I found last week's class very informative. I was especially interested to see what Simon, George, and Charles were doing with the ASL software. I also found the graphic design elements in the software very pleasing to the eye, and agree that aesthetics matter greatly in instructional design. I find myself thinking about this very seriously right now, the importance of aesthetics in instructional design.

I really enjoyed the Montessori ID model presentation. I learned something new. I was curious though why Joel's teacher thought he couldn't read when he went to public school Grade 1. Montessori is very popular in Malaysia, although after hearing that many schools call themselves Montessori but are not, I wonder how many of the Malaysian school really are Montessori. Also, I think all of them are at the Kingergarten level alone, and I didn't get the impression that they were expensive, unlike Montessori schools here.

I also found the case studies interesting and was sorry that I wasn't able to stay till the end of the class.

I thought the Layers of Necessity ID Model was great--it improved upon the Rapid Prototyping model which had drawn criticism in the field. I was also satisfied with our own Good Design/Bad Design presentation. I've since become more sensitized to the design features of pizza flyers--I realized that they're really becoming cleaner design-wise. And finally, I was glad to have the new document providing more support about what the Final Project is supposed to look like. That will help me to get up to speed.

The guest speaker presentation was SO long! I found it ironic that an e-learning specialist who knows about how students learn would so flagrantly break his own rules. He lost me after the first hour. I'm not saying that I didn't appreciate what he had to say or that they weren't useful. It was just SO long!

I thought our ID Model Presentation went rather well, and I was glad that it wasn't postponed again. I also worked a lot on my Final Project. Actually, it's interesting to note how well our ID Model Presentation on Rapid Prototyping worked with what Keith had to say about the way he worked. It also made me realize that that's how I do my Final Project and how I do my album designing.

I have to say that among all the different activities we do in class each week, I enjoy the Case Study presentations best. I feel as if I get the most out of that. I guess the real world nature of the Case Studies is what's most appealing about them.

This will be very short. I'm glad that we're having a week off for Spring Break. Life's just been crazy!

I thought that our Case Study presentation went well, although I was still very uncomfortable with the corporate environment of the case study. In fact, I think I am generally uncomfortable with ID especially when there's a team involved. I guess I'm so used to the one-woman show so common with teaching that having to work as part of a team is very foreign to me. It's not that I can't work in a team. It's more a sense of having to depend on myself for everything and needing to be responsible for everything myself. Also, the more meticulous nature of big projects that IDers may be involved in is very foreign to me too. Sometimes I feel as if the time involved in having to go through the entire ID process is wasteful, not because I don't see the value in it, but because as an instructor that teaches three times a week and observes a class three times a week, I just don't have the time for that. In an ideal world, the entire ID process would be very beneficial, but as a busy teacher/graduate student/researcher, I have to compute the cost-benefit. Perhaps that's why I like Rapid Prototyping.

On another front, I have wasted quite a number of hours trying to get the Flash page turning effect to work, without success. We shall see what happens ...

This will be a very short one since it's so late in the day. Well, I completed the Situational Analysis, Needs Analysis, and Learner Analysis for my Final Project and feel good about that because I'm very motivated about my project. And coincidentally, someone from the Digital Photography forum I frequent just offered some Flash script free with the trial download of his Gallery software. So I'm very excited about that because I realize that's what I need to make my website more professional, which is the goal of my project. However, unfortunately, I don't understand the download instructions--more technology knowledge than I have.

Madison, Jason, and I are also presenting the Case Study today--my first presentation for this class. And Ben, Kim, and I are presenting IT Model next week. Things are getting really busy!