Final Synthesis Project

2nd Grade Monarch Butterfly Lesson using a Blog
http://2ndgrademonarchbutterfly.blogspot.com/

Week 7 Activity

Review two applications:
I explored Google Documents and found it to be similar to Microsoft Suites. There are many new features to Google Docs that are useful for many different types of projects. One of the great features is it is free! Speaker notes can now be added which enable you to add the audio to your visuals. Relating back to Chapter 30 this is an effective way in delivering a lesson. The collaboration tool is very cool, where you can collaborate with others from different locations. This is a application I need more experience with, but from viewing it and playing around briefly it seems as though it will be a powerful piece of technology to incorporate into lessons or use for other purposes.
The other application I reviewed is Phixr. I don't do the photo editing. From previous experience I typically make the picture worse and can't ever seem to fix it. I played around a bit with Phixr and found it to be okay. I am more of the type of person who would do better if I had someone to go through it with me. I can easily become frustrated with type of task. I usually leave my pictures alone and print them the way they were taken with the camera. A goal of mine for the summer is to get my family pictures in order so I may look further into one of these applications and set forth on my journey to organzing photos. I look forward to reading about others reviews and see which will work best for my needs.

Chapter 31 R/D 13

What most made you say (or think) "that's so neat!" Why?
My that is so neat moment was the AI The application of Articificial Intelligence. That is pretty amazing to think about instructional systems meeting the individual academic needs of the students. I like this part "At the individual level, future instructional systems will diagnose learning needs, learning aptitudes, and styles; develop instruction tailored to identified needs and aptitudes; modify the level and type of feedback and instructional strategy based on learner responses and progress; and implement best practices guidelines based up-to-date research findings" (Reiser & Dempsey, p. 326). I feel as though this would be beneficial to all students to have something that is accurate and allows the teacher to construct lessons that will exactly meet the students' needs. To keep the students working at a pace that they can handle and be continously learning and adding onto their prior knowledge, I can't help to think that this would help assist in discipline problems as well. I have learned especially from this last school year how much low achievers are affected behaviorally by their assignments, having to give them grade level work when they are not there is difficult. My concern would be how closely this would match state standardized testing. Because of this extreme change in teaching would the tests then be changed in some way to accomodate for the way learning changed. For schools to take to using instructional systems it would have to not only meet student needs but follow state standards and benchmarks as well as GLCE's and district standards. To me this all sounds very cool!

RD/12

Describe two tangible take-aways that you think you could apply in your work. In other words, what are two ways you believe you can apply ideas in this chapter to improve your teaching/instructional design work?

I found this chapter interesting on the studies conducted for what works better. Although it seems directed towards adults, I am curious if the same outcomes hold true for the younger generation? I often found myself thinking about PowerPoint while reading chapter 30. When adding to a lesson and giving prior knowledge PowerPoint can be a very powerful tool. When I am creating a powerpoint I will be conscious of the pieces that are overloading and stick with the important information. I was suprised to read, what the book refers to as seductive details, were not helpful to the learner. I thought about how I use "seductive detail" I use them to pull the listener in, I like to give those "wow" pieces into a lesson. I always felt that they made information stick with a person longer, but not according to Harp and Mayer (1997) who conducted a study that the seductive details suppressed learning dramatically.
I will also take away from this chapter the the effectiveness of having visuals with audio narration. This would be beneficial in science and social studies lessons, where difficult concepts and be further explained using visuals with audio.

Website Week 6 Activity

I chose to put a web page together for my daughter for over the summer. She will be in Kindergarten in the fall and I thought this would be an easy way for her to get on the computer and be able to choose from some educational games I have selected.

http://darcykline2.googlepages.com/home

I found a great virtual tour of the Underground railroad that is a great piece to the social studies curriculum when study it.

http://darcykline2.googlepages.com/undergroundrailroad

Screencasts

After reading the Udell article, viewing the screencast example (and others if you choose),and the Camtasia tutorial, you should have a decent sense of what is generally possible in screencasting.
Based on this, develop and describe (in detail) an idea for a screencast or set of screencasts that either you would develop for your students or that your students would create for each other (or the general public or some other audience).
Describe how this would fit into a larger lesson and why it would be an essential part of the lesson (and not just window-dressing).

