EIT - Final Reflection

Over the last several weeks, I have expanded my knowledge on emerging instructional technologies. Most of them, I had no idea they even existed. This class has driven me to learn about different technologies and how they could be incorporated into a classroom setting. I like the challenge it presented by encouraging me to expand my comfort zone from known concepts to unknown. Overall, this week has been one of many accomplishments. I loved having our guest speakers Skype into our classroom. It is amazing what can be done with all the different types of technologies available.

Some of the emerging technologies we discussed in class came naturally to use (Google Docs, Google Pages, and PowerPoint.) Since I have a background in business education and have taught students word processing, spreadsheets, databases and presentation software for a few years. This seemed realistic.

A few of the tools required more time to process and learn how to maneuver around. These technologies were blogs, wikis, twitter, ning, video files, Jing, voicethread and Podcast files. I can see me implementing a ning, Jing, voicethread, blog, and/or wikis in my class. These tools provide opportunities for my students to interact in digital native capacity. I liked the possibilities they provided.

I have learned that I am capable of learning new concepts and applying them to my classroom instruction. Some of the concepts/skills required more practice than others to learn – like Second Life. (This virtual world has so many layers to it. It will take quite some time to discover all the components and their uses it possesses.) One of the benefits of this class was being able to explore the emerging technology right away. I’m a firm believer a person has to do something before they can fully understand it. The learning process for me is accelerated when this can occur.

The group project made it possible for us to complete a Ning fully to see how it could operate in a school setting. Each person of our team had certain tasks they were responsible for in completing. There were so many different ideas for this project is was hard to narrow down our selection. However, through negotiations we came up with doing a Ning for a school to have its faculty utilize it.

For this group project, we had a collaboration page where we shared concepts, ideas and a simple page to post websites, links we had to have posted to the Ning. This simplified the group project immensely. The capability of this tool to immediately update a document was powerful. We posted all our links and information to the Ning for ease of use by the faculty. I enjoyed working with this team of individuals and look forward to the two years ahead of us.

Emerging Instructional Technologies - Final Day

This past week has been a week of new opportunities. Throughout the week, I have had the chance to explore new technologies that I never knew existed until then. Many of which I can see me implementing in my classroom - wikispaces, google docs/pages, voicethread, Ning, blogs, Skype, and Jing - just to name a few.

On Friday, June 20, 2008, we presented our final projects to the class. Within each of our projects, we had to use at least six different technologies. Out of the three groups - two used wikis and one used a Ning. Having to present to each of our projects helped to showcase all of our talents and collaboration. I'm in awe of all the talent our Cohort possesses. It is awesome to see all these skills being used. I have a lot to learn from all of them.

Google docs was a major tool in our team planning. Life was so much simpler with sharing our brainstorming page with each other. When changes needed to be made, we recorded and saved it. Immediately, all the other group members had access to those changes. I felt this process of sharing information was much more streamlined than emailing a change or saving the change to a disk/flash drive of some sort.

To end the week on a good note, Theressa, Seth and myself created some 'wooter' t-shirts to wear on Friday. We wanted to share with Dr. Zeitz how his enthusiasm has caught-on by presenting him with a t-shirts, also. I think he has wooterizered all of us.

Authentic Writing Final Project

Often throughout the school year, students are expected to reflect on different concepts and hands-on activities. Blogging would give me an option for the students to post information online. Expectations would be set for appropriate writing skills being used.

VoiceThread offers an opportunity for my students to share their final project designs with others for critiquing. Students would post their designs to voicethread and other students would be expected to go in to each design and provide constructive comments on the projects.

I'm going to talk with the network administration for the school district to see if they can white list 21classes.com for my students to use. I like its simplicity and privacy for just your class. The staff I work with may use this if they saw how simple it truly is. However, someone would have to set everything up on the blog site so they would just have to post their comments.

Emerging Instructional Technologies - Today in Class

We had the opportunity to attend a data storage center here in Cedar Falls, IA - TEAM. This is a data center which is responsible to store information for a variety of nationwide businesses. I loved seeing all the concepts my students and I discuss in class put into real-life. Sometimes we get too caught up in my lab situations and it is positive reinforcement to see the same ideas and skills we discuss in class alive and well in the real-world. Thank you Dr. Zeitz!! I was WOWED!

Today we discussed digital videos and the opportunities they offered to be used in classroom instruction. I thoroughly enjoyed the technology of Jing. A lot of my curriculum centers around step-by-step instruction in order for the student to have success in implementation of the concept. Jing enables me to have another method of presenting the series of steps to the student. This type of technology can be used as a simple set of steps with or without audio. It is easy to use and I can save it to my computer. However, one could save it to a website like Screencast in order to have access to a link on the web. I like the flexibility and ease of use it can offer one.

Dr. Zeitz shared with us how to obtain a domain. I've been curious as to which websites to look at for this technology and how much it costs. I'm going to check look around and see if I could find a domain in my daughter's name.

