The Sunnier Side of 830

ePortfolios 101

2009-05-14T12:38:00.000-07:00

Final presentation! WOohoo!

Reflection:

This project has given me a better insight on how to teach ePortfolio basics. There are so much more resources that can be created in this field that is gradually growing.

Here is my ePortfolio. It is a work in progress. The tool I am using is eFolio.

Reflection exercise

2009-05-14T11:28:00.000-07:00

The most important part of an ePortfolio is the content. A reflective statement is your personal reflection about a certain project, paper, or artwork in which you were involved in creating. This is not a summary of your project or paper. Its simply your reflection about the project.

In this exercise, think about a project you were in and write a reflective statement in 150 words or less.

Information Design Critique

2009-04-28T23:58:00.000-07:00

The site that Zack and I critiqued was the www.edu20.org site. Information design is what sells the website. As a graphic designer, one of my responsibilities is to build websites. Other than making it pretty you must keep in mind who your target audience is and how will you make it functional for them. Being a graphic designer I find it easy to critique websites that I will go to for information. If the website has too much information like most university sites do, I will not proceed from the first page and find my information else where.

When building the newer version of eportfolio.sfsu.edu I had to stress to my colleagues that we needed to chunk the information in a better way. Designing the site is quite easy for me, its the informational structure is where I find my struggle. How can you say something to a user or direct a user to do something without overwhelming them? Also how can you create directions or provide information so the user can understand what you are trying to teach them.

I think the best advice I was given for information design was to just keep it simple. Remember that it can look nice and pretty but its really the content within those pages that makes a great website.

Web 2.0 Technology Expert

2009-04-28T23:49:00.000-07:00

Project Management

2009-04-28T23:26:00.000-07:00

I wasn't able to go to class the day there was a speaker on Project management because I was sick. Even though I didn't hear the presentation I do have experience with project management. I think project management can be mistaken as micromanagement. Project management is maintaining a streamlined work flow. Organization and time management is the key to managing projects.

As a project manager, I go through the planning process and then delegate the work. The objective of a project manager is to complete the project.

What can you do with an ITEC degree?

2009-04-22T15:55:00.001-07:00

Here's a funky interpretation of what you can do with an ITEC degree:

Defined by the SF State ITEC website:

What can I do with a degree in Instructional Technologies?

Active professionals with degrees in Instructional Technologies (or instructional design) are highly regarded in many varied educational and training settings. Examples include computer-based learning, online learning via the World Wide Web, instructional videos, or “just-in-time learning” modules used in government or businesses. Other examples include:

Developing instruction for government agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), US Coast Guard, or Department of Defense (DoD).
Managing training programs for medium to large businesses or corporations.
Creating custom learning solutions for various clients in an instructional design or consulting firm.
Supporting teachers and students at K-12 or college/universities as they incorporate technologies into their curricula.
Developing instructional or educational software using multiple and combined media.

I have to admit before I got into the program I didn't know what I could do with the degree because more than 50% of my co-workers came from this program so I figured I would jump on the bandwagon. Pink's concepts of story, design, empathy, symphony, meaning, humor makes a class really interesting. I can gauge my instructors from the past and know which classes I loved and which ones I just went to because I was required to. I will definitely incorporate those concepts in my trainings.

Rental Cars

2009-04-16T11:39:00.000-07:00

Have you ever rented a car? When you rent a car do you sit there before you drive off the lot and get familiar with the car? I always take 5 or 10 minutes to find the basic things such as turn signal, defroster, adjust the mirrors, adjust the chairs, locate the hazards, and finally make sure my favorite stations are on the radio. Now have you ever had one of those car rentals where there's a mystery button? Every time I see a mystery button I assume its the eject button.

I'm a button pusher and I'll push every kind of button on the car. Well one time when I rented a car, we packed the trunk pretty full and then we were off. As we were pulling away from the driveway, I noticed the lights inside the car were on and nobody turned them on. So searching for correct button to turn off the lights, I saw a mystery button and pushed it. Well that button opened the trunk door of the SUV. Well once the door flung open I immediately stopped and the contents of our nicely packed car fell out. I looked at the button and there were no icons on it that indicated that it was for the rear door AND I still haven't found the source that will turn the lights off in the inside of the car. After we repacked the car, I finally turned something near the wheel and the light turned off until this day I have no idea what I did.

