Divine Flower

Photoshop work for multimedia class (Summer, 2010)

2011-10-01T05:21:00.002-06:00

before

after

Career as an Instructional Designer

2011-02-16T23:19:00.002-07:00

Instructional Designer Job Description, Career as an Instructional Designer, Salary, Employment - Definition and Nature of the Work, Education and Training Requirements, Getting the Job

Curator video scripts draft

2011-02-09T17:20:00.001-07:00

Just done the draft for three curator video scripts.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=1IS4L9gBXLgyhFyMkq0JN0xEkGB020s5npm0c-kTtP0kwJYnSF7_mbiUZt9sv&hl=en

Referenced Heather's suggestion as below for the C2 video. So the two examples go from simple observation to deeper specimen classification.

Several things need to discuss with Cathy and our group

1. The way we scaffold and model the students in our videos.

2. Proper video length. I tried to time my script, they are all a bit longer than we first discussed (30 seconds or so), each video may take around 60 to 90 seconds. So I think we need to add it to our interview questions asking them how long is suitable and won't blow the 4th grader's away.

3. For the filming time, it looks like the museum is ready. But I'm wondering if we need to get it done asap or wait for more possible revisions.

One suggestion, we would like to steer away from saying classification schemes are more or less scientific- we want them to understand when they classify or sort what they are doing is scientific, but we would like them to realize there are different levels of sophistication. So you could talk about really easily observed features/characteristics that you can group by, or how you can take some time to really observe specimens and find out a lot more about them and sort them according to those observations, and how that helps you learn and share more with other scientists. I think it is important that it is discussed about how your classification schemes have to be based on observations, and words like “cool”, “scary” or “ugly” can’t work because they may mean things to different people, and don’t really tell us about the specimens.

The Nine Events of Instruction

2011-02-04T15:47:00.002-07:00

Quoted from http://education.calumet.purdue.edu/vockell/edPsybook/Edpsy3/edpsy3_instruction.htm

We will later tie our capstone project to Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction. Leave it here for reference only now.

Gaining attention. Guidelines for gaining attention and facilitating the process of moving information from the sensory register to working memory are discussed in chapter 6 of this book.

Activating motivation: Informing the learner of the objective. Strategies for activating motivation are discussed in detail in chapter 5. Different levels of instructional objectives are discussed later in the present chapter. Specific guidelines for developing instructional objectives are discussed in chapter 15.

Stimulating recall of prerequisite learning. Strategies for stimulating this process of moving information to and from long-term memory are described in chapter 6. Advance organizers are discussed in greater detail in chapter 15.

Presenting stimulus material. Strategies for presenting lessons are covered in the present chapter and in chapter 15.

Providing learning guidance. Strategies teachers can employ to guide thinking and learning are discussed in several chapters in this book, especially in chapter 7, in the present chapter, and in chapter 15.

Eliciting the performance. Teachers perform this event informally through such activities as learning probes (chapter 15) and more formally through tests at the end of units of instruction (chapter 14).

Providing feedback. Teachers do this by their reactions to student responses and activities in class and to other student assignments. The importance of using feedback strategies that promote autonomy is discussed in chapter 5. Other aspects of feedback are discussed in chapter 15.

Assessing the learner's performance. This involves the evaluative component of feedback. Step 7 is less formal and occurs while the student is learning. The present step occurs when the learner wants to demonstrate a formal mastery of the objectives of instruction. Strategies for assessment and grading are discussed in chapter 14.

Promoting retention and transfer. Guidelines for enhancing the retention of information in long-term memory and bringing it back to working memory when it is needed are discussed in chapter 6. The "Remember when... now let's" rule described in chapter 7 is an example of a specific attempt to implement this event of instruction. The value of distributed practice is discussed later in chapter 6.

Video Design

2011-02-04T15:05:00.001-07:00

Actors:

Mainly, we will have two high school students to be our actors.. Madlyn and Heather prefer them to be girls. So Cathy will look for candidates who take drama courses from her neighborhood, and check with Madlyn at the same time.

