Reflection 6

What are some ways the ideas/concepts/principles discussed in this chapter could be applied in your professional work? Do you see opportunities where these ideas could help you or your students?

Well, I must confess, I found this chapter a little difficult to follow (I always have trouble when readings use acronyms). I don't know if it is the time of year for me or what. I have felt extremely tired this week, but here are my thoughts.
The part that made the most sense to me is the relationship between HPI and HPT. It stated that "human performance improvement" is what we wish to achieve and human performance technology is the means we use to achieve it." (Reisner,
p137). I felt like the chapter focused mostly on business situations, but realize that schools are much like a business if you look at each student. We want the each student to achieve there maximum potential and we as educators have to figure out the means to help them achieve. This is no easy task! It think that what schools discover that inorder for them them to perform at their maximum potential, the same incentives to do well have to be in place for staff members. My thinking is this, until administrators realize that teachers need to see how technology benefits students and and how it impact their teaching. That teacher training is the "organizational investment" and not a cost.

Reflection 5

Will the Internet and Web have a major impact on educational programs at grades
K-12, and/or higher education and adult education?

It was interesting to read the history of the previous techonolgy advances. I keep asking myself why the radio, television and instructional films didn't impact education more. My only thought is that these sorts of technological advances only allowed the "student" to listen and watch. As we think about same question only applying to the use of computers in education, my response is that it does allow the "student" to interact at some level. In fact, it gives the "student" choices. The question is at what level of education will the impact be the greatest. My experience tells me that in the K-12 setting, and any setting for that matter, the use of computers and "technology" will only go as far as the budget allows. This not only includes the equipement that is needed but also the training. I don't feel that the K-12 educational system will be largely impacted until teachers have the knowledge to use it. This knowledge will need to start in our college education courses teaching the future education professions how to use techonolgy within their specialty. Technology can't be seen as a class that you take, but as a way to learn with all curricular areas. This mindset will take time to accomplish. I believe that with the use of the Web, the knowledge could be attained at a quicker pace, but it will still take time.

Reflection 4

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

Photo sharing could be used in much the same way as social bookmarking with same risk. Students could access photos that pertain to a certain topic and post them. The risk of this is the possibilty of students finding and sharing photos that are inappropriate. I think that with the current blockers that school systems have that this issue could be somewhat controlled. The biggest risk would be for high schools. Many high school students can figure out how to beat the system ( if you know what I mean!)

4) 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 first want to share that I had never thought of the term instructional design until this book. The word that has been used is curriculum design. Teachers are constantly being asked to revamp curriculum to fit the needs of the GLCE's or to fit the state standards. The curriculum changes so often that the ADDIE approach looks good on paper, but is sometimes difficult to achieve. This five step process can be extremely time consuming in a classroom of young children where they are not yet independent learners. One has to think about how to collect the data in a way that is developmentally appropriate and time effective. Many times we have so much to teach, that we skip some of the steps to fit everything in.

It is my hope that the use of technolgy can help us achieve these steps more efficiently! I would like for the mindset of educators to be that when they hear the word Instructional Design,that the use of technology is a given, not an extension of the title.

Reflection 3

1) 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 that social bookmarking could help students share information when gathering it for a research project. This would allow them to research different parts of the project and then share the resources. This would also work in the workplace. Administrators could share articles, statistics, etc. with staff members anda then hold discussions on the content. This would also be true for students. Parents would benefit also. One could organize the page by category. If a child is struggling in reading, there could be some links that would give information on how to help as well as online inter-active sites. I could see myself attaching this to my school web page for parents to access easily. They could also add to it when they found a site that was helpful to them.


2) 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 of work (or in a future career)? Does is there anything surprising or very new you read in this chapter? Does something seem to be missing?

