We saw skrbl and Picnik and Mogulus and Imagination Cubed.
There are many cool tools that we can use to design instructional messages or used to get our learners excited about an online class.
This week I was particularly interested in using Picnik as a way to edit my photos. It seems you can easily use the application to fancy up pictures.
In my free time not working or studying, I am going to play with Mogulus. It is so cool that one could create their own CNN.
I am going to show Isabela, my daughter, Imagination Cubed and see what an eight year old thinks. I think I will start with an email to her that I drew!
Monday, September 22, 2008
5650 Historical Timeline
I had some "lively" drill instructors teach classes in boot camp. They would always having an attention grabber of some sort, then they would drill down a long list of terminal and enabling learning objects. I am curious how the military put their rubber stamp on the I.D. field? Specifically, how did the military create processes and procedures for I.D.?
Sunday, September 14, 2008
eLearning Management: Process, People & Product
To be responsible leaders in eLearning, we must know the roles and responsibilities for our projects.
Having a clear understanding on the process will allow for a smoother role-out and ensures content delivery and content maintenance meets the projects goals.
Having the right people fulfilling the plan's design ensures the best instruction, supportive and administrative services are delivered to the learner. For the learner to take advantage of the training, a marketing campaign should also be deployed.
The final product needs a strong foundation. Having a project plan, storyboard, learning materials and revising materials are vital to a successful eLearning project.
Know your three P's = Process, People and Product.
Having a clear understanding on the process will allow for a smoother role-out and ensures content delivery and content maintenance meets the projects goals.
Having the right people fulfilling the plan's design ensures the best instruction, supportive and administrative services are delivered to the learner. For the learner to take advantage of the training, a marketing campaign should also be deployed.
The final product needs a strong foundation. Having a project plan, storyboard, learning materials and revising materials are vital to a successful eLearning project.
Know your three P's = Process, People and Product.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Cool Tools Con't..
Ning
Is a social networking site for just about everything. You can join a social networking group of like minded people to share ideas and have discussion on topics that of interested to you and your group. I joined the Ning Instuctional Design eLearning Group. It's my hope this group is lively and offers great discourse on eLearning. I joined last night, thus far not much new action.
Pownce allows us to send stuff like pictures, files, music messages and links to our contacts. This could be of use to groups of people wanting to share content freely with friends, family and colleagues.
Not the most intuitive application to use. The concept to follow someone means that you can read their "twitter" posts. That's pretty straight forward, but there's not much instructions to inform you of this. Twitter posts are a lot of fun to read. People post crazy, funny stuff, like how much weight they have gained over the last week, to their opinion that our weekly reading is making them fall asleep. This stuff is way better than email!
Cool Tools
We have been reviewing and getting "to know" about the latest and greatest tools being used on the Internet. As we know the days of communicating via email and instant messaging has given away to more interactive web tools that are redefining how we communicate.
Using Kindling you can share your latest and greatest ideas with your inner circle. Everyone can add to the discussion and vote on the best ideas. Using this tool we certainly can record and voice our innovations. I think this is a valuable tool and I am going to share to see what other's at work think.
I have been hearing a lot of hype about Skype. This tool can put to use right away with those family members who live out of state. Skype users can talk to each other for free. I am wondering if online learners are using Skype in their online classes?
I have recorded audio using Captivate for eLearning projects. From my experience, the quality is mainly poor due to the fact that the frequency changes between recordings and editings. I have also heard poor feedback from other eLearning developers who want to use other recording software besides Captivate. Other experienced developers recommend Audacity, I am looking forward to try it out!
This idea might be the wave of the future. Students are able to interact and actively engage in real-time with content that is being displayed by the teacher. Teachers can present a slideshow and students can share their input with other students. This is coined as classroom 2.0. It sounds exciting! Will there come a day in our schools when children use laptops as much as they use a pencils and crayons? Surely presentations that are being developed for the presenter and not the learner will be quickly replaced by presentations being developed for learner interactions!
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Reflections on Technology (RSS and Blogs)
Learning any new technology can be challenging for the learners, as an instructors we can forget the challenges we faced when learning new technology. When I was learning how to use Dreamweaver I was frustrated because my menu bars kept showing up in different places when I created a new webpage. I followed the same steps each time I set-up a new page, but the brain-busting misplacement of menu bars kept me bewildered. After building my pages and spending hours trying to rearrange my menu bars, I finally realized that I should have been using the "save as" command and not have been setting up new pages from scratch. Thankful I had some humor left in me that day as I rolled on the ground laughing in the simplicity of my solution.
This might not be the best example of someone learning new technology, but I think it does show that what may seem a "no-brainer" to us, might not seem so transparent to the learner of new technology.
We as instructors and introducers of those technologies should take a step back and remember what it was like to just learn about new technologies--might we start a journal now so we can better recall what it's like to be a novice--before we expect others to start using them.
There are barriers to overcome when learning how to apply new technologies to classrooms. Examples of those technologies are Blogs and RSS feeds. They can help learners grow through reflection. They provide ways to share information, which improves professionalism and increased quality. They increase creativity through self-expressive writing and conversations. But, they can't do these things by themselves. Blogs and RSS feeds are becoming more popular in eLearning, but they are not a "no-brainer" like email.
One possible solution is to create a dashboard or learner portal of some sort. Having one-stop-learning where the student can access webpages that teaches them how to use certain technology, best-practice examples of those new technologies. This dashboard should guide the learner in a step-by-step fashion and grow in content as the learner becomes more proficient.
Learning should be fun and challening, but not in the way that leaves you rolling on the floor laughing at your self. Most of all, learning technology should be be frusterating or confusing.
This might not be the best example of someone learning new technology, but I think it does show that what may seem a "no-brainer" to us, might not seem so transparent to the learner of new technology.
We as instructors and introducers of those technologies should take a step back and remember what it was like to just learn about new technologies--might we start a journal now so we can better recall what it's like to be a novice--before we expect others to start using them.
There are barriers to overcome when learning how to apply new technologies to classrooms. Examples of those technologies are Blogs and RSS feeds. They can help learners grow through reflection. They provide ways to share information, which improves professionalism and increased quality. They increase creativity through self-expressive writing and conversations. But, they can't do these things by themselves. Blogs and RSS feeds are becoming more popular in eLearning, but they are not a "no-brainer" like email.
One possible solution is to create a dashboard or learner portal of some sort. Having one-stop-learning where the student can access webpages that teaches them how to use certain technology, best-practice examples of those new technologies. This dashboard should guide the learner in a step-by-step fashion and grow in content as the learner becomes more proficient.
Learning should be fun and challening, but not in the way that leaves you rolling on the floor laughing at your self. Most of all, learning technology should be be frusterating or confusing.
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