Prezi

I sent my final project to my dad (who is an instructional designer). And he didn't know what Prezi was (I thought it was pretty well-known these days...I see it EVERYWHERE at conferences!).

So, if you are curious what Prezi is...here is a quick presentation I made on it.

View it at prezi.com.

Design Principles

Here is my final assignment: a presentation of my design principles.

To view it larger, click here.

Frustrated

I think Captivate may be a good tool for people with limited coding and development experience. But for those who have experience making complicated websites and are comfortable working in Flash, I actually think Captivate feels like working with handcuffs on. I'm very frustrated when I can't make certain adjustments that I know I could easily do in Dreamweaver or Flash, where I have more control.

Job Aid: Final

After receiving feedback on my Job Aid draft, I made some adjustments.

#1 Dr. Leftwich suggested I add some additional detail to Step 5. I agreed that I could have been a little more descriptive, so I revised those instructions. However, not a lot more description was needed, since my target learner would already be familiar with embroidering on their machine using .pes files. And this step is really just the same things they would do for basic machine embroidery.

#2 Dr. Leftwich also asked if I could somehow label the items in the What You'll Need section. I tried doing this, but honestly, I don't like it. Purely aesthetic design-wise, I just think the pic itself is too busy and more confusing with the additional labels. (I also tried adding some arrows, and oy vey that was terrible looking!) But really from an instructional design decision, I also think it's unnecessary because nothing on the What You'll Need list should be unfamiliar to the user. Again, since their assumed prerequisite knowledge is that they already know how to use their machine for sewing and embroidery, they would already know what everything in the picture is. I really think labeling each item here is just about as necessary as labeling peanut butter, jelly, bread, and a butter knife individually in a job aid for teaching a kid how to make their own peanut butter sandwich. They already know the objects, they might just need instruction on how to put it all together.

IF the objects were unfamiliar to the learner, I wouldn't group them all in one pic. I would probably have either simpler pics with just a few items in each one and labels for each item (like they do in the sewing machine's user manual) or one main pic with all the familiar items (sewing machine, thread, etc) and then separate pics with individualized labels for any new items (like if they didn't know what stabilizer was or embroidery scissors).

Here is the job aid incorporating both suggestions.

And here is the job aid I will be submitting. It only includes the adjustments from the first suggestion.

I do think this exercise pointed out the importance of having someone from your target audience review/pilot your materials though. Because it is really difficult to ask someone with little to no sewing/embroidery experience to review a job aid designed for someone with a certain level of prerequisite understanding. :)

P.S. I never did figure out how to get blogger to show this in actual size. It is designed to be 6 inches wide and I have it saved as 300 ppi...so I don't know why you can't view it that way online. The regular saved .png and .pdf can be viewed fine. Suggestions??

W10: Final (Required) Post

This week's topic is Collaboration.

I have to admit that I am not very experienced in teaching using collaborative learning. As a language instructor, I often use a lot of pair work and small group work for practicing skills in the classroom, but I don't think I've really emphasized either collaborative or cooperative learning during the major task-based assignments. But I don't really have a good justification of why I haven't employed this strategy.

In seeing the learning outcomes of using collaborative strategies, the main outcome that jumps out of me for language instruction is communication, which is a major goal of the communicative approach (currently the most widely accepted approach to language teaching).

Actually, if you examine the general principles of the communicative approach, I am a little ashamed that I haven't emphasized collaborative learning more, because these principles really do seem to lend themselves well to the described learning outcomes of collaboration:

1. An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language.
2. The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation.
3. The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on the learning process itself.
4. An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning.
5. An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activities outside the classroom.

"Communicative language teaching." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 26 February 2013. Web. 22 March 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communicative_language_teaching>.

Like I said, I have used a lot of pair work and small class work in the classroom for minor projects and assignments, but honestly, I think I've stayed away from collaboration for major projects because my assumption (or really experience) is that the students will revert to using English during collaboration. And since the communicative approach stresses the importance of teaching and learning through the target language (L2) (1. An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language.), I think I (and many language instructors) try to avoid possible scenarios where students can revert back to English (L1) en masse.

However, as I'm thinking back to Nunan's five features of CLT, yes, one feature is communicating with a purpose in the L2, however, there are 4 other main features. And three of them seem to fit very nicely with the learning outcomes of collaborative teaching, especially with the goals of critical thinking and academic achievement:

• The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on the learning process itself.
• An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning.
• An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activities outside the classroom.

Adding to my embarrassment, every blog post I like to include a picture to accompany the topic. While looking for a picture for this post, I googled "collaborative language learning" and guess what image I found?

Publication date: 1992!! And edited by David Nunan, who is the person who is best known for defining the 5 main features of the communicative approach!

Yikes! This is far from a new concept in language teaching! How have I missed the importance of this strategy in my almost 8 years of teaching?? Major fail!

This is the book description from Amazon.com:

Collaborative Language Learning and Teaching is written for teachers, teacher educators and researchers who are interested in experimenting with alternative ways of organising teaching and learning, and who wish to create an environment in which teachers, learners and researchers can work together and learn from one another. This wide-ranging collection of papers focuses on issues such as: �The central characteristics of a collaborative approach to classroom research - Appropriate theoretical models of language and learning for informing collaborative research � Appropriate research methods, tools and techniques for collaborative investigations - Classroom tasks and patterns of organisation which facilitate cooperative learning - Organisational patterns which underlie successful collaborative teaching. The classroom-oriented studies on which the collection is based provide models for readers who wish to experiment with these ideas in their own context.

