In order to take a look at an intriguing graphic – Bloom’s Taxonomy for IPads – paste into your browser the following URL:  http://tinyurl.com/8evrnld

Once you close that graphic window you will be on a page with more links for Bloom Taxonomy (print out the Action Verbs chart if you don’t already have one by your work area). This page is available via Worldlanguagestech. You will have an opportunity to join their wiki entitled 21st Century Tools to Teach, Learn, Collaborate and Advocate for Learning.

The second link to look at: Gary’s Social Media Counts:
http://lockerz.com/d/5696915

Think small; One idea per slide. Read a short blog post about how less is more when it comes to developing PowerPoint slides.

http://evereval.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/atomic-slide-development/

ClinicalTrials.gov is the NLM-developed Web-based registry and results database of clinical research studies. This article introduces the new site navigation features, new appearance, and new content for the public, patients and families, clinicians, researchers and study record data providers:  Huston M, Williams RJ, Bergeris A, Fun J, Tse T. New Style and New Content for ClinicalTrials.gov. NLM Tech Bull. 2012 Jul-Aug;(387):e5.

I recently attending a conference called SIDLIT: Summer Institute of Distance Learning & Instructional Technology.

One of the sessions I attended focused on choosing online activities that support learning objectives. The session talked about integrating the absorb, do, and connect approach; an idea put forth by William Horton, an eLearning guru.

Absorb activities impart facts. A learner may read an article, listen to an audio explanation, or watch a short video, etc. to access and acquire the information. This is sometimes seen as a passive learning activity, but our brain is most likely not in a passive mode as we process the new information and try to make it fit into our existing knowledge framework.

One way to make a seemingly passive learning activity more active is to augment the activity. The University of Arizona Library uses a system called Guide on the Side to augment their library instruction. Watch their tutorial about how to find articles using JSTOR. http://www.library.arizona.edu/applications/quickHelp/tutorial/searching-jstor

When your course includes online chats it may be beneficial to establish whether or not the online participants have the skills to conduct chats efficiently, integrate the information and ultimately resolve and report on the issues discussed.
It might prove beneficial to provide coaching and feedback before and outside the online course. This coaching would include reviewing the roles and expectations of  Moderator, Recorder and Participants. David S. Stein and Constance E. Wanstreet, two faculty members from The Ohio State University, presented their findings at the 28th Annual Distance Learning and Teaching Conference. Their 2012 preliminary results found that a coached group demonstrated five times more evidence of high-order thinking that the un-coached group.

I attended the 28th Annual Conference of Distance Teaching & Learning on August 8-10, 2012 in Madison, WI.
In the next few weeks I will be posting about some of the things I encountered during the conference.

The first workshop I attended started with a video produced via Xtranormal.

Xtranormal makes your stories come to life. You select your “animated actors”, type or record your script, add sounds, gestures and voila, you have a short video.

Xtranormal is an online moviemaker program, an easy, full-featured web 2.0 tool. It started as a completely free tool and has now  converted to a pay for points format.  However, previews are still free and may suffice for your purposes. Xtranormal now has a  teacher dashboard to manage classes, students, and assignments, all using a simple and clean web interface.

From their website:

Xtranormal for Education was tested by Noisecast, “The World’s Noisiest Tech Blog”. Xtranormal was quite happy with the results… “We’re about as happy as a kid who just received straight A’s on his report card! You better believe we’ve got this review hanging on the Xtranormal fridge.  The folks over at Noisecast really hit the nail on the head in their assessment of Xtranormal for Education. In the review, they deliver a well-organized and simple overview of the product – what it is in a nutshell; how it works exactly, key features that differentiate the teaching platform from basic, etc. They even created their own Xtranormal video to introduce the review, which reportedly only took about eight minutes to make.”

Try it out.

1. The unexpected will rivet audience attention. Breaking a pattern is a very basic way to grab attention.
2. Be careful with negative instructions. If you don’t want your audience to do something, don’t even put the idea into their heads.
3. Take words seriously. If you want the audience to take your words seriously, make your font size huge and clearly visible.

You can read more ideas from Laura Bergells at: http://maniactive.com/blog/

PMC (also known as PubMed Central) recently updated its look and feel, to conform to NCBI’s new standards for page design. This redesign allows for a cleaner and more uniform presentation across PMC’s site as well as its article, issue and journal archive pages.

For more information, see Fogelman M. What’s New in PMC: Another Facelift. NLM Tech Bull. 2012 Jul-Aug;(387):e4.

Read this short post by Stephanie Evergreen about using images in your PowerPoint.
http://evereval.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/bleeding-your-presentation/

A new PubMed® search feature is now available that allows a search for structured abstracts in PubMed. For more information see Structured Abstracts: New PubMed Search Feature. NLM Tech Bull. 2012 Jul-Aug;(387):b1.