My+contribution.

I feel that I'm at a place in my career where it's never been easier to reach out to others, particularly when working with other like-minded, passionate people.

My domain is cyber-space from where I envision global educational projects unfolding with ease, and contributing towards a new kind of educational revolution in impoverished parts of the world.

I will advise on setting up educational projects and show how they can be implemented to provide individuals with 24/7 access to their own self-styled, autonomous, interactive learning programmes.

I will also show how we can reach out to children, schools and communities from an educational point of view.

My criteria will encompass:

1) Environmments, web 2.0 technology, online learning materials. 2) Brain-friendly methodologies that emphasise right-brain acquisition of language and the fun element in learning.

As of now, I'm involved in a global 'Edupunk' movement which is an experimental, games oriented, right-brain 'edutainment' network that, though in it's infancy, has the potential to reach out to charities, as it's based on a kind of 'tv' broadcasting network...and lends itself to providing uniques access to 24/7 edutainment for little or no investment.

A) ENVIRONMENTS:

//**Learning Management systems.**//

I'm looking at four different learning management systems for online materials creation, storage and collaboration.

The idea is that all curricula, content etc. will be in one place for all teachers to access and contribute towards. The best LMS will be free, easy to maintain, intuitive and user friendly.

It will allow the creation of interactive content that can then be used in other virtual classrooms and on skype via screen-sharing or 'whiteboarding'.

Some LMS also have a virtual classroom as part of the whole set up.

//**Virtual classrooms**//

The best virtual classrooms I know and use at present are:

1) WiZiQ

[|www.wiziq.com]

Hosts up to 1000 students, recording capabilities, user friendly, nice platform and community.

2) Vyew

[|www.vyew.com]

Unique 24/7 access to content online with some cool features to allow asynchronous collaboration between peers and students.

It almost has full LMS functionality, so I'm looking at this with the other LMS I've come across.

WEB TOOLS AND CONTENT CREATION:

//**Tools**// It's an exciting time for content creators online. With my brain-friendly radar and inquisitive mind I've discovered a vast treasury of cool edu-toys to play with.

They include: 1) Mind-mapping software. 2) Animation/voice enabled sites for simple manipulation of learning goals and creating interactive projects. 3) Comic creation sites. 4)Podcasting sites. 5) Voice boards. 6) Electronic poster creation designed for individual and whole school projects. 7)Quiz makers 8)Online interactive games 9) Countless gaming ideas - many from traditional offline variety that can be tweaked for online use... 10)story generators...

This is just the tip of the ice-berg....there's so much more.

//**Content**//

I'm also among the first of online educators to embrace the work of a major influencer and innovator in online/blended /offline learning : Jason West.

Jason has created social media courses across all levels for language learners, and his work emphasises accelerated language acquisition through emphasis on speaking in 'real world' situations away from the classroom.

This is done by having a 3 tiered approach.

1) classroom lesson. 2) "Out there"....speaking assignments that take place in the real world or on social networking sites with the help of ELPers( English Language Philanthropist) 3) Feedback sessions using recordings of 'out there' conversations.

His materials are good for getting courses off the ground fast, saving time, money, teacher training ( in content creation)

They will get people speaking English fast

Purchase of the materials ( extremely cheap) lends itself to an affiliate programme which will enable the project to feedback 25% of the cost of materials back into running the charity etc.

That's how I see myself contributing to date.