wayne

To begin, I am a teacher of Information Technology and Business Management and Financial Accounting (dual qualification), with 20 years teaching with an emphasis on Information Technology with the past 10 years being specialised Web Technologies and Multimedia. Prior to full-time teaching I held positions in accounting and systems administration after 20 years in industry.

 

Having read through the variety of responses above, and discussion centring around the worth and usefulness of online learning from individuals' perspectives, the reality is that nothing stays the same, and as the beings we are, humans adapt to their environment and the changes within - which we may refer to as the economy. Global trends and competitive factors, combined with institutional initiatives and various government influences will dictate the evolution of education.

 

At the beginning of the 20th century the economy was driven by such phenomena as greater use of science by industry; the proliferation of academic disciplines; the diffusion of a series of critical inventions (including small electric motors, the internal combustion engine, the airplane, and chemical processes); the rise of big business; and the growth of retailing. Progress for industrial nations depended on educating more people at the secondary and postsecondary levels. The western cultures established education systems that produced educated citizens and workers, enabled geographic and economic mobility, resulted in more equality of economic outcomes, and may have increased technological change and productivity (although that is harder to prove). It was largely a decentralised, forgiving education system that?in the context of the day?was highly successful. Today, however, more than one hundred years later, economic and social drivers are quite different, calling into question some of the assumptions that underlie institutions of higher education.

 

The economy of the 21st century is driven in large measure by unprecedented advances in transportation and in computing, information, and communications technologies. To be competitive, industrialised and developing nations alike are driven by needs such as greater use of science and new technologies by average citizens; more creativity and more interdisciplinary work; greater understanding of highly complex, interacting systems; new and renewed efforts at building community and solving local challenges in the face of globalization and massification; and a substantial rethinking of retailing, services, and business in general as a result of changing tools, physical possibilities, and financial opportunities.

 

Much of the rhetoric about contemporary higher education suggests that colleges and universities need to embrace change in response to advances in knowledge, technology, transportation, and more?advances that have dramatically shifted the way one functions in the modern world. But what manner of change for learning itself do the public narratives suggest? Commission reports, report cards, and public agenda profiles of requirements for higher education in many nations seem to be asking for substantial changes that will prepare learners to meet modern challenges.

 

Initiatives designed to closely associate appropriate technologies with content-specific information to achieve defined teaching and learning aims are still largely creative, experimental endeavors. It stands to reason that the activities involved in creating new technology-assisted teaching strategies are time-consuming and labor-intensive because of the personal and organisational rethinking involved in the effort.

 

From the existing platform, where re-visioning movements are institution-focused, on inputs, changing courses, curricula, programs; coverage of domain knowledge and skills is via individualistic, passive, and teacher-centered modes of instruction; students are approached and viewed as being absolute knowers; students are encouraged to develop problem-solving capabilities; teaching of skills occurs that does not lead to flexible skills or their application; skills and competencies are highly compartmentalised; and students treated as passive receivers of information and unengaged learners... the new vision requires Re-visioning movements are student-focused, on what students need to know and be able to do - competencies and outcomes are central; increasing emphasis is on hands-on, minds-on methods, authentic learning, and high-concept/high-touch capabilities; students are approached and viewed as being independent and contextual knowers; students are encouraged to develop problem-solving and problem-posing capabilities; teaching of portable skills occurs; information literacy, technology fluency, and domain knowledge are blended; and students treated as big-picture thinkers and critically engaged doers.

 

The new educational paradigm is unfolding, testing the waters and adapting... and it will eventuate for economic reasons alone (the increasing overheads and the growing demand for enrolments being retarded by budgetary constraints), which make physical classroom instruction less viable.

 

In the past 5 years, 50% of my classes have come to involve online components some completely online, and a greater focus on student ownership of their own learning (conducting research and completing assessments at home in their own time) thus reducing on campus class times and use of institutional resources.

 

In the case of courses requiring the use of specialised equipment such as Health and Recreation (Fitness courses) and Hospitality areas, for example, institutions are consolidating industry partnerships which facilitate a practical hands on and real world environment for learning to occur through work placement programs as part of the course.

 

Further, network-delivered, collaborative services provide increasingly improved unique virtual operating environments for groups to meet, share information, create content, and generally overcome time and space constraints encountered in on campus alternatives.

 

All in all, Online Education is set to become the standard rather than the exception, and yes, students will be self managed, self motivated and achievement focused in order to succeed in their chosen field. So, like it or not, online education is here to stay.

We will doubtlessly cling to our own opinions. LolCheers!

Happy New Year to all - in this 3rd day of the New Year (In Australia), may 2010 (MMX) be a great one for the common people who have done it hard for too many years!Cheers!

