Week 13 Reflections

I agree with Dr. Horvitz that Chapter 30 was a complex, yet interesting, read which provided many ideas I can apply to my work. “How Humans Learn” was the most enlightening section. I learned a lot about the brain in training for my summer job and I am absolutely fascinated with the brain’s power. I was excited to read about the brain and technology. “Prior knowledge of the learner is an important individual characteristic that must be considered” and in my job, it varies greatly (Reiser & Dempsey, 2007, p. 314). For example, in one section, I could have students ranging in age from 18 to 58, and students who have never worked a day and students who have always worked two jobs. I must take all of my students into consideration when planning and implementing my lessons. I would like to share all of the brain knowledge I’ve gained with my students so that they better understand the learning process. For example, sharing with students that we take two shorter breaks than one long break because of the brain’s “limited capacity of working memory” will hopefully translate to taking study breaks at home and not cramming for quizzes/tests (Reiser & Dempsey, 2007, p. 314). Like all technologies are not ideal for all subjects, all technologies are not ideal for all students. Instructional designers need to take the student’s prior knowledge into great consideration.

Another enlightening section was “Surface Features vs. Functional Features of Visuals”. A significant question instructional designers should ask themselves is “does animation or video enhance learning?” (Reiser & Dempsey, p. 315). If the answer is “no”, the educational technology is derogatorily referred to as edutainment. The “bells and whistles” of edutainment get our students’ attention, but contain little or no content and take-away value. I love YouTube videos, Google Earth, and other Internet media, and my students do, too! One of my favorite videos to show at the beginning of each quarter is an Abbot and Costello multiplication video. The students and I laugh while watching it, and then we have a discussion. We conclude that there are many ways to do things in math, but generally only one of the ways is the right process, and that it is good practice to check our work. I would like to incorporate more media, not just videos, into my lessons. As I’ve mentioned many times before, my students often ask why they need to take math classes when they claim they will never use it again. I reply that it’s more than just math; it is problem solving and critical thinking. By using media to demonstrate real-world application, students will be more open to math and more successful in the class.

Picnik & Google Docs

Picnik

Picnik is fun!  I had played with it prior to this week’s Learning Module and was excited to have an excuse to play with it some more!  Picnik offers many great features, such as editing and creating, which are great for both personal and professional use.  Personally, Picnik is fun for adding graphics and text to photos for Web sites like facebook and MySpace.  Professionally, Picnik is ideal for diagrams or screen shots with text instructions.  Photos can be conveniently opened from Websites like Flickr and Picasa or uploaded from a computer.  As with most free Web sites, there are great features that are heavily advertised and able to be clicked, but are only available with Picnik Premium.  (Insert sad buzzer “wah wah” here.)  I would recommend Picnik to coworkers for both personal and professional use.  Picnik is easy to use and does all the basic editing and creating as expensive programs, like Photoshop Elements.

Overall rating: 4/5 stars

Google Docs

Google docs is a free alternative to Microsoft Office, but like other free software, it has limited features.  For someone experienced (and certified) in Microsoft Word, Google docs and free just doesn’t cut it.  Google docs is most notably inferior to Microsoft Office in terms of compatibility and formatting.   Many students use free software, like Google Docs, OpenOffice, and AbiWord on their home computers.  When the students open the documents on campus to print, either Microsoft Office does not recognize the file format and cannot open it, or if it can be opened in Microsoft Office, the formatting is skewed.  As for the collaboration feature of Google Docs, it is inferior to Wikis and other public work spaces.  I would not recommend Google docs to coworkers for either personal or professional use.  I recommend saving money and buying Microsoft Office when it is on sale at Best Buy or using a Wiki for collaboration.

Overall rating: 1/5 stars