Semester 1 is Done

Fall Semester 2008...what a long, strange ride it's been.

Going back to grad school brought some issues into focus for me:

1. There have been *huge* changes in technology since I completed the ILT certification in 2002.

2. I'm not a happy camper when, doing something totally new, there's not an example available to view.

3. There are some very talented professionals in the industry...I've been fortunate to interact with some already.

4. eLearning + Web 2.0 = eLearning 2.0. There's some really cool stuff on the horizon.

5. Wading through the reading material is still the bane of my existence.

6. A lot of my ideas are sound; the execution needs work.

7. This was easier six years ago...

I'll be using the break between terms to tweak my projects...they're no good if I don't take advantage of the opportunity to learn from them, eh?

IT 5130: Week 13 Tools

Thsrs
http://www.ironicsans.com/thsrs/

Thsrs seems like a pretty good idea. You input a long word and Thsrs spits out a shorter synonym…sometimes. It is, after all, a beta version with some bugs.

Thsrs is supposed to be aimed at those who use a microblogging service like Twitter, which limits the amount of text you can input.

I suppose this will be helpful for some. I’m of the old school…I like to actually spell out what I’m saying, long words and all.


Wordle
http://www.wordle.net/

Okay…this is a tool to generate word clouds or tag clouds. Well, I’ve never understood them. I’ve looked them up on Wikipedia and I *still* don’t understand them. I won’t be using this tool.


ToonDoo
http://www.toondoo.com/

If you don’t have the talent to draw, ToonDoo allows you to create comics as a way to express your message. It seems simple enough. ToonDoo lets you drag-and-drop or click to create comic strips.

I was able to create a little cartoon relatively easily. However, I’m not sure how difficult it might be to create a cartoon for educational purposes. I couldn’t tell if you could have more than a three panel “toon”.

Anyway, here's my cartoon: http://www.toondoo.com/View.toon?param=448469

IT 5650: Trend Analysis Web 2.0

Greg, Jessica, Phil and Dena did a great job on the Web 2.0 Trend Analysis. Their thorough work helped me to understand a bit more about the Web 2.0 world in which I'm trying to work.

This social networking information, that fits in well with their analysis, just came across my radar. Three articles that you may find interesting are from the same blog site:

http://onlinesocialnetworks.blogspot.com/2008/10/network-citizens-power-and.html

http://onlinesocialnetworks.blogspot.com/2008/10/harnessing-power-and-potential-of.html

http://onlinesocialnetworks.blogspot.com/2008/11/ami-partners-study-small-businesses.html

Good stuff...but I feel pretty certain that no one but myself will ever see it. Who really reads these blogs, anyway? ;-)

IT 5130: Week 12 Tools

Jott
www.jott.com

You make a phone call. Jott converts your voice into text and sends it along to your destination of choice. Me? I miss the simple, handwritten “To Do” list. (See my longer rant under Week 2 Tools).


Gliffy
www.gliffy.com

Gliffy is a free web-based diagramming tool that uses the Flash application in the browser window. It lets you create and share diagrams online to enhance collaboration.


Gimp
www.gimp.org

Gimp is an open source graphics editing program. You can use it as a paint program, to retouch photos, image format converter, etc. It can also be augmented with plug-ins and extensions.

IT 5130: Week 11 Tools

USTREAM.TV
http://www.ustream.tv

Looking for your 15 minutes of fame? Now’s your chance! Ustream.TV lets you create an interactive video broadcast that goes out live to your audience. The interactive part comes in by letting the viewers personally interact with the broadcaster, or with other viewers. All you need is a camera, a microphone and an internet connection and you can broadcast to a global audience of unlimited size.

I can see where this might be a good tool to use for education. It might have actually been helpful for the Trend Analysis project in IT 5650, if you didn’t have an aversion to appearing on-screen and could get the students to participate all at the same time. That, of course, is like herding cats...

I like the original idea for this tool…a way to let service members overseas connect with many family members at the same time. Of course, now entertainers, musicians and even politicians have jumped on the bandwagon.


