Overview
The audience for this project is math teachers in DeSoto County Schools (currently focused on middle school). Their proficiency in using technologies varies; but from my observations, there is usually at least one math teacher in each school that has enough technological knowledge to train other math teachers to use it. Our district also has a math specialist that visits the schools that will be able to provide support in getting teachers acquainted with this project.
The objective of this project is to help build a collaborative network among math teachers in DeSoto County Schools (DCS), which is currently the largest district in the state of Mississippi with an enrollment of over 32,000 students. Right now, there is hardly any communication and collaboration between schools (at least on the teacher level). I believe that we can provide an even better education for our students if we put our heads together and share resources that fit our curriculum and the district’s pacing guide. My goal is to create a web site that helps accomplish this task by providing an interactive medium with dynamic content that will encourage teachers to regularly visit the site.
Home Page
I designed the web site prototype from scratch using Dreamweaver’s design view in conjunction with hand coding XHTML and CSS to construct the framework. I created the banner in Photoshop, matching the banner colors with the hexidecimal color codes used in the side bar and in the section headers (which I used cooltext.com to create) of the web site. The side bar on the left provides links to important web sites and the side bar on the right provides dynamic content based on RSS feeds. The first feed is coming from the last ten bookmarks added in the Diigo DCS math teachers group and the second one is coming from a nationwide math teacher’s group. I have already created some predefined tags to make it easier for people to tag pages with Diigo. Finally, I created a widget at widgetbox.com that feeds in a daily humorous quote from brainyquote.com. I added this widget in to balance out the right side bar with the length of the main portion of the page. This widget can easily be replaced later on if a better tool, such as a feed from a discussion board that displays the last three active topics, is created.
The main portion of the page consists of a brief introduction followed by a photo slideshow, which could later be replaced by a video introduction or some other visual medium. The main idea of it is to create a focal point on the page that catches the viewer's interest. I like the current slideshow tool, which I created by editing some AJAX code that I found at Google Code (http://code.google.com/), because the photos are coming in from an RSS feed linked to one of my Picasa (http://picasaweb.google.com) albums. This results in fresh content that is easily updated by multiple users (if I set group permissions on the album).
Another part of the main portion is a resources section which briefly describes and provides links to some of the external sites that I will talk about later in my project description. Finally, the last part is a blog updates section that I created with another widget that generates summaries of my blog posts and places them in a scrollable interface through an RSS feed. I plan to replace my blog feed with a feed from a blog that I will set up for the math specialist.
External Links
Now I will discuss a couple external sites I plan to use. The first one is a Diigo DCS math teachers group (http://groups.diigo.com/group/dcsmath) that, as I mentioned before, is responsible for some of the side bar content. I think this collaboration tool will appeal to users of all levels of technology proficiency. It is easy to learn the basics and with the unobtrusive browser toolbar, it can at the very least be sold to teachers as a bookmarking tool that can be accessed from any computer with Internet access. Once they become acquainted with that, they can then advance to using the group features of Diigo which introduces them to the collaboration I hope to achieve.
The second one is a DCS math teachers wiki (http://dcsmath.pbworks.com/), which will function as the core component for collaboration. I have already created a structure for the wiki, so now I just need to start adding resources. I hope to have a decent selection of resources set up prior to extending an invitation to teachers. Resources would include lesson plans, projects, web sites, worksheets, etc. that are organized by curriculum framework strand (e.g. numbers and operations) and then topic area (fractions). Teachers will be able to edit the wiki and thus share their own content so it definitely is capable of growth. As we approach our 2 GB file storage limit, I can migrate some of the larger files over to my own website or to a file storage web site (4shared.com looks like the best free option available). Editing a wiki, though I consider PBworks to be very easy to use, takes a higher technological skill level than social bookmarking. I see this as a potential impediment to the wiki growing; however, I do have a solution. Our county is planning on having a series of math leaders meetings this year that will host a representative from each school; I see that as a prime opportunity to hold a training session to familiarize these teachers with using this wiki. Those teachers can then assist teachers back at their schools in using the wiki.
