#impressed

So I really enjoyed reading your blog posts and checking out your presentations on history and current state of DL.  Seriously impressive.  So many different, creative, new ways of expressing old facts by putting them in context (can you imaging learning SHORTHAND by MAIL???)

Couple of things that came to mind – 1) there are only about a billion slightly “different” versions of DL history in terms of dates, official “start”, etc.  Some would argue that it really started with the first library.  Would that be Alexandria?  Before it burnt to the ground?  Unsure.  But the broad strokes are there.  The exploitation of technology in education comes tied to the technical capabilities.  And new technical capabilities spur previously unimagined learning opportunities (Duolingo anyone?  I’m brushing up my French!)  The two are tied together.

Be sure to go ahead and embed your presentations on your ePortfolios.  Let me know if you need help with that – I’m happy to walk you through it.

To note – what you are now doing is also called “Student Generated Content”.  This means that your creations live beyond the class, and can be used educationally for things you are doing as well (i.e. you could teach the history of DL – abbreviated – now – or share your content with someone who would use it to do just that.)  One of my pet peeves with higher ed (well, education in general, really) – why are we constantly doing fake things?  Why can’t we be doing real things?  Real things are done imperfectly all the time.  That’s what iterative improvement is all about.

So, a question came up about “cognitive load theory” AND, I’m pleased to say that we’re actually taking that into account here!  So, in a nutshell (if I understand it correctly, which is always a real question), cognitive load theory deals with the number of things that we as learners can handle at a time.  Basically, the current nomenclature is that it’s 7 things in working or short term memory, plus or minus 2.  THIS is one of the reasons that while there are a few minor game mechanics in our course, we’re not doing the course in Second Life, or through an entirely scenario-based experience.  You don’t want students taking up their working memory learning the game – you want them to focus working memory (their processing power or “coding”) on the content, not on the mechanism for acquiring the content.  There’s been research that this may be why immersive games actually don’t improve outcomes for students as much as lower tech gaming principles do.

So, now you’re in the D & D module (part I of II).  Pintrest boards this module!  I’m going to be mixing up the dev tools – there are different formats used from here on out.  More variety – the virtual spice of life.  Yes.  I did.  Just write that.

#waytobringit

-Sasha