• About This Course
• About the Professor
• Copyright Information
• Sample Project
• Samples of Class Discussion
• Thoughts About Web-Based Instruction

Back to Menu

About the Professor

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education at the University of Houston. I teach graduate level instructional technology courses. Here are a few of my research interests: I am interested in the authoring competencies needed by educators to author multimedia courseware. I have summarized the results of a recent Delphi study I conducted on my home page. I am in the process of gathering information about the communication, collaboration and social process that occurs between members of multimedia design teams. Because of my background in graphic design, I am very interested in the process of designing effective graphics and representing information visually. I teach a class called The Visual Representation of Information during fall semester. Here are several of my projects: My students in CUIN 7317, The Visual Representation of Information, and I are developing Visualville, a virtual town of visual information. I am a co-developer of Archive.edu, a web-based, sharable resource center for educators. I received by Ed.D. from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville under the guidance of Dr. E. Dale Doak If you would like to learn more about the Instructional Technology Program in the College of Education at the University of Houston, you are welcome to call (713-743-4975) or email me.

Back to Menu

Copyright Information

The materials included in this web site are copyrighted and no part, including images, may be used, reproduced, or distributed in any form or by any means without my prior written permission. This site is constantly being revised and updated, and I welcome any comments. Please email me.

Back to Menu

Sample Project

The Estimation Store by Laura Thede Powell, Spring, 1997 Description/Summary of the lesson The lesson will start with a quick review of how to estimate sums by rounding and adding -- but the student will be offered a choice as to whether or not they wish to see this part (so after repeated games they won't be "fastforwarding through.) After the review, the student will be asked how much money they wish to have to spend in the "store" (10, 100, or 1,000 dollars). The worth of the items will,change as the dollar amounts increase. This is to give the students a chance to practice their rounding skills in different place values. After choosing their dollar amount the student will then be placed in an appropriate spending "store". They will be able to choose from the items there, and will be told the price of each item. However, the prices will vary from game to game so that students may play the game multiple times and still have the same challenge. They may choose to buy several of some items or one of each until they either decide they have spend enough money (and have not gone over their chosen dollar amount) or they run out of money (and lose). At certain points they may ask for help as to what their total may be, but this will cost them a lot of points and bring down their total score. At the end of the simulation/game they will be told what their total actually was, how close they came without going over, and what their score is. If they lose, and go over, they will be told immediately how much they went over, and why they lost. They will always be given the opportunity to try to play the game again and receive a better score.

Back to Menu

Samples of Class Discussion

Students in this class subscribe to a class listserv and participate in online discussions. Here is a sample of class discussion: A major thrust for our class this semester is the use of games and simulation in education. Could we then consider using this kind of organization for our information? Maybe use a board game structure for the various topics. Remember the monoply game where properties are organized around a rectangle and everybody moves in one direction based on the roll of dice. Maybe we could layout or topics arounda rectangle. The user could invoke a simulated roll of the dice or spin a needle and move foward around the board the indicated number of spaces. Certain spaces could represent special or mystery topics such as chance and community chest in monopoly. Or consider, laying out an image of a road with different stops at points that correspond to information topics. The user could board and bus or taxi and select a destination that was a topic of interest. This is a user controlled variation on the board game. Let's get the creative juices flowing and toss out some ideas. Remember no idea is a bad idea, it may just be different. The idea that an organization scheme which works similiarly to games that we play is one approach to placing information in our "mental filing cabinets." I would like to identify some additional points of consideration that must be taken into account as we process information. First, rules must be understood. As in board games certain rules are established to maintain an appropiate and consistent flow. We all know the proper direction one moves around the board in Monoply, as well, we establish an order of turn-taking between players. It is important for one to be familiar with the rules for appropriate storage, and retrieval of information. This idea of information storage/retrieval is adapted from Cognitive Learning Theory, specifically the information-processing system which R. Gagne's "Essentials of Learning for Instruction" (1974). Second, our learning style is important to consider. I believe one who is a visual learner may store and organize information in a different way than does one who is an auditory learner. As well, students who learn via "hands-on" probably processes and stores information in another alternative way. I do not have any references on-hand. Part of this information is based upon my personal experience.

Back to Menu

Thoughts About Web-Based Instruction

This is the beginning of my fourth year creating web-based instruction and resources for my classes. Over the past two years the pages have certainly developed from simply being an electronic syllabus to a different way of viewing interaction, both that interaction that occurs from face-to-face teaching using the web as an electronic agenda and resource inside the classroom and that interaction that occurs electronically using the class listserv entirely outside of the classroom. I use the Web in several ways: Class Web Pages Each class has a separate web page. Class pages contain the agenda for class, homework assignments, and related information, usually accessible on the web. Resources The web page may also contain related resources that may not have been discussed during class. These could include magazine reviews of software, examples of a particular concept, a comprehensive bibliography, a glossary, and related articles. Student Work With prior consent from the student, student work may also be shared on the web page. This activity gives other students a chance to view the work and the display also creates a feeling of pride and accomplishment. Students also seem to develop a higher quality of work when they know it will be displayed.

Back to Menu