Reflections on Learning Online

This week, our reading focused on elearning and it's relationship to instructional design. One of the ideas presented by the authors, Reiser and Dempsey, that is of interest to me and I agree with is the fact that technology used personally and by schools and corporations and the level of technology use by all is changing so quickly that it "has outstripped our ability to modify or maintain existing definitions." (2007). Some examples they provided is the fact that the educational field used to be defined more by modality, ie, face-to-face (f2f) vs. distance, asynchronous vs. synchronous, hybrid vs. fully online, etc. The authors believe that defining by modality is outdated, as now days any combination of these may be found in any of the learning environments and that we are beginning to recognize "learning as learning," whether f2f or distance, asynchronous or synchronous, or a combination, along with inclusion of social media and collaborative tools. Personally, I don't even think the newer generations understand the differences in the same way as I do or generations past have. To the newer generations, it's all learning and they have come to expect a combination of any and all of the various modes. Computers, online access/applications, mobile access/use, and social media is a way of life, not specific to learning, but definitely a part of learning. Of course, this isn't true for everyone in the newer generations and particularly not in all countries, but for the majority of Americans, I would expect it is fairly commonplace.

Another point Reiser and Dempsey brought out that I don't find happening much in my experience as an instructional designer or as an online student, is "Where collaboration is needed, learners should be able to self-select from a variety of tools such as instant messaging, texting, wikis, and conferencing technology. Where interaction in real-world environments is important. Web conferencing tools and virtual worlds should be available for discussions, meetings where presence is desirable, or role-playing." (Reiser and Dempsey, 2007). Although the tools are certainly available, I have found educators and students reluctant to try new things or use them. Oftentimes they seem to want to stick with the "tried and true." Formal discussions on discussion boards have become the norm, which can become very, very boring, in my opinion. Or there might be a few links here and there, PowerPoint files to download and read, a video, and many PDFs or oftentimes what seems to be the "same ole, same ole." In the same paragraph within the textbook, Reiser and Dempsey (2007) made the point that, "Certainly, the proliferation of all of these technologies contributes to anxiety for learners and instructors," which I have found to be very true in most cases, although not for me personally.

For example, I worked with an instructor to implement the use of a Wiki for a Global Management class she was teaching. The way she used the Wiki for the assignments and the way she wanted to grade turned out to have a few issues, but with tweaks, could be made easier for her. What interest me the most about the experience though, were the comments from students. The comments went all the way from students feeling scared, but enjoying the "change-up" to the typical online class to another student hating it and feeling angry at the instructor for implementing something that caused her to have to not only learn content, but a new tool. I also have experienced in an online class where an instructor gave us a lot of different collaboration tool options, but the group I was a part of were very traditional and didn't want to use anything except discussion boards, which was very cumbersome an inefficient for our project. I felt so frustrated at being outvoted and that no one was willing to try something that could make our collaboration so much easier. I'm sure the other students didn't want to use any of the other tools out of fear or a general unwillingness to try new things.

So, even though technology has brought about a lot of changes in the newer generations overall and in our daily lives, I don't think that online or elearning is as advanced as we "say it is." The technology is there, but the educators and students are not!

References
Reiser, R. A. and Dempsey, J. V. (2002, 2007, 2012). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology. (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

My "Googlio" Site or ePortfolio Updates

This week in the EDT 5410 Introduction to Educational Technology course, we were asked to create a Google Website with the following minimum criteria:

• At least two pages.
• Use the Navigation function on the left to be sure someone can easily move from page to page.
• Use at least one image on each page.
• Use at least one Google "gadget" on each page (calendar, announcements, or other...there are tons of them to choose from).
• Use one of the Site Themes for your website.
• Be sure to provide a clickable link to your website in a new blog posting, along with a written description of your site's purpose and why you included the elements you did.

This past spring I started building an ePortfolio using Google Sites. I had read some information on creating a portfolio using a Google site, watched a video on "Googlios," a term used to describe a portfolio built on a Google site, and viewed some of the examples at: http://sites.google.com/site/googlioproject/. After viewing some of the examples, I thought that I would like to create an electronic portfolio using Google Sites, so I began working on it. I didn't get real far in developing it, but when this assignment came up, I thought I would work on developing it further. It still has some work to be done and I want to change several of the pages, along with adding in the Educational/Professional links that I just don't have time to get entered tonight.

