Immerse Yourself

Final Thoughts!

2007-05-16T14:48:00.002-05:00

During the course of this project, I learned a lot about communication, both digitally and verbally. The 'net generation, or learners born in the 1980's and later (as introduced by Diana Oblinger of Educause, whom I had the chance to meet earlier this year at ELI) tends to favor email, as we've grown up with the internet--or at least have had computers around throughout most or all of our lives. Our SMEs were a bit more receptive to phone calls as a primary means of communication. By the end of the Immersion experience, through improved communication with both the SMEs and team members, I think all of us learned the lesson of adapting to the needs of the client (and that this can really improve your interactions and productivity with a project, especially one focused on instructional design!).

My team was comprised half of 'net gen learners and half of adult learners (roughly). Adult learners are defined, roughly, as learners above the age of mid-20s who have multiple life roles (parent, full-time employee, spouse, etc.). Tie this in with the Myers Briggs personality type test that we took during the second week of school--I tested as an extrovert while the others were introverts--and you've got some interesting communication dynamics. Sometimes I felt that my voice was a bit ignored during team meetings; the rest of the team would remain silent when I made a comment about something that needed to be fixed or not comment on an idea that I'd stated. It took awhile to adapt to this, but it opened my eyes to different styles of communicating that I may encounter in future career and academic experiences, and gave me the relational know-how to elicit responses and answers from people with different personalities. (To read more about Oblinger's and other experts' thoughts on the 'net gen, see Educating the Net Generation, an Educause e-book.)

Finally, after hard work and many late nights, the Underground Coal Mine Supervisor Online Training System is complete. Thanks to all of my team members, professors, and SME who made the 2006-2007 school year the incredible learning experience that it was. I will never forget it!

Progress

2007-04-27T00:17:00.001-05:00

We are making a lot of progress with our training system, but have been discovering that it is difficult it is to design without access to the target audience for evaluative purposes. Happily, we've received 11 responses to the evaluation survey--five more than last semester. I have been working on the End of Shift Duties training module, and have been learning to compromise. I have so many fun, interactive ideas for it and the tools to implement them, but not all would be easy to make Section 508 compliant in the short amount of time we have left to polish off the training system. I pictured an graphic rich image based interactive "click and respond" type module, but the general layout has to look like the other modules...and I'm not sure exactly how to implement what I want using boring old text. It will be video-based, however, and I'm excited to see the final result.

Backing up a bit, "in the beginning..." I was given a Job Task Analysis indicating the steps a section foreman is to take at the end of his or her shift. When I lay out ideas for further development of these steps, I'm told they're "too simple." However, this is all I've been given to work with, and since there is no official "end of shift" examination, Google and other searches have proven fruitless in finding out additional information about these duties. I have been tapping the SMEs for information. Last week there was a mining disaster, though, giving the SMEs some higher priority work than e-mailing ambiguous information about end of shift duties. I think I have enough information and media now, though, to develop an educational and (as much as Workforce Connections will allow it) engaging training module.

Also, Immersion has exposed to a wide array of new technologies, whether through a classmate, professor, or just simply stumbling on them by accident. It's fun. Every day, it seems, I discover a cool new web-based, usually open source, technology that could apply to our training system or that I could recommend for use in a higher education setting. Today's is "YouSendIt," which enables you to send files up to 100MB for free. It's very useful. Check it out.

S.M.E. = Simply Making Excellent (Progress)

2007-04-18T14:04:00.001-05:00

At the end of March, subject matter experts Jerry Vance, Sharon Casto, and Sharon Cook visited the MSHA team from Beckley, W.V. I feel that this meeting had been the most productive and helpful of all three SME meetings we've had throughout the course of the academic year. I was also humbled when they discovered a few mistakes in my scenario, like something I'd copied and pasted wrong or an image of a metal/nonmetal miner (we're developing training for underground coal miners). This visit really reinforced reinforcing the necessity of SMEs on any design project. They also inspired us, giving us more sources of relevant media. Though I'm not an expert on mining, I'm finally feeling comfortable with the material and terms like "mantrip" and "SCSR" are becoming part of my everyday language.

Also, I see how important it is to meet with the SMEs in person. There's only so much that can be done through a phone call or e-mail. When my team was face to face with the SMEs, things came together--instead of working disconnectedly and asynchronously, ideas were freely tossed around and that collaborative experience became a very valuable enhancement to the development of our training system.

On April 4, after a day full of delayed, overbooked, and missed flights, the MSHA team arrived in Provo, UT for the ID + SCORM conference, where we presented "The Challenges of Using SCORM Compliant LCMS to Implement an Online Training System for Underground Coal Mine Supervisors." Indeed, there were challenges! I learned the importance of good practice ahead of time, and that you can't always depend on a planned schedule to have enough time to get the job done. All in all, the team came together very well and made the most of the situation to present a profound lesson in developing an online training system while being constrained by an uncooperative LCMS. We learned that other designers were facing the same challenges regarding meeting Section 508 guidelines and deciding on granularity metrics of a SCO--how small is the smallest learning object or piece of useful standalone data in a training system?

