Sunday, November 25, 2007

8823_LQuadri_WK12_Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

Over the twelve weeks of training on computer technology and multimedia in education, the “lesson learned” have give me capabilities and significantly upgrade my expectations for success in educational technology. I have gain more in the area of educational research that supports design, development and delivery of instruction using emerging technologies.
Emerging technology such as- Wireless –(PDA, and Cell phones); Collaborations software- Wiki; SharePoints and BBS; Synchronous Presentation Tools-Illuminate, WebEx; Video Conferencing Networks; Educational Repositories- LMS/LCMS; Podcasting- Educational Radio; Peer to Peer and Collaborative Software; Simulation and Gaming; Smart Agent Software- RSS Feeds; Video/Video on Demand; Interactive Television; iPods; PowerPoint Conversion Tools; Open Source Tools; and some other emerging that not even mention in note.
I have been able to create a learning experience that is delivered using one or more emerging technologies such as html, video conferencing and PowerPoint’s. Engage in technology tools like instant messenger (IM) and blogging for classroom discussion.
Also, I have developed strategies to help keeping updates on all these emerging technologies that arrive every six month. With ability to learn how education policies can be improved to plug gaps in control to upgrade the effectiveness of instructional processes throughout the education environment.
The lesson learned so far, is a rich source of materials for knowledge acquired in education, to be able to pass the knowledge gained to our student K-12 and college levels. Lesson learned can play a big role in instructional technology; all the lesson learned and knowledge gained will help solve problems from learning from traditional method of learning to e-learning environment.
The use of technologies in school is very significant for learners, and often quite difficult in the uncontrolled environment of a real school to neatly separate categories of technology use. As resourceful professionals, teachers are used to applying tools to tasks; a tool as flexible as a computer is often applied to a large number of teaching, learning, and administrative tasks.
Nowadays most of the emerging technologies have been integrated into a teacher’s or school’s curriculum; that is technology as a tool or catalyst to the learning in all school environments.

8823_LQuadri_Lessons Learned

8823_LQuadri_Final Reflection


Lessons Learned
Over the twelve weeks of training on computer technology and multimedia in education, the “lesson learned” have give me capabilities and significantly upgrade my expectations for success in educational technology. I have gain more in the area of educational research that supports design, development and delivery of instruction using emerging technologies.
Emerging technology such as- Wireless –(PDA, and Cell phones); Collaborations software- Wiki; SharePoints and BBS; Synchronous Presentation Tools-Illuminate, WebEx; Video Conferencing Networks; Educational Repositories- LMS/LCMS; Podcasting- Educational Radio; Peer to Peer and Collaborative Software; Simulation and Gaming; Smart Agent Software- RSS Feeds; Video/Video on Demand; Interactive Television; iPods; PowerPoint Conversion Tools; Open Source Tools; and some other emerging that not even mention in note.
I have been able to create a learning experience that is delivered using one or more emerging technologies such as html, video conferencing and PowerPoint’s. Engage in technology tools like instant messenger (IM) and blogging for classroom discussion.
Also, I have developed strategies to help keeping updates on all these emerging technologies that arrive every six month. With ability to learn how education policies can be improved to plug gaps in control to upgrade the effectiveness of instructional processes throughout the education environment.
The lesson learned so far, is a rich source of materials for knowledge acquired in education, to be able to pass the knowledge gained to our student K-12 and college levels. Lesson learned can play a big role in instructional technology; all the lesson learned and knowledge gained will help solve problems from learning from traditional method of learning to e-learning environment.
The use of technologies in school is very significant for learners, and often quite difficult in the uncontrolled environment of a real school to neatly separate categories of technology use. As resourceful professionals, teachers are used to applying tools to tasks; a tool as flexible as a computer is often applied to a large number of teaching, learning, and administrative tasks.
Nowadays most of the emerging technologies have been integrated into a teacher’s or school’s curriculum; that is technology as a tool or catalyst to the learning in all school environments.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Wk 11 Personal Reflection: Simulation and Games.

Simulation and Games
Taking note on simulation and simulation games which provide learners through visual interaction, learners were able to explore real life simulation that challenges individual activities that lead to success or failure.
Games make it possible to lead virtual civilizations and or explore others activities from perspective of educational pedagogies. Either simulation or simulation games are a push “technologies” that has contributed to development in education and the way the students play, interact, and learn. Simulation and the games are power tools, the benefits of using simulations and the games to show the ideas, concepts, and application of games manufacturing tools are well recognized. Other use of simulation application is for problem solving, on piece flow, work balance, and quality improvement.

