TALL blog

At TALL we’re particularly interested in how the many forms of online collaboration might be used in education and educational institutions such as our own, and currently have a couple of projects touching the subject: SPIRE and Isthmus.

There has been something of an explosion of these services over the last few years, producing photo hosting, calendaring, bookmarking, mapping, and blogging sites just for starters. With so many of these various services to consider, we need a list of what they all are, and how they compare, complement, and compete with each other… and which ones should I use!?

Here are a couple of sites listing these services:

• http://www.allthingsweb2.com/
• http://www.econsultant.com/web2/ (less comprehensive, but easier to read)

Here’s a quick selection of those that easily come to mind…
Identity/authentication/login

• OpenID
• LID
• Yadis

Reputation/profile

• ClaimID
• Mugshot
• Last.fm
• jyte
• myspace
• facebook
• http://twitter.com/

Photo hosting

• Flickr
• Zoomr

Blogging/journals

• Blogger
• WordPress
• LiveJournal

News/aggregation

• Digg
• Bloglines
• Google feeds

Bookmarking

• del.icio.us
• Ma.gnolia
• Stumbleupon

Meeting/calendaring

• iCal
• Renkoo
• planyp.us

Some provide multiple services, e.g. many profile services such as myspace provide some form of journal facility.

We have just heard from JISC that we definitely have funding for Phase 2 of the Phoebe pedagogic planner project  which will involve a lot more evaluation of what we have done up to now and development of additional functionality. There will also be a big evaluation of new developments in the autumn so if you are interested in taking part, do get in touch with the team now, through the project wiki.

TALL have been awarded funding by JISC for the two year Isthmus project looking at integrating user owned technologies with formal learning environments.

This is something we are all very excited about as it will give us a chance to implement some of the things we have been talking about in TALL, especially giving students an online presence between and beyond courses, with the time to make sure we do what really works for our students.

TALL is continually developing its range of online courses for the Department. Visit the online course directory for further information about our courses.

June 2005 to April 2007
TALL is working on the development of a multimedia eLearning solution to deliver training on the Sphere humanitarian charter and minimum standards in disaster response to humanitarian workers around the world. This exciting new project is in conjunction with Forced Migration Online and RedR India.

On Wednesday 7th March 2007, Deborah Goodbody, Project Manager (TALL), will be presenting at the Digital Projects in Oxford series of informal talks organised by the OUCS Learning Technologies Group.

The talk will focus, firstly, on the challenges of developing an online programme in such a fast-moving field and with such technical complexity as nanotechnology.

Secondly, it will look at supporting the student learning experience in an online environment, particularly through the use of Adobe Breeze to deliver online ‘tutorials’.

For more information see Digital Projects in Oxford.

Despite the problems it creates for getting around, I think we’ve all enjoyed the snow.