Hi again,
Iframes are used all over the place for advanced and semi-advanced web apps. At the top of my head, Gmail and Google Wave both use iframes, not to mention this bulletin board (the shoutbox is an iframe). In some places, Yahoo uses iframes, Bing uses them in image results (I believe Google does, too). Amazon and eBay use iframes... The list goes on and on.

In short, you do know of a lot of places out there that use iframes, sometimes it's just not apparent/significant that they do

I think the point has been made.

Lol... We so have to be careful about the correction of fledglings who are contributing a lesser informed view so as to pursue their hosting entitlement..., and who, through intimidation about being corrected or shot down everytime a comment is made by them, will take their hosting dream elsewhere.

Respectfully, this particular thread didn't strike me as being one for intense technical debate at the time I made my original comment about Frames being history... in fact, the original post by the thread starter in my view was referring to the blocky 3-page frames structure as a webpage format.

There is a myriad of sites /forums /threads where technialities can be argued - but let us not lose the plot completely through domination with our own superior knowledge. Indeed, I could comment in many cases at a technical level possibly greater than your own - but is it in the best interests of the thread or Xisto for me to do so?

Probably not.

Interesting discussions here, nonetheless.

While functionality of Firefox have made my surfing, researching and programming a lot easier, I would continue to use Internet Explorer for the purpose of testing out web designs and scripts.
Although I may not use the Internet Explorer there are users who still use what is the "norm" for their computer. And from a certain aspect, ActiveX is still a huge part of the business world--which is native to Microsoft's programming.

I have purchased and maintained particular security and closed caption circuit television DVRs for alarm companies. And majority of them require ActiveX to remotely view their camera or recordings. And so Internet Explorer is still the choice of browser for many clients and monitoring stations. And because it will be a long time to change them from ActiveX to the next generation, it's a sure bet that I'll be writing codes that are relevant to Internet Explorer.

For the abovestated reasons alone, IE is still useful, and bound to survive the challenge of the new players. It's association with Microsoft means that it will ultimately share in the success of Microsoft Operation systems. My preference is for Firefox, and Opera.

I too have installed Ubuntu 9.10... Having installed various distributions over the past decade, it is obvious that as Microsoft begins to suffer losses (a sign perhaps that they are on the downslide), Ubuntu shows us the potential of linux to present as a viable alternative operating system.A lot of the concern of linux newbies is the removal from their comfort zone familiarity built up over many years of using Microsoft Windows (despite its obvious failings to deliver value for money in every release).I won't repeat all that has been said, but Ubuntu can achieve as good a result as anything Windows offers, and more - and it is well worth perservering with.

A name is a name is a name... lolBe judged by performance and service quality - they determine the level of success - the name is irrelevant. ...but to answer the question, I like it.

Lots of good escape sites here... now, where is the 36 hour day to alow me to use them?lol

This is a great discussion.. Thankyou. I have my question answered without having to ask it!

Camtasia Studio 6 by Techsmith is a good investment for creating streaming video...

It allows you to add Titles and transitions simply... and allows the inclusion of several clips/formats as well as images.

Its output options include...




In the output phase, it produces all the html and javascript required...

Hey, guys. I am searching for the best free hosting provider that allows using og PHP and AJAX technology. The main feature of the hosting provider is that i can offer at least 1Gb of storage and unlimited number of MySQL databases. I need it for my University project and I need it urgently. Do you have someones in your mind?

I have used several free web hosts over the past 18 months.... and in the main, they no longer exist. They were all like this one - associated with a forum, and operated in much the same way. I am trying this one in the hope that because it appears to be solid, it will prove to be the right choice.

For an immediate solution, 000webhost is up and going in minutes... but the offering for mysql databases and such is lower - it depends what you want.

Even spending to purchase cheap hosting doesn't guarantee they will be there long term.

In my opinion you should start learning HTML with Macromedia Dreamweaver in Design mode. Step by step with this program you just need to create the visual part of a website and modify it easily. I was a complete beginer with html and stil managed to create a few websites in this program. You can switch from design to Code with just one click so you can see what happens with each one when you modify the other , that's how you learn it... you see what every design change modifies the code and vice versa.

 

Also it's even easier if u choose to start from an already made template from de web (it's full of them , dont need to search too much) and re-design it by your own will , to suite your website.

Even so..for the past time i discovered that it's not worth to make a HTML website , it's easier to start with blogs , forums, etc.. they are much easier to set up , but alot harder to maintain. More difficult to get known on the web , to attract traffic ..etc.. you know how this things work .

 

Good luck.

Excellent advice!

 

 

It is not simple,but it isn't so hard if you are using templates.With templates,all you need to do is to replace site name/slogan and site text.Sometimes templates are licenced,so author leaves a link from his website or profile.You can use templates for stupid tricks or profiles.But if you want to create a professional website like portal or network tool you need to know how Web works.Web is connected to HTTP/SLL/FTP/PHP/ASP/HTML.You need time to learn all that.But that is just the start...There is more.If you want to create design,not just HTTP/SLL/FTP/PHP/ASP/HTML,you need and CSS and Image creating too.So to create a website you need software,like DreamWeaver,Photoshop,Gallery Creator.Real website creating is like software development.You can use free renders,but you can write source code,too.

