We all study, whether we are students, teachers, or professionals, when we need to learn something, but rarely stop to reflect on the process and how to improve it. My student, Pam Ressler, published a brief guide to studying. I extracted some of Pam’s ideas:
Begin by relaxing (which makes sense no matter how much work you have to do in a short time period).
Notice what you don’t understand.
Then STOP (Stop, Take a Breath, Observe, Proceed) to recall what you have learned in your own words.
Summarize, return to what you didn’t understand, and contact expert sources (e.g., other books or an instructor) if you still cannot understand it.
Expand your knowledge by asking yourself, “If I could speak to the author, what questions would I ask or what criticism would I offer?”
Support and reward yourself and seek out another student who you can support and co-mentor in your studies.
Study Better – When Did You Last Reflect on the Process and How to Improve It?
Why Do Our K-12 Schools Remain Technology-Free?
The cell phone you used 3 years ago was probably twice as thick and 1/10th as powerful as the one you use today. In fact, if the trailers for the sequel to “Wall Street” show Gordon Gecko’s huge cell phone from 1987! But with all the advancements in faster, smaller, and more powerful technology, K-12 classrooms remain virtually technology-free.
I wrote about this 3 years ago. My children are older. But the amount and type of technology they use in school has barely changed. It seems like there are countless ways that technology could enhance their education – many of the technologies I read about in my role as Editor-in-Chief of eLearn Magazine. Is it that they are too costly or unproven or that change is slowest in established institutions like public schools? —Lisa Gualtieri
If Netflix and Amazon Do It, Why Not Recommender Systems for Online Education?
Netflix and Amazon.com ease your selection process by recommending movies or books that you may like based on your history. Recommender systems been successful in e-commerce and other domains in which information overload exists. What about educational scenarios where, arguably, a wealth of information is potentially relevant?
From Olga C. Santos, aDeNu Research Group, UNED, Spain:
Although Educational Recommender Systems (ERS) share the same key objectives as recommenders for e-commerce applications (i.e. helping users to select the most appropriate item from a large information pool), there are some particularities that make it impossible to directly apply existing solutions from those systems. For instance, recommendations in the educational domain should not be guided only by the learners’ preferences but also by educational criteria. However, most ERS approaches have focused on applying traditional recommendation algorithms in order to find relevant resources for learners in learning scenarios. While this approach is pointing at interesting open issues, there are complementary views in this field to address the current challenges, which may clarify grounds to successfully deploy ERS.
Olga is working on a book on this topic. She has proposed a recommendation model for e-learning, but most of the elements in it are generalizable to other domains (i.e. healthcare). She also proposed a user-centered design methodology to elicit relevant recommendations from experts:
The reason for this (and not to start applying the algorithms as it is typically done in e-commerce recommenders) is that first, I need to find out what are relevant recommendations for e-learning. Afterward, algorithms can be applied to reproduce the elicited recommendations in an automatic way. I guess the same will happen in the healthcare domain, you should first need to involve experts to identify the recommendation needs.
Fascinating topic. Who doesn’t suffer from information overload – and crave intelligent assistance?
Una Discusión de e-Learning con Roger Schank
Contributing editor to eLearn Magazine Roger Schank was interviewed recently by Darío Montoya Mejía, director general of Sena, in Columbia about his approaches to e-learning, both in terms of his philosophies and how we build learning programs.
The interview is divided into four short videos, which are available on YouTube. The first one is also below. The interviewer asks his questions in Spanish, and Schank replies in English, with Spanish dubbed over it (though English speakers can hear his portion fairly well).
Saul Carliner Appointed Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions
Saul Carliner, eLearn Magazine Advisory Board member and contributor, as well as one of the people I respect most in the field of e-learning, was just appointed Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication. Please join me in congratulating him.
From the press release, worth reading because of Saul’s stellar accomplishments:
Carliner is an associate professor with the Graduate Program in Educational Technology at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. His research focuses on emerging forms of online communication and learning for the workplace, as well as the management of groups that provide workplace communication and learning services. He previously served on the faculties of the City University of Hong Kong, Bentley College, University of Minnesota, and Southern Polytechnic State University. Also an industry consultant, he provides strategic planning services to clients like Alltel Wireless, Bell Canada, ST Microelectronics, and several agencies of the Canadian and US governments. He is the author of over 100 articles and 7 books, some of which have received top awards in the Frank R. Smith and STC International Publications Competitions. He is a fellow and past international president of the Society for Technical Communication, board member of the Canadian Society for Training and Development, and a past research fellow of the American Society for Training and Development.
The IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication is a peer-reviewed, quarterly journal devoted to applied research on professional communication. It has been published since 1957 by the Professional Communication Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world’s largest professional society serving these professions. Readers include technical communicators, engineers, scientists, information designers, editors, linguists, translators, managers, business professionals, and others from around the globe who practice, conduct research on, and teach others about effective professional communication. The journal publishes original empirical research on (1) the communication practices of technical professionals, such as engineers and scientists, (2) the practices of professional communicators who work in technical or business environments, and (3) research-based methods for teaching professional communication.