Hello all!
Kudos to everyone who presented this past Tuesday - what an interesting array of topics we have! I really enjoyed all the new information:)
Ben - Information Architecture
I really enjoyed your presentation Ben because you talked so much about the end user and wanting them to be satisfied with the product (website) that you are trying to put together for them. Usability on a website is so important so that you don't lose customers.
Joe and Martin - Reference sharing project
You guys did a great job with this database; something like this takes a lot of hard work, and your effort really shows through. I will be checking in over the next two semesters to see what additions you have made to it - great job!
Bryan - HTML
YEAH, Bryan! I am so glad you did this presentation because I was honestly HTMLaphobic for awhile, but with your help I think I overcame some of my anxiety with it. It really is just a new language to learn. I mentioned to you that I bought the book you were talking about - the headfirst one. That is going to be one of my reading projects. Thanks again!
Keith - RPG
Your game is amazing! I think this could be something I am going to try to do for the libraries. Since RPG maker is freeware, it's perfect since we really don't have much to work with in regard to funds. Such a great job - thanks for sharing!!
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Monday, December 04, 2006
6 words for Tuesday's class
technology-on-the-backburner (sorry) :)
funding
government
outcome-based
connected
untapped
funding
government
outcome-based
connected
untapped
Sunday, December 03, 2006
About "The Computer Delusion"
Hi all,
After last class, I looked over our readings more and found that I thought of some other feelings I had toward the conclusions the author came up with. Namely, I looked at "The Computer Delusion" by Todd Oppenheimer. I found that his article was one-sided in that it didn't speak to the other activities teachers are doing in classrooms besides their use of technology. If you are going to look at technology's effectiveness or lack thereof on student achievement in the classroom, the researchers should also look at the quality of the teacher and their integration of technology into the classroom and also the school systems take on teacher training on the technology so that it can be used appropriately.
I also thought about our role as educational technologists. Our goal is to find ways to effectively use technology to enhance education; it's not to use technology instead of teaching; it's to use technology to promote a more wholesome learning environment, coupled with traditional teaching methods, to supplement the traditional. In Oppenheimer's article, he approaches the topic of educational technology as one that is only for the use of technology in education, as if we are going to do away with the traditional altogether. I feel his argument is unfair in that area. Did I read him incorrectly?
That's my thoughts for now...more later
Kathryn :)
After last class, I looked over our readings more and found that I thought of some other feelings I had toward the conclusions the author came up with. Namely, I looked at "The Computer Delusion" by Todd Oppenheimer. I found that his article was one-sided in that it didn't speak to the other activities teachers are doing in classrooms besides their use of technology. If you are going to look at technology's effectiveness or lack thereof on student achievement in the classroom, the researchers should also look at the quality of the teacher and their integration of technology into the classroom and also the school systems take on teacher training on the technology so that it can be used appropriately.
I also thought about our role as educational technologists. Our goal is to find ways to effectively use technology to enhance education; it's not to use technology instead of teaching; it's to use technology to promote a more wholesome learning environment, coupled with traditional teaching methods, to supplement the traditional. In Oppenheimer's article, he approaches the topic of educational technology as one that is only for the use of technology in education, as if we are going to do away with the traditional altogether. I feel his argument is unfair in that area. Did I read him incorrectly?
That's my thoughts for now...more later
Kathryn :)
Say "Hello" to Mii little friend :)
Hi everyone,
I wanted to introduce everyone to my Mii, my personal Wii character. :) She has Pro status in Wii Tennis...not in real life :) hahaha!
Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend, especially after our amazing win yesterday against Arkansas! YEAH! Go Gators!
See you Tuesday,
Kathryn :)
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Comments on Presentations 11/30
Instructional Design - Brooke
As an instructor in the library, whenever I am asked to do a new instruction, I have to look at everything Brooke talked about tonight. Assessing the user needs is definitely the most important part for my instruction because each user group is completely different. Another topic that Brooke spoke about was evaluation and how you need to see if your learners are in fact learning anything. This is another issue that the libraries deal with. Our group found that the Dick and Carey was too inside the box, too restricted. Awesome job! I hope you are feeling better!
Quality of Life - Michiko
Michiko touched upon something that I am very much interested in within her presentation, and that is the concept of lifelong learning. How do we help people continue to learn throughout their life, assisting them in making new connections with past learning experiences. I really enjoyed this presentation, especially learning the theories of aging. I hadn't come across those in my reading yet. If you get a chance, Michiko, could you post your presentation? I would really like to learn more about the theories. Thanks! And great job!
Security - Vasa
Vasa, you did a great job on this presentation! I can't believe the video that you showed us; how scarey. Security is one of the main reasons some of my family has not joined the Internet craze. I think the main thing is that you have to learn how security works (or doesn't) on these sites before taking part in them. Although, I am not sure how you would learn how a site is secure unless it's stated, but even then, how can you trust that? Is there some kind of measure of safety that some agency has come out with that will help consumers protect themselves?
Denise - Culturally Relevant Teaching
I found Denise's presentation fascinating. When I was growing up, I saw the opposite of this happen in schools that I attended. Some teachers never gave students chances and really focused on their cultural background, social status, etc. Some even made comments negatively towards/about students. How can technology assist in this process? When you posed this question, Denise, the first thing I thought about is how teachers could develop a learning network, sharing stories and learning from each others' experiences. I think this would be the first thing that needs to happen so that people see the issues that are currently out there and then can work together to fix them. Great job!
Thanks for all your hard work on your presentations!
As an instructor in the library, whenever I am asked to do a new instruction, I have to look at everything Brooke talked about tonight. Assessing the user needs is definitely the most important part for my instruction because each user group is completely different. Another topic that Brooke spoke about was evaluation and how you need to see if your learners are in fact learning anything. This is another issue that the libraries deal with. Our group found that the Dick and Carey was too inside the box, too restricted. Awesome job! I hope you are feeling better!
Quality of Life - Michiko
Michiko touched upon something that I am very much interested in within her presentation, and that is the concept of lifelong learning. How do we help people continue to learn throughout their life, assisting them in making new connections with past learning experiences. I really enjoyed this presentation, especially learning the theories of aging. I hadn't come across those in my reading yet. If you get a chance, Michiko, could you post your presentation? I would really like to learn more about the theories. Thanks! And great job!
