![]() This final blogfolio is an overview of the entire ITD 645 class, Computers in Education, for the summer semester 2020. It includes the various technology tools that we have implemented in this class as well as my personal feelings about each tool, experiences with hands-on projects, group teamwork, blog and blog commenting, video clips and the electronic portfolio. What I learned in this class ![]() This course was an interesting journey for me as I am not a classroom teacher but work in the professional field as a senior program manager. I can see how this could relate to my area of work in setting up and coordinating various training needs and applicable to my future career field of human capital development and IT instruction. The textbook, Teaching and Learning with Technology, by Judy Lever-Duffy, and Jean McDonald, provided great insight and direction in understanding the relationship between technology and education, whether it be classroom teaching or instructional design. I learned about several previously unknown national standards for teaching, as well as technology tools, lesson plans, learning objectives, and DID models. I had never even heard of many of these prior to this experience. The videos were a great aid to the reading of the chapter materials and enhanced my learning experience. The hands-on projects, however, were my favorite learning experience in this class. This hands-on experience with various tools opened my eyes to what's available and what will work with future needs I encounter in IT Design. It also helped prepare me to be more considerate of potential difficulties that my future students/trainees might encounter when using these or similar tools. I have a lot of previous knowledge of technology and tools, but many of the ones we used in this class were brand new to me, and the experience of using them has been hugely beneficial. Some will be used in my professional field, while some I see being useful in future teaching endeavors. I thoroughly enjoyed the group portion of this class. I was partnered with a wonderful group of women and was fortunate to have teachers with classroom experience on my team to make up for some of my lack of experience in that area. We communicated and worked well together, dividing tasks and getting done ahead of schedule. We produced quality assignments that I am proud to showcase in this blog. Reflection on Learning Tools ITD Learning Portfolio Blog Our first project consisted of creating a blog using the web development platform Weebly to record our weekly homework reflections, share our class projects, and interact with our group members and teacher. I have made several websites on Weebly, so this was both a relatively easy and enjoyable task for me. By nature, I am not a huge talker, nor am I an avid blogger, but this has been an excellent experience for me in how a blog can keep track of learning experiences or projects completed. Slack After several failed attempts to establish the WeChat app for our group communication tool, we decided to use Slack for group communications and file sharing. I had used it previously and love the application and the ease of use along with the various channels and the mobile notifications. I find it to be easier to organize projects and keep track of things than multiple emails or texts. Classroom Funding Proposal Our first group project was to submit a classroom funding proposal. We worked well together on the various aspects of this document and ended up with a quality proposal. You can read more about Our Ideal 21st Century Classroom and view the proposal document by HERE. This was a great learning experience for anyone seeking grant funding. Click on the header for links to each group project Lesson Plan The lesson plan was a new thing for me to experience. I have never put one together before, so I relied heavily on my group mates with teaching experience for this project. This served as the basis for all of our future group projects, so it was critical that we have an excellent and cohesive lesson plan. The lesson plan included: course title, objectives, grade level, activities, assignments, and resources. It was a helpful experience should I ever need to create my own lesson plan. Google Apps (Google Form, Google Slides & Google Docs) Using google forms for a survey was new to me as I primarily use a survey service such as survey monkey. This is one tool that I plan to implement in my professional work moving forward, as I was very impressed by the capabilities and the fact that it is free! I use google documents regularly, mainly when training my student workers or for project planning. These are a fantastic tool for collaborative projects/learning and could be easily implemented into classroom and group projects. Podcasting Software I loved learning about creating a podcast and am excited to use this in the future for various instructions needs both in and out of the classroom. I love to listen to podcasts but never considered making one myself before. I could see how this could be applicable in my marketing or recruiting strategies in the future. I can also see how this