Our Marvelous Brains

We had a good group meeting this afternoon to sketch out our History of Educational Media. I hoped everyone left with that "Cumbaya - Good vibes" feeling.

I'm really giving some thought to Gagne's Nine Steps of Instruction and its application in our group's project as well as in my own classroom instruction. Not that many years back, I had the opportunity to attend Pat Wolfe's week-long "Brain Matters" Conference in Napa, California. Pat is an extraordinarily gifted presenter who deftly weaves her stories into the educational implications of the most recent brain research. Before the conference, we were required to read her book of the same name and three others besides.

The quote at Pat's Website illustrates why her passion is to teach us about why the brain matters. "Education is discovering the brain and that's about the best news there could be... Anyone who does not have a thorough, holistic grasp of the brain's architecture, purposes, and main ways of operating is as far behind the times as an automobile designer without a full understanding of engines." Leslie Hart, "Human Brain, Human Learning"

The little bit I've read of Robert Gagne connects in many ways to those readings. At least I recall some of what Pat taught us. Gagne uses the phrase "stimuli activates receptors" and I think of Pat's explanation of how neural transmitters [chemicals] move toward neural receptors traveling from axon to dendrites to axon and across the gaps between in an electrochemical cascade. And all that's just to get their attention.

I wonder in the culture of distraction, impatience, and over-stimulation, in which we all live, whether it's more difficult now to get the learner's attention than in the past.

My Honors English Freshmen are examining Renny Gleeson's TED Talk, where he asks us all to create technology that makes us more human(e). The students have read about Linda Stone's concept of "CPA" -- constant partial attention and its effects. But they've also read articles calling for the use of cellphone technology in the classrooms. They're going to generate information by surveying their classmates and teachers on their usage and attitudes before they compose their papers. This should be interesting. I see among some of them a compulsion to be available all day and night to all the people in their address book. But they have lots of ideas about how they could put their phones to work in class. Don't you just love em?

Taking A Closer Look and The Nine

Last night the cohort met in F-111 at The Richard Stockton College
of New Jersey to "Take a Closer Look" at what the end might be. The showcase of final projects included impressive presentations by Mary Irwin - "CSI Boot Camp," Jennifer Babcock's "Integrating Technology with Administrative Tasks," Catherine Moore's "Professional Development for 21st Century Technology Skills,"Eileen Anaya's "Vocabulary Development Using Interactive Web-Based Tools," and Peter Dolcy's "Videogames as Motivational Tools in the General Classroom."

We were warmly welcomed with catered wraps, sandwiches, and finger foods and a rich redskin potato salad. We applauded all the presenters for their hard work made to look easy and cheered for the Capstone Advisor, Amy Ackerman when the achievement of her tenure was announced.

On the ride home we talked about the projects we had seen, our own prospective projects, and the group work we're involved in now.

I'm making my way slowly and appreciate when people point me in the right direction. So I'm taking a close look at "The Nine" by Robert Gagne. What a privilege we enjoy as students of Gagne's protege. So I discover according to eLearning Guru that "Robert Gagne is considered to be the foremost researcher and contributor to the systematic approach to instructional design and training. Gagne and his followers are known as behaviorists and their focus is on the outcomes - or behaviors -that result from training." The Conditions of Learning first published in 1965 identified the mental conditions for learning. Gagne created a nine step process that addresses the conditions of learning. The steps are called the Nine Events of Instruction: from "Gain Attention" to "Enhance retention and transfer to job"

I'm still reading but now it's 9 and I've got to wind this post up!

The Power of Possibilities and Presentations

My classmates in the Stockton College Master of Arts in Instructional Technology degree program know that I'm a big fan of TED and I belong to the wiki Teaching with TED that's managed by Dr. Ellen Gerstein. I love both these resources.

Today, I was reading "The Big Fresh Newsletter" from Choice Literacy -- Language Arts teacher that I am-- and the topic was summer reading recommendations. Author Karen Szymusiak recommended a TED video presentation featuring Benjamin Zander speaking on music and passion. She also recommended Zander's book The Art of Possibility,Transforming Personal and Professional Life and said she found it to be encouraging.

It's sometimes difficult to remain positive in the changing landscape of education and the challenges of life in these times." Szymusiak continued, praising Zander's book, "I wasn't disappointed. Zander and his wife set out to write an unusual how-to book to encourage readers to consider the unlimited possibility of our lives." And, I thought, "Isn't that one of the most important objectives for any of us teachers?"

