Learning Mastery http://learningmastery.org Excited about learning and it shows! Sun, 27 Apr 2008 06:09:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 en ©Scott Le Duc scottleduc@gmail.com (Scott Le Duc) scottleduc@gmail.com education 1440 Scott LeDuc, Teaching 2.0, Education, Technology, Project-based Learning, Life-Long Learning, Learning Mastery, Art Excited about learning and it shows! Start students teaching! To teach is to learn. Learning mastery is life-long endeavor. Scott Le Duc shares his experiences with learning and teaching in the art and technology world. Scott Le Duc Scott Le Duc scottleduc@gmail.com No no http://learningmastery.org/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/ATOM144.png Learning Mastery http://learningmastery.org 144 144 Carbon Footprint http://learningmastery.org/2008/04/26/carbon-footprint/ http://learningmastery.org/2008/04/26/carbon-footprint/#comments Sun, 27 Apr 2008 05:57:45 +0000 Scott Le Duc http://learningmastery.org/?p=44 Are you part of the problem or the solution? How badly are you contributing to Global Warming? The Carbon Neutral Company has an easy way for you to become carbon neutral and off set your contributions to the problem. Al Gore, in a couple presentations TED.com drives home the importance of getting involved NOW!

New thinking on the climate crisis


15 ways to avert a climate crisis

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]]> http://learningmastery.org/2008/04/26/carbon-footprint/feed/ How Do You Manage Digital Images? http://learningmastery.org/2008/02/03/how-do-you-manage-your-digital-images/ http://learningmastery.org/2008/02/03/how-do-you-manage-your-digital-images/#comments Sun, 03 Feb 2008 18:39:57 +0000 Scott Le Duc http://learningmastery.org/2008/02/03/how-do-you-manage-your-digital-images/ Ken Watson has developed the graphic below. He has some great insight into maintaining a digital photography archive. A must read.

Read the full article: www.rideau-info.com/photos/storage.html

Digital Work Flow from Ken Watson

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]]> http://learningmastery.org/2008/02/03/how-do-you-manage-your-digital-images/feed/ Great Optical Illusions http://learningmastery.org/2008/01/25/great-optical-illusions/ http://learningmastery.org/2008/01/25/great-optical-illusions/#comments Sat, 26 Jan 2008 03:49:46 +0000 Scott Le Duc http://learningmastery.org/2008/01/25/great-optical-illusions/

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]]> http://learningmastery.org/2008/01/25/great-optical-illusions/feed/ How fast Do you Unlearn? http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/19/how-fast-do-you-unlerarn/ http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/19/how-fast-do-you-unlerarn/#comments Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:45:05 +0000 Scott Le Duc http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/19/how-fast-do-you-unlerarn/ Another great topic to consider from Passionate Users. The future is not in learning… offers the concept that the future is for those who can unlearn old ways fast. Going back to zero seems to be a very important component of adapting to a new age. When a new technology or concept begins to reinvent the way things get done, the person who can adapt quickly wins. So, it is more about being able to scaffold new understanding for some things and tear down old ideas and rebuild on new ones for others. God, give me the wisdom to know the difference.

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]]> http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/19/how-fast-do-you-unlerarn/feed/ Using Del.icio.us http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/16/using-delicious/ http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/16/using-delicious/#comments Sun, 16 Dec 2007 16:38:12 +0000 Scott Le Duc http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/16/using-delicious/ Below is screencast of yesterday’s tour through some of the features in del.icio.us.

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]]> http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/16/using-delicious/feed/ 10:32 Below is screencast of yesterday's tour through some of the features in del.icio.us.Share This Below is screencast of yesterday's tour through some of the features in del.icio.us.Share This Social,Bookmarks,,Teaching,2.0,,del.icio.us Scott Le Duc no No TiddlyWiki is Amazing! http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/14/tiddlywiki-is-amazing/ http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/14/tiddlywiki-is-amazing/#comments Sat, 15 Dec 2007 06:51:39 +0000 Scott Le Duc http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/14/tiddlywiki-is-amazing/ TiddlyWiki is a standalone wiki. It can reside on a flash drive, your local computer or even, daring I state, a real web server. The HTML file consists of HTML, CSS and AJAX Javascript for it’s magic. One needs to experience it to understand the power and simplicity of the concept. Truly amazing. It can be a blog, a wiki, a Getting Things Done “trusted system” and so much more. Ya know, I think I even saw a kitchen sink in there!

Read more at www.tiddlywiki.com

View this presentation highlighting the features:

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]]> http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/14/tiddlywiki-is-amazing/feed/ Lessons Plans Template Based on UBD & A.T.O.M. http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/14/lessons-plans-template-based-on-ubd-atom/ http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/14/lessons-plans-template-based-on-ubd-atom/#comments Sat, 15 Dec 2007 05:49:48 +0000 Scott Le Duc http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/14/lessons-plans-template-based-on-ubd-atom/
  • Title
    • Stage 1 - Desired Results
      • Vision
        • Q - Essential Questions
        • P - Presentation
      • Mission
        • G - Established Goals
        • U - Understandings
        • K - Student will know…
        • S - Students will be able…
    • Stage 2 - Assessment Evidence
      • Evaluation
        • T - Performance Task
        • OE - Other Evidence
          • Vocabulary
    • Stage 3 - Learning Plan
      • Timeline
        • L - Learning Activities
          • W
            • Where unit is going?
            • What is expected?
          • H
            • Hook students?
            • Hold students interest?
          • E
            • Equip students?
            • Experience key ideas?
            • Explore the issues?
          • R
            • Rethink their understandings and work?
            • Revise their
              understandings and work?
          • E
            • Evaluate their own work and its
              implications?
          • T
            • Tailored or personalized to different
              needs, interests and abilities of learners?
          • O
            • Organized to maximize initial and
              sustained engagement as well as effective learning?
      • Resources
        • R - Resources referenced

    • Bold - UBD
    Italic - A.T.O.M.

