Category Archives: Class

Most important concept learned in Needs Assessment course…

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What is the most important concept you have learned in this course? How do you feel about it?

Upon reflecting, the most important concept I have learned in this course on “Needs Assessment” is the difference between need and wants? When conducting a “needs assessment” for anyone, the wants of the individuals are only small factors to the needs of the system being assessed. This is still true in assessing needs for the individual. The multiple factors in the systems one assesses will dictate the needs.

However, two concepts run parallel to the tug of war between “wants and needs”. Those are purpose/goal, and practical divergence. The purpose/goal of anyone or the organization is part of the “want”, which may not be a practical goal. Clarifying objectives and goals is a component we learned about in this course, which is often not clear. This could possibly do to an unclear vision in the leadership. When one goal is achieved, setting a new goal becomes the next goal. But what should that new goal be? This is where understanding the factors in the system dictates what the next goal should be.

Then next concept, practical divergence in this context, eludes to the willingness to let go of the wants and diverge towards meeting the needs the system requires of you or an organization to meet their practical goals for both the long term and the short term. A new path or new habits maybe difficult to institute in any organization or for any individual. The implementation of training is the resolution to implementing a practical divergence from how an organization functions in a system. This departure from the old behavior, trainings, or even purpose, may lead to new and positive effect in the current system, which is what a needs assessment explains.

Change is difficult and one must be flexible to implement this change. This leads to another dynamic issue in needs assessment. One can assess and organize the factors all they want in all the various manners with which this course has taught us, but this does not mean the resolutions will be identified. This identification of needs versus wants treads on two concepts, skills and ethics. First the skill to identify the needs is paramount. Secondly, the issue of giving the organization their wants over the needs is often a difficult process, since you are paid to help them achieve their goals, which may be very different from their needs. This is where the discomfort comes with needs assessment. Wants and needs for individuals and organizations are one in the same, but may be very different depending on the audience you are conducting them for.

Conducting a Needs Assessment

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What do you feel are your personal strengths and weaknesses related to conducting needs assessments? How can you leverage your strengths to advantage?

Conducting a needs assessment was a difficult task. My strength and weakness often were one in the same. My analytical skills allowed me to review content and make immediate assessments. However, this often takes me beyond the scope of the objectives and maintaining focus was difficult. Furthermore, using the need assessment tools we learned about, was intended to help organize and identify the gaps and process issues, but I found them tedious, difficult to use, and confining.

This inability to focus often on one scope or maintain objectives is a great weakness for me. During a process, I recognize various factors in a system, which influences processes, whether they match the objectives of the needs analysis. The issue arises in the inability for me to understand the impact of the factors, as often one factor may have a butterfly effect, especially in working in a process with human behavior as component.

Conducting this exercise in needs assessment is much easier to conduct if it were the primary focus in a job. Doing this alongside, learning the topic and various techniques, along with class exercises, and being remote, provide much difficulty in gathering information. In all honesty, I feel I did not effectively explore all avenues in the needs assessment process. Reaching out to the new operations director, and the old operations direct, and doing a department wide survey would be most beneficial. The shear size of the Learning Design department poses a strategic difficulty in assessing improvements. The multiple number of Instructional Designer, and Instructional Production Specialist poses an issue of how the matrix organization of projects and job performance of the individuals affect the efficiency of the whole organization. Furthermore, adding the third party tools, various technologies, and the level of proficiency the large number of Learning Design employees, this becomes an issue of proper assessment.

In actuality, working alongside, the culmination of conversations, and reviewing the documentation, can only provide an intuitive assessment based on knowledge collect. As a learning exercise, this helped me understand the level of difficulty conducting and providing evidence for an organization’s needs and growth are to conduct.

