E-learning Posts
Well, here we are, another quarter. In trying to get grips on what E-learning is, I have looked across the web to find many examples. These are the five that I liked the most and that are most representative of E-learning.
http://www.e-learningforkids.org/index.html
This site features games that are used to promote learning for children. I think this is a really good idea and I liked this site because it was what I was trying to do with storybook.com. There are a lot of learning tools featured here and I particularly like the use of games as a learning tool.
http://www.jidaw.com/e-learn.html
This site features a really straight forward way of teaching computers. I think this site’s information is good and is a perfect way to start teaching someone all about computers. The problem here is the interactivity and the dryness of the materials presentation. I think that with a few videos or an interactive quiz at the end of the lesson would help this alot. I only show this to show a bad example of presenting good material.
This is one of my favorite e-learning websites. W3 schools has great information and is pretty interactive in its presentation and examples. I really like the try-it-yourself examples. Being able to look up what you need to know and seeing exactly how the code works is a great way to learn. I particularly like how each section is broken down and each section has examples and a code list for proprties and methods. Personally, this is the way I like to learn.
This is one of my favorite websites for learning new techniques and skills. This website has come a long way, and actually helped me alot when I was doing 3D animation at school here before. This website has great tutorials. I like the way that this site has a wide variety of tutorials and how each tutorial has detailed directions (and files to download in most cases). In particular, check out the modeling of Joan of Arc under the ‘complete projects’ page. This is the other way I like to learn online. I think that this is more of a hands on approach to learning, and although there are no videos and little interactivity I think this is a great resource and e-learning site.
Overall, the best learning website I have come across in my opinion. I think this is because I am a visual learner and like to get my hands dirty. Lynda.com is a video tutorial based website that allows you to download or work online. As a pay site, this is one of the best overall for self study. If you want to learn a specific program, this is the place to learn it.
I know there are other websites out there that focus on degrees and training for jobs and emplyee training for companies, but the websites I chose above are more my style of learning. I do believe there are online campuses and sites that have interactivity and real time chat features, and I think those have value, but they do cost money and personally I prefer to either go to a campus, or teach myself through tutorials.
fanatiq said,
April 13, 2009 at 8:44 pm
I’m with you, I really like the idea of doing a Flash e-learning application for kids. My family is full of teachers, and I think it would be amazing to build something they could use in their classrooms. I really like what you’re doing with the storybook site; that looks like a website I would’ve liked to have visited when I was a kid… if we had had the internet then… Also, that 3D site looks incredible. I’m definitely going to check that out in more depth. Good research, that gave me some ideas for my project.
Rachel said,
April 13, 2009 at 10:06 pm
The e-learning for kids site seems like it would be great…too bad it took to long to load on my computer, so I closed out of it. Maybe I just had to many things going on at once. I’ll try it again later. Like you I also find most of these learning sites lacking in the fun and interactivity area. I tend to have ADD at times and need help in focusing my attention. I mean just writing this small comment is taking over 10min b/c I keep going to do other things. How terrible is that?!?! The 3d tutorial site though is different thank goodness. It has so many great photos and stuff to catch your attention. Them having video tutorials is great too. This site has to be the most eye catching one to me by far.
keeai said,
April 20, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Hah, I used w3schools as a site for one of my tools as well. I just think a concrete tutorial based site is really hard to find, but w3schools got that. The -learning tools that are available out there are too many to count, but its easier said that to find in this case. Its hard to find a really good website that utilizes all of those tools that we talked about in class, and have good content, easy navigation, and good design. But I think looking at all the sites that our class has come up with, I think several of us have found some winners.