Is your training working? That is the question. We can talk about MOOCs and gamification and whether self-paced courses are better than scheduled courses until we’re blue in the face, but the reality is that only one question really matters — what works? Much has been written on the subject and many experts have weighed in on what they consider to be the most crucial training metrics (here are my top 10). However, it remains that for individual courses and at individual companies, the effectiveness of training is ridiculously hard to measure. This difficulty has even been studied. In 2008, Zane L. Berge, a professor at University of Maryland, Baltimore County published a study on exactly this topic. He found a host of reasons why training is hard to evaluate: Training lacks planning, sponsorship, or budget. Training is done for the wrong reasons. The training goals of various stakeholders are different: managers are interested in performance, while trainers are interested in results that can be measured with a test. The skills and knowledge learned during the training "are not applied on the job and thus have no impact." And finally, the methods generally used to measure and evaluate training are "antiquated." So, assuming that you are tracking some metrics for your training programs, what are they actually measuring and how can you gain more insight into what’s working and what’s not? As Berge found, some of the main problems with training evaluation are linked to a lack of clear goals, which happens both when training is not adequately planned and when various stakeholders have different objectives. When there is no pre-planning for evaluation and no communication about the specific objectives, it’s easy to both start and stop the evaluation process at the most basic level of employee engagement and reaction: How engaged were employees in the training (determined by how many videos they watched, how many resources they interacted with, how many discussions they participated in, etc.)? How did they feel about the training (did they find it interesting, valuable, a good use of their time)? These are the easiest things to measure. But do they really tell you anything of substance? Not really. So, how can we do it better? There are many models of training evaluation, including the popular Kirkpatrick Model, which breaks evaluation into four levels: reaction, learning, behavior, results. Other people have suggested implementation, application, business impact, and ROI. Still others have argued for separating behavior metrics from performance metrics, and other modifications. Cornerstone OnDemand, which makes a learning management system and other software for training and recruitment, has developed a model that is both simple (only four steps) and includes higher level metrics (i.e., business impact). It also provides some guidance for how to objectively account for each aspect. Their model, shown in this slideshare, has four categories: Activity — What are we doing? This is the bookkeeping category. It includes things like the number of courses, the number of learners, and the total cost. Though they don’t specifically say this, it could also include much of what currently counts for training evaluation in many companies, that is, how many videos watched, and so on. Efficiency — How well are we using our resources? Efficiency is still pretty bookkeeping focused. For example: What is the cost per learning hour? How many hours are spent per activity? What is the cost per activity? (Here is an efficiency calculation for MOOCs compared to traditional ILT.) Effectiveness — Is it doing what we intended it to do? What are the results? Now we’re starting to get into the stuff that really matters. Note that to accurately measure this, however, you need to start with a list of specific training objectives you want to meet and (here’s the kicker), the dollar estimate of the impact of those objectives. For example, if your goal is to increase sales by 10% over a six-month period, or to reduce errors by 10% over the same period, how much would meeting each of those objectives be worth? This measurement also includes a rating for usability, Net Promoter Score, and manager rating. Finally, employee attitudes toward the training are measured not only immediately following the training, but also a few months later, when employees will be better able to judge whether what they learned is valuable for their job performance. Impact — What benefit are we getting from those results? Finally, impact looks at the benefits that the efficiency results provide using Robert Brinkerhoff’s Success Case Evaluation method. This method looks specifically at success stories and the value of those successes. For example, if a MOOC saves 10 hours of training time for each of 100 people, then the business impact is equivalent to the value of 1,000 additional hours of work productivity. You can use also use this method to calculate ROI by comparing the value of the business impact with the cost of implementing the training program for those 100 people. In addition, this model can help you improve your training program by analyzing the successes (and the failures) and identifying what contributed to them. There are many ways to evaluate training. Whatever method you choose, the key is to decide in advance what metrics are important, make a plan for how you will measure them, and then use the data to increase the effectiveness and the business impact of your training in the future. Copyright 2015 Bryant Nielson. All Rights Reserved. Bryant Nielson - Managing Director of CapitalWave Inc.- Being a big believer in Technology Enabled Learning, Bryant seeks to create awareness, motivate adoption and engage organizations and people in the changing business of education. Bryant is a entrepreneur, trainer, and strategic training adviser for many organizations. Bryant’s business career has been based on his results-oriented style of empowering the individual. Learn more about Bryant at LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/bryantnielson Related Posts:Measuring Success (ROI) of a Training MOOC, Part 1Measuring Success (ROI) of a Training MOOC, Part 2Training Mojo: How to Align Training Metrics with Company…Top 10 Training MetricsWhy You Should A/B Test a MOOC, and How to Do It(Visited 26 times, 1 visits today)

Link to Zaidlearn's del.icio.us LinksDigital Curator to the Stars & More on the Digital Curator (Jeff Cobb)The Digital Curator in Your Future (Steve Rubel)"...I do believe that Zaid Ali Algasoff is in the process of firmly establishing himself as the e-learning curator of Southeast Asia. His recent Any Free Hosted CMS or LMS? (Yes, Obama Says!) is just one piece of the accumulating evidence...(Source)" - Jeff CobbWOW! My self-actualizing e-Learning curator ego is reaching the top of Mount Everest! Hmm, what is a curator anyway?CURATOR? "A curator, in a cultural institution context, is a guardian or an overseer. According to Wikipedia, he/she "is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and their associated collections catalogs. The object of a curator's concern necessarily involves tangible objects of some sort, whether it be inter alia artwork, collectibles, historic items or scientific collections (Source).""Rubel argues that, in order to manage the massive amounts of information now flowing across the Web, the world needs digital curators, "people who are selfless and willing to act as sherpas and guides. They’re identifiable subject matter experts who dive through mountains of digital information and distill it down to its most relevant, essential parts (Source)." I can live with that! But to tell you the truth, if I am really the e-learning curator of Southeast Asia, we are in big trouble! First, most of my readers are not from Southeast Asia, but instead they are from United States, Canada, Europe, India, Australia and a few Brazilians that can't get enough of this blog. Also, my messy informal learning repository adventure is not exactly the most efficient place to find what you are looking for. I suppose you might discover something juicy here, but it is probably more by accident, or through a Google search, rather than systematically searching ZaidLearn. Nothing wrong with that, But I believe now has come the time that I also embrace my left brain of organization, and by doing so, I will hopefully nurture the whole brain for efficient management of my learning discoveries, which will hopefully lead to more effective learning. I really appreciate and respect Jeff Cobb's kind reflections, but I still have a 'green mile' to travel, to live up to such a billing effectively. Though, I love the challenge and until other e-Learning curators do show up in Southeast Asia (or is known beyond!), I don't mind taking the lead. So, here is my plan to move on...del.icio.us?To be honest, I should have gone del.icio.us a long time back. Don't ask me why I didn't (Stubborn to unlearn!)? Instead you should explore and enjoy my growing juicy collection of del.icio.us links (+160 and growing fast!) , which will make it easier for readers to enjoy my arsenal of recommended free learning resources and tools. Here are my most prominent del.icio.us tags:Favorite ToolsOER (Open Educational Resources)OCW (OpenCourseWare)Podcasts...moreAlthough, many of my del.icio.us learning resources perhaps should use multiple tags (e.g. MIT OCW, OER, Podcasts, etc.), I have tried as much as possible to use one appropriate tag for each resource, instead of giving them too many tags. I personally don't want to find the same learning resource in every tag (although it might correct!) while looking for stuff. Anyway, I am still learning the art of tagging, and hopefully it will improve as I embrace del.icio.us.As I have been collecting juicy learning links (URLs) since 2001 (stored all over the place!), I have literally thousands of them to rediscover and add to del.icio.us. So, in the coming weeks I will be busy rediscovering, filtering (out!), and tagging my last seven years of learning, and creating my own little arsenal of del.icio.us learning resources and tools, which we all can enjoy. A BREAK FROM BLOGGING?In addition, I have decided to take a break from blogging for at least 2-3 weeks, so I can reflect (in peace!) what I have achieved and prepare for the second phase of ZaidLearn. Second phase? I suppose anyone that has been reading my blog has probably been overwhelmed with all the learning resources and tools discussed and shared here. And to be honest, I am really getting bored simply talking about new resources and tools discovered, and believe that ZaidLearn needs to move on to focus more on what really matters in education. EFFECTIVE LEARNING!!!!!!ZAIDLEARN 2.0In the future, I will still share great resources and tools I discover, but that will del.icio.us take care of from now on. I suppose I will provide a weekly del.icio.us update on the juiciest stuff discovered. So, what about the 'ZaidLearn' blog? It will go on, but it will from the next post onwards (with the exception of weekly del.icio.us updates) focus on interesting topics and issues in relation to facilitating effective learning online. The posts will be short/long articles (500-2000 words) where I share my research, experiences, thoughts and ideas about learning (like I got much experience to share!). I predict that I will post 2-4 articles a month, meaning this blog will certainly not be as active as before, but it will hopefully be of better quality :). My secret recipe (no longer!) for writing articles, will be roughly 4 days of research and reflection (in-between formal working activities), and then on the fifth day 1-4 hours of writing and editing, and Voila an article has been posted. I hope by using this formula, I can by year end (2008) compile these articles into an e-Book, which of course will be free to download (if anyone is interested!). To put more pressure on myself (I love that!), I will challenge myself to write articles that are good enough to be published in the likes of Tomorrow's Professor Blog (Stanford University) and New York Times (NYT). So, Rick Reis (Editor of Tomorrow's Professor Blog) please consider my articles, although I am no professor (Need another 15 years for that one!). Anyway, all my articles will be published in ZaidLearn, and if they are really good, I am sure they will find their way to other interesting places, except peer reviewed journals. Why? I write with an unhealthy mix of emotion, logic, flavor, disruption and creativity beyond the scientific acceptance level of most peer reviewed journals. Alright, enough! Have fun exploring my growing compilation of del.icio.us learning discoveries!I WILL BE BACK! Soon! That is in 2-3 weeks time :)

Link to my del.icio.us Survey/Polling ToolsGoogle Labs - Google Survey (Tool?)"...There are still millions of students and educators in the Schools, Colleges and Universities around the world who are doing research, conducting surveys and spending a lot of time collecting data, providing them often with little time to analyze and reflect the findings (critical/creative thinking aspect!). However, by providing them with a free easy-to-use online survey tool (alternative or complimentary option to their research) with basic features to create and conduct online surveys, collect the data, and display the results/reports in text and visual format (with exporting options to Excel, SPSS, etc.), could do miracles from an educational point-of-view... (Source)" I did once write an online letter to Google (October 12th, 2007) about our need for a free easy-to-use online survey tool, but I never got a reply. I suppose they get millions of e-mails every day, so why answer my one, unless the idea is really great (and innovative!), or I am NEO. With the exception of Google's polling tool in Blogger, I have yet to see any innovative progress from them. Microsoft seem to be too busy with their upcoming WorldWide Telescope (WWT) (Great surf-the-galaxy tool!), and who wants to get locked into Facebook's limited 70+ million user community doing polling and surveys (Confidentiality! Yeah, we can trust Facebook!). Yahoo? No idea! In short, the big players seem to be slow on this front, or perhaps they are planning to acquire one soon from the growing crowd of innovative online survey tools already out there.FREE ONLINE SURVEY/POLLING TOOLSHere are more than a dozen FREE online survey/polling tools (Selected using my sixth sense!), which you might want to explore further (Source):SurveyMonkey.comPowerful tool for creating and running web surveys (including visual reporting). The free version provides several limitations (e.g. limited number of questions and respondents), but if you are creative you can do your stuff. Anyway, the commercial version is quite affordable (if needed), so why worry!PolldaddyCreate free online surveys (e.g. market research) and polls. Excellent for polls!FreeOnlineSurveys.comCreate online surveys, polls and questionnaires for any number of uses. fo.reca.stAllows you to design free online surveys, collect responses from the visitors of your blog or website, analyze them and finally present the survey results. SurveyGizmoWeb surveys, Polls, Forms, Quizzes, Landing Pages. Free and commercial version. QuibbloA free tool that enables you easily to create your own quizzes, fun surveys & tests online. Kwik Online SurveysAn easy-to-use survey development tool that enables you easily to send surveys & questionnaires by Email, YouTube, Facebook or posted on online Forums.PollographAn easy-to-use survey authoring tool. Free accounts can publish up to 5 free online surveys. The thing I like about this tool is that there is no limit to the number of questions you can include in each survey. Also, there is no limit to the number of responses that you can gather in each survey.eSurveysProIt offers both a free and commercial version. But I like the fact that the free version enables you to create and conduct unlimited surveys and have unlimited responses.LimeSurvey.orgA good open source survey tool. You need to download and install on a server. It includes +20 different question types, and basic statistical and graphical analysis with an export facility. VTSurveyIs a web-based tool which enables end users to autonomously create and run online surveys, feedback or registration forms (4 question types). You need to download and Install on a server. Although, it has limited tools, question types and reporting features, it is extremely easy-to-use. BuzzDashCreate and share polls. Built upon individual polling modules called buzzbites™, BuzzDash provides a real-time forum where people can solicit, measure and share opinions on nearly any issue. Zoho PollsCan create and share polls. If you want a more comprehensive list of survey/polling tools, mashing-up both commercial and free ones, I strongly recommend that you visit Jane Knight's amazing directory of learning tools (including 50+ survey/polling tools! Trust me, this list will grow!).Oops, I got to get back to my vacation from blogging. If you are wondering again what I am doing during my holiday from blogging, CLICK HERE. Yes, I am building my arsenal of del.icio.us links (230+ and growing!). I have been collecting great links since 2001, so I got a lot to filter and add :)

