e-tivities
Learning activities delivered on the computer
Searches in Google: online quizzes” works; “flash templates”, “java templates”, “javascript templates” do not work very well.
By type of e-tivities
By Subject
- These are listed on the Subject specific Learning Objects page.
By environments
Related:
Linking e-tivities to the five step model
(reproduced from E-Tivities : The Key to Active Online Learning, by Gilly Salmon (2002), pp. 102)
Stage 1: Access and motivation
E-tivities at this stage need to concentrate on providing explicit motivation and set the pace and rhythm. Participants need to gain experience in the technology in use without believing it to be what the course is about! Therefore e-tivities need to be designed carefully to enable the participants to find their way around the online learning platform whilst taking part in relevant and authentic tasks.
There may be a great deal of anxiety around at this stage about how participants are expected to behave and who is online with them. This will not be visible to the e-moderator unless expressed in messages. Make a start on e-tivities that address these concersn and help people to feel more comfortable. Try to avoid the 'Post your first message here and say who you are' type of message. At the start of a conference or course such messages frighten some people, particualrly the more reticent or less experienced in the online environment, and are generally unfocused and unproductive to summarize.
Stage 2: Socialization
E-tivities at stage 2 need to focus on enabling participants to relate to a few others and on reasonably stretching tasks. E-tivities at this stage should provide ways of knowing who else is in the shared space and how this knowledge can be used to guide participants' work.
Provide practice, practice and practice – not in the technology, but in working together! Stage 2 e-tivities should offer experience in developing sensitivity to gender, racial issues, potentially personality conflicts and various educational values and expectations. Relate e-tvities at stage 2 to the traditions of your company, topic, discipline or profession because this provides the important cultural contexts for learning and makes later knowledge construction easier to achieve.
Stage 3: Information exchange
E-tivities at stage 3 should have a strong task and action focus. Use stage 3 e-tivities for prioritizing content, enabling participants to impart information to each other and explain and clarify. They should be shown how to provide feedback to each other in the spirit of deepening understanding. This will helps them prepare to move to stage 4 e-tivities.
At stage 3 I suggest that you design e-tivities that focus on exploring co-ordination and communication between the participants so that each participant works towards his or her own objectives within the overall e-tivity. Later e-tivities at stage 3 can look towards more co-operation and support for each person's needs and objective. In co-operation, there is more sharing of common objectives.
At this stage, you can experiment with the structure of groups and the techniques for group working. At stage 3 you will still need to be clear about which groups are assigned which parts of tasks. You could also try buzz groups (each group is given a topic) or syndicates (each group has an assigned task which culminates in a plenary debate).
Stage 4: Knowledge construction
You can increase the information that you offer as a 'spark', if you wihs, after your students have become adept at working online, at managing their time and at working with each other – in other words, when they have arrived at sage 4.
Objectives at stage 4 can be related to broadening understanding, providing different viewpoints and perspectives and examples. Avoid specifying in advance exactly what has to be learnt at this point, but ground e-tivities in real-world contexts and define the processes for producing the end results required. At stage 4 you can move increasinglyy towards peer-directed e-tivities and participant work teams. You could try, for instance, defining a group outcome, or asking the group to provide its own goal and objectives and give direction on how to collaborate.
Discussion-based e-tivities can work well and can be used so long as they are structured and focused. Develop e-tivities that have a wide variety of interpreations and perspectives (multiple realities). Encourage dialogue and collaboration including criticism, debate and disagreement. E-tivities can include choosing from alternatives, choosing thoughtfully (and giving reasons and arguments for choices), affirming a choice and giving proposals for improving practice and skills and acting upon choices.
Stage 5: Development
Purposes at stage 5 can be around gaining self-insight and on relfecting and making judgements on the expeirence and the knowledge surfaced and built.
Develop e-tivities that enable evalaution and critique of all kinds. Ask participants to demonstrate their ability to work with content and defend their own judgements. Encourage them to explore their metacognitive awareness of positions they adopt – for example, 'How did you arrive at that postiion?' or 'Which is better and why?' Don't forget to explore feelings and emotiosn about leanring, as well as experience of the topics.
Designing e-tivities
(borrowed from E-Tivities : The Key to Active Online Learning, by Gilly Salmon (2002), pp. 110; itself drawn from Steven Covey's habits of effective people and principle-centred ideas, Covey, 1999)
Start with the end in mind
- What do you want to achieve by this online activity? How will it add to participants' learning?How will you assess or evaluate the e-tivity?
First thing first!
- How will you introduce and start the e-tivitity off? How much notice will the participants need? Can you design clear invitational messages?
Think win: win
- Why will people want to take part? Will it add obvious and clear value to their learning? How will the group work together?
Sharpen the saw
- How will you prepare yourself to make this e-tivitiy a success? What preparation or resources will the participants need to take part?
Be proactive
- Plan the e-moderator role and actions. How often will you need to intervene? What will you do about non-participants? Be realistic about the timings but be prepared to adjust them if necessary.
Seek to understand
- What happens if the e-tivity doesn't go as you planned? How can you get information to change it for next time?
E-moderate
- Plan what you have to do to makethis all work while the e-tivity is running.
General
Learn4good Free Online Games, Quizzes, Puzzles, Educational Games
Tabula Digita Education for the Video Game Generation]]
Lesson plans @ eleaston
Teach-online @ eleaston Build a Course, Set up a Mail List, Make Online Quizzes, Make a Webpage, Fonts & Diacritics, Audio & Video
Authoring Utilities QuizMaker, ClozeMaker, Xword puzzle generator, Text-to-Speech dialog authoring
Modulo Editeur Maison d'édition de CD-rom educatifs
Jeux (in French) Petits jeux humoristiques directement jouables en ligne. Attention, certains sont en Java, Shockwave ou au format Flash MX.
Exercices interactifs (in French) Niveau Collège, FLE
Personal Educational Press Create free educational worksheets such as flashcards, game boards, and quizzes to print directly from your browser. Simply choose a word list and an output style. (Help)
Teacher's Desk Various downloads, ranging from EduWare, GameWare, and various programs.
June Lester, http://www.cecm.sfu.ca/~jalester/DEMO/ Demo of two projects: a project on online interactive geometry (POINCARE) and a project on a web notebook interface (BinderBaby).
References
E-tivities: The Key to Active Online Learning By Gilly Salmon (online google book)
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