Blog posts

2608 bookmarks
Custom sorting
WebAIM: Blog - 508 and Higher Ed.
WebAIM: Blog - 508 and Higher Ed.
An analysis of 100 web pages of higher ed institutions showed that only 3 of them met the Section 508 requirements. Most pages were missing skip navigation links and alt text.
In my opinion, good semantic structure is one of the most essential and overlooked accessibility issues. A clearly-structured site is usually easier to understand, navigate, and is more accessible to users, particularly those with cognitive disabilities.
·webaim.org·
WebAIM: Blog - 508 and Higher Ed.
Take Your Résumé and Shove It - US News and World Report
Take Your Résumé and Shove It - US News and World Report
Interview with someone who did a successful search for employees using only social networking tools--no resume, no email allowed.
<strong>Is transparency one of the key benefits to this sort of job search?</strong> <br> Absolutely. I wanted the transparency. The problem with traditional résumé interviewing is it's so one-dimensional and it's so easy to paint yourself as something. If I can look at your social network, I can see much more. This took a level of trust for the people who were reaching out to me. But I did say that I'm a big enough boy, that I'm OK if you talked about partying or things that you do in your personal life. I want to know who you are. I'm a human being as well, and I don't care that you do things, because I expect that human beings would do these things.
·usnews.com·
Take Your Résumé and Shove It - US News and World Report
Top News - Blogging helps encourage teen writing
Top News - Blogging helps encourage teen writing
Survey results about teens and writing, showing that students who blog write more for personal reasons and are more likely to think writing skills are essential. Most students think their writing would improve if they could use more technology to practice writing for school.
Forty-seven percent of teen bloggers write outside of school for personal reasons several times a week or more, compared with 33 percent of teens without blogs. Sixty-five percent of teen bloggers believe that writing is essential to later success in life; 53 percent of non-bloggers say the same thing.
Most students (82 percent) believe that additional instruction and focus on writing in school would help improve their writing even further--and more than three-quarters of those surveyed (78 percent) think it would help their writing if their teachers used computer-based writing tools such as games, multimedia, or writing software programs or web sites during class.
·eschoolnews.com·
Top News - Blogging helps encourage teen writing
The Heart of Innovation: The Top 100 Lamest Excuses for Not Innovating
The Heart of Innovation: The Top 100 Lamest Excuses for Not Innovating
Common excuses for not innovating or changing, plus a technique for addressing these excuses.
<p>Current reality, however, is only <em>one</em> form of reality. And just because it's <em>current</em> doesn't mean it's the way it will always be. Or <em>should</em> be. </p> <div id="a000238more"><div id="more"> <p>Real innovators challenge excuses. Real innovators challenge the status quo. They do not concede to current reality.</p></div></div>
·ideachampions.com·
The Heart of Innovation: The Top 100 Lamest Excuses for Not Innovating
Dave’s Whiteboard » Blog Archive » Think and do?
Dave’s Whiteboard » Blog Archive » Think and do?
Dave Ferguson explains at the end of this post his "three links out" idea. You read a post on one of your regular blogs, then click a link (1). From there, click another link (2). From that place, click a third link (3). This brings you outside your regular circle of reading so you're explosed to new people and ideas. Seems like a good lifelong learning technique.
·daveswhiteboard.com·
Dave’s Whiteboard » Blog Archive » Think and do?
A List Apart: Articles: Community: From Little Things, Big Things Grow
A List Apart: Articles: Community: From Little Things, Big Things Grow
One of the founders of Flickr writes about building online community. One of his big points is that if you create too many hard and fast rules, people are less creative and open to conversation. It's better to build community by providing spaces for people to negotiate the guidelines for themselves as much as possible.
The sculpture demonstrated a fascinating idea: given fewer rules, people actually behaved in more creative, co-operative, and collaborative (or competitive, as the case may be) ways.
Any time you construct specific rules of engagement, they are instantly open to interpretation and circumvention, and we want our members to negotiate their place with each other, not with The Authority.
Any community—online or off—must start slowly, and be nurtured. You cannot “just add community.” It simply must happen gradually. It must be cared for, and hosted; it takes time and people with great communication skills to set the tone and tend the conversation.
We also tried to create an egalitarian playing field. At a glance, visitors can’t differentiate a professional photographer with an enormous lens from an enthusiast just getting started in photography. There is no indication of “quality” apart from the content itself.
Participate in the community you’re trying to build. Add content, make contact, show yourself as a person and have fun.
·alistapart.com·
A List Apart: Articles: Community: From Little Things, Big Things Grow
Education Week: Online Education Cast as ‘Disruptive Innovation’
Education Week: Online Education Cast as ‘Disruptive Innovation’
Book review describing online education as a disruptive technology for K-12 education. The educational system as it exists right now, the authors argue, can't adapt to new technologies and provide the individualized, student-centered approaches possible with online learning. Compares models of change in business to education.
<a href="http://www.mhprofessional.com/product.php?isbn=0071592067"><i>Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns</i></a> predicts that the growth in computer-based delivery of education will accelerate swiftly until, by 2019, half of all high school classes will be taught over the Internet.
·edweek.org·
Education Week: Online Education Cast as ‘Disruptive Innovation’
100 Killer Web Accessibility Resources: Blogs, Forums and Tutorials | WHDb
100 Killer Web Accessibility Resources: Blogs, Forums and Tutorials | WHDb
Annotated list of accessibility resources, including tools, tutorials, validation, and information about needs based on disability.
If you already lean toward the idea that accessible sites are good for humanity as well as for business, then this list will provide plenty of reference materials for you. If you don’t have a clue about the issues that surround Web site accessibility, then this list will help you to become well acquainted with the issues involved in this movement.
·whdb.com·
100 Killer Web Accessibility Resources: Blogs, Forums and Tutorials | WHDb
Career Advice '08 » SlideShare
Career Advice '08 » SlideShare
Garr Reynolds (Presentation Zen) slideshow summarizing the 6 career tips from Daniel Pink's book, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko. Reynolds also gives his own ideas on each of the points. I love the point about doing things that are you believe are intrinsically valuable even if they don't lead you on an obvious career path; we should learn what we're passionate about.
·slideshare.net·
Career Advice '08 » SlideShare
Will at Work Learning: FREE Research Report on Feedback
Will at Work Learning: FREE Research Report on Feedback
21 points from research on feedback summarized, plus a downloadable free report with all the details. Feedback is generally good for learners and should tell them the right answers, plus maybe why it's right. Lots of insight about what kinds of feedback to use or how to use feedback depending on the results you're aiming for.
<li>Immediate feedback prevents subsequent confusion and limits the likelihood for continued inappropriate retrieval practice.</li> <li>Delayed feedback creates a beneficial spacing effect.</li> <li>When in doubt about the timing of feedback, you can (a) give immediate feedback and then a subsequent delayed retrieval opportunity, (b) delay feedback slightly, and/or (c) just be sure to give some kind of feedback.</li> <li>Feedback should usually be provided before learners get another chance to retrieve incorrectly again.</li>
·willatworklearning.com·
Will at Work Learning: FREE Research Report on Feedback
The Connected Classroom: A Lesson on Reflection: MORE Copyright Confusion...
The Connected Classroom: A Lesson on Reflection: MORE Copyright Confusion...
A teacher's reflections on using images from Flickr. Although she encouraged the use of Creative Commons images, the nature of the student work clearly fell under fair use. Even so, she got complaints from photographers about the fair use of their work. She wrote a really thoughtful response to the Flickr users and had a great discussion with her students about copyright.
·khokanson.blogspot.com·
The Connected Classroom: A Lesson on Reflection: MORE Copyright Confusion...
Working with online learning communities
Working with online learning communities
Best practices for working with online learning communities, including how to work with lurkers who may still be learning even if they aren't actively participating.
<li>online learning communities are grown, not built </li> <li>online learning communities need leaders </li> <li>personal narrative is vital to online learning communities.</li>
<p>He gives a set of mantras for teacher/leaders in any online community:</p> <ul> <li>all you need is love </li> <li>control the environment, not the group </li> <li>lead by example </li> <li>let lurkers lurk </li> <li>short leading questions get conversations going </li> <li>be personally congratulatory and inquisitive </li> <li>route information in all directions </li> <li>care about the people in the community; this cannot be faked </li> <li>understand consensus and how to build it, and sense when it's been built and just not recognised, and when you have to make a decision despite all the talking.</li></ul>
·admin.futurelab.org.uk·
Working with online learning communities
Top News - Online insight: Challenges beat cheerleading
Top News - Online insight: Challenges beat cheerleading

