I thoroughly enjoyed taking this course. Each new tool we explored was added to my arsenal, and I feel much better prepared to assist K-12 teachers, faculty, and other graduate students in the use of these and other tools to convey their educational content. Hopefully, once I gain a position in faculty development, I will be able to instruct my colleagues in various ways to incorporate technology into their classrooms and teaching. Everything I learned was immediately relevant for me. The conclusion of IT 648 this summer leaves me feeling confident in my abilities, and ready to share what I have learned. As I mentioned in the previous blogs below, some tools may be more useful than others in different learning environments.
If I had to choose, I'd say that my favorite assignment was circaVie, where I was able to relive and share my St. Croix vacation. My least favorite would be the Eyejot video message, since I felt I looked far from my best. I performed my best work in my final presentation, feeling most confident in the information I gave, and in my method of delivery. I feel least confident in my WebQuest, because I am still unsure if I was able to create a task that reflects the educational value that I hoped to convey. As I continue to study pedagogy and instructional design, I hope that I will be able to design my instruction with the learner's goals and outcomes in mind.
The weekly discussions were quite stimulating, although I believe that they would have been more so if we did not all agree. If at all possible, perhaps we need to have sides chosen for us that we argue, to incite a true debate. As it stands, we all acknowledged nearly all the same positives and negatives for each telecommunications tool we discussed. (Great minds think alike, eh?)
The assignments themselves were well-chosen to increase in difficulty and challenge over the course of the semester, and kept me from underestimating the time that would be required to complete each. I am happy to have participated in a course with such a great group of colleagues, and hope to see some of you (virtually) this fall.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Reflection: Slideshare Presentation
I think I jumped up and down when I realized that the final project was a presentation instead of a paper. There comes a time in every doc student's life when the prospect of another paper - that is NOT your dissertation - leads one to contemplate violence. I chose a topic near and dear to my heart, the use of universal design in the development of online courses.
My presentation is to be a guide for teachers who must design their own course websites, although the topic is certainly relevant to developers at "higher" levels. Whenever I mention online courses to faculty or students, I get a passionate response. Right now, that passion is overwhelmingly tipped in the negative direction. I believe that the design of an online course, that is, the actual interface and navigation that a student must interact with in order to access course content, is a major deterrent to student success in online courses. The gist of my dissertation is to see if this is really true. (Please, please, PLEASE let there be significance!! LOL)
Please feel free to let me know whether or not you found the presentation useful. You may reach my presentation on Universal Design in Web-Based Instruction here.
My presentation is to be a guide for teachers who must design their own course websites, although the topic is certainly relevant to developers at "higher" levels. Whenever I mention online courses to faculty or students, I get a passionate response. Right now, that passion is overwhelmingly tipped in the negative direction. I believe that the design of an online course, that is, the actual interface and navigation that a student must interact with in order to access course content, is a major deterrent to student success in online courses. The gist of my dissertation is to see if this is really true. (Please, please, PLEASE let there be significance!! LOL)
Please feel free to let me know whether or not you found the presentation useful. You may reach my presentation on Universal Design in Web-Based Instruction here.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Reflection: Eyejot Video Message
Ok, this was a quick, fun assignment. We were instructed to create an account on Eyejot.com, and record both a profile video and a video message to the group of 1-3 minutes. Although I felt that I looked a mess, I thought I offered authentic realism in the glimpse into my grad student life. (No glamour here! *smirk*)
Signing up on the website was pleasantly quick and simple, as was uploading my photo and recording the videos. I actually completed this assignment from start to finish, within 20 minutes, and several of those minutes were spent re-recording my videos because I didn't like how I looked or sounded. I liked doing this assignment, so much so, that I stopped working on my webquest to do something a little less involved.
