Captain Future e-learning

Everything is a Remix Part 4

2012-02-16T08:32:00.001-05:00

Everything is a Remix Part 4 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Horizon Report 2012

2012-02-15T21:27:00.000-05:00

Technology use on US College Campuses

2012-01-06T08:51:00.001-05:00

Via: Online Colleges Guide

Time is up..digital natives and immigrants

2011-12-02T13:42:00.006-05:00

We hear the term digital native quite a bit and I have to confess, I may have used the term myself. But is there really a significant difference between a generation who was not born digital and one born in the digital era? Is it the case that those born in the digital era adopt and adapt to new technologies more readily?

It was Prensky who introduced the terms digital natives and immigrants ten years ago and it seemed that everybody loved the idea and jumped on the new buzzword bandwagon.

Much more accurate to me is the concept of Visitors and Residents by David White. White suggests that there are residents who live day to day in the digital world and then there are those who just visit. When you happen to have been born is not so relevant.

As a self confessed nerd born somewhere around the time of the pyramids, I'd have to say I'm a resident. My interest in technology started with Mini bricks and Meccano and a Reel to Reel tape recorder in grade three.

As for my students- A small number of my college diploma students are proficient with technology but the rest are not. My students in a Master's program are similar. Some are technologically proficient and the rest are working on proficiency. Certainly at the end of the program they will all be more than proficient. Will they all be residents? I think that depends a lot on who they started out as. Not everybody wants to live digitally every minute.

OK, above is just my anecdotal experience and view. But the evidence against the idea of digital natives and immigrants is mounting .

By bringing this up, I'm certainly not saying we don't have to use technology to facilitate learning. My belief is that if the world our students live in is filled with technology and if they can use technology to learn almost anything they want to learn outside of class, then the least we can do is engage our students in the place they live.

To continue to use the terms digital natives and assume they are proficient, and those of a certain age are not, is just not true or helpful.

A few interesting articles and posts

Steve Wheeler The Natives are Revolting

Tom Whitby Generational Divide in Education

Open University research explodes myth of digital native

Jones, Chris and Shao The Net Generation and Digital Natives: Implications for Higher Education

Dan Pontefract The Fallacy of Digital Natives

Types of Collaborators

2011-11-18T10:18:00.002-05:00

Click image to see full size
http://www.centraldesktop.com/infographics/collaboration-personas-the-9-types-of-collaborators.jpg

What is the point to us at all?

2011-11-06T18:53:00.007-05:00

In the article What's Wrong with canned courses? Just one thing, Lisa Lane tells us that what's wrong with using and depending on too many or all of a publisher's prepared content for our courses is that we are modeling the wrong thing. We are modeling a lack of creativity, an absence of critical thinking and a lack of respect for our own profession.

I'd say the problem goes even further: we just aren't doing our job when we adopt these materials without "disassembling, reinventing, repurposing or recreating" them.

When we allow ourselves to be so removed from the actual function of our jobs, what is the point to us at all?

Pearson (Education) is being granted the right to offer degrees in England, and now they are clearly playing a game of openwashing with their new OpenClass LMS. These publishing companies realize that the paper-based textbook market is on its deathbed. It will be all e-book, digital and interactive. Their days of "pushing" paper are numbered.

Knowledge is out there, available and free.

To survive, the publishers and large LMS providers have to change their business model. Part of that change seems to be to position themselves as "open." I'd say they are about as open as BP is green with their BP logo all green and sunny. The other change to survive seems to be one where they encroach on what we as educators do. When we adopt their materials in a big big way, we turn ourselves into clerical workers who simply put up grades and shuffle virtual paper. Gosh, I hope the future of teaching is not as an assembly worker.

I'm not saying that using some of the publishers materials is all bad as long as there is a healthy dose of us in the mix, us as the curators, remixers and creators.

I think it is time to reread our job description. I don't know about yours, but in mine curriculum development is way up there.

When we give that task to Pearson or McGraw-Hill or Blackboard or someone else, are we doing our jobs? Will we have a job in the future?

Will we need colleges and universities?

Teaching and Learning with Twitter by Steve Wheeler

2011-10-13T17:13:00.001-04:00

Teaching and Learning with Twitter

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler

Kevin Kelly of Wired Talks Trends

2011-10-02T12:48:00.002-04:00

Kevin Kelly at the July 2011 NExTWORK conference

"NExTWORK a one-day, interdisciplinary conference featuring world-renowned business leaders, technologists, and thinkers exploring the promise and peril of the network's future, as well as pressing digital issues and opportunities today."

A summary of his key trends:

Screening: We are no longer people of the book; we are people of the screen
Interacting: We expect interaction with everything- not just touch but gesture and voice and adaptation to us. The world is two-way mirror. We watch it; it watches us
Sharing: we have a web build on sharing-now we have cloud. The type of cloud we have TBD. Could be multi-cloud or single cloud. We share because we can
Flowing: We now have streams of things. We had file, folder and desktop and then moved to Page, Link, Web, and now we have Stream, Tag and Cloud. We have everything, everywhere, and it is always on
Accessing not Owning: We are moving toward just in time access where we have no storage, no maintenance or burdenship of ownership
Generating not Copying: the internet is a copy machine. The only value is that which can not be copied. How does one make money? Wherever attention flows, money will follow. You may pay for immediacy, personalization, authentication, interpretation, accessibility and attention.

Universal Design for Learning -Extranormal

2011-09-29T13:25:00.001-04:00

Waiting for UDL
by: knwilley

QR Codes: The Hunt is On!

2011-09-29T10:51:00.011-04:00

Here are a couple of little ideas I came across on the use of QR codes.
The first one a is a marketing/customer service application but it could easily be applied to education.

The above example is a QR code for Washington State Ferries. How could you use a similar idea? Do you want to survey your students with a simple tool like survey monkey? Why not make the experience a little more interactive. If you are creating a scavenger hunt with QR codes why not embed them in interesting places or inside graphics.

You can even put your codes in the wild to promote your seminar!

Need a resume? Why not make your QR code speak for you!

QR CODE - Content-rich Resume from Victor petit on Vimeo.

If you really want to Brand your self there's always a tattoo. Not sure you want to go this far.

A temporary tattoo could be fun though.

Our Symbiotic Relationship with the Google

2011-09-27T18:00:00.001-04:00

Research and Design by: Online Colleges Site

QR Codes!

2011-09-12T04:43:00.003-04:00

Connecting the physical world and the virtual world with QR Codes

View more presentations from Stan Skrabut

We know where the Like Button is but where is the Learning Button?

2011-09-06T23:03:00.002-04:00

Dr Maria Anderson asks,' Where is the Learn Button?"

Digital natives/immigrants vs Residents and Visitors

2011-09-06T22:43:00.001-04:00

Web 3.0- The Next Big Thing

2011-09-03T17:13:00.001-04:00

The Next Big Thing is Web 3.0. Catch It If You Can

View more presentations from Judy O'Connell

Steve Wheeler on Creative Learning

2011-09-02T12:16:00.000-04:00

Creative Learning

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler

Tame your information in 99 slides!

2011-09-01T07:40:00.000-04:00

Taming Information Chaos with the Power of 2.0

View more presentations from Judy O'Connell

Slinky : A Love Story -Misconceptions

2011-08-30T15:45:00.002-04:00

Misconceptions

Slinky: A Love Story

Consumer Behaviour- It’s just common sense!

In the early 1900’s department store owner John Wanamaker famously said,

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

What Wanamaker recognized is that advertising is not a simple matter. Despite what many people think, marketers are by no means as skilled at manipulating the public as many of us would believe. The fields of marketing and consumer behaviour are filled with misconceptions. It’s not uncommon for people to believe that we all know who we are and we know why we buy. Many believe that consumer behaviour is just about the buying process, and if we have the money we will buy the best product and that best product will be the one that succeeds. People also often believe that if they recognize they have made a poor decision in buying a product, they will readily acknowledge it. All the above are just a few of the many misconceptions about consumer behaviour.

Consumer Behaviour- Wait a minute it’s not so simple!

In reality, consumer behaviour is a complex process that includes what happens before, during and after a purchase. Humans are complex creatures and our self- knowledge varies from person to person. The best product is not always a winner and a poor or silly product can be successful. Although we can be manipulated by marketing pitches, we still have the ability to say no, but one thing is for sure-- thinking and challenging assumptions are required.

As a teacher of a college course called the Psychology of Consumer Behaviour, I have the task to teach the theories of consumer behaviour, stimulate students thinking processes and help them begin to challenge some of the assumptions they hold. Because my course is a general education elective course, I have students from a variety of programs. While some students are from marketing, others could be from graphic design, community service, accounting or any other college program. My approach to the subject has always been two sided. While I can admire a good marketing technique, it is just as important to help others understand how to defend themselves against that very technique.

Misconceptions, Concrete Examples, Discovery Methods and Inductive Reasoning to the Rescue!

In his book Learning and Instruction, Richard Mayer discusses the importance of breaking students’ misconceptions. He promotes the use of concrete examples, discovery methods and inductive reasoning to enable meaningful active learning. Although most of his examples relate to science or math, these same ideas can be used in any area, but specifically in teaching consumer behaviour.

Why I love my Slinky

“What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs, and makes a slinkity sound?
A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing! Everyone knows- it's Slinky.”

By about week 6 in my course, I generally find that my students have a fair bit of knowledge about consumer behaviour. They have had a few opportunities to show that they understand concepts, but they don’t always recognize the depth of their own knowledge, and are not that confident in the area of problem solving. It is about that time that I bring my mini slinky to class. My slinky lesson uses a number of the concepts that Mayer discusses.

Student Mission: Discovery!

My purchase of the mini slinky pictured here has quite a story and it is my students’ mission to figure out all of the following:

· Where did I buy it?

· When did I buy it?

· What store, what location in the store?

· What was the first thing that came into my head when I saw it?

· What type of purchase was it-planned, unplanned?

