Six Words

Here are the six words I think best summarize the articles:

• contrary
• ever-changing
• media-saturated
• unrestricted
• minimal
  

And since I haven't been able to login to my Blog since Friday Dec 1, 2006, here are six words for the Beta Blogger Service:

• Craptacular
• Frustrating
• Unavailable
• Access-Denied
• Problematic
• Disappearing-Act

Sorry for the delay everyone!

Microsoft Vista Launches

Microsoft Vista Launches: ZDNet UK Article1 | ZDNetUK Article 2

A new ZDNet (UK) article talks about the release of Microsoft's new operating system, Windows Vista. It provides a brief run through on why many will resist upgrading to Vista from Windows XP or Windows 2000. With many having only deployed Windows XP recently in the business/corporate environment, most IT managers are in no rush to go through what are often nightmarish headaches just to view their desktops in the new theme and UI upgrades known as Aero and Glass.

Some of the problems that this long-talked about, and long-delayed release faced include:

• A re-write of over 70% of the original code-base
• Creation of six different "flavors" (versions) for users from home user, to corporate enterprise, and nearly everything in-between
• Lack of drivers for important hardware resources such as Wi-Fi adapters and video cards
• 20 minutes or more to return a machine from hibernation
• Requires a medium-high-end video card to get the full experience from the new/improved AeroGlass user-interface.
• Battery draining issues that are still unresolved, with an expected resolution sometime in January 2007
  

From personal experience, with the first couple of Betas, and the subsequent final release candidate, Vista sure looks spiffy, but it relocates many items within its UI that will force many users to relearn who to change basic settings on their PC. It took me 15 minutes to figure out how to add a Wi-Fi profile for a network that didn't broadcast its station ID (a basic/common practice for Wi-Fi owners to use to help "shield" their Wi-Fi signal from prying eyes). Keep in mind, the first beta didn't recognize much of anything on my Dell Inspiron E1505 Core Duo machine, but later versions only left with me ailing Wi-Fi (though mostly fixed) and ATI Graphic card issues.

Once you learn how to navigate this new UI and theme, one releases how much "prettier" it is compared to the visual refresh we received with either Windows XP or XP Media Center Edition. While I love the new AeroGlass look, I have taken to calling this release, at least based on its look, Windows OS X. MAC users will probably have to do a double take at first to see that spiffy OS X look semi-replicated on a Windows PC.

I wouldn't rush out to upgrade just yet though, for a couple reasons. For one, any of you gamers need to wait a bit until various video driver and other issues are worked out. And consumers can't purchase this new Vista version until March of 2007, though many new computers you buy now, including those from Dell computers, will ship with a vouchers (at a cost of $10 on the Dell site) to provide a Vista Upgrade Disk upon its release.

Sorry if I geeked out on any of you, but I'm sure a few of you might appreciate this bit of dribble about Vista ;)

Critical E-Learning Failure: UKeU

The Real Story Behind the Failure of U.K. eUniversity : Link to Article

Lessons to be learned from the failure of the UK e-University - by Paul Bacsich, Middlesex University: Link to Paper (PDF)

After reading the articles for this week's lecture, it would almost seem that the future of E-Learning, and many of the ideas we place into the field of Ed. Tech., are a constant track towards a future of failure. While on a personal note, I don't believe that we're doomed to failure, I believe that we must work to truly change how we as educators instruct our students, for only then can technology become the tool that revolutionizes education in the manner we've desired it to be since the 1920's.

I ran across an interesting article (and later a small paper about the same issue) about the failure of U.K.'s eUniversity. The goal of this eUniversity was something as an undergraduate I found totally intriguing, for the concept of a fully online university seemed truly appealing. I hadn't thought much about the eUniversity until I stumbled across this article, and I'm sad to say, it looks like it failed.