Link to Printer Friendly Version PDF Version"We want the development of modal insan (model citizen), students who can think critically and creatively, who are able to solve problems and have the ability to adapt themselves to an ever-changing global environment." - Blueprint for Education Development, Malaysia (2006 - 2010) ONCE UPON A TIME ….A long time ago (early 2007) in a galaxy far away (Malaysia), there was a little boy (33 years old) who happened to be me. This little boy was suddenly entrusted to transform a dying course at the University entitled ‘Critical Thinking’. Here I was leading a Learning and Teaching Unit (in the Quality Assurance department) facilitating change and improvements to our e-learning approach, and managing a University wide ‘Thinking Skills Infusion Programme’ (TSIP). Although, I had trained many lecturers, senior lecturers and professors in using technology to facilitate learning, I had ironically never had any real experience in managing an actual course at the University.Now, one of the leaders from our academic world figured rightly out that perhaps I needed some real experience to understand what it is like to be a lecturer, before having the right to lecture to lecturers on how to teach and facilitate effective learning (which makes perfect sense!). Also, since I had been managing the TSIP programme for over six (6) months, the "Critical Thinking’ course would be the perfect challenge and opportunity to test all my untested theories and suggestions on effective learning.In a nutshell, I was asked to lead and transform the ‘Critical Thinking’ course, which is a requirement for all undergraduate students.THE UNITAR WAY!Although, Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR) is currently becoming a more conventional University, it used to adopt a blended learning model, which usually included courseware, online forums, online tutorials (OLT), and Face-to-Face (F2F) tutorials. Every course is led by a course leader supported by tutors who facilitate their own sections. The course leader is responsible for guiding the tutors, and preparing the course plan, course materials, assignments, quizzes and exams. In addition, the course leader is responsible for correcting the final exams (40% - 50% of the course assessment evaluation), and giving the students’ final grade for all sections. The tutor’s role is to communicate with the course leader, facilitate the course for their section(s), and grade the coursework (50% - 60%).COURSE REENGINEERING NEEDED?Based on my initial unscientific findings, students found the course difficult to understand and the overall students’ satisfaction rates were lower than in other courses for the undergraduate level. In addition, both students and tutors complained that the lecture notes were not sufficient. Although, the past course leaders seemed to have a done a good job facilitating their own sections, they failed based on my understanding to communicate and facilitate consistent quality to all the sections. Overall, students and tutors seemed frustrated with ‘Critical Thinking’, and some even questioned the relevance of this course. They argued that this course focused too much on theory and memorization, and failed to actually help students develop fundamental thinking, reasoning and language abilities that are needed for academic success. Although, UNITAR had developed a reasonably good page tuning critical thinking courseware, the existing curriculum of the critical thinking course seemed to be mostly (80-90%) based on John Chaffe’s famous book "Thinking Critically" (6th Edition, 2000). Even the course objectives and topic outline seemed to be paraphrased out of the book. As UNITAR’s self-developed courseware was structured very differently from the course outline, it was hardly reflected or used by either the educators, or the students.So, I began to read John Chaffe’s famous book "Thinking Critically" to get better feel of what the students were learning. Strangely, I kept on falling asleep while reading this book, and although the content is relevant and useful, the writing style and design of that book (I suppose the later versions are more engaging!) did not appeal or inspire my thinking mind. So, if I am falling asleep reading this book, what about the students?In addition to this book, the course also recommended students to read another book entitled ‘Critical Thinking: A Student's Introduction’ (G. Bassham & Co., 2007). So, I explored the book, and found it more activity-oriented, engaging, and inspiring. However, I still felt that something was missing to spark the ‘Critical Thinking’ course to life.So, I explored our ‘Critical Thinking’ courseware again, and was actually positively surprised with the quality of the content. However, since it was structured very differently from the course outline and it did not have a search function, naturally students found it quite frustrating to use.Based on these surface level reflections, I felt (based on my limited knowledge) that I needed to revamp the whole course to really make any difference. However, I also decided to take advantage and extract the learning juices from the three original main course resources just mentioned. Based on my understanding, the problem with this course was not so much the content, but the process on how it was facilitated. Based on my findings, and too little focus was given to engaging the student’s learning mind to question, analyze, synthesize, reason, problem solve, and make better decisions, which I believe is the essence of this course. Finally, and importantly for most of our students, English is their second language, and the student population consists of a colourful inter-religious/cultural/racial blend (Indian, Chinese, Malay, etc.), which especially the two recommended critical thinking books are not really tailored to.Although, I was no master in ‘Critical Thinking’ (still the case!), I believed that I had enough reasons to take the risk to reengineer the course to make it more relevant and effective.COURSE PLANNING & PREPARATIONAlthough, I was planning to reengineer the course, I felt that the original course objectives would remain the same, with just a minor twist. The role of the lecturer coaching ‘Critical Thinking’ is to: Teach the fundamental thinking, reasoning and language abilities that a student needs for academic success.Engage students in the active thinking process.Integrate the development of thinking abilities with the four skills: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening.As students seemed to fear the word "Critical’ more than thinking (tough one, too!), I suggested to change the name of the course to just ‘Thinking Skills’, but that was firmly rejected. Then I had this crazy idea to simply develop the course outline (modules and topics) and learning objectives, and let the students discover, explore, organize, adapt and construct the course content based on existing materials available on the web (User-generated content). This idea was totally rejected. Finally, I suggested to include a ‘Creative Thinking’ topic, which I felt was missing from the course, but that was also rejected. Creative thinking is different! So, instead I decided to infuse creative thinking into every single module of the ‘Critical Thinking’ course.In the end, just before the semester started we managed to agree upon the course outline, which was (Click on the links to view the modules in Slideshare): Introduction to Critical Thinking Thinking Tools Arguments = Part I + Part II + Part III FallaciesLanguage Decision MakingProblem Solving Due to limited time, I constructed the content for each module during the 15-week semester, usually a week or two ahead of schedule. As our University was increasingly becoming more conventional, we were required to conduct a 2-hour F2F tutorial every week with our students. Although, we could use OLT, I decided not to, due to the nature of the course (real-time activity-based), number of students (300+), students status (mostly full-time), lack of broadband Internet access (for some), and that the group of tutors facilitating this course were reasonably experienced (more than me, actually!) and were fully capable of managing their own section(s) without my interference. As a course leader, I was also assigned to manage three (3) sections (90+ students).However, to improve the possibility of consistent quality, I did prepare lesson plans (and student activity sheets) for the tutors, which gave them some idea on how I would conduct my tutorials. The lesson plans also included answers (if any), tips, and resource links to some of the puzzles, questions, and videos (YouTube) discussed in the presentation slides. In short, I provided them with some ideas on how I would facilitate the tutorials, but empowered them the freedom to think and do it their own way, as long as they covered the syllabus.COURSE CONTENTThe main focus of the revamped course would be on students’ practicing, reflecting and improving their thinking skills, and less emphasize would be given to exploring critical thinking theories, concepts and the endless definitions associated with it. What is critical thinking anyway?With this in mind, the course content was constructed focused on engaging the students to reflect and improve their ability to question, analyze, synthesize, reason, problem solve, and make constructive decisions.To deal with the students fear and motivation to think critically, I decided to put Aristotle, Plato and Socrates on the bench, and introduce my new dream thinking support team led by Master Yoda, Mr. Bean and Inspector Gadget. They play a critical role in relaxing the learners’ mind to laugh, think, discuss and reflect their own thinking. If Mr. Bean can think critically, why can’t I?Finally, to engage students to think, the content or presentation slides included a lot of thought provoking questions, puzzles, cartoons, pictures, quotes, and group activities to continuously spark the desire to explore the content further.In short, I extracted and mashed up past learning references, added my flavour, and brought in assistance from another galaxy (e.g. Master Yoda) and Earth (e.g. Mr. Bean) to reengineer the content.F2F TUTORIALSI made it a point from day one that students will have to think-out-loud in this class, and no one will be able to escape this. Of course to loosen up the overall fear, I would first gently force the most nervous or scared looking student in the class to answer an open-ended question with their own opinion. By giving this person encouragement and support to whatever the answer may be, the other students in the class might feel safer to participate. It actually works, even in Malaysia were students are often scared to talk and share their ideas in class.Every F2F tutorial is broken down into four (4) sessions: Warm Up (5 - 15 minutes) - To awaken the students’ minds and bring the class to life, I would begin each class with a few brain stimulating activities, which could be a/an puzzle, question, picture, issue, or a quote.Lecture & Discussion (30- 40 minutes) - This session is very much like an interactive lecture, whereby I would explain, reflect and discuss together with the students the ‘Thinking Menu’ of the day. Group Activities (45 - 55 minutes) - In this session students are broken up into small groups (4- 6 participants) to collaborate on some relevant thinking activities. Each group have to choose their leader, and are given specific time frames to complete particular tasks (or using specific thinking tools), and then they need to summarize their answers or findings in writing, and finally one (or more) of the group representatives have to present and discuss the group’s output with the class. Sum Up (5-10 minutes) - Summarize the module and synthesize/evaluate/reflect the group activity findings. Students are also required to share and rotate task duties, which will ensure that all students at least once or twice will have the pleasure to present the output to the class during the semester. By having such group activities in each class, students also get to practice their teamwork, time management, communication, listening, writing, and presentation skills while collectively thinking about important issues.To make the group activities relevant to their learning, I tried to select interesting and meaningful discussion topics. For example, during the first F2F class group activity, students were asked to reflect what it means to be an excellent student and lecturer. They were asked to discuss, identify and rank the "Top 10" characteristics/traits/behaviours of an excellent lecturer and student. By the end of the class we together had actually negotiated what to expect from one another throughout the semester. I told them that I will try my level best to be an excellent lecturer according to their terms (caring, punctual, open minded, effective teaching, etc.), and that I hoped that they could be an excellent student accordingly (hard working, self-disciplined, active participation, honest, etc.).By the end of the semester we had managed to discuss and reflect collectively a lot of interesting and relevant topics including global warming, great thinkers and inventions, whether entrepreneurship is genetic or can be learned, the essence of beauty, whether all-star wrestling is real or not, and much more. During the learning process students had also managed to explore several useful thinking tools including mind mapping, six thinking hats, CoRT, and SWOT Analysis.ONLINE FORUMSStudents were required to participate in two (2) online forums scheduled during the semester. Each forum carried 2.5 percent (total = 5%) of the course assessment evaluation. Assessment scheme for each forum was:1.0 % - For your reflective response to the forum issue.1.0 % - for reflecting, adding value or challenging at least one of your classmates’ responses.0.5 % - for submitting your 1st response within the first week of the forum.The assessment scheme was set to encourage early participation and threaded discussions (not just a list of short essay answers!).In the first online forum, students were asked to argue who they thought was the greatest thinker of the 20th century, and in the second forum students were asked to discuss an invention (and the thinking process behind it) that had an influential impact on mankind.Both forums turned out to be informative and dynamic. Especially, the first forum, where approximately 300 students joined one mega discussion, was a huge challenge beyond the capability of our in-house developed learning management system (LMS), and my browser. After having several mega headaches trying to manage and reflect hundreds of posts, I made sure in the second forum to chunk the discussion into groups based on the course sections, which were facilitated and marked by each individual tutor.The good thing we can take from the online forums is that most students know about Wikipedia. The not so good thing was that many of the students simply copy/pasted from it without giving much thought, or any reference or credit to the source. Interestingly, a few students managed to copy/paste Aristotle, Plato and Socrates from Wikipedia (No comment!). There was even one case of a student copying another students’ excellent reflective answer from the forum itself, and then pasting it as his own answer with a minor change to the introduction and conclusion. Luckily, the student being plagiarised informed me about it, and I did the necessary to teach the plagiarizer a lesson he probably won’t forget.Overall, it was a thrill to engage and discuss about great thinkers and inventions (and the struggles they went through) with the students, and many of them took these forums quite seriously, and some of their reflections and arguments were quite impressive. I was also impressed with some of the students’ reflective arguments for why they should get a better grade.ONLINE QUIZStudents had to take three small quizzes, each carrying five (5) percent of the course assessment evaluation. One (1) quiz was conducted during a F2F class and two (2) quizzes were conducted online. I gave the students the opportunity to do each online quiz (multiple-choice) from any place within a one week period. In the first online quiz, I used randomization of questions (from a question pool) and shuffling of questions/answers, and I had deliberately created a tough one to awaken and challenge the students to think early on in the course. Interestingly, only 3 out of 272 who took the first online quiz got 100%. The second online quiz was based on the module 4 (Fallacies). This time around I did not use randomization of questions, but I did continue with shuffling of questions/answers. 60 out of 285 managed to get 100%, which was an astonishing result (and perhaps a much easier quiz!). Interestingly, I had constructed a ‘Two Wrongs Make a Right’ fallacy in module 4 which says, "I don’t feel guilty about cheating on Zaid’s online quiz. Half the class cheats on his quiz." Strangely enough, in one section a whopping 20 out of 42 got 100% correct. The results were impressive, but something was not right. Then I discovered that 17 out of these 20 with full marks had completed the quiz in less than 3 minutes. Other students who did the quiz took on the average more than 10 minutes to complete. Also, one of the students had come to my office during the quiz period with a friend (in a giggling mood!), claiming that someone else had logged in as her, and done her quiz (and gotten only 90%!). She asked me to reset her quiz. So, to give her a second chance, I reset her quiz. She took less than 2 minutes to get 100%. I told the students in the next class that some of them had cheated on the online quiz, and asked those who had done it to come forward and admit their wrongdoing. I also told them about the quiz completion time discovery, and that I had a list of all those that are likely to be guilty, and that this was also a test of integrity and character. After the class, the guilty came forward one by one to apologize for their wrongdoing. Although, they did something wrong, they showed great character to come forward and admit their mistake. To my astonishment, one student made it clear to me that they did not cheat, but instead argued that they had collaborated together to succeed. Now, that got me to think that perhaps we could also conduct online group quizzes in the future, which could be useful to facilitate collaborative learning in a quiz competitive mode. I suppose we all learned a few lessons from this incident. Finally, if you are planning to conduct online quizzes, keep in mind that you will never know who is actually doing the online quiz, unless you have a witness (proctored exam), or it is done in a computer lab with surveillance, so that you can verify who is actually doing it. But then again if students really want to cheat, they will find a way. Besides minimizing the possibility of cheating, it is perhaps more useful to encourage and practice good values and behaviours during the learning process. In short, we need to practice good values and behaviours ourselves first, before we can expect such things from our students. Look who’s talking!GROUP PROJECT & PRESENTATIONIn addition to three (3) quizzes, two (2) online forums, and group activities in each F2F session, students were required to work on a group project, which would be presented to the class some time during the last four (4) weeks of the course. They were required to research a problem or issue of their choice, and then write a recommendation report with constructive suggestions on how to deal with it. Interestingly, I made it compulsory that everyone in the group had to present some portion of their project during the group project presentation. While all shared the same grade for the group project (15%), each student was evaluated individually for the presentation session (10%). Although, there were many interesting projects and engaging presentations, I suppose the video showed by one of the groups of a person dying from AIDS (last moments!), is something that until today still lingers in my head. Overall, it was good to see that most of the students were confident enough to present and not chicken out. Although, many of the presenters perhaps faced the slides and notes more than the audience, we have to give them credit, because they were also presenting and articulating their findings in English, which is their second language. I suppose with more practice and encouragement, they can master the ability to present confidently with less supporting aids. FINAL EXAMThe final exams (50% of the total course evaluation) are conducted F2F at the students’ respective study centres. The ‘Critical Thinking’ course exam included a mixture of short essay and discussion type of questions. The final exam was divided into two sections: Section A (20%) - They were given five (5) questions (answer all) to check their understanding on the core concepts learned in this course. They were required to (depending upon the question) identify, describe, differentiate, and give examples. Section B (30%) - They were asked to identify the purpose (or main-point), analyze, evaluate and/or give their opinions/reasons/suggestions on an article, advertisement and a quote. Having punished the students mentally to think-out-loud throughout the course, I suppose I made the final exam reasonably easy to pass (including juicy examination tips!), testing all the six (6) levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.To be honest, I have never been a fan of final exams. If I had the choice I would instead add at least 30% of these marks for class participation (Currently only 5%). If I was to take any of those final exams I took during my undergraduate and graduate studies, I would surely fail this time around (Even if I got ‘A’ previously!). So, what are final exams measuring anyway? Then again, we cannot blame it on the final exam mode, but instead we should question those asking the questions.RESULTSWere students satisfied? It was encouraging to know that I averaged approximately 90% (you need at least 85% to me nominated for best lecturer award!) in the teaching/course evaluation survey over three (3) sections. However, it was more encouraging to learn that the total average for this course was around 85% (including the tutors’ results).However, did learning take place? It is difficult to verify this one, but I know for sure that 92.9% of all the students taking this course (316) managed to pass it. I do have some positive and constructive comments to share here from a few students and tutors."(Student)…Thank you for your guidance and not forgetting your lively classes. It's been a month since the exam and I must say all the fallacies learnt remain and is being applied in everyday reading materials and at workplace with…" "(Student)…Last but not least I would like to thank you for being "the teacher that inspires". I truly enjoyed myself in your class and would really look forward to being your student again (No.no.. I don't want to repeat Critical Thinking ..maybe for other subject)…""(Student)…Thank you very much for your quick reply. You are certainly a very good, efficient and helpful lecturer. From my experience, you are the second lecturer who have answered my questions during the holiday but for this semester the only one. They should be more lecturers like you…" "(Student)… honestly I have learned a lot from this course, not only in thinking, but more than what I could describe here. Really enjoyed your class and the way you teach has definitely changed the way I looked at learning myself...""(Tutor)…Your Forum 2 question is very interesting and the rules and regulations suggested are good. That will make the students send in their answers earlier…It’s nice having you as the course leader. You are so efficient and informative." "(Tutor)…I must let you know that I am very happy with your approach to the critical thinking course. It has such a fresh and imaginative look. The slides are so attractive and I like the F2F Lesson Plan. It keeps us aware on how you (as a course leader) look at things. Please keep that up…"Now this is pleasing to my ego! As for Kirkpatrick’s levels of evaluation 3 and 4, it is difficult to provide any concrete evidence, except for comments such as the ones above. But let’s hope that students can apply some the thinking skills learned during the course and gain some positive results in their studies, work and life. Actually, I should track these 316 students down and find out!AREAS TO IMPROVE?One year has passed since I revamped the ‘Critical Thinking’ course. I only managed to facilitate this course for one semester, and then the top management argued that I could be more effective to the University doing other things than actually teaching students. Luckily, the course is still being taught and that they are still using my little contribution to ‘Critical Thinking’ at the undergraduate level.However, having become one year wiser (or dumber!) and discovered through reading what is needed to survive in places like Microsoft or Google, I believe this ‘Critical Thinking’ course needs to be constructively destroyed and reengineered.Here are a few things that I would do, if I had the chance to revamp it again:Challenging Puzzles/Exercises - I would add new puzzles and thinking exercises to challenge the students’ analytical, imaginative and problem solving skills to the level they can expect from a Microsoft or Google interview. Give them a taste of it, which might actually accelerate their motivation to learn. Leaner Modules - Streamline the modules to consist of fewer topics and concepts, and instead spend more time on each element, enabling students to have more time to learn, practice and reflect before moving on. Especially, the 'Arguments' module would be totally revamped (simplify and focus), which was too much based on the book (Critical Thinking: A Student's Introduction’), due to my lack of knowledge in this area. Online Tools - Would use more tools such as online surveys/polls (to gather students' opinions and collectively reflect) and perhaps LAMS (Learning Activity Management System), which could be useful for sequencing and managing thinking activities such as Six Thinking hats. Also, I would request students to use wikis to work on their group projects, enabling me to follow the progress of the project. In addition, it would be interesting to explore 3D virtual worlds like Second Life and examine how it can nurture and motivate students to think-out-loud in such environments. In short, I would use more online learning tools to facilitate thinking beyond the physical classroom.More Videos - Although, I did use a few YouTube videos to stimulate thinking during the first round, I would probably embed more short videos this time around to engage the mind and bring the class to life. New Dream Thinking Team - Although, I would probably keep Master Yoda and Mr. Bean in my team, I would try to include local cartoons, such as LAT (if possible). To improve my coaching or facilitation skills I would explore, study and reflect videos of well-known educators in formal and informal education around the world, which can today be easily accessed for free through YouTube channels (Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, etc.) or other video sharing sites (e.g. VIDEOLECTURES.net). In short, the only thing stopping us from becoming a good educator is our reluctance to learn, explore and challenge ourselves continuously (and a good Internet connection!).In short, the ‘Critical Thinking’ course would be revamped again to meet the challenges of the 21st century.CONCLUSIONOh man, you are still reading! Alright, I will have to say a few more things before I take off to my next learning adventure. First, if you ask me, I would not get so obsessed in trying to differentiate critical, creative, innovative or inventive thinking (learning and thinking prefers no human constructed borders!) during class, but instead focus increasingly on finding new ways to nurture and infuse more thinking into the students’ learning process for all courses, so that when they graduate it has become a habit for life.Also, I would strongly recommend that we continue to have at least one or two courses that explore thinking and thinking tools intensively, enabling us to flex our imaginative, creative and analytical thinking muscles (e.g. using six thinking hats, SWOT, Disney Creativity Strategy, and ‘Five Ws and H’). In addition, we could always use our analytical imagination to create new thinking tools.If you ask me, I would argue that the essence of all thinking boils down to asking QUESTIONS. And we all can do that, and therefore we all have the ability to think. Which fallacy did I just commit? If we can encourage students to ask more questions, going beyond the compartments of their disciplines, and increasingly nurture the courage in them to explore new ideas, we are probably on the right track.I remember way back in 1992, I had just finished my high school certificate (similar to A-Levels) at Ullern Gymnas (Oslo, Norway), and had just managed to scrape through. I was so sick of formal education that I made a promise to myself to never study again.Here I am in 2008, sharing my experiences on facilitating "Critical Thinking’ to undergraduate students at UNITAR, in Malaysia. You just never know :)

