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Common Question I: Aligned Connectivism Principles Please discuss three most important strategies of NLE/PLE in your unit, identify what aligned Connectivism principle(s) are, and discuss the assessments you integrate. Remember NLE/PLE strategies are not your contents or "technologies," such as wiki, discussion board etc. It is the integrated soft technologies. If you don't remember Connectivism principles, please review our Lesson 1 readings. Hint: be sure to include four components of technology integrations: Content; Technology; Instructional Strategies; Assessment.

Common Question II: Weaknesses Please discuss three weaknesses of your unit. Please specific. Hint: focus on technology, instructional strategies, and assessments.

Common Question I: Aligned Connectivism Principles Please discuss three most important strategies of NLE/PLE in your unit, identify what aligned Connectivism principle(s) are, and discuss the assessments you integrate. Remember NLE/PLE strategies are not your contents or "technologies," such as wiki, discussion board etc. It is the integrated soft technologies. If you don't remember Connectivism principles, please review our Lesson 1 readings. Hint: be sure to include four components of technology integrations: Content; Technology; Instructional Strategies; Assessment.

My unit is developed to enable teachers to integrate technology in learning, especially the new technologies - the web 2.0 - in the online teaching. Therefore, to demonstrate this factor the learners are engaged in learning content which is basically technology, the web 2.0 technology they will be learning to use. Some of these technologies include Diigo, Mywebspiration, Zotero, Google-documents, Delicious, iGoogle among others. Connectivism theory is a major ingredient of the unit. The learners connect and learn from one another in groups; each learner brings his or her understanding of the assignment tasks to share with other group members as well as the resources. Secondly, the learners are engaged in the pursuit of the "the wisdom of the crowds" (though limited to course mates) to advance their learning. To harness the goal of "the wisdom of the crowd" the learners are engaged in "user content generation" to develop their assignments. In fact that that is why there are no specific rubrics for each lesson. Constructivist theory is embedded in the unit in the form collaborative tasks that allow learners to bring their understanding of unit tasks to "the table" for sharing. The learner are not tabila rasa (empty slates) when they begin this unit and as such their understanding and knowledge on the tasks is crucial to successful implementation of the unit goal and lesson objectives. Instructional strategies are directed by unit goal and lesson objectives. The most important strategy in the unit is the implicit understanding that learning is about learner participation, exploration, discovery and creating meaning of their learning process. Assessment in this unit is based on the pretest and post-test of learners based on the unit goal and lesson objectives which can be viewed at the beginning and the end the end of the unit respectively. However, the instructor will review group and individual assignments to offer guidance to the learners (who

Chih, Melissa was unable to post her responses so she asked me to do it for her. My unit is developed to help teachers learn proper ways to instruct students on internet research. To do this, I incorporate many web 2.0 tools, such as GoogleSites, GoogleGroups, GoogleSidewiki, Delicious, Wordle, and more to engage students in learning the content. My content and instruction is developed based on connectivist theory where students must work in groups, or as a team to construct knew knowledge from within themselves, rather than simply reading facts on a page. Each person will bring a unique perspective to the topic at hand, and will learn through discussion. Assessment is not explicitly stated, but is conducted through learner interaction. If students are present and participating, they have completed the requirements for the lesson. Due to the fact this is a professional development workshop, it is up to the participant to formulate their own understandings and seek help if they are confused.

My unit is developed to help teachers learn proper ways to instruct students on internet research. To do this, I incorporate many web 2.0 tools, such as GoogleSites, GoogleGroups, GoogleSidewiki, Delicious, Wordle, and more to engage students in learning the content. My content and instruction is developed based on connectivist theory where students must work in groups, or as a team to construct knew knowledge from within themselves, rather than simply reading facts on a page. Each person will bring a unique perspective to the topic at hand, and will learn through discussion. Assessment is not explicitly stated, but is conducted through learner interaction. If students are present and participating, they have completed the requirements for the lesson. Due to the fact this is a professional development workshop, it is up to the participant to formulate their own understandings and seek help if they are confused.

Common Question II: Weaknesses Please discuss three weaknesses of your unit. Please specific. Hint: focus on technology, instructional strategies, and assessments.

Posted on behalf of Melissa: My weakness is definitely in assessment. I formulated rubrics, but for some reason forgot to include them in my unit. I feel I incorporated successful instructional strategies and technology, but I failed to incorporate assessment other than reading the conclusions participants formulate as a team on the discussion boards.