Security - Vasa
Vasa, you did a great job on this presentation! I can't believe the video that you showed us; how scarey. Security is one of the main reasons some of my family has not joined the Internet craze. I think the main thing is that you have to learn how security works (or doesn't) on these sites before taking part in them. Although, I am not sure how you would learn how a site is secure unless it's stated, but even then, how can you trust that? Is there some kind of measure of safety that some agency has come out with that will help consumers protect themselves?
Denise - Culturally Relevant Teaching
I found Denise's presentation fascinating. When I was growing up, I saw the opposite of this happen in schools that I attended. Some teachers never gave students chances and really focused on their cultural background, social status, etc. Some even made comments negatively towards/about students. How can technology assist in this process? When you posed this question, Denise, the first thing I thought about is how teachers could develop a learning network, sharing stories and learning from each others' experiences. I think this would be the first thing that needs to happen so that people see the issues that are currently out there and then can work together to fix them. Great job!
Thanks for all your hard work on your presentations!
Former UF graduate who doesn't use technology...
For our article this week, I chose one from the March 31, 2000, issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education. The article is called "David Noble's Battle to Defend the 'Sacred Space' of the Classroom," which speaks about a professor and author who doesn't use any form of technology. He doesn't use email; he writes his books on paper and submits them to publishers as is; he doesn't make webpages for his courses nor does he have an online presence except for what other people publish about him; he refuses to teach online courses... It's an interesting piece to read. http://chronicle.com/free/v46/i30/30a00101.htm
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Addicted to Wii :(
Because our internet connection is not working at home, I have been slacking in the "do work at home" area, and instead have taken up Wii sports on Mat's Wii system. I have to admit that I LOVE playing it. When I was younger, I was known as the Nintendo master on the first system (sad, right?). Since then, I have let my abilities go and have been turned off by the 90-button controller games, such as the playstation and game cube that have 90 buttons on them that you have to try to hit all at once to get the player to do anything correctly. Now, the Wii is here, and I am addicted once again. I also would like to get the Atari system - that is so great! My sister had one of those when we were growing up, and I played it sometimes and loved it. I guess my mind is too simple for the confusion involved in the 90-button controller games. Simple is better :)
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Response to Vasa, Dr. Dawson and Martin
Thank you all for your comments about the post on forced learning and imagination/creativity/motivation. I read in one of the papers for my class paper that some teachers see undergraduates as not having the maturity to be in more adult-learning-theory situations. I feel this is a little off base. What do you guys think? As long as the instructor makes the topic of the course something that interests the students and develops fun, thought-provoking interactive activities for the students to participate in, then I don't see this as being a problem. Do some faculty write off undergraduates just on the notion that they are not mature enough to interact in a learning environment? Is it too much of a challenge? Or do they just not have the time to make their course an interactive, learning-based one? Just thinking outloud... :)
Comments on 11/9 presentations
Hi all,
Sorry for my delay in response to last week's presentations. Trying to play catch-up now. Each presentation really hit home with projects that I am working on at work and school.
Mary's presentation touched upon an organization's unwillingness to change quickly. I think with teacher training, some of these issues would be past quicker by administration. Most of the time, administration isn't even involved in the activity that people would like to modify or change; because of this, they don't see the immediacy in needing to change it. Change theory would come into play here. Great job Mary!
Ted's topic of copyright was really interesting, hitting an issue that libraries deal with on a daily basis. What is considered public domain and fair use...many of us are unsure because the lines are so blurred between. With the Google Book Project, I find this topic fascinating. I am also teaching a class on Google in the library and how we can use Google to answer questions on the reference desk. It's taking awhile to get librarians around the world to see how useful Google is to them as information providers. Excellent job Ted!
Michael presented on corporate e-learning and the trends within it. I am really interested in this because engineers, the group that I work with at my current job, span across the corporate, academic, not-for-profit and military areas. It's interested to see how some of the different engineering fields are trying to educate across those four areas. For example, the Advanced Learning Environment has been set up by aerospace engineers to span across these four areas, to reach as many professionals as possible. I think something like this should be set up for all subjects. Great job Michael!
And Jade's presentation on social networking was very thought-provoking. Especially when we broke into groups, we got to work on how we really would react to some of the situations presented in the articles that everyone submitted to discuss. I really feel that social networking could work in a personalized learning environment, the topic that I wrote on for the class paper. Learning still can occur in informal environments, such as SNCs. Thanks, Jade!
That's all for now!
Kathryn :)
Sorry for my delay in response to last week's presentations. Trying to play catch-up now. Each presentation really hit home with projects that I am working on at work and school.
Mary's presentation touched upon an organization's unwillingness to change quickly. I think with teacher training, some of these issues would be past quicker by administration. Most of the time, administration isn't even involved in the activity that people would like to modify or change; because of this, they don't see the immediacy in needing to change it. Change theory would come into play here. Great job Mary!
Ted's topic of copyright was really interesting, hitting an issue that libraries deal with on a daily basis. What is considered public domain and fair use...many of us are unsure because the lines are so blurred between. With the Google Book Project, I find this topic fascinating. I am also teaching a class on Google in the library and how we can use Google to answer questions on the reference desk. It's taking awhile to get librarians around the world to see how useful Google is to them as information providers. Excellent job Ted!
Michael presented on corporate e-learning and the trends within it. I am really interested in this because engineers, the group that I work with at my current job, span across the corporate, academic, not-for-profit and military areas. It's interested to see how some of the different engineering fields are trying to educate across those four areas. For example, the Advanced Learning Environment has been set up by aerospace engineers to span across these four areas, to reach as many professionals as possible. I think something like this should be set up for all subjects. Great job Michael!
And Jade's presentation on social networking was very thought-provoking. Especially when we broke into groups, we got to work on how we really would react to some of the situations presented in the articles that everyone submitted to discuss. I really feel that social networking could work in a personalized learning environment, the topic that I wrote on for the class paper. Learning still can occur in informal environments, such as SNCs. Thanks, Jade!
That's all for now!
Kathryn :)
Monday, November 13, 2006
SNC - Stalking a "good thing"?
I was at my boyfriend's intramural softball game last night, and I heard someone say that he was a mySpace stalker...and I was thinking to myself..."Stalking is not something that you would readily admit in public, but OK"...Everyone around the guy started laughing. When did the word "stalker" become something that everyone is comfortable with? I thought that was interesting.
Kathryn :)
Kathryn :)
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Lifelong learning and PLEs
Hi everyone,
Thanks for participating in my presentation on Thursday. I hope you got something out of it:) I will be talking a little more about PLEs and lifelong learning as I do the class paper, which (as of now) is about PLEs and engineers. Here is my presentation if you would like to view it at your leisure:
http://grove.ufl.edu/~kkenned/pres/LL_and_PLEs.pdf (170KB)
Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!