Bubbl.us
http://bubbl.us

Bubbl.us ia a free mind mapping software program that lets you collaborate with others online. You can also embed your mind map into your blog or website, email or print your mind map or save the mind map as an image.

When using the mind map, each bubble of information connects to its preceding parent bubble and is appropriately color coordinated for hierarchy sake.

Bubbl.us also has a cool delete confirmation gimmick. Once you press the “X” in the corner of a bubble you want to delete, a countdown starts from three as the line connecting the bubble to its parent bubble acts as a lit fuse. When it reaches zero the bubble blows up in a cloud of fire. Cool!


esnips
http://www.esnips.com/

eSnips is a social content-sharing site. You can upload pictures, videos, music, documents and your favorite links. It also comes with five gigabytes of storage for free.

You can create a variety of different folders to put your stuff in, and then based on the privacy settings you control, you decide who gets to see what.

eSnips also has communities where like-minded people can share their common interests. Those interests are expressed by tags used to describe content in the community.

IT 5130: Week 10 Tools

Scribd
http://www.scribd.com/

Scribd is basically a free online library where people can publish and share their original content documents on the internet. Scribd uses its own proprietary document format for the web, called iPaper. Sort of like YouTube’s proprietary player for video, iPaper standardizes all document formats into one view that can be integrated into web pages.

Scribd also have the Scribd Platform which allows any web site to use iPaper to display its documents.


Paint.NET
http://www.getpaint.net/

Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for Windows computers. Some of its features include an intuitive user interface supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and lots of useful and powerful tools.

The software was originally intended as a free replacement for the Microsoft Paint software that comes with Windows. However, it has grown into a powerful yet simple image and photo editor tool that has been compared to other digital photo editing software packages such as Adobe® Photoshop®, Corel® Paint Shop Pro®, Microsoft Photo Editor and The GIMP.

Paint.NET has an active online community that provides help, tutorials and plugins.


Furl
http://www.furl.net/

Furl.net is a social bookmarking web site that allows you to annotate a bookmark, find it later, refer to it and share the bookmark with others. It’s basically a personal information management system for your favorite web sites. One big benefit is that Furl.net is a free service with practically unlimited storage and is accessible from anywhere on the web.

I particularly like the Saving Archived copy (with Refresh) feature. Furl lets you save a copy of a web page and archives it for you. You’ll be able to access that page and read it any time you need to. It works even if the web site is down, the page has changed on the original web site or even if the page is no longer accessible for free. If the web page has updated content, you can refresh the archived copy at will.

Back from the Dominican Republic

Well, I just got back from paradise late last night. The 50th wedding anniversary trip to Punta Cana, DR for my parents went well. They were surprised to see the many friends and members of the family that were able to make the trip. A good time was had by all.

Trying to keep up with school work was more of a challenge than I had anticipated. My laptop network connection ability died, so I couldn't work at my leisure in the lobby. The internet "shop" hours were limited and the equipment left a lot to be desired. Not to mention the expense of purchasing the internet time!

So...I'm a bit behind with my homework and projects. I'm doing my best to catch up, but I'll be chained to the desktop computer all weekend.

IT 5130: Week 9 Tools

Freepath
http://www.freepath.com/

Freepath is presentation software for business presentations, online meetings, sales presentations, training, PowerPoint control, video playback and a lot more.

Freepath allows you to create a playlist from a variety of sources, including PowerPoint presentations, documents and multimedia formats. Freepath lets you control the movement to the next portion of the playlist, so you’re not looking at one continuous PowerPoint presentation. People will see only what you want them to see.

However, you’re not creating a self-running compilation of PowerPoint slides and other document and multimedia. Freepath has no playing abilities of its own and uses the native applications in which the information was created.

One big drawback is that Freepath works in a dual monitor environment. You can use a single monitor environment to create your playlists and then test them in a mini-Viewer. However, you can only view full screen Freepath shows if you’re using a dual monitor or projector environment.

Another big drawback is that Freepath is not free. It costs $249 and the software has to be loaded onto the computer you’re using to present. You also have to have the different programs that any other documents or media requires loaded onto the presentation computer.


