Sunday, March 1, 2015
Crash Course in Learning Theory
Click here to read the article: Crash Course in Learning Theory
A mind-awakening and excellent article providing many useful tips and techniques on how to create engaging, enjoyable, relevant and memorable learning experiences and environments!
"...This is not a comprehensive look at the state of learning theory today, but it does include almost everything we think about in creating our books. And although its geared toward blogs/writing virtually everything in here applies regardless of how you deliver the learning - you can easily adapt it to presentations, user documentation, or classroom learning. And remember, this is a BLOG, so dont expect academic rigor ; ) but I do have references, so leave a comment if theres something in particular you want."
Read more »
A mind-awakening and excellent article providing many useful tips and techniques on how to create engaging, enjoyable, relevant and memorable learning experiences and environments!
"...This is not a comprehensive look at the state of learning theory today, but it does include almost everything we think about in creating our books. And although its geared toward blogs/writing virtually everything in here applies regardless of how you deliver the learning - you can easily adapt it to presentations, user documentation, or classroom learning. And remember, this is a BLOG, so dont expect academic rigor ; ) but I do have references, so leave a comment if theres something in particular you want."
Its amazing how much one can learn in 10-20 minutes by reading and reflecting this article! I suppose the mighty experienced instructional designers might disagree, but for us beginners it is a good start :)
A Growing List of Free Learning Tutorial Sites!
- Wiki-version - A Growing List of Free Learning Tutorial Sites
I was thinking the other day, why not create a simple raw list of links to EXCELLENT SITES (with short descriptions) that have or link to tutorials that explore learning tools and online learning. Here is my initial list, but I am quite sure there are many more great resource sites out there. So, if you have anyone to share, please post them in the comments section and I will add them. Ops, shouldnt we be using a Wiki for this kind of activity (Collaborative list creation)? Click here, if you want to add using the wiki-version.
Here is the initial quick list:
- Learning 2.0 Programme
This blog has been set-up as part of PLCMCs Learning 2.0 project to encourage staff to experiment and learn about the new and emerging technologies that are reshaping the context of information on the Internet today. - An Introduction to Social Learning(Jane Hart)
Provides you with a practical approach to getting started with using social media for both formal and informal learning - either in the form of best-of-breed stand-alone tools or in an integrated suite of social media tools. - ELearning T4T (WikiEducator)
eLearning Training for Teachers is a project node for the collaborative development of "just-in-time" tutorials to help educators implement eLearning successfully. - WebTools4u2use
The purpose of this website is to provide a place for K-12 school library media specialists to learn a little more about web tools that can be used to improve and enhance school library media programs and services, to see examples of how they can be used, and to share success stories and creative ideas about how to use and integrate them. Hundreds of free and inexpensive web tools are available for school library media specialists to use that can make us more productive, valued, and, perhaps, more competitive. - Pauls E-Learning Resources
This E-learning resources website is developed and maintained by Paul Andrews (Learning Technologist). On this site you will find his favourite links to free on-line services that allow you to provide your students with enhanced learning opportunities which you can then embed into, or link from, your school/college/universitys website, course blog or VLE/MLE. - iLearn technology (Kelly Tenkely)
Is an edublog dedicated to giving teachers practical tips for integrating technology into the classroom. - Resource Kit for Creative Communities (e-Learning)
In this resource kit, community organisations can find helpful online guidance, ideas and tools for developing and facilitating e-learning in communities and regions. The kit includes suggestions and options on the why and how of e-learning. Youll find guidance on low cost tools and technologies, as well as ideas and stories to help you get started. - Teacher Training Videos (Russell Stannard)
These videos were created for teachers to help them to incorporate technology into their teaching. Just click and a video will open and take you through how to use that technology. These videos are for any teachers or lecturers, indeed for anyone interested in learning how to use the technologies. - WonderHowTo
