Final Project

Computers in Education (IT 645) has been an extremely beneficial class. The class provided a wide range of technology that is available for teachers. All the course projects taught me a lot of new technologies available on the internet. The projects also allowed me to apply the available resources for teachers. I had to complete a lot of assignments using technologies that have never used before taking IT 645. At times when starting a project I would feel overwhelmed, but the instructions provided made even the most difficult project relatively easy. I am currently not teaching, so I feel like IT 645 has prepared me to use the available technologies that will best benefit me when I start teaching. I feel like I already have a head start on my teaching career. IT 645 is a great class for any teacher to take. I feel like all future and current teachers should take IT 645, because it would help to alleviate their concerns with using technologies in the classroom. Using technologies resources can make teaching more interactive and educational for the students.

I have always preferred taking a course in a classroom, so that I can have face-to-face interaction with the instructor. Even though I have taken many online courses during my college years, but this is the first course that I used email regularly. After the chapter in the textbook that talked about filters messages, I have been more alert to the way that I communicate while using email. The emails that was sent by Dr. Wang was outlined and detailed to make it easy to understand what was expected of me next week.

I chose to purchase the course textbook using the e-book. Using the e-book is a lot more cost effective for me. I had to get used to reading the textbook online. I have always liked to highlight the important text for later use. Since I used the e-book, I had to read the text more carefully than usual. But I believe learned and understood the information faster. Using the resources available with the textbook purchase allowed me to make sure that I understood the information. One of the best benefits is that I could use the resources at the best time for me. The podcasts were a lot of help to me. I got the lecturing, in a sense, I needed. The podcasts reinforced the importance of technology.

The blog was a great tool to use in this class. I will definitely use a blog in my class. It is a great educational tool. Teachers could create a blog for each class. He or she could post discussion questions on the blogs. Blogs are, in my opinion, created to integrate technology in the class. Teachers can have links important sites or documents for the class. I do not believe that there is a subject that technology can be useful. As teachers, we should use the best available educational tools for students.

The projects for this course allowed me as a student to make sure that I understood the each resource. The projects’ instructions made the projects easier to complete. I am the type of person that stresses over an assignment. I tend to look at the examples before I read the instructions. I have realized that this was the wrong order. Even though I would stress over the projects, they were the best part of the course.

I have created many flyers in my career. I now realized that I have not used the all the available components in Word for creating a flyer. I learned a lot when I creating the flyer. I enjoyed getting to be creative. Every person needs to make sure that the flyers in which he or she creates are eye-catching and list all the important information. If the flyer is not created properly, most people will not pay that much attention to the flyer. You can be creating a flyer for something extremely important, and if the flyer is not created properly than you may not have to turnout that you desire.

Using excel in the class can be greatly beneficial to a teacher. Teachers can create grade books like I created for the course. If you create grade book in excel, you do not have to worry about calculating grades for the students. It also makes it easier to have information available for parents when you are asked for it. Teachers can create graphs to see what the class average is, so that he or she can make sure that most of the students understand the information. And the older children can use excel for different subjects such as math, history, and science.

Creating the quiz in PowerPoint was a lot of fun for me. Before creating this project, I have never created a quiz in PowerPoint. I believe as a teacher, I could create quizzes to keep the students involved in the class. And the students would also have the correct answer. You can make animated for the students to make them interested in the quiz. You could also create a study guide for the students to make sure that all the students know all the information needs for each test.

