How would you answer this question? How do I communicate the value of social media as a learning tool to my organization? Individuals and organizations gave their responses around the web this month. In case you missed it, here is a roundup of some valuable recommendations. Use Unique Strategies for Different Groups At Minute Bio, Jeff Goldman advises taking a unique approach for each group in an organization. For example, for the Management group focus on ROI and case studies. For getting Staff buy-in, make a prototype and keep the content relevant to their work. Get willing users to create buzz. An important insight is to make sure IT implementers are on your side. Identifying the IT social media users and doing some initial legwork for them could help. Focus on the Audience and Organization Clive Shepherd recommends stepping back from the technology itself to consider whether "bottom-up" learning is appropriate for the audience and the organization. He makes a good case for developing independent learners and outlines the advantages of informal learning—it’s cheaper, more responsive, less controlling, less patronizing and more in tune with the times. But he also points out the downside—less certain, less measurable and less suited to dependent learners. Show Examples Jane Hart offers a practical and straightforward approach—show examples. She presents a matrix that shows the types of learning that can occur through the use of varied social media tools, such as blogs, presentations and podcasts. The types of learning she includes are: Intra-Organisational, Formal Structured, Group Directed, Personal Directed and Accidental & Serendipitous. This important resource is a rather convincing testament to the ways people learn through social media. Partner with Innovator and Early Adopter Types RK Prasad recommends the Diffusion of Innovations approach from the book by Everett Rogers. He encourages you to partner with Innovators and Early Adopters and points to research showing that people evolve through stages in response to innovation. Thus, individuals differ greatly in their readiness to adopt new technologies. By focusing your efforts on Innovator and Early Adopter types you can achieve a small initial success. Then continue to provide success stories to the next group on the continuum, moving along until you reach the Late Adopters. Ensure It Solves A Business Need In his blog, Karl Kapp presents ten strategies for communicating the value of social media. The most sound advice is to make sure it solves a business need. My personal favorites include renaming Social Media to Knowledge Media and to just start using it without telling anyone (beg for forgiveness later). A final compelling strategy from Karl’s list is to position media differently than it’s intended use. For example, you can change a micro-blogging social tool into a productivity tool by modifying the "What are you doing?" question to a "What are you thinking?" or "Can anyone help me?" question. Focus on Outcomes, Results and Small Initiatives Clark Quinn suggests you avoid the word Social Media and instead, talk about the outcomes of informal learning, such as innovation, problem-solving, creativity and research. Focus on results rather than concepts, including case studies and how the competition is using informal learning to solve a business need. Implement as you would any organizational change initiative by starting small with a supportive group. Prevent Social Learning Backlash B.J. Schone advises that you go into this with your eyes open. There will be people who don’t understand, who fear the technology, who think the names are silly, and who feel threatened. To prevent your goals from being undermined by these perceptions, you’ll need to prepare by seeking out allies, communicating both sides of the issue, producing a real example and rebranding the tools with conventional names that make sense for your organization. Fulfill The Five Requirements of Adoption Kevin Jones also bases his recommendations on the Diffusion of Innovations, but focuses on the five requirements. These include: 1) showing the advantages in a way that people perceive the tools as better than what they supersede; 2) ensuring the new approach is compatible with organizational values and experiences; 3) making the new approach as simple to use and understand as possible; 4) starting out with a trial initiative and 5) ensuring the results can be observed by others. Handle Objections Wisely The GoodPractice blog tries to understand the reasons behind common objections so you can offer intelligent responses to comments, such as, "Social Media causes people to slack off" or "My colleagues aren’t interested." They also include a humorous Slide Share presentation about objections to new technology. Real World Examples For some examples of how organizations are using informal learning to solve a business need, see these case studies: Collaborative Learning and Emergent Learning. What are your recommendations for communicating the value of using social media tools for learning? Post from: The eLearning CoachHow To Communicate The Value Of Social Media Share this on LinkedinTweet This!Email this to a friend?Share this on FacebookShare this on del.icio.usStumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUponAdd this to 100 bookmarks

It’s a little after 5am. On a Tuesday. School has been out for just over a week. My classroom looks like this. It needs to be imagined, invented, constructed, from nothing, within two months. I find this video, shared by my colleague Christian Long, absolutely inspirational. The Future Is Ours, indeed.

This morning's digital edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education featured a story that is such a cheesy, headline-seeking piece of writing that I simply can't help calling the question - Do you guys really call this kind of brand-mongering,...