Word of advice... don't touch the mystery button. hahaa

In Donald A. Norman's book The Design of Everyday Things he talks about everyday items that frustrates a user. When I discover one of these wonderful inventions I would sit there and literally be so frustrated and try to see some logic on why the design is the way it is. Of course after a few minutes, I just give up and just call it a stupid invention. Even the most simple thing such as opening a door can be unexplainable. For example, I work in Burk Hall at SF State and if you notice all the doors swing out as you open them. Why did they design it that way? Every time I want to leave the office I have to make sure not to swing the door open fast because there might be a student on the other side. When I was getting my degree in graphic design, I had to learn how to explain why I design the way I design. Its interesting to see all these mishap designs make it to the major markets.

Web 2.0 and beyond

2009-04-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

I've been to many Web 2.0 expos and each time I learn something new. This year the turn out on the expo floor was pretty small but you have the usual vendors such as microsoft and adobe in the front of the stage. I think its interesting how the two big sales pitch I've heard from many vendors were, "its integrated with facebook" or "you can create an app for your iphone". Are those the big targets now? I mean while I was waiting for Zack at the lounge area I guess you can say 8 out of 10 people I was sitting with had an iPhone. Hey maybe the salespeople have a niche there?

Anyway, as I was walk down each aisle I see vendor after vendor eager to talk to you because they want to sell you their product but what would benefit education? I saw a couple of companies that were selling the social network approach to educational systems such as HiveLive and Mindtouch. After sifting through the bigger companies that can afford the bigger boothes, I stumble upon this company called OER Commons that is promoting education resources. Instructors and learners have access to a database of 1000's of educational resources. Isn't that what google and other search engines are used for? I guess it minimizes the time to research for a particular subject and good articles or references.

Web 2.0 making it life less complicated, I suppose. The software I've seen makes it possible for users to meet people online, work from home, and carry work apps with you by mobile phones. Don't get me wrong I like learning about new tech geeky shiny objects and playing with it until it breaks but as a society will it really make life less complicated?

As I end my stroll down each aisle of the Web 2.0 expo floor, I take my free east bay glass and cheers the expo farewell.

Video Games, LMS, CMS and more...

2009-03-20T09:34:00.000-07:00

So the first part of class we were invited to a presentation on Research in Civic Engagement relating to video games. I understand the speaker's believes that video games cannot be part of a learning experience or part of a classroom curriculum from my understanding. My questions are: out of those students being studied what was the gender compilation? Games such as Halo 3, Civilization, Sim City are very popular amongst teenagers but to my knowledge mostly male teenagers. Also some of the examples brought up by the audience such as Columbine and Virginia Tech and its relations to video games were also of the male persuasion. I don't see this research fair in determining that all teenagers are heavily engaged in these video games. I do agree with Kim when she said that video games teach strategy which are most video games in general not specifically to the ones that are social networks. Video games are puzzles that get you hooked because you yearn to get to the next level or earn that prize. You don't necessarily get an instant gratification because you have to solve the problems. Its strategy, problem solving, and leadership skills that can be learned from video games. Strategy in knowing how to either kill the enemy or how to be in the right place at the right time to capture the flag, problem solving skills used to solve the puzzles necessary to get to the next level or acquire a weapon, and finally leadership in leading teams of people you met online and going on missions together with one objective and one goal. These are things that can enhance education and be very useful to lessons.

Yes video games are engaging but that's when kids especially teenagers have to learn discipline and not delve themselves into the games and know the difference between reality and "virtual" reality. I believe this is why parent involvement is important in their children's education and know what their kids are playing and maybe actually talk to their children and not let video games be the 21st century babysitters.

The second half of class was entertained by a wonderful group of people that did an awesome job in presenting LMS and CMS. Its so hard to present with such time pressure. I just wanted to give major props to my group for such an awesome job.

Well everyone, Have a great Spring Break!

Until then..

Let's Mash It together

2009-03-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

Last week we discussed about growing up with google and what it will mean to education. Google came out with great apps to streamline the process of working together and collaborating without leaving the comforts of your own home. I personally use these apps at work and its seems to work out great but there's always that question of what if? Google has the word beta on it for some reason. So what if Google decides to go another direction and abandon their present projects? There's always chances that things may change and all the work saved and dependent on google apps are long gone. I believe its like Ellen Wagner's metaphor of a free puppy or free beer.

The second life and virtual worlds was really interesting. Just to think in the near future we can virtually be at a meeting without being at a meeting or in class. You can be dressed professionally in the virtual world while wearing your PJ's at home. Its pretty exciting but like I said in my previous post I would like to see a more sustainable and scalable elearning system implemented first then move on to the virtual world. I believe technologies like these are great if its used to its potential but if we can't have instructors use iLearn to its potential I think a virtual environment is asking for too much. But its still possible!