could be an excellent homework tool for students or an online resource to supplement a course. Movie Making Software Videos are useful in a variety of teaching scenarios. I enjoyed exploring the Windows Movie Maker, Windows Live Movie Maker, iMovie, storybird.com, and wevideo.com software as options for creating a video. I have made several videos for marketing purposes but enjoyed the application to the teaching perspective. This can be an invaluable tool in the classroom to highlight a lecture or enhance a learning module by providing a different, fun way to hear the information. For our Movie Story we used the Adobe Spark platform which was very intuitive and easy to use. Interactive Video The Edupuzzle was utterly new to me, and I was intrigued by how this could be used in the teaching field. I don't see it as very applicable to what I currently do, but could see it being useful for future IT design or workers training. Edupuzzle class code: dorsuja Weebly Course Website The course website was, by far, my favorite assignment simply because I love to create and manage websites and have a lot of experience with them. However, this was my first experience in making a course website, and I learned a lot of valuable information in the layout, design, and planning for an education-related website. It was a work in progress as we worked through different projects. The course website included the home page, the course materials page, the page for assignments, the resources page, the contact page, and a page linked to our group's individual blogs. Padlet Padlet was a brand new tool that I was introduced to in this class. Padlet is a virtual collaborative whiteboard. I absolutely love the collaborative nature of Padlet and can see a multitude of uses for this technology tool! It was easy to embed into the website and easy for the group to contribute to the project. Thinglink Thinglink was another platform that I was completely unfamiliar with prior to this class. I found Thinglink to be a very user friendly free resource that turns any image into an interactive bulletin board. Hot spots can be created for videos, reading materials, quizzes and more. It easily embeds into a website or blog. I loved using this platform and plan to use it for marketing and recruiting in my job. Scoop.it Scoop.it is a mashup of a social network site and a content creation tool. It allows you to create interactive bulletin boards where users can share content, thoughts, comments, etc. while connecting with other users. Users can post new material, get suggestions for material from Scoop.it or "scoop" content from other Scoop.it boards. Sharing of scoops via social networks is easy and a great way to build your audience. This is another great marketing/recruiting tool that I will be utilizing in the future for my job. Quizzizz Quizzizz is a delightful platform that easily interacts with Google classroom. It offers bright colors and fun music to create a game-like experience for learning. It boasts a clean simple design while being easy to set up and use. The instant student feedback makes learning a snap and it is a useful tool for any learning environment. Rubistar We used RubiStar to create our classroom rubric. It was fairly easy to use by following a pre-designed template or creating your own. Personal Strengths and weaknessesMy biggest weakness in this class was my lack of teaching and classroom experience. Many of the standards, the DID plans, the lesson plans, the rules, regulations etc. were simply new to me and quite overwhelming at times. Most of the questions were geared towards the classroom and how I would implement or integrate my learning with the classroom. I struggled greatly with this as I have no classroom experience so was answering hypothetically and often felt that I couldn't relate to a real-world experience. My greatest strength in the class was my previous experience with a variety of technology tools. While I am always looking and open to new tools, my background, diversity and experience with multiple technological tools greatly helped me with this learning experience. Integrating into the classroom ![]() While I am not a classroom teacher and have no plans to be a classroom teacher, I do see myself implementing many of these tools in my future career in human capital development and IT design. I am planning to create online workshops and training tools and many of these tools, insights, design elements, and more will be very useful to implementing a successful training program in the future. Future learning goals I am a lifelong learner. I have been a student and learner my whole life and I don't see my educational journey ending anytime soon. I am already looking into possibilities for obtaining my Ph.D. once I complete my masters degree in the fall of 2021.
It can not be denied that technology is a rapidly changing and developing field. Technologies will continue to expand and grow at a rapid rate and I am excited to see what the future holds in the way of technological breakthroughs. I look forward to staying abreast of new and upcoming technology and various tools relevant to my career.