The purpose of my ePortfolio is to showcase my educational and professional accomplishments and to share my educational/instructional design goals and philosophy. In continuing to work on it for this class, I feel it accomplishing two goals in that I'm continuing to develop it more fully and I'm also gaining experience in developing a "Googlio" and can teach students how to create an electronic portfolio in Google Sites.

Some of the elements I have included are:

Home page: 

• A Picasa Slide Show. I would like to create a more instructional design/professional-based slide show for the Welcome page, but for now, I'm displaying one of my photo shoots from September 7, 2011. This provides both images and a Google gadget all in one.

About Me page:

• A profile photo and information about how I got started in the field of Instructional Design and Educational Technology.
• Inserted a Google Form, the Social Networking Tools Educator Survey as the Google gadget.

Contact Me page:

• Another profile photo of me, my personal, school, and work email addresses, and a contact form as the Google gadget.

Educational & Professional Calendar page:

• Inserted my Google School Calendar as the Google gadget. Did not include an image on this page.

Educational Philosophy page:

• Inserted image from another Website into a "Text Box," which allowed me to also add the image credit and the link to where I obtained the image. 

Educational Technology Blog page:

• I used a Google gadget that allows you to embed other Web pages, including Google Blogger, into a Google site and my blog has imaged on it.

Instructional Design Competencies page:

• Again, I used a Google gadget to embed the IBSTPI Web pages that shows the Instructional Design Competencies. I actually plan to change this to write out my own competencies, along with providing a link to the IBSTPI's Web page. Particularly since I don't know that they would want their Web page embedded in another Website.

Master of Arts in Educational Technology page:

• I've included an image of WMU that links to WMU.
• I've set up the page as a list, which allows me to show what classes I've taken and classes I still need to take to complete my degree.

Professional and Educational Links page:

• I did not get to this page at all, as you can tell.

Vitae/Resume page:

• I inserted my LinkedIn Profile Web page with a Google gadget and my LinkedIn Profile page has a photo of me on it.

And finally, here's the link to my ePortfolio, a Google site: https://sites.google.com/site/chalvorseneportfolio/

Instructional Design in Different Arenas

In our reading this past week for the EDT 5410 Intro to Educational Technology we read about Instructional Design roles in universities in three different countries, Australia, Japan, and the U.S. Over the past three weeks, we've read about instructional design in business, P-12, and this week in higher education. For our reflection we are to "identify 2 or 3 significant themes or differences" we've noticed across these contexts and describe them. Additionally, we are to note if there is a particular area or way that you believe your current professional working environment could learn from the other contexts described in the chapters.

I think in any ID role there are some similarities, but of course, how it all plays out can be significantly different between the type organization and the age of the students/trainees. In business, even in a non-profit organization, money oftentimes plays a significant factor in the quality and quantity of ID. Depending upon the organization, the ID may have to fill many different roles, particularly that of a project manager, ID, and technologist. Additionally, because time=money and money is such a huge factor, efficiency and rapid development is encouraged and expected, while doing all you can to maintain quality.

In the P-12, their usually is less money, although this isn't true for all districts, but many times I hear of teachers/technologists, as many IDs are called in P-12, having to make do with free software, even when a purchased software would be more effective. Also, there seems to be many more restrictions on what Websites can be accessed and software that is available. Fortunately, many of the P-12 IDs and technologists are proactive in identifying free resources and obtaining grants which allow them to design instruction that integrates technology into everyday learning.

In the higher ed arena, I think there is a lot more room for trying new things and taking the time to test out and design more effective learning. Usually, the colleges and universities will have whole departments that have several IDs and/or technologists who work with faculty to design the instruction, particularly for online classes, and who also provide technology workshops and other training to help faculty to obtain the knowledge and skills they need to integrate technology in their classes. Of course, not all colleges and universities have the same money and other resources to utilize technology as others, but utilizing technology in the classroom, whether face-to-face (f2f) or online, is becoming something that more and more students expect from their college or university and from the faculty members.