Future Additions
Three more components that I would like to add on in the future are a discussion board, a tutorial resource page for students, and a best practices page. The first two are self-explanatory. The best practices page could have links to media providing information about effective instructional techniques. The math specialist could even record videos of teachers within the district implementing these techniques, upload them to YouTube or TeacherTube, and then embed them in the best practices page. Finally, once this site has proven to be successful, a similar one could be launched for language arts, which also has a district specialist.
Justification
Diigo vs. links via email: resource links sent by email frequently either get deleted for mailbox space or get lost in all the other messages since teachers often do not have time to explore new resources. Diigo links are stored in a searchable archive and users have the option to receive notifications of updates (immediately, daily, or weekly). Diigo bookmarking accomplishes the same task as link sharing via email but its informal nature encourages more participation from more teachers. Many teachers are reluctant to send mass emails because they worry that their ideas/resources are not significant enough to warrant informing all of the math teachers about it. Sharing indirectly through Diigo will seem less obtrusive than sharing directly through email. Furthermore, the commenting, highlighting, and snapshot features provided by Diigo provide an added set of tools for guiding others through the shared web content. Even without any of the social features, Diigo can still be used by teachers for better management of their bookmarks which results in increased efficiency.
Resource sharing through wikis vs. discussion boards and email: wikis can be viewed as superior to email and discussion boards based solely on their ability to better organize resources. They also can be used to share a wider variety of file types than discussion boards and our school district’s email system (which puts strict limits on attachments). When used in conjunction with a file hosting website or an FTP server, wikis have no limits on file size or type.
Resource sharing through wikis vs. by mail or in-person: there are some resources that can only be shared physically; but for resources that are already in or can be converted to electronic form, wikis provide some advantages. Sharing resources in electronic form is more cost-effective than by mail or face-to-face. More importantly, sharing resources in electronic form is nearly instantaneous and those resources are accessible anytime and anyplace when they are located online.
New web site vs. existing web page: currently the math specialist’s web page is built on a page template that is part of the larger district math site. As a result, it lacks customizability, is not updated very often, and does not include any user-generated content. The new web site will pair user-generated content with an automated update system (via RSS and widgets) to make a web site that encourages regular visits from math teachers.
The best part of this project is that it has a lot of room for growth if it catches on. Moreover, because the web site serves as a gateway to various web applications rather than generating the content itself, it can be easily redesigned without disrupting the core content. With adequate training provided to at least one representative from each school, I can see this project developing into an effective resource in my district.
Links
Web page: http://www.northwestms.org/dcs
Wiki: http://dcsmath.pbworks.com/
Diigo group: http://groups.diigo.com/group/dcsmath
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Web Tools Review
The first site that I visited was ajaxWindows. I was going to try the demo, but the demo account came back as an invalid account so I watched the introductory video. I failed to see any usefulness in that application based on the video. It looked like a watered down version of Windows hosted in a web browser. Why would I want that? Am I missing something? Unfortunately, right now I’m bogged down with the beginning of the school year in my district. As a result, I did not bother to create an account since I figured I would get more out of looking at some of the other applications.
The second one I visited was Picnik. I did not realize it before going to the website, but I had actually used it before in editing my photos in Picasa earlier in the photo sharing lesson. I found it to be very user friendly. I had used the cropping, resizing, rotation, and auto-fix tools back when I was creating my album slideshow. These features are great for reducing file size and for quickly enhancing the picture’s color. I was able to use them features without reading any instructions due to its ease of use. It also has some great fonts for adding text, better than the default fonts that are a part of Windows (though you can always download new Windows fonts for free). Additionally, it has many photo filters that are comparable to Photoshop’s filters.
I took a quick peek at Zoho, not intending for it to be one of the sites that I was going write about and it looks like it may be worth at least trying it out. It has 23 applications and two plugins for Microsoft Sharepoint and Office. I’m not sure about the depth of the applications but I plan to experiment with them when I have more time. The wiki tool looked interesting until I saw that it has a limit of 250 MB. The free PBworks wiki has eight times that amount of file space (2 GB). It also has an upgrade at a reasonable price ($99/year) that will hold up to 40 GB of data and offers extra security and access controls. Nevertheless, I still plan on at least experimenting with all of Zoho’s features later on when I have more time.
