IT 5130: Two People Active with Web 2.0

I keep running across these names and want to make sure that I do not lose their names:

• Carl Fisch is known for his “Did you know?” video.
• Professor Wesch from Kansas State University is doing some cool things.

IT 5650: Planning for the Advanced Training

What I’ve Discovered as I Planned for an Advanced Course

• Students need to start with a solid understanding of the product before moving to advanced course.
• We need to add behind the scenes data flow type of information to our main field service online courses so that students understand the effects of the settings they make.
• In the Elements of a Science of e-Learning, Mayer talks about how to help learners understand explanations of how scientific systems work… Scientific explanations are a type of conceptual knowledge. When students were asked to apply their knowledge, here’s what was discovered:
• —-Dual channels: visual/pictorial and auditory/verbal
• —-Modality Effect tells us that students learn better from animation and narration than from animation and on-screen text. Why? The animation can be processed in the visual channel while the narration is processed in the auditory channel thus offloading some of the demands of the visual channel.
• —-Contiguity Effect tells us that students learn better from animation and narration at the same time.
• —-Pre-training Effect tells us that students learn better when components explanations are provided before the presentation.
• One other note is that we should provide an interactive learning event before students get to the point of TMI to help students tie together what they just learned.
• The main course should teach students how to solve basic troubleshooting. If X happens, you do Y.
• All of this BASIC knowledge and skills can be learned online… Research supports this as well.
• Learning more advanced knowledge lends itself well to collaborative environments.

Learner supports such as Job Aids are important take-aways for students when there are things that students need to remember from the course but they won’t because there are too many details or because the information is complex. The content in the course should be more of a summary, and the job aid should include the information (including details) that students will need to know after class to perform their jobs. In addition, we need to give students practice questions that require them to use the job aid.

The advanced course should teach students how to think outside the box. It’s the type of information that doesn’t have a concrete set of be circumstances. There are many variables and the situation could be different for each customer.

Problem-based learning in groups (with a facilitator) helps learners guides students through constructing the knowledge they need. It allows for scaffolding.  The problems should help students develop the higher-level thinking needed to solve problems. Start with easy problems and work their way to more complex problems.

Problem Solving as a method: Learning is supported and enhanced through settings that encourage and enable communication and interaction among students.mKnowledge is constructed through social interaction. Students structure and restructure information to make sense of it when the collaborate.
What students can do with help they will be able to do on their own after practice.

IT 5650: Need More Advanced Training

My department has been asked to create more advanced courses for our field service teams. As a department, we have to figure out what this means. To date, we have been developing courses that helped field service learn how to use the product and perform basic troubleshooting. Based on initial discussions, it sounds like the field service teams need to better understand how the settings they make affect the behind-the-scenes operations of the product. With this understanding, the field service teams would be able to better troubleshoot the product.

For my final project, I will create a proposal for a solution that meets the needs of field service. I plan to start by conducting a needs analysis.

IT 5650: What Key Events Have Impacted Instructional Technolgy?

As part of a course assignment, I’ve been researching various topics/events that may have impacted distance education or instructional technology. So far my interests revolve around art history and global economies. I’m curious how the different art periods/art mediums impacted distance education or how the political climate of the time impacted distance education. I’m also curious how the different learning theories will relate to what I uncover.

IT 5650: The People-Process-Product Continuum in E-Learning

When I first read “The People-Process-Product Continuum in E-Learning: The E-Learning P3 Model” by Badrul Kahn, I thought, wow, must be nice to have the luxury of all of those people. The more I thought about it, I decided that I was gald I didn’t work for an organization that had that large of a staff because then I wouldn’t get to do all of the things that I do. For example, in my current role, I’m responsible for everything from initial planning and project management to course development and implementation. I do work with a multimedia designer for my media requirements though.

I’m guessing that many factors impact how a learning organization/department is structured. For example, I bet things like the volume of courses, course type, release/update schedule, and resource pool influence the role that an ID plays and what other positions are needed. I also think that finding a team of people who are able to be productive and efficient would need to be considered. For example, if you had a team of seven IDs and two multimedia designers who did everything, and you were trying to find ways to be more effective and efficient, you might start to wonder if it would make more sense to have fewer IDs who focused on the ID work and then had one or two people do the production side of things.

I’m curious what other people thought of this article.

IT 5650: Reflections from the Intro of Blogs and RSS Feeds

I found the article “Reflections from the Introduction of Blogs and RSS Feeds into a Preservice Instructional Technology Course” insightful and helpful. I can relate to the students’ struggles with using blogs as part of their class. I’ve had little experience with blogs myself and am not sure the best way to write an initial post. I’m also not sure how to organize a blog website, so I’m finding my way. So far I’m using my blog to capture some of my notes and my initial understanding of the reading assignments. I’m tweaking the organization as I go along. RSS feeds are new to me too. I don’t have any experience with these, so I’m hoping to learn more about them and their benefit.

IT 5650: Learning Communities

After reading the Learning Supports chapter in “Teaching and Learning Online” by Ron Oliver and Jan Herrington, I thought of an idea for one of my courses at work. One of my curriculums includes an online course followed by a classroom course. The online course is the pre-req to the 3-day classroom course. There are four instructors who teach the classroom course, and we don’t have a good way to formally interact with one another. The instructor’s “full-time” job is technical support. They just help out by teaching once a month or so.

My Idea
I think we have opportunities to engage more formally with guest instructors in an effort to share knowledge and ideas.  One way to do this is to form learning communities using Web 2.0. We could use the Web 2.0 technologies to create a meeting place that isn’t tied to time or location. The learning community would need to have a distinctive place to meet (ie: Blog), purpose and goals for the group, norms and clear code of conduct, effective leadership promoted within, and so forth. This type of “space” would allow the members to learn more because knowledge is social in nature and learning occurs in contexts of social interaction such that learners structure (and re-structure) information to make sense through communication and discussion with others.

I would like to create a learning community for Product XYZ instructors and myself. We could use WordPress as the Web 2.0 tool, which would allow the blog to only be seen within our network, preventing any concern of customers or anyone outside the company getting access. 

I plan to talk with my manager about my idea.

IT 5650: Using Media in the Classroom and in DE

In the Bernard paper: How Does Distance Education Compare with Classroom Instruction,” it was a good reminder that even if the same media is used in the classroom and DE, the media is often used for different reasons. In the classroom, it’s used to supplement the face-to-face instruction. In DE, it’s used to bridge the distance gap.

IT 5650: Notes and Ideas from Bernard’s Article

After reading “How Does Distance Education Compare with Classroom Instruction?” by Robert Bernard and others, I noted a few ideas that I’d like to keep in mind when designing asynchronous and synchronous learning:

On page 411, the following suggestions are made:

The course design should to take presedence over the attention to the media.

• Active learning that includes collaboration among students results in better student achievement. So does “supplementary one-way video materials and use of computer-based instruction”.
• Opportunities for communication benefit students in asynchronous and synchronous environments. Media that supports interactivity facilitate better attitudes and better achievement (in more advanced information).

It was interesting that the research suggests that Distance Education should not be a solidary experience. Instead there needs to be contact with instructors and other students creates the most effective learning experience. Question to myself: How can I do this with the self-paced online courses that I create?