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    ]]>     http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/14/lessons-plans-template-based-on-ubd-atom/feed/     What is a Page Slug? http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/07/what-is-a-page-slug/ http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/07/what-is-a-page-slug/#comments Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:24:57 +0000 Scott Le Duc http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/07/what-is-a-page-slug/ Many people ask what is a post or page slug? At Wordpress.org you will find a great definition.

    A slug is a few words that describe a post or a page. Slugs are usually a URL friendly version of the post title (which has been automatically generated by WordPress), but a slug can be anything you like. Slugs are meant to be used with permalinks as they help describe what the content at the URL is.
    Example post permalink: http://wordpress.org/development/2006/06/wordpress-203/

    The slug for that post is “wordpress-203“.

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    ]]>     http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/07/what-is-a-page-slug/feed/     Creating Presentations That Don’t Suck http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/06/creating-presentations-that-dont-suck/ http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/06/creating-presentations-that-dont-suck/#comments Fri, 07 Dec 2007 05:25:39 +0000 Scott Le Duc http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/06/creating-presentations-that-dont-suck/ We have all been stuck in slide show presentations that could not have been more stale or boring. I mean, it seemed at times that they were engineered to confound the mind. Well, research seems to confirm what we felt; slide shows can interfere with learning.

    Imagine a widely used and expensive prescription drug that promised to make us beautiful but didn’t. Instead the drug had frequent, serious side effects: It induced stupidity, turned everyone into bores, wasted time, and degraded the quality and credibility of communication. These side effects would rightly lead to a worldwide product recall.
    Taken from WIRED; PowerPoint Is Evil. Power Corrupts. PowerPoint Corrupts Absolutely. By Edward Tufte

    Ouch You’re Hurting My Brain

    Let’s look at our audience. A good presenter should know their audience. Last time I noticed, I was presenting to humans. John Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory details the limitations of the human mind to hold discrete pieces of information in short-term memory. Explore more of John Sweller’s take on PowerPoint and it’s limitations in the PresentationZen.com post, Is it finally time to ditch PowerPoint? It is a must read.

    Supposedly, phone numbers are only 7 digits long because the mind can only hold seven pieces of information in short term memory, plus or minus two numbers depending on other variables according to George A. Miller . There are strategies like “Chunking“, an idea that we can more efficiently use short-term memory, but in general we are limited by what we can absorb in a short period of time. Something to consider when presenting to homo sapiens.

    Limitation By Design

    I know when I started working with PowerPoint I was excited to build beautiful templates and have all kinds of cool effects happen during slide transitions. Getting the ornate 3D charts and graphs to represent my data seemed like the thing to do. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out this wizardry just to find out that it actually distracts from my presentation’s message. The templates are worse for your presentation than starting with a simple plain layout.

    Stand and Deliver

    Forgive me, I have sinned. I used to “talk to my slides” during presentation. Reading them word for word is the ultimate way to kill your audience’s interest in your topic. How we interact with the information on the screen can either add or detract from the colors, fonts and images in the slides. Kathy Sierra details great advice and cites resources to improve presentations in her blog entry; Stop your presentation before it kills again! Something else to consider, we are emotional creatures. Use this in your presentation. Seth Godin comments in his post, Really Bad PowerPoint supports this; no emotion, no connection.

    The “Do My Slides Suck” Test from Kathy Sierra

    1. Do your slides contain mostly bullet points?
    2. Do you have more than 12-15 words on a slide?
    3. Do your slides add little or no new info beyond what you can say in words?
    4. Are your slides, in fact, not memorable?
    5. Are your slides emotionally empty?
    6. Do your slides fail to encourage a deeper connection to or understanding of the topic?
    7. Do your slides distort the data? (That’s a whooooole different thing I’m not addressing now)
    8. Do your slides encourage cognitive weakness? (refer to Tufte)

    Learn From The Best

    Some of the best presenters are Lawrence Lessig, Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, and Dick Hardt. Examine their approaches.

    Example Presentations

    Lawrence Lessig Presentation on Free Culture

    Dick Hardt inspired by Lessig presented the OSCON 2005 Keynote - Identity 2.0.
    Seth Godin Presentation Example
    Guy Kawasaki 10 - 20 -30 Rule Presentation

    The Tools

    Microsoft PowerPoint
    Apple Keynote
    Open Office Impress

    Alternatives

    Convert your slide show into MindManager presentation, a completely different way to see the information based on mind mapping. Craig Pringle explains good rationale for this in his post; Ditch PowerPoint for Presentations.

    Final Thoughts

    Read the blog entry Marketing should be education, education should be marketing at Passionate Users. This puts teaching and the job teachers need to pull off in a better context.

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    ]]>     http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/06/creating-presentations-that-dont-suck/feed/     Teaching 2.0 - Social Bookmarks http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/01/teaching-20-social-bookmarks/ http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/01/teaching-20-social-bookmarks/#comments Sun, 02 Dec 2007 04:48:26 +0000 Scott Le Duc http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/01/teaching-20-social-bookmarks/ Today we created del.icio.us accounts to organize our online resources.

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    ]]>     http://learningmastery.org/2007/12/01/teaching-20-social-bookmarks/feed/ 12:05 Today we created del.icio.us accounts to organize our online resources.Share This Today we created del.icio.us accounts to organize our online resources.Share This Social,Bookmarks,,Teaching,2.0 Scott Le Duc no No