1

Chapter 5: Technology Design

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CHAPTER OVERVIEW
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5

Preamble
The Internet
Leaning management system
Communication tools
Tools for developing e-learning
content

5.6 Social networking tools

5.7 Audio tools
Key Terms
Summary
References

Upon completion of this chapter, you should be able to:

Describe the role of web-servers in E-Learning

Explain the characteristics of a Learning Management System (LMS)
Compare several collaboration tools such as e-mail, discussion forums and chat
rooms.
Discuss how social networking tools may be used in E-Learning

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Chapter 5: Technology Design

5.1 PREAMBLE
In this chapter we will discuss the various tools and technologies used in achieving
the Learning Outcomes as stipulated in the E-Learning Framework (see Figure 5.1).
This has been termed as Technology Design which refers to the different technology
tools that facilitate the realisation of the NINE desired learning outcomes; i.e.
remember, understand, apply, analyse, evaluate, create, reflect, solve authentic
problems and collaborate.
VIRTUAL
LEARNING
PLATFORM
LEARNING
ACTIVITIES

Technology
Design

Learning
Design

LEARNING
OUTCOMES

Content
Design

E-CONTENT PRINCIPLES

Figure 5.1: An E-Learning Pedagogical Framework Promoting

Meaningful Learning

5.2 THE INTERNET

a) What is the Internet?
The Internet is a global network of networks connecting hundreds of millions of user
to each other and to world-wide resources. Initially, just a few select military and
university networks connected, primarily for the research and national security in the
United States. The internet has grown so rapidly and it is estimated that today (2011)
about 4 billion computers are connected to the internet. What enables these computers

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Chapter 5: Technology Design
to talk to each other? A common protocol called TCP/IP (transmission control
protocol/Internet protocol) is used so that communication between different
computers can be understood. According to Miniwatts Marketing Group, there are an
estimated 2 billion users as of March, 2011 with 44% coming from Asia, 23% from
Europe, 13% from North America, 10% from South America and 6% from Africa.
b) Connecting to the Internet
To connect to the internet, you must have at your disposal telecommunication
technologies which enables electronic communication between computers over
distance. The most common method of carrying data over long distances is using
telephone lines. Because computers work with digital signals, and telephone wires
which were originally designed to transmit only analogue (voice) signals, some
adaptation had to be made. Additional equipment was added to both ends of the
communication circuit; i.e. you home computer and the web server which kept the
data.

Computer
Telephone lines

Modem

Web Server
[Content stored to be
sent as web pages
which is run by a
special software]

Figure 5.1 Data transmitted and received through the internet

For the computer to use telephone lines to send information, it must alter or modulate
its signals into a form that can transmitted by these lines. The device that modulates
the signal is called a MODEM. It translates the computer output into a format
facilitates transmission across the telephone lines and to access the web server that
contains the web pages that you want to see on your screen (see Figure 5.1.). When
the signal returns from the web server, through the telephone lines, the modem
translates the signal that comes through these lines back into a format that your
computer can understand; i.e. what is shown on your computer screen. Remember the

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Chapter 5: Technology Design

modem is only the hardware, because inside it is the software that translates the
outgoing and incoming signals.
Web server is the core technology for E-Learning especially if it is offered on the
internet or an intranet. You may not be involved in selecting or setting up the server
but it is important you know what it is and what it does [So that you can join in the
tech talk when you hold discussion about e-learning with the IT guys!]. The term web
server; has two main meanings: it refers to the software that sends web pages to
browsers and also refers to the physical machine on which that software runs (see
Figure 5.1). Content is uploaded to the web server and stays there until a request is
made. Upon request, the content is made available through the internet and is
displayed on the learners computer screen through browsers such as Explorer and
Mozilla. Now you know what is meant by the statement Sorry, the Server is Down
even though your computer is fine!. There are millions of such web servers all over
the world storing and sending billions of pages to users across the internet.
People are often confused by the difference between the Internet and the World Wide
Web (the Web). Actually, the Web is the most popular of the many services
available on the Internet. In its early days, the Internet was not easy used as it required
users to use commands to move about or retrieve something from the internet. One
had to know the precise sequence of commands and be able to use them in a very
specific order. In 1991, Tim Berners-Lee wrote a programme that allowed users to use
the Internet without have to know complex commands. His programmes allowed
users to move between linked web pages located on the Internet. Simply by clicking
on a link, users could jump from one document to another without knowing a single
complex command. These links, called hyperlinks, made Internet navigation as easy
as pointing and clicking. The vast collection of hyperlink documents available on the
Internet is known as the World Wide Web, W3 or simply the Web.
A web page is a document that provides information and contains a series of
hyperlinks to other resources. A collection of web pages is called a web site. Websites
can contain multiple pages and each page can contain text, graphics, animation, audio
and video data. Typically, websites have a welcome or home page that provides basic
information about the site and one or more connections to additional information
pages.
5.1 LEARNING ACTIVITY