Link to ZaidLearn's YouTube (Channel) CollectionPersonal Learning (Stephen Downes) + Slides (SlideShare)A World Without Courses (George Siemens) FreeRice (Word Game)FREE RICE? Did you know that you can give free rice to hungry people by simply playing a cool word game? FreeRice has two goals:Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free (Made possible by the sponsors who advertise on the site). While learning and stimulating your own brain, you are also helping hungry people! What a brilliant idea! Hopefully, it works!A WORLD WITHOUT COURSES?George Siemens provides us a glimpse into a potential future world without courses, in a mind stimulating Articulate presentation. "The function of education - in serving its stakeholders and in how it creates value - can be duplicated in a distributed manner. We're still missing the final piece of accreditation (though we're making progress on that) and we're missing the piece on how we will tie these pieces together. But, I imagine that will be on the horizon shortly. (with tying together, I don't mean tying content together - we can do that with RSS, PageFlakes, etc. I mean a conceptual tying together so we can say, "yes, Susan has achieved those learning targets"). Treat it as a conversation starter, not a declaration of belief ..." (Source)It wasn't long ago when some learning experts were talking about a world without lectures (or even lecturers! Courseware + Artificial Intelligence = Learning). Today I watch more lectures than ever online (if I had more opportunities offline I would, too)! Whether online or offline, I simply love lectures, if they are interesting, engaging, useful, and relevant to my learning (E.g. George Siemens Articulate presentation). If you ask me to choose between a typical page-clicking courseware (eBook?) over watching a lecture, I would 99 out of 100 times choose a lecture (especially if it allows me to easily navigate and skip the boring/knowing parts). I suppose I prefer watching and listening to subject matter experts (if so!) reflecting-it-out-loud if possible (learning beyond the content)! But then again, everyone has their own preferences, which we should try to cater to one way or the other. If you can blend reading, listening, watching, presenting, sharing, playing, reflecting, individual/group activities, and creating new stuff into a course effectively, I will be inspired!Although, I like learning whatever I want, anytime I want in an informal way, I do also like learning through courses. So, I hope and envision a world where both can co-exist effectively and that we can increasingly recognize and find ways to measure the value of informal learning (or no-course learning!) before making our judgments about a person's expertise (or competence level) in terms of knowledge, skills, experience and wisdom. Coming to think of it, the problem might not lie with the 'course model', but how we define, deliver, assess and rigidly package courses (according to credit hours). With a bit of creativity, innovation and flexibility, we might be able to revive to true value of learning through courses! Also, wouldn't it be nice if we could have more flexibility in how we package our degrees (self-directed). We are free to choose courses according to our needs and interests (with prerequisite or warning signs if any!). In such a course learning world, I suppose Steve Jobs would have completed his degree!UNIVERSITY YOUTUBE COLLECTIONSDan Coleman shares on his super smart media blog 50+ Smart Video Collections on YouTube (and growing!), which is simply an amazing collection. Although, YouTube unfortunately makes these collections difficult to find, Dan Coleman comes to the rescue!Here are a few University YouTube Channels to keep you busy for life: University of California (Berkeley)MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) University of Southern California (USC)Indian Institute of Technology/Indian Institute of Science (India) BerkmanCenter's Channel (Harvard Law School) University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill Vanderbilt University University of Chicago Press University of California Television (UCTV) University of Arizona UChannel (Princeton) Tulane University Purdue University Old Dominion (US) Duke University News European Graduate School (EGS)AuburnUniversity's Videos Oxford University Saïd Business SchoolBokTube - BokCenter's YouTube Channel (Harvard)PERSONAL LEARNINGStephen Downes is working on a new personal learning tool (soon to be launched, if I am not mistaken), and has some great ideas about what personal learning is all about. Personal learning (in a nut shell!):To teach is to MODEL and to DEMONSTRATETo Learn is to PRACTICE and REFLECTCLICK HERE to enjoy and reflect his slides :)WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?Besides learning, I don't have a clue! However, if you want to enjoy my learning as I discover new learning resources and tools, please take advantage and use my growing juicy del.icio.us collection. Currently, I am still trying to index my old super learning discoveries (No time!), and hopefully by early April, I will increasingly focus more on exploring new galaxies of resources and tools.In the meantime, have fun feeding poor people while playing games, and please dream about a world without courses (and share your reflections with George Siemens). Also, have fun exploring 1000s of YouTube lectures! Hopefully, we can soon use Stephen Downes new personal learning tool to manage our learning more efficiently. We certainly need it now!I suppose I will be back in a week or two with some more juicy updates from my learning adventures :)

Link to Professor Bajunid's Keynote AddressChristopher's Corner (Blog)"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 ChewSometimes in life you need to be reminded indirectly by others that you have an interesting story to share (on your blog). Thanks to Christopher, I have one (I think)! Let's try to recap what really happened (True story!)...Once upon a time (August 2005), UNITAR was conducting a facilitation workshop for their academic staff, and I was not officially invited. Did that stop me from crashing the workshop?NOT INVITED!Although, I was not an academic, I had great interest in attending this event to learn and get some more ideas on a special project I was working on. At that time I was preparing a proposal on how we could improve our existing teaching and learning approach. Since a few of UNITAR's great educators were also giving talks on how UNITAR should move forward, attending this workshop made a whole lot of sense! RECORDINGInterestingly, I had just discovered and bought an audio recorder thumb drive (128Mb. 1st generation!), which could record up to eight (8) hours. So, not only was I planning to attend, but I was also thinking about recording the whole event, so that I could recap and reflect it later. Also, UNITAR had a couple months back invested in a rapid e-learning authoring tool called Macromedia Breeze (which today is Adobe Presenter), which I thought was perfect for this learning adventure.Since the speakers were using microphones, I was hoping that we could record directly to a computer device, but that was not possible thanks to my limited knowledge about Audacity. They did record some of the talks with a video camera, but the video/audio quality was simply a disaster. Luckily, I had my new thumb size audio recorder, but the question was where to place it to get the best possible output. After a bit of non-scientific exploration, I simply placed the audio recorder close to a speaker (which was located out of reach from the audience) and recorded all the four (4) speakers that day. Although, the audio recordings were not really clear, you could hear what the speaker was saying, and that was positive. BREEZE All the four talks were great, but Professor Dato' Dr. Ibrahim Ahmad Bajunid's one was something special worth taking extra efforts to preserve for mankind. Interestingly, he did not prepare any PowerPoint slides, while the other three (3) did. And anyone who knows Prof. Bajunid, knows he will switch on his multiple thinking processor and wonder into multiple dimensions while giving a talk, shooting nuggets of wisdom here and there. I suppose more structured thinkers might find that very annoying, but I am not one of them. So, for the other three (3) speakers it was simply to beef up their slides a bit, and then synchronize the audio (and delete a few 'ahs' and 'ums' in the audio editor in Breeze) with the slides, and voila we had three Breeze presentations.However, for Professor Bajunid's talk it was a bit more complicated since I did not have any slides to refer to. So, I had to listen to his great but wondering talk (a few times!) and cook up a few slides to visualize and chunk it. Click here to know what I am talking about. PERMISSION & FEEDBACKAfter completing my little experiment, I shared what I did with all the four speakers, and they were all surprised and happy about it. Interestingly, one of them discovered (speech therapy!) that he kept on repeating a particular word (I think it was 'Right') a lot of times during his 30 minute speech, which he asked me to take out. I did (easy with the audio editor) and discovered that he was right! He managed to say 'Right' more than 60 times in 30 minutes. LESSONS LEARNEDAlright, with today's technologies you can actually record a lecture (audio/video) and synchronize the slides on-the-fly, which is kind of cool. But for compression/downloading/streaming sake, if all you see is a talking head, you might want to consider simply having a picture of the speaker. Also, a bit of editing might be useful, especially if the lecturer visits the toilet frequently.If you can't afford commercial tools like Adobe Presenter or Articulate, you could for example use a free tool such as Slideshare, which allows you to add audio, too. Whatever tool you use, what is important is to capture great learning events such as Professor Bajunid's talk about teaching and learning, and make it conveniently available to anyone around the world (compressed, chunked, engaging and juicy!). Although, Professor Bajunid is no longer with UNITAR (neither am I!), I do hope that UNITAR continue to make his presentation available to mankind (at least for their own branding sake!).If you ask me (who are you!), this talk is a treasure that can engage our learning minds for another century (at least a decade!). Hmm, I do apologize for some of the grammar bloopers in the slides, but who cares when Professor Bajunid engages your mind to think."...Lecturers who know nothing else except their PowerPoint slides...They are just PowerPoint notes, not process. They have no stories, no biographies, no histories..." - Professor Bajunid If you are wondering what this means, click here :)

101 Free Learning ToolsOpenCourseWare and Open Educational Resources Free EduGames Printer-Friendly Version Let's explore the idea that there is at least one excellent free learning tool (or site) for every learning problem, need or issue!I want a FREE: Easy-to-use and secure Internet browser? Firefoxe-Mail system? GmailSocial bookmarking tool? del.icio.usSocial bookmarking tool with collaborative learning features (groups, forums, etc.)? Diigo Tool to translate text or a webpage? Google Language ToolsRSS reader? Omea ReaderOnline RSS reader? Google ReaderOnline Calendar? Google CalendarTool to aggregate all my resources, mail, RSS feeds, etc, in one place? Netvibes, iGoogle or PageflakesPlatform to incorporate all my favorite tools within one environment? ElggLearning Management System (LMS)? Easy, MoodleHosted LMS? Here are SEVEN!Tool to assist me in evaluating and selecting a LMS? EduToolsLearning Activity Management System? LAMSCollaboration tool? Connect with NingSocial Networking tool? Tricky one! Facebook3D online virtual world where I can socialize, connect and learn? Second LifeContent Management System (CMS)? JoomlaTool to create my own website? WebnodeVirtual Classroom? DimDimHosted Virtual Classroom? WiZiQTool to broadcast myself to the world? USTREAMTool to make calls from my computer? SkypeVideoconferencing chat service? VawkrContent authoring tool? How about two? eXe & CourseLabAlternative to Microsoft Office? OpenOfficeOnline suite of office tools? Google Docs or ZohoTool that accurately converts my PowerPoint to Flash (including animations)? iSpring Free Web authoring tool alternative to FrontPage and Dreamweaver? NvU or KompoZerPersonal online notebook? Google NotebookBlogging tool? WordPress! Why aren't you using WordPress? Good Question!Blogging tool for educators? EdublogsDirectory of edubloggers from around the world? International Edubloggers Directory Microblogging tool? TwitterWiki tool? PBwiki Encyclopedia, which I can add to or edit? WikipediaCommunity dedicated to collaborative development of free content? WikiEducator Audio recording tool? AudacityTool to record and host my audio recordings online? Odeo Studio Tool to transform media into collaborative spaces with video, voice and text commenting? VoiceThreadTool for storytelling? Here are 50!Screencasting (recording) tool? WinkHosted screencasting tool? JingMindmapping tool? FreeMind Tool to brainstorm and create mindmaps online? Bubbl.us or MindMeisterEasy-to-learn 3D authoring software tool? Google SketchUp Alternative to 3D Studio Max? BlenderPhoto/image editing tool? GIMP or Picasa Online photo/image editing tool? SplashupTool to create cool personalized images? Custom Sign Generator WidgetsImage Resizer? DosizeWatermarking tool? uMarkScreen Color Picker? ColorSchemerTool to highlight text in a webpage? The Awesome HighlighterTool to create flowcharts, diagrams, technical drawings? GliffyTool to create comics and cartoons? ToonDooTool to create animations? GoAnimateTool to make screenshots from different browsers with one click? Browsershots Tool to create PDFs from any Windows program? PDFCreatorOnline file conversion tool (e.g. Word >PDF>PowerPoint)? Zamzar Tool to share my slides? SlideShare, SlideBoom or authorSTREAM Tool to share my videos? YouTube or TeacherTube Tool to share any type of file with unlimited storage capacity? Internet ArchiveOnline science research sharing portal? SciVee Online community to share and discuss instructional teacher videos? TeacherTubeOnline community to share, discuss and learn about the uses of educational technology? EdTechTalkOnline community to test my big ideas? Big ThinkTool to download videos from any video sharing site (YouTube, Metacafe, etc.)? ClipNabberSelf-publishing tool (books, papers, articles, etc)? ScribdTool to share my pictures? Are you joking! FlickrSpace to upload and share my files? eSnipsFile hosting solution that allows me to share files up to 250MB each? FileCrunchOnline quiz tool? ClassMarkerTool to create interactive quizzes and puzzles? Hot PotatoesTool to create web and print-based crossword puzzles? EclipseCrossword Inquiry-oriented lesson tool? WebQuestMultimedia flashcard software? MemoryLifter Online polling tool with a bit of fizzle? PolldaddyOnline survey tool? Click here to choose!Tool to create Flash games (templates)? ClassTools.netInvestment Simulation Game? Virtual TraderInteractive 3D business simulator? INNOV8Game to understand cancer better? Re-MissionGame to understand the scientific method and 21st Century Skills? River CityGame to understand variable manipulations for urban management? SimCityGame to understand social studies better? Quest AtlantisGame to understand world hunger and efforts to alleviate it? WFP FoodforceGame to learn more vocabulary and help hungry people? Seriously! FreeRice Range of interactive tools to help me understand maths concepts? Shodor InteractivateStep-by-step math problem solver? Mathway Tool to create my own search engine tailored to my needs? Google Custom Search EngineHuman-powered search engine? MahaloMetasearch engine with visual display interfaces? What! Here is KartOO! Search engine that groups the results by topic via automated clustering technology? Vivisimo Science-specific search engine? Scirus All-in-one research search tool? SchoolrTool to help me collect, manage, and cite my research sources? Zotero Tool that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to my website? Google Analytics Tool to search, discover, rank and compare different sites around the world? AlexaTool to search the full text of books? Google Book SearchTool to search for scholarly literature? Google ScholarTool to search for patents? Google Patent SearchTool that sends me email updates of the latest relevant Google results (e.g. e-Learning)? Google Alerts Energy saving search engine? BlackleOnline visual dictionary and thesaurus? VisuwordsWorld digital library? World Digital LibraryTool to build and distribute my own digital library? GreenstoneSite to find and search across all OpenCourseWare (OCW) courses? OpenCourseWare ConsortiumRepository and learning network of Open Educational Resources (OER)? OER CommonsSite to get the latest updates on OER and OCW? OER BlogsPortal to non-formal OER and training resources? Open Training Platform Encyclopedia of video tutorials to help me learn any software? Edumax or Wikivide-Book to learn more about e-learning 2.0? Learning 2.0 eBook Site to learn more about rapid e-learning? The Rapid e-Learning BlogSite to learn more about Online Course Development? Hitchhiker’s Guide to Course DevelopmentCrash course in learning theory? Click here!Database of Learning Theories? Click here & here!Tool to help me understand and use learning styles effectively? Learning Styles Online.com Repository of creative and critical thinking tools? Mycoted to the rescue!Route to learn more about the 21st century skills? Route 21 Repository of how everything works? HowStuffWorksRepository of lectures from the world's top scientists? Videolectures.NETDirectory of academic open access repositories? OpenDOAR Site covering today's top social, political, and tech issues? FORA.tvSite to improve my learning skills? Study Guides & Strategies Gaming tool to help me learn ICT? ReviseICT.co.ukTool to improve my typing skills? Peter's Online Typing CourseTool to improve my reading skills? ZAP Reader Interactive courseware to improve my workplace skills? ALISONMultimedia site that enhance our understanding of war and its history? Maps-of-War3D human anatomy visualization tool? Visible BodyTool to learn languages? MangoTool to explore the World? Google EarthTool to explore the Universe? WorldWide TelescopeTool to visualize human development? GapminderTool to answer all my questions? Answer.comSite with talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers? TED is a good starting point!Article to reveal the secrets of the super-learners? Click here!Link to the most innovative web 2.0 (and 3.0) lab in the world? Google LabsTool to stumble upon and discover great websites, videos, photos, etc. ? StumbleUponDaily newsletter that keeps me updated with the latest news on online learning? Stephen's OLDaily Site dedicated to tracking the changes occurring in education today? Open EducationSite to update me on the latest free instructional resources for Higher Education? EduResources Weblog & Educational TechnologySite to discover delicious free tools, resources, and sites? ZaidLearn's Del.icio.us DiscoveriesSite to make you shut up? About time! Here we go:25 (must-have free) Tools: Professional Development Programme (Jane Knight)In short, for every learning problem (or issue) we have today, there is probably a free tool or site out there that enables us to solve it. If not, I am pretty sure some genius out there is constructing it right now. If no one is doing it, perhaps we can do it.Another challenge is to integrate all our learning tools efficiently and effectively into our learning spaces. On the positive note, more and more tools are creating integration modules to widely used systems like Moodle and Facebook, so it might not be so difficult after all. Also, with OpenID we can increasingly login to all our favorite websites without much hassle. Single-login to all our learning tools! Now that is something we all can appreciate! Remember one password! Tough one!If you want to experience my learning adventure as I discover, perhaps you should subscribe to my Del.icio.us Learning Adventure! Otherwise, you could always wait a week or two for the updates in this blog. Have fun 'Socratic Tooling' to solve your learning problems and issues :)