Part I: Scientist Introduction (30-40 seconds)

In this video, the teen scientist will do a brief introduction which covers the below talking points

introduce herself
address the definition of classification, but not in a abstruse way that the 4th graders cannot understand;
clarify why we classify
make reference on observation module and demonstrate normal life classification examples (activate the learner's schema)
introduce curator (transit to Part II videos)

Part II Video: Curator Explanation and Question (50s + 40s + 30s, need 2 pages)

Part II video will be composed by 3 individual video clips presented on two pages.

Curator 1 (C1) will include:

greeting students
introduce herself as a curator and her daily work
address the general principles on how to classify;
present 5 museum items belong to the same category
ask the students to think how they would classify the 5 items based on their prior knowledge and what the curator just addressed;
instruct the student to proceed to next page to watch two classification example videos and justify their results;
instruct the students to be prepared for the main activity after watching the example videos.

C2 will include:

demonstrate how the curator classify the 5 items;
clearly clarify the thinking process of how and why the curator classify them in two different ways;
remind the students that there are more different ways to classify these 5 items and that they should not be limited by what the curator just presented.

C3 will include:

demonstrate a "less-scientific" way to classify the items;
explain why it's a "less-scientific" way compared to "scientific" ways, and how to avoid it;
cheer the students if they do not classify in the "less-scientific" way and encourage them to test their knowledge in the main activity.

Part II videos can be associated to scaffolding and modeling learning theories.

social(social-cognitive) learning (demonstrate examples), short video 30-40 seconds

The nine events of instruction

4th grader's core

photo chart of ADDIE

five items available, send email
finish narration by tomorrow,
actor preference,

EDPS 6440 02.03.2011

2011-02-04T09:13:00.001-07:00

UMNH Observation Module
http://www.integrateducation.org/umnh/blog/

as little reading as possible, using video, draw attention

We were talking about the learning theories should be associated with our capstone project, Schema: Modeling and Scaffolding are the three main theories we currently can see from our project, and I will further clarify them later.

After today's meeting and discussion, we all feel that we get a better idea and clearer mind on our project. Firstly, while trying to balance our client's requirements, we really should stick to our project and designs based on the learning and instructional theories; Secondly, instead of all of the six people (Yes, we have the biggest group ever!) working together on every stage and detail, we divided our main responsibilities. Just contribute more on whichever part you are interested and capable of. With this, we divided as below:

Website: Josh will start building the layout of our Classification module, Kathy will meet Aron next Monday for suggestions and possible technical help. The website need MySQL and PHP skills, Kathy is MySQL teacher, so she will do more job on the coding things (which I don't know). Claire is willing to do some graphic works, but this is my main job for now.

Classification Activity Materials: Matt is doing research and picking 15-20 birds out of the 50 birds Heather provided to us. The qualified ones should share one or more similar characteristics with 3 or 4 other birds. This is not an easy job, more like doing a pretty complicated puzzle and memory game among the 50 pictures.

Video: Cathy and Claire will take on this part. Instead of doing a simple introduction video for our learning module, we decided to go further and deeper. So in this way, before doing the classification activity, the students should be prepared and get a clearer idea on how to complete the task. Since we are mainly working on the videos, I will further expand this part in the next journal.

Assessment and Testing: Denice will be in main charge of the testing and assessment since her husband is 4th grade teacher and he also has a lab of 15 laptops for students working together. We are so blessed to have such a great resource!

Other: All other design parts like building the characteristic table, revising, completing the portfolio, etc will be ongoing works that everybody will share a portion.

We now feel much much more comfort and much much much much more confident about our project.

Meeting Minutes 2.2.2011

2011-02-02T15:41:00.001-07:00

Dr. Zheng and I had our first meeting with Dr. Butcher today.

1. We revised our experiment design.
3 groups, G1-no prompt; G2-Content specific prompt (Deep); G3-Content free prompt (Deep)

2. Redefined the 3 prompts
The three prompts should cover below purposes:
explaining, monitoring, integration

Prompt 1 (F): In your own words, explain the most important ideas from this video?

