In my view it all comes down to how you envision the finished product meeting the needs of your target market. Use a print-based framework for your finished product; however, augment the print-based material with short audio-video tutorials (created with Adobe Captivate) that show students the piece of software in action. I recently answered an email question from a reader named Barb that might interest other readers as well: Question: Hi Eric, I ran into your site through the Internet and would like some advice on the following. However, I am looking for shortcuts. Take care. MORE >>

Their flagship product, REACTOR, is an entirely web-based chemistry lab simulator. If you want to try more, they will issue a 2-week free trial for any instructor considering using the product in an educational setting. Using Late Night Labs, you can seal a beaker of water with a rubber stopper and you can boil it over a Bunsen burner until the beaker explodes just like in real life, except you won't be badly burned in the process (*smile*) Have you used Late Night Labs or a similar product in your educational setting? Science is a strange discipline isn’t it? Very nice! MORE >>

Sabah Karam from Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, recently wrote to me asking: “I have been doing research on how wikis can be used to teach students how to do mathematical proofs…. would like to know if you have any thoughts on if you think we this is a realistic effort and, so, how we can achieve this goal.” Great question! personally believe that a wiki can succeed on any topic. wiki is merely a tool for collaborative document authoring by a group. Does anyone else know of any? if so, leave a comment below. Image credit. MORE >>

Well – being a productive person in the workplace REQUIRES interaction and group work with other staff (some of which are not geographically co-located). Trent Batson, executive director of The Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning , has just published a thought provoking article in Campus Technology (dated 19 Jan 2011). As a practitioner in the field of eLearning I read Trent’s article with great interest. Many of the points he touched upon really rang true to me. Why do I do this? Some members of academic departments still believe that content is king! MORE >>

It’s a great application to add to your digital storytelling toolbox for you or for your students – the production value is high. I participated in a great online talk yesterday by James Falkofske, Director of Online Learning, St. Cloud Technical College ( here's a link to James' blog ). His talk was titled: Easy Steps for Expanding Desire2Learn with Web 2.0 Tools. In general, I love talks like this. There is always some little gold nugget that I can take away and use. Well, in this particular talk, I took away two: A web application index that catalogs all kinds of examples of Web 2.0 MORE >>