Jobs, News and Views for All of Higher Education - Inside Higher Ed :: More Online Enrollments
Blog posts
Connectivism Blog: Digital Natives and Immigrants
But our institutions need to change because of the increasing complexity of society and globalization. Schools and universities play a dual role: accommodating learner’s method and mode of learning <i>and</i> transforming learners and preparing them to function in the world that is unfolding. This distinction may seem slight, but it's important. <br>
Why should schools react to learner's methods of learning and interacting with content? Well, obviously, if we ignore how they interact with each other and with content, we are largely subjecting them to a mode of thinking (linear, certainty-based) that is at odds with how they experience life (complex, social, and collaborative). Contrary to Prensksy's views, this distinction is NOT a function of age. It's a function of attitude...a mindset of experimentation...experience with technology.
Half an Hour: Should All Learning Professionals be Blogging?
What can you know about a profcessional who doesn't blog his or her work? How do you know they are competent, that they have the respect of their peers, that they understand the issues, that they practice sound methodology, that they show consideration for their clients? You cannot know any of this without the openness blogging (or equivalent) provides. Which means, once a substantial number begin to share, there will be increasing pressure on all to share.
Allies and Aliens | Introduction
Constructivism & ID
<p>
The expert/novice literature within cognitive psychology reaches
similar conclusions about the nature of expertise. Researchers
have found that expertise is
</p><p>
--largely intuitive and inaccessible to direct reflection (e.g.,
Bloom, 1986)
</p><p>
--more pattern-matching than rule-following (Suchman, 1987, Bereiter,
1991)
</p><p>
--more qualitative than quantitative (White & Frederiksen,
1986)
</p><p>
--highly context- and domain-dependent (Brandt, 1988-89).
</p><p>
Such a view of expertise seems also to fit the field of ID.</p>
The role I am advocating for analysis is fairly modest. Analysis
provides an overall framework for instruction, and provides extra
help on some tricky parts, such as identifying likely misconceptions
or previous knowledge that may undercut students' efforts to understand
the content. The role of the designer is then to design a series
of experiences-interactions or environments or products-intended
to help students learn effectively. Neither the instruction nor
the assessment of learning can be as confidently dictated as thought
to be possible in the past. But the important point to keep in
mind is that the design role is not lost in such a revised system;
the design still happens, only it's less analytical, more holistic,
more reliant on the cooperation of teachers and materials and
learners to generously fill in the gaps left gaping by the limitations
of our analytical tools. Instruction thus construed becomes much
more integrally connected to the context and the surrounding culture.
ID thus becomes more truly <i>systemic</i> in the the sense that
it is highly sensitive to the conditions of use.
Elearning examples -- infographics, simulations, and online courses » Making Change
Die, resume! Die! Die! Die! by The Bryper Blog
Atul Sabnis :: Blog :: RSSing Comment Conversations - II
Instructional Design and Accessibility: Cognitive Curb Cuts
The Bamboo Project Blog: More on Scarcity vs. Abundance Thinking
<tr><td><strong>Scarcity</strong></td>
<td><strong>Abundance</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>It’s every man for himself</td>
<td>We can work together</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>I never have time</td>
<td>I take time for the things that matter</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Mistakes are disasters</td>
<td>I can recover and learn from mistakes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ideas are hard to come by and must be kept secret</td>
<td>I can always have a great idea</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Our company is lacking</td>
<td>Our company has everything it needs to succeed</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Look at all the resources we need</td>
<td>Look at all the resources we have</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The market is full of threats</td>
<td>The market is full of opportunities</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>People are out to get me</td>
<td>People are out to help me</td></tr>
I think that it's this picture of abundance that I find so engaging about the Internet and social media. A lot of people give generously of their time, their expertise and their support to write their own blogs, comment on others, create videos and podcasts and beautiful art that enriches the rest of us. And they do it for nothing.This is abundance thinking. This is a belief that there is an endless flow of ideas and information that we can connect and shape to create new things all the time.
The Bamboo Project Blog: Is the Scarcity Mentality the Biggest Barrier to Social Media in Nonprofits?
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills - U.S. Students Need 21st Century Skills to Compete in a Global Economy
CITE Journal - Science: Blogs: Enhancing Links in a Professional Learning Community of Science and Mathematics Teachers
Small study of reflective blogging to build a learning community with teachers. Overall, the results were positive and the teachers felt the experience was beneficial, but there were some technical and other difficulties.
Anyone who can access the Internet can be part of the knowledge-access, knowledge-building,
information-exchanging culture, regardless of location.
Learning communities do not have to be built through face-to-face interactions.
They can be realized using nontraditional electronic communication.
Research suggests that in order for busy teachers to use an asynchronous learning
environment they must feel part of a shared vision, have a sense of ownership
of some part of the site, and benefit from the shared perspectives of others
(Robertson, 2007). Providing the kind of scaffolding that has these features
is challenging. Teachers are not typically given the time or the venue to
share, discuss, or see examples of pedagogical alternatives for their classroom
on any kind of regular basis (Darling-Hammond, 1997).
<p>Although our sample size is rather small, the findings of this study suggest
that most participants (community college faculty members, mentor, and intern
teachers) recognized the value of blogging as a platform for sharing resources
and ideas and reflecting on personal experiences. Several teachers were planning
to use blogging with their own students. </p>
<p>Blogging seemed to at least indirectly benefit most PLC-MAP teachers in terms
of integrating technology into their own teaching practices. </p>
The Blog Usability Checklist
Are your visuals saying what you want? Part 1 Visual Elements at VisualsSpeak
eSchool News online - 'Fair use' confusion threatens media literacy
NCTE Inbox Blog: Copyright or Copywrong?
The Open Video Project
Course Management Systems and Pedagogy
TP: Images of American Political History
Harvard University Library: Open Collections Program
CEP817 Audio Artifacts Lessons
Historical Voices
Talking History
WorldImages
ScienceDaily: Preventing Bullying At Schools With Computer Role Play Game
Eide Neurolearning Blog: Video Game Training Narrows Spatial Gender Gap
always learning » Essential Understandings for 21st Century Literacy
Are the Basics of Instructional Design Changing? ~ Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes
Two major sets of affordances offered in online learning are not found in traditional learning. First, online, communication occurs not through a channel, but through a network. And second, communication flows not merely through a passive medium but through a computational environment.
The theory of distributed representation has a profound implication for pedagogy, as it suggests that
learning (and teaching, such as it is) is not a process of communication, but rather, a process of immersion. Put loosely, it suggests the idea of teaching not by telling or even demonstrating but rather through the creation (or identification) of an environment into which a learner may be immersed.
elearnspace. Context: Planning for the space of learning
The very intent of ISD, however, is its
weakness – namely making explicit intended learning and planning
clear, concise approaches to achieving intended outcomes. Clearly defining
learning assumes “things won’t change” (content, nature
of interactions, changes in related disciplines which impact the information
being discussed) between the point of design and the point of learning.
This may work for many fields – especially where change is not significant
– but models which neglect the adaptive nature of learning and the
emergent structure of interactions are less appropriate to today’s
work environments than they were in the past.
<p>As stated, instructional design needs to make two substantial changes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>1. Stop seeing learning design as a task that occurs in advance of
the intended learning, and begin to see it as a part of the learning
process itself<br>
2. Begin to focus more on the context of learning (designing environments
of learning) and less so on the intended content of the learning activities
(course, workshop, or program)</p></blockquote>