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Is our worldwide education system ready to prepare for the unpredictability and fast changes that the 21st century will be serving?

Photo credit: Elizabeth Hanson-Smith

Education isn’t only about creating employees. It’s about empowering individuals to become individuals with the ability to manage effectively the increasingly faster transformations of a complex world like ours.

This is why, one should measure education by looking at how tangibly such goal is achieved rather than by measuring the number of tested and certified students the school system is capable of producing. True education, when successful, must essentially prepare its students for dealing with greater and more complex problems. But not those served in a neat and sanitized math test, but rather those emerging from the clash of the multidisciplinary realities we inhabit.

Learning how to handle uncertainty, as well as how to rapidly adapt to fast changing environments is the real blockbuster formula to an education approach that provides the mental tools to cope with whatever can come your way, rather than pre-emptying you with static notions and arid, reality-isolated formulas..

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Connectivism: Networked Learner

Over the last 12 weeks, Stephen Downes and I have facilitated a course on Connectivism and Connective Knowledge. The final “project” for enrolled participants is to reflect on the quality of their own learning networks.

Wendy Drexler has posted a video of her final project that is (deservedly) getting significant attention: Connectivism: Networked Learner (also available on YouTube)

Definition of Emerging Technologies for Learning

I received an email recently asking for my definition of emerging technologies for learning. To enlarge the conversation, I asked the question on Twitter. The following are responses:

• Eduinnovation: “Those technologies that allow learners to connect, collaborate, and create with other learners, mind-to-mind, anywhere & anytime”
• prawsthorne: “an innovation that captures attention, engages and deepens learning so the learner/teacher can self-measure the improvement.”
• MarkMilliron: “any technology YOU don’t quite understand that you’ve heard might improve teaching and learning”
• UNMVCTLC: “using technology TOOLS to improve the learning process while enhancing the instructional environment” and “using those tools that are not fully explored to reach new frontiers in methodology, experiences and concepts”
• jdwilliams: “I think emerging (web) technologies are just sites/apps my district hasn’t found to block (yet)”
• Darren Draper: “Emerging technologies for teaching and learning consist of all hardware, software, concepts, and ideas that can be employed to advance social, connective, and educational processes”
• davecormier: “usually defined as - stuff George likes - I believe”
• bengrey: “A body of knowledge or innovation not yet widely adapted or fully actualized which holds educational implications”
• StonyRiver: “New Direction Learning Technologies”

How do you define emerging technologies for learning (or is the attempt to provide a definition sooo web 1.0?)?

Social Computing

Dave Snowden is well-known in the knowledge management field. He has been kind enough in the past to present to online conferences that we have hosted at University of Manitoba (most recently, our Future of Education conference). Over the last few years, his writings / presentations have taken a turn that very much fits in with concepts presented in this forum and in CCK08.

Dave started blogging about two years ago, but I’ve been following his work through his publications and contributions to ACT-KM. I could be imagining things, but his shift to blogging seems to coincide with his increased attention to the fragmentary nature of information.

Distributed conversations, not packaged as they have been in the past through frameworks such as articles and books, in blogs provide an interesting experience in personal sensemaking.

In a recent presentation (.pdf of slides - why not slideshare?… podcast is here), Dave details seven principles of KM, including: “Tolerated failure imprints learning better than success.”

Visualizing Data

Click the image to go to the interface page

OECD has been learning from Hans Rosling and Gapminder. In order to make their data more accessible, they’ve created (or had someone create) an application for visualizing data.

I personally prefer gapminder’s interface, but OECD’s contribution is appreciated. If data is made more accessible it will be used more often as a guide for decision making (he says in his most idealistic voice).

Microsoft’s Personal Reboot: Web-Centric, But Beyond “The Cloud”

Microsoft has been a favorite source of mockery for all the cool web 2.0′ers.

Microsoft is seen as too closed, too confined to the desktop, too late to search, and too out of touch with how people want to compute. In the face of this criticism, Microsoft continues to attempt a transformation - Personal Reboot: Web-Centric, But Beyond “The Cloud”:

“Cloud computing may be trendy, but Ozzie says MSFT’s best course moving forward is a hybrid desktop/Web-based strategy… future success hinges on new products that win over the masses instantly.”

Education Needs to Be Pulled Into The 21st Century

Short rant. Articles like - Education needs to be pulled into the 21st century - cause many educators to smile and nod in agreement.

The report broadly splashes all the latest and coolest terms that cause sensible educators to viciously agree:

“In an increasingly complex and competitive world, teachers must understand technology and connect coursework to the global economy, curricula should eliminate less relevant material and incorporate modern skills such as global awareness, technology and media literacy, and standardized tests must include these new subjects”.

Ok. That’s very nice. We are then treated with the typical mis-focused comment: “I hope to encourage policymakers to better equip our graduates for today’s and tomorrow’s jobs”.

Education isn’t only about creating employees. It’s about assisting individuals to develop into the types of people that can tackle and handle the continual gyrations of a complex world. I don’t buy into the “education must prepare people for jobs that don’t yet exist” view. Education - as it always has - must prepare people for an unknown future. This isn’t new.

When I was going to school, the particular job that I have today did not exist. How should we prepare people for, let’s say, the current financial crisis? By training people to be stockbrokers? No. You can’t prepare people for black swans. People must be capable of handling uncertainty, but also adapting as environments shift and change.

At its most basic, education must move from epistemology to ontology. Getting back to the report: give us something useful. Statements as broad as those provided in the article (i.e. “develop new programs, standards, partnerships and assessment measures”) are hardly a basis for action. Perhaps it’s time that we stop focusing on what our curriculum is and start focusing on how we actually do curriculum in the first place.

Systems for Supportive Open Teaching

We’ve experienced this in CCK08: Systems for Supportive Open Teaching:

“I think it more valuable to think about how openness changes the basic praxis of teaching from an essentially individual activity to a shared activity.”

But, as we’ve discovered, openness may produced shared activity at some levels (students helping each other, taking on leadership roles, connecting to others outside of the course, etc). Open teaching is really best seen as open learning. When we learn in transparent ways, we become teachers. But not everyone wants to learn in open ways.

In CCK08, we had numerous participants who did not contribute by posting or commenting. Instead, they observed / lurked. They did not contribute in the way we would have expected. Lack of direct participation does not mean they didn’t learn - at least that’s what some participants have expressed here.

