In my efforts to learn about e-learning and to give the appearance of staying up-to-date on the field, I like to explore various blogs and online publications. Recently, I stumbled onto this article, written by a man whose blog has probably been referenced repeatedly already in this blog.
I’ll admit, when I first started reading the article, I had little or no idea what “information cascading” was. Howeve, now I understand that an informational cascade takes place when someone is making decisions based on information gathered from someone other than himself. It’s interesting to see it named, as it’s something that happens all too frequently. One person looks at an artifact and creates their impression of it. They share that impression with someone else, who then forms their own impression of the first person’s impression instead of the artifact. That person then goes to someone else with their impression of the first person’s impression and a decision is made based on the impression of the impression instead of the decision maker’s own impression of the artifact itself.
The included papaers and case studies just paint a very interesting picture of what happens when the decision maker is removed from the intereaction with the artifact itself. Very valuable lesson.
Posted by Rebecca as e-learning, Knowledge Management at 8:36 AM EDT
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I found a couple of interesting articles on how the blogosphere is affecting how people are interacting with this upcoming election and some of the issues at stake. It demonstrates the power of the internet as a method of gathering and processing information on a specific topic to help educate and persuade.
Very interesting.
Posted by Rebecca as e-learning, Weblogs at 9:26 PM EDT
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Here is an interesting article on the role of simulations in education. This actually deals with an online simulation where scenarios are set up and explained to the student beforehand.
Exercises like these simulations are an excellent way to naviagate around two of the larger problems in trying to teach: trying to demonstrate relevance of task and giving experience to the studied theory.
It’s reminders like this that remind me why I made the deliberate choice to get into informal education!
Posted by Rebecca as e-learning at 11:24 AM EDT
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It has always amazed me how often problem-solving activities are assigned to keep the gifted students quiet while waiting for their classmates to finish their work. This article does a great job of showing what happens when you open those activities to all of your students. This is such a great idea, and it equips all of your students with the ability to look at various problems and solve them.
He has also included some great ideas for other areas where puzzle projects can be used to help enhance lessons.
Posted by Rebecca as Problem Solving at 7:41 AM EDT
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This is an interesting article from an interesting site on e-learning.
It reminded me of the day when a school teacher accused me of being in the business of “education through entertainment”. She said it as if my preferred teaching arena was less worthy than her traditional classroom. Yes, I tend to teach in places where education and entertainment are interlaced. People choose to willingly come to places where I enjoy teaching. However, it’s amazing how many of the highest rated and award-winning teachers in this company seem to incorporate entertaining elements into their lessons as well.
We are a society that demands to be entertained or we make the authority figure’s life sheer hell. It is no different in the school classroom than it is in the museum classroom than it is in the online classroom.
Posted by Rebecca as e-learning at 8:32 AM EDT
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My elearning post newsletter led me to this article, which in turn led me to this article. It really inspired me to reconsider creating some coursework for UniversalClass.
It focuses on the main points of a successful asynchronous learning situation, which really is what Universal Class is about. It covers student-led work and discussions, peer learning, and collaborative work. The examples and ideas are just great!
Posted by Rebecca as e-learning at 9:14 AM EDT
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In my preparations and ground work for getting my business up and running, I do a lot of reading on topics that I think might be relevant. One of those is entrepreneurship. I am not to proud to learn from others’ mistakes or successes, so I pay attention. I look for commonalities and tips. It’s quite fun.
As someone trained in the education field who tried to spend a year in the corporate sector, I am also now interested in Knowledge Management. I’ve even taken courses on the matter. It seems like a great idea, but I just can’t make myself get past the hype.
During my morning readings the other day, I came across this article on incorporating knowledge management into the small business culture. Instead of focusing on keeping the knowledge within your own business, it says to turn around and package that knowledge to make it make money for you. As much as I am not a fan of knowledge management, I rather like this spin on the old “write books, make money hand over fist” approach.
Posted by Rebecca as Knowledge Management at 8:04 PM EDT
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This summer, I was exposed to a concept that seems like it should be the foundation for any experiential learning situation: challenge by choice. Basically, the learner is present with an explanation of the activity. The learner then decides for himself or herself whether or not they feel able to take on the challenge. It puts the responsibility for accepting the challenge. It creates a safe atmosphere in which the learner can refuse the challenge.
We had a number of activities this summer where the girls were informed that they could opt out of an activity with no repurcussions. They were invited to sit and watch, though. In some cases, a girl who had decided to opt out of an activity decided to try it out after watching her friends go through the activity. It was so much fun to watch these girls making their own decisions, ontrolling their activities. It truly wqas empowering.
I think this technique should be employed wherever possible. It can help make someone relax and feel better about what they are doing. This summer, it appeared to help minimize a fear of failure among the girls. It helps the learner take charge of their own learning (something I’m whole-heartedly in support of).
Posted by Rebecca as Experiential Learning at 8:00 AM EDT
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A friend was recently sharing her woes with a group she volunteers with. This group likes to hang out and talk about anything, and sometimes somebody won’t understand something that’s been said. This has led to some drama more than once as the person will badger the others in the group until someone answers their question. Now, the amusing part is that the person who finally answers will often admit that they turned to Google to find the answer because they also didn’t know.
I find this so fascinating because the phrase I heard more than any other during my childhood was "Look it up!" I hated that phrase with a passion, but by the time I was twelve, I had above-average research skills, which made high school, college, and graduate school something of a breeze for me. I cannot imagine not being able to go look something up for myself.
This bothers me because it says to me that these people were never taught to accept responsibility for their own learning. While I can’t imagine not running off to research anything that catches my interest, these people can’t fathom doing the actual research themselves.
I suppose it’s not terribly surprising that I subscribe to the belief that learning can only take place when one interacts with the material they are trying to learn. The responsibility for learning in this belief is on the learner himself or herself. That level of self-reliance is something that must be taught, and it saddens me to think that there is a generation of people out there who aren’t being given that self-reliance.
As the old saying goes, "I see, hear, and do, and I learn." The emphasis in that should appropriately be on the I. If the student doesn’t make himself or herself an active participant in the learning process, then no learning will ever take place.
Posted by Rebecca as Components of Learning at 6:06 PM EDT
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