Your Profile | Glogster EDU - 21st century multimedia tool for educators, teachers and students

Your Profile Glogster EDU - 21st century multimedia tool for educators, teachers and students

Welcome Back...

Wow, it has been 7 months since I last blogged.  Time really flies.  So did the master's program in teaching and learning with technology.  I started working on my masters in September of 2010.  Today is 10/20/11 and I have completed 27 or 30 credits, and on Saturday, October 22nd, I will be in Clinton, Iowa, attending the commencement ceremony.  I worked really hard over this past year and have maintained a 4.0 GPA. 

This has been an awesome year and I have learned so much about using technology as a means to deliver training to others.  I have a greater understanding about performance measurements and evaluation and how to conduct educational research.   I thought that I wanted to use my new skills to design curriculum and I still may seek that opportunity within AT&T but I really have a strong desire to get back into the classroom.

Phil has been so supportive these last 2 years as I earned my BA and MA and he said that I should pursue a doctorate.  Wouldn't that be cool?  Dr. Henry.  I love it.  I have looked into a few options, North Central University, the least expensive, Walden University and Capella University (the most expensive).  Another option is to get certified in California to teach and then I can enter the UC or community college system and do a little part time teaching.  Got to think about what I'm going to do when I retire from AT&T and taking on a class, either in the classroom or online would be perfect.

So here I am in Week 2 of my final class which is a Capstone of the MATLT and I am looking forward to the next educational adventure and a short walk across a big stage on Saturday.  Look for pictures or maybe a video on my FB page.

Talk to you soon!

EDU652 Topics

This is the final week of EDU652 and the final assignment was an introduction to topics as a learning activity.  Topics are a low-level learning object in a course or knowledge product and can vary in length.  I have included a link to my topics activity.

Click on the Blue Launch button to the right to see the Articulate presentation.  Enjoy!

EDU652 Connect Type Activity

This week, I learned about Connect Type activities for instructional design.  The link will take you to the Articulate site that will allow you to view the activity. 

EDU652 - Absorb Activity

I learned about absorb activities this week.  Absorb activities can be in the form of PowerPoint presentations, storytelling, readings, demonstrations and field trips and are designed to inform and inspire learners. 

William Horton, the author of E-Learning by Design, (2006), provides many examples of absorb activities and recommends various authoring tools.  I decided to use Articulate as this is a presentation tool being used by Dr. Jamsa and I found it very easy to use.  I provided a link to my Absorb Activity on this blog. 

Visit Mr. Horton's website at http://www.horton.com/eld
Horton, W. (2006). E-Learning by design.  San Francisco:  Wiley.

EDU651 Week 6

Week 6 is quickly coming to an end but collaboration and learning in a virtual environment is just beginning. This course provided me with the opportunity to learn about wikis, blogs, podcasts and social networking sites and possible applications in the classroom. In my opinion, wikis offer the greatest opportunity for collaborative learning. Corporations like Disney, McDonalds, Sony and BMW use wikis to manage documents and other information. The City of Rochester, New York has created a wiki where people can share what they love or dislike about the city. From restaurants, places of interest, tours and more, this site serves as an innovative way for the City of Rochester to capture information and resources that can be shared with millions of people for little to no cost. Rocwiki.org currently has 11,578 pages with more to come.

Dr. Dave S. Knowlton, Director for The Center for Distance Education and Learning Technologies at Crichton College wrote:

"Knowledge construction is best accomplished through collaboration. In general, students learn through the give-and-take among classmates. That is, as students write contributions to discussions, they learn what it is that they are trying to say. The replies that they receive from their classmates further this learning. (For a discussion of writing to learn, see Lindemann, 1995.) When students share ideas in a discussion, they receive feedback on those ideas. Often this feedback from classmates will cause cognitive dissonance for the student because it conflicts with their original views. The dissonance encourages students to revise their views and test their revised views in light of further peer review among the class (Knowlton, Knowlton, & Davis, 2000)."

I strongly believe it is time for the school boards and districts that oversee and manage K-12, to begin considering combining asynchronous, high learner control programs where the learner controls the pace of learning with synchronous programs where there is interaction with an instructor who can facilitate learning activities and stimulate creative thinking. The most effective educational programs are those that train cognitive and metacognitive skills. If the goal is to educate today's youth to be the leaders of tomorrow, these are the skills that will be required to solve problems that will be specific to our work and social environment in the future.

 

City of Rochester, New York. Retrieved from http://rocwiki.org/Front_Page on January 24, 2011

Knowlton, D. (2001). Promoting durable knowledge construction through online discussion. Retrieved from http://frank.mtsu.edu/~itconf/proceed01/11.html on January 24, 2011.

EDU651 Week 5

This was a great week in class. We all created and shared our links on all of the different social networking sites we have studied and analyzed through this course such as Facebook, Blogger, Twitter and Delicious to name a few. My favorite project was creating a learning event in PBWorks. I am writing an email to our Design team to propose that we use this site as a fun and collaborative activity that might be shared between a few classes in the region. The activity might address some of the social skills that some scientists argue are lacking in our young people who primarily use social networking sites to communicate.

In an article entitled, "Scientists ask: Is technology rewiring our brains?" published in USA Today in 2008, Dr. Small argues that technology takes us away from being exposed to people. He said that the brain, "…drifts away from fundamental social skills like reading facial expressions during conversations." In my role as corporate trainer, I have seen some of the younger employees struggle with face to face communication. As a sales consultant, lacking these skills can derail their careers. We teach skills that will help them recognize non-verbal cues which speak volumes. There are various customer conditions that sellers must be able to identify and address in order to be effective. Repetitive activities in the form of role plays help to develop these skills.

In my opinion, it is not the technology that is creating a lack of social skills. Since being exposed to Facebook, I have received positive messages of support and affirmations from others. People share their photographs; we laugh and learn from each other. It is a great way to socialize with others and receive immediate gratification. What Facebook lacks is, of course, the face to face interactions and I think those of us who are educators, mentors and parents need to teach those face to face social skills that complete us. No matter how much technology is out there, people still have to work together in groups and collaborate on strategies that make businesses successful. Even the founder of Facebook has to meet with his staff and collaborate to make Facebook innovative and successful.

Mizuko Ito of the University of California, Irvine concluded that, "hanging out online with friends…teens learn valuable skills they'll need to use at work and socially in the digital age." (USA Today, 2008). So, there may be some validity to a rewiring of our brains as we continue to use technology, but we should not abandon our ability to pass on those valuable life skills such as face to face, non-verbal communication skills to others. Our young people deserve that much from us. It is the very fabric that makes us who we are as human beings.

Dovarganes, D. (2008, December 3) Scientists ask: Is technology rewiring our brains? Usatoday.com. Retrieved January 19, 2011 from http://wwwusatoday.com/tech/science/2008-12-03-digital-brain_N.htm.