Explore the use of technology in education through Ititser!

The Ititser is an online journal about the efficient use of technology in education and learning.

The author and webmaster of this website is yours truly, Greten Vicke S. Estella. I have more than five years professional experience as instructional designer both in K-12 education setting and in professonal training.

In its earlier years, Ititser focused on the use of free and open source software (FOSS) programs. The upcoming changes in 2019 will focus on programs that are often used in industry as well as on learning theories. You will notice that I already changed the categories significantly. In the next few months, I will expand the posts to include other programs regardless of their copyright status.

What's new in Ititser?

What is blended learning?

Blended learning is an instructional approach that combines the use of face-to-face or classroom instruction with online learning. Instructional designers use blended learning to obtain the best results from both face-to-face and online instructions.

[ No Comments ] Posted by Greten on 14 Jan 2019 under Terms

A person using a laptop while there are notebook and pencil on his desk.

Essential elements of online citation

Properly citing the sources is important in academic research work, but online references can be difficult to cite due to a wider variety of format with the pieces of information you need being in different places.

[ No Comments ] Posted by Greten on 28 Dec 2018 under Tips

Visual representation of internet research and citation,: a globe with interconnected nodes. One of the node has a book and another node has pen and paper.

What is a learning management system (LMS)?

A learning management system or LMS is a common staple in elearning. It is an online system that allows teachers or facilitators to organize learning content, provide assessment, and track the progress of learners. It allows learners to access learning content, take assessment, and obtain immediate feedback.

[ No Comments ] Posted by Greten on 16 Dec 2018 under Tools

AGES model of effective learning

The AGES model: attention, generation, emotion, and spacing, explains how the brain process learning and can provide us with some tips on how to best design an elearning material.

[ No Comments ] Posted by Greten on 09 Dec 2018 under Theories

Using LibreOffice/OpenOffice Impress in education

Slide presentation software, such as OpenOffice/LibreOffice Impress, is becoming very popular and useful in education whether in aid of traditional lecture method or as stand-alone learning module. Here, I presented tips on how your can make better presentation for your class.

[ No Comments ] Posted by Greten on 06 Sep 2013 under Tools

Using LibreOffice Impress slide presentation software in classroom

Compromising FOSS with future job requirements

Using FOSS will not make students less competitive in a job market where it seems employers prefer those who know how to use proprietary software, but you can have a middle ground wherein you can use FOSS in computer literacy classes and the students can still claim they know how to use some of these commercial software programs.

[ No Comments ] Posted by Greten on 05 Sep 2013 under Thoughts

Graduation cap between an open document format resume and an MS document resume

What is a freeware?

Freewares are software programs that are obtained for free or $0 but do not come with source code. The restriction of the licenses may vary from ones similar to FOSS up to ones very similar to proprietary software programs.

[ No Comments ] Posted by Greten on 04 Sep 2013 under Terms

Chinese coin with floppy disk in the square hole at the center.

Protect your school from BSA raids

Use FOSS and have a peace of mind as your school becomes free from disruptive BSA raids and other technology-related legal problems.

[ No Comments ] Posted by Greten on 03 Sep 2013 under Thoughts

FOSS using schools can have their peace of mind while BSA ship is chasing software pirates

Why use FOSS in schools?

There will be several benefits for schools to start adopting free and open-source software programs in their computer laboratories and in their curriculum. They cost less, they are more secured, and software raids of law enforcers and lawsuits are unlikely to come to your school gates.

[ No Comments ] Posted by Greten on 02 Sep 2013 under Thoughts

penguin, wildebeast, and fox, associated with Linux, GNU, and Mozilla, are drawn on a chalk board

Graphing equations using open-source software KAlgebra

KAlgebra is a graphing calculator available as FOSS and can be downloaded through Ubuntu Software Center. It can graph in 2D: y = f(x) or in 3D: z = f(x,y). It has excellent features in 2D graphs but have plenty of rooms for improvement in 3D graphs.

[ No Comments ] Posted by Greten on 20 May 2013 under Tools