Designed to Inspire : instructional design : technology : online learning

Join us at EdTechWeekly on Sunday nights at 7:00 p.m. ET on the EdTechTalk.com channel of the WorldBridges network. Here is the list of links we will be discussing during this week's live web cast. Feel free to add your suggestions by adding a del.icio.us tag of "for:edtechtalk" to your favorite links. See you Sunday night!

Ben Hunt has a great web design site at WebDesignFromScratch.com. Geared for both the designer and non-designer (who just plays one on her Drupal site), the site points you to the direction of more simple and user friendly web site design using a lot of before and after web site redesigns. The site contains information and recommend resources related to graphic design, site architecture, accessibility, usability, copy writing, production, basic html, CSS and JavaScript. Nice.

Technorati Tags: web design, design

The linked web site - Rubric for Online Instruction - presents a means of assessing (and self-assessing) an online learning program based on best practice guidelines developed in the TIGERS Project. The site, hosted by California State University, Chico, includes a rubric for online instruction, as well as links to other instructional design resources to create, deliver and evaluate online instruction including:

• Rubric for Online Instruction - pdf
• Instructional Design Tips for Online Instruction - pdf
• MERLOT - Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
• Designing and Evaluating Online Instruction - the Tigers Project Summary 2003

Technorati Tags: elearning, online learning, instructional design

Looking for a quick browser based FTP solution? Try fireftp. I've been using it for months now with great success. It only takes a couple of clicks to set up and to FTP right from the Firefox browser.

Is your computer running Windows feeling a little sluggish? Start up "issues"? Consider doing a couple of quick scans to get things back in order. Microsoft buries these free little gems within their Windows Live One Care site. Why they hide these goodies from their customers, I cannot explain. However, even though these free morsel of goodness are hidden away in the bowels of Microsoft, they are well worth the effort to find them and use them. Each scan runs via your browser. The clean up scan runs a disk clean up (to compress old files and toss out temp files), a registry cleaner (that has gotten me out of a jam or two when I have been unable to clean out the pipes in any other way) and creates a restore point (which has also helped me when I go overboard testing out new software). The tune up scan simply checks to see if it is time to defrag. The only bummer ... you need to dust off IE to run these ... and they try to upsell Windows Live One Care when you are done. But, you can simply chose "Not yet" and be on your way with cleaner tubes.

Technorati Tags: windows, clean up scan

After reading Dr. Schank's Learning by Doing article in the infamous Green Book for class, I dug into his recent whereabouts and found these links of interest:

• Consulting via Engines for Education (non-profit arm) and Socratic Arts
  

I stumbled on this YouTube video from a link to a new Explode "friend" (Janet Clarey) from a link to different blog (Mark David Milliron) - love that Internet!

This week and last, we have been discussing issues of structure in learning environments. Prof. Honebien observed that the degree of required structure within a learning environment is based on a) the learner's task and b) required scaffolding and that the standard of performance affects both. Here is my take away from his comments:

• Learner's Task: The tighter the standard of performance, the greater the required structure. So, if a Dr. needs to learn how to make an incision at a specific place in the body, this tight standard of performance would require high structure.
  

This week, a student pal brought up the topic of mlearning. As I've posted on my blog for some time now, I too feel that there has to be some learning (edtech) opportunity for mobile devices when an estimated 80% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 own cell phones, as reported in the linked AP article by Allen Breed.

Attached is the presentation material from the Drupal workshop I hosted today during the 2007 Indiana University IST Conference. Please leave any comments below or use the contact form (on the menu bar above) if you have any questions ... or ... better, yet ... join us on Monday nights at 9:00 p.m. ET for live web casts at the Drupal CMS Academy!

The AECT web site offers a global roundup of academic institutions offering degree programs in educational communications and technology. Search the  database for specific types of degrees (Certificates, Masters, PhD, etc) offered both f2f or online.

Technorati Tags: instructional design, edtech, educational technology, AECT

Link to: Authentic Activities in Online Education

ref: Honebein

I gave Yahoo! Pipes a try this morning to see what all the fuss is about. In a nut shell, it is a hosted mashup tool on steroids with a fairly simple interface to seek and grab web content for publishing within your desired mashup. I fear I have only seen the tip of this iceberg, so I can't yet fully get my head around it or the possibilities. One refreshing aside ... it is a project from the largely dormant Yahoo!

Technorati Tags: pipes, yahoo!

The February / March issue of Innovate is out. Here is a roundup for the topics covered in this issue. To mix it up, I linked to the author bio - face to a name. The publications are found in the left side bar or under each author profile:

Read all about it - http://www.groundhog.org/

I read about SplashCast this morning from one of my favorite go-to sources - Robin Good. 
SplashCast allows a "caster" to upload audio, picture, video or text
(or even content from an RSS feed, I believe) to the site and integrate
it into a "show" that is "broadcast" on a channel with a player that
can be embedded into any blog, web page or start pages (such as Pageflakes ) . I have only played with it
for a few minutes so far, but it is slick for a lot of reasons: 1) it
is incredibly simple to use and upload content (and in the case of

The linked site, prepared by Charles Reigeluth, provides a great overview of the key instructional design theories and approaches under the "Basic Methods of Instruction" tab. The site also includes links to additional instructional theory references, such as the infamous "Green" book (aka Instructional-Design Theories and Models)!

