Learning Styles for the Ageless Learner
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Learning Styles Backgrounder :: Ageless Learner
Do we change styles as we become more mature in our learning? Do we become more flexible in the way we learn, and can we adapt to the different modalities that are thrown at us?
I thought this site had a nice approach to pulling many learning theories together and applying them to lifelong learning.
I am especially partial to David Kolb’s Learning Style Model.
Publish to Facebook from Jing
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Check out this link to learn more about using Jing for screen capture videos that can be published directly to Facebook with the click of a button!
The Facebook Button – Jing Help Center
Google 20
Filed Under Innovations, Teaching and Learning, Technology | Leave a Comment
At the AITP National Collegiate Conference, I attended a session on creating collaborative online communities for students. One idea was hiring student bloggers to introduce people to technologies and encourage careers for women and minority groups in the IT area. They showed a video (which I haven’t found yet, but I’m still looking) about women working at Google. One of the things that I was impressed by was the Google 20 where 20% of your time could be spent working on YOUR project. I think that could be applied to a lot of things including the classroom!
User Account Control Fixes SoftChalk License
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On my Windows 7 machine, I had trouble installing my Softchalk software that I love to use for course design. I found this answer, and it worked like a charm!
SoftChalk FAQ – The five questions posted most recently:
Windows 7 is my operating system. I am having trouble entering my license information. What should I do?
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 3:28 PMYou may need to turn off your User Account Control. Please see the steps below.
1. From your desktop, click on the Start menu (round ball) in the lower left corner of your screen.
2. Type UAC and press Enter.
3. Drag the slider to the Never notify setting.
4. Re-boot your computer.
5. Start LessonBuilder and choose Help/Enter License.
6. Enter your license info. Click OK.
7. Enable your User Account Control by repeating steps 1-4 except reset your Notify option to your previous setting.
Cisco Mind Share Game
Filed Under Computer Graphics/Game Development, Networking, Teaching and Learning, Technology | Leave a Comment
Cisco Mind Share Game – The Cisco Learning Network
I downloaded the demo version of this game for three purposes:
1. To see if this would be helpful in studying for the CCNA exam.
2. To evaluate it for the Game Design class.
3. To see if I might want to buy it for $49.95.
As I first opened the game (it is a very large download and install), I thought it was geared for the “younger generations.” It is a learning game — quiz game if you will. Those have a tendency to be, well, boring! As I started through the game, I thought it was a good study tool, but not sure of it’s “stickiness.” Would someone play this to learn/review instead of the more “traditional” means. Then the bugs came out…they started to eat my bonus points if I hadn’t answered that portion of the question yet. I found the game play to be very interesting, and definitely player-centric. I later was working strategy of finding questions that I wanted to answer right away — then stacking up my points on those questions.
I still am not sure how anything is scored, or what the scores mean; but it is definitely worth a try. If you’re not into networking, just look at it for the design and learning aspects of it.
Using Groups Online
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I have been using Team Based Learning (TBL) in my face-to-face (F2F) classes this past semester. The course admin tab of our eCollege CMS (course management system) allows us to set up groups for our online classes.
I always assign groups in my classes. I feel like this might be a little more difficult in an online class, but certainly not impossible. I use my “Shapes We Live By” presentation exercise to break groups by square, triangle, circle, and squiggly line. I think I can do this same thing with a short intro video and then a Google Form or a Survey Monkey to help me ask appropriate question such as technology level, number of courses taken, time constraints, etc. Along with the orientation chat and class discussion/VoiceThread introductions, I think that I can do a good job in assigning their groups (these are for the entire semester).
While our CMS does provide tools for group use, I really see another tool such as Wiggio for group communication.
Here are some ideas from the session:
- Create a “FishBowl” between the groups
- Make a group presentation — have them create a “product” from their research/discussion
- Include stellar student examples and a grading rubric in assignment requirements
- Solicit feedback from student on how the process is going — and use it to tweak the course
- Use peer evaluation carefully (the TBL folks call this Team Maintenance). This should be used for improvement for the student.
- Help students identify the skills they need/use in TBL
- Try to make it so groups/students report simultaneously
- Make them quailify their “I agree” comments
- What size should the groups be for online courses? TBL suggests 7-9, Cindy uses 3-4
After this session, I feel more confident that I can make TBL work in my online classes for Fall 2009. Watch for how this works!
Listened to my Podcast on Tivo!
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I have been a fan of Tivo for quite some time. I just found out that I could listen to any podcast (including my own) from my TV! I went to the Music, Showcases menu option from the main Tivo menu. I went to Podcaster and then to the last entry which says to Enter URL. I put in my desired URL: http://dougandlori.podbean.com/feed (the /feed is important), and up popped my podcast complete with picture! I called into my blog through Jott to make sure I remembered to blog this! That is my latest technique. Jott won’t record the entire blog entry (the free version, anyway), but it gives me enough to remember what I wanted to say.
Powered by Jott
SuperKeys
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SuperKeys – The Ultimate Keyboard Supercharger from Vellosoft
This was recommended to me when I saw it used “accidentally” in an online chat meeting. I am going to give it a try for my online orientations for my classes. Now, I have a Word Document with what I would like to cover in my online chat — and then I cut and paste everything in. I think this is the tool I have been looking for!
A Kindle is in my Future
Filed Under Boise State Class, Teaching and Learning, Technology | Leave a Comment
My very near future… like Monday! I had ordered three $100 gift certificates from my daughter’s school fundraising program. With just $99 more, that Kindle was in my Shopping Cart — and then the order was confirmed! I have written a grant to try to use in my classes for my students. I am particularly interested in working with publishers to deliver my textbooks via Kindle to avoid all of the “book overload” in my office. Think of the savings in time, money, and our precious resources to have our books delivered electronically! I am also intrigued by fact you can email documents to it for reading on-the-go. I plan on giving you a full report when it arrives in two days! (with free shipping, I might add!)
Readers and Scanners
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My colleague and friend Steve Holland did this demo using SoftChalk. He made some interesting points on designing content for eLearning (but it really goes for printed reports and websites, too) “Readers” and “Scanners.” He showed how the newspaper has been doing this for years, and how we should keep that in mind when we are designing things we want people to read.
I asked if there was some sort of assessment that we could give students regarding whether they were readers or scanners. That is under investigation. Maybe we can come up with a tool or even a game for that!
If you have not already tried Softchalk, it is a great tool to help you re-purpose content into a meaningful way for eLearning. It is very easy to use, has great support, and a free download to try it at www.softchalk.com
keep looking »