Review of Google Documents Presentation Maker and Spreadsheets

The Google Documents Presentation Maker was incredibly easy to use. It operates the same as PowerPoint in Microsoft Office but I think the share and edit features are a bit more transparent in the Google version. I was easily able to import pictures and add them to the slides. The choices of slide lay out were readily available. I also set it up so that it would be an online collaborative effort. My question is if it is online can I go to my account from any computer with Internet access and have my presentation come up? Could it be that simple? No more need to carry my laptop with me and need the sign in for someone else's hot spot? That would be just too cool. Check out My very important presentation: https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AWNfkZp5VMppZGNnOTY3eGdfMGMzejg2eGZk&hl=en 

I found the spread sheets to be just as easy to use. The features were all the same as Microsoft office and again the sharing and saving and accessibility was awesome.  Check out my spread sheet;
https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AmNfkZp5VMppdE9pRHlUX2NqVk9JYXlNOGhaOG8tZ2c&hl=en&output=html

    So why do we pay big money when there is so much good free software and how can Google offer so much for free? I know advertising pays for a lot of things. Maybe they count on the people who do not know how much stuff is for free. Kind of the same way rebates and coupons count on you never sending in the forms. We may never know or will we ?

R/D 13 Is it unlucky to end on 13. I say it is not. Here goes last but not least.

What made me say "wow that's so neat" is that I went back to my blog after reading Chapter 31 Emerging Instructional Technologies: The Near Future  to start my reflection and found this link http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/08/04/technology-takes-formative-assessment-to-a-whole-new-level/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed  .   The article was right in line with the material from chapter 31.  I thought the most ironic and awesome part was that it was on my blog as a RSS feed all of which were part of a class for Educational Technology.  Check out the article it is pretty amazing. Not in how advanced it is but in the fact that we are beginning to allow students to learn how to learn and not just memorize and spit back information. 
My son went to a Montessori public school from K-6th grade.  He excelled and loved school.  When it was  time to go to middle school he was put into a traditional learning environment.  It took him a while to understand the whole new system and to learn that he could not work at his own pace but had to wait if he finished first or get left behind if he didn't finish when everyone else did.  It was a hard transition and he was disgruntled during his remaining secondary years.  He has succeeded but school was not as enjoyable a place for him as it could have been.  If he could have continued with the Montessori methods it would have been a better overall experience.



My favorite activity of the semester has to be the blog itself.  As I stated in my first reflection, seeing my words in print in what looks to be a very professional environment is very gratifying.  The added benefit is that others will be reading it and critiquing it.  I welcome praise and critiquing  as they both make us better at what we do. I have shared my blog with friends,and relatives as well as classmates.  Most are impressed and some have felt challenged to rise to encompass new technology in their own requiem of knowledge.

R/D 12 Next to last but not next to least /Rich Media

I enjoyed chapter 30 Using Rich Media Wisely.  The first bit of new learning was that I learned what Rich Media was.  Now I can converse in geek-speech and sound informed. I like informed.
In this chapter the scientist in me definitely stepped up to the plate.  I will be looking up more of the specifications on the studies in this chapter to find out sample size, age of the participants and other relevant information.
For my first take away, age of the participant came to mind as I was reading the section on Minimizing Irrelevant Audio,pg 318.  This came to mind as my 16 year old daughter sat at the computer with her headphones plugged in, itunes playing, as she flipped back and forth between facebook and a summer homework paper writing project for an AP English Class. Facebook is open because friends were also working on the same school project. Mom facebook is not just for fun, jeez. She got a A on the paper. It made me wonder if audio overload applied mainly on the initial introduction to material or did it carry over to the output of prior knowledge.(i.e. writing a review on a book ).  I think it is a study that I would like to run to try and either validate or invalidate the need for students to have music playing while they study or not have music playing while they study. It is a struggle that has moved down through the generations.
For my second take away,I do agree that visuals to support written text, greatly improve the learning and retention of materials especially in low learners. I have used (and will continue to use) visual aids in biology and chemistry classes to aid in the learning process. There are quite a few programs and online sites that provide excellent microscope pictures some with video of microscopic creatures that can sometimes be hard to capture under a microscope in class. It is always easier to remember that a cyanospirobacteria  is blue and spirally when you can see that  under the microscope he really is blue and shaped like a spiral.  Wow, how cool is that?