Ok ladies and gentlemen here is the main attraction the mash up of Ellen Wagner's presentation. This is a work of Zack and I but must more Zack and his incredible creativity. hahaha

ENJOY!

Angie and Zack's ITEC 830 Mash up

Metaverse

2009-03-12T13:31:00.000-07:00

An Interview with Dr. Ellen Wagner:

Q: Will education eventually be the answer to overcrowded classrooms and become a more productive and interactive environment?

A: Eventually it could transform education into a virtual environment but we can assume that it will transform education, learning, or teaching an ideal state.

Q:According to predictions, its been said that by 2012 more than 70% of organizations will use private virtual worlds for collaboration and social action, won't that discourage people to leave their homes and interact with real people?

A: The private virtual worlds will help those organizations that have global businesses and can meet without flying off to another country or it can give students an opportunity to take classes in other parts of the world without leaving their own university.

Q: Will there be an ongoing process of training for everyone as new technologies emerge and produce quicker results?

A: The path from innovation to adoption is a lengthy journey of implementations and evaluation to determine the benefit/return.

In last week's class, we had a very interesting dialogue with Ellen Wagner. She spoke about emerging technologies and its implementation into education and the business world. There were plenty of discussion about accessibility and how can it keep up with new technologies. Will m-learning work for all? I think although the concept of m-learning is great, we are just not ready for these technologies. What effects will that have on traditional teaching? Will we become a society of lazy students and never enter a classroom? I can see the benefits of collaborating with people or other students virtually but I feel it loses that personal interaction. I cannot guess how that person is feeling. I may interpret the other student's suggestion in another way. Will technologies like these make us more tolerant and open minded with each other? There's so much to establish before letting us, as society, out in the fields of m-learning. I would like to see a more sustainable and scalable online learning program with stability. I know there are models of great ways of using e-learning such as in MIT but has that been tested at a more public institution with a bigger population. I think it will be a long time until people will be comfortable enough to use these technologies.

We All Learn

2009-03-04T16:21:00.000-08:00

Last week, we were able to experience a video conference presentation with Dr. Bonk. He is the author of the Learning World is Open. I would write a whole winded blog about what he said but you can read my response or more like watch and read. Enjoy.

I was going to iMovie to do my slideshow but I wanted to try a new tool. So I opted to use VoiceThread. I really like the ease of use but there are a few control issues I have such as not being able to add music but I figure for a less than one minute slideshow its worth it.

The group that presented delicious, flockr, and voicethread were all interesting because those are tools I haven't really played with well except for delicious. You learn something new everyday.

Until next time.. see you on the sunnier side =)

Create, Communicate, and Collaborate

2009-02-23T01:14:00.000-08:00

Emerging Technology in E-learning is an article that not only explains how technology will be incorporated into the classroom but gives examples of tools that instructors can use to develop their class.

Although technology in education has emerged from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, it will take some time for instructors to learn how to develop and adjust their curriculum to incorporate technology. There are many tools out there such as wikis, blogs, podcasts, vodcasts, RSS feeds, and etc.

I can see education excelling in incorporating such technologies in the classroom and instructors breaking out of the normal fundamentals of classroom teaching and jumping into collaborative teaching. But I am still skeptical with the emerging "m-learning" because I don't see students attending class through their cell phone. I don't see students gaining any value with short chunks of information through their cell phone. How can a student collaborate with other students on their cell phone? I own an iPhone and I can see using such a phone for m-learning but I believe the instability of the network that makes me skeptical. If I am online on my phone, I have connection problems depending on the strength of my signal. I just think that if we're too busy to even show up to a classroom or sit down for an online class why should we cater education for the on-the-go student. How can that be effective learning?

Meanwhile back in the batcave...

This week we dabbled in the world of collaborative writing. There were 6 groups and each group had to create a story collaboratively using socialtext. We discussed our experiences using the socialtext. So far I've had a great experience with collaborative writing using google docs and now social text but my fear is when my luck runs out and I have a very strong opinionated group. The great thing about collaborative writing is that you can see earlier versions and compare the differences and see the omissions or additions. When you do things like these you should be willing to compromise and work with your fellow colleagues. If you are not open to change, then this will be a frustrating experience but I guess that's always the case in working in groups. I had a blast writing the story and to see it come together with Zack's and Alex's input. Great job everyone!

