Free audiovisual learning opportunities

The open and free audiovisual opportunities to learn are growing exponentially on the internet. After already two posts about this topic we would like to share some more interesting tips and links with you:

- After several years of TED lectures there is a fantastic inventory of 1204 lectures which is made available here.

- The global classroom of the Khan Academy is reaching currently more than 3200 video’s with lessons and exercises.

- The Udacity university with professors from Stanford  is also expanding in open courses integrating didactic sets of learning resources.

- Academic Earth is steadily growing in its offer and is combing lectures from different top universities

- The University of the People is the last one in line we want to mention with the objective to democratize education.

Any other interesting examples?

learning about scenario planning and thinking

To learn about the future and to see what kind of patterns and trends will affect your strategy it is always useful to rely on scenario planning. A scenario is basically a story that describes a potential future. For learning professionals it can be a powerful method to learn about the possible driving forces that will affect our world so that we can incorporate them in our future learning strategies. The development of a scenario entails a collaborate process, the creation of a common language and specific tools that can bring people from different backgrounds together. Jisc Infonet puts it as following:

Scenarios provide alternative views of the future. They identify some significant events, main actors and their motivations, and they convey how the world functions. Building and using scenarios can help us explore what the future might look like and the likely changes of living in it.

At Online Educa last year DELTA participated in a learning scenario planning exercise with Hans De Zwart and Willem Manders. During this meeting we mapped out the (corporate) learning environment, the important actors and the driving forces which gave us a solid base to map out different scenarios. Click here for an overview of the used scenario methodology.

Linking with Learning Professionals. Article one: Linkedin

Social networks are growing and the labyrinth of social media tools and networks is not always easy to oversee, let be the added value what you can get out of these networks. Therefore we will on a regular base zoom in on some of the specific tools and reflect together with you what the added value could be for learning and training professionals. The first one to kick of the series is Linkedin.  For those who want a simple explanation about the tool we refer to the In Plain English series


What would be the real added value of Linkedin for learning professionals and institutions? To kickstart this brainstorming session we would like to invite you to read two articles and extract there all possible tips for learning professionals.
10 ways to use Linkedin
Smart ways to use Linkedin

the art of knowledge exchange

In a training institution more and more activities move beyond the traditional cycle of delivering courses. Learning and training gets closely connected with knowledge sharing and the larger domain of knowledge management. We will take this aspect into account and feed this blog also from this knowledge angle. Two elements that might be of interest for you:

- ITC-ILO is launching its first knowledge lab:”From Knowledge Management to knowledge sharing“. A workshop that will walk you through the entire knowledge management cycle address all the necessary tools and techniques to share organisational knowledge in an efficient and effective manner. More information and registration available on this link.

 

 

 

 

 

 

- The World Bank Institute published recently : “The art of knowledge exchange“. A step-by-step guide for practitioners with methodological insights on how to set up and manage knowledge exchange activities such as study visists, peer reviews, communities of practice, dialogues and conferences. Download the publication here.

Any other knowledge sharing link, publication or event more than welcome !

Blogging in 2012

At the start of the new year we want to share with you the annual visitor’s report of this blog about learning and technology. It is available here : http://itcilo.wordpress.com/2011/annual-report/ . After 3 years, almost 60.000 visits and about 100 published articles it’s time to review, upgrade and innovate this knowledge sharing blog. Below you will a word cloud of key concepts that were addressed in the last  three years of writing.

What could we change ?

Introduction to E-learning Methodologies

FAO recently published it’s “E-Learning Methodologies” publication which serves as a guide for designing and developing e-learning courses. More and more it becomes important to focus beyond the mere technological side and understand the importance of instructional design and related processes that are crucial when you want to start with e-learning. The current e-learning debate is still heavily dominated by the choice of tools and technologies.This guide is a good counter recipe that shows you from the methodological side how to go about designing an e-learning course, how to create interactive content and how to manage and evaluate your e-learning activities. Recommended for everybody who is about to start with e-learning in his or her institution. Not only a good overview of the entire instructional cycle but also practical models for content creation, delivery and evaluation. One remaining question: “When is FAO launching an interactive e-learning module about the content which is available in this guide”?

Share, Learn and Innovate

OHCHR initiated in collaboration with ITC-ILO a coordinated knowledge management approach with the goal of making OHCHR work more effective in the fulfillment of its mandate. Based on a KM needs assessment and a review of KM approaches and practices of UN agencies ITC-ILO developed a knowledge sharing toolkit which includes methods and techniques to enhance knowledge sharing within OHCHR and through OHCHR activities. The entire project was called Share, Learn and Innovate and focused on the following objectives:

• Improve understanding of knowledge management and knowledge sharing concepts and their relevance to OHCHR work;

• Enhance participants’ expertise and capacity to use knowledge sharing tools and approaches in their work;

• Strengthen a knowledge sharing culture within OHCHR; and

• Validate the OHCHR Knowledge Sharing Toolkit and promote the use of the toolkit within their sections/field presences.

Feel free to have a look at the final version of the on-line toolkit ! Click HERE

The art of asking questions

This blog has been updating you in the last two years about the most recent participatory learning methodologies that you can use in a learning context. One question always remained a little bit in the background, and that’s the old simple technique of asking a powerful question. Something you need almost always in the application of every facilitation technique whether it’s a  panel expert discussion or a  world café. To answer on what is the art and the architecture of a powerful question we have collected a series of interesting short publications on the topic? Do you have any other interesting resources to add?

Asking effective questions. (The Asian Development Bank)
The art of asking powerful questions. (From the World Café Methodology)
Different question techniques (Changing minds)

 

 

Social media revolution

The importance of social media is a returning element in a lot of interesting video’s that appear on the internet. It all started with the first version of ‘Did you Know‘ and every now and than we see new inspiring video’s (like the one below) to highlight that social media is becoming very important in our daily life and work. To explore the potential of social media in a learning and training the ITC-ILO organises a knowledge lab where different learning professionals will exchange their international experiences. A very rich domain containing a lot of challenging questions: “How are wiki’s changing the way we work and write together? What’s the pedagogical added value of using blogs in learning? How we can manage better our information through using web2.0 tools? How can we support communities of practices with networked technologies? How do we use these tools in low-resource settings?“  For more information surf to the promotion blog: http://webfordev.wordpress.com/

 

Mobile learning toolkit launched

A while ago we have mentioned our mobile learning plans at ITC-ILO. We are now happy to share some of the results of the ongoing mobile learning pilots. First of all Jennifer Parker finished her internship at ITC-ILO successfully and published her master thesis on ‘mobile learning for Africa‘. Part of this project included also the development of a mobile learning toolkit which we will use in the framework of the MyCOOP training package (“How to set up and run agricultural cooperatives“). With adding a mobile component to this training package, MyCOOP trainers will be able to choose out of 15 different methodologies where a mobile device can add value to the learning and training process. Feel free to contact us in case you are interested to pilot some of these mobile learning methods.

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