Tag Archives: Recommendations

That’s Just Sketchy

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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I’m not a good artist, but over the last couple of years I’ve started sketching to help me work out ideas, present them to stakeholders, and communicate them to developers.

A presenter at a TK11 session (sorry, I forgot which one) mentioned sketching as a tool for instructional design around the same time I ran across the below article… And as Special Agent Cooper tells us, when two separate events occur simultaneously pertaining to the same object of inquiry, we must always pay strict attention.

Three things about sketching:

Sketching User Experiences – the book that started me sketching; a must-read

Sketching: the Visual Thinking Power Tool – a great article on how and why to sketch; includes a list of tools

Bamboo Pen & Touch – my coolest Xmas present this year, moving me into the electronic age of sketching

Do you sketch, either for instructional design purposes or otherwise? Why?

The Latest E-Learning Uncovered Newsletter is Out!

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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AWP does a great newsletter for instructional designers (if I can brag on my peeps a little) through our E-Learning Uncovered site and the latest one has four reviews of design/development tools and resources you might be considering.

Check out the latest and be sure to also sign up to receive the newsletter directly. (Don’t worry, we won’t spam you… We wish we had time to write more often!)

Drop.io

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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I decided to recommend Drop.io to help you get files from here/you to there/them, but waited to try Dropbox first and compare for you.

The quick and dirty*: Dropbox has a larger free storage capacity (though Drop.io welcomes multiple accounts) and all around, Dropbox works extremely well; it’s iDisk-like but better. After testing though, I’ve decided to stick with Drop.io.

Drop.io works better for me at work than Dropbox (something to do with the firewall or proxy) and Drop.io doesn’t require any installs. (Neither does Dropbox technically, but Dropbox’s web interface is nowhere near as slick as Drop.io’s… see video.) So for those in a heavily regulated IT environment, Drop.io rocks. And bonus points for the name.

Drop.io also has approximately one bajillion ways to get files to your “drop”. My two favorites (neither of which Dropbox offers), in real time:

* 140 words is way too few for a thorough review, so I’m just explaining my own reasoning. Both sites have excellent overview/tutorial screencasts if you would like to learn more.