Network analysis in online discussions in two classes shows, not surprisingly, that asking probing questions and challenging posts results in more learner engagement than simple "cheerleading" posts like "Great job!"

New link: http://www.eschoolnews.com/2008/05/08/online-insight-challenges-beat-cheerleading/

·eschoolnews.com·
Top News - Online insight: Challenges beat cheerleading
Instructional Technology Program Student Resources Instructional Designer Skills
Instructional Technology Program Student Resources Instructional Designer Skills
An old (1995) list of skills for instructional designers, very focused on the corporate training side of the field. I wonder why there's so little here about working with others; communication skills are kind of tacked on the end of the list as an afterthought. Communicating and collaborating with SMEs is such a big part of instructional design that I'm surprised that's never mentioned here.
·coedu.usf.edu·
Instructional Technology Program Student Resources Instructional Designer Skills
In the Wild « Web2.0 in High School
In the Wild « Web2.0 in High School
Observations from the beginning of a high school project with Ning, Animoto, and Flickr. Most of the insight is around how Ning facilitates conversations between students and lets the teacher join the discussion. Students are engaged with Ning; they are personalizing their spaces and giving each other constructive feedback.
The ability for teachers to understand and add value to the comment ‘back channel’ is a key skill for the ‘connected teacher’. Anyone can swap an writing pad for a blog, there is no value in that. The back channel is the conversation, and is the heartbeat of thought.
I can’t think of another way in which teachers can get such immediate access to the ‘thinking’ process that is playing out in front of them.
·deangroom.wordpress.com·
In the Wild « Web2.0 in High School