As a tool, I believe that Eyejot may have more social applications than professional, as few reports can be delivered within the one minute maximum message length. It is good that there is no need for the sender or recipient to download any software, which makes Eyejot easy for a variety of users to use. However, similar webconferencing tools with archiving abilities, such as DimDim and others, offer the same free functionality, plus the ability to record entire presentations and lectures. I believe that this particular tool is better suited to embedding short greetings in blogs and websites than true instructional applications. View my Eyejot message here.
Signing up on the website was pleasantly quick and simple, as was uploading my photo and recording the videos. I actually completed this assignment from start to finish, within 20 minutes, and several of those minutes were spent re-recording my videos because I didn't like how I looked or sounded. I liked doing this assignment, so much so, that I stopped working on my webquest to do something a little less involved.
As a tool, I believe that Eyejot may have more social applications than professional, as few reports can be delivered within the one minute maximum message length. It is good that there is no need for the sender or recipient to download any software, which makes Eyejot easy for a variety of users to use. However, similar webconferencing tools with archiving abilities, such as DimDim and others, offer the same free functionality, plus the ability to record entire presentations and lectures. I believe that this particular tool is better suited to embedding short greetings in blogs and websites than true instructional applications. View my Eyejot message here.
Reflection: Create a Webquest
This assignment was a labor of love... and could have taken even more time than the week and a half I devoted to it. I'm a native New Yorker, and I fear I spent more time on the task than on the evaluation, so I believe that I would improve that before distributing the link to teachers for potential use. I do feel that I gave a strong foundation for the study of the sociocultural history of NYC. If nothing else - those are great movies!
This assignment was difficult for me, because I've been out of K-12 education for so long. I tried to remember what sort of work we could handle in high school, as well as how well we worked together on extended projects. I also wanted to make it interesting, not just a few museum trips and a report.
Even though I know we lost the 2005 Olympic bid for 2012, I figure New Yorkers never give up, so prepare now for 2020!! One major issue is that there really isn't a stadium big enough for the Games in NYC. The west side stadium idea didn't fly. I don't think anyone will allow Robert Moses' use and abuse of eminent domain to ever happen again. On the one hand, it is easy to get all over NYC. On the other hand, how much culture and history was destroyed so that we could? What price progress?
Overall, I enjoyed the assignment immensely, and hope that students that end up doing my webquest will enjoy it, as well. As I said, at least they're great movies. :) Check out the NYC History Webquest here.
This assignment was difficult for me, because I've been out of K-12 education for so long. I tried to remember what sort of work we could handle in high school, as well as how well we worked together on extended projects. I also wanted to make it interesting, not just a few museum trips and a report.
Even though I know we lost the 2005 Olympic bid for 2012, I figure New Yorkers never give up, so prepare now for 2020!! One major issue is that there really isn't a stadium big enough for the Games in NYC. The west side stadium idea didn't fly. I don't think anyone will allow Robert Moses' use and abuse of eminent domain to ever happen again. On the one hand, it is easy to get all over NYC. On the other hand, how much culture and history was destroyed so that we could? What price progress?
Overall, I enjoyed the assignment immensely, and hope that students that end up doing my webquest will enjoy it, as well. As I said, at least they're great movies. :) Check out the NYC History Webquest here.
Reflection: circaVie
The circaVie assignment was to create a photo timeline of an event or series of events in our lives. This was the most fun task of all, as I had the opportunity to relive my fabulous trip to St. Croix for my cousin's wedding. The island is beautiful, and my family and I had a blast.
I had only a minor technical issue with circaVie, in that I once had an AIM id that I deleted, but was remembered by my system. I became locked in a loop for a while even after I created a new screen name. Eventually it worked itself out, and I was able to do the assignment quickly and with no more glitches.
This tool is fairly simple to use, and I would recommend it as a way to do more than simply share photos. Placing the events on a timeline actually brings your viewers into the photos and allows them to experience the events almost as if they were there. Fang's timeline made me cry, and I truly felt both his pain and hope in the wake of the disaster. It is just this closeness that is created with the notes and order of photos in circaVie.
You can visit my St. Croix timeline here.