My weakness is definitely in assessment. I formulated rubrics, but for some reason forgot to include them in my unit. I feel I incorporated successful instructional strategies and technology, but I failed to incorporate assessment other than reading the conclusions participants formulate as a team on the discussion boards.

Common Question I: Aligned Connectivism Principles Please discuss three most important strategies of NLE/PLE in your unit, identify what aligned Connectivism principle(s) are, and discuss the assessments you integrate. Remember NLE/PLE strategies are not your contents or "technologies," such as wiki, discussion board etc. It is the integrated soft technologies. If you don't remember Connectivism principles, please review our Lesson 1 readings. Hint: be sure to include four components of technology integrations: Content; Technology; Instructional Strategies; Assessment.

The unit is structured with little instructor guidance. The teachers are shown two tools but then use their own abilities to learn together creating an integrated curriculum lesson. The informal learning from the peers, using Web 2.0 tools, teamwork, and shared results, creates a NLE - one where continued use establishes a stronger learning community at Mansfeld MS. Content centers around a unit of three lessons each designed to require research, critical thinking, and decision making. The first two lessons explore and develop two Web 2.0 tools, iGoogle and Edu-Blogs. The third pulls in current teacher curriculum, requires analysis, and then integrates the two tools into usable lessons. I choose the technologies of network aggregation and blogging because they contain many of the Connectivism principles described by Siemens (2005). iGoogle requires the learner to analyze information resources for applicability. Through this learning process one develops an understanding for types and usefulness of information and the technology to connect to the source. Additionally, the teachers had to use critical thinking skills to choose the information nodes to use for their own class and, from collaboration, see and develop connections to fellow teacher's iGoogle. The use of Edu-Blogging technology furthers the connectivist principle of continual learning. Collaboration is the main learning strategy used in the lessons. Individual research is shared in group discussions. The teachers also presented their reasons for the decisions they made as to why they chose to include a node or blog in their product. Assessments are peer based. This creates further discussion of the purpose and appropriateness of final iGoogle, Blogging, and curriculum integration. It also builds a sense of teamwork through a share vision of why a tool is being used. Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. [online]. Retrieved December 4, 2009 from http:/

Common Question II: Weaknesses Please discuss three weaknesses of your unit. Please specific. Hint: focus on technology, instructional strategies, and assessments.

1) Assessments were left to the participants with out much for guidelines. The unit should have provided more information about what would be a good, better, and best result. 2) The instructional strategies were heavy on collaboration, and while there was work in doing online research, the value of information found was decided in a teamwork fashion. 3) The steps for using iGoogle were left to the instructor's demonstration. It would be better to include the steps in the lesson, especially if a teacher needed to do the lesson later without benefit of an instructor.

I am posting this on behalf of Melissa: Doug, I reviewed your first lesson in your Unit. I really like the way you incorporated the powerpoint into your presentation. It specifically detailed the goals of each activity in Lesson 1. Your lesson is on Web/Social Aggregators such as iGoogle. I like that you allow participants to log into your iGoogle, but I think they would benefit from creating one on their own. Your lesson also has three parts, of which only the first Activity seems to be detailed. Collaboration with others is mentioned, but never specifically detailed on how it will be conducted. The standards are detailed fully in your Unit Plan on task stream, but your implementation is confusing. I like your idea of teaching 21st century skills to teachers, but I think you could have incorporated more collaboration, web 2.0 tools, and assessment. I think you did a great job putting it all together, it just wasn't quite complete. Melissa

Common Question I: Aligned Connectivism Principles Please discuss three most important strategies of NLE/PLE in your unit, identify what aligned Connectivism principle(s) are, and discuss the assessments you integrate. Remember NLE/PLE strategies are not your contents or "technologies," such as wiki, discussion board etc. It is the integrated soft technologies. If you don't remember Connectivism principles, please review our Lesson 1 readings. Hint: be sure to include four components of technology integrations: Content; Technology; Instructional Strategies; Assessment.