Link to ZaidLearn's Del.icio.us Teaching Links"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." - William Arthur WardCan anyone become a great educator (teacher or lecturer)? Or is it gift that we are born with (Nature)? Or can we become a great educator through learning, practice, feedback, reflection, etc. (Nurture)? Or perhaps it is a combination of Nature and Nurture? Or perhaps it is neither? What are the characteristics of a great educator anyway? WHAT GOOD TEACHERS SAY ABOUT TEACHING?"At the University of California at Berkeley, the Distinguished Teaching Award was instituted in 1959 to recognize and reward excellence in teaching. Since the inception of the award, over 150 faculty in forty-eight departments have been honored...although these essays (by the award winners) were prepared independently over a number of years, there are striking similarities about what good teachers say about teaching. On at least ten propositions, the contributors are in near or total agreement (Source):The teacher's main task is to guide students through the learning process, not to dispense information.The goal of teaching is to help students read, speak, write, and think critically—and to expect students to do these things.Learning is a "messy" process, and the search for truth and knowledge is open-ended.Good teachers love their subject matter.Good research and good teaching go hand in hand. Students' engagement with the subject is enhanced by knowing about the teacher's own research, and the interaction with students often provides new insights into the research.The best teachers genuinely respect students and their intellectual capabilities.Good teachers are rarely satisfied with their teaching. They constantly evaluate and modify what they do.Good teachers usually had good teachers, and they see themselves as passing on their own teachers' gifts to a new generation of students.Good teachers treasure the small moments of discovery in the classroom and the more enduring effect they have on students' lives.Good teachers do not see teaching as separate from other activities; rather, they see their lives as remarkably integrated."The interesting thing today, is that we increasingly have access (if we have Internet!) to all sorts of content about the art of excellent teaching (A short list). In addition, we can also study and reflect amazing lecturers through video lectures and podcasts from many of the most respected Universities around the world, including MIT, Harvard, Yale, Oxford and Cambridge (YouTube Channels, Podcasts and OpenCourseWare).So, why can't we inspire all our students to learn (if you can, please share your secret!)? That is a tough question beyond my intellect, knowledge and experience (I suppose because it needs two to tango)! However, let's play a bit with this question, and instead ask, "what were the least inspiring teachers we experienced during our student days?" Or more specifically, "What were the teaching habits that inspired us out of learning?"5-PART SERIES?In this 5-part series (which might evolve into a 10-part series!), I will reflect specific teaching habits practiced by some educators that I experienced personally during my 20 years career as a student (I suppose when I do my PhD I can add another 3-4 years). I am not interested in witch hunting any particular educator (I am really bad with names anyway, so that is not a problem!). Instead, I am trying to reflect back and learn from their teaching habits (and perhaps avoid them!) that made me wonder: Are you kidding me? Is this guy for real? This guy needs a life! What is wrong with him? Can't he see that we are sleeping! Don't teachers undergo training on how to teach and facilitate learning? Perhaps he doesn't care! Since I have had the privilege to experience educators from every major continent of the world during my 20-year career as a student, I suppose I will have some very interesting teaching habits to share with all of you. Whether they are bad teaching habits or not, I will leave that for you to decide. But one thing is for sure, these teaching habits certainly inspired me out of learning. Finally, before we begin this 'unlearning' journey, I have to admit I have never been an easy student to deal with. During my primary and secondary school I was rude, noisy, and spent a lot of time in detention. I literally slept through high-school, and just managed to scrape through. Once, one lecturer threatened to kick me out of class if I didn't stop sleeping, and even placed me in the front row to ensure that I didn't sleep. It didn't help much! When you are tired, and have to sit through a boring lecture, what do you expect! I suppose if I had taken more vitamin supplements, given up on football, stopped having fun, and slept earlier, things would have been different. I suppose it is a learning process!Then I moved to Malaysia, and the power of faith (Islam) brought the passion back to learn in me. During my undergraduate and graduate days, I forced myself to sit in the front row until it became a habit I am proud of. Not only did I sit in front, I also become the ultimate annoying student that always asked questions. I became the kind of smart-aleck I used to despise in my younger days. In a nutshell, that is my story as a student. Now, let's move on to the real point of this 5-part series.WHITEBOARD AND I ARE ONE! During my undergraduate studies, I had a very interesting statistics lecturer, which I will name Dr. Woody (woodpecker) for the name protection sake. Dr. Woody was a multimedia encyclopedia of statistics, and he certainly did not need to refer to any book or notes during his lectures. He had perfected every lecture he conducted. In addition, he was a caring guy and always smiled. So, what is the problem! Yeah! Hmm, got a point there!Interestingly, I had two different statistics (can't remember the names!) subjects with Dr. Woody that semester, and we only had a 10-minute break in-between the two 90-minute sessions twice a week (6 hours a week with Dr. Woody). Dr. Woody was always punctual and so was I. I remember, he would always be stressed at the beginning of each class and would be eager to start as fast as possible, so that we could complete the syllabus on time. As soon as he began teaching, he would face the whiteboard with his markers, and begin the magic statistics writing adventure. And you know what, he would just go on, and on, and on, and on, like a dog hunting a fox. His urgency to do his thing (teach!), gave him no time to turn back and assist the helpless students in shock! We managed to complete 50% of the syllabus within the first 3 weeks of a 14-week semester. Of course it was impressive to see Dr. Woody practically write the book on the whiteboard, doing it at a speed that even Ferrari would not be able to match. My fingers (and brain) used to be really exhausted after two consecutive 90-minute sessions (twice week) of nonstop writing (15-25 pages of notes each time!), trying to capture everything that Dr. Woody wrote on the whiteboard. Thank GOD many lecturers today use PowerPoint, or provide some form of course notes. However, we have to keep in mind that taking notes itself, is a skill that all students should master. Because in most working environments, there probably won't be any books or notes to rescue us, and solve all our problems. REFLECTIONIt was only after I discovered notes taken from his previous students that I realized how amazing Dr. Woody's memory was. It was as if he had imprinted the notes and formulas in his brain, and simply repeated it again and again every semester. Even a photocopy machine would be proud of such perfection. Although, we got to experience him do his thing (process flow!), it was kind of overwhelming, and I believe most of us had problems dealing with the information overload. I suppose if we could replay the lecture in slow motion (many times!), it would be more useful. Interestingly, when I revised the notes I had taken from Dr. Woody's lectures, I couldn't even remember that I had written them. Did I really write that! I suppose I had no time to think while taking the notes. Overall, Dr. Woody was knowledgeable, skillful, caring, experienced, and an expert in his subject area. However, I am not sure I learned much about statistics from him. Actually, I didn't! Though, since I had the passion to do well, I managed to do quite well anyway. But, what is important to keep in mind here, is that being an authority in a knowledge domain, does not mean that we are fit to educate and facilitate learning. Even worse, some educators have an amazing ability to make you sick of a subject (They might argue that it is self-inflicted!). Is that a natural gift, too?Although, it is important to learn new ways to improve our teaching, it is also important to reflect our own existing teaching methods, and perhaps unlearn those that really inspire people out of learning. Until Part II, let's explore our own teaching, and try to point out to ourselves (at least!) a few habits that might turn students off learning. "That student is an idiot! I have told him a 100 times and he still doesn't get it!" :)

Link to ZaidLearn's Del.icio.us Collection Link to ZaidLearn's Diigo Collection A Free Learning Tool for Every Learning Problem? "It's not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results."- Warren BuffetI am happy to announce that ZaidLearn's Del.icio.us Discovery Collection is growing fast and has now gone beyond the 500 mark. Alright, I have to admit that there are amazing dudes in del.icio.us that have managed to assemble collections that have nearly 20 times more links (URLs) than mine (e.g. ggrosseck). Kudos to them! However, since this post is about my collection, I shall say no more (about that!) :)However, if you are looking for specific suggestions on free stuff to solve your learning issues (or problems), I strongly encourage instead that you to explore my post entitled "A Free Learning Tool for Every Learning Problem?", which include more than 100 excellent free tools/resources. Interestingly, that 100+ juicy learning tool/resource list has been promoted by bloggers and sites in several countries around the world, including Canada, United States, England, Ireland and India. In short, it has less links, but perhaps more power :) DEL.ICIO.US JUICE?Although, I am still in the early stages of building my arsenal of power links, there are a few tags worth getting ourselves dirty with already. Here we go:1) Content - OpenCourseWare (OCW) & Open Educational Resources (OER) OCW_Repositories OER_Repositories Podcast LibrariesYouTube_Channels Engineering &_ICT Education Mathematics Natural_Sciences Business 2) Learning Tools Favorite_Tools Gaming Authoring Survey/Polling Graphics Learning Management Systems POWER LINKS?Please, keep in mind that my strategy is not to bookmark every single free learning tool or resource out there, but instead target those juicy links that I believe are useful, relevant, interesting, and have a long lasting value to our learning adventures. I am still exploring new tagging formulas and naming conventions, so you might find the current tag strategy messy and frustrating. However, I am still learning, and hopefully the power links will be increasingly easy to find as I master (or disaster!) the art of bookmarking and tagging.REFLECTION! During the last couple of weeks, I have begun a fascinating journey to find great courses available among OCW repositories around the world. I am certainly not interested in bookmarking every single one of them. MIT alone has now around 1800 free courses! But then again, how many of them give you learning goose bumps? Currently, there are already more than one hundred courses in my collection, and you can surely expect more in the coming weeks. When my learning adventure for full-blown courses begins to slow down, I will begin the struggle to bookmark particular free lectures and talks (videos) that give me learning goose bumps. In other words, it wouldn't surprise me, if my del.icio.us collection reaches 1000 before July 2008. Having said that, it is not about big numbers, but instead it is about capturing great learning juice out there in the fast growing information galaxy, and making it easily available to hungry learners around the world. I have to admit that I really enjoy using del.icio.us to bookmark and tag my learning discoveries. It is a brutally simple, focused and easy-to-use tool with no frills to distract you from it's core purpose, which is to help you collect, manage, and share your links (URLs) online. And that is probably why this tool is ranked the number one learning tool on the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008 (Jane Knight). Another beauty of managing your link discoveries with del.icio.us, is that when you bookmark a link, you can actually see how many other del.icio.us users that have bookmarked it. It is like searching for stars in the galaxy. When you discover one, you can check whether you are the first one to do so or not. Interestingly, I have noticed that del.icio.us users are great in bookmarking learning tools (e.g. Moodle = 6500+ have bookmarked it), but seem to lack interest (or awareness!) in bookmarking great free or OCW courses (Physics I: Classical Mechanics by Professor Lewin = 130+ have bookmarked it). Actually, most OCW courses that I have bookmarked fail even to reach the 20 mark. Perhaps, del.icio.us users focus more on bookmarking individual lectures or resources within the courses.ZAIDLEARN GOES DIIGO?There has been a lot of hype regarding 'Diigo', the new social bookmarking tool in town (it is not that new, brother!). So, to feel the hype I have also explored this tool. As Diigo allows you to import collections from other social bookmarking tools like del.icio.us, it was extremely easy to transfer my power links. Click here to experience ZaidLearn's power links in Diigo. Although, Diigo is a cool tool and has a lot more features than del.icio.us to socialize, communicate, and have fun, it does not appeal to me (at least until now!). The reason is that I want my social bookmarking tool to be brutally simple, easy-to-use and focused. I have enough of other free learning tools to socialize, communicate and have fun! Though, it would be nice if del.icio.us allowed users to provide comments to our learning discoveries, and be able to report broken links. Besides that, del.icio.us is still my first choice! But then again, I will continue to export my collections, and import them into Diigo (whenever I remember!). You never know in the future :)