People who create eLearning get involved in many types of content development tasks. In addition to researching and developing content for courses, you may find yourself creating training manuals for webinars or the classroom, writing web copy, making reference materials, and developing Electronic Performance Support Systems, Help documentation, presentations and so on. During all of these tasks, you will be organizing content at a high level to give it a meaningful structure. A meaningful structure is logical, helping people to comprehend and retain the content as well as helping them quickly find the content they need. Assuming that you’ve sufficiently wrapped your mind around the content, use the list below to find the most effective strategy for organizing it. Sticking to one high-level strategy will help streamline the design process and it helps learners and users understand the larger framework of a course, website or document. The content on this page is organized alphabetically. Alphabetical A conventional but important organizing principle for content is alphabetical order. Because most people learn how to use alphabetical order in childhood, it’s nearly intuitive. Alphabetical order allows for quick and easy access to information. Example: Help documentation, glossaries, lists like this. Categorical Some content has a flat structure. There is no hierarchy, no sequence and all of the topics are more or less at the same level of difficulty with no prerequisites. In this case, you can organize the content by category in a nonlinear structure. For example, content can be organized by tasks (e.g., teaching all of the editing functions in Word) or by products (e.g., information about cell phones with high-end cameras).  Example: A course for teachers presenting the rules of various children’s games might be organized by games for preschoolers, games for early elementary years and games for older children. Cause and Effect Organizing content by cause and effect may not be the first approach you think of, but it can be effective when used for the the right purpose. When the content presents problems and solutions, then a cause and effect structure is appropriate. Example: A course on troubleshooting a network for IT professionals could be arranged by problems and solutions. Inherent Structure Often content has its own structure that is cognitively natural to the subject. If the content presents events in a time line, then a chronological order is self-evident. If the content revolves around various geographical areas, then organization by location is natural. Example: A course teaching agriculture extension agents about soil could be organized by soil layers, starting with the topsoil. Order of Importance In a flat structure without hierarchy, the most effective approach for organizing content might be by the order of its importance. Because learners usually pay the most attention to the beginning and end of a topic, you have quite a few options for arranging the content. You can either: 1) place the most important content at the start AND the end or 2) proceed from the least important to the most important content or 3) go from most important to least. This last approach is my favorite. An analysis of your content will help you figure out which approach to choose. Example: In an online presentation for new employees, Human Resources might first want to introduce critical security issues and how to safeguard company information prior to discussing less important issues, such as the office holiday party. Simple to Complex Instructional content can be organized from the simple to complex even when the simpler content is not subordinate or prerequisite to the complex content. This strategy provides a slow initiation into a subject, building the learner’s confidence and knowledge base. Example: A course on personal finance might teach how a savings account works prior to teaching how to balance a checkbook. Although the savings account content is not prerequisite for balancing a checkbook, it’s an easier concept to grasp. Sequential When you’re presenting a process or procedure, it’s often most effective to structure the content as a series of steps. The structure of sequential content provides hooks for learners to remember the steps of the procedure. Example: A course that teaches how to draw blood from a patient would require a sequential structure. Spiral A spiral approach might be difficult to implement in a single course, but it is certainly appropriate for a curriculum. A Spiral structure revisits each topic in a systematic way at a more detailed and complex level each time. Example: A typical mathematics curriculum uses the spiral approach. Subordinate to Higher Level (Hierarchical) When the content requires that a learner master subordinate skills or knowledge to advance to a higher level skill, a hierarchical structure is effective. This is one of the most well-used structures for courses because much of what people learn is based on prerequisite knowledge and skills. Example: As a prerequisite to learning how to handle difficult customers at a call center, learners would first need to know the basics of effective customer communication. Whole to Parts An excellent approach to organizing content is to introduce the big picture or system view first and then to delve into the parts of the system. Providing the big picture helps adult learners make sense of information. It also provides a framework for fitting information together in memory. The whole to parts organization is similar to a general to specific structure. Example: In a course or in documentation about computer repair, first present the higher-level systems of the computer and then present the components of each system. If I’ve omitted any approaches that you use, please add them to the Comments below. Related Article: Chunking Information Post from: The eLearning CoachContent Organization Cheat Sheet Share this on LinkedinTweet This!Email this to a friend?Share this on FacebookShare this on del.icio.usStumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUponAdd this to 100 bookmarks

Time to switch gears. Being a connected educator is great, but I am also a learner, right?  I registered for the ISTE conference in Atlanta in June.  I’m excited!  I’ve been to business and industry related conferences before; they’re always informative and great networking opportunities. This one feels different though.  Perhaps because I’m focusing my professional energy […]

It goes without saying that one of the key forces driving our creation of the K4STEMLAB is the relentless and accelerating pace of technological change. Schools and organizations everywhere struggle to keep up, forced to contemplate expensive and complex infrastructure improvements to give students powerful, accessible learning environments with the resources they need to be creative, collaborative and effective learners. It’s a gargantuan task. We are absolutely thrilled to announce our partnership with Classlink, who will be providing their award-winning Launchpad service to students in the K4STEMLAB at Northfield Community School for the 2012-13 school year! What’s Classlink Launchpad? Check out this quick video overview: You can find other helpful Classlink videos here, here, and here. But what is "The Cloud?" This video from ABC News explains, in layman’s terms: But why does it MATTER, particularly in K-12 schools? The New Media Consortium’s 2012 Horizon Project has this to say about cloud computing: Cloud computing has become the unifying factor among content and applications on the many devices people use in everyday life. Whether connecting at home, work, school, on the road, or in social spaces, nearly everyone who uses the network relies on cloud computing to access their information and applications. The ability to access services and files from any location and on any device offers considerable promise for extending learning beyond the boundaries of the school day. We have yet to talk here on the blog about other cloud-based services K4STEMLAB students will be utilizing - most notably, Google Apps for Education - but one of the reasons we are so excited about Launchpad is that it seamlessly integrates with our existing network infrastructure, giving students the ability to access existing network files, shares and other resources from any Internet-connected device. We live in a blended world. Cloud-based tools like Launchpad will give our students the ability to access and utilize legacy applications like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel while we move closer to becoming a "Google School" just a few short years from now. It’s coming. NCS students will be ready! This post is part of a series about our plans to "reinvent" my K-4 Computer Lab class as a STEM (Science, Engineering, Technology & Math) course starting in September 2012. By "thinking out loud" here I hope to keep stakeholders apprised of our ideas, activities & progress while I gain wisdom and perspective from anyone who cares to join the conversation.  

