Rural Tech Educator

      One of my favorite movies is "The Princess Diaries." Yes, a little juvenile, but it has a great story and message! That is where I first heard this quote by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." It immediately became my favorite.      In the movie, Anne Hathaway's character is upset because her best friend just found out about her secret of being a princess. Hathaway's character wants to be invisible. She doesn't want the responsibility and limelight of being a princess. However, when her new chauffer tells her this quote, it makes her think.      We are not all made for the limelight. Many of us like to hide behind our walls. Still, there are times when these walls must come down and we must step forward. We can't go through life worrying about what others constantly think about us. We are in control of how we feel about ourselves and our own self-esteem.      Don't...

  Hello, my name is Melissa Perner and this is my Educational Technology Philosophy As teacher of high school students, and a mother of two young children, I see how technology is affecting our future leaders. There is no doubt that technology has forever changed education. Educational Technology is here to stay, and as educators we need to be the ones to guide learners into technology leaders.  My personal learning theory that I identify with is constructivism. I believe learning should be active in that students build their own understanding of the information.  I am a life-long learner, so I believe that a person’s experiences help incorporate new knowledge and promote deeper understanding.  Constructivism is a learning theory that emphasizes the learner's active role in constructing knowledge through experiences. It's like building blocks in your brain! Constructivism’s central idea is that human learning is constructed, that learners build new knowledge upon the...

           Motivation is needed in all fields. The term motivation means "the general desire or willingness of someone to do something," according to the Oxford Dictionary.       The term "motive" came from a Latin root meaning "to move." It is the "why" of behavior and is defined as a desire that urges us to do something  (Cheng & Yeh, 2009).  When people ask you "What is your why?" what they mean is "What is your motivation to do what you do?"      In a classroom context, motivation refers to students’ subjective experiences, particularly students’ willingness to participate in class activities and their reasons for doing so. In a business environment, motivation helps us pursue a goal, persist in our decision and determine how much effort to spend on tasks  (Cheng & Yeh, 2009).      Extrinsic motivation occurs when the cause of motivation exists outside of an individual and the task...

 YouTube: Devlin Peck      Instructional designers create effective, engaging learning experiences. They draw on best practices from education, design, psychology, systems theory, and creative writing to create eLearning, face-to-face workshops, job aids, and other performance support solutions (Peck, 2023).      While trainers or teachers deliver instruction to a live audience, instructional designers work behind the scenes. Instructional designers collaborate with subject matter experts (SMEs) to design and often develop the learning experience, but they rarely deliver it to a live audience themselves (Peck, 2023).      We think of instructional designers mainly in education, but they are needed in many other industries as well.      This blog takes a look at how instructional designers work in a variety of industries and organizations.                    Bu...

  In the world of instructional design models, it can be overwhelming trying to decide which model to choose. A contemporary conceptual frame of reference, that incorporates a consideration of designer expertise, contexts, traditional approach to instructional design, as well as emerging approaches to instructional design, for comparing instructional design models at this point becomes necessary (Edmonds, et. al, 1994). In their article, “A Conceptual Framework for Comparing Instructional Design Models,” Gerald S. Edmonds, Robert C. Branch, and Prachee Mukherjee discuss the need to create a frame of reference for all instructional design models. There paper emphasizes that this is not an argument for more instructional design models, but rather, a call for ways of comparing existing instructional design models and new models as well. The authors state that instructional design models share a number of common characteristics, such as categorization, context, and level, in addition...