Tuesday, May 5

My E-Learning Talk at Wawasan Open University (WOU)



WHY WOU?

I was invited to spend two days at Wawasan Open University (WOU) to meet some of the key people there and share ideas about e-learning and so on. It was a thrill to interact with everyone from the Vice Chancellor to the driver. After spending two days exploring WOU, its' slogan 'The people's University' is increasingly making sense ...about WOU

Besides having fun interacting and sharing ideas with the people of WOU, I am still amazed with WOU's unique campus buildings, which truly demonstrates the fusion of old and modern construction. The picture above should give you a good indication of what I mean.

In short, I enjoyed the learning adventure, and learned some valuable lessons on the way (hopefully vice versa) :)



E-LEARNING TALK
In addition, I gave a 90 minute full-steam e-learning talk exploring some of the e-learning 2.0 (or web 2.0 technologies) tools, and discussed how they could be used to infuse a more social, collaborative and dynamic online learning environment. Yes, we even explored connectivism, and how we can use a network of diverse technologies to facilitate online learning.

Why, bla, bla, bla, ... Here are the slides (on SlideShare):




REFLECTION
This time around, I slimmed down the participants' slide-intake from 100+ to 73, and was able to cover what I wanted to share (I am still learning!). We managed to even watch 4 short videos during the 90 minute e-learning roller coaster (which ended up with the '5-Minute University' video!). I am sure many were overwhelmed, but at least they got some idea what e-learning 2.0 is all about (before we have to deal with e-Learning 3.0! Don't we love such buzz words!).



Besides talking about e-learning 2.0, I promoted again my eBook and blog. If you look at the stats above, you will notice that Malaysia is not the top country visitor to my blog (sadly enough!), and can only muster a fifth place. However, we should be proud that we are higher positioned than Singapore at least (this time around!).

On a positive note, people from 185 countries, or 5,786 cities around the world have discovered ZaidLearn one way or the other (over the last 12 months). This just shows how interconnected the world is today. Amazing!

Yes, believe it or not, I have even connected with a remarkable guy from Gaza Strip (Palestine), who is exploring 'learning 2.0' with 12-15 year old kids. He is even planning to write a book about e-learning 2.0 in Arabic. Couldn't CNN or BCC cover such positive stories, besides the depressing ones. Again, amazing!

Oops, I need to pack, I am going on holiday to ... :)

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