Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Instructional Software

Today I presented to a group of graduate students about instructional software.  I was assigned this task as part of a group project and had 2 partners for this activity.  It seemed to work out well.

The main types of instructional software that we talked about were:
  • Drill and Practice
  • Tutorial
  • Simulations
  • Problem Solving
  • Assessment Software
  • Integrated Learning System
  • Games

Instead of all of us blogging about it we decided to create a wiki  to house all of our content.  We plan on trying to expand the wiki as we continue to work together.  You can view the wiki at instructionalsoftware.pbworks.com. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

What is Important?

No matter how cool the latest trick that you add to your bag of tricks is, what is most important to you as an educator?

Is it something that makes you look better as an educator? Is it something that saves you time? Is it something that you worked really hard on and because of your hard work it must be added?  Is it your salary? Is it your comfort zone?

I certainly believe that most educators would not even think of any of the things I just listed.  The examples all have the word "you" in them, as if we own anything in education. If you are an educator you know this.  You also know who our main "client" is.  I say client because without them the education "industry" would be out of business.  Our main client is the student.  I personally think that students are the most important thing to consider in any decision dealing with education.

If you are following me and know where I work you would say that this is kind of a requirement for my job.  However, if I did not work there I would still have this idea of student centered decision making.  Once educators, administrators, and politicians start to make decision solely based on what is best for the student only then will really see change in education.

When this change occurs we will be asking ourselves these questions: What makes the student look better?  Will this save my student time? Will my students work really hard on this? Will my student be able to get a higher paying job if they understand this concept?  Will I challenge my student to step out of their comfort zone?  Now, these examples are kind of silly but you do see the difference between these and the previous ideas I suggested earlier.

I need work in this area just as much as any other teacher and I hope to help all my students be better every day!