So why did the U.K.'s eUniveristy fail? For many of us who feel that online education still has a bright, if not slow-to-start future, the eUniversity might sound like a grad idea: a national, commercial e-university in which you could take various courses from up to 20 different Universities, offering 40 different programs, and receive your degree from the real college/university campus of choice (assuming you met the stated criteria for its degree program). Without completely ruining the article for you, it came down to many factors, many of which are still the primary issues with our online education not just in the United States, but in our online education offerings at the University of Florida:

• Bad timing for the project start: the "Dot-Com Crash" happened just a few weeks after its project debuted
• The first programs took almost 3 years to get off the ground
• Failed to meet its recruiting target (by Nov 2003, it had only enrolled 900 out of the target goal of 5600)
• Online delivery was presented as an alternative to the traditional campus, instead of the supplement many online programs truly end up being
• Confusion between the "branding" the mainstream U.K. universities offered (which emphasized the three elements of tradition, place, and quality) versus the marketing the UKeU promised: "the best of U.K. higher education with online convenience". - Convenience is NOT favored as a strong part of the image of U.K. higher education abroad.
• Platform Investment:
• CMS available (BlackBoard, WebCT) didn't offer the flexibility needed to integrating into a portal of knowledge and exploration
• Positioned its e-learning as a supplement to the campuses involved
• Not Student Driven - all material was content driven
• Limited the use of "good Pedagogy"
• Millions spent on in-house development of a new platform whose full potential and capabilities may never be known
• Impatience - In development for 3 years with minimal attracted cash support, the company was only able to recruit and enroll students for 1 year. Results were not enough for the few investors that hadn't pulled out, leaving the UKeU doomed to failure.

The UKeU represents what many of us as educators and educational technologists have found out already, entering into the E-Learning environment can not be entered into lightly. It takes much time, planning, resources, creativity, and imagination to make E-Leaning a true, stand-alone success, and not a convenient supplementary learning exercise. After all that we have learned this semester, I feel that we have all learned something that has challenged our pre-dispositions about how easy it is, or should be, to make online education truly work. I know my assumptions have changed, and I constantly find myself re-evaluating my thoughts on how to use Ed Tech. to its fullest potential.

Positioning Myself in the Field: Part IV

I just wanted to let everyone know that later this evening/afternoon that my product for my Positioning assignment would be available at the link below. Right now, there's a construction sign up as I complete the full coding of the site, but as soon as the image below disappears from the site, my new knowledge portal will be live and ready for use and review. I welcome any comments you have on this new section of my site!

Educational Technology Portal

Edit: Sorry for any confusion I might have caused with the wording above, but the Educational Technology portal has been ready for viewing since yesterday evening (Nov 16, 2006). I've place an image of the new site next to the construction image to show that the site is ready for viewing, and includes a feedback form for anyone who'd like to fill it out :)

Social Networking for Kids?

As I get ready for work this morning, I had my TV on Cartoon Network (my favorite station), and I noticed a new product I hadn't seen before. They're called Miuchiz, and they come in three different styles:

• Bratz: These big-headed, stylish Bratz girls (from the doll line of the same name) are ready to shop and chat till they drop! (Yasmin, Chloe)
• Pawz: Cute and cuddly pets like dogs and cats need love, attention, and a chance to play! (Dash, Spike)
• Monsterz: Train and battle your favorite monster, compete in competitions, and prove your worthiness! (Inferno, Roc, Creeper)
  

Essentially, they are handheld units that resemble Tamagotchis (for those of us who remember them), but the format is more like a small handheld video game versus the traditional egg-shape of the past. So what do these Miuchiz do? You can train them in battle, care for them, shop at the stores, play games, and more! The handhelds have three different modes:

• 1-player mode: Train, feed, shop, play games, and care for your interactive digital friend
• 2-player mode: Wirelessly chat, trade gifts and items, and compete in games against each other
• Online-mode: Plug your Miuchiz Unit into your computer's USB port, go online (get your parents' permission of course), and visit Planet Mion! Each different type of Miuchiz have their own section of the planet, and once you've arrived, you can explore a 3D world, play games, chat with all the other Miuchiz friends, and download items to your handheld for later use. There also appears to be a common area of the planet where you can join forces, make friends, and enjoy everyone from the various Miuchiz character universe.
  

While these Miuchiz might be just a new fad in the digital companion universe, this is the first one I've seen touting the true interconnectivity to be with your friends online no matter where you are. They truly push and encourage the sense of an online community with these pets. As far as I can tell, the main difference between these Miuchiz handhelds is the avatars you can take care of, and the environment style that they exist in while they are contained within the handheld unit. I'm almost tempted to pick one up and see if they're worth the hype.

A quick look at online retailers like Target.Com, Amazon.Com, and ToysRUs.com, Walmart.com, shows that these units cost between $24.88-$29.99, and that each unit contains a specific character from the different Miuchiz lines (Monsterz, Pawz, Bratz). New characters should be released around January 2007. Purchasing/registering your handheld online entitles you to a free-year's subscription to all the Miuchiz content, and additional renewals and other items can be obtained for a small, undisclosed fee.

