Emerging Technologies in Instructional Design Technology
I'm writing my final blog post for Instructional Design Technology class as my husband drives on Highway 599 South from Taos, New Mexico to Santa Fe. The Rio Grande is flowing freely to my right side and mountains surround us. It is interesting that I am writing about technology in a place where I don't even have a signal on my phone!
The assignment this week is to consider emerging technologies for IDT and select then reflect on three of them as I would use them in my current positions. I have selected Web 2.0 technologies, rich media, and digital games.
As an elementary librarian I not only design instruction for my students, I also collaborate with teachers and help them find new, interesting ways to teach their students. In both aspects, I employ Web 2.0 technologies. This past year, my first as a librarian, I collaborated with a third-grade teacher on a writing assignment. She was looking for a new way for her students to publish their work. I was able to suggest a web technology application called Puppet Pals. The students were able to turn their stories into animated puppet shows. Like many technologies, this one also ties into rich media and gives students the opportunity to work on a higher level of thinking by creating not only the story but also the final product. I can see myself using more Web 2.0 technologies in the library for a variety of reasons. I've used typing club.com to teach touch typing to my students. We use Facebook and Twitter to communicate with parents. We are also going to start using Schoology this year to tie all of our Web technologies into one place.
Rich media is very interesting to me. My undergrad degree is in communication with a focus on television and radio production. When in doubt, I make a video to present ideas. This past year I had students who couldn't keep "checking in" and "checking out" straight in their head. They'd bring a book to me and I would ask if they were checking the book in or out and inevitably they would say the opposite of what they actually needed to do. In response to this, I used Adobe Spark to create a little instructional video clarifying the two actions. Even though I explained it to them what felt like a million times it was only when I played the video for them that they really grasped the idea. In a previous course, I was fortunate to learn about Cognitive Load Theory by Sweller and how that balances with rich media. I will definitely take that into mind when creating videos for my students in the future.
The last emerging technology I've selected is gaming. This is one that I have not had the opportunity to delve into yet other than having my students go to code.org or other coding game websites. While these are games, they are not using information that I have selected or prepared for my students. Last week Alicia Litchy mentioned a gamification website, PaGamO, in her blog post. It is definitely something I could see using in the library to teach library organization or information literacy skills. I have already shared it with the teachers at my school and can't wait to see how they incorporate it into their lessons this year.
The second part of this week's assignment asked us to discuss ethical issues and other possible issues we might see with our selected emerging technologies. The first thing that comes to mind with any of these technologies is copyright infringement. It is so easy to take things that are not yours from the internet. The web is our main source of information now and when all it takes is a right click and something is yours, there will be problems with stealing even from well-meaning people who just don't understand. I came across this issue when helping the students in the third-grade class who used Puppet Pals to create their animated stories. They were searching online and copying images to use that they didn't have the rights to. As a librarian teaching information literacy is part of my job and these are opportunities for me to take an abstract rule and make put it into a real life situation.
Post Script:
I had to make my way back to Santa Fe and to the hotel in order to post this blog. If you ever get a chance it is a wonderful drive.
The assignment this week is to consider emerging technologies for IDT and select then reflect on three of them as I would use them in my current positions. I have selected Web 2.0 technologies, rich media, and digital games.
As an elementary librarian I not only design instruction for my students, I also collaborate with teachers and help them find new, interesting ways to teach their students. In both aspects, I employ Web 2.0 technologies. This past year, my first as a librarian, I collaborated with a third-grade teacher on a writing assignment. She was looking for a new way for her students to publish their work. I was able to suggest a web technology application called Puppet Pals. The students were able to turn their stories into animated puppet shows. Like many technologies, this one also ties into rich media and gives students the opportunity to work on a higher level of thinking by creating not only the story but also the final product. I can see myself using more Web 2.0 technologies in the library for a variety of reasons. I've used typing club.com to teach touch typing to my students. We use Facebook and Twitter to communicate with parents. We are also going to start using Schoology this year to tie all of our Web technologies into one place.
Rich media is very interesting to me. My undergrad degree is in communication with a focus on television and radio production. When in doubt, I make a video to present ideas. This past year I had students who couldn't keep "checking in" and "checking out" straight in their head. They'd bring a book to me and I would ask if they were checking the book in or out and inevitably they would say the opposite of what they actually needed to do. In response to this, I used Adobe Spark to create a little instructional video clarifying the two actions. Even though I explained it to them what felt like a million times it was only when I played the video for them that they really grasped the idea. In a previous course, I was fortunate to learn about Cognitive Load Theory by Sweller and how that balances with rich media. I will definitely take that into mind when creating videos for my students in the future.
The last emerging technology I've selected is gaming. This is one that I have not had the opportunity to delve into yet other than having my students go to code.org or other coding game websites. While these are games, they are not using information that I have selected or prepared for my students. Last week Alicia Litchy mentioned a gamification website, PaGamO, in her blog post. It is definitely something I could see using in the library to teach library organization or information literacy skills. I have already shared it with the teachers at my school and can't wait to see how they incorporate it into their lessons this year.
The second part of this week's assignment asked us to discuss ethical issues and other possible issues we might see with our selected emerging technologies. The first thing that comes to mind with any of these technologies is copyright infringement. It is so easy to take things that are not yours from the internet. The web is our main source of information now and when all it takes is a right click and something is yours, there will be problems with stealing even from well-meaning people who just don't understand. I came across this issue when helping the students in the third-grade class who used Puppet Pals to create their animated stories. They were searching online and copying images to use that they didn't have the rights to. As a librarian teaching information literacy is part of my job and these are opportunities for me to take an abstract rule and make put it into a real life situation.
Post Script:
I had to make my way back to Santa Fe and to the hotel in order to post this blog. If you ever get a chance it is a wonderful drive.
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