In comparing the three areas of ID,  the most significant factor that stood out to me was how similar ID is in all three arenas and yet how different it can be. All IDs have to deal with various constraints, they just are sometimes different depending upon whether it's in the business arena, P-12, or higher education. Some work as the sole designer, the project manager, the media producer, and others work on teams where everyone has a more specific focus to their role. No matter what the situation is though, the goals remain the same, and that is to improve learning through the use of technology.

Mind Mapping

There are various programs available for mind mapping; some you have to pay for, others are free. The tool we are exploring this week for the EDT Intro to Educational Technology class is Bubbl.us. It is a free program and is fairly easy to use. The mind map I created is for planning my church's Christmas program. Although most students in the K-12 wouldn't be planning a Christmas program or a large event, they could be. There are several other types of uses I think a tool such as this would be useful, such as planning a video production, developing a science or art project, or exploring a topic for a paper.

There were a few things I would change, if I was the developer for the program. Trying to change color, connect to other bubbles, move, unpin, or delete seemed a little troublesome. You have to click on the bubble and above it will appear another bubble with those options. I would prefer to just be able to right-click with the mouse and choose any of the above. Also, it would be nice to be able to change levels by moving the bubbles around, but you have to first disconnect and then you can "connect" them, but it's different type of connection than the original connect. I guess I'm thinking of the navigation within FrontPage, Microsoft's old Web design program. I could move pages around from parent level to child level to sub-child level and back up to parent level, all without having to connect or disconnect specifically. I would like to see that kind of ease of movement in a program like this. Occasionally, I had to click several times on the "child" button to create a new bubble. I don't know if I was just not clicking in the right spot or if this is something that is a problem for everyone. No matter, it was a good experience and kids would probably enjoy using a tool such as this.

Here's the mind map that I created using Bubbl.us.

IDs and P-12 Technology Integration and Screencasting

Reflection on Reading Assignment

For our reflection on last week's reading assignment, we were to "pick out two trends or issues that particularly surprised you and/or hit home and explain why."

The first issue was that I was having a difficult time getting much of anything out of the reading, as it seemed so disconnected from anything I've worked with. It was focused on Instructional Design (ID) in the P-12 environment, which I'm only familiar with in theory, not practical hands-on. The second issue, was that the authors talk about the importance of technology integration and the role of the ID, but then notes that the outcomes or results of technology integration have not shown significant student gains in learning as hoped. This didn't really surprise me, but I think it's an issue. We, as educators and instructional designers tend to focus more on integrating technology more for the sake of technology than for the sake of the learning sometimes. I love technology and I'm all for everyone having the opportunity to learn with technology, but technology is a tool and can only improved learning if it is used appropriately and effectively.

The two things that were new to me were the ASSURE and the NTeQ technology integration models. Although I had heard of the ASSURE model, I don't know that I had had it explained as a technology integration model and I hadn't heard of NTeQ before that I can remember. I've added below the steps involved in application of the two different models. They both seem a little wieldy to me, but maybe it's just that I'm not familiar with them.

The authors discussed a couple of classroom-level technology integration models: ASSURE and NTeQ. I had heard of ASSURE, but not the NTeQ. ASSURE "follows a traditional ISD classroom process that incorporates Gagne's (1985) Nine Events." (Reiser & Dempsey, 2002, 2007, 2012). ASSURE is an acronym for six step process: A=Analyze learners
S=State standards and objectives
S=Select strategies, technology, media, and materials
U=technology, media, and materials
R=Require learner participation
E=Evaluate and revise

NTeQ has a ten-step lesson plan, which are:
1) Specify objectives
2) Computer functions
3) Specify problem
4) Research and analysis
5) Results presentation
6) Activities during computer use
7) Activities before computer use
8) Activities after computer use
9) Supporting activities
10) Assessment

The differences in the two really seem to be that the ASSURE model "uses an ISD foundation to provide teachers with a systematic approach to integrate a variety of technology and media into instruction ranging from traditional teacher-led to constructivist student-centered strategies." (Reiser & Dempsey, 2002, 2007, 2012). On the other hand, "NTeQ "provides a more focused approach to technology integration." (Reiser & Dempsey, 2002, 2007, 2012).