I have never really though for Instructional Design and Technology. As I read this week, I have been thinking about how the definition is related to education. If I think about how I have defined technology in the past, it has been in correlation with multi-media. Similar to how is was deifned in chapter one where we focus on "the means via which instruction is presented to learners." (Resier 2007, pg 3) I am excited to see that the definition has changed to "the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using, and managing appropriate technological processes and resources." (Reisner, 2007, pg 6). I think the key words are 'facilitating learning and improving performance'. I think that what might be missing is that the technology aspect of learning needs to be across the curriculum. Teachers in all curricular areas need to teaching with technology. Technology needs to be seen as a way to improve what we already do, it is a way of thinking. We need to use technology to teach the curriculum that is set before us,not create a curriculum that fits the technolgy that is available.

Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26770767@N05/

Social Bookmarking

http://del.icio.us/lifelong_learner

Week 2 Reflection Activity

• I found the blog to be fun to use. This is my first experience using a blog, however I do have a webpage on my school's website and they are setup in much he same way. I had never used Blogger or done an RSS feed before. I am still trying to wrap my head around how the RSS feed would be beneficial for my classroom teaching. I was wondering if the having a feed on my school web page would allow parents to subscribe. This would be beneficial for me because I am now sending out a group email letting them know when I have made a change. Would and RSS feed help me in this way? I am still trying to figure this out.

• Dale's Cone helps us think and work collaboratively. Technology falls in the demonstrations area of the cone. A blog and and RSS feed is a key component in receiving and sharing information quickly. It helps us to communicate as we design and the communications happens rather quickly. I found another chart in my Google search that helped me process the Cone and how it might relate to teaching. I have provided the link below.
  http://teacherworld.com/potdale.html

• In regard to Siegel's article on using a blog or RSS feed for "imaginative" education, we can access information quickly and share information quickly. In thinking about Postman's question as to what does a Blog or RSS feed fix i encourage you to think about how information was gathered before. The Internet allows the information to be found and the RSS feed or blog allows groups of people to share the information. It allows groups of people to research different aspects of a subject and then come together collaboratively for one end result. It allows students to work with other students they may not be exposed to in a regular classroom, providing them with a broader experience.

• Wiki Reflection

It enjoyed learning how to do the Wiki. I would have liked to have figured out that the to it was on my WMU email (better yet, I didn't even realize the WMU email was different from the Blackboard). I still am working out in my mind how this would benefit a teacher of young children. I might be able to expose some of my students to the Wiki when working on a non-fiction writing assignment. There are some students who avoid writing because of the actual paper pencil aspect of writing. Using a Wiki might helps those studnets that hate writing, but love technology!

Week 1

I have spent a couple of days thinking about the two articles. Reigeluth really spoke to me because of the changes the staff at the school I work at is working towards in regard to technology. Over the past three years, our staff has worked hard to take our technology curriculum to the next level. Reigeluth's article really made me think about the direction teaching could take. I love thinking about technology as "transforming" teaching. The reality of technology in the classroom needs to be realize as the information highway continues to change. The question for me is how do we help professionals see the teaching potential that lies in technology. As technology becomes a part of our world, we have to figure out how to educate and train teachers to use the technology that works for the curriculum they are expected to teach. We want to show them how curriculum can drive how we use technology. Reigeluth recognizes that this is not an easy task. I believe that schools systems are recognizing that the new educational need is to prepare all learners to be problem solvers, to take initiative, to work in teams, etc. Postman on the other hand, defines the purpose of a school to "teach children how to behave in groups". Perhaps this is one aspect of education, but I question if it is the purpose. In response to the statement "School has never been about individualized learning", I would disagree. Educators work hard to meet each child at their level. If educators see teaching as a learning focused paradigm, technology could aide the teacher in maximizing each child's potential. In the teaching world, we call this differentiated instruction. It can be difficult to achieve, however it is necessary to help each student learn and grow. I find technology as an integral part of teaching. If we choose to use technology to teach children, we will help them move forward, if we do not, they will quickly become among those individuals who are unemployed.

Mission Statement

• To empower and encourage teaching professionals to explore technology and the way it can transform teaching.
• To equip children and teachers with the knowledge needed to use technology as part of their teaching and learning.