Category Archives: Diversity

Reflection for 01/19/15 to 01/23/15

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It’s the end of the day on Monday, and I am starting this up. It’s been a busy day of grading my 230 course in Canvas and communicating with students. I also have been working with Ronda and Tisha to get the undergrad courses set.

We had lunch and talked about MLK Day. It’s cool that there was a viewing of his speech when here at PSU 50 years ago. I didn’t get to go but here is the script from the speech: http://news.psu.edu/story/142989/2013/01/21/martin-luther-king-jr-rec-hall-jan-21-1965.

The continuation on work with assessments is going on. We have been working on 210 b/c of an error by the publisher with regard to questions in the ANGEL bank of questions. Yesterday, there was an error with an assessment in 402CC. Both of these errors were outside of ANGEL. But the process of fixing the errors is so difficult in ANGEL. It involves knowing the system well and takes so many clicks. I’m hoping that we can move from this LMS soon and have something that works better.

I planned to work at home on Wednesday in the morning only, but some snow made me think that it was better to work from home all day. I was able to get to quite a few things today. First, I’ve been able to keep pace with prepping for my live online session. I also had the chance to work on 140. It has been good to work with Steve Haynes to put the course together.

Moving to the world of sports, there has been alot said the past few days about the Patriots in the NFL and the fact that they played with deflated balls. It’s amazing to me that this type of thing has been allowed by a league that is quickly showing a lack of integrity. It’s becoming a joke that they could be called a dynasty. This playoffs has been so bad. First, there was the terrible officiating that led to Dallas making the 2nd round of the playoffs. Next, we have the deflated balls by the Patriots that may have lead to them to make the Super Bowl. As a youth coach and parent, I’m scared at how easily this league is manipulated  by money. You can make an argument that the Super Bowl could have been Detroit v. Baltimore. Is Big Data running the show? Are those in power in the league looking at what match ups are going to maximize return? It may seem outlandish or too far on the side of conspiracy theory, but I’m not so sure. Either way, there will be an asterisk behind the champion this year since the league has not allowed the players to determine the winner.

It’s Thursday, and I’m moving along. We had a nice discussion among the undergrad IST team about how to move forward with IST 140. I’m liking the developing team dynamic.

I sent a student project along to Chris and Anil to put together a digital graphic for John Bagby regarding Big Data.

It’s Friday, and I won’t be in the office until Feb 2. I’m looking forward to a long vacation with my family. I’m planning to come back refreshed and ready to go.

Reflection 03/24/14 to 03/28/14

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I have decided that I need to get back to working on this throughout the week. It can be a bit difficult to remember everything that I wanted to comment on by the end of the week. So I’m starting on Monday.

This has been a productive day. I was able to populate one of the four EA courses and make the necessary adjustments to move to Blackboard Collaborate. It’s always nice to know that you have things ready for the future. I like how it eases my mind and allows for me to move on from something.

I went to a diversity session on Monday. The speaker talked about a study that she had conducted about stereotypes.

The theme of the day was productivity and completion. I always feel best when this happens, but I know that everyday can’t be like that.

Another theme of the week is diversity. I went to the Outreach Building to learn more about Lithuania and the story of the other dream team.

More accomplishments on Wednesday. Glad to be continually moving forward this week.

I finished up the week on Friday by attending a S.T.A.R.T. Conference held annually by the SMEAL College of Business. The keynote speaker, Ken Bouyer, did an excellent job of explaining the importance of diversity by telling his own story of being a peacock over a penguin. The message is that those of diverse backgrounds are hired to bring their perspective. The is a purpose and function to be yourself.

I enjoyed the next session that I attended by Deborah Wilkins on “Unconscious Bias.” There is a research study done by Harvard that test your bias: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/. When I took the test, I was surprised that I was a bit biased.

The thing I enjoyed the most was the performance of the diversity award winners. The second place winner, Davon Clark, was especially impressive with the recitation of a poem that he wrote.

All in all, this was a good week. I hope for more of the same as we move forward toward the end of the spring semester and the beginning of summer.

