instructional technology

design of a tutorial program

2010-09-02T06:55:00.000-07:00

The General Structure and Sequence of a Tutorial Program (MULTIMEIDA for LEARNING, 3rd)

Introductory Section
Present Information
Question and Response
Judge Response
Feedback or Remediation
Closing

Simulations

2010-08-13T05:55:00.000-07:00

Because simulations simplify reality or amplify details, they can be more conducive to learning than some real environments. They have the advantages of convenience, safety, and controllability over real experiences, and they are useful for giving learners experiences that are otherwise impossible.

Fidelity is one of many factors to consider when design a simulation game. To what degree that the level of fidelity affects initial learning and transfer of learning? How closely the simulation should imitate the reality?

Multimedia Programs

2010-08-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

Multimedia programs have become more and more popular in use to support both classroom teaching and online learning. To identify and select one among many others, or even design/develop one that most fit specific learners, presentation of objectives and information presenting type are two core elements that need special attentions. Although many programs inform the learner of objectives in purely behavioral form, not all adhere to this practices. Presenting objectives, whether behavioral or not, can enhance learning by promoting satisfaction, which may also motivate learners. Rules and principles are important forms of information delivered in science and social sciences, and they are often taught in one of two ways: rule-example (expository method) or example-rule approach. Many educators believe that expository method is more efficient for low-ability learners, whereas the example-rule approach is better for more able learners. But the definition for "low-ability" or "more able" is often vaguely defined.

The Merit of Online Quiz

2010-08-10T06:43:00.000-07:00

Quiz is one of the common forms of assessment critical to gaining an understanding of instructional and learning outcome. Quiz can be used to identify what students had known before instruction, to assess their acquired knowledge during instruction, and measure what students have gained at the end of instruction. Needless to say, online quiz allow students to take the test anywhere they prefer, maybe at anytime on specific days, and maybe with multiple attempts. However, how could we ensure the authenticity of test result without a proctored testing method? Several techniques may be combined to overcome online quiz limitations and enhance its advantages:

Include short answer and essay items,
ask students to write brief reflection on or critique each quiz they took,
create a quiz portfolio,
and have students sign/insert their signatures upon submitting the quiz.

simulation, problem solving, drill and practice

2010-08-09T06:32:00.000-07:00

Educational computer games have become a center topic as to how effective they are in facilitating actual learning. My personal opinion is that real learning occurs when design a game, while playing a game helps developing or reinforcing certain skills. That is said, games are aimed to target all aspects of motivation: Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction, and incorporating several formats is necessary for effective experience.

Is an experienced game player able to transfer the motivation of playing to motivation of learning (the mastery of knowledge)? If we agree with the notion that "learn through play", could a child experience learning by methods other than playing?

The Fact of Learning

2010-08-06T06:37:00.000-07:00

Learning occurs during information process. I don't think technology could facilitate how one's brain process the acquired information, but only stimulate all senses to receive certain information. Thus, meaningful technology integration should be effective methods of information presentation and demonstration.

Under this assumption, we must distinguish "skill training" and "knowledge acquisition" when we plan and select right technology tools. Most importantly, we must be clear about what we assess when we design/create assessment instruments. Otherwise, we may end up training a person's response speed, rather than assisting him/her with information obtainment. For example, a computer-assisted instructional program allows users to identify the correct anser to a math question and click it with the mouse, and then the immediate feedback is supplied. Performance levels of users are evaluated and more challenging programs can be introduced after correct response to simple problems is demonstrated. It sounds like a standard computer game simulation commonly adopted by educators; however, this type of educational games evaluate nothing but the speed of information processing and the level of responding demonstrated by the player. I don't think it actually facilitates understanding of a math concept, but only improves one's responding skill to this particular game problem.

Add an image to Blackboard quiz

2010-02-18T09:42:00.000-08:00

Go to the Control Panel
Click Test Manager (or Survey Manager) under Assessment (depending on what type of assessment you are creating)
Either create a new test (or survey) by clicking Add Test (or Add Survey) or modify an existing test (or survey) by clicking Modify to the right of the assessment. This will take you inside the Test Canvas (or Survey Canvas)
Click Creation Settings in the upper right-hand corner. You can change the settings by clicking on the boxes to the left of each option.
Depending on where you want the images, you can click either Add images, files, and URLs to questions, or Add images and files to answers, or both
Click Submit

Enable Cookies in Different Browsers

2008-12-17T09:28:00.000-08:00

To enable cookies, follow the instructions below for the browser version you are using. Adapted from http://www.google.com/cookies.html

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0+
Select "Internet Options" from the Tools menu.
Click on the "Privacy" tab.
Click the "Default" button (or manually slide the bar down to "Medium") under "Settings".
Click "OK".

