Ingredients

- Computer with access to the Internet

- Instructor access to a Blackboard course (the screencast features BB Enterprise 8 )

- The website at http://feed2js.org

- A website with an active RSS feed to be used in Blackboard

Directions

1. Navigate to the website that has an RSS feed.
2. Look for an icon on the page that looks like this:
3. If you don’t see that icon, look for some text that mentions “subscribe to feed” or “RSS“. Linked text that reads “Entries (RSS)” is a common way the feed for a WordPress blog is encountered, usually near the bottom of the screen.
4. You can right-click on the icon or text link and choose either Copy Link Location (Firefox), or Copy Shortcut (Internet Explorer).
5. Alternatively, you can click on the icon or the text and it should lead you to a page with a few options to subscribe to the RSS feed. What’s important is that the feed URL is now in the web browser’s address bar. Copy the URL so that you can paste it into the appropriate field in the Feed2JS website.
6. Navigate to the Feed2JS website.
7. Click on the tab labeled “Build” and paste the RSS feed URL into the box labeled URL.
8. Optionally, you can change the options for how the feed is displayed.
9. Click on the button labeled “Generate Javascript”
10. This will display code in the field labeled “Get Your Code Here”
11. Copy the entire contents of this field. This is the code we’ll place in Blackboard.
12. Navigate to the area in your Blackboard course where you would like to place the RSS information.
13. Click on the Add (+) Item button to create a new content item.
14. Provide a name for the content item (required)
15. In the Text editor click on the “Toggle HTML Source Mode” button
16. Paste the code generated from the Feed2JS website into the text field (overwrite any existing text that’s in that field to start)
17. Click on the Submit button

Information derived from the Digital Media Cookbook Website

LectureTools started as a framework to investigate new methods for adding to class discourse by engaging students in text-based, image-based and simulation based responder questions. It was tested in a few classes last semester according to the university and it will soon be made available to their faculty at large. Developed by a professor of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences named Arthur F. Thurnau for use in a large lecture class, the tool is designed to create greater student engagement with lecture materials and discourse.

In a statement put out by Samson on behalf of the university at large, “Students learn better by being actively engaged in the lecture, offering their own feedback and discussing with their peers, as LectureTools allows them to do. We’re utilizing all the students’ propensities and abilities to multitask.”

In your experience, can you speak to either the validity of this statement or its unsoundness?

It is here that Batson expounds on the tensions between the demands of institutional legacy and the demands of innovation. He really speaks to what I would explain to be a shift that our society is experiencing as a whole. The ramifications specifically within the field of education are no less painful than other sectors, but also no less opportune to capitalize on such a time as this.

What are your reactions to this article? How does the picture that Batson paints here contribute to a fair assessment of your educational experience or in what ways does it clash with it?

We’re excited to welcome another guest contributor to the community. David Goodrich is an Instructional Designer from Spring Arbor University. He’s a musician, writer, blogger, and all-around cool guy.  You’d like him.  He’s also working on his Master’s in Instructional Design from Capella University.  Find out more in the Contributors page.  Welcome, David.

To approach instructional design in a systematic fashion like that of an assembly line where each key principal is viewed in isolation to the other and in the end a final product is made that is deemed good or bad is becoming a faulty framework for imagining the essence of the instructional design process. Irlbeck proposes that “a modern interpretive dance would be a better representation, as all the elements needing to be considered are interwoven and impact other parts of the system, yet are bounded by an outside framework or set of parameters” (2006).  There is a need to see instructional design as an evolving, complex, three-dimensional, organic, and dynamic system that has key principals which “interact spontaneously, even randomly, and are shaped by social processes of a natural alignment of the concepts for learning and dynamic group behavior” (2006).

For instance, if the needs assessment is neglected during the process then imagine how this would effect the other key elements of the design. How would it help to know all about the learners, instructors, learning environments, curriculum, resources, and greater organization goals if there was a lack in pointing out the clear needs of the instructional design and if they can even be met by an instructional intervention? The ramifications of neglecting one or multiple key principals of the instructional design process would dramatically impact the effectiveness of the instructional intervention and would suffer the consequences of poor design.

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Irlbeck, S., Kays, E., Jones, D., & Sims, R. (2006) The phoenix rising: Emergent models of instructional design. Distance Education, 27(2), 171–185.