E-Learning Tools
From IAE-Pedia
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[edit] This is a Stub
The Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies has complied a list of e-learning tools. Quoting from their Website:
- This list has been compiled from the Top 10 Favourite Tools lists of e-learning professionals (consultants, analysts, developers, practitioners, academics, etc). Thanks to all of them! The tools they mention could be used for their own personal learning/working or for creating learning solutions.
Over 300 different tools have been named so far and below we list in order of popularity those that received at least 2 mentions - actually 104 tools. Help us to refine this Top 100 Tools list by letting us know your Top 10 tools.
[edit] The Needed Article
Any one of the tools can be analyzed for its appropriateness and use with different levels of students. The number 1 item on their list is the Firefox browser. A discussion of this browser might note that it is free, and that many browsers are free. It might discuss general characteristics of browsers and differences among various widely used browsers. It might argue that this particular browser is better or worse than other browsers form informal and formal teaching and learning points of view. It might discuss whether a significant amount of formal teaching and learning is necessary to gain a useful or higher level of expertise in using this tool.
[edit] Educational Implications
There are a very large number of computer tools that have educational uses. From a teaching and learning point of view, "more is not better." The idea is to select a modest number of tools and help students to gain a relatively high level of expertise in using these tools.
A browser serves as a good example. There is a huge value in learning how to use a browser. If one has learned a useful level of expertise in one browser, should more learning time be spent in this area? Well, the time might be spent in learning to make more sophisticated (advanced) types of searches. Alternatively, the time might be spent in gaining a low level of expertise in a number of different browsers.
A good case might be made for each approach. For example, suppose the browser that one has first learned is very well suited for retrieving textual materials, but not well suited for retrieving pictures or music. More generally, one can imagine a specialized browser for each discipline and the idea that increasing expertise in a specific discipline can (should?) be tied with increasing expertise in using a browser specific to that discipline.