I toured FotoFlexer and Phixr and did not find enough features in either one that made me want to switch from Picnik. Though I would consider FotoFlexer to be on about the same level of quality and feature selection as Picnik, since Picnik automatically is integrated with Picasa, I will probably stick with Picasa for now. Phixr, while it looks like it has a nice set of features, does not seem to be on the same level of quality as FotoFlexer and Picnik.
Finally, there is Google Docs. My favorite part of it is it’s ability to share editing permissions with other users; in fact, it can even be used for simultaneously editing a document. I have used its collaborative function for tasks such as reviewing and making changes to a friend’s resume, working on a joint professional development presentation, and planning activities for my school’s field day with a fellow teacher. This is much easier and quicker than emailing the document back and forth. The only drawback of Google Docs is that its formatting tools and other features are very limited. This is understandable though since it web-based and free. To get around this limitation, I frequently use Google Docs for writing rough drafts and then export it to Word where I can spruce up the formatting. Being able to access Google Docs documents from any Internet-connected computer is also a perk since I have a laptop and three computers at home (not to mention the computers at work that I use) that I am switching between. The presentation creator and spreadsheet tools serve the same purpose for me as the document tool: as a means for working on rough drafts from multiple locations. Like the document tool, these two tools allow for collaboration but at the sacrifice of lacking the robust feature set that Microsoft Office contains. Most notably, the presentation tool lacks the ability to create animated slides and incorporate a variety of slide transitions.
For information about even more office suites that are available, check out the comparison of the features, costs, and capabilities in this Wikipedia article:
Comparison of General and Technical Information
The second one I visited was Picnik. I did not realize it before going to the website, but I had actually used it before in editing my photos in Picasa earlier in the photo sharing lesson. I found it to be very user friendly. I had used the cropping, resizing, rotation, and auto-fix tools back when I was creating my album slideshow. These features are great for reducing file size and for quickly enhancing the picture’s color. I was able to use them features without reading any instructions due to its ease of use. It also has some great fonts for adding text, better than the default fonts that are a part of Windows (though you can always download new Windows fonts for free). Additionally, it has many photo filters that are comparable to Photoshop’s filters.
I took a quick peek at Zoho, not intending for it to be one of the sites that I was going write about and it looks like it may be worth at least trying it out. It has 23 applications and two plugins for Microsoft Sharepoint and Office. I’m not sure about the depth of the applications but I plan to experiment with them when I have more time. The wiki tool looked interesting until I saw that it has a limit of 250 MB. The free PBworks wiki has eight times that amount of file space (2 GB). It also has an upgrade at a reasonable price ($99/year) that will hold up to 40 GB of data and offers extra security and access controls. Nevertheless, I still plan on at least experimenting with all of Zoho’s features later on when I have more time.
I toured FotoFlexer and Phixr and did not find enough features in either one that made me want to switch from Picnik. Though I would consider FotoFlexer to be on about the same level of quality and feature selection as Picnik, since Picnik automatically is integrated with Picasa, I will probably stick with Picasa for now. Phixr, while it looks like it has a nice set of features, does not seem to be on the same level of quality as FotoFlexer and Picnik.
Finally, there is Google Docs. My favorite part of it is it’s ability to share editing permissions with other users; in fact, it can even be used for simultaneously editing a document. I have used its collaborative function for tasks such as reviewing and making changes to a friend’s resume, working on a joint professional development presentation, and planning activities for my school’s field day with a fellow teacher. This is much easier and quicker than emailing the document back and forth. The only drawback of Google Docs is that its formatting tools and other features are very limited. This is understandable though since it web-based and free. To get around this limitation, I frequently use Google Docs for writing rough drafts and then export it to Word where I can spruce up the formatting. Being able to access Google Docs documents from any Internet-connected computer is also a perk since I have a laptop and three computers at home (not to mention the computers at work that I use) that I am switching between. The presentation creator and spreadsheet tools serve the same purpose for me as the document tool: as a means for working on rough drafts from multiple locations. Like the document tool, these two tools allow for collaboration but at the sacrifice of lacking the robust feature set that Microsoft Office contains. Most notably, the presentation tool lacks the ability to create animated slides and incorporate a variety of slide transitions.