 

If you want to start learning all that now,try to search on Google for HTML and CSS tutorials.After learning that search on YouTube,how to use your knowledge to create a website.After learning that you will see how much complicated is to do all that.There are hundreds of ways to create a real website.Also you need to know how to make your website popular.So you will need to learn SEO too.There are things which will come and come.So you can't create a list what you need,that is relative.It depends on what kind of site you need and if you choose one thing,another thing will appear.If you choose to code your website in PHP,SQL will come.If you choose to use Joomla,lots of Joomla functions will come,because Joomla is not customizable if you don't know programming and using Joomla! functions.

 

I don't need to say more.That is the simplest way to explain all what you need to do,and is difficult job to do it.A short answer:

CREATING WEBSITE IS JOB,AND PEOPLE GET PAYED FOR CREATING WEBSITES

I agree the technologies involved can make it as complicated and as technical as you like, but for beginners, keep it simple. Start with basics in any of the things mentioned in this thread, and develop from there.

The other important factor is imagination. You are limited by the extent of your imagination in how your website will look.

 

Excellent thread, btw.

right... with Christmas out of the way - time to get involved and get some hosting ....now, let's see...

WordPress is the way to go, if you're experienced with blog administration. You can write up entire templates yourself with standard HTML/CSS/JavaScript and some PHP. You can easily create widgets or other plugins with PHP. There's also a huge database of themes and widgets!

I agree Word Press is best! (Self Hosted, of course).

There is even supported scripts to include a shopping cart, making it a versatile alternative to suit many purposes.
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

Tynipic is the best image hosting that I can use... The quick process to host your images is unique and they never delete your images like other hosting like Imageshack(I hate that site...)
I recommend to use Tynipic.com...It´s simple the best image file hosting!!!

So do I, and for the same reasons...

We all find something that suits our need, and use it. I am sure if I had tried one of the others first and was satisfied with it, then it would be my favourite.

Cheers!

I am somewhat intrigued by the fact that you experienced any problem at all... I installed it to create an image to be ghosted over a number of workstations in a classroom, and had absoluely no problems at all.... very straightforward.I'd be interested in knowing the exact nature of the problem you encountered.

This is a very perplexing and entertaining post.. lolI have seen this before also... and surprisingly, I have seen normally intelligent and logical people stumble over it, and get involved in lengthy arguments over it...Great topic.

Had to learn CSS to teach it... :Pw3c is definitely a useful resource. Over time, of course, there has been many tutorials and reference books introduced to make it easy to learn. Also, using Dreamweaver allows one to see how it is structured as a page is visually constructed and designed.CSS has had a rapid development and increase in popularity - due to its abilty to load once and remain for the duration that a site is accessed/visited... proving to improve load times and provide consistency...Its inclusion in the layout of many server-side applications such as forums and cms has definitey improved the efficiency of page loads and the ability to control page layouts.

Linux offers truly viable and competitive alternatives to Windows now... It has hasn't always catered for the masses, but silently it has closed the gap.Given the internet is linux based, and every url is a small piece of command line, the transition may be easier than most consider. Many of its advantages have been stated here already, so at a minimum everyone should give it a go - even in a duel boot environment.It is unlikely that microsoft will continue its dominance ad infinitum...

Rapidshare no longer has the stranglehold it once had. But to alienate users by moving the goal posts will be to its detriment.Such services need to be like web hosts... Secure, stable, and static!

Hi Wayne,
Welcome to Trap 17!, you seem very knowledgeable in IT thats great!. Do you teach high school, college or universities? You'll fit in well here in trap 17, there are many opportunities to help people with IT problems here on the trap. You should be up and running on a host after about 15 or so posts. Hope you enjoy!

Thankyou...
I teach College - students between 18 and ...well, 80, I guess.

I don't profess to have all answers, but will happily assist if and where possible. I will keep chipping away with posting - with a view to acquiring hosting ASAP.

Again... Thankyou.

Frames were an important part of the evolution in Web Design... but alas they are now history. CSS offers the best options in achieving page layout now, and is worth knowing if you dabble in page design and layout...

I use NotePad++. It's better then Notepad to be editing code in files, such as .php, .sql and .html extensions.

I concur! The most efficient way to edit a web page is in the code... the best way to do that is with a text editor, and the best example is Notepad ++.

Thankyou for this very useful post... It is a question I'm often asked.

I use Firefox primarily, but test with and occasionally use Internet Explorer 8, Chrome, and Opera. 2nd choice is Opera.