Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

When I think about "infrastructure", I normally think about roads, wires, sewerage and so on. But how about educational technology and instructional design? From reading Don Norman's musings about infrastructure, I realized that if we want our technological implementations to be successfully adopted, very often it's essential to also consider the infrastructure needed to support our tech designs and implementations. Personally, I think infrastructure for education and instructional design need not always be physical things. They could be intangibles such as having to update a database, notify the relevant people in charge, call this person or that to come unlock the computer lab, etc. My mum's been a teacher for 40+ years. She's great. But she really hates the computer. Not because of the learning needed to use Microsoft Word. She's quite fine with it. But it's all the non-Microsoft Word things that she has to do - reboot, turn the computer on, manage the files, etc... - that makes her scream.  "It is time to work on infrastructure. It threatens to dominate our lives with ugliness, frustration, and work. We need to spend more time on the designs for infrastructure. We need to make it more attractive, more accessible, and easier to maintain. Infrastructure is intended to be hidden, to provide the foundation for everyday life. If we do not respond, it will dominate our lives, preventing us attending to our priory concerns and interests and instead, just keeping ahead of the maintenance demands." - Don Norman Food for thought: What are some underlying "infrastructure" (tangible and intangible) that I may encounter in an educational technology project? Are there existing infrastructure that I can take advantage of to minimize time and $? How can we minimize the amount of infrastructure maintenance needed?

Sharing sensitive information on cloud storage could post potential risk -- Users also observed that prior to April 2011, Dropbox stated on its website that: "All files stored on Dropbox servers are encrypted (AES256) and are inaccessible without your account password." But after April 2011, it dropped the 2nd part and changed to: "All files stored on Dropbox servers are encrypted (AES 256)."

Interesting tool! Video team, if you have any money left in the iTunes account, get a copy and try it.

100 best Twitter Tools. Save it on your bookmarks!

This article was published in 2007, an ELL lecturer just shared it with me. I thought the rest of us would find it useful too.

That article is 3.5 years old. It does not take into account clips shared under CC licence or the terms of fair use. If educators stuck only to the recommendations, they would make little progress.

Wah kaoz! It now syncs with my Gmail account!

create a blog without a blog. Is there something you want to get off your chest, but there is no way you are going to create a blog just for that, and a tweet would never convey what you need conveyed? Well, if that is ever the case a visit to Freedom Share is in order. This site will enable you to have texts typed and posted without needing to create any kind of account, or even authenticate who you are via Facebook or Google. The site is free and open to just any person who wants to use it, and we are also talking about a site that can be used by people who know nothing about coding.

Like your comment about how the iPads don't become the focus of the learning. That's a thought that's been on my mind recently - the importance of the perception of "seamlessness" in tech usage. That's probably one of the most important reasons a technology gets adapted - no matter how cumbersome it seems at first (e.g. learning how to drive a car) - because the normal usage of the technology doesn't hinder the intended task at hand. (That's why once you learn to ride a bike, you don't think so much about the bicycle itself as you think about moving faster.) Think Donald Norman in "The Design of Everyday Things" has a term for this: affordability. So I guess, my thought on the usage of the iPad (and any new tech at hand): The learning of the new tech need not be intuitive. But the everyday usage has to seamlessly flow with the given task at hand - so that the tool and the user become "one" with the task. (Just like how a user fumbles with a pair of chopsticks at first, but once he masters it, his chopsticks "become" part of his fingers.) Then such seamless technologies get seamlessly adopted as "cognitive-multipliers".

When it comes to sharing on the web, Facebook is a front runner. 

Something for the ETs and Jason to read and react to.

Interesting article! I think one reason why many teachers keep on sticking to the defaults is because _precisely_ BB can be so flexible and do so many things, and there's a lot of templates available. This panoply of choices leads to decision fatigue on the teachers' part: "Which features should I use for presenting to my students? how can I package and so on... arrrrh I'll just stick with the defaults and customize another day." (Can read more about decision fatigue at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html) So, I think our training strategies would have to recognize and take into account this human tendency to choose the easy defaults, especially when mentally tired.

Defaults are bad? hmmm... My son started using the kiddy skate scooter about 4 mths ago and he does it like a pro now. When I bought the scooter, it came with 'default settings', i.e. all fixed up and ready to use. He had a go at it and we adjusted the height and widen the handles along the way. He grew more confident and I removed the trainer wheels. I cannot imagine when the scooter came without any 'default settings', i.e. 4 wheels, 2 bars, rubber tubes, etc, I will be quite frustrated setting it up from scratch and my son will be climbing all over me. Defaults cannot be seen as something bad in my opinion. It gives new users or busy people something to start with, I personally appreciate that. When we design instructions, we provide foundations to get our learners started, building blocks or scaffolding their learning as they progress. A range of basic, intermediate or advanced instructional plans can also be presented later on. Essentially, what are the characteristics of our learners or the users of BB? What do you think they need? Demographics of our acad staffs for example are quite 'senior adult learners' (correct me if I am wrong). Do we think we want to present a blank BB page and tell them, 'hey, guess what? its all about customisation now, whatever you want, put it in.' No prize for guessing what their reactions will be. On the other hand, there maybe a group of people who do not want to conform to defaults but to change things or customise their experiences. Nothing wrong with that too. My point is, let's provide a range of options for users, we inform that there are default settings to get them started but there are also room for customisation for the adventurous. We want to be learner centric, hence customisation of experiences but we also do not want to leave anyone behind. That said, I am going to change all my default passwords and user ids of my mobile.... no wonder banks have been calling me to ask if I needed loans.

Let's hangong using Google Hangouts - on mobile. 

Tips on using Evernote - getting organized

Thanks Tini! I can use some info for my training next week ;)

New social media tools now enable social learning to happen on a much larger scale. But this doesn't mean that social learning is something we suddenly need to "do," as if it hadn't existed before or that we need to attempt to "implement." Rather, those involved in eLearning should work to ensure our designs home in on and support areas where social learning is already naturally occurring in the learner's workflow and leverage new tools where that makes sense. (Workflow questions: Where and when are workers asking for help from one another? Where do they need performance support?)

Access Gmail on iOS4 device. For Chee to set up new iPad. First step is critical (enable IMAP). Otherwise, use older instructions from link in same page.

Thanks for sharing. I tried last night, and it works for just do the usual Gmail set up. Chee managed to do that as well.

Thanks Ashley for your instant info and advise. I reset my Linksys wireless router IP Address back to 192.168.1.1 default and manage to connect to the Internet and setup the Gmail account instantly. I also thanks Sally for the help and tips!