Tagging breakdown

I find it telling that of the 40 posts on this bog, we only bothered to tag (or"label" as Blogger calls it) the first two.

Second Life Interview

When I read this week's lesson on Second Life, I sent off 5 questions to a co-worker who does a job similar to mine. We both support academic technology faculty at a university, but he works with artists, musicians, actors, and dancers, and I work with scientists, psychologists, philosophers and writers. In addition to being a stand up guy, he is or at least was a Second Life nut going on 2 years.

Erik: What is your history with SL? When did you start using it, what were your habits, etc.?

Ryan: I created a Second Life account in February of 2005 to evaluate the software. Initially my interests were in building structures and owning land, but soon found that the social interactivity was an attractive arena for creative expression. I spend a lot of time creating scripted dialogue that pokes fun at the environment and the way people behave (social commentary).


Erik: What do you like most about SL?

Ryan: Expressing individuality - in what ever form I choose to take.


Erik: Do you think SL or something like it will play a bigger role in the future? Will most people have a second life?

Ryan: I would imagine that the VR environment will become more prevalent as the interface becomes more immersive. As a professional tool, as an educational environment, as a recreational destination. Where Second Life is currently lacking is interoperability with the internet. At some point when these two environments merge and you're able to interact with your other web services (email/myspace/facebook/browsers/ftp space) it will have a broader appeal.

Erik: Have you ever helped anyone use SL in teaching, seen someone else do so, or observe things that you thought would be good for some of the teachers you work with?

Ryan: I haven't convinced any faculty that it's more than just a social environment. But I see many possibilities for Second Life as an instructional as well as a design tool. Virtual art galleries, theatrical set design, costume design, conference calling. I've even witnessed live music performances in-world.


Erik: What is the craziest thing you have ever seen or done in SL that would be rated PG-13 or lower?

Ryan: I've been 4 "people" at once and swayed conversation by speaking from multiple perspectives. And also I've been in 4 separate locations having conversations and experiences at the same time.

Project Management Lessons

I’ve learned some valuable lessons this semester while working on my IMU. One that stands out is the concept of project management. Erik touched on this in an earlier post. I found myself at the mercy of several issues beyond my control. A particularly unexpected one was when the two instructors that were in charge of supplying the IMU’s content informed me, weeks after I had given them the projected timeline and schedule, “Oh by the way, we’re both going to be gone next week for the such and such conference. I guess we should have mentioned that earlier?” I’m rarely at a loss for words, so I’m pretty sure my full minute of silence confused them. LOL! It all managed to work out, but I’m pretty sure they found themselves hustling a little more during the last 3 weeks to get the remaining content to me. Their absence during that week was also a factor in the video scheduling issues, and they really did go out of their way to “make it right.” Although I did build some wiggle-room into the project’s schedule, I realize now that it wasn’t enough for the scope of this particular project. So, lessons learned include:

• Create timeline with major input from team members (insist that they consult their calendars! Full disclosure!)
• Secure professional videographer if at all possible (this was major content and the end result just wasn’t what I had hoped for)
• Realize that “stuff” happens. It did with my personal life – husband’s surgery this semester - so just roll with it and do the best you can with what you’ve got. And it’s okay to ask for help!
  
• Beware when someone starts a sentence with “Oh, by the way” or my most un-favorite of all time “Just so you know…” I think "Brace yourself" would work equally well in these instances. ;)
  

All things considered, I’m pleased with the end result of the IMU and so are the instructors. We all have ideas on some things we can improve, so we’ll be working on that during the summer.

On a personal note:
As the semester ends, I find myself in a semi-confused and slightly sad state wondering what in the world I’m going to do with myself next week when I have no lectures to read, assignments due, papers to write, APA styling to check or blog entries to post. Oh, right, there’s my day job, but hey, I’ve been doing that all along anyway, so that’s nothing new. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’ll miss you all. I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s blog entries and learning about your specialty areas in instruction and technology. Congrats to all the soon-to-be graduates and I hope to see the rest of you in some other ETL courses! Have a great summer, everyone. –Joy

Review and Evaluation

I just finished my peer review and was thinking that this process was worthy of a blog post itself. We are winding down the semester and everyone is feeling busy and there is pressure to get thing done. These factors would, I admit prevent me from getting feedback about materials if it weren't a requirement for the course. Evaluation is something that I firmly believe is important to the process. It is something I've learned through experience and education.

But admittedly, it is the first thing to go as far as time lines are concerned.

I guess what I'd like to learn more about is not why evaluation is important or even how to conduct them. I would like to learn strategies for making them an inherent part of the process rather then something that is perceived as a detachment in some way, particularly in projects such as something like this. In this class we are lucky to get feedback form an instructor and a peer, but in real life it doesn't seem so easy. Does anyone have a good system, such those pages that asked to be ranked or whether or not they were helpful. Do these types of strategies make things easier, or do deadlines do a number on these efforts as well?

Edgar's IMU

Edgar's Instructional Module Unit
http://elearning.exelglobaltech.com/etl/educ266/IMU/index.htm

Fun with Camtasia’s Quiz Maker

I’ve used Camtasia over the years, but I’ve never had a chance or occasion to play with its quiz and survey feature. Well, thanks to Don (of the DJV blog) for introducing me to this feature. Don posted a Camtasia Quiz for his “other” competency a month or so ago and when I saw it I was impressed and inspired. Naturally, I had to try this out for myself. ☺ It turned out to be much easier than I expected. I’m not even sure if there was a learning curve – everything was right there and all I had to do was enter the quiz content, make some rendering choices, and there it was!

Initially, I was unsure how I was going to create the quizzes for the IMU. My client was leaning toward using our learning management system since it has built-in assessment tools. This would have been fine, but I needed to be able to link to it and have it accessible to be viewed for grading purposes. So when I saw the Camtasia example, I was thrilled that it seemed so do-able. Even if I end up using our LMS once the IMU is actually implemented, I’ve learned a new Camtasia skill.

My efforts with these quizzes were very simple, so I plan to play around with the features to learn what else it can do. One thing I really like is the flash output of the end product. It looks very slick, plus it actually works the way it’s supposed to. It looks like it took some programming know-how to make it happen, but I know differently. Therefore, I give it 2 thumbs up for ease of use and rapid creation of online quizzes.

