Final Reflection

1. What are some things that you have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology? I am still getting the hang of and learning about different pedagogical strategies and what they truly mean. I feel like I have a natural understanding of the different types of learning styles but now I am putting names and definitions to the concepts. 
2. How did integrating web-based technologies help you think about and evaluate uses of technology? I really recognized the benefit and effectiveness of simplicity. When technologies are simple in design, color, text, and content they will be more accessible and effective for learners.
3. How have you met your own personal goals for learning about technology integration? I originally set out to do well on every assignment. I have kinda recognized that although at times it is more work on my end to adapt these assignments to fit my specific career that I can support my classmates who are teachers by spreading and sharing my knowledge of great tools that can be used in the classroom. 
4. Do you have any new goals? What are your plans for reaching your new goals and your long-term goals after this course is over? At first my goal was to do well on every assignment, now my goal is to share what I know with my classmates to improve their classrooms and more effectively teach their students.

Online Teaching Experiences

Guide

Talk about how you could use one of the technologies that qualify as an online experience with your students. 

Audience/student type: Adult learners in a training environment.
Chosen technology: Educational Gaming -  Online gaming in education implies experiential, discovery-driven learning through play. OR Podcast/Videocast - the distribution of audio or video files over the Internet for listening on mobile devices and personal computers.

• What content could this help you teach?
• The majority of my learners are now gen y. Studies have shown that they retain information better when engaged with game theory or gamification. I have found that material such as definition. rules and policies or scenario based information is successfully delivered in this way.
• What type of pedagogical strategies might you use with your students?
• Because of my learner type and environment,depending on the content I may use problem-based curriculum or simulation. 
• What technologies do you think would be harder to use with your students? Why?
• Due to my audience, environment and content I can not take advantage of collaborative teaching strategies or tools such as an Educational blog or RSS feed due to the inconsistency of learners.

Added To Wiki

I added Organizations to my high schools wiki page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelloggsville_Public_Schools#Kelloggsville_High_School

New Wiki

https://laceydaniel.wikispaces.com/home

Self Eval of Lesson Plan

Self Evaluation of my lesson using the UDL Guidelines - Educator Checklist.

Here is a shortcut cut to my lesson that is on MERLOT and here is my evaluation checklist with the highlighted features and barriers of my lesson plan.

MERLOT Evaluation of Software

Selected software to be evaluated: http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=225879

Quality of Content:

1. Does the software present valid (correct) concepts, models, and skills?

This software is valid in the concepts it presents.

2. Does the software present educationally significant concepts, models, and skills for the discipline?

This software is very helpful. These concepts and facts are usually difficult to find all in one place on the web. That makes this software a great resource for e-learning developers.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching-Learning Tool:

1. What stage(s) in the learning process/cycle could the materials be used?
1. Explanation or description of the topic/stating the problem

The software is best represented as the Explanation Process due to its informative and factual style.

2. Demonstration of the curriculum/exploration of the problem

Tutorials are available at the bottom of most of the modules.

2. What is(are) the learning objective(s)? What should students be able to do after successfully learning with the materials?

Students will have a better understanding of how to deliver content appropriately and accessible for learners of all kinds.

3. What are the characteristics of the target learner(s)

Target learners will be interested in creating effective and efficent e-learning courses.

4. Does the interactive/media-rich presentation of material improve faculty and students' abilities to teach and learn the materials?

I would not consider this material to be very interactive. Its style was best suited for a website type layout.

5. Can the use of the software be readily integrated into current curriculum and pedagogy within the discipline?

Absolutely. e-Learning developers should be aware of all the points covered in this software.

6. Can the software be used in a variety of ways to achieve teaching and learning goals?

This software could be used for several types of positions and useful to anyone working with online training.

7. Are the teaching-learning goals easy to identify?

The learning goals are very simply laid out right at the beginning. This also gives the learner the option of choosing what they wish to learn.

8. Can good learning assignments for using the software application be written easily?

Learning assignments might be short, but the evaluation and feedback opportunity is there.

Ease of Use:

1. Are the labels, buttons, menus, text, and general layout of the computer interface consistent and visually distinct?

Yes. Clean and simple.

2. Does the user get trapped in the material?

Not at all. This material is very easy to navigate and is well labeled.

3. Can the user get lost easily in the material?

Not at all. This material is very easy to navigate and is well labeled.

4. Does the module provide feedback about the system status and the user's responses?

No. The style of this software does not require feedback.

5. Does the module provide appropriate flexibility in its use?

Yes. Learners can choose topics that are relevant to them in the order in which they wish to learn them.

6. Does the learning material require a lot of documentation, technical support, and/or instruction for most students to successfully use the software?

Some of the tutorials may require the student to have or obtain specific software in order to practice. But the practice is not apart of the software.

7. Does the material present information in ways that are familiar for students?

Correct jargon is used considering the target audience. Content is organized well and easy to follow.

Blog vs Web page

Blogs are more informal than your traditional web page. Blogs are much more conversational and due to that environment they use simple language. Web pages are referred to as being much more static. Meaning there content does not change as often as it does on blogs. Most blogs are updated daily. Typically blogs display article is reverse-chronological order. Blogs are also more frequently crawled by search engines due to their constant updating.