Prompt 1 (S): In your own words, explain the most important ideas about Cyberbullying? - Explaining

Prompt 2 (F): What are the most difficult things to explain/understand about this video?
Prompt 2 (S): What are the most difficult things to explain/understand about Cyberbullying? - Monitoring

Prompt 3 (F): What is new and different about the information in this video compared to what you already knew?
Prompt 3 (S): What is new and different about Cyberbullying compared to the traditional bullying you already knew? - Integration

3. Due to the revision of the experiment design, we need to cut one out of the four videos. Plus, Cut the deep questions to four instead of five. That's something we need to discuss during the later meeting at 3 pm.

4. OK here comes the homework I need to do now

Reword the prompts for other 2 or 3 videos, need to be similar, but not exactly the same.
broadly search and read relevant literatures on "net safe study" "learning" "net addiction" "social networking", etc. and narrow those searches to net-safe finally. But get some ideas from all the related topics, maybe some fresh ideas, which are probably useful for the discussion of the Net-Safe Study in the end.

Change memory questions, not hard enough for the students to solve.

12 minutes for 4 application questions

5 minutes video

5 minutes memory questions

3 pm meeting

Script for page 3 curator activity

2010-12-02T14:18:00.001-07:00

Add caption

2010-11-20T18:03:00.003-07:00

Accidentally found this website, they have a pretty neat on-line virtual lab for classification that I think maybe we can reference from.

http://glencoe.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0078778066/student_view0/chapter1/virtual_lab.html

Just record some ideas I just thought of.

We can make only one video for "transition" between page 3 and page 4, also, the videos should be in a continuous way that more like showing the students around in the museum. On page 3, the speaker stay in the hallway of the museum asking the students to place the new arrival items into different "exhibit halls"; while on page 4, the speaker would walk upstairs and enter the birds exhibition hall to do the main activity to further classify the birds based on a 2-tiered classification.

on Page 4, we would provide printable sheet for students to fill out their results, etc. In this way, they can double-check and justify their classifications on Page 6; in addition, teachers can have a copy of the records.

I'm sure I got more ideas during this Thur's class, and I'll catch up more for this post.

Next Thur. is Thanksgiving, so between now and then, I will start to compose the scripts for page 3 video. Cathy is in charge of script on page 4 video. Denice will go test the 4th graders in her husband's class to see the possible ways this age may classify the birds. (We took some pretty nice pictures this Thur in the learning lab located at the basement of the museum. The girl showed us around is very pretty by the way. :P But none of us know her name. LOL)

Meeting with Madlyn and Heather

2010-11-20T17:44:00.000-07:00

Below is the notes I took during this meeting with Madlyn and Heather on Nov 21, 2010 for future reference.

page 4
a few things that they can select from, not too many choices.

Select the grouped items, container/not container. Then, by materials/time(morden/antique).

Three different areas for the students to pick. Go quickly to the main content. Not cognitively busy which is time/energy consuming.

Start from small, and add to it later. Quality. Less choices, high quality.

12 – 15 specimens. Kids like dinosaurs, animals, minerals, plants, insects (number of legs)

Visually interesting.

Tool box. Connect to their own lives, currently making,

page 5

Curator, format, how sam came back in observation. Add justification, why you justify them like that. Select which group

timeline 15-20 minutes.

Utah core links.

Umnh.org

Educators—resources

“I like to study insects…”

Anchored Instruction class notes 10.7.10

2010-10-07T17:15:00.003-06:00

Relate on-line experiences to the real museum touring later.

Put the learning activity into a possible real life situation, so they may apply those knowledge and problem-solving skills, which is classification, they learned from this learning module to their tours in museum. Easier transfer on knowledge.

notes:
do need to learn the basic knowledge and skills, but do not stop there.
not the end, but the means to the end.
it helps
1. better and deeper understanding of the learned knowledge;
2. remember longer and retrieve easier;
3. can apply the knowledge to other situations.

Problem-oriented v.s. Factual format

2010-10-07T12:31:00.002-06:00

Subjects who received information in a problem-oriented form may have generated their own ideas, maybe within half a second, before scanning the latter sentences of the answer.