Mozilla Firefox (1.0 final release and earlier)
Go to the "Tools" menu.
Select "Options".
Select the "Privacy" icon in the left panel.
Check the box corresponding to "Allow sites to set cookies".
Click "OK" to save changes.

Netscape 7.1/Mozilla 5.0
Select "Preferences" from the Edit menu.
Click on the arrow next to "Privacy & Security" in the scrolling window to expand.
Under "Privacy & Security", select "Cookies."
Select "Enable all cookies".
Click "OK".

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x
Select "Internet Options" from the Tools menu.
Click on the "Security" tab.
Click the "Custom Level" button.
Scroll down to the "Cookies" section.
To enable:
Set "Allow cookies that are stored on your computer" to "Enable".
Set "Allow per-session cookies" to "Enable".
Click "OK".

Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x
Select "Internet Options" from the View menu.
Click on the "Advanced" tab.
Scroll down to find "Cookies" within the "Security" section.
To enable:
Select "Always accept cookies".
Click "OK".

Netscape Communicator 4.x
Select "Preferences" from the Edit menu.
Find the "Cookies" section in the "Advanced" category.
To enable:
Select "Accept all cookies" (or "Enable all cookies").
Click "OK".

Common Files Types for Digitized Sounds

2008-06-16T07:08:00.000-07:00

A sound file's format is simply a recognized methodology for organizing the digitized sound's data bits and bytes into a data file.

MP3 Audio -- .mp3 -- audio/mpge

MPEG audio stream -- .mpg -- audio/mpeg

REalAudio -- .ra -- audio/x-pn-realaudio

Windows Media -- .wma -- audio/x-ms-wma

WAV Audio -- .wav -- audio/wav

MPEG-1 Audio Movie -- .m1a -- audio/x-mpeg

Image

A BMP file is a Windows bitmap file. TIFF was designed to be a universal bitmapped image format and is also used extensively in desktop publishing packages.

2008-06-12T07:55:00.000-07:00

The PureEdge Viewer is a small, free program which will allow you to access, complete and submit applications electronically and securely on Grants.gov.

To download and install the viewer,

Click the link http://www.grants.gov/help/download_software.jsp#pureedge

Click "download and install the PureEdge Viewer"

Click "Save"

To install, locate the .exe file on your computer, and double click it.

Launch pages in IE Tab from Firefox

2008-03-25T12:36:00.000-07:00

If you use Mozilla Firefox browser all the time to view web-pages, you may run into some problems when you open an IE-only page. If you don’t want to switch two browsers back and forth, the following tips allow you to open a site in IE Tab from Firefox.

You can add sites to an “always render using embedded IE” list. These sites, when launched in Firefox, will automatically open in Internet Explorer Tab.

Launch a site in Firefox, copy its URL.
Click Tools on the main menu, select and Left-Click IE Tab Options.

Move mouse cursor to the URL text box, Right-Click, and paste URL of the site .

Click Add, Apply, and OK

You receive an error message when you try to open a file type that was blocked by your registry policy settings in PowerPoint 2007/2003

2008-02-15T08:32:00.000-08:00

This issue may occur if an administrator has restricted the types of presentations that you can open in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 or in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003. An administrator can set a registry key to restrict this functionality.
To resolve this issue, disable the restriction on opening presentations that were blocked by the registry settings of PowerPoint. To do this, use a trusted location, or create an exempt location:

In PowerPoint 2007, if you trust the file that you want to open, you can move the file to a trusted location to override the registry policy settings.For more information about how to create, to remove, or to change a trusted location for files, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA100319991033.aspx
In PowerPoint 2003, there are no trusted locations. You can create an exempt location to override the registry policy settings. To create an exempt location, follow these steps:
1. Exit PowerPoint 2003.
2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
3. Locate and then click one of the following registry subkeys:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common
4. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Key.
5. Type OICEExemptions for the name for the key.
6. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click String Value.
7. Type a string name, and then press ENTER. For example, type ExemptDirectory.
8. Right-click the string name that you typed in step 7, and then click Modify.
9. In the Value data box, type the path of the directory that contains the file, and then click OK. 10. On the File menu, click Exit to exit Registry Editor.

