I’ve had the opportunity to experience the field of education from a few different perspectives. I’m currently enrolled as a Master’s student in the Instructional Design and Technology program at the University of Memphis, and I spent several years as a high school Marketing Education teacher. I also currently work for the University of Memphis as an Academic Technology Consultant. These experiences have provided me a chance to gain valuable insight into both the teacher and student roles.

Too many ideas were coming to my mind as I was trying to write about how I would like my elearning to be, if I had money and time. I decided to take a step back to look at the whole picture first then at the details, similar to looking at the shell and then studying the core. This is what I came up with.

On Wednesday, March 3 from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm, Mr. Kevin Thorn will offer a hands-on workshop on using Articulate to build rapid elearning. Kevin is the LMS Administrator for Learning Technologies in Human Resources and Customer Satisfaction at Autozone, Inc. Kevin is also one of the clients this semester for IDT 7095/8095. While this is directed toward students in 7095/8095, I am opening this up to other students/alumni/fans of Dr. Grant’s crazy blog. I hope you can attend.

Big Brother is watching … only it’s your vice principal. If you thought that getting technology into schools was the primary issue or even getting teachers to integrate was bigger. This might change your mind.

There’s been some surprising (or maybe not) interest about a discussion I had in one of my courses recently, so I wanted to open it up to everyone. Recently, in my project management course, we compared and contrasted different instructional design models. I was particularly proud that Drs. Sharon Smaldino, Gary Morrison, and Rob Branch contributed to the discussion by offering some quotes to include into our discussion. This made the topic much more relevant and timely…

Informal learning is important. It accounts for how we learned much of what we know: experience. However, it should not and will not replace formal learning. As more emphasis is being put on constructivist methods and social learning, it is important not to deemphasize the role that formal learning plays.

If the word training often leaves a bad taste in your mouth, then I encourage you to take a look at this optimistic and inspiring story of a 911 operator-in-training. Fox News reports the story of Chris Scott out of Washington state and his response to a 911 call … from his wife.

Dr. Bill Taylor, a Professor of Political Science at Oakton Community College, wrote a letter to his students regarding academic integrity. I think this is awesome. It spells out exceptionally well what he expects of his students and what elements of integrity they should expect out of him. It makes his procedures for assessment and professionalism transparent to the student. I think in teacher education, we would also liken this to dispositions. But Dr. Taylor does a masterful job of explaining why academic integrity is important to him as an individual and why it should be respected by a profession…

As I keep walking this path in order to become an Instructional Designer, there are a number of things that I carry with me. Probably, the one that I keep closer and review every now and then is “the media debate”: does a medium influence learning or is it just a mere vehicle for instruction delivery? The reason why I bring this up is because I have been considering the connection between SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) and learning. Has SCORM anything to do with learning?

Recently, I started testing out Tungle, a calendaring system that syncs, schedules meetings, and allows others to schedule a meeting within your calendar. Tungle had some questions for me to consider, so I thought I’d blog about them and my experience…