TextTheMob
http://textthemob.com/

TextTheMob allows you to create polls and message boards for specific events. People at the events can participate via text messaging and you can see the results in real time.

One handy feature is the swear word filter. However, as we’ve all seen on other message boards, there’s always a way to get your message across without spelling out the word.

IT 5130: Week 8 Tools

StumbleUpon
http://www.stumbleupon.com/

StumbleUpon is a personalized search engine. All you have to do is select areas of interest and StumbleUpon will focus the search on web sites that pertain to the areas of interest. What’s neat is that it brings up some really eclectic web sites. What’s a little frustrating is that it doesn’t seem to provide much useful information. StumbleUpon also doesn’t stay on a particular subject. If you have selected several interests, it will randomly cycle through those web pages. You have to change your selection on the toolbar to just one topic to focus the search engine. This may be helpful for research…or not.


Yugma
http://www.yugma.com

Yugma is a web collaboration service that allows users to share desktop applications, engage in teleconferencing, access shared file space and for a fee, record, playback and webcast collaborative sessions. It looks free, but it seems that the free stuff is limited and then you go to a free service.


Zoho
http://www.zoho.com

It was pretty difficult to find out exactly *what* Zoho does. It seems to be a free group of productivity and collaborative applications. Some of the applications are email, spreadsheets, a word processor, wiki, presentation tool and document storage area.

IT 5130: Example of a slide presentation

Just surfing the news this morning when I ran across the story of the re-emergence of tuberculosis, especially in developing nations.

TIME photographer James Nachtwey captured the crisis in a series of photos that were turned into a video of what is basically a slide presentation. Not as flashy as "Shift Happens" and the like, but powerful none the less.

http://www.time.com/time/video/?bcpid=1485842900&bctid=1832238880

IT 5130: Week 7 Tools

Voicethread
http://voicethread.com/#home

VoiceThread looks pretty interesting. It’s a collaborative, multimedia slide show with lots of interactive abilities. VoiceThread also has an embedding capability that allows you to add interactive group discussions to your website. You don’t have to download any software and they have a free version that gets you most of what you might need to use.


Spresent
http://www.spresent.com/v2/

Spresent is a free Web-based presentations application that doesn’t require installation. It helps you create Flash presentations for the Web without learning Flash. You can then send those presentations via e-mail or publish them on your web site or blog.

It touts itself as a replacement for PowerPoint. That remains to be seen, but it does seem to have a lot more going for it than PowerPoint.


Animoto
http://animoto.com/

Animoto is a web application that automatically generates videos by using your selected images and music. Videos are produced on a widescreen format. Could be a great use for educational purposes. I’m thinking about experimenting with Animoto for my next Tufte project.

May You Live in Interesting Times...

Well, that old Chinese proverb is coming around to bite me in the butt.

It's a surreal feeling when you turn off the alarm clock and get ready for work...knowing your only job today is to turn in your termination paperwork. It's not like *you* made the decision to move on. It's just that your contract expired...even after being assured by the customer that it would be continued.

*sigh*

Contingency plans are in the works, but it may take some time. In the meanwhile, "you have 16 days of pay while you try to find another contract within the company." Those are scary words.

*sigh*...again.

Interesting times, indeed.

IT 5130: Week 6 Tools

Jing
www.jingproject.com

Jing is a free service that lets you capture and share images and video from your computer and store them in multiple locations. Jing offers a free Screencast.com account with 2 GB of storage and transfer bandwidth each month, which seems to be a nice perk. Jing can also record your microphone input and at times, your system audio.

Jing does have some format limitations, though. All images are in PNG format and videos are always in SWF format. You also can’t resize your video recording at this time.

Overall, pretty interesting tool. Could be helpful in a classroom setting to let students that might be having a problem with a tool capture a screen with error messages.


Diigo
www.diigo.com

I’ve never really understood Diigo, even though I had to get a Diigo account for IT 5650. I can see its value as a book-marking site. But, due to computer security, I don’t want to download their toolbar to be able to use some of the more interesting features. Downloading application toolbars seems to conflict with the firewalls on my computer and render my computer nearly useless. However, I am intrigued by the ability to highlight information on a website.