3 Important Competencies for GA Research Groups

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  1. Process Management: A research graduate assistant is working and learning in an apprenticeship manner. However, often one does not learn the various aspects or roles of managing a research project. Such as RFP, financing, grant writing, efficient systems for collaborating citation resources.
  2. Technologies: Various technologies are not used, but taught for different research projects. Qualitative programs to make work efficient are not taught formally. These are items that are learned on the project, in addition to experiencing the research group and process for the first time.
  3. Leadership roles: This process of assigning roles is often not systematically approached or explored research groups. The group often forms organically from class interactions. However, issues occur in assigned groups. This is where assigning tasks or roles may be beneficial, especially with those who have strong personalities or competitive tendencies.

Ethics Assignment

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  • What do you think will be the primary ethical challenges that you might face in conducting needs assessments?

The primary ethical challenge in conducting a needs assessment will be in staying within scope of the assessment. A needs assessment seeks to find the skills gap, which training will allow one to learn and meet those skills to complete tasks. However, during the assessment, an evaluation of communication skills, staff dynamics, and leadership, may show various areas of improvement for the productivity of the workplace. This is often outside of the scope of the   needs assessment. Is this an omission of vital information to the company? During this assessment there may come occasion to learning of negative perceptions of the staff or management during the interviews. If the needs assessment is part of assessing the culture, then a full disclosure is necessary, but if it is not, this is where the difficulty arises. My conclusion is to try to disclose the evidence and perspectives resulting from the assessments and give a well-rounded and systematic recommendations based on the evidence within the scope of the assessment. Trying to work within the system and allow the company to implement changes is the purpose of the needs assessment. The implementation shows the companies willingness and attempt to improve.

The most important lesson I have learned from this chapter on ethics, is we cannot always control others actions, but control our own actions.  I am left with a thought that complicity and loyalty may often align with each-other. We must tread with caution and influence in the ways we are able, as not to be complicit. In this topic of assessing needs, providing the evidence and recommendations allows you to influence any wrongdoing and change it for the positive.

 

Introduction: WF ED 573- How to strengthen my resume?

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  • How would you like to strengthen your professional resume?

This question came up last week as I emailed my advisor about the direction I want to go with my degree. Currently, I am a Learning, Design, and Technology Phd student. I have an M.Ed. in Instructional systems and two B.A.s in Art Education and Studio Art with two minors in Museum Studies (focus on Museum Education) and Art History (focus on Asian Art History). These degrees have given me a strong eduction in learning theories and educational technologies with a creative perspective on aesthetics. Additionally, I worked two years in corporate as a learning technologist working with a learning management system, doing continuous service interventions, course refinements, a migration project consisting of rapid development of content from one LMS to another,  quality assessments, and faculty training and development of faculty instructional media. The migration project is a rare experience and a great strength to my resume. Among other things, I helped programs develop program wide policies, such as program wide rubrics and program approach to LMS features to align the pedagogical approach for all courses. Furthermore, I developed a database to manage and organize the policies for the six programs out of 200 courses I manage for Utica College. The fun part was helping instructors and students trouble shoot the technology issues.  As a result of these broad experiences, former interviewers have told me my skills in the area of learning sciences and educational technologies are strong.

However, my weakness is actually starting and completing a course development project. I have not worked with subject matter expert (SME) and developed a course from scratch. I had existing content and refined it, reorganized it, or just developed activities and recommended technologies for courses and programs with experts and faculty. Next my issue lies with management. My experience of managing volunteer employees as an office administrator with an Art Alliance, seems to be overlooked in application to jobs in the educational design field.

To summerise:

Team and project management directly related to Instructional Design is a gap for me. Leadership; specifically navigating the team dynamics of respecting the feelings of team members and bringing out the best in them is a skill I would like to document and excel at.

Side note: I am enrolled in a WF ED course for project management and seeking to obtain my PM certification.

Lesson 10-Final Blog post, final thoughts

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Designing a curriculum with mobile devices allows many options to create and experience for the learner. Throughout our class readings we have addressed various issues in developing and using mobile devices in informal, formal and ubiquitous environments. Various factors such as the economic viability of the reducing costs of mobile devices, the accessibility to dependable Internet connection and the shift from absorption of knowledge to synthesizers and creators of new content is now achievable with mobile devices. The ability to connect asynchronously over time and distance, and additionally, connecting and expressing ideas through creative multimedia and social networks provides us with new ways to recognize and validate that learning has occurred through new forms of assessment.

