Online Teaching/Learning Quotations
Collection of quotes related to online teaching and learning
Imported from Diigo
Harold Jarche » Selecting Social Network Platforms
Describes several smaller social network platforms with some pluses and minuses, including Ning, Grou.ps, Buddy Press, and Elgg.
Hidden Skype Emoticons and Skype Smileys
I knew about these before, but needed to look up the list again today. Apparently I hadn't bookmarked it. This one includes all the available flags in Skype. Note that some of the hidden emoticons are PG.
Learning 2.0 Strategy : eLearning Technology
7 aspects of learning 2.0 strategy, with a recurring theme of focusing on small, simple, tactical changes rather than trying to do a top-down approach. This makes sense; web 2.0 isn't a top-down exchange of information, so learning 2.0 shouldn't work best with that kind of hierarchy either. Focus on the behaviors you can change and the tactics that can be immediately successful, then let the organizational culture and strategy follow.
Donald Clark Plan B: txtng (the gr8 db8)
Summary of a book by a professor of linguistics that examines and debunks the complaints about text messaging reducing literacy. Good collection of misconceptions about txtng with counterarguments and research.
Annoyingly, just as complaints about literacy multiply, along comes a technology that has promoted a renaissance in reading and writing, yet it is treated with contempt by the ‘pen and paper’ brigade. Children don’t keep diaries any more – oh yeah! Haven’t you see MySpace, facebook and blogs. They’re obsessed by diary keeping.
Kapp Notes: Free e-Learning Stuff
Resources for e-learning, all free. Includes an online book, whitepaper, interview transcript, presentation, book chapter, book summary, and more.
Avoiding the 5 Most Common Mistakes in Using Blogs with Students
The 5 mistakes outlined in this article are
- "Ineffective contextualization" (not thinking about the best way to use blogs, usually self-reflection)
- "Unclear Learning Outcomes"
- "Misuse of the environment" (treating blogs like wikis or discussion forums)
- "Illusive grading practices" (lacking clear rubrics)
- "Inadequate time allocation" (both for students to write and instructors to grade and give feedback)
iterating toward openness » Blog Archive » If Facebook Worked Like Blackboard
A short post, but very pointed--if Facebook worked like an LMS, no real community would ever develop. Questions the whole idea of closed educational systems.
<p>What if Facebook worked like Blackboard (or pretty much any other LMS)? </p>
<p>Imagine if every fifteen weeks Facebook:</p>
<ul>
<li>shut down all the groups you belonged to, </li>
<li>deleted all your forum posts,</li>
<li>removed all the photos, videos, and other files you had shared, and</li>
<li>forgot who your friends were.</li></ul>
Groups Vs Networks: The Class Struggle Continues ~ Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes
Transcript of a talk about the differences between groups and networks. Downes situates networks between individuals and groups, as a place where individuals are associated and connected but more diverse than groups. Interesting ideas for assessment and supporting diversity.
Those of you who've taken political science know that all of human history in political science is the division between the individual and the state. Right? The person and the group, right? And these are the two divides. And the whole purpose of politics is to find some sort of accommodation for them or if you're Ayn Rand, to favor the individual and ignore the group.<br><br> And it seems to me that networks offers that middle way. Networks offers that path that isn't the individual and isn't the group, doesn't force you to choose between the individual and the group.
But more or less, a group is a collection of entities or members according to their nature or their feature or their properties or whatever, their essential nature, maybe, their accidental nature, maybe, whatever, but according to their nature. What defines a group is the quality the members possess in common and then the number of members in that group. Groups are about nature, they're about quality, they're about mass. They're about number. <br><br>A network, by contrast, is an association â I use that word very precisely â an association of entities or members where this association is facilitated or created by a set of connections between those entities. And if you say, "Well what is a connection?" A connection is merely some conduit along which a signal can run. Well, that clarified it, didn't it? What defines a network is the nature and the extent of this connectivity. The nature and the extent to which these individuals are connected together.
I want to change the system of assessment in schools because right now we have tests and things like that that are scrupulously fair, particularly distance learning where we outline the objectives the performance metrics and the outcomes and all of that. I want to scrap that system. I want testing to be done by at random by comments from your peers and other people and strangers based on no criteria whatsoever and applied unequally and unfairly.
Already happening now with blogs, youtube comments, etc. Maybe not possible in schools as we know it, at least not totally.
Can do it in small pieces though. George and Stephen blogging about a course I developed is an assessment of my work as well as of the students.
Better for accessibility when you don't start from the assumption that everyone will learn and be assessed in the same way.
Networks are almost defined by the opposite, defined by their diversity. A network thrives on diversity. It wouldn't be a network without diversity.