We're nearing the End of Immersion. And, as I'm guessing this happens with nearly every design project, we're feeling like "If we only had more time..." My team is filled with so many creative ideas and the skills to implement them, but we're running out of time. On May 10, 2007, we present the final product to our client. Stay tuned.

A Learning Process

2007-03-23T14:59:00.000-05:00

Education is a continual learning process. Whether you use the word "education" in regards to educating others, as an instructor or peer, or undergoing the process of being educated, it's a constant cycle of learning. Just when I thought I knew everything I needed to know about instructional design (I know, that's impossible), the ADDIE model, etc, something new comes along and I'm constantly being amazed at how much more there is to learn about everything -- ID, effective use of content, e-learning technologies, SCORM, and being a part of a search committee!

Yesterday, my team had a meeting that lasted about two hours. Two hours - what on earth do we have to discuss that could take two hours? At first, it felt like we spent a lot of time analyzing the seemingly insignificant nitty-gritty details of the design process of our training system, but the more we discussed, the more it became clear to me how grounded in design our final product is going to be, despite the technologically-crippling limitations of Workforce Connections. Honestly, when the concept of the design matrix (aligning learning outcomes or objectives to relevant assessment questions) was introduced to me, I was baffled as to why we were doing this. Now it makes complete sense to me -- I mean, why quiz learners on concepts that aren't going to contribute to their learning of a specified topic? And if a course designer doesn't write clear or valid objectives, or if it turns out the assessment questions or objectives aren't meeting goals like increasing the learner's problem solving skills, then some element of the training or e-learning system must be redesigned so that the designer, and eventually the learner, is able to reach these goals.

A final closing thought: I jumped into the Immersion program with the goal of obtaining an instructional design or academic technology position at a higher education institution after commencement. Graduation and the 'future' of 'getting a job' are looming on the near horizon. I am still enthusiastically committed to my goal of working in higher education, and Immersion has only strengthened this dream of mine. The more involved I am in higher education, the more I hope to remain a part of the aforementioned 'cycle of education' for a long time to come.

Technology in the "Classroom" - Traditional, or an Underground Mine

2007-02-23T17:12:00.000-05:00

After much discussion and many hours spent with subject matter experts (SME's), the MSHA project has changed directions, and myself and my Immersion teammates are in the process of evaluating, revising, and refining the content and other aspects of the training system we created and continue to develop. By spring break, we expect to have the training system ready for evaluation and validation by SME's. Shortly after spring break, we will have a "tweak week" (term coined by me!) to focus on assessing each others' guided scenarios as well as adding touches to polish the system 'til it sparkles.

I'd like to say a little bit about Education Research, the course otherwise known as EDIT 590. As an aspiring instructional designer for a college or university, I didn't stop and think that I would undertake a course quite like this. Its focus is on developing skills, insights, and understanding to perform research, emphasizing interpreting and applying research results. Most of the course readings pertain to topics such as the evaluation of teachers' incorporation of technology in K-12 settings; stakeholders' perspectives on gathering and using evaluative information about educational technology; and how to measure the difference (if there is one) that technology is making in K-12 curricula. Many of these are very difficult to measure quantitatively (i.e. using "hard" data) due to variations between schools, classrooms, resources, finances, and even the abilities of individual students. Rather, many more education researchers and policy makers are taking a qualitative approach to research, using "anecdotal" data, which are not result of systematic study -- using stories, observations, and informal interviews as a platform on which to gather evidence and draw conclusions.

One of my tasks in this course this semester is to critique several qualitative and quantitative education research papers. As I got more involved in the first assignment of the quantatitive research assessment, I really began to enjoy it and got a sense of the various research methods in use today (hey, the study I chose was 118 pages!). I must say that I'm glad I'm stepping out of my comfort zone and exploring topics I previously wouldn't have thought were important to my development as an instructional designer. Even though I may never work in it, I finally feel as though I have a good grasp on different educational technology issues facing today's K-12 world.