a) What is the Internet?

b) b) Explain how data is transmitted & received through the
Internet
c) Discuss the difference between the Internet and the Web.

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Chapter 5: Technology Design
5.3 LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (LMS)
A learning management system (LMS) is a software package that is put in the Web
server to enable you to create and deliver content, monitor student participation, and
assess student performance anytime, anywhere. The primary function to the LMS is
to provide a platform for the creation and delivery of courses as well as provide
students with the ability to use interactive features such as threaded discussions, video
conferencing, and discussion forums from any location with internet access. You need
a username and password to log in to a LMS (see Figure 5.2).

Figure 5.2 Log on

Having logged on, you will have access to the LMS which is a virtual learning
environment. Figure 5.3 shows the screen of a typical virtual learning environment or
LMS with its many different functions
Announcements: Learners will click on this button to check if the instructor
or tutor has posted announcement related to the specific course or subject.

Course Description: Learners are provided with a synopsis of the course, the
objectives of the course, stipulated pre-requisites (if any), the topics of the
course and required reference texts.

Learning Materials: Learning materials for the course may be presented for
learner in the following formats:
o HTML format are learning materials presented in the form of webpages which learners access using the browser.
o Word Document format of each of the topics are presented which
learners can download to be printed later.
o PDF format of each of the topics are presented which learners can
download to be printed later.

Support Materials: Various types of materials to support learning are made

available to be viewed and down loaded and include the following:
o Web links to relevant articles, reports, e-books and other documents.
o Video clips explaining key concepts and principles which learners may
view or/and download.
o Audio clips explaining key concepts and principles which learners may
view or/and download.
o Powerpoint slides which are a summary of each topic which learners
may view or/and download.

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Chapter 5: Technology Design
o virtually any file type that a user can open on his/her computer

Assignments:
This link will lead the learner to details about the assignments for the
course. It includes detailed description of what students are supposed to do
and the marks allotted for each section of the assignment (see Figure 5.5). It
also includes references, online tests and the deadline for submission (see
Figure 5.4).

HOME

Coursemates

Announcements

WELCOME,

Course Description

To

the

course

Technology.
Learning Materials
HTML format
Word format
PDF Format

This

on

Instructional

course

will

be

conducted for the next 14 weeks and you

are encouraged to log on as frequently as
possible to this site.

Support Materials
Web Links
Powerpoint slides
Video clips
Audio clips
Assignments
View Grades
Profile

Digital Library

Help Desk

Communication
E-Mail
Discussion Forum
Chat Room

Digital Drop Box

Figure 5.3 Screen of a typical LMS

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Chapter 5: Technology Design

Figure 5.4 Assignment link

Figure 5.5 Course Assignment Guide

Digital Library: This is button that takes the learner to the digital library
which will allow access to various databases such as journals, e-books,
magazines, theses, dissertation, research reports and others. Students are able
to download and print the material.

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Chapter 5: Technology Design

Communication: This link provides to three common communication tools:

1. Email: Each learner has an email and is able to communicate with the
instructor and also other students. Students are able to attach many
different file types for distribution (see Figure 5.6).