Kathryn :)
Thanks for participating in my presentation on Thursday. I hope you got something out of it:) I will be talking a little more about PLEs and lifelong learning as I do the class paper, which (as of now) is about PLEs and engineers. Here is my presentation if you would like to view it at your leisure:
http://grove.ufl.edu/~kkenned/pres/LL_and_PLEs.pdf (170KB)
Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!
Kathryn :)
NSD article
The article I read for the NSD assignment for next week is:
Warren and Holloman. (2005). Online Instruction: Are the Outcomes the Same? Journal of Instructional Psychology, 32(2), 148-151.
It talks about a course that was offered both online and f2f at the College of Education at East Carolina University. There were a total of 52 students, split equally between the online and f2f. 80% of the students were female and around the age of 33-34. Students were pre-assessed and post-assessed to determine if they learned anything. The authors determined that there was no significant difference between what the students learned in the online environment as compared to the f2f environment. This was measured by the assessments, grades, and end-of-semester evaluations. The group of people who were studied are teachers doing continuing teacher education courses.
Warren and Holloman. (2005). Online Instruction: Are the Outcomes the Same? Journal of Instructional Psychology, 32(2), 148-151.
It talks about a course that was offered both online and f2f at the College of Education at East Carolina University. There were a total of 52 students, split equally between the online and f2f. 80% of the students were female and around the age of 33-34. Students were pre-assessed and post-assessed to determine if they learned anything. The authors determined that there was no significant difference between what the students learned in the online environment as compared to the f2f environment. This was measured by the assessments, grades, and end-of-semester evaluations. The group of people who were studied are teachers doing continuing teacher education courses.
Response to Joe, re: forced learning and motivation
This is a reply to Joe's post on his blog about the media-methods debate...
As I said in class, I earned my Master's degree entirely online and found that some of my courses were worth taking online while I felt others should have been done in a f2f environment. One idea that I thought stuck out in your discussion above (despite the awesome thought of a throwdown between Jaws vs. Darth Vader) is your mentioning "forced learning." I feel as though this happens all the time in courses that are not designed in a constructivist manner, which during my BA degree was ALL of my classes. The assignments were developed narrowly, allowing for no imagination (something that Brooke mentioned in her blog). With no allowance for imagination, how is one to be motivated to work at all? You are essentially working to get a grade to get a degree. I don't see the fairness in that for the student; you are getting cheated out of something that you are paying SO MUCH for. And I know that some students like that sense of just being told what they need to write about and then they do it and get a grade. For example, one of my friends is teaching a class at UF and has her students doing things that are very constructivist, but they say they want her to pick a topic for them so that they don't have to pick one. What are they going to school for if it's not to work on projects where they get to pick what they want to do and think on their own two feet? Is it just me?
As I said in class, I earned my Master's degree entirely online and found that some of my courses were worth taking online while I felt others should have been done in a f2f environment. One idea that I thought stuck out in your discussion above (despite the awesome thought of a throwdown between Jaws vs. Darth Vader) is your mentioning "forced learning." I feel as though this happens all the time in courses that are not designed in a constructivist manner, which during my BA degree was ALL of my classes. The assignments were developed narrowly, allowing for no imagination (something that Brooke mentioned in her blog). With no allowance for imagination, how is one to be motivated to work at all? You are essentially working to get a grade to get a degree. I don't see the fairness in that for the student; you are getting cheated out of something that you are paying SO MUCH for. And I know that some students like that sense of just being told what they need to write about and then they do it and get a grade. For example, one of my friends is teaching a class at UF and has her students doing things that are very constructivist, but they say they want her to pick a topic for them so that they don't have to pick one. What are they going to school for if it's not to work on projects where they get to pick what they want to do and think on their own two feet? Is it just me?
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Jade's presentation - Facebook and MySpace causing school board administrators to act like parents...
For Jade's presentation, I chose the following article that ran in USA Today on 10/26/06:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-10-25-school-blogs_x.htm
The article is entitled "Students, officials locking horns over blogs" by Alan Gomez and talks about the fact that all over the country school board administrators are bringing their attention to MySpace and Facebook accounts of their students. They are usually tipped off by parents or students about some derogatory or explicit comments/images that are on another student's page. What students don't like is that they are being governed by the administrators of the schools, having their free speech/expression being stepped on by someone other than their parents. Some students have gotten expulsions from school because of the material on their page. What do you think about this situation? Do you think administrators are going too far with their authority, becoming the pseudoparents of the students? Or do you think that students should be more cautious about what they share on their social space?
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-10-25-school-blogs_x.htm
The article is entitled "Students, officials locking horns over blogs" by Alan Gomez and talks about the fact that all over the country school board administrators are bringing their attention to MySpace and Facebook accounts of their students. They are usually tipped off by parents or students about some derogatory or explicit comments/images that are on another student's page. What students don't like is that they are being governed by the administrators of the schools, having their free speech/expression being stepped on by someone other than their parents. Some students have gotten expulsions from school because of the material on their page. What do you think about this situation? Do you think administrators are going too far with their authority, becoming the pseudoparents of the students? Or do you think that students should be more cautious about what they share on their social space?
Dan's presentation - Comments on metadata and tagging
Kudos to Dan for his presentation this past Thursday about reusable learning objects. We use metadata all the time in libraries in order to organize information into manageable sense. What I thought was most interesting about Dan's presentation was the mention of tagging and organization. While I was browsing my bloglines account, I noticed that there is a new study going on at Penn State that is exploring the tagging of images. But it's not just the tagging of images by the user, but it's the automatic tagging of images done by the system itself! HELLO! Talk about your timesaver! In my KodakGallery.com account, I spend at least 30 minutes on top of the download time (at least 30 minutes) to add tags to my pictures for quick finding later. Imagine a system that does it for you...
http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/wp-trackback.php?p=398
I'm interested in finding out how this type of system works. How can it recognize that a photo has a background that is made of up trees and other natural elements, such as water?
http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/wp-trackback.php?p=398
I'm interested in finding out how this type of system works. How can it recognize that a photo has a background that is made of up trees and other natural elements, such as water?
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Beefing up the bibliography
After talking with Dr. Dawson last week, I decided to refocus and beef up the bibliography that we had to turn in last week. The reason I am doing this is to hopefully get an article published about the use of virtual learning environments in engineering education. I did a literature search today and found 20 articles that initially match the search criteria. I will have to read them over to see if they all pertain to what I want to write about, and if not, I will exclude them.