In other news, I have been selected as a member of a search committee at GMU to select a new Director of Learning Support Services, Instructional Technology Unit. Among many aspects of the position, the DLSS:

Oversees student support, faculty development support, and support for the University’s e-learning infrastructure
Leads, oversees and sets the vision for the Instructional Resource Center (IRC), the Student Technology Assistance and Resource (STAR) Center, and the Training in Office and Productivity Skills (TOPS) program
Coordinates teaching and learning with technology (TLT) activities related to GMU’s new Center for Digital Fluency and the nationally-recognized Technology across the Curriculum (TAC) program
Collaborates with other DoIT Directors (Classroom Technologies, Educational Media Services), as well as various technology, support and academic units of the university to ensure coordinated support for campus-wide learning technology efforts and initiatives

I'm extremely excited about this chance to meet and work directly with various GMU professors, the associate dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences, and the Executive Director of the Division of Instructional Technology, among others. Part of my responsibilities will include reviewing applications, selecting candidates for interviews, participating in the interviews and actively sharing my thoughts with the rest of the search committee. It will give me the opportunity to be on the selecting (rather than select-"ee" end), give me lots of insight into what goes on behind the scenes during a selection process, and allow me to meet and interact with various candidates who have received the higher education that I aspire to achieve someday and have held positions that I am highly interested in learning about. I'm looking forward to playing such a big part in selecting someone who is in the spotlight of IT at GMU.

Obstacles and Challenges

2007-02-07T14:29:00.002-05:00

Lately my team has encountered some of the most difficult challenges thus far in our Immersion journey. I think that one of the biggest challenges lies in working with the content. As I've mentioned before, my classmates and I aren't SMEs in underground coal mining. But how engaged with the material are we supposed to become? How much of an "expert" on coal mining should I be by the end of this project? Or should I become an expert on one aspect of coal mining, like the continuous miner or guarding? There is a disconnect between how much of the content I should fully understand about this product I'm developing and what's actually being done.

My team met with several subject matter experts last year from MSHA in West Virginia. They were extremely helpful in assessing the usability of the currently existing content/training system we developed last semester and could immediately tell us what could stay and what needed work. I was shocked when I realized the large number of pages within the training modules we'd developed that had to be curtailed, severely revised, or eliminated altogether. I'd spent at least a good week or two developing a scenario based on an existing NIOSH scenario called the "Low Coal Fire." Upon the SMEs' examination, it was deemed "too simple" for the experienced coal miner and eliminated (along with several other scenarios developed by my teammates). I'd developed three Fatalgram Analyses, which gave in-depth explorations of underground coal mining fatalities. Each had about eight parts, for which I'd found images and some media. Each of these Fatalgrams (well, the ones we're still including) is now being reduced to a page or two at the end of a relevant NIOSH scenario, and the whole structure of the training system needs to be changed.

I know that when I'm on the job, SMEs are going to be more available if there is an employer paying to have his/her coursework developed as rapidly as possible. But in academia (being on the student side) it is extremely difficult to have access SMEs, let alone access practically on demand. Over winter break, I took a Captivate course, where I learned how to make a course or web-based presentation interactive. It's very hard to be told, "No, you can't use a lot of this" because the content has to be easily updatable--especially when Title 30 CFR regulations change--by non-designer mining SMEs.

As of today, we've got about three months and a timeline to get a working, interactive, engaging, online training system off the ground and into the hands of underground coal miners. Will this disconnect I spoke about earlier close?

Educause Learning Initiative Conference Day 3

2007-01-24T18:48:00.000-05:00

On Monday, I walked into the very first talk to find a ballroom full of round tables encircled by chairs rather than the typical lecture format of chairs linearly set up throughout the room. I could have my laptop open, typing notes (making these posts easier to write) during sessions set up like this, but the real purpose of this format was, as we [the conference attendees] were told, was to promote dialog and continue discussing the ideas presented during the talk even after the official talk ended. “New Learning” forms were also scattered throughout tables for participants to write down new insights they may have had during the seminar. I’m really curious to find out what people said on these cards. As convener for two sessions at ELI, I encouraged people to fill these out. Convening (I didn’t fully know what it entailed until I arrived at ELI) gave me the opportunity to get to know some speakers and their areas of research/interest a little better, dig a little deeper into topics that interested me, and play a role besides Newbie Student at the conference.

The ELI 2007 conference has come to an end, but I’m being sent back to Fairfax armed with tons of information and new insights in learning and technology. Time and time again, social networking sites (particularly Facebook) were addressed and scrutinized as to how (and if) these in any way could be used in an educational setting. More statistics: 55% of online teens have created a personal profile online, but they’re not leaving everything open to the world: 66% limit access to their profiles, according to Tracy Mitrano of Cornell University (you can read her entire study here), and 48% visit social networking sites daily/more often. If (she seemed excited about this possibility) schools could adopt a model similar to Facebook, she believed it truly could be used to enhance students’ learning. It’s obviously popular with the kids. What do you think?

