100 eLearning Articles and White Papers
My collection of eLearning Articles, White Papers, Blog Posts, etc. just reached 100. Thought I'd share. No particular order to these.
1. Creating Passionate Users: Crash course in learning theory
2. Keeping Up with the Pace of Change
Informal learning will help employees survive in the future workplace
3. Understanding E-Learning 2.0
There are some very interesting changes going on in the world of e-learning that seem to have crept up on practitioners.
4. eLearn magazine: Feature Article
Ten Web 2.0 Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes to Be a More Successful E-learning Professional By Stephen Downes, National Research Council Canada
5. 2007 Training Industry Report Summary
This report covers stats on the industry's trends and growth over the last year and will appear in the upcoming Training magazine edition.
6. Web 2.0: A New Wave of Innovation for Teaching and Learning? (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUCAUSE CONNECT
7. eLearn: Opinions
Good short article on characteristics of 2.0 collaboration
8. e-learning 2.0 Infiltrates the Classroom - ReadWriteWeb
9. Technology Integration Matrix
Together, the five levels of technology integration and the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments create a matrix of 25 cells as illustrated below. Each cell is supported with video examples.
10. Web 2.0 Is the Future of Education (Techlearning blog)
11. eLearn: Case Studies - The Reluctant Online Professor
12. Seven Tips for Making the Most of Your RSS Reader
13. Managing the Complexity of Forming an Online Networking Community:
14. Innovate: Moving from Theory to Real-World Experiences in an e-Learning Community
15. Building community in an online learning environment: communication, cooperation and collaboration
16. Storyboards & eLearning (Pt. 1) " EduTech gEEks...We're a new brEEd
Still new on campus, social software tools can support students and staff beyond the classroom, reaching around the world for learning and communication
17. We Learning, Part II
Second part of an interesting article - We Learning: Social Software and E-Learning, Part II.
18. E-Performance Essentials: ELearning and Social Software
An interesting article - Early e-learning traded technology for human interaction. Now, the personal element is being added<sep/>
19. eLearn: In Depth Tutorials - Designing and Developing E-learning Projects: A Three-Tiered Approach
20. Clive on Learning: In-house, out-house, that old question
21. Newbie's guide to Twitter | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone
22. Ten Excellent Online Apps For the Innovative Teacher
23. Mzinga : White Paper Series : eLearning 2.0 & Communities 2.0
24. Learning Networks and Connective Knowledge
25. The Bamboo Project Blog: My Personal Learning Environment
An example of a PLE
26. Project Management and E-Learning: MORE is Worse
27. Horizon Report 2008
The annual Horizon Report seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression within learning-focused organizations.
28. Beyond Text: using your voice online
29. The Technology Source Archives - Seven Principles of Effective Teaching: A Practical Lens for Evaluating Online Courses
30. The New Learning Landscape - Using Wiki in Education -
How do students learn in a world where traditional assessments of intelligence are radically changing, abundant knowledge is more readily available, and learning community is more important than ever? By Stewart Mader
31. A third of teachers 'struggle with technology' | E-learning | EducationGuardian.co.uk
A third of teachers struggle to use the technology schools are equipped with and want more support and training, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) said today. NFER's first Teacher Voice Omnibus Survey (TVOS), which was completed b
32. KnowledgeWorks - Map of Future Forces Affecting Education - Education Map
interactive map about future forces of education
33. eLearning Reviews: research on elearning
Provides those interested in research on elearning with concise and thoughtful reviews of relevant publications.
34. How Students Develop Online Learning Skills (EDUCAUSE Quarterly) | EDUCAUSE CONNECT
35. Steve Hargadon: Web 2.0 Is the Future of Education
36. eLearn: Feature Article
E-learning 2.0
37. eLearn: Best Practices - What do you mean when you say usability?
38. Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0
39. Mental Model Musings
40. eLearn: In Depth TutorialsDesigning Usable, Self-Paced e-Learning Courses: A Practical Guide
41. The Ultimate Student Resource List - Lifehack.org
42. Instructional design - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
43. Podcast on Social Networking in Project-Based Learning | Beyond School
44. games2train.com: Marc Prensky - Twitch Speed
45. Learning and Networking with a Blog (Deleted Scenes) : eLearning Technology
46. Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0 (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUCAUSE CONNECT
47. Instructables - The World's Biggest DIY & How To Show & Tell
48. Really Fast Storyboarding for E-Learning Projects - DSA Learning & Performance Tips Newsletter
49. Creating Scripts and Storyboards for e-Learning
50. Infinite Thinking Machine
51. 10 Universities Offering Free Writing Courses Online -- Education-Portal.com
52. Innovate: Uses and Potentials of Wikis in the Classroom
53. Online Schooling Grows, Setting Off a Debate
54. Back to School with the Class of Web 2.0: Part 1
55. Project Based Learning Checklists
56. Just-in-time vs. Just-in-case learning
57. Knowing Knowledge: Home
Knowledge is changing. It develops faster, it changes more quickly, and it is more central to organizational success than in any other time in history. Our schools, universities, corporations, and non-profit organizations, need to adapt. We need to chang
58. Elgg, Drupal, and Moodle -- the components of an online learning environment | FunnyMonkey - Tools for Teachers
59. E-Learning & Web 2.0
60. Bloom's Taxonomy
61. e-learning 2.0: All You Need To Know - ReadWriteWeb
62. The Art of Building Virtual Communities (Techlearning blog)
63. Personal Learning Environments Wiki - JITT
64. The Wales-Wide Web | Personal Learning Environments
65. Innovate: Collecting, Organizing, and Managing Resources for Teaching Educational Games the Wiki Way
66. What Steve Jobs Can Teach You About Designing E-Learning - The Rapid eLearning Blog
67. The Social Affordances of the Internet for Networked Individualism
68. Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction: An Introduction
Just as Malcolm Knowles is widely regarded as the father of adult learning theory, Robert Gagne is considered to be the foremost researcher and contributor to the systematic approach to instructional design and training. Gagne and his followers are known
69. 10 Signs of Intelligent Life at YouTube (Smart Video Collections) | Open Culture
70. 10 Ways to Make Your iPod a Better Learning Gadget | Open Culture
71. Critical Thinking in an Online World
72. The Bazaar - Bazaar project " Personal Learning Environments
73. Podcasting and education - White Paper
74. A Big List of Sites That Teach You How To Do Stuff
75. Inside Outside, Upside Downside Strategies for Connecting Online and Face-to-Face Instruction in Hybrid Courses
76. How to take a course at MIT free -- at home
77. Online Copywriting 101: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet — Part 2
78. The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age " I. Overview
79. · e-Learning and the ADDIE Model
For best results, the development process for CD-ROM or Web-based training programs should use a modified ADDIE model, which borrows from the most valuable aspects of the systemic approach. Specifically, a rapid prototype phase is inserted after, or as an
80. The Top Web-Based Education Resources
81. Google Scholar - a new way of navigating through scholarly materials
82. The Self-Directed Student Toolbox: 100 Web Resources for Lifelong Learners | OEDb
83. Collaborative Learning Using Web 2.0 Tools - A Summary : eLearning Technology
84. Theories and models of and for online learning
85. The newsletter for the Association for Learning Technology: Using a Virtual Learning Environment to motivate learners
86. Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds - Kaiser Family Foundation
87. How Adults Learn :: Ageless Learner
88. eLearning & Deliberative Moments: The present and future of Personal Learning Environments (PLE)
This post is recast from an assignment I completed about four months ago in a Masters Degree course entitled Innovative Practice and Emerging ICT, in which I investigated what PLEs are meant to be and where they might be going. It was originally part of a
89. CREST+ Model: Writing Effective Online Discussion Questions
90. 10 Damaging E-learning Myths (elearningpost)
These myths seem to be spreading at an infectious pace. This list gives us an opportunity to look again at the assumptions and beliefs that have come to define our dealings with customers.
91. Reflective Learning Future Thinking (pdf Object)
This paper summarises the results of the Reflective Learning, Future Thinking research seminar jointly held by ALT, SURF and ILTA at Trinity College Dublin. At this seminar 50 leading researchers from three nations came together to share thoughts about th
92. Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century
93. Social software: E-learning beyond learning management systems
94. eLearn: Case Studies - The Reluctant Online Professor
95. Color Theory for web designers - Colors on the Web - color combination, color wheel, color schemes
96. Ten Web 2.0 things you can do in ten minutes to be a more successful e-learning professional
97. Learning Networks and Connective Knowledge
98. John Seely Brown: Growing Up Digital
Growing Up Digital: How the Web Changes Work, Education, and the Ways People Learn
99. Futurelab - Research - Publications - Social software and learning
100. Assessing Learning Management Systems
Learning Objective
Through the comments in Blog Learning (itself about learning through discussions on blogs) something hit me. Stephen Downes and Jay Cross would say this is a "no duh." But I had just never formulated it this way.
The comment was roughly that this blog (eLearningTechnology)
'has significantly more than the new learner "needs" to know. 'I would hope so!
But it also made me realize that someone might come to this blog thinking that it's purpose was to help them learn. And that the core objective might be to help a "new learner."