Go to PowerPoint 2003 Solution Center at http://support.microsoft.com/ for more troubleshooting tips.

Podcast Tips

2007-10-31T06:21:00.000-07:00

Author: Richard Frino
Creation date: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 9:08:40 AM EDT

Many software packages out there right now, bundled w/hardware from companies like M-Audio ~$200. Might check out the Blackboard Building Block: Baylor Podcast Builder at http://www.blackboard.com/extend/b2/ designed to place audio files on your FTP server and embed links in Blackboard.
MP3 and M4V files are both compatible with podcasts. Its the code wrapper that makes it a podcast. For audio recording I use a free program called Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) with a usb microphone. Exports to MP3 with a separate download (LAME Encoder). Does an excellent job of recording voice, has many useful filters for noise reduction, etc. PC microphones/headsets have improved dramatically in the last few years, any of the >$30 sets out there should give good response.
Windows Development Center has a good, short article on producing podcasts on a pc at:
http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2005/04/05/create_podcasts_with_pc.html
also see the great explanation of RSS feeds at:
http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/listgarden/

Blackboard 7 - Known Issues (Quiz Access)

2007-10-22T12:56:00.000-07:00

Issue: IE 7 users can view the quiz but the popup blocker prevents users from taking the quiz.
Resolution: When accessing a Blackboard Quiz, an additional IE7 browser setting is required. Open Internet Explorer 7 --> go to Tools -->Internet Options -->Tab Security --> Internet Zone --> Custom Level --> Scripting --> Allow programmatic Clipboard Access --> check Enable.

Create a drag-drop flash

2007-10-19T09:56:00.000-07:00

Step 1
Start by creating a 250x150px document in flash. Frame rate set to 32fps (Frames per second).

Step 2
Draw something, and convert it into a Movie Clip (Ctrl+A+F8).

Step 3
Click once on that new made Movie Clip to select it, Open the Action Script Panel (F9) and Paste this script:
on (press) {
startDrag(this);
}
on (release) {
stopDrag();
}
on (press) {
startDrag(this);
}
on (release) {
stopDrag();
}

ITSS survey result

2007-10-03T08:01:00.000-07:00

17 responses have been received. 11 faculty and staff indicated their interest in learning basic HTML code and webdesign with Frontpage/Dreamweaver, ten people selected Camtasia Studio 3, and eight showed interest in exploring Electronic Portfolio.

Camtasia Studio 3
Frontpage/Dreamweave
Frontpage/Dreamweave
Digital Storytelling, Frontpage/Dreamweave
Electronic Portfolio
Camtasia Studio 3
Digital Storytelling, Frontpage/Dreamweave,Electronic Portfolio
Frontpage/Dreamweaver, Electronic Portfolio
Camtasia Studio 3,Frontpage/Dreamweaver, Electronic Portfolio
Camtasia Studio 3
Camtasia Studio 3, Electronic Portfolio
Camtasia Studio 3, Frontpage/Dreamweaver, Electronic Portfolio
Digital Storytelling, Frontpage/Dreamweaver, Electronic Portfolio
Camtasia Studio 3, Frontpage/Dreamweaver
Camtasia Studio 3, Frontpage/Dreamweaver
Camtasia Studio 3, Digital Storytelling, Frontpage/Dreamweaver, Electronic Portfolio
Camtasia Studio 3

Additional Comments:

Software to create Video Podcast&Animation
It's definitely the only way to go for distance courses, but I would like to make full use of what we have to offer.
Basic HTML to code my pages
Collaboration tools that let me help students at a distance with their homework. Web logs to capture notes, problems and solutions to problems, so that the next class can learn from the previous class and where they left off.
Blackboard is not accessible to the blind at this time. That is why I'm not presently using it. I hope that you take into consideration the accessibbility of the software to the blind while deciding on new software.
Each 'smart classroom' has different equipment with different controls. We need to standardize.
I cannot answer question 1 because I use Blackboard to enhance the classroom experience by using many of its features, but not as a full online class -- I use it for a hybrid course and to enhance the trraditional classroom experience.

What is a blog?

2007-10-01T12:06:00.000-07:00

In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write and post stuff on an ongoing basis.
A blog is a place to collect and share things that you find interesting.
Blogging is more than just putting your thoughts on the web. It's about connecting with and hearing from anyone who reads your work and cares to respond.

create your own blog

2007-10-01T07:35:00.000-07:00

Solution to create Web logs to capture notes, problems and solutions to problems, so that the next class can learn from the previous class and where they left off.