Final Reflection

IDE 611 Task #4 – Reflecting on the Experience of Blogging

This class has added to my repertoire of technologies and how to integrate them in education. I became very familiar with one particular piece of technology, the blog. After reading the syllabus and discovering that I was going to be creating a blog and updating it weekly I began to panic. I was not even sure what a blog was and how it was suppose to be used. Merriam-Websters online dictionary defines a blog as a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer (accessed, 12/1/08). After reading a few articles on blogging and micro-blogging, I began to understand that a blog is a unique way for learners to present content and receive feedback from viewers. The author can share thoughts, facts, links, and references on a particular topic. In my opinion one of the most important elements of the blogging process is feedback. Unfortunately, the people responsible for providing me feedback slowly started to dwindle away. Yan Suo was my only partner left and though she provided excellent comments and questions, it would have also been nice to hear from other peers’ perspectives. I was constantly looking for ways to improve my blogging by adding images, website links, and videos to help share my blog topic in different ways. I found I started to get into a pattern of sharing information, a link or two, a video and ask a question. Soon enough I begin to tire of my assigned topic and was excited to change subjects. I believe it is imperative that the blogging topic must be of interest to the author, otherwise their lack of interest is shown in their blog entries. This experience has left me wanting to create my own personal blog about topics I find important and interesting. It has also given me the understanding of how a blog works and how to integrate it into instruction. Thank you for the wonderful experience.
Regards,

Ashley

Instructional Designer

I had a difficult time creating a topic to blog about this week. Like Yan Suo, I have decided to share my symbols of instructional design.

This image is my representation of the main features an instructional designer should have to be successful. I used a series of clip art and pictures to mold him into an instructional designer.
His hair is made of elastic bands to symbolize that instructional designers must be flexible. (Tiffany gave this as an example so it is not that original, but I thought it was important).
His shirt is a person juggling a phone, calendar, and mail, showing the importance of being able to be a multi-tasker and be well-organized.
The left arm near the shoulder shows a megaphone and a computer linking information to another computer, which symbolizes the importance of communication between clients and project personnel.
The hand is a light bulb representing the importance of having interesting ideas.
The right arm is the magnifying glass with the microscope hand showing the importance of analyzing and not missing important details.
The right leg is a bridge representing the way to fill the gap from the current situation to the optimal situation.
The ADDIE leg is pretty self explanatory. It is the model and process instructional designers will use.
The feet brains represent the learning theory, which helps to describe the learning situation. Instructional strategies can be derived from the learning theory to prescribe instruction.

Social- Networking in Education

What is social- networking?









During our class discussion on social-networking in education this week many of us stated we did not believe that it was appropriate for young students. There are many dangers associated with social-networking such as cyberbullying, online predators, and inappropriate posting of pictures and videos. The following link shares the devastation social- networking can lead to if used incorrectly: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=974494. Despite the negativity surrounding social-networking it can be used in education to engages learners.





WeLearn is a social-network service that promotes learning and retention of a foreign language (Henry, accessed 11/24/08). The learner can join the group focused on the language he or she is trying to learn. The community learn and share information from each other.







Here is a rather long video from teachertube that explains why people use social-networking inappropriately and how to use it to promote learning. http://www.teachers.tv/video/24687

Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets

A spread sheet is a grid consisting of cells making up rows and columns. Spreadsheets are mainly used for storing, calculating, and presenting information (Jonassen, 2006). Information put into the cells can be numbers or text. Formulas can be entered into the cell to manipulate numbers from other cells (Jonassen, 2006). Critical thinking is necessary to create these formulas for example: finding the .um of B2, B3, B4, and B5 or finding the averaged. The data can be manipulated into charts, graphs, and tables only with in-depth knowledge and calculations of the data.

Thinking Critically with Computers: Databases

Database

Many companies uses databases as a way to organize and store data. Databases can also be used as a tool to engage students in learning a deeper understanding of the content.

The following is a paper written by Brad Ryder: http://www.knowalot.com/nova/developing.htm . The paper does not seem to be published but encompasses methodologies on how to use a database as a mindtool to engage students in critical thinking. First, students need to determine what content he or she would like to use in the database. Second, creating queries, the students will decide what categories are relevant. Third, questions, students will create questions that may be asked of their database. Creating questions promotes critical thinking skills such as assessing information, recognizing fallacies, recognizing assumptions, and inferring inductively and deductively [Jonassen, 1996]. Designing the structure of the database, encourages students to research to find a better understanding of the topic. Creating the questions makes students think deeper about the relationships between each field.

Please notice the references at the end of the paper because they are excellent resources of using mindtools to promote crtical thinking

Using Computers as Tools Which Help Learners to Think Critically

The people who learn the most from designing instruction are those that designed the instruction not the learners for which the instruction is created(Jonassen, Retrieved October 31, 2008, from http://frank.itlab.us/forgetting/learning_mindtools.pdf). When is the last time you designed a project, rubric, etc. in your own and were not taught how to perform these tasks. It made you think more because you had to have a better understanding of the content in which you were designing the project, rather then having someone teach you the information. For example, grading rubrics. Students can be given a rubric and asked to complete a task using the rubric as a grading key or students could design their own rubric. They would need to explore and have a deeper understanding of the content before being able to create a rubric. The learner would have to think of the content from multiple perspectives, teacher, learner, outside audience. Let's explore critical thinking with the use of an expert system.