In conclusion, the authors noted that even though there has been much emphasis put on technology integration and there are "pockets of excellence," integration of technology still not wide-spread. (Reiser & Dempsey, 2002, 2007, 2012).

References
Reiser, R. A. and Dempsey, J. V. (2002, 2007, 2012). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology. (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Screencasting
Screencasting is great and can be used for many different things. Educators can use it to provide feedback to a student or they can use it to show students how to work a particular problem or formula. In the article, What is Screencasting by Jon Udell, he notes various genre of screencasts, such as tutorials, short how-tos, conversational demos, and feature stories. I've used it for a tutorial, short how-tos and conversational demos, but I haven't tried to use it to give feedback or to feature a story.

As part of our assignment, we were to create screencast using Jing and embed it in our blog posting. One of the first postings I did back in September, I included a screencast as part of my post, demonstrating my use of the iGoogle in the Chrome browser. I had planned to go ahead and use it for this assignment, but I had shared it with a URL and I have since found out that once you share it with a URL, you can't go back and get the embed code, or at least that the way it seems to be working. Therefore, I went aheand and did another Jing video this evening to show my use of iGoogle, which I've embedded below.

Instructional Design in Business & Industry

Business and industry has been using Instructional Designers (IDs) for years now to develop and design training for employees and customers, but I think that this has grown even more so, in the area of online training courses. Online training/learning is more cost effective than face-to-face (f2f) training/learning for the most part, particularly if it is designed well.

Last week we learned about Human Performance Improvement (HPI), also known as Human Performance Technology (HPT), which is becoming very prominent in the business and industry arenas. Although HPI involves many different team members from within an organization, instructional designers are obviously key to many of the solutions and interventions implemented to close the gaps in performance. 

According to Reiser and Dempsey in Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, "instructional design today encompasses much more than simply producing instruction. The field is now associated with analyzing human performance problems, identifying root causes of those problems, considering a variety of solutions to address the root causes, and determining and implementing the appropriate solutions." (Reiser and Dempsey, 2002, 2007, 2012).

For this week's reflection assignment, we were to respond to the following:

• What are, in your mind, two unique or interesting or different or noteworthy ways instructional design/technology has been used in business and industry that you believe could be usefully applied to your own professional work? Explain.

It doesn't seem unique, different, or particularly noteworthy to me, but maybe it's interesting in that I'm an instructional designer for a food protection training organization. We provide standardized training to food protection professionals. Currently, almost all of our training is done f2f, but are planning on offering one or more courses online very soon. With the technology we have available to us today, almost everything can be taught online. Obviously, there are some things that will always be better taught f2f, but even many of those courses will have an online component. This is probably the most interesting aspect of instructional design to me. I find it fascinating and exciting to seek out ways to transfer f2f learning to online; to take a f2f activity and figure out a way to make the same activity happen online. As a designer, my goal is to develop/design learning activities that will bring about deep learning and collaboration opportunities, will decrease the gap in performance, and develop effective food protection leaders for tomorrow.

Google Maps
The other part of our assignment for this week was to create a map using Google Maps and choose one of the following options:

1. Come up with an idea for a lesson that would incorporate the use of a map that you would create and have your students use, or
2. Come up with an idea for a lesson in which your students would create their own maps.

As a deliverable, we are to describe in a few paragraphs the lesson we have in mind and we are to create a map. If we chose Option 1 above, it will be a version of the map you would give your students; If we chose Option 2, it will be an example of the kind of map you'd expect your students to create.

The Lesson (Option 2)

One of the modules of one of our courses for food protection professionals is on foodborne illnesses. According to the CDC website, there have been thirteen outbreaks so far in 2011. (CDC, 2011). There are listings of outbreaks for 2006-2011 on the CDC's website and according to Wikipedia (2011), the CDC has been tracking outbreaks since the 1970s. As part of the assignment, I thought it would be great to have each student choose one of the foodborne illness breakouts listed on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): http://www.cdc.gov/outbreaknet/outbreaks.html and create a map tracking the source and also the breakout. 