Technical Development Project - complete
Hi everyone,
As you may know, my technical development project was to use Dreamweaver to create a personal and professional website. Since I am presenting in class this week, I decided to finish my website today so that I had time to work on my presentation for Thursday.
Here is a summary of my thoughts on my technical development project:
While doing this project, I found it difficult to remember and apply new things I learned from one work session to the next since I worked on it mostly on the weekends only. I did find it fun to explore new tools in Macromedia Dreamweaver that Contribute does not have. While the NetG classes were helpful, I felt as though there were some things that I should learn more about before trying to incorporate them into my website, such as CSS. I found that using the blog and asking questions to people who are more experienced than I am was very helpful. I received great tips to enhance my website by using the blog. All things considered, I feel like I have learned enough about Macromedia Dreamweaver to make a functional website. For the upcoming year, I will work on the accessibility of the website and try to streamline the HTML so that it’s cleaner than it is now and will optimize it by incorporating style sheets.
Here is the final product: http://grove.ufl.edu/~kkenned/pages/kathryn_kennedy.htm
As you may know, my technical development project was to use Dreamweaver to create a personal and professional website. Since I am presenting in class this week, I decided to finish my website today so that I had time to work on my presentation for Thursday.
Here is a summary of my thoughts on my technical development project:
While doing this project, I found it difficult to remember and apply new things I learned from one work session to the next since I worked on it mostly on the weekends only. I did find it fun to explore new tools in Macromedia Dreamweaver that Contribute does not have. While the NetG classes were helpful, I felt as though there were some things that I should learn more about before trying to incorporate them into my website, such as CSS. I found that using the blog and asking questions to people who are more experienced than I am was very helpful. I received great tips to enhance my website by using the blog. All things considered, I feel like I have learned enough about Macromedia Dreamweaver to make a functional website. For the upcoming year, I will work on the accessibility of the website and try to streamline the HTML so that it’s cleaner than it is now and will optimize it by incorporating style sheets.
Here is the final product: http://grove.ufl.edu/~kkenned/pages/kathryn_kennedy.htm
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Tech Dev Prj - Dreamweaver NetG courses
Hello all,
I completed the Dreamweaver NetG courses yesterday. There are two of them, and they are quite useful in that they give you a preassessment to see what you already know before you start the course and a postassessment to see how much you have improved by the end of the course. Overall, I think I did pretty well. They consider "Mastery" to be an 80%, and I did 83% on one and 87% on the other. I think the main part I really wanted to learn about was how to incorporate CSS. I am going to try that this weekend to see if I trully understood the NetG tutorials.
I also had a question about frames - Is it considered bad design to use frames because of accessibility concerns? I know it's that way for tables, but I wasn't sure if that was true for frames also. Let me know if you know. Thanks!
Kathryn :)
I completed the Dreamweaver NetG courses yesterday. There are two of them, and they are quite useful in that they give you a preassessment to see what you already know before you start the course and a postassessment to see how much you have improved by the end of the course. Overall, I think I did pretty well. They consider "Mastery" to be an 80%, and I did 83% on one and 87% on the other. I think the main part I really wanted to learn about was how to incorporate CSS. I am going to try that this weekend to see if I trully understood the NetG tutorials.
I also had a question about frames - Is it considered bad design to use frames because of accessibility concerns? I know it's that way for tables, but I wasn't sure if that was true for frames also. Let me know if you know. Thanks!
Kathryn :)
Presentation for Technical Development Project
Hi everyone,
I am one of the many doing their technical development project on Dreamweaver, so instead of boring you with my website fun and frustrations (which I have been doing anyway within my blog posts:)!), I wanted to pick a special topic for my class presentation. I will do my presentation on my lit review topic of lifelong learning. I figured that preparing a class presentation on that could be the start of a conference presentation, as Dr. Dawson mentioned in class last week. I hope you all will enjoy learning about it (if you don't already know about it) as much as I have enjoyed reading about it.
Thanks,
Kathryn :)
I am one of the many doing their technical development project on Dreamweaver, so instead of boring you with my website fun and frustrations (which I have been doing anyway within my blog posts:)!), I wanted to pick a special topic for my class presentation. I will do my presentation on my lit review topic of lifelong learning. I figured that preparing a class presentation on that could be the start of a conference presentation, as Dr. Dawson mentioned in class last week. I hope you all will enjoy learning about it (if you don't already know about it) as much as I have enjoyed reading about it.
Thanks,
Kathryn :)
Annotated bibliography - Lifelong learning
Hi all,
I just finished up my annotated bibliography.
http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/msl/subjects/kk/annbib.pdf
I ended up excluding three of the articles, but the rest I found useful in some way when thinking about lifelong learning. I included articles that spoke to informal learning (social), nonformal learning (professional/personal development) and formal learning (coursework/training). Once I start writing the lit rev, I might take a narrower scope, which may lead to more weeding of my current articles and more searching within the databases for articles related to the final whittled-down topic. Let me know if you have any questions about the articles.
See you all tonight!
Kathryn :)
I just finished up my annotated bibliography.
http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/msl/subjects/kk/annbib.pdf
I ended up excluding three of the articles, but the rest I found useful in some way when thinking about lifelong learning. I included articles that spoke to informal learning (social), nonformal learning (professional/personal development) and formal learning (coursework/training). Once I start writing the lit rev, I might take a narrower scope, which may lead to more weeding of my current articles and more searching within the databases for articles related to the final whittled-down topic. Let me know if you have any questions about the articles.
See you all tonight!
Kathryn :)
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Update - Computer...
Hi all,
Mat and I decided to get a MAC since everyone raved about them on my last computer post :)
We went to the Apple store at the Millenium Mall in Orlando this weekend and asked a bunch of questions about the upgradability of the Mac Mini (stand alone box) and the IMac (the one that has everything in the monitor). The Mac Mini starts off with 1G and can be upgraded only to 2G, whereas the IMac starts off at 1G and can be upgraded to 3G. We looked at the notebooks too, which are very nice.
Well, I have decided on a MAC for sure. Now I just have decide on laptop or desktop.
More later...
Kathryn :)
Mat and I decided to get a MAC since everyone raved about them on my last computer post :)
We went to the Apple store at the Millenium Mall in Orlando this weekend and asked a bunch of questions about the upgradability of the Mac Mini (stand alone box) and the IMac (the one that has everything in the monitor). The Mac Mini starts off with 1G and can be upgraded only to 2G, whereas the IMac starts off at 1G and can be upgraded to 3G. We looked at the notebooks too, which are very nice.
