Educational Technologies

I began work on this LDT degree in the Spring semester of 2018. I was a novice with technology, and I remember being horrified by how awkward Zoom seemed to be. (That’s pretty funny in retrospect.) I had never tried the technologies I’ve chosen to display on this page before, and I remember being afraid of them. I was initially surprised and alarmed that what was then called the Instructional Learning Technologies program didn’t include much specific instructor-led training on how to use specific software programs and apps that I ended up teaching myself with YouTube videos and For Dummies books. But as the semesters passed, I became more and more confident of my ability to learn anything. These samples are presented in chronological order so you can also appreciate my growth. And for the record? I see my current certainty that I can figure it out — whatever it is — to be the greatest benefit I’ve gotten from this Masters program.

Screenflow (spring 2018 - INTE 5680)

I learned early in the semester that my instructor was living in my old hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. The assignment was to produce a short screenshare video that included five specific types of things (an oddity, a passion, etc.). I knew immediately that I would produce a love letter to Cleveland. It was my first semester, so notice my freewheeling attitude toward using popular music. I just watched it again now and I’m happy to report that it still makes me cry. I’m still very proud of it.

voicethread (summer 2018 - INTE 5340)

I had intended to produce the whole year’s worth of African American deaths at the hands of police, but just the first quarter of 2015 filled the assignment’s time recommendations. I was inspired to do this because Colin Kaepernick had started kneeling during the National Anthem in August of 2016. Some of my fellow footballl fan friends were furious about that, and I was inspired to help make his case. The background music was recorded on my iPhone at a Seattle Mariners game that I attended with my baseball fan son in 2013. (My son was thrilled, but I was there just to hear Mike McCready, Pearl Jam guitarist.) Still not doing a great job with proprietary music in the summer of 2018, apparently.

soundcloud (fall 2018 - INTE 6750)

This was my first in-depth attempt at a philosophical treatise using audio only. Just one more semester later and I’ve gotten better (but not perfect) at using commercially available music. The guitar solo at the beginning and end of this recording is from a song recorded by my friends Ten Cent Redemption. The guitarist is an especially close friend, and I remember asking him if it was OK if I used this selection and he said yes. The song is called “Set Closer,” from the album Worst Plan Ever. (It’s available on iTunes.) I had forgotten about this recording I made, now two years ago. The funny thing is I just attempted something similar in presentation format for INTE 5711. This recording ends up being much closer to the spirit I was aiming for than that newer project.

Easel.ly (spring 2019 - inte 6720)

This image, created from a template at the Easel.ly site, was my first foray into creating infographics. I switched out all of the icons and moved things around so that all my information would fit. But yes, I started with a template. My dad was a professional artist and cartoonist, and I’ve never given myself much of an opportunity to even try to be a visual artist of any kind. Producing this piece made me very proud and it gave me the courage to try again.

adobe captivate (fall 2019 - INTE 5660)

Yes, the punctuation course I developed in Captivate is displayed on the Instructional Design page of this basecamp. But I had invested so much stress and blood and sweat and tears in wresting something close to my desired result from that software, I wasn’t ready to leave it. My daughter (the Adobe software engineer who had surrendered at first sight of the Captivate control panel) had a birthday a couple weeks after the fall semester ended. When she and her brothers were little, they had traveled with me fulltime as I gave seminars throughout the United States. (Dad took care of them in hotels while I worked.) Because she is the oldest, she has been to more states than the others: 49, to be exact. I decided I would surprise her with a trip to her last state — Alaska. I then created this program in Captivate to tell her all about it. I was so proud that I could build this in a program she wouldn’t even mess with as an Adobe professional. As it turned out, Covid has postponed our trip. But here are several screenshots of the program I built. I made her take a six-question quiz and then presented her with menus that connected to links that illustrated everything I’d planned. (Click on each image to move through the set.)

zoom (spring 2020 - inte 5670)

The files for this project are dated March 9, 2020 in my Mac. That’s nine days before the Denver metro area went into lockdown to help prevent the spread of Covid. Watching this now (the presentation begins at the 1:10 mark) I can’t remember what it felt like to think that presenting a short solo webinar on Zoom was a one-off, something I would never need to do again. Yet here we are. Today, I spend at least three hours per day in Zoom meetings and I have trained many of my clients, friends, and family how to use it. I can’t imagine a better semester to have been enrolled in the LDT course that taught me most specifically how to use the Zoom platform.

padlet (fall 2020 - INTE 5711)

NPS Photographer: Kent Miller