Live to Learn : Learn to Live

Once again stumbled upon an interesting web site. This one is a collection of links to 26 learning games to change the world. Enjoy!

the Official Google Docs Blog has a post that pools together a number of ways that Google docs are used in education. I find this very interesting, since more and more I find myself using google docs over my local Microsoft programs. I like knowing that at any time I can easily share the doc with someone else and collaborate on it. It just seems to make more sense to use it… what do you think?

Just bounced across this page on mashable that lists 12 screencasting tools for creating video tutorials. Looks like there are some great free options out there to get screencasts.

I havent tried any of these yet, but I am sure I will soon!

So after my last attempt at getting into a doctorate program did not go my way, I have been thinking a lot about what to do now. Do I give up my dream to go on and get my doctorate degree? For a while I thought this was the answer. I was completely content with my job and how my life was headed.

Now, I am still happy with my job, however, that little voice is once again telling me to go back to school. I have been weighing out my options. My first thought, after scouring the internet for a doctorate program in Instructional Technology was to go to University of Delaware.  However, being that I am restricted to go to a school that is in the general vicinity of where I live, this is on the very edge of that area. The drive would be doable but very inconvenient. Yet if it came to it, its doable.

Then I thought back to something I had considered a while ago, but wrote off due to the restraints of my job — Pepperdine University. I know what you’re thinking — “Stacey, Pepperdine isn’t closer. It’s in California!” However, the program, which is an Ed.D. in Educational Technology is 40% online and 60% face to face with the face to face sessions taking place 5 times a year in 5 day chunks.

As it is right now, I work from home, and although I doubt that the time spent in the face-to-face sessions would be considered work time for my job, I believe that my company now would support me in what I want to do.

What I want to know, as I continue my quest for more information is: Does anyone know about this program? Or is there any doctoral instructional technology program within an hour of Reading, PA that you could refer me to??

I admit that I regularly use myspace and facebook, 2 popular social networking sites. They offer me a way to keep in touch with people I wouldn’t otherwise keep in touch with. When I first signed up to the sites, it was all so new, so exciting. I spent hours searching for friends, catching up on people’s lives, and being nosy. I spent a lot of time on these sites, as did others we know by way of statistics.

Now today, I still use these sites, however, I do not spend nearly the amount of time on these sites that I used to. It’s not possible and honestly not necessary. (It was very necessary at first though!!) However, I would not say that I would want to dump these sites altogether. They still allow me to keep in touch with people, and I love the forum to contact people. Many times I will use it over email when I have a question for someone. It’s just second nature to me.

Why am I discussing this? Well I just read an article posted on The Register (a UK news site) that discusses some new statistics that spell out that there is much less traffic across some of the most popular social networking sites. This did not shock me. This article does not call for the decline and disappearance of the social networking sites, but just points out that social networking is susceptible to the normal turn of the tides. It is not going away, but it is not invincible.

I’ll keep using my facebook and myspace account, maybe I’ll go from signing in a few times a week to a few times a month. Maybe I’ll stop using it all together at some point (inevitable). But I use it now. And it still is valuable to me. period.

In other social networking news, I recently discovered a site, ning.com. This site allows you to create your own social network. It’s pretty cool. You can use it to keep in touch with just your group of friends. My fiance, Kevin, has set one up to communicate with his fraternity brothers. It’s been a hit for them. Sure they are all probably part of facebook and myspace, but having this private social networking site allows them more control over who sees their communication and who joins.

Check it out. Maybe you can create a social network of your own. For work? For friends? For family??

Article at The Register about Social Networks
www.ning.com

So i just saw online that Nintendo is bringing out a gaming magazine for girls. It is called Girl Gamer and is being distributed in the UK.

What do you think of it?

When I first saw it I thought, ‘oh, what a great idea!’ But then as I began to think about the magazine a bit more, it struck me as odd. I understand that there are different interests for girl gamers than boy gamers, but do you think many girl gamers will go for this? Personally, I wouldn’t want something that so blatantly screamed “GIRL!” How many gaming magazines designed mostly for boys are called “Boy Gamer?”

I think they are on the right path with providing gaming articles that would possibly interest the female gamers, but I think they took the WRONG approach for designing it.

Any thoughts?

