Rules

Sixth & Seventh Grade Girls' Class Rules

1. Respect everyone's opinion.
2. Listen when somebody's talking.
3. Pay attention.
4. Be nice.
5. Say hi.

Analogies

One of the queries of logic used most frequently on IQ and personality test is the analogy. In Italy, this is often how our written assignments or in-class essays were given to us. For Example:

Discuss the following:

Holy is to Sacred as Truth is to Reality.

Now that would set your mind working.

Crisis in the Schools

Every child can learn. And our schools in the U.S. are broken. I've always believed that democracy cannot function without public education. This show highlights the problems and some of the varied solutions.

http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200604/tows_past_20060412.jhtml

One of the solutions

Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships

Interactivity

Can a white board interact? Why don't we teach by asking more questions, challenging students, instead of just presenting information?

It's not knowing the answers. It's asking the right questions.

Technology and Teaching

Too often we get caught up in the latest whizbangs that technology has to offer, and forget the basics. Unless the content is appropriate for the learner's needs, it doesn't matter whether you project, animate, whiteboard, elicit, or model.

New Job

As part of my ongoing research into life-long learning, hehe, I started a new job.

Training to do a new job is a very good way to flex your learning muscles. Having work free-lance in eLearning development for the last oh so many years, I decided it was time to take a break from self-employment and settle into a steady, predictable paycheck, more or less ;-)

As though anything were predictable these days.

Instructional Design Models

I thot I'd post this link here, just because it's one of my favorites when I want to refer to the various models proposed for developing curriculum.

http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/idmodels.html

SxSW Interactive

Most people have heard of SXSW! It's been going on since I was free & footloose (many yrs ago). Fewer outside of Austin, Texas know of the Interactive portion of the festival. Its popularity has waxed and waned along with the dot com economy in Austin, but if you're in the field of multimedia development, it's the place to be in March! Especially if you also like live music and film.

Check it out at www.sxsw.com/

Informed Learning

Informed Learning

Reading / Listening to On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins.

How do you know what needs to be taught?

One of the other problems with being an instructional designer is you are a conduit of information among varied constituencies.

Learning

Knowing how you learn, learning what you need to know.