YouTube Vidoes Galore.......

The past two weeks, I have produced some significant videos that are showcasing my students learning.  I feel so grateful for the YouTube 533 class that has me using Camtasia so often that I can actually find shortcuts to help me with the videos.

The assignment for the course this week was to produce a video using a powerpoint presentation, recording that with voice into a video that will teach something.  Again, I struggled with ideas of what to do.  I have so many ideas, yet I really want to produce videos that I can actually use again and again in my classes or presentations.  Because I have developed a presentation for blogging, I decided to use that as my idea.  My blogging presentation that I have used at various conferences was too broad and not visual enough, but it gave me good information that I could reference to while I was speaking during my recording of the presentation.

I wanted to use my students in this video because they are my best visuals.  I included a video that my students made last year as well as the poem videos that I just created with my students this year.  I used many annotations from Camtasia to highlight certain aspects of the video.

Timing is so very important and I continued to make sure that I put as much as I could in the video without rushing or extending the length of the video that may not be necessary in teaching my concepts.

Video Remix

    "No research supports decreased recess or P.E. time!"  - Becky Muller

Creating a video remix was challenging for me.  I understood that videos from Public Domain and Creative Commons were free to use according to their copyright, as well as pictures and music.  I, also, figured out how to download those videos in the appropriate context along with YouTube videos.  Adding, editing, cutting and remixing of the videos was good practice.  But those were not the challenging aspects for me.  The most challenging part was the idea of what I wanted to teach with this remix.  I watched hours and hours of Public Domain videos and YouTube videos waiting for inspiration and purpose.  I felt like a writer with writer's block.

The idea of teaching or sending message about the importance of exercise came from a conversation my cohorts were having about a school that eliminated recess.  We were all agreeing that this wasn't a good idea, yet we have heard that schools are doing this everywhere so that they can focus more on academics.  We then started to speak about the Wellness Policy that our state has adopted and how we are meeting those standards as a school.  I am pleased to say that my school is doing some great things around wellness and are even thinking about having recess before lunch, so that kids have time to eat.

 After this research, I am finding myself doing more "brain breaks" using exercise with my students.  I was very intrigued that conversations from the 50's were the same as conversations today.   Just as they had to fight for what they believed was good for kids, we are doing the same today.

I can appreciate the value of other's video, however, I really enjoy creating my own.  I love showcasing my students in a valuable way.  They have amazing ideas and thoughts that I love sharing.

Video Vlog on Pros and Cons of YouTube in the Classroom

Assignment:

This assignment was to record a vlog (video blog), upload it to YouTube and add a closed caption track.  I didn't realize how popular vlogging is on YouTube, but many types of people vlog for many purposes.  This can provide users a great research tool for areas they want to learn about.

This assignment's topic was to create a vlog about the pros and cons of YouTube in Education.  This process involved creating a script, using key words to create a slide presentation through haikudeck.com, uploading that to a google presentation.  Then I added the script, recorded the presentation through Camtasia, and inserted it into my project.

I needed to add myself talking as most vlogging does and wanted to try a green screen.  This is something that I need more practice on.  I recorded myself talking about my presentation that I embedded into a mac book on screen.  This was difficult to get the timing down for the picture coming up and me talking about that pro or con.  Sometimes, it sounded rushed and often the next slide came up just as I was finishing up.  I am very excited about learning more about editing because I wish that I could have edited parts that I messed up speaking.  I realized that I sometimes don't annunciate my words well enough and it was hard to hear endings.

I very much enjoyed the closed captioning part.  I love typing so that part was fairly easy.  I really want to use that more with my student made videos.  That way they can read it!  :)

YouTube's editing features are wonderful.  I also like that you can send clips of videos and pictures to YouTube and create your video right there.

YouTube is trying to help teachers and I can't wait to share what I've been working on with them to help teachers find quality content faster.

Instructional Design 503 Job Posting

Rebecca Muller

EDTECH 503 ID Job Posting

PART 1 - 

Job Description:

Imagine what you could do here. Every day is a new challenge, and you are continually looking for ways to help our team get better at what we do, in the most efficient way possible. A team player at heart, you collaborate with our departments, advocate best practices and roll up your sleeves to pitch in when it is all hands on deck. You use your PLN to explore and discover new resources that can help us.  You move fast while keeping your attention to detail, and you tap into your problem-solving skills to support the district and each school's objectives.

The candidate will:

The Associate Director of Instructional Design & Academic Quality is a full-time position. The ADIDAQ is an expert in instructional and media design with knowledge of child learning theory, course development planning using common core and state standards as well as process management. The ADIDAQ provides leadership and vision for innovation in online and classroom learning and effectively motivates the instructional design and quality assurance teams to collaborate on creating innovative, high quality student learning experiences.