So to tie these postings together with my experience at ELI 2007, I’m using a method of evaluation (reflection) which was the focus of a session (Dialogical Reflection in the Digital Age) which I convened today. No, I’m not being “graded” on this post, but it really is helping to synthesize everything I just learned over the past 3 days with my previous knowledge of instructional technology concepts. Erick Marmolejo and Jim Phillips’ research revealed reflection as a catalyst to learning, but presented the many challenges with reflection. Their findings echoed a lot of the techniques I’m encountering in my graduate program. I’m required to create, maintain, and evaluate my own e-portfolio as well as evaluate the portfolios of my peers twice per semester based on a rubric given by my professor. In another class, the students are divided up into groups and, using BlackBoard, my group provides feedback to a partner group after they make a presentation (and vice versa). I’m also required to keep this blog of reflections on my Immersion experience. I think it’s very valuable and I’m looking forward to reflecting more this semester and reading the entire thing, say, a year later. The session turned into a discussion for the last 20 minutes or so, and it was interesting to hear how students, both graduate and undergraduate enrolled in different academic programs, were evaluated at other universities (and their attitudes toward evaluation). Jim emphasized the rubric idea, as well as calibration of your observers -- ensuring your students can accurately evaluate statements. For example, this would include giving the students poor work and ensuring their comments line up with this, as well as ensuring the evaluators are abiding by the given rubric. Hm. I like that idea. But what about graduate students -- is this necessary for them, or should educators assume that by graduate school we're capable of making an accurate evaluation?

Lastly, I’m going to post the titles of books that I wrote down during the conference -- books that will go on my “To Read” list (despite the fact that I probably won’t get a chance to look at them until after graduation!):

How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School (National Research Council (U. S.) Committee on Learning Research and Educational Practice, National Research Council (Corporate Author), John Bransford (Editor), Ann L. Brown (Editor), Rodney R. Cocking (Editor)

The New Division of Labor: How Computers Are Creating the Next Job Market (Frank Levy, Richard Murmane)

Reflection in the Writing Classroom (Kathleen Yancey)

Thanks for reading!

Educause Learning Initiative Conference Day 2

2007-01-24T18:33:00.000-05:00

So I intended for my blogging over the past few days to be as real-time as possible, but it looks like that hasn’t happened. Still, I will divide my postings by days to make it easier for you (and me!) to keep track of the sessions I attended. Lucky me, I arrived at the Atlanta airport 2 hours early, so I hope the following gives you ample opportunity to reflect on my experiences at the Educause Learning Initiative Conference.

In “Emerging Educational Technologies and Neomillennial Learning Styles,” Chris Dede (formerly of GMU!) mentioned Tom Friedman’s “The World is Flat” and put a new spin on one of Tom’s ideas. (By the way, I met Tom and heard him speak in Richmond a few years ago – he is fantastic!). Chris told his daughter to “study hard, because someone in India wants your job.” I remember only a few years ago we were worrying about programming and telemarketing jobs being shipped away. But the day is here when it’s more than just those jobs...I suppose almost any job can be shipped away, but the higher ed/IT field really appeals to me because so much of it is interactive and hands on, and the projects I am/will work on will always be changing.

Chris focused on several emerging “next generation” interfaces for distributed learning, such as MUVE’s (Multi User Virtual Environments) whose title characters were avatars (virtual representations of ourselves), and MMOG’s (Massively Multiplayer Online Games). However, these environments which were once a figment of someone’s imagination are here NOW and are almost ubiquitously being used by this new net generation of young learners. Problem is: the content of these games is basically garbage! The challenge: how can we use these tools in education to facilitate learning? One way that’s already in practice is the River City Project (which you can read about), and research indicates that children who typically received D’s and F’s performed as well as students earning A’s and B’s in this type of learning environment.

I also learned of Second Life, which I would best define as a large-scale educational virtual world, for the first time at Educause. It was fascinating, and appeared to be engaging and expandable. I wonder how long it will be before we see Second Life in college classrooms all across America/the world? Part of the issues with it, at least today, were bandwidth (it’s pretty hard to efficiently run Second Life on a wireless network, which is often much slower than a wired one), and the fact that some college freshmen using Second Life are under 18 (but learners must be over 18 to interact with “characters” from other worlds/outside of their university’s sphere), which could impede learning and restrict them from being on an even playing (er, learning) field from the rest of the age 18+ members of the class. One of the neatest things about Second Life, I think, was the possibility to “fly” to another world and interact with students, professors, whomever from other worlds, learn from them, and add them as “friends” to serve as an archive of future connections – almost like a real-time MySpace with educational value.

