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E-Campus - is a replicated
campus template environment that provides core academic buildings laid out
in a traditional campus setting. This environment is specifically
designed to facilitate visual identity, social engagement, support and
administrative services, access to resources, and course delivery
tools/resources for hybrid or distance education programs. |
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Simulation Learning Environment
The
University of Houston Hilton: In this project we constructed a replica of
the Hilton Hotel located on the campus of the University of Houston. A
team taught course involving Human Resource Management, business writing and
communications, and technology utilized this environment to simulate real
world management scenarios and immerse students in a situational learning
environment to inspire core writing, management, and communications
objectives. Instructional design for this course was a collaborative
effort between myself and the team of teachers at the University. |
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Thematic Learning Environment - Big!Fun
Theme Park
University of Houston, Technical Communications Course
In the process of instructional design the idea was developed that students
would engage core competencies in technical communications;
inspired by immersing them in the design, planning, and the construction of a
virtual Theme Park. The students selected a NASCAR theme for the park.
Our team collaborated with the class by acting as architects and
the construction firm for the park. Students applied for jobs, were
assigned to administrative teams, created proposals, and communicated with us
to plan and develop the park. A wide variety of technical and management writing
samples were generated through this process. This course will expand
on early efforts as the project continues and has inspired other courses to
work with us to develop innovative learning approaches to better meet their
course objectives. |
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Thematic Learning and Design Environment
- Architecture
University of Houston, Art and Design Technology Course
I developed an instructional model used to facilitate a student
workshop exploring design in 3D multi-user space. This was a two week
intensive training course that I conducted online for a group of 25 students in Angi Patton's Art and Design Technology course. Students focused on
learning design skills using Active Worlds and various 3D model design
applications to work collaboratively on various architectural structures.
This course will extend this experience next fall by implementing the
instructional design model I created; collaboratively working with
architects and architecture historians to design and construct multi-user
environments based on the designs of Frank Lloyd Wright. |
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Intercultural
Education Alliance
> see website and description
below
|
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City Learning Centres (CLC) U.K. National Education Initiative
Our work with the CLCs is just getting into full swing. We are
currently working on the design of new curriculum modules that will be
integrated into efforts being made in the U.K. to facilitate high quality
uses of technology to enhance learning and instruction. Our work with
this educational organization will initiate powerful student and instructor
collaborations within the national CLC Network and will seek to develop
international education projects. The CLCs represent one of the most well
constructed plans I have seen for moving toward achieving value from the
large scale hardware and software investments made for schools in the past
decade. These centres are specifically tasked with supporting teachers
and developing innovative strategies for integrating technology to increase
student core competencies across the curriculum. |
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Space Exploration Learning Module -
(Math & Science Curriculum Standards)
The Space Exploration Learning Module is designed to enhance student
performance in Math and Sciences. Students work in teams to accomplish
learning tasks (missions) as they work in the an exact scaled replica of the
International Space Station. Students also engage in learning as
Mission Specialists when they transport down to their Lunar Base and
conduct experiments and perform tasks that would sustain and expand the base
and its scientific capacities. |
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Various Cross-Curricular Learning Module
Environments
I have worked to develop a variety of cross-curricular learning modules over
the past three years. These immersive learning environments help
transport students to places that offer learning opportunities far beyond
the capacities of other text or online learning resources. Some people
associate these environments with virtual fieldtrips they may have
encountered online ... they are far more engaging! The Active Worlds
environment provides an unmatched ability to place learners inside of
simulated environments and interact with others in those environments.
These environment breakdown barriers of time and space and immerse students
in rich resources for learning. The most powerful reality of this
"virtual" reality is that important social contexts for learning are
maintained.
Social communities are
the environments in which learning migrates toward understanding and where
meaning is affixed to the objectives curricula seek to pursue. It is
through this sharing that learning applies its greatest values and leaves
its greatest legacy. |
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Professional Development /
Instructional Design / Technology Integration |
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BHS
Technology Integration Center - this was a core resource that I
developed to help facilitate technology integration throughout the KND
School District. It was a support toolbox for teachers and also made
it possible for students to take an ownership role in helping teachers to
integrate technology into their learning environments. See the
Design Requests page which teachers used to 'employ' students in my
Multimedia Technologies and Web Design courses. These request forms
helped students create instructional
resources that teachers would then use to support learning in their classrooms.
Students also could be employed to deliver job-embedded, basic technology training to
teachers to help enhance their educational technology competencies.
This work won recognition from the State and various educational technology
organizations. Several job-embedded, professional development programs were
facilitated around this resource and provided ongoing support for
instructors to extend those professional development activities. These
programs were also key elements in grant funding we were awarded during my
time at KND. |
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UNITE resources
were identified, reviewed, and maintained by select students in my classes.
