Task 2 week 5

One of the goals of my building is to help students become physically healthier.  One way I could see this technology being used would be to have students create different routes where they could go on walks, run, bike rides, roller blading , or skateboarding.   I would have the students find where they live on google maps and create 3 different routes that the could use near their homes.  The routes would have need to be of different distances to accommodate different different needs.  I would have the students do a route where they could complete in 5-10 minutes, 10-20 minutes, and 20 to 30 minutes.  I would hope that they would see that they do not always need an hour to get some exercise in.  A ten minute walk would be better than nothing.  Homework could include going on these routes to test them out and to report back how long each route took.  Obviously the exercise would fit well into a physical education curriculum but I also see how this could be tied into social studies with the map making, math to calculate pace, speed, distance, measurement, and science with the students reporting back what kind of ecology they witnessed on their routes.   This project could be interdisciplinary or even school wide.  I think the students would like to create something at school that they find to be useful away from school.
View Larger Map

Above is a Map of three routes from my neighbor hood. Each route fits one of the three criteria.  I hope to test them out soon!

R/D9

I would like to hear a somewhat summative reflection on your experience in the course so far, particularly related to the technology-related tasks you have tackled...

Let me say that I have started this post a few times now and have gone back and deleted what I have written.  I will give a few of my thoughts in a bulleted form in order to organize my thoughts. 

• I do not always like task related experiences in classes that I have to pay for.  I say this because I do not want to pay to learn something that I can learn for free by researching on the web.  I would hope that a masters program would open up my eyes to new ideas or in this case technologies.   Many of the tasks in this class have been experiences I have already had.  I do understand that this class is early in the program.  It seems like it would be great computer imagination if a class like this designed itself around the learners experiences verses a one size fits all approach. 
• I have liked the tasks that have options the best.  When a task has an option, there is a better chance for the learner to make it meaningful to them.  I use the podcast as an example.  I produced a music before, so recording a podcast was easy.  I struggled finding ways to post it online, which is why I chose to go that route.  It would not have been meaningful for me to subscribe to a podcast for this class because I have done that prior to this semester. 
• I would like more feedback.  The times that I have not received full credit on assignments, I have been in the dark and had to seek out the guidance of the instructor.  As a teacher, I find that grades should be an indicator of what the student is learning.  I feel that in our class the grades are very behavioristic in their approach.  Do a task, get a grade.   I wonder if we were in a classroom setting we would be graded on whether we spoke 3 times or 4 times or if it what we said to each other would be held in higher value. 
• I do feel that the tasks that we have been asked to do are relevant.   I am concerned though that the technology experiences we are having will be out of date in a few years.
• I appreciate R/D9.  I do not use my RSS Feed anymore.  I do like del.icio.us.  My blog will be changed drastically after this class is done.  Blogs could be a great tool,  and free (sort of ) to implement.  
• I would like to see the EDT courses use more of Dale's Cone when designing lessons.  I feel that we are often times on our own to figure items and tasks out instead of being "taught" even though Sharon has been very quick to reply whenever I have had a question. 

R/D8

Reading Chapter 21 (R/D8) : Pick out two trends or issues that particularly surprised you and/or hit home and explain why.

I was actually surprised that the trend seems to be to include the community so much in developing systematic change.  I actually do not agree with involving the community to a certain degree.  I often feel that everyone feels they are an expert in education.  How often are parents or communities critical of a teacher, administrator, or school without any true concept of the challenges, rules, and laws that schools and staff work under.  I understand that taxes from communities support schools, at the same time getting the opinion of people who have specific agendas that may or may not be what is best for all kids of the community.  I do understand that in order to get bonds past we must get the input of the community in order for them to have ownership, at the same time I feel that it is our job as professionals to educate the public of what is best for the education of the students.  

The money involved with changing a school is also interesting.  We are currently trying to change many things in the school I work for.  The time and energy it will take to create these changes will be great.  We have applied for a grant that will help support the initiatives but that is still money coming to us that could be going somewhere else.  I often forget that schools have to be run like businesses and training staff and creating change does cost a lot of money.  It is easy to sit back and be critical when changes aren't being made, at the same time I have to remember that difficult decisions are being made and I may not always be looking through the same lens as the person making the decision.  I find it somewhat frustrating that finances control so much in schools and that schools are being forced to become more and more creative in ways to finance themselves and their programs that help the schools to be successful.

R/D7

What are, in your mind, two unique or interesting or different or noteworthy ways Instructional Design/Technology has been used in business & industry that you believe could be usefully applied to your own professional work? Explain.

Based on the reading I found two concepts to be the most note worthy.  One concept the text addreessed was the analysis.  The other concept that I found interesting was globalization.  

