Web Review: Learnhub.com

After doing some studies about web 2.0 applications, we decided to choose LEARNHUB as it gives many advantages to the teachers to make learning and teaching interesting and at the same time to make the process of exchanging knowledge and lessons easier . The address for this application is www.learnhub.com.

LearnHub is the evolution of Nuvvo. It is built on new technology; Nuvvo was built on a Java stack using Hibernate and Struts (Crow, 2008). It is a set of online tools designed to make learning fun and engaging for students as well as effective and trouble-free for teachers. Learnhub represents an evolution in understanding of how important communities’ involvement and interaction are in the learning process. Brown presents Learn 2.0 as a shift from a view where knowledge is something that can be transferred to students to a view where it is the social interactions and activities that help support the learning of content. According to him, “This perspective shifts the focus of our attention from the content of a subject to the learning activities and human interactions around which that content is situated. This perspective also helps to explain the effectiveness of study groups. Students in these groups can ask questions to clarify areas of uncertainty or confusion, can improve their grasp of the material by hearing the answers to questions from fellow students, and perhaps most powerfully, can take on the role of teacher to help other group members benefit from their understanding” (Brown, 2008).

LearnHub supports a set of social activities. The learning management tools and special features provided by LearnHub for teachers and educators are: courses, lessons, polls, quizzes, tests, student management, multimedia instruction, blogging, comments, tutoring, content, trivia, and a reputation system. Tutor offerings are synchronous, live sessions between instructors and students including a whiteboard, video, audio, and document sharing. To participate, one should request a session, and the instructor sets up a time. Video conferencing for example, will allow teachers to communicate with the students from distance and tutoring will be more effective as students can directly ask for assistance even when the teacher is not around.

Other than that, Crow pointed out that the reputation system provides a mechanism for students to evaluate teachers, the input and tutoring advice of other students, and generally create a public mechanism for building trust amongst the participants. Students can gauge tutors by looking at their reputation rating, which is determined by the number of classes they have taught and the reviews they have received (Kincaid, 2008). As mentioned before, the advantage for LearnHub is the participatory nature of the product. With LearnHub tools appear to be built around social learning, the combination of using a socially motivated reward system, i.e. reputation, along with participatory social tools seems like a fantastic start for successful social learning communities (Crow,2008). Other people in the teacher’s community can point out his or her weaknesses on the content of the lesson.Thus, the integration of a reputation system that leverages many of the standard social design patterns, allows LearnHub to build tools for educators around a participatory community that supports individual learners to improve the learning experience.

Nash (2008) stated that upon first glance, the interface does not seem to be too far dissimilar from social networking sites such as Bebo (http://www.bebo.com/) that offer the opportunity to develop different channels for networks, and which encourage you to create your own content and share it in innovative ways using integrated web applications and other features. The features of LearnHub differentiate it from other portals, start pages, or web application integrators. The focus on learning, the ability to take rate, and comment on content, providers, and learning experiences make it a unique service. Further, with the ability to charge (and collect) fees, the incentives for individuals to put their best possible content, and to take instruction to a level not found in free offerings. It is important to keep in mind that at this point, LearnHub does not offer a full-fledged learning management solution. It does not have a gradebook, and some of the other features that one might expect with an LMS. However, LearnHub allows one to record and archive synchronous sessions. This expands the scope of instructional materials (Nash, 2008). LearnHub’s communities encourage individuals to be creative about the type of means and methods to use during lessons. There are many other advantages and useful features especially for the educators as it offers:

• A comprehensive online presence. Create a profile, earn your authority, build your network of colleagues, or cultivate a following of students.
• Powerful content authoring tools. LearnHub simple lesson editor allows you to share videos, pages and presentations, giving you a range of media to present your content with.
• Easy testing. Not only does the editor make it easy to create tests; the report generator allows you to track users' progress.
• Course creation. Combine lessons, tests, and activities into a restricted course area only your students can access.
• Live tutoring. Connect to your students with live video, voice, whiteboard and document sharing.
• Fun activities. Diversity is a key ingredient in fun and engaging learning. Challenging concept attainment games, competitive debates and addictive trivia keep students coming back for more.
• Complete e-commerce integration. Monetize your expertise by using the feature for courses or live tutoring sessions (http://www.learnhub.com/).

Despite its advantages, there are many weaknesses of this site. For a start, while the redesigned layout does help make the site more accessible, it is still complicated and overwhelming. With so many options to choose from, students may lose direction, which may lead experienced tutors to choose to use sites designed exclusively to promote their specialty (Kincaid, 2008). However, this weakness can be overcome with the guidance provided from the site itself. Students and also teachers should familiarize themselves with the features and these problems will not be a barrier anymore for process of learning to take place.

The flexibility, social networking, and overall ease of use make LearnHub a compelling option. Not only is it effective for individuals who may wish to offer training, it also encourages colleges and universities to supplement their face-to-face courses with the rich Web 2.0 environments offered by LearnHub. As in the case of the best Web 2.0 applications, LearnHub promotes interaction, collaboration, sharing, peer networking, as well as innovation in multimedia self-expression (Nash, 2008).

Textbook Review

Title of Book: Psychology & Adjustment: Values, Culture and Change
Author: Ronald Jay Cohen (St John’s University)
Publisher: Allyn and Bacon

From my point of view, this textbook is reader friendly and is a big aid to all students out there who is taking Psychology as a subject for their course. For a start, there is a table of contents complete with the pages which will make it easier for the students to find information that they need instead of browsing through every pages. With the index too, they will have a general idea of what they will be learning for the subject and of course, the table of contents show a logical arrangement and development of subject; from an easier one to the most difficult. Like most textbooks, it contains references and bibliographies for students to check the sources used in the book if they need more detailed explanations. At the back of the page, there is a useful glossary that gives meaning to specific terms and words to help students understand more. At the beginning of every chapter, there is a brief introduction to capture the reader’s attention as it relates the topic with examples that are very close to us. The summaries that is provided at the end of every chapter is a short summary of every sub-topics and it definitely enlightens and strengthen students' understanding.

On the content, it is useful for both local and national standards as issues and examples given are very universal and it too can be considered as current because it is only published in the year 1999 and could be used for many more years. The language used is appropriate and very direct for college students thus making it easier to comprehend by them. The lessons are however not all are linked to each other and does not contain end-of-lesson questions or quizzes to test the students' understanding. They should have questions on the chapter so that students can relate well with their daily applications. Despite the weakness, they do have activities in between lessons that is interesting and appealing. Students can have a break in between reading and learning and try the fun activities prepared for them.

From the physical aspect, the front cover with the striking colours and designs can attract any readers easily but the size of the book is too big and it is quite heavy for students to carry along in their bags or just by holding it. This condition will only lead to students becoming lazy to bring their textbooks and even to read it! It is a hardcover book but I doubt the pages are durable. The font is appropriate for college and university students and they should be able to read it comfortably. The illustrations of the books and the tables, figures, graphs, and also charts are very relevant and useful in my opinion; and of course every illustrations are appropriate to students with various ethnicity, sex, socioeconomic background and their physical and mental background. It helps students to generate and memorize the facts and figures without any hurdles.

In my point of view, these are the important and crucial criterias that need to be put forward when selecting a textbook. This Psychology textbook has its weaknesses that can be overcome and the strength that can benefit the students using it.