Fundamentals of IMD

1. Weblog: Post the results of your VARK questionaire so the we all learn more about how we each learn best.

2. Weblog: Post a response to the O’Reilly Web 2.0 Article. Describe what you read that was interesting and that you want to learn more about. Were there any surprises that you did not know about? How do you feel about these types of changes and how they will affect your role as an interactive designer?

These posts must be completed by Sunday Noon, so that everyone has time to read and comment on at least two others responses.

3. Read at least two classmate’s weblog responses to the Web 2.0 article, and post a comment about what they said. Did they add to your understanding of the article? Did you see something in their response that you didn’t see or understand in the same way? Assume you are communicating with each other, and you may want to post comments back and forth.

I often request that students share their experiences that led them to study Interactive Media, and I thought answering that question would be helpful even from a teacher. So this is my take on the industry and how I got into it.

I have always thrived on change and moving on to whatever is leading edge or the next big thing. Some people in my life have criticized this as instability or simply not wanting to stick with something. I have never accepted that view for myself, as wanting to participate in leading edge activities is just part of who I am. Doing the same thing over an over is boring to me. Even teaching a class the same as I did last quarter is boring, and I think I am not doing my job as our industry changes enough that even every eleven weeks there is something new that can affect a course.

I was working as a manager of a design department for a trade show company when I first began creating web pages for commercial use. I created a site for our company that served as an “index” for the trade show industry. This meant listing and connecting all types of services and companies related to the industry and giving others a means of accessing these businesses. I received email and analized our weblogs of activity and was amazed at users coming to our site from all over the world. Email alone was a busy chore as people contributed information to add to our index. Our site design was on the cover of two industry trade magazines. All of this type of activity was like a magnet that attracted me. The excitement of communicating with people around the globe and doing new things, exploring a new type of media that was changing constantly soon became more interesting that what I had been doing, so I evolved into a webmaster/designer for our company, offering design services for our client companies. After a spell doing this for the trade show company, I went out on my own as a designer/developer. During this time I was approached by The Art Institute and asked to design and put together a web design program. I developed the first courses and became an adjunct instructor, then a full time instructor. And so the story goes.

Interactive media changes for good reasons. The move from HTML to XHTML was significant in that  HTML limited the types of data that could be ported to the web. XHTML, an application of Extensible Markup Language (XML), allows the tags to be generated by the designer/developer which means that any type of data can be addressed. The development of CSS allowed design to take over presentation on the web and make our documents far more efficient and easier for users to read and understand. Web 2.0 represents the most recent transition toward a more user oriented and directed web that established social software and social networking as a major activity for users. Never before did users participate in communities of learning that they actually brought back into their daily lives. The web went from a push information to users media to a pull information that we want specifically, so that we can integrate it into our lives.

I look forward to any new phase or activity on the web that improves it global affect on humanity. We have so much potential to reshape the world now, and to solve problems like poverty and war, if we access the global scope of people coming together for the good of humanity. These kind of powerful concepts and activities keep me excited about integrating web design with everyday life.

Patrick Brewer        http://www.dragonpjb.net                                Web Host
http://www.dragonpjb.net/wordpress         WordPress site
dragonpjb                                                            del.ici.ous username
email
Angela Edwards        http://www.ellashere.com                                Web Host
http://www.ellashere.com/wp-blog                Wordpress
ella07                                                                    del.icio.us username
ellafireavatar@yahoo.com                                email
Daniel Livingston      http://drlivingstonsafari.com                         Web Host
http://drlivingston2.uniblogs.org                  Wordpress
Piptrader9                                                          del.ici.ous username
drlivingston3@tx.rr.com                                  email
Eric Lutts                    http://www.maniamedia.net                            Web Host
http://www.maniamedia.net/wordpress       Wordpress
el0611                                                                   del.icio.us username
elo611@stu.aii.edu                                             email
Michael Neill               http://www.mkndesigns.com                          Web Host
http://www.mkndesigns.com/wordpress    Wordpress
huffa5                                                                   del.icio.us username

I am not sure the objectives of this course are happening, and yet there are signs that you are beginning to understand. But the communication between each of you has not been happening. Some have simply not posted exercises, some are too brief to deliver meaning. Rather than push the issue of homework, I wanted to discuss why the objectives of this course are important, and seek your thoughts about whether or not you agree.

