Comments for E-Learn

Comment on E-Learn 2009 Final Call (Vancouver) includes Virtual Presentations: Due Sept. 8 by nigelschwartz

nigelschwartz — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:48:37 +0000

Brilliant idea to add virtual presentations this year.

Thanks for your work!

Comment on E-Learn Magazine Predictions for 2009 by LisaNeal

LisaNeal — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:51:05 +0000

Thanks for posting, Curt. I hope that readers will contribute their predictions – what does Gary Marks think will happen in e-learning in 2009?

Comment on Past Promises and Present Challenges: A Conversation about Hype and Reality and What’s to Come in E-Learning by DavidThomas

DavidThomas — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 21:51:35 +0000

I am using social network analysis (NetMiner) and content analysis (Leximancer) to study the structure and content of student discourse and to investigate what we advocate (e.g., as found in standards documents)and what we are actually doing (e.g., as found in research and practitioner papers. Interesting stuff. Is anybody else wrestling with these issues? If so, I’d like to hear about your work.

Comment on Language Translation Capacity added to E-Learn Blog by KatrinaLiu

KatrinaLiu — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:55:06 +0000

Aha, the Chinese translation is far from accurate too. One reason is probably because the sentence structures in the two language are quite different. We may need voluteer translators?

Comment on Language Translation Capacity added to E-Learn Blog by MinnamariNaumanen

MinnamariNaumanen — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:31:31 +0000

Finnish, however, is quite far from accurate (but, as learning shoud be fun in these days, this makes it like that ). I think that by using “real users” (r there any, donno) you could get a nice and accurate translation, instead of using machines that have no clue of grammar what-so-ever!

Comment on Getting ready for E-Learn by curtisbonk

curtisbonk — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:26:13 +0000

Insightful observations George. Yes, we have many invited speakers and participants who come from the open education movement. The world is truly more open for education today than it was a decade ago or even 1-2 years ago.

Comment on Heading to Las Vegas by mimilee

mimilee — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 03:15:18 +0000

The conferences I’ve been, the usual choices seemed to be (1)a suit (slacks/skirt with jacket)–the safest (2)something equivalent, like shirt & slacks/skirt or even not-so-casual sweater/cardigan.
As long as they are not “too casual”( jeans, T-shirts, shorts) or too dressy, it should be ok, I think.

Comment on Heading to Las Vegas by KariChancey

KariChancey — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:03:21 +0000

Speaking of what to bring… What is the norm for conference attire?

Comment on Past Promises and Present Challenges: A Conversation about Hype and Reality and What’s to Come in E-Learning by curtisbonk

curtisbonk — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:57:42 +0000

Ya, I do think our perspectives overlap on pt #6. I will say that there is a leaning toward misunderstanding or ignorance to the research on online learning.

But there is some good stuff out there now. The Sloan Foundation for one does great work. The Pew Internet and American Life Project does as well. So does the military. And there are some really valuable book. I just worry that people reading pt #6 really quickly will assume that everything out there is not worth much.

But now I see your pt. Too many people (instructional designers included) tend to build online content based on what they see. If they see shoddy stuff over and over, they may assume that that is simply the way things are done. Best practices may arise from such assumptions and lack of reflection as well as misunderstanding of what the research says. I agree with you then. I guess, I want both ends noted–on the one end, there is some good stuff out there. On the other end, there is a lack of awareness of much of it.

Again, nicely said Patti. And yes, bring all those controversial topics with you to E-Learn next week. I am looking forward to it.

Comment on Past Promises and Present Challenges: A Conversation about Hype and Reality and What’s to Come in E-Learning by pattishank

pattishank — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:59:26 +0000

Let me try to defend #6 with an example. Most narration in e-learning materials reads the text on the slide. Clearly, designers must think that’s fine because lots of folks are doing it. But multimedia research tells us that this isn’t a good approach at all. People believe that if many others are doing it, it must be a “best practice.” I think we are actually saying the same thing… Some people ARE applying research, but others think that if a conference presenter says X is good, then it must be good. I think that the gist of the last bullet point is that just because people commonly do something or a presenter says something doesn’t make it true. We need to inform design better than we do now. Is there a place where practitioners can go to find out (in practical terms) what research applies and how to apply it? I don’t think we do. I’d like to be part of the solution to this predicament.

I promise to bring a ton of possibly controversial takeaways from the book that we can discuss.