The project on web tools was very interesting for me. I did not really know all the web tools available for teachers for no or little cost. You can create puzzles, rubrics, and test makers. I have always thought that making a rubric had to be difficult, but with RubricStar website it is made simple for teachers. I learned a lot from the web tools project. I had a great time creating my puzzle. I have used the site a lot since I discovered. I created about seven puzzles for my project. Now I use it to create puzzle for my young relatives. It really helps the children learn key terms. I found to be extremely helpful in learning spelling words. The test maker was a lot of fun also. I loved creating the test. TestMaker was great to use. It would be great to use as a study guide for test also. TrackStar is a great site for teachers, especially for teachers in junior high or high school. TrackStar is a great tool to use to reinforce the current subjects in your classroom. You can even use it to create a helper for the parents of your students. For the students that do not have a home computer, you could allot time to allow the students to explore the sites on your TrackStar site. Web evaluations are a great tool to make sure that all the sites are appropriate for your students. Teachers can also make the evaluations available to the parents, so the parents can make sure that his or her children visit the correct sites.

The website project was one of the challenging projects. It was also the most time consuming for me. There was a lot of trial and error for me. But when I just followed the instructions in order, it seems to get easier. I like for everything to perfect, so changed a lot of information before I was satisfied with the site. A class website is a great ideal. The teacher can list all the homework assignments, which would eliminate the phrase, “I don’t know what I had to do for homework.” The site would make it easier for communicate between the parents and teachers. But you should still make sure all the parents have numbers to reach you, because every household does not have a computer and internet. You could also put others sites for the students. I believe that creating a website is better than TrackStar. You could a page for the different subjects. If the teacher is committed using the site, then he or she needs to make sure that all the parents have the ability to use the site to its full potential. The teacher needs to create an instructional guide for the parents.

The Story and ListServ project was the most difficult for me. It took me awhile to create the narration for my movie. It was a lot of trial and error. You had to make sure that you timed the slides perfectly with the narration and also the song. I worked on it for hours. But in the end, the project became my favorite of all the projects. I have never using the Windows MovieMaker before the project.

The blogfolio is a great way to make sure that you understand all the concepts learned in the class, because you must review what you learned in the class to create the last blog. It also allows that students to show to what extent you understood all the concepts of the class. I created electronic portfolios in another class. I believe that I liked creating a blogfolio the best.

I learned more organizational skills in this class. When you take an online class you have to be more structured than when you take a regular class. But the pros outweigh the cons. I was able to create the projects when it was most convince for me. Dr. Wang made sure that there was good communication with all the students. She responded to email quickly. She sent reminder for all the projects, which helped me stay focused. The projects helped me strengthen my weaknesses with technology. It was opened my eyes to the unlimited free resources on the internet.

In the future, I want to make sure that I use most of the concepts used in this class. I hope to one day teach in high school or a junior college teaching some form of technology course. I believe that taking IT 645 helped me one day achieve my goal. I hope to one day use all the electronic portfolios to show all the strengths concerning my technology skills.

Week 13 Legal, Social, and Ethical Issues in the Digital Age

What are the legal, social, and ethical issues arising in the Digital Age? Summarize each.

- Legal Issues -

Copyright & Fair Use
Copyright protects the rights of the owner of intellectual property. Generally materials that are protected by copyright should not generally by used without the owner’s permission, but there are times when using the material is permitted. (Lever-Duffy and McDonald, 400)
According to Lever-Duffy and McDonald, fair use guidelines describe circumstances in which teachers can use copyrighted material in face-to-face instruction. The TEACH Act stated the guidelines for using copyrighted material in distance learning. To make sure that you use all the information correctly, you should ask yourself four questions:
1. What is the intended use?
2. What type of work is it?
3. How much of the work do you intend to use?
4. What impact does this kind of have on the market for the work?

Privacy
Every adult and child in the United States has the right to privacy. Before using information about child, you should get permission from the parents. The right to privacy is one of the significant issues in the Digital Age. Before the law COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) was passed in October 1998, internet sites that were constructing for children would ask for personal information like name, address, phone numbers, and photos without asking for permission for the parents. As future teachers, we should make sure that we have written permission from all parents of our students before we post any information about a child on the internet. The Federal Trade Commission created a website that provides information to children, parents, and teachers (www.ftc.gov/kidzprivacy ).
As a teacher, you should remember that privacy is just as important offline as online. Software that contains information such as personal information and grades should allows be protected. Most schools have the teachers save information on a network, so you should make sure that all the information is password protected.

