Summer Workshop Reflections Day 4

I know any reflection is much more accurate and effective when it is compiled immediately following the occasion upon which one is reflecting. This one will be done more from memory four days after the fact. These four days have not been with out fruit however, I have had several good ideas; I just need to remember them.

We condensed the schedule from day four and what would have been day five into a long morning.

We started with a quick exposure to Captivate, an Adobe product that creates Flash training modules using screen capture, notation, and audio. On of the real strengths, was the capability to branch to different slides based on user interaction. I had downloaded and done the demos and tutorials the night before, so I had already seen Sandie's presentation. I tried to find some training on UEN's site but did not. I guess this will be a situation of self learning. I did order the product from the bookstore.

Next, we did an activity where two teams of two were given a flag to recreate using crayons. One team had one person draw while the other referred to the image at will. The other team was given the image for a time and then it was withdrawn and the team had to recreate the image from memory. We discussed the benefits of each approach and realized there were strengths and weaknesses in each. Some observations were:
1) collaboration involves resources as well as people and individuals have strengths and weaknesses.
2) collaboration is more effective in some situations
3) feedback along the process was important

We then did two puzzles in teams of two. The "rules" were different for each team. One team could talk and work at the same time, the other could not talk and had to trade off every 30 seconds. The talking team was first to finish, while the other pronounced early that there were pieces missing (they were not). When the first team finished, Sandie left the room and then the rules were broken. The finished team went to help the non-talkers and recognized that some pieces were misplaced, giving the impression that pieces were missing. In the end the puzzle was finished and Sandie returned to discuss when we had decided to break the rules, this being the point of the exercise; that sometimes we accelerate the design process if we use untried practices.

Several notable quotes came up. Steve said, "It is better to shoot for the moon and only hit the mountain top than is is to shoot for the top of the manure pile and hit it." He shared one of his favorites, "Dream no small dreams as they have no magic to stir men's soul."

We then looked at some mash ups which are entertaining but hard for me to see any educational value in applied technology outside multimedia.

We then did a sorting activity to arrive at our "credo" in the form of a bumper sticker. Each of us produced three responses to, "Distance Education is ________." We then elected systematically which we liked the best as a group and created a virtual bumper sticker.

We then dismissed with pleasantries.