Overview of elearning 2.0

Traditional Vs e-learning 2.0

Traditional Learning	E-learning 2.0
Provider centric	Learner-centric
Compliance – driven	Context-driven
Formal	Informal
Programmes and events	Content  and collaboration
Structured delivery	Unstructured access
Controlled content	User generated content
My learning plan	My network and resources
Classroom based	Online/mobile
Reported	Rated
As it is provided	As I want it

eLearning 2.0 - Personalized Learning Environment for the learner

Centralized or traditional approach accompanied by contemporary or distributed approach is facilitating growth of Learning Networks and Knowledge Exchange thereby creating Personalized Learning Environment for the learner.

Why a learning portal?

The learning portal is an umbrella term, stated relative to the customers (learner or learning community) within which Learning Management or LMS is a core component. In fact, learning portals are broader in functionality than an LMS.

Learning Management is concerned with the management and administration of learning whereas learning portals are about providing access to learning. Learning Management is about the creation of course catalogues and registration processes, the control, tracking and reporting of learning. Learning portals are about searching and finding specific delivery options in associated catalogues, registering to use them, tracking your progress and historical activity. In other words, they are about the same thing but from two different perspectives;

Learning Management System from the perspective of the provider,

Learning Portal from the perspective of the learner or learning community.

How can we provide e-learning 2.0?

By offering a combination Elgg and Moodle, we are providing a learning portal which encompasses all the features of e-learning 2.0 frameworks.

Following are the tools we have identified which maps to components of e-learning 2.0:

Components	Tools
Social and learning  network	Groups/community, messaging, event updates etc
Collaborative emvironments	Discussion Forum, wiki etc
Folksonomics	Tagging, polling
Personal Expressions	Blogging, micro-blogging, content rating, comments etc.
Just in Time Learning	Unbundled Learning, Nano etc.
Distributed learning	online audio/video sessions, chatting etc
Knowledge Sharing	Storytelling tool, resources, RSS, Slideshare
Informal learning	Discussion forum, blogging, RSS
Context driven learning	Content search

To know more about e-learning 2.0, visit:

My Company: Enabling Dimensions

My Passion: Enable All

Comparative overview of Open Source Shopping carts - OsCommerce, Magento and Open Cart

OsCommerce Shopping Cart

OsCommerce was started in March 2000 and has since matured to become the most popular open source shopping cart solution.

Advantages:

1.      It is a complete online store solution that contains both a catalog frontend and an administration tool backend, which can be configured over web
2.      Has a good support base in the form of its community members
3.      Has an active forum for seeking help and troubleshooting
4.      Recent security update brings it up to date with MySQL 5 and PHP 5
5.      Has lot of contributed modules (add-ons) that can be integrated
6.      Can be hosted on a shared server, and is quick

Disadvantages –

1.      Does not have graphic template system meaning it is harder to modify the design
2.      Customisation is time consuming

Magento Shopping Cart

Magento came into the open source shopping cart arena in 2007, and in a very short time has been able to attract a large following. The coding is based on the latest PHP 5 object oriented coding standards.

Some parts of Magento are licensed under the Academic Free License version 3.0(since version 1.1.7). There is also an enterprise Edition for large companies.

Advantages –

1.      Has a vast basket of new age marketing modules and tools, for Up selling and Cross Selling
2.      Is search engine friendly
3.      Can be designed as per will
4.      Has a very good ‘Order Management’ system

Disadvantages –

1.      Heavily layered and overly complicated coding style and requires a lot of time to customise.
2.      Lacks technical documentation, making it difficult to customize and modify the programming of Magento beyond doing graphical changes.
3.      Most of the good to have modules are only available in the Enterprise version (USD 8900 aprox.) of the cart. Comparison of the Community Version and the Enterprise version can be seen on http://www.magentocommerce.com/product/compare
4.      Runs fairly slow as it runs a pretty heavy script, and requires a reliable and non overselling provider for the website to function as intended. Runs well only on dedicated server.

