The possibilities

I have always seen myself working with in the public or university school system, but after reading Chapter 18 in our Trends and Issues text by Reiser and Dempsey I thought it may be interesting to work with Technology based training delivery or even the globalization of training. I have always thought it was interesting to create lessons and use different applications and media to present or manipulate information. These two areas in the corporate world would be very similar, but working with employees instead of students. I see myself designing how the material or information will be presented. I do not see myself as a person that would want to analyze what exactly needs to be taught, I just want to find ways to teach it.

When approaching Chapter 22 I thought it would discuss those that design instruction, for example the SCOS, those that work with network structures and school technologies, and then those designing resources and assessments. I was surprised how different this chapter was. I never realized how much diversity there was for IT's that work with in the school system. I personally am interested in e-Learning. I see myself teaching and designing courses, assessment, communication tools, etc for e-Learning or distance education. I would especially like to be on an instructional strategies planning committee or with in the Multi-disciplinary Unit team as an Instructional Designer or Interactive multimedia designer.

I was intrigues by the section in chapter 21 about systemic change. Currently as a language Arts teacher I have seem a huge systemic change with the State's writing test assessment and implementation. I have been very interested to learn how the state decides when it is time to change testing and what steps they take in an attempt to improve assessment. As we become a country that craves data and statistics assessment will become more and more advance as years go by.
As I'm reading these chapters I kept thinking to myself, “I would have no idea how to do that..” There are many possibilities beyond the education system, but I do feel I need to gain expertise in the profession with in an environment that I feel comfortable with before branching out to other environments and work places. I am intrigued and would like to learn more about it however.

Instructional Media

When I first went to school for my undergrad I pictured my first Language Arts classroom very similar to my class when I was in 7th grade. We would read books, sit in circles and discuss the author's purpose. Computers would only be used for typing papers and perhaps some research.

My classroom today is very different. I often find myself finding different instructional media and creating lessons centered around using this new media. On a daily basis I use an Elmo which is basically a cool document camera. I use this media for lessons which are basically lecture and demonstration, but I have often allowed students to create their own lessons and use the Elmo to project their own notes, graphics, and demonstrations. The kids love to "play teacher."

When we read class novels I have students keep blogs instead of a reflection journals or a classroom discussion. I find that this allows students to work on writing and publishing as well as exploring literature. Discussions online I find are slower, but more organized and profound than a quick classroom seminar.

I have used chat rooms with my class as well. When students are discussing something they have read or are planning a project together they will often log onto a Meebo Chat room where I can see a written log of everything they discuss.

I have used blogging and chat rooms extensively in class because I find they are very similar to the types of discussion students can have face to face. This means it takes little time and training to use these medias.

In the future I would like to try using more multimedia programs and wikis where students can work on projects. Most of my class is project based learning or seminars. I use the media to help groups of students communicate and create products for presentation.

I have also been reading a lot about virtual realities such as Dr. Sugar mentioned Second Life. Some NC Virtual High School Teachers have been toying with this virtual reality to create classrooms online for students. I would love to know if anyone uses anything like this in their classroom today and what methods along with it?