Graciela's Beta IMU

Hello All,

This is the link to my IMU:

http://www.kundalini-yoga.us/beta/website

It is very basic but complete. Comments are welcome.

Joy’s Beta IMU

Still a work in progress. Missing some resources and few assessments that I will complete once I’ve received the content.

http://www.joygayler.com/gw/266/index.html

Erik's Beta IMU

Here is my beta IMU.

I think that it is more of an alpha really. I am happy with where I am at with it, but I know that I won't have time to get it to perfection within the confines of the class. Some of the individual components were ore difficult than I thought, so I sort of consider them mock ups of what I would do if I was a Javascript and/or Flash guru.

In case you don't recall my proposal, I am not my own client for this project. That is I am dealing with a subject matter that I am not really that close to. I have done so many projects in this program using my realm of knowledge as the basis, I am really looking forward to this feedback process, since I don't have a lot of experience being detached in this way.

Video Compression Issues

My IMU contains a fair amount of video. In a perfect world and given perfect conditions, this would not be a problem to implement. Here’s the short version of what has gone right and wrong during video production.

WHAT WENT RIGHT:
Human subjects were agreeable to being filmed. Human subjects include 1) instructor 2) semi-willing student. Some very interesting and humorous outtakes resulted from filming. Those are being reserved for the Director’s Cut Version, available exclusively from me. :)
Rendering of video mostly completed. Video portion of project remains on schedule!

WHAT WENT WRONG:
Filming occurred under less than perfect conditions. Due to scheduling conflicts, the original videographer (who is experienced and acutely aware of lighting and sound issues) was unavailable. Instructor/client, in a good faith attempt to keep project on schedule, arranged for filming by third party in order to have video to me in time for editing. Unfortunately, the third party was inexperienced, resulting in poor lighting and volume as well as camera experience.
No access to raw video footage (raw = the actual digital video tape). Although I asked for the raw footage of the tapes, I was given a windows media (.wmv) version to edit. Upon investigation, it was determined that the raw footage was no longer available!!
Less than stellar end result. Converting the video into a working version further compromised the quality. Then I determined that uploading .swf files to my server wasn’t going to work (files were huge, uploading kept timing out), I went back and converted the edited versions to flash (.flv). This greatly reduced the file sizes and uploaded with no problem. However, the sacrifice was apparent in the quality of the video.

Conclusions: Due to time constraints and scheduling conflicts, this outcome was unavoidable. In the future, I will make every effort to ensure that quality is not sacrificed. If time and budget permit, I would like to re-record these videos at a later date with the professional videographer.

Who listens to podcasts? Which ones?

The sun may be setting on the podcast discussions, but there is one more thought I wanted to put out there. I have always felt it it is a medium that predicts by its very nature its own demise. That is, in a perfect situation, content would be able to be accessible from any producer anywhere (that independent spirit) on portable devices (the "pod") without the formal creation of a relationship between the two in a piece of middleware. Youtube isn't podcasting, but give me Youtube on my ipod anywhere and you have a customer. Will we still call this podcasting?

So in all my thoughts on the subject, I come back to one point, and would love to get feedback from others on this. As impressed as we are with the technology, and as fun as it is to dabble with, does anyone consider themselves an active consumer of podcast content, AND, if so, what podcasts do you consume?

Podcasts in Higher Ed, Part 2

In my last podcast post, I mentioned that I’ve utilized podcasts in the classroom for instructional purposes, but that I’ve also used them for public relations purposes. I’ve worked a bit with my college’s admissions office producing podcasts for announcements as well as for interview purposes. We’ve posted these podcasts on admission blogs and web pages, so that’s a little different usage of podcasts than what faculty members typically do – using podcasts for lecture purposes. However, the rendering process for creating podcasts, in my experience, has been the same.

I like to use Apple’s GarageBand (mac platform) for rendering podcasts. If I’m creating a solo podcast of myself, for example, I’ll record directly into GarageBand via a microphone or headseat. This gives me the luxury of keeping or deleting multiple versions of my recordings on the fly. Typically, I’ll keep the best 2 or 3 takes, and if needed, slice and dice between them to create one acceptable recording.

Things get a little more interesting when I’m recording other people. Most folks become somewhat nervous with a microphone in their face or worse, having to wear a headset and told to speak normally. So, I use a third party little voice recorder to capture the interview or speech. If this is a rehearsed effort, I’ll record at least 3 takes that I can use for editing purposes. I import the mp3 files into GarageBand and then just edit them from there to create the podcast.

On the few occasions that I’ve recorded with a digital camcorder for a vid/vodcast, I’ve imported the movie into Apple’s iMovie, edited it, saved it, and imported that into GarageBand for further editing. When you save a podcast or vodcast in GarageBand, it’s automatically encoded for submission to iTunes, if you so desire. Otherwise, you can just upload the mp3/mp4 file directly to your web server for visitor download.

I enjoy creating podcasts, and I think the main reason why is that GarageBand makes it so easy. There was a short software learning curve, but like anything, the more you do it, the more familiar it becomes and consequently for me, a little faster to produce! Ideally, I’d like to have a small mac computer lab on my campus so that I could teach interested faculty how to create their own podcasts. And iMovies, and iDVDs, and… ::insert more mac goodness here:: ☺

Interesting, I seem to prefer a PC for creating web sites. Hmm.

More Web 2.0 Fun

Over the last week, I have seen a drastic increase in the number of technophile friends dropping me messages with links to hip new Web 2.0 services. I cannot decide if this is a fluke thing, that with the warm spring air comes not only blossoms on trees but also the flurry of new pristine, suave web based applications (as if the programmers spent all winter locked indoors coding away). In any case, it is apparent to me, now more than ever, that this is where things are headed. I thought I would share a couple of these cool things with my fellow classmates for your enjoyment as well. Perhaps one of these new applications is your very own missing link to internet perfection.

The first service was shown to me by offering me as an unwilling participant. Jott lets you make contact groups of email and cellphone addresses (for text messaging), and upon calling the service, your voice recorded message will be distributed to your group in text. The implications for my realm of education seem few, but I can envision some pretty cool field uses of sharing experiences with others. I might try to write my next paper this way (kidding).