Accpectable use
As a teacher is your responsbility to make sure that all the students use the available technolgy is the appropriate manner. You would not allow any of your students to bring questionable paper into your class, so you should make sure that you do not allow the students look at sites that are questionable. All teachers need to make sure that all the students know what is expectable and unexpectble. The students should be given a code of ethics for computer use. The teacher needs to have the students and parents sign something stating that he or she understands the code and conquences for misusing the computer. All of the school computers have filtering software that blocks access to inappropriate sites.

Software Piracy
Software piracy is copying software to share with others or installing software on a computer when one copy was purchased. Just as it is illegal to copy a CD or DVD, it is illegal to copy software. Teachers should never copy software without having purchased the software. All schools and businesses must purchase a custom for the network or purchase a site license. All schools have rules regarding piracy. You should must sure that you have a copy of the rules and that you understand the rules.

Social Issues

Equity and accessibilty of technology are the most pressing social issues. National Telecommuciation and Information Administration conducted a study that found the 46% of household earning $35,000 to $49,000 have internet access and a home computer, 66% of househoulds earning over $50,000 have computer and internet access. This difference gives the last group a head start on developing computer skills. It also means that when it comes time for the students to have to conduct internet research the wealthier children have more internet access. The inequity of access is sometimes referred to as digital divide. Teachers should learn to become sensitive to their students access level.

Ethical Issues

Freedom of Speech
The Internet is basically a forum for sharing information and opinions. Some of the information is factual and some of the information is solely based on personal information. Because of freedom of speech, it is near impossible to restrict a person for stating his or her opinion. The responsibility of making sure that a child uses the correct information is left in the hands of the parents and teachers. Teachers need to be aware of their responsibilty to guarantee students “digital safety”.

Privacy
Privacy is an important issue is the United States. Teachers and students must remember that when he or she signed the computer usage form, the manual stated that the school has access to all the files on the network. Network administrators can monitor activity, and software can track what is said and sent over the network.


Academic Dishonesty
As a students, we all have seen the sites that offer services such as writing a term paper for students. This is an example of academic dishonesty (AD). Even if you copy and paste information from a site without giving credit to the author, you are committing AD. Most schools use antiplagiarism software to make check students’ works. The software compares the students’ works with well-known authors’ works as well as works posted on the Web.

Week 12 Movie and Group

Cora’s Movie

Using Windows Movie Maker was very interesting for me. Like every other assignment I was stressed up starting the assignment, but it turned out to be fun. I like creating the movie. While creating the movie, I had a lot of trial and error. The only part that I found difficult was the narrating the movie. I had to redo the part about ten times to get what I want. I tried to add to the wrong saved file. I had to recreate the narration part.

I think that using Windows Movie Maker could be useful in a classroom setting. You could upload the movies onto your website for the parents of the students to see after a large project. As a teacher, I could get the students involved to create a movie for the parents on special occasions. You could integrate technology into any subject with this program. The students could use Windows Movie Maker to create presentations for class. It is very hard to get in front of a group of people. This program could be used to get the students used to talking in front of a group. The student would be more comfortable talking to a computer than talking to a group of his or her peers. But the student would still know that he or she would have to show the movie to them. Another benefit is that when you create a picture movie, you do not have to be in front of the screen. You have to just worry about talking correctly.

ListServ

The ListServ was the easiest assignment this semester. I was amazed that a group could be so easily. I would rather create a group than rather a website. A teacher could create a group and invite all the parents and students in the class. I would post all the homework assignments and study guides. I could post discussions for the students. The parents would receive an email with the homework assignments in them. The parents would have to wonder what his or her child had to do for homework because he or she would receive an email listing all the information daily or weekly. Listserv is an effective tool for teachers. I believe that using technology is the best way to go for teachers. Education will one day be mainly technology based. Teacher should keep up to dated with the advances in technology.

