Is Laughter the Best Medicine?

The journal Communication Education has recently published the report "A Review of Humor in Educational Settings: Four Decades of Research."  Four decades is a LOT of research to try and compile into one report, but the authors did a fairly comprehensive job.  The report covers everything from the rate of humor used in the classroom, length of service differences and the types of humor utilized.

Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert provides us with a great example of the appropriateness of humor.

The Value of Media in Online Learning

 A recently released U.S. Department of Education report contains enough statistics, p-values and information about "statistical significance" to entertain even the most extreme statistician.  Fortunately, the article also breaks down the information into terms that those that suffer from a statistics related phobia can still glean some useful information. 

There are a few interesting topics covered in the study that are worth additional consideration.  When developing your online material, you may want to consider the information in this study about the use of additional media, as well as the methods that students are able to engage in that media.

Learning is a Social Process

I recently viewed a video on an instructional design website about the social aspects of learning, and the importance of ensuring that is maintained online.  The video (embedded after the break) brings up some great points that Michael Moore published in 1989 in the American Journal of Distance Education.  Moore wrote in his article that there were three types of interaction: Learner-Content, Learner-Instructor, Learner-Learner.

Personal Branding - Who Are We?

Personal branding is a concept that most of us have heard of, but not too many have truly considered.  This issue seems to be coming up more an more lately, and it is worth some additional attention.  I came to the conclusion this week that it was time to dig a little deeper into this concept.

Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, takes the notion of personal branding to a bit of an extreme in his recent Sunday comic.  The harsh reality though is that we really do have a lot of additional information about ourselves online and available for anyone and everyone to review.