Open Cart

OpenCart is good for medium sized organizations looking for an open source solution for their need. It designed feature rich, easy to use, search engine friendly and with a visually appealing interface.  It has its own fan following.

Advantages –

1.      Has a simple admin panel
2.      It is search engine friendly
3.      Has most of the standard shopping cart features out of the box

Disadvantages –

1.      Has limited contributions, which may induce the need to go for lot many customization.
2.      Scaling or new feature development is difficult because of a small developer forum, though they are active.

Feature comparison between oScommerce and Open Cart can be found on http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=information/features

Fetature wise comparioson between Magento and oScommerce can be found on: http://www.dckap.com/magento-vs-osCommerce.htm

To know more about me, visit the following links:

My Company: Enabling Dimensions
My Passion: Enable All

HTML 5, CSS 3 and JQery resources

Following are some good HTML 5, CSS 3 and JQery resources

HTML 5
1) Test HTML 5 browser support - http://www.html5test.com
2) HTML 5 demo - http://html5demos.com/
3) Forms in HTML 5 - http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/html-css-techniques/rethinking-forms-in-html5/
4) HTML 5 security cheatsheet - http://heideri.ch/jso/



CSS 3
1) Webkit CSS properties - http://css-infos.net/properties/webkit.php
2) CSS 3 animations - http://robertnyman.com/2010/05/06/css3-animations/


JQuery
1) Sliding label - http://www.csskarma.com/lab/plugin_slidinglabels/
2) Beautifule background image navigation - http://tympanus.net/codrops/2010/05/05/beautiful-background-image-navigation-with-jquery/

Design
1) Minimalist Web design - http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/9dWgen/www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/05/13/principles-of-minimalist-web-design-with-examples/

Bangladesh war records destroyed - did government want to hide the open secret?

On Sunday, 9th May, 2010, I read the headlines in the daily The Times Of India "Truth lost? Most military records of Bangladesh war missing", I instantly turned to my dad, a veteran of 1971, who was watching updates on T20 world cup. I said to him with a surprise "All 1971 war related documents were destroyed immediately after the war. It is reported in today's paper. Did you read it?". He turned his head, looked at me for a  while and turned back to watching TV saying "What else would you expect from General Arora? He had to destroy them else it would have been revealed how he distributed bravery awards and medals among his friends.".

I took it with a pinch of salt, as he had mentioned in the past that he was recommended for medal but wasn't awarded, but this aroused my curiosity. Dad had never spoken much about his war experience. I asked him why he said so? He said Maj Gen Gonsalves was GOC of 57 Mountain Div. Incidentally this div was raised by him earlier before the war. There were many recommended for recognition by Maj Gen Gonsalves but none got it. In my dad's word "Even Gen Gonsalves was surprised when the awards were declared". So they had to be destroyed to hide his (Gen Arora's) misdeed.

My dad was part of OMC (Ordinance Maintenance Company), codenamed "Elephant", and was an ammunication contact point for Mukti Bahani before the war and during the war. I asked "Were you part of Mukti Bahini? Did you go inside Bangladesh before the war started officially?". My dad replied "Yes, I started going inside Bangladesh from March 1971 onwards in civil clothes disguising as Mukti Bahini.". I asked another probing question "How many times?". He responded instantly "that's a foolish question! I was part of OMC. I went inside many a times in a day to deliver ammunition to Indian Army in disguise of Mukti Bahini.". No further probing on this.

According to dad, his core's objective were to reach Dhaka following the route - Agartala -> Akhoda -> Bhairav Bazar -> Pheri -> Dhaka.

After the war ended he stayed in Dhaka University til July 1972. His primary task then was to account, detect and destroy landmines and ammunition. For 8 months after the war ended there was no communication between him and my mom. That was indeed a difficult period for everyone!

Noise population on road - anyone listening?

