Friday, December 18, 2009

Sixth sense


http://blog.ted.com/2009/03/sixth_sense_demo.php


This video from TED shows ‘Sixth sense’, a hardware/software program under development at MIT. It's a wearable device with a projection screen that lets the user interact with the environment. This screen shot shows the inventor interacting with a telephone projected onto his hand! Cool. very cool!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

profs and instructional design

Interesting paper from Europe; Report on the Standardized Description of Instructional Models highlights the need for more instructional design skills for profs. In online learning, profs usually have assistance from an instructional designer when setting up their courses. That doesn't often happen in face-to-face teaching.

here's a quote:

"What adds to the problem of an emerging domain is that a career in higher education is still driven by research results that a scientist achieves rather than the teaching performance s/he exhibits. Instructors at a higher education institution are experts in their respective field but have most likely not been trained in setting up learning and teaching environments. Rather, they often teach how they were taught. It is uncommon that higher education instructors apply theoretical models from instructional systems design in their teaching practice (Beetham, 2004). In addition, teachers and instructors are not used to communicate among each other about their teaching, and they don’t document their teaching practices in a systematic manner (Beetham, 2004). Therefore, little is known about the process of how instructors (in higher education settings) go about designing their instruction."

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Termium

Just noticed that the Canadian government has made Termium available to the public (free!). It's an online app that can help you with your spelling, grammar, and style issues.

http://btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/site/termium.php?lang=eng&cont=001

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Rapid design

I've been following the Rapid eLearning Blog by Tom Kuhlmann and am trying a lot of his suggestions. I've been using PowerPoint for years but had no idea it could be used as a design platform. Now I'm addicted! I can quickly draw a few screens in PP, then convert them to flash using any number of tools. Plus, I've been saving my designs and reusing them with a few minor modifications.

My new website

I finally have my website setup again with my new provider. Still a work in progress but I hope to add a few more items to it in the next little while. You can visit it here

Sunday, August 2, 2009

working on my portfolio



Still working on my portfolio - putting together a cd to showcase my work - and will eventually update my website. Here's a couple of screen shots: The first is a scenario, the second a short course to introduce the use of blogs and wikis in e-learning courses.



Monday, July 20, 2009

E-learning course

I've been working on the development of an e-learning course that maps learning outcomes to the 6 levels of Bloom's cognitive domain. The course itself is self-paced and meant to run from a website or cd-dvd. I've completed lessons one through four, with one being the introduction to the module. Lessons 2, 3, and 4 focus on the Knowledge, Comprehension, and Application levels of the domain. Each lesson contains recommendations for using social networking tools (i.e. blogs, wikis, social networking sites) to foster learning.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Another elearning course based on Bloom!

Yes, I started another demo course that ( I hope) shows how social networking tools can be mapped to bolster online learning. Of course, I once again mapped the tools to their place in Bloom's taxonomy. I don't have any screenshots on my website yet, but I hope to do that by tomorrow sometime.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

My new website

Well! I finally finished updating my website! I uploaded screen shots of the e-learning course I'm working on, and reposted some of my earlier material. You can visit my site here