In my teacher training, I am not sure that anyone ever specifically taught  me how to design the presentations I used in  my lessons.  In fact, I am sure of it. I realize now that there were so many ways to improve the design of what I was doing. When I review old units for use, I often find myself shaking my head at the design structure of the lessons and assignments that I created. I came across a great article by Karla Gutierrez on SHIFT’s eLearning Blog on some key design principles, and although, the author focuses on eLearning, I think that it can be translated across all types of teaching.

Understand These 10 Principles of Good Design Before You Start Your Next eLearning Project

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I have been thinking a lot lately about all the things that I need to check for as I am planning a lesson. There is a lot to check for! Here is an infographic that can be used as a tool for checking for best practices in lessons. It is not a comprehensive list though as things like presentation design and technology incorporation are not explicitly stated here but implied through things like “engagement.”

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Google continues to branch out and take over the world (not necessarily a bad thing), but in this instance it is downright useful for teachers. They have created Google Education. This is a tool that has pre-made lessons(for students) and trainings (for teachers) about Search Literacy. Many teachers only know about a small portion of the functions available in a Google Search, so in educating ourselves we can educate the kids.

Just another hole filled by Google!

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I have recently discovered The Rapid E-Learning Blog. There is a lot of great tips, tricks, and good information there to explore. Something that caught my attention today was the concept of “The Learning Ecosystem.” When reading the article 3 Things to Consider when Building Your E-Learning Courses, the author, Tom Khulmann, began to talk about this concept of bringing our learning into our existence and what that looks like. He coined a great phrase. Check out his graphic that displays this concept. I recommend the article.

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