In IU IST R626, we are analyzing Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience* as it relates to learning and instructional design. For discussion and debate, our prof. broke our group into pro / con camps and I am part of "con". I have been digging into some online resources and (so far) have come up with links to the following:

George Seimens at the Learning Technologies Center at the University of Manitoba is coordinating a free Online Connectivism Conference that runs from February 2 - 9, 2007. Per the announcement, the conference "is an open online forum exploring how learning has been impacted by ongoing changes." Confirmed presenters include:

During our little weekly discussions at EdTechWeekly , we've joked a fair amount about Google (Big Brother) gathering up all of our personal data to take over the world. Today, I ran across a new "feature" (?) of Google Reader that displayed my recent blog reading habits. While it provided me with several moments of shock and awe (I read HOW MANY blog posts in the last 30 days?), it also did a good job of illustrating how Big Brother can (and does) gather, track and log our online habits. Did I get a bit of a sick knot in my stomach after seeing the data they collected? Yep. Will it change how I use Google products? Nope.

Here is a snippet of some of the data they captured about me this past month:

Attached is my presentation proposal to the Indiana University 2007 IST Conference.

All fears of selling my soul to the Google devil aside, Google Reader is good (ok ... pretty darn great). As a long time Bloglines gal, I haven't checked by blog roll there for months. Tonight, I found another reason to justify the switch. Google Reader has a little toolbar widget (under Settings / Goodies) that allows you to stumble on to the next post in the feedreader (think StumbleUpon) and what makes it great is that you go directly to the original blog. This is a great alternative when you want to catch up on the full content of your favorite blog or just to see the post in greater context. Cool.

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This one will require further reflection, so I'll save it ... an excerpt from one of my professors during a recent discussion:

"This thread illustrates classic "nitpicker" logic. The solution is supported/attacked, primarily on the basis of personal bias (one's perceived learning style), which eventually leads us into an unwinable stalemate. This post begins to provide the conditions and outcomes we need to evaluate the choice of instructional strategy. To extract yourself from this kind of trap, you must use Reigeluth's prescriptive Conditions/Methods/Outcomes model as the basis for your logic and negotiation position.

In other words, your argument would refine the conditions: If I had 18-24 year old novices taking an e-learning class on the topic of dance styles (condition); refine the outcomes: my desired outcome is that they could 1) recognize a Tango (cognitive) and 2) appreciate the beauty of the Tango (affective); logically link to the ideal method: then perhaps the most ideal instructional method would be to show the video as an example of a Tango. Similarly, both the video and the animation would be worthless if the conditions stated an instructor-led course with no media display device in the classroom (obviously). "

FLUX is a new blog hosted by Futurelab, a UK based nonprofit focused on learning and technology. The blog is produced by a panel of writers who contribute to "articles, projects and resources". The Futurelab web site is packed with great learning and technology links and resourses. I recently received a free print copy of Vision, a learning based magazine, that is also available in pdf download. Good stuff.

Just a quick post from the road. Had a great time at the bowl game (and in Savannah and St. Augustine). Testing out the blogging ability of my PDA. Works great!

I'm in my thirties ... at least until the clock strikes midnight.

technorati tags:birthday

Thanks(?) to Dave (via Nancy White and so on) for the kick to create a blog post ... this time with a theme! Here the five (or so) things people might not know about me:

1. I have a bunch of hometowns: I grew up in itty bitty Lodi, WI and spent every summer with my friends and cousins at my favorite place in the world ... Fish Lake. I now hop around among my adopted hometowns of Chicago, New York / Hoboken and Gouldsboro and get back to my original hometown of Lodi (to visit mom) as often as possible. [Update: Oooh! I forgot my very first hometown - I was the bi-product of a fun filled (apparently) vacation in New Orleans and my Grandma called me Dixie the entire time my then 40 year old mom was pregnant - too much information?]
2. I had (but lost) many talents: In high school, I played the saxophone in the band, appeared in a handful of musicals, became the first girl on the boys golf team (we didn't have a girl's team), and was the captain of the volleyball team.
3. I had (but gave up) a great career: After 16 years as an insurance underwriter, I gave up the bright lights and glamour to pursue my edtech geek passions.
4. I want permanent "student" status: My goal has always been to have a current student ID card in my wallet. I have been largely successful in achieving this goal with student ID cards from University of Wisconsin-Madison (BBA in Finance '85 - '89), University of Illinois at Chicago (MBA '94 - '96), New York University (Instructional Design courses '05) and Indiana University (MS in Instructional Systems Technology '06+). Now, with this whole informal learning path I'm on, I see that the ID card isn't mandatory in order to achieve "student" status.
5. Go Badgers! 'Nuf said.

Now, to Joanne, Doug, TravelinEdMan, Chris and Jane - tag, you are it! Please share with the world the 5 things people might not know about you!

technorati tags:5 Things

First this ... now this ... wow ...

technorati tags:elearning, online education