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The Strength of Weak Ties » Integrity or Dishonesty?
The Strength of Weak Ties » Integrity or Dishonesty?
If a student doing research searches related tags on delicious, is that cheating? That's the question discussed here, and many teachers would argue that it's dishonest to use those bookmarks. But if you look at the bibliography for a print source as a place to find more research, would that be cheating? You still have to read and understand the content, but the process for finding it is changing.
·strengthofweakties.org·
The Strength of Weak Ties » Integrity or Dishonesty?
The Snack Bar | TechIntersect
The Snack Bar | TechIntersect
Tech companies can provide snacks for their employees without worrying that people will spend all day gorging themselves at the snack bar. So why don't companies and schools trust that if they give people access to social media that they won't spend all day on Facebook? I like the analogy here.
This issue is all about trust. Schools don’t trust students or teachers to do the right thing. Companies don’t trust employees. but the problem lies not with the technology, but with with setting expectations and ensuring those expectations are met. When a company blocks access to social media, it is blocking access to its own future growth and when a school blocks access to social media it is blocking access to a student’s future growth.
·billgx.edublogs.org·
The Snack Bar | TechIntersect
BeyondE Learning
BeyondE Learning
Free e-book in three parts: "Beyond E-Training," "Beyond the Classroom," and "Beyond Learning." Includes case studies and examples of how organizations are doing more with e-learning than traditional classroom training.
·scribd.com·
BeyondE Learning
Could Power Point Presentations Be Stifling Learning?
Could Power Point Presentations Be Stifling Learning?
This summary doesn't say how large the sample size was, and the researchers clarify that it's only about teaching new concepts. However, it is interesting to note that animation in PowerPoint slide decreased recall and comprehension.
<p>To test their hypothesis, the team recorded two versions of a PowerPoint lecture. The presentations differed only in the presence of animation to incrementally present information. They then showed students either the animated or non-animated lecture and then tested the students recall and comprehension of the lecture.</p> <p>The team found a marked difference in average student performance, with those seeing the non-animated lecture performing much better in the tests than those who watched the animated lecture. Students were able to recall details of the static graphics much better. Animated slides meant to present information incrementally actually require greater concentration, which makes it harder to remember content as well as reducing overall exposure time to the "complete" slide, the researchers found.</p>
<p>To test their hypothesis, the team recorded two versions of a PowerPoint lecture. The presentations differed only in the presence of animation to incrementally present information. They then showed students either the animated or non-animated lecture and then tested the students recall and comprehension of the lecture.</p> <p>The team found a marked difference in average student performance, with those seeing the non-animated lecture performing much better in the tests than those who watched the animated lecture. </p>
·sciencedaily.com·
Could Power Point Presentations Be Stifling Learning?
Communities of practice
Communities of practice
Introduction to communities of practice by Etienne Wenger
Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.
<p><font size="2" face="Arial">The perspective of communities of practice affects educational practices along three dimensions:</font></p> <ul> <font size="2" face="Arial"> <i> </i><li><i>Internally</i>: How to organize educational experiences that ground school learning in practice through participation in communities around subject matters?</li> <i> </i><li><i>Externally</i>: How to connect the experience of students to actual practice through peripheral forms of participation in broader communities beyond the walls of the school?</li> <i> </i><li><i>Over the lifetime of students</i>: How to serve the lifelong learning needs of students by organizing communities of practice focused on topics of continuing interest to students beyond the initial schooling period?</li> </font></ul> <p><font size="2" face="Arial">From this perspective, the school is not the privileged locus of learning. It is not a self-contained, closed world in which students acquire knowledge to be applied outside, but a part of a broader learning system.</font></p>
·ewenger.com·
Communities of practice
Alice and Kev
Alice and Kev
Digital storytelling using the Sims 3, telling the tale of a homeless father and daughter. Really great emotional work with both the images and the writing.
·aliceandkev.wordpress.com·
Alice and Kev
Clive on Learning: It's not enough to be a professional, you also have to act like one
Clive on Learning: It's not enough to be a professional, you also have to act like one
Good points on acting like real professionals, not just "order takers" when developing training/learning
<p>You wouldn't hire an interior designer only to inform.them that you've already chosen all the colour schemes and furnishings; you wouldn't engage an accountant and then explain to them the way you wanted them to process your figures; you wouldn't employ a fitness trainer and then tell them what to include in your workout; you wouldn't buy a dog and then insist on doing all the barking.</p> <p>So why, then, do we continue to encounter situations in which line managers tell the guys from l&amp;d exactly what they want in terms of learning interventions, with the expectation that the they'll simply take those instructions and run. </p>
·clive-shepherd.blogspot.com·
Clive on Learning: It's not enough to be a professional, you also have to act like one
Meta-Analysis Shows Online Learning Better, Blended Even Better
Meta-Analysis Shows Online Learning Better, Blended Even Better