· What are all the factors that motivated me to buy it?

· What do they know about me that might lead them to understand the purchase?

· Who did I buy it for? If I bought it for someone else, who was it for and why do I still have it?

· If I bought it for someone else how did I rationalize keeping it?

· What are all of the terms that we have talked about in class that explain this purchase?

What Happens when students set to the task: Action!

When students are first presented with the task, they immediately ask, “How do we know?” There are a few groans.

“Ah, but I’m sure by the end of class you will have discovered all the answers,” I say.

The first hint is that I bought it in walking distance of the school. As the students form themselves into groups, I promise that I will give them some hints as they go, but really I want them to question everything. If they want to use their computers to review notes, locate stores in the area or brainstorm in anyway that is all fair game in the pursuit of the slinky story. Technology may play a role, or it may not depending upon the groups’ own approach. Technology could enhance the result especially if they are reviewing course notes online. Students are allowed to ask me some small questions that may guide them. Mayer suggests that guided discovery is “more effective than pure discovery in helping students learn and transfer.” (Mayer, pg 317)

According to Bruner (1981) when students discover rules, they organize their ideas in meaningful ways that result in better learning. Discovery learning can encourage active engagement, promote motivation, autonomy and the development of creative problem solving. Once my students are in groups, I can see that they are really engaged in solving this problem. Immediately, brainstorming is taking place. The groups are active.

During the group discussions, students pass around the little slinky box, the slinky story booklet and the slinky. They examine all of the pieces of the object. I often play one or two of the original slinky commercials during the activity. (There are hints in that.) By using all of the senses students are able to really get into the task through a concrete example. They begin to envision me in the store being motivated by my surroundings while trying to use what they know about me and what they know about consumer behaviour, they transfer their knowledge to the task. The task appeals to Howard Gardners’ Multiple Intelligences. There is thinking, reflecting, spatial knowledge, kinesthetic involvement with the objects, music, pictures and words in the commercial, a group social experience and the use of logic.

The slinky lesson starts with no rules. This is an inductive process. There is the slinky, there is me and then there are only questions. It is not about one final answer-- the lesson involves many steps where the process is more valuable than the end goal. According to Polya, the emphasis should be on the process of problem solving rather than the final answer.” (Mayer, 434) Generally, all the groups answer the majority of the questions.

Reflection. Ah ha!

When we discuss the results and the potential answers, students become aware of other concepts they had not thought of and sometimes I too become aware of things I had not considered. Together the class comes to the conclusion that buying anything no matter how simple can be a complex process that can involve little thinking at times and a lot of thinking at other times. They realize too how questioning can uncover motivations and rationalizations in purchase behaviour. A simple buying process can be affected by people, places, prior experiences and more. Human nature is complex.

I’ve used the slinky lesson a number of times and it has been very successful in showing the students what they know and in reinforcing many of the basic concepts of consumer behaviour. It has also given students an opportunity to problem solve a simple scenario with complex concepts showing them what they know and what they can find out if they question assumptions. From a teacher’s point of view, it illustrates that students are able to transfer knowledge to explain novel situations.

Next time: Maybe a Little More Problem-Solving Process!

What I might do the next time around is outline the problem solving process more. Perhaps I would ask students to write up their process. For example, ask them to clearly define what the problem is. State what is known and unknown, and what are the constraints. I might give them a copy of Wood’s Problem Solving Model: Define the problem, think about it, plan a solution, carry out the plan, look back. (see more detail in Teaching Problem-Solving Skills, University of Waterloo)

Maybe a Little More History to Begin

Next time around, I may begin with a brief history of the slinky. Did you know that there have been over 250 million slinkies made and that if you stretched them out they would circle the earth 126 times? Or that a slinky has been in outer space? NASA crew members took a slinky to space to illustrate simple zero gravity physics. Did you know that the slinky was invented by Richard James as part of his WWII research into springs to stabilize instruments on ships while on rough seas? While James was working, he accidently knocked one of the springs off a bookshelf. Instead of falling to the ground, it stepped its way down a set of books.

And did you know that although it was invented by a man, it took a woman to realize its potential? James’ wife Betty named it “slinky” and pointed out how it could be used as a toy.

“A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing! Everyone knows it's Slinky.”

What concepts does the slinky story tell?

For those who want to know more about the slinky story, I can tell you that some of the concepts it involves are these: consumer behaviour definition, role theory, market segmentation: demographics, psychographics, nostalgic attachment, sensation, perception, vision-colour-graphics-layout, touch, sound, exposure, attention, stimulus selection factors, interpretation, schema, semiotics, positioning strategy, advertising, jingles, learning-classical conditioning, repetition, operant conditioning, cognitive learning, memory, retrieval, recognition, situational factors-environment, drive theory, expectancy theory, needs/wants-goals, motivation- motivational conflict, cognitive dissonance, maslow, involvement, the self, fantasy, self-image congruence model, the extended self, personality, brand personality-branding, point-of purchase displays, time, impulse/planned purchases, attitudes, ABC Model of Attitudes, emotional/rational appeal, theparadox ---> the less important the product is to consumers, the more important are the marketing stimuli.

Slinky Confessional Time!

I did buy the slinky for someone else, but I couldn’t bear to give it up, so I convinced myself I needed it. How did I resolve my cognitive dissonance?

Well, it took me a few minutes to come up with it, but my rational is a good one: It’s not just that I wanted the slinky, I actually need the slinky to teach Psychology of Consumer Behaviour.

And that is a short story of how a want became a need.

________________________________________________________________

References

Mayer, R.E. (2008). Learning and instruction. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education

Barnes, Julian E. (Jan 26, 2001). Business DIARY: A Name, a name, destined for fame. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/28/business/business-diary-a-name-a-name-destined-for-fame.html

Discovery learning (Bruner), LearningTheories.com. Retieved from http://www.learning-theories.com/discovery-learning-bruner.html

Fashionable myths about advertising. (May 6, 2009) The Ad Contrarion. Retrieved from http://adcontrarion.blogspot.com/2009/06/5-fashionable-myths-about-advertising.html

Foshay, R., Kirkley, J. (1998). Principles for teaching problem solving. http://www.plato.com/pdf/04_principles.pdf

Kapp, Karl. (June 2009) Teaching tips for problem solving skills, Kapp Notes. Retrieved from http://karlkapp.blogspot.com/2009/06/tips-for-teaching-problem-solving.html

Teaching problem-solving skills, Centre for Teaching Excellence University of Waterloo. Retrieved from http://cte.uwaterloo.ca/teaching_resources/tips/teaching_problem_solving_skills.html

Toy time in space. (April 16, 1995) New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/16/science/toy-time-in-space.html?sec=health

Zargaj-Reynolds, Paula. (Aug 8, 2007) Advertising is good for you: Advertising Myths. Retrieved from http://pzrservices.typepad.com/advertisingisgoodforyou/advertising_myths

From Ugly and Bad to A-ha!

2011-08-30T15:36:00.005-04:00

From Ugly and Bad to A-ha!

Is reading online different from reading text in printed form? Is learning from a textbook different from learning online?

If you are like most people, you will probably have answered yes to both of these questions. When an instructional designer sets about to create an online lesson, it isn’t as simple as pasting text into an online page. If you have taken online courses, you may have experienced the good, the bad and the ugly. The good would include text with illustrations and interactivity that enhances comprehension. The bad would include massive amounts of text on pages and pages of text with no headings, no focus, no sequence, no classification and no interaction. The ugly would include excessive use of colour on colour without reason, pictures for the sake of pictures rather than illustration, music with no relevance, and information every which way all jammed into one chaotic page. (See samples of the bad and ugly at end of essay)

The Goal of Good Design Principles

In many respects good design principles that promote comprehension in print are transferable to multimedia, but multimedia presents more complications and there is even more need for simplicity and clarity. According to Richard E. Mayer in Learning and Instruction, learners impose structure on lessons. One learner may be advanced and another weak, so it is important that authors of textbooks or lessons impose a structure on their writing. Writing should guide readers to select key ideas, organize these into concepts and integrate new information with their current knowledge or experience. The goal is not just memorization but transferability of ideas, problem-solving and critical thinking.

Structure and Transfer of Learning

In “Teaching by Guiding Cognitive Processes During Learning” (Chapter 10) of Learning and Instruction, Mayer talks about methods to impose structure and aid in transfer of learning. Specifically, he talks about adjunct questions, signaling and advance organizers. Adjunct questions direct the reader’s attention to important material; while signally uses outlines, headings, signal words to aid the creation and organization of a learner’s conceptual framework. Advance organizers may include things like models or diagrams that activate prior knowledge and aid in the understanding and transfer of new concepts. It would be safe to say that all of these concepts apply to the online environment, but one would have to look further to understand multimedia.

Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning

Since the advent of the online environment many researchers have studied and developed models that relate cognitive theory to multimedia. Drawing on his own work in meaningful learning and the work of others on cognitive load theory, Mayer proposes his Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (1997). According to the theory learners possess two separate processing systems where auditory messages go to a verbal processing system and animation goes to visual system. His theory includes the following principles:

1. Multiple Representation Principle: An explanation in words and pictures is better than words alone.

2. Contiguity Principle: A multimedia explanation with words and pictures should present corresponding words and pictures contiguously rather than separately

3. Split-Attention Principle: A multimedia explanation with auditory narration and pictures should not also show the words as text which causes cognitive overload

4. Individual Differences Principle: The above principles are more important for low knowledge than high-knowledge learners, and for high-spatial rather than low-spatial learners.

5. Coherence Principle: A multimedia explanation with fewer relevant words and pictures is better than one with too many. A short summary allows a student to select information and organize and interpret using their own framework.