Well, I have decided on a MAC for sure. Now I just have decide on laptop or desktop.
More later...
Kathryn :)
More progress - Technical Development
Hi everyone,
I worked a little more on my website after looking at comments from last week. I changed the look of both pages so that there will be no confusion about the difference between my personal and professional sites, and I am hoping that will increase the pages' navigability. I also used the flash button options instead of using the ones that I had originally created in Fireworks - I especially like the tab buttons on the professional site since it makes it look like a file system, very business-like:)
I also made my CV more interactive by adding hyperlinks where applicable.
Let me know what you guys think. http://grove.ufl.edu/~kkenned/pages/kathryn_kennedy.htm
Thanks,
Kathryn :)
I worked a little more on my website after looking at comments from last week. I changed the look of both pages so that there will be no confusion about the difference between my personal and professional sites, and I am hoping that will increase the pages' navigability. I also used the flash button options instead of using the ones that I had originally created in Fireworks - I especially like the tab buttons on the professional site since it makes it look like a file system, very business-like:)
I also made my CV more interactive by adding hyperlinks where applicable.
Let me know what you guys think. http://grove.ufl.edu/~kkenned/pages/kathryn_kennedy.htm
Thanks,
Kathryn :)
Constructivism presentation - PPTs & assignment link
Hi everyone,
Vasa, Dan, Mary, Martin, and I want to thank you for watching our presentation on Thursday. Here are our PPT shows and the link to the JavaScript assignment.
Camtasia PPT: http://grove.ufl.edu/~kkenned/pres/camtasia.ppt
Ch5 PPT: http://grove.ufl.edu/~kkenned/pres/ch5.ppt
JavaScript assignment: http://eco.medinfo.ufl.edu/dan
Let us know if you have any questions! And thanks again for being a lively group!
Vasa, Dan, Mary, Martin, and I want to thank you for watching our presentation on Thursday. Here are our PPT shows and the link to the JavaScript assignment.
Camtasia PPT: http://grove.ufl.edu/~kkenned/pres/camtasia.ppt
Ch5 PPT: http://grove.ufl.edu/~kkenned/pres/ch5.ppt
JavaScript assignment: http://eco.medinfo.ufl.edu/dan
Let us know if you have any questions! And thanks again for being a lively group!
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Grove and Plaza web space
Hi everyone,
Martin asked me some questions about Grove and Plaza, UF's student webservers, and I figured this information would be helpful to others also. Grove and plaza are both server spaces that are available to UF faculty and students.
Plaza
Plaza is automatically available to you if you are a student (don't need to request one as you do for Grove). To access it, go to ftp://plaza.ufl.edu/ and log in using your GatorLink Account information. There are 20MB of space available to you in the Plaza space, and it does allow you to run dynamic pages, such as ones using PHP.
Grove
Grove is something you have to sign up for. To do this, go to gatorlink.ufl.edu, and click on MODIFY. Sign in using your GatorLink Account username and password, and click on GROVE UNIX SERVICES. Then click on ADD A NEW GROVE ACCOUNT, and follow the steps there. There are 20MB of space available to you in the Grove space, and it does allow you to run dynamic pages, such as ones using PHP.
To upload web files to either of these accounts, you could use filezilla, which is a file transfer protocol (FTP) software (FREE!!!). Go to google and type in filezilla, and it should be the first link that comes up. It requires downloading the software to your computer, but once you have it, it's easy enough to use.
Any questions, let me know.
Thanks,
Kathryn :)
Martin asked me some questions about Grove and Plaza, UF's student webservers, and I figured this information would be helpful to others also. Grove and plaza are both server spaces that are available to UF faculty and students.
Plaza
Plaza is automatically available to you if you are a student (don't need to request one as you do for Grove). To access it, go to ftp://plaza.ufl.edu/ and log in using your GatorLink Account information. There are 20MB of space available to you in the Plaza space, and it does allow you to run dynamic pages, such as ones using PHP.
Grove
Grove is something you have to sign up for. To do this, go to gatorlink.ufl.edu, and click on MODIFY. Sign in using your GatorLink Account username and password, and click on GROVE UNIX SERVICES. Then click on ADD A NEW GROVE ACCOUNT, and follow the steps there. There are 20MB of space available to you in the Grove space, and it does allow you to run dynamic pages, such as ones using PHP.
To upload web files to either of these accounts, you could use filezilla, which is a file transfer protocol (FTP) software (FREE!!!). Go to google and type in filezilla, and it should be the first link that comes up. It requires downloading the software to your computer, but once you have it, it's easy enough to use.
Any questions, let me know.
Thanks,
Kathryn :)
Monday, October 02, 2006
Technical Development Project progress
This past weekend, my boyfriend and I were supposed to go to Disney's Animal Kingdom, but he ended up getting sick. So we decided to postpone our trip until this upcoming weekend.
So in lieue of going to Disney, I woke up early yesterday (Sunday, 6am - my cats never let me sleep!) thinking that I would just jump into Dreamweaver to see what it was like. When I got in there though, I just kept working and working until 11:30pm last night...this is the result: http://grove.ufl.edu/~kkenned/pages/kathryn_kennedy.htm
So for the rest of the technical development work time, I am going to tweak this site while I am reading the technical books and taking the netG classes.
If you think I should modify anything, please let me know.
Thanks,
Kathryn :)
So in lieue of going to Disney, I woke up early yesterday (Sunday, 6am - my cats never let me sleep!) thinking that I would just jump into Dreamweaver to see what it was like. When I got in there though, I just kept working and working until 11:30pm last night...this is the result: http://grove.ufl.edu/~kkenned/pages/kathryn_kennedy.htm
So for the rest of the technical development work time, I am going to tweak this site while I am reading the technical books and taking the netG classes.
If you think I should modify anything, please let me know.
Thanks,
Kathryn :)
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Technical Professional Development Learning Contract
Hi everyone,
Here is my Technical Professional Development Learning Contract. Thanks to Jade for developing the wiki for those of us learning Dreamweaver for this project!
http://grove.ufl.edu/~kkenned/lc_techdev.pdf
Also, I figured out how to use grove for a webserver (it's free for UF grad students and faculty) so if anyone wants some help in doing this, it's really easy, and I would be more than happy to get you on your feet.
