Group items tagged

half of the requirement for this class.

I was given this gift: show your students the importance of reflection. 

There was absolutely nothing about my course learning activities that was learner-centered, or, one could argue, learning-centered!  I was being extremely teacher-centered in my approach! 

  Because of that, I need to embrace these tools, explore new ideas, and for goodness sake- think about the STUDENT.

the more effort you put into it, the more successful you’ll be.

One thought I had, as I look forward to getting a PhD, is that theories come from practice which means that theories about online learning come from individuals creating courses, teaching courses, and collecting feedback from courses over and over and then after all of that work is finished, turning right around and working at analyzing the data, and attempting to answer research questions.  In order to have credible research, the questions must be relevant, the measures must be valid and thorough, and the analyses of results must be comprehensive. 

Reflective Writing: I have to admit, at the beginning of the course I thought the blogging activities were just busy work.  I viewed the assignments as busy work, and treated my entries as such.  As time ticked on, I started getting into the blogs and realizing that it was my personal space in which I could reflect on my work on my course and my learning throughout the week/module.  So much of life and learning in school is sort of thrown at you, and if you don’t take the time to intentionally deconstruct the events and make sense of them, then you’ll never grow and improve.  I’d rather grow.

If I don’t place intentional emphasis on something (like making it worth a portion of their grade) then I am sending a message that it’s not important. 

Nothing should be an accident or “just because” in the online teaching environment. 

Students don’t want their time wasted.

June 20th, 2011

This includes the feedback I so diligently write on their assignments.

I honestly don’t see how all of this technology has necessarily improved life for the poor, the hungry, and the uneducated

design.

module 1

  In this class, i had to wrap my head that I have to design a course that the student is responsible for their learning with me as a facilitator. 

 I have so many ideas that I have learned from this course that I want to implement them all into my class.  But, I really need to stand back and reflect.  The most I got from this class is all the information that everybody shared on diigo.com and in their discussions.  I am very proud of everybody’s  contribution to my education and their own.  I loved how everybody had a share in the teaching presence and how Alex facilitated the learning.  This was an an excellent example of an effective student-centered learning environment.

. Apply strategies for identifying and solving routine hardware and software problems that occur during everyday use. 2. Demonstrate knowledge of current changes in information technologies and the effect those changes have on the workplace and society. 3. Exhibit legal and ethical behaviors when using information and technology, and discuss consequences of misuses. 4. Use content-specific tools, software, and simulations to support learning and research. 5. Apply productivity/multimedia tools and peripherals to support personal productivity, group collaboration, and learning throughout the curriculum. 6. Design, develop, publish, and present products using technology resources that demonstrate and communicate curriculum concepts to audiences inside and outside of the classroom. 7. Collaborate with peers, experts, and others using telecommunications and collaborative tools to investigate curriculum-related problems, issues, and information, and to develop solutions or products for audiences inside and outside of the classroom. 8. Select and use appropriate tools and technology resources to accomplish a variety of task and solve problems. 9. Demonstrate an understanding of concepts underlying hardware, software, and connectivity, and of practical applications to learning and problem solving. 10. Research and evaluate the accuracy, relevance, appropriateness, comprehensiveness, and bias of electronic information sources concerning real-world problems. I do believe that these standards should assist the students in either online or face-to-face class to succeed with learning.  I am actually going to observe and take notes of my 8th graders to see how many standards that they can achieve. I had a great summer learning and being challenged to do my best at learning.

Does good teaching in the classroom translate to good teaching online? If so, what elements can be translated and which ones can't or shouldn't?

"The shared mantra of the faculty and staff during the development of this document was that "good teaching is good teaching!" An Emerging Set of Guiding Principles... is less about distance education and more about what makes for an effective educational experience, regardless of where or when it is delivered."

Good practice encourages student-faculty contact. Good practice encourages cooperation among students. Good practice encourages active learning. Good practice gives prompt feedback. Good practice emphasizes time on task. Good practice communicates high expectations. Good practice respects diverse talents and ways of learning.

Frequent student-faculty contact in and out of class is the most important factor in student motivation and involvement. Faculty concern helps students get through rough times and keep on working. Knowing a few faculty members well enhances students' intellectual commitment and encourages them to think about their own values and future plans.

At first glance, teaching a class without the ability to see and hear the students in person appears daunting. The enlightened, quizzical, or stony facial expressions, the sighs of distress or gasps of wonder, and even the less-than-subtle raised hands or interjected queries that constitute immediate feedback to a lecture, discussion, or clinical situation are absent. Yet the proponents of online instruction will argue that these obstacles can be overcome, and that the online format has its own advantages. In the online experiences documented in the "Net.Learning" (www.pbs.org/netlearning/home.html) videotape, which our seminar viewed early in the year, Peggy Lant of the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo presented a striking example that occurred in her class' online discussion of civil war. One student's comments were especially gripping as she had just survived a civil war in her home country. Shy students who have trouble participating in a classroom discussion are said to feel more comfortable in an online setting. The ability to sit and think as one composes a question or comment also can raise the quality of the discussion. Susan Montgomery at the University of Michigan has developed an interactive website that addresses diverse learning styles through the use of multimedia (Montgomery, 1998).

