David Davies' Radio Weblog
I hadn't seen this until someone pointed it out to me. I also didn't know I had a reputation, or at least a good one!
New features:
Added Google support via right-click menus allowing you to search for text that either you enter or that you select from a buddy's instant outline. Install these new menus via Tools -> AssetManager -> Install right-click menus...
- Google -> Search for...
Brings up a dialog box allowing you to enter search terms for Google. Results appear as a new outline in Radio.
- Google -> Search for this...
Searches Google for whatever you right-clicked on e.g. outline headings in a buddy's instant outline. Results appear as a new outline in Radio.
- Google -> Search for parts of this...
As instant outlines are read only, you can't select specific text, groups of words, etc within an individual outline. This right-click menu captures the outline line you right-clicked on and allows you to edit it before searching Google. Very useful! Results appear as a new outline in Radio.
- Google -> Related...
Searches Google for web pages related to the item you right-clicked on. The result is a new sub-outline to the item you right-clicked on. This 'Related...' menu command works on any Radio link nodeType including those in your or anyone else's instant outliner.
Please note. If you've previously installed any of my right-click menus you'll see they've all been incorporated into this new release under an Asset Manager right-click menu. As you may have modified these existing menu items for your own purposes I have not set this new install script to automatically remove old menu items. I have instead set the installer to pop your right-click menu to the front so you can delete unwanted older items yourself, if you want to of course!
UserLand's implementation of Google's API in Frontier & Radio is undoubtedly a powerful thing. Witness all the activity since its release only a few days ago. Its highest profile manifestation in Radio and Radio weblogs in particular is in the form of a Google box, often set up to list the top 10 occurrences of the author's name. Now here's the observation. In a Radio weblog the HTML title of the page is always the same, at least by default. In mine it's always 'David Davies' Radio Weblog' so every page in my weblog has this html title. Putting 'David Davies' into my Radio Google box lists a bunch of pages that give me no indication whatsoever what they're about, so they'll be no use to you either. Browsing around some other Radio webloggers shows exactly the same thing. We're abstracting all of our hard wrought musings into a repetition of the same basic title.
I wonder if individual day archives in a Radio weblog can have their own title?
Google to RSS in Radio. A picture speaks a thousand words...
Try it here:
Will you join us? We're looking for individuals working in further or higher education who are using these tools who'd like to join a team that will develop Manila in particular but also Radio into an engaging suite of learning tools. Please get in touch. We'll use either an existing forum to discuss these issues or create a new one.
I'd also like to create a directory of users of Frontier, Manila and Radio in an educational setting (any level) that'll put people in touch with potential partners or even just someone to share ideas with.
Have a go with the following and let me know how you get on...
http://medweb5.bham.ac.uk/databases/qti/questions
Is anyone interested in IMS compliance for Manila?
For those interested in web-based self assessment and quizzes, here's my existing Frontier-based quiz applications:
What is the key to expanding e-learning content ?
Here are the results so far.
What did you say? For me it's increased levels of interactivity every time. Tools are cheap, expectation should be higher, not lower, production costs? OK, can be expensive but it depends upon the media you're using.
So what about SCORM? Well, that's likely to be an ongoing theme discussed in this weblog. Sharing RLOs seems to be a good thing, but is it realistic?
One of the approaches the consortium will be taking will be to develop a global bank of reusable learning objects (RLOs) covering aspects of medicine, nursing and potentially other professions allied to medicine. These RLOs will have a resource discovery system and will interoperate with existing Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) in consortium institutions.
High amongst the issues being discussed are metadata tagging (which schemas?) and IMS compliance and the SCORM reference model.
Questions I'd like to ask you are:
- Does you institution consider the sharing of RLOs to be a viable proposition?
- Do you currently run an LCMS to deliver some/all of your content?
- Is you system IMS compliant or can it be made compliant if you thought this was important?
- Does the value of RLOs lie in the ability to use them 'in place' i.e. in the format/location of the originating institution or should they be embedded within your own local system? And in fact are these two mutually exclusive?
- Can you retro-fit metadata and content packaging onto existing learning objects (you may not have thought of them as such when you created them) or is it best to scrap legacy material and develop new material with these issues in mind?
- Are these the right questions to be asking?
The components of my teaching and learning materials, images, video clips, text, questions, are called reusable learning objects (RLOs). These RLOs are stored in databases and each RLO has its own metadata, data that helps you find it when searching for particular RLOs. My database systems can send you an XML file that describes each RLO and links to it on the web.
One of the problems surrounding sharing RLOs is that the system you use may be different to the system I use. There are initiatives looking at how we might embed each our RLOs into our respective systems.
Another problem is resource discovery. Before we can embed an object we must first know where it is. If it's deep inside my institution's virtual learning environment (VLE) then are you going to be able to find it?
I'm approaching this from a very simplistic angle as I'm not able to answer some of the big questions. I am however chipping away at one of the edges. I use a tool called Radio Userland to think about how we might achieve interoperability and resource discovery. Rather than try to describe how I use Radio Userland in this context, it might be easier to show you.
To take full advantage of these couple of demos you need to be running a copy of Radio.
http://medweb5.bham.ac.uk/databases/resourcePage
http://medweb5.bham.ac.uk/databases/interop/mcqs
The first example shows you that by clicking on a special icon embedded on the page you can fire up an outline document in your local copy of Radio. This outline can be embedded into an instant outline or repurposed before re-publishing back to the web.
The second example shows how cross-platform RLO databases can be linked together via XML-RPC.
These are projects I'm working on so if you'd like to know more or to get involved then please get in touch.
These examples use my assetManager tool for Radio. I've just updated it so if you'd like to try any of the examples mentioned then either download it here or if you already have a copy, select 'Refresh code...' from the assetManager menu under the Tools menu in your copy of Radio.
Also commemorated today are the birthdays of:
Otto Von Bismarck
Lon Chaney
Debbie Reynolds
And probably many, many more!
On this day in 1578 William Harvey discovered blood circulation and in 527BC Justinianus became the emperor of Byzantium. Go Justinianus!