Connectivism

This post is written by Viplav Baxi.

Well, it's Week 5 of the Massively Open Online Course hosted by George Siemens and Stephen Downes on a new epistemology and theory of learning called Connectivism. At its core is the proposition that all knowledge is networked and the process of learning is really the process of connecting. I think it is a must for all people interested in learning theories to look at some of the content on the Wiki (http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wiki/Connectivism) especially as a great learning activity is the comparison with the traditional theories (behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism).

Also, there are a few posts on the blog I specially created for this "course" at http://learnoscck08.wordpress.com but you can simply search for posts related to this course using the keyword CCK08. Enjoy!

Recent Awards by Indian Learning Companies

Some recent awards won by Indian Learning companies:

Harbinger Group, the global provider of software products and services, has won the Gold award at the 2008 Learning in Practice awards sponsored by the Chief Learning Officer magazine. Harbinger won the Gold award for "Clinical Challenge", an innovative online learning project with Philips Healthcare, pioneering gaming in healthcare education. The objective of Philips while conceptualizing "Clinical Challenge" was to create a learning environment that would leverage cognitive benefits of game-based learning, in a manner that is cost-effective and rapid to build. Harbinger partnered with Philips to provide the technology and services that fulfilled this objective.

NIIT was awarded the Gold for Excellence in E-Learning Award by Chief Learning Officer magazine as part of its Learning In Practice Awards, one of the industry's highest honors. NIIT won this award for their comprehensive application-training program developed for an insurance company.

Kern Communications, a leader in innovative learning, won a coveted Brandon Hall bronze award for excellence in the Best Use of Blended Learning category. Kern designed a training program on Grooming and Personality Development for the customer service executives (CSEs) of Godrej & Boyce. This program was designed to help CSEs improve their grooming and customer handling skills. The objective of the program was to make CSEs more professional in their appearance and interaction with customers.

What's your Web 2.0 Quotient

While Kevin Kelly talks about Internet of things as he predicts the next 5000 days, the question is are we even ready for the present? We are still struggling with Web 2.0 and Learning 2.0, trying to bridge the gap between digital natives and digital immigrants.

So are we really ready for the future? How well do you use the web in the present? Are you familiar with the Web 2.0 mumbo-jumbo? Do you utilize the web to connect, learn and grow? What is your Web 2.0 Quotient? Here’s a simple form I created to check your Web 2.0 Quotient.

Check your Web 2.0 Quotient here.

Simply answer a series of questions and see how you score on the Web 2.0 quotient.

My score: 68. What's your score?

Have I missed anything? I am sure I have missed many things. Do provide your suggestions to improve this.

Disclaimers:

Uses rudimentary MS Excel features and is highly dependent of retaining the format and location of cells. No great programming has been attempted here.

Instructional Design: Two questions

This post is written by Sandipan Ray. Sandipan is an e-learning professional with more than 7 years of industry experience, in almost all disciplines from Graphics, Quality, programming to ID. Presently working in a product development company for their internal training needs.

I am little bothered with two common words:

Simplicity:

Instructional Design, as I understand, is make sure that the learner is listening to what I am saying, and the way to that is to keep the course simple. But I am just wondering, with the ever-increasing complexities involved in creating a course, are we really achieving that target of "simplicity"? Is it time for us to become little "lean"?

Plagiarism:

Ever since I joined this field, I had been hearing about the sin called plagiarism. But till date, I haven't come across a clear definition about it. Wiki says: "Plagiarism is the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work." Well- close imitation of the language and thoughts-- isn't that very subjective (how much is close enough)? And in the field of learning, can we be really sure about who the original author is? And if a thing works in a X way, or has X attributes, no matter whatever language and in whatever way we say it, the fact remains the same. So, I wonder, can we really avoid plagiarism?

Waiting for you all to throw some light!

Comic Strip as an Educational Tool

This post is written by Anamika Biswas.

Google launched its new browser with a bang. By now there must have millions and billions downloads of the same. Before I could really start with browser I got hooked to its engaging comic- Google Chrome Comic. During our childhood, we all were charmed by comics and their characters. We have admired those fictional characters and their colorful backgrounds. Comics remained as our good companions and entertainers.

Even though, the use of comic strips/comic characters for advertisement has received good response. But Google Chrome Comic made a mark on my psyche as Comic strips can be used as an effective educational/tutorial tool. I have read it more than four to five times. Every time I had a different reason to read it: of course, first reading was to understand what this new browser has on offer? Rest of the re-readings was to appreciate the brilliant usage this medium known as Comic.

Scott McCloud the artist behind this Non-Fictional comic has made it into an engaging tutorial by:

• Converting life cycle of the product into an illustrative narration. (We all like to read stories, so do we like this one as well)
  
  
  


• Introducing names of the team members to make narration authentic


• Presenting visual of various actions/reactions of technical ingredients/elements of the chrome


• Employing animated facial expressions and body language of the team members to inspire the reader to feel emotion of the narrative
  
  
  
  


• Using symbols/icons to expand the linguistic aspects of the narrative.


• Utilizing limited and essential technical terms used with ease


• Creating easy to relate illustrations from day to day life to narrate technical concepts


• There is a desired attempt to make user familiar with the features and feel of the chrome through various indirect method as:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • It carries the theme of the chrome i.e. simplicity at its best. So the back drops of the comic strips are quite simple
  
  
  • Scott McCloud has used similar blue color with combination of white, as the Chrome has
  
  
  • Comic is divided into five parts. Every time a new part starts the layout of the strip carries the New Tab Frame of the chrome
  
  
  
  

Hope to see more such unusual mediums to be part of educational/learning tools.



(Images from googlebooks/chrome)