Thinking in the 21st century is just different. That doesn’t mean we’re all suddenly omnipotent cyborgs, nor does it mean we’ve all become mindless social media addicts that spend our cognitive might tapping, swiping, and drooling on our smartphone and tablet screens.   But just as the 19th century presented unique challenges to information processing than [...] The post 3 Knowledge Domains For The 21st Century Student appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

…we thought it might be useful to take a look at why visuals are useful as classroom tools, and some do-s and don’t-s of using visuals. Enter the handy infographic below. While this particular visual isn’t necessarily geared towards teachers, the concepts can be applied easily both in the classroom and in the professional development arena (and [...] The post How Visuals Help Us Learn appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

Data visualization is one of the most delightful trends in media. It’s perfect for skimming and can turn a boring economic analysis into a work of art. Many practitioners are looking for inspiration in this quickly evolving field. A (relatively) new Reddit, DataIsBeautiful, aims to collect the best of the Web in a daily rounded up [...] The post Data Is Beautiful is a hidden gem for gorgeous data visualizations appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

In this article, I want to focus on tips and tools that are free and easily accessible. There are loads of great paid tools out there, and I use many of them. But it is hard to expect someone just getting into this field to pay for expensive software without actually knowing what they are [...] The post 20 free data visualisation tools appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

There is no downside to blended learning. Students will be incredibly engaged, but do take caution: It will change your way of teaching forever. Source: www.fractuslearning.com See on Scoop.it - Blended Learning Lab The post 10 Tips for Making Blended Learning "Blend" in your Class appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

Mozilla believes that the use of the Webmaker tools and teaching kits within an online training environment helps facilitate participatory cultures where there are "relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing creations, and some type of informal mentorship" (Jenkins, et al., 2009, p. xi). Source: blog.webmaker.org See [...] The post Sharing: an essential part of web literacy appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

Moodle, for those who did not know, is a popular e-learning platform that has a user base of over 50 thousand registered and verified school sites, serving over 60 million users, in over 6 million courses, with over 1.2 million teachers. The official Moodle Mobile app is now available for those of you on Windows Phone and Windows [...] The post E-learning platform Moodle Mobile arrives on Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

With so many installing or creating Bootstrap based themes - I have noticed more and more use the features in course content. You can style quite a bit, and make things look pretty! Source: www.somerandomthoughts.com See on Scoop.it - Moodlicious The post Bootstrap and Moodle and Tables oh my. appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

From interactive whiteboards and internet-enabled mobile devices, right through to online and cloud-based software, there are a multitude of digital technologies to help learning and teaching which can be overwhelming.   For many educators, the truth is that lack of resources and time make it nigh on impossible to become an expert in every new [...] The post How to make technology a successful partner in teaching appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

Not many Moodlers use the Lesson Activity in Moodle.  Mostly because it’s neither a brilliant quiz engine nor a replacement for the book module.  But when you combine both these elements and spend a bit of time on the design you can create engaging, interactive learning packages that can stand their own against popular content creation [...] The post The Moodle Lesson Activity truly is an amazing content creator appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

Remember feeling nervous before starting your first day on the job? You may have experienced butterflies in your stomach, had questions about expectations, or concerns about learning the rules and finding information. Students feel the same way with a new professor, regardless if the class is face-to-face or online. With technology, you can reduce new-class [...] The post Building Community and Creating Relevance in the Online Classroom appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

Moodle organizes data into courses for online and open learning. Learn how to create a course or quiz for your students in this step-by-step. Source: opensource.com See on Scoop.it - Moodlicious The post Make a quiz using Moodle for your students | Opensource.com appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

Open source platform, Moodle, has been recognised as a Top 100 Learning Tool by the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies for another year. Source: moodle.com See on Scoop.it - Moodlicious The post Moodle Voted Best LMS in Top 100 Tools for Learning | Moodle.com appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

Blended learning is the combination of face-to-face and online instruction in a way that fosters community and improves learning. Successful blended learning happens when technology and instruction inform and support each other, while engaging students of all learning styles and abilities in the learning process. In today’s blog post, we’ll introduce one process for developing [...] The post Moving from Face-to-Face to Hybrid Delivery Using Moodle appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

Even today’s students need support with some areas of digital practice, particularly in an academic context, so it’s important to make sure that these needs are met.   While employability is an obvious driver, developing students who can learn and thrive in a digital society is a key role for universities and colleges.   We define digital [...] The post Developing students’ digital literacy | Jisc appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

How To Optimize Blended Learning Through Learning Activities. Using Learning Activities to Optimize Blended Learning. Blended Learning pros and cons.   Blended courses come with their own benefits and challenges. In this article, you will find invaluable tips and strategies on how to map the class activities with the online materials to achieve the best [...] The post Using Learning Activities to Optimize Blended Learning appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

Innovative professional development initiatives infuse technology with in-person learning to enhance learning experiences for teachers.   Technology can’t replace the very best of in-person learning. Great teachers remain essential to creating and shepherding student learning through discussion, debate, coaching, advising, encouraging collaboration, and, yes, even using technology as a tool for instruction.   The question [...] The post Blended Learning Is for Teachers, Too appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

Is Game-Based Learning the Same as Gamification? Not exactly. Gamification is "applying typical elements of game playing (e.g., point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity." Great classrooms often use both. . Source: www.edutopia.org See on Scoop.it - Blended Learning Lab The post A Guide to Game-Based Learning appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

Share this post Have you heard about Tin Can? As you know, the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) is a set of technical standards for e-learning software products, and it governs how online learning content and learning management systems (LMSs) communicate with each other. The Tin Can API (sometimes known as the Experience API or xAPI) [...] The post Scitent Blog - The Promise and Realities of Tin Can appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

If you are an instructional designer beginning to work with the Experience API (xAPI), you may be wondering how to go about designing and developing an xAPI solution. Some of the authoringtools you use may support the xAPI. But the only activities some of these tools track are the same bookmarking, scoring, and completion data that SCORM handles.   To [...] The post Ten Steps to Plan & Communicate Your xAPI Design to a Web Developer appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

To best discuss how blended learning makes teachers’ days more efficient, we should first be certain we are operating under the same definitions. Blended learning is not taking your lesson plans and throwing them into a blender, as much as some frustrated teachers might like to do at times.   Rather, blended learning is a [...] The post Three Ways Blended Learning Makes Teachers’ Days More Efficient appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

Today I want to share with you this awesome read I came across in Global Citizen Education. The article is entitled " 21st Century Fluencies" and is basically based on Crockett et al.’s book Literacy is Not Enough. The main argument in this paper is that 21st century fluencies are process skills that students need [...] The post The 5 Main Fluencies of The 21st Century Learning appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

There are tons of great tools that integrate directly with Moodle to offer better collaboration, personalized learning and communication. In developing the MediaCore Moodle plugin we gained experience working with Moodle and became familiar with the ecosystem of plugins available for the LMS. Source: www.mediacore.com See on Scoop.it - Moodlicious The post The Top 5 Moodle Plugins for Educators appeared first on Patric Lougheed.

Too often, I hear about administrators asking teachers to use technology without proper instruction or implementation. All the while, many of those administrators have little or no clue about the same technology—even as they advertise its classroom use to parents, board members, and prospective students. Source: www.spinedu.com See on Scoop.it - Digital Literacies The post Administrators: How to Model Digital Leadership | Spin Education appeared first on Patric Lougheed.