Does anyone have children or know of big kids like myself who might enjoy one of these, or be tempted to pick one up and see what the hype is about?

PS3 Lines already forming in America?!?!

Referenced Article: Found on SlashDot and Video Game Blogger

I like to consider myself an avid gamer, at least when I had more time on my hands. I eagerly await the launch date of the next-gen console or game as much as the next guy or gal. And on launch day, I have been known on occasion to arrive at one of my favorite bastions of electronic retailing around midnight of the release day, usually with a couple friends or a sleep-deprived girlfriend, in tow.

But with the PS3's launch day, Friday, November 17th, 2006, only 9 days away, there are already reports of people camping out in front of Best Buy in anticipation of the launch and getting the first shiny consoles of the shelves. I'm sure some would call that dedication, and many would love to relive the glorious tales of adventure that await outside the storefront of a Best Buy at all hours of the night with only one's laptop, cell phone, and a cooler's supply of food quickly dwindling away. But me...I think it borderlines on ludicrous.

The PS3 base model retails for $500, and the premium model (or whatever its being called now) will retail for $600, both before taxes, the purchase of a game ($60+, and no, the system doesn't come with any game included, save maybe a small demo disc), and the all important second controller ($40 I believe). You could easily drop a grand of cold hard cash or plastic for this machine's launch day, and I know many that are willing to do so. But how do these people manage to get the time off of work, put their lives on hold, or avoid the economic reality of it all, to camp out in front of a store for a console they could have pre-ordered online from MANY retailers, just to have the bragging rights to say "Yep, I was there, took the first system of the shelf, and plopped down on the couch in front of the TV before 9:05am for my first game of NCAA2007 for the PS3."

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE VIDEO GAMES! But as much as I really love them, and eagerly anticipate the launch of the next-gen consoles (the Nintendo Wii all the way, baby!), would any of you do this? Would any of our professors, co-workers, and peers understand and appreciate that we were MIA for 9+ days waiting for the PS3, and be like, "Bryan, I understand, the PS3 is important to your life and your success, you go right ahead and get in line for it, we'll be ready for your return when the time is right."

I guess what I'm really trying to ask is, would anyone like to meet me at Target on Thursday, November 16th, after Dr. Dawson's class, and camp out in the Nintendo Wii line, as we gawk at the PS3 crowd? :)

RLO's and Life-Long Learning: Reflection

Reusable Learning Objects (RLOs):

Having only been recently introduced to the concept of RLO's in the late Spring of 2006, I found Dan's presentation on RLO's quite thorough. I completely agree with his ideal definition for RLOs, as “any digital resource that can be used in the service of education or training that supports a learning objective.”

The concepts on the various items of metadata, LOMS, and Oncology were definitely new to me, but the explanations provided helped me understand Dan's presentation even with my lack of prior knowledge on these subjects.

Thinking of LMS as Knowledge Ecosystems was an intriguing concept, and one I hadn't thought of until this presentation. The contextual nature of this ecosystem might make certain items in an LMS harder to explain or justify, but I believe that its contextual nature also helps make it easier to understand the meaning behind items of discussion.

Life-Long Learning:

At first, I had simply assumed that all human beings were life-long learners, and I suppose even now at some esoteric level, this assumption isn't untrue. I found how Kathryn's definition of life-long learning to be much more concrete than my aforementioned notion, and appreciated how she broke down the notions of the Life-Long Learner into small ideas.

Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) were something I had considered to have the most practical use to me those with special needs or other handicaps and disabilities. Clearly, this thought process of mine was rather narrow. The benefits behind PLEs seem to be bountiful, provided you follow three concepts that a PLE must:

1. Be user-centric
2. Be user-friendly
3. Assessment Ready (pre and post), modify if needed

I think we all could benefit as instructors, educational technologists, and learners if more PLE's were created for the various facets of learning we encounter every day.

Final Thoughts

After re-reading my notes, I began to wonder if my Podcasting Portal could possible be considered a combination of a RLO and a PLE. Or perhaps, if I added more content, and modified some existing content, it could become a hybrid of these two concepts. It goes without saying, these two presentations gave me a lot to think about, and were both of great benefit to me.

Thanks Dan and Kathryn!

