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To realize the promise of learner-centered education, we must create pathways by which sound, innovative, technology-based products and services can evolve, mature and get to market at lower costs. Startl™ is a new social enterprise dedicated to supporting the innovation of effective, affordable, and accessible learning products. Startl’s focus is creating the conditions for success that let innovators create and capitalize products that truly help learners learn.

Third, create a written document.

Fourth, create a feedback cycle.

Here are the five rules you need to remember to create amazing Powerpoint presentations: No more than six words on a slide. EVER. There is no presentation so complex that this rule needs to be broken. No cheesy images. Use professional stock photo images. No dissolves, spins or other transitions. Sound effects can be used a few times per presentation, but never use the sound effects that are built in to the program. Instead, rip sounds and music from CDs and leverage the Proustian effect this can have. If people start bouncing up and down to the Grateful Dead, you’ve kept them from falling asleep, and you’ve reminded them that this isn’t a typical meeting you’re running. Don’t hand out print-outs of your slides. They don’t work without you there.

Powerpoint could be the most powerful tool on your computer. But it’s not. Countless innovations fail because their champions use PowerPoint the way Microsoft wants them to, instead of the right way. Communication is the transfer of emotion.

Four Components To A Great PresentationFirst, make yourself cue cards.

Thoughts, ideas, or messages that the teacher amplifies will generally have a greater probability of being seen by course participants.

Views of teaching, of learner roles, of literacies, of expertise, of control, and of pedagogy are knotted together. Untying one requires untying the entire model.

Fortunately, the experience of wayfinding is now augmented by social systems.

I found my way through personal trial and error. Today’s social web is no different – we find our way through active exploration. Designers can aid the wayfinding process through consistency of design and functionality across various tools, but ultimately, it is the responsibility of the individual to click/fail/recoup and continue.

The curator, in a learning context, arranges key elements of a subject in such a manner that learners will “bump into” them throughout the course. Instead of explicitly stating “you must know this”, the curator includes critical course concepts in her dialogue with learners, her comments on blog posts, her in-class discussions, and in her personal reflections.

Sensemaking in complex environments is a social process.

Perhaps we need to spend more time in information abundant environments before we turn to aggregation as a means of making sense of the landscape.

magine a course where the fragmented conversations and content are analyzed (monitored) through a similar service. Instead of creating a structure of the course in advance of the students starting (the current model), course structure emerges through numerous fragmented interactions. “Intelligence” is applied after the content and interactions start, not before.

Aggregation should do the same – reveal the content and conversation structure of the course as it unfolds, rather than defining it in advance.

Filtering resources is an important educator role, but as noted already, effective filtering can be done through a combination of wayfinding, social sensemaking, and aggregation. But expertise still matters. Educators often have years or decades of experience in a field. As such, they are familiar with many of the concepts, pitfalls, confusions, and distractions that learners are likely to encounter.

To teach is to model and to demonstrate. To learn is to practice and to reflect.”

Apprenticeship learning models are among the most effective in attending to the full breadth of learning.

Without an online identity, you can’t connect with others – to know and be known. I don’t think I’m overstating the importance of have a presence in order to participate in networks. To teach well in networks – to weave a narrative of coherence with learners – requires a point of presence. As a course progresses, the teacher provides summary comments, synthesizes discussions, provides critical perspectives, and directs learners to resources they may not have encountered before.