RDN Virtual Training Suite - these are pretty cool free tutorials on a variety of topics.
Stephen Downes says, "A set of online tutorials designed to help people improve their Internet information skills. The home page lets readers select one of a couple dozen disciplines; the tutorials are then tailored to the selected discipline. As Peter Suber says, "It's more work to have separate tutorials for separate fields, but this is the right approach. Discovery and evaluation are both, for different reasons, discipline-specific." Some nice features - I really like the links basket - and a smooth, easy to read interface. By Unknown, RDN, May 8, 2001.
Internet for Education

here's an excerpt from Jim Woodell's SCN newsletter about different approach to getting into elearning. Jim basically talks about it being OK to start where you are by getting content-based stuff online first:

"...Take e-learning or web collaboration, for example (I told you I was getting there). While there are some folks out there doing really neat things with the technology, in terms of new teaching and collaborative models, the fact is that many e-learning applications are designed after a pedagogy that is a few hundred years old--call it "chalk and talk" or "teacher centered" or "empty vessel." Largely, we're focusing on information and knowledge transfer, not constructivist or problem-based e-learning or web collaboration.

I'm here to say that this is entirely okay, and in fact necessary if we really want to transform teaching and learning and use the technology to drive new models."

AND MORE:

"So, what should you do while you're waiting for the real revolution in e-learning and web-based collaboration? Here are few ideas.

1. Give yourself permission to just routinize the old method
A lot of the educational progressivists that I work with have little tolerance for using technology to just do the same old thing--present information for students to consume. However, most of these educators also agree that there is a time and place for directed instruction. It may not be the ultimate goal of using technology, but for now, allow yourself to create e-learning environments that simply get the content in the hands of students, and generate some level of engagement around that content. It's okay if it feels like an online lecture right now, because building on a foundation of the familiar will make your forays into newer teaching and learning models more likely to succeed.

2. Read about new models and approaches
While you're routinizing, you should slowly begin to gain some extra time. Use that time to investigate the ways that people are experimenting with new pedagogical models in e-learning. Seek out innovative courses. Find out what the designers of these courses are learning about what's possible and what's not. I get most of the ideas for improving my online graduate course directly from my students. They're out there reading all kinds of good stuff, and coming up with ideas about different models for online teaching all the time. Listen to your students.

3. Experiment
When you and your students are ready, try something new! Don't try to overhaul your whole curriculum, or even a whole course, right away. Start small. Make one week of a six-week course more collaborative, more student-centered, more project-based. Observe carefully how it goes--take notes and think about ways to improve. Next time, experiment a little more.

Eventually, entirely new models and approaches will be upon us. Likely, they will be approaches that have been totally unexpected and unprecedented. That's when the real revolution begins. Watch for it, and do just a little bit to contribute to its onset."

more from Stephen Downes:

Network Learning

Education on the internet has followed the model of traditional distance
learning, employing a largely constructivist methodology supplemented
with online collaboration and interaction. As such, when assessing the
quality of online learning educators refer to these traditional
pedagogical theories. Course authors are urged to provide more guidance
and more support, to place students' choices within a certain context
and to relate students' activities to the interpretations and interests
of a central authority. Internet culture, on the other hand, has
developed forms of communication and learning exactly contrary to these
trends. On the internet, a form of networked community infrastructure
has developed, one where there is no central authority and where actors'
decisions and activities occur in an open-ended environment. This
suggests an alternative approach to learning, one which combines the
useful features of constructivist and collaboration theories of learning
but which replaces a centralized and hierarchical form of organization
with a distributed network model. In network learning, students interact
with experts and with peers in a community of interest rather than with
a teaching authority in a classroom. They read, create and share
learning materials on a peer-to-peer basis instead of studying an
assigned text. They collaborate in groups formed on an ad hoc and as
needed basis rather instead of being grouped into static classes. And
they are evaluated based on their contributions to the network instead
of against a standardized central curriculum.

Thanks for your interest and ideas.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen Downes ~ Senior Researcher ~ National Research Council
Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada


The following was a reply to the DEOS list where Downes had also published his comments on network learning. I especially like the characterization of elearning:

At 10:16 AM -0500 02/16/02, Downes, Stephen wrote:
>
>As for the death of Bologna - institutions don't have to die if they
>change. Universities won't stay the same under Network Learning, but
>could adapt and flurish. IMHO.


Stephen, somehow I just don't see that the culture of the Net can
ever be compatible with the culture of the university. Isn't Bologna
more like the Roman Church where dialogue and discussion by and
between the clergy is spirited; but in the end firm hierarchical
structures cause ( more or less ) top down sermonizing? Do you really
think Rome would encourage those in the pews to reach out to others
preaching a completely different sermon?


Where the e-learning culture of the Net, (at least as you and I see
it), insists on widespread collaboration, quick response, rapid
experimentation and less genuflecting, *none* of these practices are
encouraged in Bologna. One side has robes, accreditation, and
reverence for the degree; the other has shirtsleeves, a "can do"
attitude and reverence for measurable accomplishments. One talks
about the student body as if it were a single unit; the other is a
zillion sets of fine tuned customization. Bologna would call the Net
culture a babble of the unwashed working to monetize every
discussion; e-learning Woodstockers would call Bologna a torture
chamber of bondages.


This is worse than trying to marry Ford with Ferrari. It's more like
trying to marry the railroad that well serve cattle delivery from
Texas to Chicago with fearless skate boarders happy to trade skinned
knees for the freedom to ride where and when and how they please.