So, I'm opening my eyes to the importance of using collaborative teaching strategies in language instruction, however, I'm still having a hard time visualizing what that looks like in a language curriculum. I think I need to order this book for my personal library. (Or at least see if I can check it out from the library. ;) )

W9: Reflection

Although the use of reflection seems like a buzz word made trendy by the current popularity of e-portfolios, critical reflection in learning actually dates back to John Dewey (1859-1952). In fact, it was Dewey who said "We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience."

In fact, Dewey's ideas on reflection  in learning where instrumental in  his colleague David Kolb's development of the Experiential Learning Model wherein he hypothesized the the deepest learning experiences happened during a recursive cycle of experience, reflection, hypothesizing, and testing.

Working as a language instruction specialist, I am constantly trying to encourage my colleagues to find the value in reflection in the language learning process. So many language instructors want to merely TEACH grammar rules, however, second language acquisition (SLA) specialists can tell you that in first language acquisition (also known as child language acquisition), learners are not taught rules on grammar, pronunciation, and syntax. Instead, they here language modeling (experience/observation) and they process and think about what they hear (reflection), come up with what they think the rule is (hypothesis), and then try out the language (test). Based on the feedback (whether the interlocutor understood them or not), they judge the utterance successful or not successful, and then make adjustments as needed to their language hypothesis to store for later.

In child learning, this is all done automatically and intuitively, but in adult language learning (second language learning/foreign language learning), a teacher can actually help a learner recreate this process by actively challenging the learner to follow these steps. For instance, instead of teaching their class how to create a negative sentence construction, they can provide a resource (written dialogue, video, etc) in which speakers are using some positive and some negative constructions (experience/observation) and then ask the learner to hypothesize the rule for forming the construction. The instructor can really cement this learning in their learners' minds by asking them "why/how did you come up with that rule?" (orally or written). Then, an instructor can have the learners test their rules. And then, return to the reflections to see if there is anything then need to change and modify about their rule and how they came up with it (if their testing wasn't successful).

And this is just one example. Students can reflect on cultural content in the language classroom. And I've also successfully used reflection for self-assessment, having the student reflect on their own progress in fluency, communication, etc. over a certain period of time.

Even in language learning reflection is a critical teaching strategy. Asking students to reflect on their learning process really can:

1. empower the learner by showing them that they can figure a lot of language learning out without an instructor
2. encourage learner autonomy
3. decrease "instructor talk time"
4. provide more meaningful learning experiences (that commonly lead to the learner really acquiring a new concept, rather than learning it in the moment and forgetting it as soon as they leave class).

Instructors want to teach the grammar because they feel like it's faster. Which, in the short term it is. it is much faster to tell a student about a language grammar rule than to go through the stops above. However, just because you've told them, doesn't mean they really learned it. And if you have to spend additional time re-explaining concepts, because the learners don't really absorb them during the first telling process...then really, you aren't saving any time by avoiding the reflective process. :)

(Sternberg, R. J., and L. F. Zhang. "Experiential Learning Theory: Previous Research and New Directions." Perspectives on cognitive, learning, and thinking styles. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2000.)

Job Aid: First Draft

So, in exactly 1 week, I will be driving to Florida to take our kids to Disney World for the first time! Woo-hoo. So in preparation, I am trying to get ahead in my work to make up for being offline for the week of Spring Break.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Audience: The audience of my job aid is Brother SE-400 sewing machine owners. (Really any embroidery machine could use it, however, since my examples show a Brother SE-400, that is my primary audience.) I have designed the aid with the assumption that the users already have a prerequisite understanding of the basics of operating the machine, including how to turn it on, how to thread it properly, how to change the foot, etc. and that they are already familiar with basic sewing terms such as embroidery and applique. It is also assumed that the user has access to the Operation Manual that comes with the machine (has extensive user explanations with images) and the Instructional DVD, which they can refer to for questions on basic machine operation.

The user would be referring to the job aid because none of the instructional materials that come with the machine specifically refer to pre-designed applique projects (commonly referred to as in-the-hoop designs, because all of the sewing is contained within the dimensions of the embroidery hoop) and the websites that sell the in-the-hoop designs (.pes files) do not have clear explanations for how to execute the design files. (I, myself, am an experienced sewer, but it took me a few trial and error times to master the order of operations for the in-the-hoop designs because of lack of instruction available.) Furthermore, the users are not likely to use in-the-hoop files frequently, so the job aid serves as a performance support tool to support users on the infrequent occasions that the users need to use the files.

Design Decisions: It is image heavy with few words because most users can just figure it out with some images, and frankly do not want to waste time watching videos or reading lots of text. The text really just acts as a support to the images.

I've used a neutral beige color as the background because the images are very busy and all the colors I tried out just made the image seem to busy. I initially tried using yellow/gold or aqua/blue for the title and background bars, since they are present in the pictures, however they looked off balanced and out of place. So I tried using a contrasting redish color, and it seems to work... So we have a representation of all the primary colors (yellow, blue, and red) with a lot of black and white against a neutral beige background.

For each of the pictures, I've photoshopped them so that the background is in black & white and blurry, so that only the portion being focused on for instruction is in focus and colorful. (I did try removing the background completely, but it just looked odd. The images look better in a rectangular standard size.)

I've also used black lines to breaks-up major sections and a slightly darker beige color for dividing the sub-steps in the section where there are a lot of pictures with similar content. Without those lines, all the pictures looked too similar and too close together, making it difficult for a learner to follow the order. The beige lines create a nice linear flow among the pictures.

I can't honestly say I chose the text for any particular reason. I wanted a title-y looking font for the titles (this is Trajan Pro which is an all caps font, making it look title-y) and a very simple font for the other content (this is Century Gothic, which is very crisp, clean, and simple to read).