Interestingly, enough aesthetics of designing the mobile device and software is a factor in the use of mobile devices.  Evangelos Triantafillou shows a need between design and or display of content. The conclusive recommendations, “Images on PDAs should be carefully selected taking into consideration the small resolution and size of the device” (Triantafillou, E., Georgiadou,E., Economides, A., pg.1329).  This recommendation shows the need for alterations to the design of the content to maximize the learning and assessment potential during the study.

Furthermore, the aesthetics of of mobile technology is shown to improve trust in product brands (Yung-Ming Li, Yung-Shao Yeh, (2010). Thus, one may assume that this trust is transferable to the design of an instructional content. After all, the software application could be considered a product with a company brand.

Now, we have seen that mobile devices allow people to develop online identities. However, the use of the tool may exhibit a different identity, the power user. In this course we have not explored the multi-faceted identities of the mobile user. Zhong explores this disposition in mobile users. How do we explore the designing of educational mobile learning for these users compared to those not considered power users? What is the difference in learning experiences between the two? (Zhong, B.,2013)

As more research is done, more understanding of mobile learning will occur. The question is whether the mobile device or the ubiquitous nature of the device or the combination of the two, enhance the experience, thus improving the learning potential of learners in general. Mobile learning is a new tool in the educational arsenal. In my personal opinion, the tool is limited to the effectiveness of the instructor. The difference now is, the instructor maybe the teacher, the instructional designer or the app developer and even the combination of all. Even though a learner may teach themselves with a tool, the tool is what another uses to facilitate the information.

 

Citations

 

Triantafillou, E., Georgiadou,E., Economides, A., (2008).  The design and evaluation of a computerized adaptive test on mobile devices, Computers & Education, 50(4), 1319-1330, (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131506001965)

Yung-Ming Li, Yung-Shao Yeh, (2010). Increasing trust in mobile commerce through design aesthetics, Computers in Human Behavior, 26(4), 673-684,(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563210000063)
Zhong, B. (2013). From smartphones to iPad: Power users’ disposition
toward mobile media devices. Computers in human behavior, 29(4),
1742-1748.doi:10.1016/j.chb.2013.02.016

Patient Education with Mobile Devices

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Integrating mobile learning in a higher education or adult learning situation will become prevalent in future according to Park (2011). The issue of transactional distance will remain between learners and teachers or instructional designers. The medium being content knowledge is the filter or medium with which the barrier lies. Scaffolding of this content allows communication between the learner and instructors. Activities and social networking may help facilitate mobile learning. (Park, 2011)

Additionally, instituting m-learning is dependent on the mobile device and software capabilities. The limitations Park (2011) mentions must be overcome. Such devices as the i-Pad Air overcome issues of small screens, weight, memory and short battery life. The App-Store and the ease with which software developers are developing platforms to create Apps with ease will solve the issue of application issues. The other issues of networks, environment, security and radiation are being addressed with that work in tandem with tablets and smart-phones. Such as waterproof cases, Bluetooth devices, and even privacy screens and software security. (Park, 2011)

Incorporating mobile devices say in a hospital setting for education can be done seamlessly. Things like a pen and paper or charts would not be needed in a patient’s room. A tablet could be left in a room and information could be accessed with a passcode for the patient. Or a protective case would allow cleaning to reduce contamination and mobility from room to room.  A nurse or a doctor could bring in a tablet to review x-rays or labs and offer tutorials at bedside and simply sanitize the tablet upon leaving. Patient education could be delivered virtually with tablets, instead of clunky videos. The cost of VCRs, DVD players and network video databases would not be necessary with mobile tablets for the staff to use.