Reflection 9/30/13 – 10/4/13

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Accomplishments:

  • Prof Dev
  • Fall ’13 revisions/developments
    • IST 220 (Giacobe)
      • Received materials
      • Upon further inspection, there wasn’t much done with this materials. Hopefully, everything will stay on schedule.
    • IST 402 (Jansen)
      • Meeting set up by Amy S for 6/12 to discuss new topic around Jim Jansen’s f2f 402 “The Google Online Marketing Challenge”
      • Sounds like a good idea from several perspectives:
        • student engagement via competition
        • marketing to students in other majors for minor
      • Few possible obstacles
        • Not enough students from other majors with complementary skills
        • Large need for synchronous meetings
        • Large time commitment
      • Email sent on 6/12 to Jim to set up meeting for June 24-28
        • Meeting planned for June 24 from 3-4
          • Looks like lots of captivates
          • Need to put together a process to share with him to make this streamlined
          • Need to have a drupal space created
          • He probably won’t be able to get me product until August 1
      • Put in request to IST Helpdesk to create ist402gomc site for Jansen’s course
        • received notification on 6/26 that this was done
        • sent a footprints request to set up the site on 6/27 to Ranjani and Will
        • Will overlayed template on the course
        • Allison enabled a few pages for course information & made a template syllabus
      • Amy S contacted Jim on 7/30
        • Jim got right back & asked about videos from the course, specifically screenr
        • after consulting with Will & Allison decided b/c of the changeable nature of the course that screenr process to mp4 to embedded in the course would be the best way to go
        • Jim sounded hesitant about process after I laid out the steps, but it is b/c he’s never done this before. Reassured and asked for feedback to improve process
      • Note from Jim on 8/8 about where to put content
        • Repurposed Saab’s 402 for Jim to use
      • Also asked by Jim about one lesson a week format
        • Told him to put things together using a topical approach, and we can figure out timing later
      • Received materials on 8/12 but it needs to be parsed out, added to the couse space, and send feedback to clarify expectations
      • Got this going and sent a note. Plan to meet f2f when he comes to the building on Wednesdays
      • First meeting was this Wednesday at 1:30. Went well and felt like I got through about the need to complete things asap
      • Updated info for WC on Monday 9/16
      • Sent a note on Tuesday 10/1 about needing to get materials.
      • Jim responded that he would dedicate the weekend to getting materials into the ANGEL dev space
  • Fall ’13 Courses
    • IST 110
      • Sec 001 (Garbrick)
        • More questions about the exam
    • IST 210
      • Sec 002 (Liz)
        • WC Helpdesk ticket about student
          • Liz took care of this
        • Question from Liz about getting instructor access to Cengage site
          • Take care of by Cindy Bierly
    • IST 220
      • Sec 001 (Mike)
        • Note from Mike about labs
        • Talked to Amy G
        • Take care of but we need another solution for this.
      • Sec 002 (Lee)
        • Asked her about labs and things look good
    • IST 240
      • Sec 001 (Fonseca)
        • Question about recording lab solutions
          • Plan is to talk next week
          • Sent an email outling the process
        • No grades in gradebook
          • Spoke with Fred
          • Found grades on Friday
    • IST 301
      • Sec 001 (Jan)
        • Note from WC Helpdesk about technical issue that she will need to resolve about CATME
    • IST 873
      • Sec 001 (Clark)
        • Helped Shawn with Adobe Connect
          • Nice note from him thanking me for help. Definitely felt good 🙂
  • Spring ’14 Courses
    • IST 110
      • Secs 001 & 002 (Jan)
        • Sent a note on Tues 10/1 about populating her sections for Spring ’14
      • Sec 003 (Borge)
        • Spoke with Marcela informally on Monday at Hispanic Heritage Lunch and she was okay with me copying over materials
      • Sec 004 (Garbrick)
        • in Blackboard
    • IST 210
      • Sec 001 (Aebli)
        • Sent note about putting mateials in his course space
          • Still hasn’t received approval to teach
      • Sec 002 (Gary)
        • Sent note about putting materials in his course space
    • IST 220
      • Sec 001 (Lee)
        • Sent note about putting materials in her course space
      • Sec 002 (Mike)
        • Amy S sent note about new strategy to make courses more fair
          • Mike replied that he doesn’t even know that he’s approved
    • IST 240
      • Sec 001 (Fred)
        • Planned meeting next week hopefully shores things up to populate his space
    • IST 420
      • Merged Sec 001 & 002 (Hill)
        • Based upon our discussion from last week, I populated the course with Fall ’12 materials
          • Required some unpublishing of materials

     

Ongoing Projects:

    • Updated google spreadsheet for Spring ’14 with known instructors
    • Work on interviews for new ID

Immediate Decisions / Issues:

    • Need LMS that better integrates and includes tools that we use in our classes.