Media Methods: LSU and Tegrity (NSD)

LSU Expands Distance Learning Program Through Online Learning Solution

Article Link: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/15796_1

Dr. Thomas Lynch, a professor of Public Information at LSU, had a problem. He wished to begin integrating and expanding his lecture materials outside the normal classroom to better engage his students in the learning process. While LSU did provide support for hosting files online via BlackBoard and SemesterBook (a LSU in-house developed program) for students, there was no option for streaming media of any kind due to costs and other technical reasons.

Enter Tegrity, Inc. and their WebLearner program. After a brief demonstration at the LSU campus, the WebLearner program proved that it could “dramatically reduce the time and effort required to record audio and video in sync with the classroom PowerPoint presentations...it also delivered high-quality, indexed modules, at connection speeds as low as 28.8K, which was deemed essential for practical, inexpensive viewing by all of their students.” WebLearner impressed LSU, and they bought this new learning system.

Dr. Lynch immediately grabbed hold of this new technology, and “produced more than 100 online modules in less than half a semester without any production assistance or technical support from the university, except for their assistance in placing the files on a special server.” Soon after, Dr. Lynch developed a plan to utilize this new technology and hopefully prove its effectiveness to his administrators and his classroom.

Dr. Lynch developed a system of choices for his students as they started a new semester:

1. He could continue lecturing the class as he had always done, and the students could use the recordings optionally for review purposes.
2. He could stop lecturing, and students could rely solely on the Tegrity files.
3. He also gave each student the option of either staying for a live lecture, or leaving after the first 15 minutes and viewing the recording at their leisure.

Within two weeks, the third option proved to be the chosen one.

The results indicated that “by the end of the semester...the grades for the first semester when we used Tegrity were slightly better than when we took the traditional approach.”

I found this article to be a positive approach where an instructor took the bull by the horns and sought to improve both his students' ability to learn, and at the same time, improved his own technological skillset and notions of technology and instruction.

Social Networking with Ning: For Jade

Article Link 1
Article Link 2

Social networking sites have certainly taken off recently, though I doubt the many denizens of these sites think of them in terms of social networking. Ning, co-founded by Marc Andreesen (Netscape Co-Founder) and Gina Bianchini (24 Hour Laundry, another type of social networking site), aims to truly bring the next level of social networking to not just the social masses, but the developers as well.

Not only is the site full programmable for developers, but the site allows its users to customize its look to a decent extent, with an upgrade coming in December of 2006 that should greatly increase the user's control of layout, content, and theming. Co-founder Gina Bianchini says, “What's different about Ning from other services is that we give you your own video site like YouTube, or social-networking site like MySpace. But unlike being a page in somebody else's service, it's yours. You get to choose what it's about."

After visiting their site, I definitely find it to be a blending of many social networking ideas: a blog, a video hosting service (a-la You Tube), a My Space-esque feel for content, FaceBook style posting and grouping, and even a bit of flexibility a-la Google Pages. It's certainly a neat idea, and since Ning users don't need to know any coding what-so-ever to enjoy its features and customize their Ning site as they see fit, it will definitely appeal to the masses. While I don't know if its a service I'd use, given that I know some web coding and I have my own hosting space, Ning's potential rates high in my book. I also found it a bit odd that Ning had existed for over a year, but I hadn't heard anything about it till now.

A Hallow Engagement

As many of you might know, my girlfriend, Jenny (a recent a CoE graduate), moved to the West Palm Beach area to begin her career teaching 4th grade in September. The past two months apart have been a constant reminder of how much we mean to each other, and I appreciate the support and camaraderie each of you in the Ed. Tech. program have shown me.

With that in mind, I felt it appropriate to make this important announcement: Jenny and I are now officially engaged!

Please feel free to view the Photo Gallery of our special weekend and share it with those who might be interested.

And for those of you have have some extra time and bandwidth to kill, here are some links to a few short movie clips I took of a special fireworks celebration during our stay in Disney World!

• Fireworks Clip 1 (3.4MB)
• Fireworks Clip 2 (10.5MB)
• Fireworks Clip 3 (18.0MB)
• Fireworks Clip 4 (16.7MB)
• Fireworks Clip 5 (12.5MB)

Firefox 2.0 Released

Although it was released late in the afternoon/evening of October 24th, 2006, I still felt it important to mention it for those that weren't aware of the new release of this awesome web browser. Some of the highlights of this new version include:

• A refreshed user interface (in both graphic and option layout)
• More flexible and intuitive Tabbed browsing management
• Anti-phising/scam protection features
• The ability to read RSS feeds as live bookmarks, or subscribe a RSS feed to their favorite aggregator
• Inline spell checking

For more information on the Firefox 2.0 version, view the Release Notes.

