It took me days to find the two I liked. Most of websites are highly specialized (education, psychology, problems with learning, commerce, hard to understand research papers - something like this). I found tons of book titles that I am going to keep in mind and try to comment on as I read. My primary interest is in brain development and training because I'm starting to worry about my own brain in need of a boost.
That's why I chose this site, which, as I understand, grew out of a book: http://braindance.com/homepage.htm The slogan is Work Smarter, Learn Faster and Manage Information More Effectively, which is exactly what's needed to catch my attention. The site design is nothing special - I would say, no design at all. Pure information. The site is based on a book called Brain Dancing by Patrick Magee. His acknowledged influence is Tony Buzan, the Mind Mapping inventor. There is, I guess, a shorter, or modified version of the book on the actual site called Brain Dancing for Students - these are suggestions for optimizing learning process, specifically, improving reading skills, memory, using such techniques as Mind Mapping. Patrick Magee writes:"Most people will spend about 100 hours during their lifetime just tying their shoes.Imagine how much time we will spend reading, remembering and learning! Doesn't it make sense to invest some time today towards optimizing the strategies you use to perform these activities? It is one thing to read a book on a specific topic, and quite another to read something that improves the effectiveness with which you learn any topic from that point forward." I agree.
My next site is http://brainconnection.positscience.com/. It is an interesting, very informative, easy to read, and entertaining website that involves everything concerning our brains. It is designed in a form of a magazine - major news, departments, blogs, ads, games, book recommendations and other related links. What I like about it is that it's a cluster of various bits of information collected in one place - easy to find major topics on brain, and get some basic knowledge that later can be expanded elsewhere, if needed. Is is a good place to start.
A little extra: http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/index_a.html. This is a fun introduction to the brain basics called The Brain from Top to Bottom. They also claim that you can use their material in your interactive multimedia presentations, which is nice to know since I'm pursuing the Instructional Design and Technology degree.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
It always happens to me - I get excited over the idea of doing something I don't really believe I'm capable of. It's like creating a vision of an ideal future. I thought of this before - my personal blog. I was seeing myself blogging some day, when I have something to blog about. Well, this day (night rather) has come, and I must blog. I don't know how I'm going to do this!
I'm taking this fascinating class, "Learning Theories and Instruction". Everything is great - I've always been interested in studying the best ways to learn things, to improve my capabilities of learning, and to do that some nontraditional way, by using some kind of technology. Blogging is the requirement for this class.
This week we were supposed to look through some blogs about learning and Instructional Design, and choose three to talk about. It was frustrating initially, because all I was finding were terribly disorganized pages. One blog talked a great deal about what good design should be - and yet, the site was quite messy. The content prevailed, and navigation was difficult. Other sites, like Edublogs, initially looked much better, more organized, but material was mostly tech support, organizational problems, and adds - I couldn't find anything of value to read.
Here are the three sites I eventually liked:
1. Ferdinand Krauss’s IDEAS: Instructional Design for Elearning ApproacheS, http://ideas.blogs.com/lo/2004/04/
I was very impressed by his biography - he is an intensely dedicated, "hands on" instructional designer, with deep knowledge of technological aspect of the trade. I hope, by reading his blog, I learn a lot in this area. He also takes a great deal of time siting books and articles on the subject of learning and instruction, and it was pleasant for me to find some recently leaned terms and names in his posts, like in this one: Constructivist training for Online Teachers. It is a good site for leaning about technology, books, and latest news and ideas in education.
2. Dina Kennenedy's Blog called "Mrs. P's Blog", http://mrspritchard.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/in-what-ways-does-american-education-and-education-in-america-have-meaning-for-me/ - I liked the author. I think her outlook is very much in sync with mine. I like how passionately she talks about America and about diversity. "Horace Mann was a pioneer that believed that education needed to be universal, be the financial responsibility of the public and he dreamed that school would be a place for all to learn to be citizens". Dona is also a student, and seems excited about it. There is a lot of interesting material on her blog. I'm also feeling more comfortable to comment on her posts.
3. Patrick Higgins, Jr. and his "Chalkdust101", http://chalkdust101.wordpress.com/2010/, is the third site I found interesting. The author gives a worm feeling of a dedicated teacher, who is genuinely interested in today's young generation, fascinated by them. He has a great sense of humor, and shares a lot of insights about today's technologically enhanced education. I did not have time to read a lot of entries in his blog, but am definitely going to do that: it is a an easy read with a lot of useful information. He also quotes many of his colleagues, like here:"We are probably the last generation that will make the distinction between being online and not being online".
I'm taking this fascinating class, "Learning Theories and Instruction". Everything is great - I've always been interested in studying the best ways to learn things, to improve my capabilities of learning, and to do that some nontraditional way, by using some kind of technology. Blogging is the requirement for this class.
This week we were supposed to look through some blogs about learning and Instructional Design, and choose three to talk about. It was frustrating initially, because all I was finding were terribly disorganized pages. One blog talked a great deal about what good design should be - and yet, the site was quite messy. The content prevailed, and navigation was difficult. Other sites, like Edublogs, initially looked much better, more organized, but material was mostly tech support, organizational problems, and adds - I couldn't find anything of value to read.
Here are the three sites I eventually liked:
1. Ferdinand Krauss’s IDEAS: Instructional Design for Elearning ApproacheS, http://ideas.blogs.com/lo/2004/04/
I was very impressed by his biography - he is an intensely dedicated, "hands on" instructional designer, with deep knowledge of technological aspect of the trade. I hope, by reading his blog, I learn a lot in this area. He also takes a great deal of time siting books and articles on the subject of learning and instruction, and it was pleasant for me to find some recently leaned terms and names in his posts, like in this one: Constructivist training for Online Teachers. It is a good site for leaning about technology, books, and latest news and ideas in education.
2. Dina Kennenedy's Blog called "Mrs. P's Blog", http://mrspritchard.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/in-what-ways-does-american-education-and-education-in-america-have-meaning-for-me/ - I liked the author. I think her outlook is very much in sync with mine. I like how passionately she talks about America and about diversity. "Horace Mann was a pioneer that believed that education needed to be universal, be the financial responsibility of the public and he dreamed that school would be a place for all to learn to be citizens". Dona is also a student, and seems excited about it. There is a lot of interesting material on her blog. I'm also feeling more comfortable to comment on her posts.
3. Patrick Higgins, Jr. and his "Chalkdust101", http://chalkdust101.wordpress.com/2010/, is the third site I found interesting. The author gives a worm feeling of a dedicated teacher, who is genuinely interested in today's young generation, fascinated by them. He has a great sense of humor, and shares a lot of insights about today's technologically enhanced education. I did not have time to read a lot of entries in his blog, but am definitely going to do that: it is a an easy read with a lot of useful information. He also quotes many of his colleagues, like here:"We are probably the last generation that will make the distinction between being online and not being online".
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