The following are just a few highlights from today’s news for online pedagogy:

Nook packaging image via Gizmodo

8 Reasons You Can Finally Love Ebook Readers

Technology blog Gizmodo gives an in-depth review of the new Nook ebook reader, which was just released. As Barnes and Noble’s foray into the ebook technology market, it apparently offers better features, more viewing options, and a lower price tag than similar ebooks. One of its more interesting features is a two-week lending period, that would allow users to share texts on other electronic devices (iPhone, iPod, PC, Mac) as well as “borrow” a title for a quick read. This seems much more open to the idea of social reading — sharing what you’re reading with friends or classmates, possibly — and much less proprietary than Kindle (which received quite a bit of negative attention a few months ago after it deleted titles that users had purchased.

It will be interesting to see how the Nook unfolds in practical use, and whether it can offer a viable model for mobile learners. If nothing else, the competition it brings to Kindle might encourage more advances in pedagogical apps, meaning better uses for students (and lighter backpacks).

via Gizmodo

ZoomIt v4

This is a screen room and annotation tool that lets you type and freehand write or draw as part of a screencast presentation. Users can zoom onto specific parts of the screen and customize hotkeys for action shortcuts. This tool might work best for demonstrations or lectures in math or sciences, where a freehand grid would help explain the information much easier than an audio podcast alone. The following demo was created by Greg Friese:

ZoomIt v4

Getting It Wrong: Surprising Tips on How to Learn

This is a brief article in Scientific American that addresses a recent study conducted at UCLA on the merits of guessing incorrectly in order to cement new information to permanent knowledge. As part of the study, participants were given a short quiz with answers that were designed to be almost impossible to get correct. Afterwards they were told the answers and given some time to study, then retook the test. Most of the participants scored better on the second test than a control group, which was only tested after given time to study the answers.

The authors of this study (below) concluded that students will better commit new information to long-term memory if they are given the chance to fail phenomenally before learning. This makes sense — most people are probably going to be more curious about an answer if they are first pressed with difficult questions about it.

How might you use this concept with your students? This might best be a “quiz first, answer questions later” approach to pedagogy. Begin the lesson by hitting them with a quiz on information they haven’t learned, or a problem they shouldn’t know how to solve yet. Let them puzzle over it for a few minutes; maybe put them in synchronous groups to chat and bicker about how unfairly you’re treating them…then teach them what they need to know to get it right. Have you tried this method? Share your story in the comments section below!

Original article: Unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhance subsequent learning (via APA PsychNET)

via Scientific American

Screenr looks like one of those new web 2.0 resources that could possibly skyrocket in popularity and use for educators. Time will tell in the end, but the following are some of its advantages and disadvantages –

Advantages:

• Free
• Online recording cuts out the need to convert a hard disk file to mp4 format and upload to a website
• Simple to use: record, speak, pause when you need to, then stop and save
• Works on both Mac and PC
• Works with Twitter

Disadvantages:

• 5-minute maximum recording length (for the purposes of downloading and audience retention, however, this is secretly an advantage)
• No editing features
• Doesn’t specifically work with Linux (unless a savvy Linux user could get around this somehow)
• Works with Twitter

The Twitter factor is listed here as both an advantage and a disadvantage, as it would be useful for instructors who are already using Twitter and a headache for those who have been trying very hard to avoid it. There does not appear to be anything to register for an account with Screenr itself; users sign in with a pre-existing Twitter account.

While it’s designed for instant sharing via Twitter, screencasts can be embedded into other websites. The official screencast demo does not offer embed code for some reason (which is why I’m not including it here) but I’ve embedded my own test of the system here, using the opportunity to show my online pedagogy / elearning links on Delicious:

After I recorded the screencast about online pedagogy links on Delicious, it created both a web version and iPhone version of the video. A page with the finished video and my “tweet” came up on the Screenr site. Unfortunately, I didn’t see it in my Twitter feed, even after refreshing a couple times (so of course I had to tweet about the Screenr tweet!).

Its simplicity makes Screenr geared toward instructors who are willing to sacrifice advanced features for the sake of ease and speed of use. If it gets someone who has shied away from screencast technologies to record short screencast lectures or explanations to students, it’s earned its sticker price (have I mentioned it’s free?).

If you start using Screenr and decide you are willing to purchase software that will give you more power to edit and share your screencasts, you might want to check out Camtasia, as it’s widely considered the best at what it does. There are, however, other free online screencast recorders with varying functionality. You can also find more resources and how-to guides for screencasting here.

Screenr

Screen Capture from a SpacedEd course (Bartending 101)

Recently I have been testing out some alternative learning delivery methods that could be incorporated into an online course. One such alternative, SpacedEd, is a fairly new method of online instruction that delivers course material in the form of one or two questions via email per day, over the course of a few weeks.

The theory behind the mode of delivery is that it’s easier for students to commit new information to memory through very short quizzes over an extended period of time rather than in one short-term exam. The questions are repeated a few times before they are eventually retired, so learners typically answer the same questions several times before they are retired.