One of the neatest learning tools I discovered from Joel Smith and Candace Thile’s session was the Carnegie Mellon’s Online Learning Initiative. Last semester I found and bookmarked (but haven’t yet fully explored) some virtual, free, online classes, but the OLI seemed to take this concept a step farther. Students could see and complete the course material for free (non-credit) or take the courses – entirely online, without an instructor – for credit through a participating institution. Someone beat me to asking the question of OLI’s 508 compliance, and the speaker laughed and said that they failed miserably (though all of the material does have underlying text). But, she pointed out, how do you describe a bunch of microbes and their movement to a blind user and salvage the interactivity of the lessons? It echoed some of the challenges my Immersion team has been facing while developing our Underground Coal Mine Supervisor Online Training System (except they probably aren’t developing the OLI modules in the crippling Workforce Connections LCMS). We want to keep the lessons as engaging and interactive as possible, but the challenge is: how do we best do this while keeping everything 508 compliant and easy for future designers to update?

Another interesting point the OLI session raised was that having a sort of “cognitive tutor” – a computerized learning environment whose design based on cognitive principles that function a lot like a human tutor – greatly increased students’ understanding of the material. The cognitive tutor would provide immediate feedback, and be there to give the student another math problem, for example, on the spot, for additional practice until the student displayed mastery of the concept. (Where was this cognitive tutor when I was taking multivariable calculus?) And perhaps the most important hurdle that must be overcome is the question of “Will I recognize this concept in a novel problem solving situation? Will I be able to apply what I’ve learned in the real world?” Bingo: the hurdle, (in my opinion) faced by students of all types of instruction. If, after taking a course, a student can’t walk out of the classroom (or away from the computer) and answer the question, or even distinguish the problem at hand, what has he or she learned, and how efficient was that learning, anyway?

I mentioned to a few people I’d met at the conference that one of the neatest things was experiencing firsthand how the theoretical knowledge I’d been gathering in my graduate classes was routinely used in everyday speech by experts in the field. The speakers touched on topics such as distributed cognition, scaffolding in teaching, communities of practice, cognitive dissonance, situated learning, and other concepts that I thought while learning about them “Hm, I wonder if I will ever really use these concepts in practice.” (Note to self: the answer is YES.) Now I REALLY see the value and correlation of a master’s degree to success in (and even enjoyment of) the Instructional Technology field. I greatly appreciated my semester of knowledge as a tool to understanding what was being freely tossed around in discussions throughout the conference.

The speakers of the OLI seminar touched on the topics of learning theories. One of the speakers said: "Learning theories are like toothbrushes. Everyone has one, but no one wants to use anyone else's." As students, learning technologists, instructors, or whomever, we can’t be afraid to integrate others’ insights and theories within our work – we will be missing out on a gold mine of valuable tools to enhance our understanding of how students learn.

Educause Learning Initiative Conference Day 1

2007-01-23T08:32:00.000-05:00

This is going to be a short post, since it’s about bedtime (9:30) and also because I can’t access the internet in my room. All conference guests are supposed to have free internet access in their rooms, but this is the third hotel room they’ve put me in (the first room I arrived at had someone’s stuff – clothes, food, power cords) in it, and the second smelled like smoke despite my request for a non-smoking room, and I was also unable to get on the network there)…and I decided that the view on the 14th floor is pretty amazing. The phone/wake-up call system also isn’t working. Hmm…

Just a few hours into the conference and already I’m learning and networking – it’s been great thus far! It’s been fascinating to talk to people in the instructional technology field and find out how they got there – no two have the same, or similar, stories. I ran into Lisa Andion (Instructional Support Manager at George Mason University) in the elevator – despite the fact that we are at the same institution, I only had to look at her nametag to figure out who she was. Julie Evans, who spoke at the very first session “K-12 Students Speak Up About Technology and Learning: Are We Listening?”, presented some very fascinating statistics to the audience (she later said she was going to be in northern VA Thursday of this week surveying a high school through her New Learning Project). She revealed some things which were pretty shocking (or at least insightful):
*80% of kids between 6th and 12th grade have a cell phone
*65% of kids between kindergarten and 12th grade are gaming, girls just as much as boys
*35% of kids between 6th and 12th grade are interested in taking an online class
*9% of high school kids have a BlackBerry or smartphone

(It’s beyond me why a high school kid would ever need a BlackBerry - when I had mine, it was delightful to silence it after the workday was over.)

She also brought up the subject of online social networking (which, I had several interesting discussions today about the fact that No, I do not think that Facebook or MySpace will ever have academic value) and mentioned that 20% of 3rd through 5th graders have online “friends” they have never met.

WHOA.

What ever happened to Barbies and trips to the neighborhood playground?

Kidding aside, I know that technology’s integration with the children’s world is only going to increase, and I really do see this positively affecting the digital revolution.

I could talk lots more about this session, but there are two more sessions I need to talk about. More on those to come tomorrow.

Also, I discovered that all of the sessions will be podcast(ed?), so since humans don’t yet have the capability to simultaneously appear in and take in material from more than one location, I can listen to what I’m missing on the plane ride back. Cool.