Part 1 - Teaching Habits That Inspire You Out of Learning?Link to ZaidLearn's Del.icio.us Teaching Links"If you done it, it ain't bragging." - Walt Whitman"It's not bragging if you can back it up." - Muhammad Ali "He who is humble is confident and wise. He who brags is insecure and lacking." - Lisa Edmondson In the last episode, we got a taste of a lecturer that only had time to engage the whiteboard, so that he could complete his syllabus. This time around, I will have to put on my student experience goggles and transport myself back to an undergraduate psychology course (Deviant Behavior) I took in the previous millennium. For the identity protection sake, we will name this lecturer Dr. Brag.DEVIANT BEHAVIORDr. Brag was not an ordinary lecturer. No, he was an extraordinary lecturer! I used to enjoy coming to his classes, and occasionally he practiced what he preached, too. So, why are you writing about Dr. Brag? Let's begin!Although, I admired his expertise, experience and knowledge, it got kind of frustrating listening to him brag (boastful statements/arrogant talk) about all his amazing achievements every class. By the end of the course, we probably knew more about him and his family's achievements than the subject matter itself. Every class, we would hear one self-glory ego-boosting story after another, covering his greatness in sports, politics, work, family and education. Yes, he was also writing more than 10 books concurrently at that time. My best friend was assisting him in editing these books, and that must have been reasonably challenging. I wonder if Dr. Brag ever finished writing any of those amazing books. I have to feel sorry for the guy, too. He had high blood pressure and was a diabetic in a country like Malaysia. Now, that is a bad combination, especially when the classroom is hot and humid with many students who are mentally on holiday. Or sleeping with their eyes open!Anyway, I was there! Since I had already developed the habit of sitting in the front row and asking questions, the classes got quite lively at times. Although, he bragged a lot, I loved the fact that he would always challenge us. The one bragging challenge that really got to me, was that he was happy to claim that, "No student in my class has ever gotten an A!" I am not sure if that is something a lecturer should be proud of, but strangely some are. That was a challenge too good to resist. I didn't get that many 'As' during my undergraduate days, but somehow this particular challenge inspired me to get one. And I am really proud to share with you all that I was the first student at the University to achieve an A with him (Am I bragging or what! I hope he was actually telling the truth!). The glory was short lived though, as I heard that others got 'As' with him in the following semesters. Well, I am proud to be the first one at least (Bragging again!).I suppose 'Deviant Behavior' was a course that came naturally to me, so I should not think so highly of my success. It is also no surprise that I also scored an 'A' in 'Abnormal Psychology' (Oh man, can you stop bragging!). Some students scores 'As' all the way, some score 'As' in only subjects they like, and some don't get a single one. Nothing to worry about, if you believe in yourself and work hard, I am pretty sure you can succeed anyway. Also, scoring 'As' is probably not the best indicator to predict future success in life. Though, it does help to get a few 'As' on your scroll, because it could at least help you to get an interview with a top company. Why didn't I think of that earlier!REFLECTION Some argue that 'Teachers or lecturers join the academic world (of theory), because they are failures in the real (practical) world.' Such statements often drive academic staff nuts (even if it is sometimes true!), and brings laughter to students. Anyway, we don't need to go into this discussion here, because it will probably lead to no constructive alignment. Instead, we could ask ourselves, "why do we like to brag about our achievements?" Do you brag? I certainly do, but I usually feel kind of stupid when I realize it. But then again, we forget fast, because it is always nice to feel appreciated and important. The best thing is when someone else praises us about our work. But if none do, we could always do it ourselves.The best thing about teaching and bragging, is that we are guaranteed an audience, which will probably just look in shock and awe (some will already be sleeping!). I mean, no sane student is going to stand up, and tell the lecturer, "Give us a break from your pathetic achievements, and please get on with the class!" And unless one or a few students make it clear sooner or later, the lecturer will probably continue semester after semester, year after year. Interestingly, the stories will become more amazing and exciting every time they are told. There might even be 2-3 new versions every semester, especially if the lecturer is teaching more than one section.Certainly, lecturers that have a lot of experiences relevant to the topic discussed should share them with the class. However, we should also ask ourselves whether we are doing it to assist our students to understand the learning content better, or emphasize an important point, or are we doing it to boost our ego. Perhaps we do it for both reasons. If you think that your achievements are so great, perhaps you should watch a few TED Talks to put your achievements in a global perspective (do a bit of benchmarking, please!). In my opinion, the greatness of a lecturer does not lie in what he (or she) has personally achieved. Instead, a great lecturer is a person who is able to consistently facilitate AHA-moments in students (Oh, now I understand!) and inspire (or trigger) them to explore and discover their true potential. To sum up, Dr. Brag was actually a very knowledgeable and experienced lecturer, but his habit of bragging was something that was in my opinion more destructive than constructive in motivating students and facilitating learning. Do you brag in class (or at work)? Has it become a habit beyond control? Think about it! It doesn't take much effort to change. I am trying, but I want to be appreciated and feel important! Unless I tell them, they will never respect me, recognize my amazing talent, and look up to me. What was the agenda again?"Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success." - Dale Carnegie

Part 1 - Teaching Habits That Inspire You Out of Learning?Part 2 - I Have Bragging Rights, Because I Am ...?ZaidLearn's Del.icio.us PowerPoint Links"It's the way people depend on all those bells and whistles that come with the software to try to shore up a weak presentation." - Chris Oakes (1998) "...To critics, PowerPoint serves largely the same role in the classroom as pre-processed snack food does in the lunchroom: a conveniently packaged morsel that looks good but doesn't match the intellectual or corporeal nourishment of, say, a critical essay or a plate of steamed spinach." - Joanna Glasner (2002) "The practical conclusions are clear. PowerPoint is a competent slide manager and projector. But rather than supplementing a presentation, it has become a substitute for it. Such misuse ignores the most important rule of speaking: Respect your audience." - Edward Tufte (2003)"The use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster...It should be ditched." - Professor Sweller (2007)IS POWERPOINT EVIL?Edward Tufte (2003) even explains in his "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" book, how PowerPoint caused the destruction of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003. I suppose PowerPoint is evil! Wait a minute! Isn't also the Internet evil! What about chocolate? Yes, cars are certainly evil! Motor bikes are even worse! Certainly, sex is evil! Actually, everything I can think of is evil! Should we blame PowerPoint on our own failure to create compelling content and engage students to learn? Or perhaps PowerPoint is the problem as it lacks the features needed to enable us to express ourselves effectively (Perhaps we should use Apple's Keynote)? Or is it a combination? Perhaps we could blame the students? We could probably ask questions and argue all day long without getting anywhere. If I was a psychologist, I would probably use the famous statement that is practically used for every argument: "It depends." And for this case, I would probably have to agree.But instead of getting into a logical and/or emotional argument about the constructiveness or destructiveness of PowerPoint, I will instead put on my student experience goggles, immerse myself into my learning mind, and transport myself back to a blended learning graduate course I took a few years back entitled 'System Analysis & Design', which was a learning experience worth sharing and reflecting. For the name protection sake, I will simply call my lecturer, Dr. PowerPoint.READING SLIDES"...Lecturers who know nothing else except their PowerPoint slides...They are just PowerPoint notes, not process. They have no stories, no biographies, no histories..." - Professor Bajunid (2005)As this was a blended learning course, we only had eight (8) 2-hour tutorials with Dr. PowerPoint. Four tutorials were conducted online (using Centra) and four were conducted face-to-face (F2F). Interestingly, we had to cover 17 topics in this 'System Analysis & Design' course, which means theoretically we had to cover around 2 topics per class. Although, we had 17 topics to cover, it was relieving to know that we had PowerPoint to rescue us from the giant book (It takes you one page to fall asleep!).As usual, Dr. PowerPoint would always be late for the F2F tutorials (4 out of 4!). The great thing was that we always finished classes early, too. Start late, finish early! Please, tell me a student who wouldn't love that? ME! I remember one class, she was around 15 minutes late, and managed to cover 3 topics and complete the tutorial (or lecture!) 15 minutes before time. It was amazing; it was like watching Speedy Gonzales swoosh through the slides.What is wrong with that? Just imagine. We come to class, and then we watch Dr. PowerPoint read the bullets out loud for 1 1/2 hour. As she was late and had to cover 3 topics this time, she rushed more than usual. The best part was when we reached areas in the slides that she thought we could read on our own. She would ironically say, "Oh, this part is easy! You can read this at home!" One poor student had to travel for 3 hours to attend these tutorials, and that is what he gets. Come on! This is a graduate course (Masters!), and that is what we get! And you know what, several of my graduate courses that I took, followed the same PowerPoint reading routine and pattern. If the PowerPoint slides were more attractive, engaging and stimulating, it would at least provide some fun during the learning process. Just watching bullets and text can get kind of boring after a while, especially if the lecturer can't read properly. Actually, that part was really funny. Sometimes we would come to certain parts of the slides, which Dr. PowerPoint read out incorrectly, or seemed not to understand what she read. How is that possible? Well, since all the topics of the book come with slides, I suppose the lecturer conveniently used them (guessing here!). Come on, be prepared at least!Today it is so easy to be a lecturer, if we use this formula: No need to prepare content (slides come with the book)Come to classRead the slides out loudAsk at the end of the class: "Any questions?" No questions (needed, students got the PowerPoint slides!)The END (of learning!) Come on! In short, PowerPoint is evil! Wait a minute! Can we blame PowerPoint for this?MEMORIZING SLIDESDoes reading and memorizing PowerPoint slides facilitate learning? How do you measure learning? Assessment! If we use written exams as a measure, I can share with you that with some of the subjects I took; I could amazingly score an 'A' by basically reading and memorizing the slides. Why bother reading the book, when we can score good grades by simply reading and memorizing the PowerPoint slides! Strangely, when I engrossed myself in a subject (reading and reflecting the book and required materials), my exam results seemed to suffer. I suppose information overload enabled me to forget the key points needed to score an 'A'. Luckily I learned a few tricks from my Bosnian friend. This guy never really studied, and he always did very well on exams. What was his secret? When he saw me one day stressed out preparing for exams, he told me to read a book that would unleash the genius in me (or help me score good grades without much effort): Quantum Learning. After reading that book, I learned a few cool tricks (Not telling! read it!) and exams became a breeze, but learning seemed to suffer. In the end, I decided to sacrifice a few 'As' for the sake of learning. Not kidding!If we were required to take the same exam again a few months (or weeks!) after the semester was completed, it wouldn't surprise me if we fail, or at least get a much worse grade. It is strange! I thought that when you learned something, it sticks (for a while!). Just like learning to ride a bicycle. I suppose some formal courses are more complex. THE FIVE MINUTE UNIVERSITY! The idea is that in five minutes you learn what the average college graduate remembers five years after he or she has graduated. Father Guido Sarducci's Five Minute University (video) is probably applicable until today for some courses out there (Too much focus on memorization!). If it is still happening in some of your courses, use this incredibly funny video to spice up the discussion about effective learning. Father Guido Sarducci's Five Minute University video could bring to light the seriousness with a bit of laughter. Actually, I have now watched it more than a dozen times, and I am still laughing (and crying!). Then, we can together laugh a bit at ourselves, and move on to more effective teaching, facilitation and learning. EFFECTIVE LEARNING? Today, millions of people around the world use presentation tools like PowerPoint to create content to persuade, explain, illustrate and facilitate learning. So, until something better comes along that appeal to the masses, we might as well do the best with what we have. Anyway, if you ask me, I would argue that PowerPoint is actually a constructive tool to facilitate learning, if you know how to use it (Still learning!). If you don't know how to use it, it can also be a very destructive tool (Same goes for any other learning tool!). Now, I am not going to give you a written lecture on how to get it right. The reason is that I want you to learn from the real masters in preparing and giving presentations (or lectures). Learn from them, and then reflect, adapt, and do your own thing. First, here are a few wonderful PowerPoint resource sites to explore:PowerPoint - On-Line Technology Practice ModulesA comprehensive directory of links (URLs) to tutorials, sites, game templates and articles on how to use PowerPoint effectively. Sonia Coleman's Digital StudioFree PowerPoint templates and tutorials! PowerPoint 2007 Tutorials (Florida Gulf Coast University)Including graphics, tables, charts, formatting text, printing and slide effects. PowerPoint Tutorials (Wikivid)PowerPoint tutorials are broken down by topic so that you can navigate the list to find exactly what you need or watch them all from start to finish to become a PowerPoint expert. Alright, that is the macro stuff. What about some super tips on creating compelling presentation slides?Have you heard of Tom Kuhlmann? Check out his Rapid eLearning Blog, which shares practical tips and tricks on creating excellent presentation slides. Also, download his free 46-page ebook: The Insider's Guide to Becoming a Rapid E-Learning Pro. It is an amazing resource that could spark your slides to life. He has already more than 21,000 subscribed readers (free!), so perhaps it is time to become one, too! Great, but I want to see one example of great presentation slides? Death by PowerPoint (Alexei Kapterev). Also, you might want to check out an example of presentation slides for a full-blown course: Critical Thinking (links to all the slides are included in the article). Oops, that is my article and slides. Just had to! It is not great, but I am kind of satisfied with it. I think you will actually find it quite interesting, too :)To see many more examples, I would advise you to explore Slideshare, which is an amazing repository of both excellent and poor presentation slides. If you need some inspiration to create engaging slides, that is a great starting point. Alright, great stuff! But, I want a learning resource to inspire me to become a great presenter?Have you heard of Garr Reynolds? Check this out: Google Talk - Presentation Zen. Presentation Zen challenges the conventional wisdom of making "slide presentations" in today's world and encourages you to think differently and more creatively about the preparation, design, and delivery of your presentations. Watch and Learn! Did you like it? If you did, you could always explore his juicy blog for further nourishment: Presentation Zen By the way, PowerPoint Extreme Makeover by Dean Shareski, is another excellent recorded lecture worth watching a couple of times (At least 3!). While you are getting into the groove, you could also watch: How To Create a Great PowerPoint without Breaking the Law, by Alvin Trusty.That is cool! But what if I don't want to use presentation slides, and simply want to inspire my students to learn. Any examples to benchmark myself with? Do Schools Kill Creativity?, by Ken Robinson is one great example. If you want many more, TED Talks is simply an amazing learning adventure.Here are two incredible TED talks by Hans Rosling that I wouldn't want to miss:Debunks Myths about the so-called "Developing World" (2006)New Insights on Poverty and Life around the World (2007) Now, if you are teaching statistics or need to visualize your data, Hans Rosling with his Gapminder is certainly a great role model or benchmark. Although, Gapminder is a great data visualization tool, it was Hans Rosling's passionate, energetic, and inspirational talk that really blew me away (I mean in learning terms!). He is what I call a great presenter! While you are at TED talks, check out Jill Bolte Taylor's inspiring talk: Stroke of insight. She uses a real brain to make a point. I am not kidding! Now, that is an attention (brain) grabber! Wait a minute! I am a lecturer, and I teach physics. I mean, how engaging can you be with such an inherently boring course? Well, perhaps Professor Lewin could teach you a trick or two. Whether you use PowerPoint (Windows), Keynote (Apple), OpenOffice, or no presentation tool at all, there are endless of possibilities of what you can do to create compelling content, and engage the student's mind to learn. Yes, PowerPoint or presentation slides can be destructive (and perhaps even evil at times!). But with a bit of creativity and flavor, I believe presentation slides can assist in facilitating effective learning, and awaken our creative side to express ourselves beyond words. However, if your content is poor, no fancy design or flying dogs are going to save you. Get the substance content right, be creative and passionate, and engage your students with a lot of relevant and challenging learning activities and mind boggling puzzles (embed them within the presentation slides). However, remember: If you are hopeless (Can't read, write or talk!), teaching is going to get tough, no matter how cool your slides are. Even if you are a hopeless teacher, don't worry! If you have the desire and passion to learn, you can overcome all your weaknesses, and nurture them into strengths. Learn, practice, reflect, improve, practice, reflect, etc.So, is PowerPoint evil? I don't know, and I don't care (Got better things to reflect)! Since we are stuck with it for now until something better comes along (I kind of like it anyway, so no worries mate!), we better focus instead on how to make the most of it to facilitate engaging and effective learning :) "Of course, PowerPoint is not inherently evil, it is just poorly used..."- Stephen Downes

