English Raven

16/03/2013

Ask any teacher what the most challenging aspect of their job is and the likely answer will be... TIME. When it comes to developing curriculum that is truly engaging and self-paced, researching and putting together materials and activities, grading and...

27/01/2013

Whoops. Sorry about that... Fancy starting a blog post with a live, rearing and ready to go actual example! No time to read about it first, no chance to even decide if it's worth looking at. Bam! You're being asked...

22/01/2013

E-Learning Design Matters (1): Creating an Experience using Scenery, Sound, Self-Awareness and Scenarios

When it comes to E-Learning, there are certainly levels and layers in terms of how well the material and activities add up to become a memorable experience for learners. For many developing E-Learning Designers you can almost follow a trail...

16/01/2013

I had a bit of a two-step epiphany recently as I was developing and experimenting with an online resource for a Year 12 literacy course, with emphasis on composition. Putting Articulate Storyline through its paces, I found that I was...

08/01/2013

2012 was a relatively quiet one for this blog, which is either logical or suprising considering how tremendously busy I was for the whole year. I've always been a 'busy' person, but 2012 was massive in all sorts of ways....

11/10/2012

Today my son put together a presentation for his Grade 1 class show and tell session tomorrow, in response to a theme chosen by his teacher: TECH (technical and/or technology). With a little help from his mum, he put together...

04/10/2012

I recently purchased the image above because, for some reason I can't yet quite put into coherent words, it seems to me to express the notion of education. Not the whole or only picture of education, but certainly an important...

07/08/2012

When it comes to education and training, to say that e-Learning is all the rage would be to utter one of the understatements of the decade. But there is a bit of an explosion going on at the moment; paradigms...

05/08/2012

"Read THIS book." "Today we're going to talk about THIS chapter." "Here's your essay topic (that SOMEBODY ELSE decided was yours)." For so many learners around the world, this is what English/Literacy courses are like. Pre-loaded. When you get an...

22/07/2012

Multiple choice questions are usually applied as part of the horror of exams, but also increasingly in E-Learning courses in the quest to create automation and reduce the need for interaction with teachers. Sorry... The official line is usually that...

21/07/2012

When you're building your Moodle course, you may find that using the standard topic/week blocks on the main page is not the most ideal way to present and apply your content and learning activities. The topic blocks can be handy,...

16/07/2012

The rush to capitalise on online learning has been with us for a long time now, but across a number of contexts I am involved in currently it would be fair to say the surge has increased significantly. Educational providers...