SpacedEd seems to be especially helpful for rote memorization more so than critical analysis. Questions can be answered through multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank. The instructor arranges the questions and answers while building the course, and the system grades learners’ answers as they match the predetermined answer key. The instructor can provide an explanation after the answer that conveys an actual lesson to help learners understand how to respond correctly the next time the question is asked. Since not all instructors do this, however, the quality of SpacedEd’s methodology is heavily dependent on the amount of instruction that is built into each course.

As the sole method of course delivery, its features are limited. Its best strength in academia might be its use as a supplement to an online course: ask your students to sign up and test their knowledge in factual information related to your course subject. (Most of the courses currently offered through SpacedEd are targeted at medical students who want to solidify their grasp of anatomy, diseases, etc.)

Protocol, procedures, or related information might make SpacedEd a useful venue for a Library & Information Science course: if you want your students to understand how to react to specific scenarios, for example, a series of SpacedEd questions with multiple-choice answers could help assess their mastery of the topic.

Because I’m also trying to develop my experience with Camtasia, I’ve recorded the following screencast to give a “tour” of how SpacedEd works, along with a few other comments for anyone interested in using it to teach:

SpacedEd

I have also been experimenting with Ella Language Learning Academy as a self-guided resource for learning other languages. This may have much less application for LIS online instructors, except as an outside resource for doctoral students who need to brush up their language proficiency skills.

Screen capture from a French grammar lesson in Ella Language Learning Academy

Time may tell regarding how much success I have learning French with Ella Language Learning Academy. After signing up, I have a 7-day free trial of the program; beyond that, it costs money to participate. It starts with an assessment of prior knowledge of the language. My first lesson, sadly, was that I don’t remember as much French as I thought I did from high school.

The interactive lessons are definitely better than independently reading through a language textbook. Grammar lessons and exercises come with short audio recordings of native speakers, so students can develop an ear for the words and letters they are learning. There are also listening/reading comprehension presentations for learners to follow along during an audio presentation with cartoon still images.

For now, Ella only offers courses in English, French, Spanish, German, and Dutch; the 7-day free trial is currently only taught in English, but people who pay for longer courses can take them in other languages. What the system may lack in variety, it makes up for in detail. One thing I wish the program offered (and maybe this is included with the paid subscription) is an email notification system to help me log back in and pick up where I left off.

This could be a helpful resource for self-guided learners who want to move faster than the pace of a university-level language course.

Ella Language Learning Academy

There are plenty of file-sharing collaboration platforms available on the internet, but this one looks like it could be especially useful in academia.

DocVerse lets your group edit any Microsoft Office suite document (Word, PowerPoint, etc.) at the same time, and it works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Watch the following tutorial to see how it works:

The size of this embed looks a bit awkward on this page, but it makes sense when you see two desktop screencasts side by side.

DocVerse

Blackborg: CC licensed image via Flickr by MikeLeSombre

The October 2009 issue of First Monday includes an article by Lisa M. Lane that encourages online instructors to plan the way they want to teach their course first, then choose a course management system (CMS) that fits their needs –rather than the other way around.

From the abstract:

Course management systems, like any other technology, have an inherent purpose implied in their design, and therefore a built–in pedagogy. Although these pedagogies are based on instructivist principles, today’s large CMSs have many features suitable for applying more constructivist pedagogies. Yet few faculty use these features, or even adapt their CMS very much, despite the several customization options. This is because most college instructors do not work or play much on the Web, and thus utilize Web–based systems primarily at their basic level. The defaults of the CMS therefore tend to determine the way Web–novice faculty teach online, encouraging methods based on posting of material and engendering usage that focuses on administrative tasks. A solution to this underutilization of the CMS is to focus on pedagogy for Web–novice faculty and allow a choice of CMS.

Lane argues that course management systems were originally designed to accommodate traditional instructional methods based in nineteenth-century pedagogical theory — namely, presentation and assessment. Over time, research has revealed revolutionary effective practices for online teaching, but few of these innovations have been incorporated effectively into the most common CMSs. These systems, according to Lane, often do little to encourage faculty creativity in course design or experimentation with constructivist learning tools.

Lane seems to argue in favor of Moodle rather than Blackboard as a more flexible CMS for instructors who are novice web users. Blackboard courses begin with default settings that might lead instructors to teach with the defaults in place rather than experimenting with the alternatives, whereas Moodle forces instructors to choose course activities from a list.

As someone who has used both Blackboard and Moodle, I think there are definitely some elements that Moodle does better (student profile icons come to mind) — but Blackboard may still have an upper hand with its grading system. I don’t know that there could be such a thing as a perfect CMS, anyway, as each instructor will likely have issues that cannot be resolved with one system.

Provided that your school chooses your CMS for you (and you don’t get to pick one from a list), how well do you incorporate the various features in that system beyond its most obvious settings (if at all)? If there’s something you haven’t been able to do with that system, do you bring other programs and software into your curriculum, like web 2.0 collaboration and networking websites?

How would you advise another instructor to improve course design, with or without CMS tools? Share your techniques in the comments thread!

Insidious Pedagogy: How course management systems impact teaching