Important Dates:

  • September 9 Sick Time – 2h in PM
  • September 27 Vacation Time 4h in PM
  • Feb 4 – 4h Family Sick Time in AM

Reflection 9/16/13 – 9/20/13

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Accomplishments:

  • Prof Dev
  • Fall ’13 revisions/developments
    • IST 220 (Giacobe)
      • Received materials that look good
      • Need to get those in place soon
    • IST 402 (Jansen)
      • Meeting set up by Amy S for 6/12 to discuss new topic around Jim Jansen’s f2f 402 “The Google Online Marketing Challenge”
      • Sounds like a good idea from several perspectives:
        • student engagement via competition
        • marketing to students in other majors for minor
      • Few possible obstacles
        • Not enough students from other majors with complementary skills
        • Large need for synchronous meetings
        • Large time commitment
      • Email sent on 6/12 to Jim to set up meeting for June 24-28
        • Meeting planned for June 24 from 3-4
          • Looks like lots of captivates
          • Need to put together a process to share with him to make this streamlined
          • Need to have a drupal space created
          • He probably won’t be able to get me product until August 1
      • Put in request to IST Helpdesk to create ist402gomc site for Jansen’s course
        • received notification on 6/26 that this was done
        • sent a footprints request to set up the site on 6/27 to Ranjani and Will
        • Will overlayed template on the course
        • Allison enabled a few pages for course information & made a template syllabus
      • Amy S contacted Jim on 7/30
        • Jim got right back & asked about videos from the course, specifically screenr
        • after consulting with Will & Allison decided b/c of the changeable nature of the course that screenr process to mp4 to embedded in the course would be the best way to go
        • Jim sounded hesitant about process after I laid out the steps, but it is b/c he’s never done this before. Reassured and asked for feedback to improve process
      • Note from Jim on 8/8 about where to put content
        • Repurposed Saab’s 402 for Jim to use
      • Also asked by Jim about one lesson a week format
        • Told him to put things together using a topical approach, and we can figure out timing later
      • Received materials on 8/12 but it needs to be parsed out, added to the couse space, and send feedback to clarify expectations
      • Got this going and sent a note. Plan to meet f2f when he comes to the building on Wednesdays
      • First meeting was this Wednesday at 1:30. Went well and felt like I got through about the need to complete things asap
      • Updated info for WC on Monday 9/16
  • Fall ’13 Courses
    • IST 110
      • Sec 001 (Garbrick)
        • Several notes from students
          • Amy took care of issues
      • Sec 004 (Farrugia)
        • Sent note about putting mid-term survey into the course
    • IST 210
      • Sec 001 (Gary)
        • Note from Gary with file to update dev space
          • Completed on 9/16
      • Secs 001 & 002
        • Updated course rosters to IT
      • CE (Toth)
    • IST 220
      • Sec 001 (Mike)
        • Mike sent a ticket to IT about no pings showing up on Lab 1
          • Brandon came over on Friday 9/20to clarifiy which lab that was being used
      • Secs 001 & 002
        • Updated course rosters to IT
    • IST 240
      • Sec 001 (Fonseca)
        • Several students still checking in about assignments, but it appears to be better
    • IST 250
      • Sec 001 (Bixler)
        • Fixed a video not showing by changing the embed code to not include the page that gives other possible videos to check out
    • IST 302
      • Sec 001 (Jan)
        • More notes
          • Addressed by Amy G, Amy S, and Pete
          • Getting me bogged down
    • IST 420
      • Secs 001 & 002 (Cantor)
        • More transcripts done
        • We’re down to the youtube & captivate videos needing to be done to complete
      • Spring ’14 and Peslak
        • Note from Alan led me to speak with John Hill about Spring ’14
        • Decided to populate John’s section and then add Alan to let him access and use the materials
    • IST 873
      • Sec 001 (Clark)

Ongoing Projects:

    • Sent James Carnicella info about courses & updated 420 for next semester
    • Need to update google spreadsheet for Spring ’14
    • Met with rest of the IST online team to put together the future direction of the group on 9/17
    • Work on interviews for new ID

Immediate Decisions / Issues:

    • Need LMS that better integrates and includes tools that we use in our classes.

