Computer-based Instructional Objects

Now a days in the class it's extremely important to include some type of technology in the learning process.  It's these times that us as teachers need to be keeping up with the students, but with any type of technology there are always things to consider before finalizing it as a lesson plan.

If we were to use our stAIR projects for example there are a few immediate issues that comes to my mind.  The first consideration of course is the software version of any particular application.  For those that use may use Powerpoint 2007 there are new tools and additions to the software that aren't available in the older software, which may hinder the full learning experience from that application.  Not every computer has been purchased in the last six months so the hardware to view that particular application has a major impact on the application as well.  I couldn't imagine trying to watch a kiosk with animation and sounds that crawls when it's running.  I can only imagine how frustrated it would make me.  So, software version and hardware considerations are crucial when it comes to any type of computer-based instructional objects.

One of the biggest issues with Powerpoint Presentations that could potentially be converted to stAIR projects is that some of the file sizes for these items are enormous.  When photos and audio gets added to these applications the size of them grow rapidly.  Today, not everyone has high-speed Internet so having to download a stAIR that was 60Mb (which isn't all that large) could take several minutes to hours to download.  So the size of the stAIR that could be downloaded from the Internet could be an issue, a solution to this problem would be placing it on a CD or DVD.  Of course this assumes every computer has a CD or DVD player.

Using a WebQuest as another computer-based instructional object opens the doors to some of the same considerations but also adds couple others.  First of all, the notion of accessing the Internet to view the WebQuest can have its hiccups when the Internet is down at times.  I supposed if someone was to wait until the last minute to complete their assignment and the Internet or even the web server was down for maintenance it would make it hard to complete.  There seems to be the ability to download each of the WebQuest but in order to do that you need to be a member which looks as some minimal fee.  So not having the ability to view them on your own local computer makes it very difficult.  Sure, one could print the pages off or even save the pages as a PDF but that would "freeze" the WebQuest in it's current state and the learner wouldn't know if it was updated by the author or not.  Things are always changing so I'm assuming that most WebQuest at some point or another would need some tweaking to accommodate for these changes.

Searching for a WebQuest was a bit challenging to complete.  I decided to search on "technology" in hopes to finding what some schools are doing in their classrooms. I've found a few and although had no idea what WebQuest prior to our readings, I'm not sure I'm completely convinced on these items.  I wasn't all the impressed on what I was finding.  I suppose I had higher standards on my expectations on what WebQuests were all about.  It wasn't until I found "Inside the Computer" that I finally found some potential usage of them.    For one I thought there were more of a process in the WebQuest, meaning that since they are on the web it would be more like a highly graphic, flashed advertising, pull-me in type of website, which they are not.  It took me a little while and going through the "Inside the Computer" WebQuest to finally get what they are all about the potential they have for learners. This particular WebQuest has some very clear tasks and processes with in it.  Maybe it was because of the style of tasks (quiz) but I saw me actually wanting to do the WebQuest where I hadn't found it in many of the others.