DB/13

What I thought was really neat and viable was electronic training jackets and cognitive science and neuroscience contributions. These two seemed to be more realistic than say nanotechnology and cybernetics. The idea of smartcard technology is here so more applicable to my lifetime. Perhaps this could be used for medical history and only certain people identified via thumbprint or retinal scan could access it. The brain is so powerful and really only the surface has been scratched. Think of the applications for this if we could learn more about memory and neural activity related to certain actions. Perhaps certain parts of the brain could be stimulated to improve learning and/or retention. Of course, as the authors point out we may need to pay heed to ethical and legal issues related to this topic.

I think my favorite activity for this semester was the blog/webpage building and the social networking. As I have mentioned before these two aspects of technology I will use regardless of getting back into teaching or not. I think these are relatively easy applications and you can be quite creative. Also screencasting seems intriguing so I definitely am going to try to do this for my project if I can everything to line up right.

DB/12

I really enjoyed reading this chapter because it provided some insight into how learners learn! What good is using rich media if it doesn't enhance the learning process? I feel that the area of cognitive processes of learning is so important because instructional methods of instruction depend on it. I will use a couple of ideas from this chapter. I have always used the seven plus or minus 2 chunks of information. Ever wonder why we have 7 digit phone numbers? Because that is all we can remember in our short term memory at a time! Anyway I will continue to use that. I will also use the attention, activation of prior knowledge and motivation because these must be used to be an effective teacher. I was/am still a proponent of the activation of prior knowledge because this is connected to long-term memory. Every lesson I taught was somehow connected to prior knowledge even if it was something we just learned. Some of the evidence the authors used to support and improve learning was pretty obvious like "students learn better from words and pictures than from words alone" and "students learn better from animation and narration than from animation and onscreen text". For me it was intuitive because as a student it was so much more interesting if their was pictures or a video.

Website: Enviornmental Science

http://sites.google.com/site/kathypages09/

In the past I have taught Enviornmental Science and Geology so I thought it would be fun to create a page about the Carbon Cycle. The Annenberg site has alot of really great resources for teachers to use in various subjects. I would recommend all my classmates check this site out as well. Anyway, there are alot of awesome animation I have used in the past about concepts which are hard for students to understand so I included some additional information on the carbon cycle plus a lab we might do if I was teaching this class. :)

Screencasting

Screencasting is an awesome tool that I can see myself using frequently in my current position. When we first opened the Shoreline Wellness Center we needed a program that could keep track of all aspects of a multimillion dollar facility. This included accounting, membership, scheduling, prospecting, inventory, and selling services (personal training, childcare etc.). So we bought a total system called CSI which cost alot but was a very complete program and could do everything we needed in one program. CSI had consultants who came out to our facility and trained us using this system. They did not use screencasting or tutorials at all so it took along time for the key managers to learn their particular part of the system. What I am planning to use screencasting for is to actually make several short tutorials on how to actually add a member, or a prospect. When I hire a new membership representative it takes along time for me to train them because CSI is so complicated. By using screencasting I will be able to show the new staff how to do certain operations. This will be so much easier and quicker. The new staff will be able to access these tutorials and use them over and over until they have the operation down. I will use screencasting to teach the new service desk employees on how to take pictures and ring up sales. These are basic functions needed by both membership and service desk employees. CSI has quarterly updates of their software so I will be able to tweek existing tutorials to include the new information. I think this will cut down on the time needed for training. I would also like to design an evaluation after training to pinpoint any gaps in the instructional process.

If I were to use screencasting in a high school setting I would use it in my Anatomy & Physiology course. One of the systems we studied was the skeletal system. There are about 206 bones in the human skeletal system. My students had to learn not only most of the bones but they also had to learn certain parts of the bones where muscles and ligaments attached. Obviously this was part of their lab so I had pictures as well as actual bones students could study. For the more difficult parts of the bones which make up the skull I would use screencasting. Either I would make the screencasts or I might have my students make tutorials for each other. This would be dictated by how fast we were moving through the material. I could see my students enjoying this and I could use these tutorials over and over. I am not sure how practical this would be in this type of class but I think it could be another resource for my students to learn anatomy.

RD/11

I am not sure which competencies you want us to look at but I think the instructor level is where most of my competencies lie. Although I have not been a teacher for several years I still think stimulate and sustain learner motivation is always difficult due to the level of technology teachers compete with. I think I possess the professional foundation competencies for both the ID and the training manager but after that I need more training and education. I would like to be able to analyze the characteristics of existing and emerging technologies and their use in an instructional environment to better utilize the technology in current applications. Select and use a variety of techniques for determining instructional content to be able to offer different ways to teach. The 3rd competency is to evaluate and assess instruction and its impact-specifically be able to evaluate so I can modify the instructional process.

R/D10

It seems that the biggest impact of IDT has been in the business sector which makes sense to me. In business or industry the bottom line is profit. The stakes are high especially for the stockholders. Although education is of the utmost importance there really isn't a driving force or a way to enforce certain aspects of education. What I mean is that money is more concrete whereas education is harder to measure.
As far as I can see IDT has had very little impact on both P-12 or higher education. P-12 needs a major overhaul so I think ID is not at the center of attention for most school districts. Once schools start to change (transform) then ID may come to the forefront.
I see higher education utilizing IDT significantly more than P-12 because of profitability. Universities have to stay viable which means they have to make money much like corporations. I found this chapter very interesting because the authors implied the professors only knew the subject matter and NOT how to teach. I will have to admit most of my science professors just lectured and because of that I found myself imitating them especially my favorites in my high school classes. Science is pretty lecture orientated anyway because of all the concepts.
During my education way back when we had a few classes on how to develop lesson plans but it would have been nice actually to have an instructional designer produce my lessons!
I don't think my current professional working environment could learn from P-12 or higher ed. but certainly from business context because I work for a hospital.

Map Activity

I had a hard time coming up with an activity which would incorporate a map. I have taught environmental science and geology in the past so thought I would incorporate this map activity with plate tectonics. Usually in geology volcanoes are studied. I would have my students do research and find active volcanoes all over the world. I expect their maps to look similar to mine with geological features as well as when eruptions have occurred. I would want them to include some history of the volcano as well as an aerial and topographical view. I also would expect pictures and videos. This could be incorporated with earthquakes too.