The importance of instructional technology in education

A first year doctoral student commented in class. "I don't want to do a dissertation about virtual classrooms or electronic boards, because in three years from here, we may not have electronic boards!" He was right, right in the sense that instructional technology changes dramatically. Every year, I have changed the curricula of my Instructional Technology courses. I keep learning, and applying it more and more. My best advice for students, who will be teachers, is to learn what is new and decide what fits them, and their teaching style as well as their students learning style. The big question is, if technology changes so fast, what is its role in Education?  Should it have a role at all? 

As a researcher, I always use materials, or techniques that have shown effectiveness. Then, most of my decisions on what to use or not, are based on research. I am passionate on how technology facilitates learning but never obsessed, sometimes I use blackboard and chalk to teach.  I believe we have to change our presentation techniques in each class so we motivate the students and keep them engaged. A few years ago, I wrote a short article about Technology Closes the Gap between Students’ Individual Skills and Background Differences published in Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education proceedings in 2004. It was a discussion that a specific software help students of different backgrounds to excel in Physics. I wanted it to be used in every single school. I saw using research, how students with careless preparation compete with students that have received a better preparation.

The key point here, is that yes, there is role that instrucional technology plays in education. As teachers or professors we are ready to use anything that help retention, learning, and stimulate our students brain and critical thinking. The key point is to use it based on research and not in "fashion wave", specially that budgets are limited. Always check the cost/benefit analysis. And my last comment, if technology helps to close the gap, it definitely plays a role in education.

Webquest still rocking!

Webquests, Webquests....why they are so "inn" until today. Bernie Dodge, a professor of educational technology at San Diego State University, has been cited by eSchool News as one of the nation's top 30 educational technology innovators. The idea is so simple, I wonder why I did not come up with that first!....When I used it in my doctoral level classes, my students love it!. It was so popular for k-12 students, why doctoral students cannot benefit from it!...and they did!. I created for students to learn to reiew a research paper. I have used successfully, and my doctoral students claimed they have learned a lot from it. if you are curious you can check it out at http://www.internationalprofessor.com/9804/mock2.html
Do you have a great webquest to show? I would love to see it!

Presentation Software Online- what's new?

Here it is. How can I prepare a great presentation for my next conference?  I am talking about a jaw dropping presentation...something special. I am going to the Gross National Happiness http://www.gnhusa.org/ conference. We will have GNH Ambassadors meeting to discuss how this indicator will be used in Vermont. After the conference, I am planning to work on a proposal on how New York can use this indicator. I will send this proposal to NY representatives. Big task. Believe me.
I am statistician, and I am also involved with happiness research. This indicator is the best combination to use both of my skills. The first time I went to this conference, It was like I was in heaven! Ok, Ok. Let's focus on today's topic which is preparing an jaw dropping presentations and where to post them, so people can enjoy it. I cannot go around sending my presentation via email (that's so 2009)....ha ha ha ...Here are the things to consider:
1. Length of the presentation. Short presentations are more effective. The average attention span for an adult is 20 minutes. But wait a minute. This is true if you are present for the presentation. But in my case I will be sending this short presentation. My average attention span to an email is 15 seconds (sorry guys!). Actually, that's average for most of us. I think that one minute presentation will be enough, and no more than two minutes.
2. Topic. This will be a research presentation, so I will follow the four golden questions (according to my friend Bran Vander Zahen). In fact, he wrote a pretty good article about presentations, you can read it  at
http://web.eecs.utk.edu/~bvz/presentation.html
3. Design. color, letter size, sounds, and others. My best advice, be sure that people can read it without hurting their eyes!!
4. How to share it? Well that depends on your preferences and needs. There are so many websites that offer their services, for example:

http://www.slideshare.net/

http://www.authorstream.com

http://www.slideboom.com/

http://www.brainshark.com/

You have to pick one of them. Apparently, today, the most popular is slideshare (see this article http://www.appappeal.com/app/slideshare/) but I have used all of them with no complaints.  Some of them are FREE (that's what  I like!) and some of them you need to pay a fee. You can always convert your powerpoint to a video and then post it on www.teachertube.com (free), which is appropriate if your material is teaching related.

5. What if you want to do something else besides a simple presentation?

Well, then you can play with several presentation apps such as the ones in this website: http://www.appappeal.com/apps/presentation/, which includes the popular prezi and others. --Wow, too many options, right? I feel like a kid in a candy store (it is just saying because as a kid, I was not really into candies!).

ok. Now with this overwhelming information, it is your choice on what tools you will use to make the best presentation possible. My advice: Be wild!

