Overall I felt the project went very, very well. I learned a lot about organization and planning. It was great to work with a group that cares a lot about the quality of work we were doing. We all made sure to consider one another’s opinions on the project so that we could create the best possible work, together. Overall, I was really happy with the way the project turned out!

We are still working together really well. We seem to communicate with each other very efficiently. I am guessing that next week will be a lot busier with this group project, since we will have to crack down on finishing up the website. It helps a lot that we have already mapped out the layout of the new website. The biggest barrier that we are all running into is lack of time.

Our goal for next week is to have half of our website done. We will definitely get our entire group project done with plenty of time to spare. It was really easy to work with Abby and Steve because we all clicked really well. I am definitely glad I ended up in this group because we all work really hard. Overall, this week went great, with the exception of a few confusing things popping up along the way.

As a student, I definitely prefer to read about the topic, rather than listen to a podcast. I am not able to focus during podcasts, because I am best at learning when I have something to look at. I found myself surfing the web, texting, and talking to people while I was “listening” to the podcast. The podcasts were incredibly boring and non-satisfying, and I hope that I never have to listen to a podcast again. I also did not like how they have advertisements during the podcast. That was incredibly distracting and irritating to listen to.

I definitely prefer reading the text rather than having no visual modality. I prefer this because it is just the way I learn. I can’t imagine actually having to listen for a lesson without a visual aid. That would be incredibly difficult for me, and I don’t think I would be successful at all. If I had to prepare for an exam that was based off of a podcast, all I would really do is listen to the podcast over and over again until I felt that I memorized the material. I would probably also take notes on the information and try to memorize that as well. 

In my opinion, it would not even be fair to evaluate a student, or give them an exam, over the material presented in a podcast. It is unreasonable to think that students are able to learn like that, when it is a well-known fact that many students are VISUAL learners. Students NEED visual modalities to be successful learners.

I found a video on YouTube called Inspiring Education: Naturally! It really made me remember the importance of education. Education is not just what one learns inside of a classroom. Education includes those lessons learned outside of the classroom, as well. This video is filled with quotes by different individuals. They describe the value of education, as well as the magic of discovery. My favorite quote was by Mark Twain. He said, “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” I really believe in these words because I have always felt that we learn a lot more outside of school than we do inside of school. In my opinion, college is more about the lessons and values we learn in life, than the learning we do in the classroom.

I thought that all three videos were really interesting views on education today, as well as the technology that occurs in our education system.  My favorite video was Design for Today and Tomorrow: A Vision of Students Today. I have included the link at the top for anyone who would like to enjoy it.

The first video, called Creativity: Design in the Making, was a really incredible speech done by Ken Robinson about creativity and the importance of it in every individuals’ life. He discussed how the arts are always put in last place in schools, which is ridiculous because it is so important to the growth of humans. Without creativity, we can not invent new things or progress as a culture. When it comes to designing instruction, I completely agree with Ken Robinson. We have to recognize the gift of the human imagination and integrate that into everyday instruction in school. Teachers need to find new ways of allowing students to explore their own minds, without being influenced by the media or the wonderful minds of others. Technology integration in instruction can be a wonderful thing, if used correctly. Teachers must find a way to utilize the wonderful tools available today to allow maximum use of creative student minds. He made a great point at the end of the video when he discussed the dancer. He said that she could have been prevented from becoming a dancer if someone had just given her medication to calm down. People in the educational system must learn how to recognize the creativity of students, instead of become inconvenienced by each individual personality and energy of the students that exist today.

The second video, Design for Today and Tomorrow: A Vision of Students Today, was my favorite video out of all of them. After watching it several times, my mind still raced with thoughts of frustration with the world and hope for education. In short, the video featured students in a classroom holding up signs which described the educational system we have in place today. In my opinion, it really highlighted the issues we have in the system, such as cost, class size, instructional content, and many other things. I feel that designing instruction has endless possibilities nowadays, because of all of the available resources instructors have. Instructors need to make sure they are utilizing videos, music, and any other tool out there in their instruction to maximize their lecture time. I feel this video would be a perfect demonstration of designing instruction. Teachers could add this video to their lecture, just as our instructor did, to start up a discussion in class about some of the issues in education today. That discussion could lead to other discussions about how we could improve the system and truly have an impact on designing instruction in the world. This goes hand-in-hand with technology integration. As long as teachers are using relevant technology, technology can have an extremely positive impact on our educational system. One thing to keep in mind is that it doesn’t always hurt to go back to basics. Teachers musn’t get carried away with the technology available. Sometimes a lecture without technology, such as just on the chalkboard, never hurts.

The third video was called Web 2.0: The Machine is Us/ing Us. It discussed how websites have progressed over the years. Web pages started out in HTML format, and now use XML format, allowing form and content to be separate. This makes it so that people can transfer content from page to page seamlessly, without having to use codes, such as in HTML. What this means for designing instruction is that it is very easy for teachers to utilize information off of the internet, without having to reformat a bunch of things. On the other hand, this is where we run into issues with copyright laws. It is very difficult to track who takes what information. Along with this concept is the idea that teachers can integrate many forms of technology into their instruction, without many problems at all. Instructors must be sure to do it legally, and give credit where credit is due. The use of Web 2.0 really opens up new avenues of instruction that were not available ten years ago.