Important Dates:

  • September 9 Sick Time – 2h in PM
  • September 27 Vacation Time 4h in PM
  • Feb 4 – 4h Family Sick Time in AM

LDSC ’13 Day 1

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It’s that time of year again to get together with some of my favorite ppl around the university. Learning Design Summer Camp is a unique opportunity to listen to and learn from colleagues around Penn State. It’s also a great time to reconnect with others who share a passion for teaching & learning. After a welcome by Kate Miffit, Cole Camplese got to share a heartfelt plea to keep the momentum going here. He’s been extremely influential in shaping the Learning Design environment & culture at Penn State & will be greatly missed.

Following the inspired speech by Cole, we moved to a panel about empathy and design. The panel focused on several issues such as accessibility and diversity. It’s important to consider the learner before we can truly design any type of learning. It’s great to see the Penn State community come together over the past several years to make progress in this area. Here are a couple of points from the panel’s talk that stuck with me:

  • Always keep user experience in mind by considering doing user testing as a part of the design process
  • Issues surrounding culturally diverse populations include prof-student relationship, plagiarism
  • Be clear with expectations; don’t assume that every student comes in with complete understanding
  • Don’t assume that as a designer that you know exactly what is needed to cover accessibility. Ask!
  • Mobile apps tend to be more accessible because they are simpler
  • Avoid trying to find a perfect solution to accessibility; the learner also needs to participate in the process
  • Consider how exhausting learning can b 4 some students, especially culturally diverse or differently abled students
  • Don’t over generalize populations
  • Implementing principles of universal design & the use of standards is a way to design for others, instead of yourself
  • Design process becomes not only collaborative but also democratic
  • How do we accommodate more diverse populations? Hire diverse staff

After the panel, we had choices of places to go. I decided to do the discovery trail which focused on issues of accessibility. I had a chance to hear from Keith Jervis, Interim Director at the Office for Disability Services (ODS). Here are a few stats about ODS:

ODS_stats_ldsc13.JPG

Keith went on to talk about changes since 2009 in the role of ODS. Most of the changes were because of the NFB’s complaint.

He also talked about the shift from ODS from defining disabilities to finding solutions. This has to be empowering for those in that group. This has happened because disability has gone from being scientifically defined.

Keith shared a few tools that were being used by ODS.

Keith also presented considerations when selecting textbook for student accessibility.
ODS_tb_ldsc13.JPG

Keith finished up by talking about the future considerations of ODS. The point that stuck the most with me was focusing on STEM materials. Hope to see this in the near future.

Next, we moved to Susan Hayya in 113 Pattee West. We got a chance to see the room dedicated to students with disabilities in the library.

Following lunch, Pam Fuller, Senior Financial Adviser for ITS Financial Services talked about mindful teamwork. She started with a definition of teamwork & asked us to do a few activities to help us think about what we all have in common:

  • Personal Values
  • IT Principles
  • IT Strategic Plan

She also reminded us to sprint to understanding instead of speeding to a solution. Additionally, she told us to be mindful of our fears and learn to trust.

Following this session I attended a game put on by Chris Stubbs about teamwork and elements to good teaming. It was a fun way to reflect on issues that we deal with in teams.

Day 1 was fun and a great chance to interact and reflect on what we do every day.

Web Conference at Penn State 2013 Day 1

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Great first day of the Web Conference at Penn State 2013.

After b-fast at the Penn Stater, we moved to the day 1 keynote by Cindy Li from Flickr on Inclusive Design. Cindy started by mentioning that her mother has macular degeneration. This brought a personal element to her talk. She went on to talk about sites that needed work and how they could be improved. During this part of the talk she highlighted tools that helped in testing sites, like Xscope, Nocturne, Braille Institute, and Color Contrast Analyzer to name a few. 
One of the most memorable parts of her talk were a few exercises where she asked us to close our eyes and hear how a screen reader worked on a few sites. Then we were asked to watch the experience. It was amazing how poorly the sites had been set for accessibility. Just a reminder of how so many individuals are affected by items that many take for granted. 
She also highlighted a few sights that were well done. She mentioned that we should make our designs welcoming. Users remember when it makes them uncomfortable.