ZaidLearn's Del.icio.us Games LinksOpenCourseWare and Open Educational Resources Free Learning ToolsPrinter-Friendly Version"Engage Me or Enrage Me" - Marc Prensky (2005) "Never play a video game that's trying to teach you something." - Justin Peters (2007) Terms like educational games, game-based gaming, and social impact games don't sound too bad. But, Serious Games sounds awful! I mean, who wants to get serious about playing games (I want to relax and have some fun!)? The name itself is capable of killing the joy of playing games before even wanting to. I suppose some innovative name rebranding could help to facilitate and globalize the idea of using games to facilitate the (formal) learning process. Though, I think the term 'Edutainment' is quite good. My favorite would probably be EduGames. But, I believe we have yet to discover an attractive term for educational gaming that reach the 'Yummy' factor.Anyway, this post is not about attacking or supporting the idea of EduGames to facilitate Higher Learning. There are tons of articles out there (Google it!) talking about the potential of EduGames (e.g. Game-Based Learning: How to Delight and Instruct in the 21st Century - Joel Foreman). Although many articles and papers talk about EduGames, they often don't include a comprehensive directory or list of juicy free EduGames. So, this post will skip all the theoretical Mambo-Jumbo, and link you right to the juice (that I have managed to discover!).In short, this article (or post) is about exploring and discovering free educational games that could be useful to embed within or across courses (and programs) to spark more engagement, challenge, mystery, exploration, collaboration, problem-solving, decision making, imagination, fun and thinking into the learning process.EDUGAMES SITES?But, before we explore 75 EduGames! Here are a few online resources that you might want to explore first (Macro-level):Educational Games ResearchResearch and discussion concerning instructional video games. Serious Games InitiativeIs focused on uses for games in exploring management and leadership challenges facing the public sector.Serious GamesA web portal to serious games news, resources and companies. Its secondary goal is to enable networking between anyone with an interest in serious games.Social Impact GamesIt is designed as a community resource for all those interested in games with non-entertainment goals. You can find more than 200 educational games here (free, commercial, coming soon, etc).The Education ArcadeRepresents a consortium of international game designers, publishers, scholars, educators, and policy makers who are exploring the new frontiers of educational media that have been opened by computer and video games.26 Learning Games to Change the WorldA great post by Jeff Cobb about 26 educational games out there that are geared towards making a difference in the world.The Top 10 Free Educational Video GamesCheck it out! If you find the list below overwhelming and stressful, this list is simply wonderful!75 FREE EDUGAMES!Initially, I wanted to compile an EduGame list, which included metadata, categories, chunking, screenshots, and tags. But, then I kind of realized it would require a lot more work from me, and less thinking and effort from you to find something useful. In other words, it would minimize the challenge and discovery aspect of finding what you want in the list (if there!). It would take way the challenge and might even hinder you from finding what you are looking for (especially, if my categorization and tagging is poor!). Yes, it would take away the gameplay challenge of mystery, suspense, joy, exploration, fun and incidental learning. "WHATEVER! Just get on with it!" Here are 75 FREE EduGames (including 3 interesting tools at the end) that sounds and looks interesting for Higher Education (Haven't tried all yet!):GwapWhen you play a game at Gwap (e.g. ESP Game), you aren't just having fun. You're helping the world become a better place. By playing their games, you're training computers to solve problems for humans all over the world.WFP FoodforceUnderstand world hunger and efforts to alleviate it. Virtual UIs a management education game, a simulation of a university, in which the user takes the role of a university administrator. It is designed to foster better understanding of management practices in American colleges and universities.RevolutionExperience historical incentives for the American Revolution from the grassroots level. Discover BabylonUses sophisticated video gaming strategies and realistic digital environments to engage the learner in challenges and mysteries that can only be solved through developing an understanding of Mesopotamian society, business practices, and trade. FreeColIs a turn-based strategy game based on the old game Colonization, and similar to Civilization. The objective of the game is to create an independent nation.FreeCivIs a Free and Open Source empire-building strategy game inspired by the history of human civilization. The game commences in prehistory and your mission is to lead your tribe from the stone age to the space age.Tropical AmericaA journey to unravel the mysteries of the Americas. Developed in collaboration with Los Angeles artists, teachers, writers and high school students, the game features a bilingual, thematic gameplay, accompanied by an online database of edu-resources.Ayiti - The Cost of LifeWhat is it like to live in poverty? Find out now in this challenging role playing game in which you take responsibility for a family of five in rural Haiti. From UNICEF with Microsoft support.EyeWitnessIs an Interactive Situation Simulation Software (ISSS) that let users experience the 1937 Nanking Massacre personally, when over the course of 6 weeks, over 300,000 civilians were killed by Japanese troops invading the city.The History Canada GameUnderstand social forces surrounding Canadian history since 1534. Modification of Civilization III Road to Revolution GameTest your knowledge about the American Revolution, and see if you can navigate your way to independence. Every correct answer gets you closer to liberty! Conflict MapIn the course of the 20th century, mankind experienced some of the most devastating wars of all times. Where, what, How, When, Why? This map gives you the opportunity to answer these questions. It displays wars with at least 1,000 military battle deaths. Prisoners of WarCan people behave as they like during times of war? No, they can't. The Geneva Conventions of written rules and articles make some acts unlawful. Play the prisoners of war game to learn more.The Peace DovesTake on the mission to disarm the world of nuclear weapons! You have eight "Peace Doves" to help you, each able to disarm one of the eight countries possessing nuclear weapons.America’s ArmyPlayers are bound by Rules of Engagement (ROE) and grow in experience as they navigate challenges emphasizing team play, loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage. Stop DisastersThe online game aims at teaching people on how to build safer villages and cities against disasters. Multiple languages. Good teacher resources. World Without OilAn alternate reality event, a serious game for the public good. It invites everyone to help simulate a global oil shock. People participate by contributing original online stories, created as though the oil shock were really happening.Real Life SimulationsThat let you experience life as, for example, a peasant farmer in Bangladesh, a factory worker in Brazil, a policeman in Nigeria, a lawyer in the US, or a computer operator in Poland, among others.3rd World FarmerIt aims at simulating the real-world mechanisms that cause and sustain poverty in 3rd World countries. In the game, the player gets to manage an African farm, and is soon confronted with the often difficult choices that poverty and conflict necessitate. Trade RulerBertil Ohlin, awarded the Prize in Economics in 1977, showed that countries engage in and benefit from trade if their production resources differ from each other. Play the Trade Ruler game to learn more. Wasteland AdventureTime: 3010 AD. After humans destroyed the ecosystem. The earth lost the ability to heal and the environment continues to get worse. The fresh air and clean water are polluted. Just play the game!!! Climate ChallengeA game where you are president of the European Nations. You must tackle climate change and stay popular enough with the voters to remain in office. Global Warming InteractiveIs a web based multi-user educational game which explores the relationship of global warming to economic, political and science policy decisions (intended for the high school user). Quest AtlantisHelp students understand social studies, environmental concerns, current events, and scientific standards. FreeRiceA cool game to learn vocabulary and help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free (Made possible by the sponsors who advertise on the site). AnagramaramaThe aim of the game is to find as many words as possible in the time available. Get the longest word and you'll advance to the next level.Re-MissionUnderstand cancer better and develop a positive attitude toward defeating it. The POD GameDispense drugs and medical advice to people during an emergency. Using this game, you can enhance your efforts to teach staff and volunteers to work efficiently and sensitively with the public to maximize throughput in times of crisis.Deliver The Net GameRace the sun and hand out as many insecticide-treated bed nets as you can to African families. The more nets you deliver - before the mosquitoes come out - the more lives you save. Immune AttackAn educational video game that introduces basic concepts of human immunology to high school and entry-level college students. It aims to excite students about the subject, while also illuminating general principles and detailed concepts of immunology.The Immune System DefenderIlya Mechnikov, inserted a thorn into a larva and noticed strange cells gathering around the thorn. The cells were eating any foreign substances entering the ruptured skin (devouring cells). Play the game to learn more!Whack TB (Tuberculosis)There are almost 9 million new cases of TB each year; about 500,000 of these cases are resistant to the best TB drugs available to fight them. Play this game and learn more about fighting TB!" From the Families USA Global Health Initiative. Blood TypingIn this game you have to blood type each patient and give them a blood transfusion.Virtual Hip Surgery - Total Hip Replacement SurgeryTake on the role of the Surgeon throughout a hip replacement surgery!Virtual Knee Surgery - Total Knee Replacement Take on the role of the Surgeon throughout a total knee replacement surgery. The Ear PagesSound is caused by changes of pressure in the air that is transformed into nerve impulses in the inner ear. Explore "The Ear Pages" and collect the snail shaped symbols to gain points in the quiz!The Incredible Adventures of the Amazing Food DetectiveThere has been a mysterious outbreak of unhealthy habits among kids, and we need to solve these cases. All junior food detectives will get secret training on how to eat right and exercise. Have fun playing the game! The Food Detectives Fight BAC!The game gives kids a fun way to learn about foodborne illness. From New Mexico State University. FatworldA video game about the politics of nutrition. It explores the relationships between obesity, nutrition, and socioeconomics in the contemporary U.S.WaterBusters!A game to teach tips for water conservation around the home.NitroGeniusIs a multi-player, multi-stakeholder game about solving nitrogen problems. A free single-player (demo) version is available.Binary Game (Cisco)The game teaches strategies related to the binary system, a foundation knowledge used by CCNAs to install, configure and operate networks.Plan Your Future Park!You get to plan your future New York City park, making choices that communities all over the city have been making.The Conductive ValleyWe have been taught that plastics, unlike metals, do not conduct electricity. However, plastic can, after certain modifications, be made electrically conductive. Play the game to learn more.ChiralityChiral molecules can be used to control or speed up different chemical reactions. In this game you can learn the basic principles of chirality.Invar & Steel AlloysSteel, brass and amalgam are a few examples of an alloy. Invar, from the word "invariable", is a special steel alloy - used today in toasters and CRT-monitors for example. Play the game to learn more.Heating PlasticsThere are two major groups of plastics - some melt when heated and others don't. Find out why by playing the Heating Plastics Game.The Recycler (Transistors)Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain, the men behind the transistor, were awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics. Today, transistors are found in virtually every electronic device. Play the recycling game to learn more.The Laser ChallengeLaser is used in many areas, such as research, communication, industry, medicine, and environmental care. Learn more about the laser by playing this game.Fold It - Solve Puzzles for ScienceIs a computer game enabling you to contribute to important scientific research. Foldit uses spare computer time, via a screensaver, to work out how proteins fold. Players use their computers to fold proteins. Lord of the FliesThe game is supposed to be played after one has read the book "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding. The aim is to introduce some basic analytical aspects concerning the book and to challenge the reader's memory through play.Find the AuthorsAmong hundreds of letters, the names of Literature Laureates are hidden. Pick a period and search for the authors mentioned on the list beside the puzzle. The names may be written in all directions.Arden - World of William ShakespeareAttain an appreciation of Shakespearean authorship and Elizabethan England. Modification of Neverwinter Nights Diamond. Globulation2Is an innovative Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game which reduces micro-management by automatically assigning tasks to units.Crash Scene InvestigationHelp the highway patrol recreate a deadly crash by examining the evidence and calculating the forces. Use trigonometry, physics, and geometry to figure out what happened at an auto crash scene.Airport SecurityYou’re an airport screener. Can you correctly identify risky items hidden in baggage? Uses actual X-ray images of dangerous devices.Bricks or ClicksYou are put in the role of CEO at a traditional toy manufacturer. The company, called ToyBlocks Co., must confront the challenges of launching an online sales channel while managing and maintaining their current traditional sales channels.HarpoonedHarpooned is a free game for Windows. It is a Cetacean Research Simulator, where you play the role of a Japanese scientist performing research on whales around Antarctica.Stop Whaling GameSteer the Greenpeace inflatable boat around the seas and intercept the dangerous harpoons from the whaling ship. To make the whaling ship stop whaling, you must try and get your activists on board the whaling ship.WolfQuestLearn about wolf ecology by living the life of a wild wolf in Yellowstone National Park. Play alone or with friends in on-line multiplayer missions, explore the wilderness, hunt elk, and encounter stranger wolves in your quest to find a mate.McDonald's Video GameYou’ll discover in this game all the dirty secrets that made McDonald's one of the biggest companies of the world. Interesting stuff man! Multiple languages. Offline version available. Corporate GreedA 3-minute mini-game about the corporate executives accused and/or convicted of greed-related crimes. Better Business GamesA basic in-box simulation game from British Telecom about managing social and environmental issues in a business. The player takes on the role of corporate CEO. The games contents are drawn from general business dilemmas across all industries. Karma TycoonIs a free Online RPG that rocks the gaming world by offering you a thrilling ride through the world of social entrepreneurship as you earn Karma in virtual communities across the US. Teachers curriculum available. GoogolopolyThe goal of the game, produced by Box.net, is to use Google shares to buy as many properties as you can without landing in the deadpool and losing your stock. You can download the game in its entirety as a PDF. SimCityUnderstand variable manipulations for urban management while having fun building a simulated city. Virtual Trader - Investment Game (UK)Virtual Trader is a free Investment Simulation Game, offering its users the opportunity to gain practical experience trading stocks under real market conditions (London Stock Exchange), against their actual and current prices. INNOV8 - Business Process Management (BPM) SimulatorInnov8 is a FREE interactive 3D business simulator (Registration required), which takes participants through the entire lifecycle of discovery, collaboration, optimization, and innovation of a fictional company’s business processes. eLECTIONS - Your Adventure in PoliticsInspired by the classic board game "The Game of Life," players will role-play their own virtual candidates running for President.My US Rep - Role Play Congress!This game enables you to play your favorite (or not so) House of Representative and help them become more popular! Based on real voting data, My US Rep allows you to discover your Rep’s hopes and dreams within an engaging game experience.WhyvilleProvide a student-centered, hands-on environment for exploring various school subjects. Hot PotatoesThe Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises. jQuizShowIs based on the popular "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" TV game show. You can customize the questions to what you want. It is written in Java , and can run on any platform that supports Java.ClassTools.netCreate your own free educational games, activities and diagrams in a Flash! Host them on your own blog, website or intranet! "Oh man, I don't even have time to try one (or even read this list!), and now you give me 75. Come on!" Who said you need to try out or read this list. Just share it (the URL) with your students, and tell them the kind of game you might want for your course (Challenge), and let them individually or in groups explore, discover, reflect, select and write a recommendation report. In short, this EduGames list could be a good starting point to start the EduGame discovery journey.If you are looking for a list that will actually grow (as I discover), please go here: GAMES GALORE.This post is dead and buried (for now!), but my del.icio.us adventure will continue. Finally, please don't take EduGames too seriously, don't get addicted, but have fun playing them while learning :)

