1. Low Bandwidth Access
2. Simplicity of course design
3. Technical support
4. General tool usability
5. The necessity of using additional tools (external to Blackboard) in light of available tools in Blackboard.

   Addressing these issues is difficult because there is a tightrope of technology to navigate between usability, support, and accesss. While several technologies (You Tube, Podcasts) Score high in usability, they score low in access for different reasons. YouTube, for example, is impossible to access for dial-up users. This isn’t even a case of slow download speed for YouTube, but it actually appears the download never happens. In testing, video is simply impractical.  Similarly, Podcasts can provide dynamic and easily updated audio content, but without a fast connection, even audio files are limiting for students with slow connections. Is multimedia the only way to provide dynamic course content? Certainly there are alternatives, but this defeats the cost benefit of making content available from a central point without accruing production costs. This forces me to ponder what other kinds of software or technologies could provide dynamic content. If we still must consider access and bandwidth issues, then this makes collaborative tools much more appealing for dynamic course content.

   While blogs are quite robust in their ability to broadcast various media and allow fairly solid control features, wikis are much more collaborative. I am thinking about several possibilities for integration of these tools into Blackboard, while still maintaining security and accountability. For example, this blog, WordPress, allows the instructor to add or limit student access to page changes, posts, and moderation of the blog. In effect, many of the same features found in Wikis can be replicated in a well-designed blog page. Wikis, however, are inherently editable from the start, and are designed with that feature in mind. Of course, both technologies are essentially using the same functional model – primarily that of easily sharing ideas via web pages.

   Blogs such as WordPress, Blogger, MySpace, Facebook, and Edublogs allow users to essentially journal their lives. For course content, these pages could be set to blog the life of English 101 for the duration of the class. In essence, it serves the same purpose of discussion boards, with a much more usable interface. There is an additional advantage of creating an English 101 community that can continue after the class is complete. For students completing online degrees, this could provide an excellent networking opportunity, just as traditional college students meet friends in classes and continue the relationship into the world of careers and post-college.

   Similar to blogs, wikis allow the users to edit page content and even create branches directly from wiki content to other content. Wikis use hypertext in a way that is slightly different from the web as a whole in that the links are internal. Students and faculty can effectively manage the hypertext links, and templates can be created in each course to manage the content and assign research elements for a course. For an example of this style, see http://wikiwrite.pbwiki.com .  Other styles can be applied to wikis that are more linear such as in http://idwiki.pbwiki.com which contains a database of categories that are edited by specified users.

Given that these tools can both easily incorporate audio and video content, one logical place to try making courses more dynamic might be blogs and wikis. This brings me to a consideration of the problems with implementing these tools. One consideration is the increase in complexity whenever tools are combined. While web pages can appear within the learning management system frame, the usability and reliability of control is diminished. Certainly, faculty and instructors would need to learn how to manage these tools and the instructional/course designers would also need to consider how best to avoid confusion that may result from going outside the Blackboard environment. There are also issues related to whether the tool has a reliable help page, whether the tool can be supported within the Blackboard environment, and instrutor buy-in.

In the context of my own design experience and the situation present here, it seems that the instructor or faculty member must drive the integration of new technologies. I believe it is prudent to help instructors understand the pedagogical/androgogical advantages to utilizing collaborative methods online. While collaborative methods such as blogs and wikis are not a direct substitute for multimedia content, the inclusion of these tools can make the course more dynamic and supportive of learning.

1.  I began thinking about computers, gaming and education through exposure to some great models. One of my earliest influences to educational gaming involved MOOs and MUDs – virtual environments that could be social, collaboarative, and potentially useful in developing learning spaces. Significant texts related to this area of gaming are Sherry Turkle’s “Life on the Screen“, Howard Rheingold’s “The Virtual Community” (full text linked here) as well as a dissertation by Amy Bruckman on her online environment and software called MOOSE Crossing. Taking in all this information, I developed a MOO for English as a Second Language Students that allowed them to practice English in a text-only online environment. The MOO (I dubbed MOOESL) was up for around 6 months when I discovered other text-based multi-user environments at a TESOL conference in Seattle. It seems I was thinking along the same lines as another group who had developed SchMOOze University for ESL adult students.

