Week 13-15 case study for LTEC 3440...

This assignment let both Jacqueline and I work our strengths into the assignment. She's done case studies many time before and I build web pages every day for a living. This project was probably the best project I've done this semester out of any class. Great experience, thanks Jacqueline.


Z

LTEC 3440 - Online group experience...

We're a group of two... both have full workloads outside of this class yet still manage to pull it off. Thanks Jackie for doing the combining of the answers.

Z

On podacsting...

While this is not new technology, it's one I've never really gotten into but am rethinking doing so. Reason being is that I have an almost three hour, round-trip commute everyday between home, my kids' schools, work and back and could be using that time with some quality listening.

Don't get me wrong, I love my music, but the only reason I don't listen to more audio-books is because they're expensive. Good podcasts are free. I've got a couple different MP3 devices I can load up with some of these and plug in for that tedious drive. Sure may help with the stop and go traffic I hit every day on Hwy35.

Thing is, I can only do podcasts or audio-books when I'm driving, any other time, I can't sit still long enough to enjoy them. Go figure.

Inspiration and WHY do we go to college?

Last week's assignment is a little late but I still wanted to post it after viewing the videos. We had to wathc three videos talking about creativity and education. In this video:



...Sir Ken Robinson brings up a point that the education system around the world has been modeled after the university system that was re-designed because of the industrial revolution for the sole purpose of getting a job in industry. Mathematics taking the top slot in education while arts take the bottom.

I remember making a joke while growing up that all I wanted to do was draw pictures on the sides of cereal boxes. I knew early on that I wanted to be an illustrator, a cartoonist and a graphic designer. Now, I design web pages and only do it because it pays the bills. I hate it. I'm not a developer but fill the role because I was led to believe that drawing pictures was no way to make a living.

Exact same thing happened to my music. I was told that playing guitar, or bass was only good for a hobby. People were not allowed to make a profession out of it, though those that did, fill the record and cd libraries of everyone who told me I can't do it.

I'm not the type of person that can sit in an office all day and thrive in ANY sense of the word. I feel creativity atrophying and dying. If I lose my ability to create, I lose who I am. Period, end of story. For that reason, I don't worry about my oldest kid graduating high school with a C average in math or history, as long as she follows her dream of being able to cook. She wants to go to culinary school. THAT is her creativity. Who am I to say otherwise? Shame on anyone else who does, or anyone else who HAS...

...to anyone else before.

Z

Mind mapping...

Assignment for this week was to create a mindmap for a project. I chose the development of my company's web portal and found this tool a great method for creative thinking in instructional design. The mindmap is easily portable and can be created anywhere, piece of paper, dry erase marker board etc. I can be edited by multiple participants and is an easy way to distinguish categories when using multiple colors (I need to find a digital tool for creating this on the fly like in MS OneNote)

Other great advantages to this tool are that it's a fast way to generate ideas, it's easy to adapt the branches to a hierarchy or architecture if needed and the multiple branches can connect to other maps for larger projects with each branch the responsibility of different teams.

Here's my rough map:

Digital version:

Z

Designing for learning...

I enjoyed the case study from this past week about the group of students that got together, complained that their instructor was giving them too many writing assignments that they thought had no bearing on that class since the all completed English 101 two years prior.

 It seems to me that a few of the students in my class, empathize with the students, and understandably so, I however, tend to lean more towards the teacher's perspective. If your writing is bad, it needs to be fixed. If you're going into a field that is heavily dependent on your writing... you need more practice.

I spent four years at different art schools in my effort to become an illustrator and graphic designer, the one constant throughout every school, every level was the need for life drawing. Just because I took two years of it as a freshman and sophomore in college, does not automatically make me a character designer or an animator. Drawing figures, much like writing, it a skill that atrophies through lack of use.

While I has probably one of the most hectic schedules I've ever had, I still make every effort to get all my assignments in on time, no matter how many a week there are. Do I make them all the time? No, but that doesn't give me reason to criticize the instructors syllabus.

Myths about online learning...

Ok, in trying to catch back up with this course, it seems I kinda messed up the assignment. I got the blogging about these myths and the essay backwards, writing the essay more from my POV.

Anyway, the myths that I have fallen for since coming back to school are, #1 - that online learning is both quick and easy. As a single father of two kids who are involved in everything imaginable, I've discovered that there is NOTHING quick and easy about going to school online.

I spend more time reading, writing and doing research for three online courses (9credit hours) than I ever did for four on-campus courses of gen-ed, graphic design etc at the Art Institute. The three hours per class that I don't spend on campus is more than made up for behind a book or the computer.

Another myth is that online learning is simple emails back and forth between students and instructors. Again, I've had to do so much more work, with a wider variety of resources and materials than ever before.