The text made it seam as though most businesses did not feel that analysis was important or worth the investment of time or money.  I found this appalling because of the fact that it seems as though analysis is what allows instructional design to be successful or not.  As a designer it is extrememely important to know your audience and who you are designing for.  The analysis stage is where a designer would get their information on what is important to put into the design.  If a civil engineer did not do analysis on a bridge project, there would be no way for them to successfully design a bridge.  A engineer would have to check the soil, the traffic, the distance, the materials, the budget, etc... It would be much more expensive for a company to have to build two bridges ignoring analysis.  It is not much different when desiging instruction without analysis.  If a company were to pay an instructional designer but not pay or allow time for analysis an instructional designer would not be "playing with a full deck."  In my professional line of work I am glad that I get to decide how much time I spend on each step of design.   I can spend time getting to know my audience before designing lessons.  Also, I get a many opportunities to redo lessons or re teach concepts if my analysis tells me that what I did, did not work.  

Globalization was interesting to me.  This really hit home as we just had two students join our school who do not speak English.  I can see as a professional it will become more and more important to become versed in ways of communicating.  It will also become more and more important for schools to teach students about a flattening world and globalization along with preparing for them.  Business needs to help shape what schools are doing and if the business is becoming global... learning needs have a global perspective. 

R/D6

Related to Chapter 14 (R/D6), 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?

What I really liked about this chapter is how it discussed different ways of helping improve "performance."  I couldn't help but think of a teacher trying 10 different ways to train a student to solve a math equation, yet the student still may get it wrong on a test or a real world application.  As an educator I do feel we need to think outside of the box, especially to help with students motivation.  An unmotivated student who does not value their "training" will most likely not perform well on any given test (whether its authentic or contrite).  HPI allows for many different interventions.  I also see how the interventions that would be used would need to come from analysis.  How many times as educators do we just try an intervention before truly analyzing a situation.  Maybe its an intervention that we've had success with before, but how many times are the situations that have caused an poor performance truly the same.

I could definitely see my self using HPI in the classroom as a way to force myself to analyze both my audience and the causes for performances.  I would also like to keep the openness of the concept close to heart as my school is attempting to implement miblisi, which is a reading/behavior initiative to help boost reading abilities and promoting positive behavior.

1.  I posted a podcast, so I will not be answering #1.

2.  What added value might podcasting have in your professional setting (company, school, etc.)?  

A few ideas include for uses of pod casts may include:

• Announcements and Updates- everyday we have very annoying updates at our school  both at the beginning of the day and at the end.  Some of this information is vital for parents, yet the kids do not always listen well or tell their parents.  A podcast would be a great way to share vital information that could be updated quite frequently with ease.  
• When kids are absent they often miss information, similarly kids miss information when they are taking notes.  If a teacher is lecturing, why not turn it into a pod cast so that it could be revisited by students and accessed by them at home.   
• Podcasts seem to be travel friendly with Ipods and similar devices.   Students could access information on the go along with listen to lessons, ideas, or concepts at their own pace for understanding. 
• Podcasts also level the playing field for entertainment opportunities.  Anyone can become a radio personality, if you are good enough,  they will listen. 

Podcasts interesting and fun.  We'll have to see what the long term effects and uses are.  They do seem to have a lot or momentum right now. 

R/D5

Do I think that the internet and Web will have a major impact in k-12 education, higher education, adult education?

Yes.  The web and internet will have a great impact on all forms of education in the future.  The book gave us evidence on how different instructional media has changed education in all all three areas in the past.  It would be naive to think that the internet and the web would not have at the same if not greater impact on education.  First off, the internet allows information to be shared at amazing speed.  That information is not confined to one type of media.  Through the internet we can access video, audio, static pictures, softwares, simulations, literature, participate in discourse, virtually explore geography and virtually perform science experience.  

     The web seems to be currently having a large impact on higher education.  I can say this because it is amazing to think that I can earn a degree a university with out ever setting foot on it.   Having a whole class exist with out ever seeing each other seems like a big change from driving to a campus and sitting in a hot stuffy room, where there is only room for 20.  The nice thing about the web, the it seems to be only limited by bandwidth, gigahertz, bytes, servers, etc.. all of which are growing at exponential rates.   Right now our class is only limited by the amount of time and effort an instructor can put into planning and participating in our experience and grading out work.   I wonder if higher education will be more of a wiki experience where the group polices itself, learns in a constructivist approach and awards and privledges are given by the group as a whole...

I have seen recently the effect of how the web has changed adult training.  I use to have to go to a meeting once a year to be updated on the rules of track and field.  For me it was a quick drive of 10 miles.  There would be coaches who would show up from over 60 miles away.   This year however, we were able to be trained over the internet by watching a video.  In fact, I felt I got more out of the video because it much more interactive than a man presenting to a room of 90 board coaches.   Also, I now get to watch other training videos for school at my convenience  over the net as opposed.  This is a great way to value time.   

     Another thought I had when I read this question was that with more and more people working at home or collaborating across the world though the use of the internet, it seems that there would have to be similar educational experiences.  If you hire a person to do work for you in Texas but you live in Michigan, the web seems like a fairly inexpensive way to communicate and train someone instead. 

My First Podcast...

Not the most interesting content... but this could be a really neat way to communicate information. Hope this works.

EDT5410-MattSwanson.mp3