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.
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.
'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
SpeEdChange: Left Behind
Looking at the resistance to change in education and the need for 21st century skills, with an intriguing perspective on how this connects to our attitudes about ADHD, Asperger's, and other cognitive disabilities.
This is why - I think unconsciously - so many academics and educators resist contemporary ICT so fiercely. Accepting these new technologies means that the advantages they were taught to prize in themselves - their study habits, their ability to focus, their willingness to depend on authoritative sources and to observe classroom rules - might prove to be their undoing. And the disadvantages they despised in others, ADHD for example, processing information via pictures instead of the abstraction of text as another, the disadvantages that have been labelled as pathological "disabilities," might prove to be advantageous in this new world.
That ADHD kid might be far better in front of multiple monitors with a dozen windows open and 15 tabs going in Firefox than the professor and former high school valedictorian who is really uncomfortable if a TV is on while she is reading. That Asperger's kid who processes images efficiently might be far better at analysing changing maps than the text-dependent historian.
I feel the same watching most classrooms, seeing most reading assignments, observing how assessments are conducted in educational institutions. Yes, that carriage is wonderful, but the cars will rush past it. Yes, that calligraphy is beautiful but you just spent six months creating a single book. Certainly, that bronze sword is beautiful but the steel weapon will cut it in half. Yes, you did wonderfully on the multiple-choice exam but I need people who can find information and develop new ideas, not repeat what I already know. Yes, you read that whole book, but I need to know the range of observations from these twelve sources around the globe.
ISTE | NETS for Teachers 2008
NETS-T 2008 standards--technology standards for teachers in 5 categories.
<td width="18"><strong>1.</strong></td>
<td width="96%"><strong>Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity</strong></td>
<td width="18"><strong>2.</strong></td>
<td><strong>Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments</strong></td>
<td width="18"><strong>3.</strong></td>
<td><strong>Model Digital-Age Work and Learning</strong></td>
<td width="18"><strong>4.</strong></td>
<td><strong>Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility</strong></td>
<td width="18"><strong>5.</strong></td>
<td><strong>Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership</strong></td>
Online Tutoring e-Book 6 - Culture and Ethics - Facilitating Online Learning
Although this is written specifically for online tutors, much of the information and advice applies to online facilitators as well. The authors examine cultural differences in the online learning environment, including how diversity affects language, written text, images, metaphors, communication style, and online presence. Appendix B is a chart comparing different linguistic groups and cultures.
<p><font face="VERDANA">Some of the key questions revolve around how culture is, or is not, experienced online:
</font></p><p></p><ul>
<font face="VERDANA"><li>Is it easier to work across cultures free from visuals cues, which tap into our prejudices?
</li><li>Is it harder without visual cues so that we miss sensitive cultural cues?
</li><li>Just how do we maximise the diversity and respect for cultures while tutoring online?
</li></font></ul>
Web-based Learning Design: Planning for Diversity
2002 summary of research on how diversity affects online learning, focusing especially on Hispanics. Includes differences in communication due to culture, including differences between different Hispanic populations (i.e., Mexico isn't the same as Guatemala). Also notes that Hispanics are often on the wrong side of the digital divide and may have less prior experience with technology, therefore exhibiting fewer characteristics of the net generation.
JALN: Does one size fit all? Exploring Asynchronous learning in a multicultural environment
Small-scale study of cultural differences in an asynchronous learning environment, focusing on high and low context cultures. Includes a comparison of student perceptions of online learning based on their cultural background. High and low context learners both saw advantages to online learning, but their reasons differ.
Because computer mediated communications is language (specifically, written
word) dependant, it is subject to the constraints of low/high context
cultural patterns <a href="#morse46">[46]</a>. As indicated earlier, the
role of language is to carry meaning, and interpretation is an integral
part of culture. Language is one means of establishing context among participants
of a particular culture group. In low context cultures, language must
be specific and well defined, to provide the contextual definition in
which to interpret the communication. On the other hand, in a high context
culture language may be vague, lacking the specificity of the low context
culture, as the environment within which communication takes place clarifies
the specific meaning of language <a href="#morse36">[36,</a> <a href="#morse41">41]</a>.
Thus language plays a key role in the communication process. A key issue
determining the success of computer mediated communication is the encoding/decoding
by which that communication is done. Given that computer-mediated communication
is a textual (electronic) rather than a visual (face-to-face) medium,
meaning must be carried by the language itself rather than relying on
the environmental context as the means of communication and/or interpretation.
Given this relationship, because the language of communication is English,
low context communication is presumed, thus perhaps disadvantaging those
whose cultural background relies on high context communication.
Interestingly,
low context participants concentrate on the participation environment,
while high context participants concentrate on their individual work/effort
and/or skills in the discussion.
Noticeably
however, the responses indicate that cultural background directly influences
the priority of perceived benefits received and challenges posed from
the same asynchronous communication network. The perceptions are based
on learning patterns which are developed as part of a participants’
ethnic/cultural development, and are potentially challenged by participation
in an asynchronous communication network, which of itself is implicitly
culturally based. Further, high context participants in an asynchronously
delivered seminar, while assured of higher quality participation through
an offline ability to infer meaning through low context communications,
are at least initially more likely to be disadvantaged by technology differences
as well as the communications norms implicit in their cultural background.
An Inclusive Approach to Online Learning Environments: Models and Resources (PDF)
22-page article on designing for diversity in online learning. Examines how cultural differences can affect learning and shares culturally inclusive instructional design models. Table 1 on page 6 compares high-context and low-context learning (such as how formal student-teacher relationships are).
Designing for Diversity Within Online Learning Environments
The author argues that constructivist learning environments where multiple perspectives are respected and there is no single "right "answer" are better for encouraging diversity. The ideas for instructional design for diversity are more theory-based than practice-based, but this has some interesting concepts.
"The major advantage of this learning model is that one of its key design goals is to encourage students to bring multiple perspectives to questions/cases/problems/issues and projects as part of their learning. This approach to learning views diversity as a strength to be exploited rather than a problem to be solved."