For me, it's like the question helps the learners to set a very clear learning goal at the first place, which can activate the thinking process of the learners, rather than passively reading and memorizing some plain "facts".

p. 121 Under these circumstances, subjects have an opportunity to first reconstruct their initial learning context and then find the relevant answers for each problem that they see.

Bransford et al. (1990) Anchored Instruction

This gives me some inspiration on our final project design. How you do modeling to the students? Based on this statement, preferably, we may design the classification process to be a "problem-oriented" form, by
firstly given the goal of classification,
then observe main features (similarities/differences) of provided objects,
then draw conclusions based on some criterion.
In this way, the students may experience "problem-solving" thinking process to further establish their own problem-solving abilities.

Besides all the above, I found it's a very good way in marketing/advertising to catch the audience's attention by asking a question. For a very simple example, compare these two sentences and ask yourself which one may stimulate your curiosity?
1. Frito Lay grows the best snacks on earth.
2. Who grows the best snacks on earth? Frito Lay!
Same strategy can apply to many other field, such as article titles, book names, etc.

In the above case, you may remember "the best snacks on earth" in the first statement, while in the second one, you remember "Frito Lay".

Teaching strategy - Modeling

2010-10-07T12:10:00.002-06:00

Below is some random thoughts for our EDPS 6431 final project on Classification for Utah Museum of Natural History.

Just for my personal notes

I’m not sure where to put these stuffs in this document. I’m thinking about Modeling.
(1) to teach students on classification. The learning module would firstly show examples on classification, (e.g. demonstrating the thinking process to observe an object with wheels and motor, it’s classified as vehicle.)
(2) let the learner draw their conclusions on how the thinking process goes through
(3) let the students develop their own system or concept map of classification
(4) provide practices on classifying different objects in different ways (the criterion needs to be discussed later).
Put it in a simple way, 1. Model the problem-solving thinking process of classification; 2. Practice and test their own classification system.

Barron Q3

2010-01-28T06:13:00.000-07:00

With all the benefits that Barron listed, why do you think some administrators, teachers, and parents are reluctant to support educational technology? How can this be addressed in the future?

lose control

Kids like computers, kids like fun stuffs. However, let's do a research on this, instead of learning knowledge from a computer(or Internet), how much time the students are playing WITH the computers and looking for fun stuffs from Internet?

Yes, I understand that nobody has control over anything, but this technology thing really provides a huge amount of opportunities for young kids to be exposed to the explosive information when they are not old enough to discipline themselves and understand how to use them properly.

Not like the older generations before, who has time to read a good book at hand, to concentrate on doing a research, to learn more subjects?

This just reminds me some similar issue for young kids. Education experts do not recommend students study abroad by themselves at a young age (proximately under high school). I was 24 when I first came to the U.S.. I thought i was mature enough to face and handle anything in the totally brand-new living/learning environment, but I was lost. I was kind of lost the standard of right and wrong, good and bad, to do and not to do, etc. I also witnessed many pity cases that how those young kids got lost and chose the wrong ways before they were grown up. (living abroad without their parents)

I'm not saying technology totally something negative. It does enable people to live and communicate more conveniently, but for young kids, it does draw many people back from stepping forward.

Subject: Cultural Change

Author: Ashley Crockett

Date: January 27, 2010 7:40 PM

I think one reason teachers, administrators and parents are hesitant to apply technology into their classrooms is because that wasn't what it was like for them when they were getting their education. It is a big cultural change and cultural changes are always met with resistance. They might be scared that the use of technology in schools might change the fundamental quality of education in a negative way.

I think one of the ways this fear can be addressed is through educating parents, teachers and administrators on the benefits of technology in the classroom. Address their specific fears and help them understand the potential technology has in helping their children learn.

Also, technology should be implemented slowly and with precision. Technology shouldn't be implemented before teachers are trained on how to use it or else it becomes a negative experience for everyone. It would also let those who are hesitant about technology adjust to it slowly.

I agree.

There is a universal principle that it's very hard to change one's first impression. Without enough both inside and outside drive, one will stick to his/hers "traditional" notion as before. Same idea applies here.

Technology changed the education field dramatically during the past decade. However, most of the teachers are not equipped that way.

