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 February 9th through March 17th

These are my Jumptags for February 9th through March 17th:

• Free and legal music downloads – Jamendo – Download and listen to over 20,000 albums, legally. Use BitTorrent or download directly to discover and share new artists. All content is Creative Commons or "Art Libre" licensed.
• Philip Hutchison Talks SCORM and E-Learning — Campus Technology – In this candid and eye-opening interview, Philip Hutchison, a household name in SCORM and the man behind Pipwerks, gives his thoughts about the current state of SCORM and e-learning in general, touching on subjects such as how he became one of the go…
• BBC News – The web: vital statistics – As part of the BBC's SuperPower season, exploring the power of the internet, BBC News explores how the web works.
• The Role of Disruptive Technology in the Future of Higher Education (EDUCAUSE Quarterly) | EDUCAUSE – # Truly disruptive tools will force new thinking and new approaches to ensuring student learning in higher education.
  # Technology enables online learning, which potentially qualifies as a disruptive innovation in education.
• Free HTML/CSS Template for Download – DesignM.ag – A few weeks ago we published a tutorial How to Design a Blue Marketing Company Layout in Photoshop. Our friends at SnobbySlice have taken that design, coded it, and made it available for free download. The template includes the homepage design that w…
• 55 Latest Examples of Perfect Slideshow Presentation in Web Design | Inspiration | instantShift – As you already seen in our previous posts about slideshow presentation designs that representing the key information in slideshow presentation is a hot trend , Daily Resource for Web Designers and Developers.
• Flickr: The Library of Congress’ Photostream – Images from the Library of Congress' photostream in Flickr.
• Two Ways To Remove A Color Cast From A Photo With Photoshop – Removing color casts in Photoshop. Easy techniques.
• Color Theory for Designer, Part 3: Creating Your Own Color Palettes – Smashing Magazine – In the previous two parts of this series on color theory, we talked mostly about the meanings behind colors and color terminology. While this information is
• UsabilityPost – Does Your Website Suffer From These 7 Usability Mistakes? – Tips and insights into good design and usability
• Project Cartoon: How Projects Really Work (version 1.5) – How Projects Really Work (version 1.5) How Projects Really Work (version 1.5)
• Malcontent Blogger | bLaugh – Source: ReviewMe Domain: MalcontentBlogger.com
  <img class="comic" title="Malcontent Blogger" alt="Malcontent Blogger" …
• The Whole Internet Truth | bLaugh – Source: Wikipedia Domain: WikisGoneWild.com
  <img class="comic" title="Where is the Secret of Life?" alt="Where is…
• Applying Mathematics To Web Design – Smashing Magazine – “Mathematics is beautiful.” This may sound absurd to people who wince at numbers and equations. But some of the most beautiful things in nature and our universe…
• Here’s How to Add Personality to Your E-Learning Courses » The Rapid eLearning Blog – Tom Kuhlmann offers up advice on how to integrate script fonts into your elearning courses for personality.

Bookmarks for January 31st through February 9th

These are my Jumptags for January 31st through February 9th:

• Project Cartoon: How Projects Really Work (version 1.5) – How Projects Really Work (version 1.5) How Projects Really Work (version 1.5)
• Malcontent Blogger | bLaugh – Source: ReviewMe Domain: MalcontentBlogger.com
  <img class="comic" title="Malcontent Blogger" alt="Malcontent Blogger" …
• The Whole Internet Truth | bLaugh – Source: Wikipedia Domain: WikisGoneWild.com
  <img class="comic" title="Where is the Secret of Life?" alt="Where is…
• Applying Mathematics To Web Design – Smashing Magazine – “Mathematics is beautiful.” This may sound absurd to people who wince at numbers and equations. But some of the most beautiful things in nature and our universe…
• Here’s How to Add Personality to Your E-Learning Courses » The Rapid eLearning Blog – Tom Kuhlmann offers up advice on how to integrate script fonts into your elearning courses for personality.
• Intel Teach Elements: Project-Based Approaches – Free, online teacher professional development on 21st century learning concepts: Project-Based Approaches from Intel Teach.
• The Principle of Proximity in Web Design – Recently I picked up an old design book that I hadn't touched in a while, and it reminded me of a design principle that many of us put into practice probably
• 10 Tips for Better Print Style Sheets – Print style sheets have been somewhat forgotten, and yet they remain important all the same. Many people print out articles to read while traveling or when they
• 50 Free UI and Web Design Wireframing Kits, Resources and Source Files – Smashing Magazine – Planning and communication are two key elements in the development of any successful website or application. And that is exactly what the wireframing process offers:
• Why E-Learning is So Effective » The Rapid eLearning Blog – Tom Kuhlmann offers up reasons why elearning is popular and effective.
• Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge – A lecture on Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge for students in EDUC6751.