Emerging Instructional Technology - Podcasting Reflection

Today we had the opportunity to design and develop a podcast for our final group project. Dr. Zeitz went through and explained the importance of making sure our podcast was developed appropriately for a RSS feed. I like his analogy of podcatching and podcasting to fishing. I have a better understanding of these concepts.

I was wowed by the ease one could create a podcast in GarageBand. It is just a short series of steps to include your audio and than add your bells (jingles) and whistles. I found two elements of this process to be more time-consuming than the rest. These were modifying your audio, so it reflects exactly what you desire and writing the script. One needs to truly understand exactly what their objectives are in producing a podcast in order for it to be a successful product.

At the end of Dr. Zeitz's lecture, he shared some podcasts he considers beneficial for us to listen. I appreciate this sharing to give me some guidance to which podcasts may be more appropriate for me to spend my time listening to.

We had a couple of specialists today share with us how to use voice thread and how we could implement it in our classroom. What a phenomenal tool! I can see it being used in my class when the students critique each other's capstone projects and network designs. Students can reflect on the quality and possible functionality of the networks as they are designed.

UNI - June 17, 2008

We got to see Skype in all its glory today. We had a Skype conversation with the Ning creator Steve Hargadon. It was a double opportunity to talk face-to-face with this individual and what he has done for social networking by developing Ning, but also seeing Skype in action. This was awesome!!! I enjoyed it so much, I helped my daughter setup our home computer tonight to put it into action. This piece of technology will make the next 2 weeks more bearable for my family to be apart.

After looking at Ning, we focused on virtual worlds. More specifically, we dedicated the day to Second Life. It was great to work with my avatar without it looking like a scarecrow. Now I know my DSL through Frontier isn't all that great after all. I'm understanding better all the possibilities there are with Second Life. It is possible to have meetings and conferences for individuals to collaborate without leaving their homes and/or offices. I was impressed when I was able to find a group of individuals who are instructors in the Cisco Networking Academy. They have a group dedicated to sharing classroom ideas on Second Life. :-)

Emerging Instructional Technologies Reflections

UNI - June 16, 2008

Today was our first day of Emerging Instructional Technologies class on campus at UNI. It was great to have face-to-face communication with all the members of the cohort. I have felt a little disjointed by not having this opportunity. I feel more grounded after meeting.

Some of the ha-haws I experienced on Monday, were working with the Google docs/pages, mobile tools and tinyurl.com. I can see using Google docs/pages in my classes. For starters, I want to include a spreadsheet form which encompasses all of my beginning of the year questions. This will be tallied into one location for me to have easier access.

I loved the Goog-411 feature. In the trunk of my car, I have an outdated telephone book, so I can find any phone number and/or address of a business when I'm out and about. This enables me to have access to updated information at my fingertips at any time and any where. Fabulous!!

The http://tinyurl.com website resolves an issue I have discovered with my various postings – urls being too long. This is a tool I know I will use on a regular basis to help simplify my postings without always having to link to a name or title.

When I have the opportunity to practice the new concepts with hands-on activities I have better retention. I appreciated having the time to do this. Thank you.

Enjoying my first day of class at UNI. Emerging Technologies is expanding my knowledge.

We have looked at Goog-411, Google SMS, and mobile blogging. Now we are trying to update our blogs with an email. :-)

Other Career Blogs

I've been searching the vast www for other blogs on IT and/or career information on job-seeking and job-keeping. There are all types of blogs on how to begin a career and to continue a career once you have started.

I narrowed it down to one from Spherion - http://www.spherion.com/careerblog/. It contains information on applying for a job, but also information on how to keep the current one you do have. I liked the layout of the blog with easy to find links and topics, plus the conversational tone of the blog. It has a place at the top of the blog for an individual to easily post a question for Spherion to answer. This is user-friendly for those who do not want to search through everything to find their answers.

Within this blog, I found a YouTube video on emerging careers in information technology. This video focused on beginning a career in network support. Since my curriculum focused on becoming an entry-level network technician, I was interested in hearing the TechAnvil perspective on starting a career in network support.

After listening to him, I had never tied together construction jobs with jobs in the network support area. This is something I could share with my students. I do find that my students tend to separate into the thinkers and the doers. The thinkers are better at the complex thinking aspects of the class, while the doers can master all the hands-on skills at a rapid rate. Everyone once in a while I do find an individual who has a good balance of both.

As with most anything this could be a source for an individual to gather information on the topic of job-getting and/or job-keeping, it shouldn't be used as a sole reference. It is best to find several different thoughts on the same topic and then analyze that information as to what would be the best decision.

Chat Experience on June 5, 2008

On the evening of June 5, 2008, I logged on to www.mebeam.com to chat with my fellow students and instructor, Dr. Zeitz. We had the option of using three different venues, chat through WebCT, web cam and microphone through www.mebeam.com and/or through Second Life, a virtual world.

