2009 Fall ETC647

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.

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.

I really tried to make these lessons collaborativev and project-based. The success of the learners relies heavily on discussion between the learners and their collaboration as a group and a class. Although I chose some technologies that support the facilitation of discussion and group work (Google Groups and wiki) I feel that I could have chosen some that were more appropriate, such as Diigo annotation. I would also like participants to locate resources to share through Delicious. I was/am worried about overwhelming teachers that have little experience with different tools that I might overwhelm them. Perhaps if this was a more extensive unit I could introduce some of the other tools. The goal of the unit was for teachers to experience the connective nature of social media technologies so that they may better integrate them into their own classroom. Working together they would have the opportunity to create lessons through distributed learning on distributed learning for use in their own classrooms. I hope that I am able to use this unit with teachers in my school to help them find new ways to integrate technology into their lessons. I think that the assessment/evaluation was also a good model of how teachers could create their own when evaluating their own studenst.

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

I would have liked to include more NLE tools such as Diigo, Delicious, or Facebook. I didn't include one of these tools because I didn't want the learners to become overwhlemed with multiple sites. I don't have any experience with Google Groups, but I decided to use it as an NLE tool in this unit. The decision was based on keeping Google tools integrated for ease of use. I think that perhaps using Diigo, or another networking site, might have been a better choice for this unit. I think my unit could be utliize more connectivist strategies. It was difficult finding a balance between giving the learners the background they needed to complete the unit and the right amount of connectivist experiences. I would like some ideas on how to make the unit align more to connectivist strategies.

Nasreen, I am sorry I did not share my ideas with you after I reviewed your unit plan. I must apologize for keeping you waiting. The activities in your unit plan are very well balanced and include a variety of techniques for their completion. Nice job! The technology you used (Google Doc) is very user-friendly especially for younger learners (6th graders, for example). You managed to use Google site to host both the course and student discussion. That was great! Navigation is also easy. The main strengths of your unit are the variety of activities planned. These activities also focus on students, which is great. Instructions are crystal clear and focused on connectivism. Titles are captivating and lessons are well sequenced containing different material formats. Overall, the unit has been very well planned, the objectives are also met, and I am confident the unit can be implemented in many contexts. Congratulations!

Thanks for your feedback Moussa!

Wahid. It was a great pleasure for me to go through your unit. It is well planned and and designed, not only for the learning content but also the site design itself. Color strategy, space use and allocation are excellent. I am sure your learners will find your site to be user friendly and appealing to engage in, and explore the great activities that you have set out for them. Navigating your site is a breeze and appropriate for the age of your learners (6th grade) and most probably that is why you have chosen your links for efficiency since kids can easily get confused if their learning environment is complex. Your site makes good use of webcasts, wikis, Googlesites, etc to enhance dialogue and most importantly to enhance connectivism. Discussions create conducive collaborative environment which has helped to enhance constructivist theory of learning. The instructor evaluates learners progress through assignment submissions. Wahid, I really liked your site. Great job!

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.

This NLE has two main goals: first to softly teach NLE skills such as wiki, Delicious and Blogging so that teachers will be comfortable with these skills and understand their use for teaching. Second to use NLE applications to collaborate in designing a new Internet Safety Curriculum for our high school students. The three manin connectivism priciples used in this project are 1) that learning rests in the diversity of opinions. A group of teachers will collaborate together sharing their knowledge, research and personal opinion. 2) The ability to nurture and maintain connections. Many times teachers get into their classrooms and operate independantly. This project allows for teachers and administrators to work together toward a common goal and to solve a school wide issue. The third connectivism principal addressed in this project is decision making is a learning process itself. Working as a team to decide what material is appropriate and what activities will work the best to teach Internet safety skills.

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

One weakness of this unit is that it was not tested by faculty. The faculty recruited did not complete the test prior to when it needed to be posted. Second, the assessment is difficult to create. The real assessment of how well the curriculum is designed will be what the students take away from the Internet Safety lessons. This project does not get quite that far in the development process. I should have added a student assessment section to the plan. The third weakness is that teachers helping to create this curriculum might not transfer their new knowiedge of NLE to their own lessons. The connection might not be strong enough.

Hello Doug, I really enjoyed your unit/site. I love the idea of using network learning to assist teachers in learning about network learning and integrating it into their curricula. I particularly liked your strategy of asking teachers to think about how they currently use technology for learning (prior knowledge), before introducing new technologies. Referencing prior knowledge before introducing new concepts is an excellent adult learning strategy. I also like using iGoogle to create a class NLE and giving all classmembers the same login and password. Another aspect that I think it great is that you included the NAU ETC link in your profile; this will lead teachers to more information about technology integration. Outstanding! I will post further feedback on content, integrated technologies, instructional technologies and evaluations -- one post for each of these 4 areas.

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 just barely made it in my opinion with Connectivism if I understand the theory correctly. One thing that I did fail to integrate in this unit is group activities that led to continued prospectives for learning. One of the things that I did incorporate, however, were peer reviews and response questions on specific assignments. Although mediocre compared to some other tools, the peer review documents I used as assessment in this unit come in two formats. One was reviewing the various information in papers on the various learning theories,which exposes the adult learners to multiple perspectives on similar topics which may increase their learning and approaches to a specific topic/subject. The other document was used to determine if learning had occurred based on student samples. This is quite distinctive because it allows for the adult learner to learn information and perspectives from the students and not fellow colleagues. I have also requested that the adult learners peer review various projects in the module. Not only does this expose the adult learners to the various individual interpretations of the assignments, it also exposes them to the various usages of certain tools. I have also required that the adult learners use Twitter,blogs, wikis,etc to find useful information for papers. Although these are not professional sources, it again exposes the adult learners to the various interpretations of topics, concepts, etc from various individuals in society, not just colleagues. Examples in the Unit *Philosophy of Education Peer Review *Learning Theory Paper utilizing various social networks, blogs, wikis, forums, Delicious, Wikipedia,etc - access to information through various nodes, opinions, examples, interpretations,etc - peer review *Creation of a Social Network using Ning -allows for the adult learners to create an environment where the students can collectively learn from each other -using Twitter t

At first I thought the video of this old guy was kind of different. Then it was interesting in the fact that here was this old guy embracing technology in a way that education has yet to do. It made a powerful point.

Hi, Thanks Mr. Gilbert. I too found this video quite powerful because I know his age cohort probably had no idea that such tools would even exist. Although some of the baby boomers,etc may resist technology, I guess it still doesnt change that we live in a society that is built around a common factor, technology. In my opinion, its no longer an option to know and effectively understand technology, it is a necessity. Thanks. Mary

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

Although my unit is focused on Higher Education professionals, I feel that I failed to provide a strong foundation for the unit. Even though some Higher Education professionals have PhDs,EdDs,etc, when it comes to effectively utilizing technology, you must provide the basics as if the professionals were a "blank slate." Although I expected the professionals to have a high level of computer literacy, there may be some professionals who don't have a high literacy for computers, but may still like to use web-based tools. Access to numerous tutorials for the various accounts I required to be created would have been reasonable since the adult learners would have to effectively use these tools to create the various products in the module. If you can't effectively use the tools, I shouldnt expect for effective products to be created either. Another weakness was the time to complete the assignments. If it takes us students two weeks to complete certain assignments that we have a reasonable background in, for individuals just beginning, two weeks wouldn't be enough to complete all the assignments adequately in each module. The assignments could be rushed, and the assessments may not reflect the true potential of the adult learner. Finally, I feel that I asked the adult learners to utilize too many potentially difficult technology and web-based tools during their stages of learning that could produce many moments of frustration and confusion.