Last week during class we had a guest speaker teleconference in to give a lecture on the use of technology in education. The lecture had some interesting parts, but I felt that much of it was pedantic and outdated, and it sometimes felt that he didn't quite know that he was speaking to a room of people that are generally well versed in the magic of YouTube and the internet.

The professor made some interesting connections between the technologies that have been used in the past and their more contemporary counterparts, but largely it was an exploration of tools that have been around for many years and are widely known. I felt distracted during the lecture by his almost insincere excitement surrounding ideas like blogging as a pedagogical tool.

My favorite part of the lecture was his examples of work being done in the field, because it did show some unique implementation of the current technology.

In other news, the work on my project is going well. I am trying to clean up my prototype so that it is cleaner and clearer for the expo on Wednesday. I am a bit concerned that the prototype will really not be functional by the expo, because I simply don't have the time to build the back end and put in the time to design the learning activities, but I am hoping that the prototype as is will do for now.

The lit review, however, has been a bit more difficult. I am at home in Seattle right now, and getting information when I don't have the Stanford library handy has been a bit difficult. I have, however, gone onto the libraries site and grabbed about 30 sources that are oriented toward chronic unemployment solutions, vocational training, adult learning, and internet job searching. Some are scholarly journals, but most are books and government reports, so I hope that I can synthesize them into something readable in the few days after I get back.

Alright, time to get back to reading.

This past week was a great step, I feel, in my understanding and motivation for online learning environments. We all presented our Digital Artifact 2, which was to be our own ideas on the use of technology in learning for a underserved population. As an extension of my work in Digital Artifact 1, I created a product to be used by homeless adults to improve their job skills and get a job.

My project has a few parts to it, because there is a lot more to the need then simply providing training, although that is where it starts. The participants would go through a short assessment of their current skill level so that the training that they receive is relevant to their needs, and then start in on a custom training plan to meet their needs. This could be done similarly to the Edison Learning example, with modular training pieces that can be mixed, matched, and rearranged depending on the assessment.

The training and assessment pieces have built in modules that lead to the 3^rd part of the program, building a resume. Those pieces actually gather the critical information for the resume and put it in there for the participant. However, at this stage, the participant can edit and add to their resume as much as they’d like. This gives them a head start on a vital document that they may not have felt comfortable making on their own.

Finally, and probably the lynchpin in the plan, is that the project would partner with local businesses looking to hire, find their desired skill sets, and match potential applicants. The participants would have received training in interviewing skill, and this is their chance to use them. There is even the possibility that local governments or organizations that have an interest in getting homeless people employed could subsidize the wages of the people at these companies, further incentivizing their employment.

I am currently looking at a program in the spring called Launchpad at the d.school. It’d be an opportunity to take these ideas and concepts into fruition as a real company. I plan to redesign the prototype with a better demonstration of the andragogic function pieces, and use the event on Dec 2^nd to network for possible funders.

This may very well turn into my master’s project, I feel it has a lot of potential for growth and success, so I will do everything that I can to make the demonstration on the 2^nd effective.

This week’s discussion of learning theories was informative and very helpful for this class and other courses with learning elements, as it allows me to conceptualize the ideas that influence learning and design.

With that in mind, we took a chance to evaluate some online learning tools on the six principles and see how they faired.

My group evaluated Elluminate, an online collaboration tool for leader-led learning. The tool allows a teacher or educator to lead virtual lectures and discussions, push files and websites out to students’ computers, and accommodates students working with one another during the class. The tool succeeded in 5 or the 6 principles, but the design was lacking a bit. Many of the unimportant elements were very prominent, and some of the more important pieces were small or hard to find. Overall, the tool seemed like a good compliment to an online curriculum or a classroom looking to add electronic elements.

The other products that were evaluated seemed to suffer more from fundamental problems. For example, the site for the video series to combat bullying seemed difficult to navigate, and poorly utilized. The company seemingly did not put much effort into establishing it as a major advertising resource for the project.

Life has been crazy, and I’m still not sure how I’m going to pull off my 2^nd digital artifact in a little over a week.