As always, you can also download this web browser on any platform for free by visiting the Firefox web site.

Edit: This post was originally posted on October 25th, 2006 at approximately 8:06am. It was reposted on October 31st, 2006 around 11:15pm, when I noticed the original post was no longer showing.

Technical Professional Development – Part III: The Product

I have completed the primary work for my TDP, and it is now viewable live and in color at TransBat.Com The site will sport a “pink” color scheme till November 1^st to help promote breast cancer awareness. While I had hoped to have this project completed earlier, I am very pleased with its results.

This endeavor was a challenge to my traditional way of creating web sites. It forced me to recode my entire content from scratch and without thinking about any design aspect. In the past, I would spend hours, if not days hard coding a structure in HTML, perfecting/designing all the graphics, and then adjusting my existing content's code into the resulting design as best I could. Not only is this process tedious, it forced me to constantly remake graphical and coding adjustments that would destroy what had once looked pristine. For those who aren't as familiar with the web design process, suffice it to say that my old method of coding was akin to trying to shove a square peg into a round hole.

With Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) now doing the design work, creating new graphics was significantly more enjoyable, and layout issues were simply a matter of adding, modifying, or removing a simple style sheet rule. Once you get behind the principles of CSS, its amazing what you can do!

Let me recap in a nutshell what I did for this project:

• Read the book: Head First HTML & CSS

• Recoded my entire site's content, and the knowledge portals' content from scratch using standard's compliant XHTML 1.0.

• Sketched a rough draft on paper of what I wanted my knowledge portals and my main site to look like.

• Created two rough style sheets (one for my main site, the other for the knowledge portals) to shape my content the appropriate way.

• Created new graphics for my web sites.

• Created two final style sheets that included my new graphics, giving the entire site a much more polished, professional, and fun layout.

• Created two additional style sheet templates and two small sets of graphic for my main site that would allow me to demonstrate how a simple change of a style sheet could dramatically alter the look of my site consistently throughout the site.

• Tested the final product in multiple browser platforms to ensure consistency (within the confines of how browsers determine and interpret CSS).

Since most of this jargon won't mean much unless you've spent many hours coding and designing websites, here's a simple comparison of the final product:

Edit: I have fixed the few incorrect links below, and all should now be properly viewable. Sorry for any confusion/inconvenience! - Bryan

Main Site New Version: http://www.transbat.com/
Previous Version: http://www.transbat.com/v6/ and http://www.transbat.com/v6/main.shtml

Knowledge Portals New Site: http://education.transbat.com/ and http://podcast.transbat.com/
Previous Versions: http://education.transbat.com/v1/ and http://podcast.transbat.com/v1/

I have also tested out my how my new sites behave in the following major web browsers: Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.7 (and now 2.0.0), Internet Explorer 6.0, Safari, and Camino. I am happy to report that other than a small rendering bug with IE 6.0, my site appears identical in almost all aspects...the first time that has EVER happen. Needless to say, I'm pleased with the results, and I welcome any comments to suggestions on the project.

Edit: This post was originally posted on October 23rd, 2006 at approximately 9:15pm. It was reposted on October 31st, 2006 around 11:15pm, when I noticed the original post was no longer showing. It was also updated to reflect testing in Firefox version 2.0.

Collaboration and Web 2.0 Applications

I'm sure that some of us have dabbled in a few of the Web 2.0 applications. For anyone that hasn't, you're missing out on some really cool items from the Internet that could revolutionize the way we work as individuals and how we collaborate with our peers.

Here's a quick overview of what I've been playing with:

Google Docs and Spreadsheets : http://docs.google.com/
Article from SlashDot about the merger/combination of Writely and Google Spreadsheets

For anyone that have been using Writely you might have noticed that it now takes you to a new site for Google Docs and Spreadsheets. Google (who had been the driving force behind Writely as best I recall) has now merged their Document Writer and Spreadsheet function into one neat little area. Using these two applications is very similiar to using a version of MS Office 97 or above, and the ability to edit, open, and save your MS Office styled documents and OpenOffice.org (my preferred Office Suite) is very handy. The ability to make PDF files of your documents is a sweet bonus that I think most will enjoy!

While there are still some compatibility issue, its definitely a great start toward the online virtual office. You will need a Google/Gmail account to login though, so if any of you need an invite, I'll be happy to toss you one.