Sorry that I am late this week. My computer was having malfunctions.

Week 11 Distance Education

What is distance education?
Distance education can be defined as the delivery of instruction to students who are separated from his or her teacher by time / or location. Many colleges have adopted this idea of moving information rather than people and have applied it to the delivery of instruction. If you are taking a distance education class, you probably would not see your teacher on a regular basis or see your teacher at all. Most communication will be through email and system like Blackboard. For example, a student is working on an assignment at night and he or she has a question about the assignment. The teacher is not in her office. The student can email the teacher from his or her home computer. Then the teacher will get the email either at her home computer or when she gets to the office in the morning. The teacher can email the answer to the student. The teacher would not get the question until the morning in this scenario, the teacher and student to be separated by both time and place. This type of instructional interaction is the core of distance education.

Technology is the key to providing a format for academic communication and exchange. Technology is the key to success with distance learning. Most students that use distance education to complete their education to complete their education have a full time job and probably a family also. Distance education was developed to deliver instruction to students in remote rural locations. Distance education used to be completed through mail correspondence courses or the teacher would have to travel to the rural area. But with the advancement in technology, the teacher can stay in the comfort of her office and communicate with the students. Technology has made the response time a lot faster.

What types of support are critical to the success of distance education? Why?

Supporting technology that are available or that need to implement the instructional design. In distance education, these technology fall into two broad categories, technologies that support synchronous and asynchronous distance education. A synchronous distance education example is when a teacher requires the students to log into a chat room at a specific time. The students that participating in the class meet at the same time but in different location. Examples of tools used for delivery of synchronous technology are the telephone, broadcast video, radio broadcast, internet chat, and videoconferencing. Asynchronous distance education is time shifted; which means that the teacher and students can participate at different time and from different locations. An example of asynchronous distance education class is one that is conducted over the internet like our class. We all work at our convenience. Examples of delivery methods of asynchronous distance education are voicemail or fax, videocassette, audiocassette, internet conferencing, email, and print materials. All of asynchronous and synchronous distance education classes are conducted in an internet classroom sites like Blackboard. If the teachers and students do not that have support needed for distance learning, there will not be any success. Teachers need to be prepared and keep up on the new technologies.

Week 10 Website

Social Science Website

This week’s assignment was pretty scary to me. I have a hard time using a new program for the first time. I have used other website designing programs before. I always have a hard time getting started on a project. I will sit and worrying about the project, then I start it. I realize that I can handle the task at hand. I thought that I would not like creating this site but it turned out to be fun. I think that if I was actually a teacher, I would have an easier time creating the site. It has been a long time since I have been in school. I have not taken any teaching classes, so it was a little harder for me to construct a website for students.

Having a class website would be convenient for both parents and students. As a teacher, I could put the assignments on the site for parents and students to have copies. If a student lost his or her assignment, it could be found on the homework page. Parents would know what the child must complete every week. The homework page would help the parent be able to plan out his or her child’s homework time. One of the best benefits of a class website site for the parent is knowing what the child has to complete for homework. One of the things that I learned about a child is that if he or she does not want to do any homework then he or she will simply say, “I don’t have any homework”. Or my personal favorite, “I lost my homework papers.” If the teacher puts the homework on the website, then parents can just print out the lost homework.

The website cannot replace the face to face interaction. But it can make the teacher’s job easier. Most students have access to a computer and internet, so it teacher could put links to sites to use as a subject study aid. The teacher could create practice test on the site, so that parents can make sure that their child understands the information in the class. If the students do not understand the information, the parents can look at the many links to get more information. And there are some subjects that parents could use some help understanding the subject also. I had to use different sites to help my niece with her math homework.

