Because I love to cook but am often short on time, I long ago developed a set of “bases” I use to make some staple dishes; I have a cookie “base,” a bread “base,” a soup “base” and so on.  By adding a few different ingredients, I can make two completely unique dishes using the same base.  But since I’m not here to teach cooking (and am known to be selfish with my recipes), let’s talk about what this has to do with learning.

Like cooking, great learning tools can be developed from a few simple base ingredients.  Any number of exciting student activities start with a good base.  One of my favorites is the Scavenger Hunt.

A Scavenger Hunt can be structured to relate to a number of topics.  For a course on technology, it might be structured as a list of tasks the students must accomplish using tools available on various Web sites.  For ethics, this might involve the students finding the specific Articles and Standards of Practice at issue, given a certain scenario.  For contracts, students might have to find a specific clause or group of clauses dealing with a given topic – the possibilities are endless.

The best part is, you don’t have to be an expert to master the use of simple activity bases.  Tons of examples are provided courtesy of Sivasailam Thiagarajan, Ph.D. – luckily he is known simply as “Thiagi” (pronounced “Tee-ah-gee”) – on his Website.  You can find a list of sample activities and games HERE.  Good luck with your hunt!

Elizabeth Hurd is a freelance coursewriter and curriculum developer.  For information on your specific education and training needs, call 843-442-0441 or use the Contact Form to be contacted directly.

The growing popularity of distance learning courses — correspondence courses, online courses, webinars, E-Class (asynchronous) courses, etc. — is easy to understand.  The convenience of distance learning courses gives them immediate appeal: they usually require no travel or travel expense, are often easier to fit into one’s schedule, and are often less expensive than classroom seminars and courses. The quality of distance learning courses, however, can vary …widely.

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Instructor Academy 2008 will be held July 24-25 in Nashville, TN. This is a two-day conference, planned especially for instructors, trainers, managers, education staff, and Association Executives …ANYONE who wants to improve their training know-how and skills! Our theme for 2008 is “E-Learning 2.0!“, and the entire conference is devoted to instructor-led distance learning — tools, trends, and techniques! This year’s conference features some prominent national instructor-trainers and a great selection of workshops:

• “Collaboration Tools: Blogs and Wikis and Groups, Oh My!”
• “You Too Can YouTube!”
• “The Successful Synchronous Trainer”
• “Going Wiki Wild!”
• “The E-Class GRI Approach: How & Why It Works!”
• “Facilitating Asynchronous Instructor-Led E-Learning”
• “Tools & Tips: Instructing & Coaching a Successful E-Class Course”

The conference program starts at 8:30AM on July 24, and ends at 2:30PM on July 25. There will also be a “Bonus” workshop for State Association Education Staff on “Setting Up Your Own E-Class Delivery System”!

This year’s faculty for Instructor Academy 2008 includes national trainers and presenters: Jane Bozarth (noted author, trainer, and speaker on distance-learning facilitation), Michelle Moore (a popular national speaker and trainer for Remote-Learner.net), Amanda Burlison (a management consultant with Deloitte Consulting in Atlanta, formerly associated with TAR’s Education programs), and Pug Scoville, TAR’s own Director of Communications & Education for 23 years!!

If you teach and you’re interested in what’s coming down the pike in e-learning, don’t miss this opportunity! You’ll leave with new skills, new ideas, AND some new friends to help YOU become a better instructor!

For more information, or to register click HERE!

Being born in the ’70s, teaching computer skills was an idea that was not yet in vogue by the time I entered junior high. Nevertheless, I went to one of the few schools that offered a class in computer programming, and I can remember hovering for hours over my workstation, glued to the glowing green type. I meticulously followed the directions to write my very own program, which would eventually – with only the click of a button – add up 2 + 2 on its own and produce the answer. (The fact that we already had calculators to perform this function did nothing to dampen my enthusiasm at the time.)

Ah, how times have changed! Technology has since become a runaway train – you can either hop on or be left in the dust.

No longer the novel idea it was in the ’80s, technology is now embedded as an integral part of almost every course offering, regardless of the subject matter. We teach students how to use the Internet and tailor their Web content to stay on top of current market trends and reach today’s consumers. What’s interesting is that we’re just now starting to apply the approaches we’ve been telling our students about to how our own courses are designed, taught and offered.

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First, a couple of definitions from Wikipedia:

A digital native is a person who has grown up with digital technology such as computers, the Internet, mobile phones and MP3. A digital immigrant is an individual who grew up without digital technology and adopted it later. A digital native might refer to their new “camera”; a digital immigrant might refer to their new “digital camera”.

Digital natives do more than just look at web pages and exchange occasional emails with others. They are participants, creators, and collaborators in an ever-changing digital world, learning and working – together – in ways that we couldn’t envision just a few years ago!

I recently heard a presentation that emphasized the difference. I couldn’t help thinking about what this means for education in real estate.

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