I had only a minor technical issue with circaVie, in that I once had an AIM id that I deleted, but was remembered by my system. I became locked in a loop for a while even after I created a new screen name. Eventually it worked itself out, and I was able to do the assignment quickly and with no more glitches.
This tool is fairly simple to use, and I would recommend it as a way to do more than simply share photos. Placing the events on a timeline actually brings your viewers into the photos and allows them to experience the events almost as if they were there. Fang's timeline made me cry, and I truly felt both his pain and hope in the wake of the disaster. It is just this closeness that is created with the notes and order of photos in circaVie.
You can visit my St. Croix timeline here.
Reflection: Create a Website
For this assignment, we were instructed to create a personal website using Google Page Creator (GooglePages). The site was to have three or more pages including an introduction, interests, and an online version of your curriculum vitae.
I am so much a devotee of DreamWeaver that I actually purchased the Macromedia package that is now Adobe CS3 so that I could have it. On a grad student stipend, that's a pretty heavy investment. I had my reservations about the templates available for use on GooglePages, and how useful the design tools would be.
After using GooglePages, I am fully converted. Although there are some design limits to the templates available, the HTML editor extends the reach of the WYSIWYG interface fairly easily. This tool makes it simple for anyone to design a professional-looking website with 100MB of storage - for free! No sidebar ads, placement within the Google search engine, there are numerous benefits to using GooglePages to build a professional website/online cv.
I would recommend this tool to K-12 and college-level teachers instructing students in educational technology. The experience for students is invaluable and should be part of an ongoing dialogue on internet presence, safety, and protection of privacy. I plan to incorporate GooglePages in my workshops to this effect. You may visit my website here. Enjoy!
I am so much a devotee of DreamWeaver that I actually purchased the Macromedia package that is now Adobe CS3 so that I could have it. On a grad student stipend, that's a pretty heavy investment. I had my reservations about the templates available for use on GooglePages, and how useful the design tools would be.
After using GooglePages, I am fully converted. Although there are some design limits to the templates available, the HTML editor extends the reach of the WYSIWYG interface fairly easily. This tool makes it simple for anyone to design a professional-looking website with 100MB of storage - for free! No sidebar ads, placement within the Google search engine, there are numerous benefits to using GooglePages to build a professional website/online cv.
I would recommend this tool to K-12 and college-level teachers instructing students in educational technology. The experience for students is invaluable and should be part of an ongoing dialogue on internet presence, safety, and protection of privacy. I plan to incorporate GooglePages in my workshops to this effect. You may visit my website here. Enjoy!
Reflection: Creating a Blog
For this assignment, we were required to create a weblog that we share with the class, that will also become a "blogfolio" - an online portfolio that offers reflections on our assignments for the course and the course itself.
Well, I came up with the handy-dandy site you are currently viewing, and I find that this blogfolio, along with the next assignment (creating a personal website) were just the push I needed to finally create my online professional presence. I believe that professionals, educators in particular, improve their marketability by maintaining a professional online presence. While professional networking sites like LinkedIn offer professional connections that are (highly) unlikely on Facebook or MySpace, a personal website and blog offer potential colleagues and employers insight into your personality, skills, and interests.
This blog and the website assignment have forced me to do what I kept procrastinating against for almost a year now. I've received a few compliments on the two sites, and some suggestions for improvement that I plan to incorporate shortly. I have already added these sites to my profiles in various job sites, and hope that they have the professional impact I desire.
Well, I came up with the handy-dandy site you are currently viewing, and I find that this blogfolio, along with the next assignment (creating a personal website) were just the push I needed to finally create my online professional presence. I believe that professionals, educators in particular, improve their marketability by maintaining a professional online presence. While professional networking sites like LinkedIn offer professional connections that are (highly) unlikely on Facebook or MySpace, a personal website and blog offer potential colleagues and employers insight into your personality, skills, and interests.