Figure 5.6 Email

2. Discussion Forum: It is a communication tool that allows students and

instructors to engage in asynchronous discussions, which means that
both do not have to be online in order for communication to take place.
Topics are posted to the forum and course participants can reply to
them on-line. An additional advantage of the forum is that student
conversations are logged and organised. Conversations are grouped
into threads that contain a main posting and all related replies for easy
retrieval (see Figure 5.7).

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Chapter 5: Technology Design

Figure 5.7 Discussion forum

3. Chat Room: It is a communication tool for on-line classroom

discussions, lectures and question/answer sessions. Instructors could
invite guest speakers and subject matter experts to join the
synchronous chat room (see Figure 5.8).

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Chapter 5: Technology Design

Figure 5.8 Chat room

Digital Drop Box: It is place in which learners can send their assignments to
their instructor as an attachment. The Box will keep a record of the time and
date the assignment was sent. The instructor who gets the material will have a
record on when it was sent and details about the learner such as name and ID
number (see Figure 5.9).

Figure 5.9 Digital drop box

View Grades: This link provides quick access for users to check grades and
performance statistics from all their Courses. Once you enter View Grades,
click on a course for which you would like to see your grades. The grade page
may include the following information:

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Chapter 5: Technology Design
o the users Assessment grade
o the total number of points the user has accumulated
o information about the class average on each assessment grade
weighting
5.2 LEARNING ACTIVITY

a) Discuss the tools facilitating collaboration available in most

LMS?
b) What are the tools most commonly found in an LMS?
c) Explain how you would use an LMS in your school or
educational institution.
5.4 COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
Collaboration tools make it possible for students to communicate freely online
and to work together on common tasks. They are essential for collaborative eLearning, e-mentoring and knowledge management initiatives. Most collaboration
tools work the same way. Typically, someone creates a message using a collaboration
tool such as e-mail, forum or chat room. The message then goes to a server that relays
the message to other persons. Regardless of its form, the message is sent to a server,
which relays it to each person who should receive it. The person uses a collaboration
tool to display the message.
Collaboration tools typically require communication between two kinds of
software to enable a dialogue among participants. First there is the collaboration
server. It runs on a web server on the internet or intranet. Its function is to coordinate
the flow of message among participants. The second collaboration server runs on each
participants system. It is called collaboration client, and it enable the participant to
receive and send messages to other participants by way of the server.
SYNCHRONOUS vs ASYNCHRONOUS COLLABORATION
Collaboration tools can link participants synchronously or asynchronously.

Synchronous communications, also called conferencing occur in real time;

i.e. all participants have to be online at the same time. Synchronous
communication media include chat, whiteboard, audio conferencing and video
conferencing.

Asynchronous communications, do not require participants to be online at

the same time. Students do not have to wait for another student or the tutor to
be online to send a message. They just send it, confident that eventually it will
reach the desired person. With asynchronous communication, students send
messages when it is most convenient to them. Asynchronous media include email and online discussion forums. Note, however, that discussion forums are
less synchronous than e-mail because there is less expectation of a speedy
reply.

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Chapter 5: Technology Design

a) E-MAIL
The simplest and oldest collaboration tool is the e-mail which allows
communication between the learner and the instructor or tutor. Often e-mail are
broadcast (sent to all), typically from the instructor to all learners to announce a
change or an event. It is simple, reliable, inexpensive, available to all and familiar.
Anyone who can use the computer, can use e-mail and almost everybody has a e-mail
address today. Example of popular providers who provide free e-mail are: Google,
Yahoo, Hotmail and many others.
In education, e-mail is used by students to ask questions of tutors and
instructors, to discuss issues with other students and used to submit assignments.
Instructors use e-mail to give assignments, answer questions and give announcements.
E-mails enable the sending of various types of files (text, graphics, pictures, audio &
video) as attachments. It also serves as an archive of the communication between
sender and receiver. It also allows for the maintenance of a database of names, phone.
b) ONLINE DISCUSSION TOOLS
Online discussion has grown to such a popular activity in the lives of many
individuals and has become a national pastime for people of all ages across the
world. They are a direct offshoot of the social and professional exchanges that take
place on internet newsgroups and list-servers. There are several different names
for these online discussion tools: discussion forums, bulletin boards, and most
recently blogs.

