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> TEMPLATES - These were used to define a format, a procedure, a way of doing things. For example, templates have be used to define a business plan. All a user need do is follow
template and fill in his own detail to preparae his own business plan
> CALCULATORS - On sites dealing with real estate, finance, engineering and other areas where numbers are important, you would find calculators that enable visitors to do their own figuring and thus learning.
> MODELS AND SIMULATORS - Sites selling sophisticated products and services may have presented a model or simulator which visitor may use for learning. For example, some investment sites used a simulator to enable a visitor to invest fictitiously and see how his investment develops over time
> EBOOKS - Why not combine many of above elements into a focused ebook? Ebooks are available on a parade of subjects
Dynamic Learning
Dynamic sites, sites with oscillating banners, turning spheres or flashing alphabet letters, have become very common in last year or two. But none of thse things has contributed to improvement of visitor learning.
The ViewletBuilder, by Qarbon.com, is exception. Here you have a software package that enables you to build a learning sequence of slides showing how to accomplish a specific task or procedure. Although viewlets can be impressive, this is not their primary purpose. They are vehicles for learning. Dynamic learning.
To obtain an idea of how valuable something like ViewletBuilder may be, visit JimWorld's Free Site Templates, at http://www.freesitetemplates.com. Here he has a large number of viewlets - some made by Jim, some made by others - to help you in designing and building a website. He calls them templates. Here are 5 of many topics covered:
> HTML
> FLASH
> FrontPage
> Paint Shop Pro
> Dreamweaver
Among companies using ViewletBuilder (according to their website) are Proctor and Gamble, Home Depot, Sony and Cnet.
Future Learning
The dynamic way to learn in future will, of course, be from videos. But for videos to be used by Learning Fountans, cost of broadband would need to decrease enough to make it available to vast majority of Internet users. This may take some time.
In meantime, ViewletBuilder and competing products will do fine. Remember, a visitor may access a viewlet with a 56K modem and without having to download a plug-in.
Paul -the soarING- Siegel is a provocative Internet speaker and