Open teaching, therefore, means also rethinking our expectations of engagement. We simply can’t control students the way we have done in classroom environments. Open teaching will become a rather shallow concept if we bring too much of closed-classrooms to the process.

Online Learning Requirements

Grassroots activities in incorporating technology into teaching and learning goes a long way. Due to the current design of the education system, grassroots activities keep bumping up against barriers.

However, initiatives like this one in Minnesota will become more common:

“To expand access, increase technology skills, provide exciting and inspiring course content, and maximize efficiency and use of taxpayer resources, Governor Tim Pawlenty and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) Board of Trustees Chair David Olson today announced a goal to have 25 percent of all MnSCU credits earned through online courses by 2015.”

It’s a start. I’d like to hear more about how they’re planning to develop the faculty to actually teach the online courses… and how they’re redesigning the existing education system to ensure that they aren’t only transferring content online, but that they are actually transforming the learning experience to utilize the affordances of the medium.

Google’s Experimenting With New Search Features

Google is experimenting with search. Basic idea: when you’re signed in to your Google account, you’ll see the option of voting results up / down and to add comments to results. This doesn’t (yet) impact the results others see. It’s supposed to help personalize search.

Results are mixed.

• Some hate it.
• Others question it.
• Others love it.

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on November 27th 2008 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About the author

To learn more about George Siemens and to access extensive information and resources on elearning check out www.elearnspace.org. Explore also George Siemens connectivism site for resources on the changing nature of learning and check out his new book “Knowing Knowledge“.

Photo credits:
Connectivism: Networked Learner - solarseven
Definition of Emerging Technologies for Learning - PDAToday
Social Computing - Dawid Makowski
Visualizing Data - Gapminder
Microsoft’s Personal Reboot: Web-Centric, But Beyond “The Cloud” - PDA Thoughts
Education Needs to Be Pulled Into The 21st Century - Helder Almeida
Systems for Supportive Open Teaching - Andres Rodriguez
Online Learning Requirements - sefa öncül
Google’s Experimenting With New Search Features - Google

The Best Online Collaboration Tools 2008, Collaborative Map is a live editable map of over 150 of the best free and low-cost online collaboration tools available, picked and selected by passionate users like you and me.

Click the map to see the full, public, editable version

That’s right. This collaborative map has been created with the live help of over 100 individuals who have participated with me on November 17th in a unique event: This collaborative map has been created with the live help of over 100 individuals who have participated with me on November 17th in a unique event: Corporate Learning Trends and Innovations 2008. During my session at the conference, which took place fully online…. During my session at the conference, which took place fully online, I decided not to leverage my personal knowledge with collaboration tools to show the best and most useful ones, as I have done so many times in the last two years, but to actually involve the participants (over 150 at the time) into creating a visual map of what THEY thought were the best online collaboration tools out there.

And so I kind of played the visual moderator, by providing them first with a basic set of categories that they could attach tools too, and then by helping in moving tools to their best matching categories and removing technologies and services that were either inappropriate or not belonging to any of the listed groups.

Within a week the map has cleaned itself up while growing considerably. It now lists over 150 live online collaboration tools in 13 different categories. All the tools listed are either free or have affordable rates (included only those who have clearly published such prices on their site).

Now it is here ready for you to use.

Whenever you have a collaboration need you may glance at this map and remember in a second which tools are available which could service your specific need.

Note: A special thank you to Jay Cross, Tony Karrer and George Siemens who have trusted my explorative spirit and have gently allowed me to take a live group into a new real-time learning territory. Seeing a mind-map growing under your very eyes, node by node, thanks to the input of a multitude of many passionate individuals is a mind-opening experience.

What This Map Contains

This collaboration tools map has the objective of bringing together the most useful, free or low-cost technologies available today online. Originally the types of tools included by the participants in this experiment, ranged from real-time instant messaging and video conferencing tools to the main social bookmarking resources and microblogging tools as several participants felt that these too were relevant collaboration technologies.

To limit its breadth and provide more specific usefulness to those who are looking for real-time collaboration solutions, I have later decided to sacrifice microblogging and social bookmarking tools, as I would prefer to gather those together in a separate social media and collaborative publishing group.

The official focus is therefore on real-time or near real-time collaborative technologies in the groups that have been already defined.

The Key Categories

These the online collaboration categories covered in the map with over 150 technologies:

• VoIP - Instant Messaging Tools
• Video Conferencing
• Screen-Sharing, Remote-Control
• Web Conferencing
• Co-browsing
• Web Presenting
• Workgrouping
• File Sharing
• Document Sharing and Wikis
• Collaborative Document Reviewing
• Collaborative Event Scheduling
• Mind-Mapping
• Project Management

How You Can Contribute

You can personally contribute to this collaborative effort by accessing the “public” and open version of the map, and by adding new tools or specific information to the existing nodes. (To edit the map you will need to freely register at www.mindmeister.com, which will take only a few seconds.)

What You Can Add

The best thing you can do is to add relevant new tools to the map. The collaboration tools that fit this map are those that can match the following criteria:

• live collaboration and team-work oriented tools
• free or low-cost solutions only

If you are logged into MindMeister, you can add a URL, or some notes to any “node” appearing on the map. Simply select the node and then click on the relevant icon inside the right column dashboard to edit and add more info.

The Live Map Present Version and Future Updates

Click and drag inside the above map to move and see its different parts and / or use the zoom icons on the bottom left part of the map

This above is the live collaboration tools map as of November 25th 2008. You can still go up and update it and in the future I will be releasing new updates to it.

To be able to edit, add and contribute additional information, you need to freely register and login inside MindMeister.

The map integrates a full revisions history feature and therefore it is easy to spot and remove spammy additions or incorrect information just like you would do in Wikipedia.

Disclosure: I am in no way associated or affiliated to MindMeister.com. I have selected their tool and service among others because it is the one that I feel most comfortable with and the one I find easiest to use for novices.

Originally conceived by Robin Good for LearningTrends2008 and first created in real-time with the participation of over 100 hundred different participating individuals on November 17th 2008.

As more and more students begin to attend online courses, is the educational system well aware of the potential of outside-the-classroom approaches in learning?

George Siemens - Photo credit: Injenuity

The abundance and consequent fragmentation of information gives increasing opportunity to specialized forms of education that more effectively address personal contexts and individual needs rather than the usual pre-packaged, dogmatic, teaching-like approaches.

