Week 3 - EDT5410

Fortunately, this isn't my first experience with blogging. I have a blog that I post to via Wordpress and used to manage a Foodie blog with some friends of mine years ago. Blogging feels incredibly natural to me as an e-version of journaling. I have a stack of journals that I've written in over the years. It seems as though when I was a little girl I started with a cute diary and kept the writing vibe going into adulthood.

When I was exploring the different online engagement resources I realized that I have so much to learn when it comes to technology. I spent an hour trying to get Pear Deck to work with Google Slides and then within PowerPoint and still couldn't figure it out; which seems silly because it is so easy. Ultimately, I found content on Edpuzzle to be the easiest to navigate. I really liked how the video could be stopped to interject with questions and notes to students. This particular video is on Effective Listening. I work in Human Resources and often host and present micro training sessions and this is something that I would certainly utilize as part of a larger presentation on Communication.

For each tool, I think the following seems to make the most sense as far as Dale's Cone:

• I think blogs are dramatized experiences because it isn't a direct purposeful experience of learning, rather reading for entertainment, learning, etc. from someone else's point of view.
• I think the assessment tool that I used (Kahoot!) was an interactive gaming experience to learning and being quizzed that would seem to be a direct purposeful experience.
• Engagement tools like what I used via Edpuzzle is like Educational TV. However, more interactive than sitting and watching a PBS special for example.

While reading Siegel's article, I was trying to better understand what the strengths are for each of the tools we've been talking about. A blog seems to be a strong tool for evaluating someone's writing skills, creativity, and/or knowledge. I can see how utilizing a blog in the learning setting would be similar to turning in notebooks or journals in an English class or Creative Writing class. However, I'm not sure I know enough about blogs to see a strong connection to computer imagination. On the other hand, the assessment and engagement tools are pretty imaginative. I watched a few videos on EdPuzzle and it felt similar to the way Siegel was describing the experience of watching a movie at the theater. Everything else kind of disappears and you're immersed in the movie. While watching the video, there are interactive questions or notes and because I'm engaging in the content, I'm learning, but it doesn't actually feel like another boring computer-based training module. I feel as though I retain more when I am interacting with the content.