Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Changing Challenges in Education: Early Signs of Autism

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/AmericanFamily/story?id=515218

Anyone who deals with children knows about the epidemic in autism and its lesser form Asberger's Syndrome. For reasons that are unclear, the number of cases have exploded in recent years, so much so that some school districts are developing special programs to deal with these children who are often exceptionally gifted, but socially challenged.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Professional Influences

Professionally, I've been greatly influenced by greatly influenced by David Jonassen's work on problem solving, creating constructivist learning environments, and the technology of text.

I recently joined the eLearning Guild because it seems to provide the best forum for reasearch and discussion that I've found since the demise of IICS. The online blogging world itself actually provides the most dynamic source of inspiration to me through the blogs of Stephen Downey and David Pogue.

What do I think the blogging world has to contribute to my personal evolution as an instructional and hypertext developer? All of these people seem to have more time to surf the web than I do, better access to beta versions of the latest technology, and a verbosity that I seldom allow myself.