I always love a good online debate and it was interesting to see how everyone
felt about the use of PowerPoint in the classroom. I have never been a big
fan of PowerPoint, and I was sure that I would always back Edward Tufte
in his article PowerPoint is Evil, but I did come away convinced
that it is a useful tool. As Debra Kay Maden said,
"In the end it is just a program; we need to use it wisely." (Personal
communication, 
The selections
by Harold Innis, Marshall Mc Luhan and Robert
Logan were thought provoaking. No one
can ever predict "the next big thing" in technology, but Mc Luhan did come close. Indeed, we all have a basic need to
be connected to others, therefore, regardless of what new phenomena hits the
market next, humans will customize it to their own uses. 
The Fireworks tutorial was just what I need when I needed it. At work I
was given the task of cleaning up our poor neglected website and some of
the pictures were not displaying properly. I know this is just the tip of
the iceberg in terms of photo editing, but I think we all managed to put
together a nice display. Talk about just in time learning!
The
Tufte article, Visual Explanations: Images,
Quantities, Evidence and Narrative, seemed to ramble on a bit, but
it did start a nice discussion about good graphic design principles and
the No Child Left Behind act. It is amazing how data can be so easily manipulated
and how careful we need to be when using visual displays of data.
The synchronous media report took me back to my roots here at UMUC.
I am near the end of my course work for a Masters in Distance Education
where we never seem to stop debating the good and bad points of synchronous
vs. asynchronous online learning. I am always eager to try new synchronous
media, but I am partial to asynchronous, especially in the style of our
UMUC courses.
Thank you for the Lynch and Horton style guide. I'm sure am sure I will refer
to it many times in the future. It covers everything from initial planning
to page design to accessibility. Working in the field of Special Education,
I am very interested in how we can make online media work for everyone. And I wish I could convince every teacher to
use more constructivist techniques in their classrooms. The old idea of the "sage on stage"
needs to step aside and let the facilitator take over. 
The Dreamweaver assignments were, of course, the most difficult parts of the
course for everyone. I had a little Dreamweaver experience at my
old job, but it was still challenging. I
see now that learning Fireworks first is really the key. I think most of my past mistakes stem from trying
to manipulate images that hadn't been exported and reduced in size. "If
I knew then what I know now.", as they say.