effectivedesign.org » Websites

Here’s one way to work around the writer’s strike!

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:48:20 +0000

If you haven’t seen this yet, I highly recommend it. Joss Whedon is my favorite TV/movie writer, and this thing is absolutely brilliant!

It’s only available for free until Sunday, July 20, 2008. So hurry up, and be prepared to laugh!

****UPDATED**** Dr. Horrible is now available via HULU. But go buy it at iTunes as well, I did! Support the cause!

Links 3-08-08 to 3-25-08

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:38:28 +0000

Spring break and the later part of the semester have been absolutely KILLING me for time. And that doesn’t even factor in the time I’ve been spending coaching my son John’s 12 and under travel baseball team, the Perkins Patriots. So besides being woefully behind on grading, trying to pass third year reappointment, trying to get a couple of articles written, learn to make my own golf clubs (and then get to actually use them), and being completely distracted by Twitter, I haven’t blogged much. BUT I’M RESOLUTE; I’m back in the game . . .

So here are the links from the last three weeks. I think I’m going to have to start just doing a daily links post (when necessary) like the Cool Cat Teacher does.

From my del.icio.us account:

You can see what I tagged in my Google Reader after the jump.From my reader:

My top ten tools for learning: version 2008

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:20:35 +0000

So once again, Jane Hart is running her Top Ten Tools for Learning list. Last year I posted my list, but I was too late to have it listed on her overall list. I’ve looked over my list, and it has changed quite a bit. Here’s a short recap of last year’s list (without annotations):

See how this year’s list differs after the jump.As you will be able to see, some have changed, and for some, only the annotation has changed. Overall, like I said last year, “I just tried to come up with which tools have the biggest effect on my students’ learning. It’s not close to Jane’s final list, but at least it’s my list.”

Here’s this year’s list:

Facebook
- Still, by far, the undisputed number one. Last year I wrote: “I’ve posted about my love of Facebook before. But look, we teach these technology integration classes and we tell our students to find out what their students have and work from there. Well, where are my college undergrads? Facebook. Since I’ve started requiring my undergrads to add me as a friend, I’ve had more communication with my undergrads. It’s been crazy, actually. Students who NEVER would have gotten a hold of me before, are now writing on my wall just to say, ‘Hey Dr. Curry! What’s up?’ I love it.”
Wikispaces
- New to the list. I’ve started using wikispaces with both grads and undergrads to promote community knowledge building. They’re eating it up. Plus, it helps that it’s FREE!
Voicethread
- Again, new, and FREE. I’ve had students creating and commenting on each others’ projects. Nice work, easy tool, good fun.
Google
- Same as last year: “I’m talking just the search engine itself here. They must have the greatest bots in their servers, because is there anything you can’t find on Google? Seriously. When was the last time you heard someone say, ‘Yeah, well, I yahoo’ed it last night . . .’ or ‘I ask.com’ed it last night . . ..’ But what about, ‘I Googled it last night . . ..’ Enough said.”
del.icio.us
- Again, same as last year (but with updated stats!): “I’ve posted about my use of del.icio.us bookmarks as well, and I keep going. Now, I don’t use them as much as my friends Trey Martindale (who, as of this post has 1400+ bookmarks) and Chris Duke (currently 1400+ bookmarks), but I do use them. I currently manage two accounts. One is for my personal use, and the other is a set of links for our EDTC 3123 (pre-service teacher technology) course.”
Desire2Learn
- This one ought to be interesting with the new BlackBoard is a legal monopoly ruling. Last year I wrote: “So, yeah. Oklahoma State just migrated to D2L last Spring semester, and let’s just say the transition hasn’t been an easy one. However, the tool does have an impact on my students’ learning so I’ll list it. If anyone wants my take on D2L, you can ask me and maybe I’ll post about it.”
MyLabSchool
- This one is new, and I’m LOVING it. MyLabSchool is something we have our students buy with the textbook (Teaching and Learning with Technology) we use in the undergrad course. It has an EXCELLENT lesson plan builder, and even better Skillsbuilders (job aids to teach the tools). Totally worth every penny.
Meebo
- Another new one. It’s an all in one, web-based IM client. I have my AIM, GTalk, Yahoo! IM, and MSN IM, all open at once. It’s proved to be very convenient. (But I need to remember to log in more often!)
Garage Band
- Back again. Last year I said: “Quite simply, I use Garage Band to record the podcasts I use for my classes. For my undergrads, I record podcasts to cover the basic chapter concepts and to give the online students the passwords to the quizzes. They have to listen to the podcasts to be able to take the reading quizzes. For the grads, I use them in somewhat the same way, but mainly to drive discussion on theory articles. I have found them extremely useful, and Garage Band is what gets me there. You can find them on our department website.”
iTunes
- This one goes with GarageBand. Last year I explained: “We set up an iTunes account for the students to be able to download the podcasts. Search for EdTech@OSU.”

