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5 Free Desktop Image Editors for E-Learning » The Rapid eLearning Blog
Free options for image editing. I’ve used Picasa, Paint.net, and GIMP before, but PhotoScape and PixBuilder Studio are new to me.
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The Cost of Online Learning? It Depends… | Getting Smart
Review of a paper estimating cost savings for online and blended learning, pointing out that the real numbers are much more complicated than what the report implies.
Weekly Bookmarks (1/23/12)
January 22, 2012Weekly Bookmarks (1/15/12)
January 15, 2012-
Building a new learning environment around social tools: Technology forecast: PwC
Tony O’Driscoll explains how he uses social media with an MBA course. He also talks about social technology in the broader context of the enterprise.
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In this new context, by comparison, anybody who writes anything, whether it’s an individual or a team, is now exposed in the commons. Everybody is required to review three deliverables other than their own and rank and review them. That’s a little foreign, and there’s a fair amount of pushback on that. People say, “What do you mean, other people can see my stuff?” And I say, “Well, that’s how peer learning works.”
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The motive in this kind of social context is altruism. It’s to help others. By contrast, the motive in a business context is all about profit.
Enterprise behavior is different. You can’t take the same social technologies and plop them into a profit-making context and expect that people will immediately engage. The question is, once the underlying motivation shifts from purpose to profit, will the motivation to engage persist?
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Recover earlier versions of a file in Office 2010 – Word – Office.com
Since my laptop has periodic BSOD problems, I’m afraid I will probably need this information again. I thought I’d lost an hour’s worth of work when no autorecover option came up after a crash and the folder for autosaves appeared empty. Only 10 minutes of work lost with these directions.
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Test your change management skills | Instructional Design Fusions
Simulation game for change management. Try to get the staff of a fictional junior high to adopt peer tutoring. I failed on my first attempt.
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Tools for creating bibliographies, organizing research, and planning
Weekly Bookmarks (1/8/12)
January 8, 2012- Project Management for Instructional DesignersStudents in David Wiley’s Project Management class remixed a textbook with an open license to customize it for instructional designers. They added new examples, photos, video interviews, and assessments. See the blog post for information on the project: http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/2119
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Exposing LinkedIn Connection Myths – Part X | The LinkedIn Personal Trainer
Summary of a series of posts on LinkedIn connection myths, debunking the idea that indiscriminately connecting to thousands of people is valuable.
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Top eLearning Learning Mobile Learning Content for 2011
eLearning Learning’s calculated top blog posts for 2011
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Open source software for elearning – matbury.com
List of open source applications for creating e-learning. Most of these aren’t specifically designed for creating online learning, but can be used that way. The list is divided into desktop software like Audacity and CamStudio and server software like Moodle and MediaWiki.
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Physicists Seek To Lose The Lecture As Teaching Tool : NPR
A physics professor at Harvard discusses the improvements to learning results when he stopped lecturing and started using small group discussions and peer learning. He’s using a more engaging and interactive way to teach even though he has large classes with 100+ students.
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At a recent class, the students — nearly 100 of them — are in small groups discussing a question. Three possible answers to the question are projected on a screen. Before the students start talking with one another, they use a mobile device to vote for their answer. Only 29 percent got it right. After talking for a few minutes, Mazur tells them to answer the question again.
This time, 62 percent of the students get the question right. Next, Mazur leads a discussion about the reasoning behind the answer. The process then begins again with a new question. This is a method Mazur calls “peer Instruction.” He now teaches all of his classes this way.
“What we found over now close to 20 years of using this approach is that the learning gains at the end of the semester nearly triple,” he says.
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Mazur says the key is to get them to do the assigned reading — what he calls the “information-gathering” part of education — before they come to class.
“In class, we work on trying to make sense of the information,” Mazur says. “Because if you stop to think about it, that second part is actually the hardest part. And the information transfer, especially now that we live in an information age, is the easiest part.”
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Top 5 Most Common Networking Mistakes | Inc.com
Common networking mistakes. The suggested strategy is to give before you take: “Giving is the only way to establish a real connection and relationship.”
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Here’s what not to do when you’re trying to expand or leverage your network:
1. Try to take before you give.
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2. Assume others should care about your needs.
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3. Care about others first; then, and only then, will they truly care back.
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4. Assume tools create connections.
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5. Reach too high.
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The “status” level of your connections is irrelevant. All that matters is whether you can help each other reach your goals.