Just watch the pretty roses…. There’s an article online by Mark Smithers called ‘Is lecture capture the single worst educational technology use in higher education?’  My instinct on reading this was to jump up and down several times screaming ‘YES!’  You can read the article here, by the way. Now, it’s not like me to dismiss anything that is doing the rounds in the learning tech zeitgeist. Keep an open mind but be critical of everything is my motto, so I have embraced the world of MOOCs despite people regularly reporting high attrition rates, have taken on board the fact that the flipped classroom is not quite the new black that everyone was raving about 3 years ago, but is still a useful umbrella term that has some great elements within, and am genuinely surprised that, after all the hype, Google Glass has been dissolved. This despite the fact that Augmented and Virtual Realities are constantly at the top of the ‘new, emerging and life-changing’ technological charts. But lecture capture has always riled me. The thought of filming a 3 hour lecture then slapping it onto a virtual learning system and expecting students to watch this in their own time seems more like a punishment than a good idea. I felt myself falling into a coma halfway through the first Lord of the Rings film…but then again, I’m not a fan of Tolkien. Learning should be at least a little bit active - passively watching a film of a lecturer reading PowerPoint slides on a Friday night when you could be doing something - anything - else is just cruel. And lecturers, by and large, are not natural performers. Nor did they go into the business of lecturing to perform or entrain. As Smithers says: ‘The technology does nothing to engage the student who instead of sitting passively in a lecture theatre checking their text messages will now sit passively in front of a screen at home checking their text messages.’ Furthermore: ‘Traditional lectures aren’t designed for online delivery. They’re too long. Their length is designed to fit in with the timetabling constraints of the buildings in which lectures take place not for any pedagogical reason. Why should this physical constraint be allowed to migrate its way into flexible online delivery?’ I also have a sneaking suspicion that staff and institutions feel; the benefit of lecture capture more than their students. By filming your 3 hour diatribe on connecting muscles in the lower leg once, you never have to repeat the lecture again! Just point students towards the film and bingo! Plus - you’ve ticked the all-important ‘I have met the needs of students in the 21st century by taking this online approach’ box. Hurray for you! That’s not to say that lecture capture is all bad - as I said earlier, I do try to keep an open mind and think critically, and the chance to watch a lecture in your own time that you maybe couldn’t attend at the time of filming is very convenient, as is the option to pause, rewind and re-watch sections that may need to be repeated for consolidation. And yes-in times of increased workloads and larger class sizes, lecturers need the time freed up by not needing to repeat ‘live’ lectures. In fact, they need any free time they can grab. But I do remember the first instance of a recorded lecture I saw, and it still makes me cringe. The lecture theatre had a built-in lecture capture system which could be switched on and off by the lecturer by simply pressing a button positioned conveniently upon the lectern. When the lecture was over, the film would be automatically sent to IT Services, where they would process it and send it to the lecturer as a film file compatible with the VLE. So far so good. I took a look at the film in question and was totally amazed. The camera used was static and trained at the lectern (which had a lovely bowl of roses perched on top. This is pretty much all I remember about the film). The lecturer introduced herself and the title of the lecture then immediately stepped away from the podium and towards the large screen displaying her accompanying PowerPoint presentation. The camera, being static, did not follow her. What ensued was a 3 hour film of an empty lectern and a bowl of flowers, and the disembodied and barely-audible sound of a lecturer who had stepped away from both the lectern and microphone. What a gripping learning experience it was… So, with this in mind, I invite you to read this: my second paper for the INTED2015 conference, looking at how I have developed a ‘bite-sized’ and more interactive framework for lecture capture. You can find it here.

In the few moments since I posted my rant about a recently posted article by a leading higher education newspaper publisher, I received a note from a colleague suggesting that perhaps it might not be such a good idea to...