To get started, I decided to create a map of the Turkish Pine Nuts salmonella breakout that just happened this month: http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/pinenuts-enteriditis/102611/index.html#top. As I began to create my Google Map, I found that it was fairly easy to mark the Wegmans Food Market stores where the breakout was traced back to and stores implemented a recall, but it was more difficult to mark the places where the breakouts or illnesses happened, as the CDC only lists the incidences by state, not by city. I tried to figure out how to mark a state on Google Maps, but I couldn't figure it out and I don't even know if it's possible to mark a state vs. marking a city or specific location. Everything I read on the incidents just reported how many by state, not by specific locations. Therefore, I ended up just noting which store locations had a recall on the turkish pine nuts. Wegmans has 4 stores in Maryland, 7 in New Jersey, 24 in New York (I thought their website said 47, but when I printed the list, there were only 24 listed), 14 in Pennsylvania, and 6 in Virginia. Wegmans also has a new store in Massachusetts, but that store did not do a recall on the product, so I don't know if they don't sell it there at that store or if it was proven that none of the salmonella originated from that store. 

Another problem I ran into in creating the map is that even though I looked up the various locations, when I saved the store location to the map I was creating, it didn't save any of the location information. On a few of them the title says the location, but most of them just say Wegmans. Well, when viewing the map, it's not very helpful to just see, "Wegmans," "Wegmans," "Wegmans," etc., so in the future, I would definitely work on editing the marker at the same time I save it to the map, rather than saving them all and then trying to identify and edit them. 

There are a few other kinks in the whole process that I would need to work through prior to using it for a lesson plan such as this, but I still think the idea, overall, is great. Here's the link to the map I created of all of the Wegmans Food Markets that were part of the Turkish Pine Nut salmonella breakout and recall: Map of Wegmans Food Market Turkish Pine Nut Salmonella Breakout and Recall

References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2011). Multistate Foodborne Outbreaks. Retrieved October 27, 2011, from: http://www.cdc.gov/outbreaknet/outbreaks.html

Reiser, R. A. and Dempsey, J. V. (2002, 2007, 2012). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology. (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Wegmans Food Market, Inc. (2011). Wegmans store locations. Retrieved October 27, 2011, from: www.wegmans.com (Note: This link is now temporarily unavailable. Not sure what happened. Maybe they didn't like me mapping all of their locations, although I've made the map private to only those who read this posting and click on the link above.)

Wikipedia.com. (2011). List of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States. Retrieved October 27, 2011, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foodborne_illness_outbreaks_in_the_United_States 

Human Performance Improvement (HPI) and Podcasting

Review of Reading Assignment

This week our assigned reading in the Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology book by Reiser and Dempsey (2002, 2007, 2012), focused on Human Performance Improvement or HPI for short. So, what is HPI and how is it different than HPT (Human Performance Technology), Organizational Management, Human Resource Development? These are the questions I was asking while reading about HPI.

There are several definitions of HPI. Three of the most well-known are the International Society of Performance Improvement (ISPI) (2006). They define it as "A systematic approach to improve productivity and competence uses a set of methods and procedures - and a strategy for solving problems - for realizing opportunities related to the performance of people. More specific, it is the process of selection, analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation of programs to most cost-effectives influence human behavior and accomplishment. It is a systematic combination of three fundamental process, performance analysis, cause analysis, and intervention selection, and can be applied to individuals, small groups, and large organizations. Another well know organization, the American Society of Training & Development (1992), defines it as "A systemic approach to analyzing, improving, and managing performance in the workplace through the use of appropriate and varied interventions." And then one of the well-known proponents W. J. Rothwell (1996), one of the authors of Human Performance Improvement: Building Practitioner Performance (2007), defines it as, "A systematic process of discovering and analyzing important human performance gaps, planning for future improvements in human performance, designing and developing cost-effective and ethically justifiable interventions to close performance gaps, implementing the interventions, and evaluation the financial and nonfinancial results." 