For information about even more office suites that are available, check out the comparison of the features, costs, and capabilities in this Wikipedia article:
Comparison of General and Technical Information
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
R/D13
My favorite activities that we covered this semester were screencasting and wikis because I feel those can be used in the greatest variety of situations. I have used both Camtasia and Captivate for screencasting and I have found that Camtasia is the most user friendly. While Captivate is good for creating branching scenarios, the recording and editing interface in Camtasia is much easier to use; I figured out the basic process of using it without reading any of the instructions. However, it has enough advanced features to make it very handy for creating professional quality instructional videos. While I already knew how to use Camtasia, I can apply what I learned in this course--theory from chapter 30 in particular--to improving the effectiveness of my screencasts.
I also enjoyed working with wikis quite a bit because I believe that they are one of the most effective collaboration tools in online learning. Wikipedia is a great example of the vast possibilities that a wiki holds. What I like about using wikis is the informal nature of them. It is like writing a rough draft; it is okay to publish an addition to a wiki with the intention of improving it later on. You can focus more on sharing useful content when you do not have to worry about formal structure and organization. Many times I quickly provide links to web sites and uploaded content so that they are available and then later go back and organize them when I have time, possibly moving them to another wiki page or creating a new page for the content.
If I was to only consider activities that were fairly new to me, my favorite one would be social bookmarking (RSS feeds were a close second). Delicious was new to me but I already had a Diigo account set up; therefore social bookmarking was not something I had never seen before. However, I did not use it for much more than a portable list of bookmarks prior to this class. While I do not plan on using Delicious, this activity was still very beneficial because it challenged me to look deeper into what lesser known features were available in Diigo and also how I could integrate it with other web applications to develop rich content. Furthermore, it made me think more about what rationale I could provide to my co-workers to convince them it was a tool worth trying out. That is why I consider it to be “fairly new” to me.
What I found most intriguing in chapter 31 was the section on neuroscience. I think it is neat that by monitoring electrochemical activity within the brain they can determine what part of the brain is associated with “actions such as psychomotor behavior, information recall, and decision making” (329). Most importantly, neuroscientists are examining level of knowledge acquisition and retention by monitoring brain activity and the neural pathways in use. What made this particularly interesting was the ethics debate concerning active manipulation of neural activity. It sounds like something out of a sci-fi film, but there are questions about the potential abuse of this technology for mind control.
Lastly, I found the detailed example of advanced performance training to be interesting because they have actually have a facility at UF that is used for this type of analysis. Tim Tebow, University of Florida’s star quarterback, used this technology to improve his passing motion and supposedly it helped him keep the ball up higher (and less likely to be victim of a forced fumble). I think it would be a lot of fun to try this technology out. Maybe someday it will be widely available for a reasonable cost!
I also enjoyed working with wikis quite a bit because I believe that they are one of the most effective collaboration tools in online learning. Wikipedia is a great example of the vast possibilities that a wiki holds. What I like about using wikis is the informal nature of them. It is like writing a rough draft; it is okay to publish an addition to a wiki with the intention of improving it later on. You can focus more on sharing useful content when you do not have to worry about formal structure and organization. Many times I quickly provide links to web sites and uploaded content so that they are available and then later go back and organize them when I have time, possibly moving them to another wiki page or creating a new page for the content.
If I was to only consider activities that were fairly new to me, my favorite one would be social bookmarking (RSS feeds were a close second). Delicious was new to me but I already had a Diigo account set up; therefore social bookmarking was not something I had never seen before. However, I did not use it for much more than a portable list of bookmarks prior to this class. While I do not plan on using Delicious, this activity was still very beneficial because it challenged me to look deeper into what lesser known features were available in Diigo and also how I could integrate it with other web applications to develop rich content. Furthermore, it made me think more about what rationale I could provide to my co-workers to convince them it was a tool worth trying out. That is why I consider it to be “fairly new” to me.
What I found most intriguing in chapter 31 was the section on neuroscience. I think it is neat that by monitoring electrochemical activity within the brain they can determine what part of the brain is associated with “actions such as psychomotor behavior, information recall, and decision making” (329). Most importantly, neuroscientists are examining level of knowledge acquisition and retention by monitoring brain activity and the neural pathways in use. What made this particularly interesting was the ethics debate concerning active manipulation of neural activity. It sounds like something out of a sci-fi film, but there are questions about the potential abuse of this technology for mind control.