Poll Everywhere
www.polleverywhere.com

Interesting concept. I especially liked how the site touted its ability to be used in fundraising. ;-) The pricing scale may be a bit unrealistic for large scale academic use. And in my case, we can’t use this commercial application from a closed network.


Screecast-o-matic
http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/

Very similar to Jing in function, but the site is not very user friendly. The program is a beta version and it doesn’t specify where the images will be stored. It does have the capability to embed the program into your own website so that other people can create screencasts. They can upload those screencasts to a channel that you create, but the website doesn’t really explain that capability well. Since it’s a beta version, the follow-on version of the website might provide more information.

IT 5650: Practioner Profile

Well...as amazed as I am, I found someone willing to play guinea pig for the Practioner Profile project.

The eLearning professional I'm working with to port my F2F class over to the eClass platform has graciously consented to be interviewed. She's even suggested an innovative method for the interview.

I really appreciate her cooperation. My major hurdle now is to figure out what to ask!

IT 5130: Week 5 Tools

This week's toys...

Picnik
http://www.picnik.com/

I found it incredibly hard to find out exactly *what* Picnik was, as the website was not user-friendly in that aspect. What I got is that Picnik is a photo editor that seems to be pretty easy to use. It mostly uses tabs for options and slide controls to allow the user to manipulate the photo options.

I can see where this would be very valuable for people (especially younger folks) to use, seeing how it is free and the learning curve to use the tool is not difficult. However, I’m spoiled by a more advanced graphics program, so this program doesn’t perform to my standards.
;-)


Mogulus
http://www.mogulus.com/

Another software toy that doesn’t have the most user-friendly website, but it’s a pretty cool concept. I can see where Mogulus would have a great potential for instructors to “broadcast” information to their students. It seems relatively simple to use, if you have the right computer tools.

Mogulus could perhaps augment the standard “here’s what we’re doing this week” thread. It might help some students to better assimilate the required information…as we all know by now that people learn better when text, voice and video are combined. ;-)


Skrbl
http://www.skrbl.com/

Skrbl is an interactive whiteboard that lets you collaborate with others. You can draw, write text, share files and upload pictures in a common shared space. Skrbl is very similar to the GE Whiteboard but I found Skrbl’s tools to be much like Microsoft tools, so it was more familiar to use.

When you want to draw, the cursor looks like an “I beam” rather than a pencil. I also found that when drawing a curved line, my drawing would “jump” a bit after I had finished. Drawing a straight line worked just fine. The program also “stutters” with a “working” message at the bottom of the page as it catches up with your drawing.

It’s a good tool but I was hoping that you could invite people into the whiteboard to interact live. If Skrbl has that capability, I couldn’t find it.


GE Whiteboard
http://www.imaginationcubed.com/

GE’s Whiteboard application, Imagination Cubed, is a whiteboard drawing application like Skrbl. Unlike Skrbl, it has an obvious pen-type cursor when the program is launched and doesn’t have as easy a time changing the writing options as does Skrbl.

One thing I really didn’t like was the fact that anything I wrote past ¾ of the way down the page was lost. I don’t know if this was my screen resolution or what…I just know that I didn’t have that problem with Skrbl.

Again, there seemed to be no option to “invite” people into my whiteboard for collaboration, but I could send my whiteboard to others.

Interesting article from Yahoo

Hhmmm...sounds kinda like Medina's Brain Rules to me....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080911/sc_nm/brain_vision_dc

IT 5650: The E-Learning P3 Model

Badrul H. Khan’s article details a comprehensive e-learning process. It is a valuable tool for anyone or any group endeavoring to create an e-learning product.

Table 1 on pages 37 and 38, “Roles and responsibilities in e_learning”, paints a succinct picture of the army of people (35 souls minimum) it takes to produce an effective e-learning product. Of course, this is under optimal conditions.

I’m sure we have all been involved in projects where a handful of people must wear multiple hats. “With some knowledge of instructional design, many instructors can design their own online courses.” (pg 36)

This is certainly the case in my situation. We are an eight-person team and we all perform the majority of roles listed in the table, with some exceptions. Our government customer handles the exceptions. As the only formally trained Instructional Designer on the team, I have been fortunate to work with a group of people that are willing to learn the process “by fire”.

