PRACTITIONER PROFILE INTERVIEW

 

         Dunstan Middle School

Lisa Boe-Sims Interview   I wanted to post my practitioner profile interview if case anybody wanted to look at it. I interviewed Lisa Boe-Sims who is the Network Support Specialist & Computer Site Technician at Dunstan Middle School in Jefferson County.  I admire Lisa for her patience working with teachers who don’t know what they are doing! She has had a lot of troubleshooting to do now that we have the new educational technology that came with the new school building last year. Click above on her name to find out more about her job! 

WHAT is BLOGGING?

 

When we met for our IT 6750 class last night, our teacher Brent, wanted us to think about what blogging really is on a deeper level. We discussed the attitudes, skills and requirements that are needed to be a ‘successful’ blogger, whatever that means. I have learned that it takes a lot of patience to figure out the technology and to get familiar with the WordPress formatting. As I was looking on TeacherTube today, I found the following video called ‘6 & 7 Year Olds and BLOGS!’ which ties in nicely with our discussion last night. The teacher asks her students ‘What do you think a blog is?’ and ‘Why do you love using them?’ Go ahead and listen, I couldn’t have said it any better myself. I love how straight forward and simplistic youngsters are!

 

Video Clip: ‘6 & 7 Year Olds & Blogs!’

P.S. I tried to embed the video into my blogsite but I couldn’t figure it out, way too many steps to get it to work on WordPress properly. I have to learn when to say ’enough is enough.’ One of my goals will be to TRY to embed a video on this site before the end of the class.  (I may not be successful!)

RSS SITE-FEED ISSUES

I don’t know if anyone else is feeling as frustrated as I am, but it took me almost 2 hours to figure out how to put the darn little RSS feed icon on my site! I honestly have other things I need to be doing with my time. I almost started pulling my hair out. Next time, I will make sure I pick a blog layout that already has that included in the format, yikes. I went to various sites, followed the directions, typed in the codes (over and over again) and the icon wouldn’t download, even though the link worked. I feel like this on-line format is leaving things too open-ended for me. I need to be able to download documents from the course shell that walk us through the steps. I feel like we are just ’supposed to know’ what to do. I can’t be the only one that is new to this. Wow~ that feels better! I guess blog sites are really good for venting as well, now I can go to bed with a clear mind! ~Heather

P.S. Does anyone know if there is a way that I can incorporate my ‘Google Reader’ subscribed classmate RSS blog site list onto my sidebar/site?

HISTORY of INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY

As I have been researching my part of the ‘Induction to the Field’ group paper, I found the history of instructional technology to be very interesting.  It is cool to see how things have changed over time this century and what the future holds. Here is a brief outline:

 

The time prior to 1920 was known as the Visual Instruction Movement in education. At this time, film making became an important part of American culture and the first instructional films were used in the classroom. Thomas Edison predicted that we would no longer see or need books in schools.

 

The 1920s and 30s were known as the Audiovisual Instruction Movement due to the technological advances of sound recordings, radio broadcasting and sound motion pictures. The public had an increased interest in using instructional media for educational purposes.

 

In the 1940s, instructional technology shifted from the classroom to the military training needs of the country. Because of World War II, hundreds of films were developed and used to train military troops. These films provided a consistent and quick way to train people from diverse backgrounds.

 

With the invention of the television in the 1950s, the TV became the new wave of instructional technology in schools. It was viewed as a tool for ‘educational broadcasting’ because it was quick and inexpensive. Unfortunately it was mainly used for showing a teacher present a lecture and its use for this purpose was phased out by the early 1960s. The Soviet launch of Sputnik forced Americans to see the importance of incorporating science and technology into our educational system.

 

In the late 1980s, the 90s, and up to the present time, computers have been viewed as the next wave of technology integration in instructional use. Personal computers have been made affordable and have been showing up in households and schools at an astonishing rate. The World Wide Web was developed and has changed how we access information and communicate with others (Reiser 2001).

For more information:

* Computers in Education: A Brief History.  http://thejournal.com/the/printarticle/?id=13739

* Reiser, Robert (2001). A History of Instructional Design and Technology: Part 1: A History  of  Instructional Media. ETR&D, 49, 1.

MY PERSONAL GOALS

As I returned to school this week as a teacher and as a student, I had some personal goals I wanted to reach in regards to technology. I am lucky enough to teach in a school that got a brand new building last year. With the new building came lots of new instructional technology that I didn’t know how to use. The technology just sat there last year and wasn’t used; teachers were waiting for trainings on how to use and implement the new technology. Well, we never got the staff developments and the ‘toys’ just sat there. I decided that I would learn how to use the technology on my own. I am proud to say that I learned and used the LCD projector, Smart Board and document camera in my instruction, all in one week. Next week, it will be the Video Flex camera that attaches to the microscope. Now I will feel ashamed and embarrassed when I turn on the overhead projector when I could be using the Smart Board. Unfortunately, I have set a high standard for myself right off the bat in front of the students and will have to try to keep up!    

 As I returned to grad school this week I was extremely nervous about taking all online classes, which I have never done before. I am technologically illiterate. I admit that I have been a little overwhelmed about the eCollege format at first. There are so many different places you have to look to make sure you are doing all the parts of the assignment, posting the right things in the right places, and making sure you are participating in the threaded discussions. After much struggling I have managed to get this blog site up and running, what a learning experience. If I have learned this much in a week, I look forward to what is to come and hope it becomes more comfortable.  ~Heather

HELLO WORLD!

This blog site in an assignment from a class I am taking for the University of Colorado Denver.  The class is IT 6750: Current Trends & Issues in Technology.  I will have weekly blog entries related to educational technology and topics from class.  Feel free to blog or comment to your hearts content!