Planning

I chose 'Building Lesson Plans' because the website includes quick-access tools for the creation of lesson plans, several of which are interactive. The page also includes a suggestion of apps to assist with lesson plan development. Primarily I chose this website because it is a valuable resource for teaching in general, with sections for everything from Bloom's Taxonomy to 'How to Flip your Classroom' (which I am excited to learn more about).

I plan on using this site as a general go-to resource for everything from A to Z, focusing primarily on the templates for my lesson plans.

Media

I chose 'How to Integrate Multimedia in the Classroom' because, as opposed to an overview contained within a single article, the site includes the entire process from start to finish for how to implement multimedia and include it as a part of evaluation and assessment. The website even includes a lesson plan template.

I plan on using this site as a guideline for choosing, integrating and evaluating the effectiveness of multimedia components in my future lesson plans.

Assessment

I chose 'A Guide to Developing and Assessing Learning Outcomes' because, as the title suggests, the article is a complete start-to-finish look at preparing learning outcomes. Also included are subsections referring to things like 'Continuous Improvement', which happens to be one of the Six Big Ideals of the company I work for, and certainly should be a part of all curriculum I build.

I plan on using the guide as a framework when I create my learning outcomes, following the process from start to finish to ensure effective learning outcomes are built.

Motivational Techniques

I chose 'Tips to Motivate Adult Learners' because the article is structured as a set of quick-reference ideas that can be used on the fly to create lesson content. There are also links to other pages and more comprehensive articles for when a deeper look at creating motivating content within the lesson is required.

I plan on using these tips as a set of reminders, a sort of 'prep-piece' to get into the right headspace for teaching.

Characteristics of Adult Learners

My subsequent assignment was to choose five online resources to include in future lesson planning.
I chose 'An overview of Adult Learning Processes' because it provides a high-level look
at adult learning styles, including a section on the principles of adult
learning, as well as possible setbacks to the different styles.

This resource will improve my instruction by serving as a reference guide for catering to each of the three primary learning styles within a classroom environment (auditory, visual,
kinesthetic) in order to build well-rounded lessons.

Generation Zed (Zee?)

While this isn't directly related to an assignment, I came across this blog post in the midst of my research and thought it was pretty interesting (and relevant -- whether or not you are an educator, preparing for the attitudes and culture of a generation about to enter the workforce is a big deal, and pertinent to most of us).

Read on!

Reflection #3: Web-Conference

My web-conferences with Ken were an excellent experience, first and foremost cementing for me the notion that other learners (and others interested in Adult Education) are a lot like me.

I was delightedly surprised to find that Ken and I had both chosen the same "top pick" for our research: game-based learning. Despite the difference in our vocation, Ken being from a more formal learning setting and me being from a corporate background, we found not only similar interests but also instant rapport.

What I found even more interesting, is that despite researching the same topic, we followed very different paths of research on the internet, coming up with, between the two of us, a wide variety of articles and websites. In fact, the only identical website was one we used through the link provided for the topic, the Mindshift website.

Our subsequent web-conference after researching our articles and websites was very informative. Ken was a font of information on the role of the teacher in game-based learning projects, citing an article from a study in Sweden. This article, similar in some aspects to the one I discovered about a study done in Hong Kong, identified many struggles faced by teachers when attempting to integrate video games in a classroom setting.

During our web-conference, Ken identified one of the primary struggles teachers face when using video games in the classroom, which is that they are not always comfortable or familiar with video games, and thus are not able to easily facilitate or provide a decent level of expertise for their students. Also identified are the differences between different students in levels of comfort with video games.

The main thing I learned from my web-conference with Ken was the impact of game-based learning on the classroom setting, given his level of familiarity of formal education (as an educator) versus my own. As a developer of content and occasional facilitator in the classroom, when compared to Ken's experience, I do not always think about classroom obstacles first. One potential strength Ken identified, however, is my level of comfort with video games (known as 'gaming literacy'). Compared to the subjects of the study, I would rate my gaming literacy as 'quite high', which, if the trends continue, could be a valuable asset if game-based learning is further integrated into formal education settings.