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Guide to make e-learning more accessible

For those that are creating online learning...great guidelines for teaching Disabled Students

Naked Lecturer? I had a look, of course. There were no pictures. Bummer. A while ago, I checked out "The Naked Scientists" podcast and found they all wore white lab coats, just like the rest of them. Life is full of disappointments. I see that "The Naked Lecturer" worked in both the "Further" and "Higher" Education sectors. I'm trying to imagine how to picture that . . . An x-y chart? Perhaps a hot air balloon and a jet plane? Would You Rather: Ride in a hot air balloon or travel in a jet plane? In any case, the resources are very useful, and they are presented in a usable way. Especially the little post-it Notes. Oh, I get it. Use them to cover up the interesting bits. Very cleaver. That's not higher or further, that's just better.

January 21, 2012 06:52 AM ET Computerworld - On Thursday, Apple made it clear that one of the next industries it hopes to disrupt and reinvent is education. It's an arena the company has a long history of working with: schools have been one of Apple's biggest market since the days of the Apple II.

Thanks for posting this link. I can't wait to learn more about this topic. E-books are amazing! And once Apple lends its talents to this arena, you just know wonderful things are going to happen. I know there are pros and cons to e-books. But the accessibility, portability, lower cost and functionality of e-books are very positive factors.

Hi Brainy. Good post on lurking. I "lurk" when I listen to radio, download podcasts, watch TV, and read the newspaper. Works for me. A live session where "presence" and group dynamics is central to the activity is a bit different (if the name of everyone "in the room" is displayed, lurkers are visible to others, even if they say nothing). In live MOOC sessions, most people lurk most of the time. That doesn't mean they are not engaged, they may simply feel that sitting at the back of the room suits them better. Mark McGuire

Hello Brainy Smurf, Guess I've been lurking in #cck12, but I don't see it as much different from face-to-face classrom behaviour. Not everyone comments no matter what the forum--eliciting participation is part of the "dark art" of facilitation, no?

Hi, Sandra, thanks for weighing in. I agree that lurking online is essentially the same as a classroom, it just might not be as obvious since the online facilitator (if there is one) can't see body language or eye contact. The more I play around in moocs (currently in my 3rd, 4th and 5th at the moment), the more the idea of eliciting participation (or 'engaging' participants) is starting to make me cringe. I'm becoming more confident that learning doesn't need to invite engagement as explicitly as we think it does. Participants will decide how much/little to interact for a million different reasons on any given day (e.g., fatigue, boredom, illness, distraction, reflection, synthesizing, doodling) and I think we should let them own those choices.

Without structure, nothing works. Not even an open course.

Muammar Ghaddafi. Saddam Hussain. Barak Obama. Fukishima. Sub-Prime Lending. What do these topics have in common? They are all important subjects that our students should be learning about, yet they probably don't appear in most textbooks in our classrooms. The moment a textbook rolls off the printing press, it begins to morph into a useless paperweight.

Great article. E-books have so much potential - for increased accessibility, lower costs, portability, currency, etc. etc.

I tried to leave this on the site , not intended for the group.....In order to reach our students, we need to think like "Digital Natives", not "Digital Immigrants" (thank you Marc Prensky). ...i think you have valid points and this can be a useful tool but why use these terms, Natives and Immigrants. I often find these terms can be used negatively and could be percieved as such. Although this may not be your intention saying you are now a Digital Native vs a Digital Immigrant to me sounds , negative. Its just a thought , but i do appreciate your take on text books and the usefulness of utilizing this tool to keep up to date.