These students were recognized and honored by the State Legislature and the
Governor of Michigan, as well as by MACUL (Michigan's leading ed-tech
organization). |
UNITE -
was an early effort I began as part of my Masters program. I was
interested in finding the reasons why so many educators failed to integrate
effective technology tools into their learning environments. My
research identified the reason most cited by teachers was the lack of time
to design new tools and resources into their curriculum delivery plans. This is
still the most cited reason even today. This led me to
think of solutions that would allow teachers to collaborate to develop
instructional resources in a manner that would free up more of their time <
more time to do what?> The concept was to form regional teams of teachers that
taught the same subject, divide the core competencies of their subject area
up between the group, and provide technologies and planning time to share
ideas and resources. Each person or a pair would design one unit plan
that included high quality online resources; bolstering student access
and contact with resources that allowed greater capacity to engage
multiple intelligences. They would share these unit plans and
resource, in the process creating communities of practice that facilitated
greater flow of knowledge capital between professionals. These
communities could also provide significant support and archived
instructional resources for new teachers, as well as a diverse mentoring
environment for enhancing teacher retention. Once these communities
were established they could easily integrate additional input and
support from experts, professionals in fields associated with specific
subject areas, and universities departments and teacher training programs.
The development of these instructional design communities facilitated
through various technologies is still a central component to the work I am
doing currently. |
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The Intercultural
Education Alliance (IEA) - is an effort that I started last fall to
unite the energies of university instructional staff and
researchers to utilize collaborative technologies; promoting intercultural
research and instruction pedagogy initiatives to flourish within a community of
practice. The general objectives of the IEA are similar to the
efforts made with UNITE. This effort was an attempt to tie together my more recent work with a
network of university projects in various countries that have been pursuing
similar research and instructional design initiatives. The first IEA
summit was very successful. 104 university and educational agency
members from 22 different countries simultaneously attended the online
summit. Renown Science Historian/Author/TV Host & Producer, James
Burke, presented the Keynote Address. At the same time, I was in
Austin, TX directing the summit during a presentation at the Society for
Intercultural Education Training and Research (SIETAR) national conference.
Some groups represented at the summit included UNESCO, Harvard Graduate
School of Education, Cornell University, The World Trust Foundation, Los
Alamos National Laboratory, the British Columbia Ministry of Education,
the Museum of Cultural History (Sweden), University of Naples (Italy).
Several exciting projects have been sparked from the connections established
at the summit. |
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Virtual Learning - Virtual Course Workshop - this web page is a
sample instructional resource for a course workshop that was developed for
the University of Houston's Art/Design program. The last two session's
materials have been removed due to non-disclosure or intellectual property
rights stipulations. Students in the course learned to
construct 3D architectural models collaboratively in Active Worlds.
in the coming fall this course will initiate a virtual collaboration with experts and
historians from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and Frank Lloyd Wright
Preservation Trust. Together they will work to create
online replicas of famous Wright buildings. These environments will
allow online visitors and educational groups to walk through and study
aspects of this famous architect's work. |
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Unite
Center - This site was the key resource and information portal for
several early projects that I developed with various instructors while at
Brethren High School. All of these early projects were
cross-curricular and intercultural collaborations. Early projects were
student centered learning initiatives. The Unite Center also
facilitated several student directed projects through a student leadership
organization, the Student Projects Council (SPC). This group of
leaders reviewed proposals
submitted from other students and managed select
projects. |
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Teaching Website
- This is my teaching portal that I developed to help teach History,
Government, and ITC in my last year at Brethren High School. My first
two years at Brethren I taught only sections of ICT, but requested that I
have the opportunity to teach core subject area courses that would allow me
to model technology integration pedagogies and strategies. I taught
the classes without a textbook and with a primary focus on collaborative,
project based (social-constructivist) learning models and Dewey's
Inquiry model. During the second semester my Government class paired
with our Art and Educational Service Learning class to participate in an intercultural learning project with schools in Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and in Italy. Students used art to
help facilitate understanding and reflection on core values of their own
culture and to better understand the cultures of the other countries. Our students created artistic
presentations and displays to explain the Core Democratic Values and the
Articles of the Constitution. |
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Teachers of the 21st Century: "Engaging Students in the Information Age"
- This site was developed during my Masters program and was the initial
research and reflection that I conducted regarding multi-user virtual
environments (MUVEs) and their potential impacts on learning. It was a
foundation for much action research that I engaged in my classes. A
central focus of my Masters degree in Educational Technology and
Instructional Design was targeted on Teachers as Researchers and
advocated action research as a practice to accompany instruction. It
is one of the most valuable process skills I've learn in my formal
education. |
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Teacher Port -
Educational (Groupware Application) - For a good part of 2001-2002 I
worked to develop the structure of a collaborative groupware application
that would facilitate subject area communities of practice. This tool
was to be the foundation for efforts to fund projects that would unite subject area instructors; allow them
to collaboratively structure curriculum plans that integrated high quality online
resources and technology tools. I spent a great deal of time surveying
teachers about the types of tools that they would find useful to organize
and collaboratively design curriculum resources. I never found a
company that would fund the development of this application, but my survey
data was provided to Harvard University and several features were considered
in the design of a application developed by instructors at the Harvard Graduate School of
Education called the Collaborative Curriculum Design Tool. |
