I have been a little busy as of late but here is my new additions to the blog.
https://www.weebly.com/editor/main.php

I think it is coming along nicely.
https://sites.google.com/view/mscotthullucfeme5050/home

The institute for art, science and technology WAAG society is also analyzing the implication for digital story telling.
http://waag.org/en/blog/beyond-digital-storytelling

Discovery putting its chip on the table for VR and education.
http://www.discoveryeducation.com/DiscoveryNow/vr.cfm

This is where education is going especially for distance learning.
https://touchstoneresearch.com/the-top-10-companies-working-on-education-in-virtual-reality-and-augmented-reality/

Title: Innovative Tools and Processes for Mobile Communications Research and Education.

URL: http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.net.ucf.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=10&sid=1536ec8b-9372-4cba-88d4-75af6cd7c65a%40sessionmgr103&hid=117&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=aci&AN=118454224
APA: Rivas-Tocado, F. j., Diaz-Zayas, A. a., & Merino, P. p. (2016). Innovative Tools and Processes for Mobile Communications Research and Education. International Journal Of Online Engineering, 12(9), 40-46

Category: Advanced Technology

Summary: The research article examines the current tools as well as the demand for new and innovative tools, which would increase the collaboration future generations. The article goes in to details dealing with mobile usability and the advantages of staying connected. The mobile platform the article examines is called Gigabit class LTE-A. The intention is to test the platform for new opportunities within the graduate scholarly research groups. In addition, the authors believe that the platform will help in securing federal research environment funding.

Learned: This article was very technically advanced and the research went into great depth for broadband communications. The article however did not come across detailing with the use of jargon. There was some present which is to be expected however the authors made sure to translate with descriptions easing enough to understand. What I took away from this article is clearer understanding how cellular data transmits. Also the ability for smart phones to decipher the information being transmitted. These areas we take for granted but the technology to utilize these and even better them will raise the communication ability toward researching.

Title: Vocal Sight-Reading Assessment: Technological Advances, Student Perceptions, and Instructional Implications

URL: Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, v33 n2 p58-64 May 2015. 7 pp.

APA: Henry, M. (2015). Vocal Sight-Reading Assessment: Technological Advances, Student Perceptions, and Instructional Implications. Update: Applications Of Research In Music Education, 33(2), 58-64.

Category: Advanced Technology (Classroom tools)


Summary: This study was geared toward choral singer students and it analyze their comfort with using computers to vocal-sight read. Not only were the students required to utilize this new technology they were also assessed both with a pre-test and a post-test. The study comparison based findings on the comfort level of each student and how that comfort level compared to live assessments. The under lining resource within the article is the ability to record voice on computer and allow it to be assessed. Utilizing a computer for such an art based focus is becoming more popular and substantial.

Learned: The influence of how being in front of a live assessment was less stressful than utilizing a private voice read with a computer. The digital based platform was not as accepted as a live instructor assessment. It seems the IT approach is valid and reliable. Where the problem exists is within the performance factor. This is human factor where inspiration and passion will be highlighted. In a closed off venue with no immediate feedback the artists seemed to feel uncomfortable. However, given time and practice I believe a solid comfortable level of acceptance would be achieved.

As someone who enjoys technology and the advantages that it allows us there are times I think it can also be a burden. Not that it is hard to manipulate or use but more so toward the overall perceived benefits it can offers us. As an instructor I feel that I must constantly challenge myself to become familiar of the newest and next best technology advancements. This is usually my undoing. So, for this assignment I want to streamline my ambitions and allow myself the freedom of not over thinking.
I began by choosing wide range of relative criteria for my intended search outcomes. For example, instead of a search titling "new educational technology for University of Central Florida" I would search a wider criteria titling; "county and district educational requirements". Taking this approach allowed me to create a breadcrumb path that I could expand upon as well as retreat within to find pertinent information.
Overall the subject matter for the searches allowed for accessing wonderful scholarly articles very easily. Some of these sources presented great resources others were more theory based and offered very little in practical approaches. Mostly, I searched for newer technology adaptations; I wanted to concentrate on the ISTE standard "Model digital age work and learning". So I started searching "current technology tools within education" within the UCF online library engine. I was trying to acquire a journal or article written and published through UCF. However, I did not find many articles within search; what I did find was an online resource written by R.J. Marquez. His electronic resource offered a look into pro and cons toward technology and the use of technology as an accepted well developed model. This article leads me to continue my search within the UCF library toward more educational tools focused on current trends. So, the next search I inputted into the database was for anything dealing with virtual reality and how it could be implemented in to an educational model. A few articles came up; one that was authored by a handful of universities caught my eye it is titled "Making Learning Fun: Quest Atlantis, A Game Without Guns" (Barab, Thomas, Dodge, Carteaux, Tuzun, 2005). This article goes into a descriptive analyzation of a particular game used for educational pedagogy by utilizing a virtual world as well as persona. This interests me because it touched on sociotechnical structures that are aimed at engagement and solid participation. Much of preparing a proper teaching model is taking into account many outside factors that can affect transference with an intended intervention.
Although, the articles were enlightening I want to also test the search within a popular search engine such as Google or Google Scholar. I again searched with "virtual reality (VR) in education", as this title was intended to narrowed the search. However, within Google Scholar the result was vast over one million. Therefore, I narrowed the search by "time selecting" only current articles within 2017. This did lessen the results, although the majority of articles were geared toward more medical training. Although. As I continued to look further within the results. I did find several on standard k-12 level education, which informative and well developed.
Having the Google search in hand I thought I had a good amount of references developed from scholarly articles so geared the same search criteria toward web sources.
With the same title for searching I input the criteria into the normal Google engine; my intention was to find some websites with extensions such as .edu, .org, .gov, etc. I was truly surprised at how many I actually found. Author Elizabeth Mann from tech tank was one result the site was a .edu and provided information pertaining to the readiness of k-12 schools in order to implement virtual reality tools into pedagogy. From the site I gained mixed reviews for utilizing VR most opinions from the source called it ubiquitous and overzealous. Perhaps the models they chose to review were not compelling enough to prove beneficial. Overall, most educational resources that I searched shed some light on the subject. Some were pro and others con, yet that is what I set out to find. With research you should not try and create an alternative result swayed by one's belief; we as instructors should try and stay open to all input. That way we can take what we want and leave what do not want without having created a bias environment.
Having been given this assignment dealing with researching and reflecting I have been humble in away. I have been in a master's program for two years plus a certificate program as well and all this time researching only one way. I would look for reference solely to support my opinion. In most cased I would stop reading a particular finding and look for an alternate just because it was not supporting my intended outcome. With this particular project, I found that if you can utilize all information and read carefully you can provide a better finding. Overall, I believe that my best results came from the UCF library search. It offered complete articles with professional authors as well as rich content that could be considered current and reliable.

References
Mann, E. (2016) Is Virtual Reality Ready for School. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2016/09/01/is-virtual-reality-ready-for-school/ retrieved Jan 26, 2017
Marquez, R. J. (2011). A cultural-historical activity theory analysis of factors affecting technology adoption by higher education program faculty. [electronic resource]. Orlando, FL University of Central Florida, 2011
Barab, S., Thomas, M., Dodge, T., Carteaux, R., & Tuzun, H. (2005). Making Learning Fun: Quest Atlantis, A Game Without Guns. Educational Technology Research and Development, 53(1), 86-107. doi:10.1007/BF02504859

Visual online collaboration for creative and remote teams to get projects from initial idea to final approval.

An abstract dealing with Implications for transforming distance learning.