Week 8 Project

WEB CONTENT EVALUATION
WEB DESIGN EVALUATION
PUZZLE
TRACKSTAR
TEST
TEST ANSWER
RUBRIC

I really enjoyed working a this week’s assignments. At first, I was looking at all the parts of the assignment and I was a little afraid. If you look at the assignment as a whole, there is a lot to the assignment. But when I started working on the assignments individually each part was fun. My favorite parts was creating the puzzle and test.

Web evaluation is important to me as a parent. While I was completing the the evaluation on content and design, for the first time I really looked at the site. I evaluated a site created by Mr. Dowling a Social Science teacher from Knoxville, TN. He created a great site. It is a great site for both parents and children. The site is eye-catching and easy to navigate. The site has information on almost all the subjects in a sixth grade social science class.

The puzzle was the best part of the assignment. I made about seven puzzles for the fun of it. I loved the site. If I was a teacher, I would use it for my students. I did not realize the things for teachers on the web. The site is easy to use. Parents could get on the site to create puzzle to help their children study.

I looked at the other students Trackstar site before I started mine. I was a little afraid at first. I thought that completing this part of the assignment was going to be the hardest part. But it turned out to be fairly uncomplicated. I really enjoyed making my trackstar. Using this site in your class would be great for your students and parents. You could put all the sites that you think would be good for your students. The parents and students would not have to search for examples, because all the examples would be all in one place.

The Test Maker site was great. If I was a teacher now, this would be the site for me. I would use this site weekly. I really enjoyed creating the test. The only thing that I enjoyed more was the puzzle. I created a few test just to try out the site. I researched my subject online. Then I created my test. The site made creating the test easy.

The rubric was the first part of the assignement that I created. I worked with the rubric site to get the rubric the way that I wanted. I was worried about this assignement. A lot of my instructors have used a rubric to grade me. I learned a lot from creating the rubric.

Week 7-2 Asynchronous and Synchronous communication

What is the difference between asynchronous and synchronous communication?
Asynchronous communication is communication that occurs at different time. Synchronous communication is communication that occurs at the same time. Asynchronous communication does not require that all parties involved in the communication need to be present and available at the same time. Some examples of electronic asynchronous communication are email, discussions, and mailing lists. Synchronous communication is simply communication that happens at the same time, immediately, a give-and-take. Some examples of electronic synchronous communication are chats and videoconferencing. We use mainly asynchronous communication in our online class. We use our blogs to communicate with each other. We email each other with questions and answers. Dr. Wang emails us the assignments each week. One of the advantages of asynchronous communication is that you can complete assignments when it is the best time for you. It allows you to have a flexible with your schedule. You can complete your class work while the kids are sleep, on your lunch break, or while you are waiting for breakfast. One of the advantages of synchronous communication is that you can interact with other students and instructors. You can ask questions when the information is fresh on your mind.

Name and describe the Internet communication that fall into each category.

Electronic mail is a form of asynchronous communication. E-mail is key communication tool provided in the networked environment. The author compares email to mail delivered to the post office. The inbox of your electronic mailbox is the same as the mailbox at the post office. You can sign in and check your mail. When you sign in, it is like using your key in your post office box. Your log-in name is unique to only you. Your log-in name is how the server knows which mailbox to open. Other people can send you mail, and you can check it and respond at your convenience. You can delete any of the messages that you do not want to keep. You can create folders to save you important messages.

Discussion is another form of asynchronous communication. Sometimes discussion is called a bulletin board, club, conference, or forum. Discussion allows one user to communicate with many users. In this class we created this blog, which is a form of a discussion. Discussion can be private or public. If a discussion is private, a user can only participate if he or she is invited to join. Public discussions are available to anyone.

Mailing lists are a form of asynchronous communication. Listserv is a mailing list. This tool automatically delivers emails to those who subscribe to the list. The messages are sent to an umbrella email address of the list itself and then appear on in inbox of all the subscribers. The list can be set up to where everyone on the list can post messages that will be emailed out to every other person on the list or set up so that only the administrator can list personal email messages.