2. Another component of my experience and interest in digital game based learning involved following the innovative educational software approach of Tom Snyder productions. In the 1990′s they had some amazing things developed including software with lesson materials called “Rainforest Researchers“, “Science Court” “Decisions, Decisions” and other well-developed simulations geared toward a specific goal for K-12 learners. What made these software packages so useful was the inclusion of Audio/Video, and problem solving in groups to reach a goal. The team oriented approach was quite interesting and I used these programs with several courses I taught at the University of Cincinnati.

3.  While group-based software simulations present one part of digital game based learning, simulations such as Sim City, Oregon Trail, and others by a company called Maxis were extremely entertaining. The most educational of these, however was Maxis’ “Sim Park” which introduced students to biodiversity, identification of plant and animal species, problem solving in the identification process, and the abiliity to work over time in a system that contains sets of rules. This approach spanned numerous titles including “The Sims” which essentially tries to replicate human interaction through communities of people. While the Sims is now online, Second Life, the recently developed 3-D online community, seems to be an outgrowth of this technology. One way I adapted this simple gaming concept is through a matching game combined with audio files to learn a Turkish and English version of Old McDonald.

4.  Having this background led me to ideas about training proposed by Roger C. Schank. He wrote several books relating to educational and training applications for simulation. His company developed software to help with training using animated characters, personalizing the simulation approach by posing probing questions to learners providing opportunities for problem solving.  Schank also wrote a book called “Engines for Education” that is still available online as a text tailored to be read by various individuals in different order based upon most relevant sections. One might call this a smart book. Schank also work with Harvard Business school to develop training and simultations along these lines. More recently, he updated this ideas in a book for ASTD about training using simulation.

5.  Even more recently, Marc Prensky wrote “Digital Game Based Learning” and “Don’t Bother Me Mom, I’m Learning” describing an idea put forth by Prensky in an article called “Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives” that described the recent attempts by “Digital Immigrants” (those who did not always have access and exposure to digital technologies as a lifestyle” to teach  “Digital Natives” (young adults who always grew up having computers all around them.) According to Prensky, these teaching experiences sometimes proved problematic for Digital Immigrants because these instructors don’t speak the same language as the natives. Prensky suggests that teaching should be fundamentally re-evaluated to bridge this gap and approach the learner in a way that reaches their true learning potential. He goes so far as to state that Digital Natives have minds that work differently from the minds of those teaching them. Thus, there is less understanding on the part of instructors of how to reach students who don’t respond to the same cues and assessments that might have worked well 10 years ago. For me, ”Digital Game-Based Learning” was a fantastic reading and learning experience. For a taste of this, his earlier article is online. Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives. Marc Prensky‘s website contains numerous recent articles on Digital Game-Based Learning.

6.  Several simulations have been created to accompany higher-education courses in order to train students in a variety of disciplines. A couple to start off thinking about higher education course-related simulations are:

Teaching Human Rights Online
Glo-Bus Business Strategy Simulation

7.  As I continue thinking about game-based learning, I also bring in some significant ideas about how people learn from B.F. Skinner and Behaviorism as well as a more social constructivist approach from David Jonassen – particularly his book “Learning to Solve Problems.” Studying the ways in which people solve problems is a study in how people put information together into a usable whole.

These influences have led me to a place now where I ask myself,  in the immortal words of “Joshua” the defense department computer from the movie “War Games”, “Would you like to play a game?”

Since that time, members of our group have been working on Blogs, Wikis, Google Earth, and del.icio.us to determine how we can make our online and hybrid courses more dynamic. Karla showed us some interesting ideas, but more than this we experienced the enthusiasm of several students for MySpace, bitTorrent file sharing technology and a general sense of technological wonder.

Of course as instructional designers and course page developers, we are always trying to think of ways to enhance the experience of learning online. This information session reminded us of information we knew, and sparked some discussion about how we might go forward with these potential educational interventions. Here is what we did:

1.  Bob Baxter created a web page called “Tools for Design” at http://bbresources.granite.edu/course_docs/tools_for_design/ that helped us define, understand and compartmentalize what we had seen.
2.  Chuck Bagley continued his work on the “ID Cafe” that will be a repository for Instructional Design information and documents and also has been using a wiki to communicate with individuals working on one of his classes.
3.  Aaron Tornberg created an “Instructional Design Ideas” blog at http://idideas.wordpress.com to regularly post brainstorms he and other designers might have about technology at any given time. We try to record our thoughts for further discussion.
4.  Victoria Tilton continues to work on course development and considers the tools available that were introduced at the session.
5.  Reta had already been working on a “Wiki” to act as a depository for ID information and continues to work on that technology.