Educational technology expert George Siemens suggests that, online learning, homeschooling, and PLE (Personal Learning Environments), are just some of the new alternative choices learners are increasingly considering when interested in learning outside of the traditional classroom.

Here all the details:

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Need Help.

I often hear educators talking about “education needs to change” (I do it too). This is the case for the K-12, higher education, and corporate training / education markets.

As a small research project, I’d like to ask people to answer the following questions (on their blog, in YouTube, Seesmic, or wherever):

• Does education need to change?
• Why or why not?
• If it should change, what should it become? How should education (k-12, higher, or corporate) look like in the future?

E-Learn 2008

I don’t like Powerpoint a whole lot. We don’t really have a good alternative for presentations.

I’ve been experimenting with different approaches. Most recent is PersonalBrain, which I used for my presentation at E-Learn 2008 in Vegas today.

Moving to Neutral Tools and Applications

Common Craft has produced a short explanatory video on Microsoft Live.

The internet is starting to look like the desktop in the 80’s - numerous companies trying to mainstream new applications through a new centre.

Microsoft integrated a variety of tools into its Office suite, making it possible for many new users to try tools that had each been unique. Working in a spreadsheet or word document became more seemless than when working with two different vendors. Now, the web is moving in that direction, with Google, Microsoft, and MySpace / Facebook all trying to do to with the web what Microsoft did to the desktop.

I’d like to see a world where any content works on any device… but I wonder if it will mature before someone has managed to lock in a good portion of the web in one application (or cloud).

With Students Flocking Online, Will Faculty Follow?

It really doesn’t have to be said, but I’ll do it anyway: we are in a climate of uncertainty. Awareness of economic issues (cost-cutting, layoffs) is high. Online learning has the potential to play a significant role in this climate.

Trends indicate a growing move to online teaching and learning. This article asks: With Students Flocking Online, Will Faculty Follow?:

“As online courses’ popularity continues to rise, many administrators are struggling with a steep learning curve, one whose ultimate end point is far from being determined.

Questions such as how such courses should be taught (by adjuncts or full-time faculty?) often depend on institutions’ missions (expand access or generate extra revenue?) and can lead to clashes and tensions between proponents of online learning and those who remain wedded to the traditional classroom.”

My question is directed at institutions: Are our institutions (and systems) of education ready to embrace online learning strategically and more than an add-on?

Homeschooling Goes Mainstream

Education is being enlarged. More choices, more options. F2F, augmented, blended, online learning, etc are enlarging options for learners and educators to deal with individual, personal needs and contexts.

Much like content is fragmented from large holding structures (newspapers, books, courses), the entire education system itself is breaking into muliple specialized choices. For example - homeschooling goes mainstream:

“Home education is now being done by so many different kinds of people for so many different reasons that it no longer makes much sense to speak of it as a political movement.”

High-Speed Internet Coming to Africa

I’ve been suffering connection issues.

Earlier this year, I was in Accra for Elearning Africa.

The connection issues were significant there as well. Participants at the conference knew the importance of connectivity in advancing African economies. Yet the problem was / is huge. Many areas don’t have electricity, never mind internet connectivity. Still, news like this - High-Speed Internet Coming to Africa - is encouraging.

While foreign aid and development work are critical for Africa, the long term challenge is one of providing individuals with the tools and opportunities to shape their own future.

If Only We Had Something Other Than Content on Which to Base Education…

The hype around open educational resources (OERs) is growing to the level that web 2.0 inhabited several years ago (I recently posted a short overview of openness in education).

The problem with OERs is that they are too often focused on content.

More recently, a few educators have been pushing the concept of openness through open teaching and open accreditation. But, as Brian Lamb notes,

“if we live in an era of information abundance, why is the primary drive around OERs the publication of more content? And what other activities around the open education movement might be an effective use of our energies? What other needs have to be met?”

Personal Learning Environments

Learning happens constantly. The formal education component receives more respect than informal learning.

As content and conversations fragment, I doubt existing systems of education will retain their shape. The real opportunity lies in how institutions think about “tying together” the multiple learnings across our daily lives.

Canadian Council on Learning introduces the multiple learning domains as “limitless dimensions of learning”.

Two approaches are possible to serve as the glue to pull learning together in a manner that can be accredited or evaluated by traditional educational models:

1. eportfolios
3. and personal learning environments.

Eportfolios have great potential, but little uptake.

Personal learning environments have similar potential, but the concept is a bit difficult for educators to grasp.

I would have loved to sit in on a recent session by three individuals who know what they’re talking about…here’s their commentary on the workshop: Jared Stein, Chris Lott, and Scott Leslie.

This PLE thing will yet take root :).

Higher Ed: Next Bloated Industry to Go?

With the financial world in turmoil, it’s logical for people to turn attention to other fields that are in need of change. Nothing like a crisis to force introspection that should likely be ongoing.

Higher Education is often criticized for its bureaucracy. Now that governments and businesses are in “belt tightening” mode, we’ll see pressure on higher ed as well: Higher Ed: Next Bloated Industry to Go?:

“Like so many of our great industries and social sectors, higher education has grown huge, bureaucratic, and in many cases bloated (think 24-hour coffee shops in dorms).

The ongoing trends of globalization, technology, and innovation continue to pressure societies and economies and America’s world leading system of higher education is going to have to respond just like other great institutions.”

While it is unsettling to be staring into an uncertain future, times of change offer opportunities for transformation. I’m optimistic that the catalyst needed to foster innovation in education can be found in the current crisis.

The Future of Learning: Ten Years On

Stephen Downes has written an important paper: The Future of Learning: Ten Years On.

I need to spend more time reviewing the specifics of future learning, but after an initial read, Stephen has created a valuable document that should serve as a discussion piece for detailing the direction of our field.

I suspect this document will be prominent in this week’s CCK08 discussion on systemic change in education. I’d recommend Stephen arrange a few illuminate sessions in the near future to flesh out his predictions and engage with the online community for feedback (I’d like to see an exploration of data visualization and sensemaking techniques).

Second Life & Divorce

Any space in which people can interact (physical and virtual) brings out human nature. Our minds don’t seem to really care if something is real, observed, or imagined (at least this is the suggestion made with the discovery of mirror neurons).

Several months ago, I was chatting with an individual who said her location didn’t allow her to see sunrises and sunsets. Instead, she watched them in Second Life while she enjoyed a cup of coffee or tea.