The other item I found very helpful was the graphic of the “E-Learning P3 Model” on page 34. It reinforces Khan’s message visually, which we all know assists a person with learning new information.

IT 5130: Week 4 Tools

Ning
http://www.ning.com/

Ning allows you to create your own social space, similar to Facebook and MySpace. To me, the most attractive aspect about Ning is that you can customize your network to suit your own needs and you don’t have to be internet-tool savvy to do it…which bodes well for me.


Twitter
http://twitter.com/

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service. You can send and read “tweets” (updates) from your friends. The tweets are text-based posts no longer than 140 characters in length.

Twitter has over 2 million users, including a church in Jackson, Michigan that uses it as a part of its weekend worship services. The church encourages parishoners to make observations and ask questions, creating an interactive worship service.

However, it seems to me that Twitter is more of a messenger-type service, used primarily for notifications and two to three sentence thoughts. Now that I’m actually using a blog, I’m not sure if I’d even call it micro-blogging. But it is good for the short message.


ToAnswer
http://toanswer.net/

“ToAnswer is a Twitter mashup that will help you get your questions answered quickly; think Yahoo! Answers meets Twitter.”

Of course, I had to look up what the heck a “mashup” is. To those of us who are technologically challenged, think “portal”. On ToAnswer, you can pose a question and hope someone will have the knowledge and inclination to answer you. Opinion questions sure seemed to get loads of responses: “How do you measure your life (well-being)? Any specific indicators or dimensions to
consider?” 971 answers in 11 days.


Pownce
http://pownce.com/

Pownce is very similar to Twitter, as it is also a free social networking and micro-blogging site. However, Pownce also lets you file-share and send event invitations to the general public or a restricted access group.

Update on historyplace.com copyright

Well...this was certainly disappointing to hear. So much for the 'spirit of educational cooperation'.
_____

Response message:

Hi Leisa,

Unfortunately, due to the overwhelming number of inquiries we receive to republish materials from The History Place, we currently deny all requests. Please accept our apologies and we hope you will continue to enjoy The History Place.

Best regards,

Philip Gavin - Publisher
The History Place
www.historyplace.com
_____

Original email:

Mr. Gavin,

My name is Leisa Strait and I am a graduate student at the University of Colorado-Denver. I am working on my Master of Arts in Information and Learning Technologies - eLearning Design and Implementation. My current class is IT 5130: Instructional Message Design.

My classmates and I have an assignment to create instructional design messages this semester, using audio, video and text. Our current assignment requires that we find a "speech or story" to use in the project. We either need an audio cut of the speech or we need to record the text of the speech ourselves.

During our research we came across your wonderful site, http://www.historyplace.com. What a treasure trove of history and an extremely well-done site. Of course, we immediately investigated the copyright requirements of your site:

“Copyright © 2008 The History Place™ All Rights Reserved
Terms of use: Private home/school non-commercial, non-Internet re-usage only is allowed of any text, graphics, photos, audio clips, other electronic files or materials from The History Place™”

We were hoping to obtain a clarification of the copyright issue. Our work is being built for our class projects and will be posted (via internet) into our UCD class server. In addition, some students may elect to post their project to their educational blogs created specifically for this program for use in their graduate portfolio.

There is no commercial intent for any potential use of your material; it would be strictly used for educational purposes in the UCD program. Of course, all references and attributions will reflect your site.

Given the scope of the projects that I have (hopefully!) defined, would our use of the materials on your site be appropriate under the terms of use of your copyright requirements?

Thank you in advance for your timely response and consideration.

Regards,

Leisa Strait

IT 5130 ~ Instructional Message Design

Hello!

For folks looking for speeches and stories for this assignment, I ran across a couple of sites that might help:

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/

http://www.historyplace.com/index.html

They have lots of speeches - loads with audio - that may inspire you.

Make sure you perform due diligence regarding copyright issues. You may need to get specific permissions.

IT 5130: Discovering Psychology Videos

The videos seem to be presenting the information from Medina’s Rules again. It’s a good refresher, but I enjoyed Medina’s presentation of the material more.

