BP9_Links to Comments

I'm posting this to show a couple great examples of RILS projects. Take a few minutes and I promise you won't be disappointed!

Link to my comments on Greg's post:
Link to my Comments

Link to my comments on Jess' post:
Link to my comments

BP8_RILS Publication

Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario

Chris Lenhart

Brief Overview: Objective will be to improve communications and problem solving within a dynamic business environment by introducing web 2.0 tools, more specifically mindmeister (www.mindmeister.com).

1) Target Audience- Current team members involved with development and creation of the first civilian unmanned aircraft school.

2) Materials–

a)     Computer

b)    Internet Access

c)     Basic knowledge of business concepts

d)    Some past aviation experience

3) Objectives–

a)     At the end of this assessment team members should be able to meet the following objectives:

i)      Create, proficiently navigate, and share mind maps online with other team members at www.mindmeister.com

ii)    Defend and explain your position of the software and its role in this task by a small speech or story.

iii)   Compare and contrast the differences between problem solving and communication pre and post software use. Be able to produce survey based on their findings.

4) Procedure–

a)     I will create an account at mindmeister.com

b)    I will invite all participating team members to my group

c)     I will give them a small demonstration of the software and explain the benefits.

d)    I will create a base map.

e)     Team members will then be able to add to the map throughout the week.

f)     We will meet at the end of the week to discuss the progress and benefits or drawbacks.

5) Web 2.0 Tool– The Web 2.0 tool we will use is mindmeister. It is an online mind-mapping tool that can be used by individuals or groups to help brainstorm, organize, and problem solve. http://www.mindmeister.com/

6) Social Participation/Social Learning–

a)     The exercise in and of itself will facilitate social participation. The program exists online and group members have to log in to contribute. They will be building a mind map together. The successful end result will be based on the team members playing off one another’s ideas, adding to the map, and achieving a solution to problems involved with the creation of the new flight program.

7) Making Connections– This activity is designed to bring together team members with knowledge in different areas; some know aviation, some business, some know education. This will bring them together and allow them to disseminate information in their field of expertise to other members in order to achieve a common goal.

a)     Previous Knowledge-Team members bring extensive knowledge in various fields. Some have been working in their area of expertise for thirty years.

b)    Relevance- This is relevant since this schoolhouse will be unique. It will have elements of traditional classrooms as well as aviation based learning environments. Team members will be able to share with one another increasing the team’s overall knowledge of the concept.

c)     Local/Global- The group will be able to make a connection between the use of the software and the resolution of problems with communication. This will transfer over into other real world scenarios where they can work with team members and company partners throughout the world.

8)    Create/Produce – All participating team members will send me a small assessment of the scenario. They will describe their experience and how it translated to the development of a team based mind map. I will then create a blog post with the information for everyone to view.

9) Assessment –

10) Reflection –

a.     The team members are all local at this stage. They will be able to meet and discuss the pros and cons of the scenario and if software implementation is something that has helped the company. They will then include their findings in the information they send to me for the blog.

b.     I will reflect on all the material I receive from the group. At this point and realistically determine how useful the scenario is. If I get positive feedback, I will suggest this at the corporate level. If I get negative feedback, I will refine the scenario and address the problem to streamline an effective problem solving and communication tool.

PE5_mindmeister

Greetings! Welcome to part two of my mindmeister post. I decided to go into another area of this software to demonstrate how flexible it really can be.

I think we've already established that mindmeister can help with brainstorming and with organization. But what other ways can we use it? Well, how about capturing important information in meetings?

In order to try and demonstrate to some of my co-workers and more importantly my boss, the benefits of the software, I decided to take all of my notes in mindmeister.

As the meeting began, I quickly was able to set up the base of the map. If we spoke about personnel, I went to that bubble and added the appropriate names. If any of those names changed team throughout the discussion for any reason, I simply "clicked, dragged, and dropped" the names to their new teams. It was very quick, and for me, provided a much better way to take notes due to its visual nature.

When any type of issue came up in the discussion with critical contact information, I would simply create a new bubble and insert the website for the organization in question. This provided a quick link to any information they might need post meeting.

In the end they were pretty impressed. I have a meeting Monday morning with them to show everything I want about mindmeister. This is great news actually. I might actually use this as an opportunity to show them a few more benefits of Web 2.0!

PE4_mindmeister

Greetings Chris' blog watchers! Or as I like to call you "chrblochers". Hey, the media doesn't get to monopolize crazy condensed names...I'm looking at you "Brangelina".

So I am posting about a great Web 2.0 tool called "Mindmeister". I know needs are different, but for my needs, this couldn't be better suited. I love it. And to be honest, I think my enthusiasm for it is selling a few of my audience members. Joy.

