Explore the use of technology in education through Ititser!

The Ititser is an online journal about the efficient use of technology in education and learning.

The author and webmaster of this website is yours truly, Greten Vicke S. Estella. I have more than five years professional experience as instructional designer both in K-12 education setting and in professonal training.

In its earlier years, Ititser focused on the use of free and open source software (FOSS) programs. The upcoming changes in 2019 will focus on programs that are often used in industry as well as on learning theories. You will notice that I already changed the categories significantly. In the next few months, I will expand the posts to include other programs regardless of their copyright status.

What's new in Ititser?

Formatting the spreadsheet problem generator

In my previous post, I discussed how to make problem generators using spreadsheet software but did not discuss special formatting requirements such as percentage, currency and units, and other conventions that while easy to write in paper, can be difficult to format in a spreadsheet-based problem generator. While not all mathematical conventions can be readily implemented in a spreadsheet, I discuss in this post how to come close as possible.

[ No Comments ] Posted by Greten on 06 Jul 2019 under Tools

Four stages of learning skills

There are four stages of learning new skills: unconsciously unskilled, consciously unskilled, consciously skilled, and unconsciously skilled. You can develop your training and elearning to optimize the transition from one stage to the next.

[ No Comments ] Posted by Greten on 22 Jun 2019 under Theories

A useful mnemonic of the stages of learning skills. It's a table with four cells. The two headers are unconscious (left) and conscious right. The rows are labeled as skilled (top) and unskilled (bottom). A circular arrow goes counterclockwise passing through the bottom left cell, bottom right cell, top right cell, and top left cell.

Learning modalities in elearning

Develop your elearning lessons to include different learning modalities, not because students learn in different ways, but because presenting the same lesson in different ways reinforces learning and helps in better knowledge retrieval.

[ No Comments ] Posted by Greten on 05 Jun 2019 under Theories

Light bulb with brain surrounded by ear, eye, and hand

How to use highlight box in Captivate?

The highlight box is a rectangle that can draw the learners’ attention to a part of a static image on the slide, such as pictures, illustrations, and diagram. The highlight box is very similar to the rectangle under smart shapes except that you can configure it to darken everything outside while remaining clear inside.

[ No Comments ] Posted by Greten on 19 May 2019 under Tools

Spreadsheet problem generator: creating a basic word problem generator

Use spreadsheet applications to create a word problem for science, mathematics, economics or any other subject that uses word problems in some of its lessons. Then, create similar problems by simply altering certain cells in the spreadsheet without solving the new similar problem from scratch.

[ No Comments ] Posted by Greten on 10 May 2019 under Tips

How to insert and customize shapes in Captivate

Shapes are among the useful features of Captivate. Put them on your slides to create charts, diagrams, and other visual elements that can help in your elearning. You can customize them in several different ways to suit your instructional design.

[ No Comments ] Posted by Greten on 03 May 2019 under Tools

Superimposed imitations of shapes in the Captivate shapes button,

Resizing, repositioning, rotating, and flipping slide objects in Captivate

There are several visual elements in Adobe Captivate that serves different functions. Most of the objects that you can put on the slide and can be resized, repositioned, rotated, or flipped have these attributes represented as numerical values. You can read and edit these values on Options tab under Properties.

[ No Comments ] Posted by Greten on 29 Apr 2019 under Tools

How the brain stores learning and how you can use it in instructional design?

The brain stores information in a network of interconnected pieces. Knowledge that are deep in your memory can be easily accessed if it has more connection to those pieces of knowledge that are on the surface, or those that you can retrieve easily. A lesson or an elearning module can be more effective if the new lesson is immediately connected to the learner’s existing knowledge or experience.

[ No Comments ] Posted by Greten on 20 Apr 2019 under Theories, Tips

A brain-shaped cluster of interconnected nodes. Each node is a blue circle and most of the nodes are connected to others that are adjacent to it.

Progressive disclosure in learning design

Progressive disclosure or gradual reveal is a useful technique and an integral part of the learning process. It prevents the students from being overwhelmed with information, facilitates the connection between learning, and may also trigger strong emotions.

[ No Comments ] Posted by Greten on 25 Feb 2019 under Tips

Fundamentals of Adobe Captivate

Adobe Captivate is one of the most popular elearning authoring applications. It has a wide array of tools that allow for fast development of learning presentation and interactive activities.

[ No Comments ] Posted by Greten on 20 Feb 2019 under Tools