So of the ten things on my 2008 list, four are new. I wonder, does a practitioner (someone who does ID in a corporate environment) get to play with these toys as much as I do? If not, that’s sad. I like trying to figure out relevant implementation strategies for new tools.

With that said, I can’t wait to see what the future brings.

Two weeks of links! 2-16-08 to 3-7-08

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:08:50 +0000

I’ve gotten behind on my links posting, but here they are for the last two weeks. I’m swamped, so no annotations this week. We’ll start with the links from my Google Reader:

See my del.icio.us bookmarks after the jump. Here are the bookmarks for the last two weeks:

More next week . . .

Links for 2-17-08 to 2-24-08

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:31:06 +0000

This is my eighth week posting my links. It’s been a good exercise for me, not only because I’m keeping track of what I’m doing, but because I’ve also started blogging a lot more, and I like that. As I look over this week’s links, I realize that these posts are more the cool tools that I’m looking at, but that’s just fine. See this week after the jump.

Here is what I found interesting this week, first from my del.icio.us account:

e-Learning Reloaded: Top 50 Web 2.0 Tools for Info Junkies, Researchers & Students | OEDb I think I generally do a good job keeping up with what all the new tools out there are, but this list has some I’ve never heard of. It’s also designed well and separated out into categories like “learning,” “search tools,” “communication” and more.
What We Can Learn About Instructional Design from Post-it™ Notes – The Rapid eLearning Blog Tom Kuhlmann runs the Rapid eLearning Blog, and here has a very interesting post on how sometimes we, as instructional designers, sometimes don’t get to what’s really important in our instruction. Great read, and a great blog!
Getting Things Done Zone on OfficeZealot.com I’m always trying to be more productive, and this page is chock full of ideas . . .
More than 100 Free Places to Learn Online – and Counting | Mission to Learn HUGE LIST of free places to learn online, and I’m talking everything from bartending to massages to theology. Cool stuff.

From my Google Reader:

GOM Player from Alvin’s Educational Technology Blog A new media player I haven’t heard of yet, but looks interesting. I’m not necessarily a big fan of Windows Media Player, and I find that iTunes is what I use, but this one looks worth a try.
Kids Explain Podcasting from Podcasting News The tagline reads, “6th graders talk about what podcasting is and how podcasting builds on English/Language Arts skills.”
Just One More Book!! Children’s book Review Podcasts from EdTechPost Kids reviewing books via podcasts.
View PDF Documents in Your Browser at PdfMeNot.com [PDFs] from Lifehacker VERY COOL tool that converts your .pdf files so they can be embedded in your page rather than have to open in an outside application.
You and Your Money in 30 Free eBooks from Dumb Little Man – Tips for Life A link to eBooks on everything from estate planning, to how to buy life insurance to warnings about identity theft.
The Savvy Teacher’s Digital Tool Box: Screen Capture Programs from EdTech Gold Rush Alix Peshette reviews screen capture programs.
Writing learning objectives for the right audience from MindLeaders: Fueling the Learning Revolution Interesting post wondering if learning objectives are worth the effort.
GabMail from Jane’s E-Learning Pick of the Day Free video e-mail. Thanks, Jane!
25 Wikipedia Alternatives for Online Students from The Online Universities Weblog Do I really need to annotate that?
12 Screencasting Tools For Creating Video Tutorials Divided into free and commercial categories.
Make Low-Res Videos Less Blocky with FixMyMovie [Video] from Lifehacker This product is free, and I need to try it.
Wakerupper from Inspiring Iris Set up telephone reminders via the web.
Audiko helps you to create Ringtones in a Snap! from GO2WEB20 Blog Now if I can just get a phone I can add ringtones to.
Qik, Wix and Start4all.com from Jane’s E-Learning Pick of the Day I’m most interested in Wix, which allows you to create Flash content for the web.
“Successful blogging…” from Blogging IT and EDucation Cool tool that looks at the title of your blog post, compares it to Digg, and tells you how successful of a title it should be in attracting interest.

