Blog posts

Inside Higher Ed: The Impact of Dropping the SAT
Inside Higher Ed: The Impact of Dropping the SAT
Want to improve diversity at a college without spending a lot of money? Drop the requirement for SAT or ACT as part of admissions.
These models suggest that any move away from the SAT or ACT in competitive colleges results in significant gains in ethnic and economic diversity. But the gains are greater for colleges that drop testing entirely, as opposed to just making it optional.
The findings appear to confirm what SAT critics have said for years: that reliance on the SAT in college admissions favors applicants who are white and/or wealthier than other applicants.
·insidehighered.com·
Inside Higher Ed: The Impact of Dropping the SAT
Donald Clark Plan B: Brilliant 35 studies in media and learning
Donald Clark Plan B: Brilliant 35 studies in media and learning
Great summary of research points on our perceptions of media with implications for using media effectively for learning. For example, audio quality matters a lot, but video quality can be low and still effective. Large, wide screens are preferred over higher quality images on smaller screens.
35 psychological studies into the human reaction to media all point towards the simple proposition that people react towards media socially even though, at a conscious level, they believe it is not reasonable to do so. They can't help it. In short, people think that computers are people, which makes e-learning work.
As long as a media technology is consistent with social and physical rules, we will accept it. Read that last part again, 'as long as a media technology is consistent with social and physical rules'. If the media technology fails to conform to these human expectations - we will very much not accept it.
·donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com·
Donald Clark Plan B: Brilliant 35 studies in media and learning
Share Best Practices - Patterns : eLearning Technology
Share Best Practices - Patterns : eLearning Technology
Instead of calling them "best practices" maybe they should be "better patterns"; there isn't just one way to do things. We can try to reproduce patterns or create variations on a theme. For problem solving and critical thinking, this is probably a more accurate description of what we do than "best practices."
·elearningtech.blogspot.com·
Share Best Practices - Patterns : eLearning Technology
How to Choose the Right Color Scheme for your e-Learning Project. | LearningChange, Intl - Performance Improvement, Facilitation Training, e-Learning + Instructional Design
How to Choose the Right Color Scheme for your e-Learning Project. | LearningChange, Intl - Performance Improvement, Facilitation Training, e-Learning + Instructional Design
Basic tips for color as a communication tool in e-learning
·learningchange.com·
How to Choose the Right Color Scheme for your e-Learning Project. | LearningChange, Intl - Performance Improvement, Facilitation Training, e-Learning + Instructional Design
Whatever You Do, Don’t Drop Practice | Tom Werner
Whatever You Do, Don’t Drop Practice | Tom Werner

Summary of research which compared courses with the same content but with specific elements of Gagne's instructional events removed. The strongest correlation with student performance and satisfaction was with practice with feedback. (This is an old post, but it's moved since I originally bookmarked it.)

