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“Picture This”: Some Foundational Principles on Graphic Design
IMHO, the best instructional designers are not just learning scientists, they also have an eye for the aesthetics. The best combination of formal educational training for an instructional designer, to me, is a BFA/MFA and a MS in instructional design. Since I don’t have a BFA/MFA (though I contemplated doing a MFA instead of a PhD in instructional design), I have consistently worked on developing and enhancing my graphic design and media authoring skillset. Recently, I read a book called Picture This by Molly Bang, a recommended text for wannabe graphic artists or…
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What Could’ve Been: #et4Online68425 2015 Presentation Notes
Hello to all who are / may / might be thinking of attending session #et4online68425, I’m sorry I couldn’t be there to present in person due to personal reasons.Title of Presentation: When Graduate Students Become Online Instructors: A First-Time Online Instructor’s Teaching Toolbox The proposal can be retrieved at http://olc.onlinelearningconsortium.org/conference/2015/et4online/when-graduate-students-become-online-instructors-first-time-online-instruc The website for our presentation is at: http://rampages.us/gradtoonlineteach/ This presentation started when my colleague and I met a group of students from PSYC 795 Practicum in the Teaching of College Psychology (Fall 2014). The provocation to create a resource arose when…
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Designing a Course Worth Learning Part 2
I learned about assistive technology when I was on a graduate teaching assistantship and tasked with shadowing a senior graduate assistant before she graduated. I was to then take over her Assistive Technology course for pre-service teachers.Over the years, I’ve gained a greater awareness and understanding of disability and accessibility. But I still have a lot to learn. I believe every instructional designer (and instructor) must be equipped with the knowledge and skills to design accessible courses. As I plan to teach a summer online course, I want to make…
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Online Teaching is like Learning a New Language
Online Teaching is Like Learning a New Language Is online teaching like learning a new language? Do bilingual (or multilingual) teachers find it easier to switch from face-to-face to online teaching? For several weeks, I pondered these questions as I tarried at the intersection of two/three facets of my life — online teaching, online course design and learning French (Français or Française?). The second question is a hypothesis I intend to investigate! Le magazine de l’Alliance de Singapour 1993 [Back Story: When I was twelve or thirteen, I wanted to learn…
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Hypothes.is for Shared Annotation
A week ago, Laura (my colleague) tweet-alerted me to someone who had annotated my extended comment to her Twitter Journal Club blogpost. @yinbk @SuzanKoseoglu @merryspaniel @JeffreyKeefer – @jgmac1106 added an annotation page to his website http://t.co/BzTIojdw3n #cool #tjc15 — Laura Gogia (@GoogleGuacamole) March 13, 2015 It was Greg McVerry, a supergeek. (He knows all these cool tools I’ve been playing with.) He had responded to my blogpost by annotating and replying to the ideas. Impressive! @yinbk @GoogleGuacamole @SuzanKoseoglu @merryspaniel @JeffreyKeefer A #tjc15 annotation: http://t.co/RP1kx66oYy — Greg McVerry (@jgmac1106) March 13, 2015 Intrigued,…
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Thinking about Student Blogs and Community Building
“So you mean we are sharing cyberspace?” Seven words that offered a glimpse into our client’s thinking. I will refer to her as Ms. Z. [Stan and I met with her.] Some background information before I continue. She had come to ALT Lab, bogged down by barriers to blogpost-editing and seeking some assistance on how to integrate Timeline into a blogpost. From her instructor’s [Dr. Halo, pseudonym] course site [BEY 500, fake course name], Ms. Z was able to “jump to” and “see” her own blog site. Happily, she has also been blogging on…
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A Bold Experiment: Live-Skim-Tweet Journal Article #tjc15
Laura Gogia, a.k.a @GoogleGuacamole, my ALT Lab colleague (NOT a Google App as one of my Twitter friends thought!) invited me to her community’s experiment to live-tweet reading a journal article. I needed little persuasion because #1. I enjoy Twitter chats and #2. I am highly curious and like to learn new things. It turned out to be a thoughtful learning experience.There are 2 dimensions about the event I’m going to highlight in this blogpost and a third one I would need to think a bit more about: 1. The…
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Designing a Course Worth Learning 1
Over the next few weeks or months, my goal is to reflect on what and how I think as I design (big and small, d/Design) UNIV 291 in the roles of an instructional designer and instructor. There are many design decisions to consider. But there are a few BIG questions I must address. Uppermost in my mind is a question I borrow from David Perkins, a scholar I greatly admire for his ideas on thinking, teaching/learning, and clarity of thought. With only 8 weeks for a summer online elective course,…
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The Making of a Course Trailer
The course trailer is up on YouTube. Although it runs for less than 2 minutes, it entails a tremendous amount of work. Many people chipped in to help out given the tight time-frame we had to churn it out. To them I owe a debt of gratitude. Their names were not mentioned in the credits and I would like to use this space to express my appreciation to them.Thank you, in no particular order, Alice Westerberg, Suzie Fairman, Molly Ransone, Emma Gauthier, Aditi Jain and Arianna DeCastro (both the actresses), Marcus…
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Blogging is Not a To-Do List Item
Sometimes we don’t know how good we have it until it is gone. The Blizzard of 2015 in New York sent some cross-continental friends whatsapp-ing me two days ago to check if I was out of harm’s way. Some of them think I’m still in New York state. It brought a smile to my face and tears to my eyes. My dad used to worry about things like these. It is a blessing to be a child of someone. To have someone worry about you; enough to call and wonder…
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Olé Days 2 & 3
Days 2 and 3 of OLE offered participants more new ideas to refresh pedagogical perspectives and work on their course sites. 1. Moving Images (In both sense of the word “moving”) Collage of video stills from course trailers of 4 VCU professors Molly Ransome shared with the participants course trailers of Ryan Cales, Jason Coats, Dianne Jennings, Gardner Campbell and a few other instructors. The trailers were each fabulous in their own ways. Gardner’s trailer is a self-made one that made us chuckle (and I’m not saying this because he…
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Olé, Olé, Olé
According to Wikipedia (Oops! The mention of this word might start a friendly argument!), the word “olé” might refer to several things, including a football chant, with the star footballer’s name added to the end. In my case, I refer to both a rah-rah cheer (Go! VCU OLE!) and a program the ALT Lab is running.Today was Day 1 of the Institute and has been a pretty intense time with lots of ideas presented to participants. We are all going to spend some time tonight doing HW, yup, Home Work!…