Several factors about the way the world works today, are influencing our culture and in particular your generation of learners. Gonzalez (2004) describes the half-life of knowledge as that span of time when knowledge is gained to when it becomes obsolete. Only half of what is known today was known 10 years ago. The actual amount of knowledge in the world has doubled in the past 10 years. Now (2004) it is doubling every 18 months! (American Society of Training and Documentation).

There is simply too much information for any one person to “contain”, if in fact that is even a valid goal. These trends in learning defined by George Siemens in his “Connectivism” paper, provide additional factors:

1. Many learners will move into a variety of different, possibly unrelated fields over the course of their lifetime.
2. Informal learning is a significant aspect of our learning experience. Formal education no longer comprises the majority of our learning. Learning now occurs in a variety of ways – through communities of practice, personal networks, and through completion of work-related tasks.
3. Learning is a continual process, lasting for a lifetime. Learning and work related activities are no longer separate. In many situations, they are the same.
4. Technology is altering (rewiring) our brains. The tools we use define and shape our thinking.
5. Many of the processes previously handled by learning theories can now be off-loaded to, or supported by, technology.
6. Know-how and know-what is being supplemented with know-where (the understanding of where to find knowledge needed. (Siemens, 2004)

A simple example of know-where vs know-how or know-what:
A student wants to change an area of content in an HTML document and temporarily change it to an image. She knows that it can be done with CSS but does not remember how to do it. She activates her browser and types “image swap” + css in the Google window. Immediately there are numerous references that provide solutions to the problem and she selects the one that is most familiar and reads how to perform the needed process.

Is it important that the student did not know how to perform the function she needed? Does it matter whether it was “in her head” (memory)? Of course not. The issue was swapping content for an image and within a few minutes the process was completed, by knowing where to locate the necessary procedure.

This is the reason for the objective, “learning how to learn”, and this is the objective to experience the various tools that will be used during the Interactive Media Design program that allow you to communicate, collaborate, research and distribute information.

We need to comment on each others work – the uniblogs, the new Wordpress blogs, by sharing your aggregated favorites, and working with social bookmarking software to share in a broader world of users and learners. And it is important to you that it comes because you want to communicate your ideas, and develop a community that will support your studies as you progress through the IMD program, and life.

Does any of this ring true to your experience? Is the digital age just for certain people? Are we ready to participate because we want to? Your responses would be helpful!

So you don’t consider yourself a writer. Maybe you don’t even care about having a weblog. Myspace or one of the easy to use social software apps is fine for me you say?
Weblogs are a little different, or can be, depending on what a person wants to do. As Stephen Downes suggests in his “How to be heard” article, it is possible to start a blog without a plan, as you did in this class, but your chance of success is much lower than if you plan it.
Weblogs are a product that you need to experience as a web designer. You need to know the technology so that you can design them and add them to future client projects. It is one thing to read others blogs, and quite yet another experience to actually have your own blog, and a purpose.
One purpose I would suggest, is that it gives you a direct experience of having a live web site on the internet. How do you design something you have never used as a participant? It is possible, but not a good idea. Another important reason for planning a blog is that it is a unique opportunity for you to experience learning by having people comment on what you have to say. You participate in reading others blogs and exchange feedback. All this can occur through “comments” in a weblog. There is also a system of “trackback” that allows you to discover who is commenting on your site and who refers others to your site.
So think about what you want to write a blog about. Spend some time on it, using Downes suggestions for noting your interests. Make a plan. Find some important blogs in your area of interest and begin reading anything that is interesting (from you aggregator subscriptions of these sites). Maybe you respond to what someone else has said. Maybe you create some original ideas and see what others think. Whatever your purpose, put it together with a plan, a stategy that will help you become at least a weekly contributor to your blog. Use this opportunity, you will learn something about yourself, about weblogs, and whatever else you are targeting!
Happy blogging!

This weblog will serve to provide class news, changes, and review of assigments. Please log in and sign up as a user and check it at least weekly. Your comments are always welcome.

As we explore the various issues and experiences of interactive media you will be learning to use a variety of social software applications for communication with class members as well as collaborative efforts with others in the IMD program. You are encouraged to ask questions and contribute suggestions to make your learning experience as personalized and useful to you as possible. The more you explore and seek answers to your questions, the more you will learn and experience in the process. You are not alone in the learning process. Other class members and other IMD students along with the entire IMD faculty are here to work together to make your experiences as successful as possible. I hope you enjoy the experiences you are beginning!