25 octobre 2018

Surgeons Who Play Video Games Err Less
I think there's an interesting observation here: one of the reasons why learning in the form of computer games may be more effective is that our tools are also beginning to resemble computer games. Take this example, where doctors who used video game training made fewer errors in laparoscopic surgery, which uses a tiny camera and instruments controlled by joysticks outside the body. More...

E-ffective Writing for E-Learning Environments
One of the architects of IMS's Learning Design specification, the University of Alberta's Katy Campbell is interviewed in this article examining "universal instructional design and user-centered design." Topics covered range from accessibility, cultural sensitivity, usability and planning. More...

Thinking Skills in Primary Classrooms
This site leaves me with mixed feelings. It is, in a nutshell, a search system for critical thinking teaching resources available for British primary teachers. On the one hand, the concept and implementation are quite good (though I would want to see LOM metadata or RSS available for harvesting). More...

Reuters to go After Infringers
On the heels of a story circulating around the online journalism lists about Reuters withdrawing its online content from such syndication sites as Yahoo!, in order to create a subscription based single-site resource, comes this item suggesting that the news syndication agency will follow the RIAA and MPAA's leads and start tracking down people who trade news files illicitly. In a much more competitive environment, it's hard to see how Reuters could be even as successful as industries that enjoy virtual monopolies. More...

Don't Let File-swappers Swamp Copyright Law
This unsigned comment on the recent Canadian court decision to the effect that file sharing technology is legal in Canada (though - I might add, advertising, promoting or selling copies of commercial content is not) may as well have been written by an unnamed recording industry executive. More...

Sugar Camp
Last Friday, after work, the e-learning group took a well deserved break for supper and a tour at the Trites Family sugar camp. For those of you not familiar with maple syrup production, the sap of maple trees, which runs for three weeks each spring, is collected in buckets or piped through (blue) hoses. More...

Updated OFAC Ruling Removes Government Restrictions
The U.S. government has relented; IEEE publications are no longer under the embargo rule, which means papers from authors in such countries as Cuba and Iran may now again be edited for publication. More...

Humanoid Robot Conducts Beethoven Symphony
We may not have robot teachers yet, but we have robotic conductors. More...

Distance Education in Turkey
Good survey article that shouldn't contain any surprises for readers but manages to back up intuitions with solid data. The Turkish distance education has focused traditionally on mass instruction with one-way broadcasting. More...

Project-based Distrubuted Learning and Adult Learners
I have always been partial to project based learning - some of my most cherished memories in education are of the elaborate projects I put together while in school. This paper describes project based learning, outlining briefly some founding literature, and considers the application of project based learning in a distributed environment. More...