EDT 5410: Week Four (R/D6) Option One

Here is the link to the podcast that I found useful.

http://123listen2me.com/



PodCast Profile: This podcast is given by two young girls, Sara age 10 and Nina age 7. They podcast about twice a month. In the podcast they translate different languages, review books, movies, and music, tell stories and jokes. The podcast is focused on kids ages 4-15. They call it the podcast by kids for kids.

PodCast Title: Who said 6th place isn't a win? Holding our heads up in the face of great competition in podcast #37.

PodCast Title: Don't let elephants get into a elephunk? 123-listen 2 me - Elliecast #36

EDT 5410: Week Three Reflections (R/D4)

How might you incorporate photo sharing into a educational activity or unit? What might be some concerns you would have about allowing students to play with these services? What might be a great benefit of such services?

I think you could incorporate photo sharing in a journalism class. Having students take pictures of different events they have been to and then placing them on the Internet. Then the different students in the class could use those photos put add libs, edit photos etc. The photos would be more readily available not to mention convenient. My only concern would be inappropriate photos or photos of people who do not want their photo published. I think though that the benefit of having the photos available to all students is phenomenal. What an easy way to get pictures out to the students and allow them to work more as a group.

In reading Chapter 2, what similarities and what differences did you identify between the process the authors describe and the processes you have used to develop educational lesson plans? If you have not developed educational lesson plans, were there aspects of the process described in this chapter that you found particularly surprising, useful or unnecessary?

I think the aspects in this chapter were interesting. For example, the explanation of the characteristics of Instructional Design (ID) were exceptionally interesting. I really liked how it had a section for each of the six characteristics and it explained what was meant by each one. It started off by explaining what ID was, which was not surprising at all to me but it was nice how the book laid out all the various definitions. I guess I understood already what ID was but it was helpful to get the definition for each term used like interdependent, synergistic and dynamic to name a few. It helped me to understand a more detailed aspect of ID and the various different terms related to ID.

EDT 5410: Week Three Reflections (R/D3)

What value (if any) do you think social bookmarking might hold for teachers and/or students? You may think about students sharing with each other, teachers sharing with their students, teachers sharing with other teachers, administrators sharing with teachers, sharing with parents, or any other scenario(s) you can imagine.

I think social bookmarking could hold a tremendous value to both teachers and students, not to mention parent's and administrators too. For example, a government class could have various social bookmarks for their students to go out to get the best information available for research projects, papers, etc. Or on a different note where administrators could put bookmarks for parents on different behaviors to watch for in young teens and that way parents could be more aware of what their students are perhaps doing. Along with behaviors different trends could be bookmarked also.

Overall, I personally think it is a great tool. As far as the tags being done wrong well that comes with human error and hopefully the percentage is low enough it doesn't make that big of a riff.

Back to the Trends & Issues reading, to what degree do the definitions in this chapter correspond with what you have thought about this area and what it is you hope to do in your line work (or in a future career)? Is there anything surprising or very new you read in this chapter? Does something seem to be missing?

I feel the definitions that were given by the author are pretty accurate. When I think of instructional design and technology it hits on all the key terms needed to describe instructional design and technology. For example, throughout the various years all the definitions based their definition on the five domains; Development, Utilization, Management, Design, and Evaluation. Although the definitions were all different they were all pointing in the same direction.

I eventually hope to be in a position where I can push new technology out to teachers for them to be able to assist in how we should go about using the new technology but not actually teach it myself. I would however, like to be a key figure in the rolling out of new technology to teachers, students, parents, etc.

I was somewhat surprised on how the definition has changed through the years. I guess I never really thought about what instructional design and technology really was. Now, that I see all the progress with the definition I realize just how important it is to make people realize what instructional design and technology is. For instance, back in 1970 the committee handed out two definitions. The first definition:

"In its more familiar sense, it (instructional technology) means the media born of the communications revolution which can be used for instructional purposes alongside the teacher, textbook, and blackboard...The pieces that make up instructional technology [include]: television, films, overhead projectors, computers, and other items of "hardware" and "software"..."

seems to be more general in a sense. It gives the basic understanding of what technology is but not perhaps what instructional technology is. Now the second definition:

"The second and less familiar definition of instructional technology goes beyond any particular medium or device. In this sense, instructional technology is more than the sum of it parts. It is a systematic way of designing, carrying out, and evaluating the whole process of learning and teaching in terms of specific objectives, based on research on human learning and communication, and employing a combination of human and nonhuman resources to bring about more effective instruction."

I feel is by far the better of the two definitions. I can see why they put out two separate definitions though. It needs to be however, one definition and in 2006 I feel that the Association for Educational Communication and Technology (AECT) did just that with the following definition:

"Educational technology is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using, and managing appropriate technological processes and resources."