More relevant to learning is Quizlet which appears to be Myspace meets the common flash card. Social networking tools applied specifically to reinforcing study groups is such a great idea and a service that I very needed. In my time in the ETL program, I have used a number of tools ranging from simply email to wikis to supplement the course environment to allow me and my fellow students to easily collaborate. And while Quizlet itself is more geared towards learning in a drill and practice manner, it certainly got me thinking about the possibilities such tools.

And one last to share. Actually, this isn't an application, but the best resource for information on applications, if, like me, you are a bit of a junkie for them. eHub claims to be "a constantly updated resource of web applications, services or sites with a focus on next generation web (web 2.0), social software, blogging, Ajax, Ruby on Rails, location mapping, open source, folksonomy, design and digital media sharing." It kept me busy for hours, and by sharing this link, I force myself to find new things to blog about other than sharing the cool tools I tested this week.

Graciela's Design Grid and Storyboard

Design Grid

Storyboard

Edgar's Design Grid and Story Board

Story Board

Design Grid

Erik's Storyboard and Design Grid

Storyboard
The boxes hyperlink to the incomplete pages in the IMU.

Design Grid
Looks kind of crummy b/c I couldn't figure out how to save a file in Photoshop with the grid, so I took a screen shot... gets the job done for sharing (at least).

Joy’s storyboard and design grid URLs

Storyboard
Design Grid

JavaScript Revisited

As much as I resisted using a JavaScript dropdown menu on my IMU site, it has proven to be the most efficient and logical way to guide my site’s navigation. My resistance was solely based on my “been there, done that” attitude. I was semi-convinced that a web 2.0-ish design with the top-level nav menu living at the top and the expanded second-level nav menu living on the bottom (!!!) of the page would be workable and, oh…different. (see example) And somehow it would all fit together and work beautifully. Right? Right! All because I didn’t want to pop in yet another (yawn) JS dropdown menu.

My intentions were good (at least to me) but not practical. I came f2f with logic and reason while creating my storyboard and grid. There was no way anyone was going to think the lower page navigation menu was reasonable. So after a couple of fist and teeth-clenching “arggg’s” I set out to find a JS nav menu that I could live with. About 100 clicks later I found this menu. It’s called the tabs mouseover menu. What appeals to me is that it’s not the usual drop-down vertical menu, but rather a drop-down horizontal menu. Plus, it fits in almost perfectly where my original top menu once lived. So, my IMU site now has logic and JS driving the navigational scheme.

So what about that lower expandable nav menu? Why is it still hanging out down there on my pages, you ask? I have no reasonable answer for you other than because I like the way it looks! Translation: it “completes” the design, in my mind. LOL! And I plan to replace the IMU-related links with non-IMU links, such as our college links, internal links, and student-related links. Because it’s different, and it’ll all work out, right?? Right? hello? anyone…

Stay tuned to see if the lower menu makes the final cut for the final project. :-)

Using podcasts in higher ed, Part I

I’ve been playing around with podcasts and podcast technology for the last several years and have come to appreciate the usefulness of podcasting in several arenas. I have dual job functions at my college, so my opinions are based on classroom use as well as marketing techniques that can effectively employ the use of podcasts. This blog entry will focus on podcast usage in the classroom.

In the area of classroom use, podcasts, as well as vodcasts (or vidcasts) have proven to be useful for both instructors and students at my college. Unlike Duke University, we have not implemented podcasts on a large scale yet, so only a handful of lecture classes have experimented with offering them. The overwhelming positive response has been that by making podcasts of lectures available, it has freed the instructor and students from the traditional “come to class, listen and take notes” style of instruction. Yes, the students need the information, but, depending on the course and material presented, there’s often no compelling reason for them to have to sit in class for 60 minutes M-F to get it. ☺ So, classroom time is freed up for more engaging learning activities.

I recently had a “podcast-worthy” situation occur in a class I teach. Last month I was unable to hold and attend classes for a week due to my husband’s heart surgery, so rather than give my students lots of busy work to do (ack!) or give them half the work load, which would put us way behind, I located my class lectures that I had recorded sometime last year for another project, repurposed them into podcasts, uploaded them on our course management system and class weblog, and held lecture class asynchronously that week. We’ve managed to stay current with our syllabus, and now I’m considering creating more podcasts for next term! My class is really hands-on, since we’re working with industry- specific software in a computer lab, so I’ve been really reluctant to give up my f2f time, but now I’m rethinking it. Also, the students reacted favorably to the podcasts. The final exam results will be helpful, too, in determining how effective the podcasts were for that particular section of information.

On a personal note, my husband, mentioned earlier in this entry, had heart valve replacement surgery on Feb. 14th – yes, Valentine’s Day! He’s home and doing really well. I can actually hear his new techno-valve if I’m sitting really close – it sounds like a Timex watch in there. Bonus: the valve comes with an identification card listing his “part number” on it. LOL! Not sure if he’s supposed to carry that around in his wallet, or what…

Adding sound sounds like Fun!

Sound can be an integral part of learning, but for a good yoga class it is essential.

According to yoga tradition, every yoga class should include the sound of mantra and/or any meditation would be more relaxing and effective if it is accompanied by chanting a simple word or phrase. The idea is to include all of your senses in unison, so as to simultaneously harmonize your attention to the present moment and that way give you the experience of relaxation. In a nutshell, the moment you are present, all your senses are attentive to the present moment, your mind will relax and calm.

Most of the time at the end of a class, the yoga instructor will play the gong... Nothing like the smashing sound of Westernized Chinese movies, rather the gong is played with a rhythmic soothing vibration song that permeates the whole room where the class is held. The gong is not only listened by your ears but the vibration is perceived within you. As part of my training, I was taught how to play the gong and it would be wonderful if I can include that at the end of this online lesson I am preparing.

Adding sound some type of sound, mantra, gong, or music, to my instructional project is unavoidable and should be fun! What to choose that is most effective online is what is tricky. Just this past weekend I received a guided meditation over email. Lately, I have been researching resources and trying everything I come accross which might potentially be included in my instructional final project. After trying it, I decided I might not use it after all. I wanted to include it here just to share some cool stuff in return of all the video and ideas you have been sharing too.

http://www.conociendoalosangeles.com/mp3/meditacion-ariadna-tapia.mp3

JavaScript Appreciation Speech

My friendship with JavaScript (JS) began almost a decade ago. When I was I was in need of some (then) impressive online interaction, JS was there to help me out. JS provided me with my first experience of coding arrays. JS allowed me to feel like a programmer; I was able to look at the code, “see” the sequence of events, and then replace parts of the code to fit my purposes.