The social impact of virtual worlds is not fully understood (especially considering they are still first-generation tools - virtual worlds will continue to get more real, further blurring what we physically experience and what we create online).

Second Life & Divorce presents a glimpse of how morals and ethics will be (re)considered online.

Google and Video Conferencing?

While it’s not video conferencing, Google has added video functionality to Gmail. Many tools (notably Skype) already offer similar (but superior) functionality. I’m interested in where Google will go with this.

It would be exciting to have video conferencing options available for educators who are already using Google Docs, Gmail, and other services.

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on November 21st 2008 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About the author

To learn more about George Siemens and to access extensive information and resources on elearning check out www.elearnspace.org. Explore also George Siemens connectivism site for resources on the changing nature of learning and check out his new book “Knowing Knowledge“.

Photo credits:
Need Help. - Pathathai Chungyam
E-Learn 2008 - AACE
With Students Flocking Online, Will Faculty Follow? - Financial Aid TV
Homeschooling Goes Mainstream - Rob Marmion
High-Speed Internet Coming to Africa - The Robert Goldwater Library
If Only We Had Something Other Than Content on Which to Base Education… - Robyn Mackenzie
Personal Learning Environments - Ana Blazic
Higher Ed: Next Bloated Industry to Go? - UW Madison
The Future of Learning: Ten Years On - Education World
Second Life & Divorce - Teenagers Street
Google and Video Conferencing? - pro it zone

Pretty soon mobile devices will be used to stream live and on-demand, recorded training courses, engaging learners on the move even in the absence of traditional face-to-face approaches. But, would you attend a course via your mobile phone?

Photo credit: lumigopereira

Easy of access to high-speed networks is indeed empowering individuals, while forcing elearning designers and content producers to think more thoroughly at how to best engage the learner when his surrounding environment (public places, bus, underground station, etc.) becomes so potentially noisy and distracting.

In all cases, what emerges clearly is the individual’s shrinking reliance on traditional brick-and-mortar institutions in favor of new and emerging virtual ones.

In this edition of the Media Literacy digest, George Siemens keeps exploring the development of different technologies and their potential impact on teaching and learning. His focus is on tools that increase learner control over content, interaction, and on the creation of learning networks with peers and experts outside of classrooms.

Here all the details:

Intro by Daniele Bazzano

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Emerging Technologies Course

Final week to register for the first course in University of Manitoba’s is offering a Certificate in Emerging Technologies for Learning: Introduction to Emerging Technologies (starts November 17). I’m co-facilitating the course with Dave Cormier…so I’m looking forward to a great course!

From the course description (.pdf):

“New technologies offer new opportunities for educators to increase learner engagement and improve the overall value of the learning experience.

The last five years have resulted in the introduction of numerous new tools and approaches: blogs, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarking, virtual worlds, and social networking services. This course will explore the development of different technologies and suggest their potential impact on teaching and learning. Focus will be placed on tools that increase learner control over content, interaction, and the formation of learning networks with peers and experts outside of classrooms.”

Creating Knowledge: Network Structure and Innovation

When organizations begin planning new ways for employees to share knowledge, the focus is often misplaced on the explicit act of sharing knowledge itself.

We cannot meaningfully “force” people to share. At best, we can create situations / conditions / ecologies in which exchange of ideas will occur. Or, more succinctly:

“Promoting knowledge sharing is a matter of :

1. creating the relational conditions that facilitate interpersonal transfers, and
2. creating the structural conditions that facilitate diffusion.

”

Designing Mobile Learning

According to the Oxford Internet Institute, the use of smart phones (i.e. mobile phones used for multiple activities: browsing, maps, music, video, etc.) is doubling every two years (.pdf).

Designers and educators are recognizing that it’s no longer appropriate to think only of laptop / desktop browsing to access learning materials.

Major LMS vendors - such as Desire2Learn (see here) are developing mobile functionality with their platforms. As is generally the case, consideration of the medium and its unique attributes is important.

Designing Mobile Learning emphasizes this point from the learners perspective:

“Before embarking on creation of a mobile accessible course you will want to understand how the learner’s experience changes when they view your course through a mobile device.

Mobile devices are typically used in a very distraction-filled environment. Learners may be on a bus, on a train, at the store, eating lunch, or at work. The mobile device screen is very small. This limits what the learner can see and can make it difficult to read a large amount of content, view graphics, or see moving graphics.” (via Workplace Learning Today)

My First Keynote

ZaidLearn has been an active blogger, focusing on open learning and open tools. Great to see he is giving (has given) his first keynote address to a Malaysian conference.

As Stephen Downes states, it’s great to see people achieving genuine success in the pursuit of new tools / approaches in education. Congrats Zaid!

(On a side note, I’m looking forward to my first visit to Malaysia in December as an extension of a presentation in Singapore. Wonderful things happening around the world in educational technology).

Analyzing The Obvious: Technological and Social Connections

I’ve been enjoying the delightful Australian weather and hospitality for the past week.

Today, I presented at Learning Technologies 2008. My slides - Analyzing the Obvious: Technological and Social Connections have been posted.

Richard Feynman, the legendary physicist and educator, used to state a concept most students first encounter in physics: everything is made of atoms. The key to understanding learning is similar: connections, and the patterns they create, are the foundation.

Understanding The Real Structure Within Your Organization

Strategy is enacted not by mandate, but by how resources are allocated.

Bill Ives suggests leaders need to understand the actual structure of organizations. Organizational structure and information flow is often not what appears in formal policies and org charts.

While organizations may not be very adaptive, people are… and people will find ways to address challenges and concerns based on context and need. Unfortunately, planning is future-focused, rather than reality-focused.

I’m Leaving

Formal education faces some of the most profound changes in its history. Social learning theory, technology, and learner empowerment / engagement are only a few of the change pressures facing education. Times of change, however, reveal our character (wasn’t it Warren Buffet who said something to the effect of “you only find out who is swimming naked when the tied goes out”?).

After decades of changes in educational philosophy, divisions are becoming more evident.

I’m Leaving is an article that should raise the blood pressure of any educator. The author reveals a disdain for learners and calls for a return to high ideals and expectations of education (can’t we be learner focused and still adhere to high ideals??). The comments further reveal strong divisions.

Some educators agree that learners have “become soft” with a growing sense of entitlement. Others suggest the real problem is with the professor.

