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This last entry of this series focuses on finding the resources which may be good “homes” for a particular author. The following then are some of my favorite tips.

Evolving Informal to Formal

One way in this modern age of publishing is to evolve the informal to the formal. One example of this is the writing of a blog and turning that opportunity to writing articles and then maybe chapters and maybe books.

Reading / Writing

Another strategy is to see ...

Blog Entry

People who haven’t published think that their lives change after publication of a work. It really doesn’t in a major way. There may be small changes. That’s been my experience, anyway.

Post-Publication…Quiet

Having published for a number of years, I have found that publishing a work really doesn’t change one’s life. There’s always been a muted response. There may be offers to co-write academic works but usually from people with whom I have ...

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http://www.k-state.edu/lafene/h1n1_guidelines_for_instructors.pdf

Blog Entry

This seminar series then addresses the various written artifacts in writing and publishing. Then, this describes a typical publishing cycle. Finally, this also addresses the publishing implications of digital contents—including multimedia.

The Written Artifacts

The common written artifacts are the following related to academic writing.

Query letter: A cover letter offering topic ideas and a professional author introduction

Book prospectus: An overview of the domain area, objectives of the book, possible audiences, suggested titles, academic value, other textbook competitors ...

Blog Entry

The sticky issue of authorship then arises. Should a writer author a work himself or herself? Should he / she co-write a work?

Going Solo

Most writers write from central areas of expertise. They have primary research and experience in a particular part of a field, a professional interest in that area, access to all the necessary information, and an ability to create all the informational substance and digital contents. In those situations, there are plenty of reasons to go solo ...

Blog Entry

The actual contents of the slideshow presentation, after several weeks of evolution, comes together in a nifty two-hour session. The slideshow objectives are defined as follows:

Define academic publishing as a field

Review the conventions and ethics of academic writing

Discuss the relevant laws affecting academic publishing

Describe information gathering and research

Describe some written artifacts related to publishing

Review usual academic publisher processes

Explain imagery concerns for publishing

Describe multimedia often created for academic publication

Discuss issues for writers ...

Blog Entry

A colleague on a branch campus asked if I wanted to collaborate on a piece of writing for publication. Those invitations are fairly common, and they come from people I’ve never even met to those who invite me out for coffee and are those from peripheral fields. The usual answer is “no” not out of any arrogance, but because the logistics of collaboration require that the collaborators have some shared research and experiences. Without that, what’s there to ...

Blog Entry

Defining "Cloud Computing"

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“The Network is your computer,” goes one of the slogans.

The techno buzz around the office and online has been about “cloud computing.” So when the email appeared in my box about Sun Microsystems offering a webinar called “Introduction to Cloud Computing…for Enterprise Users,” I signed up—only to see that opportunity get overshadowed by other commitments. Then, they sent a follow-up email offering the archived webinar online. Perfect.

The Next Big Thing or a Fad?

Dr. Lew Tucker ...

Blog Entry

Speed in Instructional Design

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Doing instructional design work for speed is an occasional reality for IDs at the university. Speed becomes a critical issue whenever there are deadline-sensitive projects. In these situations, there are deadlines from grant funders, compliance trainings, legal requirements, course-launch deadlines, commercial deadlines, and any number of other reasons.

The Cases for Speed-work

Speed is seldom the first requirement, but in some cases, it can be. Sometimes, speed is the over-riding factor. Sometimes when a crucial staff member has moved on ...

Blog Entry

Making the "Business Case" for a Particular Technology

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The draft article came in a neat little package. Here was a college that had found some open-source freeware that could help its institution deal with student service issues as well as resource management. They are arguing that their going the open-source route was saving them a lot of money and time and resources. However, the argument did not include baseline definitions of the pre- and post- intervention situations. There were no real metrics to speak of, only assertions without ...

Blog Entry

Coming in Cold to a Learning Domain

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For many freshman-level courses, it may be fair to assume that learners will be coming in cold to the learning domain. Coming in “cold” means that they lack basic background in the field. It also means that their skillsets may be scatter-shot in terms of the subject materials, and the learners may well be acquiring their learning skills as they go.

Building on “Knowns”

Strategies for supporting novice learners to a learning domain are manifold. First, one strategy involves building ...

Blog Entry

Using Textbooks as a Starting Point

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There are a number of strategies to organize course contents in the field of instructional design. One de facto one is to rely on the tables of contents of the selected textbook(s) for a course.

Using the TOC

For many faculty, this is almost assumed. They are relying on the subject matter experts of a field who also have the ability to write and express themselves. Or they’re using collections that include many contributions from different authors organized ...

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The opening of the article was riveting. An instructor of an introductory course in computer programming was noticing his student demographics, and the high probability that they…

“Are from some minority group Did some portion of their k-12 in a compromised educational system Are students not just out of high school and may be working Are not born in the United States Speak English as there (sic) second language Have very little (sic) computer skills May be dismayed by the ...

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In light of the H1N1 concerns regarding "high touch" surfaces...

http://itnews.itac.k-state.edu/2009/09/how-to-clean-computer-keyboard-and-mouse-surfaces/

Blog Entry

Defining "Design Principles" for a Project

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Depending on the domain field and the leaders of an instructional design project, any number of “design principles” may guide a project. Design principles are the main concepts and values underlying a curricular build. These concepts are rarely explicitly spelled out, possibly because the subject matter experts assume these concepts as a matter-of-course. These are not defined in the documentation supporting projects like grant documents or official course descriptions. And yet, these principles are important for a successful e-learning project ...

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Pencil and Paper Designs

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Computer science articles do not usually involve freehand pencil drawings, but recently, I ran across some academic research articles on design that had scanned freehand pencil images embedded in the text. There it was—the charm of hand-drawn early concepts of various navigational structures or design templates.

There was the idiosyncratic scratchy handwriting. There were the varying lines drawn with assurance and a rough artistry. That refreshing feel of a raw pencil on paper is such an Important aspect to ...

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Evolutionary Prototypes

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Like many people, I care about my work. I want to do a good job on every project that I work on. I’ve also been out in the world enough to know that healthy critique and user feedback are critical to enhance projects, so I’m also not that protective of my work. People have opinions, and they have every right to them.

On the whole, most work developed for a project is used, albeit with some trimming here ...

Blog Entry

"The Immersive Parasocial"

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MERLOT's JOLT (Journal of Online Learning and Teaching) just published a position paper titled "Exploring the Immersive Parasocial: Is it You or the Thought of You?" related to 3D immersive learning.

http://jolt.merlot.org/vol5no3/hai-jew_0909.htm

http://jolt.merlot.org/currentissue.html

Blog Entry

Encouraging Human Help-Seeking Behaviors

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Design questions that other people wrangle with regarding socio-technical systems often reveal a lot about people. With the emphasis on self-help and self-management as a money-savings endeavor for education, healthcare, and other aspects of modern life, people have been looking at how to offer sufficient feedback and encouragement to help people self-assess, and further, to help them know when to seek help (and from where).

Some Challenges of Help-seeking

Help-seeking is not as simple of a phenomena as one might ...

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Instructional Design on Grant Budget Lines

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It may be the tough funding environment, but I have run across a number of grant proposals by various faculty that are somewhat gap-filled. There are proposals for a full program of courses that have no pay for the instructors in other departments (as if they would work for free). Or there are proposals for development grants that suggest a type of learning of creating learning objects but without actual deliverables. Or faculty will suggest the building of learning objects ...