It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted. I began a new course, EDU 652: Instructional Design and Development. So far, it's been interesting. We have learned that there is a whole lot more involved in creating valuable online classes, than just having information to share and putting it together. In the last course, I learned that using a content template helped to organize the course content. This has been a good resource. Now, we are learning to conduct a needs assessment prior to creating content. This is also a valuable prep tool.
In our first week of class, we discussed e-learning and the value of using wikis as a learning tool. We also discussed the various ways to create and use PDF's. I used to use Adobe Pro at work to create pdf's for our website. It's become much easier to create pdf's now that the option to "save as a pdf" is included with Microsoft Word.
This week, we have been working with Winzip to create a zipped file. There is a bit of a learning curve with Winzip, but it's fairly straightforward. Once you understand the terminology, such as "extracting" content, you can create compressed files that are easier to send through email. Here are a couple of Youtube videos that explain how to download and use Winzip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOikZyC0V5k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U6DSH6wE1w
I think a good use for this would be to zip all portions of an assignment - PowerPoint presentation, assessment tool, documents, etc. - and send out to students on a weekly basis. You would need to include a "readme" file with instructional guidance and any necessary explanations.
The assignment for this week is to create an absorb-type training. I am going to use the new features of Windows 7 as my topic since this is the training that I am currently conducting at work. I am knowledgeable of the topic and that makes it a lot easier to put it all together. Our instructor has given us a template for submitting our assignments that includes writing an abstract and embedding a link to the training materials. I decided that I would open a Slideshare account to post my PowerPoint presentation. Hopefully, this will make the hyperlink able to be followed. Trying to embed a link to the file on my computer didn't work last week. My instructor asked me to contact Tech Support to find out how to embed the file. UAfter waiting almost 20 minutes to get someone, I was basically told that he didn't know how to do this and couldn't help me. That's why I decided to try using Slideshare as an option. Hope it works!
Until next week...happy learning!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Social Bookmarking and Critiques
This week was both interesting and frustrating. Our first discussion board asked us to add our classmates to our Facebook and PBWorks accounts and also to critique our classmates accounts. The interesting part was viewing each others' accounts. Everyone's account had a different "flavor". Some classmates added videos, some had links to blogs or websites, and some included apps to their Facebook accounts. The wikis that were created ranged from very in-depth to just basic construction. One very interesting trend was the number of lessons on the use of technology. The frustrating part was in trying to figure out how to add our classmates to our groups. Actually, creating the group in Facebook was quite challenging since I kept running into the problem of having to add members when creating the group. Once it was explained that I could add myself as a member, I was off and running. Being a somewhat private person, I found the idea of adding my classmates to my private Facebook account very unappealing. So, I created a new account with a slight variation to my name and used a different email account. This worked well.
Our second discussion board dealt with the idea of whether the use of technology is "re-wiring" our brains. I do believe that there is some validity to this, but mostly I think it's a combination of what is now socially acceptable and the fact that this technology is becoming an acceptable and preferred way of learning. This does concern me a bit as an older student. I think that the ability to collaborate with people of mutual interests from all over the globe is fascinating! I just don't think there's been quite enough research done to state outright that our brains are being re-wired. I am interested to see what new research is done in the coming years.
Our third discussion board dealt with creating an account in Delicious - a social bookmarking tool. I'd heard of Delicious before this, but didn't really see the pratical usage. That's because I wasn't looking at it as a way to collaborate with others. As I have read more and actually created my account, I am seeing that this may end up being quite useful to me in a personal and professional way. I certainly have seen that this is something the library where I work could connect with our patrons by creating a full "library" of bookmarks on a variety of subjects. It is almost mind-boggling to think about the possibilities!
We had two assignments this week. One was to write a letter of intent to our boss, department head, etc. to ask for permission to use a social networking site in our jobs or classrooms. I think this may really come in handy to me as I try to get our library "on board" with using Facebook for mini-training sessions for our staff. In researching the topic, I found quite a few journal articles that discuss the topic of social networking and libraries.
Our second assignment for the week was to answer the critical thinking questions from chapter 6 of our text book. This chapter deals with micro-blogging, like Twitter. I still am not convinced that Tweeting is something that I'm going to find practical, but there were several applications in the text book that I plan to explore. Who knows, I may end up to become an avid tweeter in the end?
This week was pretty labor-intensive. I found it quite difficult to keep up because a dear old friend passed away suddenly after a 2 week fight with cancer. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, life has a way of throwing you curves that are unexpected.
Until next week....Happy Learning
Our second discussion board dealt with the idea of whether the use of technology is "re-wiring" our brains. I do believe that there is some validity to this, but mostly I think it's a combination of what is now socially acceptable and the fact that this technology is becoming an acceptable and preferred way of learning. This does concern me a bit as an older student. I think that the ability to collaborate with people of mutual interests from all over the globe is fascinating! I just don't think there's been quite enough research done to state outright that our brains are being re-wired. I am interested to see what new research is done in the coming years.
Our third discussion board dealt with creating an account in Delicious - a social bookmarking tool. I'd heard of Delicious before this, but didn't really see the pratical usage. That's because I wasn't looking at it as a way to collaborate with others. As I have read more and actually created my account, I am seeing that this may end up being quite useful to me in a personal and professional way. I certainly have seen that this is something the library where I work could connect with our patrons by creating a full "library" of bookmarks on a variety of subjects. It is almost mind-boggling to think about the possibilities!
We had two assignments this week. One was to write a letter of intent to our boss, department head, etc. to ask for permission to use a social networking site in our jobs or classrooms. I think this may really come in handy to me as I try to get our library "on board" with using Facebook for mini-training sessions for our staff. In researching the topic, I found quite a few journal articles that discuss the topic of social networking and libraries.
Our second assignment for the week was to answer the critical thinking questions from chapter 6 of our text book. This chapter deals with micro-blogging, like Twitter. I still am not convinced that Tweeting is something that I'm going to find practical, but there were several applications in the text book that I plan to explore. Who knows, I may end up to become an avid tweeter in the end?
This week was pretty labor-intensive. I found it quite difficult to keep up because a dear old friend passed away suddenly after a 2 week fight with cancer. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, life has a way of throwing you curves that are unexpected.
Until next week....Happy Learning
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