Design Features: Navigation

Others who have studied multimedia and cognition are Thuring, Hannemann & Hake. In their 1995 paper “Hypermedia and Cognition: Designing for Comprehension,” they point out that websites should enable viewers to clearly identify their current position with respect to the overall site, easily retrace their steps, and easily find different options to continue. With multimedia, it is not so simple as turning the next page. Many of us have seen this happen: we are at an important site and we follow a link and then another and then have trouble getting back to where we started or perhaps go off never to return again.

Design Features: Line Length and White Space Online

Should a line of text in the online environment be the same length as that in print material? Do readers prefer certain length of lines online? Do shorter lines aid in comprehension? What effect does white space have?

Several researchers have studied the above questions with mixed results. A 2005 study by A. Dawn Shaikh looked at online news reading speed, comprehension and line length preference. Students read passages that were 35, 55,75 and 95 characters wide and then were tested for speed, comprehension and preference. Although the 95-character line was read faster, it did not translate to better comprehension. Some users preferred the short lines and some the longer lines. Researchers McMullin, Varnhagen, Heng & Apedoe in 2002, found that line length had no significant effect on comprehension but white space did. Participants had better comprehension when there was more whitespace. They also found that irrelevant information inserted into a page decreased comprehension. In 2003 Bernard, Fernandez, Hull, and Chaparro found differences in preferences between adults and children (Shaikh, 2005). Adults preferred medium line length 76 characters per line and children preferred shorter 45 characters when compared to 132 characters per line. Maybe the answer lies with the audience’s preference, but certainly layout plays a factor.

Gestalt Theory

Those who study graphic design often refer to the principles of Gestalt theory when designing meaningful messages. A phrase to explain Gestalt theory is, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” What this means is that we tend to take in an overall view of images and text, before we begin to dissect it into pieces. Because one of the courses I teach is Visual Communications and because Gestalt theory also relates to comprehension, I have chosen two websites on Gestalt principles to compare and contrast readability, usability and comprehension with respect to the previously mentioned criteria.

Both sites have been online for quite awhile, and I have found both sites effective in different ways. One is mostly textual and the other is interactive.

Site One: Spokane Falls Community College’s page: The Gestalt Principles http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/process/gestaltprinciples/gestaltprinc.htm#similarity

The Gestalt Principles page opens into a basic white page with black text and black and white illustrations page. The page is aligned left and each line is approximately 50 characters long. There is a lot of white space in the page. The page opens with a brief definition of Gestalt and then goes on to explain and illustrate the principles of similarity, continuation, closure, proximity and figure/ground. Each topic has a clear identifying heading and either one or two simple examples of the concept. The author also bolds key words throughout the brief explanations. The top navigation allows the user to jump to the specific concept within the same page. The one link out is to a PDF file that is an exercise for students to test their knowledge and to further explain their answers.

This webpage is simple and to the point. It clearly guides the reader to select key points, signals an overall framework and allows readers the opportunity to integrate the understanding into their own framework. The exercise allows learners to self-test thereby ensuring transfer of knowledge. Although the site is black and white and not very interactive, it does what it sets out to do in a way that is clear and coherent. The line length is neither long nor short, so it would appeal to most readers in the target group. The whitespace certainly creates an easy flow of information. Of course the true test is this-- After reading the page, do you have a good understanding of the basic Gestalt design concepts? How can you use these concepts to better design a page for your learners?

Site Two: Mike Cuenta’s Gestalt & Typography Presentation http://seekpeace.com/gestalt/Gestalt.html

This page was created in 2000. The page discusses the two Gestalt concepts similarity and proximity specifically as they pertain to type and online layout. Compared to site one, the topic is narrower and illustrates type and image placement; whereas, site one’s emphasis was more focused on Gestalt and images, which may relate to logo design. Site two uses the application Shockwave, so some learners will have to download Shockwave to their computers to view it. This could present a slight obstacle for some users.

Like the previous example the page opens aligned left. The whole size of the page is small so that it would be viewable on multiple screen sizes. The start page has simple colour and design with the logo and a start button. Navigation-wise, pressing start is the only option. The narration starts with a definition of Gestalt and then talks over visual representations that illustrate the concepts. It follows exactly Mayer’s principles Multiple Representation, Contiguity, Coherence and does not violate Split-Attention. It presents the material using two methods at the same time on different channels without causing cognitive overload. The navigation is simple. You can end at any minute but you cannot pause and rewind a bit to replay; you would need to start again from the beginning. There is no activity to check transfer like site one, but that could be provided elsewhere if one were to use this. This multimedia explanation appeals to the particular learners involved. Graphic design students tend to be visual learners, but it also appeals to the other learning styles as well. The visuals are simple; the text is simple; the movement throughout illustrates the changing concepts so it does an excellent job of bringing to life a concept that is hard to explain in simple text and pictures. But again the true test is: What did you learn and how can you apply it to your own learning environment?

The two samples although older still represent good opportunities for learning and consolidating Gestalt design concepts. In most respects they follow Mayer’s and other’s principles.

What have we learned?

If we understand our audience, start with a solid plan, follow proven strategies and design principles, and provide opportunity for interaction through questions and self-evaluation, we will most certainly create more meaningful instruction.

As promised:

Example of the bad in web page design here http://www.gatesnfences.com/

Example of the Ugly in web page design here
http://www.lingscars.com/

References

Cuenta, Mike. (2000). Gestalt & typography: An interactive design tutorial. Retrieved from http://seekpeace.com/gestalt/Gestalt.html February 12, 2010.

Graham, Lisa. (2008). Gestalt theory in interactive media design. Scientific Journals, 2(1), Retrieved from http://www.scientificjournals.org/journals2008/articles/1288.pdf February12, 2010.

Mayer, Richard.E . (2008). Learning and instruction. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education.

Mayer, R.E., & Moreno, R. (1998). A Cognitive theory of multimedia learning:Implications for design principles. Retrieved from http://www.unm.edu/~moreno/PDFS/chi.pdf February 12, 2010.

Mayer, Richard E. (1997). The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://books.google.ca/books?id=SSLdo1MLIywC&pg=PA45&dq=mayer+1997&client=firefox-a&cd=1#v=onepage&q=mayer%201997&f=false February 14, 2010.

McMullin, J., Varnhagen, C.K., Heng,P. & Apedoe, X. (2002) Effects of surrounding information and line length on text comprehension. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, 28(1), Retrieved from http://www.cjlt.ca/index.php/cjlt/article/viewArticle/65/62 February 13, 2010.

Shaikh, A.D., (2005).The Effects of line length on reading online news. Usability News, (7)2. Retrieved from http://www.surl.org/usabilitynews/72/LineLength.asp February 12, 2010.

Spokane Falls Community College, Initials. The Gestalt Principles. Retrieved from http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/process/gestaltprinciples/gestaltprinc.htm#similarity February 10, 2010.

Thuring, M., Hannemannn, J., & Haake, J.M. (1995). Hypermedia and cognition: Designing for comprehension. Communications of the ACM, 38(8), Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download;jsessionid=9F74F8D42E2B84068F1B1E63B1D51507?doi=10.1.1.106.9138&rep=rep1&type=pdf February 12, 2010.

Wilkinson, M.J. (2009, May 20). The Line length misconception, The Viget Advance. Retrieved from http://www.viget.com/advance/the-line-length-misconception February 14, 2010.

Metacomprehension-When "I don't know" is the answer!

2011-08-30T15:09:00.010-04:00

If you are a homeowner, I’m sure you’ve met him. He comes in tools ablazing ready to fix that washing machine, refrigerator, eavestrough, or whatever item has just put you into homeowner hell. He might be drop dead gorgeous or be the guy with the moon-man pants. He might even be a she. He could be your partner, neighbour or friend --Whatever, one thing is for sure: he’s cocksure and he’s got tools. Wow, look at those tools!

It isn’t long before he is at work. He doesn’t seem to ask you a lot of questions. He knows just about everything. Why ask questions? While he’s working, he’s telling you about his wife, his mother, his kids, and all manner of things you’d never thought of or wanted to know. Time is beginning to drag on. There are items strewn all over the place. Dollar signs flash before your eyes as he brings in more parts and more parts and even more parts. Wasn’t this supposed to be a simple job? It’s getting late now and it’s still not fixed. He tells you that the problem is a “what’s-it-widget” and it’s going to need ordering. He’ll have to come back. Now wait a minute! Wasn’t this guy an expert? What about those fancy tools?

What you have just encountered is “The Hack.” He’s the guy who thinks he knows everything but doesn’t stop to ask, “What do I really know?” In metacognitive terms, he’s low on comprehension and low on metacomprehension.

Say what? Meta who? OK let’s start from the beginning. Do you know what you don’t know? Do you think about your own thinking? Have you ever been reading a book or watching a movie and suddenly realized that time has gone by and you don’t know a thing that you have just read or seen? When you make that realization you are using your metacognitive skills. You are thinking about thinking. According to J. H. Flavell metacognition, “refers to one’s knowledge concerning one’s own cognitive processes or anything related to them.” When we use metacognitive skills, we plan how to approach a task, monitor our progress, ask questions, re-evaluate and continue until hopefully we have reached our destination. We have learned and we have learned about our learning.

So how does metacomprehension fit in? According to Sally N, Staniford, in her 1984 article Metacomprehension, metacomprehension is simply, “the awareness of and conscious control over one's own understanding or lack of it.” Metacomprehension is then a type of metacognition. Many times we see it used to refer to reading comprehension and strategies to improve comprehension but it could include comprehension of many things like comprehending deeper meanings in film or art.

In many respects metacomprehension can be seen as a bottomless toolbox. This toolbox has all the things we need to solve any problem. There are simple things like hammers and nails and duct tape, but there are all types of fancy specific tools too. Before you look into your toolbox, you’ll need to know exactly what type of problem you have. There will be questions! Your toolbox looks exciting, but you’ll need to study its contents and evaluate. Which tool should you use? Is it a simple problem, or a complex one? Will you need a more complex tool? Do you know how to use it? In no time, you’ll be testing out your tools and hopefully learning more and more. Sometimes you might even stop and say to yourself, “I know exactly what is wrong, but I just don’t know how to do it.” Dratz, now what? Wait, what’s that in there? Hey it’s my friend the expert in the toolbox. What can she recommend? But even though this toolbox is bottomless, each person who looks into it may see something different. One person may pick just the right tool and another person might pick something that will work eventually. It appears there is more to this toolbox than meets the eye. Even though the toolbox is bottomless and has all the answers, it will depend upon the level of expertise of its user.

