The Horizon Report 2010

Just reading the Horizon report (Johnson, L., Levine, A., Smith, R., & Stone, S. (2010). The 2010 Horizon Report.Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.)...

Some interesting links to mobile learning projects at various universities, including University of Waterloo. Almost everyone has a mobile device and many will take advantage of it to review course work while commuting, waiting for appointments, etc. or to communicate with profs and fellow students. U Waterloo found that students reported spending more time accessing course materials and collaborating with their classmates when materials were delivered to their blackberries. E-books were also mentioned as a boon for students, as they could carry an entire course load of readings and textbooks with them and read as time permits.

The report also mentioned the increased availability of open educational resources, commenting that " students are learning not only the material, but also skills related to finding, evaluating, interpreting, and repurposing the resources they are studying in partnership with their teachers. "

More later...

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!

using wikis for research

interesting video on using wikis for qualitative research

http://sabri4e-learning.blogspot.com/2009/10/using-wikis-to-conduct-qualitative.html

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."

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

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