In the past couple of weeks we have been learning about absorb-type, do-type and connect-type activities, as well as many cool free programs! The types of activities I mentioned are from our textbook, E-Learning By Design by William Horton. Horton describes absorb-type activities as ones where the learner absorbs knowledge, "typically by reading text, watching an animation, or listening to narration" (Horton, 2006, p. 38). A do-type activity is where the learner is involved in exercise, experiment, and discover activities. Connect-type activities link the learner to "prior learning, to work and to life" (Horton, 2006, p. 41). I have been using my Windows 7 upgrade training from work for my activities. It has really helped me to make my training more interesting and streamlined.
The coolest freeware that we have used is called Jing. It is from Techsmith.com. It is a screen capture software product that is extremely easy to use. However, I had a very frustrating time at first because my internal microphone no longer is working. I ended up going to Best Buy and buying an external microphone and fumbling around for days trying to get it all to work properly. But, it was well worth it! I think I will be using Jing to create all kinds of training!
We discussed the value of using blogging and Twitter as viable learning tools. I'm not crazy about Twitter, but I can see where there may be times when it might be useful. My suggestion was to use it for a scavenger hunt. Overall, I have learned a great deal about constructing training and I think our instructor, Dr. Rhia Roberts is awesome! I wish I could have her in every class!
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