Links for 2-10-08 to 2-16-08

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:56:32 +0000

It’s been a busy week on the blog, so without further adieu, here’s the links for the week.

From my del.icio.us account:

Simple Spark — a great directory of web 2.0 applications.
13 Tools For Tracking Discussions in the Blogosphere — I hadn’t heard of a lot of these tools.
14 Simple Ways to Convert Your Sedentary Lifestyle — You know, one day I need to stop marking these, and start actually implementing them.
WikiMatrix – Compare them all — A great comparison I plan on using with my students.
Forget Word: 13 Online Word Processors — Self explanatory.
12 Essential Blogwriting Tips for Building a Successful Blog — I gon’t blog for fame or glory, I blog because I like to know what I think. However, it is fun to know that people read what you write. Here are ways to make your blog successful.
Facebook used to target Colombia’s FARC with global rally — I love to see new ways Facebook is used.
Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviantART — Now THIS is a clever animation. A MUST WATCH.
60+ Killer Open Courseware Collections for Web Designers – College Degree.com — Talk about a comprehensive list!

And see those from my Google Reader after the jump:

Kadabo from Jane’s E-Learning Pick of the Day — They say Kadabo is more than a home page. Kadabo is your home base. We’ll see . . .
Surveys Via Google Spreadsheets from Drape’s Takes — Seems like more work than I really want to do. However, it is an interesting idea.
Issuu – You Publish from Blogging IT and EDucation — Another document sharing site, but right now it’s just for .pdf files.
Teaching with Facebook from e-Literate Again, more Facebook integration ideas.
6 Websites That Will Certainly Make You Smarter from The Cranking Widgets Blog — Is that even possible? Just kidding!
Fill Out PDF Forms Online with PDFescape [PDFs] from Lifehacker Interesting app.
DVD Rip Automates One-Click DVD Ripping [Exclusive Lifehacker Download] from Lifehacker — I’ve got to try this, I’ve been having problems with the app I currently use.
It’s Time to Gain Control of Your Money from Dumb Little Man – Tips for Life — Yes, it is!
Access All Your Online Accounts with PageOnce [Start Pages] from Lifehacker — Tyler needs this one.
Doodle 4 Google from Global Learner — Google is sponsoring a fun doodling contest complete with lesson plans, idea starters, templates, and prizes.
Moonk from Jane’s E-Learning Pick of the Day — Jane says “With Moonk you can easily publish your photos, videos or MP3s as slideshows, video players or music jukeboxes on blogs and other websites.”
18th-century murder mystery game from Channel 4 from Infocult: Information, Culture, Policy, Education — Cool looking game that could be used in the classroom.
stickK Allows You To Put A Contract On Yourself from TechCrunch — This kind of reminds me of Hasslebot, but with some actual teeth behind it.
Create Great Photobook from your Online Photo Album from GO2WEB20 Blog — Orli says, “Mixbook allows you to create good looking photobook from your photos online: Flickr, Facebook, or photos from your own computer.”
Favorite Inspirational Youtube Clips and Youtube in Education from Cool Cat Teacher Blog — I love video in the classroom. See some of those I use on my YouTube page. See some of my students’ videos by searching YouTube using either EDTC3123 or EDTC 3123 (with or without the space). Some are actually instructional like I asked for them to be!
Genghis Khan Game from Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites Of The Day For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL — Another cool-looking game with classroom application.

