I recently attended the SLOAN-C International Symposium on Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning in San Francisco. It was an intense conference with many fantastic talks. One particularly interesting talk was done by Mary Anne Clark , a Professor of Biology at Wesleyan University in Texas. She started her talk by telling us a story. As an aside, I personally love talks that start with a story because I really value the learning that can come from storytelling.) Mary Anne’s husband would constantly try to convince her to play WoW with her. Student feedback clearly supports this. MORE >>

Screencasting can be useful in distance education. Recently, I met with colleagues who are designing a distance course in physics. In this particular course, the emphasis is on mathematical problem solving. When they deliver the course in class, they spent the first 15-20 minutes of each lecture thoroughly going over solutions from previously assigned homework problems. Students report that this investment of time in problem solving in the classroom really helps them master the subject matter. Remote screencasting was the front runner in the discussion. Create a storyboard. Image credit here. MORE >>

I know that this blog talks about educational technology and that the readership often examines these postings to receive tips on how to use new tools for learning. But sometimes, I am compelled to write about an old tool particularly if the old tool can be used quickly and easily to create something useful. Today I stumbled accross a nice tutorial video (1 min 39 secs long) on how to use MS-Excel 2007 to make a timeline depicting a series of historical events. So if you have never used Excel before you can still accomplish this task easily. If you have never visited their site, it's worth it. MORE >>

Let’s face it, whether you are a teacher, instructional designer, teaching assistant or multimedia developer, the shear amount of new tools being released on the Internet makes it difficult to stay up to date with what’s new and what can apply best to your specific discipline. So instead of wasting hours randomly searching for new things when you have a spare moment, I would suggest you consult regularly with Russell Stannard. He runs a great site called teachertrainingvideos.com. If you find any of these resources especially useful, let us know by leaving a comment below. MORE >>

Distance Learning itself. At my institution, we are scratching our heads a little bit wondering why we have an above average number of enrollments in our distance learning courses. However, if you do a quick Google search and read a few reports it is clear that the pundits have been predicting that distance learning enrollments will rise. Student seem to be gravitating towards learning opportunities that are not tied to them having to be in any particular location at a prescribed time during the day or week. So called ‘anytime, anywhere’ learning. Mobile learning. eTextbooks. Free Resources. MORE >>