R/D4

Using a photo sharing activity in school could be a tricky thing. I have run into numerous instances where a student could be photographed in case it ended up on the Internet, it really is sad but that is the world we live in. With that said there could be some cool things you could do with this i would certainly make them get permission from a parent or guardian before doing anything with the photo sharing. If I was going to do an activity I would probably do it early in the year as a get to know you activity. You could have them start an account and then have them so what they did over the summer, another thing that I would do is make them teach them about themselves, but give them a limit of pictures they can put in their album. So for instance they have to show us everything possible about themselves in five pictures. This makes them get more creative with their pictures and saves the teacher time in those first few days which are always so hectic.

As far the assigned reading from Trends and Issues, as I read through the chapter i kept coming back to the Six characteristics of Industrial design on page 13. These steps remind me so much of my thought process as I am putting together a lesson. The first two probably ring true for most teachers when you are creating a lesson or unit you always want it to center around the learner or student. Which goes right into the second characteristic, which is goals. I always think of the goals for a particular unit, what should a student learn from this? How are they going to learn this? Setting goals is part of almost ever part of life so I am not surprised that being goal oriented pops up in this book. Without goal setting there would be no finish line and it would just continue to move forward. The fourth characteristic of instructional design also sticks out as something that I think about a lot when developing a unit. It is also really taking over education in the last decade with data driven results. That is what I pick up when I see outcomes can me measured in a reliable and valid way. In teaching we call this assessment, and it can have many different forms, but instructional design I can see this be a much harder thing to develop and read. When you are teaching someone new technologies there can be so many different levels of proficiency and understanding, also there can be many other factors then just an assessment of knowledge. You must put into the equation that it is ever changing field that is constantly updated; getting real and valid data can be a tough thing. Coming for teaching history which is pretty constant in its information, I take the ever changing landscape of educational technology has a challenge.