But I must admit, viewing similar material via video and audio does reinforce Medina’s message...as does the repetition.

Guess that was the point, huh?

IT 5650: Blogs and RSS Feeds

Reflections from the Introduction of Blogs and RSS Feeds into a Preservice Instructional Technology Course

By Richard E. West, Geoff Wright, Bruce Gabbitas and Charles R. Graham

I found the information in the article very interesting. However, I found myself empathizing with the students who were struggling with the technology.

I’d heard of blogs but had never used one before. I still can’t figure out how to add a link to my blog, without having the link in a word document first and then copy/pasting into the blog. As for the RSS feed, I’ve seen the icon on the bottom of some websites, but I had no idea what it did. I’m still not sure I have a good handle on that.

I also agree with some of the points made in the article. On pg. 57, the article listed guidelines for improving pedagogy with blogs and RSS:

1. Preparation work completed before the semester begins

Yes, it would be nice to have a better handle on *why* I’m using a blog and other new
technology to communicate.

2. Technical learning curve soon after class begins

I feel lost when trying to set up some of the technology and then how to use it after I get it
set up.

3. Conceptual learning curve throughout the rest of the semester

I assume that I’ll figure out, during the course of class, how the new technology can actually
assist me with instructional design and in the classroom.

I’m struggling with the technology, but I get what the article is stressing:

You have to decide exactly *how* you want to use new technology and not just use it because it’s “cool”.

You need to help teach the students how to use the technology. Don’t assume they know how to use it and don’t leave them frustrated when they try to use it and have issues doing so.

Ensure you impress upon the students why they would use certain technology in class and for which reasons and in what settings it should be used.

Target on my back

Well...this could be an interesting couple of days. Here in Southern Maryland, we're under a Tropical Storm Warning...winds nearing 60 mph, 4-6 inches of rain, yadda yadda yadda.

I wouldn't normally sweat it so much, but we lose power here during a strong thunderstorm, so I may be facing a lack of internet connectivity. That's gonna hurt, since I'm finalizing my weekly assignments for posting tomorrow...when I don't have connectivity.

Hhhmmm...do you think my instructors are gonna understand if I miss my deadlines?

Leisa

IT 5130: Week 3 Tools

Interesting group of tools this week. Synopsis follows...

Kindling
http://www.kindlingapp.com/

“Kindling is a web-based application that cultivates and manages the ideas of everyone in your organization.”

Well, I must admit that their FAQ area displayed quite a bit of humor. It’s basically a collaboration tool. Their website is not the most user-friendly I’ve ever encountered. I have requested a Beta invite to see what it’s all about.


Skype
http://www.skype.com/

“With Skype’s free software – by the way, it works seamlessly with your internet connection – you can chat away with free Skype-to-Skype calls and never worry about cost, time or distance. Share the love and get your friends to download Skype so you can talk, chat or make video calls for nothing. You can also make local, long distance and international calls to phones and cell phones at great rates too.”

From what I can gather, it is an internet phone service. Free if you download Skype and the people you want to talk to do the same thing. Otherwise, fees apply.

This could be an interesting way for students to collaborate in real-time during classes. However, you’ll have to require that they download the program.

I feel that it should be pointed out that not all learners have the computing power/bandwidth/permissions to use this type of program.


Audacity
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

“Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:

Record live audio.
Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
And more!”

Sounds pretty neat. Nice open source audio editor. Could be very valuable, especially for creating projects within the UCD program.


ClassSpot
http://tidebreak.com/prodclassspot.shtml

“ClassSpot-equipped rooms enable any student to instantly share their work or digital content they find online. They can send files or websites over the network to any large display system in the classroom. Faculty or student can easily interact with the material on the display screen by simply moving their mouse on to a screen to take control.”

Well, this sounds like a fascinating tool and it has a capability very similar to one the exists in eClass, the online course program we use at work. Instructors can grant an "App Share" to a student to share what's on their desktop and "drive" the mouse. I can see many benefits of the tool, but there are also some downsides, such as a lack of instructor control when students randomly move the mouse or upload information, etc.