Zoho Virtual Office: http://www.zoho.com/
Zoho Virtual Office truly aims to be a full fledged replacement for your desktop's Office Suite. Individual applications include:

• ZohoWriter: Word Processor
• ZohoSheet: Spreadsheets
• ZohoShow: Presentation Creator
• ZohoPlanner: An online planner and organizer.
• ZohoChat: A Chat client to help with collaboration between your peers.

It's free to sign-up for any/all of these services for the duration of the Beta, and its rumored they will remain free after that. I haven't gotten a full chance to try out each application, but these programs are slick, very user friendly, and definitely have me psyched about the possibiliy of a ready to go AJAX/Web 2.0 application and office suite.

They also include a very neat tool/option for small businesses and individuals called the Zoho Virtual Office, which acts a lot like your own desktop area to launch any of the previously mentioned Zoho Office programs, a calendar, scheduling items, a work space, and more. It appears that you can sign-up and use the Beta version of the Virtual Office for free as well, but from what I've read it's quite possible that a small charge would be assessed after it leaves the Beta, at least for small businesses, and possibly for individuals as well. I've signed-up to be included in the Beta Test, and hope to hear back on it soon.

Closing Thoughts

While these products are still in a Beta stage and need further refinement, the days of the online virtual Office might be closer than we think. For the grand price of FREE, you can now create, share, and edit your favorite Office style documents and not have to worry (at least not much) about Microsoft Office Compatibility and the expensive headache of licensing their products. The only caveat is that to use these products, you require a constant Internet connection. Given the nature of free/public WiFi now available, this limitation in most cases won't be a huge deterrent.

For now, I still think most will desire to have their standard Office Suite of choice to be installed locally on their computer's hard drive. As for me, I'm gonna try to spend my time trying out these fun new ideas and methods of collaboration.

Technical Professional Development – Part II: The Contract

I have now developed my learning contract for my Technical Professional Development plan. I welcome any comments, questions, and suggestions on it.

My Learning Contract

Paradigm Examples

Behaviorism:

Behavorism can be defined as "an approach to psychology based on the proposition that behavior can be studied and explained scientifically without recourse to internal mental states." - Wikipedia.com

Simply stated, the behaviorism theory believes that learning occurs when associations are made between stimulus and response. By starting with simple concepts, one can build upon pre-existing knowledge and gain a mastery over the information presented.

Flood: http://pbskids.org/lions/wolf/flood2.html

This simple (and slightly long to load) game from the PBS.org website teaches children how to form associations between various words or themes by having them organized into groups of three books to be placed on a shelf. The game's concept: the library is flooding, and we must get all of our books onto a shelf, organized by a concurrent theme. The learner is presented with 5 books at a time, but only 3 books can fit on shelf. The learner must then chose the books that have a common theme and place them on a shelf. A hint system can help guide learners should they become lost or confused. The game starts out simple (matching numbers), but then the challenges get progressively harder in this 100+ round game! With positive reinforcement from a cute (if slightly annoying) narrating mouse, the game is definitely fun, although perhaps a bit repetitive on the later levels.

Cognitivism:

Cognitivism can be defined as “a theoretical approach to understanding the mind, which argues that mental function can be understood by quantitative, positivist and scientific methods, and that such functions can be described as information processing models.” - Wikipedia.com

Jigsaw Sudoku: http://www.jigsawdoku.com/

While most are familiar with the craze of Sudoku and its rise to fame, the effects on cognitive ability, learning, and retention are now being studied, at least to some degree. Apparently one's lifestyle can have a direct impact on our cognitive abilities and their retention even into old age. - American Society on Aging

This online variant of Sudoku allows you to chose the type of tile to solve (numbers, pictures, letters), various puzzle sizes, and difficulty level. Perhaps Sudoku will begin to be hailed as a mental improvement exercise, instead of a pastime your boss will yell at you for!

Lost in Space...

I'm not sure how many of you are utilizing Blogger.com for your personal/class blog, but I've been having some difficulty with the new Blogger BETA. I upgraded my account because it made making changes to your blogs structure and components slick and easy, thanks to some Web 2.0 application magic. But now as a result, I will post an item, and sometimes it shows up, only to disappear later, or doesn't show up it, and takes 2-3 tries for it to “stick” and be viewable. I am also concerned that I might have lost comments that some of my peers have left.