Continuing from where I left last on car number plates, now I am bringing the menace of noise population on NCR's roads to everyone's attention. At times I wonder if anyone ever noticed how much noise we generate when we are driving our cars, be the music is very loud when we try to become "DJ on road" or when the vehicle engine's is scream loud, at top, to draw driver's attention to have pity on it and spend some time and money on getting its much overdue service or when some people take joy in blowing horns unnecessarily!

Horns in Delhi's vehicles comes in verity. Some are musical, some are scary; at time so scary that you can even get a heart attack! Some are authoritative - blowing police/emergency siren when they have no relation with such emergency services by miles, but mostly are normal horns. I pity that people who falls under "mostly" category. They are the one who bears the brunt of people falling under category anything but normal.

Most drivers falling under the category "mostly" are very responsible, blow their horns judiciously and only when it is needed. The owner or driver of DL 8C H 4399 is an exception though. Yesterday at 9:28 AM, on my way to Gurgaon on old Delhi-Gurgaon road, near to Maruti Suzuki factory, this cherry red Maruti Esteem LXi caught my attention. I was difficult not noticing it as it was continuously blowing for no obvious reasons. Perhaps he was not happy with the audio quality of his in-car music system so decided to create his own music. I am sure he must have enjoyed it else there was no reason for such a behavior!

I sincerely hope people stop taking such pleasures and become responsible when it comes to blowing horns. The noise population level on NCR roads is already very high and we should avoid adding more to it.

Car number plates - anyone watching?

As a daily commuter, between Delhi and Gurgaon, I have always been fed up with the deteriorating traffic condition. Ever increasing number of vehicles, regular jams, fancy number plates, creative musical horns and erratic driving sense of Delhi drivers have always blown my top off.

For long I had been thinking of starting a blog on traffic violations in DELHI NCR territory. Finally, I had an incident yesterday which didn't let me hold back anymore and here I am recounting my experience.

On my way to home from Gurgaon to Dwarka, as usual, I got stuck in a jam around IFFCO  CHAWK. The three lane road suddenly became a 6-lane one. I really admire how Delhiite can drive their car maintaining distance between two lanes with such precision. Biker's have become adapt at filling up available spaces created between lanes.

It is then that I committed an unpardonable sin a driver could ever commit on NCR's road. In NCR you are suppose to drive with your car's front bumper almost touching the rear bumper of the car in front. The keyword here is "almost touching". If you touch it then changes in your physical appearance would depend on the mood and linage of the occupants of car in front, irrespective of who was at fault for bridging the distance between "almost touching" and "touched".

I gave some breathing space between my car and the car in front. Suddenly a green WagonR LXi, having pitch dark tint on glasses, from left lane, swerved to right and before i could realise what was happening, it had occupied the space I created. I was angry with the driver for pulling off this stunt without giving me any chance to deny him an opportunity. I wanted to step out, give him a piece of my mind and come back feeling vindicated. I almost did it when this offending car's rear number plate caught my eyes! I thought if a biker see it then they would feel embarrassed for putting up such big number plates!

The car was barely 2-meters in front of me but I wasn't able to read its registration number properly. I thought perhaps my eye sight have gone weaker due to excessive movie watching and spending hours working on my laptop. To verify my doubt, I looked at a bill-board which was on a telecom tower in a distance. I was able to read it properly. Satisfied, I looked at the number plate again and surprisingly I still could not read it. I took off my glasses, you have luxury of doing it if you stuck at IFFCO, wiped them clean and tried checking the number again, and still there was no luck. In the end, I took out my mobile, at 7:35 PM, zoomed it 2X and took a picture of the car in front. So now I know the registration number was DL 2C AC 8414.

I think if the purpose of putting such a number plate was to avoid anyone from noting down the vehicle's number in case it violates any traffic law or meets with any untoward incident, then the plate served its purpose.

I sincerely hope authorities would crack down on such offenders severely and ensure this menace is checked before it goes out of control.