Chats are a form of synchronous communication. A chat is a service offered by some ISPs and some other Internet sites that set aside a space in which two or more users can meet in real time. This space is called a chat room. The participants type their message and it is post for all the participants to see. This allows other participants to respond to the post in real time. The user can download the chat software on their computer to participate. Chats can be private or public. Instant messaging is a form of chat that is commonly used.

Videoconferencing is a form of synchronous communication. Videoconferencing software allows users at either end of a synchronous connection not only to hear each other but to see video images of each other also. You must have a video camera connected to the computer. Most laptops come with a web cam. The quality of the video is based on the internet connection. Because the video is transmitted through the internet, the quality is only as good as the speed of on the download from the internet. As the bandwidth and speed increase, the quality will get better.

Week 6 - Flyer, Grading Chart, and Quiz

Flyer Link

Grading Chart Link

Quiz PowerPoint Link



I really enjoyed working on my flyer, grading chart, and quiz. I forgot how much fun it can be to get to be creative. I have not ever create and quiz using PowerPoint. It was a lot of fun. I love to create things like this.

The flyer was the easiest for me to create. I have made a lot of flyer in the many classes that I have taken. I have taken a lot of computer classes. Most of my classes required me to create a flyer. But I enjoyed creating it.

The grading chart was fun. I found cute art clips to put on the sheet. I use Excel on a daily basis at work. I have to create chart from information on the sheets daily. I have gotten good at using Excel. I have to use my teaching skills at work to show other employees how to use Excel correctly. Someone is always calling me to help create a chart in Excel.

The quiz PowerPoint was the best part of the assignment for me. I truly enjoyed creating the quiz. I went on the internet on found art clips and sound effects. I found pictures on Mesopotamia. I took my time to create it the way that I thought would be the most eye catching for young students.

Week 5-1 Productivity Software

What is productivity software? How can it be adapted to benefit teaching and learning?
Productivity software is usually generic business-application software that educators can use and adapt for the administrative and professional tasks they must address. A few examples of productivity software are word processing, spreadsheet, database management, and presentation software. The software program can be purchased individually or in a bundle or suite. The most popular is Microsoft Suite, which contains Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Access. My favorite software to use is PowerPoint. It is so much fun to use. I create a lot of PowerPoint presentations at work. Using PowerPoint can make a presentation more interactive and visual.

Using PowerPoint in the classroom can be beneficial for the teacher and the student. You can create presentation for lecture. You can insert examples of the class work. You can create quizzes for the students to make sure that each student understands the information that is being presented to him or her. The teacher can insert short films into the PowerPoint to show the students.
Microsoft Word is the most used productivity software. Word is word processing software. Word took the place of a typewriter. As a teacher, you can create documents to use as handouts for your students. You can save the documents and add or delete information to it when as needed. You can add pictures and graphs to the documents. One of the many advantages of Word is spell checking. With the typewriter, the typist had to make sure that he or she had all the words spelled correctly. I remember typing reports for a class and getting points deducted from misspelling words. Word also checks for sentence fragments.


What are the advantages and features of electronic spreadsheets? How can you see them as a benefit in an educational environment?
Electronic spreadsheets software is to numeric data what word-processing is to text. There are many features of spreadsheets. Below are a few of the features and benefits:
1. Spreadsheets and workbooks:
a. Organizing numerical data.
b. Creating and testing formulas.
c. Formatting data to produce and concise reports.
d. Creating customized grade books.
e. Tracking students’ data.
f. Presenting clear reports.
2. Auto formatting:
a. Teachers and students can create professional-looking reports
3. Charts:
a. Tool for visual presentation in student reports.
b. Tool to view saved data visually for better understanding.
c. Can used as a way to visually explore alterations of the numeric data
in a spreadsheet.
d. Can be used for preparing visual of abstract mathematical relationships.
4. Formulas and Functions:
a. Create and test formulas.
b. See changes in mathematical relationships as data changes.
c. Teachers can demonstrate math concepts in action.
d. Test and use appropriate grading formulas.
e. Show students how final grades are calculated.
5. What-if Analysis:
a. Seeing the impact of data changes in math problems.
b. Testing and demonstrating relationships of data.
c. Explaining how different grades will affect the student’s final grade.
6. Archiving:
a. Saved data files are easy to access and update to keep records current