Part 1 - Teaching Habits That Inspire You Out of Learning?Part 2 - I Have Bragging Rights, Because I Am ...? Part 3 - Is PowerPoint Evil?Coaching Critical Thinking to Think Creatively!ZaidLearn's Del.icio.us 'Thinking' Links"Some people study all their life and at their death they have learned everything except to THINK"- Francois Domergue"A person who asks questions is a person who thinks."’- William Wilen In this 5-part learning series, we have already looked at several teaching habits that could inspire students out of learning, such as speed-teaching, bragging, lack of engagement, and slide reading. In part four (4), we will explore a couple of teaching habits that could be quite destructive to the students' learning process. First, I will project myself back-to-the-past to my high school days in Norway, and reflect a few learning experiences that I still can't get out of my head (Perhaps after sharing them with you, they can rest in peace on the web!). After that, I will reflect a few more incidents from my graduate days in Malaysia.The thing about my schooling experience in Norway, whether it was primary, secondary or high school, is that many of my teachers seemed so miserable and frustrated with their lives. I kind of got the feeling that the majority of the teachers I experienced, never really wanted to be teachers, but became so, because they failed in their first choice careers. I hope that I am wrong about this (Faulty memory!) and that things have changed for the better at the schools I studied (Marienlyst and Ullern). Let's transport myself back to the past...THE SPIDER...I can't remember the name of the teacher, nor can I remember the subject that she taught (high school subject). However, I do remember that she would always come to class with a serious and angry face carrying a big sulk. It was as if she hated us (probably herself, too!). Her serious and angry face could wipe your smile off with the blink of an eye. As for me, I dreaded going to her classes. Not only did she look serious and angry, she also had a great pleasure of giving us impromptu oral tests during classes. Although, I actually support these kinds of instructional approaches to encourage students to prepare for class, I believe she also had other hidden reasons for giving us such tests. She seemed to get pleasure out of giving us a BIG ZERO (out of 5, if I remember correctly!) when we couldn't answer her questions. This is how it worked: She would ask a question in class, and then students would raise their right hand if they knew the answer. Nope, she would not pick any of the raised hands, but instead she would pick one student who didn't raise the hand. And obviously that student would struggle, or not be able to answer the question. Then she would suddenly decide that this is an impromptu oral test and write a big zero in her grade book. And naturally I would get a big zero the first couple of times, but then after a few classes I would raise my hand even if I didn't know the answer. It at least saved me from a few zeros.So, naturally many students hated her guts, and wanted to take their own revenge in a less psychological damaging way! And one day a few students brought a quite big spider (Norwegian standards!) to class (I am not sure where it can from). They placed it on the top of the teacher's desk; smack in the middle. Although, I was not involved in this silly little prank, I did witness it. We all expected that the teacher would freak out and scream for help, but 'Oh Boy' were we wrong.That day she came to class holding a book in her right hand. While walking towards her desk, she spotted the spider. She initially screamed a bit in a freakish manner, and then she lifted her book with both hands and slammed that spider several times until it was completely crushed and dead. Then she picked it up with a face of rage and disgust and walked to nearest classroom window. She opened the classroom window, and threw it out! After this incident she began the class as if it never happened. "Who cares! People on 'Fear Factor' eat them alive all the time!" Yes, I also have a small phobia for spiders, and I really don't like them. But somehow for that spider I wouldn't have mind risking my phobia to save it. It was a bizarre moment and murder that I probably will never forget. So, next time you want to pull a prank on your annoying and serious teacher, think twice about using living creatures, because you never know. It is not worth the risk! Dear spider, may you rest in peace! Hopefully, we can learn a lesson or two from this story. NO STUPID QUESTIONS!Hopefully, the spider incident can rest in peace (from my mind!), and let's move on. For the next habit or behavior, I am not going to zoom in on a particular teacher, but reflect how destructive some teachers can be in discouraging students to ask questions without often realizing it (I suppose I am guilty, too!).It is strange that I need to talk about this topic in the 21st century, but I still come across teachers or lecturers that would do all sorts of things or tricks to avoid questions in class. Is it their lack of preparedness for the topic that causes this? Or perhaps they are scared to lose control? Maybe, it is that fear of not knowing the answer to a question? Perhaps they don't want to put themselves in a position, which could make them look stupid? Or is it simply a cultural or authority issue that we can't do much about (except educate the next generation). Here is a list of statements or questions to could discourage students from asking questions during class:Please don't ask stupid questions!That is a stupid question! Any other questions?That was not a good question! Ask proper questions!Anyone got a better question!Haven't you read the book!Please read the book before asking questions!I don't entertain such questions! You can find the answer easily in the book!I have already told you that! Aren't you listening!Didn't I make that clear just know!I just answered you that question! Are you making fun of me!What! How many times do I have to explain it, before you get it!We don't have time for this question! Please find the answer on your own.Think before you ask!These are some of the statements or questions that I experienced from some of my lecturers during my undergraduate and graduate studies in Malaysia. Don't get me wrong, I had many good lecturers during these years too, but this series is about the bad experiences. POSSIBILITIES!Whether we do it consciously or not, we should think a bit before making statements that might indirectly or directly discourage students from asking questions. If no one is asking questions in your class, you might actually be part of the problem. For example, some might argue that Malaysian students don't usually ask questions in class, or that they are happy with a one-way lecture approach. "No thinking required, just need to look awake! Anyway I got the slides, so there is no need to really listen." However, all students have subject related questions, and I believe it is up to the lecturer to explore creative ways on how to encourage more students to ask these questions to facilitate the learning process. If you ask me, no matter how resistant students are to asking questions and participating in discussions, there are ways to overcome it. In short, if you are creative, passionate and encouraging you can unlock any student to ask questions.Alright, I am not going to give you a written lecture of the importance and secret recipe of nurturing the students' mind to ask and reflect questions and ideas (Not qualified yet!). Instead, I will link you up with a few videos for you to reflect. The videos below are also excellent for stimulating discussion with your colleagues on how the world of technology, knowledge and learning is evolving, and the necessary changes we need to carry out to facilitate effective learning, and nurture the foundation for students to succeed in the 21st century. Here we go: Shift HappensThe impact of ICT and globalisation on education. It provides some interesting things to ponder regarding globalization and fast evolving changes we need to consider as we plan and prepare students for the future. Pay AttentionThis presentation, simply entitled Pay Attention, was created by Darren Draper in an effort to motivate teachers to more effectively use technology in their teaching. Five Minute UniversityFather Guido Sarducci teaches what an average college graduate knows after five years from graduation in five minutes. A great video to facilitate discussion about effective learning with a bit of humor. "Do Schools Kill Creativity"Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity. "Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Using Us"The evolution of knowledge creation, management and sharing in creative and stimulating way.Teaching Teaching & Understanding UnderstandingA 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?).Five Minds for the FutureHoward Gardner speaks about his book, Five Minds for the Future explaining why, in the future, it will be important to develop five kinds of minds, both in school and in other educational environments.In addition to these interesting videos, here are a few sites that can stimulate some new ideas on how to facilitate effective learning in your course:Route 21A one-stop-resource center for 21st century skills-related information, resources and community tools. You can even find videos here of 21st century skills in action in today’s classrooms. New Horizons for LearningPresents articles and information on special issues in education, from restructuring schools to technology and adult education.EDUCAUSEA nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. You can find hundreds of interesting resources, research papers and articles exploring everything from Second Life to lecturing.Creativity TechniquesA central repository for Creativity and Innovation on the Internet by Mycoted with a summary of tools, techniques, mind exercises, puzzles, book reviews, etc. Concise, precise and easy to digest. I love it!Mind ToolsMore than 100 free essential life, career training and management training skill-builder articles and tools to explore.Successful Learning - This e-book discusses philosophies of learning, thinking skills, presentations skills, learning strategies, e-Learning, motivation, reading/writing skills and learning styles. Published by CDTL, National University of Singapore. Brain Rules12 principles for surviving and thriving at work, home, and school. In Brain Rules, Dr. John Medina, a molecular biologist, shares his lifelong interest in how the brain sciences might influence the way we teach our children and the way we work. Critical Thinking Web Provides over 100 free online tutorials on critical thinking, logic, scientific reasoning, creativity, and other aspects of thinking skills. This site is maintained by Dr. Joe Lau at the Philosophy Department, The University of Hong Kong. Critical Evaluation TookitGriffith University provides tips on helping students to develop critical evaluation skills.Argumentation and Critical Thinking TutorialThe tutorials consist of a series of tests to help reinforce your knowledge and understanding of some basic concepts associated with making arguments and thinking critically (Humboldt State University).Empowering the 21st Century SuperintendentOf all the challenges you face as a superintendent, technology leadership may be the one that leaves you feeling the most unprepared, uncertain and vulnerable. This site provides you with a lot of valuable resources and ideas on how to deal with it. Interactive Thinking ToolsIntel provides online tools designed to promote higher-order thinking in any subject. Each tool features an online workspace where students create and save visual representations of their thinking. CoRT & Six Thinking Hats Two wonderful thinking tools by Edward de Bono, which we can use in the classroom, at work, or any place where we need to collaboratively solve problems, make decisions, and nurture innovative ideas.Work-Learning Research Dr. Will Thalheimer's goal has been to compile research from the world's preeminent refereed journals and translate that research with practical wisdom to help learning professionals create more effective learning. Check it out!WebQuest Is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web. Finally, here is an article I wrote a couple of months back entitled: Coaching Critical Thinking to Think Creatively!, which might also be useful. A FEW TIPS!"Take your course seriously! Take course preparation seriously! Take learning seriously! Take assessment seriously! Take your students seriously! But don't take yourself seriously!" - Zaid Ali AlsagoffBetter yet, have fun making fun of yourself during class, and make it a point that we all do mistakes. Anyway, the greatness of a lecturer or a leader is not whether he or she does a mistake (surely will!), but how he or she responds to it. If you are not doing any mistakes or failing once a while, you are perhaps not trying hard enough. Finally, celebrate students who ask you questions, even if you don't know the answer. Not only will they inspire you to learn and get a deeper understanding of the subject, they will also nurture you to become a better lecturer. We all say funny things and ask stupid questions in our short life on this planet, but if we learn from them and move on we might just... :)"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy."-Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859."Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."-Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895"Everything that can be invented has been invented."-Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899."Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"-H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927."I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."-Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977"640K ought to be enough for anybody."- Bill Gates, 1981"If at first, the idea is not absurd, there is no hope for it."- Albert Einstein