I’ve made a few decisions in my career that have been controversial in my circle of academical aware people.  After all, years ago, I made the conscious choice to be a scientist, knowing being a woman in science would be hard.  I also knew being black would add to the mix, and its been very […]

It’s been a while since my last update. Sorry about that. We had some rough weather a while back and had not power for several days. The area is mostly back to normal now, though evidence of the destruction remains. Damage estimates for our area are still being formulated, I am betting the number will end up in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Fortunately in our area there was no loss of life. So it’s been a little hard getting back into the swing of things. Meanwhile, the clock ticks on… Before I became a teacher, I worked in the world of Information Technology as a Senior Business Analyst / Project Manager. That means I either designed or managed teams of people who designed information systems, in particular, Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS) by Oracle. I was … a software engineer, essentially. One of the many skills I developed in that line of work was requirements analysis, a process that Wikipedia says "encompasses those tasks that go into determining the needs or conditions to meet for a new or altered product, taking account of the possibly conflicting requirements of the various stakeholders, such as beneficiaries or users." Well, it’s no wonder that software engineering is such a great foundation for a second career in education. Alas, I digress. I never thought I’d be designing information systems for use in my classroom, but that’s exactly what I’m about to do. What’s  a Learning Management System (LMS) and why do we need one? LMS’s have been around for a very long time. At its core, an LMS is a database-driven website with information students need for learning. I’ve used LMS’s as a student, I’ve taught with them (for Walden University’s Graduate School of Education and elsewhere), but I’ve never BUILT one of any significance, for more than a small group of people to use. Self-directed learning is going to be big in the STEMLAB. Big, big, BIG. So, too, is the ability for students (in grades 2-3-4) to access learning material anytime, anywhere, and, if all goes well, on any device. Our LMS doesn’t have to be elaborate. But what does it NEED to help our students learn? Basically, to create the system, we need a list of features / functionality / capabilities. It’s one of my goals this week from last week. Using our LMS, students need to: Understand the goal - what they are being asked to learn, do, accomplish in a given lesson. Access information related to the task - instructional videos & screencasts, reference websites, interactives, Web 2.0 tools, etc. Interact with me and with each other. Store notes, digital images, perhaps movies, and other web content. Turn in "assignments" (or share links to artifacts stored online). Earn "badges" as they acquire (and can demonstrate proficiency in) core skills, particularly those related to the assigned task. And, they need to be able to do this on their own, at school, or at home. The Importance of Literacy and a Blended Approach Before we go any further with this idea, it’s clear that the biggest struggle we are going to face is literacy. My students are going to need to be able to understand the LMS user interface, process the learning materials, understand how to communicate using the LMS. I am still searching for examples of elementary classrooms where these kinds of systems have been deployed.  Have I lost my mind? We’ll see… That said, it’s clear to me that the LMS I build must to be part of a blended learning solution that combines teacher-led instruction and printed materials as well. This graphic, which as far as I’ve been able to determine (thanks, Jackie Gerstein!) was first used at http://www.testbagacademy.com/, summarizes it nicely: image credit: http://www.testbagacademy.com/ Possible LMS Platforms Right now, the clear front-runner is Edmodo, for a variety of reasons including we’re already using it at NCS. It appears to have the feature set we need, excellent support, a dead-simple user interface, integration with Google Apps, and much more. Other platforms I’m looking at include Haiku LMS, Moodle, WordPress with the Buddypress Plugin, and any others that are FREE and EASY TO USE. Which brings me back to the requirements. If the system isn’t easy to use, nothing else is going to matter. Time to start moving on to the design phase… This post is part of a series about our plans to "reinvent" my K-4 Computer Lab class as a STEM (Science, Engineering, Technology & Math) course starting in September 2012. By "thinking out loud" here I hope to keep stakeholders apprised of our ideas, activities & progress while I gain wisdom and perspective from anyone who cares to join the conversation.

In case you haven’t heard, The eLearning Coach now has a collection of free downloadable storyboard templates for both Word and PowerPoint that were graciously donated by the eLearning community. This is an ongoing effort, so check back if you want them all. If you would like to contribute to this collection, please let me know through the Contact form. Check out the Storyboard Depot. Post from: The eLearning CoachAnnouncing Free Storyboard Templates Tweet This! Share this on Linkedin Share this on Facebook Buzz up! Share this on del.icio.us Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon Email this to a friend?