Sally N. Staniford suggests that metacomprehension can be broken out into four categories. In category one we have High Comprehension and High Metacomprehension. This means you know something and are aware that you know. For example you are given a problem to solve and you are correct in knowing that you solved it correctly.

In category two we have Low Comprehension and High Metacomprehension. Here we say to ourselves, “I don’t know and I know I don’t know.” We are aware that we don’t understand.

In category three we have High Comprehension and Low Metacomprehension. In this case we know the answer but do not know we know the answer. If you are a teacher, you will know this student. She always knows the answer but she has to ask you if she is right every time.

In category four we have Low Comprehension and Low Metacomprehension. This is where “The Hack” lives. Here we are sure we know, but in fact we do not and we are unaware that we do not.

Optimally, what we all want is high comprehension and high metacomprehension. As teachers, we want our students to know subjects and to have the metacognitive skills to become aware of their thinking processes. To get there we reflect on our thinking and encourage our students to reflect on their own thinking. How do we do that when sometimes it seems that everyone just wants to rush to the magic answer?

Let’s go back to our favorite “Hack.” Where did he go wrong? He appeared to have the right tools and say the right things before he came in. But he started off badly. He asked no questions! He never really found out what was wrong and when it was going wrong. He dove in without thinking seemingly rushing to the end. While he was at work he talked about everything else but the job he was doing. He had no plan; he was distracted. Instead of finding out the exact problem, he just kept changing things to see what would work. He didn’t ask enough questions about what had just happened and how this thing was related to that thing. He didn’t monitor his progress and make changes to improve his strategies. He never once said, “I don’t know.” He was unaware that he didn’t know. And worst of all he walked away and was paid for it. Ouch! Reinforcement!

If we now think of these same basic concepts and apply them to the work that we assign as teachers, most likely we will develop work that requires students to reflect on their learning by having them focus on the learning process step-by-step. Ask them to summarize, explain a concept another way through analogy of metaphor, (lol) read a story line by line and ask them to guess what comes next (double lol) and question, question and question again. Beware the final answer!

Picasso once said, “Computers are useless; they can only give you answers.” But did he really mean that computers are useless? Or did he mean that what is important is the questions? We look into our bottomless toolbox and we find answers, but aren’t we really more in search of the next questions? There will always be a point where we say, “I don’t know.” The key is to say that in the form of a question. Learning is like that.

As for “The Hack,” Bertrand Russell sums it us best in his Triumph of Stupidity when he says, “The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.”

Well Bertrand, I do consider myself an intelligent person and I, for one, don’t mind a little doubt now and then as long as it leads to the next question!
_______________________________________________

References

Blakey, Elaine & Spence, Sheila. (Nov 1990) Developing metacognition. ERIC Clearinghouse on Information Resources Syracuse NY. ERIC Identifier: ED327218 Retrieved from http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9218/developing.htm on February 1, 2010.

Halter. Julie, Metacognition, encyclopedia of educational technology, San Diego State University. Retrieved from http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/metacognition/ February 1, 2010.

Livingston, Jennifer A. (1997) Metacognition: An overview. Retrieved from http://gse.buffalo.edu/fas/shuell/CEP564/Metacog.htm February 1, 2010.

Pierce, William (2003) Metacognition: Study strategies, monitoring, and motivation, Prince George Community College. Retrieved from http://academic.pgcc.edu/~wpeirce/MCCCTR/metacognition.htm#II February 1, 2010.

Russell, Bertrand. The triumph of stupidity (1933-05-10) in Mortals and others: Bertrand Russell’s American essays, 1931-1935, 1998, p28.

Standiford, Sally N. (1984) Metacomprehension. Retrieved from ERIC database.http://www.vtaide.com/png/ERIC/Metacomprehension.htm February 1, 2010 (ED250670).

My Curation of Inovations in elearning

2011-08-04T11:37:00.001-04:00

The Road is Open Steve Wheeler

2011-07-31T18:05:00.004-04:00

The Road is Open

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler

The Future of Learning -Steve Wheeler 2011

2011-07-31T17:55:00.000-04:00

The Future of Learning

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler

Where to Find Free Stuff and Info about Copyright

2011-07-22T09:52:00.003-04:00

In my class at U of I, the question came up about where to find images, music, and videos that can be safely reused.

There are so many places to find materials that can be used for student projects.

Search
One quick way to find reusable images is through Google image search. Instead of using the regular search, click the "advanced search" to the bottom right of the insert box. Under the category "Usage Rights" click "labelled for reuse." Once you have found an image, check to see the copyright or creative commons license. Another search engine to try is Creative Commons Search

Images Sites
A standard for images, of course is flickr, but the best way to search there is through their creative commons http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/ Another one of my favourite image sites is the Morgue File. The Morgue File has images that can be used without attribution. Also great for diverse images is World Images

Music Sites
For music, if you are a mac user, there is a nice selection of music and sound effects available in Garage Band. Another place for music is Musopen whose mission is to set music free. Public Domain 4U is also a good music site. If you are looking for short bumper music for podcasts try Podsafe Music

Video Sites
For some amazing video try BBC Motion Gallery and Archive.org

If you need a resource that explains Fair Use try this one

For even more links on sources of images, music and video try Copyright Friendly on Wikispaces and there's always the wiki Debbie P and I put together Cost of Free

Help Photo by Howard Poon, flickr

Video Making Guide

2011-07-16T23:24:00.002-04:00

Lots of interesting info in Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers Guide below:

Making Videos on the Web - A Guide for Teachers

Automatoon- Animate!

2011-07-07T17:43:00.003-04:00

Cool HTML5 animation tool!
Free for basic features.

Move over Gen Y- It's Z Curation time

2011-06-24T09:26:00.004-04:00

The oldest Millennials or Gen Y'ers are now 31. It's time to think about the up and coming Gen Z! Born between 1992/1994 and 2004/2010, they are the true digital natives. According to Ethan Lyon of Sparxoo.com In Generation Z Stats, they are, "coming of age publicly on the web." Their defining characteristics

Speed Demons- a generation that has grown up on instant gratification with instantaneous Google answers- Age of AADD-Acquired Attention Deficit Disorder- On Demand is the New Normal
Community Organizers and Curators- Born social through social nets befriending and interacting- Key Behaviours: Share, Express and Consume
Open Books-Personal information is shared with little thought to privacy
Micro Miners-Information broken down and condensed- think tumblr and twitter
Self-publishing

2010 Generation Trend Report

View more documents from David Capece

Creativity- Everything is a Remix

2011-06-21T12:29:00.000-04:00

Everything is a Remix Part 3 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

On Gamification

2011-06-21T11:21:00.002-04:00

Sebastian Deterding on Meaning, Mastery, Autonomy in Games

Creating Meaning

Try to offer user customizable goals- an opportunity to bring in users own personal goal -could be a passion- a connection to meaningful community - community generated goals- a meaningful story with supporting visuals and copy- beware social context meanings

Mastery

"Fun is just another word for learning." (under optimal conditions)

Creating Interesting Challenges- set a goal, add some rules- clear, visually present goals; structured flow of goals- small goal then medium term goal- scaffolded challenges to level up- varied pacing provides "failures to learn from" and experiences of mastery- game your own system to check for unintended emergent behaviour

Autonomy

Play is voluntary-motivation because we choose it- example ->Tom Sawyer's fence
Beware of curbing Autonomy- the perils of extrinsic rewards, if -then reward curbs autonomy and devaluating the activity
Beware of devaluing your product--no-strings attached, shared goals with individual pursuit, informational feedback ( how far you are and how to get there), unexpected rewards

Think process not features

Read the rules- start playing board games and understand how they motivate
Know your users- what kinds of play and motivations do they have?
Build a prototype, playtest and iterate
Bring in data on the game -check challenges

To design for meaningful play provide a story with meaning , add rule system they can master; be mindful of side effects and social context.

also see an article at BBC News Gamification time: What if everything were just a game?

Life in Perpetual Beta

2011-06-20T11:21:00.001-04:00

How the Internet is Revolutionizing Education - Infographic

2011-06-12T18:12:00.002-04:00

Via: OnlineEducation.net

Games: Tools for Mass Media

2011-06-07T14:20:00.003-04:00

Why use a Game?

In the SXSW session Games: Tools for Mass Media, the presenters McCall, Taylor, Augustin and Portnow explained how games are different from other communication media. Importantly, a game is interactive; it allows users to be engaged in a story to explore an idea or to influence an outcome. Today a game can be distributed as easily as a tweet. Passive listening in a lecture is one way and the listener is often left out.

Games like "Fate of the World," and "Peacemaker" have the potential to make a positive impact because they cover real world issues. In the game Peacemaker the user gets to play the other side and see what it is like to be "over there."

One of the presenters, Michael Augustin is the creator of GameSalad a free game creation tool that anyone can use.

Read more about GameSalad on their Blog

The Future is all Touchy-Feely

2011-06-07T13:17:00.005-04:00

It was clear at SXSW that the audiences were engaged not only in what was being presented but also in their own touchy-feely activities. Mobile devices ruled whether they were iPhones, tablets, iPads, Androids or laptops. And the laptops were mostly MacBooks. Writing notes on a paper seemed decidedly prehistoric. Hashtags ruled with Twitter as the medium of choice for interaction with the presenters and community. Even the desktops provided at the information stations around the conference had touch interfaces.

If you believe in learning styles, it appeared to be a haven for those of the kinesthetic kind. The truth as I see it is that it's the new normal-touch as the mode to be engaged, to be in the moment from wherever you are.