This software could be a powerful tool for educational interventions as common questions could be asked of a verbot and answered through text to speech processing and access of a customizable knowledge base. The knowledge bases verbots use are intuitive and require little to no programming ability to maintain. Virtually any instructor or instructional designer could easily create information access frameworks through the software and even customize the verbot appearance using various graphic design tools.

Initially, I have created the verbot as a test through this blog. Clicking on the “About” page will get you to the link for “Grannie, the Granite State College Receptionist.”  Grannie could be incorporated into blackboard and used for student support in various ways. It is even possible to create multiple verbots for various purposes and design personalities for these virtual beings.

Verbots are powerful tools to reduce psychological distance in online courses. Additionally, they do not require excessive bandwidth to utilize as the interaction between user and software is text-based. The only potential bandwidth issue would be the speed at which the java screen could be reloaded by the user. While that deserves further testing, the implementation of this software may be a useful tool for some purposes here at GSC.

On another note, Thanksgiving is a great holiday for incorporating group learning activities into a curriculum. I liked this one from “Education World” online http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/webquest_orig/webquest_orig010.shtml

Happy Thanksgiving!

The problem with tools of this nature is that they are difficult or impossible to use with older computers. The system requirements and bandwidth needs are such that Google Earth is now available to only a select few. However, there are a few uses I have been thinking of for this type of technology.

1. Religion courses could search for holy sites and information about these biblical locations.
2. Archaeological sites could be explored and ancient buildings and cities revealed to users. Anthropologists could look at ancient and current societies and visualize human endeavors.
3. Historians could use the tool to navigate sites of significant world events.
4. Astronomers could study the google sky tool.
5. Meteorologists can study earth weather patterns with satellite imaging and different views of the globe.
6. Sociologists and psychologists as well as political scientists could look at the way this tool is used in different countries.
7. Teachers could use the tool for geography and history work as well as look at navigation and even GPS tools that can be added.
8. Artists and architects could render 3D graphic representations of their art and architecture.

Suffice it to say that there is plenty to do with this interesting software. More on this to come!

Video and audio content is even more crucial for entirely text-based courses that are offered exclusively online. There is a greater sense of location and connection when students can hear the voices (and/or faces) of their instructor and peers. The instructor in particular sets up a tone when students can respond to body language, voice inflection and any visual aids that might be offered in an online video.

Reta Chaffee, whom I work with, was mentioning the possibility of “lecturettes” created for courses online, but these also could be divided up into segments that would spark discussion. As educators in the past sparked discussion with “trigger films” discussion boards could be much richer if responses began to incorporate audio and video as well as the initial thread content. These responses are easy enough to produce. By using something as basic as sound recorder – which is built into windows operating systems – students could speak their comments to the class and give a whole new dimension to the discussions.

These trigger films might be incorporated from existing files on You Tube or other internet sites, but could also be posted by instructors and students. You Tube is extremely easy to use. Additionally, Windows Movie Maker is included in Windows XP machines and Apple machines are even more video ready.

Here is a sample of how You Tube could look from within LMS such as Blackboard.

Click here to answer the Zoology 101 question of the day, “Why were so many Jellyfish present in Boston Harbor this past summer?”

To sum up this beginning blog thread, multimedia content could be justified in an instructional context through the development of “trigger films” for each class session. Discuss!

 I also thought this would be a good opportunity to begin today listing a few educational technology journal resources that I have used.

 http://www.ifets.info/ This is a great journal for interesting edtech discussions. I have been a longtime member and there is a recent issue about Advanced Technologies for Lifelong Learning (Vol. 10 Issue 3)

 http://www.citejournal.org/vol7/iss3/general/ Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education

http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet.html Australasian Journal of Educational Technology

To begin, Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction are listed below. According to Gagne, they are based upon “two sources – empirical observations of the procedures of instruction, and the information-processing model of human learning and memory

1. Gaining attention
2. Informing the learner of the objective
3. Stimulating recall of prior learning
4. Presenting the stimulus
5. Providing learning guidance
6. Eliciting the performance
7. Giving informative feedback
8. Assessing performance
9. Enhancing retention and transfer”

Gagne does point out the these events do not necessarily occur in the same order each time they are used, but some events must by definition be in this order.  Now that I have laid the groundwork for this theory, on to the zombies.

