When to use animations for learning

picture credit: Yamaggio

You get one of those sudden urges to learn how to poach an egg or make an origami jedi master and what’s the first thing you do? I’m guessing, being the modern nerd that you are, you google for a video demo.  We’ve taken to using resources like YouTube to teach us things. Why are we drawn to learning by watching and when does it actually work?

The research into using

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50 tools for e-learning

The Knowledge / Network / Learning site provides a reviewed and selected list of interesting digital tools available for learning.

"The applications range from simple email (Gmail) to sophisticated visualisation applications (Manyeyes), including examples of all the standard applications which are usually discussed (blogging – Posterous - and wikis – Springnote - for example) as well as many

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Interactive graphics and HTML5

The promise of graphics that can change on the fly as users adjust them or enter data is delightfully web-appropriate.  People do it, but it's not excessively common-place for the same age-old reasons of browser incompatibility and scripting required.  The famous HTML5 "canvas" tag aims to allow browsers to handle interactive graphics natively.  Nice!  But what about Scaleable Vector Graphics?

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Space for learning

According to psychological studies, even small differences in distance and spacing can have a strong impact on a person's sense of security and their attitude towards what they are doing. The studies triggered different emotions by asking subjects to do something as subtle as drawing dots on paper closer or farther apart.  The difference in the distance between a person's dots statistically

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10 principles of usability for learning

Nielsen and Loranger’s book, Prioritizing Web Usability is a world of value
and a bookshelf essential, but what does it have to say about designing for learning on the web?  The Nielsen Norman Group offer detailed reports on specific genres like e-commerce,
but, nothing yet on education.  Nor does the book showcase any
educational sites or make reference to these in user studies. This, of

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How to innovate and get away with it - Learning from Prezi

When it comes to education, the slide presentation is harder to dodge than a bullet.  So PowerPoint haters are loving Prezi.  Its worth a play, not only because it's such an 'outside-the-box' take on presentations, but also because of the way they've innovated the user interface and handled user training.  Most applications take well understood user interaction standards and put them together

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Icon bliss

IconFinder. The secret you almost don't want to share.
Having access to free or cheaply available sexy icon sets can create that polished look even when you have the least amount of time.  IconFinder is great as it turns out high quality stuff.  It's not like sifting through free clipart websites.  It's top notch.  Go swimming in glorious icons. 

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