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November 24th, 2007 — Collaboration
Kerika “lets you share your ideas, documents and projects with friends and colleagues around the world using Graphical Wikis: a unique approach to team collaboration that makes it easy for everyone to understand what your project is all about.”
This seems like a really good idea and the service is free for educators.
Check out the videos and tutorials at http://www.kerika.com/flash_demos.html
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June 27th, 2007 — Distance Education, Learning
In their article, “Learner differences in distance learning: Finding differences that matter,” Dillon and Greene (2003) point out that although there has been much research conducted in learning styles, it has been difficult to find reliable and valid measures of learning types. They also discuss the notion of field dependence and field independence. But what is particularly interesting in this chapter are two ideas that the authors propose regarding the relationship between learners and instruction. The first has to do with the notion whether distance educators should attempt to provide instruction that matches a learner’s learning style or cognitive style. The second concept is that there are characteristics of learners that are more important to focus on than matching learning style and cognitive style with the instruction in order to help learners achieve. These characteristics will be discussed below.
Dillon and Greene (2003) state that one of the most important goals of education is to help the learner learn how to learn. Rather than spending time attempting to design instruction so as to accommodate the differences among the learners, the authors state that “our ultimate goal should be to help learners learn in a variety of situations and under a variety of conditions, because that is the nature of the learning society in which we live” (Dillon & Greene, 2003, p.238). They go on to suggest that educators should “identify effective approaches to learning and then help students acquire the metacognitive skills needed to adopt those approaches in settings where they have been found to lead to success”(Dillon & Greene, 2003, p.239). They point out that there is large body of empirical research that shows that using different approaches to learning are very good predictors of both effort and achievement. (The authors provide seven references to support this statement.)
According to Dillon and Greene (2003), various approaches to learning are placed into action in terms of three areas: achievement goals, self-efficacy, and reported strategy use.
Achievement goals are the “the reasons students report for trying to learn in a particular setting (Dillon & Greene, 2003, p.239). They indicate that there are three types of achievement goals: learning goals, performance goals, and future goals. Learning goals relate to the desire to increase one’s understanding and skills. Performance goals relate to someone’s desire to do better than others and to protect one’s ego. The authors indicate that there is some research that has shown a negative relationship between performance goals and productive achievement behaviors, while on the other hand, there is a positive relationship between learning goals and self-regulation, strategy use, and effort. Likewise, there is a positive relationship between future goals, those goals that are distant, and productive achievement behaviors.
Self-efficacy refers to a person’s confidence in their ability to accomplish a task. It is not the same as global self-esteem and the confidence level varies with different content.
According to Dillon and Greene (2003), strategy use is influenced by goals and self-efficacy. Various forms of strategy use can be classified as either shallow processing or deep processing. While shallow processing involves processing information separate from existing knowledge, deep processing involves processing new information as it relates to existing knowledge, and attempting to elaborate on new information. This concept of deep processing reminds me David Ausubel’s subsumption theory (http://tip.psychology.org/ausubel.html) and the formation of schemata. The practice of concept mapping popularized by Joseph Novak is based on Ausubel’s subsumption theory and is a technique, which if used by a physical sense and mental sense, could be a strategy that could help learners process information at a deeper level. Novak’s book Learning How to Learn (1984) is a valuable resource on how to use concept mapping as a way of learning. Another book by Novak that is valuable is Learning, Creating, and Using Knowledge: Concept Maps as Facilitative Tools in Schools and Corporations (1998).
References
Dillon, C. and Greene, B. (2003). Learner differences in distance learning: Finding differences that matter. In M.G. Moore & W.G. Anderson (Eds). Handbook of distance education (pp.235-244). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Novak, J. D. (1984). Learning how to learn. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Novak. J. D. (1998). Learning, Creating, and Using Knowledge: Concept Maps as Facilitative Tools in Schools and Corporations. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, Inc.
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June 14th, 2007 — Multimedia
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June 13th, 2007 — Learning
In the course “Instructional Design and Development” that I am taking right now (Summer, 2007), we are reading through the book The Systematic Design of Instruction by Dick, Carey, and Carey. In Chapter 8, “Developing An Instructional Strategy,” the authors state that when an instructional designer is designing an instructional strategy for the knowledge domain called Intellectual Skills, that the designer should be aware of how learners have organized their entry knowledge in their memory. My thoughts on this is that maybe one of the ways of determining how a learner has organized their knowledge of a subject is to have them create a concept map of that knowledge.
The authors go on to say that the instructional strategy should provide ways for the learner to link new content to prerequisite knowledge that they have in their memory. They also state that the there should be direct instruction about the links and the relationships between the new knowledge and the existing knowledge. A concept map created by the instructor would be a very good way of illustrating the relationships.
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August 5th, 2006 — Podcasting
This site illustrates how to subscribe to a podcast using iTunes. It uses Flash so it is very easy to follow.
http://learnoutloud.castpost.com/PodcastItunes2.swf
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July 15th, 2006 — Miscellaneous
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May 28th, 2006 — Visual Learning
I just learned about a new site called Gliffy that allows you to create concept maps online. You can also collaborate with others.
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November 9th, 2005 — Multimedia
This is a site that is looking at technologies that are part of Web 2.0.
TechCrunch Comparing The Flickrs of Video
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November 8th, 2005 — Collaboration
Ned to have your student collaborate on a project. This site may be worth examining.
Web Collaborator – Free web-based collaboration software
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November 8th, 2005 — Podcasting
Here’s a great chart that allows you to see the flowchart for podcasting.
Podcasting 101 Flowchart on Flickr – Photo Sharing!
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November 8th, 2005 — Multimedia
If you would like to create presentation slides similar to the appearance of Powerpoint, but are web-based (and a whole lot better looking than Powerpoint on the web), check out this free software.
S5: A Simple Standards-Based Slide Show System
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November 6th, 2005 — Podcasting
Here’s the forum for “iPods on Campus” at iLounge.
iLounge Forums – iPods on Campus
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November 6th, 2005 — Podcasting
If you would like to find some educational podcasts, possibly ones that you could have your students listen to, check out this site.
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November 5th, 2005 — Podcasting
This is a really good presentation about podcasting. When you get to the site, click on the down button on your keyboard to progress through the pages of this presentation.
Podcasting as Disruptive Transmediation
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November 5th, 2005 — Podcasting
If you would like to add podcast safe music to your podcast, check out this site.
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November 4th, 2005 — Podcasting
This site is worth checking out if you are interested in educational technology. You can have your own webcast at this site (among other things).
Ed Tech Talk Show | EdTechTalk.com – Educational technology that talks
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November 4th, 2005 — Blogging
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October 25th, 2005 — Podcasting
Check out this podcast about the video iPod at IT Conversations. One of the neat things you can do at IT Conversations is click on the link “Create a Clip or Excerpt.” When you click on this, it will take you to a page where you insert the Start and Stop Time for the clip you want, and the web site generates some HTML code that you can insert into a blog or web page.
IT Conversations: Eddy Cue – Larry’s World
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October 21st, 2005 — Podcasting
This is a good place to get people started on how to listen and subscribe to podcasts.
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October 21st, 2005 — Podcasting
This is a good place if you want to learn how listen to podcasts.
New To Podcast Listening – Start Here at Reel Reviews Radio
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