Went to several sessions in the AM and PM that I really enjoyed. 
My favorite of the day was by Kris Rockwell from Impact Games on Play the Election. Kris talked about how there were three parts to the experience of Play the Election. 
  1. Electoral map that allowed students to go back to 1960
  2. Election games – 11 games & a way for teachers to create their own games. Impact Games made the interface while the 11 games were created by those at Rand McNally
  3. Community – which needed special consideration because of the audience, high school students. Classes had the opportunity to wall of their classes from the public. 
Kris made some important points about game creation and gamification and differentiating between the two. He also mentioned how competition increases engagement at least in the short term. 
Kris went on to talk about things that went wrong:
  1. Short development time (only 3 months)
  2. Abbreviated marketing research
On the positive side:
  1. The game was a solid platform on several devices that included the transition from flash to html5
  2. Tools in the game were easy to use with little need for support
  3. 2400 classrooms created – 20,000 to 25,000 Individual users, a lot of positive feedback
Another session that I liked was about our users. The speakers highlighted Millennials. I felt like much of what they highlighted could be good for all users. We spend so much time thinking about making everything so useful for a large group when we need to think about personalizing the experience. We really need to do little with our systems. We need to think about how our systems are accessed and integrate with one another.
The last session that I’ll comment on was about leveraging social media for maximizing student engagement by Andrew Smyk. Andrew handled technical difficulties very well. He made some solid points about being strategic with the use of mobile. He also mentioned that accessibility of content via mobile is much more important than the attractiveness of materials and content. 
Nice conversation at lunch with people from outside and inside Penn State. Great day and looking forward to more tomorrow. 

Reflection 9/24/12 – 9/28/12

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Accomplishments:

  • Prof Dev
    • Still working on the Gamification MOOC through Coursera
      •  I received the eval on my 2nd written assignment and received a high mark with appropriate feedback from my peers. I feel like the time to complete and submit with timely feedback has been excellent in this course
      • Listened to Lessons 9 & 10 on 9/24
      • Worked on the last written assignment starting on 9/24 and completed for submission on 9/27
    • Registered for a new MOOC called Introduction to Computer Languages.
      • Issues getting python on my mac
      • Went to DF and Google to remedy
    • Here is a reflection on the Diversity brown bag that I attended on Mon 9/24: https://sites.psu.edu/rep129blog/2012/09/19/educational-gaming-brown-bag-turning-an-astronomy-course-into-a-mission-to-mars/
    • I attended the IST Statewide meeting on Friday 9/28
      • Always to good to see everyone f2f
      • interesting discussion on introduction to java (140) in place of Comp Sci 101
  • Fall ’12 Courses
    • IST 110
      • Grade discussion with Marcela on 9/24
    • IST 220
      • Met with Abbi and Amy on Monday to discuss
      • Attended course committee kick off meeting that allowed for me to recruit Marc Friedenberg and Jason Long to take a look
    • IST 250 
      • More edits to make
  • Fall ’12 revisions/developments
    • IST 230 (Newcomer)
      • Working with Greg, Will, & Toni on interactive pieces
        • Larry is going to supply some problems to work this week
          • sent a note on 9/27 as a reminder
    • IST 420 (Ocker)
        • Awaiting Rosalie’s decision on which direction to move text or articles
    • IST 402 (Saab)
        • David is working on adding content
        • Meeting on 9/21 to talk about gamification was great
          • Plan to meet on 10/2 to begin going through the course from the beginning
          • Plan to meet on 10/5 about gamificaiton framework
  • Spring ’13 Course Prep – Mapped out on my outlook calendar courses to work on so that I’m done by the first week in December. Going to be difficult since we have to go 1 section at a time. Plan to start the 1st week of October
    • IST 110
      • Sec 001 (Mahar)
        • Contacted on 9/27
        • Will use section 002 to populate
      • Sec 002 (Mike M)
        • Contacted 9/27
        • Will use dev section to populate
      • Sec 003 (Rob’s wife)
        • Told about this by Amy S on 9/27
        • Need to ask if I should populate with dev or Rob’s space
      • Sec 004 (Jim F)
        • Contacted 9/27
        • Will use dev section to populate
    • IST 111S
      • Sec 001
    • IST 210 – Hyunjeong and Mike M are teaching in Spring
      • Sec 001
    • IST 220
      • Sec 001
    • IST 230
      • Sec 001
      • Sec 002
    • IST 240
      • Sec 001 (Fred F)
        • Contacted 9/27
        • Will use dev section to populate
      • Sec 002 (Hal S)
        • Contacted 9/27
        • Will use dev section to populate
    • IST 250
      • Sec 001
    • IST 260W
      • Sec 001
    • IST 295A
      • Sec 001
    • IST 301
      • Sec 001
    • IST 302
      • Sec 001
    • IST 402 TIE-
      • Sec 001
    • IST 421
      • Sec 001
    • IST 440W
      • Sec 001
    • IST 495
      • Sec 001

