By Stephen Downes
June 21, 2004
A Special Request
My thanks to the
many people who have sent me notes describing the impact of
our work here at the NRC e-learning group. For those who
missed the request sent out Sunday (that is, text, RSS and
Javascript feed subscribers), there is still time to send
me an email. As for the rest - hundreds of you! - thank you
for the support and encouragement. By Stephen Downes,
Stephen's Web, June 20, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Should We Be Using Learning Styles? What
Research Has to Say to Practice
Seb Schmoller
brings us two nice - and critical - reviews of learning
styles. As the authors note, "There is... a strong
intuitive appeal to the notion that we all have individual
preferences and styles of learning." It is, indeed, an
intuition I share. And yet - the research doesn't support
the intuition, mostly because there is a lack of good
research. Moreover, because such research would abut
against so many contextual factors, it is possible that
such research may never be forthcoming. By Frank Coffield,
et.al., Learning and Skills Research Centre, June, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Learning Styles and Pedagogy in Post-16
Learning: A Systematic and Critical Review
"This
report critically reviews the literature on learning styles
and examines in detail 13 of the most influential models.
The report concludes that it matters fundamentally which
instrument is chosen. The implications for teaching and
learning in post-16 learning are serious and should be of
concern to learners, teachers and trainers, managers,
researchers and inspectors." Really nice summary of the
learning styles models - a great place to get an overview.
The authors are also quite rightly sceptical of much of the
work so far. "The danger here is of mindless and
atheoretical empiricism. We conclude that some order will,
sooner or later, have to be imposed on the learning styles
field from outside." By Frank Coffield, et.al., Learning
and Skills Research Centre, June, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Real Estate Educators Unhappy with Distance
Learning Regulations
I find this very
interesting and perhaps the leading edge of a trend. "There
is growing controversy in the real estate industry
regarding the regulations and costs to create distance
learning, according to RealtyU... the advancement of
distance learning within the real estate industry is being
severely hindered by the current regulations." Now of
course there is a certain self-interest being expressed
here, but one wonders, given that real estate agents are
evaluated by tests, why there would be regulations
governing the delivery of learning. Via ADL Co-Lab News. By
RisMedia, Real Estate News, June 15, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Italy School Foils Cheats by Blocking Phone
Signals
Tech fights tech - this short item,
describes the use of jamming equipment to block cell
(mobile) phones during tests at a school in Italy. Heh. I
wonder whether we can get cars equipped with similar
devices. Via ADL Co-Lab News. By Reuters, Yahoo! News, June
18, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
The Conversing Company: Its Culture, Power
and Potential
With stories, links, descriptions,
diagrams, case studies and more, Alan Stewart presents a
fascinating excursion into the benefits of conversation for
companies. Originally presented in Vienna in 2001, this
resource, passed along via elearningpost, provides a
refreshing look at an old topic. Oh I know, the value
conversing and telling stories has been well established
and long predates e-learning. But there is, I think, a
tendency to forget that when we think of thinks like
knowledge management systems and learning repositories.
PDF. By Alan Stewart, World Conference for Systemic
Management, May, 2001
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Personalized News? Findory News Has
Them
Robin Good points us to this resource,
Findory, that cretaes a personalized online newspaper,
providing a short description and link to a Findory page
containing news reports about Findory (nice). "Findory uses
a patent-pending method to order news articles gathered
from a wide variety of sources. The algorithm combines
statistical analysis of the article text and of users who
viewed the articles with information about articles you
previously viewed." It should be obvious, but I'll say it
anyway: this sort of content distribution mechanism is a
natural for education, and is exactly why I have spent so
much time working on learning object repositories and
related syndication systems. By Luigi Canali De Rossi,
Robin Good, June 14, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Teachers Learning New Tools
When
people ask whether e-learning is 'just as good' as
traditional learning, this isn't one of the metrics that
really shows up: improved access and independence for
special education students. Oh, this may not have a
positive impact on test scores, but it has a positive
impact on education and the community. By Associated Press,
Globe and Mail, June 21, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Blackboard Soars in Market
Debut
So Blackboard's IPO launched Friday and
sent the tech community abuzz, posting some of the best
results for an initial public offering in months, rising 43
percent on the first day of trading. By Reuters, CNN
Money, June 18, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
Evaluation as a Strategic
Tool
Brief outline of Kirkpatrick's levels of
evaluation of learning reosurces, by Kirkpatrick. Useful
quick reference. Via trdev. By Donald L. Kirkpatrick and
James J. L’Allie, Chief Learning Officer, June, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]
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