I guess just consider this a warning. Most of the time, the Blogger BETA works very well, and is quite fun and easy to use for novices and advanced users alike. To make sure I don't lose any postings, I have decided to keep a simple “back-up” document that contains the text of my postings. Not only does this make it easy to recover “lost” posts, it helps encourage me to write down entries for my Blog even if I don't have Internet access at the time. Just thought I'd share this experience with you, and let you know you might want to keep a “back-up” copy of your blog, just in case...

Technical Professional Development – Part I: The Idea

Overview: Develop a working knowledge of HTML 4.0 and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) 2.0 to produce full, W3c standards compliant web sites based on strict XHTML 1.0 coding and CSS 2.0 stylesheets.

Rationale: A discussion from a class I had during Spring 2006 with Dr. Ferdig (Educational Technology and the Teacher) led to the notion that while many of our peers have websites, most had not considered usability or accessibility guidelines for our audiences. The discussion made me wonder how hard it would be to create a standards compliant site that would not only be aesthetically pleasing, but provide the best opportunity for a member to enjoy the site's content as intended while still conforming for basic accessibility guidelines for user's with various disabilities.

The Problem: I have NEVER been formally trained in HTML! I've had a basic knowledge of HTML skills and table usage that I've put cobbled together over the past couple years. And sure, the site is viewable, and the content is there for any audience member to explore who drops by my personal website: TransBat.Com. However, the site NEVER looks the same between the different web browsers (Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Opera). I read that CSS helped make web sites vary less in their appearance, and thus tried to incorporate (pronounced hacked and slashed) some CSS style into my pages. Alas, this didn't yield much success.

My personal website is a source of much joy to me, but posting content on it has been constant source of frustration because I never know if what I post will provide the presentation I want for my audience. Combined with the fact that I am now archiving and building my professional development portals and information on my site, I desperately want to have a presentation layout, style, and user-interface that is pleasing to the eye, and easily accessible for my family and peers.

If I were able to learn these skills, it would be of great benefit to some future projects and endeavors that I hope to begin soon in regards to online instruction and the integration of podcasting into face-to-face and distance learning.

I decided to peruse the web searching for some type of book/guide that would help me grasp the concepts from my dated knowledge of HTML and send me towards the future web design and creation utilizing a harmonious blend of XHTML and CSS. I found a book that I believe will suffice quite nicely:

Head First: HTML with CSS & XHTML | Amazon Book Link | SlashDot

I'll post some on this topic once I've fleshed it out enough to create a contract for the goals of my Technological Professional Development plan.

Synthesizing ID's Psychology and Epistemology (Chapters 4 & 6)

Thanks to the suggestion of my classmates, I was introduced to a cool graphic creator and organizer named Gliffy (http://www.gliffy.com/). To help me better synthesize my learning, I have created a graphic representation of my thoughts on the topics of importance from these two chapters. Let me know if you have any trouble viewing the image:

Just in case the small thumbnail on the right doesn't show the full-sized image when you click on it, here's a direct to the file in a .jpg or .png format:

Ch4,Ch6 Synthesis (JPG)
Ch4,Ch6 Synthesis (PNG)

Back in the Groove...

I'm sorry for the lack of postings over the past couple weeks gang. Significant changes in my life have occurred over the past few weeks. Highlights include: a new full-time job with different skill requirements and chances for learning, and moving my girlfriend to South Florida to teach a 4^th grade elementary classroom. That had pretty much absorbed my life, but I'm back on track, and ready to move on through ID and see what it holds in store for all of us.

Expect a rampant flow of postings to this blog, and then responses to your thoughts in the very near future!

Planting my Tree: Positioning myself in my career

As part of a continuing assignment in EME5054, we are supposed to begin evaluating the career options and choices available to us as Educational Technologists. I find it simultaneously invigorating and daunting to know that with a degree in this field, we can do almost anything we want. From a limited perspective, its like Educational Technology is the Swiss Army knife that can be used to assist, repair, or improve any of field of study.

My main goal since joining the Ed Tech programs was to become a Technology Administrator for K-12 or Higher Education. After perusing jobs in Monster.com, district school websites, and more, I think this job posting from Chronicle.Com is right up my alley. The position is for a Director of Academic Technologies, which lists some job duties including:

"Develop programs to support the faculty in the use of technology in teaching; and through continual research, apprise the academic leadership of new software and hardware products relevant to the College's educational mission."