I enjoy this particular topic because future games will employ deeper simulation in order to achieve greater levels of interaction and complexity, while simultaneously simplifying the learning curve for new player. Educational simulation is about life simulation that gives opportunity to learn how people really live in other countries. It brings to life different cultures, political systems, economic opportunities, personal decisions, health issues, family issues, schooling, jobs, religions, geography, war, peace, and a simulation game exploring sustainable management of renewable resources. Each turn you must decide how much effort to devote to fishing. The goal of the game is to find the profit-maximizing level of effort and to end with a sustainable population. The important aspect of game design is the relation between the game goals and the learning goals.

What will future brings on simulation games?
The future of simulation and the games are looking bright, moreover, more research are been conducting for using multiplayer and online games to study the effectiveness of games based training. The environments studied are developed and maintained using an online interactive virtual environment platform. More games are been design to give people a view into future. Designed to stimulate innovation, emotional intelligence and strategic foresight, participants are supported by facilitators and futurist, strategic and creative tools and techniques to meet purposeful outcomes.
Although simulation has been around for some years, collaborative with simulation games provides new model for social organization, and improve the literacy’s in the community. There are many ways people learn through media nowadays, either through simulation or simulation games; Video games are emerging as a new medium for learning. “Advance in molding technologies, graphic libraries, and games editors are making the creation of educational gaming multi-million dollars industries.” The games of the future will rely heavily on much more complex, high fidelity world representations that will allow for more emergent behavior and unforeseen player interactions. Taken together, these next-generation design paradigms are not simply improvements over older models, but represent a fundamentally different approach to simulating real-world physics, handling artificial intelligence and interface usability Havey Smith, (2005).

References:
Designing Game-Based Learning Environments. A series of links to academic publications describing game technology and design tools. Retrieved Nov. 13th, 2007 from http://website.education.wise.edu/kdsquire/research.html

Horn, R. E. (1999) The Convention Game (prepared for the 30th Anniversary issue of Simulations and Games) A keynote speech to the North American Simulation and Gaming Association 30, 4, Dec. 1999, 456-475 (html)

Horn, R. E. (1970-1980) The Guide to Simulations/Games for Education and Training. (Ed) 1970 (with D.W. Zuckerman), Cambridge: I.R.I.; 1973, 2nd edition, Research Media, Inc.1976, 3rd edition, Didactic Systems, Inc.; 1980 4th edition, (with Anne Cleaves). Los Angeles: Sage Publications

Simulation and Advanced Gaming Environments for Learning - A university research consortium exploring the impact of simulation, simulation-games and games in education. Retrieved Nov. 13th, 2007 from http://website.education.wise.edu/kdsquire/research.html

Smith, H., (2001). The future of game design: Moving beyond Deus Ex and other dated paradigms. Multimedia International Market. Retrieved Nov. 20th, 2007 from http://www.igda.org/articles/hsmith.future.php.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Wk 10 Personal Reflection: Learning Object

Learning Object and Educational Repositories

What is Learning Object (LO)?
The most definition I can relate to is a digital, self contained, reusable entity with a clear learning aim that contain at least three internal changing and editable components: content, instructional activities, and context elements. Also, the learning object should have an external component of information which helps its identification, storage, and recovery, the metadata.
I must admit that I don’t know much about what the learning object all entail apart from the literally meaning of LO. However, looking at the typical component of a learning object such as following:

* General Course Descriptive Data
Course identifiers
Language of content (English, French)
Subject area (Math’s, Reading, etc)
Descriptive Keywords
* Instructional Content
Text
HTML Web pages
Images
Sound
Video
* Quizzes and Assessment
Questions
Answers
*Educational Level
Grade level
Age Range
Typical learning time
Difficulty

Separation of content and context or content and learning process is a huge benefit to the designer and flexibility of reusing the same learning objects with different instructional strategies to teach the same subject content. Permitting the learner as well as the instructor to generatively construct, manipulate, describe or organize learning objects can enrich the system with additional resources as well as provide a significant learning experience for the user. The is evidence for this perspective in that allowing learners the opportunity to design and link content to show interrelated, complex ideas in building a hypermedia knowledge base, may increase the level of acquired content for students and allow them to demonstrate meaningful content structures.


