5410 - Week 7 - R/D13

At first I thought an electronic training jacket would be something like a ninja suit that would move your arms and legs to train your muscles how to do kung fu… but my hopes were shattered when I actually read the paragraph. However, if something like this could be implemented it would be pretty cool if the computer could spit out different lessons plans for different people what would still get them to the same skill level at the end of the training. I would worry about this getting in the wrong hands though. I would image learning how someone works would be a great loophole in interrogation or even the training of the enemy. So, even though I will not be able to be the next karate kid by just wearing a special jacket for a few hours a day, I think that the ETJ is still the thing that I went “that’s so neat” about.

I think my favorite activity of the semester was setting up my blog and making it look pretty. Although my aspirations of getting rich off my ads did not seem to work out, I had fun learning about it. Putting the new gadgets in and having a sure audience was a nice incentive to learn about blogging. I cannot however think of a reason that I would continue to use my blog after this class. I don’t think anyone would take the time to look at it and everyone I know is on facebook (including my mom :/), so anything that I would want to post would go there. I really don’t have a need to write about my thoughts, feelings or daily events at this point in my life, so I don’t think easy posting system on blogger would be of any use to me.

I also liked that this class gave the chance to explore some of the new technology out there that I have been meaning to look into but never really seemed to have the time to do. Although I failed miserably at building anything even remotely structurally sound on Google Sketchup, it is still nice to know what it is all about. It is amazing how far technology has come. I wonder what I would have done if all of this was available to me as a child. Even now I wonder what I would do with all of my spare time if I did not have the internet or a computer to captivate 70% of my awake time in life. When I had jury duty there was a pack of us hoarding the outlets and hopping from window to window hoping to be able to latch onto the Radissons free wireless signal (with no luck I might add). I wonder what things will look like in 10 years. Maybe there is still hope for my ninja suit!


Reiser, R. & Dempsey, J. (2007). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (2nd ed.). Prentice Hall.