Kapp Notes: It is All Fun and Games...And Then Students Learn
Annotated list of educational games, all related to science and math.
Blog posts
What is the unique idea in Connectivism?
George Siemens on how connectivism differs from constructivism and other learning theories, starting from the point that "a new idea is often an old idea in today's context."
Connectivism is the application of network principles to define both knowledge and the process of learning. Knowledge is defined as a particular pattern of relationships and learning is defined as the creation of new connections and patterns as well as the ability to maneuver around existing networks/patterns.
UMapper / Home
Create Flash-based interactive maps with points of interest marked. Some facilitators have asked about a way to create a map of where students are to help build a sense of community in an online class; this looks like it might work for that purpose.
E-Learning Queen: The Best Way to Learn in an Online Course
Advice for online learners to get the most out of their courses. Includes cognitive, behavioral, and self-regulation strategies. Even though this is geared towards learners, instructional designers can also benefit from thinking about how to teach and model these strategies.
How long does it take to create learning? | Bryan Chapman
Basic ratios for developing learning content, from 34:1 for ILT to 750:1 for simulations. (That's 34 hours of development for 1 hour of instructor-led training.) Compiled from multiple Brandon Hall research reports.
Content Migrations: Options, Strategies and Faux Pas
Collection of articles about content migration. Even though this is about general CMS migrations and not specific to e-learning, most of this is relevant to e-learning and converting from one LMS to another. The summary of points to take away seems very true: we can't expect perfect automated migration, and we have to anticipate that content will change.
<li>Plan, plan, plan</li>
<li>Look into automated and semi-automated, but don’t expect miracles</li>
<li>Inventory first</li>
<li>Never migrate content as is — always expect changes</li>
<li>Keep metadata top of mind</li>
<li>Consider outsourcing for the simple tasks like cutting and pasting</li>
Myths about online learning | Janet Clarey
Myths about e-learning, like "online teaching is mostly good for introductory courses."
GoAnimate - Homepage
Create animations with premade cartoon characters, backgrounds, and music. You can upload your own content too. No programming required. I could see this as a tool for digital storytelling.
Five Amazing Color Palette Generators - ReadWriteWeb
5 color palette generators in the post, but more in the comments.
colr.org
Generate color schemes from Flickr images, your own images, or websites. Tag schemes with something unique so you can find them again.
How-to: Non-Linear Navigation in Captivate Using rdcmndGotoSlide
Jump to a specific slide in Captivate using a Flash wrapper. I've wanted to be able to do this several times when linking multiple Captivate files and never could figure out how.
Mind Hacks: Is the cinematograph making us stupid?
19th century neurologists George Beard and Silas Weir Mitchell "thought the pace of life and the effect of new technology was harming the mind and brain of citizens in 1800s America." Their concerns sound very much like the concerns shared today by people worried about the effects of computers and other technology.
As we've <a href="http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/06/web_making_us_worrie.html">noted</a> <a href="http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2007/09/too_much_too_young.html">several</a> <a href="http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/07/facebook_ate_my_psyc.html">times</a>, leading scientists or commentators can make international headlines by simply suggesting that new technology is harming the mind, brain and relationships of the modern citizen, despite a general lack of evidence or flat out evidence to the contrary.
JOLT - Defining Tools for a New Learning Space: Writing and Reading Class Blogs
Examines blogs as learning tools for creating a "community of discourse." This article focuses more on the role of the facilitator in shaping the learning community than on the instructional design of assignments using blogs. There's some interesting ideas about evaluating success and determining whether students are reading blog posts beyond just how much commenting happens.
elearninglive.com » Captivate Audio Output Settings Comparison - Part One - Encoding Bitrate
Results of an experiment on the encoding bitrate for Captivate. Mark Siegriest is trying to find the best audio settings to balance sound quality and file size.
The most surprising finding in this is that at the lowest bitrates, the file size actually went up, not down. 32kbps was the smallest file size in his sampling.