Teachers, trainers, and professors with years of experience in classrooms report that computer networking encourages the high-quality interaction and sharing that is at the heart of education. ...(The) characteristics of online classes... generally result in students' contributing material that is much better than something they would say off the top of their heads in a face-to-face class. There is a converse side, however. Just after the passage above, Harasim cautions (Harasim et al. 1995) On the other hand, unless the teacher facilitates the networking activities skillfully, serious problems may develop. A conference may turn into a monologue of lecture-type material to which very few responses are made. It may become a disorganized mountain of information that is confusing and overwhelming for the participants. It may even break down socially into name calling rather than building a sense of community.

At what cost is this high degree of interaction, the need for which we suspect is student motivation and the professor's (online) attentiveness, achieved? In the previous section it was noted that charismatic professors of large (several hundred student) classes might indeed reach and motivate the students in the back row by intangible displays of attentiveness. Online, attentiveness must be tangible, and may involve more effort than in a face-to-face setting. These considerations imply an inherent limitation of online class size; size is determined by the amount of effort required to form a "community of learners."

Small class sizes and the linear dependence of effort on student numbers are indicative of the high level of interaction needed for high quality online teaching

The best way to maintain the connection [between online education and the values of traditional education] is through ensuring that distance learning is 'delivered' not just by CD ROMs, but by living teachers, fully qualified and interested in doing so online ... [P]repackaged material will be seen to replace not the teacher as a mentor and guide but the lecture and the textbook. Interaction with the professor will continue to be the centerpiece of education, no matter what the medium.

and Ronald Owston, who points out (Owston, 1997) "...we cannot simply ask 'Do students learn better with the Web as compared to traditional classroom instruction?' We have to realize that no medium, in and of itself, will likely improve learning in a significant way when it is used to deliver instruction. Nor is it realistic to expect the Web, when used as a tool, to develop in students any unique skills."

Facilitating Online Courses: A Checklist for Action The key concept in network teaching is to facilitate collaborative learning, not to deliver a course in a fixed and rigid, one-way format. Do not lecture. Be clear about expectations of the participants. Be flexible and patient. Be responsive. Do not overload. Monitor and prompt for participation. For assignments, set up small groups and assign tasks to them. Be a process facilitator. Write weaving comments every week or two... Organize the interaction. Set rules and standards for good netiquette (network etiquette)... Establish clear norms for participation and procedures for grading... Assign individuals or small groups to play the role of teacher and of moderator for portions of the course. Close and purge moribund conferences in stages... Adopt a flexible approach toward curriculum integration on global networks.

Table 2. Survey responses – rating-scale item (N = 22) Question Very Easy (1) Easy (2) No Problems (3) Some Issues (4) Very Difficult (5) 6. How difficult was it to create your VoiceThread account? 19 3 0 0

Table 3.Survey responses – open-ended item (N = 18) Question Comments 7. Anything you would like to share about VoiceThread? Positive comments (n = 12) "Very easy and convenient." "I think that once I was able to get into the system it was easy to use. Now I need to understand why the mic[rophone] does not work, maybe my laptop." "It was actually very interesting to learning [sic] how to use VoiceThread. It was something different." "I like the way I can participate by using text. As English is my second language, speaking is really difficult for me. Also, VoiceThread is really easy and simple to use." "It was really easy to navigate and use." "VoiceThread was very easy to use and it could be beneficial in the future." "VoiceThread is easy and pretty interesting!" "I like that it is very easy to use." "It seems like a good tool to utilize for some classes." "Easy to navigate and good review before the exam." "Never done it before but I think it's pretty good tool." "Seems like a great tool we can use." Comments expressing reservations (n = 4) "I think it was very easy to figure out. My hesitation about using in the future for a course to do a presentation or recommending my peers to use it is that I don't really know much about it so that is why I responded no to those questions. I don't know how to add graphics and things of that nature like on PowerPoint." "VoiceThread is easy to register [on]. However, I'm not too sure about making a presentation." "I think it's a good form of technology. It's not my first choice of communication though. Plus if you're typing your answer the font is super small, not sure if I can change this setting." "[There needs to be a] bigger text box" Unfavorable comments (n = 2) "I do not like the interface of the VoiceThread ... [The interface] makes it hard to use on anything besides a computer." One student found it slightly difficult to "figure out how to answer the questions or how to comment on others' answers."