The only instructional element that really matters is practice with feedback.
·brandon-hall.com·
Whatever You Do, Don’t Drop Practice | Tom Werner
In the Middle of the Curve: Wendy W - Knowledge Gardener
In the Middle of the Curve: Wendy W - Knowledge Gardener
Tony Karrer suggested we might be known as "management consultants" in the future, but I like Wendy's "Knowledge Gardener" much better
Thinking about the tools I'm building and the programs I'm developing - that seems more akin to the way I want my job to evolve. As a "knowledge gardener."
So I've decided that my next 5 years will be spent as a "knowledge gardener." Helping people get the information they need. Encouraging people within my organization to talk to each other and share what they know. Facilitating learning when they need and want it (preferrably in much smaller chunks than they are getting now).
·in-the-middle-of-the-curve.blogspot.com·
In the Middle of the Curve: Wendy W - Knowledge Gardener
VoiceThread as a Digital Portfolio | Teaching Sagittarian
VoiceThread as a Digital Portfolio | Teaching Sagittarian
Step by step how one teacher used VoiceThread to create digital portfolios for student-led conferences. One nice touch is that ESL students could use both English and their native language, since after all they were communicating with family members who might have trouble understanding English. Two examples are included, plus reflections on what the teacher learned from the project.
·teachingsagittarian.edublogs.org·
VoiceThread as a Digital Portfolio | Teaching Sagittarian
Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning - Emerging Technologies for Learning
Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning - Emerging Technologies for Learning
George Siemens and Peter Tittenberger have created this wiki handbook for educators who want to incorporate technology into learning. Looks at how and why change is happening in education and how technology can help meet the educational needs of a changing world.
·ltc.umanitoba.ca·
Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning - Emerging Technologies for Learning
sciencegeekgirl » The burden of proof: What does education research really tell us?
sciencegeekgirl » The burden of proof: What does education research really tell us?
Looking at the resistance to change in education even when research supports certain strategies (like active learning). Educators resist using new teaching methods when they don't feel the research matches up with their personal experience. Education research isn't the same as pure scientific research in a lab where everything can be controlled, but if there is some repeatability in multiple contexts, isn't that educational research onto something?
·blog.sciencegeekgirl.com·
sciencegeekgirl » The burden of proof: What does education research really tell us?
2¢ Worth » Working for Value
2¢ Worth » Working for Value
David Warlick shares stories of authentic assignments and how they motivate learners. Writing & creating for an authentic audience is different from creating content just for a teacher.
<p>When writing, let’s say, to the teacher, you are communicated to be evaluated.&nbsp; Assessment is the outcome, based on some set of expectations involving skills and/or knowledge. </p> <p>However, when writing to an authentic audience, what you are trying to earn is not an evaluation (though there may be one coming in the process).&nbsp; What you are writing for is a <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">response</span>, and that response will be directed toward what you have invested in the work, not just the facts you have included or the skills you have demonstrated.</p>
·davidwarlick.com·
2¢ Worth » Working for Value
Weblogg-ed » Personalizing Education for Teachers, Too
Weblogg-ed » Personalizing Education for Teachers, Too
An argument against standardizing professional development for teachers. Will we ever transform education if we expect every teacher to learn the same things at the same time in the same way? If we personalize their learning and tap into their passions, we might be able to create some real change in education though.
Teachers are learners. If they’re not, they shouldn’t be teachers.
·weblogg-ed.com·
Weblogg-ed » Personalizing Education for Teachers, Too
10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know
10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know
If you're using Facebook, especially if you use it with multiple groups of people (friends, family, professional contacts, bloggers), friend lists are highly recommended. This is also a good article to pass along to people who are resistant. To some extent, I figure all the privacy is illusory; people can still share what they know, after all. But it's at least some protection.
·allfacebook.com·
10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know
Writing in the 21st Century
Writing in the 21st Century

Report from the National Council of Teachers of English with a call to action to teach writing appropriately for the 21st century. Writing now often happens outside school in social spaces where people learn informally through their peers. Includes an overview of how writing has been viewed historically and how that has affected how we teach writing.

"Writing has never been accorded the cultural respect or the support that reading has enjoyed, in part because through reading, society could control its citizens, whereas through writing, citizens might exercise their own control."

"Writing has historically and inextricably been linked to testing."

"In much of this new composing, we are writing to share, yes; to encourage dialogue, perhaps; but mostly, I think, to participate."

"First, we have moved beyond a pyramid-like, sequential model of literacy development in which print literacy comes first and digital literacy comes second and networked literacy practices, if they come at all, come third and last."

·ncte.org·
Writing in the 21st Century
Multimedia Serves Youths' Desire to Express Themselves | Edutopia
Multimedia Serves Youths' Desire to Express Themselves | Edutopia
High school students in California find their voice through multimedia and learn to make a difference through what they create and share
"Media is the language of kids," Torres adds, saying that students who may not take to learning by reading a textbook or listening to a lecture often jump at the chance to understand complex concepts by presenting finished products in the form of a film or a Web documentary or a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.
·edutopia.org·
Multimedia Serves Youths' Desire to Express Themselves | Edutopia
Web Accessibility for Cognitive and Learning Disabilities: A Review of Research-Based Evidence in the Literature
Web Accessibility for Cognitive and Learning Disabilities: A Review of Research-Based Evidence in the Literature
Literature review on research related to accessibility specifically for cognitive disabilities. One conclusion from this review is that there's very little research actually out there to draw from; most guidelines and recommendations aren't grounded in much evidence.
·paulbohman.com·
Web Accessibility for Cognitive and Learning Disabilities: A Review of Research-Based Evidence in the Literature