"Predicting the future is easy. It's trying to figure out what's going on now that's hard" (Dressler, 2005)
A new blogging challenge has emerged called blimage – a “blog image” challenge: You must use an image sent to you and “incorporate it into your blog, and write a post about learning based on it…Then pass an image of your choice on to someone else so they can do their own #blimage challenge.” Read… Read more Blimage Challenge: The Rock Arch
Kristi Bronkey had a nice article in Faculty Focus yesterday entitled “Re-Thinking Direct Instruction in Online Learning.” She noted that while direct instruction had a bad reputation associated with passive learning, it did not have to reflect passivity. She suggested a model framed around the notions of “I Do, We Do, and You Do.” I… Read more Direct Instruction and Learning Science
Over the past two weeks, I have been reviewing Michelle Miller‘s new book Minds Online: Teaching Effectively with Technology. This post looks at the last two chapters, on motivation and on putting it all together. Michelle noted that motivational challenges are one of the main differences between online and on campus teaching. “Motivation,” as Michelle… Read more Minds Online – A Wrap
I am continuing to explore Michelle Miller‘s new book Minds Online: Teaching Effectively with Technology. This post looks at her examination of the third broad area of cognition – Thinking – as well as the effective use of multimedia in online courses. Michelle defined “thinking” as: “…using logic to reason based on the available information,… Read more Thinking Better (and Visually)
The last two posts have dealt with Michelle Miller’s new book Minds Online: Teaching Effectively with Technology. This post continues with an examination of Chapter 5 on Memory. Michelle starts this chapter by noting that “…memory is central to the cognitive side of teaching and learning.” This brought to mind the review my colleagues and… Read more Applying Memory Research to Online Teaching
Monday, I attended a regional conference hosted by the Harvard University Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning on active learning. It was a good day of conversation with colleagues from some 35 institutions in the area. I met Jim Lang of Assumption College, and he pointed out that “active learning” is a potential active… Read more Cognitively Optimized Online Course
During the first week of ADLT 640 – The Theory and Practice of eLearning Integration into Adult Environments – we looked at the changing landscape of learning (with hat-tip to Jeff Nugent) and the Evolution of Elearning (with hat-tip to Ruben Puentedura) A term that came up in class when defining “e-learning” was organic…a natural… Read more Some Gems from Week 1 Blogging
A grand experiment is launching today at VCU – our first cMOOC. As it notes on the About page: Starting June 9, the official course opens for six sections taught at VCU, and the rest of the internet is invited to join along as open participants. The official name of this course at Virginia Commonwealth University is UNIV… Read more Thought Vectors Firing Up
Over the next two days (thanks to a lot of hard work by Joyce Kincannon), VCU will host its third Online Learning Summit. The Online Learning Summit invites participation from colleges and universities across the Commonwealth of Virginia, and at last count, we expect about two hundred to participate. The Summit theme of “Connections and… Read more Online Learning Summit 2014
…or maybe not connecting some dots… Thinking about two blog posts this morning how they weave into thoughts about online teaching and learning. The first was by Debbie Morrison – “What the Internet is Doing to Our Education Culture: Book Review of The Shallows“. Debbie reviewed the book by Nicholas Carr – The Shallows: What… Read more Connecting Some Dots