Lastly, I found the detailed example of advanced performance training to be interesting because they have actually have a facility at UF that is used for this type of analysis. Tim Tebow, University of Florida’s star quarterback, used this technology to improve his passing motion and supposedly it helped him keep the ball up higher (and less likely to be victim of a forced fumble). I think it would be a lot of fun to try this technology out. Maybe someday it will be widely available for a reasonable cost!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
R/D12
I really enjoyed this chapter because it seemed to be the most relevant to me. I actually thought it was an easier read than some of the others since it was clear, concise, and interesting.
First of all, I would have liked to see more details about the working memory limit of “seven plus or minus two chunks,” so I could better understand how exactly a chunk is defined. I have heard about it before, but it has been so long I have forgotten the details. I am interested in learning more about how to evaluate cognitive load and how instruction might be modified to fit an individual’s assessment.
The second portion of the reading that stuck out to me was the cognitive processes of learning (the first four in particular) on page 315. It began with attention. Because of the limited capacity of working memory, it is best to focus the learner’s attention on what is relevant. I had not thought about the theory behind it before, but when I design software tutorials in Camtasia, I try to use features such as zooming in, highlighting, and darkening the unnecessary information to minimize the extraneous information. I believe that the zooming in and darkening in particular work very well in improving the quality of a tutorial.
Following attention in the list of cognitive processes was activation of prior knowledge. Although it is common sense, I had not really given much thought to the fact that “the more related knowledge that is stored in long-term memory, the larger chunks working memory can absorb” (314). Applying this to software tutorials, they would be more effective if they incorporated a pre-assessment to help determine the level of instruction that is appropriate for the learner. This would help the advanced learner by eliminating superfluous information in instruction and thus better maintaining the learner’s attention. It would also help the lower-level learner by differentiating instruction in order to avoid cognitive overload.
After that came encoding, which is simply a process of linking the prior knowledge stored in long-term memory to the new knowledge presented in the lesson. As stated before, the more prior knowledge that is stored, the larger the amount of information that can be absorbed.
Next was transfer of learning. This is the process of indexing information in the long-term memory so that it can efficiently be retrieved in the future (positive transfer). Right now in my district, we are implementing an instructional strategy called Thinking Maps. This strategy focuses on using a set of eight concrete visual patterns that represent all the different types of cognitive processes (e.g. compare/contrast, classify, cause and effect, sequencing) to support learning. In other words, visualizing our thinking helps in the process of creating a concrete image from abstract thoughts to aid in indexing what goes into our long-term memory.
This concept ties into a third key concept that stood out in the reading, the Modality Principle, which states that students learn better from animation and narration than from animation and on-screen text. This is supported by Dual-Coding Theory, the foundation of Thinking Maps, which says that “knowledge is stored in two forms: linguistically and non-linguistically. Research proves that the more we use both systems of representation, the better we are able to think and recall knowledge.” Another interesting fact (that I found in Eric Jensen’s “Brain Based Learning”) is that 80% of all information that comes into our brain is visual. However, as the book says, we can reduce the load on the visual/pictorial channel by presenting words in audio form rather than text. I have found this to be true based on the feedback that I have received on some of my Camtasia tutorials. My co-workers have liked it better when narration was provided as opposed to text boxes that would appear during the tutorial. This reaction supports the Modality Principle.
I found the rest of the information and theory presented in this chapter to be helpful as well. The fact that these are concepts that I could apply to instructional design right away made this chapter an enjoyable read.
First of all, I would have liked to see more details about the working memory limit of “seven plus or minus two chunks,” so I could better understand how exactly a chunk is defined. I have heard about it before, but it has been so long I have forgotten the details. I am interested in learning more about how to evaluate cognitive load and how instruction might be modified to fit an individual’s assessment.