A few weeks ago I provided technical support at a couple of online exams I’d been involved in. Keeping a long and dull story as short as I can, these exams had traditionally taken the form of paper-based tests, which were then marked individually and by hand by the course lecturers. I converted the papers into SCORMs, uploaded them to the university’s VLE, students then logged in, sat the exam, clicked on ‘submit’ and their results were calculated electronically. A nifty quick win - no staff time taken up with marking, no costly bits of ink-covered paper to get lost, students get their results immediately and the school looks a bit more cutting edge. Having just read that paragraph back, I broke my promise to keep a long story short. But hey, we all need a little context. This was the fourth or fifth cohort to work through the exam - and, as always, there were a couple of technical issues - thankfully, not with the exams themselves, but with students forgetting their passwords, etc. And that’s why I was there - to sort out these issues, and to fix anything that DID go wrong. My being there also meant that there was another invigilator in the exam room and everything went swimmingly. Apart from one thing. Another invigilator, on seeing that I had to help a student with an issue logging into the VLE wandered over to me and muttered, rather smugly: ‘Bring back paper exams. They never go wrong.’ I smiled politely, noticing an all too familiar pang of frustration in my belly, and started the arduous task of wandering around the exam room counting down the minutes until the exam was over and I could find coffee. A few minutes later, the same member of staff wandered up to me again. ‘And pens’ she whispered. ‘Bring back pens. Much better than keyboards.’ ‘I love pens.’ I replied. ‘In fact, I have a Waterman fountain pen that I use all of the time.  It’s got a gold-plated nib and everything!’ ‘Bet you don’t’ she retorted, that self-satisfied smile returning to her face. ‘I bet it’s never even seen an ink cartridge. Or a bit of paper.’ After a smattering of similar comments, the exam came to an end, and as I left the exam room to find that elusive coffee, a final comment - delivered at greater volume now that talking was allowed again -rang in my ears. ‘I still say technology is rubbish and we need to bring back paper and pens.’ Now, it has been a few years since the last time I felt verbally attacked by a member of teaching staff for liking technology.  The last time was back in 2009, when I was heavily involved in using Second Life for teaching. A colleague came into my sharted office, sat at a desk next to me and launched into a tirade about how I was setting a dangerous precedent because students with learning difficulties were being forced into using Second Life without understanding all the ‘sex and stuff that goes on there all the time.’ ‘It’s just a virtual knocking shop’ she humphed at me, eyes blazing and body language a bit too ‘in your face’ for my comfort. ‘And you are telling us that we have to use it in our teaching.  How do we assess anything? People like you are a danger to education!’  At this point, I must defend myself by saying that I had introduced Second Life to my colleagues as a possible addition to their teaching toolkit, to be used only if they had the time to learn how it worked and had an activity what would be more affective if delivered in a virtual world. So in 2015, why is this still happening? I would suggest that there are several contributing factors that are all linked, and in being linked, become impossible to disentangle.  Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you The Gordian Knot(s) of Technology Enhanced Learning.  Knot 1. Staff do not have dedicated time within their timetables to learn how to use technology effectively (let alone innovatively) as part of their teaching practice. On top of long hours and a massive workload asking them to, effectively, become fluent (or at least conversational) in a new language in their own time is pretty unreasonable. Knot 2. This has a knock-on effect. When staff use technology they have not had the time to really, properly learn, things often go wrong in the classroom and they feel embarrassed, flustered and vulnerable. Worse than that - they feel as if they have lost some of their ‘power’ over students. Because human nature means that we tend to avoid whatever it is that makes us feel powerless and vulnerable, they then decide to play it safe by not using any technology in the classroom or lecture theatre. Some even go a step further and start seeing technology as ‘a force for evil’. Knot 3. There are also a lot of members of the teaching community that will openly admit to feeling threatened by technology. Only a few days ago I attended a meeting looking at using lecture capture, and a lecturer who had been approached to trial some new software wondered: ‘if you film my lecture and I don’t need to deliver it again…will I have my hours cut?’ Here’s the rub. This has been happening for years, and the problem isn’t going away. Instead, it stands prostrate, like an ostrich with its head in the sand, being studiously ignored and stepped around, while every minute of every day, new technologies come and go, new buzzwords and terms become part of the educational zeitgeist (MOOCs and flipped classrooms anyone?) and our friend Brer Ostrich just stands there, head safely tucked away, sand in his ears, refusing to move until retirement. So what can we do to untangle these knots? Timetable in staff development time rather than expect teaching staff to find the time and motivation to teach themselves? This doesn’t work - for every one person that enthusiastically turns up to learn how to use Prezi, two more will attend but moan loudly about how busy they are, how Prezi just makes them feel seasick and how this time could be used more productively. Two more will not bother to turn up, but instead choose use the time ‘more productively’. Go behaviourist on their asses and offer rewards for attending sessions?  This doesn’t work either. I know a learning technologist who set up some breakfast training sessions.  Come into college an hour earlier than usual, and we’ll teach you how to use Prezi AND give you a bacon roll and a coffee as well!  Over the course of 5 sessions, just 7 people turned up. At this point, I’m tapped out for solutions.  Nothing seems to change, and nothing untangles the knots. I guess the only thing that will work is the march of time: eventually, naysayers will retire and be replaced with young, thrusting teachers who were born with smartphones in their chubby little baby hands.  In the meantime, this middle-aged learning technologist will just have to put up with the frustrations that continue to come with the job. Unless anyone out there has any ideas?

I received an email from Better Lesson today. They’re looking for master teachers in science to begin creating lessons and providing resources that align with the Next Generation Science Standards. (NGSS).  Although I’m not quite qualified for the position, I applied anyway.  Yes, I’m a member of the National Education Association (the sponsoring organization), yes, […]

This morning's blogpost is coming to you from the fountain-filled lobby of the Gaylord Palms Hotel, the site of this year's Blackboard World, Developers' Conference and Institute. Last week's news about Blackboard's intention to acquire web conferencing companies Elluminate and...

