via techradar.com
EdTech students should concentrate on mobile delivery and engagement for instructional design according to this excellent post at http://www.techradar.com
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Archive for January, 2010
Phones to be world’s most popular web browsers by 2013 #etc695 elearning / mlearning
January 19th, 2010
#etc695 Best Practices in Online Teaching: Don’t make the following assumptions about online students
January 18th, 2010January 18, 2010
Best Practices in Online Teaching: Don’t Assume
By: Lori Norin and Tim Wall in Online Education
We want our students to learn what we have to teach them. We want them to retain it. In the best case, we want them to enjoy the work, assimilate the driving principles, and look forward to each opportunity to make their work better. We diligently gear up and learn how to use slick software that allows students easy access to a wide variety of materials.
We’ve committed to teaching online, either totally or simply using Web materials to enhance a traditional classroom setting. Yet with all the features and potential efficiency of teaching software, we still know that too many students simply aren’t “getting” what we have to teach, let alone enjoying it. Why? We bought the best software available; we learned every bell and whistle it had to offer, and we’re confident of our own credentials.
So what’s missing? Maybe it’s as simple as a little up-front housekeeping. Before day one, we can take a few simple but effective steps that will help students launch through that first day, and then use their energy on the course rather than on frustration.
Here are some easy-to-implement best practices for kicking off your online courses:
- Don’t assume students understand the workings of an online course. Offer them tips for online learners that include knowledge of traditional versus online learning, Web etiquette, helpful links, and where to go for help. Also include suggested study tips for online learners. Remind students that even though they are at home when they log on to complete their class work, they still need to find an environment free from distractions where they can turn off the cell phone and the iPod, have someone else watch the kids, and really focus on their class work.
- Don’t assume students have the minimum equipment and/or skill requirements needed to be successful in an online course. Be sure to make the minimum equipment requirements readily available to students prior to the official start date. In addition to whatever postings your institution might offer, a personal email to all students enrolled is a great idea. If your institution doesn’t test students for minimum computer skills, be sure those enrolled understand the basic computer skills needed. All too many students who sign up for Web courses can’t save a file to CD or change a font to boldface.
- Don’t assume students know how to behave in a Web course. Require them to sign a behavior and ethics contract. Said contract should outline the acceptable code of conduct for the course. With the immediacy of email, students often fire off messages without thinking about the ramifications of tone or word choice. Students routinely use email and texting for their daily communication with each other and they may not realize that what works with peers may not be appropriate in an academic setting. Explain such concepts as flaming, using all caps, and interpersonal communication (inappropriate tone) via the Web.
- Don’t assume students know the more important rules and regulations in the syllabus. How many times do students receive a detailed syllabus only to come back and ask an obvious question? Again, give them a short syllabus quiz and require that they score 100 percent before they continue in the course. Four or five questions are plenty.
We’re by no means claiming that this list is exhaustive, or that it will guarantee success. What we can claim is that best practices will net fewer and less troublesome episodes; maybe you’ll avoid that mid-semester insomnia generator that brings you out of a sound sleep with these words: Why didn’t I take care of that when I had the chance?
For more content like this, be sure to download the FREE REPORT: Strategies for Increasing Online Student Retention and SatisfactionLori Norin is an assistant professor of speech communication at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, and Tim Wall is an English instructor at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith.
Excerpted from Up-Front Housekeeping for Web Courses: Facilitating Consistent Performance with First-of-Semester Strategies, Online Classroom, Oct. 2008.
Permalink: http://www.facultyfocus.com?p=10592
Tags: advice to online instructors, best practices in online teaching, online course management, online learners, online learning, teaching online, teaching online courses
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via facultyfocus.com
How to Create Strong Passwords Easy to Remember…
January 7th, 2010
- Image via Wikipedia
How To Choose Very Strong Passwords That Are Easy To Remember (reprinted from the Social Oomph Newsletter)
What makes a password strong is the combination of different alphanumeric, special characters, and capitalization that you use, and of course the length of the password.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to remember and type an epistle when I fill out a password field. And, ideally, I don’t want to use the same password on many sites, because if one is compromised then my entire life is unlocked.
I want to show you here how to choose very strong passwords for every website that you use, that are different for each website, and are each only 9 characters in length max.
A study found that an 8-character password that’s constructed in the manner I’m going to show you has 7.2 quadrillion different combinations, and will take 83.5 days to crack if the hacker can try 1 billion different passwords per second.
Step 1: Pick 2 Starting Characters
To make it easy to remember, all your passwords are going to start with the same characters. But these are not just any characters. Pick 2 characters from the list of special characters that you see above the numbers on your keyboard and to the left of the Enter key.
