Virtual Tours via Google Presentations

Virtual tours are great teaching and learning resources especially in the realm of the arts and social sciences. Whilst most virtual tours were made using 3D animation tools, it’s also possible to create these using linked slide presentations. Here’s a Youtube video that will show how to create a simple virtual tour of a museum:

The video shows a step-by-step instruction on how to create the 3D perspective using various shapes and place a hidden or invisible link on each of the walls. So I also tried this on LibreOffice Impress and Google Presentation just to make sure that the effect is the same. Afterwards, I had my EDUC 190 students submit to me a virtual tour as a requirement for the course. To make the virtual tours more realistic, the students shall take snapshots of the different views of each room. The pictures will then be resized and reshaped to create an effect of having a perspective of the room.

You can access their work on the class blogs: EDUC 190 WF and EDUC 190 WF1.

I think it’s time to have a Youtube video as well on how to create virtual tours using Google Presentation. What do you think?

2nd EDUC 190 Webinar Series 2012-2013

The EDUC 190 (Computers in Education) classes of the University of the Philippines Diliman College of Education will be holding the 2nd EDUC190 Webinar Series this 2nd semester 2012-2013! The webinar (or online seminars) are FREE and these will run from March 10 to April 5, 2013 depending on the schedule. The webinars will be organized by undergraduates mostly composed of education students and sports science students. This online event is FREE for everyone but slots are limited and there are no reservations due to the limitation of the webinar platform.

The topics range from the following: Flipped Classroom, Online Games for Learning, Parenting Techie Kids, Mobile Apps for Learning, Technology in Special Education, Cyberspace Laws, Teaching Tumblr for Classroom Use, Digital Storytelling, Educating 21st Century Learners, 5+ Free Web Tools for Teacher Organization, or simply, topics in the realm of Educational Technology.

Presenters will be coming primarily from the classes along with possible guest speakers from different local and foreign organizations. The schedules of the webinars will be provided through 2 publicly viewable Google Spreadsheets (one for the EDUC190 WF class and another for the EDUC190 WF1 class). The webinar details (e.g. presenters’ names, webinar links) are posted on the spreadsheets.

The organizers will mostly be using the Blackboard Collaborate (formerly known as Elluminate Live!). If you plan to join and particiate in the event, kindly check if your computer meets the following recommended Elluminate Live! System Requirements. It is recommended that you click the webinar link 15-30 minutes before the specific webinar so that you will have time to troubleshoot if ever you get to encounter technical problems. When you click a webinar link, a small Java file (JNLP) download will be sent to your computer. Just accept it, open it using your Java Runtime Environment and then a new window will appear for the presentation room. It is also recommended that you are using a stable Internet connection that does not make use of filters and proxy servers.

Check out these links for the Webinar Schedules:

http://bit.ly/educ190webinars1213b (EDUC190 WF)
http://bit.ly/educ190webinars11213b (EDUC190 WF1)

And here are the links of the EDUC190 class blogs:

http://educ190wf1213b.wordpress.com (EDUC190 WF)
http://educ190wf11213b.wordpress.com (EDUC190 WF1)

So join us in our 2nd EDUC190 Free Webinar Series this week! These live webinars are 100% online and you are invited to join for FREE! The webinars shall use the hashtags #edPH and #EDUC190 so remember to tweet using these to participate in the Twitter backchannel.

See you there!

Is the Philippines ready for the Flipped Classroom Model?

Last week, I was tasked to deliver a presentation about the Flipped Classroom Model for the Training Team of the UP Information Technology Development Center (UP ITDC). Yesterday, I delivered the same topic for my EDUC 190 students. Although the Flipped Classroom Model has been a buzz for a very long time already in the U.S., there’s still a problem to be solved: How ready are Filipino students and teachers for the Flipped Classroom Model? 

Challenge-Based Learning

And so it came to pass, the year 2012 has already ended. My blog has survived blogger’s block because I was still able to post at least once a month. 2012 was indeed nice to me; it seemed that one step at a time is really effective.

2013 is a yet another new year – a new set of challenges to overcome. I should be able to finish my masters thesis by the end of the semester while juggling it with my full-time work as a supervising course and content developer and a part-time teacher of educational technology.

In addition, I also got accepted at the Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE) Class of 2013 after applying a day before the deadline of application. This means I need to move very fast to put everything into place while looking for someone that can sponsor my funds for the ADE Program.

Challenge-Based Learning. This is where I will focus more by applying it in my classroom teaching and imparting it to my students to challenge themselves as well. I only came across this concept after browsing some videos related to the ADE Program.

Obviously, I was challenged after understanding the big deal about it.

I just hope that everything will turn out just fine. So wish me luck!

Ubuntu Linux for Teaching

Apologies for the very long hiatus of  no update because I was so preoccupied with lots of stuff – teaching loads, workshops & trainings, events management (Y4iT 2012 and TEDxManila 2012), and several tasks at my office. I was not even able to make progress on my research paper except for the fact that my topic was already approved.

Nevertheless, I’m back here trying to revive again my writing skills. I shall start then by sharing one of my experiences in class – Installing Ubuntu / Xubuntu Linux 12.04.1.

In my EDUC 190 class, it is a tradition that my students shall start trying Linux (Ubuntu) by installing it on the UP College of Education MITC workstations. What I’ve been doing for the longest time was the method of Installing Inside Windows via Wubi because it is the easiest way of installing Ubuntu Linux on a Machine that has Windows already preinstalled.

Apparently, Ubuntu discouraged this method (if I remember correctly, it started with version 12.04) so they deactivated it whenever you will be loading the Ubuntu CD while Windows is running. Of course I still managed to find a way on enabling that method by simply using the Wubi executable on the Ubuntu CD. Just open the Microsoft Windows command line and execute this: D:\wubi.exe –force-wubi

A window will then open showing the Install Inside Windows option. In another situation, the Ubuntu 12.04.1 Install CD does not have the Wubi executable so I had my students download it instead from http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/windows-installer.