On a side note, I navigated to blogger.com to begin blogging about ELI, and was a bit startled to receive the option of "sign in to use blogger: but first, where do you blog? New blogger: using your Google account..." It's great (and quite convenient) that the different online technologies I use are being integrated, but is everything online that requires an account sign-up being google-fied? Yes, it is possible for great tech ideas to come out of somewhere besides Google. But then Google just buys them up. Hmm, maybe that is how I can make my millions…

Wrapping up

2006-12-17T12:28:00.001-05:00

On Friday, my team finished up our project for the semester and finalized the design document and feedback survey. And then it hit me: we are done! We had just spent the last 16 weeks working diligently to design and create, and we have a working training system and four months’ more design and development experience than we had prior to Immersion.

The 2006-2007 MSHA Team: Tangie, Rashmi, Abi, Dr. D., Allison, and Joe.

In my Advanced Instructional Design class, I learned about problem-based learning, which means learning that results from the process of working toward the understanding or resolution of a problem. Instructional design is a dynamic process of problem understanding and problem solution, which is exactly what I experienced firsthand while working on the MSHA project, in all aspects–content, working with a team of unique individuals who had different ideas and solutions, and a content management system which constantly threw new challenges at us. But those are all part of “Instructional Design”–without the barriers and obstacles, we wouldn’t have learned and grown as much, both individually and as a team. I think that--after a nice winter break, of course--my team is going to come back having reflected upon everything we’ve been submerged in, refreshed and ready to tackle SME feedback and refine the training system to its final state.

Ideas, anyone?

2006-11-15T13:04:00.000-05:00

Last week I attended the IDEAS 508 conference in Washington, DC.

Like the mine visit last month, I was able to see firsthand users with a wide range of disabilities, from the vision-impaired using screen readers and magnifiers to even a blind man using a laptop-like device (minus monitor) and something in Braille printed at the top of the device.

At a session on "Accessible Universities and Colleges" I learned the difficulty in creating accessible "webtronic content." Mike Behrmann from GMU presented four challenges to accessibility:
1. awareness
2. ensuring collaboration
3. changing procurement practices
4. being ahead of the curve on new technologies

These just struck out at me, and I know that in my future career I'm going to be working with and relating to these every day.

On another note, one of the most difficult things I'm finding regarding instructional design is knowing how to work with the content. I'm not an SME on mining; I only just begun learning about this unique science a few months ago. I'm learning to balance the task of writing learning outcomes to match the desired content we hope to get across to the miners, while ensuring the content is interesting, challenging, and engaging. Whew! One of my team's main tasks is incorporating the right material into the training -- relevant material that's not too simple and fits the bill of what MSHA knows is important for miners to know. How do we sift through vast quantities of content to pick out the most relevant pieces of information in a field which, 3 months ago, we knew nothing about?

Presenting...

2006-11-07T16:56:00.000-05:00

It appears as though at least once a week, I've been giving a presentation in one of my classes, either with or without my team. I'm finding this particularly helpful because, as an undergraduate, I rarely gave presentations. Being a computer science major, my work was code- and project-based. During my first year in the working world, I gave a few "presentations" teaching IT (Information Technology) 101 to new hires. But never have the presentations been so frequent. Though tested as an Extrovert through Myers-Briggs, I still feel much better when I am well-prepared for something (like a presentation) and when I know EXACTLY what I'm going to say. When working in a group, you NEVER know exactly what you're going to say...so I'm learning in Immersion how to integrate others' insights and statements into what I need to say in a presentation. I'm also feeling a lot more comfortable delivering the content without wholly "reading off the powerpoint." I definitely have no problem getting up in front of a group, but before Immersion wasn't truly comfortable talking without having all the words in front of me.

This week, our application was coined as an "EPSS for on-the-job training." (EPSS stands for Electronic Performance Support System.) I love that term! Our application serves just that purpose - it's going to streamline pertinent information, tips, techniques, and mining methods in different areas of the mining industry, aiding miners in the process on their journey to becoming mine section foremen. And of course, it's Electronic. I look back and it amazes me that, eight months ago, I was "going back to school" to learn the process of instructional design. And now I am actually doing it! I don't have to wait until next summer to begin an internship to learn the process. Though sometimes I feel I was thrown into the ocean without a life vest, I know that my team is already reaping the rewards of navigating through this process.

And finally, I set up Gallery, an image repository, on our web server. It was not as easy as the support website claimed, and there are still a few kinks to work out, but it will be really nice to finally have a place to store all our media files instead of on our own computers.

Cognitive load

2006-11-02T19:35:00.001-05:00

“Cognitive load” is the burden imposed on memory in the form of information that must be held plus information that must be processed.

