The Think Tank: Volume 2

Welcome Back to The Think Tank, a quarterly compendium of interesting finds and useful tools from around the web. Whether you’re new to consumer learning, or have already launched an online school, we hope these links will inspire new insights, confirm the tried and true, and feed your cravings for the best in e-learning.

Smoke and Mirrors -- Wireless telegraphy, remote control, radio, and robotics where would we be without them? In this mesmerizing TedTalk illusionist Marco Tempest melds magic and multimedia to tell the little known story of Nikola Tesla, inventor of alternating current and, by some accounts, “the greatest geek who ever lived.”

Wii are Family -- 2010 marked the 25th anniversary of the release of Mario Super Bros., the brainchild of game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Widely considered “the father of video games,” Miyamoto is the genius behind the Mario series, the Legend of Zelda, the Wii, and a host of other Nintendo classics. In “Master of Play” Nick Paumgarten profiles the Japanese video-game auteur and his revolutionary impact on game mechanics and design.

Does This Status Update Make Me Look Fat? -- Your course is live! Time to start spreading the word on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and all your other marketing channels. The problem? None of these platforms use the same dimensions. No worries. Jeff Berezny and the helpful folks at tentsocial give you all the specs in this Ridiculously Exhaustive Social Media Design Blueprint.

Got Games? -- You don’t need to be a programming whiz to add some oomph to your e-courses. With the elearningbrothers’s guide to easy-peasy online games you’ll be creating your own edutainment activities in no time.

Brain Tease -- Cold weather put your creativity into deep freeze? Wake up those neurons with a rebus, a puzzle that combines pictures and letters to represent words. How many can you solve?

An Infographic is Worth a Thousand Words -- Ever wondered exactly how people learn? For years cognitive psychologists, learning theorists, and educators and have been pondering that very same question. Get a bird’s eye view of the current thinking in this visual primer to learning theory.