Links for 2-02-08 to 2-09-08

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:48:09 +0000

I’m behind on posting last week’s links, so I’ll get to them first thing this morning. From my Google Reader:

Instructional Design – If – When – How Much from The Learning Circuits Blog Yet someone else inspired by Cammy Bean at Learning Visions. I’ll need to post on this one by itself.
Create A Webquest Or Online Scavenger Hunt With Zunal from Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites Of The Day For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL I have got to try this one out.
Can your SKYPE do that? from GO2WEB20 Blog Orli Yakuel writes: “Israel-based startup ooVoo, is a face-to-face client desktop communication. It’s combining emails, IM and Internet phone all together . . . “
20+ Ways to Get Rid of Your Debt for Good from Dumb Little Man – Tips for Life Is there anyone who couldn’t use this advise?
25 Basic Styles of Blogging from Cool Cat Teacher Blog I had a post, Which blog are you?, on this one last week.
Instructional Designer as Consultant? from Learning Visions I think this one inspired one of my longest posts to date: This one’s for you, Cammy Bean! Or is the role of instructional designer changing?
Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008: the first cut from Jane’s E-Learning Pick of the Day Last year I posted my top ten, but I need to update that list this year.

And those from my del.icio.us account:

Howcast Howcast is a kind of YouTube for How-to videos.
Learning 2.0 eBook – Free | Mission to Learn I’m interested in what the term “Learning 2.0″ means, and how they justify coining a new term for learning. Isn’t learning learning?
ZaidLearn: Learning Technologies (250+ Articles!) A post linking to a database of over 250 articles from Learning Technologies magazine.
Open Thinking & Digital Pedagogy » History of Educational Technology (Dr. Richard Schwier) Um, the history of EdTech from Rick Schwier . . .
History Of Educational Technology Dr Richard Schwier (video/mp4 Object) A video of Rick talking about the same as above.
Best Practices of Technology Integration A BOATLOAD of integration ideas for teachers from the Berrien County Intermediate School District in Michigan. They also have extensive classroom resources .
SciVee | Pioneering New Modes of Scientific Dissemination Here you can create a pubcast of your research and share it. Is this like a grown-up Voicethread?
Achieve a Deep, Uninterrupted Sleep: Nighttime Habits If you know me well, you know I have a hard time sleeping, so this was interesting to me.

This one’s for you, Cammy Bean! Or, is the role of the instructional designer changing?

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:57:31 +0000

I’ve never shied away from my adoration of Cammy Bean and her Learning Visions blog. If you don’t know who she is, she describes herself by saying:

I’m Cammy Bean, the author of Learning Visions. My business card currently says “Manager of Instructional Design”, but I do a bit of everything. If you’re interested, read my current job description.

Learning Visions is my place to explore topics related to e-Learning, including things like web 2.0 technologies, Second Life, wikis, Facebook, and other new tools that can be used for training and development. I attempt to share my experiences with current e-Learning projects and challenges I might be facing. I ask a lot of questions. Like most bloggers, I also tend to write about blogging.

I’ve been working in the corporate training field since the early- to mid-90′s. Most of that time, I’ve been working for the e-Learning vendors: companies that design and develop e-Learning programs for a wide variety of projects. I’ve served as instructional designer and project manager on programs for banks, airlines, department stores, consulting firms, construction companies, training companies, and more. These days I work at InVision Learning in Westborough, Massachusetts (USA).

I started blogging in earnest in February 2006. A lot of really smart people were talking about some really interesting things and I wanted in! Every day I learn something new from the blogs I read and from the comments people leave here.

Please join in the conversation and leave a comment on my blog if you’ve got something to say. Don’t be shy!

I think the thing that I love most about Cammy’s blog is that she does what I do, and yet, I went to school and earned a Ph.D. that says I’m an instructional designer, and she didn’t. I don’t know why that to me is so fascinating, but it is. I’ve often thought that in academia we act too much like we’re curing cancer when, in fact, we’re not. I think instructional design is something that is a talent. Some can do it without the training. I could. I knew what effective instruction was before I ever took a class. At the same time, however, I also think it is a skill that can be developed. I’ve told my students for years, “I can teach anyone to hit a golf ball, but Tiger Woods was born to be who he is.” I can teach anyone the clinical side to instructional design, and they’ll be able to write good behavioral objectives, align it to a proper assessment, etc., but if they don’t just *get it*, I can’t teach them to.