Ongoing Projects:

    • Updated google spreadsheet for Spring ’13 

Immediate Decisions / Issues:

    • None

Back Burner:

    • Gaming, Simulations, and Virtual World Research Committee

Days off / Conferences:

  • September 3 – Labor Day
  • August 27- October 5 Gamification MOOC
  • September 10 Brown Bag with Brendaly Drayton, Ph.D. (Diversity)
  • September 19 Educational Brown Bag
  • September 19 Bringing Gaming into Online Learning
  • September 20 MS-Office Training for Accessibility
  • Nov 1 AM Sick time for Dental Appt

Brown Bag with Jessica Heckert

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Attended this session by Jessica Heckert, Graduate Student, Dual-degree program in Human Development and Family Studies and Demography on:

“Youth Transitions and Youth Migration: The Haitian Experience”

Glad to have the opportunity to talk to Jessica before her presentation. I always think that it is nice when a speaker is comfortable enough to talk in advance of the presentation. It shows me that they have a personal side and that they are not so wrapped in their content that they won’t make accommodations for their audience.

Jessica did a great job of accommodating for her audience. She made sure that she was clear that she wanted to make sure that her presentation fit the needs of her audience. She didn’t want to use a too technical approach and lose the interest and understanding of the audience.

A little more background about Jessica. She went to Haiti from 2003 to 2005. Then she went right across the boarder to the Dominican Republic for another two years as a part of the peace corps. I can identify with this type of volunteerism since my Mom and a couple of my aunts have done volunteer work for Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS). Personally, I wanted to do the same but was discouraged since it might have bitten into my student aid. Not sure how true that was, but I decided to pass on it.  Ultimately, I have engaged in volunteer activities through out my life. It’s nice to see someone who is taking the experience and now entering the realm of education to help understand trends.

In this study, Jessica is studying migration from the rural areas of Haiti to the more urban areas (Port-au-Prince, Jacmel) of Haiti by youth. As I listened to Jessica and asked questions, I couldn’t help but learn a little more about Haiti. There were a few towns that Jessica referred to (can’t remember the names). They looked so close on the map but were difficult to reach from one another because of the mountainous terrain. I also learned that parents had to pay to send their children to school (20% public schools/ 80% private). But most of the public schools say that they will pay their teachers but don’t. So teachers quit or only come in a few days a week. I was interested to know if they had a 1-1 laptop initiative idea there, but it appeared that the most technology used was the cell phone (<$6). The were charged by solar power and only needed to incur calls for outward placed calls. Much of what is learned in schools is based on influences from the French (dress and appearance) and theoretical v. technical training. If anyone wants technical training, they have to do it on their own at their own expense.

Migration has become important since families feel that this experience will allow for their kids to have a chance at success. The reality is that instead of money coming from the kids who have migrated to the urban setting that most of the money is going the other way (80% from rural to urban).

The methods that Jessica used to get data were interesting. She spoke with kids who had finished 6th grade in two waves, right around completing 6th grade and about a year out. Since many of the students would migrate between those dates, she made sure that she would get approval to talk to relatives that may point them to the kids. Most of what Jessica did to get the data relied on rapport that her assistance could garner with the kids and parents.

This presentation is just another reminder of how much we should appreciate the educational and fiscal opportunities that we have in the US.

