There were three key benefits I found using these types of projects in the classroom. Inquiry based learning allows students to choose their own path to learning which fosters engagement. These types of projects also allow students to use technology responsibly and while under supervision, especially for younger students. And finally, it allows the student to think creatively. This kind of thinking will serve the students well in the future to be able to problem solve and think outside the box. It is a tough skill to learn but I think this would help in that area.

Allowing time in our curriculum for students to explore topics on their own, in the case of our field, is not something we have traditionally done. Also, the courses and topics taught are all pre-approved with the union representative so straying from that would be quite difficult. Tackling these two issues would take at least a year to implement. However, because we are implementing our new LMS in 6 weeks, it would be nice if we could work with the union to create a pre-training project that the apprentices could work on prior to coming to the Training Center or a post-training assessment that they do once they complete a level in the apprentice program.

The Pros and Cons of Twitter:

Pros:

• Less than a minute to send
• Concise information is posted since you have limited characters
• You can use lists to group users and create a sort of mini news-feed for those users
• Hashtags can draw awareness
• Quickly gather feedback

Cons:

• Easy to get too many accounts to follow which leads to an enormous amount of unorganized information
• Can’t believe everything tweeted
• Limited number of characters
• A lot of ads unless you pay to have them removed
• Inefficient messaging system…only message one user at a time.

Ideal for microlearning

Twitter can be an extremely useful tool for growing your professional network and collaborating with other teachers/trainers. Being able to find and share information and resources in an easy manner makes it ideal for teachers to use it for growth for themselves as well as their students. It can open a teacher up to new ideas and content that was previously unknown. I had a twitter account years ago for another class and thought I had cancelled it….until I tried to sign up this week and found out it still existed! It has changed and come so far since then! Just by following a few people/groups, you can receive quite a bit of information in such a short time. There are links to blogs, articles, research, other pages, etc. Not only does it help to provide content for use in teaching, it gives teachers a support system with millions of other teachers (and their ideas) at their fingertips.

I had the pleasure of Skyping with my classmate, Marie, yesterday. What I loved about being face-to-face with my peer was that we can see each other and converse freely. It was nice to put a “real” face with the person I had been communicating with via the computer over the past six weeks. Conversation flowed quickly as opposed to the typical email or discussion forum where you had to wait for the other person to be online again before receiving a response. It also allowed for a more free-flowing type of conversation where we chatted about various different topics with ease. In email or discussion forums, participants tend to stay on the specified topic in that email stream. If someone jumps topics, it is harder to follow the stream of thought as opposed to Skyping which allowed for easy transitions and clear understanding. Hearing the tone of the other person’s voice is also much easier that trying to get it from writing.

The main drawback to Skyping as I see it is that not all people have the app on their phone or computer. It seems outdated since it is so easy to use Facetime now. I do, however, believe that it is a wonderful way to connect to colleagues from around the country and world! We can communicate via blogs or other online means, but it is just not the same as seeing each other and speaking directly to one another! I can see my company using a video chat tool to communicate, especially with the field, so that when they run in to an issue with equipment, they can actually point the camera at the equipment and a specialist can walk them through exactly what they need to do. That will be invaluable and save the company a lot of time and money!

How does the idea of everyone sharing knowledge in a collaborative environment affect the model of teaching and learning?

Two people who read the same content will often grasp different ideas from that reading. Two people who go through the same experience can have two very different perceptions of that experience. But when those two people share their thoughts and ideas, that collaboration promotes deeper thinking. Collaborative education does just that. It gives students who are grouped together the chance to learn how to work together. They learn how to compromise and problem solve since they are in a group. In a world where technology is changing our lives so quickly, future workers need to be agile and creative and innovative. Learning how to collaborate during the younger years in school will help to prepare students for future jobs they may have.

For teachers, it opens up a whole new way to assess student learning. They are no longer just getting “answers” to questions, but through the deeper conversations, they can see how students are coming to those conclusions. It also gives teachers a powerful way to teach social development which is something that has recently been virtually ignored. Perhaps the greatest effect of a collaborative environment is that it allows the students to gain control of their learning and have a greater sense of community within a classroom. This leads to greater self-confidence in students which greatly affects a child’s ability to learn and thrive at school.

Subject: Subscribing to webpages and creating shortcuts on our intranet

Lesson Title: Shortcuts in our Cloud

Intro: Show Netvibes and how you can gather all the sites you regularly visit in to one place.

What sites do you regularly need to access on our intranet? As a group, brainstorm the various sites that the employees use on a daily/weekly basis. Which of these sites would you like to receive notifications when updates are made to the page?

Review the sites and make a list of the ones that we are able to make “favorites,” subscribe, and/or add the url to our shortcut page.

Activity: Each student logs in and sets favorites and webpage urls they want in their personal space.

No Assessment

Explanation: Netvibes is the only social bookmarking tool referenced in the readings that I can access at work. As we begin to introduce our new cloud site this year, I thought it would be beneficial to show the trainees how to subscribe to webpage updates and to create their list of favorites. Unlike typical “favorites,” these are our intranet shortcuts that can all appear on one page, similar to what we did in Symbaloo. They do not have the ability to customize as you can in Symbaloo (changing background, colors, groupings) but you can select sites from previously built various company areas that then show in that group. I think that it will also help many of them with their home computers as well!

