Week 3 Learning Journal

This week in our reading I learned that by adding practice sequences to information that I am presenting to a class, I can create a much more interactive and active one (Moore, p.50).  Chapter four also reiterated the importance of performance and feedback in practice-centric design.  The reading also tied in what we have been learning about sensory, working and long term memories in the 603 class: Visual Literacy.  How the learners interaction with the information enables them to apply meaning to the information so that actual learning does occur. I felt that the most important part about the practice sequences was learning that the goal is to provide support for the transfer of information into our long term memory through presentations, practice and feedback so that the learner eventually no longer needs the support.   I think an important part to remember about the planning is to make sure that the learner is successful and doesn't shut down - smaller tasks building up to a bigger task applying all of those small victories.  By providing the learner with accurate and consistent feedback, the teacher is able to let them see where they might need to focus their attention next in order to make progress.
My friend came over to help me with my project today and really helped me organize my story board.  He was my instructor over the summer and one thing that he knows about me is that I need to remember to organize my work so that I can access it easily.  Another thing that he suggested is that I do what is necessary first and then add onto the assignment afterwards if I want.  This reminded me of the flow charts that I made in his web design class over the summer - solid lines on the chart represented what was a realistic goal, but dotted lines connected to things that were "in the works".  I am going to keep trying to practice this advice so that I can be successful in organizing my instructional designs.

Read&Write Gold Installation Step One

Week 2

I learned a lot this week while working on our second assignment to create an instructional video.  I became more familiar with the Flash components by watching the tutorials posted online.  I took notes while watching them and was able to refer back to them when I was creating my video.

I also found a really good resource online for me to use as well: http://flash.editme.com/ .  This site is divided up nicely and gives a nice concise explanation of how to do different things in Flash.  I am definitely going to use this throughout the quarter.  I finally caught up on my reading for class this week.

I found out something interesting about how I read.  If I start from the back of the chapter, and read the last sections first, it is easier for me to understand.  I have no idea why this is, but I think it might have something to do with my needing to know the "end results" before blindly reading what leads up to it.  While reading from beginning to ends of chapters, I find myself frustrated with concepts and ideas that the text talks about because they don't seem to apply to anything.

However, when I read from end to start, it is sort of like peeling an onion.  The Onion as a whole object gets peeled back layer by layer until the core is left (the beginning).  If I am given just a core, and don't know what it is about, I lose interest very quickly.  It sort of is just a nothing that frustrates me because its existence doesn't even make sense in my brain.  So I figured out that perhaps I understand things by unfolding them, knowing that each layer of the concept or object has to be in that place in order to make it whole.  How the events or parts make up the whole don't make sense to me unless I understand what that whole actually is.

Its been a really good week!

Week 1

This week was full of getting organized and figuring out how things work for my courses.  I was most challenged with using Blackboard. This is the first time I have ever had to rely so much on the Blackboard interface and it has been a little confusing.  All of my professors are using it as the main means of communication in our class and it appears that they have had practice!

By the middle of the week I finally figured out how to access the information that I needed for the assignments and unfortunately that is also when I came down with pinkeye and strep.  I was going to try and read the chapters online, but have chosen to print them out instead.  I do like online learning, but reading for me is something that I like to do wherever I go, so having hard copies of the chapters is much easier for me.  I think I might just buy the book for this course because I like to have the texts that I might refer to in the future.

For our first assignment we used Flash to create a Humpty Dumpty video.  I feel like I did a good job learning to draw and put in both shape and motion tween.  I ventured further to import a photo of a wall for Humpty as well which is what I learned by watching a tutorial that Dr. Moore put online for us.

I think that what I learned the most over this past week is that I reAlly need to stay on top of things.  Now that I am feeling better, maybe this will be easier for me.  I need to take the time and really digest the course syllabus and expectations.  Sometimes I feel like the assignments are all over the place because of the nature of online discussions, threads, posts etc.   I hope that I become more efficient in using these tools so that don't get overwhelmed.  So that is my goal for this week besides the required course work - to organize the information so that it makes sense to me.

I did accomplish several things this week: I learned how to use blackboard, Flash, blogging, and even how to order printing from Staples online.  From what I can tell, I am going to be very busy this quarter!