SME is not the enemy

Sometimes subject-matter experts (SMEs) can be the hardest part of dealing with the development of instruction. The SME is the person who has the content knowledge the instructional designer needs. The process of getting to the knowledge can feel frustrating to a designer. Despite the problems instructional designers might encounter working with SMEs, the bottom line is a SME is a necessary part of the ID process. The SME is critical to the success of your instruction …

It’s more than convenience. Online instruction needs help.

The Internet has taken us beyond our wildest dreams. At the beginning of the Information Age there were the select individuals called “Webmasters” that had the skills to publish to the Web. Over the past decade, everyone has had tools at their disposable to create a presence with ease. I admit I was caught up in the rage to try online instruction. My first experience was in 2003 and my intent was to provide a convenient way to provide instruction to a small group of learners. My first mistake was letting the medium be the determining factor rather than focusing on the design of the content (Rovai, 2002) …

Plug-in to Dreamweaver: Adobe BrowserLab

Today, from the Adobe Education Technologies blog, Brian Chau mentioned how much he liked trying Adobe BrowserLab …

Repetition is DEAD, or is it?

After teaching for several years, I realized the importance of a strategy the last two years of my profession that completely altered my view of teaching and learning. My experiences have primarily been in a large-urban school district where teaching can be a challenge. But after finding how to repurpose an age- old teaching strategy, helping my students to learn new and complex information became less of a struggle. I learned the power of repetition.

Presentation: James Paul Gee at Infinite Thinking Machine

I received the following information about an open session with James Paul Gee, who is one of the leading experts on using video games to support learning. This is courtesy of Steve Hargadon at the Infinite Thinking Machine

My top three for mixing text, images, audio, and video in learning

I am a visual learner. I would rather look at a chart than read a text. I would rather watch a video than read about its content. However, this is my own learning preference and it is not a general rule for learning. It is nice to entertain the idea of tailoring instruction to all the different styles of learners but, in reality, this is not practical. What is practical is designing instruction that uses a mix of text, audio, video and images, also called multimedia. This has been proven to accommodate the different learning styles of the learners and help them learn better.

The secrets are out

About a week ago, I asked readers to contribute a personal secret about teaching and learning. I had gotten this idea while listening to the radio as Frank Warren was discussing his bookand blog, called PostSecret, where people send in postcards with their personal secrets. I thought it would be interesting to find out what others have to say privately about themselves with teaching and learning. Today’s the first of a couple of posts where I’m going to share what folks submitted. (If you’d like to add you secret, you still can and I’ll insert it in. Check this form out to add your secret.)

5 things Facebook can teach us about elearning

Facebook is an Internet phenomenon. It launched to a small group of Harvard students in 2004 and now has millions of users worldwide. Although elearning is popular, it has not had the kind of widespread acceptance with the general public that Facebook has seen. Let’s take a look at a few things that Facebook can teach us about elearning.

Bookmarks for January 24th through January 27th

These are my Jumptags for January 24th through January 27th:

• Software Project Management Resources — Columbia University – Project management resources: templates, samples, articles, software, lecture notes on software & general PM. Updated January 6, 2009. John Musser.
• Custom E-Learning Training & LMS Solutions Kineo – Tip 35: A Shot of Theory – Elaboration Theory – A synopsis

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What I learned from teaching children and how it changed my instruction

When I began my first year of teaching, I had never completed a single course in the field of education. I had graduated with a degree in Business Administration and majored in Marketing. My degree and business experience helped me land a job teaching Marketing Education for a high school that was unable to find a certified teacher. (A word of warning, I don’t recommend this particular path into a teaching career for the faint of heart!) …