Chapter 30 and Online Tools Review

One of the reasons I think Google Documents is such a good tool is the cost. With products like IWorks and Microsoft Office costing hundreds of dollars and most users using only the word processing aspect makes Google Documents even more of a great resource for people to use. To the average user they find no difference between the use of Google Documents your standard word processor they are almost identical. 

One of the advantages of Google Documents as far as word processing is concerned is that your work is always portable, your files are stored on the Google Network and are accessible anywhere. You no longer have to worry about a copy getting deleted or transporting a copy so that you can work on something.

One of the disadvantages of Google Documents is that while the basic features are mostly the same as Microsoft Office and IWorks it obviously does not have as many features as those programs. Things like Mail Merge and printing on envelopes are not available on Google. 

All in All Google Documents is a great tool as long as not too much is expected out of it. It is designed to be a streamlined version of word processing available to people on the go and that is exactly who it's designed for. In an educational setting this program would be perfect for someone who didn't want to pay for software or for school districts that can't afford pricey licenses for all their computers.

Picnik 

Picnik is an image editor designed to allow people to edit their own images without having an expensive program like Adobe Photoshp to do it. If you wanted to take red eyes out of your son's birthday party pictures and didn't have software to do it, Picnik would be for you. Again for the basic user you will find very little difference between Picnik and the features you would use in Adobe Photoshop. 

One of the nice features of Picnik is that it can import pictures from wherever they are on the internet. You are no longer required to download images to your computer. So you can have pictures on Facebook or Myspace and those pictures could be directly imported into Picnik. Picnik remembers the last image you edited and automatically loads it when you return; the service also keeps track of the last five pictures you worked on and lets you undo the changes you made to them at any time.

Understandably Picnik has a premium service where users pay $25 a month for advanced features, so without paying that fee you will only be able to use the basic version of their software. The premium feature also has unlimited storage space so users can store pictures on their service and never worry about running out of space. 

Picnik is a great tool but just don't expect all the features you would get from any kind of software that was purchased. 

Chapter 30

Less is more

Obviously not working in an educational setting I tried to take some of the concepts discussed in the chapter and applied them to my workplace. I think when I interact with my students and need them to complete a task I over explain it. In other words I spend so much time explaining how the process should be and could be done that by the time i'm finished they have a dumfounded look on their faces. A good way I could solve this problem is to get more interaction from them and seeing what they understand and what is not.

Visual Learner

In working with my students you come to realize that they all learne differently. I could give one student a 10 page instructional book on assembling something while I could just show another one a picture and they could assemble it. This part of the chapter really made me mindful of that and how different each person is as far as learning is concerned.  As a supersvisor I have to be aware of that and help to succeed using whatever means necessary but also at the same time being efficient. 

Week 11

Here is the site I have created:
https://sites.google.com/site/wmu123/

The reason I created this site is we get calls everyday asking about a certain venue and what events are held there and generally people never take the time to look and see what the history of the venue is. So the purpose of this website it to make a less cumbersome version of the athletic departments website where people can look specifically at facilities and not get lost in cyberspace trying to locate their pages on wmubroncos.com


I think I'm like just about any person and I would like to incorporate more technology in my workplace to my job more efficient and quicker responses. Right now we have an antiquated system for tracking work orders and following up with maintenance on projects and I fully believe if that were changed that would alleviate a lot of the problems we have on how work is done around the athletic department. At the same time though I think that if you develop technology it must be feasible there is no reason to use a technology just for the sake of it unless it provides you better results.

In my position I get to work with 20-25 college students on a weekly basis. It's one of the best parts of the job for me but I think one of the ways I could help them more is with transfer of knowledge and skills. If they can take something from this job and apply it when they leave here then I can say that I have at least impacted them in someway. If they don't take this job seriously and don't do what they are supposed to, we have done them a disservice. I think the same thing is true on the academic side if I allow them to skip class to come to work its obvious we are not showing them that education is important to their future.

Finally the third competency I would like to better develop is assessing learning and performance. On the work side for me this is the most frustrating when you go through a five minute explanation on how something works or needs to be setup and after you are finished you realize they haven't gotten past the first sentence. I realize most of the time its my explanation but there is nothing more frustrating in the world.

Week 10 & reflection

Sorry everyone was a little late getting this up. Got busy at work and completely forgot to post it.

Here is a good screencast of myself explaining how to use WMU's automated Building Service program that oversee temperatures for all facilities on campus.



I think the part that has stuck out for me more than anything else and I can compare it to working in athletics is teamwork. Not just because it takes so many hands to get things done but the part that amazes me is that alot of the people that have a large part in things don't get the credit they deserve. I think that in order for an organization to get full results out of every single person they must be made to feel like they play just as large a role in the team as everyone else. A perfect example of this around campus are custodians and landscape workers they really make the big difference in how this campus looks yet they are treated by far worse than most other groups on campus. As a result of this they have poor attendance records and have high turnover rates, a reasonable person would have to see some kind of connection there. I'm not the worlds smartest person but I can definitely tell that in order to get better results from the group you need to change how they are viewed.