So basically from what I can see there is no point in ever going below 32kbps as you’re gaining filesize and losing quality.
Facilitating online communities - WikiEducator
Course from Wikieducator on communication and community for online facilitators. Offered as a formal course with a facilitator or informal participation at your own pace.
Evaluating Online Learning
80-page PDF from the US Department of Education on evaluating K-12 online learning. I haven't read it all yet, but some of this would probably apply to higher ed settings, and maybe corporate settings. Includes examples & case studies of successful online K-12 programs.
» What Everybody Ought to Know About Instructional Design The Rapid eLearning Blog
Great post on the value of instructional design and what instructional designers add to the process of learning.
- More than just putting info in front of learners
- Helps learners focus on the right things
- Provides context and perspective
- Saves time in the learning process
- "Engages learners in clear and meaningful content"
I love the use of the YouTube video as the attention getter and example in this post. I've seen variations on this video before, but never thought about it in this context.
Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling
Directory for the educational uses of digital storytelling website. Resources include getting started with digital storytelling, examples, tools, and evaluation. The Evaluation section includes information on some of the research being done in this area.
Do Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Learners Need Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Instruction?
Examines what cognitive science actually tells us about different learning styles and argues that the best answer is to choose the modality that best suits the content rather than adapting to the student.
Ask the Cognitive Scientist: “Brain-Based” Learning: More Fiction than Fact
This article examines several myths of brain-based learning, looking at what the neuroscience research actually tells us. Very little of the research at this point is directly applicable to the classroom; it just doesn't tell us enough about how people learn in real environments.
For neuroscience to mean something to teachers, it must provide information beyond what is available without neuroscientific methods. It’s not enough to describe what’s happening in the brain, and pretend that you’ve learned something useful.
In general, if you are interested in describing effects at a given level of analysis, you are most likely to make progress by sticking to that level of analysis. If you’re interested in describing ways that students learn best, it makes sense to study classroom situations. To the extent that neuroscience will inform good teaching practice, it seems most likely that this influence will be funneled through the cognitive level of analysis: For example, neuroscience will help us better understand memory, and this improved understanding of memory might be used to improve classroom practice. It’s unlikely that leapfrogging the cognitive level analysis and going straight from the brain to the classroom will work out very often.
US Copyright Sliderule
Flash sliderule for figuring out whether something is protected by US copyright or not based on publication date and other factors
Google Docs Templates for Students & Teachers
Google Docs templates for syllabi, lesson plans, calendars, research reports, quizzes, and more
Main Page - Social Justice Wiki
Collection of student research on social justice organizations in New York City. Created with a wik: each time the professor teaches the class, more organizations will be added to the growing resource.
Trendpedia - blog trend search
Graphs the number of blog posts over time which include a search term or phrase. Works even for terms with low numbers of actual posts (e.g., edupunk). You can compare the trends for up to 3 terms at a time.
Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media: Working Wikily: The fine lines between content and curriculum and self-directed learning and instruction ....
Beth Kanter on the process of developing curriculum collaboratively with a "swarm" of contributors on a wiki
e-Learning Centre by Learning Light - e-Learning Quotations
Quotes on e-learning, learning, education, and change.
Taking the 'A' out of Asynchronous
Examples of colleges successfully using synchronous tools for office hours, student collaboration, and administrative work
'Socializing' the CMS
The traditional CMS/LMS is designed for a more instructor-centered course, so the pedagogy of these courses reflects the technology. This article skims the surface of what might be possible if social networking tools, blogs, wikis, and more were used to construct courses and give students more control. What would that do to the pedagogy?
1: Introduction to The Web Standards Curriculum
Learn web standards online. Self paced, individual learning--this includes a series of articles by various authors, plus individual practice exercises and reflection questions. Currently 21 articles; more to be published in the future. Looks like this could be a pretty substantial open educational resource, especially as they continue to build articles. CC-NC-SA
Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video
Just like it sounds--best practices and broad guidlines for what constitutes fair use for online video