Content; Overall the content focuses on creating useful and aesthetically pleasing virtual learning objects. language skills will progress though naturalistic engagement in the project (a number of different forms of communication including brainstorming, programming and presenting using different thematically connected language skills). Considering the 2 leels of learning please see my notes on technology below. Technology; The project uses collaborative wiki technology as well as Second life which, being a persistent online world with the ability to embed traditional text based CMC far outweighs many other formats in terms of providing a large variety of interaction methods (see answer to question 2 above). Furthermore the lesson revolves around creating virtual learning object will will also be used by future generations of learners as well as the constructors themselves. Thus we have published student work which contributes to learning and the learning of future students. Instructional Strategies; More linked to socio-cognitivism than connectivism (sorry i still cannot base pedagogy on something which I dont feel has gained a theory level of backing. There is no empirical evidence for connectivism and basing pedagogy on it would only serve to potentially hurt learners). Again we have a group created learning object project here which contibute to learning in their creation and finished project , working on 2 levels. Assessment. Assessment is peer, self and instructor based with a rather heavy weighting to peer based opposed to most classes. Additionally there is an added macro level element of assessment in that future generations of students will also be interacting with and using current student Second Life virtual classroom object creations. This I feel ads a nice level as students' object will be around for the remainder of the class and long after they are gone thus inspiring them to do their best.

Common Question II: Weaknesses Please discuss three weaknesses of your unit. Please specific. Hint: focus on technology, instructional strategies, and assessments.

Overall I would say the weakness in my unit would be given the short amount of time students have to compete it (roughly 1 month) I am not 100% sure they will be able to do this. Naturally I would need to pilot it and be flexible. In terms of language learning, I use a more communicative exposure method. R. Jones publishes a lot on this in interaction research and my own research has found online game mediums to be more linguistically interactive than traditional CMC. Perhpahs my unit would benefit from some direct language instruction, however I would need to base this off of an initial needs assessment done by students undertaking the project.

If one month is too short, how much time do you think your students need?

As I said above , the lesson would need to be properly piloted first (as all lessons generally do). I would estimate no longer than 1.5 months though,

Common Question I: Aligned Connectivism Principles Please discuss three most important strategies of NLE/PLE in your unit, identify what aligned Connectivism principle(s) are, and discuss the assessments you integrate. Remember NLE/PLE strategies are not your contents or "technologies," such as wiki, discussion board etc. It is the integrated soft technologies. If you don't remember Connectivism principles, please review our Lesson 1 readings. Hint: be sure to include four components of technology integrations: Content; Technology; Instructional Strategies; Assessment.

The first connectivism principle that my Unit plan includes is the opportunity for learners, in this case, in-service teachers to connect with each other with ease using different software applications. More specifically, when they use wiki to collaborate contents is a good strategy to keep learners connected. Another strategy is that building online libraries, using Delicious for example, help learners share useful materials without having to buy books. Learners become actively engaged in social bookmarking process as distributed learning and they become socially networked via social network sites to connect to relevant human learning resources. Next, when they write their lesson plan and use World to visualize their ideas, it is a core principle of connectivism which emphasizes that "utilizing visualization to examine data, such as tag clouds or Wordle Arts" is produces the "ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts." Finally, when learners review each other's lesson plan in groups, this allows them to make contributions to learning content and engage in collaborative and community learning activities for the first principle of connectivism sates: "Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions."

Unit Presentation: I designed this 6-week unit plan to give in-service teachers more opportunities to diversify their lesson delivery and content strategies for a number of reasons. First, commercial materials are very scarce in many schools For example, in my own country there is a ratio of one book for 30 students. The unit also aims at strengthening collaboration between teachers and students for a better outcome. I have included multiple technologies( VoiceThread, Wiki, and Delicious) to allow for connectivism principles to be used throughout the whole six weeks that the training will last. The unit comprises three lessons, one leson for every two weeks, a training outline, and groups space. Lesson 1 is essentially focused on Introductions of students and orientation. During this first lesson all students are required the mandatory training for each tool to be used during the training. Reading and discussions start with Lesson 2. Lesson 3 concludes with a survey at the end of training to ensure that this kind of training is/isn't worthwhile in the future.

Common Question II: Weaknesses Please discuss three weaknesses of your unit. Please specific. Hint: focus on technology, instructional strategies, and assessments.

My Unit plan is hypothetical and as such may not be implemented in any context. However, it can fit in many teaching and learning situations. For me, the most challenging aspect in putting together this unit plan is to marry the objectives with strategies and link everything to connectivism principles. I am not sure I have married each goal with an appropriate strategy and this may constitute another handicap. Finally, the course format that I chose may pose difficulty for technology low-skill ability learners in Africa. After I submitted, I thought a hybrid format could solve the problem. Otherwise, everything looks fine for me although I cannot see my back...

Common Question I: Aligned Connectivism Principles Please discuss three most important strategies of NLE/PLE in your unit, identify what aligned Connectivism principle(s) are, and discuss the assessments you integrate. Remember NLE/PLE strategies are not your contents or "technologies," such as wiki, discussion board etc. It is the integrated soft technologies. If you don't remember Connectivism principles, please review our Lesson 1 readings. Hint: be sure to include four components of technology integrations: Content; Technology; Instructional Strategies; Assessment.

