Week 3 - Instructional Design

I'm writing this on Thursday from home because - yeah! snow day!! Even though there is no snow, but expectation of 3 - 8 inches later this afternoon. Guess my snow dance worked. I'll worry about having days added to the school year later.

The following statement from Reiser & Dempsey page 14 of reading this week is very relevant to what I am working on right now: "Although the data may not always bring good news, they are always "friendly" in that they provide a rational basis for decision making and a basis for successfully completing the project." I'm helping with data collection/analysis for pre-and post-common assessments for language arts and math classes. The pre- and post- comparison data is used to determine competencies on standards, determine the types of inteventions required, etc. If I am applying the ADDIE model properly, the pre-test data would be considered in the analysis phase, and the post-test data in the evaluation phase. The goal of the project would be to maintain and/or increase student scores on MAP tests.

Evidently I keep a lot on my mind - didn't realize until I was working through the ADDIE project for this week how many steps I work through mentally and never put down in writing. Not altogether a bad thing, but not all that good either. Makes it too easy to assume that others have the information to work from that I have, and obviously that is not always true. Working through something like ADDIE does away with some of the assumptions, because it is all there in print to check and recheck.

Reflections on Week 2

I sat here for 10 minutes trying to come up with a good 'title' for this week's post and finally realized it really didn't matter - it's my blog and my thoughts and I can call it whatever I want! I think that is what has probably blocked me in writing a journal, etc. in the past - being too picky about just putting my thoughts down on paper. So, boring as it may be, Reflections works for me. This will be the last time I will agonize over this.

I noticed a happening on campus that was a Second Life demo, open only to Faculty & Students. Too bad, I would really like to see that. Coincidence, it seems everywhere I read more and more about it being used in education. Note to explore more about the use and see if it would work for my ASI group at school.

Looks like the Beta group has a good start on getting a grasp on our project. Been awhile since I worked online with a group but I love the exchange of ideas that comes with this type of collaboration. Even if I had to go to the online dictionary several times to understand what was being discussed!

Chapter 25 Getting a Job in Business and Industry may be a repeat of things that I have heard over and over in different formats, etc. but some of the information is so good for me right now. I really don't know what I want to do. Most of my experience has been at the community college level – work and teaching. I enjoy working with adults, and that is probably the area I feel most comfortable with, even though I enjoy the middle school age, or else why would I be here for five years. The WorkMatrix is similar to assessments we ask our 7th grades to take from Missouri Connections. Should I be discouraged that I need something like this at my advanced age? I love online instruction/facilitation, you can really get to know your students, but sometimes I miss the face-to-face interaction, so community service classes take care of that need. My full-time job was in management, and my degree is in management. I always looked on the teaching as my 'fun time'. I think the training is probably where my interests are and I should explore that area more.

Semantic web discussions were enlightening. Must do more exploration on this topic, but glad it wasn’t chosen for our group project – way over my head at this point. Although, it would have been good for me if we had chosen it so that I can learn more about it. Catch-22! Not as if don't have volumes to learn about everything else we discussed.

On to ADDIE ...

End of a good week

It may be a false sense of security, but right now I feel like Week 1 has gone really well. I was afraid it would take me awhile to get back in the swing of taking classes, but feel like the assignments this week eased me into it.

Found the conversations about 'clicker' really timely, since my principal just announced he wants to provide them to the 7th grade math classrooms as a start. Hope to view some demos next week at our 4-6 school.

I wasn't really sure which to choose for the paper on a theorist, so I opted for the one I recognized from using Bloom's taxonomy when developing/reviewing curriculum--hope it was a wise decision! Looking forward to group work and discussions in Week 2.

Here I go...

I have setup and used blogs for my book club and other groups, but never a personal one for myself. In the past I was not very good about keeping journals, although I have quite a few with one or two pages in them that were started over the years. Here's to technology and a better way of doing things! I was nervous about starting this course, but feel much better now that I have met my fellow students in the introduction area. So much combined knowledge! It's nice to see the instructor acknowledge our individual introductions.