Week 9 Reflection

Not working directly in education this chapter was a little hard for me to swallow. Since I couldn't really relate to some of the messages the biggest thing I picked up was systemic change and how it is so hard and takes so long. This really hit home with my experiences at Western as I have recently attended training through Crossroads, a non-profit Chicago organization dedicated to dismantling systemic racism. The basis of the training is trying to provide a long term anti racism transformation in your designated group. For this class the purpose was transforming WMU. They planned to do that by developing commitment within the institution to dismantle institutional racism and to establish an anti-racist purpose within the institution's mission statements. It was really interesting to see how they have targetted and planned to fight something like racism that has been around for centuries. It makes you realize that eventually change will happen but only over the course of time.

While the chapter was not about such a hot topic such as racism the chapter did include some good case studies on how systemic change has worked in educational settings and how they were transformed.

Google Maps

My map on Great Lakes Shipwrecks.

View Larger Map

Great Lakes shipwrecks

After touring the area last summer I realized how the maritime history of Michigan is an area that is not really covered. From the map you can see that I have plotted some of the larger shipwrecks in Lake Huron, it amazed me the amount of wrecks in one area. My lesson plan would have the students research and plot other shipwrecks in the area or in Lake Michigan. Also another side project could be doing research on the ship that wrecked and how many people perished in the crash.

Week 8 Reflection

Technology based training- currently at my place of work we not only use training cd roms but also there are numerous web based training programs for anything from sexual harrasment to use of the university purchase card system. Currently in the Mid American conference we have actually gone to a video conferencing system for certain conference calls where they are presenting videos or graphics. All these kinds of things would not have been possible if not for a greater use of technology in the workplace.


Distance learning/education- I think that not only would it not be possible to do things such as this class but also in the workplace. With the cost of gas still pretty high telecommuting has become more acceptable in many workplaces. The more I think about that the more it amazes me where people can actually sit at home and use their work computer like they were there. Productivity will be higher and the worker loves it because they can make their own schedule and work when they want to.

I believe the assignments for this class are a lot more thought provoking than any of the two other classes I have taken in the in the Educational Technology realm. I feel like these assignments are actually thought out and have a purpose rather than in my other classes where they were merely the next assignment in the book. Being a person who uses technology on a daily basis I can say that for the most part the assignments have not been overly hard but hard enough where I have to spend time and do some actual thinking. I think the group as a whole has been great with supporting each other in this class but I will speak for myself and say that it has grown tedious for me to review and give an opinion on others work. I realize that part of the online experience is doing that but I find no joy in that. I believe that all the work for this class is relevant and can be put into place in the workplace and if I had the opportunity at my job to use any of it I know I could.
The only negative thing I can say and this is not about this class but the program in general is that I feel like too much of the material is covered in every class. I mean how many times can you create your own website or upload pictures. I understand that some students take classes in a different progression but it seems like all of my classes have really covered the main topics over and over again.

Week 7

Podcasting

Quickanddirtytips.com (It's not obscene like the title sounds)



After looking in Itunes for a good educational worthy podcast I came across Legal lad's quicky and dirty tips for a more lawful life. In the Itunes educational section I would say 90 out of the top 100 education based podcasts are foreign language instructionals, not to say they aren't interesting but it's not my thing. While the podcast is not exactly based on educating students its very informative for just curious people. Legal lad is actually a real lawyer and the information given in the brief podcast is in response to questions asked by people who listen and email in questions. This weeks question is on the possesion of handguns or mace. While I don't know how much I actually value the opinion of a lawyer who does podcasts, I do however think it is worthwhile though for broad subjects such as file sharing or what is a grand jury. The podcasts are very quick at around ten minutes a piece and has very little dead time. I think that podcasting is a great tool but I think in an educational setting you would want to have some kind of restriction on content. Itunes is a great resource but I would take the time to at least read some reviews or listen through the whole podcast before I would give it as an assignment. Podcasting would have a great benefit in my workplace in athletics because it would allow people from other schools and other conferences to share information in a clear and concise manner. The best part about that is that a person with very little technical skill can produce their own podcast.


Chapter 14 reflection


I think I might be one of the only ones who has a different point of view of the subject of HPI or human perfomance improvement. My point of view does not come as an instructor but as a coach. The example I keep coming back to is in football if your team gets loses a close game 22-21 the next week you come back to practice and you focus on why you lost the previous and not for your next opponent. The results are counter productive you must move on and keep going forward. Now you don't forget about the game completely but you have to get back to basics and why the fundamental approach you took didn't work. Maybe your pass defense wasn't as aggressive as you would have liked it to be so the next week you work on pass defense drills. Maybe your punter couldn't kick the ball to save his life so you have him punting all practice. Each one of these examples is of how the whole team was not the cause of the loss but each individual unit played a role in the process.