Mega Drop-Down Navigation Menus Work Well (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)
Recommendations for drop-down navigation menus with big menus grouped with structure
Blog posts
AG09 - IDZone: Graphic Resources
Graphics and graphic design resources for instructional designers
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."
Role Models in Educational Technology on Ada Lovelace Day | Janet Clarey
Extensive list of women in educational technology, including many bloggers. A number of new names for me here.
The Bamboo Project Blog: Twitter Hating
I've resisted Twitter, and it's nice to see some balance in the discussion. Even if you love Twitter, check out the videos for some laughs.
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.
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.
Cynthia Calongne’s Presentations on SlideShare
Slideshare presentations by Cynthia Calogne from CTU, who does lots of Second Life work
WAVE - Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool
Check website accessibility with a free tool from WebAIM. You can enter a URL, upload a file, or paste HTML code. There's also a Firefox toolbar that lets you check content that is password protected etc.
Innovate: A Learning Theory for 21st-Century Students
The author calls this a new learning theory combining behaviorism & cognitivism. I see a new instructional design model that combines elements from a number of different sources, but I'm not sure I see a new learning theory. The model seems very complex; how long would you have to work with this before you internalized all the separate parts of the model?
Student results were better using this model. However, the control group was tested before doing a roleplaying game and the experimental groups did the game prior to testing. This could just show that roleplaying helps students understand characters in the Aeneid. Free registration required.
With its inclusion of <a href="javascript:open_win('extra.php?id=3158',650,750,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,5,'extra');">game elements</a>, which foster attention, memory, and motivation, SCCS provides a bridge between behaviorist and cognitivist learning theories.
SCCS learning theory focuses on the formation of <a href="javascript:open_win('extra.php?id=3011',650,775,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,5,'extra');">schemata</a> in the process of learning, particularly <a href="javascript:open_win('extra.php?id=3206',600,625,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,5,'extra');">social-connectedness</a> and <a href="javascript:open_win('extra.php?id=3207',600,375,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,0,5,'extra');">cognitive-connectedness</a> schemata.
Students engage their social-connectedness schema in a set of behaviors that I describe as “link, lurk, and lunge”: Students <em>link</em> up with others who have the knowledge they need; they <em>lurk</em>, watching others who know how do to what they want to do; and they<em> lunge</em>, jumping in to try new things often without seeking guidance beforehand (Brown 2000).
The cognitive-connectedness schema structures a student's ability and desire to know how what they are learning connects to a larger picture.
Making Online Learning Accessible - A Resource Guide
Presentation with numerous resources for e-learning accessibility, plus tips for instructors
accesselearning Tutorial: Overview
Free online tutorial for making online learning accessible, in 10 parts
Educational Technology and Life » Blog Archive » Google Docs Does Not Violate CIPA (or COPPA*)
Google Docs and legal issues--good reading for US teachers who want to use Google Docs with their students, especially those with students younger than 14
10 Simple and Impressive Design Techniques | How-To | Smashing Magazine
Contrast, gradients, color, letter spacing, anti-aliasing, imperfection, blur, alignment, trim fat. Examples for each.
Only for MY Kid
1998 article by Alfie Kohn on barriers to progressive changes in education, with some proposals for better approaches for working with parents to help them see the benefits
McClaren, who looks back on what happened from his new
post several states away, says he made "two fatal assumptions" when he
started: "I thought if it was good for kids, everyone would embrace it,
and I thought all adults wanted all kids to be successful. That's not
true. The people who receive status from their kids' performing well in
school didn't like that other kids' performance might be raised to the
level of their own kids'."
Half an Hour: Blogs in Education
Overview of the benefits and uses of blogs in education
Building a Drag-and-Drop Jigsaw Puzzle - Part 1
Free files & directions for creating a drag & drop puzzle activity in Flash. Use your own images.
Measuring Networked (or Social) Learning « Daretoshare
Networked learning can't be assessed the same way as traditional, formal learning (or if it can, we wouldn't measure the real value that way). So what do you measure? This is a starting point.
Will at Work Learning: New Research Report on Using Culturally, Linguistically, and Situationally Relevant Scenarios
Research on how to support learning with scenarios that are relevant to the specific situation. Even though this is explicitly about workplace training, the major recommendations could be adapted for instructional design in education contexts too.
Utilize decision-making scenarios. Consider using them not just in a minor role—for example at the end of a section—but integrated into the main narrative of your learning design.
Determine the most important points you want to get across AND the most important situations in which these points are critical. Then, provide extra repetitions spaced over time on these key points and situations.
Techspo: Using Interactive Multimedia within Educational Wikis
Slideshare presentation on multimedia in Wikispaces. Starts with an overview of wikis and comparison of different wikis.
GoErie.com: High-tech instruction method 'facilitates learning'
Nice write-up in the Erie, PA paper about a high school teacher (and new PLS online facilitator) using the technology skills he learned in the Building Online Collaborative Environments course I helped develop
<font class="style10">"The teacher doesn't become the sole source of information, and -- really, in the Internet age -- shouldn't be," Brinling said. "The teacher becomes the person who facilitates learning."</font>
A List Apart: Articles: In Defense of Eye Candy
Why aesthetics are important to web design (and by extension, online learning)--we shouldn't approach visual design as an add on, but a core part of the design
According to a <a href="http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/news/report3_credibilityresearch/stanfordPTL.pdf">2002 study</a>, the “appeal of the overall visual design of a site, including layout, typography, font size, and color schemes,” is the number one factor we use to evaluate a website’s credibility.
Researchers in Japan setup two ATMs, “identical in function, the number of buttons, and how they worked.” The only difference was that one machine’s buttons and screens were arranged more attractively than the other. In both Japan and Israel (where this study was repeated) researchers observed that subjects encountered fewer difficulties with the more attractive machine. The attractive machine actually <em>worked</em> better.
WebAIM: Blog - Accessibility Blog Roundup II
Blogs about accessibility (plus a few general web design blogs that sometimes cover accessibility)
Accessibility of eLearning - OpenLearn - The Open University
Open course on accessibility in e-learning, starting with an overview of disability and accessibility. Also includes information on designing and evaluating courses for accessibility.
Skills for Access : The Comprehensive Guide to Creating Accessible Multimedia for e-learning
Resources for multimedia accessibility in e-learning, including case studies. Part of their philosophy is that multimedia can actually enhance accessibility and make course designs more usable for all learners.
Projity
OpenProj is an open source project management desktop application
Repper - create your own patterns!
Create a kaleidoscope-like pattern with any photo or image. Images are licensed CC-By-NC
The Eight Classic e-Learning publications? | Tony Bates
A list of possible "classic" publications for e-learning, a few of which are available online
Learning Visions: Describing What You Do: Instructional Design
Fun discussion on how you explain what you do when you're an instructional designer. I think it might be easier to explain for those of us in online education; most of the time if I say I develop online college courses people grasp the gist of it.
GoAnimate - Create your own cartoons and animations easily.
Free animation tool that allows you to upload your own images