At the session The Future of Touch User Interface Design presenters Amish Patel and Kay Hofmeester, discussed Touch as a language under development. To explain they took the audience through how languages of media develop:

In stage one when new technology is introduced it's at an experimental stage. It's basically a prototype
In stage two, we tend to copy or mimic the forms of an old language.
In stage three, a New Language is developed for the media

The presenters used examples of the development of film and the development of the computer mouse. Currently touch is at stage two where it is still emulating a computer mouse, a keyboard and scroll bars. It is depending on a single point of contact. They ask what is the new language? Shouldn't we turn the page and copy real life with multi-touch and multi-focus?

SXSW The future of touch

View more presentations from Kay Hofmeester

The Game Layer- You're in the Game

2011-06-06T16:51:00.006-04:00

According to Seth Priebatsch the Princeton drop-out who calls himself the Chief Ninja at SCVNGR, the last decade was the social decade. It was all about connections. "We took all the digital connections to our friends, to our families to our colleagues, we digitized them and we put them online. The framework for that social layer is facebook and it is built."

The next decade he says will be about the Game Layer. It will be about influence and there will be no set foundations. It will influence where we go and what we do. It's only just begun but we all will be involved so we should think about how it will be built.

He talked about 5 big problems that the game layer could help solve. The first problem and the one most interesting to me is of course school.

"School is a game," says Priebatsch but it's a poorly designed one that is broken. But school is a near perfect ecosystem because it has motivated players, challenges, rewards, rules, allies, enemies, levels, appointment dynamics, countdowns and incentives and disincentives. The two problems with the game of school are engagement and cheating. Students show up late, don't do their work. Lack of engagement is caused by a broken grading system. As for cheating, Priebatsch says it's a standard game mechanic.

What school has created, he says, is the "Moral Hazard of Gameplay." It has replaced the real reward which is learning for learning sake with arbitrary letters causing people to view the real reward -learning for learning sake- as a chore. Grades fail as rewards because they are just levels, and status; the problem is they are a game mechanic where you can loose. You can go from an A to an F on a bad day. He suggests focusing on the positive and progressing only up. As you do progressive challenges you level up and focus on the end result.

For the second problem cheating, he showed a student filling out a scantron form with cell phone open. The problem with the picture isn't the phone it was just that it wasn't an Android phone and the screen wasn't big enough. The cheating results in a disincentive- if you get caught you fail; but if you don't get caught, you win. He talks about how cheating at Princeton was stopped by changing the game. Princeton holds tests with no teacher, no admin no oversight but gives two rules: students write the honor code and agree that complicity is a crime. The shift changes the game says Priebatch, it puts the students in the role of the enforcers.

He made some interesting points. See more below

SXSW Keynote - The Game Layer On Top Of The World

View more presentations from Seth Priebatsch

See his talk at SXSW here

Can Games Save Education?

2011-06-06T14:51:00.005-04:00

If one took in every session about games at SXSW, one might conclude that the Gamification of everything is nothing less than the second coming. I have to say, I enjoyed many of the sessions on games and their potential but I certainly wasn't ready to go as far a one gentleman and the herd of others in the session Learning 2025: School is out Forever, who declared after working in groups that the number one way to fix school was through games. Really? Nothing to do with crazy numbers of standardized tests in US schools, underfunding, or teacher's values linked to standardized test results? It seemed to me that group had drunk the Kool-aid, just saying.

To me it goes to show that if you expose a bunch of people to a bunch of sessions on one thing, they all start to see that thing as the solution even if they are a bunch of seasoned educators. So I was really happy to attend the session Cheaper, Better, Faster: Can Casual Games Save Education? and especially happy to hear Scot Osterweil, Creative Director Education Arcade at MIT say that not all games are good, even some that portray themselves as educational, and that it was time to separate the hype from what is real.

Osterweil talked about how play and games are natural to children as they construct their own vision of the world. What games and play provide is the 5 Freedoms:

The Freedom to Experiment
The Freedom to Fail
The Freedom to Fashion Identities- You can understand your own identity and"try on" other people
The Freedom of Effort- You can go full tilt playing and then rest at will
The Freedom of Interpretation-Each person has his/her own unique interpretation

A game player has her/his own personal motivation. The key to creating educational games is channeling play into meaningful activities. Osterweil says that instead of just being "candy" a game can be a "gourmet" meal.

And if you look at the type of games coming out of the Education Arcade at MIT, you can see the gourmet!

Vanished is a joint effort of MIT Education Arcade and the Smithsonian Institute. They invite kids to log on and discover clues to unravel mysteries. It's an online/offline interactive event over 8 weeks where kids collaborate and race against time to save the world from environmental disaster.

And then there are the Augmented Reality Games from MIT

Can Games Make us Better? We Need an Epic Win

2011-06-06T13:57:00.006-04:00

According to Jane McGonigal, author of Reality is Broken-Why Games Make us Better, humans invest 3 billion hours a week playing online games. In her SXSW talk McGonigal spoke about the common belief that time playing games is wasted and unproductive. For McGonigal playing games is productive and we need to increase the amount of time we play games to solve the world's problems. Using Seligman's definition of productivity-PERMA: Positive Emotion, Engagement, creating stronger Relationships, producing more Meaning to be of service to a larger goal and a sense of Accomplishment- she made a case that games are not a waste of time --they work well creating self motivation and a sense of accomplishment.

The problem is not with games but rather reality-it's broken. Reality does not provide the kind of motivation that games do. What real world problems need is to offer the same addictiveness, sense of success, happiness and productivity that games provide. Instead of complaining about wasted time she says we should "repackage real problems."

As a example, she talked about Evoke the 2010 game she created along with the World Bank Institute. The Evoke project is a ten-week game that hopes to change the world. The social network game's goal is to empower people to come up with creative solutions to the world's most urgent social problems and to teach young people how to start their own social enterprises.

In the 10 week 2010 pilot, 20,000 students from 130 countries got involved creating 51 real companies around the world funded by global giving. Top players earned online mentorships with social innovators and world business leaders, seed funding and scholarships.

Now that's a productive game!

Hear Jane McGonigal at SXSW here
or watch her TED Talk below

Blabberize is fun

2011-06-06T12:00:00.004-04:00

If you want to have your pictures talk try Blabberize. Fun for kids and adults who just can't help being kids.

Here's Sheba

Using the Annotations Tool for Interactive Storytelling on YouTube

2011-06-05T17:30:00.009-04:00

Most of us have seen the Interactive Viral video "Hunter Shoots a Bear." In the video you get to choose whether the hunter shoots the bear, and then you have a choice to choose an alternate ending. It's an ad of course for the product Tipp-Ex. If you haven't seen it, have a look below.

The way it moves from YouTube video to YouTube video is through the use of the annotations tool that provides a link to the next video. The SXSW session Decision Trees: YouTube's New Breed of Interactive Storytellers by Marc Hustvedt of Tubefilter and Rafi Fine of Fine Brothers explained the use of the annotations tools to create "choose your own adventures" on YouTube. See an example of an interactive game/story below:

We are all used to the range of things we can find on YouTube, but with the possibility of this kind of interactivity, we can have increased engagement with user feedback. There's potential here for creating interactive educational content in YouTube.

Artistic Collaborations via Skype: Turning Distance into Drama

2011-06-05T15:33:00.005-04:00

When I was away at SXSW I used Skype to talk to my dog every night. What can I say except that I love my dog. But while I was at the conference, I learned that there are some very creative ways that Skype can be used for artistic pursuits.

In the session Artistic Collaborations via Skype: Turning Distance into Drama, the presenters Beth Burns, Conner Roche, Derek Kolluri, Mimi Poskitt, Robert Matney and Rachel Watkinson talked about how their two theatre companies- The Hidden Room from Austin and Look Left Look Right from London worked to produce interactive theatre live in both Austin and London and on Skype to the general public.

The play documents the online fictional relationship of the couple, one who lives in London, England and the other who lives in Austin Texas.

The play is about 80% scripted but allows for improv that depends on the interactions created from the live audience and the internet audience who input comments and questions via twitter.

Read more here, here or here

Clay Shirky- Why Would We Think Social Media is Revolutionary

2011-06-05T15:06:00.007-04:00

It's taken me awhile but I'm just getting around to blogging about SXSW.

One of the many keynotes was Clay Shirky who talked about the characteristics of technology that makes it revolutionary and how it can be linked to political revolutions. He spoke of the Dictator's Dilemma- when dictators shut down internet and communications it inevitably leads to more attention to exactly what they want to keep quiet. The most important thing the internet does according to Shirky is allow amateurs access to the public sphere. It allows easy access to others to form groups. Governments are not afraid of educated individuals, but rather synchronized groups.

The audio to his talk is posted here SXSW Shirky

And see a Prezi summarizing the talk below:

Clay Shirky | Why Would We Think Social Media Is Revolutionary? on Prezi

Drag and Drop File Sharing Go Pileus

2011-06-05T14:28:00.005-04:00

Go Pileu s might be a great tool for students collaborating on a project to share files.

To use the app just drag your file onto the gray box. What appears next is a short url that you can share with anyone who wants to download the file.

If you have not set up an account, your url will last for 30 minutes. If you create a free account you get 1GB free space and your url will no disappear in 30 minutes.

Spark Creativity -Brianstorm with Scamper Tool

2011-06-05T10:17:00.006-04:00

The Scamper Tool is a random question generator that can be used to spark creativity on your own or in a group.

All you have to do is state a problem or an idea that needs to be worked on then click the button to get a a question with helper questions and trigger words.
Sample questions include:

Are there new ways to use it in its current shape or form?
Can I interchange components?
Can it be made higher, bigger, stronger?
Can I transpose cause and effect?