I played it safe on Thursday using the chat and mebeam venue to talk with my colleagues. I’m a digital immigrant who is more comfortable talking face-to-face in a classroom discussion. I miss the human interaction of a group in person. You can see the person’s facial expressions and body language which helps to convene the meaning of their verbal communication. This method of communication is easier for me to follow the conversation as it is occurring than chatting or using mebeam.

Chatting online takes more concentration to follow what is being said by whom and who responded. There is often a lag from when a person asks a question or makes a statement to when this gets answered. During this lag, someone else may interject comments or questions totally different from what someone stated on the previous line.

Mebeam provided an option to visually see and talk to others, but it also had a lag from when someone stated something and to when you actually heard the information.

As far as an aspect of distance learning, chatting and mebeam are a couple of venues which make it possible for individuals from a large geographical area to come together and share thoughts at one time. This is a great way for the cohort to communicate with each other. The discussion component on the WebCT provides us an opportunity to respond to each other, however, chatting gives us real-time responses to current thoughts and questions.

My students would love to have this opportunity to talk with others online through chatting or web cam as a component of class. Most of my students are digital natives and on a regular basis using a form of chatting or web cam to talk with others online. It is natural for them to use this type of method of communication. Often it is easier for them to express themselves online than in person. In order for us to use this type of technology, we would have to do this outside of school, since the school district has these components blocked. It could be an option for me to be available after school during a set time if someone had a question on a current project they were dong.

I wished I had the time to download Second Life and set things up before Thursday night. It sounded like individuals were having a good time in their virtual world. I will be sure to figure things out before the next class discussion. I’m looking forward to checking things out and setting up an avatar. If you have time, go to www.secondlife.com to see for yourself.

Database Administration*

If you have gone out to http://www.nwcet.org/programs/cybercareers/ and taken their IT Careers Interest Inventory, you may have discovered what some of your different IT interest areas are. This survey does not rank you in what level of IT talent you possess, but where your interests are.

Maybe, you received a score between 22-32 on this survey. What does this mean? It means you may possess some of the following characteristics:

• Sees big picture
• Learns by challenging situations or systems
• Tests constantly
• Analyzes pieces of the whole
• Thinks about how parts fit together to make the whole work better
• Likes complexity
• Likes puzzles

One of the best IT career fits for an individual with the above characteristics would be to explore a career in database design and administration. An individual in this field would help design computer systems that keep track of lots of different types of information for people. You would be expected to make changes, implement and troubleshoot these types of systems. You may even have to plan and implement security measures to protect.

Possible Work Activities. . .

• Interacting With Computers - Using computers and computer systems (including hardware and software) to program, write software, set up functions, enter data, or process information.
• Processing Information - Compiling, coding, categorizing, calculating, tabulating, auditing, or verifying information or data.
• Analyzing Data or Information - Identifying the underlying principles, reasons, or facts of information by breaking down information or data into separate parts.
• Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates - Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person.
• Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events - Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events.

How to decide if IT is for you?

Deciding what you want to do as a career in life is a major decision. You may have looked over the Network Systems and Database Communications Analyst information below and you think it is for you - but you're not sure.

In order to help you decide what career may be right for you - you need to know yourself. What are your likes and dislikes? What skills do you excel? What are your favorite activities? These are a couple of questions to ask yourself to help determine who you are.

There are interest surveys one can take to help narrow down what IT career fields you may be good at.

For example, at CyberCareers, they have an IT Careers Interest Inventory to help determine which area of IT you would be most comfortable with. By taking this interest survey you are helping identify if you this might be an area of interest for you.

http://www.nwcet.org/programs/cybercareers/students/test/iquiz/intquizstep1.aspx

Take time to get to know yourself and figure what you are all about. Ask other people what they notice about you. Sometimes they can identify traits we ourselves are unable. Enjoy getting to know yourself and focus on your strengths and likes.

Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts*

Careers in the fields of network systems and data communications analysis are some of the fastest growing in the information technology field. By the year 2016, the United States should see a 53% increase in jobs.

JOB DESCRIPTION. . .
One would be expected to work with different size of networks from local to wide area networks. You would be asked to analyze, design, install, maintain, and troubleshoot networks. Research and evaluation skills are needed to recommend hardware and software for different size networks and data communications.

POSSIBLE WORK ACTIVITIES. . .

• Interacting With Computers - Using computers and computer systems (including hardware and software) to program, write software, set up functions, enter data, or process information.
• Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge - Keeping up-to-date technically and applying new knowledge to your job.
• Making Decisions and Solving Problems - Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.
• Getting Information - Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
• Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates - Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person.

If you like to do some of the following this career may be for you:

• Giving careful attention to organization, procedure and structure
• Helping people
• Keeping things organized and in order
• Working with your hands in developing products or tools
• Puzzles
• Solving problems through the process of testing various methods until you find the right answer
• Thinking about how parts fit together to make the whole work better