Bookmarks for January 11th through January 12th

These are my Jumptags for January 11th through January 12th:

• Browsershots – Check browser compatibility, cross platform browser test
• Notable | Easiest way for teams to provide feedback on websites. – Notable allows you to quickly and easily give feedback on design, content, and code on any page of a website or application without leaving your browser.
• fivesecondtest – Have users provide quick feedback on your design.
• Apollo – easy online image proofing – documents, graphic designs, web designs, maps, photographs, and more… – 27stars – Get feedback and annotations on documents, graphics, and websites.
• Project Bubble | Simple, Free Project Management and Invoicing Tool – Project Bubble is an easy-to-use project management tool. Easily organise, manage, invoice and share personal or freelance projects.
• How Fonts Take a Starring Role in Your E-Learning Courses » The Rapid eLearning Blog – Tom Kuhlmann offers some insight and suggestions for selecting typefaces.
• Usabilla – Transparent Usability: Lean and mean testing – Remote usability testing to collect feedback on a webpage,mockup,sketch or image.

Bookmarks for January 4th through January 6th

These are my Jumptags for January 4th through January 6th:

• Teaching College Math » Blog Archive » How to Grade a Student Blog – A college math teacher shares her rubric and methods for grading student blogs.
• Navigation Menus: Trends and Examples – Smashing Magazine – This article presents recent trends, examples and innovative solutions for design of modern navigation menus.
• Showcase Of Modern Navigation Design Trends – A gallery of contemporary navigation on web sites.

Increasing cognitive load without even knowing it

Wikipedia defines cognitive load as “the load on working memory during instruction.” I usually refer to it this way: If your working memory is a bucket, then it can only hold so much stuff. So, filling up your bucket with unnecessary or unimportant stuff, leave less space for the critical stuff and the processing space necessary to work on it.

photo credit: Erlomo

Extraneous cognitive load then is bad all around. It’s not good cognitive load. It doesn’t help you learn. It doesn’t help you process. It doesn’t help you remember. It doesn’t even relate to the learning content in most cases. Instead, it fills up your bucket —read “increases cognitive load.”

One of the most obvious examples of extraneous cognitive load is poor interface usability. When we design a graphical user interface, poor usability forces the learner (user) to have to think about the interface. That is, they have to think about how to interact with the system. When they have to think, the bucket starts getting filled up. If some function in the interface doesn’t behave the way a learner expects it to, then the learner has to think about why and how do I do what I want to do. Working memory continues to be loaded.

Some examples might be in order here. I have seen other university faculty members’ courses that have animations (notice the plural), hyperlinks and supposedly “cute” graphics all on the same single web page. Admittedly, this is amateurish by professional standards. However, for me, the more serious offense is the inconsideration of what it means for learning and cognitive load. Taking a suggestion from “Web Pages that Suck,” a 2008 winner was the Burlington National UFO Center. Similarly, HavenWorks also has created an extraneous cognitive overload with poor layout, organization and unimportant elements. Admittedly, neither of these two sites are strictly instructional and I would never expect any corporate instructional designer to produce this type of development. However, the fact that these pages still exist confirm that learning and utility take a backseat to inexperience.