Reflection 09/10/12-09/14/12

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Accomplishments:

  • Prof Dev
    • Here is a reflection that I did on the Brown Bag with Brendaly Drayton, Ph.D. that I attended: https://sites.psu.edu/rep129blog/2012/09/14/brown-bag-with-brendaly-drayton-ph-d/
    • Continued work on Gamification Course through coursera. Feel like I’m beginning to lose steam
      • I evaluated 5 others on their first writing assignment
      • I self evaluated the assignment that I submitted
      • Completed watching videos
        • Found this week to be more difficult
      • Completed Quiz 3 but later found it deleted
      • Finished writing assignment 3
      • I’m finding that many that I know are falling off in their involvement although they are learning from the experience anyway
      • I’m beginning to question the importance of gamification. I think that it’s more important to think about ways to tap into a student’s intrinsic motivation rather than gamify which hones into extrinsic factors
    • Met with Keith B and Jen B about preconvotation session on Nov 13
      • Talking about how courses are not cookie cutter at WC
      • Next meeting is October 3 from 2-4
  • Fall ’12
  • Courses
    • IST 110
      • Saw note about 110 that referred to items being hidden from users
    • IST 220
      • Seeing issues with students trying to connect to VHOL
      • Discussed with both Rob and Abbi for about an hour
      • Meeti planned for 9/12 from 2-3 to discuss where to go to make things better
        • May consider using textbook labs as an alternative to VHOL
        • Needs to be looked at by the course committee
      • Found out a student died in a Lybian bombing. Puts things into perspective
    • IST 240
      • Held debrief from summer ’12
      • Sounds like there may be two more courses (140 & 150) to address concerns
      • IST 250 
        • Tons of emails of grammatical errors to correct
      • IST 402
        • Still tons of problems with voicethread
        • It’s tough b/c the tools does what we are looking for, but their are way too many bugs and snaffoos
        • My solution was to embed in drupal, but there is an issue with embeds in drupal showing in chrome. So I placed the link along with the embed in the page
    • Fall ’12 revisions/developments
      • IST 420 (Ocker)
          • Need to look over excel that has info on it
          • Rosalie told me to hold off since she may use a textbook instead of articles
      • IST 402 (Saab)
          • David is working on adding content
    • Spring ’13 Course Prep – Need to map out on my outlook calendar courses to work on so that I’m done by the first week in December
      • IST 110
        • Sec 001
      • IST 111S
        • Sec 001
      • IST 210 – Hyunjeong and Mike M are teaching in Spring
        • Sec 001
      • IST 220
        • Sec 001
      • IST 230
        • Sec 001
      • IST 240
        • Sec 001
      • IST 250
        • Sec 001
      • IST 260W
        • Sec 001
      • IST 295A
        • Sec 001
      • IST 301
        • Sec 001
      • IST 302
        • Sec 001
      • IST 402 TIE-
        • Sec 001
      • IST 421
        • Sec 001
      • IST 440W
        • Sec 001
      • IST 495
        • Sec 001

    Ongoing Projects:

      • Created google spreadsheet for Spring ’13 

    Immediate Decisions / Issues:

      • None

    Back Burner:

      • Gaming, Simulations, and Virtual World Research Committee

    Days off / Conferences:

    • September 3 – Labor Day
    • August 27- October 5 Gamification MOOC
    • September 10 Brown Bag with Brendaly Drayton, Ph.D. (Diversity)
    • September 19 Educational Brown Bag
    • September 19 Bringing Gaming into Online Learning
    • September 20 MS-Office Training for Accessiblity
    • Nov 1 AM Sick time for Dental Appt

    Brown Bag with Brendaly Drayton Ph.D.

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    I attended this session, thinking this would be in an auditorium. It was in a small conference room within an office suite. My understanding is that they have slashed budgets for these types of events. The room was very packed.

    It was interesting and sad to think about the experiences these men had as kids growing up that were obstacles to their success and how they viewed themselves. It was heartbreaking to learn that the program that they were attending lost its funding and closed during the collection of data for the research. Only 1 of the 6 is still in a program currently. It was also mentioned that most of these types of programs looks for individuals who will turn over quickly so that they can show how “successful” they were. This success leads to more funding. Because of this, there are many on the waiting list to get into these programs.

    The stories were sad and revealing. It makes me thankful for my background and support. It also makes me wonder how we fail so many in our communities.