Thanks,
Kathryn
Here is my Technical Professional Development Learning Contract. Thanks to Jade for developing the wiki for those of us learning Dreamweaver for this project!
http://grove.ufl.edu/~kkenned/lc_techdev.pdf
Also, I figured out how to use grove for a webserver (it's free for UF grad students and faculty) so if anyone wants some help in doing this, it's really easy, and I would be more than happy to get you on your feet.
Thanks,
Kathryn
Friday, September 22, 2006
Buying a new computer - got some advice?
Hi everyone,
I am planning to buy a computer VERY soon because my laptop is about to die (Gateway Solo 1150, 2001). I am going back and forth on whether or not I should buy a MAC or a PC and would like to know what you guys think. As you saw from my embarrassing demonstration (or lack thereof) with the APPLE yesterday during my three minutes of fame, I am not too familiar with MACs, so is this a reason to get a MAC to become more familiar with it, especially since many people say they are better for design applications, or should I stick to something that I am comfortable with (i.e. PC)? Any thoughts on what brand (in regard to PCs) you like better would be helpful too.
And for those of you who have been grad students in the College of Education for awhile, do you think it's better to have a laptop that you can carry around with you, or do you think I would be okay with just having a desktop at home and using the labs that are available to us while I am at school?
Sorry for all the questions - just want to make as learned a decision as possible on this, especially since there will be $$ involved:)
Thanks for any and all help!
Kathryn :)
I am planning to buy a computer VERY soon because my laptop is about to die (Gateway Solo 1150, 2001). I am going back and forth on whether or not I should buy a MAC or a PC and would like to know what you guys think. As you saw from my embarrassing demonstration (or lack thereof) with the APPLE yesterday during my three minutes of fame, I am not too familiar with MACs, so is this a reason to get a MAC to become more familiar with it, especially since many people say they are better for design applications, or should I stick to something that I am comfortable with (i.e. PC)? Any thoughts on what brand (in regard to PCs) you like better would be helpful too.
And for those of you who have been grad students in the College of Education for awhile, do you think it's better to have a laptop that you can carry around with you, or do you think I would be okay with just having a desktop at home and using the labs that are available to us while I am at school?
Sorry for all the questions - just want to make as learned a decision as possible on this, especially since there will be $$ involved:)
Thanks for any and all help!
Kathryn :)
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Free electronic access to tech books at UF Libraries
Hi all,
Just wanted to let you know that the UF Libraries purchases online access to many computer-programming related books, so you might be able to find some books for your tech development projects online. I found a few for Dreamweaver, for those of you who are doing Dreamweaver as your tech dev project. Hope this helps!
Kathryn :)
Just wanted to let you know that the UF Libraries purchases online access to many computer-programming related books, so you might be able to find some books for your tech development projects online. I found a few for Dreamweaver, for those of you who are doing Dreamweaver as your tech dev project. Hope this helps!
Kathryn :)
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Learning theories in practice
Here are the examples that I found for constructivism:
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/demonstration.html
This link is a collection of examples, but I found the first one to mirror a lot of the ENC 1101/ENC 1102 (freshman english) courses that the libraries teach. The instructor usually asks the student to choose a controversial topic and to take a side and find evidence from articles/books in favor of the side taken. It allows the students to choose what topic they want to learn about.
Another example of constructivism is from one of the engineering professors that I work with in Mechanical Engineering. He asked his students to take a real-life structure that has failed (such as a building collapsing or bridge buckling) and had them research why it had failed and determine what should have been different in the original structure design.
Another example of constructivism is from one of the engineering professors in Nuclear and Radiological Engineering who made his students develop their own radiation shielding device for whatever radiation facility that wanted to work with, whether it be an x-ray lab, nuclear reactor facility, or a nuclear power plant. They had to research their particular facility and then determine what degree of radiation they had to protect against and then determine what materials would help to create that protection.
In an article that I read this weekend, I found another example of constructivism that had to do with an accounting course that was offered with a web application that presented real-world tax problems that accounting graduates would face once they left their program.
Here are the examples that I found for Schema Theory:
When I was in high school, my geometry teacher made drawings on the board to make us remember what he was talking about. For example, for us to remember how a trapezoid looked, he said that there was this animal called a "ZOID" and that he was going to trap it. For some odd reason, I have neither forgotten that shape nor the story behind it.
Another example from my friend's history class in high school would be when her teacher asked the students to play on different sides of the Civil War and develop their political policy according to what their textbook said. She said it was effective because in her mind it's a framework for the past that she wouldn't have learned if she had just read it from the book alone.
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/demonstration.html
This link is a collection of examples, but I found the first one to mirror a lot of the ENC 1101/ENC 1102 (freshman english) courses that the libraries teach. The instructor usually asks the student to choose a controversial topic and to take a side and find evidence from articles/books in favor of the side taken. It allows the students to choose what topic they want to learn about.
Another example of constructivism is from one of the engineering professors that I work with in Mechanical Engineering. He asked his students to take a real-life structure that has failed (such as a building collapsing or bridge buckling) and had them research why it had failed and determine what should have been different in the original structure design.
Another example of constructivism is from one of the engineering professors in Nuclear and Radiological Engineering who made his students develop their own radiation shielding device for whatever radiation facility that wanted to work with, whether it be an x-ray lab, nuclear reactor facility, or a nuclear power plant. They had to research their particular facility and then determine what degree of radiation they had to protect against and then determine what materials would help to create that protection.
In an article that I read this weekend, I found another example of constructivism that had to do with an accounting course that was offered with a web application that presented real-world tax problems that accounting graduates would face once they left their program.
Here are the examples that I found for Schema Theory:
When I was in high school, my geometry teacher made drawings on the board to make us remember what he was talking about. For example, for us to remember how a trapezoid looked, he said that there was this animal called a "ZOID" and that he was going to trap it. For some odd reason, I have neither forgotten that shape nor the story behind it.
Another example from my friend's history class in high school would be when her teacher asked the students to play on different sides of the Civil War and develop their political policy according to what their textbook said. She said it was effective because in her mind it's a framework for the past that she wouldn't have learned if she had just read it from the book alone.
Change in technical development project
After discussing this with a number of people, I have decided to change my technical development project. Previously, I wanted to learn HTML and CSS so that I could make my own website. But I have been encouraged to learn a software instead of having to learn straight HTML. So I am going to learn how to use Dreamweaver and will have a website as my proof of learning the software. I have been told that with its splitscreen capabilities, I would pick up some HTML along the way. Does anyone know the best place to get web space (I don't want to use the library server for my course and personal webpages nor do I want to use the grove account.)? Thanks for everyone's input!