Hand-selects and curates the best instructional videos from over 1,700 websites. It is your one-stop shop to browse, search, or network your way through the world of free video tutorials. - EduTube
Is a educational video search platform with an main aim to organize the best educational video content on the Internet. All content on EduTube is moderated and only relevant, educational content is permitted. - Multimedia Training Videos
A series of free learning videos (by Russell Stannard and Savraj Matharu) that explore Flash, Director and Photoshop. - ItrainOnline Multimedia Training Kit
Is a growing collection of "workshop kits" for face-to-face training. The materials use a standard set of templates, and offer building blocks for trainers to build their own courses. - Teachers TV
is a digital channel for everyone who works in schools. Their programmes cover every subject in the curriculum, all key stages and every professional role – from teaching assistant to headteacher. You can watch us on digital cable and satellite and programmes are also available anytime, on-demand and for free on this website. - TeacherTube
Its main goal is to provides an online community for sharing instructional videos. Here you will find more than 54,000 videos covering all sorts of subjects. - ALISON
Free Interactive Workplace Skills Courseware including Touch Typing Skills, European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL), British Computer Society (BCS) Unit E, Financial Literacy and e-Citizen - The Moodle Academy
Is designed to be a drop in centre for you to reinforce your Moodle skills. While we are thinking Moodle, we might want to check out Using Moodle 2nd Edition, which is the second edtion of the OReilly book "Using Moodle" by Jason Cole and Helen Foster. - Moodle Tutorials
Ops, cant get Moodle out of my head! Check out this collection of 2 Minute Moodles - an attempt to simplify and show how to use a range of Moodle features. The tutorials try not to assume too much previous knowledge and are presented for the pragmatical and not necessarily tech-savy users (Moodle purists please excuse). - Drupal in Education Open book (hosted by e-Learning Institute)
An open resource started by Bryan Ollendyke at the e-Learning Institute to talk about Drupals place in education. Has a great CMS matrix comparing different CMS technologies that can all be used for education / e-learning. It is a living resource and has contributions from several PSU Drupalers though its open to contribution from any / everyone. Good if you are interested in getting into Drupal for Education. - Google Apps Training
The Google Apps interactive tutorial provides clear audio and text directions and practice exercises for using six Google products; email, calendar, talk, docs, sites, and start page. - Go-2-School
A great resource for learning Google SketchUp and Google Earth. - W3Schools
Here you will find all the Web-building tutorials you need, from basic HTML and XHTML to advanced XML, SQL, Database, Multimedia and WAP. - Edumax
Edumax is an online learning website that provides free lessons on topics from personal development to computer programming. - TechTutorials
A directory containing thousands of free tutorials for IT professionals, hobbyists, and home users. - 14 hours of Free E-Learning Strategy Tutorials
Bryan Chapman, Chief Learning Strategist at Chapman Alliance does regular webinars on e-learning strategies. He posts these for free use from his website. They are a little bit hidden. You have to scroll down the page to find them. NOTE: Because many of the webinars are vendor sponsored, you may have to add your information before watching them, but they are absolutely free.
- Clayton Wright
- Mitch Weisburgh
- Bryan Chapman
- Zaid Ali Alsagoff
Lets build a great collection together (wiki-version)! Lets use our collective findings to help others discover these great learning tutorial sites :)
Alexa Web Discovery Machine Stats Resources Fun!
- Link to Alexa
- Alexa Blog
WHAT?
"Founded in April 1996, Alexa Internet grew out of a vision of Web navigation that is intelligent and constantly improving with the participation of its users. Along the way Alexa has developed an installed based of millions of toolbars, one of the largest Web crawls and an infrastructure to process and serve massive amounts of data. For users of Alexas Toolbar and web site this has resulted in products that have revolutionized Web navigation and intelligence. For developers this has resulted in a set of tools unprecedented in scope allowing whole new services to be created on the Alexa data and platform" ...more
HOW?
