Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Learning creators → LearnTube?

One of the learners from the course e-Learning Fundamentals (the course we designed for the European Commission) was talking about the big IT hurdle: teachers still are lacking some IT skills that are needed to implement e-Learning.

Wow, I remember I was facing the same problems 10 years ago. How slow and frustrating this can be! In the meanwhile the learners don't even understand what we are talking about. What hurdle? One big example is the use of video. I love the way people are using video nowadays. When I was creating instructional video's (and CD-i) for the first time you needed a serious analog editing set. Very expensive. Now you just need a PC or Mac. Your build in cam is there, iMovie or Microsoft Movie Maker is there to assist you. Combine the editing possibilities with a platform like YouTube and you have a powerful learning tool.

People start creating videos, they are telling their stories. People like to learn each other something. People like to share their passion, their experience, their feelings. HOW GREAT!

See for example the next movie, one of my favourites. Watch how well this guy explained his story. What a didactical genius! Who wants to hire him as an instructional designer? Check his graphics!



Or look at these two people, they are showing us how to play guitar! People asked them to explain how to do it. Enjoy your free course.



Or learn how to Jump. If you like a different style of music:



For me what is amazing is that YouTube doesn't really has a category 'Education'. Or maybe that's why there are so many educational videos ;-) As long as we don't call it 'education' or 'learning' people are just doing it!

Now a site is filling that gap and offers a kind of educational interface for YouTube content: http://www.teachertube.com/ And don't forget to visit http://www.teachers.tv/

But one of the sites I love the most is VideoJug where you can learn how to unblock a toilet and many more things.

If you finding this boring and you want to add some spice to the learning process and you like nice ladies you should check out a silly site: http://www.frenchmaidtv.com/.


Learning is about emotion! And fun, and passion.
It can be easy, rewarding and fun to create, and share, and learn. Maybe somebody can explain on VideoJug how to get over the IT hurdle? Or just forget about technical stuff and start focussing on didactical power?

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