Learning Center

A Learning Center is a multi-media web page for teaching and learning and may contain text, photos, video and/or links to other Learning Centers or web sites. Since ECHOspace.org is dedicated to the improvement of cross-cultural understanding, the Learning Centers posted here teach how others see the world through the sharing of knowledge, perspectives, culture and heritage.

Learning Centers can be built for use in the classroom, in professional development, or in community and institutional development.

Resource

A resource is a video or photo file, to be used as stand-alone sources or as part of a Learning Center. You can use any resource that is on the site, or upload your own to use and share with others. Any resource that you upload will automatically appear in the list of Images or Videos, as well as on your Profile page.

Most photo or video files can be used as Resources on ECHOspace.org. Resources can be in a variety of formats, depending what they are: photos are best in JPEG, PNG or TIFF formats. Videos are acceptable in many formats. See YouTube's suggestions.

When you upload a Resource, it will appear in several places: on your Profile page under My Resources, on the Resources page under the See All tab, and on the ECHOspace.org Home page under Images or Videos.

You can search for ECHOspace resources by clicking on the Resources tab and scrolling through the list that appears, or by using categories or search words. When you want to add a resource to your personal collection, simply click on the Add to My Resources button directly below the thumbnail image. The resource will appear on your Profile page.

Stanza

Learning Centers are created by entering text and resources into a frame called a "stanza." After you name your Learning Center you will open a screen that includes a right-hand column. Part-way down the column, under "Stanzas" is a list of available stanza types that allow the arrangement of text and resource. You can use as many stanzas as you like in any combination. In order to build your Learning Center click on one of these stanza types and begin to enter information.

After you create a stanza, you still have the option to edit it and to move it up or down within the Learning Center.

When you select a stanza type you will see an editing window. Please note that you can either type or cut-and-paste the information into the stanza. If you cut-and-paste, please remove any special formatting and paste your writing as plain text. There are formatting tools available at the top of the stanza that will allow to you to add formatting later.

Section

Each Learning Center can be made up of one or more sections. A rule of thumb is to try to keep each section no more than one scroll down the page. As you build your Learning Center, you will see that you can add as many sections as you need, naming each appropriately as you go along. For instance, you might want to name the first section of a Learning Center "Overview and Objectives." The second might be, "Background Information." The third, "Teaching Strategies," and so on.