Guest lecturing tonight....

This evening I'm giving a lecture on the topic of "Rapid E-Learning and E-Learning Authoring Tools" at the National College of Ireland.
I'll post my notes here tomorrow.
I'm also going to initiate a series of "how to's" about e-learning content development using those tools of our trade, with an initial focus on Adobe Captivate.

The E-learning Curve blog

Welcome to my blog, The E-Learning Curve.

I guess I'll start out by explaining where the name is derived from; we're all familiar with the phrase "learning curve", though much like the termitself, there is much discussion over what the phrase actually means.

Historically, the fundamental concept of the learning curve as a means to measure learning and retention was posited in the 19th Century by Hermann Ebbinghaus; later the term acquired a broader meaning. The learning curve effect for example describes the phenomenon, "the more times a task has been performed, the less time will be required on each subsequent iteration." In a sense, that is one of my ambitions for this blog; the more I use it to describe my ongoing experiences and development as an e-learning professional, the better I will become at

1. capturing and implementing the information and
2. interpreting and finding meaning in what I write
   

So that brings me neatly to the elearning curve. I define an elearning curve as

the facility to learn and transfer newly-acquired skills and knowledge through a web-based medium; the emergence of new and the enhancement of current concepts, procedures, and practises in learning, based upon multifarous cognitive events.

Yes, I know that this is subjective. AND I know that this definition leaves a lot to be desired. But its a work-in-progress and it will change over time.

This blog is a mindtool: computer applications that, when used by learners to represent what they know, engages them in critical thinking about the content they are studying (Jonassen, 1996).

___________

References
Computers as Mindtools for Engaging learners in Critical Thinking. Techtrends, v43 n2 p24-32