The link to my digital mind map is: http://www.mindomo.com/view.htm?m=66fe66e6e9ce4f1faa73d82c235e3b09

There are several benefits to using mind maps in instructional design. First, it definitely helps individuals become very organized in their thoughts. As I was mapping out my ideas, I became more and more organized the more I spent time on the map.

Second, it helps others understand where one’s ideas are coming from and where they are going. For example, I did my written mind map on what my next meeting may be like at Safe Ride, which is a student organization on campus. If I handed a copy of my mind map out to all of the members, they would  have a very clear understanding as to what my thoughts are on most topics.

Third, I feel that mind mapping is a great planning technique. This especially applies if one is mind mapping digitally. I could definitely see myself using a mind map when I am planning out a to-do list, or if I need to plan out a project.

Fourth, mind maps help people solve problems. One could list out all of the problems of their organization or business, as well as the solutions, which could potentially help solve major problems. Although it is a timely process, it will definitely pay off if done correctly.

Fifth, mind maps help people communicate effectively when they are presenting information to an audience. The speaker could make a mind map of what they are trying to communicate to the audience. As they are speaking to the audience, they can constantly refer back to the mind map for a quick reminder of the message they are speaking.

Overall, mind maps help individuals become more organized and better planners. I think that many meetings would go much smoother if the leaders just took a little extra time to do an exercise like this.

Remembering – Twitter is a form of social networking, which is a digital addition of remembering. People can use Twitter to post reminders of events going on, so that other individuals can remember to attend those events. Individuals can also bullet point lists of events or information in their blogs so that information is easier to remember for the readers of the blog.

Understanding – Blogs are fantastic when it comes to showing understanding. Students can use a blog to talk about what they learned from a lesson or assignment, and demonstrate that they have an excellent understanding of the material covered. Twittering is also excellent for understanding because it gives the readers of the “tweets” an understanding of what the “twitterer” is doing. This helps start collaboration amongst many individuals in a short period of time.

Applying - Blogs are a great way for students to show that they have applied their skills or knowledge to their understanding of the material. Students can blog about the different ways in which they have been applying what they have learned. Twitter is somewhat helpful for this, although the 140-character limit can be a barrier in showing the full application of one’s skills.

Analyzing – People can mash many resources into one location if they have a blog. Blogs are a wonderful place for people to take a bunch of websites and post the links onto their blogs for others to see and use. Although this could be used in a negative way, people can participate in cracking and exploit the operation or system very easily on Twitter. It is a highly effective way of getting information out to a large number of people in a very fast manner.

Evaluating – Blogs are used best to evaluate different material across the web. Because individuals have the freedom of writing absolutely anything they could possibly want to write on a blog, they are able to evaluate everything! People can evaluate websites, new products, television shows, and even other people. After those individuals have posted something in their blog, other individuals are then able to leave comment posts with their own comments on the subject. When it comes to Twitter, the 140-character limit can again become a little bit of a problem when it comes to trying to evaluate something. The “twitterer” would just need to be sure to be short and to the point in their “tweet”.

Creating – Publishing is the key digital addition here. Essentially, individuals can publish just about anything on their blog or Twitter account. They can create any sort of information that they would like to, and post it to their blog or Twitter page. There is so much freedom available on the world wide web. It leaves endless opportunities for people to learn how to be creative with their different opportunities. For example, one can utilize their blog and Twitter account to promote their website, business, or anything else they would like to promote.

Let’s face it: There are more opportunities online than ever to facilitate the learning objectives in Bloom’s taxonomy.

There are many things we need to take into account regarding learners or our audience in designing instruction. One very important thing is just the age of the audience. For example, a college instructor should definitely plan on teaching seniors differently than freshmen. Freshmen are just coming out of high school and are not as used to the teaching style of college professors. Seniors are much more experienced in college, and are able to adapt new teaching styles much more easily than freshmen. I definitely feel that instructors of freshmen should come up with a transitional style of teaching, which would help freshmen transition well fom high school to college.

Another important thing to take into account is the skills of the students in that particular class. If a professor is teaching an art class, it may not be wise to assign a 10-page article analyzing statistics, due in 2 days. That is an extreme example, but my point is that the professor needs to examine the skills of the students in that class, and assign relevant course work, accordingly.

I also used to believe that the quality of online courses was much lower than that of the quality of a face-to-face course. The more experience I have gained in online courses, the more I realize that is not the case at all. Through my research this past week, I have really been able to recognize how much more teachers are able to teach in an online environment. Instructors can provide students with so many resources to learn if they are already online. It is much harder for a traditional teacher to integrate those methods of teaching into their lessons, since they are in a classroom environment. I definitely recognize that the quality can be equal, if not better, in an online course, as opposed to the quality of a face-to-face course.