By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Theories and Models of and for Online Learning
This is a very odd paper, and in fact, is best viewed as six separate contributions from six separate authors working in a common library and information science environment. As a result, what we get are six separate theories, which are more ways of viewing online learning than they are reflective of trends in online learning. The theories all have a vaguely ecological - social network - community of practice flavour. More...
Leveraging Multimedia for eLearning by Ruth Clark
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Leveraging Multimedia for eLearning by Ruth Clark
Helge Scherlund links to and summarizes a PDF white paper on multimedia in e-learning authored by Ruth Clark for Adobe. The advice is pretty straight-forward, things like using graphics, things like keeping lessons short, and things like creating relevant practice-based interactions. The paper isn't interested in community and is mostly performance-focused. And the theory of learning offered - basically a description of encoding audio and visual perceptions in long and short term memory - is quaint and in some ways misleading. Finally, a note for bloggers: please don't use those 'SnapShots' popups over links. They are as annoying as anything, especially when you have a lot of links on your page. More...