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 :)
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 :)
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