An expert system is a mindtool that can be useful for engaging students in higher order thinking.
An expert systems was created from research in the field of artificial intelligence. It is a computer program that simulates the way human experts solve problems, also known as an artificial decision maker (Jonassen, Retrieved October 31, 2008, from http://frank.itlab.us/forgetting/learning_mindtools.pdf). An example of an expert system is the 911 emergency system. The caller has an emergency that the 911 operator must find ways to help the injured person until the ambulance arrives. In most cases the operator has not been through medical school and does not know how to help a person in every situation, nor is it possible to have doctors fill the 911 operator positions, which is why we must rely on the expert system. The operator asks a question, receives a response from the caller, which she or he enters into the computer system for guidance to the next question. The question response process continues until, hopefully, the operator is able to give directions on how to treat the injured person.

In order to build an expert system the learn must have a great understanding of causal knowledge.
Usually an expert system is planned out using a decision tree.

Here is a youtube video showing you how an expert system guides someone to a decision or answer. :)

Computers as Critical Thinking Tools

Hello All! After frustrating technology issues I have finally been able to sign into my blog. I emailed my group members to inform you of my new topic, but can share my idea with others now that I am able to access my blog again. I will be exploring ways to use computers to learn with through the use of different technologies. This first week I will be looking at expert systems and how they can be used to learn with and engage learners in thinking critically.

Two websites on Tweeting in Education and How Twitter Can Be Used in a Website

Take a look at this blog on how an educator named Christopher Dawson is going to use Twitter in his classroom. http://education.zdnet.com/?p=1605 Make sure to read the TalkBacks at the bottom of the page. It shares other educators experiences of using Twitter in the classroom.


This is another website called NixTheNews: Daily News and Views for Twitter. See how twitter is integrated in the this news website.

How would you use Twitter in your website & why or why not?

Brainstorm

If you have been reading my posts you have read several articles of what Twitter/ Microblogging is and how it can be used. Can you give me some ways you might integrate twitter into instruction?



(http://www.medem.com/MedLB/article_detaillb.cfm?article_ID=ZZZ0ZFP46JC&sub_cat=75)

Take a look at this short Youtube video. This gives multiple examples of how Twitter can be used and briefly focuses how it can be used in instruction. Help me brainstorm a list of ideas on how to use twitter in instruction.

Tweeting in Education

The following website is a quick read about using twitter in education. The one valuable piece of information I took away from this article is the way twitter could be a technology support system in classrooms. How many teachers have been in the middle of a lesson and had some type of technical issue. The computer may freeze or the internet disconnected and you are left with a room full of 20 students waiting for you to fix it. Using twitter as a support tool may be something school districts want to look into. http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/187

Save Now

In the next article see how Professor David Parry engages his students. He found that the twitter assignment lead to students becoming interested in the content they were learning. The students started finding information on the content outside of the class and tweeting their classmates to share the information. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080319-twitter-breaks-down-barriers-in-the-classroom.html

Please take a look at the articles Yin provided in the comments section of my previous blog. They are extremely helpful and give wonderful examples of how Twitter can be used in education. THANKS Yin!

Youtube video of explaining the multiple ways to tweet

This is a youtube video about twitter and how to use it. The gentlemen speaking gives a very LONG explanation about twitter. It also explains how to follow people and how people follow you. It describes how to interpret the data from twitter. I know it is long, but it does have a good explanation about how to use twitter. Too bad he is such a rambler. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSPRUcYoDww What do you think?

Check it out! I added Twitter to my blog. Now, whoever is looking at my blog can have a quick update of what I'm doing, which is probably something VERY important :) If you would like to add Twitter and become my friend, sign up at twitter.com. More updates to come later this week :)
P.S. The random picture is of Maui. I just wanted to try to import a picture.

Micro blogging in the business world

I discovered a website called, 5 Ways Your Business Can Embrace Microblogging, which explains how to effectively use micro blogging in the business sector. Besides twitter, other micro blogging technology includes Jaiku, Tumbir, and Pownce. Take a look and let me know what you think. I will post more on twitter later in the week.
Regards,
Ashley

What is a twitter/micro blogging?

Week Three

Twitter, its fun to say, but what is it? Before this assignment I had never heard of a twitter. I discovered three websites that helped me define a twitter, which is also known as micro blog.
The first website is a blog about micro blogging in general and more specifically, twitters. It gives definitions and other details about the technology and how it works.
The second website is strictly about twitters. It explains how to use them and why people use them, and how to sign up for one. The first two websites have a quick tutorial from youtube or teachertube demonstrating it's use.
The third website is a blog which has links within it sharing different uses of twitter and different news articles . This website is my favorite because I found it the most helpful. It is very thorough.

I am still trying to wrap my head around the idea of how it works. My understanding is that it is similar to a blog, but update in real time, a.k.a. quicker, though not used as a communication device like an instant messenger. Any thoughts? And please let me know which website was your favorite and why.

Cheers,
Ashley

Introduction

The whole idea of blogging is a new to me. I am still trying to wrap my head around the concept of how an instructional designer could adequately use this technology when creating instruction. I am sure as the semester goes on and I read and discuss more about blogging the concept will become less blurry and more focused.
After speaking with Kevin F. and reading "Educational Blogging" by Stephen Downes, I feel I understand the basic concepts of blogging, where it originated, and how it has changed over the years.
Throughout the semester I would enjoy any feedback, thoughts, and critiques one may have to better my understanding of blogging and in particular how and why instructional designers may use it effectively.
I look forward to exploring and learning with you.

Regards,
Ashley