The discussion on blogs and is it meant as a personal journal where you don't expect people to comment. Is it a personal thing or a pubic rant? Should people comment or not? That was a great discussion because we were able to share ways to secure your blog and how to attract people to read and comment on your blog.

I give major props to the first group of experts that presented in class. I loved the historical background about wikis, blogs, and twitter. Because of your presentation I opened a twitter account. hahaha Good job guys!

Until next time fellow bloggers, see you on the Sunnier side!

The sweet sounds of Twitter

2009-02-11T20:05:00.000-08:00

Last semester I tried the HyFlex option of class and didn't really like it because I felt so disconnected with the class. But since I couldn't make it to class this week I decided I would give it a try once again. I would have to say my experience this time around has changed since I was able to share and chat with fellow students, Zack and Alex, that were also online. With a few technical problems, the experience went well. The only downfall was that you had to really tune in to hear the speaker because they are competing with so much white noise.

So I actually logged in a little late and when I logged in the guest speaker was already well into his presentation. There was some discussion about social networking and their uses and popularity. I've always heard about Twitter but haven't actually created an account and tried it. The reasons I haven't tried twitter because I've evolved from Friendster to MySpace and now to Facebook, so I didn't feel a need to register to yet another social network. What made Twitter different?

I did learn about the terms "Tweet" and "Follow" in regards to Twitter. Its seems interesting enough to try it but maybe when I'm not so busy with school and other things. At work, we use the whole google applications to communicate with each other. I thought it was interesting to find out that businesses actually use it within their company. This is something I would like to explore one day.

Well of course towards the end of class my internet decides to go wacky and I lost connection and wasn't able to log back in. But I got the assignment and started writing in our group story which was really fun. I look forward to see you all IN class next week.

Putting the Pieces Together

2009-02-07T00:48:00.000-08:00

An Overview of Week 2

Web 2.0

The Web 2.0 Expo is coming to town. I've gone to the Expo for a couple of years now and its exciting to see new and innovative programs using Web 2.0. Besides collecting all the free things that are being given away, you walk away with a sense of where Web 2.0 is being used in today's technology and how it can be implemented in different industries. I look forward to going this year to see the new bells and whistles of Web 2.0.

Connectivism

"Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories. Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual."

We grew up in an education system where the teacher teaches us what we believe if fact. What we learn in the classroom is law and what will be on the tests because no student would dare to question the teacher. 1 + 1 will always be 2.

Principles of connectivism:

Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known
Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.
Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.

Connectivism is learning from one another but having a choice to question the validity of that information. How can connectivism be used properly in the classroom? There should be a balance of both technology and traditional teaching. Today many instructors or even professors are busy playing catch with technology because students that enter the classrooms have more knowledge about technology. Will technology replace teachers?

In class, we had an indepth discussion about the validity of information on the web, teacher/student connections in the classroom, the convenience of technology, and the role of technology in the classrooms.

I think if teachers uses technology as a teaching aide instead of a replacement of actual teaching then the chances of technology being the future "babysitters" of students may not happen.

Week 1 - Class Overview

2009-01-30T13:01:00.000-08:00

The best thing about being in such a small program is that its easier to enter a new semester and class and know at least one person from your previous class(es). I think the only thing that was missing from this class was our class introductions. I always looked forward to those because its nice to learn a little something about your classmates. I guess the introductions on ning will just have to suffice. This class has definitely a lot of great and interesting people.

Today in ITEC 830 Kim explained her expectations of the class throughout the semester. We will be working on individual research projects in the beginning of the semester and then work on a group project the last half. We will be assessing different Web 2.0 tools throughout the semester and learning how it can help the learning experience of students in the classroom. Kim shared a story about how she was surprised that the students in Rwanda have more experience using Web 2.0 in their classrooms than her students in the ITEC program. We were late broken into groups of 4 or 5 and we had to define in our own ways what was Web 2.0. There were a lot of commonality between the groups' answers, but there were also some great insight into how Web 2.0 is defined. One group touched a bit about Web 3.0 and 1.0 because 2.0 has to either preceed or proceed the two versions. haha Overall everyone had a great contribution to the definition of Web 2.0.

Kim mentioned some of the tools we will be working with such as ning, iLearn, and your own personal blog site. I'm excited to see the outcomes of this class.

Happy blogging!

Its always Sunnier in 830

2009-01-30T08:53:00.001-08:00

Welcome to the Sunnier Side of 830 where you will be amazed and dazzled by inspiring words by me. You'll get action, drama, romance, and comedy all rolled up in one. So I welcome you to subscribe and come with me on this journey. Happy Blogging!