EDT 5410: Week Four Task 2 Activity

Static Image - Here is a static image from my computer

Embedded Video - Here is a video from YouTube

Google Map


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EDT 5410: Week Two

What are my early impressions of using a blog and what was your experience using an RSS Reader this week? Any surprises, pleasant or otherwise?

I am going to be honest here, I have never used a blog until this class. I absolutely love it. It is so convenient to state what you think and comment on what others think. And the RSS feeds what a wonderful creation! So, easy to get the information that you need and have it delivered to you instead of having to search for it.

I had a hard time at first figuring out how to set it all up but now I absolutely love it and I am learning and having a good time now.

Which part(s) of Dale's Cone do you thing each tool (Blog, RSS) lends itself best to and why?

I would have to say that blogging falls into all the categories except for the last three because those are actual experiences.

My reasons for these are

• Verbal Symbols - You can use podcasts
• Visual Symbols - You will have text out on your blog
• Recordings, Radio and Still Pictures - All of these items can be put on a blog
• Motion Pictures- You can post videos to a blog
• Educational TV - You can link up to TV episodes or other educational tools
• Demonstrations - You can upload demonstrations to be viewed on a blog

RSS falls into Verbal, Visual, Recordings, Radio and Still Pictures, Motion Pictures, Demonstrations.

My reasons for these are

• Verbal Symbols - You can link to podcasts
• Visual Symbols - You can link to any webpage with text
• Recordings, Radio, and Still Pictures - All of these items can be found through RSS
• Motion Pictures - You can get video RSS
• Demonstrations - Possible due to the RSS

Considering Siegala's concept of "compute imagination", what do you think would be at least one "imaginative" educational use of each tool (blog, RSS) that takes advantage of each tools inherent strengths? That is, what do you think you and/or your students could use these tools for that they might not be able to do with more simple or low-tech tools? Or, as ostman might ask, what is a problem to which each of these tools is an answer?

Being able to use blogs within a classroom setting should help out a lot. Some students don't feel like they can speak up in a classroom and with this blog they would be able to. The RSS feeds would also help out in the fact that information can be brought to the student and keep them up to date on the latest and greatest of each of the different topics they are wanting to learn more about without getting lost in all of the information that is available and become overwhelmed. By being able to use the RSS feeds it could eliminate the need to go and look for a book and read the entire book when with a feed you can search within it for certain topic or word and find it easily.

Reflection on WIKI

I have never used a Wiki before until this class and it seems like an obstacle to get started. Being that neither Nicole or I can edit the class wiki, maybe it is just an operator error on our part but I can't figure it out! Besides that issue Wiki's seem pretty neat and an easy way to communicate with a specific group. This tool would work great in a high school setting for a group project. You would not even have to meet up you could simply communicate through the Wiki. Like Nicole said though you would have to assume that all the students had Internet access away from class and I doubt that would be the case. If I was a teacher and I could assume everyone had access to the Internet though, I would definitely utilize this tool to its fullest capacity.

EDT 5410: Week One Analysis

In reading the article Beyond Technology Integration, I find myself agreeing with it not being the use of technology but how to teach it. In the conclusion it states "These changes highlight the need for us to go beyond technology integration with teaching to technology transformation of teaching and learning."

I feel that there are teachers out there that need to change the way in which they are teaching a class and focus more on the method of attainment-based instead of time-based. I am not saying that teachers aren't willing to do this but perhaps there are those out there that don't understand the difference and they themselves need to be trained in a different teaching method.

When I was in school it was totally standardization and like the article states it needs to be more customized. Certain students can not learn as fast as others and that in turn holds back the students that can. So, yes some customization needs to be done in the schools. I think once that is corrected students will be able to learn more and at the correct pace for that individual.

I am sure that is a lot of work for the teachers and they don't get paid nearly enough for the work they do and that is a totally seperate issue! But, I know that there are those excellent teachers out there though, who are willing to go above and beyond for the sake of the student and those are the teachers I hope will eventually be teaching my children.

Now as far as the Luddites article, I disagree with him for the most part. I understand the views on why do we need to keep updating technology and how it puts old technology out of business but he needs to understand that the world is ever changing. And part of living is to change with the times. The way he acted towards the car salesman about the cruise control and power locks just shows his resistance to technology changes. I work with several people who are not willing to learn the new technology trends and they are very hard to work with. They feel if it's not broke than don't fix it but, I say why not improve it? I don't feel that technology changing is a bad thing and I do feel that we need to have our K-12 students learning from the latest technology.

The fact is that our environment, our world runs on technology and if we don't educate the generation coming up from K-12 then what will happen in the world. Will the students graduating from the schools here be able to compete with those across the world. Our schools need to have technology in them and we need to figure out the best way to teach this to them so they can have prosperous and successful lives of their own someday. We are preparing them for the world of tomorrow and you need technology to do that!