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The World Digital Library offers various resources from different times and locales around the globe. The contents may well be copyrighted because this resources is contributed to from a variety of copyright holders. The items are well labeled with metadata and tagging.
http://www.wdl.org/en/
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In a time of economic strain, it seems that maintaining goodwill is more important than ever. So many of the projects that I deal with (both in public and private spheres) depend on benevolence and generosity and patience.
One example of this concept not working was with a publisher that solicited chapters for a book. The editor mentioned that all contributors would get a free contributor copy. Then, when the book was about to be published, they sent ...
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This seems like an interesting resource for some specific purposes.
http://www.voki.com/
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A recent course build by a faculty member built the course foundation on resources found on the Web. Here, the instructor used links to downloadable files, simulations, and videos. She eschewed any textbooks. To create an overlay, she did add a syllabus and supplementary videos to explain the contents. She also invited professional colleagues to take part in videotaped interviews that illuminated the issues further.
It struck me that she was truly relying on the Web for her curriculum—by ...
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Faculty members do accrue a collection of student excuses for late or poor work. Many of the excuses are dire in terms of health or housing or relationship issues. Students often know the policy parameters sufficiently to where they offer insights that are excusable. And I’ve been around long enough to know that life doesn’t necessarily fit set parameters. There are valid reasons for late work.
I will request evidentiary proof at times. At times, I will even ...
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Subject matter experts from a variety of fields are turning towards online learning as a way to serve a wider constituency of learners. Some get on online learning projects because of grant funding and the originality of their expertise. Not all who get on projects particularly believe in online learning. As a matter of fact, some approach online learning with mixed emotions and attitudes. In a team that works well, these concerns are surfaced and addressed incrementally.
Continue reading Learning about E-Learning as a Team Collaboration Byproduct
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One of my recent projects has involved the use of peer education, or the use of students to serve as supporters and peer advisors for fellow students on issues of acclimating to campus and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. These programs involve some vetting and training of students to support these services. This endeavor is a way to save on funds, but it’s also about packaging important information in a way that may be more effectively delivered to people—through ...
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A recent project highlighted the phenomena of designing websites to deliver information for synchronous wide-scale interactions. This refers to the delivery of information (via text and multimedia) to a broad-spectrum audience in real-time, often in a crisis or emergency situation. One aspect of this is that the information is not only for situational awareness but for decision supports—making choices in real time and with real implications.
Some basic tenets of crisis communications involve the need for having ...
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The research literature on innovations as they proliferate into a community is engaging. One central concept is the idea that innovations are risky for a world that may not be ready for it. Being first involves changing human attitudes and behaviors, structures, technologies, and the larger economies—for an innovation to actually “take.”
These entrepreneurial risks are important to take to move technologies forward to improve human lives. The challenge though is building to an environment that may not fully ...
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Here is an article about a course designed to address academic dishonesty.
http://jolt.merlot.org/currentissue.html
http://jolt.merlot.org/vol5no2/roberts_0609.pdf
Continue reading An Online Course for Students Addressing Academic Dishonesty
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A generic syllabus is one that captures the main contents of an online course: the course description, the defined learning objectives, the catalog information, related texts and resources, a course schedule (to show the overall e-learning trajectory and course structure), the grading structure, and course policies (civility clauses, accessibility issues, and others). I had assumed that it always comes with every online course build, but one of the faculty on the build team asked several times about what this syllabus ...
Continue reading The Uses of Generic Syllabi in Collaborative Course Builds
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For the faculty and staff who will be hitting the road this summer, many will be taking their various digital devices and laptop computers. In that spirit, our campus IT security folks offered a training to support us in keeping both equipment and data safe.
The actual physical protections of equipment are pretty straightforward, with many locking devices that may be used to secure laptops to more fixed surfaces. The presenter suggested bags that do not look like laptop ones ...
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The use of e-learning to back up universities during times of crisis or emergencies has long been in discussions on various campuses. With the WHO declaration of H1N1 at the pandemic flu level on June 11, some are re-looking at virtual learning as a way to support social distancing—or strategies for self-isolating as a protective measure to keep the flu from being passed from person-to-person and possibly recombining in other more dangerous ways.
It’s interesting, but faculty uses ...
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Elluminate™ hosted “Informal Learning or Non-Formal Learning: What Makes More Sense In Your Organization” presented by Lance Dublin of Dublin Group (dublinconsulting.net)and a worldwide consultant on learning (on June 10). Between formal and informal learning, is there another way—with “non-formal learning” as a semi-structured, semi-purposeful / semi-random way of learning in Web 2.0 spaces. (This suggests that formal learning tends to be structured and purposive, and informal learning tends to be unstructured and random.)
Dublin seemed to ...
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With the growing popularity of various repositories of information, many amateurs have joined in the work of informal archival and preservation of contents. And recently, I have heard about a project at a university (not in the US) that encouraged the digital sharing of privately-owned artifacts related to WWII via digital photo captures.
There was no apparent training of those who posted the contents, and there was not apparent vetting. People basically identified artifacts from WWII based on family lore ...
Continue reading Protecting Solicited Amateur Digital Work...into the Future
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Like most work, projects tend to have stages, and these include a “sunset” stage. This is where the instructional designer takes a quick bow and splits. This is usually defined by the MOU (memorandum of agreement), or more specifically, when the funds run out. Optimally, this coincides with the work’s final wrap-up and acceptance of the curriculum by all parties involved.
Tapering off on a project involves letting the principals and the team members know that the tapering phase ...
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Getting information out to people can be a messy business. It gets worse when the information is coming from individuals working in a variety of disciplines in a time-constricted crisis mode. It just so happened that when the H1N1 (Round 1) broke earlier this spring, that I was working on a multi-institutional public health project. I had met a range of experts and was learning of the hard work of capturing raw research and reaching out to the public in ...
Continue reading Rumors, Street Cred, Science, and Misinformation
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On a recent and rare afternoon when I had a chance to attend a presentation on tips for writing up NSF grants, I came away with an intriguing angle. (And do instructional designers support the conceptualizing, writing and fulfillment of federal grants—you bet!)
Dr. Parag R. Chitnis described the general guidelines for NSFs…which focus on science and engineering (but not the study of diseases). He suggested that this organization has the defined strategies of funding “discovery, infrastructure, learning ...
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For about half a year now, I’ve been reviewing contents for two electronic publications for e-learning, and while both have been on my reading list, I’ve had a comfy insider’s view of some of their policies and editorial practices.
The truth is that for most publications, they would not be able to survive financially if they had to commission the works that they run. An article can take many many many dozens of hours of research, writing ...
Continue reading DIfferent Mindsets and Cultures for Different E-Publications
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onguardonline.gov/wireless.html