The Future of Universities

How are universities likely to be impacted by current technological trends? Two publications seek to address this question:

The Tower and the Cloud:

The emergence of the networked information economy is unleashing two powerful forces.

1. On one hand, easy access to high-speed networks is empowering individuals. People can now discover and consume information resources and services globally from their homes. Further, new social computing approaches are inviting people to share in the creation and edification of information on the Internet.

   Empowerment of the individual - or consumerization - is reducing the individual’s reliance on traditional brick-and-mortar institutions in favor of new and emerging virtual ones.

2. Second, ubiquitous access to high-speed networks along with network standards, open standards and content, and techniques for virtualizing hardware, software, and services is making it possible to leverage scale economies in unprecedented ways.

The Future of Higher Education:

Technological innovation, long a hallmark of academic research, may now be changing the very way that universities teach and students learn. For academic institutions, charged with equipping graduates to compete in today’s knowledge economy, the possibilities are great.

Distance education, sophisticated learning-management systems and the opportunity to collaborate with research partners from around the world are just some of the transformational benefits that universities are embracing.

Both publications are technology-centric. I can understand that emphasis, after all, technology is changing the rest of the world, surely it will soon make a more significant impact in education.

A view of educational change pressures needs to be more broad. Economic, societal, population trends, rise of education levels in emerging countries, may all apply as much influence in altering education as technology.

New Issue of IRRODL

Terry Anderson just announced a new issue of IRRODL focusing on a timely range of issues: transactional distance education theory, student blogging, connectivism, etc. I found the process reengineering article particularly interesting. It’s a bit too narrowly focused for my liking, but starts on a path that will continue to gain explorers; namely - how do we change education? How do we change our systems to account for trends?

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on November 7th 2008 in his newsletter eLearning Resources and News.

About the author

To learn more about George Siemens and to access extensive information and resources on elearning check out www.elearnspace.org. Explore also George Siemens connectivism site for resources on the changing nature of learning and check out his new book “Knowing Knowledge“.

Photo credits:
Emerging Technologies Course - Microsoft
Creating Knowledge: Network Structure and Innovation - Leonardo Da Vinci
Designing Mobile Learning - Feng Yu
Understanding The Real Structure Within Your Organization - Stephen Coburn
I’m Leaving - ronen
The Future of Universities - adistock
New Issue of IRRODL - IRRODL

“New technologies offer new opportunities for educators to increase learner engagement and improve the overall value of the learning experience.” (Source: George Siemens)

George Siemens - Photo credit: Dean Shareski

Is your university or college using Facebook, wikis, podcasts, or other social media technologies to communicate, interact and engage with its students?

Educational technologies expert George Siemens, focuses once more on the relevance collaboration technologies have in shaping today learning. While collaborative tools and new media technologies provide great help in supporting teachers’ work and in helping learners interact and share their personal discoveries, their use should not be driven toward envisaging them as a total replacement of existing educational approaches but rather as extensions of it.

What technology is supposed to do instead, is to serve as a walking stick to provide learners with the ability to collaborate, confront and exchange ideas to make a better and more complete sense of the world, even outside classrooms physical limits.

If you are passionate about learning, about understanding more of what new technologies and media are transforming, this weekly digest takes you to places, facts and resources that help you make greater sense of the increasing relevance and impact these tools are having on our educational landscape.

Here all the details:

Intro by Daniele Bazzano

eLearning Resources and News

learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends

by George Siemens

Introduction to Emerging Technologies

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that University of Manitoba is offering a Certificate in Emerging Technologies for Learning.

The first course - introduction to emerging technologies - starts November 17. From the course description (.pdf):

“New technologies offer new opportunities for educators to increase learner engagement and improve the overall value of the learning experience.

The last five years have resulted in the introduction of numerous new tools and approaches: blogs, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarking, virtual worlds, and social networking services. This course will explore the development of different technologies and suggest their potential impact on teaching and learning. Focus will be placed on tools that increase learner control over content, interaction, and the formation of learning networks with peers and experts outside of classrooms.”

Social Networks, The Next Educational Tool?

Social Networks, the Next Educational Tool?:

“At last year’s Educause conference, in Seattle, educators pondered what to do about students’ technology habits. Should they try to change them? Accept that they’re here to stay? Try to co-opt them?

A lot can change in a year. Many colleges seem to have moved on from the question of whether to follow students’ lead on technologies they prefer, from Web-based e-mail to Facebook to text messaging. Now, the dilemma they face is whether to adapt students’ existing habits - of messaging each other, checking each other’s profiles and browsing upcoming parties - to the educational realm.”

The key concept I’m seeing in the use of technology in the service of education is that of enlargement.

New technologies are not meant to necessarily replace existing approaches; instead, they are enlarging the range of options for learners. We’re not doing away with email. Or even learning management systems. We’re adding blogs, wikis, social networking , virtual worlds, and numerous other technologies to current practices. And that’s exactly how it should be.

It’s difficult to predict which technologies will survive and which will fade. A spirit of perpetual experimentation is needed. Try many approaches. Stick with the ones that demonstrate some promise.

Microsoft Office Embraces The Browser

Microsoft doesn’t really have an option: Microsoft Office embraces the browser.

I watch how my children use software. Multiple devices (ipods, laptop, desktop, mobile phones) access the same resources (gmail, google docs).

Microsoft still has a dominant position on the desktop. But the desktop is no longer our sole option for creating and sharing documents. When our computing and interaction with others is not device centric, our software can’t be either.

Storytelling: Web 2.0 Style

Click above to enlarge image

Alan Levine and Bryan Alexander have published an important article: Web 2.0 Storytelling: Emergence of a New Genre (and a supporting wiki).

When new faculty or training professionals encounter read / write tools (blogs, wikis, video, podcasts, etc) the initial excitement usually turns to “oh, but how will I use this beyond posting blogs for students?”. The focus of this articles is on using storytelling (my preference is for the term narrative) to assist faculty and students to better make use of technology that offers personal control.

What’s Web 2.0 storytelling? It’s “the telling of stories using Web 2.0 tools, technologies, and strategies”.

Corporate Learning Trends & Innovations 08 Agenda

Like Jay Cross, I’m looking biased and forward to our upcoming online conference on corporate learning trends and innovations. Jay has compiled an agenda for a quick overview of topics and speakers. Should be a great event! Sign up here.

Free Learning Events

Curt Bonk lists a variety of free learning events during the month of November.

