Bookmarks for March 17th through April 13th

These are my Jumptags for March 17th through April 13th:

• Problems with ADDIE –
• Moving Your WordPress Site and Database « Weblog Tools Collection – here comes a time you may have to leave one web host for another. No matter the reason the idea of relocating an entire website – especially one that has been online for sometime – can seem very daunting. With a WordPress based site – I found it easi…
• You Are Not a Gadget: The Continuing Case Against Web 2.0 – Jaron Lanier was a pioneer of "virtual reality" in the early 1980s and in his book, You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto, he makes the case for …
• Horizontal Attention Leans Left (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox) – Web users spend 69% of their time viewing the left half of the page and 30% viewing the right half. A conventional layout is thus more likely to make sites profitable.
• Teach Science and Math – Estimates are about 80 percent of Math Education at the K-12 level is strictly focused on solving math problems without any real-world context (Computational Thinking and Math Maturity: Improving Math Education in K-8 Schools, Dave Moursund, 2007). S…
• Space Station Close Encounters With Space Junk: Project Based Learning Activity that Involves an Inquiry Approach – The space station's near misses with debris are a continual issue, which provides excellent resources for scientific project and problem based learning in science.
• The Periodic Table of Periodic Tables / – The web has hundreds of periodic tables and dozens of collections of periodic tables — but it never had a periodic table of periodic tables. Until now. Researched in profound and excruciating detail over the course of a couple nights on Google, we p…
• Fred Wilson’s 10 Golden Principles of Successful Web Apps | Carsonified – In February 2010 Fred Wilson, a New York based tech investor, spoke at the annual Future of Web Apps Miami conference. His talk, clocking in at just under
• Envisioning the Post-LMS Era: The Open Learning Network (EDUCAUSE Quarterly) | EDUCAUSE – Although central to the business of higher education, the LMS has also become a symbol of the status quo that supports administrative functions more effectively than teaching and learning activities.
• Write Better CSS With Best Practices | Pro Blog Design – Everyone has a slightly different approach to CSS. That's part of the reason it can be a nightmare to edit someone else's code. But there are a few good practices you can use in your CSS to make your stylesheets easier for you to read, and easier for…
• Techniques for Squeezing Images for All They’re Worth | Webdesigner Depot – An image’s dimensions on screen are measured in pixels: width and height. An image's quality is determined by less tangible factors: composition, mood,
• What Students Expect from Instructors, Other Students – Some years back The Teaching Professor featured an article highlighting Mano Singham’s wonderful piece describing how he moved away from a very authoritarian, rule-centered syllabus (reference below). It’s one of my very favorite articles—I reference…
• Starting Out Organized: Website Content Planning The Right Way – Smashing Magazine – So many articles explain how to design interfaces, design graphics and deal with clients. But one step in the Web development process is often skipped over or…
• Free Stuff – Educational Technology – ICT in Education – The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book lists over 100 projects with objectives, defined grade level or age range, links to additional information (including how-to's) about the project, and tips for teachers planning to use the project.

Bookmarks for October 21st through October 26th

These are my Jumptags for October 21st through October 26th:

• satmodel.gif (GIF Image, 550×673 pixels) – Image hierarchy of ISD using ADDIE.
• Free Vectors – 7 High-Quality City Skyline Vectors | Think Design – A pack of 7 high-quality City Skyline Vectors, created by ThinkDesignBlog.com
• A List Apart: Articles: The Myth of Usability Testing – A List Apart offers a sobering view of usability testing.

ADDIE—Love it or leave it?

I’m going to say it out loud: I’m a big fan of ADDIE (i.e., that is analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation). When it comes to ADDIE, here’s what I think:

ADDIE is a framework for design.
ADDIE gets a bad wrap. There’s a linear connotation.
ADDIE is what it is. It’s not what it’s not.

Recently, around the blogosphere of ID and elearning, there’s been quite a bit of talk about the horror that is laid at the feet of ADDIE. Over at eLearning Roadtrip, Ellen Wagner wrote how much ID and elearning professional dislike ADDIE. Similarly, over at Corporate eLearning Strategies, Brent Schlenker generalized the feeling toward ADDIE across to instructional is dead.

In Ellen’s post, she seems to nail one of the general themes that I find frustrates others about ADDIE. She writes that “ADDIE isn’t a learning model.” Well, of course, it isn’t. ADDIE is a framework for design. It’s certainly from the instructional designer, elearning professional, and even teacher’s perspective. It is what it is, and it’s not what it’s not. ADDIE does not represent the learner’s perspective at all. Similarly, Brent emphasizes that ADDIE can really be generalized to any design process.

Another element that Ellen brings up (and I agree) is that ADDIE gets a bad rap for appearing to be linear. It certainly looks linear. The fact that we speak it as a word, like Addie the girl’s name, seems to cement this thinking. But I believe, professionals who understand ADDIE as a framework don’t really believe it to be linear. They understand ADDIE is a process tool for interpreting a complex system. They understand the barriers between the A and the D and the next D are permeable, passing data and decisions back and forth across the process.

So, there you have it. I like ADDIE. I’m out of the closet. Is it better than sliced bread? Nope, only Nutella is and then it’s better on sliced bread. ADDIE is a framework for design. It might look linear, but it’s not. It’s not from a learner’s perspective either.

So, what do you think? What do you think are the pros and cons to ADDIE? Where does it fit in your world? How do you use it? How do you make sense out of it? Do you have some love to show?