A classic example was the old image rollovers that were all the rage back in the mid to late ‘90s. I had some pretty involved rollovers happening on many of my sites during that time but most of those examples are no longer available. I did find an old one, though, that uses the rollover sparingly on the home page. You can view the source code to see there, as well. Also note in the source how that huge graphic on the home page was diced into parts for “faster loading.” Yikes! Hey- it was ‘90s!

Another JS element that I used a lot and still do, only with a more current and valid script, is the internal navigational menu that you see on that same site. Because I continue to use that type of JS navigation on many of my current sites, I intentionally didn’t use it for my JS competency; I wanted to try something new. Again, JS to the rescue. It had been awhile since I trolled the net for my old friend JS, and I stumbled on one of our old meeting places: Dynamic Drive. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the digs had been updated and JS was spending a lot of time with a newcomer, Ajax. Apparently, they’ve joined forces for many projects, so I was eager to check that out and see them in action.

Eventually, I settled on a JS navigational and content loading script for my competency. Interestingly, there was an Ajax version of nearly the same script, which I’m very interested in pursuing when time allows. I’m still working on the JS version and, as always, my old friend hasn’t let me down. So far the script has been simple enough to follow, but involved enough to let me “program” it for my needs. Here’s to JavaScript – may it live on in many forms while continuing to be accessible and useable for the masses.

Beyond the Class Blog

As I am falling in love with this application of blogs as a class collaboration tool, I find it is already obsolete. I've just been introduced to Ning... which is like MySpace for ad hoc social networks. Something like MySpace could never be a valid tool for teaching, but the collection of tools that make up "social networking," which include blogging, are certianly more powerful than blogging alone. In that, I see much appeal in this service. Check out the video if you are interested.

The World is Free

I mean the virtual world, of course, the Internet. Sure you might pay a monthly fee for connection but what is that next to all that you can get: Free CSS, free HTML templates, free JavaScript, what’s all this? People give their templates for free, write tutorials for free, offer tips and tricks for free.

My 11-year-old boy even works for free on the Internet. He manages two forums about video games consoles. He writes reviews about all the games he has used, he tries new games weekly and writes tips and tricks (like tutorials), and suggests story lines to the designers, and trades games. All of that, for the pure enjoyment of writing and expressing his opinion. I get paid for doing less than that!

I have been looking for ways to learn CSS and JavaScript and so far I have been following tutorials on the Internet. Sometimes I feel that to learn all this, one needs a new mindset; a way of thinking that our children seems to be now born with nowadays. We adults, it seems to me, have to acquire… or learn to acquire (there you go) that extra space in our minds. And alas! As I am sitting with my laptop reading, learning, visualizing and playing in my head how to use CSS and JavaScript for my project,... I find... a new Website, or let’s say a few new Websites (new to me) that are offering JavaScript, CSS, XML templates for free.

They are:

• Smashing Magazine


• SSI Developers


• CSS Library

Enjoy it!

The impact of Podcasting

At the university where I work, we have several email lists that were originally created for the purpose of communicating important announcements. Unfortunately, these lists turned out to be a channel or medium used to deliver SPAM messages within the university that eventually turned these lists into an annoyance. To alleviate this, a new system was implemented where anybody could submit an announcement through a web application, and this announcement would be then classified accordingly. Then, each individual (end-user) would get an email with a list of the new announcements available, and they would have the ability to access only the announcements the end-users chose to view through this web application. Well, this system has been in place for almost a year, and based on recent survey results, almost nobody takes the time to go an look at these events.

On the other hand, sometime back, I was reading a magazine article about Podcasting. In this article they talk about the impact that podcasting is having in the corporate world, and how companies use podcasts as a way to communicate important information about new products or send "a message from the boss". Although companies are already experiencing the benefits of podcasting, the article also mentions that it will still be a while before we see this trend in other places or settings. However, this is a start, and with the help or RSS and Podcasting, users will be able to really "customize" pr "filter" only the messages that they want to listen or read through their news aggregator.

Plan all you want...

Since a portion of what we are supposed to learn in this class is to be able to guide our web projects to completion via successful project management, I thought I would take a few moments to share my story with you all. It might be interesting, or not, but it will certainly allow me to vent a little.

I've been guiding a really cool project for a year now. By design, we were going to use blog software to create an article based community forum (not forum software, but a forum) for faculty at my institution to share and comment on teaching and other professional experiences. A lot like what we have going on with this blog, only times about 1000.

We worked on the project for months. We spent many hours working with multiple departments to design the specifications of the page. We selected the software, created many customizations. We held a focus group to get initial feedback. All in all, we did everything by the book to have a successful project.

Unfortunately, we had excluded one group of decision makers that saw our finished product, loved it, but had reservations that the information was available to the public. These changes were at the very core of our design, and required us to redo 80 percent of our work.

The moral of this part of the story is that buy in is important, but so is getting all the buy in needed. Had we done a better job of incorporating a few people that we thought were neutral to the project, we would have been done ages ago.

Moving on, I sat down with my team and a revised list of specifications. We set an aggressive deadline to roll out our new service on Feb. 27. This gave us 3 months to reinvent the wheel. In a way it was a good thing. As we redid things, we took the opportunity to get things right the second time. Opportunities presented themselves that weren't there the first time. We did a good job of briefly exploring these new options without changing the scope of the project... we'd put it on a phase 2 list.

I started work last Monday with a handful of last minute tasks, a week to complete them, and a deadline of Tuesday at 3:00 for an unveiling at an event that would be hard to reschedule. The next day, 5 days ago, a sever virus hit our campus that spread like wildfire. All the PCs (go Mac!) on campus had to be touched. Each touch takes about 2 hours. Higher priority projects than mine had to take the back burner. I've worked 75 hours since Tuesday with more to do this week.