There’s *no way* that this tool can be used “as is” in my setting. We are on a classified network with no access to the WWW. However, it *could* be made available with access only on the classified network and the appropriate licensing. Hhhmmm…I’ll have to look into this tool further.

2008 Winners of the Slideshare World's Best Presentation Contest

Surfing around some blogs, I discovered a link to what seems to be the 2008 Winners of the Best Presentation Award. http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/09/winners-of-worl.html

I saw the presentation "Thirst" and thought to myself that it really looks like "Shift Happens". Turns out "Thirst" was designed by the same guy who designed "Shift Happens", Jeff Brenman of Apollo Ideas. He certainly seems to have a particular style.

What I found most interesting was the reaction of several of the response posts to the "Thirst" presentation. The majority of respondents felt that none of the winners were actual "presentations", in the traditional sense. Many didn't "get it".

Are we, as a group, unusual to think that presentations like "Shift Happens" and "Thirst" are the way to go?

Leisa

IT 5130 - Cool Tools

ooVoo
http://www.oovoo.com/

“ooVoo is the next evolution in online communication — a remarkably easy way to have a face-to-face video chat with friends, family or colleagues, no matter where they are in the world.”

Yeah, if you have the right computer equipment…the bandwidth to handle the application…the security situation that allows you to have the tool…and a desire to be seen in your pajamas. I know it has applications for eLearning, but I see this more as a new toy for the ‘cool kids’, the people that get the latest iPod when their old one is only a year old.

TalkShoe
http://www.talkshoe.com/

“TalkShoe is a service that enables anyone to easily create, join, or listen to Live Interactive Discussions, Conversations, Podcasts and Audioblogs. These hosted Community Calls can be discussions, conversations, talk shows and podcasts. Recorded Community Calls can be listened to, downloaded, or subscribed to. And if your Community Call becomes popular, you can make money too.”

TalkShoe seem sort of like the eClass application we’re using at work. You may participate live and interact with other students and the teacher during the actual session. After the session, a recording is made available for those who were unable to attend live or may need to view the class again as a refresher. I can see this having a valuable contribution for online classes, but only from the participating student’s point of view. They could post a project on TalkShoe and have classmates check it out. I’m afraid that most universities would not want their course content available to one and all on the net.

Jott.com
http://jott.com/

“Jott makes creating and maintaining to-do lists simple - all it takes is one phone call. No need to wait till you get home to write down what you need to do, just call Jott, say the name of the list you want, and leave a message. Your voice message will be converted to text and added to that list for you.

In this age of text messaging and all the other PDA-type functions, who pays for this functionality? In monetary and in bandwidth terms? Whatever happened to keeping a notebook or a “To Do” list?

*sigh*

I don’t know…maybe I’m resistant to new technology, or perhaps I’ve fallen into the mindset of the government agency where I work. There are so many restrictions about connectivity, bandwidth and the tools that can be used on the baseline software load.

My audience is primarily lower ranking military personnel and government employees who are deploying into war zones overseas. I teach them to use tools that help keep them safe on the front lines and the rest of us safe at home.

We struggle with getting the bandwidth for the essential tools they need, not to mention all of the new ‘cool’ tools that are continually coming out in the commercial world.

I know I need to see the ‘big picture’ and not focus on my small slice of life. But, that’s where I am and that’s where I’m needed right now. I need to find tools and techniques that apply to *their* situation. We’re just now moving into eLearning, where folks who are forward deployed to war zones and overseas locations can participate in much-needed training, without taking the time and expense to travel back to the United States. That’s saving taxpayer’s money and that’s not a bad thing, from my point of view.

IT 5650 - Bernard Article

I haven’t had a stats class or a comparative analysis class, so most of it (the minutia of the analysis itself) didn’t make a lot of sense to me. In fact, this reading selection was quite painful to wade through.

However, the few points that did make it through my head were:

1. It’s really not what an instructor does with the instructional medium that counts, it’s what the learner does with the medium that is of importance. The medium at that point becomes not just transparent, but transformative and actually aids the learner in achieving their learning goals.