Week 4-3 Tecnology in the Classroom and Virtual World

Technology is getting more advanced every day. You can buy a new computer and software, then in a few months it can be outdated. With the new advancements, virtual education is becoming more of a common occurance. If every student had a laptop, then he or she could look up information about something that she or he does not understand during the lesson, not when he or she gets home. I purchased a new mini computer that weighs about five pounds. I purchased a laptop about four years ago that weighed about fifteen to twenty pounds. My new computer is a lot lighter and more compact to make for easy storage and carrying. My new computer’s battery life is double the size of my old laptop. Even though my new computer is smaller , it has more storage space than the old laptop. Because of my professional schedule, I have a travel every few weeks. I can complete all my assignments from the comfort on my hotel room. Most hotels have wireless internetor what is called WiFi (wireless fidelity), and it is standard for laptop computer to be wireless enabled. You do not have to worry with plugging your computer to a phone line.

The author’s talked about clickers in the classroom. Clinkers allow the students to choose a answer to the question. Using clickers in the classroom could allow the teacher to make sure that all the students understand the materials. Because the teacher is getting instant feedback from the students, she or he can modify the lesson to make sure that everyone understands the lesson. The responses are anonymous from the other students, so evertone can feel confident enough to answer the questions. The shy students do not have to worrying about raising his or her hand to answer questions.

Virtual environment is a combination of hardware and software that when combined can create a digtial environment where you can interact with others. Students can use virtual environment to look at all angles of an object without actually having to have the object in his or her hands. The possiblities are limited only by imagination of the teachers and the students. By using the virtual world students can learn about things that they were never able to learn before. A social studies student can examine an ancient artifact from Ancient Middle East. Or a science student can conduct an experiment on the computer without using fire and chemicals. By conducting experiments on the computer instead of in a lab with the actual chemicals, the school with also save money.

Week 3 Formative and Summative Feedback

Formative feedback occurs during the event or process. Summative feedback occurs at the end of the event or process. An instructor that likes to make changes during the process uses formative feedback. But if the instructor likes to complete the process, and then get feedback, she or he would use summative feedback. DID model use a feedback loop to insure that each step in functioning properly. DID model uses both formative and summative feedback to make sure that the instruction is up the standard needed to teach the students all the information he or she needs to be taught.

Formative feedback is used to ensure a way to keep a continuous flow of information as a process or system is implemented. Formative feedback is used during the process so that correction and modifications while the instructors is going the steps before she or he uses the process with the students. If the instructor goes through the process, and asks himself or herself a few questions, it will make it easier for the students to understand the information in the long run. Below it a few questions that the instructor can ask:
• Am I responding to all the learning styles?
• Are my objectives targeting the performance I intended?
• Is the environment nurturing and secure for all students?
• Are the technologies I have selected appropriate to the content and pedagogy?
• Is the data to be gathered from the assessment useful to determine necessary revisions?
Summative feedback is used always returned at the end of the process. Summative feedback is used to revise each step of the process once the entire process in completed. Summative feedback is used as a final check to the process. Below are a few questions to ask yourself while using summative feedback:
• Did the design successfully meet the needs of the learners?
• Did my objectives accurately capture, in performance terms, the essence of the content the students needed to learn?
• Was the learning environment that I established effective in promoting learning?
• Are the teaching and learning strategies sufficient for and effective in meeting the objectives I identified?
• Were the technologies I selected successful in supporting the targeted teaching and learning?
• Does the summative evaluation provide the data I need to determine whether the objectives were achieved?

