Brandon Muramatsu

muraPOI: September 6, 2011

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(Ugh I’m still playing catchup but I wanted to split these across multiple days so folks would have a chance to follow along.)

  • What Your Old Graphing Calculator Says About Technology: Alexis Madrigal writes, TI-83: 10-15 years old, 33% margin [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][cash cow], still in use today (along with the TI-84). Perhaps it’s exactly what’s needed, but really, you’d expect some sort of advances in the technology or the curriculum in the last 10-15 years. I think it’s as disturbing that “standardized test companies only allow a certain range of calculators to be used. If they got too powerful or complex looking (seriously, the aesthetic is part of it), they could be banned, hurting their sales. Horizontally oriented calculators have been banned by the SAT, even if they have near identical functionality to vertically oriented models.” About four years ago we helped a visiting scholar from Spain find one of these to take back for his son, so it’s not just the U.S.

    (StartupDigest EdTech, August 26, 2011)

  • Blended Learning with Khan Put to the Test: Jack C. West (I’m assuming it’s this and his last name is not Cwest) writes about the “flaws” in the research methodology in use to test out the Khan Academy. (This reminds me of a blog post David Wiley wrote that includes the No Significant Difference phenomenon.) To me, this post is interesting because it follows on to one of his previous posts on the Khan Academ: Khan is good, but you are probably better.

    (StartupDigest EdTech, August 26, 2011)

  • Content page design best practices: A talk Luke Wrobleski gave back in 2008, still relevant today.

    • People come from multiple locations, with multiple goals, but all with “short attention span theater.” (Sums up slides 1-21)
    • Content: structure of links coming in to system -> match page titles and URLs; appropriate screen real estate -> make content your focus and ditch site overhead; “short attention span theater,” people don’t read whole pieces of content, 75% at best, people spend 2-3 seconds on average -> scanability. (Sums up slides 22-38)
    • Related content and calls to action: what’s related at the given point in time; don’t need to provide access to everything always -> access to what matters now (related content, de-emphasize site maps and access to everything); paradox of choice -> present a smaller number of choices (integrated in the content or on left hand side for maximum impact); have to see it to click it! (Sums up slides 40-66)
    • Context: Who’s site is this and what can I do there? What’s the minimum amount of space to do this… Leverage incoming context: search -> perform local search and provide related articles; incoming from social network -> put appropriate related content or actions in place. (Sums up slides 67-78)

    (StartupDigest Design, August 27, 2011)

  • 8 Incredibly Simple Ways to Get More People to Read Your Content: Pamela Wilson gives 8 tips–they all revolve around scalability. I like tip 8–go back and check to see if you use the highlight/bold/other tricks to see if the content still makes sense if that’s all you read.

    (StartupDigest Design, August 27, 2011)

  • 7 Proven Ways To Increase Your Email Open & Click-Thru Rates: Similar to the above for blogs, Justin Brooke provides suggestions for making your email marketing stand out more. I feel a bit sleazy for listing this one here…just remember “with great power comes great responsibility.”

    (StartupDigest Design, August 27, 2011)

  • deck.js: Modern HTML Presentations using HTML5 to make cool web-based slideshows.

    (O’Reilly Radar, Four short links: 26 August 2011)

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