THE NEW WEBSITE IS HERE!!

I have created a website to support my aviation summer camp.  It will allow students both former and potential to check out the latest information about upcoming events for aviation summer camp. I have also set it up so that I could invite former students to be collaborates on the website.  This would allow past students to share their experiences from aviation summer camp. They could also post pictures and stay in touch with friends that they made during summer camp. 
Students interested in the next summer camp could get a look and hear what other camp aviators thought and liked or disliked about camp.  This would provide me with great feedback.
I haven't yet but I would also make a page with links to aviation related events that are happening in our geographical region.  There are quite a few.
Another fun thing would be to have students start a my map and everyone could put a marker on the map of where they went this summer.  It's how I spent my summer vacations with a techno-twist. The link could be attached to the website.  
I know there are a load of other possibilities such as paypal for enrollment fees, video logs, links to facebook and even to a blog if you wanted , Which reminds me : to check out my new website go to :https://sites.google.com/site/aviationsummercamp/home .  This is something that I have been wanting to do. It's still not great but it is a start.

R/D11 Targeted Strengths and Weakness for Professional Growth

In reading chapter 27 of  Trends and Issues In Instructional Design and Technologyy by Reisner and Dempsey I was intrigued by the history of the formation of a career field.  It has been said that the jobs we and our children are training for have not yet even been invented and some maybe not even thought of yet. That thought is the basis of my intrigue.
In viewing the ID, training manager, and instructor competencies listed on page 275, Table 27.3, I was able to identify my areas of competencies and my areas of needed growth and improvement.  I found this list to be very helpful.  My professional plan include the continuation of Summer Aviation Camp, and possibly other small business ventures.  I first identified my greatest strength as falling under the Instructional Designer Planning & Analysis section. I am good at seeing the big picture or the overall plan.  The six steps helped me to identify, well just that, steps to planning and analysis. I then compared my planning and analysis process with the steps in the text and found that I had been fairly thorough in this area. It was great to have some confirmation that the planning path I had chosen did not seem to have any huge gaps. I likewise felt that  under Instructional Designer the process of Design & Development was an area where I had excelled.  The competencies listed do not go into great detail as to what is should entail but having them listed is a great jumping off place. 
Before settling on my strength lying under the area of Instructional Designer I studied the competencies listed under Instructor and Training Manager.  I stopped at Professional Foundations under Training Manager and a few of the competencies listed there were definitely areas that I need to improve on.  The one that really jumped out the most for me was number 4 under this column.  Number 4 states: Update and improve professional and business knowledge, skills and attitudes.  I am a science/biology/techno geek major and the finer points of the business end of business are not always my strong point.  If my goals are to proceed toward small business ventures I need to increase my knowledge in the overall business specifics.
Number 2 was the next area of needed development. It states Comply with established ethical and legal standard knowledge and skills.  I have no problem with establishing and complying with the ethical portion it is the legal standard knowledge and skills that is the issue.  Could we put an emphasis on the SKILLS. Legalese is not my strong point and I will have to initially, I guess find someone to trust to guide me in the beginning steps.  I may be selling myself a bit short in this area but I know enough to know that what I don't know can hurt me.
The last (well in improvement there should never be a last) competency that jumped out at me was under Instructional Designer, Professional Foundations, Number 2 and number 4. I know that is not the last one but rather the last two but they go hand in hand. Number 2 states: Apply current research and theory to practice and Number 4 states: Apply basic research skill to design projects.   By increasing my knowledge base in applying current research to the projects I design I will better be able to share my visions with other professionals.  It would move presentations out of the field of lay person to documented research professional.  One giant step for man(or woman in this case) and one giant leap for my professional career goals.