Repositories can be referring to one of many different technologies that support the storage and distribution of digital content, including: academic portfolio, Institutional file storage systems, course management systems, and collection of research data.
A repository differs from standard Web materials by providing teachers, students and parents with information that is structured and organized to facilitate the finding and use of learning materials regardless of their source location.
I have checked various digital and web based learning resources online to further learn how and application of this learning object for online environment. One of the key issues in using learning object is their identification by search engines. This is usually facilitated by assigning descriptive metadata to the learning object.



References:
Alessi, S.M. & Trollip, S.R. (2001). Multimedia for learning: Methods and development (3rd ed.) Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Ritland, B., Dabbagh, N., & Murphy, K. (2005). Learning object systems as constructivist learning environments: Assumptions, Theories and Applications. George Mason University.

Campus Technology. (2005). Convergence: 101 best practices converge. Retrieved 26th, 2007 from http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=17564
Forth, S. & Childs, E. (2004). White paper on e-learning specifications and standards. (Online Article). Available at: http://www.innovativetraining.ca/Samples/Specifications%20and%20Standards%20White%20Paper.pdf
Greenberg, L. (2002). LMS and LCMS: What's the difference of Learning Circuits, ASTD. (Online Article). Available at: http://www.learningcircuits.org/2002/dec2002/greenberg.htm
Klopfer, E., Squire, K. & Jenkins, H. (nd). Environmental detectives: PDAs as a window into a virtual simulated world. Cambridge, MA: MIT. (Online research article). Retrieved 26th, 2007 from http://website.education.wisc.edu/kdsquire/manuscripts/german-chapter.doc.
Robbins, S.R. (2002). The evolution of the learning content management system. (Online Article). Available at: http://www.learningcircuits.org/2002/apr2002/robbins.html
Stacey, P. (2001). Learning management systems & learning content management systems: e-learning an enterprise application? (Online Article). Available at: http://www.bctechnology.com/statics/pstacey-oct2601.html

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

8823_Discussion_WK6-2_Insant Messenger

Instant Messenger (IM)
I first heard about Instant Messenger (IM) a long time ago introduce by American Online (AOL-AIM), and all these year I haven’t had opportunity to really use one until I took EDUC_8823 course. IM as part of Web collaboration tools is instantly connect to people who matter to individual via text, voice, or video. Even if they’re offline, you can leave a message or send a note. This will be my first time in using the tool to chat and ‘am much exited using IM to communicate, not only in the class discussion and collides, but I have also introduced some of my friends to connect with IM for easy contact and sharing of information. This has brought an instant access to friends and collides, what a brilliant new way to connect and share information, photos (and other stuff).
Since, I started this EDUC-8823: Computer Technology and Multimedia in education I chatted nearly every day with some of my classmates to discussed issue about technologies and multimedia in education pedagogy. Occasionally we may have group between three to seven online chatting and asking questions about weekly discussion. One important feature of IM is the capability to send instant picture, my classmate send me a pictures while chatting on the Windows Live Messenger some days ago.
This program is similar to Yahoo pager, as long as you have them running, will let you know when your friends are online (as long as they have them running too). When you find one of your friends or collide online you can start a real time chat session with them. Another unique feature is the live voice chat feature. Besides basic instant messenger support, this application also integrates with e-mail, spaces and other tools. There are other programs out there that can communicate with IM, Yahoo Instant Messages, AIM, and Yahoo in a single box. Gaim’s messenger run on windows, Mac, Linux, and Unix operating systems.


References:
Alessi, S.M. & Trollip, S.R. (2001). Multimedia for learning: Methods and development (3rd ed.) Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, Wikis, podcastings, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Sage Publication, CA.