I'm thinking, maybe 10 years later, when this generation raised "by technology" become the educators, it would be much more easier for them to apply hi-tech in their teachings. But who know how the world would be like 10 years later? maybe the majority of people still having a hard time to catch up the development of technology?

Final

2009-12-13T17:22:00.002-07:00

Time flies.

When I sit in the class enjoying all the presentations, I actually didn't have an appetite to eat. It made me feel relieved but sad.

Each of them is just so creative and beyond my imagination. From food to hospital to entertainment to work-oriented to good manners. It's the harvest time for everybody!

I especially want to thank Dr. Monson, and my cheer leaders, Sarah and Adam. Their helps, supports and encouragements, enable me to be involved in the learning more easily. I do appreciate it a lot! I won't forgot the three in-class presentations we had, and how they were standing behind me.

It's a great pleasure to spend the first semester with everybody in this class! But due to some personal issue, I may probably not continue my study for a while. I felt sad in Thur's class cause that's the last time for me to meet you all. I'll cherish this precious moment in my life and hope everything goes well on each of you!

Giving the students too much control over the learning experience.

2009-11-23T23:08:00.000-07:00

One criticism related to the student experience and integration of computers that was listed was: Giving the students too much control over the learning experience.

1- Do you believe that computers are capable of this?
2- Is it possible to give students too much control over their learning experience?

Yes, I believe so.

Though computers - the hardware - is only a kind of media, it does offers tons of opportunities to the users/students, especially surfing on-line through computers.

Before the students are exposed to such a huge amount of information, they must have the ability of "self-control", "self-regulation" or "self-discipline". You know what you are doing and what you want from the internet, as well as what you should not do and "learn" from it. However, not every student, especially for little kids, have this kind of abilities. And I believe that it's not a good idea or proper way for them to use computer to surf on-line as a learning experience. There are just too many things the teachers can not control, and giving too much choices is not a good idea for small kids.

But, what age is good to handle these choices and control themselves? There is no exact answer as well. Otherwise there won't be "bad guys" in the world. There is no absolute "method" to "control" the thoughts of a human-being. So, the key point is that the "inner-control" plays the most important role EVERYWHERE.

I think more education or teaching on "self-control" and the righteous values may improve or at least make up for this gap. In addition, this is the most efficient and powerful way.

What went wrong?

2009-11-15T16:20:00.000-07:00

A very good bad design example I face EVERY DAY is my flash disc.

I have 2 or 3 flash discs. The trouble-maker is the oldest one I bought several years ago. Back to the time when flash discs are still expensive in the market, my friend gave this 256MB flash disc as a present. I was so excited to have a cute one like that. It has a fancy shape with a round end, and in the center of the round end, there is a flash light to show you it's working when you plug it in your computer. Well, this is where the problem is.

Most of the hi-tech products, like video camera, digital camera, palm, microphone, my mouse are required to use the USB ports. My laptop has 4 USB 2.0 Ports. But because of the fancy shape, I can only use 2 of them when using this flash disc. The shell of it is either too thick to plug another product in under or above it, or too wide to use another port on its left or right. I have to unplug other 2 ports next to it to use it, leaving only the mouse plugged. Or if sometimes I need one more thing to use the port, like if I'm printing something or on a video conference, I have to unplug my mouse as well to use that flash disc. That annoys me a lot!

So, finally, I retired it before I got mad, and bought another 4GB flash disc. It's nothing fancy, just the regular shape, and slim. Since it's a gift from my best friend, I'm not gonna throw it or give it to other people, I just save it in one of my drawer and have the big-butt beauty sleep for a looooong time.

The Great Debate : Media v.s. Method

2009-11-02T17:49:00.000-07:00

does media really influence learning?

Generally speaking, everything influences learning, good or bad. The living environment, learners' emotions, characteristics, personalities, family structures, cultures, and even your mom or the orange juice you just had influences your learning. So does media. Absolutely.

However, if talking about "is media an essential component cannot be substituted in learning to cause a better learning outcome?", I'll take it a no. I'm a supporter of Clark, and I'm happy to be assigned to defend for him.

personal experiences

1. Instead of learning by using the computer, students are working on the program or system, not really the content.

2. I may happen to try something using media, but when I figure it out how the system or program is like, I lost interest of using it to learn as well, which indicates that media could be a stimulus or motivation to encourage learning to happen, but it doesn't really change one's own mind or attitude "whether I want to learn".