The second portion of the reading that stuck out to me was the cognitive processes of learning (the first four in particular) on page 315. It began with attention. Because of the limited capacity of working memory, it is best to focus the learner’s attention on what is relevant. I had not thought about the theory behind it before, but when I design software tutorials in Camtasia, I try to use features such as zooming in, highlighting, and darkening the unnecessary information to minimize the extraneous information. I believe that the zooming in and darkening in particular work very well in improving the quality of a tutorial.
Following attention in the list of cognitive processes was activation of prior knowledge. Although it is common sense, I had not really given much thought to the fact that “the more related knowledge that is stored in long-term memory, the larger chunks working memory can absorb” (314). Applying this to software tutorials, they would be more effective if they incorporated a pre-assessment to help determine the level of instruction that is appropriate for the learner. This would help the advanced learner by eliminating superfluous information in instruction and thus better maintaining the learner’s attention. It would also help the lower-level learner by differentiating instruction in order to avoid cognitive overload.
After that came encoding, which is simply a process of linking the prior knowledge stored in long-term memory to the new knowledge presented in the lesson. As stated before, the more prior knowledge that is stored, the larger the amount of information that can be absorbed.
Next was transfer of learning. This is the process of indexing information in the long-term memory so that it can efficiently be retrieved in the future (positive transfer). Right now in my district, we are implementing an instructional strategy called Thinking Maps. This strategy focuses on using a set of eight concrete visual patterns that represent all the different types of cognitive processes (e.g. compare/contrast, classify, cause and effect, sequencing) to support learning. In other words, visualizing our thinking helps in the process of creating a concrete image from abstract thoughts to aid in indexing what goes into our long-term memory.
This concept ties into a third key concept that stood out in the reading, the Modality Principle, which states that students learn better from animation and narration than from animation and on-screen text. This is supported by Dual-Coding Theory, the foundation of Thinking Maps, which says that “knowledge is stored in two forms: linguistically and non-linguistically. Research proves that the more we use both systems of representation, the better we are able to think and recall knowledge.” Another interesting fact (that I found in Eric Jensen’s “Brain Based Learning”) is that 80% of all information that comes into our brain is visual. However, as the book says, we can reduce the load on the visual/pictorial channel by presenting words in audio form rather than text. I have found this to be true based on the feedback that I have received on some of my Camtasia tutorials. My co-workers have liked it better when narration was provided as opposed to text boxes that would appear during the tutorial. This reaction supports the Modality Principle.
I found the rest of the information and theory presented in this chapter to be helpful as well. The fact that these are concepts that I could apply to instructional design right away made this chapter an enjoyable read.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Google Sites
I created a classroom web activities site that contains a my Google Maps area lesson and a newly created stock market lesson. The stock market lesson contains an embedded stock price search tool along with some worksheets that go along with the activity.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
R/D11
After reviewing the competencies of an instructional designer in Table 27.3, one area that I need to improve on is in designing instruction that reflects an understanding of the diversity of learners and groups of learners. Sometimes I do not design my web content for school so that it is Section 508 compliant. For instance, to save time, I often do not include an alt tag (a caption for content such as hyperlinks and images so that it can be read by a screen reader such as Orca or JAWS) in my HTML code on my class website. I do not currently have any students with vision disabilities, but it would be good to have content ready for that type of student in case I did get one or even for parents with vision disabilities. I could also improve my instructional content to better meet the needs of varying ability levels and learning styles. Sometimes I just take into consideration my own learning style when designing lessons and do not think about the individual learning styles of my students. I could do a better job of varying my instructional methods to accommodate these learning styles.
A second area that I could further develop my skills in would be the identifying and describing the target population characteristics. This provides the foundation for the first area that I discussed. In other words, it is necessary to identify learning strengths and weaknesses prior to designing instructional material tailored to meet the needs of a diverse group of learners. Unfortunately, I sometimes do not have adequate class time to do pre-assessments or at least ones that I consider to be thorough enough to pinpoint specific instructional needs. However, in a remedial class that I taught last year, I was able to use computer software to identify individual weaknesses and follow up with a prescribed sequence of lessons. Using instructional technology like this provides me with the information I need to determine the competency of the target population which, in this case, would be the learner as an individual.
Finally, I would like to spend more time examining education journal articles and books so that I could apply this research and theory to my teaching. I have found some very useful information on successful methods of applying various technologies by researching the WMU online library. I hope to use this to improve my instruction.
