A magazine and a journal concerned with e-learning are highlighted today. Firstly, E-learn magazine is produced by the reputable ACM, and includes short articles, case studies, "tutorials" (which may comprise of articles covering basic concepts) and reviews. Skimming through a couple of recent items, my eyes lighted on the concluding lines from a report on a conference session where delegates were reflecting on what made e-learning "fun". Factors such as social interaction, sponteneity and flexibility were identified, and "As the session drew to an end, the group moved towards one additional realization, that the dimensions that make e-learning and e-teaching effective are, in essence, the same as those that make any learning and teaching situation effective. However, virtual environments can be used in ways that present new opportunities and which provide new ways to enable experiences that have been shown to be effective in face-to-face learning situations."Neal, L. and Normore, L. (2005) "eLearning and Fun: A Report from the CHI 2005 Special Interest ." elearn, 5 July. http://elearnmag.org/index.cfm
Secondly, the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning includes refereed journal articles. It is produced by Athabasca University, the Canadian online distance-learning university. The item I'll highlight here is actually not refereed, but as I'm looking for social software to use for communicating with partners involved in a project, it caught my eye, namely:
Challborn, C. and Reimann, T. (2005) "Wiki Products: A comparison." International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 6 (2). http://www.irrodl.org/
(Photo by S. Webber: Weston Park, Sheffield, Nov. 2005)