Learning happens everywhere and anywhere, part of it is based on personal interests (a history/mathematic fan), some part of it is because the learners are required to do so (to pass an exam to enter a good university and find a good job to earn more money to buy a bigger house to live in and to save more money when you get old......).

I would say, it doesn't matter using which media when learning occurs out of your own wish. You like reading? Printed papers, limited classical hardcover edition, on-line text, stored in your palm, an audio CD, etc, etc, you name it, whichever media really doesn't matter, you just want to READ.

For the same reason, when learning occurs because of the outer drive, media doesn't influence a lot as well. Suppose you are going to take the GRE test, options in front of you are official instructional textbook, CD, instructional video,on-line learning, distance instruction classes, no matter how fancy the format is, you have to memorize those 20,000 words and do some or a lot of practices to get an ideal score. It's boring and tiring and time-consuming to reach the goal, but you are required to do so, no matter you like it or not.

Computer is just to help you to increase your interest on continuous learning.

I may like to put method as the essence and media as appearance.

Question 6: Do we lost something equally important?

2009-10-17T17:43:00.000-06:00

Author: Catherine Cooper Date: October 7, 2009 9:18 PM

Like a lot of you, I am also taking the Learning Theories class along with this class. This week's reading on motivational learning was really interesting to me. I think perhaps that some teachers may be so excited or feel so pressured to use the latest and greatest technologies that they overlook what they have to personally offer their students. Teachers can be great mentors to students as they share with them their life experiences and select engaging learning activities that help them find life application to what they are being taught. I think just having a verbal discussion with students can be very meaningful for them and technology might just get in the way.

Cathy,

I like your word "mentor" when your refer to teachers. I also agree with your last sentence that "just having a verbal discussion with students can be very meaningful for them and technology might just get in the way."

Sometimes, technology distracts students' attention from what they are supposed to learn.

Your comment reminds me a classical example in Chinese culture. There was a very famous enlightened rabbi called Hui Neng in ancient China. One day, a Buddhist nun holding a Buddhism scripture wants to consult him. Hui Neng told her: "I can not read the characters. If you can read the scripture for me, I'll interpret it to you." The Buddhist nun was so surprised and asked: "You do not know a word. How can you interpret the profound Buddhist scripture?!" Hui Neng then raised an example for her. He said: "I'm now using my finger to show you the moon. But, if you can see the moon by yourself, you don't need my finger to point it to you at all."

I love this story. It's very meaningful and interesting. However, a large amount of people are doing lots of researches on the little "finger", its shape, color, dimensions, weight, structure, etc.. But they forget the moon.

I think this little story is a suitable example to your comment, too. The meaning of the existence of technology is to serve and assist teaching, however, when teaching and instruction can be done by the simplest way, "technology might just get in the way".

Q: Do we lost something equally important?

2009-10-13T01:51:00.001-06:00

Q: Do we lost something equally important?

The situation is that the whole world is rushing to apply the cutting-edge technological inventions in education industry; in the meantime, however, do we lost anything equally important in education when we got what we expected from technology? (e.g. creativity, personality, characteristics, moral values, etc.)

Compare the differences between nowadays students and your or your parents' generation's experiences, and give examples to support your idea.

Also, share your ideas on how you would like or have already done to cover the "gap(s)" or "loophole(s)" to help students' life-span developments, and be valuable for both the individual him/herself and our society.

Yes. Today's generation is so different. It seems like they are born to master the hi-tech skills.

However, I'm keep thinking that why we want everything "natural" but education. We hope to eat organically, to dress organically, and to live naturally. But when talking about education, people prefer technology to be involved as mush as it can, rather than "educate naturally".
I played with sand, rocks and water when I was a small kid. I used them to build tunnels, small hills, houses, military base, etc. How about today's kids? They do the similar things by clicks through a program on a computer. When we were running and chasing each others and playing games, today's kids are sitting in front of the computers playing computer games or watching "educational TV programs".
I'm not saying to get rid of the technology part from education which is not practical as well, nevertheless, I do feel pity for them sometimes. What a childhood memory it will be? A childhood without childishness.