I think the use of RSS will create a positive impact in my work life. Currently, I receive dozens of emails a day from various societies, learning organizations, software companies, etc. I set up a rule in Office to stick them all in a folder so I do not have to see them! I rarely get the chance to back and go through all those emails. However, there are tons of great ideas for instructional design and teaching techniques in there that I am missing! By using RSS feeds, I will have one place where I will be able to easily find new ideas and resources to research.

Beyond my instructor and classmate’s blogs, I chose to subscribe to several instructional design sites and specific subject searches including: Training Magazine, eLearning Infographics, Educational Technology and Mobile Learning, IDDblog: Instructional Design Tips, Advice & Trends for Online and Distance Learning, One Stop Resource for Instructional Designing and The Articulate Trainer. Some of these are sites I go to now for inspiration while others I found while doing research this week. Some are regarding tips on specific software we use now and others are about trending ideas. Having all of these on The Old Reader will enable me to more quickly find content and ideas when starting projects. It will also allow me to stay more abreast to new technologies without having to periodically do searches. The content will come to me! What a gamechanger! 

After reading about all of the benefits that OneNote has to offer and completing some of the training videos, I started to practice using OneNote to begin to get a feel as to how we could create our document. While OneNote is fairly intuitive to use, there are so many different features to consider that I became somewhat overwhelmed. While researching how other companies set up their documents, I came across an article by Rahul Saigal, “How to Use OneNote Templates: Everything You Need to Know,”  which is specific to the various templates that you can use to simplify the initial setup. As I was scrolling through the possible template choices, it occurred to many how far-reaching the application of this tool will be. I started this project trying to find a solution specific to my storm role, but viewing the templates reemphasized that the company could use this tool for many other applications as we continue to move toward a cloud based organization. Not only are there built-in templates that we can start with, you can save templates once modified to better meet your needs. There is also a link in the article to the best sites that have templates you can download. (Saigal, 2019) Since we will want to incorporate a variety of different types of information such as photos, spreadsheets, lists, etc., using a proven template that contains these items seems to be the best way to get started. We can then make the adjustments we need and then save it as our own custom template. I will also be able to assist other department members who have different storm roles create a template that will fulfill their needs.

Saigal, R. (2019, May 8). How to Use OneNote Templates: Everything You Need to Know. Retrieved January 23, 2020, from https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/use-onenote-templates-organized/

Saigal, R. (2018, December 7). The 6 Best Sites to Download Microsoft OneNote Templates. Retrieved from https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-sites-download-microsoft-onenote-templates/

I found two YouTube videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E3eC2HfQJ0, Microsoft OneNote Tutorial by David A. Cox, and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKBuyoUgl04,  by Brian Moring), that did a great job at training OneNote. Both had simple, clear explanations on how to get started using OneNote but then they differed in the advanced features that are available on OneNote. While the first video showed how to link web pages and insert other Word or Excel files, the second one included how to integrate with Office Suite, access from any device, share and collaborate. Two different in-depth trainings, but each showcasing the various tools that can be used within OneNote. The trainings are step-by-step and easy to follow as the presenter showcases the features included in OneNote. The features explained in these videos will all create a much better platform for collaboration within my team where we can share real-time as we are working in separate locations simultaneously. It is a way for us to be able to update our spreadsheets in the Notebook so the on-call Onboarding Lead can provide instant and accurate feedback to the Storm Room as the crews are arriving and training is occurring. Either or both of these sites will be great pre-training videos for the Onboarding Leads to view prior to us meeting to really plan what we will want our final document to look like and what should be included in it.

Cox, D. A. (2017, October 6). Microsoft OneNote Tutorial. Retrieved January 21, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E3eC2HfQJ0

Moring, B. (2018, January 14). Get Super Organized with Microsoft OneNote. Retrieved January 20, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKBuyoUgl04

As I began my research to use OneNote specifically for Onboarding Leads during storm duty, I was trying to find an article that highlighted the benefits of this tool, but also offered a more in-depth understanding of how the software can transform the way typical business projects are currently done. OneNote for Business Use: Stay Organized & Productive in the Workplace from the Ontech Systems, Inc. website as referenced below, informs the readers that OneNote is not simply a note taking tool; it is a place to collaborate, to organize, and to project manage. A key benefit of the tool is that communication is instant. As the notebook is updated, it can be viewed by all participants. It does away with bottlenecks and people waiting for others to return information because they can see all the information as it is collected. You can even give OneNote access to your phone and camera!

All of this will be huge as we are onboarding across our territory during storms. All the Onboarding Leads will be able to view the expected ETAs and employee lists prior to arrival and to update the spreadsheet of the foreign crews that have been trained. Onboarders can take a photo of the sign in sheets and upload it to the notebook so it can be documented. For the Onboarder who oversees organizing the storm, this will make the task of compiling the information a much shorter and efficient process. We will also be able to store all the storms for a year in one document and perhaps we will even decide to create a new page for each year with each storm having its own page. This article presented so many possibilities to me that I am not sure I can evaluate them all in the course of this project. I am going to try to create my Notebook with what appears to make sense to me with what I know right now but I expect it to be fluid and to grow and morph as I continue to learn.

OneNote for Business Use: Stay Organized & Productive in the Workplace. (n.d.). Retrieved January 19, 2020, from https://ontech.com/onenote-business-use/