This is the first one I've seen, it is pretty good:
I know, I know. You hear it all the time, "Macs are horrible." Or "Windows is the worst platform ever." Sometimes I even get into the game. However, I thought I'd post my thoughts the subject.
I started college a real Windows guy, I really hammered Macs. In fact, I even made a podcast with a friend denigrating Macs. (I still harbor all those complaints by the way). However, as I went through college I found that I was forced to use a Mac for my classes. I remember the frustration this caused (Where is everything??? How to I get my CD out???) and I really resented Macs for this.
However, I found that there were some really nice perks to them too. My computer wasn't randomly crashing all the time. I wasn't spending most of my time troubleshooting. My devices worked almost instantly. In short, I was wasting my time dealing keeping my computer going. I hated this and so I decided to switch.
This was the main reason why I switched... until today. Today I say this commercial:
After watching it I suddenly realized why I switched from Window the Mac. I am sick of being lied to by Microsoft. I can take interruptions, outages, and changes, but I refuse to accept contempt. Mac is user friendly, but requires you do to everything within the Mac universe. Okay, I can live with that. Linux is completely customizable, but you better like tinkering with it to do so. I can also live with that. I have a choice of the two. I choose user friendly since I don't have time to deal with the rest. I could even put Windows on either of those systems if I choose to do so.
With Microsoft, on the other hand, you don't get a choice. They aren't as user friendly as Macs nor are they as customizable like Linux boxes. Instead, they feel like they can bully you to buy their product. The constant misdirection, false claims, price fixing, etc. is something I choose not to be part of. I may not choose Macs forever (I'm definitely not a Mac zombie), but it will be MY choice. I'm giving MY money and time and that is something I refuse to give to Windows anymore.
Anyone that has done any development will love this:
This is a well done video that shows the emergence of social media. I think people who learn to use these tools now will be the leaders and memoir-writers in 25 years:
Lately I've been reading differing materials online about online education. I came across this quote:
A major part of the job of a good educator is to equip students with the necessary mental tools to be able to continue learning on their own. Those skills are likely to be less developed in younger students, making face-to-face teacher intervention more necessary. (Source: http://mashable.com/2009/08/31/online-education-teachers/)
This is an article with the purpose of summarizing the "future of education." That quote, however, stopped me in my tracks. Do people really need to be given the tools to learn on their own? Without the teacher, people would be doomed to a life without the ability to learn? That seemed ludicrous to me.
What made this even more interesting was that I had just finished reading articles from a pro-home school advocate who wants liberation from teachers: http://blog.allisonweiss.com/2008/01/26/curiosity/
I personally think that people will learn to learn by themselves if they are allowed to do so. Teachers walk a fine line between pushing or guiding students and inhibiting them. However, teachers are so helpful as resource and guiders. I've done completely self-directed learning and guided learning and I've always the guided learning more. Also, I feel that the guided learning was deeper and better.
Anyway, I thought me blogites (Hi Mom!) would enjoy that quote. Share your thoughts below! I'm a big boy, if you disagree with me I can take it.
Currently I'm studying articles about the best practices for distance education. The article du jour comes from a great Utah State ITLS professor named Nick Eastmond. He is assisting me with my internship and I thought that I should read an article containing his thoughts on distance education.
He believes strongly in Needs Assessment and Evaluation. I've taken numerous classes on evaluation and I'm a strong believer in its effectiveness, but I've never taken the time to really think about Needs Assessment. I'm finally doing it and it is fascinating to me.
As I go throughout life I encounter many problems, as do most I'm sure. These problems nag at me and cause me stress and grief until I finally solve or remove them. However, I never rid myself of these problems until I define for myself what the need is.
For example, I bought a junker car that needs to last me six months (keep your fingers crossed). However, I got an initial inspection and they told me that I had a torn (insert technical car part name here) and a possible crack (insert other random car part that I currently can't remember) that was causing a leak. I asked them how much it would be and they responded $900. I started panicking, then anger set in, and so on until I completed all the steps of acceptance. I spent most of the day stressing about this and telling myself a lot of awful possible outcomes.
That's when it occurred to me: I need to define the problem (or "need", if you will) and then I can find a solution. The problem was that there were to parts of my car that needed repair. Well, as I thought about possible solutions, I remembered that the guy who sold it to me had fixed something and got grease everywhere. I wiped off all the grease and all-of-a-sudden my "cracked" part stopped leaking. Now I just need to fix the torn other thing which is a $7 repair. Crisis averted.
Anyway, my point is that I couldn't find the solution until I discovered the need. This seems to be the case with any instruction you design. Until you define your needs and constraints, everyone is spinning their wheels and stressing out. Needs Assessment is crucial!
I'm currently a student at Utah State University and I love the program. There is so much going on that is on the cutting edge of education. I'm in my last semester, so I thought that I'd share some of the amazing stuff going on around me. (If someone is considering Utah State, then I hope this helps them see what is going on up here. I remember trying to choose a university for my M.S. degree and something like this would've help me)
Anyway, without any further ado:
Educational Gaming: http://cle.usu.edu/CLE_HEAT.html
Right now USU has some huge innovations in educational gaming. They are taking the idea that most people have of incorporating games into education, and successfully pulling it off. A lot of planning, work, and testing has gone on with these technologies.