"Alexa is continually crawling all publicly available web sites to create a series of snapshots of the Web. They use the data they collect to create features and services:
- Site Information: Traffic rankings, pictures of sites, links pointing to sites and more
- Related Links: Sites that are similar to the one you are currently viewing
Currently, Alexa gathers approximately 1.6 Terabytes (1600 gigabytes) of Web content per day. After each snapshot of the Web, which takes approximately two months to complete, Alexa has gathered 4.5 Billion pages from over 16 million sites"...more
JUICE?Whether the results are 100% accurate or not (methodology!), Alexa has a wonderful set of learning tools (Search, Traffic Rankings, Director, Alexa Toolbar and Developers Corner) to search, discover, rank and compare different sites around the world. For example, the most visited sites in all Education categories are:
- W3C - The World Wide Web Consortium
- How Stuff Works
- Classmates
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- National University of Singapore (NUS)
Surprisingly, NUS is ranked ahead of (6) University of California, Berkeley , (7) Stanford University, and (8) Harvard University. How is that possible? Well, this should give us some incentive to research Why this is the case. Let the students figure this one out! Also, perhaps Wikipedia should be placed in the education category. Yes, it will probably be ranked No. 1.
What about Malaysia? Currently, Yahoo is ranked No.1, but interestingly Friendster is No. 2, and Facebook is way down in 11th. I suppose in two months time, Facebook will probably overtake Friendster.
The beauty of Alexa is that you can actually use this tool to compare different sites of your own liking. In this example I have compared 5 Mambo Jumbo sites (Dont need to clarify!):
If you havent tried or used Alexa, it might be time to have some fun learning with your friends, colleagues or students exploring different rankings and comparing your favourite sites :)
Knowing Knowledge George Siemens
Home: http://www.knowingknowledge.com/
Download book (free): http://www.elearnspace.org/KnowingKnowledge_LowRes.pdf (8 Mb)
Blog: http://www.knowingknowledge.com/blog/index.php
Wiki version: http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/KnowingKnowledge/index.php/Main_Page
Online Connectivism Conference (podcasts, slides and forums): http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/moodle/course/view.php?id=9
"Knowing Knowledge is an exploration of knowledge - what it is, how it is changing, and what it means to our organizations and society. It was developed in a non-traditional process... Instead of an extensive writing/editing/publishing process (often in excess of 18 months), I adopted a democratic, end-user controlled process. It seems a bit silly to write a book on how the context and characteristics of knowledge are changing, and then subject it to the slow, plodding process of traditional publishing. The stages of traditional publishing are valuable (peer review, editorial review, typesetting, etc.). The challenge is the pace at which a book moves through these stages. In a world where knowledge is continually being updated and rewritten, many books risk obsolescence by the date of publication...
Read more »
Download book (free): http://www.elearnspace.org/KnowingKnowledge_LowRes.pdf (8 Mb)
Blog: http://www.knowingknowledge.com/blog/index.php
Wiki version: http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/KnowingKnowledge/index.php/Main_Page
Online Connectivism Conference (podcasts, slides and forums): http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/moodle/course/view.php?id=9
"Knowing Knowledge is an exploration of knowledge - what it is, how it is changing, and what it means to our organizations and society. It was developed in a non-traditional process... Instead of an extensive writing/editing/publishing process (often in excess of 18 months), I adopted a democratic, end-user controlled process. It seems a bit silly to write a book on how the context and characteristics of knowledge are changing, and then subject it to the slow, plodding process of traditional publishing. The stages of traditional publishing are valuable (peer review, editorial review, typesetting, etc.). The challenge is the pace at which a book moves through these stages. In a world where knowledge is continually being updated and rewritten, many books risk obsolescence by the date of publication...Principles of Connectivism:
- Learning and knowledge require diversity of opinions to present the whole…and to permit selection of best approach.
- Learning is a network formation process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
- Knowledge rests in networks.
- Knowledge may reside in non-human appliances , and learning is enabled/ facilitated by technology.
- Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known.
- Learning and knowing are constant, on going processes (not end states or products).
- Ability to see connections and recognize patterns and make sense between fields, ideas, and concepts is the core skill for individuals today.
- Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.
- Decision-making is learning. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.
"Know where" and "know who" are more important today that knowing what and how. An information rich world requires the ability to first determine what is important, and then how to stay connected and informed as information changes..."
(Recommended to read Dave Pollards book review of "Knowing Knowlege")
"Knowing Knowledge" is certainly a book that will open your mind to the growing complexity of dealing with knowledge and its increasing importance to individuals, organizations and society. If you are looking for answers, I am sure you will have more questions than answers (and great ideas) in your mind after scanning or reading this book. I believe (or know) this is an evolving book that is in its early phase, and George Siemens will evolve this book with the connected community over the years to come (Collective intelligence). It is not only a reflection of the growing knowledge galaxy of the past, present and future, but perhaps what we call a "SUPERFLECTION" of it (another mambo jumbo word that we can add to the dictionary).
Coming to think of it, "Knowing Knowledge" is like abstract art, which might thrill the reflectors and thinkers, but will simply annoy the "Doers" and "implementers", who want more practical examples besides all the ideas and wonderful diagrams and illustrations. George Siemens might argue that there arent many existing real examples of what he is visualizing using his predictive imagination. Whatever, in the era of "Action Jackson" (or Execution) we are often more impressed when the theories are backed up by authentic knowledge as you might call it.
Whatever people might say, I believe "Knowing Knowledge" is a piece of art that will grow in importance together with the future (as technology and our mindset evolve too, the ideas can increasingly be carried out practically), much thanks to the connected knowledge intelligence and engagement (just like Leonard da Vincis great work of art. Well, perhaps not to that level, but you never know).
If you are not getting confused (or bored) with my words, then I recommend that you read "Knowing Knowledge". If you are, then perhaps you should at least get some inspiration from the great diagrams and illustrations.
Overall, I love the book and I will continue to read it, because like abstract art when you read (or explore) it again you get knew ideas and thoughts (on how to solve problems, innovate and make better decisions in the knowledge galaxy).
Alright, lets explore "Knowing Knowledge" together, and please send your ideas and feedback to George Siemens, because this book is certainly a global conversation that invites you to explore knowledge together with him, and your reflections might just add some more juice to it.
Finally, after exploring "Knowing Knowledge", I am not sure if I know what knowledge is. Hmm, alright I better do some superflection in my mind beyond this blog.
P.S. Please download this book now (and explore it). It has already been downloaded more than 130,000 times (From Nov 2006 - Jul 2007). So, if you want to be part of this gobal connected "Knowing Knowledge" conversation, you better just "Do It Now", or be left behind (in the super-growing knowledge galaxy) :)
How to Make a Foldable in PowerPoint!
For the last few weeks, the poll has been temperamental, but I hosted it through PollDaddy this week and all of the votes counted! Sorry for the issues the previous weeks!
The poll looks a little different, but its far more stable!!!
Now... for the tutorial!
For next weeks poll, Im going to do something I havent done before... Im going to leave the three remaining options up without adding a new options. Dont worry... I have plenty of ideas to add to the poll and plenty of requests I plan on adding to the poll in the near future, but I really want to blog about one of those options thats been on the poll for a long time! I feel so bad every time someone contacts me that theyve been voting forever on an option that hasnt been picked yet... so its time to appeal to those long-time voters!
Read more »
The poll looks a little different, but its far more stable!!!
Now... for the tutorial!
You can download this tutorial as a PDF by clicking this picture!
Note: This tutorial is hosted on Google Docs. To save it from there, just open the file and click File > Download to save onto your computer!
For next weeks poll, Im going to do something I havent done before... Im going to leave the three remaining options up without adding a new options. Dont worry... I have plenty of ideas to add to the poll and plenty of requests I plan on adding to the poll in the near future, but I really want to blog about one of those options thats been on the poll for a long time! I feel so bad every time someone contacts me that theyve been voting forever on an option that hasnt been picked yet... so its time to appeal to those long-time voters!
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