Discussion Forums: Discussion forums allow students and tutors to

participate in a conversation by sharing and replying to each others text
messages, even though they cannot be available at the same time. Discussion
forums are especially valuable when learners are too busy to attend class
meeting in person, when learners are scattered over 24 time zones, and when
learners are too shy or lack language fluency to collaborate effectively in realtime conversations.
EXAMPLE:
Learning starts with the tutor posting an assignment to the discussion
forum. The assignment may include website links or hyperlinks to
assigned readings, questions to answer individually or in groups.
Assignments may also include attached reading (e.g. word or pdf format)
and other necessary materials (e.g. video or audio clips). Students read
the assignment and they may work individually or in groups. Their
solutions are posted on to the forum where the tutor and other students
review, discuss and evaluate them.
[source: W. Horton & K. Horton. 2003. E-Learning Tools and
Technologies. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing. p. 217]
I
n addition to providing structure to the course, online discussion can also be
used for brainstorming, group-critiquing and team-design activities. See
Figure 5.4 which show an example of a discussion forum.

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Chapter 5: Technology Design

Chat and Instant Messaging: Millions of people all over the world chat on
the internet to whine, flirt, and of course learn. Chat provides an immediate,
spontaneous exchange of words, much like a phone conversation but in text
form.

c) AUDIO CONFERENCING
Audio-conferencing lets students
talk with one another. Audio conferencing
essentially uses the internet to conduct a
conference. With audio conferencing,
presentations can be more spontaneous
(see Figure 5.10). Students can attend to
visual matter without having to read text
at the same time.
Audio capabilities are especially
useful in e-Learning where verbal
communication or quick exchange of
ideas are important, i.e. when there is not
Figure 5.10 Web conferencing
enough time to write everything down or
where the spontaneous expression of
thought is most important. Audio conferencing allows one-way or two-way flows.
One-way audio is used for presenting a lecture, recitation, reading or advising
which may also refer to slides which students have with them.
Two-way audio is used for question-and-answer sessions, debates,
brainstorming and even role-playing.
When deciding on a audio conferencing, you should examine the sound
quality. For example, is the sound clear and understandable for students with low
bandwidth. Audio Conferencing service allows multiple participants to converse with
each other regardless of their location through the normal fixed line telephone or
cellular phone. An audio conference subscriber can add two or more participants in a
particular conference. The customers can schedule their audio conferences through
the Web. A standing conference is always on. The authorised participants has just to
dial in a particular telephone number followed by a password to enter into a
conference.

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d) VIDEO CONFERENCING
Video conferencing involves two-way video and
audio communication between two or more
parties over a remote connection. Video
conferencing was developed in the 1960s using
telephony technology. Nowadays, video
conferencing is done over the internet. In fact, as
the internet expands, the cost of video conferencing is getting
so low that it has become the most popular means of video
conferencing by far. Perhaps the most popular
videoconferencing tool today is Skype (which is a freeware software) and more
recently ooVoo, iVisit. Video conferencing lets students see and hear each other
allowing for interpersonal communication together with voice, gestures, body
language and facial expression. With video conferencing, students see the person
talking as a person and see 3-D objects, movements and gestures. The can see a smile
or a glare and notice passion and nervousness.

Figure 5.11 Point-point video conferencing of a lesson to students

Video conferencing is used mostly for presentations such as introducing the instructor
(helping students to picture the instructor as a human being!), demonstrate physical
procedure & processes, psychomotor skills, reveal 3-D shapes and spatial