You don't have to twist my arm to watch one of these TED talks and so I spent the next twenty minutes fascinated and moved by this man's contagious enthusiasm. Zander is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic but this talk is as much about the power of positive thinking and acting even in the face of stark skepticism.

After watching this TED talk, I went back to the newsletter to see what the editor, Brenda Power, an author herself, might suggest. She recommended Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds and called it "a must read for a professional book - it really makes you rethink everything about how you present information, or even what public presentations are about."

And, of course, that got me thinking of Dr. Ackerman's last class when she was giving us presentation tips. So I previewed Reynolds' book on Amazon -- very Zen-- simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Like Karen and Brenda have, I may put these two on my summer reading list. I have an interest in learning how to stay positive and how to convince people of their potential, of the many possibilities of their lives.

Capturing The Moments

Grandmother's Day Is Tomorrow - April 25. Now, when I first read this at a Website called Care2 Make a Difference, I thought, "Someone has created another holiday to make some money." The author claims, however, that her motive was to get "grandmothers [to] gather their grandchildren and pass on the abilities these elders have within." So, I sent my children a "heads up" to call their Grandmom and make her day. We all live within a time line and I guess marking a time for grandmoms is a good thing. I spent part of today searching for information that might underlie our group's topic presentation on The History of Instructional Media. I read through the work of several folks and viewed several time lines. Allison Moreland, for example, has a brief time line at her Blog called Learning in Bits. It's pretty cool; it has an interactive option. I also examined a great Timetoast on Media History by drtw and another was part of a pdf file entitled Instructional Technology and Theory authored by Robert Whelan at NYU but the best time line of all I found on You Tube set to a jazzy beat.

I also read articles and sent my partners what I've found so far. So maybe on one of these Grandfather's Days in the future my grandchildren may gather around me and I'll be able to pass on to them some top notch technology skills as part of my legacy.

A Landscape of Rainbow Dreams

Last night after class, I signed up for Jing at home and began to play with this application and its companion -- Screencast -- until I couldn't hold my eyes open any more.

I must have dreamed about rainbows because this morning I couldn't shake from my head the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" -- Do you know the version by Israel Kamakawiwo Ole'? I guess it's understandable after last night's class. We were interrupted a bit when a double rainbow appeared, arrayed against a stormy sky at sunset. We all hurried outside to express our wonder.

After oooh's and aaah's and digital cameras were put away, we went back to work finishing a scavenger hunt to acquaint us with navigating Blackboard at the Richard Stockton College portal, trying to estimate the simplicity or complexity of our course contracts, as well as teaming up to tackle a group project. My group landed a presentation of the history of instructional media. We debated what presentation tool to use: Prezi, Google, or PowerPoint until Dr. Ackerman reminded us that the end objective needs to be the focus before the tool selection.

Today, My Google Alerts offered me eleven sites to explore related to Instructional Design, including Associate Professor Michael Grant's blog titled "Viral-Notebook." What caught my attention was a posting entitled "The Landscape of PowerPoint for eLearning" In it, he says,

Development

"Instructional designers and developers have told me

that they use PowerPoint for storyboarding.

PowerPoint is simple enough that subject matter

experts can even input the information (note that's

information, not instruction). The process of moving

from design to development quickly through

storyboarding offers a lot of promise for quickly

presenting a visual product.

Delivery

The other way for using PowerPoint with eLearning is

to use it as a delivery vehicle for the instruction. The

most obvious method is for a trainer or instructor to

present with a PowerPoint presentation. This is

certainly where all the ideas about improving

presentations would most easily fit."

Then I read more comments from other visitors to Viral-Notebook and then added this blog to my Google Reader.

You've got it, all the while, I'm humming that darn tune about problems melting like lemon drops and leaving the stars far behind me. If you've never seen or heard this version of the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," don't go to the link! It will be the indelible lullaby of your dreams tonight.

Design Lively Elearning with Action Mapping

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Design Lively Elearning with Action Mapping

View more presentations from Cathy Moore.