According to Rothwell, Hohne, and King (2007), "All definitions share these characteristics: systematic, systemic, grounded in scientifically derived theories and the best empirical evidence available, open to all means, methods, and media, focused on achievements that human performers and the system value."

HPI is often used synonymously with HPT. According to Reiser and Dempsey, it is an euphemism (a less direct expression used in place of one considered offensive). It emerged in the 1990s, most likely because of its softer sound than human performance technology (HPT)." (2002, 2007, 2012). 

One of the main things that seems to make it different than other such initiatives, is that it doesn't look at and rely on training only. It seeks to look at the performance gap as a whole and identify necessary interventions to decrease the gap, whether it requires a new design, a revised design, training, various other interventions, or a combination of several things. 

An example shared in the Department of Energy's Human Performance Handbook, Chapter 5, tells how "Paul Fitts was an American Air Force Colonel who also examined the man-machine interface in aviation. He studied pilot accident records, digging through 460 cases of what were labeled as 'pilot errors' in 1947. He found that a large part of the cases consisted of pilots confusing the flap and gear handles. Typically, a pilot would land and then raise the gear instead of the flaps, causing the airplane to collapse onto the ground and leaving it with considerable damage. Fitts’ examined the hardware in the average cockpit to find that the controls for gear and flaps were 

often placed next to one another. They looked the same, felt the same, and, which one was on which side was not standardized across cockpits. This was an error trap waiting to happen. In other words, confusing the two handles was not incomprehensible or random, it was systematic; connected clearly to features of the cockpit layout." (DOE, 2009).

This is the type of gaps in performance that HPI is focused on identifying and improving. Obviously, the design of the the flap and gear handles in the various cockpits needed to be changed to lessen the chance of confusion for the pilots.

According to authors Reiser and Dempsey, "HPI is not just another disruptive fad, but a rational and reasonable next step in building valued human performance--one that makes eminent sense in today's demanding world of work." (2002, 2007, 2012).

References:

Department of Energy (DOE). (2009). Human performance improvement handbook, DOE-HDBK-1028-2009. (Vol. 1: Concepts and Principles, Ch. 5: Human Performance Evolution). Washington, DC:  Government Printing Office. Retrieved October 23, 2011, from: http://www.hss.doe.gov/nuclearsafety/techstds/docs/handbook/doe-hdbk-1028-2009_volume1.pdf

Reiser, R. A. and Dempsey, J. V. (2002, 2007, 2012). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology. (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Adapted from Rothwell, W. J., Hohne, C. K., King, S. B. (2007). Human performance improvement: Building practitioner performance. (2nd Edition). Burlington, MA: Elsevier. Retrieved October 23, 2011, from: http://www.pactvision.net/index2.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=107&Itemid=86

Reflection Deliverables

1. Related to Chapter 14, what are some ways the ideas/concepts/principles discussed in this chapter could be applied in your professional work? Do you see opportunities where these ideas could help you or your students?
   
   Response: HPI makes sense in that training oftentimes isn't enough to close the performance gap and deliver desired outcomes. When trying to identify an appropriate intervention, it is important to systematically look at all factors, not just the "training" or "development" factor as shown in the DOE example above. I believe that HPI, or as I've heard it called in some organizations, Continuous Improvement, is something that every organization should be looking at and implementing. I can see where we could use it for continuous improvement in staff performance and in the training that we provide to food protection professionals. Continuous improvement or HPI makes sense.
2. Profile the podcast(s) you chose to subscribe and listen to or if you chose to make a podcast, provide a link to your podcast on your blog.
   
   Response: I chose to make a podcast, since I never had before. Here is the link to my podcast on my podcast channel at Podbean.com: http://chalvorsen.podbean.com/2011/12/05/review-of-hpi-for-edt-5410/
3. What added value might podcasting have in your professional setting (company, school, etc.)?
   
   Response: Podcasting, particularly for students, trainees, or other interested individuals who like to learn audibly is an excellent idea. Along with the idea of podcasting is vodcasting, i.e., video podcast. Lectures by a professor can be used by students to prepare for an exam or to catch up, in case they had to miss the lecture. Podcasting allows "just-in-time" training for students, teachers, and many others who want to and need to learn at hours different than a specific class time.