Well, Well, Well, If you were wondering where I have been.. Here is my best answer: Writing my first book!.. and it is now published! you can see it at http://www.thefinalwar.net - I know, you may ask, what this have to do with technology? I have to tell you... a lot!
If I did not have my tech skills, I could not have published the Final War in a short time (although writing it took co-authors and me almost two years!).
When was time to publication, I found myself constantly editing. Each change in a published document cost extra money. Then I said. STOP. I can do this. And my adventure began. I have learned to use Dreamweaver to format the E-book version, use Calibre to transform it into Kindle version to be sell it in Amazon. I also have learned to use Adobe InDesign to prepare the interior of the book, Adobe Photoshop to review the cover design.
Don't think I did the production of my book alone! There was a team of book designers and artists working on it, but I was able to edit and direct them the way I wanted the book to look. I was involved in every single detail, color, pictures, size letter etc. You must see the cover, It looks beautiful!!!..
If you check it out, tell me what do you see, the cover has a secret message.
When  my co-author saw the book physically, she said, now I feel what God felt when he said "This is good" (when he finished his world creation.) She was  right! I have the same feeling!
Not only that, when I learned that a book trailer can can cost me 500-700 dollars...I decided to learn IMovie to prepare my own video book trailer-- you can check it out in the book website http://www.thefinalwar.net (click on presentations). Be sure have your volume on!
Now that I a back from Sabbatical, I am ready to teach new things and learn more new things, I am so excited! I want to re do all my lessons!...you will be part of this new wave of inspiration. Thank you.

Podcast

Do you think podcast help students to learn? I hope so. Auditory learners will welcome to hear some podcast and discuss them. My favorite tool for selecting podcast for my classes is Itunes U. but what is a podcast anyway? Podcasting is an audio content delivery approach based on Web syndication protocols such as RSS and/or Atom. Cebeci (2006) defines podcast in a formula

Podcasting = Web syndication (RSS, Atom) + Audio content (talk shows, music, news, and certainly

learning resources…) + Mobile devices (mp3 players, PDAs, cell phones…). In education,

podcasting serves anytime and anywhere mobile learning. After podcasts are downloaded

into any mobile player, they can be listened to at one’s convenience. The flexibility of merely

listening is a technological advantage of podcasting that may make mobile learning applicable,

cheaper, and popular when it is compared to its counterparts such as WAP-based or Web-based

mobile learning.

Other website that you can download your podcast is http://www.learnoutloud.com/

where you can buy some of them or acquired them free.

Social Media tools-- what else is New?

Blogging is an art that requires dedication. Finding a topic that will be of general interest is the key. For example, I am preparing a speech for 100 people about social media and how we use it in education. We used it in three ways: communication one-on to many, communication many to one, and communication many to many.

I watched the video the networked student in youtube. The Networked Student was inspired by CCK08, a Connectivism course offered by George Siemens and Stephen Downes during fall 2008. It depicts an actual project completed by Wendy Drexler's high school students. The Networked Student concept map was inspired by Alec Couros' Networked Teacher. I hope that teachers will use it to help their colleagues, parents, and students understand networked learning in the 21st century. This was a case in 2008. I decided that I would like to update what is explained in that video to 2011. I prepared my own version of that presentation with the new tools we have right now, I am pretty sure that in two years more someone else will need to update it.

I made a list of the resources mentioned in the video and I added a new ones that are currently in use. Here is my list, I would like to encourage you to review it.

In the video a student is asked to write a research paper.

A. Searching and Researching

He went to the library, now most of the institutions have digital libraries. I believe teaching students how to search in those academic databases is very important, and also teaching them how to find peer reviewed articles.

uses of online libraries, or libraries or search engines such as google scholar.

uses of other search engines such as yippy.com yippy is searching engine who groups the data in clusters...pretty useful...watch out google!

B. Sharing

Students use now social bookmarking websites. The most popular right now is delicious.com you can create an account and have your favorites websites.

Blogging. Blogging is a way to share information and discuss different points of view with others.

C. Looking for experts

Students can know use open sources which give them access to the best professors in the word. all their classes and lessons are in a web for anyone!, one of the most popular is MIT open source - check it out at http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

Podcast. U itunes of apple contains several podcast prepared for the best professors in the world in different topics. Dowling college's department of education, leadership and technology (department that I am currently the chair) has a podcast website as well.

Learning using technology

I always wanted to blog. I think it is time to start. I have begun several blogs but I usually abandoned them after a while. Life gets in the way, or I became very very busy.

What I have been doing that I become so busy? well, first of all two years ago, I was elected chair of the department of Educational, Administration, Leadership and Technology. As a chair of the department I wanted to boost the technology section of this department.

We have two instructional technology advance certificates, with few graduates, I decided we need to modernize the certificate, find the best professor in the area, and redesign the curricula.

A big task, but with great collaborators. At the same time, I went to a second task, and that was to develop the technology plan for the School of Education. It was a very rewarding experience. The product of this work was two things: A. School of Education has now a Technology Plan B. The Advanced Certificate in Computers in Education is now in place!