Category Archives: Blog

H5P

Numerous research studies support the foundational multimedia principle that people learn better with images and words, rather than words alone. While the inclusion of any graphics, in general, improves positive feelings about learning experiences it doesn’t necessarily improving learning outcomes. However, evidence supports that students who are exposed to graphics which are relevant to instructional goals do perform and learn better. Consequently, it’s important to consider how graphics function and which types are best aligned to instructional content and goals.

The following H5P interaction provides information about the different categories of graphics and how they function to serve different learning goals.

I’m Moving!

Well, actually I am not moving, but I won’t be posting to this blog site any longer.

Shortly after I started work at UBC, I was invited to post on the Instructional Design Community of Practice website. My goal on that site, is the same as it was on this site — to share tool, tips, and best practices with our educational technologists, instructional designers, or instructors. It doesn’t make sense to continue posting on this site, as the other site has a larger readership.

Please follow the Instructional Design Community of Practice website if you are interested in ed tech tools and tips.

Artifact for ETEC590

Web of Learning

Development and Artifact Collection

This entire e-portfolio site represents the work I’ve done during the MET program. However, the capstone project for the ETEC590: Graduating Project course required a more thoughtful artifact selection process, which “demonstrate achievement of specific standards or goals” (Barrett, 2000). My course instructor preferred that I develop the final project e-portfolio site on a platform other than WordPress in order to differentiate the sites more easily. Therefore, I created my final project, the Web of Learning site on Weebly.

It’s my personal goal to continue with exploring educational technologies, learning and trying things which are new to me. Because of those values I decided to explore presenting my e-portfolio artifacts using StoryMap JS. This is the first StoryMap I’ve created.

If you are having trouble viewing the multimedia StoryMap graphic above, or you want to see a full screen version, visit this link: https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/d62671217dbbafcc9256b6465cc66042/test5/index.html 

During the development process I realized that while a StoryMap is a fun and interactive way to present content, it was limiting for my purposes.


References

Barrett, Helen. (2000) The Electronic Portfolio Development Process. Chapter from American Association for Higher Education (AAHE). Retrieved from: http://electronicportfolios.com/portfolios/aahe2000.html

Lifelong Learning

What is it?

I often hear people claim to be lifelong learners. It’s a cliché that is frequently seen on resumés, LinkedIn profiles and e-portfolios (such as this one). In today’s rapidly changing world, demanding up-to-date skills, knowledge and technical expertise, it is a quality that employers seek out.  But what does it really mean?

Wikipedia defines lifelong learning as:

Lifelong learning is the “ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated” pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons. Therefore, it not only enhances social inclusion, active citizenship, and personal development, but also self-sustainability, as well as competitiveness and employability.

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Adobe Spark Post

Adobe has been busy updating some of their software geared for non-professional online content creators. The Adobe Spark suite includes Adobe Spark Video, Adobe Spark Page, and Adobe Spark Post.

Adobe Spark Post is So Easy to Use! 

With Adobe Spark Post it is unbelievably easy to create social media posts and banners.  The interface is very intuitive. The colour selection is simple. Users can select colour schemes from the existing colour palettes. It’s even easier and faster to create social media content using Adobe Spark Post than it is with Canva. However,  Canva has more options for downloading formats. And as  Canva allows for more flexibly in design and layout as well as formatting options for the text. (See my Canva blog post for details.)

But for quick and easy posts, Adobe Spark Post is better. Here are a couple of samples of a social media posts I created in just a few minutes.
Adobe Spark-3

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