Desinging To Learn

Last week I presented my first webinar for INTE 5670 Plan and Facilitate Live Events . Overall I think it went well and I would like to share some things that I learned from the experience. Admittedly, I sort of took the idea of the “webinar course” for granted because I often have conferences with clients and co-workers. I typically run these meetings on GoTo Meeting and mostly screen share and run through documents and images or 3D files. However those experiences seemingly helped very little in comparison to running a well designed webinar with ample Absorb-Do-Connect activities . Overall, as a presenter the space feels “cold” to me. Where as in face to face or more informal web conferences there is more dialogue style of engagement that creates opportunity for more informalities that I gravitate towards. Popular webinar types of interaction such as polls, group chat, and whiteboard are silent dialogues. So as a presenter, it feels more like I’m lecturing the whole time and ca...

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/2187718-181/some-fishermen-complain-that-carp CARP, not referring to a fish, but rather it’s an acronym for Contrast, Alignment, Repetition, Proximity. Sometimes referred as CRAP! Or so I have found by doing a brief search for CARP on Google. There are already so many great resources out there describing CARP, however I first learned about it in Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds  (2008). Check out the .pdf describing CARP from pages in “Presentation Zen.” Somehow I managed 5 years of design school in the early 2000’s without hearing about this acronym. It’s likely the acronym did not reach the height of popularity until after I graduated. Nevertheless, I entered design school for ILT grad studies in the twenty-teens and picked up where I left off in Joni Dunlap’s “ Creative Designs” course . These CARP principles were already burned into my brain but one has always stuck out for m...

Why You Should Quit Social Media A new year, and another semester at University of Colorado Denver. I can’t believe it’s been almost exactly two years since my last blog post! I started blogging more heavily when I enrolled in UCD back in 2015 in the master’s program for Instructional Design, Information and Learning Technologies. There’s been moments where I’ve seemingly been wrapped up in social networks in conjunction with the assignments. However during the last year to two years I’ve focused on instructional production outside of blogging and social learning networks. During that time I’ve definitely learned the value of being able to step away from media. The greatest take-away: I have the right to enjoy life and choose to what I do with my time. I much prefer a good hike or social gathering in physical space over virtual.  Media doesn’t own me. I don’t have to respond to tweets, blog posts, Facebook or other social networks, even emails if I chose not to. For a...

SAMR: REDEFINITION. Image courtesy of Christina Moore 2017. In recent years virtual reality (VR) technologies have gained popularity for enhancement of a myriad of industries and experiences. It’s hard to dispute VR has the potential to transform. It’s exciting to consider exploring these technologies for the purpose of education, but before putting VR into practice in the classroom, it’s important to apply the study of theory to VR potential. The SAMR model (substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition) is a great way to apply rather basic theory to VR tech. Although it’s possible VR practitioners and learners can traverse SAMR, based on how VR is used, “redefinition” may be the most impactful way to demonstrate use of these technologies for learning. Redefinition, in regards to SAMR, refers to the ability for technology to “create tasks and ways of learning that were previously inconceivable.” (Technology Is Learning 2014) From the perspective of a CAD and Int...

The new assignment in INTE 6710 "Creative Designs," is Pecha Kucha. I never heard of it until I took this course. It's essentially 20 slides and 20 seconds of speaking per slide. No fancy animations, moving text, or retro transitions. I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to pull this off without being boring in the process, thus, boring the audience. However I know images and inspiration is a good place to start. It would be nice if I had the time to create 20 beautiful slides, be that photography or graphic design, it's not realistic. In the typical work place there would be creative design and writing departments who could pour hours into this sort of content. Fortunately at this time in digital history there are massive libraries of photos and graphics that are available for use given the correct attribution and license such as creative commons. I don't often look for content like this and I do prefer to make my own images but thanks to some resou...

A photo exercise in telling a story with only 5 photos. What's the story? (c) Kirk Lunsford 2016