Question 5: More technology, more problems?

2009-10-11T17:33:00.000-06:00

On page 7 of the article, the author states, "The application of technological solutions to one problem may create other problems which may be more serious than the original problem."

What are some examples of this "negative cost-benefit ratio" that you see in education and instruction today?

Corollary: Does the need to transform our schools into 21st-century institutions outweigh other concerns?

When I read this statement, I was comparing this technology issue to my personal experiences on language learning.

Technology does solve many problems in every aspect of our human lives and SOMETIMES makes things easier and more convenient for us. However, the conditional requirement is that you are equipped with that knowledge or skill. If not, it can only make things harder and more complicated.

It acts as a bottle neck, filtering those capable, smart and gifted people who cannot (properly) use it out. Just like the language barrier. If you want to study abroad, especially in a country that speaks another language, you have to learn that language first and learn it very well to be qualified to enter an institution or school. Even you are outstanding in your professional field, but it's only because either you don't have time to learn another language or you are really bad at language learning, there is no way for that person to get the chance.

Same thing in this technology situation. When technology becomes to dominate our society everywhere, including education and instruction, and the teacher and instructor have to master the skills or they are required to use the technology in their teaching, it really blocks those qualified teachers who can not use it.

Technology capability is only one of the thousands abilities of a human living being, it's NOT all. In addition, it's not the key instruction problem in learning process. Does it mean that if schools are equipped with the best technology products, their students would be the best AS A RESULT? If your answer is no, so where do you like to place those experienced teachers/instructors who do not know or are not good at using technology products? They may be filtered out by an irrelevant criterion required by today's society.

Bad Day

2009-09-20T20:52:00.008-06:00

I finished next week's reading just now, and I'm sooo frustrated.

I feel like I already understand those theories, concepts, principles... but not until the "Practice" part jumped out. 90% of my reflections on those questions were not the same/similar as the "Feedback" part. Only the completing a cluster analysis for verbal information on "Parts of the body", I guess I'm on the right track. But still missing some parts of "my" body, and some of them I can not name in English. I was expecting the next question would be easier and I could work it out, which ended with losing my confidence and temper at last.

On the bright side, I'd say I'm an expert and too smart to break those tasks into small steps. ~~>_<~~

Bad day, Good night.

Claire's ID Model

2009-09-18T00:19:00.003-06:00

Yes! That's the way I want to describe my Model of ID.

Basically, each of the Circle has A.D.D.I.E five phases as well, but the whole design is like a rolling wheel, it's moving! Moving forward towards the perfect endless end. Why is it endless? Because things are changing, and the needs/demands from the learners are changing, too. Thus, as time passes, IDers need to revise the design again and again and agin... forever to meet the learners' needs.

However, you noticed that the circles become smaller and smaller? That indicates that the design is getting closer and closer to the perfect state, and is being revised less and less than the very first begining.

The straight line going thru the circles represents EVALUATION. It starts from the first point where Analysis happens, and ends at the last point where Implementation finishes. (But, of course, it's still moving. )

Excuse my poor drawing skills, I draw a pretty picture using my thoughts in my head, but when being transferred to this dimension by using my mouse, it's totaly another story then. //BANG

ed ps 6430 understanding by design

2009-09-13T20:26:00.001-06:00

I just copy & paste what I post for discussion for future reference.

ed ps 6430 understanding by design

Q #1
In the current climate of cutbacks and budget shortages, it is feasible that educators will take time to use the UbD strategies? If they are inclined to try, would they be able to use this with every lesson plan? with a single unit? once a quarter?

Also, how does the process of backwards design compare and contrast with "teaching to the test?"

This is a good question. Since I'm kinda short of teaching experience compared with other classmates, personally speaking, I don't think it's feasible for the educators to apply UbD strategies all the time. Just like Matt mentioned about the "time constraints for lesson preparation" and keep students "on track". Especially, if you teach math, chemistry, a second language, etc. Most of the course content is knowledge level that needs the student to memorize hardly, no matter you are interested in them or not... "Teaching to Test" does not sound pretty, it's the fact sometimes. But it never hurts to give it a try once in a while or as many as needed.