Online conferences and workshops are a great way to increase dialogue around key topics. Numerous for-fee online events exist - and I’m sure, will continue to exist. No-fee events are great opportunities to discuss/advance a concept and to bring together practitioners in emerging fields.

Connectivism Course (CCK08)

For those interested in the connectivism course, but haven’t been directly following the flow of conversation, here are a few links of potential interest:

• Live Session Recordings
• Main Site
• Course outline and weekly activities
• Moodle Site

Rhizome Project, or, What Have They Done With Dave Cormier?

Earlier this year, I edited an issue of Innovate on the future of education. One of the most frequently cited articles from that issue is Dave Cormier’s article on Rhizomatic Education. If the discussion in CCK08 is any indication, the rhizome metaphor resonates with people.

Today, I encountered this site - Rhizome Project - on the same theme. Surprisingly, no mention of Dave’s work or article. It seems unlikely that they wouldn’t have been aware of the article (it’s one of the first several returns when searching rhizomatic on google). An oversight of the project leaders? Or just ignoring Dave’s article and drawing credit for themselves? Participating in open environments requires acknowledgment as we build on the work of others.

Photo credits:
Introduction to Emerging Technologies - Jose Manuel Gelpi Diaz
Social Networks, The Next Educational Tool? - iMedExchange
Microsoft Office Embraces The Browser - BostonStrive
Storytelling: Web 2.0 Style - Bryan Alexander and Alan Levine
Corporate Learning Trends & Innovations 08 Agenda - Mike Rohde
Free Learning Events - Quavondo Nguyen
Connectivism Course (CCK08) - Ignite
Rhizome Project, or, What Have They Done With Dave Cormier? - Dave Cormier

Originally written by George Siemens for elearnspace and first published on October 31st 2008 as a weekly email digest on eLearning Resources and News.

About the author

To learn more about George Siemens and to access extensive information and resources on elearning check out www.elearnspace.org. Explore also George Siemens connectivism site for resources on the changing nature of learning and check out his new book “Knowing Knowledge“.

Did you know that even the Pope is now live video streaming from its mobile phone? Can’t believe it? In this video conversation with Bhaskar Roy, co-founder of QIK, one of the most popular live mobile video streaming services, Robin Good uncovers the Vatican story as well as other unheard of uses and applications of powerful and yet inexpensive personal video-casting technology.

Bhaskar Roy - Photo credit: Robin Good

QIK is one among several powerful new tools which allows anyone with a compatible mobile phone and an adequate data-transmission plan to broadcast live directly from your mobile phone, creating the opportunity for tens of thousands of users to experience all kind of events without needing to be there.

If you enjoy using Twitter for your daily micro-blogging activities, you’re going to love Qik. It’s like twittering enhanced with videos. And if the social network fever really got you, Qik is developing a new feature which will enable you to stream all of your live videos directly to your Facebook Profile. Sounds cool, isn’t it?

Here the video interview (the audio quality isn’t that great this time, and we appreciate your patience on this), alongside a full English text transcription:

Mobile Video Streaming - Video Interview With Bhaskar Roy - Founder Of QIK.com

Duration: 13′ 33″
N.B.: Audio quality is rather bad. Robin’s voice is way too loud and distorted and Bhaskar is too soft. Apologies and please peruse the full text transcription here below.

Full English Text Transcription

Intro

Robin Good: Hi guys! Here’s Robin Good from Rome, Italy, and I’m here with Bhaskar Roy, connecting from California!

He’s one of the co-founders of Qik, one of my favourite companies, giving you the possibility from you standard Nokia phone, iPhone, whatever good mobile phone you’ve got, to stream live your video from anywhere you are.

Ciao Bhaskar! How are you doing today?

Bhaskar Roy: I’m doing very good Robin, I’m glad to be here and talking to you.

A Large User Base

Robin Good: Good, in fact for me as well, because we users of Qik and the people who are curious and want to know more about it, want to find directly from you what are the latest news.

How’s it going with Qik? How many people are using it to this moment… how many active users have you got?

Bhaskar Roy: Very good question Robin. We are seeing a lot of users, tens of thousands of users across around hundred countries, now you think about it.

The great finding is these people around the world have started appreciating this concept and using it, and to the point we see close to 35 per cent of our users, I would say active every week. Every week 35 per cent of our user base actually using the product and getting value from it, so we’re very excited.

QIK Applications

Robin Good: What about unique applications, stuff that you wouldn’t have thought about, that people are using Qik for? Have you noticed specific either entertaining, spontaneous, or even business-like applications that are springing up spontaneously by the use of this new technology?

Bhaskar Roy: Absolutely. We’re surprised pretty much everyday of how people use it.

I’ll give you some examples.

One is: we were surprised that Pope, the Vatican, started using Qik. They were using it when they were going out, and basically that was something called World Get Together 2008 or something that like in Australia, on World Youth Day 2008.

The Pope traveled to Australia and he was addressing everyone there and the entire travel diaries were captured by the media around Pope, and the priests around Pope using Qik. That was like we had never ever, when we started, imagined that the Vatican would start using Qik. That was a pleasant surprise.

We also are finding that in terms of businesses media companies are starting to use Qik. People are using this mainly to broadcast live news, or capture live news. We’re finding fields service type application, and half recently what we found is there is one particular person we came to know who’s using it for telemedicine type purposes.

We’re finding very interesting business-use cases, but the things that surprises us all the time is when people themselves come up with and consumers come up with a new way of using it.

I’ll give you another example about a person: he was a dad, he was expecting a kid, but the kid was not due before two months or so and he was traveling, and no-one can say what happens. The kid decided to come early and he was able to experience that entire birth of his kid, and be there using Qik.

This was of course a private video, and this video was kept private. We don’t even have access to it, but the way we came to know about that, he sent us an e-mail saying: “I wouldn’t have ever been able to participate in this without a technology like Qik“. Those kind of things gets us and energizes us to do more and more of this.

QIK New Features

Robin Good: Fantastic reports, excellent stories. Thank you Bhaskar for sharing these. How about new features?

Recently my phone was complaining about upgrading, and we users sometimes now get more scared than excited when there’s a new upgrade because like on the iPhones, upgrades from Apple kind of lock you into more business protections or DRM schemes. Anyhow a friend of mine I guess misunderstood, and also I was leading to misunderstanding myself, because, as soon as I upgraded, my phone started to say: “Do you want to access this billable event?”