"Kids are born curious. They are always exploring. We spend the first year of their lives teaching them how to walk and talk, and the rest of their lives telling them to shut up and sit down." - Neil deGrasse Tyson Sitting in Jackie Gerstein’s webinar last night for Week 3 of her PLP Network e-Course, The Complete Guide for Implementing The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture, I realized our school tagline, "Children First," will take on special significance in my classroom this year. If all goes as planned, students will, for the first time, truly be responsible for their own learning. They will truly be "first." To be totally honest, I find that concept simultaneously invigorating and terrifying.It is invigorating because, for the first time in ten years, my students will truly get instruction that is tailored to them personally, allowing them to work at their own pace, literally rewinding & fast-forwarding until they "get it." It is terrifying because, all this fancy talk aside, my students need to learn real skills, in both traditional ICT (information and computing technology [what 'computer lab' has always been]) and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math). This has to work. So, let’s look at some of the challenges ahead. Literacy is going to be a HUGE factor in the effectiveness of our new instructional model. This is elementary school, after all, and 40% of my students are in Kindergarten or First Grade. They are just learning to read. And yet, my experience and intuition tell me that even at these young ages, students already know and are able to: Power on a computer Identify and access icons Use a web browser to visit websites Use headphones Watch, pause and restart a web-based video Close a program when finished How do I know? Because many (most?) of them are already doing it. At home. On their family’s computers, laptops, tablet devices like iPads, iPods, or Kindle Fire’s, or even a parent’s smartphone. And, it’s important to note, not ALL the instruction in my class will be technology based. We are building a blended model, with some instruction being delivered in small groups, and some being supported with printed materials - depending on the needs of the learner. Lack of Access is often cited as a concern when requiring students to use technology outside of school. Several factors mitigate the impact here. First, since I only see students once a week, students will have opportunities during the school day (recess/free time) to use school computers to review the material I will have for them. Second, the videos will be short, chunked in reasonable sizes for maximum efficiency. Third, students will always have the opportunity, as a last resort, to review the material at the start of my class each week. Classroom Management. This one is particularly vexing for a few reasons. First, it’s not a personal strength. Period. It’s probably the single greatest teaching skill I have yet to master. Second, my old lab, a room full of desktop computers, was a natural classroom management tool in itself; students sat down in an assigned seats, logged in, and got to work. While distractions did occur, for the most part, the device usually garnered their full attention. We will have computers in my new room but they will be laptops. There won’t be assigned seats (but there may be assigned tables). Kids will be free to walk around the room and work where they want. So, the physical nature of the room (not to mention its size) will make managing classes more difficult. Awesome. Finally, I don’t expect the kids to be sitting in front of a screen all the time. They may be working collaboratively in groups, writing on our IdeaPaint-covered walls, or reading something from the magazine rack (which we’ll have loaded with kid-friendly titles). Yep. Classroom management is going to be absolutely crucial this year. Sometimes, though, I sometimes wonder … what am I doing here? Walking away from a completely functional computer lab, into a brand-new space, with laptops, and injecting a new focus - STEM - into the curriculum? Honestly, why take this on? Because: I believe in my students. I know they are capable of more than any of us can imagine. I believe that with my guidance, they can teach themselves better than I can teach them en masse. Check out this video. I first saw it in 2009. Sugata Mitra is Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, UK. In this TED talk, he describes his "Hole in the Wall" project, an incredible illustration of how children - among the world’s poorest - teach themselves and each other. (Fast forward to 7m30s for his discussion of the actual experiment.) My goal is, in effect, to build the world’s most advanced "Hole in the Wall" for my students. I intend to create an environment with a collection of resources, both human and digital, that is so rich, so compelling, so engaging, that students will learn in ways no one ever dreamed possible. And, because it will all be web-based, they’ll be able to do it on any internet-connected devices, anywhere, at any time. I have one month, one week, and six days left to prepare for the first day of school. Gotta run! This post is part of a series about our plans to "reinvent" my K-4 Computer Lab class as a STEM (Science, Engineering, Technology & Math) course starting in September 2012. By "thinking out loud" here I hope to keep stakeholders apprised of our ideas, activities & progress while I gain wisdom and perspective from anyone who cares to join the conversation.

Ok, so a couple of posts ago, I talked about getting girls and minority children interested in and focused on learning science and considering careers in science.  I spoke rather passionately about my science hero, Neil Degrasse Tyson.  Lo and behold, if he didn’t say something brilliant and someone record it for all the universe […]