Groundbreaking Research: http://itls.usu.edu/news/itls/2009/apr/20/itls-rocks-aera
The Professors in the Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Department has loads of groundbreaking research that is being conducted and disseminated. Don't just take my word for it, the American Educational Research Association agrees (see link).
Assessability: http://webaim.org/
Helping people with various disabilities have access to instructional materials is another goal with some researchers at Utah State. This will become increasingly important as the world shifts to web-based information.
International Cooperation: http://itls.usu.edu/news/itls/2009/apr/15/building-international-connections-research-development-and-evaluation
Researchers are also building connections across the globe through various projects. Utah State is being recognized as a leader in education throughout the world.
Teaching Tools: http://enlvm.usu.edu/ma/nav/index.jsp
Researchers and developers are creating tools that are being placed in the hands of educations. Teachers are helping students understand concepts and ideas through interactive simulations.
Instructional Evaluation: http://fivestarperformancesolution.com/
Evaluators are going into different learning environments and helping facilitators and educators increase their learning gains. This helps improve on existing instruction and improves the experience for learner and facilitator.
Open Education: http://ocw.usu.edu/
USU has been a leader in providing Open Education (some call Free Education... although that's not true for the institution housing the information). The University has built a variety of courses that anyone can take according to their time/needs/desire. USU researchers have even been heavily involved in the new Utah Open High School program.
Of course, this isn't all that's going on, but I think it is a nice list in which to begin. There is a lot going on and it is great to be a part of it.
Earlier I asked for help in deciding an internship and I thank you for all your help (total comments: 0). Well, I decided on one nevertheless. It looks like I'm going to Hawaii to help design and create instructional courses. I'm really excited to put all my theory into application. Let's hope the family enjoys living on the North Shore.
As an added bonus I'm including one of my favorite songs from a Hawaiian artist:
Being a poor student I've had to cut corners wherever I can. Most people are upset, because they've had to reign in their budget or live without things. HA! I've been doing that since 2001.
The problem is sometimes your really need something. Not just want it, but your NEED it. See, being an student in technology and education, I can't believe how much I use the Adobe Creative Suite. There seems to be a project that requires this Suite about every single day. It is so bad that I found a copy of CS1 yesterday in my computer at work and I jumped up and down like it was Christmas.
The problem is, however, that unless you have a rich benefactor giving you money, you can't afford it. So, I've compiled a list of software that will help you get by while in college. I hope this helps some poor college student.
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Recently I've been reading articles on learning gains and obstacles with different graphics types (still, video/animation, interactive, etc) and I had a thought occur to me: Why on earth do theorist and researchers feel the need to use their own terminology for everything? For example, many try to tell me that group learning is completely different from cooperative learning. Or that iterative evaluation is nowhere near the same as formative evaluation. There may be slight differences or nuances in each term, but, in essence, they are the same thing.
Now you may ask yourself: Christian, why does it matter? You might be thinking: he obviously is a beginning grad student and doesn't understand the obvious differences in [x]. Well.. that's the problem. Terminology is used to define, categorize, and communicate ideas and thoughts to others. If you are only communicating to you and your lackeys, then you have failed in your purpose as a educational professional. Sitting in your lab doing research on your pet project doesn't help anyone unless that research can help steer education towards progress or away from disaster.
If you still think that I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, then I encourage you to take a class you teach or design (or a similar class). Look around and observe the students taking the class. Talk with them and evaluate their progress. They spend the first half of the semester learning the teaching style and teacher. That means half of the class is wasted trying to get up to speed with the teacher. Then the teacher is frustrated that the learners aren't "getting it."
What if, instead, that learners when from classes in their field and had the exact same terminology. That would speed up every aspect of learning. The closest teachers come to this now is: Remember in Learning Theory when we talked about Piaget? CIP? Constructivism? PBL? Anchored Instruction? This is meant to build upon what the learner's knowledge base, but it is to late. They spent 95% of their time building a whole to base, leaving the learners to make their own connections (often times those connections lead to erroneous thought).
What do you think? Am I off-base still or should I start planning Ed-Terminology-Definition 2009? (By the way, getting researchers to agree on words is another big problem, but I'll tackle that later. Admitting you have a problem is the first step)
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I'm entering in my final year of my Masters degree and suddenly I'm filling the pressures of choosing what I want to do when I grow up. This is quite challenging for me since I feel that I would like/succeed at whatever type of Inst. Tech that I embark on. Still, I'm waiting for the job posting that says, "Wanted: Someone who does everything and enjoys whatever we want him to do." Usually the job duties require specific skills or qualifications.
This leaves me with a dilemma, I'm in my last year of schooling and I need to decide in order to tailor my class schedule, internship, resume, etc. It seems like now is the perfect time to do that. However, it is harder than it seems.
