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Amy M

Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0 (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUC... - 0 views

shared by Amy M on 28 May 09 - Cached
  • 30 million people today qualified to enter a university who have no place to go. During the next decade, this 30 million will grow to 100 million. To meet this staggering demand, a major university needs to be created each week.
  • Open Educational Resources (OER) movement, which has provided free access to a wide range of courses and other educational materials to anyone who wants to use them.
  • Web 2.0,
    • jessica mascle
       
      ?
    • Amy M
       
      Web 1.0 was individuals accessing information.  Web 2.0 is the "social web."  Users focusing on social interaction rather than just getting conent.
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  • from access to information toward access to other people.
  • What do we mean by “social learning”?
  • e that our understanding of content is socially constructed through conversations about that content and through grounded interactions, especially with others, around problems or actions. The focus is not so much on what we are learning but on how we are learning.5
  • Students in these groups can ask questions to clarify areas of uncertainty or confusion, can improve their grasp of the material by hearing the answers to questions from fellow students, and perhaps most powerfully, can take on the role of teacher to help other group members benefit from their understanding (one of the best ways to learn something is, after all, to teach it to others).
    • Shoubang Jian
       
      The dichotomy between Cartesian and Social Learning is problematic, and this is one of the reasons why. If Social Learning still comes down to group learning from each other, it remains unclear what would be the "alternative" model of learning/teaching between group users, if not substance/pedagogy.
  • apprenticeship
  • But viewing learning as the process of joining a community of practice reverses this pattern and allows new students to engage in “learning to be” even as they are mastering the content of a field.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Schools of Ed/teacher prep programs are being charged with providing "clinically rich" programs that engage candidates more actively, earlier, and more frequently in their program of study. This is proving to be difficult to actualize in the current wave of APPR uncertainty.
  • open source movement
    • Shoubang Jian
       
      Open Source Project may be a model for building up knowledge base among devoted users who are willing to follow the "path" set by predecessors. It is quite another issue whether it is a model for education.
  • Digital StudyHall (DSH)
    • Shoubang Jian
       
      It's not clear in what sense this DSH method is an example of social learning.
  • We now need a new approach to learning—one characterized by a demand-pull rather than the traditional supply-push mode of building up an inventory of knowledge in students’ heads. Demand-pull learning shifts the focus to enabling participation in flows of action, where the focus is both on “learning to be” through enculturation into a practice as well as on collateral learning.
  • open participatory learning ecosystems
    • b malczyk
       
      Not only is it a matter of "if" such campuses are a possibility, but "should" such campuses be a priority. If online and distance education can yield at least comparable results to traditional academic settings, then their ease of accessibility and lower overhead costs warrant further exploration as a viable possibility.
  • “I think, therefore I am,” and from the assumption that knowledge is something that is transferred to the student via various pedagogical strategies, the social view of learning says, “We participate, therefore we are
  • provided students with opportunities to observe and then to emulate how experts function
    • b malczyk
       
      How does the open source idea fit with fields like medicine or chemistry where knowledge is less "socially constricted"? 
    • Amy M
       
      Open Source/Access research.  One of the problems right now is that the NIH or fed government will pay for research, but the public then had to pay for the results of that research.  We are paying for the same research twice.  Open Access Journals (see Harvard Memo) hopes to change this.
  • seeking the knowledge when it is needed in order to carry out a particular situated task.
    • b malczyk
       
      Knowledge that is obtained when "needed" then answers the famous question many high school students ask their teachers, "When will I ever use this?" 
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      I grew to see high school as a time for exposure to all disciplines in order to find what best suited one in preparation for college or the workplace. Now I am wondering if the multiplicity of disciplines will be "tailored" to fit the personal interests of the learner. Will differentiating for all eradicate the question Ben mentions?
  • all student writing was done on public blogs
    • b malczyk
       
      This form of education was also based on what could be called an industrial style of education. They education system became an extension of industry--students were passed along on the assembly line from one course to the next, year after year and came out a finished produce with similar skills and altitudes as their peers. Now education has and can become more narrow and niche based and less industrial.
  • This involves acquiring the practices and the norms of established practitioners in that field or acculturating into a community of practice.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      This is the model embraced by most teacher ed programs.
    • Amy M
       
