Week 11 Reflection

According to chapter 22 of “Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology” by Reiser and Dempsey mention several helpful experiences of becoming an active member of the IDT field. Through reading this chapter, I found it very interesting for me in particular lessons that I feel it relevant to my current or short-term future needs. So, in this paper, I will state three lessons that appropriate for my situation and I will describe some steps I can take for each that will help me develop myself professionally.

First of all, the most important lesson for me is lesson fifteen which is when preparing for a job interview, find out as much you can about your potential employers. I like that experience because I faced something similar of that situation. I applied for studying a master degree in my hometown in Biology and I prepared for the interview with five of the faculty of Biology department by reading more information about Biology major. However, the surprise is they asked me about something very far away from biology. I remembered the questions were very wide, general, and not objective. So, I conclude the interview of a job or opportunity to get a scholarship is very critical and requires preparation by knowing more about the member of the interview. I learn from that lesson that I have to spend a few hours learning everything I can about the employer—from as many sources as I can such website, articles, talking to friends and contacts, read current news releases, and, spend some time on Google. Often, I notice that candidates just look at the information an employer is pushing out via the website and social media, but fail to look more in depth at what others are saying. By doing so, I will get the larger picture about the employer and obtain that job easily.

The other lessons that I interested in are the lesson seventeen: let your professors know you are looking for a job and eighteen which demonstrates your professors that you do good work. I like those couple of lessons and I agree with authors they are very important and play a significant role in getting a job. Let me tell you about my friend who had a scholarship from our government to study a bachelor and master degree and he was ambitious to upgrade the scholarship and complete studying to get a Ph.D. degree but he could not do that for some reasons. However, he did not give up and he told his professors that he need an opportunity for a job or assistance for professors and he got it. So, I learn that lesson that whether I know someone who has my dream job or someone who works at my favorite employer, I will ask my professor to put me in contact with anyone I know who would be helpful to my job. Once my professor provides me with a contact, I will make sure to set up a meeting with that person as soon as I can.

Google Apps

 Here is my Google Slide

For Google Apps assignment, I create simple powerpoint slides for my students about a cell. I find this app as an alternative to Microsoft Office application. Also, it is very helpful and easy to use and edit by more one of a person by sharing a link to a document. It is a great method for communication for group work because I faced many times working with students by email which is an impractical way. So, the ability to easily share and simultaneously edit a Google Drive document is the biggest strength. Moreover, the fact that everyone will always be on the same version of Slides, and that all the collaborators will have a consistent experience while editing and commenting, is a huge positive for Google’s apps.

Photo Editing

Before 

After 

For this assignment, I used FotoFlexer as an editor for pictures. It was very easy to use and I like it for several reasons. First, it saves my time because I can work on it online instead of download adobe photoshop on my computer. Second, it is free and that is a great advantage that can anybody use it. Third, it has many options which provide for me more creativity. In fact, I added this website for my favorite because I will use it future such as the example which I show you above. That is an image of a plant cell; I hide the names of components of the cell and ask students to write them in an exam.

Screencast

Here is my Screencast

In this assignment, I will use Jing as an aid tool to help me how to teach students to make a PowerPoint Slides to present their project.
The PowerPoint Slides is easy to create colorful, attractive designs using the standard templates and themes; easy to modify compared to other visual aids, such as charts, and easy to drag and drop slides to re-order presentation.
Instead of spending lots of time in the class to teach kids how to use this technology, I will make a tutorial video for students and attach it on the web page of class. I believe that is a great idea which saves time and effort of teachers and motivates the student to use technology in their learning.
So, this video explains for students basic information to create simple power point slides. In the end of the semester, we have a final project which contains making a presentation. This tool will teach them how to use power point slide

Screenshot

In this assignment, I will use Jing as an aid tool to help me how to teach students to make a PowerPoint Slides to present their project. The PowerPoint Slides is easy to create colorful, attractive designs using the standard templates and themes; easy to modify compared to other visual aids, such as charts, and easy to drag and drop slides to re-order presentation.
Instead of spending lots of time in the class to teach kids how to use this technology, I will make a simple above picture for students and attach on the web page of class. I believe that is a great idea which saves time and effort of teachers and motivates student to use technology in their learning.
So, this picture explains for students basic information to create simple power point slides. In the end of the semester, we have a final project which contains making a presentation. This tool will teach them to hoe to use power point slides.

Week 10 Reflection

According to chapter 22 of “Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology” by Reiser and Dempsey who focus on instructional technology in different contexts. Through reading this chapter, I conclude two significant themes that I noticed across these contexts. Moreover, after finishing this chapter, I got some benefits that could help me in my current professional working environment.

First of all, the authors provide me rich information about connection business and education field together by collaboration. Really, I did not know about this information before reading this chapter because I have not an opportunity to see two or more teachers from different subject areas (or grade levels) truly collaborating on a curriculum (I think that happens in most of the schools). However, I explored that research faculty collaborates with other experts all the time, and business does it constantly in order to balance revenue and expenses, develop new products, and improve efficiency. P-12 teachers could really stand to follow this example of using collaboration to maximize their creativity and effectiveness when designing instruction and teaching students.