The lesson I've learned from this experience is one of priority. It seems that no amount of planning can ever address all the bumps in the road, but having a good sense of priority, and being able to order things on the fly because of that sense, will save lots of time. I was not in a position to make the tough calls with the priorities of hundreds, but I've been able to observe some great leaders who were. As a result, we've navigated much of this hurdle in a reasonable time without other services crumbling.

So that's my story. I was gonna build some cool stuff in JavaScript and write about that on Saturday, but I'll have to get to that next weekend. It is funny, sometimes I don't look forward to my ETL work sessions that I set aside each weekend, I have to go to the library to work as motivation. But after this weekend, I can't wait to relax with my laptop and actually use my brain!

Styling with CSS

The more I delve into cascading style sheets, the more I wonder how I ever created a web site without using them. For an existing site where you need to make a style modification, CSS makes it so convenient. I’m web master for a site that has a particular event that’s advertised in it’s own special web site “section” every year. The site’s architectural template stays the same, but the graphics and color scheme of that section change every year to match the hard copy publications and advertising for the event. I pull up the style sheet from last year’s event, rename it for this year’s event, make the changes, and presto! There it is.

The IMU CSS project was challenging. First, I wasn’t sure of the actual IMU site design yet, and second, I was re-coding an old blog template for use on this project. Probably not the best mix to use for this assignment, but I was interested to see how the blog-turned-web site would work. Everything was moving along okay, if a little slowly since it had been awhile since I “spoke” CSS, until I ran across the float attribute. I had 3 sections that I needed “centered” equal distance apart. Guess what? There’s no such thing as a float: center attribute. “Since you have float: left/right, many people think there should be a float: center. The way CSS does it is to assign the margin to an auto value, so both sides get the same amount of margin.”
And even more on floating – this explains the theory behind float usage. So after that bit of research, I was able to correct my non-validating code and achieve the look I wanted.

Another thing I was reminded of while working on the CSS assignment was how different it is to work with a no-table page. Most of my sites that I work with daily are a combo of table and CSS, (Web 1.5 anyone?) so it’s always a little shocking to immerse myself in the full-on CSS code.

And finally, while digging in my old bookmarks, I ran across this 2003 IMU(?) titled "Why tables for layout is stupid: problems defined, solutions offered.”

So many technologies, so little time.

As I was reading the lecture last night I was very happy to hear about using JavaScript again. And by “again” I mean that once I used to be proficient at JavaScript to make my designs “fly” and impress. Then, I stopped using JavaScript, I actually stopped using many Web things in favor of paper publications.

It sounds weird but, at the very beginning of the appearance of the Web, when publication designers like me transition to become Web designers, we felt prompt to meet and move to a happy-medium with the new computer engineers, who were the expert techies with the programming languages. Designers like me learned HTML and JavaScript from being challenged by these techies that our designs “can’t be done” and so we proved them wrong by learning a few tricks, like mouse-over, and pop-up windows that were not grey and ugly. It wasn’t hard-core programming at all, but the experimentation, I think drove these technologies to better themselves as we asked for more.

We thought that with the introduction of the computer we will have the paperless office and therefore all print designers will become Web designers and we will all look back at our books and say: remember that? Well, remember when we THOUGHT that? Well, instead of making the paper obsolete, the computer brought in the use of more paper and more paper. And so former book designers like me, after a few years using to publish Web pages, were called back to the market to be print publications designers again. And in the market, we are rarer to find than Web designers these days. And yet, the technology we use has also changed (for instance, we don’t have PageMaker now, we have InDesign). And also the print technology has advanced too, we have digital prints and/or color photocopies that print out very high quality prints and full volumes. So, I also had to bring myself back up to speed (though it took me a couple of hours for it seems print technology is more natural to me).

And so with the necessity in the workplace to use my many years of experience in publication, I folded my newly found experience with HTML and the Web in a drawer some place in my mind a few years ago. And as I come back and opened that drawer I find that things have changed and my HTML is vintage. The proud tags I attached are old and musty. Revisiting it, I found that to make text bold, I should not use "b" anymore, but "strong", or that "i" is now "em" and so on and so on and so on.

Likewise, as I was looking at JavaScript samples last night I was reminiscent to my earlier tries. Oh, yes, I thought. That and that and that can be done! There is nothing impossible for technology. It all depends on our time.

Technology and Learning

Since the beginning of this semester I have been pondering in my mind what type of project I was going to work on. I want to teach one class of yoga on the Internet. Whenever I tell people that I am a yoga teacher, I hear the same mantra, people telling me how they are so interested in starting yoga, but --oh, gosh-- how little time they have; or, that there is no class located closer to where they live or work. The solution, I thought was an online lesson delivered though this wonderful medium, which interested students can access at a time and place of their convenience.

My client, the yoga teacher that trained me, has been hesitant about my ideas. I asked her to select a class that she was going to teach to her students at the studio. I was going in to take pictures (and get permission from the models to use the pictures), later design the structure, design the Website --CSS and all--, look and feel, perhaps do some animation of sorts… My client has doubts and her own ideas too. Why don’t I use the Internet to explain empirically, the basis of yoga, to make them interested, as to later draw people to visit her studio and join a class? Is she talking about using the Internet sort of like a marketing tool. Is she talking about edutainment? Horrors!

She based her point of view on the definition of yoga: It is to bring mind, and body together in relaxation at one particular moment within class time. And that moment might not happen over the Internet in one class. Yoga is an experiential learning. It might be true that the Internet would convey this experience at one point in the future—perhaps thought some special technology (virtual reality?), but to seriously bring a yoga class --like the one we impart in person, to a group of people,-- with all the subtle energy changes that can be felt physically, and the group energy which unites at one point during the period of class, and the personal relaxation, and the final experience of the meditation, …all this might not be immediately possible today. Or, might be too complex of a task to be able to do it all in one online class.

The questions circumnavigating my mind are: Is technology that efficient and sufficient for this kind of experiential learning/teaching? Is it able to convey an experience of such subtlety? The Internet student, not being able to get that experience in one sitting, might feel bored, or weird, or simply disinterested from the first session. The energy we feel in class while doing yoga together, my yoga teacher pointed out, is what makes yoga differ from any other kind of exercise.