Is Qik going to be a costly event for streaming for me in the future? What’s happening?

Bhaskar Roy: No, that is one of the requirements as we’re going through the certification process with these manufacturers, and Symbian certifications. Those are the requirements that we have.

It’s not that we are charging for it, but letting the end user know that it’s a billable event, because that is your paying for the data associated with it. Once we use the data plans of users, we actually have to inform our users about it. We are taking those steps, which enables us to inform the users that these are some of the things that are happening in the application.

Don’t be surprised if there’s a data charge cost, and these are some of the requirements which are for the Symbian certifications and we’re going through those processes right now to build a complete certified applications and what you saw.

Robin Good: Oh, that’s good to know because, again, we users are as well skeptical, but many times very ignorant as well. The message gets to be a little ambiguous in our eyes as we would think naturally it’s not the charge of the data transfer, which we expect by default to be charged for, but the use of Qik that comes into discussion. Maybe in the future, Nokia, Qik and all the companies can work to make these clearer and not misunderstood by the user, because it’s going to be a disadvantage to all the participants.

Bhaskar Roy: Right, absolutely.

QIK Meets Facebook

Robin Good: You’ve got some real new features coming up for us users. I know because I’ve been experimenting with one that is absolutely cool, but you want to have the honor of telling us about it?

Bhaskar Roy: Sure, sure. I think you discovered our Facebook application, Robin. We are, as you can see, earlier we used to have a Facebook app, but what we have done is enhance that application, so that when you’re streaming live, you’re streaming live via Facebook Profile, people can actually chat and comment from that Facebook profile, then build out your entered comments.

You also have the ability to just not look at the live video, but also at the videos you’ve done in the past. You can look at those videos via Facebook. And whenever you’re streaming live, you also have the ability for this to go into the news feed which maybe you’ve discovered as a part of this.

We had a Facebook app, quite some time back. We’ve enhanced it, and we’re working on it. It’s still in testing mode. It’s great you discovered that and started playing with it.

Great, let us know if you have any feedback, we’re always looking for that!

What Makes QIK Better Than Other Mobile Live Video Streaming Solutions?

Robin Good: Coolio! Yeah, I wasn’t sure if I discovered something, I was onto something new, or I was just waking up too late, and I’m glad that it is something new. I invite everyone to go and try it out though this is still in super-alpha-beta testing mode. It’s still good to try it out and provide feedback to Bhaskar and his team.

What did I want to ask you that was in my notes: many people ask me: “Robin, why are you using Qik, there are a number now, at least five, six, seven, live video streaming applications that I can use from my mobile phone and all seem pretty good”. Some others have maybe some special features, you can use them from the PC, some others have a connection to the GPS, but now I see even Qik has it.

If you were to market yourself against the competitors, I’m not even asking you to mention them, what would you think are the key features that make you stand out from the user standpoint, and that you would underline to a new user?

Bhaskar Roy: It’s a very good observation Robin.

The key thing is looking at what our company is all about. All of us have been in real-time communication space, especially the founders for a long time, for a good nine to ten years prior to starting Qik.

The key things that we focus on is: how can we enable people to stream hi-quality video?

You are to a point where you can actually stream full 640×480 quality video from your Nokia N95. We are focused on looking at how we can deliver very high quality video, whatever is possible, across all type of network conditions.

Lot of people don’t even realize it, but when pick a cell pocket, or you are not online on a cell network, you can still be streaming and what Qik will do, is whenever it discovers the network, it will automatically push it out, so you don’t really have to worry about it. You can be in complete disconnected mode, streaming away, it will detect when the network comes in and push it out.

When you are streaming and your battery dies, the next stand when you start up it will discover saying: “Hey, there are some stream which cut left over, which are not taken to the server“. It will automatically start pushing those things out.

We have tried to make it, so that from a user standpoint the technology is completely invisible, but there’s powerful technology behind it. When you press that one button stream, it takes care of all the various conditions that could possibly happen, and makes sure that your stream is still going live, it’s still going as high quality as possible.

QIK Business Model

Robin Good: Great news, indeed! Fantastic, I’ve become so accustomed to this stuff that I even forget telling my friends, but if you guys google “qik robin good” you can hear my video story of, I don’t know six months ago or more, I was just amazed at this thing. I would go in the underground station, deep, under miles of concrete, and the thing would keep going. And when I go up again out of the next station Qik broadcasts everything out. It’s fantastic.

Outside of me being not part of the company, I really think that from this point of view, it’s truly fantastic.

To close fast with something that also some of my readers are interested into. What are you looking at in your future, the business model with which to survive. Is any surprise coming to us?

Bhaskar Roy: No, I would say it won’t be a surprise at all. We are very very open and we always take our users’ feedback whenever we do something. It’s just the nature of the way we are. You would see us very active on our blogs, talking to users and figuring out what to do next. We will be doing the same thing as we figure out what are the next steps of monetizing Qik.

One of the key things that we are looking at is looking to see how we can provide premium services around this. The basics we’re looking at we’ll always be free, but to look at how can we enable premium services, and by that we’re getting some requests from our users saying that if you add certain capabilities… if you look at providing some type of service level agreement that we’ll be willing to pay some type of subscription fee for it.

These are some of the things that we will be exploring. But those are still I would say in sometime 2009, so that it the time-frame when we can start working with our users and try to figure those things out as to what we can do.

Robin Good: In fact it’d be nice that we could use the billable option, to create channels that allow the live streaming of subscription services and premium value content.

That is something that even small publishers like me would be very interested into. I look forward to that, I thank you, for your time and I invite everyone to go out and try Qik, Q-I-K.com.

Supported Mobile Phones

Robin Good: What are the range of models now supported Bhasker?

Bhaskar Roy: We now support close to some 70 odd models. Nokia, a lot of Nokia phones, a lot of Windows Mobile phones, we support iPhone, we also have a lot of support for the lower Nokia phones, HTC phones, Sony-Ericsson phones, Samsung phones.

We do support a huge variety of phones. If you go to Qik.com, at the footer of the page, there’s a link to all supported phones, click on it, and you’ll be able to see all the various phones that we support.

Robin Good: Fantastic, thanks a lot for your information. I can only really thank you so much for sharing those info, and keep it up, keep us in the loop.

We’re really happy customers for now, keep it doing like this Bhaskar!

