Gone are the days of hundreds of wasteful laundry sheets and mambo-mango-vanilla-sea-breeze scented clothes. Personalize your clothes with your signature scent the green way!
Here’s a DIY Video Created for Beloved Earth.
Tag: instructional design
Talking How-to Video
So, I’ve worked up this little video to talk about “why” it is important to have video on your website. For example, did you know that having a video-like a how-to video- on your website can increase your Google ranking? It’s true. Scroll down, to the bottom of my website and see a couple more examples of videos I have created. I also recently pulled together this little animation video describing why you need a how-to video. So, think about one of your products or services that might become even more popular, with your customers, and let’s talk video.
Why you need a how-to video
Click to find out why you need a how-to video…
Training the Hybrid Educator
Next Wednesday, November 2, 2pm [EST] Education Week is hosting a free webinar called: Training the Hybrid Educator. Katie Ash is moderating the webinar. I heard her speak last Spring and she’s fabulous, smart and I’m sure will provide great questions for the guest speakers. Register here.
Other details.
Hybrid learning, which blends face-to-face teaching techniques with online instructional aspects, is a rapidly growing sector of K-12 education. Although each hybrid, or blended, program varies on the spectrum of face-to-face vs. online elements, it is always important to properly train hybrid educators to meet student needs effectively. This chat will address what kinds of professional development are available to hybrid educators, as well as the key factors they need to know to be successful in the classroom. Our guests will share their experiences as hybrid and virtual instructors and talk about the role that hybrid education is playing in K-12 today.
Guests:
Erik Toman, middle school teacher, Chicago Virtual Charter School
Erik Toman, middle school teacher, Chicago Virtual Charter School
Tracy Sheehan, manager of instructional development, Virtual High School Global Consortium
Katie Ash, staff writer, Education Week and Education Week Digital Directions, will moderate this chat.
MassCUE 2011: Follow-Up
I would like to extend a big thank you for all who attended our presentation at MassCUE2011. Meg and I hope you came away with some tips you are now able to implement in your classroom or are at least giving some serious thought to what self-directed learning skills are all about and how important they can be in your life.
We had a fabulously, posh space for our presentation. Gillette Stadium is home to the Patriots [who happened to be on another field practicing-no photos allowed]. The view out onto the field was spectacular. This would put a whole new light into watching a live game.
Be sure to join us for our free webinars where we will continue the conversation surrounding self-directed learning skills and how you can hone them and share them with your students, fellow colleagues and administrators.
New Digs: Before and After
While Spring cleaning is usually left to the earlier months of the year, I decided to take on a clean-up project of my own and re-design my own website. I wanted something more dynamite and decided upon the WordPress theme; Canvas. Hers’ what my website looked like before.
MWDesign Website- Before
I built the website in a “test site” and when I was happy with it, I moved it all over to my live site. I am liking the sliding images; representing samples of work I have done, along with the open, clean feel of the new site and the new “light bulb” logo design.
The footers hold video samples and within the site I designed widgets to hold samples of other work I have done.
MWDesign Website- After
Inside, I have loads of samples showing my instructional design work. Have a peek around.
MWDesign Website- After
Self-directed Learning Skills
How do teachers, parents, paraprofessionals and other working with children help those students develop self-directed learning [SDL] skills? How can we help students plan for and reach their potential? I built and co-facilitate this course [within Moodle] to teach the skills necessary for developing 21st century habits of mind.
Participants learn to:
- Negotiate student learning contracts
- Teach independent thinking skills
- Motivate and empower students
- Become fabulous coaches
- Build an ePortfolio
There is so much more to learn by participating in this course. Come hear me and Meg Robbins give a one-hour presentation: Motivating students to becoming self-directed learners. MassCUE 2011.
Open Conversations
When working with faculty [or others] who already have an online course/classroom, one of the first questions might be to ask, “How can I help you?”
Starting the conversation this way leads no where. The client I am working with can just say, “I think everything is OK” or “I just don’t know what to do.”
Instead I try to open the conversation with something like: “This is a [insert adjective and noun] here on this page and in this area. How did you come about deciding to add this to your course?
Bam…now, I have paid attention to the professor/client and a rapport can be built. They can talk about their online classroom/situation and we can both discuss what’s working and what might need some tweaking.
When working with professors/clients/whomever, I always listen first and then ask open-ended questions to generate empathy, trust, and most of all, learning…for both sides.
The Five Biggest Ideas On The Future of Health Care Design
Here’s something that might help when designing educational materials. While this is geared towards the health care industry, it is an excellent reference source to consider when creating educational materials-especially when we think about The Patient. Consider your user, when designing your online classroom.
This article states: “The practice of medicine changes constantly, and your product will have to change as well.” If we think about our curriculum as constantly changing we know our online class materials will need constant changing and updating too.
MassCUE: Connecting the Dots
I spent the day in Marlborough, Massachusetts Connecting the Dots with others investigating some of the hot issues in education. We rotated through 35 minute discussions and shared challenges, information, ideas and best practices with our peers from around the region.
This event also featured a special keynote, Ron Crouch, who with his amazing ability with numbers helped us better understand the demographics of our region and how that information will shape the needs of the area education organizations in the months and years to come. Ron’s presentation was fascinating and I am still absorbing the pages of information and data he shared.
More than just a briefing, this fast paced planning session brought together K-12 district and Department of Education staff to discuss, reflect, and prepare for what is to come. I participated in roundtable group discussions on topics such as:
• Classroom Technologies
• Funding Challenges and Opportunities
• Professional Development
• Social Media
• Online Learning and Digital Content
It was a day well worth the foggy drive out east.
I am looking forward to presenting at the Massachusetts Computer Using Educators’ [MassCUE’s] 2011 Annual Technology Conference, This 2-day event-October 26 & 27th, 2011- is co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Computer Using Educators and the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents [M.A.S.S.].