Required skills/knowledge/background:

1.  A minimum of five years of demonstrated experience developing curriculum in educational environment.
2.  Working knowledge or experience in instructional design, instructional design and child learning theory,  development and delivery of instruction
3.  The ability to communicate effectively and professionally, both verbally and in writing.
4.  The ability to think critically in a fast-paced, quickly changing environment
5.  Collaborates well and develops strong professional working relationships
6.  Demonstrated leadership in instructional design, instructional technology,  and curriculum  development.
7.  Proficiency using Microsoft Office, Google Apps for Education and the Adobe HTML5,  CSS, Fireworks  and Photoshop preferred.
8.  Demonstrate a high degree of self-direction, initiative and motivation
9.  Demonstrate a high level of emotional intelligence and collegiality
10.  Use multimedia and web-based applications to design training solutions

Job Duties:

• Exemplifies transformational leadership characteristics and with the principal, motivates and inspires the Instructional Design team towards engaging and effective instruction steeped in quality and best practices.
• Creates the strategic plan for curriculum and course development under the direction of the principal, including the following of state standards, tools, and processes for increased quality and efficiency.
• Ensures strong alignment of learning outcomes among course design, assessment, and learning activities promoting greater content mastery by students.
• Articulates the culture of student engagement that will drive instructional design for all modalities (local schools, instructional site, online web-based, and mobile)
• Manages the prioritization of curriculum initiatives and course development activities as they relate to instructional design and quality assurance.
• Ensures the development and integration of interactive multi-media learning solutions in all courses.
• Extends leadership and support  to the greater curriculum and course development teams.
• Effectively communicates and collaborates with academic leadership, faculty and curriculum staff to develop and document the academic standards, policies and processes by which the curriculum team develops instruction.
• Supports and manages the quality review of all online courses to ensure that academic standards, policies, and processes are met.
• Manages work flow and troubleshoots situations that can arise related to technology systems and classroom maintenance and implementation of technologies.

Additional Job Duties (include but are not limited to):

• Remains current on best practices in online instructional design through the consumption of current research studies, attendance at educational conferences, and other professional development opportunities.
• Presentations and sharing of information that has been developed or worked on for the benefit of teaching others in the field of education

• Leading Change: To continually strive to improve organizational framework; to create a work environment that encourages innovation; and to maintain focus, intensity and persistence.

• Leading People: The ability to maximize cooperation of staff by fostering an environment that encompasses the organization’s culture and execute the mission, goals and core values. 

• Building Communication: This leadership  encompasses written and verbal communications of facts and ideas as well as developing a professional network inside and outside the organization. 

• Driving Results: This leadership stresses accountability and continuous improvement through decision making, execution and producing results.  

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Preferred Qualifications:

• Strong project management experience
• Two or more years of supervisory experience
• Two or more years working with graduate level faculty
• Experience implementing large scale instructional design projects in higher education
• Two or more years experience teaching
• Knowledge of universal design standards
• Experience developing interactive instruction using current technology/software tools
• Experience as a teacher, trainer, and/or professional development instructor for learners

Education: 

• Master’s Degree in instructional design, instructional technology, educational psychology, new media design or a related field. 

PART II - REFLECTION

At the beginning of this assignment, I really don't think I fully comprehended the differences between instructional designers and teachers, but now have a much better understanding.  Because of my experiences in education for the past 25 years, I know that I  have great knowledge designing lessons and guiding curriculum towards the learner.  However, I do believe there is an instructional designer inside me as I have helped the district in the implementation of the Teaching/Learning Cycle and feel that with my experiences in providing professional development throughout our school and in other organizations, I have tapped into Instructional Design as an educator in the area of technology. I have great interest in moving towards  the design part of technology instruction and course building for online classes, so I am very excited to learn more of this methodology and theory to help me build my tools to expand my learning.  As our district has moved more to that Teaching/Learning Cycle, we are essentially building our curriculum using essentials questions, conceptual thinking and planning on how to help students best meet these standards.  With standards-based grading, we again are given a philosophy to pick and choose how we will know that our students learned the concept required and how can we assess it. With budget cuts, our trainers and coaches no longer exist and we as educators are having to fill in these positions which may have more characteristics of an instructional designer then a classroom teacher when planning our instruction.

Teachers are expected to implement the curriculum through units of study that include the standards.  Instructional designers are not asked to implement curriculum. The teacher's role is to facilitate the learning in a classroom through tools that are provided or tools they find imperative to deliver quality instruction to the students. Teachers are expected to be the subject matter experts and instructional designers can design without knowing the subject matter.  Teachers need to know it, before they can teach it.  However, a teacher who knows the subject matter, standards or objectives, and instructional design can ensure that content matches set objectives and can design a wonderful learning experience for their students and can modify their instruction to meet the diverse learner.  Teachers do design learning, but they rarely write curriculum from scratch because school districts and states have standards/objectives that are already written. Creating lessons and curriculum materials isn't instructional design, that is implementing the standards through teaching.

Instructional designers are expected to make learning more efficient and effective.  They are designing specific to the learner in mind.  They build learning objectives.  They build courses that meet these specific learning objectives.  Instructional designers develop programs of instruction that generate certain learner outcomes. Designers make sure this course design  has an alignment of learning outcomes that promote mastery of content by students which includes an assessment piece and learning activities.  They do this in a systematic and productive format which usually follows a specific design theory.  