Internet technology that encourages diversity rather than conformity includes things like personal home pages or these days, blogs. I should add to this slide MySpace profiles and things like that, your account on Flickr. All of these things that allows the individual to express themselves rather than the individual being part of some larger entity.
IgnitePhilly -- Five Minutes To Communicate - Practical Theory
5 minute presentation (20 slides) by Chris Lehmann on school reform and what we need for School 2.0. Several good lines in here--a bunch of memorable ideas packed into a few minutes. Assessment should be projects, not tests. Data is what kids do every day, not what they do on a test. Passion, metacognition, and lifelong learning matter. "If you want to see what kids have learned, give them a project."
Seven Habits of Highly Connected People ~ Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes
A riff on Stephen Covey for living, working, and communicating in a highly connected world. Not just the intuitive common-sense advice you see other places--who else would advise you to quit wasting time playing phone tag offline when you could spend that time making real connections online?
The idea behind "being yourself" is not that you have some sort of offline life (though you may). Rather, it's a recognition that your online life encompasses the many different facets of your life, and that it is important that these facets are all represented and work together.
ZaidLearn: 27 Inspiring Women Edubloggers
Zaid Ali Alsagoff responds to the discussion about his previous edublogger list being male-dominated (22-3) with a list of women edubloggers. Also check the comments, especially Janet Clarey's explanation of why this discussion matters (with 10 full APA citations--gotta love it).
Groups into Networks New Curriculum Needed - CCK08 - ubiquitous's posterous
An idea for how to move towards networked learning: start with groups, which will initially be more comfortable and less chaotic, then gradually increase the freedom to learning in networks.
Once students get the hang of groups online, just like any mother bird,
the teacher needs to slowly start pushing them out of the nest. And I
do not mean anywhere near Middle School. Most of the students in a
school will be ready for this kind of experience nearing High School,
and I believe this age will slowly lower as time passes and this form
of education becomes more common.
The process of moving the students forward from a group setting to a
network will be required, so will an educator familiar with both. For
this process to properly occur, curriculum will need to be specifically
designed and implemented, taking into account, emerging technologies
and student safety within an online environment.
Using Blogs to Enhance Learning – Some Helpful Tips - OpenEducation.net
Tips for using blogs as learning tools, including making sure they are actually the right tool for the task, using blogs to record the "learning journey" and reflect, and using appropriate assessment.
Models of Blogs: Blog as Participant in Conversation (3 of 3) on Flickr
CC-NC image of blogs as connectors of ideas in conversations.
» What Everyone Should Know About Working with Subject Matter Experts The Rapid eLearning Blog
Tips for working with SMEs:
- Don't expect SMEs to be experts at learning theory
- Present good examples of what you think will work
- Everyone is working for the organization's success
Main Articles: 'New Schemas for Mapping Pedagogies and Technologies', Ariadne Issue 56
Schemas for categorizing the use of pedagogies, learning theories, and technologies. For example, Table 1 maps learning theories (behaviorism, cognitive constructivism, social constructivism, and situated learning) against types of technologies. Online communication tools offer more potential for social constructivist interaction and joint construction of knowledge.
This article also suggests a way to map tool use along three dimensions:
- Individual - Social
- Information - Experience
- Passive - Active This isn't a simple framework where a single tool always is used the same way. Blogs can be more social or more based on individual reflection, and could be at different places in that framework depending on the actual learning activities.
K12 Online Conference 2008 | Getting Started “Free Tools for Universal Design for Learning in Literacy”
Presentation on tools for accessibility and universal design to help improve literacy, focusing on learning disabilities (at least in the two examples). All the tools noted are free. Even though this is geared mainly towards face-to-face teachers, many of these tools can be used for e-learning too.
Home Sweet Office: Telecommute Good for Business, Employees, and Planet
Support for telecommuting should be increasing, especially as the price of gas continues to rise. Great stuff on the numbers supporting telecommuting, including how much it costs businesses to provide cubicle space ($15K/year).
Last year, <a href="http://www.smeal.psu.edu/news/latest-news/nov07/telecom.html">researchers from Penn State</a> analyzed 46 studies of telecommuting conducted over two decades and covering almost 13,000 employees. Their sweeping inquiry concluded that working from home has "favorable effects on perceived autonomy, work-family conflict, job satisfaction, performance, turnover intent, and stress." The only demonstrable drawback is a slight fraying of the relationships between telecommuters and their colleagues back at headquarters — largely because of jealousy on the part of the latter group. That's the first problem you solve when you kill your office.
Learning Environment Design « Learning Journal
A model for instructional design built on ADDIE but with the goal of supporting learning environments rather than just developing courseware
A List Apart: Articles: Working From Home: The Readers Respond
Tips from ALA readers on working from home--how to manage your time, be productive, and find balance. Telecommuting is very individual. I'd go insane if I had a manager who trusted me so little that I had to send HOURLY progress reports, but clearly it works for the person who submitted that idea.