Dynamic instructional design (DID) model will serve as the basis for designing technology-rich instruction. An instructor can use DID model as a guide to conceptualize how you will create your instructional unit. DID model have three basic parts: 1) Design 2) Plan 3) Act. You will use formative and summative feedback in the planning stage. You want to make sure that your process is effective before you get the acting stage. The acting stage is where the learners are involved. You really want all the kinks worked out before you try to teach the students.

Week 2 - My understanding of educational Technology.

My definition educational technology is any technology used by an educator to support the teaching and learning process. My definition of educational technology is same as the Association of Educational Communications and Technology (AECT). I have taken many classes in my educational process. I believe the classes that were the easiest for me to learn was the classes that used technology to help reinforce the material. The relationship between teaching and learning is very important to the student. If the teacher does not teach effectively the students will not learn the concept in an effective way. Most students learn the best from visual aids. Technology puts a lot of these aids in the palm of educators’ hands.

The best quote that I have ever heard was from the project called the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS•T) Project. The quote was “The world is different. Kids are different….learning is different….and teaching must be different too. Today’s classroom teachers must be prepared to provide technology-supported opportunities for the students.” (NETS•T, 2002) I believe that students must have all the best opportunity to learn new concepts of technology. I graduated from high school many, many years ago, and the technology available to educators have triple since the time of my high school years. I had a technology culture shock when I started college. When I was in high school, students still turned in hand written reports. We had one computer teacher for the entire high school. Most of the teachers used the blackboard to write key words to help with studying. Now educators have to adapt his or her teaching styles to include new emerging technologies. To me PowerPoint is the best tool ever made available to educators. PowerPoint helps both the teacher and the student in the learning process.

Most students are visual learners. Educational technologies aid the educators teaching in a more effective way. As an example, PowerPoint presentations give the students a basic idea about the most important information in a lecture. On the other hand, the instructor has a basic guide to make sure that he or she explains all the important information to the students. The students can have a copy of the slides to make notes. When I was in high school, I would have to spend more time writing out the information that I remember and less time being able to absorb the important information that the teacher was talking about.

Technology makes teaching and learning easier for everyone involved. Educational technology makes it easier for educators to connect with students that have been difficult to connect with in the past. As the technology field increases in size, the educators must be able to adapt to it. It was hard for me to pay attention in class. If the educator had the available technologies of today, I would have had a easier time learning all the concepts.

My Personal Opinion of Cora

My name is Cora Borders. I am pursuing a Masters in Instructional Technology. IT 645 is my first class for the IT Masters program. I am a little nervous about this new adventure in my life. I am excited about being able to teach one day. I already have a Bachelors’ Degree in Office Administration from USM.

I currently am employed with Pioneer Aerospace in Columbia, Mississippi. I am the Human Resources Assistant for the company. Pioneer is part of the Zodiac company based France. Pioneer is one of about 35 companies owned by Zodiac Aerospace Corporation. I work on a computer about six of the eight hours of my work day. I have been with the company over one year.

I have taken about four classes online. It took me awhile to get into the flow of the online classes. I loved to take classes that I was face to face with teachers. I missed a few assignments because I did not turn the assignment in quick enough. It is easy to forget an assignment.
I work in Microsoft Excel and Word on a daily basis at work. I love to create PowerPoint. I use Adobe to create forms for Pioneer. I am really comfortable using most of the Microsoft suite. I have used Dreamweaver for an IT class that I have taken in the past. I really liked Dreamweaver.

I have to email all day for Pioneer. I would say that I am probably an expert in Outlook. I have used the discussion boards for some of my classes. I have never used Listserv. I would like to learn to use it. We use video clips and podcasts at Pioneer. I have web seminars about one a month. I find that podcasts are easy to follow. I like podcasts more than reading the information.
I hope to learn a lot in this class. I hope that I learn to use new computer programs. After reading the syllabus, I am excited to create all the projects. Ladies and Gentlemen, let the semester begin.