Here's a sample

Scamper Tool

Make an Interactive Timeline with Tiki-Toki

2011-05-19T11:03:00.002-04:00

Depending upon what you teach, making an interactive timeline might be useful for your students. Tiki-Toki has a free version that can help you create an interesting timeline.
The short video below explains more

It might also be great for student projects.

Real Time Image Search

2011-05-18T10:21:00.002-04:00

Interesting application- NachoFoto. You can search for images based on how recent they are. You will see new images before older ones.

Audio Books: LibriVox and Books Should be Free

2011-04-29T22:14:00.005-04:00

Two cool sites with free public domain audio books:

Books Should Be Free

LibriVox

At LibriVox you can also volunteer to be a book reader!

For ESL- Pronunciation Animations

2011-04-28T09:28:00.003-04:00

Cambridge University Press has a great site with lessons to help users learn English. There are sections for sounds, stress, intonation and phonetics.

See the Pronunciation Animations

Quotes from SXSW

2011-04-03T19:34:00.000-04:00

Most Memorable Quotes from SXSW 2011

View more presentations from Marta Majewska

Sharendipity

2011-03-21T09:15:00.003-04:00

I haven't tried this one yet myself, but it might be worth investigation- Sharendipty http://beta.sharendipity.com/

A simple game maker that requires no programming.

Read more about it here on Inside Social Games

An Intro to Cognitive Multimedia Learning Theory

2011-03-21T08:35:00.005-04:00

An video of interest to anyone designing lessons and especially multimedia lessons. Thanks to my classmate Jennifer Ponder for finding this one.

Twitter is Engaging!

2011-03-18T20:39:00.006-04:00

At the SXSW conference, I was lucky enough to see many great presentations. One that I found interesting and relevant to education was called Using Twitter to Improve Student Engagement. The presenter, Rey Junco who is an Associate Professor of Academic Development did two studies involving college students and twitter.
In the first study which had tight control, 125 first semester PreHealth students were taught about either Twitter or Ning to enhance their courses. Twitter and Ning were used

to increase time on task
as a way to ask questions
to discuss common readings
to formulate study groups
to see campus events
to organize service learning project

Both groups had no prior experience with their assigned platform. For the Twitter group, one class twitter account was created so that students could follow each other and follow their teachers and engage with the course materials.

From this experiment Junco reports that Twitter students pulled teachers into their feeds more and engaged with teachers more. There were over 3800 tweets and the level of introspection was better when students were in the 140 character limit of twitter. Statistically, the twitter group was more engaged +5.53 versus 2.29 for control group. The grades of Twitter users were also better 2.79 versus 2.29 for the control group on Ning.

In the second study students were taught how to use twitter and they were left alone to use it. No encouragement was given by the teachers after it's introduction, and teachers did not engage with Twitter. The class was a Media and Democracy class who met two times per week. What Junco found in this study was that students did use Twitter more but the communication was amongst the class members only. It had no effect on grades, or engagement.
Junco concludes that the best thing for teachers using Twitter with students is to make sure the communication is also between the teacher and students and it should be integrated with the material.

His Best Practices are

Engage with the students on the platform
Integrate course content- make it part of the class
Encourage collaborative learning

Here's a short video by one of his students talking about the study

See the slideshare Presentation

Using Twitter to Improve College Student Engagement: Rey Junco SxSWi '11

View more presentations from Rey Junco

The Potential of Augmented Reality for Education

2011-03-18T20:27:00.004-04:00

I was lucky enough to go to the SXSW Interactive conference in Austin this past week. I was a member of a panel that included Enzo Silva, Instructional Designer from Oracle, Brandon Carson, Instructional Designer from Yahoo; Tish Shute, Digital Strategist and my favourite Brendan Scully, Business Development Manager and Experience Designer at metaio, Inc. I could have listened to Brendan all day. There's nothing quite like hearing about things from the people who create things.

Here's my portion of the presentation

Sir Ken versus Sir Ken RSA Animate: A Question of Cognitive Load

2011-03-16T16:26:00.005-04:00

I've been thinking a lot about cognitive load and learning, and through my travels online I came across the RSA animate version of Sir Ken Robinson's talk on Changing Paradigms in Education. I've seen it a few times and I've seen his original talk too, but watching the RSA Animated version got me to thinking about how these two versions affect people differently.

According to Mayer's Redundancy Principle, Multimedia presentations with both words and pictures should present words as text or audio but not both. His Individual Differences Principle says that his 7 principles are most effective for novice and visual learners.(Mayer, 2005)

Since I had seen the original talk with Sir Ken Robinson speaking a few times, when I view the animated version I could see and hear Sir Ken in my mind, so my experience is a combination of both videos.

I love the animated illustration of his talk, but there are times when I feel I am looking more at the drawing than listening. Is there cognitive load going on here for me? Since I know the content of the talk, it didn't disturb me too much, but maybe I'm in a different category.

I wonder about the viewers who have no knowledge of Sir Ken and his talk or even the subject. What would they make of the RSA Animate version if that is all they knew or saw. I'm guessing that it might be a bit overwhelming. Maybe some will be so caught up in the animation that they may not be able to listen.

The two clips below are not exactly the same as far as audio content too. The RSA Animate version cuts out his many engaging stories that help to illustrate his content.

The RSA Animate version narrows it down to his key points, and personally I do find that the illustration does layout a nice visual picture. I love a good visual representation. Maybe it's good for a new viewer because it reduces the ideas to the key points. On the other hand, for a novice maybe the illustrations make it more difficult to attend to the audio points.

How could I find out what others feel about these two versions. Would there be a different experience depending on level of expertise in the area?

One anecdotal way to see viewer reaction is to look to the comments below the video. Looking below the RSA version I did see some controversy. Many people loved the animated version but a few asked what it was about and some questioned the illustrations. Others seemed to relate to the ideas and asked where they could see the original talk so they could learn more. Unless we asked each person their level of experience with the topic and with Sir Ken we couldn't really know if there was an effect related to experience.

I think comparing novice and expert reactions and learning to the two videos would make an interesting experiment on cognitive load.

In the talk, Sir Ken makes some important points. He talks about kids today being bombarded by information. I wonder if for some the animated version would fit his definition of bombardment or if it would fit his idea of aesthetic. But then he also warns about looking to the back of the textbook for one answer. Maybe there isn't one answer here for everybody. We are lucky to have options!

And I'm lucky to have taken a great course HRE472 that made me question and think about cognitive load.

(PS. Dr H my eportfolio is posted here http://eport.education.illinois.edu/view/view.php?id=306 )

Mayer, R. E. (Ed.). (2005). The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning. New York: Cambridge University Press.

We are people of the screen-Kevin Kelly

2011-02-19T08:46:00.005-05:00

Awesome Screenshot

2011-02-15T19:34:00.003-05:00

Extension for Chrome Browser that allows you do a screen capture and annotate it.

The Future of the Book

2011-02-09T06:37:00.001-05:00

The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.

2011 Horizon Report

2011-02-09T06:15:00.002-05:00

Emerging technology cited for 2011:

Time to adoption: One Year or Less

Electronic Books
Mobiles

Time to adoption: Two to Three Years

Augmented Reality
Game-based Learning

Time to adoption: Four to Five Years

Gesture-based Computing
Learning Analytics

Download the complete Horizon Report 2011

Strombo backs Stop The Meter campaign

2011-01-28T09:34:00.000-05:00

Sign the petition at http://stopthemeter.ca

Google Apps Marketplace for Education

2011-01-27T08:41:00.000-05:00

State of the Internet

2011-01-19T09:23:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday Wikipedia

2011-01-19T09:12:00.001-05:00

Get MOOC

2011-01-15T16:55:00.001-05:00

How to succeed in MOOC

Knowledge in a MOOC

Foursquare for Education

2011-01-10T18:15:00.003-05:00

Foursquare uses geolocation to locate you on your smart phone so you can check into locations. It's all the rage in marketing, and I'd say there may be some niffty ways to try to use it for education.

Check out the basic video description

And read some ideas on using it in education here 30 Ways to Use Foursquare in Education

I've set up a location for my Psychology of Consumer Behaviour Class at the school..so it's time to try it out!

Over a Yawn?

2011-01-05T15:28:00.001-05:00

scary

My amazing student's work

2010-12-11T10:31:00.001-05:00

When you encourage your students to go outside of the box of the usual projects..they can amaze you.. this is one my student groups from Psychology of Consumer Behaviour

Greenwashing from Andrew Lauder on Vimeo.

Rainbows and Unicorns- Engaging Students Online

2010-11-29T09:37:00.005-05:00

Some people think that teaching online means just posting their lecture notes.

The video below is funny but sadly true many times..

"I spew spectacular fountains of wisdom in their general direction.."

Creative Commons Search

2010-11-12T14:35:00.007-05:00

If you or your students are looking for images, sounds, audio and videos that can be legally used in projects, try Creative Commons Search

Search by usage rights, or website hosts.

Please note, however, CCSearch is not a search engine. It provides access to other search engines that will search for creative commons license materials. Always verify that the returned results are covered under CC license terms. If in doubt, contact the copyright holder or the site where the content was found. (Image by oddsock flickr)

I Want to Offer an Online Course

2010-11-04T23:24:00.002-04:00

I little humour

....I think some of us know this guy

Copyright-Friendly Wiki

2010-10-30T10:34:00.005-04:00

Here's a great wiki with links for copyright-friendly and copyleft images, sound, pages, blogs and wikis.

A great resource:

Copyright- Friendly Wiki

And here's a bit about Copyright and Creative Commons

Watching Information- Qwiki

2010-10-24T11:10:00.003-04:00

Something to Watch

Qwiki at TechCrunch Disrupt from Qwiki on Vimeo.

See more onhttp://www.qwiki.com/

Jane Hart's Top 100 Tools for 2010

2010-10-18T17:46:00.000-04:00

Top100 Tools for Learning 2010

View more presentations from Jane Hart.

He gets people pregnant with ideas!!!!

2010-10-12T18:35:00.001-04:00

and now something completely different...ha ha

Zorap- Testing Testing Testing --We like it!

