week 5 some thoughts :)

         
       

       Another busy week.... I wish I could have 48 hours a day... My little precious is getting bigger and bigger. I enjoy every second with him!  SO  sad that my husband will leave in next week, heading back to California and continue his post doctor career. I will be myself with my two lovely boy and my parents. Even though I wish I could have a longer time with my son and my husband, I still enjoy every second I spend for this course. I found I like doing and thinking creatively.

        I am so embarrassed to admit that I just start to think about the third assignment "produsage project". Time is flying and I feel I am still struggling with the subject. I have too many choices. Elementary education is the field I am familiar with but I want to try subject in higher education. Considering the time limitation, I think a better idea is to do something I am familiar with.

       Second, which web.2.0 tools? There are some of them first coming to my mind: schoology ( learning management system), trello ( as the homework list)  seesaw ( digital portfolio creating tools), youtube (video sharing tool) and so on ( maybe I will use facebook public group as discussion board; voice thread as assessment tool)

      Third, my philosophy should be learner-centered and project based learning. Therefore, I will try to give students the ability to complete the task with the foundational knowledge learned from the class.

      Another thing I want to share is when we are discussing the social media tools in other countries. I feel very difficult to use youtube ( amazing video sharing tools) in China. We have similar video sharing tools such as Tudou. However, I feel youtube is the best because of its user-friendly feature. So sad that my country block the youtube and it makes difficult to promote a world-class community as an instructional designer.
   

   

IFTTT : if this then that

   

 

        IFTTT is amazing ! I have never ever thought about let apps to communicate with each other. IFTTT made it. With IFTTT, people can make life more efficient. What is IFTTT? IFTTT can connect apps and make them notify each other once something you set has happened. For example, when you connect to Facebook and Gmail. You can create the "program" like "send me an email when I have a message on Facebook". As the result, you can be notified when something you want happened on Facebook.

      There are some other "program" or they called "recipe". Some of them are very useful. For example, you can say " save photos you are tagged into google drive". This sentence demonstrates you connect your "photo" app with "google drive" app. Another example can be " share new blogger post on Facebook". After setting this, once you post something on blogger, your facebook also automatically post your article. This command connects blogger with Facebook.

      As the instructional designer or an SME, you can also take advantage of this tool. The IFTTT give users the ability to create their own "recipe". As long as you link your app to IFTTT and choose any two of them. You can make them notify each other. The video about using IFTTT with google onhub is so incredible. They use IFTTT as the trigger to log the door, open the light and so on. The video is so cool, so I will share it here.

 

     One thing I feel confused is the interface on IFTTT is different from the tutorial showing on the class website. It changes directly to the end goal rather than using IF this then that command.

      The last video I want to share is how to use IFTTT in the classroom.

OER commons and Merlot

         Such an amazing experience using OER Commons and Merlot. Both of them are open educational resources. OER definitely a good start point for new teachers who just start their career. A lot of resources available on OER provides guidance, lesson plan, activities and methods of assessment for the new teacher to learn from. The most important function, in my opinion, is the OER commons develops based on educational standards: next generation standards, AASL 21 century learner standards and common core state standards for math.

 The educational level ranges from pre-elementary to adult education.

And you can find all kinds of material types: game, activity, full course, lesson plan and so on.

              OER commons not only known as open educational resources, but also a platform for teachers to generate and share their own teaching materials to the public. As the teacher, you can create and design your course with rich media such as audio, video, graphic and HTML.

        OER common is a collection of many open educational resources including AED PD online,  Khan academic and so on. In my opinion, it can also be seen as a curation tool that curating resources in the educational field. 

         In comparison, even though Meriot is also an open educational resource. The main provider is California State University. Therefore, the most courses or instructional materials are developed and shared by the faculty members at California State University. As the result, the Meriot is best working for higher education settings. 

        

       Moreover, Meriot also provides teachers space to develop their own course. To publish your own course, you have to register a web page through its system. While I am registering my own web page, I feel OER Commons is easier than Meriot. Also, if you are looking for resources from other universities, Meriot may not satisfy your needs. 

         

      

come back to the class with my new precious

           Last week is so crazy for me. Thank god that I born a healthy little creature on July 23rd, right at the time. I have been prayed for a long time for its healthy because my ultrasound shows some weird signs when I came back to China. I was so worried even cannot sleep well and eat well. RIght now, while I am writing this blog, my baby was laying on the bed just beside me. How amazing!
         

           Last week, I tried Edmodo as one of the learning management systems. As I tried some of its features. I feel Edmodo is more appropriate for the k-12 settings that teachers can create quiz, activities, and group works through the system. I took two courses about learning management system from lynda.com before EME6414. Therefore, I knew besides Edmodo, there has other great learning management system, for example, moodle, schoology, desire to learn and so on.

           After trying some of the features of each learning management system, I think Schoology is the one contains the most instructional tools and features. Moreover, it has been designed for three main settings: k-12, higher education, and corporations. Therefore, instructional designers have more flexibility when they working with subject matter experts from each related field.
       
       

         In addition, Schoology using multiple tools and features to ensure various types of activities can be created through its system.

            To be specific, the features are listed above as instructional tools, communication and collaboration, mobile app, data analytics and personal learning, interoperability and assessment management.

            In instructional tools, there are functions for instructor or ISder to add rich media documents, to track and pace students individually, and engage students through the discussion board. The Schoology makes the learning "student-centered" and at the same time use data based tools to track students' progress. This definitely makes the online learning more predictable and reliable. I am starting to think and plan to use schoology for my produsage project. RIght now, I just need to continue forming my idea and decide which topic or subject I want to teach! So exciting!