For this thought experiment, let us assume that we are trying to teach human learners how to avoid being bitten by a zombie, and when in proximity of zombies, how to defeat them. Using the Nine Events of Instruction, we can analyze how learners could be trained to survive a zombie outbreak.

1. Gaining attention – First, some device for showing the learners the value of this new knowledge might be appropriate. For example, showing learners the zombie hordes trying to break through the wooden boards of the house might be a good start to motivate them
2. Informing the learner of the objective – At this point, the instructor has the attention of the learners. A group discussion should occur outlining the objective which should be fairly direct and not convoluted. For example, a good objective in this case would be to not be bitten by a zombie. Ancillary events could occur in preventing that outcome, but the basic idea is to ensure the learner’s survival in a defined context.
3. Stimulating recall of prior learning – Each learner must have at least heard of zombies at some point. While not all learners will be familiar with zombie preventive measures, the current outbreak of zombies will no doubt have given the learners some experience or set of experiences that will support new learning.
4. Presenting the stimulus – This is the point at which it will be useful for an instructor experienced with zombie-human interaction should demonstrate some of the qualities zombies have when they attempting the ingestion of living human flesh. Several options could be implemented to show through trial and error what does NOT work in discouraging zombies from reaching their goal of biting humans. In some film evidence, zombies were chained up for experimentation. While this is a distasteful approach, it is helpful for learners to understand the realities of zombie interaction. Saying “No Zombie! No!” could be tried and thus eliminated as a successful approach. Shooting the zombie in the leg does not work, but some learners may be squeamish, so striking the zombie in some way with no result might be a better way to demonstrate. Another strategy could be the non-chained live-fire approach depending upon zombie numbers and the immediacy of the zombie incursion.
5. Providing learning guidance – Once demonstrations have reached completion, walking carefully in protected groups – preferably within an armored vehicle – would provide learners with a safe opportunity to practice the learning. Teaching weapons management and aiming strategies, such as “Aim for the head” would be useful in training learners to defeat zombies.
6. Eliciting the performance – Once demonstration and guidance have been completed, learners should be allowed to perform zombie preventive measures with supervision. This should be in a public forum so learners can receive group support and scaffolding (Vygotsky)
7. Giving informative feedback – While it is normally clear in this case whether the learner has or has not been successful, strategies have been communicated to learners. The instructor should review results and suggest changes in the learner’s approaches to zombie avoidance and/or elimination.
8. Assessing performance – After suggesting changes to the learner’s performance additional testing could be implemented. Alternatively, the prior performance could be evaluated here in terms of how effective the performance outcomes were.
9. Enhancing retention and transfer – Try to indicate to learners that they should feel free to try out these methods and pass on the information to ensure retention. Constant use of this knowledge can increase retention times and allow learners to adapt to new zombie methods.

While the Nine Events of Instruction are fairly thorough in describing learning experiences and do help with the design of instruction, the question remains whether zombie avoidance and prevention could be implemented in an Online Course environment. I would argue that the media available for instruction would indicate a positive answer, but more on that later.

People only learn that which they have the appropriate motivation and opportunity to learn. In order to ensure that learners are given all the tools they need, Perkins suggests that learners need four elements:

1.  Clear Information – Information must be presented well and easily accessible.
2.  Thoughtful Practice – Learners must be able to apply their knowledge and practice the implementation of that knowledge to retain it.
3.  Informative feedback – Learners must be given some kind of feedback to indicate the results of their application of the knowledge.
4.  Clear Intrinsic or Extrinsic Motivation – Learners must have some motivation built into the learning so that they understand the value of the knowledge for intrinsic motivation, or they need to be given clear rewards for learning the materials in question.

That’s on my mind today, and really, I go back to this idea on a regular basis.

Tomorrow maybe I should think about Gagne and his 9 events of instruction.