Kathryn
Kathryn
Deciphering my concept map
So this is my first attempt at recording audio for the blog, and I am going to hope that everyone will be able to hear it. This recording is about two minutes long, and it explains what I presented last week in my gliffy concept map - you might want to open the gliffy map in conjunction with this recording to follow along with my explanation of things. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!
Recording:
http://uflibpm.pbwiki.com/f/deciphering_concept_map.wav
Concept Map:
http://uflibpm.pbwiki.com/f/EME5054-Learning_Theories.jpg
Recording:
http://uflibpm.pbwiki.com/f/deciphering_concept_map.wav
Concept Map:
http://uflibpm.pbwiki.com/f/EME5054-Learning_Theories.jpg
Monday, September 18, 2006
Lifelong learning
My particular area of interest in research is lifelong learning. At this point in the literature search, I have determined that these articles are from all areas of study in higher education. I am interested in reading about how lifelong learning is emphasized within different disciplines. Why did I choose this as a topic? Well, I am interested in lifelong learning because I think education should never end and that people in all fields need some way of staying in contact with the latest news of their field.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Website - Use of interactive fiction for teaching and learning
Interesting website on using interactive fiction for teaching and learning:
http://if1.home.comcast.net/
http://if1.home.comcast.net/
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Learning Theories - Visual representation for 9/13
Here is the link to my visual representation of Chapter 4. I really found it interesting to look at the components that are similar across the different learning theories.
http://uflibpm.pbwiki.com/f/EME5054-Learning_Theories.jpg
A little disclaimer about all the different colors - the tealish colored shapes are the ones that are different from one learning theory to another, while the other colors that are the same are ones that I found similar from one learning theory to another. I hope this is not too confusing. Let me know if I am missing anything, and I will modify as needed. Thanks, and see you guys tomorrow!
Kathryn :)
http://uflibpm.pbwiki.com/f/EME5054-Learning_Theories.jpg
A little disclaimer about all the different colors - the tealish colored shapes are the ones that are different from one learning theory to another, while the other colors that are the same are ones that I found similar from one learning theory to another. I hope this is not too confusing. Let me know if I am missing anything, and I will modify as needed. Thanks, and see you guys tomorrow!
Kathryn :)
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Technical Professional Development Learning Contract
Broad Statement of Goal (Must include improving technical expertise within an authentic context):
I have always used web design software, such as Macromedia Contribute, to do web pages, but I have never formerly used HTML. My goal for the semester is to learn HTML in conjunction with cascading style sheets (CSS). I will demonstrate this new knowledge by creating a website.
Steps to take to achieve goal:
1. Get a Grove account to use as practice space (9/11/06).
2. Read book about HTML and CSS (9/16/06-9/29/06).
3. Take netg courses online while reading book (9/16/06-9/29/06).
4. Develop website (9/17/06-11/1/06).
5. Present website to class (11/2/06).
I have always used web design software, such as Macromedia Contribute, to do web pages, but I have never formerly used HTML. My goal for the semester is to learn HTML in conjunction with cascading style sheets (CSS). I will demonstrate this new knowledge by creating a website.
Steps to take to achieve goal:
1. Get a Grove account to use as practice space (9/11/06).
2. Read book about HTML and CSS (9/16/06-9/29/06).
3. Take netg courses online while reading book (9/16/06-9/29/06).
4. Develop website (9/17/06-11/1/06).
5. Present website to class (11/2/06).
Saturday, September 09, 2006
HTML and CSS
The real coding part of web development is something that I have neglected. I have always relied on Macromedia Contribute to help me with my page design. That is the easy way out and doesn't allow you to do as many neat things as hands-on coding does, so I would like to learn HTML in conjunction with CSS for the "Technical Professional Development" part of the course. I will be posting my learning contract for this tomorrow.
In need of some RSS/XML help...
At work on Friday, I set up a website that I am using as sort of my web design playground/sandbox. It is where I will be trying my new design skills as I learn them. I was setting up an RSS feed on this website to see if I could do it, and I was able to get the channel set up and subscribed to the feed using my bloglines account. But every time I tried to set up an item on the XML document, it wouldn't show up in the bloglines account while it did update within the code on the XML document. Has anyone tried this before, and if so, could I send you my code to see what I am doing wrong? I spent about four hours on Friday on this, and by the end of the day, I was ready to throw my computer out the window. Thanks for any and all help! :)
Where I want to be in the next few years...
For those of you who don't know me, I am very much a planner. I live by task lists, and I am lost if I don't have them. So for our "Progress Toward Your Degree" assignment last week, I focused on what I needed to do to become a tenured professor. I know I want to teach in higher education because I have had experience in that, both as an english instructor at Kansas State University and currently as a librarian here at UF. These experiences have shown me how rewarding it is to convey a message to students and see the light bulb turn on above their heads. I enjoy being witness to and facilitator of these "AHA" moments.
So below is a list of things I need to do to get to where I want to be:
1. Join AECT this semester - attend and present at meeting in 2007
2. Read, read, and read some more to stay up with what is going on in IDT and to pinpoint my niche
3. Pursue meaningful projects at work that will enhance what I am learning in classes
4. Collaborate with other students and faculty in the college in order to attain grants for research and publish papers
5. Set up a week-per-week learn & apply schedule that will help me to learn technology used in IDT
So below is a list of things I need to do to get to where I want to be:
1. Join AECT this semester - attend and present at meeting in 2007
2. Read, read, and read some more to stay up with what is going on in IDT and to pinpoint my niche
3. Pursue meaningful projects at work that will enhance what I am learning in classes
4. Collaborate with other students and faculty in the college in order to attain grants for research and publish papers
5. Set up a week-per-week learn & apply schedule that will help me to learn technology used in IDT
Monday, September 04, 2006
Do politics get in the way?
I just finished reading the Liu et. al. article "Challenges of Being an Instructional Designer for New Media Development: A View from the Practitioners." I really appreciated the information put forth in this study, but I would like to talk about another area that could be a challenge in certain environments, something that I wish this article would have delved into.
When you take a position as an instructional designer, do you have free reign to do as you please design-wise, or are you held back by politics? By "politics" I mean people who are in positions higher than you who seem to be unwilling to change and allow for new and fresh ideas? As an instructional designer, you are schooled to be creative and innovative, to be at the cutting edge of technological advances, but when you reach your career destinations, do politics get in the way and hold you back? Does anyone here have any experience with this?
