Lesson 5

O.K. I just wrote this and lost it, now I'm really ticked. It's 11:24 pm and I still need to write my Evaluation for my Quantitative Research Project in Methods. So this may be brief.
On Monday, Doc Waters was a bit irritated by the fact that none of us had read our assignment for this week. I went home and immediately read it. Unfortunately, I didn't immediately write it, so here goes.
On Monday we talked about Learning Theory and Instructional Theory. When I think of Learning Theory, I think of behavior or reward and punishment. Like when your cat pees on the carpet, so you spray him in the face with water. Instructional Theory is the teaching strategy you use. Choosing the principles from the theories presented will help us plan and implement instructional strategies that meet our desired outcomes.
In my portion of our online lesson, this week, I have added a post test for the students to take after viewing my power point on continents and oceans. I also added the fifth and less known ocean, the Southern Ocean and described for the students the controversy surrounding it. This ocean is not included in most texts or tests but is widely recognized by the IHOC.
Chapter 14 reading lead us into our role as a designer. As we have divided up the tasks for our project, we have tried to make sure everyone is doing their share without overwhelming any of us. In our case, we have Mary, who is very computer literate. She has put a lot of effort into our lesson and helped us add audio and music to our presentations. On the other hand, we have me, who is very computer ILLiterate. For me, just producing a power point and adding links to my web was an experience in itself. I think that part of web design as a team is sharing the responsibilities by allowing each member of the team to provide their own knowledge and talents and then work together to "put it all together".
Chapter 15 discusses implementing our project. We are well underway, although I didn't get as much done this weekend as I had planned. Part of my problem is that I get so sidetracked when I find to ideas. I want to add it all. Then I get overwhelmed. I need to focus on weeding out. One of the problems I am continuing to have is that when I try to open my videos and websites on Firefox, I have no sound. I can open it on Safari. So I guess one of the issues we need to make sure is implemented is that Safari is used as the internet access.
In reading Kirkpatrick's model, he explained the four levels of evaluation.
1. Student reaction - did they like it?
2. Student learning - did they learn what was expected?
3. Student behavior - can they and will they use the skills they learned?
4. Student results - evaluation
Since I am the one in charge of evaluating the students who practice on our program, it will be up to me to follow these levels. I think the most important thing is for them to be able to actually learn the skills of map making and reading and be able to retain what they have learned. In addition, it will be helpful, further on, to know the names of the continents and oceans and learn about our 5th ocean. I am excited to try this program out. It's 11:59 and I am signing off. On to another assignment.