This blog and the website assignment have forced me to do what I kept procrastinating against for almost a year now. I've received a few compliments on the two sites, and some suggestions for improvement that I plan to incorporate shortly. I have already added these sites to my profiles in various job sites, and hope that they have the professional impact I desire.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Reflection: Web Searching
The web searching assignment entailed using Dr. Yuen's Ultimate Search Page, in which he collected a number of search engines in one page as a metasearch tool. Our task was to locate five sources related to telecommunications in education, two college classmates or former colleagues, an author of a book or article, a professional organization or business related to telecommunications in education, and two software applications. This assignment was an introduction to using various Internet tools for basic research.
This task was simple and easy for me to complete because I spend so much time online conducting research for travel, shopping deals, and of course, my classes. I took the opportunity to try an locate a former professor in my undergraduate education program, however, I was unable to trace him. Dr. Andres Perez y Mena taught me that a revolution must be fought from the inside, an extremely valuable lesson for me. I am saddened that I could not locate him to thank him for encouraging me in pursuing my doctoral degree, a valuable tool in my own education reform aspirations. His writings seem to cease at about 1999, when I graduated from Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus. I did find that he taught at Brooklyn College briefly in the ensuing years, but that turned out to be a dead end as well.
In the same way that I argued with Dr. Perez y Mena that rote workbook assignments do not reflect true teaching (the conversation that prompted his lecture on revolution), I balked at this assignment initially as being "too simple" for me. However, I realize that introductory courses must start at the beginning. One thing that I know now that I did not understand as an undergraduate education major, is that students must understand the purpose and motivations for assignments in their courses, and that these motivations often go well beyond the activity itself.
This task was simple and easy for me to complete because I spend so much time online conducting research for travel, shopping deals, and of course, my classes. I took the opportunity to try an locate a former professor in my undergraduate education program, however, I was unable to trace him. Dr. Andres Perez y Mena taught me that a revolution must be fought from the inside, an extremely valuable lesson for me. I am saddened that I could not locate him to thank him for encouraging me in pursuing my doctoral degree, a valuable tool in my own education reform aspirations. His writings seem to cease at about 1999, when I graduated from Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus. I did find that he taught at Brooklyn College briefly in the ensuing years, but that turned out to be a dead end as well.
In the same way that I argued with Dr. Perez y Mena that rote workbook assignments do not reflect true teaching (the conversation that prompted his lecture on revolution), I balked at this assignment initially as being "too simple" for me. However, I realize that introductory courses must start at the beginning. One thing that I know now that I did not understand as an undergraduate education major, is that students must understand the purpose and motivations for assignments in their courses, and that these motivations often go well beyond the activity itself.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Blogfolio Introduction
This blog will feature my thoughts and reflections, as well as links to my research and projects related to IT 648, Telecommunications in Education. This course is part of my doctoral minor (and part of the masters program) in Instructional Technology at The University of Southern Mississippi. I look forward to our discussions and welcome comments on any topics or projects found here.
Recently I have struggled with how best to present myself to potential employees as a potential faculty member that is dedicated to incorporating technology in my teaching. Having a (very) common name, I have not yet found a domain name for a website/online cv that conveys who I am as a professional. A Google search of "Lisa Richardson" comes up with over 330,000 hits - none of whom are yours truly. However, with the requirement of using this blog as a course portfolio, I have begun to reconsider this method as an alternative. A blogfolio is a great way to explain my teaching philosophy, as well as show how my future students can easily do the same.
My central belief in the delivery of effective distance learning is that the instructor and students must actively create a community that welcomes dialogue, contrasting ideas, and passionate argument while maintaining decorum and respect for all participants. Many people still believe that this is not possible in an online class. With all of the tools and technologies available to us - especially via open source - it most certainly is possible to emulate a face-to-face classroom both synchronously and asynchronously. Moreover, it can be done without creating barriers to students with differing learning styles or abilities.