Many hospitals have large PCs and monitors in each room attached to walls. Desktop PCs will no longer be an issue with a secure Wi-Fi network allowing the medical staff to access information. Doctors could use their own mobile devices that access the secure network. The patient could bring their personal device and access a separate network for personal use. And even use apps to educate them on procedures and diagnoses they are going through.

This would meet authenticity, personalization, and allow collaboration among staff and patients. This meets Kearny’s (2012) three distinctive features of m-learning. Furthermore, questionnaires given to patients and checklist given to medical staff will allow them plan out a course of care. Give them opportunities to reflect on the course of treatment. These questionnaires could even be used to collect data on understanding on the part of the patient, emotional state, expectations, and satisfaction in real-time. Best of all the data can be aggregated immediately and allow for immediate intervention. This meets Looi’s (2010) ideas of seamless mobile learning.

These are only a few of the applications mobile device can be applied to in a hospital setting. Educating medical students, and staff is not the first choice. But using mobile devices to educate patients and allow the staff to become the teachers or learning facilitators would be the overall most beneficial model of m-learning in the hospital.

 

 

 

Works Cited

Clay, C. (2011). Exploring the use of mobile technologies for the acquisition of clinical skills. Nurse education today, 31(6), 582-6. Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2010.10.011

Looi, C.-K., Seow, P., Zhang, B., So, H.-J., Chen, W., & Wong, L.-H. (2010). Leveraging mobile technology for sustainable seamless learning: A research agenda. British Journal of Educational Technology, 41(2), 154-169. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2008.00912.x

Park, Y. (2011). A pedagogical framework for mobile learning: Categorizing educational applications of mobile technologies into four types. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 12(2).

Kearney, M., Schuck, S., Burden, K., & Aubusson, P. (2012). Viewing mobile learning from a pedagogical perspective. Research In Learning Technology, 20:1, 1-17. doi:10.3402/rlt.v20i0/14406. Note: open access journal, click link to access article. This article is not in the course reserves. http://www.researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/14406.

Arduino Project

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This project is not something that I am particularly interested in. Also, I don’t find this a practical tool to implement in a school setting when so many students struggle with basic skills, such as reading and writing.

I do recognize the possibilities of something like this to inspire or provide students with the self-esteem to accomplish something they have never thought they could do.

In the beginning as I attempted to learn how to use the Arduino chip, I was quite discouraged. The book available was written by the programmers and was more about the ideology of hacking and learning through play. I had trouble finding well scaffolded instructions to help me learn the basics of programing and how the programming language interacted with the chip itself. I then came to this web site Ladyada.net.

These tutorial gave well scaffolded instructions for a light project that explained components and programing language for a novice. I soon understood the programing language and was able to adapt and write my own program for lights. I programed long and short pulses of light to spell out words in Morse Code. Here is the simple construction of the chip and a quick clip of my project. Can you figure out my message?

Arduino chip

 

http://youtu.be/kK98JGCW4aI

Lesson 7: An Argument that Mobile devices are tools and the necessity for Curriculum and facilitators

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I am interested in mobile learning for Higher Education. This level of education applies to a broader audience and affects all the audiences suggested.  Mobile content is becoming somewhat of specialized approach with research guiding the way. Hsu (2012) displays how effective the students continue the exchange of information in a concise manner, called micro-blogging. The delivery and exchange or communication of the contextualized material was well received and encourage a level communication among students and or enhanced the social learning outside of the classroom.  Could mobile learning be encouraged among faculty and student discourse with the faculty participation?  This expanded participation could be achieved with the instantaneous connections and resources available found in a mobile device.