Okay, thank you for the opportunity to answer the questions now. My three main NLE PLE strategies are: 1. Teamwork - using Elluminate to meet as a team in real time, using blog and voicethread for feedback, and using wiki page sites for team creation of product and presentation 2. Research - using Diigo and Delicious to share relevant discoveries and share information- at the same time creating PLE for study 3. Over-all strategy is to teach the principles by demonstrating how within the study and classwork so that they have an effective and powerful model and know how to integrate the technologies into their own lesson developments. The asessments are collaborative in nature and include self and peer assessments with an opportunity to revise work throughout. This allows for maximum learning.

as you can see, I like your style Chih =)

Common Question II: Weaknesses Please discuss three weaknesses of your unit. Please specific. Hint: focus on technology, instructional strategies, and assessments.

Three weaknesses: 1. Some data cannot be stored on the class wiki and will have to be housed separately and shared with students by email, like grades, contact information and so on. An advantage of a CMS is that you can track your personal progress a little easier because not everything is public information. Also the class wiki site could be altered by students or information possibly lost. 2. I needed to develop more evaluation rubrics - some for peer evaluation and map out how that would work a little more clearly. 3. I think 3 general synchronous class meetings would be helpful to clear up questions and demonstrate how to use technologies for those who need a visual example and the opportunity to ask questions in the learning process. (I only developed an example of the first meeting). These would be required (points given for attendance) but recorded for those who miss for unavoidable reasons.

Common Question I: Aligned Connectivism Principles Please discuss three most important strategies of NLE/PLE in your unit, identify what aligned Connectivism principle(s) are, and discuss the assessments you integrate. Remember NLE/PLE strategies are not your contents or "technologies," such as wiki, discussion board etc. It is the integrated soft technologies. If you don't remember Connectivism principles, please review our Lesson 1 readings. Hint: be sure to include four components of technology integrations: Content; Technology; Instructional Strategies; Assessment.

My unit centers around Connectivism principles that include diversity of opinions, nurturing and maintaining connections, currency, and the importance of decision making. This is accomplished around three main strategies, which include group collaboration and discussion, independent research and sharing of resources, and implementation and use of web 2.0 technologies. Content is designed to create an environment for learners to share experiences, resources and best practice methods. Group discussion and sharing of resources allows for expansion of content and also supports the Connectivism priniples of the unit. A variety of technology is used to address objectives and principles. Class is delivered through a wiki, which based on evaluation done earlier this semester supports most connectivism principles. Also a variety of Web 2.0 technologies are used including Social Bookmarking to provide for resources as well as expand resources through student use. Assessment is done through peer evaluation as well as submission of products to instructor for instructor evaluation.

Matt It was a great pleasure going through your unit. The introduction and use of a consistent structure for all the lessons is great. The links and directions to activities and assignments is well though out and focused. The content is delivered such that connectivism theory forms a base which informs unit goal and objectives. The learners connect with one another, use platforms which afford them opportunity to connect and interact with resources in a connective nature. Wiki, diigo and facebook are the platforms that you have cleverly woven together to create a rich learning environment which is not only connective but also collaborative; a hallmark of constructivism. Assessment is both instructor and peer-to-peer. Great job!

Thank you for your comments Josh!

Common Question II: Weaknesses Please discuss three weaknesses of your unit. Please specific. Hint: focus on technology, instructional strategies, and assessments.

One weakness I think of the unit is in Lesson 2 where students create their own wiki. I think that this area might have been stronger had I included more examples of wikis to go from as well as a stronger explanation of wikis and their benefits rather than have the learners pull this information from outside sources. A second weakness comes out of this unit as well and that is on assessment. I think that the assignemnt would be easier to understand and to develop had I created a rubric with stronger guidelines for the learners to follow that would be the basis of my assessment. I always provide rubrics for my students ahead of time in my classes and I don't know why I didn't think to add one here. It would go a long way in clarifying the assignment and providing a guideline from which to work with. Finally, I feel the facebook lesson is a little weak in terms of how I want the students to be involved and interacted. I had this really good idea in my head on how I wanted it to look. Almost like an alternate support site for the unit that is overseen and run by the learners. For some reason I had a difficult time translating that from my idea to my lesson. This is an area where I would spend sometime reassessing how I organize and present, before implementing the lesson in the future.