For this week’s blog post assignment, I began following the following 5 twitter hashtags: #Edtech, #OnlineLearning, #OnlineTeaching, #InternetOfThings, and #InstructionalDesign. As someone who comes from a tech background looking to get into online teaching and academic instructional design, I thought these hashtags could benefit me with new resources and help build up my current knowledge in those areas.
A common theme I noticed between all 5 hashtags was postings that included “do it yourself” exercises regarding different topics and/or ideas that could be very useful for someone like me, a visual learner. Another resource I found that I actually plan on using was a simple but very informative article that explained the steps needed to build a successful training program. While I do have some experience in this area, I find new such resources to be very helpful. My main experience has been building software applications and getting new perspectives with the creation process always benefitted the final product. Being new to this area I will take any resource that explains the process for beginners like myself and adds it to my tool belt. I also found was an interesting article that discusses online educational programs and steps universities should take to improve their online programs to meet the needs of their students. I have been lucky to attend universities that had excellent online programs and full support for their students, but it was interesting that the article shows why some universities online offerings really do lack what their on-campus programs offer. Technology integration and the online tools they select to use were usually the main reasons for success/failure. What was interesting to see is that tech support, advising, financial aid, and library resources also played a major role, which was something I did not really think about but I could see those areas having a major impact on students online success.
I have only been using Twitter for the last few weeks but I have found it to be a very valuable tool for just in time development. It has been a great way to find new resources and creative ideas that I have already been using in other courses and my personal life. It really is a great tool that gives users the flexibility to access new ideas and content at their fingertips. I just wish I started using the service earlier in life!
Jake Dalton 