I like the UbD Strategy. It looks systematic and thorough. It gives educators a very good reference or frame when they start to prepare lessons. However, I keep thinking that if all teachers use this strategy in their teachings, and every step is "programmed" to reach its final result, would students still be able to learn something outside the classroom?

"but, in the absence of a learning plan with clear goals, how likely is it that students will develop shared understandings on which future lessons might build? not very." ----quoted from UbD

2009-09-09T00:04:00.001-06:00

In today's class, we talked about Audio. I just got one more thought about the advantage of Audio. It helps to expand the students' ability to imagine, too. For instance, when you are listening to a speech, I believe there are not just sound waves haunting in your brain, you also try to imagine the scene simultaneously. The speaker's facial expression, body guestures, etc. If there are audience listening to the speech, are they throwing bottles to the speaker or keeping nodding their heads. Or, imagine what's in your head when you are listening "The Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Saens.

From this point, I'm thinking maybe I should generalize it to other formats as well, such as Text (think about when you are reading a novel, those characters are live people in you head, rather than the plain names "James" or "Rachel"), Video, Visual products, etc.

My point is when using all of these technology products/tools, we also should pay some attention to the skills and abilities unobservable or difficult to evaluate. It's kinda against the rule of instruction, it's good for the development of students though.

Computer v.s. School

2009-09-07T23:57:00.002-06:00

What does education stand for? How can we implement technology in education as a more effective and efficient method? Is technology the only or best method in education industry? Can computer replace traditional classroom? There are lots and lots of more topics to be disscussed when education meets technology nowadays.

During the 2nd week's class, Dr. Monson quoted from MIT professor Seymour Papert said in 1984,

There won’t be schools in the future… I think that the computer will blow up the school. That is, the school defined as something where there are classes, teachers running exams, people structured in groups by age, following curriculum-all of that. The whole system is based on a set of structural concepts that are incompatible with the presence of the computer…but this will happen only in communities of children who have access to computers on a sufficient scale.

I will take a no on this qutoe.

As we all have to admit it that computer does a good job as an effective and attractive tool on transfering knowledge from teachers to students. It's just a tool, a dead machine, one of the thousands of methods to acquire knowledge. It must be programmed, and computers can only follow the preinstalled programmed "orders".

Let's go back to the function of school. It's not only a place for students to learn existing knowledge, but also a place to learn how to communicate with other people, how to cooperate with your partners, how to response when something unexpected happens, and how to deal all of the interpersonal affairs. And more importantly, it's definitely a good place to learn and understand what loving, giving, forgiving are, how you can contribute to the public, either for the honor of your class or the fame of your school, etc..

All of these mentioned above can not be acquired from a computer. Whichever format the educator present them to you, by video or multimedia or whatever, you must experience them in person to learn.

In traditional Chinese culture, teachers play an very important role in a person's life. Besides teaching the student knowledge, they are also being treated as models with good manners, ability to control themselves, cultivating one's moral character and perfecting one's moral ingrity, etc. Especially in small kids eyes, teachers means authorities. In ancient China, people treat their teachers as fathers, and people believed that parents gave them the physical bodies, while teachers enriched their souls/spirits to become a complete person. Thus, people evaluate a good teacher not only by his/her knowledge level, but also by his/her virtue.

Does a computer can do this job, too? And, how about if you encounter a blackout? Aha, you know my answer, don't you?

test

2009-08-30T01:44:00.014-06:00

"DESIGN", hmm, it does sounds like a big word.

God designed human beings, our bodies, cultures, languages, living environments, etc.. Walt Disney designed Micky Mouse, somebody designed the desk lamp I'm using, and I just designed my tasty dinner several hours ago which was veggie+tofu+chicken+mixed rice.

I would say that everybody is a designer in a broad sense. However, I'd better not lead the reader too far away from our topic "Instructional Design & Educational Technology", the program I enrolled from this Fall semester.