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Reflection Question: Chapter 10, Prompt 2 This chapter suggests your role is to become a technology advocate and change agent within the education profession. Do you agree that this is indeed a responsibility of 21st century educators? Why or why not. ![]() Technology is rapidly changing and expanding. While ten years doesn't seem that long ago, if you look at the last decade alone you can see massive transformations as streaming and the use of the cloud became popular. We went from having to email a document to being able to have multiple people access it and work on it in the cloud. You can literally have access to any file 24/7 on any device if it is stored in the cloud. We used to love how slender a DVD was an the image quality. Now its just a hassle to have to handle a disk when we can just click a button or even better - talk to our TV! We are moving into the era of self driving cars, touch displays, 3D printing, drones, virtual reality, smart homes, robots, automated work stations, and voice controls. Phones and tablets have become mini computers and we have Alexa and Google devices to help us manage our daily lives. Even security systems have gone high tech allowing people to access views of their home from their phone or laptop. There is every reason to believe that we are still in a rapidly expanding technological world and technology will surely improve and change the world in the next decade as well. This means teachers need to adapt and integrate new technologies into the classroom on a regular basis. This helps to improve student learning and motivates teachers to think outside the box. Being on the leading edge of technology and embracing technological changes will help to build a student population that is better adept at integrating into a post learning world and becoming productive members of society as well as responsible digital citizens. Additional Recommended Resources: ![]()
Reflection Question: Chapter 9, Prompt 1
Assume that one of your students tells you that an enrichment class at your school has developed a website and that every student’s name and picture will be available on the website as a talent directory. What concerns do you have about this discovery and how would you approach your colleague and your school to address these concerns?
While most school's have a school directory, most parent's aren't aware of how much private information this contains and that the school (under the law as it stands now - See 34 CFR §§ 99.31(a)(11) and 99.37) can disclose this information without prior parental consent. Directory information can contain very personal information such as
While the above described scenario falls under similar information being released as the School Directory issue, I think that it goes even further in that it is placing the information on a website with public access. However, I don't think that the school would be breaking any current laws in doing this (if it's just the name and photo on the website). I am not a teacher, so I may not have a full grasp of the legal ramifications or laws, but what I could find on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) website seemed like this would not be an issue (from a legal standpoint). Data protection rules – governed by the Data Protection (Amendment) Act 2003, The Data Protection Act 1988 and Video Recordings Act 1989 – also mean that there are a range of issues to consider when publishing images of minors. There are several legislative acts that protect students privacy such as: –Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (C O P P A) –Children’s Internet Protection Act (C I P A) –Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act (Amendment to C I P A) However, I would be concerned that the content may cause some students embarrassment or that the images could be taken and misused. There are some common sense rules for teachers to follow such as
My Learning Experiences
Kahoot! vs. Quizizz
While both of these platforms are free and relatively easy to sign up for and use, there are some major differences and advantages to one over the other. While Kahoot! wins in the game variety and student engagement, Quizizz is a great alternative that easily interacts with Google Classroom. For the students experience both of these platforms offer bright colors with fun music to create an energetic game-like experience. For a more interactive student/teacher experience Kahoot! is the clear winner here as students must look at the classroom screen to view the answers (vs. Quizizz they can see them on their individual devices). Both of these platforms fall short on the data collection aspect by not providing the ability to track/identify student growth. Kahoot! Pro's of using Kahoot!
Pro's to using Quizizz
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Reflection Question: Chapter 8, Prompt 2
Reflecting on your experience with the following subjects, (language arts, mathematics, history, science, music), which ones do you think would be adaptable for distance education and which ones would not? Why? Would there be a difference in adaptability depending on grade level?
I have taken many online courses throughout my graduate and undergraduate educational journey. I love the online learning experience as an option and typically prefer or choose that whenever possible. However, some classes would not translate well to the online learning environment.
The ones that primarily come to mind as not being successfully adaptable are math-based classes. While some of the more beginner classes could be effectively taught online, the more advanced courses need the interactivity that you get from walking through a formula with the teacher, asking questions, getting explanations, and learning from copying the teacher and doing. One of my bachelor's degrees is in finance, and there were many of the upper-level classes that I feel I would not have done well in had those been online-only classes. Other subjects that would have adaptability issues are any of the science classes that require a lab component. The labs are very hands-on, and it would be hard to adapt to an online course. Music classes as well would not readily fit into the online learning model. There is a lot of interaction between the music teacher and the student, as well as a lot of hands-on demonstration, which would be very problematic in an online setting. Some classes would easily fit into the online learning environment. These include subjects such as English, Literature, Social Studies, Psychology, Anthropology, and many others. I believe that adaptability for the online learning environment doesn't depend on grade level so much as it does the interaction needed to master a subject. Some subjects are relatively easy to adapt to the online setting, and videos and reading are all that are required to learn those subjects. However, there are many subject areas and classes that need the live interaction with the teacher, the one-on-one feedback, and the demonstrations to understand the material thoroughly. Online courses have the disadvantage of having a delay between the student asking a question and getting feedback making it problematic for many subjects. My Learning Experiences![]()
Our group did a fantastic job coordinating, working together, and playing on our individual strengths, skills, and interests to collaborate and conquer this week's group projects. We utilized the Lesson Plan as our central component as we built our other projects based on it. We communicated and collaborated, helping each other out, giving feedback and editing to accomplish a final completed project for each item.