For me, I'd need to develop some of my existing skills more:

• Improve my researching ability
• Develop/improve scholarly writing and publishing abilities
• Improve Teaching ability

Some of my existing skills sets could be most useful in this kind of job setting:

• I LOVE Technology
• Comfortable learning/trying out new technologies
• Have cross-platform experience (Windows primarily, but increasing experience with MAC & Linux)
• Have experience creating documentation to aid others in the learning new technology and applications
• Strong troubleshooting background can help when trying to implement new systems
• Able to examine the finer details and present important points and issues in normal speech, avoiding techno-jargon which easily confuses new/inexperienced users.
• Developed the necessary people skills and communication to help users become comfortable with change

While I still have much to learn before I could enter a career like this Director of Academic Technologies, I believe that this gives me an over-arching goal I can follow as I seek to drill down my career even further.

Finding your tree in the forest of careers

If there's anything that my time as a student at the University of Florida has taught me, it's that your career of choice is almost never on the first path you choose on the road to wisdom. For me, I started on the path towards computer science, only to find that path might be too scientific for my approach. I then took the fork in the road that presented itself in the form of my love for television, which lead to the completion of my Bachelor's degree in Telecommunication Production. While that deviation from the path certainly provided me with some lovely visual stimuli and stories, it left me alone in the middle of the forest. After spinning some time mentally tracing my steps, I realized why I had failed in finding my career...I never truly thought about what I wanted in one!

I imagine that last comment perhaps borders on stupidity...but I also imagine I'm not alone in that general thought process. Everyone is always encouraging you to look at this, it'd be perfect for you! And usually on some basic level, they're right. But for me, I never found that niche, until a principal of an elementary school, and a family friend, helped point me down the right path. She'd observed me on the rare occasion I'd drop by the school to visit my mom (who also worked there), and offered to help with various technical difficulties. She thanked me for my help, for their school didn't have a technologist available, and they relied on the district to get help. She casually mentioned I should think about dropping off my resume to the district office when I was done with my undergraduate degree, because they could use a person like me to help out schools. Ironically, even though my part-time job at UF enlisted me doing some of the same things I helped with at her school, I hadn't considered it a career choice...nor did I know there was a career option for it.

Thanks to the principal, I sought out what little information I knew to look for at UF, and ultimately found the Educational Technology Masters Program. And for once, I don't find myself lost in the forest of careers. In fact, I've actually started to plant a tree of my own.

Where does the elevator go?

I've been reviewing my notes from last week, and I remembered briefly touching on the notion of an elevator speech. This speech is based off the idea that you should be able to tell someone exactly what you do in your profession, within a time-frame of 30 seconds or less.

Needless to say, my elevator speech needs some work. I have often found it most difficult to explain what my degree program is about. Whenever someone asks what graduate program I'm part of, and I present them with Educational Technology, many are surprised that I'm taking this major in the College of Education. After the initial shock and puzzlement look, the next question is almost unalterably, "What do you do there?"

I've tried numerous variations on a theme, but the normal brief banter I provide goes something like this:

"I'm the computer geek who helps ensure teachers have access and knowledge on how to use technology in the classroom, and I also work on providing new technologies to make teaching more engaging, and more fun for both the educator and the learner."

The initial response borders on something like, "Oh wow, that sounds very cool, you'll be great at that!" And while I appreciate that response, I often wonder...does my description of what I do actually match the goals that IDT (Educational Technology) represents? Does anyone else have any thoughts on this matter, or experience the same general sense of what is it that I actually do?

Defining Instructional Design and Technology

For one of our first assignments, we were asked to come up with our own definition for our field.

My initial definition for Instructional Design and Technology would be:

"The analysis, design, and implementation of technology, through the application of ethical practices and studies, to facilitate improvements in the fields of learning and human (personal) performance."

While this definition is a bit cumbersome, I still prefer it to the textbook's paragraph long definition. On a side note, I still prefer the term for our field/career as Educational Technology/Educational Technologists. Perhaps I will learn to adapt to this newly proposed title...time will see.

Welcome to my Ed Tech Blog

Welcome to my blog for EME5054: Foundations of Educational Technology! This blog should serve as a foray into my thoughts about not only this course, but my involvement in the Educational Technology Masters Degree program at the University of Florida's College of Education. I hope you enjoy your stay, and please feel free to leave me comments on any of my postings. I can't wait to learn more about my colleagues, and expand my knowledge thanks to their guidance and consideration.