Monday, March 14, 2011

How we learn...

This weeks readings were difficult to follow. But upon completing our additional assignments and reading more research about how we learn I have started to understand the whole concept a little more. I am looking forward to progressing as we move forward.

On journal that I found to be very helpful is from Johns Hopkins University School of Education. Dr. Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, Ph.D. wrote a journal article on "Why Mind, Brain, and Education Scienceis the "New" Brain-Based Education". Dr. Tokohuma-Espinosa talks about how as teachers you need to be aware of the challenges you face on understanding the science of learning. There are three factors she discusses Education>>Psychology>>Neuroscience. She states, "We need teachers who know about the brain and how it learns best, and we need neuroscientists and psychologists who can envision the application of their work in school settings." http://education.jhu.edu/newhorizons/Journals/Winter2011/Tokuhama1

Another site I came across Center for Teaching Excellence. On this site there are links to additional sites that pertain to Active Learning>>Problem-Based Learning. All of the sites are very helpful in understanding problem-based learning. http://cte.umdnj.edu/active_learning/active_pbl.cfm

Friday, March 4, 2011

Welcome to Kerry@Walden U

     There are so many resources on the web that pertain to instructional design that it is almost overwhelming
trying to decipher what is useful and what is not.

     One of the items I use on a regular basis especially trying to plan for the future is the Horizon Report. The Horizon Report is a document that is written every year and contains valuable information about the up and coming in technology for distance education. The Horizon Report has been in existence since 2005 and has been collaboration between EDUCAUSE and the New Media Consortium.  The New Media Consortium has been around for nearly 20 years exploring and developing applications for up and coming technologies in learning, research and creative inquiry. EDUCAUSE is a community of higher education institutions committed to advance learning through technology. The Horizon report talks about the key trends, critical challenges and technologies to watch in teaching today.

     The other site I utilize is the Instructional Design website. The site is designed to provide information about instructional design and how they relate to teaching and learning.

    Upon doing research for different blog I came across the eLearning curve blog by Michael Hanley. The blog is about e-learning, web-based elearning, technology in education, e-learning tools, learning 2.0 and continuous professional development. As an instructional designer it is important to have many different tools available to you this site gives some really great examples and ideas.

     One more site I found to be very helpful is the eLearningLearning website. This site is a collection of blog posts and articles all about eLearning. From this site you are able to access many different blogs about many different topics. I feel this site will most useful because of the many different tools available. For example they have broken things down into categories for ease of use: concepts, tools, type, companies, organizations and other. Within each of these categories they have broken it down even more for example under concepts there is learning with 19177 items. With that much information available to you how could you not have it in your repertoire?

eLearningLearning http://www.elearninglearning.com/
Instructional Design http://www.instructionaldesign.org/
2011 Horizon Report http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/HR2011.pdf
eLearning Curve http://michaelhanley.ie/elearningcurve/

Found another site that I thought was interesting.
http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/