Low Cost Tools for eLearning

At the AG09 conference, there was a lot of discussion about using social websites, and putting them in a corporation to capture knowledge. This article list some software for building social community types of sites. So if you are wanting to build a social aspect into your company, this might be a good place to look.

Many in the list are free, which is great.  Unfortunately, it does come at a slight cost – that is a loss of some functionality. That functionality is usually in the form of not integrating with your Active Directory so you can have automatic logins. You also might benefit from someone who knows how to set it up, configure, and brand it to look the way you would want it to.

In many of the sessions, people talked about using something like Share Point from Microsoft. While a good application, it is expensive. However, it does give you the the ability to automatically login. It also has lots of features, which might be expensive to add-on, and/or learn to use. However, you can find classes to take on-line and at training centers.

The list is a bit old, unfortunately, which means some of the software projects are not supported, and there are some new projects out there. I have noticed that 1024 is no longer in active development. I am currently looking into BitWeaver from this site however for a web site I am developing. One thing I like about it is that you can add on features as you might like to increase it’s functionality.

One application not listed in the article was Buddy Press.  Built on the same foundation as Word Press (which powers this blog), and by the same people. I’ve heard of several people who like it.

I plan to start implementing Bit Weaver in a little bit. I will follow up with what I found out about it when I complete the project.

Walter Wimberly News buddypress, social software, WordPress

This website is built as a blog, powered by Wordpress. For those who attended some of the Web 2.0 type classes, at AG09, you know that blogs are one way in which “Experts” in your company can easily distribute information to other people.

Wordpress, allows additional features, such as adding themes, and plug-ins (like the review feature) – so that others can be involved in the discussion.

The Pros

Wordpress has several nice features to it such as:

• easy install – 5 minutes or less usually,
• lots of free, or nearly free, plug-ins to extend its usability,
• it is actively being developed – continuous updates, new features, and security updates,
• easy article/post editor, and
• it’s free.

The Cons

• Helpful to install on a linux server (although it can be hosted on Windows or remotely though wordpress.com),
• it is actively being developed – which means you have to update periodically, and
• it uses PHP4 (means that it not as current, but it can run on almost any server because of this.

Overall

Overall, Wordpress is a simple, but powerful blogging platform which can allow people to easily communicate news, information, etc without having to be technically minded. It can even be set up to run with multiple authors if you’d like.

It is fast, and allows for advanced features if you choose to enable them, working equally well in front of, as well as behind a firewall if necessary. Definately something worth looking into if you want to start with some basic elearning 2.0 without having a large budget.

Walter Wimberly Reviews rating, review, Web 2.0, WordPress

AS promised, here are the slides from my AG09 presentation, as well as the handout.  The slides are more than slides, they include my speaker notes…so I ask that if you download, you don’t laugh at my spelling/grammar.

Handouts (pdf)

Slides with Speaker Notes (pdf)

Walter Wimberly News AG09, Tools

Often we need to be able to edit photos and images to insert into our eLearning content. We get an image from a digital camera, marketing, or our production team, and it is just too big to be placed into content, or it’s too dark, or it really could use a call out.

Unfortunately, some popular image editing software and run several hundred dollars per seat, so getting enough licensees can be really expensive. Add to this, how weak a tool like Window’s Paint is, and you have a serious problem.

However, to the rescue comes Paint.Net.

The Pros

Paint.Net is a tool with much of the needed functionality of a full image editing software, while still being completely free. In addition, it is fairly fast, easy to use, and allows you to have multiple files open at once, so you can copy and past between images.

Some of it’s basic features include:

• using a paint brush, or pencil for drawing,
• erasing parts of an image,
• typing in text,
• changing color balance,
• adjusting the brightness and contrast,
• multi-layer support,
• support for multiple image formats (png, gif, jpg, etc.),
• resizing an image, and
• cropping an image.

You will also find that it is regularly updated. This is good as the community which is developing it works on improving its performance, fixing bugs, and adding new features. So something that was missing last week, may be in there this week.

The Cons

Unfortunately, there are a couple of drawbacks.  Paint.Net gets its name in part by requiring the Windows .Net framework to run. This is a separate download to install, and it obviously makes it so it will run on Microsoft Windows computers only.

The second drawback is that the text support is fairly weak. While you can add text, and modify it’s size and font, you cannot edit text once you enter it. So catching an error the next day can be tough. (Tip: Keep the text in a separate layer so it won’t damage your underlining image.)

The final drawback is there is currently no support for lay effects. Those used to Photoshop, are familiar with using effects like the drop shadow, emboss, glow, and more. Those effects are absent. You can manually create some of these effects with just a little effort, while others are more difficult to recreate. This is a mixed blessing as too many people use effects simply because they can, it also does make things more difficult when you do need the effect.

Overall

Overall I like Paint.Net.  It has been installed on work and personal machines and performs it’s duty well. While it doesn’t have all of the features of some other software, it is free, and easy to use.

If you need help learning it, you can go to their website http://www.getpaint.net/ and they also have tutorials on how to use the software.

Walter Wimberly Reviews .NET Framework, Adobe Photoshop, Paint.NET, rating, review

I’m in the Crystal Room, and we’re about to start “Free and Low Cost Tools for Developing eLearning”.  So if you are at AG09, feel free to come on down, and get it all.

The first review, is scheduled to go up after the session finishes.

Walter Wimberly News AG09, eLearning

Welcome to Welcome to Low Cost Tools for Building eLearning Content. This is a supplemental website to my session at the eLearning Guild.

Given how there isn’t a lot of press given to free and low cost tools, I felt this would be a greate place to show and discuss these tools.

The first tool, Paint.Net, will be discussed shortly after the discussion.

For those able to attend the event, please stop by my session for more information.

Walter Wimberly News Electronic learning, Tools