1) Examples of Distributed Learning
Hybrid delivery
The Biology Project: Biochemistry, Bill Grimes and Rick Hallick, University of Arizona
Offers tutorials and interactive quizzes covering basic chemistry, metabolism, enzymes, and molecular structure. The Biology Project, is an interactive online resource for learning biology developed at The University of Arizona. http://www.biology.arizona.edu/biochemistry/biochemistry.html
Virtual Foliage, Professor Clayton, University of Wisconsin-MadisonOffers tutorials and interactive quizzes covering basic chemistry, metabolism, enzymes, and molecular structure. The Biology Project, is an interactive online resource for learning biology developed at The University of Arizona. http://www.biology.arizona.edu/biochemistry/biochemistry.html
Created within the context of an introductory botany course, this site includes a compendium of thousands of pictures of plants and plant structures. These materials were developed for use in the courses taught through the botany department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They may be freely used by educators in the context of their classrooms.
http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/
Virtual Classrooms
Sheep's Brain Dissection, Jim Spadaccini, The Exploratorium, Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco
This animation presents the dissection of a sheep's brain as an interactive process, with a focus on learning about memory. Includes audio clips, video clips, and textual descriptions.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/memory/braindissection/index.html
Big Ears: The Original Online Ear Trainer, Michael Ossmann, Computer Consultant, Colorado
The tutorial is designed to help students improve their ability to recognize musical elements, such as melodic intervals or chords, by ear.
http://www.ossmann.com/bigears/
Knowledge based learning
The Victorian Web, Professor Landow, Brown University
Provides extensive information about the Victorian era and serves as a resource for Victorian literature courses.
http://www.victorianweb.org/
2) Concept of Reusability
As I try to recall which course in my educational career had poor reusability characteristics, English class in college comes into my mind. I would define reusability as a resource that can be effectively reused. The learning content should be simple to understand and have clear learning outcomes. The English course during my freshman year of college, was anything but simple and clear. The instructor had been using the same agenda and lessons for years per other students who had taken the course. The material was not easy to relate to as a young adult, and it didn’t seem aligned with the current curriculum trends that were taking place.
I imagined analyzing literature in English class would challenge me to understand characters' motivations, cultural contexts, and the causes and effects of various actions in stories' plot lines. Our instructor simply gave multiple chapters to read, lectured over the chapters, and told us to study for the upcoming quiz. This course could be redesigned by incorporating literature from the past and present. Students need to read topics they can relate to and compare those stories to classic material from the past. I would also include various multi-cultural literature, music, and film. The instructor should also use more technology in the course, provide visuals on a Smartboard or create a blog for student groups. By incorporating these things learning to analyze literature would teach students how to enjoy books and multimedia.
3) Using Rich Media
The use of rich media can enhance a learner-centered approach of to teaching and motivate students to learn. Rich Media can encourage students to stretch their minds from remembering and understanding to evaluating and creating. While completing this assignment, I came across Scott Gardner’s video on You Tube. It is a good example of how rich media can provide higher order thinking.
4) Future of Instructional Technologies
Nanotechnology is very diverse it has the ability to create extensions of conventional devices or creating completely new approaches to devices. For example, nanotechnology has been used in the fashion industry to improve the current khaki material that is being used by the Eddie Bauer company. Eddie Bauer is currently using embedded nanoparticles to create stain-repellent khakis. This innovation will impact not only khaki-wearers, but also many businesses. For instance, dry cleaners will find their business declining. Detergent makers will find less of their product moving off the shelf, and stain-removal makers will experience a sharp decrease in customers as well.
5) Point of view







