Friday Thoughts

Friday was of course the final presentations. I thoroughly enjoyed the group on game based learning. It was interesting to see how game based learning affected nursing. Also the group that looked at collaborative learning was quite good. The advancements in collaboration via technology seem to be increasing monthly. Overall, it was a great course and I feel like I learned a lot about technology and it's use in education. Thanks Dr. Dunn!

Thursday Thoughts

Thursday was an interesting look at multimedia. The Audacity program was a great way to mix sounds and the conversation Dan made was very funny. I think this would be great for making a podcast or editing some simple audio files. Movie maker was fun and easy but I think I prefer iMovie being more of a Mac guy. I like the editing features of movie maker and the simplicity. This program is great for editing some short videos and even publishing to YouTube.

Wednesday Thoughts

Wednesday had some great thoughts on the dissertation and the dissertation process. I think some of the important things that stood out to me were finding a chair and being persistent in the process. Not giving up and having a drive to finish are very important because in life, anything can happen. A lot of things can interrupt the process of writing the dissertation (Kids, health issues, finances, etc) so it's important not to give up. The second part I found really helpful and entertaining was the webquest. This was an excellent way to get students involved in learning via computer based learning. I plan on using this in different ways to help my freshmen students learn more about English at my university.

Tuesday Thoughts

Tuesday's class was a great introduction to Microsoft Access. This program looks like it could be a great companion to Excel or even replace it when it comes to data and recording it. I also enjoyed the discussion about eBooks and how the publishing world is changing as we speak. I believe eBooks will be more popular than paper books if they aren't already. The advantages are portability and ease of use. Some of the disadvantages are the learning curve and failure of the eBook device.

Monday Class: Thoughts and Observations

This first class had a wealth of information about technology and it's benefits as well as it's criticisms. One of the areas of note was the talk on how to implement our lit review into a full fledged presentation. I thought the idea of the funnel was an easy illustration to understand a complex problem. Beginning with our theoretical framework, we gather our lit sources and generate broad ideas {top of the funnel}. Then we narrow those ideas down and find one or two compelling gaps in the literature {bottom of the funnel}. This is the beginning of our prospectus outline and will eventually become the methodology section of our paper.

General thoughts on Technology Practices for Instructional Improvement

I think the use of technology has really accelerated over the past 5 years. My students are using social media in the classroom at almost every opportunity. This can be both a blessing and a curse as they sometimes use it when I am trying to lecture. I think technology can be used as a great tool for teaching but we should also be cautious as to how we implement the changes. Great tech can never replace great teaching.

This is my first post to the blog for EDUC 730. I hope it will be a good intensive class! Eric Hall