Still in the game

My thoughts echo somewhat those of my classmates that have posted entries concerning the overwhelming choice of web technologies available to us today. I’m so glad to know that I’m not the only one that occasionally pines for the good old days of plain html with a side of simple scripty goodness all held together by a carefully arranged table layout. Sigh. Those were the days.

Those were the days. Of simple, yet function-limited web sites. Remember when the Amazon.com site, for example, burst on the scene and they had a, gasp, shopping cart? And suddenly everyone was scrambling to learn cgi so they could re-write their sites to include cart and check out ability? Which also meant they probably needed a database backend? That technology has grown and improved over years and I’m not sure that if I had even learned those “advanced” coding techniques back then that I’d still be able to keep up with the latest versions today.

However, all of this to say, I’m not disheartened by the progress in web design, coding, and backend development; rather, I’m enthusiastic about it and what it means for the future. I get excited about the technology when I see events such as this being offered. I’d absolutely love to attend this event and be surrounded by the icons in the industry and soak up all they have to offer. Oh the possibilities! What I could learn! I fantasize for a few minutes about attending the conference, but then reality sets in. My rose-colored fantasy takes on a sepia-toned hue as I begin to imagine myself at the conference, surrounded by techies and terms, and ideas, and exciting Web 2.0 code that I don’t quite get, but wow I can see how that would be beneficial and hmm, why didn’t I ever learn this in the first place…and then I remember why I didn’t learn it in the first place: because there are only 24 hours in a day! And I’m busy maintaining my “perfectly” cobbled-together Web 1.0 sites (okay, some may pre-date that). I do however, acknowledge that there is room for improvement and that if I want to stay in the game of web design, I better learn what I can, when I can, and most importantly, apply it. So, projects like the IMU are perfect for me – if I can learn (or improve) and apply just one new technology that I haven’t learned before, then I feel like I’m still in the game, just moving a little slower, but not completely benched.

What Is the Best Choice?

I was reading Jeff's Advanced Technologies posting on WebsoftMJLJ for this week's lecture. In this posting he poses an interesting question... What are the best choices for educational technologists?

Although this question is related to Jeff's IMU project, I am sure that all of us have found ourselves in Jeff's situation. What technology is the most appropriate for a given situation? Although not easy to do, we can somehow answer this question with a general answer. For instance, what technology would be appropriate to deliver training materials to a set of users? As an answer, we can suggest to use a web page, or maybe producing a CD-ROM. We can even suggest to develop a printed "How-to"guide and still be able to provide a proper answer.

However, once we decide what solution we implement, there is a more granular level where we, as instructional technologists, still have to make a choice on what technology is the most appropriate. If we decide to deliver training materials through the web, should we make it interactive? If we are looking for interaction, what's the best technology we can use? Action scripts in Flash, or perhaps we should use any type of DHTML? Yes there are systems available that we can use to help us manage these types of questions, however, as instructional technologists, we know that we are responsible for knowing of the different technology solutions available, but are we also responsible for knowing all the specific details for each one of the possible technologies as well? At what level does this stop?

Copy and Paste Learning

All that I know about web markup, scripting, and programming, I learned in as-needed basis by finding what I needed, copying and pasting, tweaking through trial and error. Over the years this has resulted in an understanding of html, css, javascript, php, and perhaps others that is limited, spotty, and devoid of any sort of application of best practice.

The tutorials on W3schools.com are great.. and I've known about them for years, but the truth is, unless I NEED that new skill at that moment, I can't stay focused, or I forget it in five minutes. So if I inherited some project and needed to tweak style sheet, I'd learn just enough to do so.

I have vowed to do no copy and paste for my projects in this class. It isn't about not wanting to steal, cheat, or be lazy, it is about wanting to look a page that I created completely by myself. That way, when I know that I know what everything does. It is a sad admission that I have created things in the paste from a talent of hobbling things together, and I have only been about 50% clear on how it did what it did.

It has already paid off. I applied what I learned from the xhtml and css tutorials to create a page and a stylesheet using nothing but things that I understand. I probably can't convey the excitement I feel in this blog... but I can share my dirty little secret.

RSS vs Rumaging on Syber Space

It takes one snowing Virginian day to keep me in and let it out. Only that the snow melted too soon and I had to go to work anyways. But here it is, my first Blog ever.
For a long while I thought that learning only happened when the information to be studied came from the lecture of a teacher to the eager student in the front row of a classroom. But it is not happening like that anymore. Online learning means a lot of reading, researching, checking, comparing, applying, doing—Constructivism, I guess. No verbal discussion other than online, no funny remark by a smartass student… It is a lot of rummaging on Cyber Space.

Surprisingly, though, this semester it hasn’t totally happened like that either: I also get a little lecture and some first-hand samples face2face with a teacher. At my new job, sitting next to me, conspicuously in her smart appearance sits the Queen of Blogs. Amy, the writer, producer, and creator of Crazy Mokes (http://www.crazymokes.com/), is the proud subscriber to over a 100 blogs, which she receives via RSS. While in my head I am thinking a thousand things and using Wikipedia or Google to keep up with my own internal questionings. She receives everything she ever wanted to know, anything she ever wanted to read, through her RSS reader, like bloglines.com.

As my questionings, now directed to her increases, she kindly gives me the tour.

Why! Look at it as your own personal journal you don’t mind your younger brother to read, or your personal newsletter to the world or family members overseas, or your letter to the editor to an imagining self-owned newspaper (…or writing assignment to EDUC266). It is just a website with a software (she uses WordPress from: http://wordpress.org/) that makes it easy to, well, make a Blog, which incidentally comes from Web and Log coined together (well, I knew that one from Wikipedia) and because blogs are expression of ones personal style, she chose her own style and produces her own banners, sometimes photos taken by her, other times…. like this month featuring Mrs. Pacma. Amy says, “I'm currently addicted to playing Ms. Pacman, and so I thought it would be fun to have a ms. Pacman themed banner for February, with little hearts for the dots.”

Are you in the zone?