2010-10-08T20:34:00.006-04:00

I can't remember where I came across Zorap even though it was recent. It might have been when I was checking out people who had favourited one of my videos or posts, or it could have just been one of those blog hopping excursions that I often go on. Because I was in the middle of doing something else, I just plunked the video on it into my blog here so I'd remember to come back to it.

A few days later I was showing my colleague at work Tagxedo, and I asked her to navigate to my blog. While we were getting all excited about the fun we could have with that app, I noticed the Zorap video, so I showed my friend that one too whereupon we got even more excited. What can I say, is it simple minds and simple things or are we just nerds? Whatever...I was itching to try Zorap.

As part of a techsploration, I first went to the application and fooled around in a room by myself trying all the tools in the app outside of facebook. I noticed that the tools in Zorap work better in Safari on a Mac than in Firefox. Probably on a PC all browsers would be fine. Next, I invited my colleague Debbie to join me in Zorap.

First we tried the Zorap application outside of facebook. I recorded the session using Camtasia. We found that the video ran well, we were able to share pictures and video, but the audio was a bit distorted.

Next we tested out the application inside facebook. Here's a short clip of our exploration.

We were able to share pictures and watch videos together. We also discovered that we could share documents. By posting a PowerPoint or document, the other person or persons could download it to their computer and make changes. We couldn't make changes to a document together however. Another thing that isn't possible is to share a website.

Generally, we loved this application, and we both felt that it would be a great tool to use to collaborate on a project! Our next group meeting will be in Zorap!

Check it out for work or just for fun. The outside link is here Zorap or if you are in facebook, do a search for Zorap.

This will definitely be a tool I turn my students on to. I think they may like the facebook application because many already are collaborating on projects there. This app makes it a little easier and certainly adds a personal touch when you can see who you are talking to and when you can react to media at the same time.

All the Web 2.0 tools really do expand our learning networks. Many today are talking about personal learning networks and how important they are in our digital future. Our students will have more than one career so networks are key. But it's not just students who need networks-- we as teachers must continue to be learners or we will find our selves on the sidelines watching the world go by. These Web 2.o tools provide the foundation for extensive personal learning networks.

I love information; I have to admit that. But the quest for all that is new and the discovery of what the new can do and the challenge of the search through the vast network is just downright exciting!

Hotseat- Another one to investigate!

2010-10-06T11:00:00.001-04:00

more here http://www.itap.purdue.edu/tlt/hotseat/

Zorap- Worth Investigation

2010-10-03T10:59:00.001-04:00

More Fun than Wordle: Tagxedo

2010-10-03T10:30:00.007-04:00

What's a little like Wordle, just as free and you can make the words fit an image- Tagxedo.com

Here are a few I created for our Education 2020 wiki. I took a bunch of the words from our initial proposal, found an image of a light bulb and then tweek a bit here and there..voila!

In the next one for Curriculum, I did the basic tag picture in Tagxedo, then brought it into Photoshop and added a few words to emphasize a few key concepts.

Fun with words for every age!

Learning Spaces

2010-09-27T10:06:00.002-04:00

Couldn't agree more with Don Marinelli

Howard Rheingold-Social Media, Participative Pedagogy and Digital Literacies

2010-09-21T11:31:00.001-04:00

Update on QR Code days

2010-09-20T19:37:00.003-04:00

Well, I did my QR code lesson with both of my classes this week. ( see previous post a few posts below) I asked students to download the QR code reader during the break, so we were ready to go in the second half of class. Before I started I had my video ready to play, and the first image had the QR code of the course video. Before we began one student had already figured out how to access the code and had triggered the video.

A good time was had by all and I think it provoked some interesting discussion about why some ideas become memes and some don't. Both classes concluded that the things that stick and go viral generally fall into these categories

just plain silly or stupid
funny
crazy
strange/weird/odd
short
easy to send
cute ( as in babies, puppies, cats, animations)
can be watched over and over

We also discussed whether marketers would be able to create memes.

As for the QR code part. There were enough smart phones in the room for students to form groups. Phone types included mostly iPhones, then Blackberry's and a couple of Androids. Predominance of iPhones is definitely related to the fact that both classes are made up of mostly graphic design students.

When I asked them if they would be using QR codes in their projects, I heard a lot of yes..yes..yes.

At the end of one class, a student shouted out, "Thank you!"

These groups are pretty technologically savvy, but I think I managed to turn them on to something new..yahoo!!!

Crowd Accelerated Innovation

2010-09-14T18:04:00.003-04:00

Chris Anderson of TED. (Not Chris Anderson of Wired and Free)
"You have to open up and share your stuff with the world." How radical openness works.
"What if the coming crowd of nine billion could learn enough to be net contributors instead of net plunderers? That changes everything! ....You're part of the crowd that may be about to launch the biggest learning cycle in human history."

Snappy Words!

2010-09-13T14:35:00.004-04:00

Who doesn't need a snappy word once in awhile?

Picture This!

SnappyWords.com is a free visual online dictionary. To use it simply type a word or words into the search box. Words will be displayed in a web of branches. Hover over a word to see its definition or double click to create new branches for a word.

It's a little bit like an instant brainstorming session.

QR Codes- Fun with Smart Phones and Learning

2010-09-12T15:00:00.008-04:00

The Horizon Report, a joint report by The New Media Consortium and Educause identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have an impact on teaching, learning, or creative inquiry on college and university campuses within the next five years. A number of the trends in the 2010 report relate to augmented reality and the use of mobile devices.

Augmented reality is an environment that includes both real world experience and virtual experience creating a mixed reality. These types of environments can be immersive and engaging for learners.

QR codes are examples of very simple augmented reality. Widely used in Japan and Europe for several years they are beginning to be seen and used all over North America.

In education, QR Codes can be used in a number of ways that involve no cost. The simple QR codes can be created easily; code readers can quickly be downloaded to smart phones. And with a large number of students owning smart phones, there will undoubtedly be enough in a classroom already to enable a group interaction. A teacher could design a series of codes to create opportunities for critical thinking, collaboration and discovery.

The codes can trigger text, images, videos and URLs. Students could also easily create their own tasks by creating the simple codes and having their classmates discover information.

In my Psychology of Consumer Behaviour class this week, I will be posting QR code around the room. The codes will trigger internet memes- the often parodied viral videos that become wildly popular.

Together as a group, the class will learn how to download and activate a code reader on a smart phone and how to create QR codes. In groups students will access the codes posted around the room and discuss the particular memes, and try to analyze why they became popular. By understanding what makes ideas stick, students will have a greater understanding of why some marketing efforts work and why some don't. I'll also be asking them to brainstorm on how they could use QR codes in their group projects.

View the video I created below that explains QR Codes:

I'll also provide them with the links and information below:

The Tokyo N Building covered in QR codes is designed so passers-by can read the changing codes and get information via sites like Twitter. More in depth info like specials available in stores, who is tweeting and what they are tweeting comes from an iPhone app.

N Building from Alexander Reeder on Vimeo.

20 Interesting Things: QR Codes

View more presentations from David Stutts.

Cutting off Social Media on Campus...Count me OUT!

2010-09-11T11:21:00.005-04:00

The University of Harrisburg will blackout all social media on its campus next week, not for a day but a whole week. Sites cut off from every internet access point on campus will be Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube and more.

The idea is the brain(?)child of the university provost. Those deprived will include 570 students and 65 faculty.

Erik Sass in an article in Media Post writes, "Wouldn't it be interesting to spend a week without email? I would also add TV, computers and phones to the list -- but why stop there? That's why I'm proposing a week without electricity, a literal nationwide "blackout" (get it)? ...Haven't you ever wondered "What if all this [electricity] wasn't there?" I know I have! To really underline this point, I think the blackout should be implemented randomly, without warning or preparation, maybe in the middle of winter."

I'm with Eric here..count me out of any dumb blackouts. My social media is not just for fun..it's what I teach and sometimes how I teach.

Read Erik's Media Post Article here

Be Funky: Photo Effects

2010-09-07T23:10:00.005-04:00

Have you ever wanted to quickly edit a photo, add an effect or and a speech bubble to a picture? At befunky, you can do all that online by simply uploading a photo and playing with the effects. You don't even need to sign up.

I started with a photo of my puppy Sheba standing on my Macbook. I had already manipulated the screen of the laptop to say "Who owns Knowledge" in photoshop.

Here's that photo

Befunky Effects:

I uploaded the above photo to befunky and chose UnderPainting.

Below is the effect

Here's another effect

A little bit of funky fun! http://www.befunky.com

Environment: The Majestic Plastic Bag

2010-09-06T16:51:00.001-04:00

Shoutomatic- Audio Twitter

2010-09-02T06:53:00.003-04:00

Tired of tweeting, typing all 140 characters? Well now there is Shoutomatic a place where you can shout, say or sing your status update on twitter, facebook and blogs. You can also buy personal shoutouts "from select Artists & Celebrities." ( read that celebrity as B, C and D list celeb)

Shoutomatic Facebook

Crap Detector 101

2010-08-31T17:47:00.003-04:00

"Every man should have a built-in automatic crap detector operating inside him." Ernest Hemingway, 1954.

These days with more and more information available, you'll have to agree with Hemingway here. How do we sort out what is good from bad and how to we share the tactics with our students?

Howard Rheingold writes in Crap Detection 101,"Some critics argue that a tsunami of hogwash has already rendered the Web useless. I disagree. We are indeed inundated by online noise pollution, but the problem is soluble. The good stuff is out there if you know how to find and verify it. Basic information literacy, widely distributed, is the best protection for the knowledge commons: A sufficient portion of critical consumers among the online population can become a strong defense against the noise-death of the Internet."

Some of his recommendations include using easywhois.com to check
who owns a website, checking whether sites have .edu or .gov endings, looking for references for facts, using debunking sites like Snopes and fact checking information on sites like factchecked.org and factcheck.org.

