This is a presentation I gave at at "U-TECH: Technology Ideas and Possibilities for Empowering 21st Century Youth", an IT seminar held on June 16, 2012 at Muhammad Ali Jinnah University (MAJU) in Karachi, Pakistan. The seminar was organized by Youth Empowering Spaces (YES) with the aim to empower 21st century youth through technology.

1. Presentation for:
U-TECH: Technology Ideas and Possibilities for Empowering 21st Century Youth
Learning Beyond Walls – eLearning
Ideas and Possibilities for Youth
By:
Karim Wallani

2. "We can't solve problems by using the
same kind of thinking we used when
we created them" – Albert Einstein

3. What is
eLearning
Emerging
Trends in eLearning from
Education the
(related to IT Perspective
eLearning)
Quick
look at
FOSS

4. What do you know about eLearning?

5. When talking about eLearning, we often focus on technology…

6. eLearning
…But look at the word ‘eLearning’, and notice the lowercase ‘e’ and the
uppercase ‘L’. This is done on purpose: Learning takes priority over ‘e’.

7. (Textbook) Definition of eLearning
• The use of information and communications
technology (ICT) for learning, teaching and
learner support services
• Encompasses the use of a variety of tools and
pedagogical strategies in a range of
educational settings
(Laurillard, 2006)

8. (Simplified) Definition of eLearning
• All learning, all the time!

9. Quick Look at
Free and Open Source Software

10. Free and Open Source Software
• Proprietary Software = Software owned by an individual or
company. The licensee is given the right to run the software.
• FOSS = Software that gives users freedom.
Freedom to… Proprietary Software FOSS
Run
Copy
Distribute
Study
Change
Improve

11. Free and Open Source Software
• FOSS does NOT necessarily mean free in terms
of cost, BUT it is usually free in terms of cost
• Fees are usually charged for distribution on
CDs/DVDs, USB drives, etc. or for services of
installing or maintaining free software

12. Popular FOSS Software
Type Proprietary Software FOSS Alternative
Operating System Microsoft Windows, Mac OS Linux (CentOS, Ubuntu, Linux
Mint, etc.)
Virtualization Software VMWare Workstation Oracle VirtualBox
Office Suite Microsoft Office OpenOffice
Web Browser Internet Explorer Mozilla Firefox
Graphics Application Adobe Photoshop, Corel Paint GIMP
Shop Pro
Email Client Microsoft Outlook Mozilla Thunderbird
Desktop Publishing QuarkXPress, Adobe InDesign, Scribus
Microsoft Publisher
File Archiving WinZip, WinRAR 7-Zip
Video Editing Adobe Premier VirtualDub
Screen-Capturing Camtasia CamStudio
Web Programming Adobe Dreamweaver Aptana Studio
And much more… as we shall see! Visit sourceforge.net for more FOSS.

13. Demo
• Ubuntu Linux
• Mozilla Firefox
• OpenOffice.org Writer
• OpenOffice.org Impress
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEHbwCMiOfo

14. Emerging Trends in Education

15. Emerging Trends in Education
Collaborative Learning Virtual Classrooms
Distance Education

16. Emerging Trends in Education
Mobile Learning Game-Based Learning

17. Emerging Trends – Collaborative Learning
• A situation in which two or more people learn
or attempt to learn something together
• Unlike individual learning, people engaged in
collaborative learning capitalize on one
another’s resources and skills
• These include both face-to-face conversations
and computer-aided discussions (social
networking sites, online forums and chat
rooms, web conferencing tools, etc.)

18. www.facebook.com

19. www.skype.com

20. www.mediawiki.org
www.wikispaces.com

21. Emerging Trends – Distance Education
(a.k.a. Distance Learning)
• Focuses on teaching methods and technology
with the aim of delivering teaching to students
who are not physically present in a traditional
educational setting such as a classroom
• Source of information and learners are
separated by time or space (or both)

22. www.moodle.org

24. www.khanacademy.org

25. www.ocw.mit.edu
Over 2,100 courses
available online.
Some of them containing
complete video lectures.

26. Emerging Trends – Virtual Classrooms
• An online classroom in which the teacher and
student are separated by time or space, or
both
• The teacher provides course content through
course management applications (e.g.
Moodle), multimedia resources, the Internet,
and/or Web conferencing

27. Emerging Trends – Virtual Classrooms
• Students receive the content and
communicate with the teacher via the same
technologies
• Can be synchronous (real-time) or
asynchronous (non-real-time)

28. www.bigbluebutton.org

29. www.secondlife.com

30. Emerging Trends – Mobile Learning
• Any sort of learning that happens when the
learner is not at a fixed, predetermined
location, or learning that happens when the
learner takes advantage of mobile
technologies (e.g. handheld computers, MP3
players, notebooks and mobile phones)

31. http://exelearning.org/wiki
http://audacity.sourceforge.net

32. Emerging Trends – Game-Based Learning
• A game, which is designed for a primary
purpose other than pure entertainment, that
deals with applications that have defined
learning outcomes

33. www.thesims.com
The Sims 2: Open for Business

34. DNA - The Double Helix (www.nobelprize.org/educational)

35. eLearning from the IT Perspective

36. eLearning from the IT Perspective
• Responsibilities:
– Design/Develop educational software including
Web and mobile applications
– Create/Maintain appropriate infrastructure
(hardware and networks) for eLearning
– Train users on the use of eLearning software and
hardware and provide support
– Interact with academics and administrators to find
out requirements and suggest solutions

37. Thanks!