I read with interest this week’s lecture material on scaffolding, and in particular, Vygotsky’s (1978) Zone of Proximal Development. The type of IMU I will be responsible for designing falls in line with Vygotsky’s “actual development level” and “potential development level” suggestions. The following phrase is especially relevant for my particular IMU’s audience: “The zone of proximal development (ZPD) can also be described as the area between what a learner can do by himself and that which can be attained with the help of a ‘more knowledgeable other’ adult or peer. The ‘more knowledgeable other’, or MKO, shares knowledge with the student to bridge the gap between what is known and what is not known.” (Lipscomb, Swanson & West, 2004). While my IMU will provide instruction and assessment online, a practical assessment will be conducted by a MKO; in this case, our chiropractic clinic interns and floor doctors. Therefore, this online module needs to contain appropriate scaffolding leading to learner success during a practical examination, although, the learner may be referred back to the online module for review. Modeling and explanation scaffolds have already been identified for use in this module. The needs analysis should provide further insight into other scaffolding methods that may be incorporated.

Boettcher (2007), describes ten core principles for designing effective learning environments:

• Principle #1: Every Structured Learning Experience Has Four Elements with the Learner at the Center

• Principle #2: Every Learning Experience Includes the Environment in which the Learner Interacts

• Principle #3: We Shape Our Tools and Our Tools Shape Us

• Principle #4: Faculty are the Directors of the Learning Experience

• Principle #5: Learners Bring Their Own Personalized Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes to the Learning Experience

• Principle #6: Every Learner Has a Zone of Proximal Development That Defines the Space That a Learner is Ready to Develop into Useful Knowledge

• Principle #7: Concepts are Not Words; Concepts are Organized and Intricate Knowledge Clusters

• Principle #8: All Learners Do Not Need to Learn All Course Content; All Learners Do Need to Learn the Core Concepts

• Principle #9: Different Instruction is Required for Different Learning Outcomes

• Principle #10: Everything Else Being Equal, More Time-on-Task Equals More Learning

The first principle, Every Structured Learning Experience Has Four Elements with the Learner at the Center, mentions the simple LeMKE framework: Learner, the Mentor/faculty member, the Knowledge, and the Environment. The third element of the framework, knowledge, relates to the content, or the problem that is the focus of the instructional experience. According to Boettcher (2007), the knowledge component is the answer to the question, "What is the knowledge, what is the skill, what is the attitude that the instructional event is intended to facilitate in the student?" As I’ve been working on the needs analysis, I kept returning to those questions to maintain focus.

Principle 6: Every Learner Has a Zone of Proximal Development That Defines the Space That a Learner is Ready to Develop into Useful Knowledge
This principle brings us back to Vygotsky's ZPD. As Boettcher’s (2007) mentions, this principle calls for encouraging learner feedback and demonstration earlier and more consistently. This is key in helping to determine conceptual progress of the learner. Also mentioned in the explanation of this principle is what we’re being exposed to and experiencing now by utilizing team blogs – we’re posting blog entries, getting and giving feedback by posting and reading comments, etc., all designed to encourage our development by helping us reflect on our understanding. While the IMU I’m developing won’t be assessing by means of written reflection such as blogs, it will rely on feedback from mentors and peers through the use of practical exam sessions.


Boettcher, J. (2007). Ten core principles for designing effective learning environments: Insights from Brain Research and Pedagogical Theory. Innovate, 3(3). Retrieved February 5, 2007, from http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=54

Lipscomb, L., Swanson, J., West, A. (2004). Scaffolding. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved February 3, 2007, http://www.coe.uga.edu/epltt/scaffolding.htm

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Relevant Video

I thought this video was pretty nifty and thought this was the perfect place to share it. The fact that it has moved from one blog to another sort of reinforces the point...

SRL, Motivation, and the University

I had to wait a few days after taking in this weeks lecture to be able to work up enough clarity to make an entire blog post. This is one case where the blog format is really nice. Others' posts on the subject has given me more to think about.

Don's post about motivation definitely got me thinking. I have, as he has referenced, felt a drain in motivation this semester which I have attributed in part to the changes to the Blackboard learning environment. It is as if I feel the rules changed on me, like a certain element of stability had been lost, and the prospect of learning new ways of dealing in the environment exhausted me.

Strangely, as learner in this program, I have developed quite a few habits that are unique to me but are inseparable from understanding of what it is to be a student in this program. The fact that I go to the library every Sat. at 10 and sit in the same spot, or my red 1 GB flash drive that I use for all my work, or my giant to-do list I create at the beginning of every semester are all means I've created for myself in my learning efforts... tangible remnants of my intangible process of constructing new knowledge. Don even gives a followup post letting us know he misses the Bb group discussion... me too Don, but this is growing on me.

Jeff found and shared a link to a virtual commencement ceremony. I thought about this in the context of motivation and those thoughts I was trying to harness after reading the lecture. My impressions of these SRL discussions feel weird to me b/c it is hard for me to feel anything personal about the process. Sure, we know that if you plan well, you can in fact assist a learner in the process of creating knowledge without maintaining a physical presence, but in so many ways that strikes me as cold.

Edgar's post talks about his first online class and how it is a learning experience in and of itself. This process of reconciling one's impressions of how, when and where learning occurs with the reality of a situation can be very disconcerting, and is easier when you are in communication with others in the same boat.

More to my point, something like the discussion board, or even a virtual commencement (a virtual orientation would be even better) can go a long way to creating some of those constants that are both comforting and motivating. These things that exist outside of an individual learning experience are important as well, and having them pointed out by others reminds me that SRL is not necessarily as cold as some of the readings made me feel.

Online PMR ideas?

Over on Team Websoftmjlj’s blog, Jeff posted about how he was going to keep his PMR this time around. He’s started another blog to record his project work. That got me thinking about the most reliable way for me to keep my PMR. Usually I hand-write everything in my scheduler, but that’s not always handy for me unless it’s right by my side all the time, which its not. On any given day you can find me sitting in front of one of three computers, which means, one of three desks. (“Hey – where’s my scheduler?!”) So, Jeff’s idea of keeping track of time via an online application sounds like it would fit into my multi-computer-using scenario.

I’m tossing ideas around here, so please feel free to add to this with your ideas, recommendations, reviews of any of the following. Comments are open! ☺
Ideas for online PMR-keeping:

Keep a blog (via Jeff’s idea)
Google or Yahoo (any online) calendar
Base Camp
A wiki – using any online free version

A Constructive Eye-Opening Experience

I just finished reading this week's lecture, an it reminded me of something I would like to share with you. After graduating from college and finally getting my Bachelor's in Computer Science, I started to work at the Center for Distance Learning at The University of Texas Pan American as a Multimedia Specialist. Since my job was researching and testing new media technologies that could be beneficial if implemented in the curriculum, I enrolled in an online course (my first online learning experience) from the Walden Institute (now called Walden University) to learn more about online learning and teaching. The course was called "Certified Online Instructor".