The program is perfect for brainstorming. I don't want to limit its capabilities in anyway though, so I'd also like to mention it's great for day to day tasks, project management, and general organization. Let me give you a quick run down on just a few of the goodies.

You start off essentially with one bubble or "base thought". For example, I might have a main thought called "philosophy". From there, I click on the add button. This creates and arm off of the original bubble with a sub-topic. Let's call this one "Western Philosophy". Click add again, and you can create another arm with a bubble. This one we will call, "Eastern Philosophy".

From there, it is very intuitive. You can continue to add to the tree be click and deleting as required. In addition, you can put in links, documents, pictures...anything you need to explain different schools of thought in philosophy. Of course it can be on any topic you wish. Within a few minutes, I've created an example and shared it out to a co-worker. Here's a pic...

I've added several branches and even a photo in a matter of minutes. I can not stress enough how great this can be for brainstorming. I'm even using it to take notes in meeting now to improve organization. Win.

Stay tuned and I will post something a little more in depth soon. Until then, you can have a look at the software first hand at http://www.mindmeister.com/

BP7_Vyew

The Web 2.0 tool I went with was view. I think it has some really great potential for any educator wanting a little extra edge for helping students after hours. Great potential!

In case the video doesn't work, here is the Viddler version

PE3_iMovie

Down to the wire on this one folks. But for good reason.

I decided that since my work and school schedule is taking me away from my girls a little too much that maybe I could involve them in the iMovie portion of school. They all were very excited and asked if they could be "superheroes" in the movie. I said they could do whatever they wanted. I would let them pick the shots and I would help them with any of the higher end stuff they needed in After Effects. It turned out to be a great time....until the past few days.

I've been incredibly busy at work and was home late every night. We've been getting a ton of rain so we couldn't get a few shots I thought we really needed. But the girls wanted to pick the shots anyway. I'm usually a perfectionist so part of me was getting hives while watching them decide what kind of videos they wanted, but in the end I had a great time.

It also gave me a chance to actually teach them something I was learning. They all stuck with me the whole time on this, since that was part of our deal. Now they are all familiar with iMovie, even my 8 year old.

They decided to make a trailer for a movie. Watch out folks...this is going to be a blockbuster....

BP6_Link to Jess' site

So you think competing with Facebook is tough? You say Youtube has taken your students? You think that the re-unification of Germany was a bad idea? Well, good news my friends; I can help you with two of those things.

One of my classmates at FullSail had put together a great video for a site called "edmodo". I'm not going to go too into detail, but it looks like a great tool for educators looking to keep up and work with, instead of against technology.

Jess has streamlined a quick one minute video for edmodo and probably received tons of corporate kick backs for putting it together....because that's how she rolls.

Check it out!

Jess' edmodo video

BP5_link to Cricket's blog

One of my favorite things to do is photography. Although I find it so challenging sometimes between work and school and fighting off advances from Kate Beckensale and Mila Kunis. Ok...part of that last sentence might be a stretch....I'll let you decide. Anyway...

One of my classmates at FullSail has a link on her site for anyone who wants to get their photography work out into the public eye. It's called mylivegallery.com. It allows you to put your photos up, resize if you like, and get a pretty professional slideshow going. All for the sweet price of zero dollars. That's right. No more starving artist excuse about not having enough to get your work out there. If you like photography and people named after animals, check out Cricket's site. It's worth your time!

Cricket's Site

PE2_iMovie

I am really enjoying iMovie....a lot. I always had problems with compression in After Effects. I could never find a good balance between quality and size. iMovie handles that very well and it's great to have the problem solved.

I completed the training for iMovie last week, and learned a ton. It is a very deceptive program. Because of the ease of use, you tend to think it's for 7 year olds. Completely misleading. Once you get into it you find it is really a pretty robust video editor. The site I went through for training, Lynda.com, gave me this nifty little certificate when I finished. So how about them apples....

BP4_Vyew

Well here I am again. I have spent a considerable amount of time looking over the web and finding all kinds of tools I never knew existed. Thank you FullSail! To be honest, I’m usually pretty hesitant to use this kind of stuff, but I’m quickly changing that attitude.

The web is starting to offer some incredibly valuable tools. Where have I been you ask? I’ve been very comfortable back in my 1999 Internet cocoon thank you very much. But I’m finally out in the real world now and ready to try some new things.

The web tool I finally went with is a perfect blend of tools for some things on my horizon. In October, I will be opening a one of a kind unmanned aircraft school here in Florida. Students will come here and get FAA ground school, start of the art unmanned aircraft simulation instruction, and finally end the program with hands on training flying actual unmanned aircraft at Eglin AFB. It’s a brand new concept and I’m sincerely hoping for success. As you can imagine, I’m excited to utilize any type of tool that helps make the program a success. So the program I went with is Vyew.