One area that I am strong in is communicating in visual, oral, and written form. I like to apply dual-coding theory to my instruction and present my information in both visual and verbal form to maximize retention of the material. I found that, paired together, they produce better results than individually. Another one of my better areas is in analyzing technologies and determining how they can be used effectively. I believe that this course has helped me further improve in this area. I try not to focus on simply keeping up with the latest emerging technologies; rather, I also try to look for ways to better utilize already existing technologies. Then finally, I am good about evaluating and assessing instruction and its impact. I keep a daily journal of what worked and what did not work in my lessons. I then use that information to improve my instruction for the next time I teach it. Collecting and analyzing feedback, whether it be feedback from observation, speaking to students, or formal assessments, is vital to success as a teacher.
After looking at the instructional designer, training manager, and instructor competencies, I found that the the ID competencies fit me best. I believe that I am stronger in design than in presentation. Therefore, I hope to find a job that has more of a focus on instructional designer competencies than on training manager and instructor competencies.
A second area that I could further develop my skills in would be the identifying and describing the target population characteristics. This provides the foundation for the first area that I discussed. In other words, it is necessary to identify learning strengths and weaknesses prior to designing instructional material tailored to meet the needs of a diverse group of learners. Unfortunately, I sometimes do not have adequate class time to do pre-assessments or at least ones that I consider to be thorough enough to pinpoint specific instructional needs. However, in a remedial class that I taught last year, I was able to use computer software to identify individual weaknesses and follow up with a prescribed sequence of lessons. Using instructional technology like this provides me with the information I need to determine the competency of the target population which, in this case, would be the learner as an individual.
Finally, I would like to spend more time examining education journal articles and books so that I could apply this research and theory to my teaching. I have found some very useful information on successful methods of applying various technologies by researching the WMU online library. I hope to use this to improve my instruction.
One area that I am strong in is communicating in visual, oral, and written form. I like to apply dual-coding theory to my instruction and present my information in both visual and verbal form to maximize retention of the material. I found that, paired together, they produce better results than individually. Another one of my better areas is in analyzing technologies and determining how they can be used effectively. I believe that this course has helped me further improve in this area. I try not to focus on simply keeping up with the latest emerging technologies; rather, I also try to look for ways to better utilize already existing technologies. Then finally, I am good about evaluating and assessing instruction and its impact. I keep a daily journal of what worked and what did not work in my lessons. I then use that information to improve my instruction for the next time I teach it. Collecting and analyzing feedback, whether it be feedback from observation, speaking to students, or formal assessments, is vital to success as a teacher.
After looking at the instructional designer, training manager, and instructor competencies, I found that the the ID competencies fit me best. I believe that I am stronger in design than in presentation. Therefore, I hope to find a job that has more of a focus on instructional designer competencies than on training manager and instructor competencies.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Camtasia Assignment: Calculator Tutorial
For my Camtasia assignment, I created a tutorial about how to convert between scientific notation and standard form using the Mode menu on a TI-84 Plus graphing calculator. This could be part of a series of tutorials posted on my Moodle site for access at home or for when we are working on assignments in the computer lab. I created this in response to my school district putting more emphasis on teaching students how to use graphing calculators since they can be used on state tests (and ACT/SAT). To further enhance this tutorial, I plan to use the Moodle quiz module for students to assess themselves and receive instant feedback.
R/D10
The theme that has stood out to me the most in all three contexts is that you have to be a good team player if you are going to be an instructional designer. In the business world, an instructional designer may work as the sole designer on a project, but even in that situation, at the very least there has to be good communication between the designer and the client. Even when the instructional designer is working independently on a project, many times he or she needs to work with a media specialist (e.g. photographer, video editor) during the process of completing the project. On a larger scale project, an instructional designer would definitely have to demonstrate good teamwork skills, especially in effectively communicating design theory in the production of training materials.