Once again our group communicated with each other, primarily through Slack and text messages. We consulted the weekly project channels in Slack with the projects due for this week, division of assignments due as well as the individual assignment instructions. We then asked questions and received feedback on individual projects to collaborate on a final project to be submitted. This week we completed the movie story, the interactive video (Edupuzzle), the Padlet, as well as our course website. I found these to be excellent resources for both teachers and myself in the business environment. You can find all of these project below. Movie Story
The movie story was another that I was not previously familiar with, but can see myself integrating into my job in preparing course materials or even as a marketing or recruiting tool. This can be an invaluable tool in the classroom to highlight a lecture or enhance a learning module by providing a different, fun way to hear the information. Chapter 7 (page 234) discusses the use of video in the classroom in great detail. Various tools for video production are suggested including Microsoft's Movie Maker, Apple iMovie, Animoto, Stroome, TeacherTube and Khan Academy. I have personally used Animoto and love this platform. With today's tools, almost anyone can easily create an educational video. This is a great way to add variety to they typical classroom learning style.
Interactive Video
The Edupuzzle was completely new to me and I was intrigued by how this could be used in the teaching field. Since I am not a teacher, I am not sure that I see myself using this in my professional work though.
Interactive Padlet
Padlet on the other hand was very useful and has a plethora of possibilities for usage both in teaching, personal use and my job. I absolutely loved the ease of using this program, the ability for others to easily contribute, the ease of embedding it into a website and the potential uses it offers. I will definitely be using this in the future. Technology tools enable real-time (synchronous) interaction with students as well as supporting asynchronous interactions. To be successful, digital learning programs need a combination of various tools for interacting with students and peers (Chpater 8, page 262).
Course website
I use websites in a variety of ways in my job and have designed and managed many different websites on a variety of platforms over the past ten years. It is one of my favorite aspects of my job. Chapter 1, page 21, of our textbook demonstrates the use of a class website to facilitate teacher/student/parent communications.
Reflection Question: Chapter 7, Prompt 1 Reflection Post: When using the Internet with children, there are privacy and acceptable use issues. Describe the issues you are most concerned with and how you plan to address them when you become a teacher. ![]() Children's privacy online is a huge concern for both teachers as well as parents. There are many challenges when it comes to students and their safe and appropriate use of the web. Students need to be taught to be good digital citizens - behaving ethically, being civil to one another, being responsible for themselves, and general good communication skills. The issue most concerning to me is keeping kids safe on the internet. The Department of Justice has a great website on children's safety online. They provide many great tips such as, communicating online safety with your children/students, supervision, awareness (of what apps children are using), using privacy settings and controls, keeping computers in open areas, and teaching children not to share personal information online. While these are a good starting point, I think the crucial factor in keeping kids safe is simply being PRESENT and aware at all times of the children's online activities. Another great resource that I found for teachers is Childnet.com. They have a complete resource bank with free resources for teachers, tool kits, activities and more. I am not a teacher, but if I was to have that responsibility in the future I would make sure to educate myself on best practices and consult with my school district for guidelines and resources in addition to my own research. My Learning Experiences ![]() Our group did a fantastic job coordinating, working together, and playing on our individual strengths, skills, and interests to divide the remaining group projects. We started with the central project (the Lesson Plan) and then built all of our other projects off of that completed project. We looked at all of the group projects for the remaining weeks to divvy up those that would take longer and make a plan of action. Our group communicated with each other, primarily through Slack and text messages. We set up weekly project channels in Slack with the projects due weekly, who would tackle the assignments and the instructions. We then asked questions and received feedback on individual projects to collaborate on a final project to be submitted. This weeks projects can be seen utilizing the links below. Lesson Plan: Since I am not a teacher, this was a new concept to me. I could see, however, how this would be applicable to my job as I design and implement short courses for training. Our textbook, pg. 20 points out the importance of the lesson plan stating that this is the foundation for excellent instruction both in the classroom as well as IT design. there are tools available such as the 10 Minute Lesson Planner to aid in the creation of the lesson plan. Other lesson tools available