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Five Years of Blogging
December 26, 2011Five years ago today, I published my first two posts on this blog. As I noted in my first post, five years ago I was developing a course on social media tools for K-12 teachers called Building Collaborative Online Environments. I didn’t feel that I could really encourage teachers to use these tools with digging in to use them myself. Will Richardson was the SME for that course, and I’m very grateful for his influence in starting me on this path.
This is my 820th post—not very many in five years, actually, especially when you consider how many of those are bookmarks posts. In 2010, I slowed down in posting quite a bit; I only posted 36 times total in the entire year. I have done better in 2011, with 52 posts, but one of my goals for 2012 is to blog more regularly. I can see the effect of infrequent posting in my stats. Monthly views plateaued for most of 2009 and 2010, but started increasing again in 2011 as I posted more often.
When I started this, I had no idea how much I would learn through blogging and how many wonderful people I would get to know. I’m a better instructional designer today because I’ve been blogging for five years. This blog forces me to reflect on what I’m doing and learning on an ongoing basis. I’m not sure I would have been confident enough to quit my job and become an independent consultant if I didn’t know I have a network of terrific people built through this blog and other tools. Thank you for reading, commenting, blogging, and sharing. I’m looking forward to continuing to learn with you all for the next five years.
Image: ‘Five Years‘
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23957873@N07/3390895249
Weekly Bookmarks (12/25/11)
December 25, 2011-
How Expensive is Accessibility? | Karl Groves
Although this article doesn’t give an answer to how much accessibility costs, it does list areas to consider when determining costs. It also provides tips on implementing accessibility effectively through iterative, agile design, focusing on high impact tasks first, rather than trying to do everything at once.
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Typically, you will find added costs in the following areas when it comes to integrating accessibility:
- Determining accessibility requirements for final deliverables
- Developing internal style guides and best practices
- Training staff
- Finding new toolsets
- Modifying existing codebases
- Additional QA time & resources
- Consultant Fees/ Salary for an internal Subject Matter Expert
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Papers in Rethinking Learning Objectives | Mendeley Group
Collection of posts and articles about learning objectives and Bloom’s Taxonomy
Weekly Bookmarks (12/18/11)
December 18, 2011-
Review: Configurable Reports for Moodle 2 | Some Random Thoughts
Review of a reports block for Moodle 2 that allows creating custom reports without knowing SQL
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Review: Admin Report – Custom SQL queries for Moodle 2 | Some Random Thoughts
Review of a custom reporting module for Moodle 2. You must know SQL or have a known good query for this report. However, there are examples available.
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Big Dog, Little Dog: Learning Styles are for the individual, not group
Interesting and thoughtful response to the eLearn Magazine article “Why Is the Research on Learning Styles Still Being Dismissed by Some Learning Leaders and Practitioners” by Guy Wallace. Donald ultimately agrees with the idea that instructional designers don’t need to spend their time worrying about learning styles, but people who work with individual learners may find them valuable.
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That is, when you analyze a group, the findings often suggest that learning styles are relative unimportant, however, when you look at an individual, then the learning style often distinguishes itself as a key component of being able to learn or not.
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Thus the main take-away that I get from the paper if that if you are an instructor, manager, etc. who has to help the individual learners, then learning styles make sense. On the other hand, if you are an instructional designer or someone who directs her or his efforts at the group, then learning styles are probably not that important.
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Weekly Bookmarks (12/11/11)
December 11, 2011-
Half an Hour: How to Get the Most out of a Conference
Extensive tips on how to get the most out of a conference. Lots of practical tips about travel, preparing to speak, and networking
Freelance Instructional Design: More Tips from the Trenches
December 6, 2011I’ve gotten some great tips from others working as independent consultants or freelance instructional designers in comments on my Getting Started as a Freelance Instructional Designer and Tips for Starting to Freelance posts. I love having so many brilliant and generous people in my network who freely share the wealth of their knowledge.
Networking
David Harris shared his experience with networking:
My approach is to network with local organizations and groups that benefit me socially with like minded people, and gives me a sense of organizations needs and the niche I can fit into to help them meet their learning objectives.
I’m really only networking online right now, but reviewing the comments from last summer reminds me that I should be working on some face-to-face connections too.