R/D 10 Differences and Similarites across the spectrum

The three contexts that we have read  about in the last few weeks are Industrial Design in Business and Industry described in Chapter 18, Trends and Issues in P-12 in Chapter 21 and What do Instructional Designer do in Higher Education in Chapter 22.
 The first and most significant theme that I noticed among all three of the contexts is that they all have an application for Instructional Design and Technology. It is definitely entrenched as a vital part of all three contexts. All three of them make use of organizational procedures to increase the efficiencies of it's work force. It doesn't matter whether that work force is in a manufacturing environment with workers and engineers or an academic environment with teachers and administrators at a P-12  or higher education with professors and assistant professors.
 Instructional Design techniques seem to be almost  interchangeable in the Industrial business and P-12 with the one difference in that P-12 does not have to identify the client. Although I guess even that could be the a needed step in P-12 to identify if the client were students, teachers or administrators.  The higher education context seemed to be less structured than the other two contexts.  While there is a structure in place it did not seem to be as rigid across the board as either the business or P-12  contexts.  All three the same frame work of matter experts ,evaluators and other team members with the flowcharts looking very similar (pg 176 and 226).
A second theme throughout all three contexts is the use technology for a wide range of task from interdepartmental and international communication among employees and clients, to online training and software to enhance job efficiencies.
A scaled down version of either the environmental systemic approach in chapter or the Unit Team Approach in chapter 22 could help to bring more organization to at least one of the business projects that I am currently working on . The business side could be best served  by incorporating the talents of the academic side for the good of the whole environment.  Our instructors are not aware of the revenue that is required to make the company a success.  One example is recently we have booked birthday parties and the parents have wanted to add an extra half hour to the birthday party.  There is an extra charge for that  and the parents were willing to pay the extra.  Two of our younger employees were in charge of one of those birthday and ran our standard schedule for the party and then told the client "well that is all we have. You really don't need the extra half hour because we can fit it all into the normal time frame.  They did not think that the extra half hour could have been extra revenue for the company.  A organized instructional design process put in place would include a plan for training from the top down. Something may seem basic to one person but it is not to another.

Screencasting: We're really cooking now !!

 As I have stated before I am a Lead Chef for the Young Chefs Academy in Kalamazoo. We hold summer cooking camps at our facility. The Kellogg Foundation provided a grant that allows KPS and KRESA students who receive free or reduced lunches to attend our camp free for one week. Part of the requirement for receiving this money is that we need to not only cook but relate the camp to their educational experience as a support for making academics relevant. 
Screencasts could be used as a way to have the students learn new computer skills while also learning and demonstrating for others their new found cooking skills.  It would reinforce the fact that computers can be used for something other than a social media network among friends to find out who is dating who or who is wearing what.
In our summer camps we have students from the age of five to fifteen.  This age range could be used to our advantage in the fact that the younger students could be actually doing the demonstrating while the older students are hacking on the computers.  Some skills that we could demonstrate would be proper measuring techniques for solids and liquids. Different cutting techniques such as dice, chiffionade, julienne, peeling, just to name a  few.  We could make a YOU TUBE video and post it to a Young Chefs Blog that we could establish or make a link to our website. 
All of our summer camp weeks have different themes. One of the themes is Celebrity Chefs.  I could have some of our employees or myself go to the websites of different Chefs such as Emeril, Guy, Paula Dean, etc.
Once we have downloaded the video of them demonstrating either kitchen safety rules or a special cooking technique we  could over dub with our audio to customize the lesson for our audience.
I also see this as a way for our former or future students to have a place to go to ask questions or learn a particular technique as a preview before attending a cooking class or camp.   Students who have missed some of the lessons or would just like to review the techniques again could do so without the whole class having to review the lesson again.  A more informed student always make for a more enjoyable and productive class.