What's the learning objective associated with this blog? I hate to be so self serving, but the objective is really to help my personal learning. To a lesser extent the learning objective is to help other people learn.
In other words, the objective of this blog is not really to try to teach the readers a particular set of things. I hope that each post offers insights into a topic. It may spark some thoughts. Cause us to have a discussion.
But what do I post about? Well it's what I found interesting at that moment and what's meaningful to me that I think might also be meaningful and useful to you.
When you boil it down, there's learning on both sides - but the intent is first to support my learning (my personal learning objectives) - I don't really know you well enough to try to support your learning in any meaningful way. That's up to you. I hope my blog is part of that.
Of course, I may have just learned something myself - and maybe you did also. :)
90-9-1 Rule aka 1% Rule in Collaborative Environments
I was just talking to someone who is regular reader of my blog and they claimed that I had never officially posted about the 90-9-1 Rule which is often referred to as the 1% Rule. Basically this rule tells us that in collaborative environments, e.g., discussion groups, wikis, etc. for every 100 people that sign up:
- 90 will lurk (read with no active participation)
- 9 will participate in a limited fashion (maybe rate or comment periodically)
- 1 will regularly post content
- Incentives or requirements (students must blog - it's graded)
- Community cohesion
- Focus (short time frame, limited topic)
- Integrated as natural activity
And even with these efforts and while some environments differ in their participation rates, there is often a similar spread of participation which can be a big problem for the effectiveness of social solutions. Think about it:
To get 10 active content contributors, you need an audience of size 1,000.More information:
Wikipedia article: 1% Rule
Guardian article: "What is the 1% rule?"
"The 1% Rule: Charting citizen participation
Quantitative Analysis Of User Generated Content (PDF) - paper
Reframing Conference Social Tool Participation
Through my recent post: Social Conference Tools - Expect Poor Results I've received a bit of feedback on being such a pessimist (Dave Ferguson) and a great comment from Sue Waters that made me realize I needed to reframe the problem. I've been disappointed by the low participation rates and generally haven't seen that much value from these tools. But, most of the tools provided are aimed at trying to get everyone in the conference to use the tools.
Instead, if we believe the 90-9-1 Rule, then the real questions should be:
- How can we create systems that when they are adopted by 1% of the population, we can provide value for the rest of the conference attendees and appropriately reward the 1%ers?
- What can we provide for the 9%ers so they can make lightweight contributions that add value?
- How can we effectively integrate the 90%ers so they get value from the 9%ers and the 1%ers?
One warning about this ... I'm not sure I can count every conference attendee as even a 90%er. Are they even going to enroll in the collaborative system? So, for a conference with 1,000 attendees, how many participants can you realistically expect. There will be anomalies (e.g., a Web 2.0 conference).
Social Conference Tools - Expect Poor Results
I saw a post by David Warlick - Reaching Out With Your Conference where he suggests that conference organizers should:
A lot of these I think are really good ideas in theory and I'm constantly waiting for them to take off. Actually, I'm continually trying to figure out how to make conferences more effective use of time. And I've actually talked about this quite in posts such as:
- Consider a social network for your conference. Although I remain skeptical about social networks, social networking is essential, and a few conferences have made brilliant use of them.
- Give presenters a wiki page to spread out their session descriptions, post presentation commercials, and generate discussion through the commenting feature.
- Give exhibitors a wiki page to spread out their description and to add special offers, schedules of booth presentations, and codes for door prizes.
- Establish and CLEARLY advertise conference tags for bloggers and photographers.
- Either aggregate photos and blog entries, or set up a conference page on Hitchhikr and link to that. (I’m considering doing a major rebuild of Hitchhikr.)
- Generate a tag cloud that represents the conversation that is the conference.
- If you have a social network or are connecting to profiles in some other way, ask attendees (physical & virtual) what’s on their radar, and post that, perhaps as a tag cloud.
- Keep the conference web site going. Continue to maintain it. Post videos and audio podcasts of sessions. It’s good for your community, and good advertising for your conference.
- More on Better Conferences
- Making the Most of Attending a Conference - Ideas Needed
- Better Conferences
- Better Conferences - Response Needed
- More posts on Conferences
However, ...
My basic feeling is that there's a fundamental flaw in all of these ideas that lead to poor results. The flaw is that it appears that people are quite willing to attend conferences without any up-front effort, back-end effort and probably the minimum effort during the conference. I posted how to Be an Insanely Great Professional Conference Attendee, but the requirement is to do some work to figure out what you really are trying to get out of the conference. It takes some time (but not a lot). Do attendees do this? It's rare.