The three major differences between a teacher and an instructional designer are:

1.  Instructional designers are the creator of curriculum. They train and support educators on the use of the curriculum and then teachers are responsible for bringing it into the classroom.

2.  Instructional designers are "behind the scenes" and get feedback about their designs from teachers/educators and sometimes whoever assesses the effectiveness of the content.  Teachers are the forefront of the curriculum and get immediate feedback of the instructional model and implementation of curriculum from their students, administration and parents.  

3. Instructional Designers create all kinds of curriculum for many areas of study and teachers tend to be the expert in that field of study. The instructional designer needs to be an expert in the types of technologies being used when creating learning materials and courses. To be effective, they must know of the best practices and trends that engage learners. Instructional Designers are the catalyst of leading change.  Teachers can also lead change, but they are only effective in their school or classroom.

When the teacher is also the instructional designer, the whole process becomes faster and curriculum takes ownership. When that happens, the student is the winner. 

PART 3 - Job Posting URLs

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• http://tinyurl.com/BoiseStateID1

• http://tinyurl.com/BoiseStateID2
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• http://tinyurl.com/BoiseStateID3

Creating Playlists on YouTube and Lesson Plans for Affective, Cognitive and Psychomotor Domains

Creating Playlists on YouTube is a teacher must have and must do.  Please follow my channel MrsMullerGrade2 on YouTube and see how many playlists I currently have.  Teachers are curators of great content for our purposes and standards.  Creating playlists helps you organize all the goodies that you find for your students.

Below is a quick tutorial for creating playlists on YouTube:

After learning how to create a playlist, you can now combine videos together and create lesson plans surrounding those videos.

Below you will find excellent examples of lessons created with playlists using affective, cognitive and psychomotor domains.

Affective Domain- Bullying Prevention - Playlist and Lesson Plan

Cognitive Domain - Science Inquiry - Playlist and Lesson Plan

Psychomotor Domain - How Things Work - Playlist and Lesson Plan

Reflection of Summer 2013

This summer I started my M.E.T. at Boise State after a year of looking into various programs.  I knew that this was a good program, but really just needed to dive in and a co-worker helped me decide on Boise State.  Thanks +Nathan Wendlowsky!  Then after speaking to a long-time friend,
+Denise Holder, she applied as well.  I wanted to set myself up for success because two people that I known very well are in this program with me.  I don't feel alone.  The small group circle that we had to make for 501, then added more Coloradoans.  It's been great getting to know Deborah Powers and I loved the connections I've had with others through both classes this summer.

I am very much like most people.  I am social and like to work with people.  The more people that I connect with, the more comfortable I am, and the more investment I will put into it.  This program so far has been exactly what I need.  People want to learn with purpose yet, we are still social beings.

It's been interesting watching my teenagers see me learn.  I'm not going to classes and all boys have "watched" me embark on coding webpages, which was all foreign to me.  They saw me work long hours on assignments for both classes.  My 15 year old said that he would really like to just do "projects," like I am.  He stated that I didn't have to listen to teachers talk all day and take tests.  But I did have to re-record everything I did for 501 about 5 times and listened to Lydia videos or watched the assignment videos for 502 stopping and starting for hours.  Honestly, I enjoyed the whole experience.  The boys watched that part too.

I've had a wonderful introduction to this program this summer, thanks so much to the teachers that helped make it a great experience, +Anthony Saba and +Lora Evanouski.  I enjoyed learning new tools to help me with the technology process and synthesizing my own information through research to produce a quality product was the higher level thinking that we want our students to do.  It was powerful to experience this first hand.

I loved the use of Google+ and Blogger and will showcase this learning at the Rocky Mountain Google Summit in August.,  I am ready to move forward!


Websites Created 
Portfolio Started - includes this learning log

School Evaluation Summary

This has been a great assignment to end this course with as well as the summer.  I have enjoyed the fact that I have spent hours analyzing where our school is, what we need to do to improve and even have some great resources to put that plan into action in the upcoming school year.

Knowing of these technology Master Benchmarks is a wonderful resource that I didn't know even existed.  Our district had formal technology plans as of 5 years ago because the federal government wouldn't allot monies if you didn't have each school provide them.  We complied beautifully.  However, when it's not "required," many schools didn't produce them.  At this same time, there were severe cutbacks to our technology teacher positions in our building and our district.  I think that is where the ball got dropped and never picked up again.  

Technology isn't a fad.  It isn't going away.  It is here and forming a plan is a "Must Do" for our staff at our school.  Regardless of what is required, after this assignment, I know that this is best practices for technology improvement.  We won't see 100% of the success we deserve and work hard for if a plan isn't in place.  I want to share my survey and my evaluation with my principal and people at the district level.  There is perhaps a district technology policy but I couldn't find one.  This probably should be shared at the school level so that we know the direction we are going in.  There is obviously a district budget that this year has provided additional monies to schools computers that are outdated and no longer able to run programs effectively.  They have also provided additional monies to bump up the wireless capabilities for all schools. And they have provided money for a cohort of "blended learning" classrooms to study this model and see where it fits within our district.  So I know that we are moving ahead.  I am sure glad that I am moving in the right direction as well.

School Survey

School Evaluation Summary