How to Build Quick Elearning Demos for Your Portfolio « One-Stop Resource for Instructional Designing
Rupa discusses common reasons why instructional designers don't have work for a portfolio and suggests how to put together some quick demos in Captivate or Camtasia to show off your skills.
What would Dr. Seuss Say about Online Communities?
5 minute presentation on slideshare with tips for guiding online communities
Dave’s Whiteboard » Blog Archive » Learning strategy: follow disgruntle
An interesting idea for a learning strategy--we read so much online from people who are like us and agree with us that when you read something that makes you disgruntled, it may be a cue to dig deeper. Includes a good quote from Ton Zijlstra (via Harold Jarche) about information overload.
A little while ago, <a href="http://www.jarche.com">Harold Jarche</a> sent this quotation: “”Information overload does not exist. Failing information strategies do exist. ”
A Networked Life – Ton Zijlstra on Social Networking
Full quote from Ton Zijlstra on information overload, in the original interview about the value of social media and networking
Information overload does not exist. Failing information strategies do exist. We were brought up with information strategies based on scarcity. We live in times of information abundance.
Teach Web 2.0: CCK08 Power to the People
Looking at power and leadership, especially how power works within networks as opposed to groups or as individuals. Includes a nice list of principles for leadership in networks from Paul Skidmore.
Half an Hour: Things You Really Need to Learn
Like several other people, I just found this 2006 post from Stephen Downes on 10 things you should learn that you won't be taught in school. Great thoughts for lifelong learning, wherever you are in life.
1. How to predict consequences
The prediction of consequences is part science, part mathematics, and part visualization.
2. How to read
Oddly, by this I do not mean 'literacy' in the traditional sense, but rather, how to look at some text and to <span style="font-style: italic;">understand</span>, in a deep way, what is being asserted
<span style="font-weight: bold;">3. How to distinguish truth from fiction</span>
The first thing to learn is to actually question what you are told, what you read, and what you see on television. Do not simply accept what you are told. Always ask, how can you know that this is true? What evidence would lead you to believe that it is false?
<span style="font-weight: bold;">4. How to empathize</span>
Empathy isn't some sort of bargain. It isn't the application of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethic_of_reciprocity">Golden Rule</a>. It is a <span style="font-style: italic;">genuine</span> feeling in yourself that operates in synch with the other person, a way of accessing their inner mental states through the sympathetic operation of your own mental states. You are polite because <span style="font-style: italic;">you</span> feel bad when you are rude; you are honest because <span style="font-style: italic;">you</span> feel offended when you lie.
5. How to be creative
Creativity, in other words, often operates by <span style="font-style: italic;">metaphor</span>, which means you need to learn how to <span style="font-style: italic;">find things in common</span> between the current situation and other things you know.
<span style="font-weight: bold;">6. How to communicate clearly</span>
Communicating clearly is most of all a matter of knowing what you want to say, and then employing some simple tools in order to say it.
7. How to Learn
Learning to learn is the same as learning anything else. It takes practice.
8. How to stay healthy
Finally, remember: you never have to justify protecting your own life and health.
9. How to value yourself
You can have all the knowledge and skills in the world, but they are meaningless if you do not feel personally empowered to use them; it's like owning a <a href="http://www.lamborghini.co.uk/">Lamborghini</a> and not having a driver's license.
10. How to live meaningfully
If you don't decide what is worth doing, someone will decide for you, and at some point in your life you will realize that you haven't done what is worth doing at all.
ZaidLearn: 8 Free Screencasting Tools For Tony!
Tony Karrer bumped into his limit for a free Jing account, so he asked for other free tools. Zaid Ali Alsagoff provides some options to check out.
KinderKidsDraw! | always learning
Great kindergarten technology project by Kim Cofino. Students use KidPix to draw about what they're learning in class, then upload the images to VoiceThread and explain the image. Over the course of the year, the VoiceThread becomes an online portfolio of their learning. The VoiceThreads are also shared on a wiki so students can connect globally and get to know each other a bit.
Why I Blog - The Atlantic (November 2008)
Andrew Sullivan on the value of blogging and how blogging differs from traditional print journalism.
It is accountable in immediate and unavoidable ways to readers and other bloggers, and linked via hypertext to continuously multiplying references and sources. Unlike any single piece of print journalism, its borders are extremely porous and its truth inherently transitory.
Logs require a letting-go of narrative because they do not allow for a knowledge of the ending. So they have plot as well as dramatic irony—the reader will know the ending before the writer did.
A novelist can spend months or years before committing words to the world. For bloggers, the deadline is always now. Blogging is therefore to writing what extreme sports are to athletics: more free-form, more accident-prone, less formal, more alive. It is, in many ways, writing out loud.