Free Range Learning

ChatRoulette is this decade's version of the very first online chat rooms of the 1990s. But rather than just a simple chat interface, it adds video to both ends of the conversation, and the ability to quickly move from one random conversation to the next.

Users sign in and are randomly directed to another user, with whom they can chat (both through video and text-based chat). The catch is, as soon as one member gets even a little bored, they can click "Next" and instantly be taken …

Here's the last MyLutherNet Minute. It explains how to logically order e-reserves in 1:43.

Don't want to watch the video? Download the information as a PDF.

When you are faced with a challenge how do you do your best thinking? Are you logical and analytical, or more abstract and random? Are you a Right Brain Thinker (intuitive, synthesizing, subjective, random, holistic)? Or a Left Brain Thinker (logical, sequential, rational, analytical, objective)?

Do you consciously try to balance your approach to a problem or question? Concept Mapping (also known as Mind Mapping) is a tool that helps you think through complex problems, summarize …

Here's an interesting little video piece that looks at the staggering size of internet technology uses. It makes nice use of visuals to tell a story of huge numbers.

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from JESS3 on Vimeo.

Would you like to make writing and responding in discussion boards easier for your online class? Having an extra monitor for your computer can be a great tool to easier interactions on the web. Most modern computers will allow you to have multiple monitors or if you are a laptop user, to add an extra monitor. In addition to having a bigger screen for laptop users there is an even greater advantage. In most cases you can desktop users can spread expand their desktop over two monitors and laptop users …

As I mentioned in my previous post we will be housing the MyLutherNet Minute video tutorials here on our blog as well as directly in MyLutherNet. The four that we have produced so far are below. We expect to add about one every week.

Threaded Discussion View

Online Grade Entry

Posting in Discussion Boards

Exceeding Character Limit Error Message

We've recently begun creating quick tutorials (two minutes or less) of how to do "things" in MyLutherNet - things that might not be terribly obvious but might make working in the system a bit easier. These videos are housed in MyLutherNet in the Help section but we thought it might be nice to also house them on the blog.

The idea for the MyLutherNet minutes started with First Week for the 2009-2010 academic year when Dan and I produced four short animations on various components …

Luther Seminary offers quite a few online courses, and even more if one counts residential courses that have an online component. But many students are nervous about online learning for one reason or another.

In this Tech Talk, I discuss some common myths about online learning and explore what a typical online course at Luther Seminary consists of.

With the insurgence of cell phones that allow for quick and easy web browsing , (Apple's iPhone and Verizon's/Google's Android most immediately come to mind) we've been discussing how we might want to design Luther's online course to be a bit more mobile friendly .

Any good design project starts with knowing your audience:

• Who will be using your product?
• How will they be using it?
• Where and when will they use it?

Online courses are no exception to these questions. …

When I was in Denver for the Christmas holiday, I asked my mom to teach me to knit. So ever since returning home to St. Paul, I have been diligently working on my "first knitting project" - a scarf. I was talking to my mom yesterday on the phone, and feeling rather proud of how far I've come with the scarf, I told her I would send her a picture of it — as a text message, via her cell phone.

My mom is, at best, a novice texter. When she does happen to receive a text, her first …