2. Using computer-mediated communication (CMC) may increase reflection and the development of better writing skills. It is also postulated that CMC can promote critical thinking skills.

3. “The results of this meta-analysis provide general support for the claim that effective DE depends on the provision of pedagogical excellence.” Well, DUH! In my mind, effective DE has always depended upon the quality of the instructional design. The media used to deliver the instruction is very important and can enhance (or detract) from the instructional message. However, if you don’t get the instructional message designed correctly, no amount of bells and whistles from the media will change that fact.

The other thing that gets me is the age of this article and its sources. Are there no more recent examples of empirical literature on the subject? We all know the field has changed substantially in just the past couple of years. Where are more recent studies?

Technologically Challenged

So...here I am stewing about upcoming projects in *both* courses.

Create a data file in PDF?

Lest we forget, this is the same person that had issues trying to run DreamWeaver in 2001 and had to hand-code the online learning web site for the certification.

Interview a practitioner in eLearning?

What if I don't *know* any eLearning practitioners? And if I can find one, who in their right mind is gonna give some person off the street the time of day to talk to them?!?

*sigh*

Well, at least one problem *has* been solved. I've found a free, online convert your whatever documents into a PDF...and it works! Here's the link:

http://www.pdfonline.com/

I'll post this link to the 'cool tools' area of the courses...if I can ever find them again...

IT 5650: "Bespoke" eLearning

Hhhmmm...ran across this term loads today while I was searching the internet. Seems to come mainly out of the UK and Canada. However, I couldn't find an actual definition.

I saw it connected most often with companies offering eLearning services. Any thoughts?

IT 5130: PowerPoint is Evil…Tufte Needs a Nap!

After reading the Tufte article, I came to a startling conclusion:

Mr. Tufte obviously fronted money for Bill Gates when he was starting Microsoft, but sold out early because he didn’t believe the venture would fly. Now, he’s got sour grapes.

In Scott Rosenberg’s article “The Data Artist” (Salon, March 1997), he says, “It could be, too, that the big publishers unfairly pegged Tufte as a bit of a crank. His writing sometimes exhibits a curled-lip testiness toward its targets, and he's unafraid to wield the knife of the polemical critic.”
Ya think?!?

Seriously…I get what Tufte is saying. Many presenters across numerous fields rely too much on PowerPoint and its ability to make creating presentation materials *easy*, like a WYSIWYG editor. PowerPoint is not a suitable medium for presenting scientific and technical material. I *get* it.

But what about the responsibility of the presenter? Why rely on the templates from PowerPoint? You can be quite creative using the blank presentation model. It’s the designer’s ability and responsibility to coherently design and present their information using the PowerPoint medium, right?

Seriously, we’re looking at slideshows that *win awards*…doesn’t that say that designers can and do have a clue?

Regarding the NASA example, the engineers could have fine-tuned and presented their information in a more coherent manner. Tufte’s graphic where he "cleaned up the engineers’ information" proves that. It’s not PowerPoint’s fault that they chose not to do so. It actually sounds more like the engineers deliberately tried to minimize the bad news by hiding it in the lower hierarchy of the slides. That’s akin to criminal, in my mind.

BTW: I looked up Tufte’s term “Projector Operating System”. I could only find it five pages deep on Google, in reference to a specific projector, “In Focus multimedia projector operating system LP 740TM”. It was a manual for a projector.

That’s why I sincerely think Tufte’s term “Projector Operating System” is a tongue-in-cheek method for Tufte to call PowerPoint and Microsoft a “POS”. (See Scott Reosenberg’s reference above for Tufte's attitude.)

For a condensed version of this material, check out Tufte’s “PowerPoint is Evil” article in Wired magazine. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html It condenses the material of our course article, makes most of the same points but omits the NASA information.

I miss threads!

Okay...I miss threads. This whole blogging thing seems overly complicated.

I've now created this blog, but how do I get back to it? What's the URL that I have to post? I can't really imagine that "http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6576933523110265669" is it...especially since there's a 'create' word in it.

I don't have high hopes that this will work for me. Perhaps it will and I will have had an attitude adjustment by tomorrow. ;-)