Rebecca notes that networking is an ongoing process:
I think the biggest thing to success in consulting is to cultivate your networks and keep them going. I make a point of regularly (at least one a year if not twice a year) to try and book a lunch with key contacts – these are people that are working full time for companies that I might want to contract with, or people that know people who might be looking for a contractor. I also use social network sites like LinkedIn to let my network know that I’m looking.
Portfolio
Several people here in comments and in LinkedIn groups mentioned the importance of a portfolio, including Judith Christian-Carter:
[U]se your portfolio because most discerning clients are looking for people with a good track record and ‘put yourself around a bit’.
Diverse Clients
Michele Martin adds more information on diversity of clients:
One other thing I’d say about having a diversity of clients is to try to draw from different industries, areas of the country, etc. One thing I’ve discovered is that the more diversity in my client base, the better. You’d be surprised how many of the same financial and other issues impact companies in the same industry at the same time. It’s something we don’t always think about.
Retirement
Gwynne Monahan reminded me to not forget about retirement:
In addition to an accountant, meet with a financial planner as well. One thing #freelancers tend to forget is that thing called retirement. It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day, finding new clients/business and focusing on just getting up and running. Planning for the future, for retirement, should also be in the mix. Like liability insurance, it’s easily missed until it’s too late.
Contracts & Cash Flow
Joanne M. Lozar Glenn shares a great tip about smoothing out the bumps in cash flow:
[S]et up your agreements/contracts with clients to include a deposit that must be received before you start on the project. Helps with the income gaps, especially with new clients.
Resources
Simon Weller shared this resource:
Hello, I made the move about four months ago…and while it’s been difficult on many levels, it’s been a fantastic experience on the whole. A great book for me was Flying Solo (http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/). It focuses on the idea of being a freelancer (in any profession or industry) and offers strategies for soloists to make it work, to connect with others and awareness of the pitfalls. It was an easy, but eye-opening read. Good luck!
Taruna Goel shared her story of moving to freelance: From An Employee to a Consultant – A Story of Embracing Change. She is back to being a full-time employee now (along with moving from one continent to another–nothing like big changes!), but I appreciated her reflections on the changes.
I’m in a number of groups on LinkedIn, but lately I’m paying more attention to the Freelance in Instructional Design and E-Learning Industry group, a sub-group of the Instructional Design & E-Learning Professionals’ Group. (I’m not positive the link to the group will work. If it doesn’t, either search for the group name or look for the group at the bottom of my LinkedIn profile.) This isn’t the most active group, but it’s a good place for asking questions specific to freelance instructional design work.
Thanks!
Thanks to everyone who has shared their experiences. Seeing others who have made this transition successfully makes me more confident that I can do it too. I know I’m not alone, and I have this whole network of people out there who I can turn to when I need advice.
Image Credit: network illustration by HikingArtist.com
Weekly Bookmarks (12/4/11)
December 4, 2011-
Setting the Mood — Top Tips for Adding Stock Music to Your E-Learning | E-Learning Uncovered
Practical ideas for adding a little stock music to e-learning. It’s probably not a good idea to add it behind narration, but a little bit of music might be beneficial in some situations. It can reinforce or shape the emotional feel of a moment in learning.
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Curatr – Motivate your learners to truly engage with online learning
Tool for curating existing resources in a gamified learning experience. Lets learners explore resources at their own pace but with some structure from levels, badges, etc. Learners can comment on resources and discuss with each other. The free edition doesn’t allow uploads, but you can link to content elsewhere online. The teacher edition has limited uploading but is still free for teachers. The corporate version is has more features but is costly.
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Questions Asked & Answered: Analysis and e-Learning Design
Ethan Edwards recaps a webinar he gave on “The 5 Most Important Analysis Questions You’ll Ever Ask.” Suggestions on how to get what you need from SMEs
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Questions:
- What do you expect learners to be able to DO after completing the course that they can’t do now?
- What are the consequences TO THE LEARNER if the learner fails to master the intended outcomes?
- Can you show me an active demonstration, a detailed simulation, or provide an opportunity to directly observe the desired performance?
- What specific performance mistakes do new learners regularly make?
- What tools, resources, job aids, or help do successful performers (or even experts) use to do these tasks?
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Choosing the Right Character Names for Your Training Scenario | E-Learning Uncovered
Multiple sites for generating names for scenarios
Weekly Bookmarks (11/27/11)
November 27, 2011-
Comments from a number of experts dismissing learning styles, plus discussion on why we still talk about learning styles even though the research doesn’t support it
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