Printer-Friendly VersionOCW/OER Search ZaidLearn's Delicious OCW Adventure130+ Free Learning Tools75 Free EduGamesZaidLearn is back from another non-blogging vacation (Who cares!)! Excellent point! Anyway, before I get back to my wacky 5-part learning series (in 2 weeks time!), I need to settle something urgently, and that is to compile and organize all my University learning related OpenCourseWare (OCW) and Open Educational Resources (OER) links that are scattered here and there, into one smashing post. In short, this post is about smashing all free University learning related OCW and OER resources and collections discovered into an all-in-one (sounds like shampoo!) quick-to-access/find juicy compilation. Hopefully, it will satisfy my thirst for quick access to free University learning related content.Interestingly, this post will be a dynamic one, meaning that I will continue to update (and revamp!) it as I discover, or others share ideas and recommend new oceans of free knowledge. STARTING POINTSBut before we get bogged down by tons of free learning repositories, here are few good starting points to find and know more about OER and OCW:SEARCHOCW/OER SearchThis Google customed search engine enables you to search the sites that are linked from this post (with a few filters, too). Click here to view Tony Hirst's (Credit to him for the super idea!) OER/OCW search version, which also searches sites linked on this post. Click here to view Scott Leslie's upgraded version, which brings it to a Do-It-Together level by using a Wiki enabling anyone to add OER/OCW links (URLs).OpenCourseWare Finder The OCW Finder currently shows results from several collections, including MIT OCW , Utah State University, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health OCW, Tufts University OCW, Foothill De-Anza SOFIA, and Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative. OER Recommender Makes it easy for open education resource providers to provide links to related resources. A good starting point to search and find relevant OER resources. DIRECTORIESOER Commons A global teaching and learning network of free-to-use resources - from K-12 lesson plans to college courseware - for you to use, tag, rate, and review.Open Courseware DirectoryYou will find 7 groups of subject-specific open courseware, including specialized resources for each subject. It is an annotated listing of publicly available courseware (lecture notes, handouts, slides, tutorial material, exam questions, quizzes, videos, demonstrations, etc) from the world's universities, colleges and other educational institutions. OpenCourseWare ConsortiumThe OpenCourseWare Consortium is a collaboration of more than 200 higher education institutions and associated organizations from around the world creating a broad and deep body of open educational content using a shared model. Academic EarthAn educational video website with the goal of enhancing the usability and expanding the awareness of OER, focusing first on video lectures. COMMUNITIESWikiEducatorAn evolving community intended for the collaborative planning of education projects linked with the development of OER. development of free content on Wikieducator for e-learning; work on building open education resources (OERs) on how to create OERs.Wikiversity Wikibooks, Collection of open-content textbooks. Wikiversity is intended for the creation and use of free learning materials and activities. UNESCO OER CommunityThis site was originally created by the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) as a place where members of the UNESCO OER Community can work together on questions, issues and documents. There are some wonderful resources here providing you with relevant information needed to understand what OER is about, how to use/contribute/collaborate, and how to move forward (e.g. OER: the Way Forward , OER stories, OER presentations and UNESCO OER Toolkit)NEWSOER BlogsAn initiative from MIT's OpenCourseWare project to aggregate and stimulate discussion about open educational resources. It is a great resource to keep yourself updated about the latest trends and developments in OCW and OER.Open Education News A number of individuals from the US, South Africa, and eventually other locations daily monitor the internet for news related to open education. It is essentially a group blog.Open Education - Free Education For AllThis site led by Thomas J. Hanson is dedicated to tracking the changes occurring in education today.EduResources WeblogThis weblog by Joseph Hart focuses on locating, evaluating, discussing, and providing guidelines to instructional resources for faculty and students in higher education (HE). The emphasis is on free, shared, HE resources.AMAZING COLLECTIONS!Why start bookmarking free learning content out there from scratch, when there are great people out there that have already assembled amazing OCW collections for us to explore (for free!). Here are a few amazing OCW collections shared by special people out there:Lecturefox - Free University Lectures (Andreas and Ellen Petersen)Free Online Courses from Great Universities (Open Culture)Intelligent YouTube Video Collections (Open Culture)30+ List of Computer Science Video Lectures (Over 200 Videos) 200 Free Online Classes to Learn Anything (Jessica Hupp)More than 100 Free Places to Learn Online - and Counting (Jeff Cobb)OER - Open Educational Resources (Jeff Cobb)100+ Open Courseware Collections for Aspiring Web Developers (Laura Milligan) 100 Free Podcasts from the Best Colleges in the World (Heather Johnson)60+ Killer Open Courseware Collections for Web Designers (Jessica Hupp)Top 100 Open Courseware Projects (OEDb)250+ Killer Digital Libraries and Archives (OEDb) 100+ Sources for Free Books & Texts Online (Alisa Miller) The Stingy Scholar's OCW Collection Online Neuroscience LecturesUNIVERSITY LEARNING & OCWThe OCW or University related learning content compilation below is organized according to Country, University and my urge to quick access. Not much metadata here about each University or repository, except quick access to the juicy links. Hopefully, it makes 'repository finding sense' to you. This compilation was influenced by this great list! Yes, some parts were even copy/paste! :)UNITED STATESMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)- MIT OCW- MIT OCW - Audio/Video Courses- MIT OCW - YouTube- MIT World- MIT TechTV Harvard University- Harvard Business Online (Podcasts)- Harvard - Homeric Odyssey..Justice (Podcasts)- Harvard - Kennedy School of Gov (Podcasts)- Harvard Law School (Podcasts)- Classics Podcasts (Harvard)- BerkmanCenter's Channel (Harvard Law School) (YouTube)- BokTube - BokCenter's YouTube Channel (Harvard) (YouTube)Berkeley- UC Irvine (OCW)- University of California, Berkeley (Podcasts)- Berkeley on iTunes (Podcasts)- University of California (Berkeley) (YouTube)- University of California Television (UCTV) (YouTube)- Berkeley YouTube Lectures- U California eScholarship Repository- CalTech Today (Podcasts)- Berkeley Multimedia Research Center (Podcasts)- Berkeley Resources (Podcasts)Princeton- UChannel (Princeton) (YouTube)- Princeton U's Event SM (Podcasts)- Princeton U's New Media Center (Podcasts)- Princeton University Channel (Podcasts)- Princeton University WebMedia (Podcasts)Stanford University- Stanford on iTunes (Podcasts)- Stanford University (Edu. Corner) (Podcasts)- Stanford University Audio/Video (Podcasts)- Stanford on YouTube- Stanford Center for Professional Development Free Engineering Seminars Yale University- Open Yale Courses (OCW)- Yale University (Podcasts)Johns Hopkins University- Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (OCW)- Johns Hopkins U (Podcasts)Rice University- Connexions (OCW)- Rice University (Podcasts) Carnegie Mellon University- Open Learning Initiative (OCW)- Carnegie Mellon (YouTube)Other OCW:Tufts UniversityUMass Boston University of Notre DameUtah OpenCourseWare Alliance Utah State University SOFIA ProjectOther YouTube Channels:University of Southern California (USC)University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill Vanderbilt University University of Chicago Press University of Arizona Tulane University Purdue University Old Dominion (US) Duke University NewsAuburnUniversity's Videos Other Podcast Libraries:Knowledge WhartonChicago University GSB Alleghany College American University (Law) Arizona State University Boston College (Front Row) Buffalo State College Butte College Carleton University Television Case School of Law Center for Int. Studies (Chicago) College of DuPage Dartmouth Chance Drexel University Duke University Multimedia Georgetown University Forum Georgetown University Webcasts Georgia College & State U Kansas State University (Landon) Lewis & Clark Law School Mathematical Sc. Res. Inst. Montclair State University Perdue Boilercast Rockefeller University Southwest Tech's CourseCasts St. Edward's University Swarthmore College U Lectures UCLA Bruincast UCLA Webcasts University of Arizona College of Law University of British Columbia University of California TV University of Connecticut University of New South Wales University of Oregon University of Southern California University of Texas University of Virginia University of Warwick University of Washington TV University of Wisconsin-Madison Vanderbilt University Weber University Western Kentucky University York College Lectures EUROPEUNITED KINGDOMThe Open UniversityOpenLearn YouTube Channel Humbul Humanities Hub (Oxford)Cambridge University (Podcasts)London School of Economics (Podcasts)University of Nottingham (Podcasts)Oxford Internet University (Podcasts)University of Bath (Podcasts)Times-Online MBA Broadcasts (Podcasts)Oxford University Saïd Business School (YouTube)FRANCEParisTech "Graduate School" (11 universities - French) Grenoble Ecole de Management (French)UniversitySurf (French)Insead Podcasts HOLLANDDelft University of Technology (TU Delft) (English) Open Universiteit Nederland (Dutch)SPAINOpenCourseWare Universia (10 universities - Spanish, Catalan, Galician) SWITZERLAND European Graduate School (EGS) (YouTube)ASIAAUSTRALIAUniversity of Southern QueenslandNEW ZEALANDNew Zealand Open Educational Resources Project JAPANUnited Nations University Japan OCW Consortium Doshisha UniversityHokkaido UniversityKagawa Nutrition UniversityKansai UniversityKeio UniversityKyoto UniversityKyoto Seika UniversityKyushu UniversityMeiji UniversityNagoya UniversityOsaka UniversityRitsumeikan UniversityRitsumeikan Asia Pacific UniversityTokyo Institute of Technology University of TokyoUniversity of TsukubaWaseda University INDIAIndian Institute of Technology/Indian Institute of Science (YouTube)Rai OpenCoursewareThe Indira Gandhi National Open UniversityKOREAKorea UniversityKyung Hee University TAIWANNational Chiao Tung University (Chinese) VIETNAMEduNet OpenCourseWare Fulbright Economics Teaching Program OCW HONG KONGLEARNet - Shareable Learning Resources in Hong KongSOUTH-AMERICAMEXICOTecnológico de Monterrey (Spanish) Universidad de Monterrey (Spanish)TRANSLATION AFFILIATES China Open Resources for Education (Simplified Chinese)Chulalongkorn University (Thai)Opensource Opencourseware Prototype System (Traditional Chinese)Universia (Portuguese)Universia (Spanish)OTHERSNovell OpenCourseWareNovell OpenCourseWare is a collection of educational materials developed by Novell Training Services for authorized courses and other customer training purposes. OER/FREE REPOSITORIESBelow is a list of OER/FREE learning repositories that are not directly linked with any particular university, but are still wonderful repositories or collections of free content that we can in some way or the other use for our courses:GENERALWikipediaWikipedia is an amazing encyclopedia (of anything you can think of!) written collaboratively by many of its readers.MERLOTFind peer reviewed online teaching and learning materials. WikinewsFree-content online news source where any site visitor can add or edit stories. Answers.comAnswers.com offers free access to millions of topics from the world's leading publishers. Internet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Fathom ArchiveOffers access to the complete range of free content developed for Fathom by its member institutions including lectures, articles, interviews, exhibits and free seminars. GLOBEThe Global Learning Objects Brokered Exchange (GLOBE) is an international consortium that strives to make shared online learning resources available to educators and students around the world. dgCommunitiesdgCommunities (Provided by Development Gateway Foundation) is a collaborative space for professionals working to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development worldwide (Members in more than 200 countries). HowStuffWorksHowStuffWorks explains hundreds of subjects, from car engines to lock-picking to ESP, using clear language and tons of illustrations.World Lecture HallAn entry point to free online course materials from around the world. OpenDOARIs an authoritative directory of academic open access repositories. Each OpenDOAR repository has been visited by project staff to check the information that is recorded here. AT&T Knowledge Network Explorer - Blue Web'n HomepageBlue Web'n is a huge online library categorized by subject, grade level, and format (tools, references, lessons, hotlists, resources, tutorials, activities, projects). The content categories available are: arts, business, education, English, foreign languages, health, history and social studies, maths, science, technology among others. Monterey Institute for Technology and Education National Repository of Online Courses (NROC)A growing library of high-quality online courses for students and faculty in higher education, high school and Advanced Placement. Courses in the NROC library are contributed by developers from leading online-learning programs across the US. Apple Learning InterchangeIs a social network for educators, where you can find content ranging from simple lesson ideas to in-depth curriculum units for K-12 and Higher Education. ARIADNEThe core of the ARIADNE infrastructure is a distributed network of learning repositories. CAREOThe Campus Alberta Repository of Educational Objects (CAREO) project aims to create both an online repository of educational objects for post-secondary educators and a community that both creates and supports those objects. IntuteA free online service providing you with access to Web resources for education and research. Areas: Science and Technology, Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, Health and Life, and Sciences.IdeasAn initiative by the University of Wisconsin to identify, evaluate, catalog, and align to the Wisconsin education standards resources that are already on the Internet, such as lesson plans and reference materials. JORUMJorum is a free online repository service for teaching and support staff in UK Further and Higher Education Institutions, helping to build a community for the sharing, reuse and repurposing of learning and teaching materials. LeMill - Learning MillWeb community for finding, authoring and sharing learning resources. Curriki (K-12)Internet site for Open Source Curriculum (OSC), which will provide universal access to free curricula and instructional materials for grades K-12. DAREnetDAREnet is a search service which gives free access to academic research output in the Netherlands. DAREnet consists of more than 146.000 digital objects. EdNA Online (Aus)Education Network Australia (edna) is Australia’s leading online resource collection and collaborative network for the education and training community. EducaNextEducaNext is a service supporting the creation and sharing of knowledge for Higher Education. EurekaA collective catalog of teaching and learning resources gathered by various organizations involved in the production of ITC educational resources. ALISON (Workplace Skills)Including Touch Typing Skills, European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL), British Computer Society (BCS) Unit E, Financial Literacy and e-Citizen.HippoCampus (High School)Multimedia and course materials that can help students with their homework and studies. Maricopa Learning eXchangeIs an electronic warehouse of ideas, examples, and resources (represented as "packages") that support student learning at the Maricopa Community Colleges. PEOIProfessional Educational Organization International (PEOI) was created, and is run by volunteers who believe that it is time for open post secondary education be made available to all free of charge. WannaLearn.comHere you can find over 350 categories of free, first-rate, family-safe online tutorials, guides and instructionally oriented Websites. LoLa ExchangeLoLa is an exchange for facilitating the sharing of high-quality learning objects. It contains materials for use across the curriculum, with a particular focus on modules for Information Literacy. EDUCATION TeacherTubeOnline community for sharing instructional videos. T4 Tips PodcastsAudio and video educational technology podcasts providing you tips, guidance and ideas on how to use different learning tools to facilitate effective learning. GEM (Gateway to 21st Century Skills)Thousands of free lesson plans and other teaching and learning resources. SuTree (Educational Videos)SuTree is a knowledge community and an aggregator of instructional & educational videos. EdTechTalkA community of educators interested in discussing and learning about the uses of educational technology. They webcast several live shows each week. SCIENCE & ENGINEERINGVideoLectures.NetFree access to high-quality scientific video lectures. Computer Science Teaching CenterA digital archive of peer reviewed resources for teaching computer science. Submission restricted to registered users. CITIDELComputing and IT Interactive Digital Educational Library Repository (CITIDEL) is a great resource to discover computer Science education and research materials. e-LEE (Electrical Engineering)e-Learning tools for Electrical Engineering. ExploratoriesA project of Brown University's Computer Graphics Research Group to create a set of exemplary Web-based learning objects (Java applets) that teach concepts in introductory computer graphics at the college and graduate level. Users can download complete Java applets, or build their own from the components collection.EEVL (Engineering, Maths & Comp.)A guide to engineering, mathematics and computing information on the internet.iLuminaiLumina is a digital library of sharable undergraduate teaching materials for chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics, and computer science. SMETE Digital LibraryHere you can access a wealth of teaching and learning materials as well as join this expanding community of science, math, engineering and technology explorers of all ages. arXiv.org e-Print archivearXiv, set up by Cornell University, is an e-Print archive specializing in Physics, Mathematics, Nonlinear Sciences, Computer Science and Quantitative Biology. HEAL (Health Education Assets Library)HEAL's mission is to provide free digital resources of the highest quality that meet the needs of today's health sciences educators. College of Health Professions (COHP) Online Learning ResourcesIncluding Dental Hygiene, Health Science, Communicative Sciences & Disorders Medical Technology, Nursing Radiologic Sciences, Respiratory Therapy and Physical Therapy.HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCESThe Digital ScriptoriumIs an image database of medieval and renaissance manuscripts that unites scattered resources from many institutions into an international tool for teaching and scholarly research. John Locker - Free DocumentariesEducate yourself with free documentaries online on History, Science, Music, War, Religions, Politics, Conspiracies, and more! MATHEMATICSThe Math Forum (Drexel University)The Math Forum Is a the leading online resource for improving math learning, teaching, and communication since 1992, created by teachers, mathematicians, researchers, students, and parents. It offers a wealth of problems and puzzles, online mentoring, research, team problem solving, collaborations and professional development. Math WorldA mathematical specific repository, created by Wolfram Research. Contains web based (HTML) resources about algebra, applied mathematics, calculus and analysis, discrete mathematics, geometry, history, number theory, probability, statistics and topology, etc. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGYEduforgeEduforge is an open access environment designed for the sharing of ideas, research outcomes, open content and open source software for education. W3SchoolsAt W3Schools you will find all the Web-building tutorials you need, from basic HTML and XHTML to advanced XML, SQL, Database, Multimedia and WAP. EdumaxEdumax is an online learning website that provides free lessons on topics from personal development to computer programming. TEXTBOOKSGoogle Book SearchIn addition to searching, viewing and downloading books, you also receive links to reviews, references, and even a world map showing every location mentioned in the book. Gutenberg ProjectProject Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks. ScribdResearch, ebooks, poetry, presentations, schoolwork, and more are all available on this site.LearnOutLoud.comBrowse over 15,000 educational audio books, MP3 downloads, podcasts, and videos.LibrivoxLibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Their goal is to make all public domain (under U.S. right) books available as free audio books. It is a volunteer, open source, free content, public domain project. Global Text ProjectThe project will create open content electronic textbooks that will be freely available from a Web site. Textbook RevolutionAll of the books are offered for free by their respective copyright holders for online viewing. The categories of the textbooks are: Biology, Business & Management, Chemistry, Computers-Tech, Earth Sciences, Economics, Engineering, Health Sciences & Medical, History, Math and Physics. The Oxford Text ArchiveIt collects, catalogues, preserves and distributes high-quality digital resources for research and teaching. They are currently holding thousands of texts in more than 25 different languages, and are actively working to extend their catalogue of holdings.freetechbooks.comThis site offers free books, text books, and lecture notes for computer science, engineering, and computer programming students and professionals.Free Online Programming BooksA list of 300+ free programming books available on the Internet. Great Books IndexBrowse by author or title to find text for several books from the Encyclopaedia Britannica’s Great Books of the Western World. CIA World FactbookCurrent, in-depth data on every country in the world. DIGITAL LIBRARIESWorld Digital LibraryWill make available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, architectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials. ERICThe Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) provides free access to more than 1.2 million bibliographic records of journal articles and other education-related materials and, if available, includes links to full text.OAISTEROAIster is a union catalog for a wide range of digital resources. They provide access to these digital resources by "harvesting" their descriptive metadata (records) using OAI-PMH (the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting).Columbia University Libraries Digital CollectionsFind more than 10 different digital collections that range from medieval and early Renaissance manuscripts to architectural drawings or visit the online exhibitions for even more. Library of Congress Digital Collections (US)It is considered the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts in its collections.Universal Digital LibraryTheir goal is to preserve every printed book digitally in this resource. The library currently holds one million books in its collection.NEEDS Digital LibraryA digital library with links to online learning materials in engineering and related areas of science and math.NSDL - The National Science Digital Library (US)The Nation's (US) online library for education and research in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics. eGranary Digital LibraryProvides millions of digital educational resources to institutions lacking adequate Internet access. DIGITAL MEDIATED TalksInspired talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers. Big ThinkA new and growing website, currently in its beta version, with a simple mission: to move the discussion away from talking heads and talking points, and give it back to you. FORA.tvFORA.tv delivers discourse, discussions and debates on the world's most interesting political, social and cultural issues, and enables viewers to join the conversation.WGBH (Free Public Lectures)Free live and on-demand lectures given by some of the world's foremost scholars, authors, artists, scientists, policy makers and community leaders. Annenberg Media ResourcesAnnenberg Media's multimedia resources help teachers increase their expertise in their fields and assist them in improving their teaching methods. FlickrFlickr is photo distributed classification system. It is useful for managing and sharing photos over the Internet. If users want to use a photo of another photographer, if they have created an account they can contact each other through the Flickr intranet. Copyright issues are solved with Creative Commons Licences. You can find millions of free images here, which we can use to spice up our learning content.Education Podcast NetworkThe Education Podcast Network is an effort to bring together into one place, the wide range of podcast programming that may be helpful to teachers looking for content to teach with and about, and to explore issues of teaching and learning in the 21st century. Creative CommonsCreative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved." YOUTUBE CHANNELSGoogleTalksGoogle events featuring everyone from newsmakers to bestselling authors (Joseph Stieglitz, Obama, Richard Florida, etc.). Google Tech TalksThere are a large number of technical talks at Google. Many of these are videotaped, and some are made available for external viewing right here. The Nobel PrizeIt brings you fascinating insights into the minds of current and past Nobel Laureates.TED TalksThis is the YouTube version of TED Talks, which is a collection of inspired talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers.FORA.tvThe YouTube version of FORA.tv, which delivers discourse, discussions and debates on the world's most interesting political, social and cultural issues, and enables viewers to join the conversation. Pulitzer Center on Crisis ReportingIt's mission is to promote in-depth coverage of international affairs, focusing on topics that have been under-reported, mis-reported - or not reported at all. The videos you see in this YouTube collection are one part of larger reporting projects from around the world. BBC WorldwideThe Best of British TV. Top Gear, Mighty Boosh, Doctor Who, Attenborough, Parkinson, Catherine Tate & the rest from BBC Worldwide!National GeographicInspiring People To Care About The Planet! WOW! Where to start! Alright, I have to admit that this post is not a smashing one yet. Give me a few weeks of reflection, feedback and smashing, and hopefully the compilation will be a useful starting point and quick access to OER and OCW (Just keep in mind that OCW is OER, but OER is not necessarily OCW! Whatever!). I am beginning to sense OER/OCW information overload here. If I am not mistaken, it would take me approximately 754 years to digest all the resources currently linked here. However, if we connect, network, collaborate, learn and reflect together we might manage to digest (to innovate and improve) these free learning resources in less than 24 hours. Let's use our connective intelligence to educate the world about OER and OCW :)Until we explore, we will never know! Have fun learning!

Link to ZaidLearn's New Learning Space NetvibesNO TIME!I have been kind of busy the last two weeks implementing a lot of work related e-learning crap, and sadly have found no time to sit down, reflect and write something that is even more crap :)Hopefully, I can complete my 5-part learning series next week.EXPLORING NETVIBESThough, I did manage to find an hour or two during this week to explore Netvibes, and to my surprise it was really fun. In short, Netvibes is a personal news aggregator with RSS and Atom support (That is how Google summarized it, or intelligently extracted it out). If you ask me, Netvibes is user-friendly, useful, fast, feature-rich, flexible, cool, and you don't need any user guide to get some results (at least I didn't!). Now, that is the kind of tool I like!However, I am still working on it, and hopefully next week I will add some more interesting content (Or RSS feeds) to my new learning space (and spice it up!). Just need to find the time! CLICK HERE to view what I am babbling about, and find tons of interesting (free) learning content, tools, edugames and blogs in a stimualting manner. Information overload? It depends! NEXT PAGEFLAKES?Hmm, I suppose I will also explore Pageflakes before I decide whether Netvibes is one of the right tools to manage my online learning adventure. I like Pageflakes's short description: "Social personalized homepage - the easiest way to read, see, discover and share your favorite things on the Web (another Google extract)."Whether it is really the easiest tool enabling us to read, see, discover and share our favorite things on the Web, I really don't know. I suppose, we will have to explore it to find out! Google, Yahoo, MSN, Facebook (hmm, Bloglines and the rest of the RSS collection dudes are also in the game!) have their own tools to shout about. In short, we are kind of spoilt for choice. The question is not "Whether there is...", but "Which one should we...". So, we still have a headache :)I suppose I will give you some updates regarding Pageflakes after completing the 5-part learning series.Until then, have fun exploring ZaidLearn's New Learning Space :)P.S. I had a few problems using Netvibes with Internet Explorer (IE), but it worked like a bull with Mozilla Firefox. Another reason for dumping IE!

Link to Slideshare VersionFlash/PDF VersionCoaching Critical Thinking to Think Creatively!THE SECRETNow, I know 'The Secret', and by believing and practicing the 'LAW OF ATTRACTION', I will one day become the Einstein of the East (Hmm, I am kind of mixed, so that might be a problem)! I watched 'The Secret', and I have to admit that it is the most disappointing secret I have ever discovered. The opening was exciting, but the rest could have been summed up in a minute or two. I am not revealing the secret, but I can tell you that if you believe in it, it might come true. Perhaps, if the movie had really discussed some of the great minds of the past, I would have appreciated it more. Instead, we are listening to a bunch of successful people sharing with us how the secret has changed their life (the Law of Attraction!). Isn't it obvious (self-fulfilling prophecy?) that if you are positive, believe in yourself, have passion, visualize your dreams, go for it, etc., you are more likely to succeed (perhaps I come from Mars!). If you ask me, there was nothing new to discover in 'The Secret', except clever branding and promotion. It is probably the most exciting, clever and exotic branding since 'Blue Ocean'. The power of 'The Secret' is not in the law of attraction, but in the word: "SECRET". Everyone wants to know a secret. In short, every single motivational guru since I don't know when has indirectly promoted the so called secret, but has labeled it in a less exotic and mysterious way. However, if it can help some of the millions of people that have watched it to achieve their dreams, then I suppose it has some value :)THE LECTUREActually, the real reason I am writing now is not because of the secret, but because I want to share with you my presentation slides for a lecture that was never conducted. Roughly, a month ago I was invited to be a guest speaker at a major workshop (250 participants!) to conduct a lecture about 'Critical Thinking'. Due to some financial reasons, the workshop was postponed. And since then, I have never conducted this particular lecture. I suppose because no one else knew that I had prepared it. Or perhaps, because I am.... (Use the force! I mean the 'Law of Attraction')Anyway, here are the presentation slides: View This lecture (or presentation slides) explores 21st century challenges and possibilities in infusing learning, thinking, creativity and innovation into the teaching and learning environment. If the presentation slides do not make any sense, perhaps you can invite me to conduct the lecture wherever it may be (The first lecture most be conducted face-to-face. Why? I don't know!). Since I am in Malaysia, it might be costly if you want me to conduct the lecture in United States or Alaska. However, if you are Oprah Winfrey or Jay Leno I might consider doing it for free. Sorry David Letterman, for you I will not do it for free.Now, you are perhaps thinking that I have gone POTTY! Nope, I am simply being positive and realistic about my prospects and practicing the law of attraction :)On a serious note, after I conduct the first live lecture (if ever! Be positive!), I will record an e-lecture using Adobe Presenter to enlighten (who ever reads my blog!) what I am trying to reveal in the presentation slides. Until the first live lecture, it will remain a secret. Just exploring the power of 'The Secret' :)

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 :)