Yes, that's right. It's about that time in the semester when I'm feeling the cognitive "over"load. My strategy for combating this? Lots of quiet time to independently work on items, task by task. Focusing on one task at a time. Extensive task lists with deadlines. Not removing items from these list until they are completely taken care of. Is it working? I will let you know come Decemeber 15th.

Under Attack

2006-10-26T12:40:00.000-05:00

The past few weeks have been spent attacking our Immersion project from all sides. Now we are approaching week 10 (am I really almost halfway done with grad school?), and it's time to really get cracking on the project now that we've implemented our Team website using ModX. I've never used a CMS like this before, and it's been a really helpful, useful tool. I've even installed it on my own domain, http://www.allicza.com because it is so organized and I can update my website and the MSHA team website from several machines and not have to worry about uploading or downloading separate files.

Immersion is also further enhancing my time management skills. I'm one of the most organized people I know, and I often make and live by to-do lists. At first, it was a bit tough getting used to the amount of hours I spend in class (especially on Mondays and Tuesdays), at school, or driving to and from school. That has taught me if I've got a spare pocket of time somewhere, I need to use it wisely, because I'm not getting it back. I wake up every day between 5:45 and 5:55 to swim - exercise is an important constant in my life that keeps me sane, healthy, energetic, and smiling. (And all of my teammates like a sane healthy energetic smiling Allison, right?) Because I do this, it means making sacrifices like going to bed early so I'm not yawning in class the next day, and beginning my work as soon as I get home, because once 9:30 rolls around, instant tiredness sets in and it's really difficult to efficiently get work done. And yesterday Dr. D. echoed something that should be at the forefront of all of our minds: "Immersion needs to be your top priority." Exactly right - we get one year, one shot at earning a master's degree and completing this instructional design project. I believe I have been, and desire to continue, making the most out of this opportunity and giving it my all. To be successful, and to exceed expectations (both mine and MSHA's), this is what needs to happen.

So in conclusion for today: besides mining, instructional design, Immersion is teaching me important life management skills which I know will take me far into the world of academia which I hope to pursue after graduation.

Everything you ever wanted to know, part II

2006-10-15T11:07:00.000-05:00

Thursday evening, my team returned from West Virginia, inundated with information on mining, miners, and mine safety. The TRAM conference was very successful in providing us with a lot of terrific information as well as pointing out areas for improvement on our current prototype. Things are starting to fall together, and now that the team has had the weekend to process everything, I think we'll be ready to dive in head first tomorrow. Several of the sessions at TRAM far exceeded my expectations - I really enjoyed "Effective Training" and "Innovative Training Tools." The speakers for both of the sessions quickly captured the attention of the audiences using humor and media. During ITT, the speaker passed out glasses which were either scratched or blacked out to emphasize the imminent dangers that could possibly lurk underground if one isn't paying attention. To emphasize the risk of fire if materials aren't put away properly and levels of various gases in the air aren't at the proper levels, he also lit the lid of a red can on fire -- if someone wasn't paying attention, there eyes were glued to the front of the room after that! In ET, I learned that when speaking, you have 90 seconds to capture the attention of the average adult. I found that very interesting, and can easily see that principle spilling over into books, media, and even our project. If a miner is partaking in the training and s/he does not find it interesting, or has difficulty using the problem, then s/he may get discouraged and cast it aside, which makes me want to work that much harder to make sure our training is a hit from the start.

So in addition to technical details about mining, I learned attention grabbing techniques as well, and made some terrific contacts. All of the SME's and people we met were extremely open, supportive, and willing to help us out. Next mission: sorting through all of this new material!

Everything you ever wanted to know, and more about...coal mining

2006-10-04T19:28:00.000-05:00

Shockingly, Immersion is almost halfway through the semester. Where did the time go?

I have learned such an incredible amount over the past several weeks. Time is flying, and this weekend my MSHA team is venturing up to Waynesburg, PA for a coal mine tour, followed by a visit to the Mine Academy in WV for the TRAM conference. I feel that after we return from these two 'field trips,' our team is

a) going to be swamped with work and meeting goals and deadlines for our prototype; and
b) really prepared and fully equipped with a ton of pertinent information to tackle the tasks that lie ahead.

I spend almost every spare momemt of my time reading. Though I'm often exhausted from the busy life I lead, when I go to class and the material makes sense and I'm able to synthesize things well, it's extremely rewarding. I'm also finding that I'm able to connect some course material to our Immersion project -- it's like instant returns on my education; I don't have to wait until next year when I have an ID job to see how things make sense!

David Wiley recently delivered one of the most interesting talks I've heard in the past few months. He discussed learning objects, and opened up a whole new world for me. Before his talk and the readings, I'd had a fuzzy idea of what a learning object was and what it did, but his talk brought the concept to light in my mind. Also, he told us about MIT's open courseware website and about 10 other websites of neat technological concepts that I was unfamiliar with but can't wait to look back into!

