The art of Instructional Design is as much of an art as the master pieces of Picasso or Monet. They are both things of beauty and both require talents that not everyone posses. It is a talent to be able to able to construct an activity that is fun yet primarily educational.
The method of Instructional Design allows us to take a seemingly monumental task and break it down into manageable pieces. A journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step.
I have spent the last year and a half putting the model of Instructional Design into practice. Friday was the culmination of the work I have put in over the last year and a half. This work has been in putting into place an Aviation Summer Camp for 8-12th grade students.
In the initial conception of the idea I did indeed "assess the needs to identify the goals." My mission statement was where I began. "Making Math and Science Relevant". In a notebook I wrote down what it would take to offer a Aviation Summer Camp. I identified my targeted student age by not only my knowledge level but also the other programs in the surrounding community that would either support my efforts or areas that were lacking that I could fill.
In conducting instructional analysis I not only analyzed the curriculum but evaluated resources in the form of support personnel and community involvement that could support the curriculum standards that I set. Finally deciding on performance objectives only after much research. Revision, development of assessment instrument,revision, develop instructional strategy, revision, all the way down to summative evaluation (oh yes and more revision). Summative evaluation for year 2010 of Aviation Summer Camp has begun and will be completed in the next few weeks. The formation of Aviation Summer Camp for 2011 has already begun and oh yes, did I mention revisions. It is a very gratifying feeling when a well thought out Instructional Design comes to full fruition.
Oh yes, and for the other portion identified in the title of this article Photo Sharing, I love it. We have had many different photo sharing programs over the years. All of our relatives (except for our own children) live out of state and we are only able to see them a few times a year. It is great to be able to share holiday and even ordinary day things with them through photo sharing software. In the realm of an educational use, my students and fellow instructors from Aviation Summer Camp are creating a web link of some sort to share photos that we took during camp. Much fun and learning was had by all. (and we got to fly too!)
Oshkosh Airventure camping
We all have the same amount of hours in a day. It's what we do with them that sets us apart.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
R/D3 Part 2
Question poised: Back to the Trends & Issues reading, to what degree do the definitions in this chapter correspond to with what you have thught about this area and what it is you hope to do in you line of work(or in a future career) Is there anything suprising or very new yu read in this chapter? Does something seem to be missing?
Response: Computers(personal computer) have been in our household since the early 80's. My husband has been delving into the world of computers since the time of commodore 64 and black and green DOS screens and the world of PONG brought to you by ATARI. I have contact thorough osmosis and was throw into the world of computer full force when I went back to college in 1999 to finish my bachelors. This class that we are taking is all computer ( I know that is a shock to most of you) .
Where am I going with this? When I sat down to read the text I had computers and computer litearacy and computer intergration into the educational system on my mind. I at first found the definitions confusing and I had to reread the first chapter to try and let it sink in. Then the light bulb went on and I realized they were not just talking about computers but educational instruction as a whole.
Once I understood that I felt that a lot of their definitons were just symantic. A jousting between individuals who had somewhat the same ideas and goals but were labeling it differently. The defining moment for me was the distinction between of Instructional Technology and the renaming of our field to Instrucitonal Design and Technology. The sematics only label went away for me then and I had to agree that an appropriate name for our field was an important thing.
Beyond a clear understanding in the naming of our field, my plans for the use of the information gained is to be able to allow my students a chance to explore all there is to offer. We can never know everything but I plan to stay on top of new design and technology advancments. Even if I do not have a deep and through understanding of a particular website or gadget I would like to at least have a working knowledge or familarity with what ever technology is out there.
Response: Computers(personal computer) have been in our household since the early 80's. My husband has been delving into the world of computers since the time of commodore 64 and black and green DOS screens and the world of PONG brought to you by ATARI. I have contact thorough osmosis and was throw into the world of computer full force when I went back to college in 1999 to finish my bachelors. This class that we are taking is all computer ( I know that is a shock to most of you) .
Where am I going with this? When I sat down to read the text I had computers and computer litearacy and computer intergration into the educational system on my mind. I at first found the definitions confusing and I had to reread the first chapter to try and let it sink in. Then the light bulb went on and I realized they were not just talking about computers but educational instruction as a whole.
Once I understood that I felt that a lot of their definitons were just symantic. A jousting between individuals who had somewhat the same ideas and goals but were labeling it differently. The defining moment for me was the distinction between of Instructional Technology and the renaming of our field to Instrucitonal Design and Technology. The sematics only label went away for me then and I had to agree that an appropriate name for our field was an important thing.
Beyond a clear understanding in the naming of our field, my plans for the use of the information gained is to be able to allow my students a chance to explore all there is to offer. We can never know everything but I plan to stay on top of new design and technology advancments. Even if I do not have a deep and through understanding of a particular website or gadget I would like to at least have a working knowledge or familarity with what ever technology is out there.
R/D3 Defining the field and social bookmarks
Response: I do find a value in social bookmarking. It could (and will) be useful in all of the scenarios mentioned in the question. I have spent the last few weeks directing and instructing an aviation summer camp. The students were (and are) very enthusitic. There is no way to impart all the knowledge and resources that I have and they want in just one week. We have decided, the students and I, that we would set up some sort of online resource that we could all share our knowledge and aviation experinces. Social bookmarking would be a good tool to allow the students and me a chance to share resources that we have found.