Wow, wow, wow. I just finished watching a video about a ph.d student who has hacked the Nintendo Wii to take advantage of the Wii remote system to enhance virtual reality and make a more realistic 3D experience.

In this video, Johnny Lee shows us how he uses the system to track where your head is. This information is reported back to the computer system and tells the computer how to move an image. It is literally like looking into a window. The closer you are, the more of the image you can see, the further you are the more you have to shift from side to side to see out of the “window.” Check it out below!

If you are having trouble viewing the video, go here.

Currently at the moment, I am not doing much video editing. Not that I wont have to in the future though. But for those who are active in video work, here’s a great article about a website that allows you to put hyperlinks into you videos. It’s called Asterpix.

ts like a youtube website, where they host the videos (so this tool is not able to be a stand-alone software) but it has enormous benefits for the online world. Think of all of the great educational videos that can be created!

As reported by mashable.com they are about to come out with a PRO version of their membership which will allow you to:

do a little bit more with your video clips, including customization options like hyperlinks, hotspots, logos and an icon link. You’ll also be able to do things like control the length of time a hotsot follows an item, set default hotspot markers, and use a “point and shoot” authoring interface to get the job done.

Skimming my RSS news feeds, I came across an article about the Florida school systems. They recently adopted state-wide an open-content reading platform called FreeReading.com.

“FreeReading.net is a free, sequential, research-based reading intervention program designed for students in kindergarten through first grade. Educators are invited to participate in discussion boards; take part in the full, 40-week scope and sequence of lessons; or tailor materials to their students’ individual learning needs.”

The decision was made based on financial reasons. They believe that it will free up money that can be spend in other areas.

I think this is a great decision for the schools as long as there is an initiative to back it up and help the learning curve. As we all know, a great piece of technology can be introduced, but that doesnt mean it will be sucessful. It must be supported to work. If they can figure this all out I think that its great to see a high school system adopting some technology.

I told you I would finish (or add to) this list sometime. I stick to my word (or at least I try to!!). Here are some more rules I have for the development of an elearning course. Remember, these are not advanced rules, just covering the basics! Sometimes the basics are overlooked in the hunt for the next “cool” thing.

1. Use intuitive navigation buttons. It can save headaches and confusion. When a navigation button jumps around the screen, it can be hard for the learner to follow. I always decide at the start where my navigation will be placed. And for the entire course, the buttons, usually called “Next” and “Back,” are easily located by the learner. Sometimes it is necessary to have some buttons appear within the page content area to advance the content along. In this case, it is ok to have a navigation button not be in the same place. For example, I already developed a course where on one page, the learner had to click “Continue” to advance the content on the screen. However, when this content was all displayed or finished playing, the learner STILL had to use the “Next” button located in the proper location to go on to the next screen. When this happens I just try to stay consitent with the placement of these extra buttons. Bottom Line: DON’T CONFUSE THE LEARNER!
   
   
2. Do not use any buttons that are small and hard to click on (because they are so small)!!! This is an important one (well arent they all important?), really it is. You dont want learners struggling to locate a button. Also you want to avoid making the act of clicking a button into a game. You dont want a learner trying multiple times to click on a button without luck. It should be easy to identify what is a button and to click on it.
3. Do not use too many colors for the UI of a course. Pick a color scheme and stick to it. Make sure it is interesting without being distracting. Too many colors everywhere can draw attention away from the content. I try to stick to a clean simple design with a color palette that works.

   Bottom Line: MAKE YOUR CONTENT THE STAR OF THE SHOW.

   For help in picking a color palette, visit: COLOURlovers.

4. Padding. Padding. Padding. Use it. It helps. What do I mean by padding? The space that surrounds the content or that surrounds any element on the UI of the elearning course. When there is no padding (or very little) the content or elements run right up to the edge. This can make it harder to visually process the content that is on the screen. When there is an adequate amount of padding around content, the user can chunk that content together and read it as a whole. When there is little to no padding, it is harder to chunk and the learner ends up processing the content along with whatever else is surrounding the content. Now, that said, don’t over-do it on the padding. There is such a thing as having TOO much padding. As a rule of thumb, I use around 15 to 20 pixels of padding around my content. However, each elearning course varies, so sometimes I’d say I’ve used more. But never less.

Well, thats it for now. As I said before, maybe I’ll post more on this subject in time. If my mood so moves me