Two years ago I attended the MACUL and was able to go through a class on Camtasia, unfortunatly our district didn't have the funds to purchase this powerful tool. I was able to create a quick tutorial during the class. This could be used for many things in school. I was sitting through a math workshop today and discussing areas students struggle with, if I could create a screencast on for example fractions maybe that would be an avenue for help in students understanding of fractions. We have started a new math curriculum series that seems to speed right through many of the unit and doesnt' allow ample time for student mastery, it would be very helpful for the students to have screencasts to go to and use when they find they are struggling with an area. I realize this would be a time consuming task, but it would act as supplementary material in assisting with the curriculum. From this school year we just completed, I know many of my students would benefit from a learning resource like this. They want to be on the computer and they also get very excited when they are watching something that fits right along with what they are learning. A screencast could be created for each grade level matching each unit of study. This would also be across the district, so for students transferring within district they would already be familiar with the screencasts. It would also be beneficial for the students to create a screencast on what they have learned, strategies for solving math problems. I have to complete more work with our math curriculum and will keep this in mind and explore the capability of providing this in my school.

RD 10 Chapter 22

Since you have now read for the past few weeks about instructional design/technology in three different contexts (business, P -12 & higher ed), identify 2 or 3 significant themes or differences you have noticed across these contexts and describe them. Is there a particular area or way that you believe your current professional working environment could learn from the other contexts described in these chapters?

The themes among the chapters I found significant are the collaboration and process. Everything is put together by a team of members whom collaboratively work together to complete a process of steps to obtain a specific goal. Ch. 22 refers to the five stories shared about the common roles of becoming a full professor. Again these are two process where each individual is working for a goal that can only be met through collaboration. Ch. 21 discusses Product vs. Process approaches (Reiser & Dempsey p. 211). This approach to change must occur with collaboration, research teams are actively working towards a better understanding of the process and how schools should be transformed.

I believe my professional working environment could learn from the Step-Up-To-Excellence piece on page 213. Our district is going through drastic changes that need to follow a systematic approach to ensure a design is implemented that will positively affect the families, students, and staff. I have faith that the administration department followed some type of process that they collaboratively worked on to choose the best decision for everyone. It is difficult to watch all of this happen and not know what is actually happening to the schools. Everything is planned out through meetings and so forth, but it is not until a decision is made that faculty finds out information regarding their jobs. For me, this feels as though it has some gaps in the plan for smooth tranistions. Hopefully with practice, but not too much, the district will have implemented a well developed process for conduting business such as school closings.

RD/ 11 Chapter 27

reflect on what you perceive to be your own areas of strength and what competencies you feel you need to work hardest to develop given your professional goals. State and describe at least three competencies you’d like to develop and why. I do understand that most of you are school teachers, not ID&T professionals, but certainly there is plenty overlap between these different types of roles

Right of the bat the definition of competencies is the quality of being competent; as having suitable or sufficient skill, knowledge, experience, or being qualifeied to perform a task (Reiser & Dempsey, p. 272). Thus far in my career I feel as though I have been tossed around due to budget cuts I have lost out on the experience. Every year I am learning a new schools expectations and new curriculum. I feel like a first year teacher every year. On the other hand, this does give me strengths as well. I am familiar with several curriculums at various grade levels and subjects, such as Physical Education and Enrichment (technology). As well as, I adapt well to new surroundings and can work collarboratively with staff members to best benefit the children. I would like to develop further in analyzing data, designing and developing instructional methods and strategies. With more experience and time I will feel more competent in these areas, but would like to focus on creating data I can interpret and go back to the classroom, teach, reteach and go from there. I know it is key to have many instructional strategies, it keeps things interesting and hits on the different learning styles of people.

R/D 8 Chapter 21

Well, I finally did have a chance to get the correct book! I'm glad I had the opportunity to read this chapter. The district I am working for is going through a district wide systemic change and I was pleasantly surprised with the reading. There were definitely some things our district did in comparison to the reading such as "some "discrete events" a chronological series of activities for engaging in systemic change" (Reiser & Dempsey, p. 211). We have put together many activities for staff, families, and students to adjust to the upcoming facility plans of merger two schools into four different elementarys. The pre-planning for all of this was not handled as well as it could have been. The chapter refers to "one of the most common reasons for organization transformation to fail is lack of good preparation and planning (Reiser & Dempsey, p. 214). Once the staff took action about the matter the district chose to be proactive and listen to us. Which I felt fit well with continuous events. We have now had direct contact with the assistant superintendent as well as the superintendent, while things are still in progress many of the matters are now being handled. I think it will be interesting what next year will look like for all of us with these mergers. I can envision most classes with about 30 students in them. I am curious how this is helping our students and what is best for them. In addition, what will the district look like in 5 years, will their plan hold true of remodeling and building new elementarys? Only time will tell. This reading was very interesting in learning more about what is entailed with all of these changes that can occur.

