http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIv9rz2NTUk
Why the Widespread Belief in 'Learning Styles' Is Not Just Wrong; It's Also Dangerous Earlier this year on this blog, we addressed the problem of neuromyths including the belief held by 93 percent of British teachers that "learning styles" exist. A new TED talk by Dr. Tesia Marshik, who is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, walks us through the extensive evidence that learning styles don't exist, before looking at why the belief is so widespread and exploring how the belief can indeed be dangerous:
Blackboard Guide for Tutors A while ago I posted about a guide to Moodle that Joyce Seitzinger had created – “Moodle Tool Guide for Teachers“, and I am pleased to say it was well received and gained quite a lot of re-tweets and hits, both on my website and even more importantly on Joyce’s. At the time I said I was working on a version (copy?) for Blackboard and I am pleased to say I have completed the first draft. I am not as comfortable with Bloom’s Taxonomy as Joyce so therefore have not included the information in the version below, but I hope that with continued time and effort to become familiar with it I can incorporate it into version 2, and any new/updates. The Pomodoro Technique® - Time Management Skills From MindTools.com Staying Focused Throughout the Day © iStockphotoCsondy After four "pomodori," you've earned yourself a good break! Do you find that your productivity fluctuates from one day to the next?
Blog Archive » Viral Professional Development Lately, I have been posting in other forums about Viral Professional Development (VPD). I have been speaking to folks responsible for PD in both K-12 and higher-ed about the inherent frustrations in transitioning faculty to eLearning. We all have unique programs, challenges and strategies. I am not a scientific researcher, but I have found a strategy that is working well and keeping pace with my goals, expectations and work load. I call my strategy, “Viral Professional Development,” or “VPD,” because it is based on the popular definition of “viral,” that refers to a technology, tool, or teaching strategy that is quickly spread from one person to another.
Why Walking Helps Us Think In Vogue’s 1969 Christmas issue, Vladimir Nabokov offered some advice for teaching James Joyce’s “Ulysses”: “Instead of perpetuating the pretentious nonsense of Homeric, chromatic, and visceral chapter headings, instructors should prepare maps of Dublin with Bloom’s and Stephen’s intertwining itineraries clearly traced.” He drew a charming one himself. Several decades later, a Boston College English professor named Joseph Nugent and his colleagues put together an annotated Google map that shadows Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom step by step.
Are You a Visual or an Auditory Learner? It Doesn’t Matter You must read this article to understand it, but many people feel reading is not how they learn best. They would rather listen to an explanation or view a diagram. Researchers have formalized those intuitions into theories of learning styles. These theories are influential enough that many states (including New York) require future teachers to know them and to know how they might be used in the classroom. But there’s no good scientific evidence that learning styles actually exist. Over the last several decades, researchers have proposed dozens of learning styles theories, each suggesting a scheme to categorize learners.
Developing Courses for Online Delivery: One Strategy Note: This article was originally published in The Technology Source ( as: Ann Luck "Developing Courses for Online Delivery: One Strategy" The Technology Source, January/February 2001. Available online at The article is reprinted here with permission of the publisher. Developing college courses for delivery on the Internet can be a daunting task. At some institutions, faculty are on their own, which often means that only "technologically savvy" faculty can participate in the growing trend toward online course delivery. The benefit of such an approach, on the other hand, is the level of faculty control over course materials.
Opinion: For a more productive life, daydream In 1990, a 25-year-old researcher for Amnesty International, stuck on a train stopped on the tracks between London and Manchester, stared out the window for hours. To those around her, no doubt rustling newspapers and magazines, busily rifling through work, the young woman no doubt appeared to be little more than a space cadet, wasting her time, zoning out. But that woman came to be known as JK Rowling. And in those idle hours daydreaming out the train window, she has said that the entire plot of the magical Harry Potter series simply "fell into" her head. Mark Twain, during an enormously productive summer of writing in 1874, spent entire days daydreaming in the shade of Quarry Farm in New York, letting his mind wander, thinking about everything and nothing at all, and, in the end, publishing "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."