering a few EduGames that could spice up your learning and teaching environment :)P.S. If you know of any other FREE EduGames that you think should be added to the list, please feel free to share. Finally, Hanson Toh, I am just poking you a bit, as I know you will be Google alerting your name :)

Free Learning Monitor Newsletter (Subscribe Now! Of Course, Free!)'Mission to Learn' Blog'Free online learning experiences delivered to your inbox monthly!' NEWSLETTERDo you want to receive a monthly digest of free and low-cost online courses, tutorials, videos, podcasts, games, and blogs?YES! YES! YES! Let me repeat: YES!The Free Learning Monitor newsletter compiled/synthesized/authored by Jeff Cobb does just that by providing regular monthly updates about free and low cost education opportunities available on the Web, and so much more.MORE JUICE!In addition, Jeff Cobb runs:The 'Mission to Learn' Blog - Postings 2-3 times per week on new learning resources, news, and insights about learning. Subscribe to the blog by RSSRadio Free Learning - An occasional (aiming for one to two times per month) podcast in which he interviews thinkers and doers in the world of lifelong learning. Subscribe to the Radio Free Learning Podcast via RSS or with iTunes.Mission to Learn on Twitter - a continuous stream of lifelong learning resources and updates on Twitter. Follow Mission to Learn on TwitterFinally, you certainly don't want to miss his excellent easy-to-read/learn/digest Learning 2.0 eBook. WOW!REFLECTIONNo need to reflect whether to subscribe or not, just do it (recommendation based on experiencing these newsletters since May 2008)! Seriously, one extra e-mail a month with tons of excellent free learning resources can't do any harm! Though, if you are stubborn and don't want to subscribe, at least enjoy reading the newsletters from the archives' section on his 'Mission to Learn' website.Amazingly, based on interpreting Jeff Cobb's reflections (here and there!), the 'Free Learning Monitor' has yet to really hit off around the world. Well, with a bit of screaming out loud blog-to-blog, blog-to-twitter, twitter-to-twitter, and twitter-to-blog SWOOSH marketing that might change dramatically going into the newsletter's second year of existence.Finally, Jeff Cobb I would recommend that you also innovate further and synthesize all the free learning resources shared on the newsletters into resource indexes (webpages) such as the ones you find on Jane Hart's amazing site (though a lot of commercial stuff, too. Not my cup of tea!). People love these 100+ resource lists. Not sure if they really explore the resources on them, but they surely bookmark and spread the news about them (which again increases traffic from Google).Jeff Cobb's contribution to discovering and sharing (or referring/recommending) learning resources is simply breath-taking. Let's hope that more people around the world discover and enjoy his tremendous contributions. Besides hoping, let's promote his work, too! Twitter me this, and twitter me that, who is the best free learning monitor around?I am still waiting for the one page 1000+ online resources mega index (with really juicy learning stuff). Perhaps you could be the first one :)