R/D7 Chapter 18

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

I found the technology-based training to be interesting and pertain to the educational field. Not only does the technology based training save on costs but it also can involve more professionals that couldn't attend due to budget constraints. This seems to be a never ending battle for many educational facilities. Everyone wants highly qualified teacher, to meet the "No Child Left Behind" law, but to what extent is this being meant. I feel if we incorporate more training using technology more educators could be reached. Pod casts, Web casts, discussion boards, blogs, and so are all ways for people to gather information, reflect on it, discuss the benefits and weaknesses and move forward and apply what they have learned. It could then be revisited to obtain feedback for what went well and what didn't. People could also choose professional development that pertains to what he/she is teaching. I personally have been to numerous pd's that have no bearing on what I teach and I'm only there to get my training done. That is not what training is, if it doesn't pertain to my subject being taught why am I there?

Another interesting instructional design is that of globalization of training. I would be very interesting in what is being taught in other countries. How are we as a country comparing to other countries. Through the software the developers are creating on tackling the language barrier, all kinds of new doors could open with communication across the globe.

I find it very exciting to learn about ideas and concepts from anyone whether they are teaching next door or half way around the globe that I can take and incorporate into my teachings. Using technology will have a new affect on the way training is conducted. Hopefully, many schools in the area will take advantage of these incredible tools and allow teachers quality training.

Week 5 Task 2 Activity Google Maps

My lesson is geared towards 2nd grade. Sometime in the beginning of the year I would have them start pen-pal letters. The 2nd graders would find a state they would like to learn more about and select a city within that state. At that point we could pull up Google maps to explore any interesting facts about the area. The student's would then start to create their letter writing skills. As a class, we would make a plan of interesting places in Battle Creek, such as Kingman Museum, Leila Arboretum, Post Elementary, Post Cereal, and of course somewhere fun like Full Blast. I would create a Google map of the places we came up with and the students would incorporate the map into their writing. (If I were doing the pen-pal letters with upper grades I would try something an online pen-pal site). This activity could continue all year and students would be able to share what they learned about their state with their classmates. We could continue to develop the map all year as well.
http://maps.google.com/maps/empw?url=http:%2F%2Fmaps.google.com%2Fmaps%2Fms%3Fie%3DUTF8%26msa%3D0%26msid%3D101122621346498101082.00044ef489ea6723ba861%26ll%3D42.31617,-85.18022%26spn%3D0.008169,0.018711%26output%3Dembed%26s%3DAARTsJpeHyDLiCHGZN7ojSOJA1e-UDtXkQ&hl=en&gl=us

R/D9 Course Reflections

I have found in the beginning many things were confusing. I never use the wmu e-mail, so I was behind from the start by not looking there for information. In my previous classes everything was done on blackboard, I liked that. All discussions, posts, and assignments were put in the drop box, and for each grade I was given comments ( That was a big motivator for me)! So far, the blog is more of an inconvenience than a helpful tool. I have always wanted to set up and use a blog. I thought it would be something a class could use, until I found that it is blocked from our server. The wiki again glad to be able to create one, but not sure if I would ever use it. I really enjoyed using Google maps I can invision incorporate it into my lessons. One thing I struggle with is I don't feel like very much of what I am learning geared towards elementary level. That is how I try to put things into perspective, since that is what I teach and plan on continuing to teach. Also, the requirements for responding to posts. If 4 responses need to be made than that is the minimum requirement for full points. It was not clear on how many should be made how would we know you didn't want 3 or 5 I didn't find it stated what we should be doing until after the fact. The book is okay, again my experience using blackboard's discussion board seemed to be a better means in having meaningful discussions it was set up as more of a dialogue. Overall, I have learned new information, which is always a good thing, and was exposed to new technology I haven't used before. I can't wait for summer break to start and really play with some of the technology like the photosharing!