I'll get down from my soapbox now, but you'll find these themes throughout my writings this summer. Welcome to my blogfolio! - LR
Recently I have struggled with how best to present myself to potential employees as a potential faculty member that is dedicated to incorporating technology in my teaching. Having a (very) common name, I have not yet found a domain name for a website/online cv that conveys who I am as a professional. A Google search of "Lisa Richardson" comes up with over 330,000 hits - none of whom are yours truly. However, with the requirement of using this blog as a course portfolio, I have begun to reconsider this method as an alternative. A blogfolio is a great way to explain my teaching philosophy, as well as show how my future students can easily do the same.
My central belief in the delivery of effective distance learning is that the instructor and students must actively create a community that welcomes dialogue, contrasting ideas, and passionate argument while maintaining decorum and respect for all participants. Many people still believe that this is not possible in an online class. With all of the tools and technologies available to us - especially via open source - it most certainly is possible to emulate a face-to-face classroom both synchronously and asynchronously. Moreover, it can be done without creating barriers to students with differing learning styles or abilities.
I'll get down from my soapbox now, but you'll find these themes throughout my writings this summer. Welcome to my blogfolio! - LR
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Here's Lisa...
Hi!
I'm Lisa Richardson, and I am a 32-year-old mother, graduate student, and graduate assistant. It was pretty scary leaving my full-time position in Washington, DC to attend a PhD program full-time in the deep South. I'm a native New Yorker, born and raised in The Bronx, NYC of Jamaican heritage. I'm studying Higher Education Administration at The University of Southern Mississippi, with a minor in Instructional Technology. I work in the Department of Educational Leadership and Research, and I will be seeking a tenure-track position in Higher Education Administration next year.
This summer is pretty hectic for me, as I am taking a 12-credit load on top of taking comprehensive exams at the end of this month and submitting the pre-proposal for my dissertation. I am interested in issues of access for students in postsecondary education, and implementing universal design to improve learning in distance education courses. At the end of the summer term, I'll have a break for a few weeks to see my son. Being away from him is the hardest part of being in Mississippi.
My technology background is pretty varied and mostly internet-related. My Dad bought a computer for my brother and I to work (and play!) on when I was still in elementary school. We used it right through high school for writing papers - it wasn't much more than a typewriter without ribbon to us then.
In college I discovered the internet, chatting in real-time for days on end using Internet Relay Chat. My very first day online, I sat in front of the terminal for 24 hours straight! I've been a member of a number of social networking communities since 1993. I have created and maintained several blogs over the years, although I have never been able to keep up with posting regularly. Hopefully that won't be a problem in this class! I look forward to talking with and learning from my colleagues in this course.
I'm Lisa Richardson, and I am a 32-year-old mother, graduate student, and graduate assistant. It was pretty scary leaving my full-time position in Washington, DC to attend a PhD program full-time in the deep South. I'm a native New Yorker, born and raised in The Bronx, NYC of Jamaican heritage. I'm studying Higher Education Administration at The University of Southern Mississippi, with a minor in Instructional Technology. I work in the Department of Educational Leadership and Research, and I will be seeking a tenure-track position in Higher Education Administration next year.
This summer is pretty hectic for me, as I am taking a 12-credit load on top of taking comprehensive exams at the end of this month and submitting the pre-proposal for my dissertation. I am interested in issues of access for students in postsecondary education, and implementing universal design to improve learning in distance education courses. At the end of the summer term, I'll have a break for a few weeks to see my son. Being away from him is the hardest part of being in Mississippi.
My technology background is pretty varied and mostly internet-related. My Dad bought a computer for my brother and I to work (and play!) on when I was still in elementary school. We used it right through high school for writing papers - it wasn't much more than a typewriter without ribbon to us then.
In college I discovered the internet, chatting in real-time for days on end using Internet Relay Chat. My very first day online, I sat in front of the terminal for 24 hours straight! I've been a member of a number of social networking communities since 1993. I have created and maintained several blogs over the years, although I have never been able to keep up with posting regularly. Hopefully that won't be a problem in this class! I look forward to talking with and learning from my colleagues in this course.
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