My point is, under the right circumstances, video can provide effective instruction. I’m sure you know the feeling. You’re sitting in a classroom watching a presentation – which started late to allow the “stragglers” to show up – when about 10 minutes in it dawns on you… What am I doing here? Either you’re already familiar with what’s being presented, or it’s so straight-forward it didn’t require 30 or 60 minutes of your time. It’s such a waste of time – both for you and for the presenter. And you know what? MORE >>

I’m going to provide a brief overview of Friesen’s arguments, but then I’m going to do something either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid: point out where I don’t agree with the author – an academic heavyweight about a thousand times more credible than I. How many “facts&# do we accept at face value? For example, do we really remember 10% of what we hear, 20% of what we see, 50% of what we do …? It’s human nature to accept knowledge that’s universally propagated. Our peers wouldn’t be wrong, right? Hold your horses. MORE >>

• Provide plenty of questions for practice. Provide an epitome of the domain initially, then elaborate. • Provide rich feedback. • Provide your learners with a forum to ask questions and to learn from one another. • Avoid merely listing hyperlinks: instead, provide explanations to help the learner recognise meaningful patterns among them. In this article, I go one step further by listing specific, practical instructional design tips that are informed by those theories. Behaviourist design. Cognitivist design. • Bold key terms. MORE >>

Her e-bites blog provides an honest account of her experiences. Fay Moore made my day when she nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award. I’m still unsure as to whether this is the blogosphere’s version of a chain letter, but in any case it gives me a good excuse to: A) Thank Fay for her support, and. B) Promote other bloggers. According to the VBA Rules I’m supposed to nominate 15 bloggers whom I have recently discovered or follow regularly. Since then, she has joined Dachis Group where she and James Dellow write about social business on the Headshift blog. MORE >>

In the socio-historical context of our time, the demand that providers have for altruism? Guns don’t kill people. People do. It’s a well-worn saying that Americans in particular know only too well. And of course it’s technically correct. don’t fear a gun on the table, but I do fear someone might pick it up and pull the trigger. That’s why I don’t want a gun on the table. Chandler explains that “hard” technological determinism holds technology as the driver of change in society. Like most extremism, however, it’s an absurd construct. MORE >>