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Chapter 5: Technology Design

relationships, adding realism to objects and to communicate human emotion through

non-verbal language (gestures, facial expressions) and tone of voice. The quality of
video conferencing depends on networks speed, the quality of the video camera, the
speed of the instructors computer, and the speed of the students computer.
See Figure 5.11 which shows the instructor demonstrating a science experiment to
one group of students located remotely. You need a device that captures or records
real-time video of the presenter or the audience and produce real-time output to the
processor and server. It can be a webcam, a DV camera, or a regular analog video
camera. In order to capture all of your class, a good wide angle camera is preferred.
You also need a microphone that can record real-time audio from the presenter or the
audience and produce real-time output to the processor. The microphone should be
strategically placed to capture the voices of all the students in the classroom. In a
perfect setting, a 360 microphone or a system of multidirectional microphones
should be used.
You need a computer that can capture video from the camera, voice from the
microphone, run video conferencing software, and transmit and receive data through
the Internet. You need a network device that connects your network to the Internet.
To reduce the complexity of setting up equipment, some companies have developed
integrated video conferencing units that include a camera, microphone, and the
processing unit all in one device. You could also have two-way communication with
more than one group of students which is referred to as multi-point video
conferencing (see Figure 5.12).

Figure 5.12 Multi-point

vide conferencing

LEARNING ACTIVITY

a) Discuss the difference between synchronous and

asynchronous collaboration?
b) What is video conferencing?
c) Check out these websites to see the different tools:
http://www.ivisit.com/
http://www.oovoo.com/download.aspx
http://www.skype.com/intl/en/home

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Chapter 5: Technology Design

5.5 TOOLS FOR DEVELOPING E-LEARNING CONTENT

It has often been remarked that Content is King, and indeed it is. One could have
the state-of-the-art LMS or LCMS; but as long there is no quality content, all efforts
at e-learning will come to nought. Hence, the focus of e-learning is the creation of
content because without good content presented in a form that motivates students to
learn, all efforts to introduce e-learning will be futile. Creating e-Learning content
refers to the process of creating web pages of lessons of a particular body of
knowledge that is accessible to students through the internet or intranet. Lessons
created with text alone would like a book online and so various types to multimedia
elements have to be incorporated with text. To facilitate the creation of such web
pages several authoring tools are available, produced and sold as propriety software
as well as provided free with websites.
a) COURSE AUTHORING TOOLS
What are course authoring tools? Course authoring tools are specially designed
software for creating e-learning courses. They typically create pages and add text,
graphics and other media. Most course authoring tools offer a library of templates
providing a wide variety of instructional sequences. With these templates the author
does not need any programming skills but instead needs to only drag and drop.
The following are some of the elements found in the templates of most sophisticated
course authoring tools:

Authors can enter text using feature similar to those in a word processor
which are complete common course components such as bullet lists,
background colour and texture, and glossaries.
Authors can add objects such as graphics and media with no programming
required.
Testing capabilities true/false test, multiple-choice test, matching-list,
drag-and-drop, fill-in-the-blank, and essay questions. Tests can be
automatically score, with feedback on individual questions.

The author arranges and integrates several pages into a lesson which is further
combined to form a complete course. These pages are arranged in a manner that
makes navigation easy for students. Besides creating web pages, these course
authoring tools allow for students to interact with the web pages such as answering
questions and getting feedback on their performance.
Course authoring tools enable the building, testing and refinement of components of
e-learning. Authoring follows a common cycle of activities:
First, the author selects a template in which the author fills in text, graphics,
tests and other media at the level of a web page which several web pages are
combined to form a lesson with its own set of learning outcomes.
Second, each of the lessons developed are combined to form a course and it is
saved or stored on to a web server.

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Chapter 5: Technology Design

Third, the author switches roles and tries out each lesson in the course from
the viewpoint of the learner.

The choice of a course authoring tools depends on the speed and ease this cycle is
carried out and completed. The following are several examples of course authoring
tools: Authorware, Dreamweaver and Articulate (see below).

In many instances, many e-learning courses are actually special-purpose

websites. Many are created not by course authoring tools but by website authoring
tools. Using these web authoring tools, an author is able to build several web pages
and link them together to create a website hosting the course. For example, with
Google site, you are able to create a website which you can use to deliver content to
students across the web. The authoring provided with Google site is simple to use
and does not require any programming know-how. Similarly, there are many websites
making available simple authoring tools which you can use to create website and also
hosting facilities.
b) MEDIA EDITORS
Without media editors, e-learning would be like reading books off a TV
screens. Media editors are tools that create and refine picture, sounds, animations,
video and other media that in web pages. There are numerous media editors and the
following are some of the tools available. [You do not need to know how to use them
but rather know what they can do so that you can talk with the animator, graphic
designer, the audio technician and the video technician on what you want; let them
do the production].

