Learning Visions: Accidental Instructional Designers #dl09
Notes on a DevLearn session on how people got into instructional design and what they feel are the important skills. Out of 25+ IDs, only 2 had advanced degrees in ID.
Blog posts
Why you want to use scenarios in your elearning » Making Change
A great slideshow showing (not just explaining!) the value of scenarios to change behavior in e-learning
Presenting with live slides – OER, literacies, libraries and the future preso @ Dave’s Educational Blog
Dave Cormier explains how he "presented" at a webinar using "live slides": thought-provoking questions on slides with lots of space for participants to use the whiteboard. I'm not sure this is really "presenting" though; it's more moderating a discussion. But it sounds much more engaging than the usual presentations.
Two Ways to Reclaim Your Feeds from FeedBurner
Get rid of Feedburner's link pollution--make URLs in your feed show up as your real URLs
Accessibility: How Many Disabled Web Users Are There? | Practical eCommerce
Some US stats on disabilities that affect web accessibility. Links to UN, UK, and Australian stats are also included.
The most commonly discussed disabilities affecting website accessibility are sight and hearing impairments. These specific impairments encompass 6.8 percent of the population age 15 years and older – and climb to encompass 21.3 percent of the population when you look specifically at the population over 65, according to the 2005 report. Eight-point-two percent of this same population is listed as having difficulty grasping objects– which affects the use of a mouse.
Talent Management - Fielding Objections to Telecommuting
Common objections to telecommuting and how to respond to them. Good answers, but I wish citations were given rather than just "Statistics show..." or "Recent surveys have shown..." If you used these arguments, you'd need to do some additional research to back up the claims.
New link: http://talentmgt.com/articles/view/fielding_objections_to_telecommuting
Kapp Notes: Accidental Instructional Designers May Want to Just Say No
Karl Kapp revisits the value of instructional design degrees, arguing that people who accidentally find themselves in the field should decline to develop learning until they've been trained. Karl also identifies what he feels is the most important skill instructional designers should have.
So, to me, the most important skill an instructional designer can have is being able to apply instructional strategies. To know when to use a mnemonic and when to use an analogy. When to model the behavior to be learned and when to provide a check list. When <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_%28learning_theory%29" target="blank">Constructivism </a>is a good theorietical underpinning for a topic and when a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitivism_%28psychology%29" target="blank">Cognitivism</a>-based approach is necessary. <br>
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Instructional designers add value by serving as catalyst who accelerate the process of learning for individuals.
Adventures in Second Life - 2009 - ASTD
How IBM is using Second Life for training to help learners grasp concepts that are hard to teach in other formats. One example given is a large model of a data flow so participants could walk through the same pathways that data would follow.
Education: Learning styles debunked
Summary of a new report criticizing the lack of validity and reliability in learning styles research
eLearn: Best Practices - Sound Your Best in Virtual Trainings
Tips for using your voice effectively in webinars or for recording audio for e-learning
Instructional Design for Online Learning - Instructional Design Models
A collection of instructional design models and theories in 4 categories: behaviorist, cognitivist, constructivist, and prescriptive models
Fair Use Evaluator
Step by step method to guide people through the process of determining whether a use constitutes fair use under US copyright law. You can create a time-stamped PDF documenting your analysis in case you ever need to support your claim.
Sprixi - Free images to choose and use!
Visual search for public domain and Creative Commons images (only commercial friendly CC images are included)
Success Case Method: Summary
Two-page summary of Brinkerhoff's Success Case Method for evaluating training programs
LONG VIEW: ROBERT BRINKERHOFF, THE | Training & Development | Find Articles at BNET
Interview with Brinkerhoff on the research history of the Success Case Method and evaluating training
Add Diigo To Google Readers New “Send To” Feature | (jeff)isageek.net
Directions on how to add Diigo as an option for the "Send to" feature within Google Reader
Learning in 3D
Site for the book "Learning in 3D" by Karl Kapp & Tony O'Driscoll
Feedback | Allen Interactions
Free white paper on learner-centered design, focusing on activities with intrinsic feedback rather than content-heavy presentation
In other words, get the learner into a task quickly, and then provide content instruction through the feedback.
Inkscape Class Day 1 « Máirín Duffy
Middle school lesson for introducing Inkscape, the open source vector graphic program. Very cool project-based learning idea--students will create a logo, album artwork, poster, and tour T-shirt for a fictional band. This post is the first lesson; more updates are planned as the course progresses.
How to Participate in a Twitter Chat Event : Synapse3Di
Nice overview of how to follow a Twitter chat event like #lrnchat
Open for Learning: The CMS and the Open Learning Network | in education
Paper arguing that CMSs make online learning less effective. The authors propose an Open Learning Network as an alternative, a cross between the traditional CMS and a PLE.
eLearning Certifications : eLearning Technology
List of online certificate and degree programs in e-learning
Overcoming the Technology Resistance Movement — Inside the School
Strategies to deal with resistance to technology within education
Computers are dumb – make smarter e-Learning « The Usable Learning Blog
Strategies for designing e-learning that lets learning be messy, more like the real world
<p>Basically, the revelation that I had was — <strong><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I like right answers</span></strong>. I really like tidy right answers. I usually don’t ask learners questions that I don’t have a “right” answer or answers for. Even when the task is “authentic” and “embedded in context” I want there to be a right answer. And this <strong><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">is </span></strong><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><strong>wrong</strong></span>.</p>
<p>Because what Dan Myer is teaching his students is how to approach problems that don’t have right answers, which is the way that most of the problems in the real world work. His students are learning to be okay with that, and how to ask good questions, and how approach those problems.</p>
YouTube - Inkscape-Screencast9 - Glass Button Effect Redux
Tutorial on how to create a glassy effect in Inkscape with gradients, an intersection shape for the highlight, and the dynamic offset. Includes explanations of why certain steps are done, especially when they aren't obvious.
pipwerks » Not so crazy about Moodle? Try Chamilo
Another open source LMS option forked from Dokeos called Chamilo
eLearn: Best Practices - Tips for Effective Webinars
Practical tips for webinars, mostly logistic issues that you might not think about if you're not used to presenting online
Instructional Design Books I've read for my IS degree | Adventures in Corporate Education
A reading list for instructional designers
Thinking Worlds : Rapid Authoring Tool and 3d Engine
Tool for developing 3D simulations that can be played in a browser. Focused on the design rather than the backend programming; they advertise that you can create a sim in a week.
PureText Home Page
Free tool to strip formatting when copying and pasting text, without having to go through Notepad first