Back in January, despite a strong preference to hire a candidate with a master's degree in Instructional Technology, I applied for and was accepted for interviews (both by phone and in person, on campus) for an Instructional Technologist position at a prominent liberal arts institution in Pennsylvania. A few (the job description was two pages long!) of the duties and responsibilities of the positon are listed below:

Act as the application owner and assist in the administration of the Blackboard course management system.
Assist in the implementing and managing online instructional tools.
Assist Faculty and Staff to implement and design on line materials and learning objects.
Design, develop and deliver instructional technology in support of undergraduate and graduate courses.
Contribute to the professional development of faculty, students, and colleagues, for example by designing and leading workshops and by preparing handouts, product documentation, etc.
Train students in specific software/media skills when needed to support course instruction or requirements.
Assist faculty in the design of professional presentations and related projects.
Supervise student assistants who provide both design and delivery support.
Keep abreast of new developments in instruction and technology.
Investigate software tools, multimedia products, etc., and assess their application to instruction.

Okay, so this is my ideal job. And the interview was one of the catalysts for my enrollment in the Immersion program. Anyway, looking back at the full job description, I realize that my knowledge of almost everything the job consists of has expanded tenfold, and I've technically only been back in school since June. So when I had the interview, if I'd have known half of the stuff I know now from Immersion, they would be knocking down my door for me to come and work there. Just kidding!

Team M-S-H-A

2006-09-21T12:11:00.000-05:00

Over the past two weeks, I have been immersed (pun intended) in work with the MSHA team and in meeting and learning from Mike Rutledge (State Dept. of WV) and Will Peretino and Courtney Cox of Workforce Connections. On Monday, all of us learned some valuable research skills at a workshop we attended in the library. I feel like there is a lot being thrown at us, a lot of different things, but it's keeping things stimulating and interesting.

Last week Neeta Catterton tested our team using Myers-Briggs. This was the first time I'd undertaken such an evaluation; turns out I'm an ENFJ (Extravert iNtuitive Feeling Judging) type. It shows just how far I've grown over the past 6 or 7 years...when I was a kid, I was shy and introverted and kept quiet. (Not that all introverts are shy...but I exhibited characteristics of someone both shy and introverted.) Now...well, people have to tell me to shut up! But I definitely exhibit some of the introverted "characteristics," such as the fact that I NEED quiet to concentrate on my work. But for the most part the test was pretty on the mark, especially the Judging type -- I follow a schedule and thrive on structure in my life. I create lists for everything, and am (unless times are super busy!) extremely organized with my school work. It was neat to get our team's profile and discuss our team dynamics -- I feel that everyone is getting along well and has great ideas, but there is just so much to this project and we keep thinking of new things to add/change/question/think about. The past 5 Immersion days have delivered the skills and inspiration to do what we need to get done. The next 12 weeks will include a little of that, and a lot of mining research, thinking, implementing, and web development. And we're ready.

Jumping In

2006-09-07T12:20:00.000-05:00

Before I dive into talking about what I'm learning, I want to reflect on my time as an Immersion student over the past two weeks. I am so grateful to be here, and I know that I am definitely in the right place. I truly enjoy learning, leanring about learning, and learning about technology, and Immersion combines all three while giving me a classroom-based but real-world impacting project experience. Overall, I'm psyched about the program, my team, and our skills/knowledge/energy level toward the MSHA project.

One of the most valuable, practical topics discussed in Immersion Practicum was talked about today -- the topic of conflict. Conflict is inevitable, as much as we want to ignore or avoid it, and Dr. Clark mentioned a previous year's Immersion group who'd managed to avoid conflict until December of their fall semester, after which things...blew...up. I tend to be a peacemaking and peacekeeping person, and do not enjoy catalyzing conflict or making people angry at me or each other. In Life Outside Immersion, I recently had weekend away from Northern VA visiting a friend where absolutely everything went wrong, mostly due to poor planning on both my part and my friend's part. It would have been easy to overlook all the mishaps in an attempt to keep the peace and just move on, but what happens the next time things don't go right? Hiding behind frustration with a smile on my face would be dishonest, and the next visit would probably be equally poorly planned, which wouldn't really solve anything anyway. So I stood up and calmly and non-insultingly voiced my concerns, as well suggested ways things could have been done differently and planned better on both of our parts. You know what? Our level and depth of communication was improved, and my friend thoroughly appreciated my honesty and candor. We both were able to discern our mistakes in a mature way, and my friend was happy that I was comfortable enough to bring up a subject that could spark a conflict.

This is the type of value that I want to constantly strive for in my team-based Immersion experience.