Course designing with Steve Miller in the background

I can tell what stage of course design I am on during a project by a few things:  Hair up or down relates to planning, shoes on or off relates to the creation stage, background music type relates to my focus level when writing documents.  Today I'm in the slaphappy stage just prior to a new course delivery, reviewing documents related to a repackaging of our online teaching program.  

This immersion in documents combined with deadline leads to processing the music I'm listening to, incorporating themes and terminology from the program.  Here is one result combining Moodle, basic technology in teaching, and Steve Miller's Keep On Rocking Me, Baby:

See Steve Miller at Interlochen Summer 2013

Well, I`ve been looking real hard
And I`m trying to find a file

But it just keeps getting
Tougher every course

But I got to do my part
Cause I know in my heart
I got to find my
course docs, yeah

Well, I ain`t superstitious
And I don`t get suspicious
But my Moodle is
A friend of mine

And I know that it`s true
That all the things that I do
Will be on Google
Found in my Drive

And keep on upgrading me, browser,

Keep on upgrading me, browser.

Keep on upgrading me, browser.

Keep on upgrading me, browser

I went from Version 1.9 of Moodle
All the way to 2.4,

Portfolios, Camtasia, and Skype.

Dropbox and our server
Where the files are found
So I could be with my
New courses, yeah

Keep on upgrading me, browser,

Keep on  upgrading me, browser,

Keep on  upgrading me, browser,

Keep on  upgrading me, browser

Moodle Google, Browser
Keep on upgrading.
Upgrading me, browser,

Keep on upgrading
Upgrading me, programs
Hoo, hooo, yeah

My Disorganized Digital Presence

     One of the downsides of being an EPET doctoral student as well as an instructional designer is that we are constantly trying new programs, apps, and tools--which can lead to having many partial electronic portfolios spread out over the web. I just happened to be looking for images from my previous work, and checked here. I had thought it was inactive, but apparently my stats show differently.

•  One presence slightly more current is: trusso36.wordpress.com 
•  I also enjoy contributing to ideaplay.org which has my latest writings, including one on being a graduate student in a mobile world. 
•  Another with coursework from 2012 is found at https://sites.google.com/site/tracyrussodesignexperiments/ 
• Dr. Chris Greenhow got me hooked on Twitter--you can follow me at 36trusso@twitter.com

They are works in progress, and my focus was not on creating a web presence of perfection but rather to stretch my comfort zones for different areas of coursework, including media design, ed policy, ed psych, and needs analysis of educational systems.  Enjoy!

Blending Yesterday and Today Through "FakeBook" Technology

On Google Docs today looking for ideas for newsletter templates, I found this "FakeBook" template. How fun to use a present social media tool to address the past! Below is a Jing screenshot with some ideas I added for fun.

Middle World Rising?

Recently, I had the privilege of being in a discussion group with Rob Salkowitz, author of Young World Rising. Initially, I reflected on the book and our discussion about entrepreneurial trends made possible by today's technology use from the perspective of our MSU coursework. Over the last few days however, I have begun to wonder then what has happened to my peers, now in the middle between this young world and the builder generation of our parents. Is there anything we would be remembered for? Are we even needed or successful in current terms?

My parents grew up with the unshaken belief that if you worked hard, got an education and took a few calculated risks, you would automatically be successful. From a financial standpoint, much of this is proven true as their generation is the last one to have consistently grown in net worth. With almost everyone I know being drastically affected in this economy, many now worth less than they were in their 20's, this isn't playing out the same way for those of us in the middle of life. If we are looking to the younger generation for the secret to success, what does it imply? Will those younger, more entrepreneurial and technologically-minded people referred to in Salkowitz' book skip right over me and those like me?

I don't think they can, and actually that worries me as well as a mother of three. I'm not sure where it is all heading, as our world becomes globally connected through technological dependence. The same technology that appears to make independence easily possible has also created along with it an extreme dependence on what makes technology work. Spending time on technology also means less time spent on other life skills that make economic independence possible. When my school iPad arrived, my kids figured out many of its features far more quickly than I did. However, to them, the iPad is self-contained and fulfills their needs as is as long as they can download info to receive. To me, the iPad is a platform to help me create and execute ideas that are out of the box.

Conversely, if I didn't have access to technology and the fresh input from younger, digitally-savvy entrepreneurial types, I wouldn't be able to apply some of the life skills learned from the generation before me to my present circumstance. And, I wouldn't be able to easily fill in the gaps where I didn't quite catch all of the skills needed.
As most things in life are, it seems to be all about balancing competing interests and values. And as most things in life are, knowing balance is needed is a much different thing than achieving the balance itself.

Perhaps being the "balancer" between the two generations is what my middle world generation will be needed for most.

Questioning When to Question

When should we question what is happening in our sphere of influence when we feel something might not be right? This question originated with some teachers expressing discomfort at stating their disapproval of No Child Left Behind assessments because they might lose their job, but I think it is a bigger question.

• Do we question when we have a job that we are afraid of losing, or when we have no job and therefore little influence?
• Do we question when we are young and inexperienced, or do we wait until we are older but have so much to lose?
• Do we question after we raise our children, after perhaps we have failed them, or do we question while we raise them as an example of standing up for our beliefs--when perhaps standing up for beliefs will cost them their childhood?
• Do we question after a Holocaust, when it is too late and we are simply backseat drivers, or do we question to make sure something like that never happens again?
• Do we question our own questions because we are afraid we are wrong, or do we question our own questions because we are afraid we are right?
• Do we wait until it is a safe group and a safe place to ask a question, or do we wonder why it is scary to ask questions in the first place?

If we don't question, will we still have the right to question in the future?

Questioning Economic Empowerment and ROI of Tech

If I had been able to participate in yesterday's CEP 951 tokbox on Young World Rising and Play Money, I would have asked, "Is there a field of work looking at the relationship between Economic Empowerment and economic empowerment similar to that between Gaming and gaming discussed earlier this summer?" I struggle with balancing big picture/small picture, long term/short term. We are spending more and more time and money on tech to increase our potential and capabilities--yet, how many people are really creating assets with this tech spending? Generational studies show that each generation since the Builder Gen (WWII adulthood) has acquired fewer and fewer assets than previous gens. Technological use seems as one of those carnival attractions with the mirror maze of convex and concave mirrors, and the answers undetermined and continually being refocused with new info and perspectives added. In the short term, there are many valuable immediate returns on technological implementation at all levels. In the long term, I think about how we look at terms such as social capital being built in virtual reality. Our environment statistically has higher suicide rates, more personal violence, and more dependence on government rather than friends and family for survival--is technological social networking and dependence what serves us well as a population when the psychological treatment of those particular societal negatives would involve f2f and NOT technological social networks?

Updated Research Statement of Interests

As a community college instructional designer with extensive teaching experience, I am interested in learning environments that foster flow, play and transformative across all age groups. Connecting real-world complexity to classroom teaching and learning via curriculum design and technology greatly interests me, particularly regarding current concerns such as sustainable building and renewable energy. I look forward to the challenge of not only researching possible solutions, but to learning new ways to communicate these solutions.