Here is a good resource by JISC and the University of Nottingham that have researched e-portfolio implementations.

 https://sites.google.com/site/epistudy/home

http://www.gcflearnfree.org/

There are some videos and interactive bits along with some quizzes for the various topics.

As part of this investigation, starting to learn about the differences between indoor soccer and futsal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futsal
Indoor soccer

A big difference is that Futsal doesn’t have boards and so doesn’t allow the bouncing off the side boards that is allowed with indoor soccer.

I will be adding some resources here related to the sports as I find them.

While I was looking to see if there were some good, free video tutorials on database modeling, I came across this very cool and useful tool that helps people learn data modeling in a straight-forward, hands-on way. It’s database vendor agnostic as it should be.

Database Literacy: Paper Data Models for One to Many and Many to Many Relationships by DJDates.com, Creative Commons BY-NC-SA. DJ Dates is an Instructor in Computer & Information Science at Corning Community College.

Thanks for DJDates.com for sharing this helpful resource.

I still haven’t found a good video tutorial on database modeling. I thought I would be able to find one on Lynda.com but no luck. The YouTube ones don’t seem very professional and arent clear. If you know of a good video tutorial on database model, please leave a comment and let me know!

Disrupting college summarizes the changes sweeping our post-secondary institutions… changes I have seen first hand teaching at Capilano University and BCIT. I’m not quite sure how schools in general will adapt quickly enough to stay relevant but understanding the challenge they are facing as outlined in this article and report is a good first step.

I see it more than just competition from online learning providers. The real competition I think is from the simple notion that anyone can be a learner and a teacher… we are all experts at different things and why not just share or barter our knowledge than going through such an expensive and time consuming process of formal education. Oh ya, it’s for the credential we get at the end and maybe a bit of campus life experience.

But as the article states, we are moving from seat time as quality measure and course credit to actual evidence-based outcomes… what a concept! You don’t need a credential to develop a really cool and confidence inspiring outcome and more and more employers are more interested in projects that you have been part of instead of certifications and credentials you have.

There are going to be some exciting but rocky times ahead for the education sector. After years of burying heads in the sand and relying on monopoly like powers, the day of reckoning seems to be fast approaching. It’s still possible to transform their core model and continue their leadership position but it’s no longer a sure thing.

It’s impossible to know how inefficient a model is until you develop a new system and can do comparisons. My personal hypothesis since teaching about ten years ago is that post-secondary education can be at least twice the quality at half the cost for a four times improvement over where it is today. When I first started proposing that, I was usually met with a lot of chuckles and comments of “that’s impossible”, especially in an environment where the cost of education has been rising faster than pretty much any other good. I still stick to it though and I think within five to ten years it will become reality and most people on the planet will be far better off for the change.

Disrupting College: How Disruptive Innovation Can Deliver Quality and Affordability to Postsecondary Education by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael B. Horn, Louis Caldera, Louis Soares (Source: American Progress, February 2011)

You can download the full report (PDF, mobile devices and e-readers from Scribd)

Anybody have any insight into this?! If so, please leave a comment and provide some enlightenment.