Category: design
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Thinking and communicating visually
Cheryl Oakes commented about the SmartTech software program SmartIdeas recently. Here is an example of a product made with SmartIdeas. SmartIdeas looks very similar to Inspiration and the free, open source graphic organizer software CMapTools. My main question about these tools is, what differentiates them from similar graphic organizer software programs? I posted about concept…
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Complexity of Problem Solving
Most people would agree that problem solving is an essential 21st century literacy skill, I think. Dr. David Jonassen spoke at the Texas Tech College of Education last week on the topic of problem solving, and specifically presented on the subject, “Designing Learning Environments for Troubleshooting.” His presentation is available as a podcast, and is…
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Web 2.0 Audio Conversations
For several weeks now I have been having fun playing with the fantastic web 2.0 tool Yackpack. Last night and today, I finally setup a family “pack” and turned my kids loose on it. I could hardly get them to stop! My youngest even caught the contagious enthusiasm and had to get in the act…
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Tale of Two Fish
The Tale of Two Fish Flickr slideshow by Stephanie and Bryan Rieger (creators of Yiibu) is brilliant. I love creative, simplified (but yet accurate and thorough) multimedia presentations of copyright and fair use issues as they pertain to education and specifically classroom settings. Another one of my favorites is the “Get Creative” flash movie on…
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Presentation Simplicity
In his blog post “Gates, Jobs, & the Zen aesthetic,” Garr Reynolds highlights differences between the presentation styles of technology gurus Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Reynolds includes the following quotation to support his ideal of simplicity in presentation style from Dr. Koichi Kawana: Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means. In…
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Lessig Method presentation
Lawrence Lessig is a favorite writer of mine, his blog is exemplary and his book “The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World” should be required reading for every teacher with students in 3rd grade and above. The Presentation Zen blog post, “The Lessig Method” of presentation reveals that Lessig…