The Search for Great Aunt Addie

Today, I went back to Surya Dutta's blog and decided to reread her notions about the dichotomy within instructional design:

"I have always wondered about the two aspects of instructional design: the theoretical side and the application side. I see how each time application tends to fall behind on going research. By the time you build a system to add in the most current trend, there is already something new. I believe this is the way it works in other domains as well, but the question that keeps running in my mind, is how does one reduce this gap? The smaller the gap, the more connected research will be with application. For example, if someone researches and writes about the ADDIE theory and I have to implement it in my organization, it is most common that I will not able to implement it as it is defined in books. What will likely happen, is that the way I work through it in my work place, gets driven by actual events that occur, functioning of other departments associated with the completion of my task and so on. I personally feel that research should not just run parallel to application. There has to be a means to constantly go back and forth between the two, take into account dependencies when writing a theory, and finally define more realistic theories and processes. It is important not to look at each domain in isolation and imagine it implemented in a running organization with real-time challenges."

Of course, this had me scratching my head and wondering who ADDIE is. She sounds like my great aunt. In the lower right side of Surya's blog, she has posted favorite links. The link named "Designing Instruction" looked promising and so I was off.

This brought me to Renssalaer University's Course Development page entitled "Designing Instruction." I clicked on the overview to read more. Listed here were about 38 different directions in which I could go under the categories Instructional Design, Course Development, Models and Theories, and Tools. There was an extensive bibliography at the bottom and I recognized none of the names. Why is it, I wondered, that the educational researchers and theorists I do know don't seem to show up on a page like this. Where are people in the field like Robert Marzano, Wiggins and McTighe, or Anne Davies -- people I've come to respect.

I scrolled down to Models and Theories and saw a Wikipedia entry that answered my earlier question about Great Aunt Addie.

There are many good instructional design models that are customized to meet specific needs. The ADDIE model is a commonly used approach that can be effective in almost every learning or teaching situation. The ADDIE model is the generic process traditionally used by instructional designers and training developers. The five phases—Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation—represent a dynamic, flexible guideline.

Most of the current instructional design models are spin-offs or variations of the ADDIE model; other models include the Dick & Carey and Kemp ISD models. One commonly accepted improvement to this model is the use of rapid prototyping. This is the idea of receiving continual or formative feedback while instructional materials are being created. This model attempts to save time and money by catching problems while they are still easy to fix. Instructional theories also play an important role in the design of instructional materials. Theories such as behaviorism, constructivism, social learning and cognitivism help shape and define the outcome of instructional materials.

Wikipedia

I skimmed the rest of the page recognizing some of the tools, Inspiration for one, which now has a spinoff Web 2.0 Tool called Webspiration. Thy probably need to stay in competition with Mindmeister, another tool we have a little experience with.

Enough for today's exploring. Great Aunt Addie turns out to be an acronym and I'm sure just one of the relatives we'll learn about in the days ahead.

Just Getting Started

Just Getting Started – April 17, 2010

On Thursday last week a cohort --about eleven of us-- from CCTS began our second course (INTC 5100) in pursuit of learning more about instructional design and applications as part of a Masters Degree program at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. Our professor Dr. Amy Ackerman got us started with visual introductions (pre-assesing what we knew and could do already), a tour of the course syllabus, requirements and expectations, and assignments for our next session. This Blog is part of the course expectations.

Today, I recreated the Introductory Wordle I had “dropped” during our first class and shared its embed link and a screenshot with my two groupmates. Hopefully, we’ll be able to use this one in our ePortfolio.

Then I went into my Google Alerts and set it up for “IT and instructional design.” I had also taken this step with our previous course, requesting alerts for “Web 2.0 Tools.” This strategy alone is quite helpful in directing my own informal day-to-day learning. I had also set up my Google Reader to feed me a manageable number of the blogs, wikis and so on that I had discovered to be helpful.

Today, in just seconds, I had 10 places to look. Within those 10, I quickly learned about Sreya Dutta, currently a senior curriculum developer at Oracle. Her blog is called “Instructional Design: On the Road to Learning.” Her Sunday, April 18, 2010 posting caught my attention because Dr. Ackerman had been talking in class about the balance between design and application. I’ll try to paraphrase Dr. Ackerman’s thinking: Applications change and evolve quickly but a strong and growing understanding of learners and how they best learn must under gird the entire eLearning process. Ms Dutta’s post is entitled “ID Research vs Application.”

I expect I'll soon discover how to publish and share this blog, the first I've ever written. That should illustrate why I call this place Instructional Design Infancy. Like Sreya Dutta, I'm a self-described "digital immigrant."