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CATEGORY

MEDIA

Multimedia
Graphics

Tools for creating animations with sound.

Drawings cartoons, icons, pictures
Photographs

Animation

Animations are drawings that display a sequence of images

over a period of time. These moving pictures may be derived
from both 2-D or 3-D drawings.
Sound includes sound effects and voice narration
Music background music or mood music.
Video captured by digital video camcorders, phones and
webcams can be edited to produce video clips which is
uploaded.

Audio
Video

c) CONTENT CONVERTERS
In the development of content for e(Hypertext
Markup
Learning, the issue of time and money may HTML
force
providers
to
reuse
existing Language) is a computer language
presentations, textbooks, graphics and devised to allow the creation of web
documents. This where converters can pages which can be uploaded to the
help. Converters are conversion tools that internet. These websites can then be
transform one file format to another. viewed by anyone connected to the
Producers of e-Learning use them to convert Internet through a browser such as
content which may be in word documents, Internet Explorer or Mozilla. This
powerpoint slides, pictures and so forth into computer language is constantly
HTML or web pages that can be displayed undergoing revision and evolution to
meet the demands and requirements
over the web.
For example, there are several of the growing Internet audience.
software available (some are available free)
for converting a set of powerpoint slides into HTML. All the animation such as fade,
wipe, etc. available on the powerpoint slides will be converted and appear on the web
pages.
There are billions of documents available in word processing files. You can
convert these into HTML files and uploaded as web pages. For example, Microsoft
Office enables you to save Microsoft Word documents as HTML. There are also
several other software available to convert word document files into HTML.
You can also use Adobe Acrobat to convert word processing documents,
spreadsheets, slide handouts, drawings, and other images. The resulting document is
almost a perfect visual replica of the same document which can be uploaded to the
web and viewed using the free Acrobat Viewer.

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Chapter 5: Technology Design

5.3 LEARNING ACTIVITY

a) What are media editors?

b) What are content convertors?
c) Why do you need course authoring tools in e-learning?
d) Explain how you can deliver e-learning using a website.

5.6 SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOLS

Boyd and Ellison (200) define social network sites as web-based services that allow
individuals to make available on the web their profile (which is restricted to only
whom they invite) whom they share with people they wish to connect. Social
networking sites focus on building online communities of people who share interests
and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of
others (Wikipedia, 2009). Most social networking sites are web-based and provide a
variety of ways for users to interact. What makes social network sites unique is not
that they allow individuals to meet strangers, but rather that they enable users to
articulate and make visible their social networks or individuals they are in contact
with. They are primarily communicating with people who are already a part of their
extended social networking. The following are several popular social networking
sites:
Bebo, http://bebo.com/
Classmates, http://classmates.com/
Eons, http://www.eons.com/
FaceBook, http://www.facebook.com/
Friendster, http://www.friendster.com/index.php
Jdate, http://jdate.com/
LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com/
Match.com, http://www.match.com/
MySpace, http://myspace.com/
Oukut, https://www.orkut.com/
OurStory, http://ourstory.com/
Riya, http://riya.com/
Tabblo, http://www.tabblo.com/studio/
Tagged, http://www.tagged.com/

Since their introduction, social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook,

Cyworld, and Bebo have attracted millions of users, many of whom have integrated
these sites into their daily practices. There are hundreds of social networking sites,
with various technological affordances, supporting a wide range of interests and

