Week 15 Reusability Revisited and Rich Media

Readings this week started with a revisit to our group project topic. Made a lot more sense this time around. Chapter 30 content on uses of Rich Media was full of information that I can use when incorporating rich media into the design of lessons. I looked at the use of sound and video in a different light after reading. Just because I think something is technologically cool doesn't mean it will help my student learn, and may even distract them from learning.

I got a kick out of the summing up paragraph on page 331 for Chapter 31 where the young girl recognizes the school. The authors defined education and training in that part of the article as the most conservative of fields for years, and yet sometimes I think that is OK. Sometimes what works just works. The choices for the ways that people learn are increasing and in a rapid manner, but hopefully not so rapidly that what is good is thrown out in favor of what is exciting about the future.

Trainer of designers-by-assignment--great job title. I wonder if in fact as Merrill indicated on page 340 that most of the college-trained instructional designers become managers?

Week 14 - Article Reviews and wii

This week was a killer for me and I don't usually feel that way. I had picked out my articles to review weeks ago. The process of researching articles was an eye-opener for me. I read articles on educational technology all the time, but not necessarily from the professional peeer reviewed publications. I used the online databases and came up with so many hits on my search that I realized I had to narrow it down. Finally ended up with six articles that I thought were really interesting, read them and narrowed it to the final two I used. I enjoyed reading all of the other articles and comments.

I was later in the week than usual posting my assignment due to health issues. I tore the meniscus in my left knee and the medial ligament several weeks ago and was in the middle of x-rays, MRIs, etc. this past week. Just got word Wednesday I would need surgery, and then I slipped at work on the wet floor in the commons area and injured the same knee even more. Felt like a real idiot laying there on the floor in front of all the kids--contrary to belief middle school students will NOT walk right over you if you are down. They were so concerned and helpful it almost made it worthwhile. Almost. OK, so to tie this sad story to one of the articles from this week - the original injury to my knee came from playing tennis on the wii!

Week 13 - Group Work

I think our group did a dynamite job with the project, hope the rest of the group feels the same way. Collaborating online is difficult, but I think we worked through all the glitches and ended up with a great product. I'm really learning a lot and appreciating the reinforcement of the material being presented by the other groups. Some of this 'stuff' is finally making sense.

Selected my articles to review weeks ago, but it's time now to write the actual reviews. Found a good handout in the OWL for writing an article review so I feel more comfortable with what I should include.

Teaching an online class that started this week, and one of the students lives in Arkansas. I live in Missouri, and the class is for a college in California. I just love distance education!

Week 12 Ethics

The copyright informaiton this week was so timely. Students are doing PPT projects and want to add music. Another group wants to show a movie afterschool for entertainment and wanted to know if it was necessary to have a public performance permit. Another class is doing trading cards about medieval times, and wants to go out to the Internet and copy and paste pictures. Each teacher has a different idea as to what is allowed by Acceptable Use and what isn't. It was nice to have the refresher on this issue. A year or so ago I found a great book for use on Fair Use. It is called Tales from the Public Domain, Bound by Law?, Keith Aoki, James Boyle, and Jennifer Jenkis frm the Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain. It is written in comic book style. It is available for free online at: http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/.

Week 11 - Interviews

What a fascinating group of people that the class chose for interviews. I enjoyed reading the different papers, and learning about such diverse occupations individuals and occupations. Most challenging part of the week was formattiong for paper~does this ever get easy??? Had a question come up this week that deals with Week 12 readings. If we have an afterschool hangout, is it OK to show a DVD movie purchased by an instructor to students for entertainment if you don't have a public performance rights from the appropriate company? According to the guidelines at DESE the answer would be no. The copyright on YouTube using Disney clips was a great way to address the subject of copyright. I think I will show it at my next orientation for copyright, if it is not blocked through the firewall at school. Copyright is so hard to enforce when not everyone follows the same guidelines.
Looking forward to really getting into the group project this week!

Week 10 - Online Learning

I really enjoyed the text readings this week, and the articles in the course documents area. It was very surprising to see the list of courses offered through the MO Virtual Instruction Program. Most surprising were the online lab courses such as chemistry and biology. I realize there are wonderful animation programs available that simulate the real experience, but I have never been convinced that they entirely take the place of hands-on. I wonder how they are accepted for transfer to universities in terms of meeting science requirements or would students need to take lab component again? But then, what if they are an online student at the university? Ah, the virtual world.

The description of the faculty development position in Chapter 22 sounds interesting. I like the idea of working with adults. I like my 'day job' with middle school students, but teaching adults, for credit or community service, or staff development, is really what I enjoy.

The article by Roper about the study of successful online student sand how they develop online learning skills was interesting in terms of the skills I have developed as an online student, and what my online students develop. Good pointers for beginning online students, or those who may not be beginners, but are not yet as successful as they would like to be with this method of learning.

Week 9 - After the fact and not about class

Week 9 was not what I was expecting in terms of personal life, work life, or school life. My husband ended up in the emergency room Sunday evening, and didn't come home until the following Saturday evening, after several days in intensive care. When he did get home it was with a pacemaker (surprise - his heart was NOT the reason he was in the emergency room!). My week was spent driving to and from the hospital, 45 minutes each way, and sitting by his bedside waiting for decisions from doctors who couldn't seem to make up their minds.

I had to make the decision early in the week that I just couldn't focus on anything else and keep my sanity, so work and school were put on hold. At least that decision was in my control and not anyone else! A good sign that I'm wising up in my older years - a younger me would have tried to keep everything going, juggled time, and ended up frazzled and no good at anything.

Story had a happy ending, he's home and recuperating fine, work was still there, I've just about caught up with reading missed postings in class. Sometimes things do work out.