Other course blogs

Two items that jumped out at me in others’ course blogs. First, Lindsay remarked on the incredible array of tools available for engaging in online learning. This diversity of resources can be quite overwhelming, both for participants and for designers and facilitators. I think it will be important, as we engage into this emerging future of limitless tools and techniques, the value of simplicity and (remember that old term) user friendliness. That means whatever we do, however complex it is at the design end, it needs to be relatively transparent to the student in that the learning should not be impeded by the technology. It is true of course that we all needed to learn how to read and write and do other things to communicate, and these technologies are in themselves incredibly complex. It took time. We also need to remember that we and our learners need to keep learning on how to learn and puts an onus on us to continue to learn and teach how to use these tools. Complicated isn’t it.