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Chapter 5: Technology Design

practices. Technologically these tools are nearly similar which help strangers connect
based on shared interests, political views, or activities. Some sites cater to diverse
audiences, while others attract people based on common language or shared racial,
sexual, religious, or nationality-based identities. Sites also vary in the extent to which
they incorporate new information and communication tools, such as mobile
connectivity, blogging, and photo/video-sharing.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
After joining a social networking site, an individual is asked to fill out forms
containing a series of questions. The profile is generated using the answers to these
questions, which typically include descriptors such as age, location, interests, and an
"about me" section. Most sites also encourage users to upload a profile photo. Some
sites allow users to enhance their profiles by adding multimedia content or modifying
their profile's look and feel.
The visibility of a profile varies by site and according to user discretion. By default,
profiles are identified by search engines, making them visible to anyone, regardless of
whether or not the viewer has an account. Some sites allow users to choose whether
they want their profile to be public or "Friends only." Social networking sites such as
Facebook takes a different approach, users who are part of the same "network" can
view each other's profiles, unless a profile owner has decided to deny permission to
those in their network.
After joining a social network site, users are prompted to identify others in the system
with whom they have a relationship. The label for these relationships differs
depending on the sitepopular terms include "Friends," "Contacts," and "Fans." Most
social networking sites require bi-directional confirmation for Friendship, but some
do not. These one-directional ties are sometimes labelled as "Fans" or "Followers,"
but many sites call these Friends as well. The term "Friends" can be misleading,
because the connection does not necessarily mean friendship in the everyday
vernacular sense, and the reasons people connect are varied (Boyd, 2006).

TWITTER
The most recent social networking site is twitter which
is a system by which one can send 140 character
messages by way of web sites, phones using Short
Messaging System (SMS), or bridged systems, such as
email. Twitter is comprised entirely of status updates,
where people post, or tweet, about what they are
doing, thinking, eating, experiencing, or wanting
(Bennet, 2009). Senders can restrict delivery to their
circle of friends or allow open access. Users send and receive tweets or SMS via the
Twitter website and is free over the internet. Twitter has gained worldwide popularity
and is sometime described as the SMS of the Internet.
Using Twitter you are broadcasting worldwide, in real time, whatever you have to
say, as long as its under 140 characters per tweet. For example, I am on my way to

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the hospital to see Ninas newborn baby. Libraries are using Twitter to connect and
converse with patrons. Counties and cities are connecting with their residents,
announcing events, sharing information. Police departments are making the public
aware of threats, reminding parents of best practices in safety, and relaying traffic
information. Sports teams are connecting with fans, sharing scores, injury updates,
and other news.
BLOGS
A blog is a personal diary. A collaborative
space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news
outlet. A collection of links. Your own private
thoughts. Memos to the world. Your blog is
whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them,
in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.
In simple terms, a blog is a website, where you write
stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the
top, so your visitors can read what's new. Then they
comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not. Since
Blogger was launched in 1999, blogs have reshaped
the web, impacted politics, shaken up journalism, and
enabled millions of people to have a voice and connect
with others. A blog (also called a weblog or web log)
is a website consisting of entries (also called posts)
appearing in reverse chronological order with the most
recent entry appearing first (similar in format to a daily
journal). Blogs typically include features such as
comments and links to increase user interactivity.
Blogs are created using specific publishing software.

FACEBOOK
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched
in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook,
Inc. As of July 2011, Facebook has more than 750 million
active users. Users may create a personal profile, add other
users as friends, and exchange messages, including automatic
notifications when they update their profile. Facebook users
must register before using the site. Additionally, users may
join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace,
school or college, or other characteristics. The name of the service stems from the
colloquial name for the book given to students at the start of the academic year by
university administrations in the United States to help students get to know each other
better. Facebook allows any users who declare themselves to be at least 13 years old
to become registered users of the website.

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WIKI
Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to
freely create and edit Web page content using any
Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a
simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly. Wiki is
unusual among group communication mechanisms in
that it allows the organization of Contributions to be
edited in addition to the content itself.
Like many simple concepts, "open editing" has some profound and subtle effects on
Wiki usage. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site is
exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content compo
A wiki is a type of website that allows visitors themselves to easily add, remove and
otherwise edit and change some available content, sometimes without the need for
registration.
Wikis encourage group social interaction and collaboration and support asynchronous
communication allowing users to contribute at a time, and from a place that suits
them. Many students find that their learning is most effective when they are actively
involved in the construction of their knowledge.
A collaborative Web site comprises the perpetual collective work of many authors.
Similar to a blog in structure and logic, a wiki allows anyone to edit, delete or modify
content that has been placed on the Web site using a browser interface, including the
work of previous authors. In contrast, a blog, typically authored by an individual, does
not allow visitors to change the original posted material, only add comments to the
original content
5.6 AUDIO TOOLS
RECORDING TOOLS
Audacity is free, open source software for recording and
editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft
Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. The
latest release of Audacity is 1.3.13 (Beta). Audacity 1.2.6 is
the main release, fully developed and fully documented. You
may install Audacity 1.2.6 and 1.3.13 on the same machine.

