How To Make E-Learning Work

It is a good slideshow to take a look at. Ms. Jane Hart gives an ideal and concise definition of e-learning. She also provides the information regarding the essentials tools for us to manage learning.

How To Make E Learning Work

View more presentations from Jane Hart.

Reading 04/23/2009

• 10 Simple and Impressive Design Techniques | How-To | Smashing Magazine

  tags: Web design, Graphic design

  • Some of these advanced effects can add plenty of depth to designs, but when used in the wrong place, they do little more than distract viewers from the project’s intended focus. These effects may be precisely what a design needs to have the impact it requires, but even in these cases, they should be complemented by simpler effects.
  • Color

  • With a “less is more” mentality, we’ve selected 10 very simple and impressive design techniques that can drastically improve the performance and appearance of your designs.

  • Add Contrast
  • Gradients
  • moderation and subtlety are the keys to the design’s success. The logo, headlines, buttons and backgrounds all have subtle or minor gradients to emphasize their content. The most complex gradients on the website are found on simple 120 pixel-wide buttons that are intended to grab attention.
  • Much like choosing a sensible color palette, designers should carefully choose only a few types of gradient for each project.

  • When working with gradients, it is important to keep a nice visual flow: use gradients sparingly or subtly. And most importantly, use them only when they complement the overall feel of the project.

  • Stick to simple four-color palettes unless you’re really confident the design calls for more.
  • Letter Spacing
  • As in uppercase and lowercase. Changing case requires nothing more than pressing the Shift or Caps Lock key, and yet so few designers take advantage of this technique’s potential.
  • Anti-Aliasing

  • Though technically a much more complicated process, anti-aliasing can be summarized as the smoothing out of edges, and it applies to all aspects of design. In the world of Web design, anti-aliasing is partially determined by whether the text will be in HTML or shown as an image. Complicating things a little more, some Web browsers and operating systems automatically smooth out HTML text a bit, but as a general rule, HTML text has no anti-aliasing.

  • Imperfection
  • If you’ve ever been stumped with the predicament of how to make something stand out more, stand out less, or nearly disappear, take a look at using blurs in different ways. By blurring objects in the foreground, background or by blurring the entire design, you can dramatically increase the impact of your project. Focus is, at least in part, relative
  • Blurs can also be used to give a sense of depth or layering.
  • Alignment
  • Altering the alignment of design elements can make them more memorable, more talked about and, consequently, much more effective.
  • This can greatly increase the speed with which concepts are turned over to clients; but all too often, it also restricts creativity — especially with regard to alignment.
  • Trim Fat
  • Perhaps the most important and under-appreciated design technique, trimming unnecessary parts of a project, is also one of the hardest to do.

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Reading 04/21/2009

• 100 Tips, Apps, and Resources for Teachers on Twitter | Online College Degree

  tags: social media, twitter, teacher, education, web2.0, teaching

  • The idea of writing small blog posts of 140 characters or less to a group of your followers is actually a revolutionary new way to bring communities together, learn from each other, and keep updated with all that is happening.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

一個溫馨的小故事

今天是美國H1B申請截止日期，回想一個月以前，我也曾經試圖請律師還有我的公司幫我申請工作簽證，沒想到景氣差，導致公司無法決定下一個會計年度能否再聘用我，於是只好放棄了。雖然結果是這樣的讓人失望，但是在這過程中，有一件事情讓我覺得很溫馨。我的一位同事H.R Steward，他的Cubicle剛好在我旁邊，他理解我的困境，他也很希望我可以繼續留下來工作，因為我們相處的很愉快；我們時常利用工作閒暇時間聊天或是一起吃午飯。他幫我想到辦法，他認識一位印度同事，自己在加州開個小公司，以前曾經一起工作過，也認識我們部門的老闆，他幫我聯絡這位印度同事，我便很順利地和他通上電話，主要是希望透過他的公司來幫我申請工作簽證，但是我現在工作的公司也能外包業務給他讓我繼續做相同的工作。H.R.甚至願意陪我去老闆那裡解釋這件事情，希望老闆可以了解進而支持我。我當下真的很感激他的幫忙，我欣賞他勇於嘗試，即使他並非很知道外國人工作簽證申請的事情，他仍然願意替我想辦法，向我老闆說明一切。我覺得他不像一般的白人，只是表面上裝做很難過，很遺憾，其實我知道他們根本不在意。整件事情在某一個星期五下午發生，事情進行的非常順利，那位印度同事也欣然同意幫忙。然而，我感覺到當時我的老闆表面上非常樂意，但是他應該不想自找麻煩，把事情搞得更複雜，所以我到現在都沒有聽到任何回應。
從這件小事情，我感受到在我週遭還是有真誠的白人，而且覺得他們勇於嘗試創新；就算對於他們不清楚的事情，也會想辦法去試試看。因此，我今天送他一張寫滿感激的生日卡片和一盒White Windmill Bakery 的餅乾。

Budget Crisis in MARTA

Today, I was searching some MARTA pictures on Internet and found this article by chance. MARTA has been $60 million budget shortfall, and I am the one who is suffer from this crisis, because Human Resource Department could not decide to decide to offer this position for the next fiscal year until June, which leads to the fact that I am not able to apply H1B.
This is something I heard in the train on the way back to home after work. One lady from Delaware talked about how good this transit system is, and another two people both agree with her, because with the purchase of MARTA's Breeze card, the passengers can take the train without any limit. However, when thinking of the bad economy that makes the impact on MARTA, my company may take the action of reducing the service level, eliminating bus routes and cutting rail service. I am not sure when it will really happen, but I am thinking what will be good measures to deal with this crisis. The reason is that the gas fee has declined dramatically; some people may consider driving instead of taking the train in terms of crippled service.
I hope the decision makers in MARTA will consider it deliberately. Probably I am not a down-to-earth person, but I believe that MARTA still has to provide the best transit service for the residents in metropolitan Atlanta.

• Tough Times for MARTA Could Mean Service Cutbacks : EcoLocalizer

  tags: life, economy

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

We lack information

We lack information, originally uploaded by Scott McLeod.

Reading 03/15/2009

• Create Engaging E-Learning Courses You Can Be Proud Of - The Rapid eLearning Blog

  tags: no_tag

  • Either it’s a process of providing information from the course or it’s about having the learners use that information to make decisions in the course. The first mode is passive engagement while the second is active engagement. Both types of engagement have their places in your elearning courses.
  • The first is a typical example of passive engagement since it just shares information. The second one demonstrates active engagement because it requires that you actively use the information from the course
  • Active engagement is great because it allows the learner to immediately apply the information or understanding and get feedback
  • the key is to create a way for the learner to get the information and training they need. As you can see, sometimes that means passive content and sometime it means active. It’s not an either-or decision; it’s all about what’s best for the learner and what will help you accomplish your goals in a timely and cost effective manner.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.