NETS•T Standard 2: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

“Teachers continuously improve their professional practice, model lifelong learning, and exhibit leadership in their school and professional community by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources.”

The projects included on this page are examples of how I have used 21st century tools to provide context-specific, technology-enhanced learning opportunities. The instructional design project and introduction to NoodleTools projects are samples that address standards 2(a) - Use digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity and 2(b) - Develop technology-enhanced learning opportunities to promote students' self-monitoring of their learning, and the special effects exhibit and persuasive poster address standard 2(a) - Use digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity. The instructional podcast project addresses standards 2(a) - Use digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity , 2(c) - Customize learning experiences through use of digital tools and resources, and 2(d) - Use student data from multiple assessment formats to drive pedagogy. The direct instruction project meets standards 2(a) - Use digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity, 2(b) - Develop technology-enhanced learning opportunities to promote students' self-monitoring of their learning, and 2(c) - Customize learning experiences through use of digital tools and resources.

Instructional Design Project This semester-long project, completed for ITEC 57403 - Instructional Design, represents my abilities to apply concepts of the ADDIE instructional design model to a “real life” situation and design, develop, and implement an appropriate and effective course of instruction. For this project, I chose to use a situation from my workplace, so the end result was able to be used rather than being purely theoretical, therefore helping streamline the change situation and ensuring that the items found during the gap analysis could be thoroughly addressed during the project's implementation. As I took this course early on in my program of study, I was especially pleased when the instructor requested my permission to use it as an example for future classes.

Special Effects Exhibit The goal of this project, completed for ITEC 77411 - Designing Visuals, was “to find interesting visuals and apply appropriate filters that produce an appealing or intriguing result.” I took all of the pictures on this page myself; I experimented with applying many different filters, sometimes in combination, until I was pleased with the dramatically changed new versions.

Persuasive Poster Another example from ITEC 77411 - Designing Visuals, the goal for this project was to create a poster that encourages others to learn more about or participate in the subject being advertised. I created a poster to advertise for our Relay For Life team, and we used this poster this past spring as a mailer to our friends and family, encouraging them to join us in the event.

Introduction to NoodleTools This project, completed as an assignment for ITEC 57427 - Technology & Learning, introduces viewers to the NoodleTools suite of academic tools and provides instruction on how to best use the tools. Although it's a rather brief overview of the technology, this project demonstrates my web and instructional design abilities. One of the benefits of this assignment was that each student selected a different technology, so by the time the course was done I had been introduced to more than 20 new technologies.

Instructional Podcast I created this podcast to assist my workplace colleagues in the proper completion of two forms – a network access form and an application access form – that are used to grant system and application access. The goal of the instruction, therefore, is that after listening to the instruction, learners will be able to complete the forms correctly and without additional assistance.

Direct Instruction: E-mail Archiving at FHLBank Pittsburgh One of the projects for ITEC 67444 - Teaching Online Courses required the development of a stand-alone direct instruction unit. For this effort, I chose to build an instructional module that could be used at my workplace, since we had just begun an e-mail archiving initiative and there was a need for such instructional materials. Using PowerPoint, since it's a preferred method of content delivery, this project provides both instruction and an online opportunity for assessment. This presentation is still in use today as part of the orientation for new employees, and there are still occasional hits on the site on which it's hosted, as people revisit the site to refresh their knowledge on the e-mail archiving process.