In education, teamwork is even more important. On the higher education level, two job duties that seemed to consistently show up in job descriptions were online course design and faculty training/assistance. In online course design, the instructional design specialist has to be able to clearly communicate the theoretical rationale behind many of the design elements. Even with a sound explanation of why a course should be designed a certain way, instructional designers will often work with faculty that are set in their ideas of how course material should be presented. In this situation, an instructional designer must be willing to compromise on some design features. The second duty mentioned, faculty training/assistance, is what I would find most rewarding in a higher education position. Introducing faculty to new technologies and brainstorming ideas for effectively implementing them is an excellent opportunity to use creativity skills. Seeing the person you are assisting have that “a-ha!” moment is exciting.
On the K-12 education level, I think you see even more focus on assisting faculty with generating ideas and helping them develop technology literacy. In my district, I would say about 80% of the daily duties of the technology specialist in my school district involve developing training materials, leading professional development classes, and providing examples of best practices with technology. That is what makes this position the most appealing to me. From my experience, most K-12 teachers are pretty receptive to experimenting with new technologies provided that I make myself available for ongoing support and assist them in developing plans for incorporating them into lessons.
One difference that I see between the three contexts is whether cost of training or quality of training is the priority. In my opinion, in the business world there is more emphasis on finding the most cost effective solution. Instructional technologists often have to sacrifice quality in order to meet deadlines. Corporate leaders look at cost before looking at effectiveness of training materials, partly because it is more difficult to quantify the results of the training. K-12 education leaders focus more on the results of instructional technology than on the cost of it. If a technology is identified as effectively raising test scores, the school district will most likely find some kind of way to find funding for it whether it be through grant writing, private donations, fundraisers, or budget cuts in other areas. The results of instructional technology in a K-12 are more quantifiable simply because state testing is the focus. There is a more direct relationship between school training (i.e. the instructional technology implemented) and state testing than between business training and profits. Finally, I believe that higher education falls somewhere in between these two contexts. Like in the business context, evaluating the relation between instructional technology/training and the end result analyzed, improvement in teachers’ quality of instruction, is more difficult in the K-12 context. However, I view higher education as falling somewhere in between because there is less of a emphasis on cost efficiency than in businesses.
In education, teamwork is even more important. On the higher education level, two job duties that seemed to consistently show up in job descriptions were online course design and faculty training/assistance. In online course design, the instructional design specialist has to be able to clearly communicate the theoretical rationale behind many of the design elements. Even with a sound explanation of why a course should be designed a certain way, instructional designers will often work with faculty that are set in their ideas of how course material should be presented. In this situation, an instructional designer must be willing to compromise on some design features. The second duty mentioned, faculty training/assistance, is what I would find most rewarding in a higher education position. Introducing faculty to new technologies and brainstorming ideas for effectively implementing them is an excellent opportunity to use creativity skills. Seeing the person you are assisting have that “a-ha!” moment is exciting.
On the K-12 education level, I think you see even more focus on assisting faculty with generating ideas and helping them develop technology literacy. In my district, I would say about 80% of the daily duties of the technology specialist in my school district involve developing training materials, leading professional development classes, and providing examples of best practices with technology. That is what makes this position the most appealing to me. From my experience, most K-12 teachers are pretty receptive to experimenting with new technologies provided that I make myself available for ongoing support and assist them in developing plans for incorporating them into lessons.
One difference that I see between the three contexts is whether cost of training or quality of training is the priority. In my opinion, in the business world there is more emphasis on finding the most cost effective solution. Instructional technologists often have to sacrifice quality in order to meet deadlines. Corporate leaders look at cost before looking at effectiveness of training materials, partly because it is more difficult to quantify the results of the training. K-12 education leaders focus more on the results of instructional technology than on the cost of it. If a technology is identified as effectively raising test scores, the school district will most likely find some kind of way to find funding for it whether it be through grant writing, private donations, fundraisers, or budget cuts in other areas. The results of instructional technology in a K-12 are more quantifiable simply because state testing is the focus. There is a more direct relationship between school training (i.e. the instructional technology implemented) and state testing than between business training and profits. Finally, I believe that higher education falls somewhere in between these two contexts. Like in the business context, evaluating the relation between instructional technology/training and the end result analyzed, improvement in teachers’ quality of instruction, is more difficult in the K-12 context. However, I view higher education as falling somewhere in between because there is less of a emphasis on cost efficiency than in businesses.
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