This seemed like the appropriate time of year to offer my recommendations of books from a variety of disciplines that you might find intriguing for yourself or as gifts. After all, one of the best ways to grow and improve is to stretch and learn from other fields. Enjoy! 18 Rules of Community Engagement by Angela Connor Angela Connor uses her experience and wit to chart the unknown frontier of online community management. She discusses how to grow and engage an online community as well as how to handle criticism and deal with troublesome members. If you’re delving into building learning communities with social media, this important guide can light the way. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamont If you’re familiar with Anne Lamott’s novels, you’ll love her book on writing. Her humorous and insightful reflections on life are intertwined with wonderful observations on the art of writing. Not only are her revelations fascinating, but you get the sense that somehow she will help you hone your craft. Designers spend a lot of time writing and not enough learning how to write more creatively. Designing Web Interfaces by Bill Scott For technical books, O’Reilly Publishers is top of the line. This book is an excellent introduction to online user interface design, providing the background, thought processes and uses for just about every type of user interface element you can imagine. Apply this knowledge to your eLearning courses to provide a richer user experience. Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug This wildly popular book is almost a classic and is in its second edition. It’s written on the premise that the first rule of usability should always be, "Don’t make me think." Steve Krug then goes on to teach readers how to make web sites that are obvious in their purpose and usability. Then he’ll convince you that usability testing is crucial for improving the user’s experience. Five Minds for the Future by Howard Gardner Author and professor, Howard Gardner, is well-known for his work on multiple intelligences. In this latest book, Gardner outlines the types of cognitive abilities that will be required in the 21st century. As creators of future learning spaces, it’s helpful to have a fellow educator identify the abilities that need cultivating in a world of increasing change, global participation and information anxiety. Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer by Peter Turchi Peter Turchi weaves together a fascinating book that captures both the beauty of maps and the wonders of writing. Maps of the Imagination is filled with surprises; the author offers a wonderful passage from fiction one moment and a beautiful ancient map the next. He seamlessly hopscotches back and forth between art forms to provide an extravagantly rich reading experience. There’s lots of inspiration here. Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams I often recommend this book to people seeking a beginner’s book on Graphic Design. Art educator, Robin Williams, covers all the basic design concepts in a non-threatening way. She’s your home tutor, providing little self-check quizzes at the end of the chapters. Sound familiar? The last part of the book explores Type, which is an important and woefully omitted topic in online course design circles. Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds Garr Reynolds applies the Zen aesthetic to the world of communication, showing the value of simplicity, restraint and quality. He encourages readers to understand the power of elegant but understated visual design and the complexity of keeping things simple. Whether you use these concepts to make more effective presentations, create finer visuals or to improve your online courses, you’ll probably find them intriguing. Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell For those of you interested in Design, this book captures a broad swath of the field by explaining the essential principles underlying the design experience. Universal Principles presents all this with examples in a highly accessible format. Although readers may be surprised to see concepts relating to business, perception, usability and engineering, the authors make it all fit beautifully. Visual Language for Designers by Connie Malamed Visual Language for Designers presents ways to achieve quick and compelling visual communications. Based on six principles that synthesize  visual design and cognitive science, readers learn to recognize and make use of the hidden language in graphics. There are over 250 examples from designers around the world, providing a rich browsing experience as well. (Come on, I had to include my own book on this list!) Post from: The eLearning Coach10 Book Recommendations From Varied Fields Tweet This! Share this on Linkedin Share this on Facebook Buzz up! Share this on del.icio.us Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon Email this to a friend?

I’ve been searching for a very long time for a solution that will allow me to produce high-quality screencasts using our Google Chromebooks. Thanks to a quick Google search today, I came across a month-old Youtube video that explains one solution in detail: I’ve gone ahead and ordered the Avertv HD DVR High Definition / Analog Video Capture Card and the StarTech.com DP2HDMI2 DisplayPort to HDMI Video Adapter Converter. I just need to find out when our order of Chromebooks will arrive. I’ll get this card set up on my home PC and be ready to start shooting videos! The best part of this solution is that it utilizes commercial screencasting software (we’ll be using Camtasia Studio 8), giving me the most flexibility feature-wise and control over the end product. If my students are going to rely on these videos as extensively as I imagine, they are going to have to be very, very well done. -kj-

I heard from a few of my education friends after posting yesterday's report from Blackboard World. To be honest, several asked point blank what I was thinking to take a positive stand on this particular acquisition development in higher education...

I finish my Masters in Educational Technology program at the American College of Education in 22 days. (oh boy).  When I started this adventure in higher education/personal growth, the plan was to simply FINALLY get a masters degree. Its the thing people in my family do, we educate ourselves until we either run out of […]