While at the Art Institute, part of my degree involved digital video editing. The class assignment was complteded with groups of five or six students working together to complete a 30 second edited video, shot, edited and published on campus.

A similar class I took last semester required me to do the exact same thing from home for a five minute video. Whiole I could use outside help for acting, camera operations, etc, directing, editing, compositing was all done by me. A lot more work than the AI course.

This mess is tough!

Z

LTEC 3440 and a typical day online for me...

I... live online. I'm a web designer and am in charge of the company's social network portals and other web based marketing venues. I get in at 8:00am and the first thing I do is check my email, followed by the daily comics online and two small web comics that I follow.

I have to keep my artistic and creative side fed after all ;-)

After that, I do some research on a couple of my favorite tech and design blogs, following new tech trends keeping up on the latest gadgets that I can't afford. All in the first hour.

Throughout the day I'll respond to multiple emails regarding band bookings for the company's clubs, information requests and posts on FaceBook, MySpace and Twitter. I'm constantly updating the website's calendar with new bands and all the corresponding photos and graphics.

Throughout the day, when I'm on break, I'll update my own personal FaceBook profile keeping in contact with former Marine and Army buddies, relatives and friends all around the US.

After I get home from work... well, it's freelance time and I'm constantly texting or emailing my freelance clients about their projects. Also, since I'm in a band, I'm emailing my band-mates back and forth all day about up-coming gigs, practice times and the progress of our cd production.


The highlights of my day though are reading my daughter's FB updates when she gets home from school. Kid's always worth a few great laughs, she's got an awesome sense of humor.


Z

LTEC 3440 Weel 2 Post...

Ah, the great personality tests. These three will be the fifth, sixth and seventh I've taken at UNT so far. Every time I take one I can see how much more trouble my personality types gets me in :-D

The Meyers-Briggs Indicator has me at ENFP
Strength of the preferences%
Extraverted - 22%    Intuitive - 12%    Feeling - 94%    Perceiving - 56%

And states:

IDEALIST - Portrait of a Champion

Like the other Idealists, Champions  are rather rare, say two or three percent of the population, but even more than the others they consider intense emotional experiences as being vital to a full life. Champions have a wide range and variety of emotions, and a great passion for novelty. They see life as an exciting drama, pregnant with possibilities for both good and evil, and they want to experience all the meaningful events and fascinating people in the world. The most outgoing of the Idealists, Champions often can't wait to tell others of their extraordinary experiences. Champions can be tireless in talking with others, like fountains that bubble and splash, spilling over their own words to get it all out. And usually this is not simple storytelling; Champions often speak (or write) in the hope of revealing some truth about human experience, or of motivating others with their powerful convictions. Their strong drive to speak out on issues and events, along with their boundless enthusiasm and natural talent with language, makes them the most vivacious and inspiring of all the types.

Fiercely individualistic, Champions strive toward a kind of personal authenticity, and this intention always to be themselves is usually quite attractive to others. At the same time, Champions have outstanding intuitive powers and can tell what is going on inside of others, reading hidden emotions and giving special significance to words or actions. In fact, Champions are constantly scanning the social environment, and no intriguing character or silent motive is likely to escape their attention. Far more than the other Idealists, Champions are keen and probing observers of the people around them, and are capable of intense concentration on another individual. Their attention is rarely passive or casual. On the contrary, Champions tend to be extra sensitive and alert, always ready for emergencies, always on the lookout for what's possible.

Champions are good with people and usually have a wide range of personal relationships. They are warm and full of energy with their friends. They are likable and at ease with colleagues, and handle their employees or students with great skill. They are good in public and on the telephone, and are so spontaneous and dramatic that others love to be in their company. Champions are positive, exuberant people, and often their confidence in the goodness of life and of human nature makes good things happen.

Joan Baez, Phil Donahue, Paul Robeson, Bill Moyer, Elizibeth Cady Stanton, Joeseph Campbell, Edith Wharton, Sargent Shriver, Charles Dickens, and Upton Sinclair are examples of Idealist Champions

It also says I should be either a musician or a marketer... I'm BOTH!

The Kolb's Inventory says I prefer Doing and Feeling in the organizing category:
* Good at adapting to changing circumstances and solves problems in an intuitive, trial-and-error manner, such as discovery learning.
* Tends to be at ease with people.
* Prefers the challenges of new experiences, involvement with others, assimilations, and role-playing.
* Likes anything new, problem solving, and small group discussions.

AND...

My lLearning Style is:

  ACT         X                                        REF
           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11
                              <-- -->
      SEN                                                    X    INT
           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11
                              <-- -->
      VIS                      X                            VRB
           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11
                              <-- -->
      SEQ                                                    X    GLO
           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11
                              <-- -->

Which roughly translated means...

I am an active, and intuitive global learner.

Which always seems to get me in trouble HAHA!

Z