A Guide to Google Tools - Great Tips Provided by Ryan Dube

If you are a Google user, you will find some great tips in this article by Ryan Dube. He has listed so many tips and tricks to using all different Google Apps. I thought many of you would want to peruse through this list to see what you can find new to use. Did you know that you can Google a timer for a specific amount of time, or use the Google search for a calculator? Do students need to check current weather data for a class assignment? I think you will be impressed with all the info on this site!

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/guide-google-tools-tips-tricks-cant-live-without/

Reflections on Method of Loci and Project Implementation

Reflect on the Method of Loci in your blog. What worked? What didn't? How could you use such a cognitive activity, mental or visible to users, to improve the acquisition of knowledge in your designs?

Working through the Method of Loci in this week’s activities was a true adventure! I have been engaged in other memory skill activities, but this one was very unique! I imagined walking into my childhood home for this activity. I walked through that front door numerous times for 35 years, so this walk in my imagination was extremely vivid. From the mailbox hanging on the wall to my left to the light fixture hanging on the wall to my right, this exercise brought back many great memories of days gone by.

However, after working through the Method of Loci and then reflecting back on my experience, I was left with mixed emotions. First, the method did work in the sense of being able to imagine a familiar place and then revisit that place and still see very familiar objects. However, I found that my memory was only short term. I went through the exercise and found it very easy to imagine the front door of my childhood home. I was also able to attach the objectives to different objects as I entered the door. After going back through the door later in the day, I still was able to remember the objectives. Then, I did not revisit the exercise for several days. When I tried to go back, I had a difficult time remembering everything. It was frustrating to me because I could remember it just a few days before. This made me think that I would need to go back through the exercise more frequently to move those new memories into long term memory.

I do believe that the use of imagery can be vital in storing new ideas. I can see where a teacher learning a new classroom strategy could find an exercise similar to this very beneficial when preparing to implement the new teaching strategy. Once the teacher can imagine in their mind how the strategy would work in their classroom, including the arrangement of the classroom and students, the teacher could feel more comfortable when actually implementing the new strategy. Having teachers go through the Method of Loci exercise would give them another tool to help them be successful.

Reflect on the implementation and evaluation: What changes will you make before implementation? Why? What did you ignore in the client's feedback? Why? What did you ignore in your peer's feedback? Why?

Now that my design document has been completed and I have had both my client and a peer review my document, I feel very confident that the training should be successful for those that attend. There were not any major changes in the training itself that were made after the review. Most of the changes were just small tweaks of the design document. There were a couple of spelling issues that were corrected and then several ideas for the instructor to have a clearer understanding of how to implement the training.

First, my client felt that it would be best for the time allowed in the training for her to actually give simple demonstrations of how to use the web apps in the activities. This was a very good idea, considering that each activity will only be 25 minutes. I added this for the instructor. Next, my peer reviewer suggested that I include links to some video tutorials so that the instructor would not have to research these in preparation for the training. By adding these links, the instructor could then use these with the participants if desired. Additionally, the peer reviewer noted that there might need to be some specific instructions on how to use the Google Sheet Random Generator. This was another oversight on my part and I felt that adding these instructions could be very beneficial for the instructor. The only suggestion that I did not add use was a suggestion to use a different random generator to select the web app for each group. Although I did like the suggestion, I felt that due to the time constraints, it would be much quicker to have the person in the group with the nearest birthday coming up be the presenter for their group.

While this training is being implemented, I will be able to attend to observe how well it goes. I look forward to seeing how the teachers respond to a blended learning environment. Furthermore, I look forward to seeing how the implementation goes and what changes might need to be put in place prior to offering the training again this summer.