The Blog of the Instructional Systems Student Association at Florida State University

Welcome!

Our next ISSA event will be a Holiday Potluck at Dr. Keller’s home.

When: December 6, 2008

Time: 5:30pm, dinner served at 6:00pm

Where: 9705 Waters Meet Drive, Tallahassee, FL 32312

A potluck is a dinner event where each person attending is responsible to bring a dish of his or her choice. This could range from curry wings to maccaroni and cheese. The fun is in trying a variety of dishes from different cultures. If cooking is not your style, feel free to bring a beverage or paper goods, specifically plates or utencils.

Please respond to this post by adding a comment with the following information:

1. Your name and amount of guests attending
2. Name and description of dish, beverage, or paper good you will bring
3. Estimation of how much it will serve

Just got an email from Tristan that  Jennifer Myers and Iskandaria Masduki  were notified that they are Finalists in this years PacifiCorp Competition at AECT.

Congrats ladies and good luck in Orlando!!

Following on the heels of the Distance Learning orientation in Second Life, the on-campus Fall Orientation for the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems held on Thursday (August 21, 2008) enjoyed similar success. New students from the three program areas in the Department (Educational Psychology, Instructional Systems and Psychological Services) began the event by mingling with current students, faculty and staff in the Medical School’s atrium, while enjoying good food and even better energy.

After filing into the Medical School’s auditorium, Dr. Marcy Driscoll, our esteemed Department Dean, kicked off the event formally by sharing some interesting facts about the Department. Did you know that our department is the first in the university in graduate education? Did you know that our department graduates more masters than any other in the university? Also, the Department ranks second in the number of PhDs graduates. For more information on the Department, please check the main EPLS site at http://www.epls.fsu.edu/.

After an introduction to faculty and staff in the department’s programs and a general Q&A session, the new graduate students in Instructional Systems were able to check out the status of ongoing renovations at the Stone Building by attending break-out sessions that were meant to focus specifically on details of the IS program. The masters’ session was led by Dr. Tristan Johnson. His handout is provided here in pdf format.

Following the breakouts, the new graduate students met one more time in the Medical School atrium to enjoy sub sandwiches and cookies and then broke for the afternoon. Later, at least six tables full of students attended a lively social at Applebee’s.

Click here to view the pictures from orientation and the social.

Welcome, to all the new students- distance and face-to-face! Please feel free to use this forum to raise questions or start threads on concerns, issues or thoughts you may have about the program. If you attended either the online or face-to-face orientation and have some suggestions or thoughts to share, please feel free to note them here, or email us at coe-issa@fsu.edu.

We look forward to learning and working with you – the ISSA Executive Committee.

Well, today’s social could have gotten off to a better start. It seems Second Life picked today, at precisely the time we had planned to start the social, to have database problems. The problems were so bad that Second Life disabled logins, meaning anyone who wasn’t already “in-world” could not log in.

Eventually, a few of us met near the waterfalls on ASTD island for a nice chat. Dr. Jeong was able to visit, and speak with one of the incoming Doctoral students. Afterwards, a couple of people came back to my beach house for drinks!

Overall it was a positive experience. The issues we had point out the need to really design and think about technology - and backups for the technology. Those technical glitches always seem to happen at the worst possible moment. Being able to be in an interactive environment was a very nice way to meet new people before classes start.

We also have to thank ASTD for allowing us to use their island. I am a member, and getting their journal (Training and Development Magazine) has been worth the cost of membership to me.

When should we do this again? If you are a student, especially a distance student, would you be interested in holding meet-ups on a regular basis in Second Life? Post your thoughts in the comments!

I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures I took of the event. Till next time!

Please help us welcome the incoming IS students by joining us on the ASTD Island in Second Life Wednesday, August 20, 2008 from 7 – 8 PM EDT for an Orientation Social.

The event is open to all IS students, faculty, and alumni. If you are a current or former distance student, please drop by and show some support to incoming students.

Social Agenda: Location:
7:00 - 7:15: Mingle ASTD Amphitheater
7:15 – 7:30: Welcome by ISSA ASTD Amphitheater
7:30 – 7:45: Welcome by faculty ASTD Amphitheater
7:45 – 8:00 – Mingle ASTD Campfire

If you don’t have a Second Life account, please sign up here.

Once you are signed up, send an containing your Second Life name email to:
Gina Minks gminks at comcast dot net (aka Monet Baroque) or Issy Masduki iskandaria at gmail dot com (aka Sayuri Savira), or leave a comment on this post.

We strongly suggest going through ASTD’s Second Life orientation prior to the social. This will help you know how to maneuver through SecondLife in time for Wednesday’s social. Email Issy or Gina if you need help. Or, just leave a comment here!

Hope to see you Wednesday evening.

ISSA will be hosting a new student reception on the ASTD island in Second Life (a detailed post will follow soon).

Gina Minks and Issy Masduki will be facilitating the reception.  We are known as Monet Baroque and  Sayuri Issy in Second Life.

Are you in Second Life? Leave us your name in the comments!

This is just the first post to kick things off. Stay tuned as we flesh out the site.