IT Lesson

• Link to ZaidLearns Del.icio.us Collection
• Link to ZaidLearns Diigo Collection
• A Free Learning Tool for Every Learning Problem?

• OCW_Repositories
• OER_Repositories
• Podcast Libraries
• YouTube_Channels
• Engineering &_ICT
• Education
• Mathematics
• Natural_Sciences
• Business

2) Learning Tools

• Favorite_Tools
• Gaming
• Authoring
• Survey/Polling
• Graphics
• Learning Management Systems

POWER LINKS?
Please, keep in mind that my strategy is not to bookmark every single free learning tool or resource out there, but instead target those juicy links that I believe are useful, relevant, interesting, and have a long lasting value to our learning adventures. I am still exploring new tagging formulas and naming conventions, so you might find the current tag strategy messy and frustrating. However, I am still learning, and hopefully the power links will be increasingly easy to find as I master (or disaster!) the art of bookmarking and tagging.

REFLECTION!
During the last couple of weeks, I have begun a fascinating journey to find great courses available among OCW repositories around the world. I am certainly not interested in bookmarking every single one of them. MIT alone has now around 1800 free courses! But then again, how many of them give you learning goose bumps? Currently, there are already more than one hundred courses in my collection, and you can surely expect more in the coming weeks. When my learning adventure for full-blown courses begins to slow down, I will begin the struggle to bookmark particular free lectures and talks (videos) that give me learning goose bumps.

In other words, it wouldnt surprise me, if my del.icio.us collection reaches 1000 before July 2008. Having said that, it is not about big numbers, but instead it is about capturing great learning juice out there in the fast growing information galaxy, and making it easily available to hungry learners around the world.

I have to admit that I really enjoy using del.icio.us to bookmark and tag my learning discoveries. It is a brutally simple, focused and easy-to-use tool with no frills to distract you from its core purpose, which is to help you collect, manage, and share your links (URLs) online. And that is probably why this tool is ranked the number one learning tool on the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008 (Jane Knight).

Another beauty of managing your link discoveries with del.icio.us, is that when you bookmark a link, you can actually see how many other del.icio.us users that have bookmarked it. It is like searching for stars in the galaxy. When you discover one, you can check whether you are the first one to do so or not. Interestingly, I have noticed that del.icio.us users are great in bookmarking learning tools (e.g. Moodle = 6500+ have bookmarked it), but seem to lack interest (or awareness!) in bookmarking great free or OCW courses (Physics I: Classical Mechanics by Professor Lewin = 130+ have bookmarked it). Actually, most OCW courses that I have bookmarked fail even to reach the 20 mark. Perhaps, del.icio.us users focus more on bookmarking individual lectures or resources within the courses.

ZAIDLEARN GOES DIIGO?
There has been a lot of hype regarding Diigo, the new social bookmarking tool in town (it is not that new, brother!). So, to feel the hype I have also explored this tool. As Diigo allows you to import collections from other social bookmarking tools like del.icio.us, it was extremely easy to transfer my power links. Click here to experience ZaidLearns power links in Diigo.

Although, Diigo is a cool tool and has a lot more features than del.icio.us to socialize, communicate, and have fun, it does not appeal to me (at least until now!). The reason is that I want my social bookmarking tool to be brutally simple, easy-to-use and focused. I have enough of other free learning tools to socialize, communicate and have fun!

Though, it would be nice if del.icio.us allowed users to provide comments to our learning discoveries, and be able to report broken links. Besides that, del.icio.us is still my first choice! But then again, I will continue to export my collections, and import them into Diigo (whenever I remember!). You never know in the future :)

• Article - What Makes a Good Teacher

GOOD TEACHERS?

1. Really Want to Be Good Teachers.
2. Take Risks.
3. Have a Positive Attitude.
4. Never Have Enough Time.
5. Think of Teaching as a Form of Parenting.
6. Try to Give Students Confidence.
7. Try to Keep Students-And Themselves-Off Balance.
8. Try to Motivate Students by Working Within Their Incentive System.
9. Do Not Trust Student Evaluations, Neither do bad teachers.
10. Listen to Their Students.

What a great article! Thanks Richard M. Reis (PhD, Stanford University) for sharing your experiences and thoughts about some of the qualities that make a good teacher. I suppose we will not understand how good this reflective article is before we read and reflect the full story. Otherwise, it will be like memorizing PowerPoints without understanding the underlying stories (substance) supporting them. Yeah, we are kind of genetically and mentally engineered to digest stories. Stories that are memorable often hang around us for life. Please click here (or the above link) and reflect.

Yeah, it is easy to read about it. What about applying some of these qualities, or characteristics to our own teaching/coaching/facilitating/training/mentoring/nurturing/guiding... :)