There are basically four choices: 1) University, 2) Government, 3) Business, 4) K-12. If there are more, then I'd certainly like to hear about them, but these are the areas of which I'm aware. Each has fairly different pluses and minuses and I think that I'd succeed in whatever one I choose. Again, the problem is making that ultimate decision.
So I'm soliciting your help, Blog-o-sphere! I want to know your thoughts about this. Do you have experience in these sectors? Do you have great advice? Do you have any job/internships available for education/training? Anyway, help is being solicited!
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I recently read a great article about a college campus that completely switched to E-books. This article fascinates me. I think the greatest quote from the article is:
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This is to help me overcome the week:
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My work had me put together a promotional video for a technology on campus. The most amazing thing was the I had a budget of $0 for production and editing. I think I did a good job, what say you?
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Recently I've started thinking about this again. What with my Educational games class, books I've been reading, and guest lectures I've attended, it seems to come up a lot. Anyway, today I heard from the famous David Merrill about whole-task instructional and the first principles of instruction (which has spawned the first principles of motivation-awesome!) and he said something that I really liked. I don't remember the exact quote, but the gist of it was that the most motivating part of instruction aren't how fancy the handouts/multimedia are, how well the instructor demonstrates the information, or anything else; instead the most motivating part of instruction is learning. Learning! How crazy is that?
I happen to completely agree with this. One reason why is a book I've been reading called Crucial Confrontations (my bathroom reader Du Jour). The books states that if you reward people for already expected behaviors with extra things (money, candy, time off), it works for a little bit, but doesn't have a lasting effect. Instead, the task itself is the most motivating aspect. For example, I decided to try this out with my ever-difficult potty trainee that I live with. She has refused to go potty for months now and we have all but given up. We tried prizes, candy, prize, special trips, yadda yadda yadda, but nothing has worked. In fact, she completely hates the experience and has refused to even look at her potty.
Keeping in mind that the most motivating component is the the task itself, I decided a new approach. At certain times of the day I just sit on the potty next to her. She goes potty, I help her do her duty, and then I help her clean the potty and herself. That's it! No praise, external rewards, or external motivation. It has almost brought me to tears. She's done it a few times now and each time I'm amazed. I'll let you know if it continues, but so far I feel like I'm seeing a miracle.
Another example of this I've seen recently is in my education gaming class. The game designed by the previous game class was about early 20th Century poetry. It was geared towards middle school students and was created to help instruction that has 0% engagement from student previously. (In fact, when I heard the topic, my head also immediately hit my desk as I feel instantly asleep).
The designers created the game with the instructional objective in mind and hoped that it would be motivating or at least interesting. Also, they used a electronic game format that is older 80% of my college campus: Interactive Fiction. (Here is the demo of the format from my friend strongbad--it is the one that is all typed)
The point is that they didn't include all the frills of modern computer games, but instead focused on teaching the material. It was a gamble, because what if it wasn't motivation? The result was interesting: high student motivation, involvement, and learning. I don't think that you can say the game itself was the motivating factor, because student's go through a vast amount of computer games, but rarely play for more than a minute or too-unless they really enjoy them game. Also, they may have been "forced" to play the game by their instructor, but that doesn't guarantee student motivation. My teaching experience has proven to me that I can "force" students to do something, but only they can get themselves engaged and participating in their learning.
Anyway, this ramble is already long enough, but I think that this is an amazing concept: learning is the most motivation aspect of instruction.
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Recently I've been thinking about entertainment and instruction. In my classes and outside research much has been made about whether or not instruction can be entertaining or not. This has been nagging at me recently and, since I have my own platform for sharing my ideas now, I thought I'd post my thoughts.
There seems to thought among educators that entertainment is nice, but has little to no instructional value. Entertainment industry professionals cite the need for "real world" attitudes about instruction. If it is not profitable or entertaining, then it is virtually useless. There seems to be a dichotomy of opinions.
In my research, and by research I mean watching "educational shows" with my children, there seems to be a wide variety of what is considered "educational." Many commercial programs are more entertaining than education, but they do have useful or interesting information. I have also seen Higher Ed products that are clear, objective-based instruction, but have no entertainment value.
Is there a correct answer? Is there a middle ground? Personally, I don't think I can answer either question with a Yes or a No. I feel that there is merit in both. When commercial entertainment provides useful information, I consider that a win. Since recent reports state that the average child watches 7 hours of TV a day, isn't a least a little redeeming value better than none. (For example, Little Einstein's has increase my children's awareness of classical art and music.)
Additionally, these programs allow educators to show how their theoretical classroom would work. In Sid the Science Kid (PBS), a discovery classroom is setup and that is how the students learn. Whether or not that classroom could ever exist in real life is another question for another day, but at least I better understand the concept of the theory.
Finally, I also see benefit in instruction that may not me entertaining. While students may not what or use this instruction everyday or week, the challenge, engagement, and potential problem-solving opportunities will be motivate the students interest. Also, having active participation in learning is almost always better. Students won't "veg out", but instead be challenged, rise, and then grow.
To sum up this rant, feel both sides have benefits, so why do people try to belittle the other side? There is a place for student's passively learning and there is a place for active learner participation in instruction.
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