make it easy to ensure that you are following the national standards as well as providing for differing learning styles and intelligences. Thinkfinity is a source of standards-correlated lesson plans for every grade level that can be customized to your school's planner format. Curriki is a collaborative lesson plan platform that enables teachers to share content at all grade levels. No matter how you go about creating your lesson plan, I think the lesson plan is crucial for any successful classroom teacher. Technology Survey: I use survey's regularly in my job so I will be looking at google docs as an option for those in the future (I typically use survey monkey). I can see how survey's could be very useful in the classroom as well as something different for students to do to enhance learning or do their own research. Table 8.1 The Growth of K-12 Distance Education Program (pg. 227) is a great example of how survey's can be used to track changes in technology use in the traditional classroom. Google Documents: I use google documents regularly, but in particular when training my student workers or for project planning. These are a wonderful tool for collaborative projects/learning and could be easily implemented into classroom and group projects. Chapter 8 discuses various methods for teacher/student interaction in the online platform. The video Tech Tutor 8.1 on page 224 goes over various learning management systems (LMS) as well as course management systems (CMS). Podcast: I love to listen to podcasts, but never considered making one myself before. I could see how this could be applicable in my marketing or recruiting strategies in the future. I can also see how this could be a wonderful homework tool for students or an online resource to supplement a course. Chapter 8, page 269 discusses the use of podcasts and vodcasts in the classroom. Several platforms are suggested including: Adobe Spark, Apple iMovie, Audacity, educational podcast, educational vodcast, RealPlayer, Vimeo, and Windows Movie Maker.
![]() Problem You attend a workshop to find out the process to apply for funds to improve your classroom. At the workshop, your principal has asked that each department and/or grade level interested in applying work together to develop an ideal learning environment that will support individualized instruction to meet diverse learner needs. The ideal learning environment descriptions the principal has detailed must include everything a teacher wants from furniture to miscellaneous equipment to technologies. The principal has specifically stated that to submit a request for up to $20,000 per classroom in funds from the district, each team must:
Solution To tackle this group project, our group initially met via phone to discuss project, requirements, our own experience and how to divide and tackle the group assignment. We defined our classroom as a 7th grade, English Language Arts classroom with diverse learning styles and needs. The design and layout of the classroom was collectively agreed upon as well as the tools needed to accomplish our ideal classroom setting. Most of our discussion was done via Slack and group text messaging. We used Lucidchart to create the Mindmap. We divided up the work load and began the assignment by creating a mind map, and a diagram of our ideal classroom layout. This was followed up with exhaustive research of the technology tools that we previously decided upon to see if they would fit within the constraints of the proposal funding. Our initial wish list went over the allotted budget so we adjusted our purchase requests and changed certain items to conform to the budgetary restrictions. The next step was to develop the lesson and activity plan which was the core of the project and provided the justification for the expenses. Alongside this, a detailed budget was developed and a budget justification written itemizing each expense and what it would be used for. Included with the budget justification, a complete list showing the resource for each purchase is listed in the references section. The final step in the process was to compile all of these steps/documents into one cohesive grant proposal document. We each thoroughly reviewed and edited the final document before deciding it was ready for submission. Reflection Question: Chapter 6, Prompt 1 Consider how technology has helped you to be productive and complete tasks. Examine the physical requirements for using your favorite technologies. How might physical disabilities hamper your use of those preferred technologies and impact your personal productivity. As a teacher, what can you do to mitigate these challenges for students with special needs. Technology is a crucial aspect of both my personal and professional life. I rely heavily on various technologies to get my job done, as well as to stay organized. Universal inputs to the technologies I use most frequently are the mouse, keyboard, and voice controls. All of these could create an issue with someone who has a physical disability. Voice recognition can be impacted by a speech impediment, English as a second language, or other disability. Many students can't use a keyboard or mouse and would need a workaround or other options to use these tools. ![]() Diversity in the classroom and among students learning needs is an issue that all teachers at all grade levels must recognize and address. Included are special learning needs, culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD), and talented and gifted (TAG) students. Technology