My Final Project - Please Help

Do you remember your first Friday night class in the Drake adult education program? Were you nervous, scared, excited, or maybe a little bit of everything? I know I was very excited to finally be there while equally convinced that I was only person in the room who didn’t know anything.

What helped me to survive were the friendships that I made with my fellow classmates. Their advice and insights were extremely helpful as we ventured into new subjects and tackled big projects. Together we discovered a website or a book that made a class easier to get through. I learned a few tips like buying my books online instead of at the bookstore that saved me time and money. I’m sure you’ve got a few tips and tricks yourself that could help the next class of students.

Here’s your chance to share with others the resources that you’ve found helpful in your studies. As part of my final project for the class ALOP-298 Using Emerging Technologies for Learning, I’ve created a wiki to collect your insights and advice for the future students of our program.

For those not familiar with what a wiki is, it’s a webpage or collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content – think Wikipedia on a small-scale. I’m asking you to contribute to our wiki. It will be a collection created by Drake adult education graduate students for Drake adult education graduate students.

Instructions:

1. Click on this link to open the ALOP Advice wiki


2. In the navigation panel on the left-hand side, I’ve created some pages to organize the content. Click on a page to view the current material.


3. To add your own material, click on the “Edit This Page” button at the top of the page


4. Add your content. Please start your entry with your name and graduation date.


5. Click Save and you’re done.

Please feel free to forward this to others in the program that I missed.

Thank you for your help with my project; and on behalf of those students who have yet to enjoy their first Friday night, thanks for your advice.

Technology on trial

I was reading one of Nikki's post about a person who lost her cell phone with some photos on them that she'd rather keep quiet. Nikki's post reminded me about a story I recently read on msnbc.com. A guy in Arkansas forget his phone at a McDonald's with some nude pictures of his wife on it. Those photos ended up online so now the guy is filing a lawsuit against McDonalds Corp. This will set an interesting precedent about technology and the expectation of privacy on our personal items.

What's your vote? Do we have a right to keep private items on personal devices such as cell phones?

My Facebook dilema

I found a recent article on msnbc.com about Facebook that touches on a topic I've been struggling with - do I add somebody as a friend or not?

Listen to my podcast and tell me what you think.

The color purple

I found an interesting story on msnbc.com about how our brains process colors once we learn the name of the color. The story explains that our brains process color in the right hemisphere when we're infants, but makes a switch to the left hemisphere once we learn the actual name of the color.

I find this so interesting because it gives us a peak into how the brain stores and processes information. Scientists who are studying this aspect are speculating about how the language we learn affects the way we look at the world.

It really hits home for me as Jared enters the stage in his life when he discovers that words have meaning. I wonder what the world looks like to him now? Is it something different than what I see? Once something has a name and meaning, it has a place and order like a book on a shelf in the library. What a wonderfully bizarre world he must be living in while the shelves are still empty and the books are all around him.

15 new technology predictions

The editors of PC World have made their predictions about 15 hot new technologies. As they put it, "we outline the basics of 15 upcoming technologies, with predictions on what may come of them. Some are breathing down our necks; some advances are still just out of reach. And all have to be reckoned with."

Here's their list, check out the article to read their predictions.

1. Memristor: A groundbreaking new circuit
2. 32-core CPUs from Intel and AMD
3. Nehalem and swift chips spell the end of stand-alone graphics boards
4. USB 3.0 speeds up performance on external devices
5. Wireless power transmission
6. 64-bit computing allows for more RAM
7. Windows 7: It's inevitable
8. Google's desktop OS
9. Gesture-based remote control
10. Radical simplification hits the TV business
11. Curtains for DRM
12. Use any phone on any wireless network
13. Your fingers do even more walking
14. Cell phones are the new paper
15. Where you at? Ask your phone, not your friend

What's even funnier to read is their past predictions. Some were spot on while others were a real swing-and-a-miss.

Things they got right:
1983 - "The mouse will bask in the computer world limelight... Like the joystick before it, though, the mouse will fade someday into familiarity."
1984 - "Microsoft Windows should have a lasting effect on the entire personal computer industry."
1988 - "In the future you'll have this little box containing all your files and programs ... It's very likely that eventually people will always carry their data with them."

A big miss:
1987 - "When you walk into an office in 1998, the PC will sense your presence, switch itself on and promptly deliver your overnight e-mail, sorted in order of importance."
1994 - "Within five years ... batteries that last a year, like watch batteries today, will power [PDAs]."
2000 - "computers that pay attention to you, sensing where you are, what you're doing and even what your vital signs are ... Products incorporating this kind of technology … could hit the market within a year."

The Butterball Blog

A story in the Des Moines Register yesterday caught my eye. It was about the Butterball hotline that's available for stressed cooks who need help with Thanksgiving dinner. The hotline is changing with the times and now answers questions via email and also has a blog that allows you to hear from an expert.

I thought this was a great example of a service that was responding to the different ways their consumers use their service. They've adopted the new technology for a very old tradition of cooking the turkey dinner.

5 common quiz question mistakes

Here's a really interesting post about the five common quiz questions mistakes that eLearning designers usually make. They seem obvious when you read them, but I know that I've fallen prey to creating an obvious distractor or a pointless question.

He's got some great examples and links to some other stuff, but the really good stuff is in the comments section. It's interesting to read what others have done to overcome these pitfalls. One that I'd never thought of is asking the SME for possible distractors that seem plausible.

We learn, sometimes the best, through our failures so the we need to make the quizzes worthwhile and realistic.

The rise of the machine

With our discussion this weekend about cloud technology and the possible label of calling it Skynet, I watched the Terminator again in preparation of the machines taking over the world.

Seriously though, this idea of cloud computing and Microsoft's entry really has the tech world buzzing. Will Microsoft dominate this new domain like they did the operating system and office application world? Can others compete? While it's great for the world to have access to all the servers and computing power, those providing it must have the resources to provide it.

To learn more about the buzz, read Nicholas Carr's blog.

Audio Files

Here is a sample audio file for your listening pleasure.

My friend Kim

The Politics of Learning

I've been fascinated recently with all of the coverage on the campaigns for Obama and McCain. Each side did things right and wrong along the way, but ultimately most agree that Obama ran a near perfect campaign on his way into the White House.

The one thing most people are focusing on is the way Obama stuck to his message and didn't encounter any missteps like McCain's fumble about the fundamentals of our economy.

With that in mind, I wanted to share a post I found that discusses how we can learn from the political world when we communicate our learning.

1. Repetition is worth repeating.

2. Space your repetitions over time.

3. Have powerful messengers repeat the key messages.

4. Authentic messengers are listened to longer and with more engagement.

5. Messengers who lose credibility (or integrity) are doomed.

6. Prioritize your messages. Brand your messages into a potent theme.

7. Vary the delivery of your messages, but stay consistent in the underlying message and theme.

8. Learning messages that are aligned with on-the-ground realities are the most powerful. It is only the rarest of learning messages that can overcome irrelevance or everyday business distractions.

9. When your efforts or credibility are attacked, fight back hard and fast.