aclJohn's Blog & Wiki Finds

For those looking for first-hand experience of the early days of documentary film making and/or are engaged in Media Studies or 20th Century history, then Terence Gallacher's Blog is "a must look at".

On October 1st 1945, Terry walked through the front door of British Movietonews at 22 Soho Square to start a career in the news and documentary film business. He had been offered £2. 10s. 0d per week, which he accepted; fifty-six years later, he retired.

The blog is a regular series of ar...

...are students more or less distracted because of the Internet? Does social media help or hurt learners?

Some interesting info-graphics that are well worth a closer look...

Visit http://edudemic.com/2011/04/social-media-students/ to read the full article and/or to view the info-graphics.

Nik Peachey has created a document showing 36 different ways practitioners can use web based tools to enhance the things they do in a learning environment and make learners assignment options more interesting and communicative.

View Nik's publication at http://www.scribd.com/doc/53030128/36-Tools-for-Digitising-your-ELT-Course-Book.

Note: Presentation slides are available at: 36Tools for Digitising Your Coursebook

When you deliver feedback it should be balanced. This statement suggests that practitioners should strive to give learners a balance of positive and negative feedback.

This Blog entry points out that there isn't just two types of feedback, there is in fact four...

• Negative feedback;

• Positive feedback;

• Negative feedforward; and
  

• Positive feedforward.

Visit http://bit.ly/dYtzmd to read the full article about five balancing strategies to help practitioners use the four types...

Thank you Stephanie Dedhar for 'Tweeting' this link...

"Next time, try engaging my mind rather than my fingers" - I, like Stephanie, also love this 'letter from an agonized adult learner' posted by Geeta Bose.

Visit http://geetabose.blogspot.com/2011/03/im-not-idiot-letter-from-agonized-adult.html to read the full blog post.

The Whiteboard Blog is produced by Danny Nicholson, a freelance educational consultant and PGCE science lecturer.

He informs us that his main speciality is the use of Interactive Whiteboards, but is also interested in lots of different bits of technology that are now being used in the learning environment.

Interactive whiteboards (IWBs) are popular with learning providers because they're a big symbol of technology. Unfortunately, they're often installed without providing a budget to...

"The field of training doesn't change quickly. Even though technological innovation occurs at rapid speed and new learning theories emerge from cognitive research, large and entrenched training organizations move like slow dinosaurs."

This blog entry looks at...

• Connectivism;

• Collaborative Learning;

• Situated Learning;

• Informal Learning;

VoIP-Sol.com, based in the UK, is an independent blog covering the VoIP market, web 2.0 and related technologies.

The main focus of the blog is to provide impartial reviews on phones and services as well as offering insightful comparisons.

Two posts are worth a closer look, especially those learning providers who are using, or considering using, Skype for improved communication and/or remote observations /assessments/job knowledge interviews/etc.

• 15 Apps for Recording Skype Conversa...

In their words...

"You can't swing a stick in social media without hitting something on Facebook. Same goes for education. You can't talk about how technology is revolutionizing education without mentioning Facebook. It's a simple service to figure out but what about once you become a regular user?"

This blog post includes...

• Bernadette Rego's Facebook setup guide with a teacher-centric focus; hosted on Scribd;
• A YouTube Clip on "How to (Not) Suck @ Facebook;
• Some DON'T...