PODCAST
A podcast is a digital audio file (usually MP3 or AAC) made available for download.
The best way to understand podcasting is to imagine a merger between blogging
(regularly posted articles of news, insight, fun, grips, literature, and more) and radio
(an established broadcasting medium that people have listened to for news and
entertainment for generations).

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Podcasting makes it easy to create and disseminate digital

audio content across the web. An aggregator for podcasts
(such as iTunes or iPodder) is a repository of podcasts from
which users can download. Podcasting can be listened to with
any computer connected to the Internet and able to play
standard MP3 audio files. Podcasting is essentially radio
programming that can be produced with a standard computer,
microphone, free software, and a web site for posting your
programming.
In the purest form of the term, Podcasts are published as RSS feeds (most blogging
software features RSS feed generation). Listeners are notified of new programmes by
their aggregators, which then download the programmes and then transfer them to the
listener's MP3 audio player, such as an iPod. Get it? Podcasting! Podcasting offers a
variety of content for listeners to consume how they want, when they want and where
they want

5.4 LEARNING ACTIVITY

a) What are social networking sites?

b) Check out how you can start your own facebook or twitter.
c) How do you think social networking sites can be used in
e-learning?

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KEY TERMS
Learning management system
Learning content management system
Discussion forum
Chat room
Synchronous
Asynchronous
Media editors
Content convertors

Video conferencing
Audio conferencing
Course authoring tools
Web authoring tools
Social networking sites
Facebook
Twitter
Podcast

SUMMARY

The term web server; has two main meanings: it refers to the software that
sends web pages to browsers and also refers to the physical machine on which
that software runs.

A learning management system (LMS) is a software package that is put in the

Web server to enable you to create and deliver content, monitor student
participation, and assess student performance anytime, anywhere.

Discussion forums allow students and tutors to participate in a conversation by

sharing and replying to each others text messages, even though they cannot
be available at the same time.

Course authoring tools are specially designed software for creating e-learning
courses.

Media editors are tools that create and refine picture, sounds, animations,
video and other media that in web pages.

Many e-learning courses are actually special-purpose websites created not by

course authoring tools but by website authoring tools.

Converters are conversion tools that transform one file format to another.

Social networking sites are web-based services that allow individuals to make
available on the web their profile (which is restricted to only whom they
invite) whom they share with people they wish to connect.

Twitter is a social networking site by which one can send 140 character
messages.

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A podcast is a digital audio file (usually MP3 or AAC) made available for
download

A blog (also called a weblog or web log) is a website consisting of entries

appearing in reverse chronological order with the most recent entry appearing
first

REFERENCES
Boyd, D. & Ellison, N. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and
scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), article 11.
Boyd, D. (2004). Friendster and publicly articulated social networks. Proceedings of
ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1279-1282). New
York: ACM Press.
Boyd, D. (2006a). Friends, Friendsters, and MySpace Top 8: Writing community into
being on social network sites. First Monday, 11 (12). Retrieved July 21, 2007 from
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_12/boyd/
Boyd, D. (2006b, March 21). Friendster lost steam. Is MySpace just a fad? Apophenia
Blog. Retrieved July 21, 2007 from
http://www.danah.org/papers/FriendsterMySpaceEssay.html
Horton, R. & Horton, K. (2002). E-Learning tools and technologies. Boston: Wiley.
Nor Aziah Alias & Ahmad Marzuki Zainuddin, (2005). Innovation for Better
Teaching and Learning: Adopting the Learning Management System. Malaysian
Online Journal of Instructional Technology Vol. 2, No.2, pp 27-40