These characters are: ~`!@#$%^&*()_-+={}[]:;”‘<>?/|\\
Pick any two of them as your password starting characters. To show you an example as you read through the steps, let’s pick $ and % (pick your own two).
In my example, all my passwords are going to start with $%.
Step 2: Pick 2 Ending Characters
In exactly the same way as above, pick two different special characters that will be at the end of your passwords. Don’t pick the same characters as your starting characters.
For the purposes of my example, let’s pick * and ^. Hence, all my passwords are going to end with *^.
Step 3: Construct The Middle Part Using The Website Name
This is the fun part. Take the first 6 characters of the website domain name where you want to use the password. If the domain name is shorter than 6 characters, then use the full domain name.
In my example, let’s create a password www.microsoft.com.
The first 6 characters of the domain name is “micros”.
Now we’re going to substitute some characters and capitalize others.
Substitute the following characters: a becomes @, e becomes 3, i becomes 1, o becomes 0, and u becomes ^.
Now we have “m1cr0s”.
Now, decide on a standard for yourself regarding which character(s) you’re going to capitalize.
For this example, let’s say we’re always going to capitalize the 3rd consonant.
So now we have “m1cR0s”.
The next step is to drop the last character (“s” in our case), and append the Ending Characters (*^) that you picked in Step 2.
Our password is now “m1cR0*^”.
The last step is to add the Starting Characters (Step 1) to the beginning of the password.
The final password is “$%m1cR0*^”.
A Few More Examples
Domain: www.twitter.com, Password: “$%tw1Tt*^”.
Domain: www.facebook.com, Password: “$%f@c3B*^”.
Domain: www.ebay.com: Password: “$%3b@*^”
Remember
Pick your own 2 starting characters and your own 2 ending characters, don’t just use the same ones I used in the example.
In addition, make your own capitalization rule (you can capitalize more than 1 character if you want to.
You can also use more than the first 6 characters of the domain name if you want to. It just means your passwords will be slightly longer.
Is This Password Strong?
Yes, it is very strong. With this method you’re potentially using any of 30 special characters, 10 numerals, and 26 lower case and 26 uppercase characters.
Unless a hacker happens to have a water-cooled supercomputer in his briefcase, he will not be able to crack your password.
Making It Even Stronger
If you’re concerned that some hackers might know about this password construction method, simply pick 3 starting characters and/or 3 ending characters, or as many as you like. Any slight variation of the method makes your passwords even more secure.
Credits
This password construction method was designed by Sammie, a person with a brilliant technical mind.
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The Solution is the Problem when it Comes to the Much-Hullabaloo’d Education Fix…
January 4th, 2010
Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in 1941. From Wikipedia royalty-free images. Click to enlarge.
The tensions resonating within the educational system remind me of so many “professionals” who opined their varied diagnoses and prescriptions yet without a hint of resolution in sight. Why?
via immediaedu.com
What’s worse is that a cursory overview shows nearly all the experts agree on the current state of affairs and the necessary goal we should have in view. But finding a solution to target is the challenge. In other words, the solution is the problem.
Three points summarize the deluge of data streaming the blogosphere: (click the ImmediaEdu link above and visit the Updates page for the rest of the story).
Posted via web from Dallas’s posterous
Apple’s iPhone ecosystem may prove to be the fastest and most disruptive technology the world has ever seen
January 2nd, 2010Apple’s iPhone/iTouch/iTunes ecosystem “may prove to be the fastest ramping and most disruptive technology product / service launch the world has ever seen
via readwriteweb.com
Perhaps the most remarkable statement in the report is that the Mobile Internet market will be “at least 2x size of Desktop Internet,” which Morgan Stanley bases on analysis comparing Internet users with mobile subscribers.
Combine these reports with this week’s headlines that Africa has the highest per capita concentration of cell phones (surprise), and we can easily see where education is heading (or at least where it ‘needs’ to head).
The next generation is mobile. Education must be available to this mobile generation. Textbooks will be electronified NOT simply because it’s green and saves trees. It’s about delivery to the mobile masses. KurzweilAI.com announced it’s own e-book breakthrough this past week. It is open source and platform transforming rather than device-centric .
Educators, above all, should be able to think beyond the linear, boxed-in paradigms up which it has rested for decades, and take advantage of the new mobile platforms before us. It seems unfortunate that rather than switch, the behemoth institution would rather fight to retain their hierarchical position that is trending inevitably toward extinction.
Posted via web from Dallas’s posterous
