Multimedia Individual Learning Theory

This week Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a plan to eliminate textbooks in favor of digital books, his plan goes along with the buzz in education toward 21st century technologies. Everywhere kids turn they have something competing for their five second attention span, animated billboards, interactive video games, computer animated videos, Interactive Whiteboards. As the push by the California governor today to become more mobile, education, in most classrooms across the nation have followed suit. Classrooms have become increasingly active, and students are learning with the help of technology.

What does this mean? ... More individualization in education, with new technologies emerging it is becoming easier to individualize education for students based on their abilities, talents, and interests. I believe these advances in technology events are sure to drastically shape the future of education. I propose that in the next twenty years an instructional theory,called Multimedia Individual Learning Theory will emerge. According to this theory, technology will be used to read each user like a, and determine a course of learning based on prior knowledge, schema, and talents. Therefore, the educational plan will be fluid, each learner will work at their own pace, have their own experience, the amount of success with the lesson will automatically determine the next course. Also, material will be individualized based on each student, if they have a natural talent for science, lessons will give many enrichment exercises and simulated practice in this area of study. Enhancing the talents of students more rapidly than ever before, and possibly enlarge the learning capacity for students. When education is tailored to individuals, this would decrease cognitive load resulting in a higher capacity to learn and retain knowledge. We are embarking on a world where learning will be virtual, learners will be able to experience 'real world' learning with electronic simulations, become connected with experts in each field they are studying.

What does this news mean for educators? ...

They need to make sure their membership to CUE is active and current. Teachers will assume a different role in the future, current knowledge on new technologies, and their implementations in the classroom will become a necessary prerequisite. This new theory will be great for members of instructional design by definition in Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology instructional design is, "learner centered, iterative, measured, goal oriented, able to be measured, and a team effort" (p. 13). This new theory will play into instructional design as it is centered on each individual learner, their progress will be measured and set on goals that are individually defined.

While I can not predict the future, it seems technology will play a large role in reformatting the traditional education format that most adults are used to. However, the benefits of this revolution may increase knowledge and an individuals ability to learn based on their specific makeup.

Expert Evaluation 572

I had a great experience in EdTec 572.  Terri was so accommodating to me, because I had already taken the 544 class and they were combined.  She was patient and very flexible in working with my individual needs for 572.  I learned a lot from the class and enjoyed learning how to use Google Pages for easy web publishing!  The tips of the week were very also very interesting and useful.  

I also really enjoyed the video project, finding it very rewarding and a fun project to enjoy our fellow classmates.  It was nice in 572 to finally put all of the theory into practice using the various tech tools.  

It was helpful with the final project to have various due dates through the progression of our project.   It made it easier and less daunting of a task.

The Emerging Technology Tools project would have been helpful to have a rubric before, personally was unsure of the expectations for the project.  

I had a great experience and learned a lot from this class! Terri was a knowledgeable, flexible instructor!

Houndsley and Catina

Houndsley and Catina is a cute series of beginning chapter books by author James Howe. The characters are a dog and a cat, the stories are silly tales of their friendship. All of the books we have read have good lessons about friendships and the kids really enjoy them! They are perfect beginning chapter books for any child!

The Incredible Book Eating Boy

The Incredible Book Eating Boy is a wonderful and funny tale about a boy who... eats books, and becomes very smart. After a while, the books begin to take a toll on his belly, and mind. He starts getting words confused, and can no longer control all the information he has eaten:) At the end of the story the boy decides that it is better to read the books to learn than to eat them, and begins to love reading and acquire all kinds of new information that stays put without any tummy aches:)
My students loved this book, especially the back cover, which has a bite mark in it:) It is a great read aloud for children!

My Video: Inspiring Women

I had the idea for my video from a book I was reading to my class Amelia to Zora Twenty Six Women Who Changed the World, which is a wonderful compilation! I decided to start gathering quotes and pictures of inspirational women over time.
I did my video in iMovie HD and the main problems I had was I gathered all the photos and did the quotes in PowerPoint and exported them as .jpg Then when I finally got them all into iMovie I decided to put the quotes and pictures together... so I went back to PowerPoint and then used the grab tool. It took a very long time:)
Anyway I have used iMovie before to make a video for my wedding, and also some projects with my class. However, it has been a year since I have worked with it. My biggest challenge was fitting the 30 second music clips with my photos, because once the song was getting good I had to cut it off and find another. Along with this I had problems smoothly transitioning from one song to the next...There must be an easier way to do this.
All in all it took me MUCH longer than I anticipated, partly because I was trying to make everything flow and look nice. I am pretty happy with the finished product and hope you enjoy it as well:)

EdTec 572 Reflections

I am so excited about this class, and have been having a lot of fun playing with all of the new tech tools we have been introduced to. It somehow does not seem like work when you are building an easy web page (compared to dream weaver) in Google pages:) I am continually surprised on how much I learn, and more excited how much I still don't know. With the constant advancement in technology it is difficult to keep up at times.
My favorite new technology tool is iGoogle, I love having my own homepage with bookmarks, widgets of topics I am interested all on one page without having to search around. It is a great time saver! I also enjoyed the discovery videos for the classroom, there is useful clips that I will be using in my instructional package.
I have been playing with Tux Paint, it is a great drawing program for Free, which is always a plus! The kids in my class have Kid Pix, but I will tell them about this program for their home computers. The program is very user friendly and childproof. I am excited to see the presentations tomorrow to pick a few more tools I can implement in my instructional package!

The Most Beautiful Thing in the World: A Chinese Folk Tale

We read The Most Beautiful Thing in the World: A Chinese Folk Tale, and the kids really loved the story, as did I:) It was a wonderful story about a king sending his three sons out with 100 gold coins to find the most beautiful thing, and the winner would take over the throne. One boy bought a painting, another a pearl from a dragon, and the youngest gave coins to the poor people of their city who were in great need. It was a very heartwarming story with an enriched vocabulary, which prompted a wonderful discussion about good deeds that can be done for others. I recommend the book, although I think it was published some time ago.