What a week it has been since our last update! We have made major progress and are well positioned to power through the remaining 32 days (!) until our first day with students. Sounds like PLENTY of time, but I have eight days of out-of-district commitments and a metric ton of of school technology infrastructure "to-do’s" I need to complete as well. Anyway, on to the highlights… The Learning Space Comes Together Getting the learning space ready has really been our top priority since the project started, and we crossed some major items off our list this week. A while back, I asked our maintenance staff to let me handle some of the painting prep work. They willingly obliged since they were ridiculously busy to begin with. (Who knew I could spackle?) Yesterday, our master painters Ray and Larry (shown above - who needs a drop cloth?) made quick work of the room while I was in Point Pleasant Beach eating burgers and talking STEM with my erstwhile colleague Dave Zirkle. We are still waiting (and hoping) to incorporate IdeaPaint into the space (the wall Larry is painting is one of three we want to cover with the stuff) but the walls needed to be prepped and painted anyway. The room color? "Sky’s the Limit Blue" (Yeah, I just made that up.) Earlier this week, my wife Mary helped me organize a massive collection of science materials donated from colleagues. Miraculously, everything fit into the nifty (wheeled & movable) storage containers provided by our awesome PTO. I managed to hack an abandoned DVD player into an electronic classroom signage system. After a few trips to Home Depot for materials and judicious use of industrial adhesive, our Z-Rack is coming together, too. My Donor’s Choose project is, I’m told, about to be fully funded by the Northfield Education Foundation (NEF), and, in the most exciting news all week, the NEF is also going to fund our request for foam seating cubes! (I’ll make a special announcement about this later.) As a result, carpeting is our only major remaining donation request/need at the moment. Know anyone that runs a carpeting store? Send ‘em our way! Lights, Camera, Learning Ok, so there are no lights and the camera is a in the computer technically but you know what I mean. Screencasting is an absolutely essential component in my instructional strategy for the K4STEMLAB.  If my students are going to be in charge of their own learning, they need my instruction to be available to them, at their pace, individually and privately. There’s only one problem: since the majority of our lessons will be on the Chromebooks, I need to be able to record (screencast) lessons using those devices, but traditional screencasting tools (PC- or web-based) don’t work. I had no idea what I was going to do. Literally by the grace of God I came across a Chromebook screencasting solution posted on YouTube a month ago. Once I ordered the Avertv HD DVR High Definition / Analog Video Capture Card and the StarTech.com DP2HDMI2 DisplayPort to HDMI Video Adapter Converter, and borrowed an HDMI cable and some RAM, I was GOOD TO GO. I started playing with it all last night and threw together this example screencast. It’s rough, and more of a proof of concept than anything else, but, without a doubt, IT WORKS: Ok, Now What? While we wait for our group work tables and "regular" chairs to arrive, my attention is shifting to pedagogy … and classroom management. I’m more than a little frightened by the visual image of 26 high-energy elementary students barreling into my room full of expensive equipment and unconventional seating options. They are going to need guidance. This is going to be new to everyone. Classroom management is without a doubt my greatest weakness. I am going to rely on my colleagues for a LOT of help here. Hopefully I can get some quality time with them before school starts. But the big story on Action News tonight is that virtually everything about HOW I’ve taught in the past is OUT THE WINDOW.  I am effectively STARTING OVER. We will do the same things but in new ways and with new tools. The lessons will have the same objectives, the curriculum is essentially the same (though we are enhancing it with select Engineering is Elementary content and all lessons will have a STEM focus throughout). I mean, honestly. Who DOES this? Who would willingly throw an entire course & curriculum literally up into the air, only to see what happens when "the pieces fall where they may?" (We’re being a lot more thoughtful and intentional than that but you get the idea.) The answer: I would, and I am. Why? Because I believe in my students. I believe they will rise to the challenge when they see what we’re expecting of them, what we have built for them, and how this entire program is tailored to their needs - not mine as their teacher. I. Can’t. Freaking. Wait. Come on, September!

Seriously though..   Anyone wanna hire a newly minted M.Ed in Ed Tech? I don't make coffee, but I unpack a mean standard! #edtech— C. S. Stone (@csstone1161) May 02, 2014

For people who have to make decisions about implementing distributed programs and services, these times of impending changes and the market spin that accompanies that can be excruciating. SO much hand-wringing. Lots of sniping. It's hard to know who or...

In the very early stages of vision—before we’re really conscious of it—our perceptual processes are humming away, attempting to organize the sensory data from our eyes into something that might be meaningful. Both the Gestalt psychologists and modern perceptual researchers realized that perception tends to organize information into wholes, rather than parts. For example, you’re most likely grouping the orange shapes above into an arrow, rather than seeing them as separate elements. We can take advantage of this early perceptual organization so viewers will perceive and understand our visuals correctly and rapidly. One powerful way to impart meaning is through visual grouping. Becoming aware of these principles can also prevent viewers from misinterpreting your visuals from unintended groupings. Grouping by Boundary or Enclosure When parts are enclosed by a completed boundary they are perceived as a single unit—as a group. You are telling the viewer that the elements are related. You might draw a line around a set of buttons in the user interface or place a filled area of color in the background of a map or diagram. Here, we perceive the houses on the colored background as grouped and set apart. Enclosure is a compelling way to provide meaning. Grouping by Proximity The distance between the elements in a graphic or user interface affects how we perceive and interpret it. We see parts that are close together as one unit and parts that are distant from each other as separate and unrelated. We then assume that grouped elements are associated. In this graph on the left, we perceive the bars clustered together as a group. A corollary of this principle is that unintended associations and relationships can occur by placing elements too close together. Grouping by Similarity We tend to see elements that are similar in size, color, shape, orientation, brightness and movement as one group. This is an effective way to show that objects and data are associated in charts, diagrams and maps. In this map, we perceive the countries in blue as a group, indicating they are related in some way. Grouping by Connectedness When elements are connected by a line or common edge, we perceive them as part of a group. In fact, it is difficult to perceive the individual elements without seeing the group. Although this may seem obvious, don’t underestimate the power of connection lines. They can override other grouping principles, such as proximity and similarity. Using connection lines between objects is one of the ways we can accurately portray relationships in diagrams and steps in a process. Grouping by Common Fate Objects that move or appear to move in a common direction are considered to have a ‘common fate’ and are perceived to be a group. Objects with a common fate are interpreted as more related than elements that are stationary or move in different directions or at different times. This grouping principle is particularly important in animation. To ensure that animated objects are perceived as related, move them at the same time, speed and direction. Do you use these or similar techniques with visuals? Share your tricks and tips. Comment below. Post from: The eLearning CoachThe Power Of Visual Grouping Tweet This! Share this on Linkedin Share this on Facebook Buzz up! Share this on del.icio.us Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon Email this to a friend?