When you take a position as an instructional designer, do you have free reign to do as you please design-wise, or are you held back by politics? By "politics" I mean people who are in positions higher than you who seem to be unwilling to change and allow for new and fresh ideas? As an instructional designer, you are schooled to be creative and innovative, to be at the cutting edge of technological advances, but when you reach your career destinations, do politics get in the way and hold you back? Does anyone here have any experience with this?
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Wikipedia - What do you think?
During class last week, we discussed Wikipedia a little bit. There seems to be some debate as to whether or not Wikipedia is an authoritative source of information. In the library world, most agree that Wikipedia is not the best place to go for information. What do you think?
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Book Review
I decided to do my book review on a fieldbook version of Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline. I have heard this book requested multiple times at the library, and I wanted to see what it was all about. Has anyone read this book before? If so, please let me know what you thought of it. Thanks!
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Summary & Reflections on Chapters 1 & 26 for 8/31
In Chapter 1 of Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, Reiser points out that a comprehensive definition of our field has never been established, as each researcher has his/her own aspect of the field upon which he/she concentrates and feels their aspect is the "heart" of IDT. While organizations may adopt one definition, the field as a whole has never agreed upon one. (p.2 & 3)
From the 1900s to the 1920s, great focus was placed on the "visual instruction", in other words, on the media used to present that instruction. (p.3)They used graphs, pictures, exhibits, maps, charts, etc (Dorris, 1928, p.6).
From the 1920s to the 1950s, the "visual" changed to "audiovisual" and included television programming and radio broadcasting. (p.3)
In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the term instructional design concentrated on our field involving a process - "planning, production, utilization and management." (p.3 & 4)
In the late 1970s, in particular, the meat of the definition revolved around a "systematic design process," and the 1977 definition was the first to mention the analysis phase and "human learning problems." (p.5 & 6)
The year 1994 brought a theory and practice-focused definition. It also labelled teachers as "resources for learning." (p.6)
The most recent definition from the AECT in 2006 emphasizes a student-based control of learning, where we as instructional designers provide the learning environment and allow students to interpret it in their individual way. (p.6)
The text's definition and terminology is most effective, incorporating past and present practices and speaking to the future of the field through an emphasis on research and theory. (p.6 &7)
As someone who is a newbie to the field of educational technology, I really benefited from this chapter, as it gave a broad historical overview. The definitions really pointed out the everchanging nature of IDT, with new emphases emerging from the research being done.
Current research that most libraries are interested in revolves around the technologies involved with the social web, user-centered media. In the libraries, everything we do focuses on the customer - what do we need to do to facilitate their learning environment. Librarians are essentially teachers, instructional designers who provide an environment to learn in.
Here is the definition of Education Technology that Jade Coutts and I came up with in class (8/24/06):
"Educational technology is the integration of learning tools and innovative processes to enhance the learning environment to promote communication and socialization in education."
I think the definition above incorporates the two aspects emphasized in the text definition - "use of media for instructional purposes and the use of systematic instructional design procedures." (p.7)
Although the definition is broad, we felt it needed to be, especially in a field that is broad itself. We also incorporated "communication" and "socialization" into our definition because we feel these two processes are integral parts of what we do on a daily basis as practicing professionals in the field of IDT.
In Chapter 26, I found three associations that would be beneficial to me to join and too many journals to publish in. The American Educational Research Association (AERA), the Association for Educational Communication and Technology (AECT), and the Society for Applied Learning Technology (SALT) all seemed to fit with my interests. All of these are located in the "Professional Organizations" section of our program page.
I chose to look into two journals that were in this chapter - Journal of Distance Education and the International Journal of Educational Technology. The UF Libraries subscribe to the electronic version of the Journal of Distance Education from 1986 to present. The UF Libraries subscribe to this journal through open access from years 1999 to 2002. When the time comes to publish, I will go back through the list of journals here to figure out which one matches best with the article I wish to publish.
From the 1900s to the 1920s, great focus was placed on the "visual instruction", in other words, on the media used to present that instruction. (p.3)They used graphs, pictures, exhibits, maps, charts, etc (Dorris, 1928, p.6).
From the 1920s to the 1950s, the "visual" changed to "audiovisual" and included television programming and radio broadcasting. (p.3)
In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the term instructional design concentrated on our field involving a process - "planning, production, utilization and management." (p.3 & 4)
In the late 1970s, in particular, the meat of the definition revolved around a "systematic design process," and the 1977 definition was the first to mention the analysis phase and "human learning problems." (p.5 & 6)
The year 1994 brought a theory and practice-focused definition. It also labelled teachers as "resources for learning." (p.6)
The most recent definition from the AECT in 2006 emphasizes a student-based control of learning, where we as instructional designers provide the learning environment and allow students to interpret it in their individual way. (p.6)
The text's definition and terminology is most effective, incorporating past and present practices and speaking to the future of the field through an emphasis on research and theory. (p.6 &7)
As someone who is a newbie to the field of educational technology, I really benefited from this chapter, as it gave a broad historical overview. The definitions really pointed out the everchanging nature of IDT, with new emphases emerging from the research being done.
Current research that most libraries are interested in revolves around the technologies involved with the social web, user-centered media. In the libraries, everything we do focuses on the customer - what do we need to do to facilitate their learning environment. Librarians are essentially teachers, instructional designers who provide an environment to learn in.
Here is the definition of Education Technology that Jade Coutts and I came up with in class (8/24/06):
"Educational technology is the integration of learning tools and innovative processes to enhance the learning environment to promote communication and socialization in education."
I think the definition above incorporates the two aspects emphasized in the text definition - "use of media for instructional purposes and the use of systematic instructional design procedures." (p.7)
Although the definition is broad, we felt it needed to be, especially in a field that is broad itself. We also incorporated "communication" and "socialization" into our definition because we feel these two processes are integral parts of what we do on a daily basis as practicing professionals in the field of IDT.
In Chapter 26, I found three associations that would be beneficial to me to join and too many journals to publish in. The American Educational Research Association (AERA), the Association for Educational Communication and Technology (AECT), and the Society for Applied Learning Technology (SALT) all seemed to fit with my interests. All of these are located in the "Professional Organizations" section of our program page.
I chose to look into two journals that were in this chapter - Journal of Distance Education and the International Journal of Educational Technology. The UF Libraries subscribe to the electronic version of the Journal of Distance Education from 1986 to present. The UF Libraries subscribe to this journal through open access from years 1999 to 2002. When the time comes to publish, I will go back through the list of journals here to figure out which one matches best with the article I wish to publish.
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