Well, in my posts Links for 1-26-08 to 2-01-08 and Links for 1-6-08 to 1-12-08 and in my Google Reader Shared Items I’ve often marked her posts as one’s I’ve found interesting and that I needed to get back to and comment on. Imagine my surprise when I found a comment on my Links for 1-26-08 to 2-01-08 post from her. She said:

Hey there! I’m delighted to see that you’re getting so much out of my non-educated musings on instructional design. I’ll look forward to reading your musings on ID from the other side of the fence. Cammy

At first I thought, “Holy Cow! Cammy Bean came to my blog!” and then I thought, “Geesh, here I’m the academic, and I should ‘know it all’ and she’s a much better thinker about a lot of this than I am.” Then I got over that, because, you know, blogging isn’t about competition, but rather an exchange of ideas.

So I’m taking Cammy’s bait.

Today she blogged about the instructional designer as a consultant. Her basic question is: “Are designers beginning to help others author content? Are IDs starting to serve the role of consultant more than the role of creator?”

The answer, Cammy, is yes. And for us as academics, this is a real concern.

You see, when I went through graduate school, I was in one of the top five programs in the world (at the time), Utah State. The guys with Master’s Degrees were getting recruited before they could finish to go work for Arthur Anderson and the like, and they were making $45,000 a year to start with expense accounts. Guys like me with Ph.D.s were starting in the six figure range. (Side note: When I took my first job teaching–in 1999, I had to choose between $36,000 for a nine-month contract and $160,000 a year in the corporate sector. Methinks those days are gone, unfortunately.)

In my EDTC 5203 Foundations of Educational Technology class, we read a point/counterpoint discussion between my major professor, M. David Merrill, master of all things instructional design (and author of Component Display Theory, Instructional Transaction Theory, Pebble-in-the-Pond Instructional Design, and the First Principles of Instruction; frequently lumped with Robert Gagne in the history of the field; major professor to guys like Charlie Reigeluth and Bob Tennyson) and Brent Wilson on the future of instructional technology. In it, Dr. Merrill comments that academia has to make this shift in order to survive. He states that we need to change from training instructional designers to training project managers. We need to train our students to manage those, as he calls them, designers by assignment (those who fell into the role of instructional designer), which is where I assume he would categorize Cammy. I don’t necessarily think our academically-trained students will always manage designers by assignment, because good work speaks for itself. In my opinion, I’d take well-designed instruction from a designer by assignment over mediocre instruction designed by an academically trained instructional designer any day. Isn’t that what we’re all about? It is for me. I only care about effective, efficient, and engaging instruction. I don’t care how we got there, just that we do.

So, now that I’ve gone to San Fransisco by way of New York City in answering Cammy’s question, YES. Times are a’changin’ for us. And we in academia need to wake up and smell the coffee. It’s time to stop teaching such a rigid, systematic approach to design and start teaching it as a fluid process like it is when you “really do it.” We need to teach design like Cammy does design. And I, for one, when I teach my next intro class, am going to see if Cammy will conference in with us to talk to our students.

Wouldn’t that be cool?

Now let’s see if she takes MY bait . . .

Wanna see some INCREDIBLE artwork?

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 22:43:24 +0000

Check out Brandon Dorman’s blog. He was a student worker of ours at BYU-Idaho when I was there. Now he’s a professional illustrator with a book on the NY Times Bestseller list. He’s amazing. For more, check out his website.

Below is his illustration of my favorite baseball player of all time, Ted Williams.

Which blog are you?

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 22:31:11 +0000

Vicki Davis at the Cool Cat Teacher Blog posted a presentation by Rohit Bargava and Jesse Thomas of the 25 basic styles of blogging.

Me? I’m a sometimes life blogger, most of the time link blogger.

Which one are you?

| View | Upload your own