According to a meta-analysis by the US Department of Education, face-to-face courses are less effective than online and blended learning. They caution against viewing this as simply a matter of the medium though. It's the changes in what online and blended learning allow (like opportunities for collaboration) that are likely making the difference.

Direct link to PDF: http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf

The meta-analysis findings do not support simply putting an existing course online, but they do support redesigning instruction to incorporate additional learning opportunities online.
·brandon-hall.com·
Meta-Analysis Shows Online Learning Better, Blended Even Better
News: U.S. Push for Free Online Courses - Inside Higher Ed
News: U.S. Push for Free Online Courses - Inside Higher Ed
The Obama administration is pushing for creating free online courses at the high school/community college level, focusing on basic skills and job training. Some sort of examination/assessment is also possible, plus the idea of mixing free and paid courses at community colleges to reduce the cost of tuition.
Bonk said that administration's ideas about open courses are consistent with the "convergence" he sees taking place in online learning. There is a growing belief that for many kinds of courses, there are best providers whose work can be made available online, there are large numbers of students who could benefit from those courses, and those who might benefit don't necessarily have a lot of money.
·insidehighered.com·
News: U.S. Push for Free Online Courses - Inside Higher Ed
The eLearning Coach » Blog Archive » 10 Qualities of the Ideal Instructional Designer
The eLearning Coach » Blog Archive » 10 Qualities of the Ideal Instructional Designer
Recognizing that most instructional designers don't have a degree in the field, this post argues that it's less important for IDs to have a degree than to be "self-didacts" interested in learning about everything on their own. This also includes a list of 10 qualities of instructional designers.
·theelearningcoach.com·
The eLearning Coach » Blog Archive » 10 Qualities of the Ideal Instructional Designer
Education - Change.org: Pharmer's Market: The Cost of Producing "Successful" Students
Education - Change.org: Pharmer's Market: The Cost of Producing "Successful" Students
A comparison of standardized schooling with industrial agriculture and the effects of the obsession on productivity in both environments
In standardized environments, students with a high tolerance for monotony and the ability to repress their curious gene are deemed the fittest of the bunch.
It seems that despite (or maybe because of) our fetish with productivity, many of humanity's most pressing issues seem to be getting worse. The unnatural selection playing out in schools creates what every educational institution's mission statement pledges against: the creation of uncritical, passive, challenge-averse individuals, unwilling and unable to tackle the challenges of the 21st-century.
·education.change.org·
Education - Change.org: Pharmer's Market: The Cost of Producing "Successful" Students
SpeEdChange: Refusing Free, Depriving Students
SpeEdChange: Refusing Free, Depriving Students
Why do schools refuse to use free and open source software options, even when those options would improve accessibility for students? Ignorance? Fear? Politics? Probably some combination of all three.
If an electrician was too afraid of electricity to touch a wire, he'd be an electrician no more. So if an educator is afraid of the information and communication technologies of his/her age, then he/she can no longer be an "educator" in any meaningful way.
·speedchange.blogspot.com·
SpeEdChange: Refusing Free, Depriving Students