can be a powerful tool to address this multitude of individual and often complex learning needs. It can enable teachers so that they are successful, and the learning process becomes more effective. ![]() Teachers can use the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines as a starting point to consider their students' needs. Other resources for the teacher include the University of Washington's Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology (DO-IT) project, which was developed to offer an online library of resources and tools. The Learning Center for Teachers of the Center for Implementing Technology in Education (CITEd) offers help that is focused on the diverse learner and to enable them universal access. The National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials (AIM) focuses on media. The National Association for Gifted Children offers resources geared towards TAG students. CLD students provide a unique challenge, and many resources are available to address their success in learning with the aid of technology. Awareness of differences in learning styles, individual learning needs, disabilities, and challenges for students is the beginning point for any teacher addressing how best to meet these students' needs to ensure a thriving learning environment. ![]() Reflection Question: Chapter 5, Prompt 2 Question Part 1 Recall a class where presentation software, such as PowerPoint, was used. Did you enjoy the experience? Was it easy to take notes? Did you stay focused on the presentation, or did your attention drift into other thoughts? Could the presentation have been modified to make it more interactive, more interesting? How? I took many classes in my undergraduate studies where PowerPoint was used. Some teachers excelled at using these and they were engaging and crucial to the success of the class. In particular, I took a finance class that had pretty complicated formulas and my teacher for that class used PowerPoint as a method to walk us through the problem-solving steps. We worked along with the presentation to solve the problem and it was very interactive, educational and engaging. I had a real estate class however, that was basically the PowerPoint version of the book and the slides were not engaging, the class was not interactive and I had a lot of trouble staying focused on the material and engaged. I would often have to go back after the class and basically teach myself the material using a combination of YouTube video’s, Khan academy and the text book. I think PowerPoint presentations can be a great asset to learning if used in an engaging manner or to support what is being taught, but not as a stand alone (teach from the slides only) manner. ![]() Question Part 2 Select a grade level and subject matter that you would most want to teach. How you would use three different types of academic software to teach a specific topic. Explain why you selected these three academic software packages. I would love to someday teach project management at a community college. The academic software that I would use to teach this course would include Airtable, Excel and Microsoft Teams. Airtable: I would use Airtable (Productivity Suite), Excel, and Quizlet for this class. Airtable is a delightful cloud collaboration project management software with multiple uses and is a good starting point for the project management student. It is intuitive, and simple to use, yet has many in depth capabilities as users advance in experience and knowledge. They believe that you shouldn’t have to work within the limitations of your software, but that your software should work how you decide it should. They have both free and premium versions so beginning students would not have to pay to use the software. Project management students would learn to create forms, link between their table, collaborate with other students on group projects, set up databases, sort records and publish to an external website. More information on Airtable can be found on their website at https://airtable.com/ Excel Excel would be my second tool that I would use in this class. Most students are already somewhat adept and familiar with Excel. This class would build on those basic skills teaching students how to budget and track expenditures for a project, create and manage a project timeline, create a project review, create a project schedule, status report, tracker, planner and dashboard. Students would also learn how to export these different segments into a Power Point presentation. Students would learn how to create a template from their project to save time creating future projects. Microsoft Teams I would also teach my students the use of Microsoft teams as this is such a great project / team solution. Students would be assigned groups (teams) and need to set up a team for communication. They would need to add either planner or task in a box for tasks and due dates. They would create and a team schedule, notes, files, and collaboration space within their Microsoft team. They would need to show competency with use of polls, chat and video calls within the Microsoft team ap. ![]()
Reflection Question: Chapter 4, Prompt 1
Question: How many of the digital technologies discussed in this chapter have you used? Have you used them in an educational setting or elsewhere? For what purposes did you use them? Did they facilitate the purposes? I have used almost all of the technology tools discussed in this chapter, both in my professional work and my personal life. One of the tools that I have not used is the Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) scanner. Examples of tools I have used widely
