Let's Tech About It

This week’s topics centered on the various components tied to the creation of a website. While much of the focus within the EIT program centers on the instructional design aspects of implementing and integrating learning frameworks, it’s been nice to learn just how important visual details are when designing a site for professional use. Many of the components identified as important in the design of a website typically rely on the following: fonts, typography, color palettes, and images. According to Blasbalg (2021) there are eight essential steps in the creation of a professional website. They are: Strategize your brand Approach the design Prioritize usability Prepare for search engines Professionalize your site Optimize for mobile Create compelling content Maintain your site Each of these steps includes detailed instructions on how to adapt your own website based on your individual needs. I recently developed my own professional website i

With podcasts, you can still take advantage of the benefits of e-Learning, without losing those essential elements of classroom education (Weobong, 2016). This statement is found in the article titled A Guide to Using Podcasts for Employee Training. Throughout the readings for this week, the topic was centralized to podcasting and its benefits to online learning as a supplementary resource for training and educational purposes. Furthermore, according to Weobong (2016) the rising popularity of podcasting adds proof that the simple, inexpensive nature of setting up a podcast and an audience's want for personalized and accessible content can create alternative and effective teaching methods. I myself, am a late adopter to podcasts and have only started to explore them in recent years. But I do see the appeal in that whatever your personal or professional interests may be, there is more than likely a podcast or similar longform media that fits what you would like to listen to. It stan

Before I started on the path to becoming an Instructional Technologist through Sul Ross State University, I first began my post-secondary education at Austin Community College, where I studied 3D Animation. As an animator, I learned quite a few things, including how storyboards are a vital process in the creation of multimedia projects. In many cases, storyboards provide visual reference and help to map out the path of which an artist or designer wishes to explore. That learning experience was almost 15 years ago. Today, it’s amazing to see that storyboards aren’t only a tool for the development of the next blockbuster film or animated masterpiece from Pixar studios, but have become a welcome addition to the growing list of resources made available to instructional designers for the development of online and eLearning courses. eLearning storyboards make the eLearning design and development process much more efficient, as they can not only help eLearning professionals to illustrate thei

The prevalence and growth of online learning and the technology that has accompanied its rise is both an exciting development and complex task to navigate. Based on the influence of mobile learning and widely used social media platforms, educational design and learning resources are now readily available to all levels and groups of learners. The goal now is to create online spaces and utilize mobile technology to facilitate learning in ways that accommodate and encourage the changing profile of the modern learner. Studies show that adult learners are more adept at learning from their peers and fellow learners than they are from lecturers and teachers (Arshavskiy, 2021). I’ve always viewed group interaction as a vital component to formal learning practices. It helps when attempting to understand new concepts and information through discussion. I recently experienced this during my ED 6378 Integration of Technology in Curriculum graduate course, where the entire class participated in a