With that said I would like to ponder the negative side of social bookmarks on delicious but not in particular as they pertain to the internet in general. When searching out these new and wonderful devices I am initially excited to be learning something new: to go to somewhere I have never gone before. This enthusiam last usually for about the first hour. Then I begin to feel like a person who has been sent into the library of congress and told to find one specific book. Did I mention this person has been to a library before but has always just went to a specific section and picked out a book off the shelf from their favorite author.This person knows nothing about card libraries or the dewey decimal system and the Librian is not present but you can leave her a note and she'll get back with you soon, maybe. This is my delemia. My challenge is to learn the dewey decimal equivelant to the order of the internet. Maybe there isn't one. Maybe I need to help create one. All of these different systems are there to help us do just that. Let me help you organize your information. Each one claims. I thank you but could you make it a little simpler maybe?
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Link to Gingers Wiki
This is the link to my Wiki!! Yea and Hip http://sunshinandblueskies.pbworks.com/ hip horray!!
Thursday, July 8, 2010
R/D2 Blogs and RSS Readers(Really Simple Syndication)
My first impression of using a blog was that i felt very professional. It looked as though I was a published writer. There was a very good feeling knowing that people would be reading and analyzing what I was writing. I was instantly publishing to an infinite number of readers. For this I would like to thank the Internet and many people who have spent endless hours putting all of these resources together. I would also like to thank my husband and children for there patience and the academy for ...or wait I digress.
The surprising portion of the feeds to subscribe to was the fact that they were feeds that I had a particular interest in. Coming out of the era of magazine subscriptions as a major source of information, I was glad to see choices other than Redbook or Women's Day. Over the years many magazine sales people have knocked on our door and asked us to subscribe to their list of magazines. There were almost never any of interest to me. The closest they could come to anything science or technology related was Time and some would offer National Geographics. National Geographics is good but quite often not on the list either.
About five years ago I was hired to teach online high school courses. The screens initially were black and green DOS screens that were text only. Even the math problems were a struggle to enter in their proper form. My comment was that for the students this was the same as reading a text book without any pictures and if the students could do that and pass they would not be here to see me. All of my students were taking the online classes in as remedial courses having failed the same course at least once. As time went by the course content and interactivity of student and computer increases. We now had sound,then pictures, then actual video with demonstrations. Dale's Cone reminds me of the progress that was made in the learning tool (the Internet). The computer itself is not a one size fits all is expanding to include almost all of the sections of the cone. RSS feeds can take you on video field trips to the Egyptian ruins or tour the NASA Space facilities. Students can Blog about there ideas with other students with the same interest even if they live in a small town with limited resources. Educational Television is available at the click of a mouse with a Feed reminder. The key is to have these resources available and as a teacher to share these resources with our students.
Last week was the first week of Aviation Summer Camp. The students and I had a awesome time discovering aviation and its' practical links to math and science. We used link from the NASA website to demonstrate airflow over different wing configurations. This visual aid via computer simulation with the ability to reconfigure our wings with just the click of a few buttons allowed us to experiment in a short time frame and move into our designs. If we had to build models of our different airfoils and tested them in a wing machine of our making it would have been quite time consuming. The students were able understand the principles they needed to design their own model aircraft with correct ratios for fuselage and wings. All designs were then tested and evaluated for fly characteristics. After evaluations were complete they then began to evaluate solutions to their flight problems. We again referred to the simulations for possible solutions before final design changes were made. All aircraft made successful flights before the end of the week. The problem to which each of these tools is an answer is that we as graduates of summer aviation camp can form blogs with RSS links to continue to share our knowledge and to continue to use our feeds to tap into the vast knowledge base that is there. Our job is not to have students reinvent the wheel in every class every year but to learn how to use that wheel more efficiently and in different ways that maybe no one has thought of before.
The surprising portion of the feeds to subscribe to was the fact that they were feeds that I had a particular interest in. Coming out of the era of magazine subscriptions as a major source of information, I was glad to see choices other than Redbook or Women's Day. Over the years many magazine sales people have knocked on our door and asked us to subscribe to their list of magazines. There were almost never any of interest to me. The closest they could come to anything science or technology related was Time and some would offer National Geographics. National Geographics is good but quite often not on the list either.
About five years ago I was hired to teach online high school courses. The screens initially were black and green DOS screens that were text only. Even the math problems were a struggle to enter in their proper form. My comment was that for the students this was the same as reading a text book without any pictures and if the students could do that and pass they would not be here to see me. All of my students were taking the online classes in as remedial courses having failed the same course at least once. As time went by the course content and interactivity of student and computer increases. We now had sound,then pictures, then actual video with demonstrations. Dale's Cone reminds me of the progress that was made in the learning tool (the Internet). The computer itself is not a one size fits all is expanding to include almost all of the sections of the cone. RSS feeds can take you on video field trips to the Egyptian ruins or tour the NASA Space facilities. Students can Blog about there ideas with other students with the same interest even if they live in a small town with limited resources. Educational Television is available at the click of a mouse with a Feed reminder. The key is to have these resources available and as a teacher to share these resources with our students.
Last week was the first week of Aviation Summer Camp. The students and I had a awesome time discovering aviation and its' practical links to math and science. We used link from the NASA website to demonstrate airflow over different wing configurations. This visual aid via computer simulation with the ability to reconfigure our wings with just the click of a few buttons allowed us to experiment in a short time frame and move into our designs. If we had to build models of our different airfoils and tested them in a wing machine of our making it would have been quite time consuming. The students were able understand the principles they needed to design their own model aircraft with correct ratios for fuselage and wings. All designs were then tested and evaluated for fly characteristics. After evaluations were complete they then began to evaluate solutions to their flight problems. We again referred to the simulations for possible solutions before final design changes were made. All aircraft made successful flights before the end of the week. The problem to which each of these tools is an answer is that we as graduates of summer aviation camp can form blogs with RSS links to continue to share our knowledge and to continue to use our feeds to tap into the vast knowledge base that is there. Our job is not to have students reinvent the wheel in every class every year but to learn how to use that wheel more efficiently and in different ways that maybe no one has thought of before.
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