Now, I ask this question because the resources and content available on a mobile device does not guarantee learning to occur. Arora (2010) makes many valid points about cultural views on learning and the idea of “wrong kinds of knowledge and teaching” (pg 697). She notes the issue with HiWEL providing technology without supervision or planned curriculum. To clarify, the technology provided in this paper was not mobile, but unsurpervised and provided in rural areas. The issue here is providing digitized information did not result in equitable learning gains. So, providing a mobile device with access to content does not allow someone to learn useful information for the formal educational environments with which we navigate in. The environment or delivery of the content is not the issue. The content structure and the objective of the learning situation is critical. Furthermore, the environments between formal and informal learning are now in flux with mobile technology and with the various mediums with which the content is delivered. Even school administrator, Todd Curtis, realizes the necessity to augment and redefine the learning experience for young students with the introduction of iPads into schools. As adult learners, this idea may still apply. In the webinar Garcia, a school teacher involved in implementing mobile learning, hosts and the other participates all seemed to agree mobile technology seems to call for a degree of creative latitude for the young students. The participants give many practical solutions and examples of curriculum combined with iPads throughout the webinar. Their practical experience makes them unique experts with mobile technology in a formal enviroment.

In the Martin (2012) paper, there is emphasis on chunked information being delivered. This was presented as a usability issue. But laptops and tablets have lots of visual realestate on the screens. So why is the way content delivered important?  Whether one develops content for a mobile smart phone or a tablet, people still favor chunks of organized information to be delivered on the screen.  The screenshots of the mobile module clearly show each pane as having one subject and building upon another; introduction, objective, content pages, practice and finally feedback (pg.50, Martin).  The micro-blogging could be viewed as evidence for concise delivery of information in an informal way. If the message is unclear in one micro-blog message, a request to define the message follows. Then the preceding messages build upon each other for a clear communication of information.  The users of mobile devices are requesting the chunking of information effectively, informally. The development of content is necessary to appease the students. (Hsu 2012)

The chunking of content is ideal for students to disperse what they learn over time. Sharples emphasizes this by bulleting that “learning dispersed over time: learning is a cumulative process involving connections and reinforcement amongst a variety of learning experiences (Dierking, Falk, Rennie, Anderson, & Ellenbogen, 2003) across formal and informal learning contexts” (pg 235). Highlighting this as a component of mobile learning reveals the benefit of mobile learning and the constraints mobile devices place on the delivery of information.  Furthermore, the ability to use the physical space in addition to the mobile device and connect the two to build an experience is only enhanced by structured and concise related content. One must sort the content on the mobile device and the environment with which the content is applicable, if applicable at all. (Sharples, 2009, pg 235)

Basically, what I am arguing is just giving mobile devices is not enough to guarantee learning to occur. The use of a facilitator or teacher and well-structured and developed content is necessary for any form of instruction to be delivered with mobile devices. The first step to effective mobile learning is to deliver the information in a well-thought out manner that is conducive to the goals and objectives of what is being taught. Instructional designers and teachers who creatively develop curriculum around available applications, tools, and mobile devices being used do this.

 

Citation

 

Arora, P. (2010). Hope-in-the-wall?a digital promise for free learning. British Journal of Educational Technology, 41(5), 689-702.

 

Garcia, A. (Producer). (2013, August 07). Planning For Effective Teaching & Learning with Mobile Devices [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/QNTTAuSEU04

 

Hsu, Y. C., & Ching, Y. H. (2012). Mobile microblogging: Using Twitter and mobile devices in an online course to promote learning in authentic contexts. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 13 (4), 211-227. Available online: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1222/2313.

 

Martin, F., Pastore, R., & Snider, J. (2012). Developing mobile based instruction. TechTrends, 56 (5), 46-51.