In addition to the lack of effort, there's another big problem - lack of skills and experience. I've questioned before Conference Networking Tools - Do They Work?
and the answer is that most of these tools are not very good. I've recently tried to use the one associated with the ASTD conference. It's not going to help me connect with people. I feel I'm relatively adept at networking via online tools, and have talked about how I use tools ahead of events Secret for Networking at Events - Prenetworking it's still really tough.
Based on what I've seen, I question whether it makes much sense for organizers to spend time on these things.
Let me try to summarize - these ideas are great, but they are social solutions that require participation and we don't get participation because of lack of effort and lack of skills.
Pronunciation goes 2.0
I've been looking this week at Forvo, which is a kind of web 2.0 pronunciation site. The site allows users to request, and add audio clips of the pronunciation of different words from a huge range of languages, so if you want to know how a word is pronounced you can either do a quick easy search for the word and then listen to it, or if the word isn't already within the database, you can add it and request a pronunciation.
You can also be helpful and add the pronunciation to words which have been requested in your language.
The site offer free registration, but you can find words, request words and pronounce words without registering. The benefit of registration is that you'll be notified when someone pronounces your word for you.
What I like about it
- It's a great idea and it's free
- Very easy to use interface
- Lots of different languages
- Sound clips load quickly and a reasonably good quality
- Registration isn't required
- Potentially a huge and growing resource
What I'm not so sure about
- Like most things on the web, especially Web 2.0, you can't be sure of the quality or authenticity of what you are getting, so if you are using this with students check out the words they are after and make sure the quality of the pronunciation is good (My litmus test was 'aluminium' and it feel somewhere between the UK and US versions)
- Watch out for students who want to pronounce the (four letter) words that they shouldn't be using (though probably better for them to pronounce them well than badly)
- It would be really nice to have regional variations of the pronunciation, but I guess that's broadening out the amount of work a bit far.
How to use this with students
- This is a nice self access resource for students to check their pronunciation
- You could give students a list of words and get them to find out how they are pronounced
- Get students to add some words that they want to be able to pronounce
- Use the site to dictate words while students listen, then get them to go to the site and check that they have got the right words
Hope you enjoy it and can get your students involved.
Best
Nik
Blog Learning
Something I (probably too often) talk about is learning via a blog. It certainly is a great lens to have in viewing the world. It puts you into a learning mode. It naturally builds a network of learning cohorts. Simply put, it's a wonderful learning tool.
But what struck me recently is how great the feedback and interaction can be. In other words, I'm learning via blog comments and blog posts by other bloggers - likely much more than anyone reading the blog itself.
In some cases, I've set out with a specific information need and asking for input:
In many cases, I post my thoughts and someone comes in to correct me or redirect my thinking. Take a look at:
I started with a kind of inquiry and found myself realizing that one of the citations I gave was an example of a badly designed course teaching about instructional design.
But one of the best kinds of examples comes out of discussions such as in the following:
I originally posted a thought. Then people came in to clarify it and redirect my thinking. I was originally thinking of a pretty limited case - looking up a phone number. How that's changed. And I may still use that. But consider how rich the problem is as described by a comment over the weekend:
I'm running through the same questions in regards to a certification desk of help desk technicians in my office. What is more valuable to the company - a technician that knows the answers, or a technician that knows how to look up the anwers. I'm coming to the point where I am leaning in both directions, and it's kind of making me angry internally for not being able to come to a conclusion.Incredible insight. It's not nearly that simple as the phone number example. And I completely understand what Alan (the commenter) is saying here. And certainly, waiting for someone to look up the answer or finding out that they need to look it up can seem wrong. And not knowing why something is right worries me as well. Certainly, I would worry about hiring someone who always looked up answers and didn't seem to "know" anything.
One one hand - a person who knows the answer immediately sounds more professional (gives a sense of knowledge when speaking to the customer), and resolves problems more quickly.
On the other - a person who knows how to look something up is generally more capable of finding the correct answer, at the expense of a) time spent looking up the correct answer and b) looking like they do not know anything because they constantly need to go for help.
I have a similar issue when it comes down to people who 'understand' the material vs people who look up the answers. I can train almost anyone to fetch an answer from a database, but what is more valuable - a person who truly understands the material and understands why doing action A leads to result B, or person who looks up action A, gets result B, and then has to go back to the answer book to find next step C?
My superiors think that people who can answer scripted questions are more valuable to my industry, yet they consistently rely on people who understand the theory of problem resolution to actually fix anything important. I think that having 2 people who are able to think with logic and resolve issues correctly beats 5 people who can only read from a script.
How do I figure out what is the best situation and how do I convey this to managemnt.
Blog Learning!
I'm not claiming this is anything new (see Blogging for Learning and Networking) but the comment this weekend gave me new appreciation of the value proposition.