At first I was surprised and a bit disappointed about, what I thought then, the little interaction I had with the course instructor. All I had was some documents posted on the course web portal, along with some activities and/or reading assignments. As the course progressed, I followed along and did the required reading and assignments. Yet, I was still waiting for the instructor to play his traditional role as the "Director" or "Expert". As the course continued to move along, I realized that the activities, and the course overall, were driving me to interact with my peers and dig out information that was becoming substantive and relevant to me as I discovered it.

After successfully completing the course, I realized a couple of things. First, I learned a lot about teaching online, and I did not gain all the knowledge from the course instructor as I originally expected. Instead, I gained knowledge from the course content, the interaction with other class peers an the guidance and facilitation of the instructor.

How RSS Changed the Way I Surf the Web

For some of the courses in the ETL program, as part of the orientation assignment for the first week, we are asked to provide three websites that would somehow define our professional life/career and personal interests. I started to type a brief bio of myself without thinking much about the assignment. However, when it was time to provide the addresses of websites related to my profession and/or personal interests, I could not think of a specific website, There are so many of them... I thought. I then realized that I no longer visit all the different websites, nor do I remember all of their addresses or names.

The RSS aggregator I've been using, has allowed me to have access to all these different websites that may have any content of interest without having to visit each one of these website. Without knowing it, I had taken advantage of the greatest benefit that RSS and blogs have provided to individuals using the web.

I've become somehow addicted to RSS, and I did not know about until now! This has changed the way I access information on the web, or rather, RSS allow the important information come to me.

RSS and Choosing a Framework

Thanks for all the RSS resources in this week’s lecture! Especially helpful and useful was the RSS: A Quick Start Guide for Educators that Dr. Milman linked. This will also be useful for faculty members at my college that are struggling to understand RSS.

Erik provided some wonderful and useful ideas in his post and I am interested in exploring his ideas further since I’m looking for an elegant way to add news headlines to our college web site.

In playing around with this idea, a few months ago I managed to add headlines from my blog into my portfolio web site on this page; scroll down and look in lower right column. I used a service called Feedburner to do this. The feedburner service offers some other neat things, too. For example, I added the ability for a blog visitor to subscribe for email notification of new blog content. You can view it here in the right column under the category cloud. This is worthwhile for folks that don’t use an RSS reader and prefer to be notified by email of any new stuff. They are out there; believe me! Never mind that email is so 1996 and all. ;-)

For those that require an RSS feed for any given popular reader/application, feedburner also offers those little badges or chicklets, as they call them, for you to include on your site or blog. You probably saw them earlier on this link, right under the subscription link. You’ll notice bloglines, google, yahoo and a few others there. This is a nice offering for your visitors that may use one of those services – gives them an instant way to add your site to their RSS reader.

Feedburner offers a few other widgets for your blog that you might find useful. Here’s a screen shot of where you choose your widget and it generates the script for you. Then, just copy and paste into your web site.

This page explains a little more about the widgets available. Scroll down the page to see the table of explanations. Also note that these same widgets work for podcasts, as well.

With regard to one of this week’s activities, the examination of instructional modules and frameworks, I found this activity useful. Of particular interest was the section of “other sites” listed in that activity. I believe they appealed to me because my proposed IMU, at this point, doesn’t look like it will fit into any of the other frameworks listed. So these other sites seemed more instructional with Q & A, which is where I am at this point in the design process. I really liked the Ojalá que llueva café site; I thought that was clever and well-done. If we had had the internet and online instructional modules back when *I was in high-school (197X-198X), I can see being engaged in the activities presented here. Overall, I thought all the sites in the activity presented a wide-variety of frameworks that could be utilized in the design of an IMU. However, I can already see that the needs analysis will be very beneficial in helping me decide and narrow down my options with regard to framework!

*This qualifies as personal info! But here are a few photos of my cats, if you're into viewing cute furry animals. :)

Blogs and Wikis are great, but RSS is where the real power is

Just to bring you all up to speed with where I am with the things we read about this week, and because it is is relevant to the conversation, and can be the fun factoid about myself, I'd like to describe my love affair with RSS. I have been blogging for several years now (actually, my time in ETL has brought my blog contributions to a halt, but that is another story), and have been presenting blogging as a concept to all sorts of departments at the university I work for as well.

In this, I have come to think of blog as sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy for web publishing. As the lesson hinted at... in the beginning there was the web, and it was good, but it certainly wasn't easy. The simplistic nature of a chronologically managed written content is all most people want. Blogs are nothing special in of themselves, but blogging as a movement or trend in homegrown authorship is quite powerful (as mainstream media seems to remind us ceaselessly).

And in this unbridled potential power... the first innovation to really make the web about more than those people with the resources to put things out there, is just one thing out there that can take advantage of the power of RSS. If blogging is a vast collective phenomenon comprised of individual component blogs, then RSS is the glue that holds everything together... and the surface is merely being scratched.

While blogs are the new kids on the block, I see more and more web services that offer some kind of RSS or XML syndication component. And while this may not seems like such a big deal, it is. It means that all those services that use one of these standards has reduced its offerings down to basic building blocks that can be reinterpreted as one sees fit. An individual blog post is the same as an individual news story is the same as an individual search result is the same as an individual forum posting is the same as an individual ebay item is the same as an individual upcoming event on a calendar. The fact that I can choose to look at all these things at once is amazing.

One real life application that I have done in the past would be to take multiple feeds and show them off on single web page. For example, we could edit the design of this blog to show the latest posts made by other teams. One service that makes this easy for people who don't want to get their hands covered in code is to use Feed2JS. I have had much success with this service which has its roots in education. It lets you paste in a feed URL and returns a piece of java script you can paste into a web page to have it show the latest items from the feed. \
I am sorry if I am all over the place with this post, but the subject matter has been so close at hand for so long. As a result, I am really excited to hear what others have to say about this week's content,.