 

Sharples, M., Arnedillo-Sanchez, I., Milrad, M., & Vavoula, G. (2009). Mobile learning: Small devices, big issues. In N. Balacheff, S. Ludvigsen, T. Jong, A. Lazonder, & S. Barnes (Eds.), Technology-enhanced learning (pp. 233-249). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-9827-7

Lesson 6: 5 App Reviews

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App Title: Science- Microcosm 3D: Bacteria, Viruses, Atoms, Molecules and Particles
Reviewer: Donny Tusler
Details:  Online Science Classroom, LLC, Last update Feb 22, 2013, VS 1.2.1. Requires iOS 4.3 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.
Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/science-microcosm-3d-bacteria/id564731341?mt=8
Cost: Free, $2.99
Review:
This app is a science application in the educational science category. It displays high quality, 3D images or animations of microscopic items, while referencing the microscopic sizes, 10^-1 to 10^-21. Additional, written information is provided with each model.
The application could be provided on a mobile device to inspire or supplement a class discussion. Having a high quality image or animation to in a classroom to reference may enhance the delivery of content or help visualize abstract concepts.
The free introductory application introduces String Theory, the atom, protons, viruses and bacteria.  A teacher can take this content and quickly explore the science of life and its interconnectedness before delving deeply into various content. Furthermore,the paid version provides 30 images and would allow entire lessons to be introduced.

App Title: Science- Macrocosm 3D: Solar Systems, Planets, Stars and galaxies
Reviewer: Donny Tusler
Details: Online Science Classroom, LLC, Last update Feb 22, 2013, VS 1.2.1. Requires iOS 4.3 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.
Link: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id572469224
Cost: Free, $2.99
Review:
This app is a science application in the educational science category. It displays high quality, 3D images or animations of planets and the universe, while referencing the macroscopic sizes, 10^0 to 10^26.
The application could be provided on a mobile device to inspire or supplement a class discussion. Having a high quality image or animation to in a classroom to reference may enhance the delivery of content or help visualize abstract concepts.
The free introductory application introduces the history of Galileo to the concept of Quasars with beautiful 3D animation to inspire students and helps connect abstract concepts visually. Furthermore, this application allows the philosophical idea of how small we are in comparison to the universe to help students gain a new perspective for them.  The paid version provides 30 images and would allow entire lessons to be introduced.

App Title: Science – Universe evolution 3D. Astronomy calendar of Solar system. Cosmic world of stars, planets and galaxies
Reviewer: Donny Tusler
Details: Online Science Classroom, LLC. Released 02 April 2013, vs 1.0. Requires iOS 4.3 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.
Link: https://itunes.apple.com/ag/app/science-universe-evolution/id597334944?mt=8
Cost: Free
Review:
The application provides a unique way to view the creation and evolution of our known universe with a calendar and wonderful 3D graphic animations. Furthermore, a teacher could use this application to teach interdiciplinarily and have the students read the book the application was based on. Thus teaching the lessons along side the book, “The Dragons of Eden” by an American astrophysicist and science popularizer Carl Sagan, to enhance the story with the application and lessons.

App Title: A-Z Particle Physics
Reviewer: Donny Tusler
Details: Science Photo Library Ltd. Released: Sep 16, 2013, Version: 1.0
Requires iOS 5.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.
Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/a-z-of-particle-physics/id699734844?mt=8
Cost: Free
Review: This application is design to work with “The Particles” Application for the iPad. This application is merely an interactive glossary. As a free application, It is a wonderful replacement to a book or reference manual on the subject. Furthermore, since it is meant to work with a well known and highly recommended application, “The Particles” it is likely a wonderful addition to an advance high school class or college level classroom.

App Title: LINE Tools
Reviewer: Donny Tusler
Details: NAVER Japan Corporation. Updated: Jul 08, 2013, Version: 1.2.0. Requires iOS 4.3 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.
Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/line-tools/id580412648?mt=8
Cost: Free
Review:
This is technically a utility application. However, I find this to be the most useful application of all my choices. The developers have a wonderful collection of tools here that a teacher can use in lessons. A graduated ruler, compass, level, sound meter, stop watch and timer, magnifier, QR code reader and a unit converter all in one. Also, the protractor is the interesting. With a push of a button it becomes an augmented reality protractor that allows you to measure the degrees of an angel through your camera. Overlaying this tool on a math test, on a construction site, and maybe assess the accessibility of a building with one’s phone and showing immediate proof with a screen shot.  There are lots of possibilities with this utility pack.