Read more here: Crap Detector 101, Howard Rheingold

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/rheingold/detail?entry_id=42805#ixzz0yDsCbfaN

World Images! For educational use

2010-08-31T15:39:00.005-04:00

I've just come across an interesting source of 80,000 images available for non profit educational use.

The site WorldImages, is a database created by California State University. The categories of images include art & architecture; cities; social & cultural interactions; history, politics and warfare; music, drama & literature; natural world; people & portraits; religion, myth & magic; women; science, technology & mathematics.

There's also a page for course materials that includes images for Introduction to World Culture, Elementary School Art & Science, Art Studio, Art & Architecture Surveys.

It's Going to Take More Than a Few Tools - Education 2025

2010-08-28T13:13:00.010-04:00

Before we think about the future of education, it might be a good idea to look at what's not exactly the way we as students and educators would like it to be.

In colleges and universities today, we see varied student experiences. Dan Brown, a 19 year old, recent drop out of University of Nebraska and YouTube video blogger passionately speaks in his Open Letter to Educators about educational institutions. He asks, "What has education done to reinvent itself?

His answer, " In my experience, Nothing. Sure you've started using email, online databases, services like Blackboard. And if it were 1999, I'd be saying- Great! But it's not 1999 and if institutional education wants to survive in the information age, then institutional education needs to do more than adopt a few tools."

Dan talks about professors who stand in front of class lecturing with no student interaction, spending hundreds of dollars on textbooks that are never opened while newer and free information is available on the internet, and writing tests that are simply regurgitation of facts. Dan believes, "Society no longer cares how many facts we can memorize because in the information age facts are free....Education isn't about teaching facts. It's about stoking creativity, and new ideas. It's not about teaching students to conform..it's about empowering students to change the world for the better."

Dan dropped out of university because as he says, "My schooling was interfering with my education." Unable to get the interaction he desired, he is now focusing full time on his YouTube work. Currently, he is working on his Dan 3.0 channel where he has turned his life over to his video subscribers who will plan his life for the next year.

If we look at Dan's comments we can see a number of areas that need to be considered. The first area is the nature of students. Today's students have grown up in a digital world where collaboration and social interaction is natural. They are no longer passive; they have become creators and contributors; they want to participate. Their world is full of open and free resources and information. Sitting and listening to a teacher using a chalkboard or Powerpoints for hours on end, just isn't appealing when their world is full of interactive media. Memorizing readily available facts, as Dan points out, just doesn't make sense.

If we walk around a college or university today we may walk by a number of different types of classes. Although the rooms may mostly be equipped for multimedia, a percentage will look as they may have looked a century ago. More and more students today are demanding online classes. Again, if we examine the different online courses, we would see a wide difference from extremely interactive to paper-based correspondence courses masquerading as online courses.

And it's not just Dan who sees the problems. Don Tapscott sees many of the same problems. He points out that a person frozen in time from a century ago would marvel at the changes in most professions, but if that same person entered a university it would look much the same because the model of education has not changed. Tapscott believes that the digital natives will force a revolution in education because they are so different.

Today and in the future, education will need to be more interactive and customized. Students need to be active in creating their own learning. Teachers will need to be more like facilitators or guides who present learning opportunities for students to investigate. The interaction will need to make use of more multimedia. The interaction will also need to be more social and collaborative. Today's students are connected to each other on social networks and they are used to collaboration, so opportunity for collaboration is, and will be, necessary.

Instead of a focus on printed textbooks that soon will be out-of-date, learning materials will need to be more current and more available digitally. Students today are used to free and available information 24/7; therefore, there should be more use of freely available open source materials. Learning tools of the future will include mobile and smart devices that can make use of augmented reality where students can interact in live environments with augmented reality characters and multimedia.

As students move more to alternate delivery models like online courses, there will need to be more options for anytime-anywhere ubiquitous learning. Online courses, blended classes and face-to-face classes will need to be more individualized, so that students can focus more on the specific parts they need. Assignments will need to be more authentic and related to real life experience. Students will still need to learn foundational information, but there will need to be more focus on self discovery. Faced with an overload of information students will need to learn valuable critical thinking skills.

It's going to take more than technology and tools to change education. There has to be a recognition of how our world is evolving and how that evolution is affecting our students. Sir Ken Robinson (see my blog post of May 25) talks about the need for change in education. He believes that an evolution is not enough; we need a revolution. Robinson sees current models of education much like standardized fast food.(Not too tasty or healthy, from my point of view.) Robinson believes that education needs to be more of an organic process where we create conditions under which education will flourish. To do this we must customize and personalize education where "people develop their own solutions but with external support based on a personalized curriculum." (Robinson, TED Talk)

I'm hoping and working for that revolution. The tools will help, but there's a mindset that needs to shift.

"A little revolution now and then is a good thing." Thomas Jefferson

Blogs, Wikis or Docs: Which is for you

2010-08-26T12:22:00.001-04:00

Interesting chart comparing Blogs, Wikis and Docs and which might be right for a lesson

https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=ddnzwcn8_15g3jrbpdf

Augmented Reality in Education- Authorstream!

2010-08-20T15:46:00.001-04:00

My AR presentation with sound

Augmented Reality in Education

See more presentations by k3hamilton | Upload your own PowerPoint presentations

This audio Powerpoint was posted to Authorstream. It's a fairly large file because of the audio 128MB. So far Authorstream seems like a good place to host Powerpoints with sound.

According to their site, "AuthorSTREAM is a powerful online presentation sharing engine that not only allows you to upload your PowerPoint presentations online for free, but also assists you to share them with your friends, students or co-workers located across the globe. authorSTREAM is a great online community that gives you access to numerous presentations on varied subjects uploaded by community members. You can find exciting presentations on just about any topic, rate them, post a comment and even embed them in your blog."

The site offers free membership for basic services and of course a premium option.

Some of the other sites that allow you to up load Powerpoints change the file format to post them, and as far as I know none allow you to host large files unaltered with sound...so right now Authorstream is a recommend!

Google Search Cheatsheet

2010-07-31T08:55:00.004-04:00

OPERATOR EXAMPLE	FINDS PAGES CONTAINING...
vacation hawaii	the words vacation and Hawaii .
Maui OR Hawaii	either the word Maui or the word Hawaii
"To each his own"	the exact phrase to each his own
virus –computer	the word virus but NOT the word computer
+sock	Only the word sock, and not the plural or any tenses or synonyms
~auto loan	loan info for both the word auto and its synonyms: truck, car, etc.
define:computer	definitions of the word computer from around the Web.
red blue*	the words red and blue separated by one or more words.
I'm Feeling Lucky	Takes you directly to first web page returned for your query.

CALCULATOR OPERATORS	MEANING	TYPE INTO SEARCH BOX
+	addition	45 + 39
-	subtraction	45 – 39
*	multiplication	*45 39**
/	division	45 / 39
% of	percentage of	45% of 39
^	raise to a power	2^5 (2 to the 5th power)

ADVANCED OPERATORS	MEANING	WHAT TO TYPE INTO SEARCH BOX (& DESCRIPTION OF RESULTS)
site:	Search only one website	admission site:www.stanford.edu (Search Stanford Univ. site for admissions info.)
[#]…[#]	Search within a range of numbers	DVD player $100..150 (Search for DVD players between $100 and $150)
link:	linked pages	link:www.stanford.edu (Find pages that link to the Stanford University website.)
info:	Info about a page	info:www.stanford.edu (Find information about the Stanford University website.)
related:	Related pages	related:www.stanford.edu (Find websites related to the Stanford University website.)

http://www.google.com/help/cheatsheet.html

ScreenToaster to Shut down

2010-07-17T12:37:00.002-04:00

***UPDATE. According to Free Tech 4 Teachers, Screentoaster will be shutting down July 31 and all materials posted there will disappear. Free Tech 4 Teachers offers some alternatives here.

To read about how to use screencasting to enhance learning see Using Screen Captures to Enhance Education

Google Guide for teachers II

2010-07-05T22:36:00.002-04:00

Google for Teachers II -

Web Tools Applied to Teaching

2010-06-16T16:57:00.001-04:00

online e-book with interesting tools for teaching and how to use them

http://issuu.com/anamariacult/docs/webtoolsappliedtoteaching

Augmented Reality in Education

2010-05-27T22:22:00.001-04:00

Augmented Reality in Education

View more presentations from kehamilt.

Talkin about a Revolution Sir Ken Robinson

2010-05-25T00:02:00.001-04:00

An open letter to educators

2010-05-23T10:14:00.002-04:00

Creating your own Google Search Engine

2010-05-23T09:20:00.003-04:00

Did you know that you can create your own search engine with customized content to your subject area? Well, yes you can! Not only that you can invite others from your college or around the world to join in the collaboration.

Google's Custom Search let's anyone with a Google account build a specific search engine. Here's the link http://www.google.com/coop/cse/

To Learn more and download a PDF Guide see November Learning

Learning English with Captioned Videos -22frames

2010-05-18T08:55:00.005-04:00

22 Frames is a website in beta version that aggregates captioned videos. The site was initally to service those with various hearing abilities, but they are also interested in helping those trying to learn English through the use of captioning.
The site also includes English Learning Activities.
According to the website,
"We've been busy building some of the features that many users have emailed us about. The first ones we are releasing can help you use videos to learn and teach: commonly mispronounced words, idioms, and slang phrases. We processed thousands of videos and found ones that illustrate these kinds of phrases. On each page for a video that uses a phrase we provide menus that will even take you to the approximate times the phrases are spoken. Watching an entire video is not necessary. "
http://www.22frames.com/

Zooburst- 3D Augmented Books

2010-05-05T15:23:00.003-04:00

Here is my first augmented reality books on what else augmented reality.

In beta trials Zooburst will allow you to create a 10 page pop-up book that can also be viewed as an AR book. To sign up send them your email and name and tell them why you want to try the application