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.

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.

If I were to choose three things to consider when developing multimedia instruction they will be as follows:

1.Cognitive load

Sweller has written extensively about learning and cognitive load.  He argues that our brains can process a limited amount of information at one particular time. Not only that, when images and audio are mixed with text, special consideration has to be given on how the combination is done.  Repeating the same information through more than one medium makes it redundant.  An example would be presenting the text and the audio version of the same text simultaneously. Here, the learner is asked to attend to two sources of information that are repetitive and not complimentary to one another.  The result would be an unnecessary load imposed on the brain which might affect the learning g process. On the other hand, presenting the information through more than one medium might lead to split-attention.  An example would be a text and a diagram, each of which cannot be understood in isolation, nevertheless, they are presented in isolation from one another.  In this case, the learner is required to look at two sources of information in order to understand.  This might exceed the capability of the brain to process the information well in that one instance and might affect the learning process. (Sweller, 2007).  On his Rapid eLearning Blog, Tom Kuhlman’s presents a well thought of demo on how the effectiveness of instruction can be manipulated by how the different media are combined.

2.Purpose

It is easy for novice instructional designers to get carried away with their creativity, and the temptations of technology do not make it easier. However, one ought to remember why the media is being used. Check Ducey ‘s slide show on the different functions of graphics in instruction. Examples of the functions that Ducey lists are decorative, organizational, reducing cognitive load, increasing motivation, etc.  All of these functions become important when they are conducive to learning.  However, if they increase the “noise” and cause unnecessary cognitive load then it is better not to incorporate them.

3.Quality

Last but not least is the quality of the medium used, be it text, images, audio or video. For example, an audio that fulfills the first two conditions discussed above might not be effective if the quality of recording is bad. In his blog, Narration in eLearning, Schone describes some of the issues faced in producing narration.    The same applies to a poorly produced video or image or a poorly structured text.  Multimedia of low quality is a reflection of the effort invested in the development of the instructional material.  The learner‘s perception of the effort invested in the development might affect his perception of the credibility of the material. In turn, this might affect the learning process.   Also, low quality will most likely cause the brain to exert more effort to understand the instructional message.  Understandably, it is not always easy to produce multimedia of good quality. Here, one might rethink how best to invest in the resources, accept simplicity, or in worst case scenarios, not use multimedia if quality cannot be improved.

These are my top three rules for using text, images, audio, or video in learning. What are yours?  Input your suggestions and rules in the comments below.

Guest Blogger: Suha Tamim is a doctoral student in Instructional Design and Technology. She also holds a Masters degree in Public Health, Concentration Health Behavior and Health Education. She is interested in learning design, constructivism, and learning styles. Few years prior to becoming a doctoral student, Suha worked as an instructor at the university level, teaching students how to design health education materials and how to use them in the field.  She was also involved in training school teachers and health workers on the design of health education materials.

Reference
Sweller, J. (2007). Human cognition architecture.  In J.M. Spector, D. Merrill, J.v. Merrienboer, & M.P. Driscoll (Eds).  Handbook of research on educational communications and technology (pp. 369-381).  Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

Image courtesy of J Fry at http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=1013

eLearning and “Scooby-Doo! Where are you?”

I really enjoyed watching Scooby-Doo as a kid.  The original theme song was, of course, the best…”Scooby, Scooby-Doo, where are you?  You’ve got some work to do now.”  As my Technology Tools to Support Learning course finishes up their self-paced interactive learning modules, I was thinking, “Where are you…in your thinking about elearning and self-paced instruction?”  To take you back, though, here’s the video:

For many of us, the past couple of weeks has been an introduction to elearning and many of the students in my course are beginning instructional designers. So, I am hoping that their thinking has evolved over the time we’ve been discussing elearning.  For the module they have been producing in Powerpoint, we have been following quite of bit of the suggestions and guidelines from Tom Kuhlmann at Articulate.  Certainly one of the points that Tom emphasizes in his posts is making content necessary and meaningful for the learning, such as through scenarios, choices, and consequences.

We’ve also discussed many of the points that Steve Alessi and Stan Trollip identify as essential features for computer-based instruction, or tutorials.  These include:

1. Introduction
2. Presenting new information
3. Questioning
4. Judging responses
5. Feedback
6. Learner control
7. Closing/Exiting

In addition, we have discussed terms, such as page turners, and in another post some folks have considered what tools really contribute purposefully to the creation of learning content for this year and into the next.

So where is your thinking now about elearning? What have you learned and what do you still need to learn?  What’s still a little fuzzy for you?  Where are you?

Bookmarks for October 21st

These are my Jumptags for October 21st

• Xtranormal | Text-to-Movie – Use Xtranormal to create movies quickly. Drag and drop actors onto scenes. Add text and the software syncs the actors mouths with the text. Windows only.
• Storybird – Collaborative storytelling – Storybirds are short, visual stories that you make with family and friends to share and (soon) print.
• Uncovering Steve Jobs’ Presentation Secrets – BusinessWeek – For his new book, communications coach Carmine Gallo watched hours of Jobs' keynotes. Here he identifies the five elements of every presentation by the Apple CEO.
• ImageChef – Word Mosaic – In the flavor of Wordle, write a comment or poem in the shape of hearts or other symbols.

Sprout listens to the crowd, offering free accounts again

One of my new favorite tools, Sproutbuilder, recently changed its pricing structure (again!).  Whew!  In January, the Flash-based interactive module/widget/website/Swiss-army-knife announced that they would eliminate their free accounts altogether.  I certainly understand the need to stay afloat with a business model.  Two of my other favorite tools Zoho Creator and Weebly also launched new pricing structures about a year ago that limited their free accounts.  However, at the beginning of March, Sprout announced that they were going to offer a free account again.  The account is limited to 3 published or unpublished projects.  From the comments, it is evident that the user community felt like I did about the value of Sprout and the importance of a free version.

I think Sprout offers great potential for building small widgety Flash-based modules without any coding.  I did a test a few months ago by building a quick timer to use with a Think-Pair-Share activity for classroom or face-to-face training.  Here’s the link to Edusprouts, a blog that started collected educational sprouts but hasn’t been updated since the elimination of the free version.

I contacted the Sprout folks directly about what their plans were for students and educators.  Here’s the response I received from Joey Mucha, the Marketing Manager:

We will continue to offer free accounts that offers up to 3 projects which would be perfect for students.  To educators we are offering 50% off all levels.  If you want to create more than 3 projects you will need a paid account.  At 50% off we believe this is a great deal for Educators. I will send an email with a coupon code to redeem this pricing once the payment system launches.

While his is not the best accommodations for students and educators, it does offer some concessions.  I believe Sprout is really looking to define their niche and education I don’t believe is in the mix.  While I believe their marketing niche is a little small, I certainly understand the need to brand and be identified.  I also believe that they are listening to the community of users, though.  The reintroduction of the free plan is evidence of that.  Maybe better things are on the horizon as they navigate the 2.0 waters.  What’s your experience with Sprout?