Vyew is a wonderful communication tool. Once you create an account, you can create a room. Once you have established a room, you can invite up to ten people in. You have the option for text chat, video chat, or both. You also can draw directly on the screen within the program, or even screen share. You can upload files from your computer for all to see, as well as loading url’s. All of this is real time and can be seen by everyone in the room. Best of all kids…it’s free. Woohoo!

My plan is this. Let’s say I teach students in ground school one day about weather. Well, Johnny doesn’t quite understand why thunderstorms form, but is a little hesitant to ask in front of the class. I make it clear that there is an option for those situations. I tell the students that I will be online from, for example, 8:00-8:15pm. I wait in the Vyew room and if Johnny shows up I spend all the time I need to explain that you need lifting action, unstable air, and high moisture content for thunderstorms to form. He comes in the next day all caught up and confident he is where the rest of the class is. See, everyone wins. All due to the media sharing tool Vyew.

Happy days…

PE1_iMovie

I finished the iMovie course and was very impressed. I have to be honest. I was only utilizing iMovie as a kind of compression tool for other video. I had no idea that it was as versatile as demonstrated in the class.

I've been in the hospital with my wife for the past four days. She had an operation and didn't do that well, so they had her sedated for most of the time. She will be fine and is home now. But sitting in the hospital gave me some time to really look into Lynda.com and specifically iMovie. I'm pretty excited about this project now.

I've decided to bring my daughters in on this one. I am going to make a quick movie trailer that involves them. I've been working on the shots and effects for the past few days. I might go a little over on time, but will not go crazy with it. I know that we have to create an ad for the product we pick that has very strict time limits, so I'm ho[ping this one is a little flexible.

I'm posting a screen shot of one of the scenes I'm working on...I don't want to give it all away though.

This post is BP2_eduslide

Well there has been an interesting turn of events recently. It seems I have lost access to my one and only classroom. The Academy is no longer available to me. Insert concerned sighs here please. Oh, don't you worry, I'll figure something out. I watched an episode of MacGyver once.

The new plan goes something like this: I start a new school here in Florida to teach basic through advanced flight training to government and law enforcement agencies. I will go through all the concepts of unmanned aircraft with them. Sound fun? Well, you're right...it's crazy fun. And cool too.....my mom told me so.

So in my Web 2.0 search, I found a site that I think will really help me out. I am really impressed with the Wimba classroom and would like to emulate it if I can. Eduslide.com seems to be a pretty close replication of Wimba. It will allow me to interact with students from a distance, which I think will be a huge benefit.

We learned about how much learning can be increased by simple providing the students with information before the actual class. I really want to try this. The plan would be to have the first class through eduslide.com before they even arrived in Florida. Hopefully, I will be able to cover the basic concepts of flight with them through the site, and when they arrive they will be more familiar and receptive to the lessons.

If you want to check it out, here is the link: http://www.eduslide.com/features.php

BP3_iGoogleScreenShots

Well I finished setting up the igoogle page. So far, I like it. I'm a little torn on a few of the elements, but it certainly does help to have a centralized hub to access everything.

I was really pleased to find some gadgets in other languages. I never get a chance to really keep updated on Hebrew and this is a pretty good resource. I also found some great graphics references.

Here is a screen shot

I also found out today that I won't be going back to the Air Force Academy which totally messes with everything I've done in this program so far. So stay tuned to see how that all comes together.

Have a great fourth!

My first blog...

So, who's ready for my first blog story? Here goes ready or not.

I was going back and forth about what to write about. I ended up writing about a variety of topics. That's kind of my personality I guess. I really love to learn about a variety of things. I love to listen to people's opinions. I love debate. I love trying to deeply understand logic and logical fallacies. So, I said as much. But then, I decided to press the wrong button....and poof; my whole page disappeared. So, that was my first shot at blogging. Let me say this web gods....vengeance shall be mine, oh yes, it shall be mine.

Well, now that I've gotten my threats out of the way, I can give this a second go. Hopefully it will make it to the web before disappearing into nebulous ether.

I've recently gone through a pretty rough spot. Lost a sister at thirteen which was very difficult for my parents. I've been with them the past few weeks. I've also found out I need to get my flight instructor rating for work and am starting helicopter lessons as well. On top of trying to get the masters program finished. AHHHH!!!! Must...not....explode.....

But in the end, it will all work out one way or another. In a thousand years, who's going to be worried about Chris' bad month? Not many I'd venture to guess. So it can't be that important. ;)

So come back if you'd like. I'll update this often so that you can follow my month to month existence. :)

Here's a quick pic I took of my father and I while I was visiting. More to follow!