http://www.elearningpost.com/ en maish@elearningpost.com Copyright 2010 2010-08-07T09:58:31+00:00 http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/bill_gates_in_five_years_the_best_education_will_come_from_the_web http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/bill_gates_in_five_years_the_best_education_will_come_from_the_web#When:09:58:31Z Gates believes that in five years time you’ll able to find the “the best lectures in the world”. You can now, but its “unevenly distributed”! “One particular problem with the education system according to Gates is text books. Even in grade schools, they can be 300 pages for a book about math. ‘They’re giant, intimidating books,” he said. “I look at them and think: what on Earth is in there?’” 2010-08-07T09:58:31+00:00 http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/25_user_experience_videos_that_are_worth_your_time http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/25_user_experience_videos_that_are_worth_your_time#When:00:03:13Z Nice collection by Smashing Magazine. “We’re all mostly accustomed to educating ourselves by reading articles. Rare are the opportunities to attend conferences or watch live shows on subjects that we’re interested in. That’s why we are presenting here phenomenal videos and related resources on the topic of user experience (UX) by different presenters at different events. We have focused on current content but have included some older videos that are still relevant. It will take you more than 16 hours to watch all of these videos. So, make some popcorn, turn off the lights and enjoy.” 2010-07-23T00:03:13+00:00 http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/can_i_is_better_than_i_can http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/can_i_is_better_than_i_can#When:22:59:43Z Interesting study suggests that interrogative self-talk is actually more motivating than declarative gumption that business leaders profess. “Why is interrogative self-talk more effective? Subsequent experiments by the scientists suggested that the power of the “Will I?” condition resides in its ability to elicit intrinsic motivation. (We are intrinsically motivated when we are doing an activity for ourselves, because we enjoy it. In contrast, extrinsic motivation occurs when we’re doing something for a paycheck or any “extrinsic” reward.) By interrogating ourselves, we set up a well-defined challenge that we can master. And it is this desire for personal fulfillment - being able to tell ourselves that we solved the anagrams - that actually motivates us to keep on trying.” 2010-07-18T22:59:43+00:00 http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/some_of_our_work http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/some_of_our_work#When:12:54:11Z Glad to have worked with some very talented illustrators and animators. Here is a sample of our work at PebbleRoad. 2010-07-14T12:54:11+00:00 http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/on_education http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/on_education#When:12:43:00Z Dennis Littky writes about a new approach to education in the lastest issue of Interactions magazine. (Subscription required). “The school was broken down into advisories, with a teacher and a group of students who spent four years together. Each adviser, parent, and student developed an individual learning plan. The school had broad goals of reading, writing, applying math, empirical reasoning, communication, and personal qualities. Every student would have his or her own way of reaching those goals with high standards. The teacher—also acting as adviser—would help the student identify his or her interests and then find a mentor and workplace to help make the learning real.” Sounds like “Gurukul” to me. 2010-07-14T12:43:00+00:00 http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/computers_at_home_educational_hope_vs._teenage_reality http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/computers_at_home_educational_hope_vs._teenage_reality#When:22:33:28Z NY times reports that there is no evidence of improved educational performance with having computers at home. “Economists are trying to measure a home computer’s educational impact on schoolchildren in low-income households. Taking widely varying routes, they are arriving at similar conclusions: little or no educational benefit is found. Worse, computers seem to have further separated children in low-income households, whose test scores often decline after the machine arrives, from their more privileged counterparts.” 2010-07-11T22:33:28+00:00 http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/ux_myths http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/ux_myths#When:23:03:48Z “Build your website based on evidence, not false beliefs!” This website documents UX myths along with research findings. Nice reference point to bring out in client discussions and to include in documentation. (via ColumnTwo). Here are some good ones: All pages should be accessible in 3 clicks People don’t scroll 2010-07-07T23:03:48+00:00 http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/mind_over_mass_media http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/mind_over_mass_media#When:00:43:31Z Steven Pinker writes a classic piece and clears the smoke over the view that new media and Google is making us stupid. “The effects of consuming electronic media are also likely to be far more limited than the panic implies. Media critics write as if the brain takes on the qualities of whatever it consumes, the informational equivalent of “you are what you eat.” As with primitive peoples who believe that eating fierce animals will make them fierce, they assume that watching quick cuts in rock videos turns your mental life into quick cuts or that reading bullet points and Twitter postings turns your thoughts into bullet points and Twitter postings.” 2010-06-13T00:43:31+00:00 http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/people_dont_want_to_buy_a_quarter-inch_drill._they_want_a_quarter-inch_hole http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/people_dont_want_to_buy_a_quarter-inch_drill._they_want_a_quarter-inch_hole#When:09:58:43Z I was looking for this story for a while. Finally I found it, so would like to share it with you. It’s about understanding what people want to get done with products—the job-to-be-done. Often we get lost in the features and functions of the product that we forget about the job that the product is designed to get done. The same principle can be used for designing websites and intranets. “With few exceptions, every job people need or want to do has a social, a functional, and an emotional dimension. If marketers understand each of these dimensions, then they can design a product that’s precisely targeted to the job. In other words, the job, not the customer, is the fundamental unit of analysis for a marketer who hopes to develop products that customers will buy.” 2010-06-12T09:58:43+00:00 http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/does_the_internet_make_you_smarter http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/does_the_internet_make_you_smarter#When:01:05:49Z Clay Shirky takes on Nicolas Carr in this excerpt from this book, “Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age.” “Increased freedom to create means increased freedom to create throwaway material, as well as freedom to indulge in the experimentation that eventually makes the good new stuff possible. There is no easy way to get through a media revolution of this magnitude; the task before us now is to experiment with new ways of using a medium that is social, ubiquitous and cheap, a medium that changes the landscape by distributing freedom of the press and freedom of assembly as widely as freedom of speech.” 2010-06-06T01:05:49+00:00