critical thinking

iBook Author by Apple

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There are times in an instructional designer’s life when the game changes and Apple has just changed the game-again. This time it is with their iBook Author.  Those who are considering an elearning situation, should consider using this new tool. The ability to interact with the content built in iBooks is amazing for all types of learners. Integrating audio and video right into the iBook allows the learners to integrate with the content.

Anyone who needs a workbook, textbook, manual. job aid, even a magazine, or newsletter should consider this type of learning aid. I will be getting mine soon.

This amazing new [FREE] app iBook Author allows anyone to create beautiful Multi-Touch textbooks — and just about any other kind of book — for iPad. With galleries, video, interactive diagrams, 3D objects, and more, these books bring content to life in ways the printed page never could.

This application has the ability to drag and drop text, images, graphics, video, movies and more into the template.  Apple’s Widgets add Multi-Touch magic to books with interactive photo galleries that bring images to life, engrossing 3D objects you can’t help interacting with, animations that burst off the page, and more.

Another beautiful thing about iBooks Author, it lets you create books that people with disabilities can read and experience. The table of contents, glossary, widgets, main text, and more are built to automatically take advantage of VoiceOver technology. Add accessibility descriptions to any widget or media — including movies and quizzes — so even those with vision impairments can use them.

And you can publish it to the iBookstore or iTunes U or share it with anyone with an iPad.

The Self-Directed Learning [SDL] Support Model: Training Educators for Online Learning

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Since August, I have been on a journey working with some fabulous educators, instructional designers and just all-round wonderful women drafting outlines and creating the content for a chapter that will be published in a book which is being published by the International Association for K-12 Online Learning [also known as iNACOL]. We just completed our draft of our chapter and are so excited.

This chapter will present a student-centered model for online teacher mentoring. The one-to-many online model is designed to be scalable, self-directed, and leverages social learning. The program, Self-Directed Learning [SDL] Support Model: Training Educators for Online Learning, introduces teachers to ideas of self-directed learning, partnering pedagogy, and metacognition while orienting new and prospective virtual teachers to the online learning environment. To maximize impact and sustainability, this program employs the Cognitive Coaching model through a social learning community.

Without giving away all our secrets -you’ll have to wait until the whole book Lessons Learned in Teacher Mentoring: Supporting Educators in K-12 Online Learning Environments is published [due out in the fall of 2012]- we explain ‘how’ we developed and taught an online course which has helped many educators-across Massachusetts- become better learners and in turn better educators.

Our chapter goes into great detail explaining how we used self-directed learning techniques and skills to teach educators how-to understand and use essential self-directed learning skills such as: goal setting, metacognition, motivation, critical thinking and time management.  We also discuss how we designed our online course, how we delivered it and how we improved it.

I can tell you that by implementing the use of social learning, collaboration and ePortfolios we have had a very good success rate with this online course. Here is what a few of our participants said about our course:

“This was a new way to approach teaching.”

“The course really helped me understand how to encourage and coach students not just around content but around linking content to their own goals in life.”

“It’s cool to watch students change over the course of the year. They start talking about what their goals are and what skills they’ve learned. Online learning puts their education in their own hands—it’s wonderful!”

 

Twelve Things You Were Not Taught in School About Creative Thinking

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Michael Michalko who writes The Creativity Post and offers these 12 things you were not taught in school.  Here is the list of aspects of creative thinking you might not have been taught in school and here is Michael’s whole list with specifics.

  1. You are creative.
  2. Creative thinking is work.
  3. You must go through the motions of being creative.
  4. Your brain is not a computer.
  5. There is no one right answer.
  6. Never stop with your first good idea.
  7. Expect the experts to be negative.
  8. Trust your instincts.
  9. There is no such thing as failure.
  10. You do not see things as they are; you see them as you are.
  11. Always approach a problem on its own terms.
  12. Learn to think unconventionally.

 

Obama for America Artworks

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Obama for America invited artists from across the country to volunteer their creativity to support President Obama’s jobs plan and the campaign. Now it is time to vote.  Luckily, you get 3 chances to vote. Here’s my favorite, from Julie, Seattle, WA.

I love this one because of the bold use of color, which draws the eye into the design [you’d see this one from across the street]. Julie has cleverly manipulated the typography to ‘work’ and communicate the idea of jobs and she placed the crane image perfectly to allow our eyes to ‘move’ through her design.  Julie also complimented the poster by repeating the iconic star [in blue] and allowed just enough of the blue, behind the red to peek out.  Was she symbolizing the ‘blue skies’ of new jobs coming to America?

Jawbone’s UP Release

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I follow Fast Company and this is one of those things that is just so fabulous, I wished I had thought of it.  UP by Jawbone is a really revolutionary invention. You put on the wristband and then check in with your smartphone to check on: eating patterns, sleep cycles and exercise.  It costs $100 and will be available at Apple, Target, AT&T stores, and Best Buy.

Travis Bogard, Jawbone’s VP of product development sums it up perfectly, “Health isn’t about going to the gym three times a week. It’s about the thousands of little decisions that you make during the day. It’s about what you do in between those ‘healthy times.'”

We Need to Shake Things Up

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Earlier in the year I posted this and I wonder how we are all doing with Seth Godin’s points?

Now, more than ever, we need to shake things up.

Now, more than ever, we need a different way of thinking, a useful way to focus and the energy to turn the game around.

Now, from Seth Godin. Click here to view [in a larger format]: What Matters Now.


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