I am currently taking 2 master courses in educational technology. In my journey of learning, I  come across some thought provoking issues and practical ideas on the use of etools.  I came across a research paper by Richard Mayer published in the Educational Computing Research journal (2003) and it hit an accord with the way I design, build and work with online elearning tools

Some Design Principles for the Design of Multimedia Explanations

1. use both words and pictures
2. present corresponding words and pictures at the same time,
3. present the words in spoken form,
4. present words in conversational style.
5. avoid extraneous video and audio.
6. do not add on screen text that duplicates what is spoken
7. begin the presentation with concise descriptions of the components,
8. provide signaling for the narration
9. allow the learner to have control over the pace of presentation.

taken from Elements of a Science of e-Learning by Richard Mayer

I just added a plugin to this blog which should add a tweet to my twitter account every time I add a new blog entry.

I am using this entry to test it…. and it worked

Yeah!! If you are interested I used the plugin Tweetable

The blog (WeB LOG = BLOG) was first recognized in 1997. It has become an icon of the simple, interactive, engaging technology that we call Web 2.0. It has also become the cornerstone of many classes and workshops.

The Web never sleeps (nor do our students!). Blogs enable the students to have updates delivered to their desktops via RSS. And blogs enable comments to be posted – opening an asynchronous online conversation. Most blogging software and much of the Web hosting – such as http://blogger.com/ from Google – is free.

Blogs provide a means for administrators, teachers, and students to read, reflect, write, and comment on their own, and others’ writings. In its simplest form, blogging is about reading and writing. Blogging is about communication!

1. Use blogs to increase student motivation
2. Use blogs to increase reading and writing skills – journals
3. Use blogs as an interactive collaborative tool
4. Use blogs to help build social networks – blogosheres

Read a paper I wrote on Weaving Blogs into a Constructivist Classroom

Use this powerpoint to introduce delicious to your class:
http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=dfnmfqtd_758dvrk93cf

Check out these helpful links to help you get started with Delicious:

• http://21ctools.wikispaces.com/Del.icio.us
• http://aquaculturepda.wikispaces.com/delicious
• Using delicious in education (paper from 2007)

Now that you are starting to use all these new and exciting e-tools, you may find it hard to keep track of all your passwords. I have a strategy that might work for you. Of course I won’t tell you my specific strategy or you will know all my passwords… not that I don’t trust you

My Password Strategy

I take a few of letters from the website and then add some consistent numbers.
For example, I might use the 1st 3 letters of the name of web site with the 1st 4 digits of an old employee number:

• for delicious -> del1780
• for google docs -> goo1780
• for pbworks -> pbw1780

The numbers usually have some significance to me so I will remember like:

• my house number
• an old student number
• an old employee number
• part of my phone number
• my extension at work

The result is a different password for each web site and it is easy to remember.

I am so excited that Anne and Helen have left a comment on my welcome post.
It is an interesting process when a comment is left. I have total control of all comments.

• An email was sent to me with a links to:
  • accept the comment
  • delete the comment
  • mark the comment as span

I, of course, accepted them.
If you are thinking of using blogs in your course, know that you can review comments before they are posted as can your students if they have blogs.

A great e-tool to start with is delicious.com. This is a social bookmarking tool that I use to share my bookmarks with my students.

Watch this video and learn more:

How to start:

1. signup for your free account
2. import your bookmarks from your home and work computer/s
3. install the bookmarking buttons into your browser. It is not necessary but it makes bookmarking a lot easier
   (if you are at Fanshawe College you will have to ask the help desk folks to do it for you. You need administrative rights).
4. add tags and comments to your bookmarks

Comments and Tags

Comments help you remember what the site is about.
Tags help you organize your bookmarks.
This video gives a good explanation of tags:

Give it a try. Share your experiences by commenting on this blog post