In fact, there are several experiences that I faced them makes me diligence on emphasize that in some situations, even faculty members show a state of reluctance to change their way of teaching, this would take me back to the notion of change resistance. I remember a teacher has a twenty years experience in teaching history, but she refuses using technology in her classroom or changing her traditional way of teaching, which is lecture because of she absolutely convinced lecture is the only effective method of teaching history. Even though the students show boredom during a class time and she got several tips from the administrators to renew her teaching method, but she still believes there is nothing best lecture method to teach history and technology does not fit to integrate with teaching. Through that example, we can see it on a more advanced and open-minded level when a Higher education faculty developer likes Brenda Litchfield describes her hardest part in this respect by saying: “Many (faculty members) are reluctant to admit they want or need help with their teaching”. So this notion seems overwhelming in whichever the setting is.

In my opinion, the collaboration between faculty members is an important condition to success the school. Also, I will be happy if some teacher helped me especially if he/she is an expert in teaching. That definitely would make me feel successful at work because I learned from them how I will treat some difficulties that they faced, best solutions for common troubles in the classroom, and the most effective ways to teach current subject or lesson without passing in the same situation.

The another issue that attracts my attention in this chapter is the multitude roles for a technology-based instructional designer in higher education context we can see him playing an important role in faculty development in terms of students and learning contexts, design, and development of instruction, innovative methods of implementation and evaluation of teaching and learning. In point of fact, I did not know about the enormous tasks that doing by instructional designer, but now I realized that is an essential element in every school because he/she can prepare for faculty development, the need for other skills like negotiating skills, presentation skills, dealing with difficult participants and integrating technology into curriculum could be another requirement, which in turn expand the range of responsibilities Higher Ed instructional designer may encounter. In addition to the roles of teaching, we see him contribute more to research and consultancy roles.

Google Sites

I create this web site by Google Sites for a numbers of reasons for the 5th grade student. By accessing this web sight, students or their parents can get:

1. Announcements, class events, reading materials, classroom rules, and many more.
2. Sharing information with parents like curriculum resources and students' grades.
3. Course materials and rich content including videos, images, slides, and audio recordings.
4. Posting homework, assignments, and class events.

Here is the link for my website

Week 9 Reflection

According to chapter 21 of “Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology” by Reiser and Dempsey who focus on instructional technology in different contexts. Through reading this chapter, I found it easy to understand the concepts and apply them to how we use them in teaching science in my hometown For this reflection, I will pick up the most two interesting trends or issues that surprised me and I will explain the reasons of that.

The first trend that attracts my attention is NteQ that is an iNtegrating Technology for inQuiry. The purpose of that model is to use the computer as an integrated tool in the classroom rather than an instructional source of information, or drill and practice tool. The students in that model not only learn lesson objectives but also develop real-life knowledge, skills, solve problem, create a project, and explore inquiry. This process starts with the learning objectives. Then, connect the technology (computer or application functions) to the learning objectives. I believe that model provides numbers of advantages for both instructors and students. For instructors, the responsibility decreases because the role of teachers changes from just educator to facilitator or assistant. Also, the NTeQ lesson plan format is flexible because it can be changed to fit the needs of each teacher and allows a teacher to make sure the lesson is technology and data driven. For students, makes the students the center of the learning process because they have more freedom to work and it motivates students in ways that teachers fail to reach during their instruction, and it is a modern style to learn instead of using traditional teaching methods (lecture, writing, or collaboration). In fact, I believe that NteQ model is the best method to teach science because most of the scientific topics require the knowledge that related to real life (such as digestion and breathing lessons in biological science), solve problem (gravity in physics), create a project, and explore inquiry.

The second aspect that I found interesting is an ASSURE Model which is an instructional design that has the goal of producing more effective teaching and learning. ASSURE Model consist of six sequenced tips that organize the teacher planning and ensure getting the desired result if it implements correctly. The first phase, analyze the attributes of learners by the teacher. Second, the teacher must state standards and objectives for the learning module. Third, the teacher should select strategies, technology, media, and materials. Fourth, the teacher should create a plan includes the way utilizing the technology, media, and materials that teacher has selected. Fifth, the plan that made by teacher requires learner participation, which engages students in the material that selected by the teacher. Sixth, the teacher should evaluate the impact of teaching on student learning which includes an evaluation of teaching strategies, the technology, media, and materials that used in the plan. I believe that model is a great method that provides for me organized steps which help me to create a lesson plan that is effective and engaging for students. Moreover, I found a significant advantage in the ASSURE Model which is the last phase evaluation because it gives me a feedback about the level of my performance, the level of students' understanding of the lesson, and some adjustments that may help me in future to get a more effective plan.