Thanks For the Memories

As the semester comes to a close, I want to thank my group members for all the help and support they gave me during the project. Christi and and Denice were a joy to work with and I believe, we worked equally hard to create a great instructional design that anyone could use to teach podcasting for the classroom.

Christi, I'm jealous that you are done with your program. Denice, onwards and upwards.

Gagne Revisited

Every night as we entered 206, a poster of Gagne's Nine Instructional Events was on the board at the front of the room, but I never stopped to read it and now I'm discussing it in detail for the Swenson paper. Gagne suggests that there are nine general instructional events which are always relevant, even though in detail they will vary with the type of learning outcome being achieved. The nine events are: Gaining Attention, Tell Learners the Learning Objective, Stimulate Recall of Prior Learning, Present the Stimulus, Provide Learning Guidance, Elicit Performance, Provide Feedback, Assess Performance and Enhance Retention and Transfer to Other Contexts. Looks a lot like the Implementation portion of ADDIE to me.

Things Have to Get Worse..

I'm sure everyone has heard the saying, "Things have to get worse before they can get better." Well, that's how I feel it is going to be during the next months. I decided to go back to school to learn different and better teaching techniques and force myself to learn new computer applications to enhance my students' learning and kick up my teaching skills. If future classes are going to be as informative and motivating as Instructional Design with Dr. Monson, I made the right choice. This class has renewed my spirit to teach and reminded me that I am here for the students, the students are not here for me. However, what I didn't plan on was the time it was going to take to complete all the class assignments, which in turn is stealing time from putting all my new knowledge and skills into action; some of the new ideas will have to wait to be instituted until I graduate from the program. So watch out students of 2011-2012, here comes the new and improved me.

How About That!

Sometimes being a teacher is an eye opener. It amazes me how much I learn while I am preparing to teach. While investigating theories of Jerome Bruner, I found out that Alan Kay of Xerox studied Bruner's Three Modes of Representation and based the GUI system for computers on what he learned. Kay felt, like Bruner, that using symbols and icons would make it easier and faster for students to learn how to use computers.

As we finish our Instructional Design project, I am astounded by the work my group members have put forth; I only wish that I had the time to produce the same wonderful instructional materials for each and every class I teach. Using graphic organizers like the ones we created, I know that student learning would increase.

The first major change I plan on incorporating is a better needs analysis based on what outcomes I want for my students and plan my assessments accordingly.

Never To SME To Learn

After years of teaching, I was hoping that going back to school would train/inspire me to add new techniques to my teaching style and I have not been disappointed. In Monson's class I have been reminded that the curriculum should be focused on student learning, not teacher teaching; that we should have the outcome squarely in our sights as we prepare each lesson. In Swenson’s class, while preparing my lesson for December 3rd, I have been inspired by Jerome Bruner (said to be the father of Instructional Design) and the Three Modes of Representation. I see that I have to be more diligent in setting up the lesson so that students can make the connection between what they know and what new knowledge they will learn. Put some "discovery/play" back into the classroom. If I weren’t so tired between the work-load at both schools, it would almost be fun to teach again; something to look forward to in 24 months.

Visting Unusual Places

I had no idea that the Olympic Museum on the University campus even existed. I think it is sad that many Utah residents don't take the time to research and to visit all the unique places available to them. It took me until I turned 45 to even visit the Kennecott lookout. I am trying to take my grandchildren to as many interesting places in Utah as I can find, the museum is now on our list. I think I will start asking them about the design of each place we visit and have them tell me what they think the author, designer, or builder was trying to convey.

Fear of Technology

After reading several articles about advancing technology and its impact on education, including this week's article, I can't believe that a majority of articles talk about the fear of technology and how its growing impact in the classroom will be the destruction of student learning. I guess the thing that really makes me mad is the authors' belief that teachers are so stupid they can't figure it out for themselves that technology is a tool, not a substitute for interaction between student and teacher.

Is it technology fault?

After reading several of the discussions about the good and bad of technology, I am surprised how many people believe that technology in the classroom is going to be the down-fall of our youth. Has the technology of the white board caused student learning to plummet? Has DVD use the classroom sent learning out the window? Has the transition from the ditto machine to the laser printer ruined the student's right to a good education? One discussion talked about taking classes to learn technology but complained that no one taught him when to use the technology. People, people, people when does it become your responsibility to seek out ways to use the new technology you are learning. When do you take ownership of technology, not as its slave, but as its master?

We, as teachers, are always updating our lesson plans, why are we not explore new ways to deliver those updates. As teachers, we should be modeling life-long learning, but when it comes to incorporating technology, for some, the will to learn just stops. New and changing technology has been here since the dawn of time; make the leap from I won't to I will.

I Think I Need Analysis

Analysis, how do you determine what is too little and what is too much?

View from the Leaner

Teachers at my school have been strongly encouraged to create unit curriculum maps. As I worked through each subject, I thought they were a good beginning to a step-by-step performace design of what I expected students to learn and perform. However, after reading about Conducting A Goal Analysis I realize my lesson plans associated with the maps are written for teaching goals instead of learner goals. I am quilty of being a SME and stressing knowing instead of an instructional designer who stresses doing.

Understanding By Design

After reading the Understanding by Design article these are some things I thought about:

Are students really learning if they cannot apply the knowledge outside of the classroom. Example: I know that students in English learn capitization, punctuation, spelling and sentence structure; why can they not apply this knowledge to a simple letter writing activity in Computer Technology class.

We have been in a teaching frame of mind to cover subjects a mile wide, inch deep. We need to incorporate more critical thinking skills in the curriculum and move to focusing on the "Big Idea" or inch wide, mile deep instruction. Unfortunately some state standards, objectives and competency tests force us to cover so much in so little time, we must gloss over the information as fast as possible to get it all in before time runs out.

When investigating Understanding by Design further, I found a presentation about UbD and the addition of technology in the classroom. It states that UbD + Technology = Goal of Education. Learners need many types of learning strategies and should be using technologies that they are familiar with such as: digital presentations, podcasts and electronic portfolios. Students should be involved in their own learning by learning to frame and ask meaningful questions about the subject and about their understanding of the subject.

Into the Writing Foray..

I have never been, what I consider, a good writer. Writing assignments make me sweat. I have two close friends that are English majors and I have been jealous of their ability to eaily crank out documents they need. Maybe blogging will be my instrument to learn how to move what's in my mind to paper(less) in an intelligent manner.

At this point I guess it doesn't really matter, because this is just my ramblings in which I will try and make sense of what I am learning and maybe a reader or two will take a minute to agree or disagree, but will ultimately join me on this journey in learning, or is it education, maybe training, blast you Driscoll, now I'm all confused.

New Blog

Had this blog site set up for a while, just learning how to use it.