Printers: I use a variety of inkjet, laser, and 3D printers, many of which are multi-use (scan/fax) machines. These are used (both for work and personal use) for copying, making marketing materials, classroom handouts, printing exams, faxing, scanning, name badges, labels, and many other things. For my line of work a multi-use printer is an essential tool. For my personal use printer, I have a printer/scanner/fax machine. Our research lab has a 3D printer that I have been able to use to make fidget spinners with our logo on them. We then use these as marketing/promotional materials (aka free handouts) at conferences which we are exhibitors. ![]()
Storage:
I also use an array of external storage options, including thumb drives, external hard drives and cloud-based applications. I love the cloud-based feature because I can access any work document that I need from anywhere without being tied to an external hard drive. It also helps my team to have immediate and quick access to needed documents without relying on me to email them. I also use this for personal items from a camping trip agenda to my recipe box. Again, I like to be able to access the documents from my phone anywhere that I am. I find these to be essential parts of my professional work toolbox. Tablets, Touchscreens, and Whiteboards: I own an Ipad mini for my personal use, and for work, we use an Ipad Pro. We use the ipad for a running promotional video while exhibiting, as well as for sign in for meetings and many many other applications. I have a touch screen enabled laptop that I use for work and I have used whiteboards for both work as well as classes that I have taken, and I love this feature. Digital Camera: I use a digital camera for both personal use as well as work usage. We often need promotional pictures of students in the lab or lab research groups or high school groups that come in for competitions, etc. I use the digital camera to capture images for marketing materials and our website. Clickers: I have had classes that utilized the use of the clickers for learning and engagement. I didn’t find this particularly helpful as a student or engaging. I think this is one tool that is getting a little outdated. I have been on webinars where the speakers use questions or polls in the middle of the lecture to encourage audience participation and feedback. I do like these and find them useful and engaging as a student. Of course, there are many more commonplace tools mentioned in this chapter, such as webcams, mobile devices, wifi, etc. that are used regularly in a variety of ways, and I didn’t deem them necessary enough to mention individually. ![]() Reflection Question: Chapter 3, Prompt 3 This chapter described how proper planning ensures success in teaching and learning. Describe two activities (not educational in nature) in which you have been involved in the past which were NOT successful due to lack of planning. What lessons can you draw from those experiences that will help motivate you to plan for instruction? Mileage Mishap The first that comes to mind is a friend of mine who decided at the last minute to rent a zip car to drive from Chicago to Mississippi for a long weekend trip to pick up his dog that he had to leave behind when he moved several months previously. He drove about 2.5 hours out of town and stopped for gas when he got a notification that he was close to meeting his mileage limitation on the zip car rental (designed to primarily be in-town rentals). He still had another 9.5 hours of driving to get to Mississippi and another 12 hours for the return trip home. He had no option but to turn around, drive the 2.5 hours back home and turn in the rental car early. This mistake cost him about $300, and he did not make it back to get his dog, thus resulting in a future expense for an actual airplane ticket or car rental to retrieve his pup. Had he taken the time to research and plan his trip correctly, he would have seen the mileage needed and made sure that whatever car he rented would cover such a long distance. This is an essential lesson in considering ALL the aspects of a situation and the desired outcome to try to avoid running into unnecessary problems. ![]() Airline Fiasco Another situation that comes to mind is when my father passed away recently. Although this is not typically a "planned" situation, my daughter, due to stress and emotional distress, booked a ticket for herself and her younger brother into the wrong town that was 5 hours away from my parent's home. After hours on the phone with the airline, we had to purchase all new tickets to get her into the correct city to make it to the funeral. Fortunately, this situation had a good outcome as after we explained to American Airlines what had happened; they gave us a full refund on the incorrect tickets. The lesson that I can conclude from this is that no matter how trying the situation is, how emotional or tired you are, you should take a deep breath, step away from the problem and calm down instead of just reacting. Once you have gathered yourself, you can approach the problem rationally and, hopefully, without any incident. |
AuthorMy name is Melanie and I am in my first year of pursing a Master's degree in Human Capital Development with an emphasis on IT Design at USM. I currently work as a Senior Program Manager for USM. Blogroll
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