Ruffner’s, J. W. & Woodward, K.G. (2006). Computer-based and web-based applications
for night vision goggle training. Alexandra, VA. Retrieved 22nd, 2007 from
http://www.dcstrainingsupport.com/PDF/Ruffner-Woodward-2001.pdf

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Wk 9 Personal Reflection: LMS and LCMS

What are a LMS and LCMS?
Learning Management System (LMS) is software tools designed to manage learner interventions, it manages the delivery of self-paced, e-learning courses.
Learning Content Management System (LCMS) allow electronic content to be available in segments that multiple users to manage course content and track performance.
Learners log into the LMS using browser, select courses from the catalog and launch them; tracks the learners’ activities with the courses. Learning objects have a wide variety of definitions, but they are digital content that can created, manipulated, stored and retrieved using common storage and search routines.

In reflecting to question asked by Professor Tim that “Are one of these a subset of the other? Or, are they two separate "things" that simply overlap”?

The combination of LMS and LCMS can be use for effective training, and are subset of each other. LCMS solves is to create enough content in time to meet the needs of individual learners or groups of learners. A good LMS provides an infrastructure that enables organization to plan, deliver, and manage learning programs in any format; and it supports multiple authoring systems and integrates easily with LCMS systems. In its role as a catalyst for overall learning environment, an LMS can integrate LCMS learning objects via technical specifications and standards and assume responsibility for all content management, including delivery and tracking, storage in a content repository, incorporation of content objects into blended curriculums, and tracking learner progress through courses.

The needs for LMS and LCMS in education and training environment, which have had an increasingly profound impact upon the speed, content of ownership, cost, flexibility, and business benefits of e-learning solutions. Many organizations with extensive, well-established classroom training functions use LMS to enroll learners in classroom-based events, manage face-to-face training, and report on progress.

The similarities and differences is that the LCMS are the corporate version of traditional course management systems that were initially developed for higher education. LCMS application change the value economics of e-learning content delivery by organizations a scalable platform to deliver proprietary knowledge to the individual learners without bearing a prohibitive cost burden. The LCMS can provide different types of materials, learning methods, and schedules. LCMS is an enterprise platform that moves beyond simple content authoring, storage, and delivery administrative applications.
Pen interface with LMS or other ERP systems LMS is an important tool for strategic deployment of learning and the long-term benefits are very important. LMS takes a centralized, organizational approach to learning while in contrast LCMS provides functionality as content reuse and adaptive individualized learning paths based on learning objects. Also provides asynchronous collaborative learning including discussion groups. In using classmate William’s example, Blackboard has both LMS and LCMS functions, the LMS incorporates and integrated set of programs and tutorials programs with data storages, and tracking functions.

Personal perception of both LMS and LCMS in an educational environment; this advanced application enables organizations to deliver customized courses, videos, live seminars and tests via the Internet. The LMS is scalable systems that provides total complete foundation for all aspects of e-learning, and manage learning objective content with support from learner collaboration. The significant of LCMS is that it stores learning objects in a central repository for instructional designers to retrieve and assemble into personalized courses. Traditional courses tend to contain more content than any single learner can absorb or needs to absorb about a topic which benefit learners and developer to deliver just-in-time and just-enough learning.


References:
Alessi, S.M. & Trollip, S.R. (2001). Multimedia for learning: Methods and development (3rd ed.) Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Campus Technology. (2005). Convergence: 101 best practices converge. Retrieved 26th, 2007 from http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=17564


Forth, S. & Childs, E. (2004). White paper on e-learning specifications and standards. (Online Article). Available at: http://www.innovativetraining.ca/Samples/Specifications%20and%20Standards%20White%20Paper.pdf


Greenberg, L. (2002). LMS and LCMS: What's the difference of Learning Circuits, ASTD. (Online Article). Available at: http://www.learningcircuits.org/2002/dec2002/greenberg.htm


Klopfer, E., Squire, K. & Jenkins, H. (nd). Environmental detectives: PDAs as a window into a virtual simulated world. Cambridge, MA: MIT. (Online research article). Retrieved 26th, 2007 from http://website.education.wisc.edu/kdsquire/manuscripts/german-chapter.doc.


Robbins, S.R. (2002). The evolution of the learning content management system. (Online Article). Available at: http://www.learningcircuits.org/2002/apr2002/robbins.html


Stacey, P. (2001). Learning management systems & learning content management systems: e-learning an enterprise application? (Online Article). Available at: http://www.bctechnology.com/statics/pstacey-oct2601.html





Sunday, November 4, 2007

Lekanquadri:

We have no wifi in our grauate center yet. What has your experience been with its speed when students all access it at once? Is the speed maintained?

Frank