Bhaskar Roy: Thank you Robin, Thank you.

Robin Good: Have a great day, Ciao!

Originally shot and recorded by Robin Good for MasterNewMedia and first published on October 28th 2008 as “Mobile Video Streaming With Qik: A Video Interview With Founder Bhaskar Roy“

Screen capture and screen recording tools allow anyone to record faithfully any visual activity taking place on your computer screen, generally for the purpose of creating a video tutorial, demo or showcase to be published online. Once a screen recording gets published online it is normally referred to as a “screencast” (a broadcast of a screen recording).

Photo credit: Mipan, Anatoly Tiplyashin

Screencasting and screen recording tools give you the possibility to capture videos of either the full area of your computer screen or alternatively of a specific area of your monitor. You can use all of your computer normal functions while screen recording and even record your own audio as you comment and highlight the tasks being carried out.

Screen recordings can be generally saved in one more standard video file formats for easy upload and republishing on any web site. Typically free, such screencasting applications are also really easy to use: to record a video, just decide whether to record a specific area or the full screen, hit the record button or key combination, and start doing your demo as if you were actually showing your computer screen to someone. Once you are done hit the Stop button and the recording gets saved for you automatically on your hard disk, ready to be exported / converted in any one of the major video file formats.

Here below a small set of screen capture features I have identified as critical when comparing these tools. Use it yourself to more easily find the screencasting tool that best suits your needs.

• Platform: Specifies which operating system is required to run the application
• Software - Web-Based: Determines whether the tool is a downloadable software or a web-based application
• Capture Region: Possibility of recording the entire screen or specific regions of your screen
• Record Audio: Allows to record the audio from a microphone along with the video
• Record Webcam: Allows to record and embed your webcam video inside your screencast
• Shortcut Key for Stop: Enables you to stop the recording by pressing a key combination
• Output Formats: Indicates the available output file formats in which you can save your screencast

Here all the details:

Screencasting Tools Comparison Table

go to the table!

Record Videos Of Your Screen

1. Camtasia
   
   Camtasia is probably the most known screencasting solution that lets you record video from your screen easily. You can record any fixed or hand-drawn region of your screen, with the possibility of embedding your webcam or any other video source into your screencast. When finished recording, you can edit your video with a professional suite of video editing tools: cut parts, apply effect and transitions, add captions and audio. Then export your file in multiple formats to share it on the web. $299 to buy.
   http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp
2. CamStudio
   
   CamStudio is a screen recording software that allows you to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create AVI video files to convert into Streaming Flash videos (SWF). CamStudio interface is really easy to use: just set the video and audio quality, and press the big red button to start recording. When done, you’ll be able to save the file locally on your machine. Free to download and use.
   http://camstudio.org/

3. uTipu
   
   uTipu is a new screen recording software which allows you to record anything that is shown on your screen, in order to create software demos, tutorials or clip recording. uTipu can capture your full screen or any selected region you may want to define, letting you zoom and record your mouse movements. When finished, the video can be uploaded online directly to your account. Fully free, it works on Windows XP and Vista only.
   http://www.utipu.com/app/

4. I Show You
   
   I Show You is a free software for Windows platforms that enables people to easily record a sequence of operations that are going on on their screen. After the recording session has ended, the recorder presentation can be edited by drawing on it, adding notes, and recording a voice over narration. When done, you can send it to your friends via email, messenger or any other application. You can download ISU by clicking here.
   http://www.vapisoft.com/ISU.htm

5. oRipa Screen Recorder
   
   oRipa Screen Recorder is a free software solution that records screen activities and saves them as video files. oRipa Screen Recorder can help you record presentation, web pages, tutorials, or anything that is happening on your screen. You can save your output video in multiple formats and codecs, and add a real time audio narration. oRipa is free to download and use.
   http://www.ejoystudio.com/oripa-screen-recorder/index.htm

6. Jing
   
   Jing is a downloadable application for taking screenshots and screencasts of your monitor (or any region of it). You can invoke Jing via keyboard shortcut, then select the area you want to capture, tell Jing whether you want a video or an image, and then let it do its work. Currently it is free to download for both Windows and Mac platforms.
   http://www.jingproject.com/

7. Debut
   
   Debut is a free screen capturing software for Windows that anyone can use to capture video or still images from any device. The setup comes in just 400kb and, after you install it, you can capture any part of your screen, or even capture from a video device like a webcam. You can export the video in any format and save the screenshots in JPG format. Debut is completely free to download and use.
   http://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/index.html

8. FreeScreencast
   
   FreeScreencast is a free screencasting software that allows you to create high quality Flash encoded screencasts easily. Just register to the service, download the software and you will be ready to start recording your screen. When you finish your video, you can save the output flash file to your computer. Or if you prefer to share it, simply use the automatic upload service that will store your file online and will let you embed it in your website or blog. Free to use, registration needed.
   http://freescreencast.com/
9. Screencast-O-Matic
   
   Screencast-O-Matic is a Java-based application that anyone can use to create screencasts of their screen with no additional software to download. Without even registering to the site, you can record anything that happens on your screen just by setting the capture size, choose if you want audio included, and click go. When done, you can publish the screencast online or download it in .mov format. Free to use.
   http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/
10. AviScreen
    
    AviScreen is an application for capturing screen activity in AVI video format, or sequential images, but with no audio. You can specify any area of the screen to define what you want to capture, and also use the “follow the cursor” feature: using this mode you can produce a video or image of relatively small dimensions while covering all mouse activity over the whole screen area. When you are finished with your work, it will be automatically exported and saved in AVI format or sequence of BMP images. Free to download, available for Windows only.
    http://www.bobyte.com/AviScreen/index.asp
11. ScreenToaster
    
    ScreenToaster is a web-based screencasting software that lets you record screen activities without downloading any software. Working on any Windows, Mac, and Linux machine, it allows you to record your screen by pressing a key combination, which will also stop the recording and create a new video file that will be immediately saved into your account, so that you can whether share its link or embed it everywhere. Free.
    http://www.screentoaster.com/

Please help me refine, edit, correct and extend this guide by suggesting other screen capture tools and screencasting web services that I have not included in the above list, by using the comments section here below.

Originally written by Nico Canali De Rossi for MasterNewMedia and first published on October 27th 2008 as “Screen Capture, Screen Recording, Screencasting: The Best Tools To Record Videos Of Your Screen - Sharewood Guide“