      Which has its advantages and disadvantages. 
  • In this open environment, both the content and the process by which it is created are equally visible, thereby enabling a new kind of critical reading—almost a new form of literacy—that invites the reader to join in the consideration of what information is reliable and/or important.
  • And at the third level, any participant in Second Life could review the lectures and other course materials online at no cost. This experiment suggests one way that the social life of Internet-based virtual education can coexist with and extend traditional education.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Will the professions embrace as colleague one who excels in a non-credit course of study or will opportunities continue to be closed to those who don't present the "right" credentials?
  • Through these continuing connections, the University of Michigan students can extend the discussions, debates, bull sessions, and study groups that naturally arise on campus to include their broader networks. Even though these extended connections were not developed to serve educational purposes, they amplify the impact that the university is having while also benefiting students on campus.14 If King is right, it makes sense for colleges and universities to consider how they can leverage these new connections through the variety of social software platforms that are being established for other reasons.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      I am wondering if "leveraging" these networks will become a basis for funding in the case of state colleges and universities.
  • he site’s developers note: “We fundamentally believe that the new electronic environment and its tools enable us to revive the humanistic spirit of communal and collaboratively ‘playful’ learning of which the Decameron itself is the utmost expression.”
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      The notion of 'playful' learning is my ideal; this seems to be at odds with the test drill environment I am currently observing in grades 3 - 6. Currently, it seems as though there are two tracks developing in "Learning 2.0": assessment-driven and learner-driven.
  • As more of learning becomes Internet-based, a similar pattern seems to be occurring. Whereas traditional schools offer a finite number of courses of study, the “catalog” of subjects that can be learned online is almost unlimited. There are already several thousand sets of course materials and modules online, and more are being added regularly. Furthermore, for any topic that a student is passionate about, there is likely to be an online niche community of practice of others who share that passion.
  • that will support active, passion-based learning: Learning 2.0. This new form of learning begins with the knowledge and practices acquired in school but is equally suited for continuous, lifelong learning that extends beyond formal schooling.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Surely the content and skills currently being taught and assessed Pk-12 must give way to a new set of literacies.
  • In addition to supporting lecture-style teaching, Terra Incognita includes the capability for small groups of students who want to work together to easily “break off” from the central classroom before rejoining the entire class. Instructors can “visit” or send messages to any of the breakout groups and can summon them to rejoin the larger group.
  • CyberOne Classroom in Second Life
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    Social View of Learning
Heather Kurto

Making Sense of MOOCs: Musings in a Maze of Myth, Paradox and Possibility | Daniel | Jo... - 0 views

  • The first course carrying the name MOOC was offered in 2008, so this is new phenomenon. Second, the pedagogical style of the early courses, which we shall call cMOOCs, was based on a philosophy of connectivism and networking. This is quite distinct from the xMOOCs now being developed by elite US institutions that follow a more behaviourist approach. Third, the few academic studies of MOOCs are about the earlier offerings because there has been no time for systematic research on the crop of 2012 xMOOCs. Analysis of the latter has to be based on a large volume of press articles and blogs. Fourth, commentary on MOOCs includes thinly disguised promotional material by commercial interests (e.g. Koller, 2012) and articles by practitioners whose perspective is their own MOOC courses.
  • The term MOOC originated in Canada. Dave Cormier and Bryan Alexander coined the acronym to describe an open online course at the University of Manitoba designed by George Siemens and Stephen Downes. The course, Connectivism and Connective Knowledge, was presented to 25 fee-paying students on campus and 2,300 other students from the general public who took the online class free of charge (Wikipedia, 2012a).
  • Can xMOOCs make money?
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  • In 1841 the 'inventor of the blackboard was ranked among the best contributors to learning and science, if not among the greatest benefactors to mankind'. A century later, in 1940, the motion picture was hailed the most revolutionary instrument introduced into education since the printing press. Television was the educational revolution in 1957. In 1962 it was programmed learning and in 1967 computers. Each was labelled the most important development since Gutenberg's printing press.
  • technology has been about to transform education for a long time
  • But first, we agree with Bates (2012) that what MOOCs will not do is address the challenge of expanding higher education in the developing world. It may encourage universities there, both public and private, to develop online learning more deliberately, and OER from MOOC courses may find their way, alongside OER from other sources, into the teaching of local institutions.
  • With such support MOOCs provide a great opportunity to develop new pedagogy. In a world of abundant content, courses can draw from a pool of open educational resources (OER) and provide their students with better and more varied teaching than individual instructors could develop by themselves. The University of Michigan (2012) (which made history by using OER from Africa in its medical school) uses OER extensively in its Coursera course Internet History, Technology and Security. UC Berkeley (2012) draws extensively on OER in its course on Quantum Computing.
  • teaching methods 'are based on very old and out-dated behaviourist pedagogy, relying primarily on information transmission, computer-marked assignments and peer assessment'.
  • Another myth is that computers personalise learning. Bates (2012) again: 'No, they don't. They allow students alternative routes through material and they allow automated feedback but they do not provide a sense of being treated as an individual.
  • He notes (Siemens, 2012) that 'MOOCs are really a platform' and that the platforms for the two types of MOOC that we described at the beginning of the paper are substantially different because they serve different purposes. In Siemens' words 'our cMOOC model emphasises creation, creativity, autonomy and social networking learning.
  • pedagogy is not a familiar word on the xMOOC campuses. It is a myth that professors distinguished by their research output are competent to create online courses without help.
  • This, in turn, will put a focus on teaching and pedagogy to which these institutions are unaccustomed, which will be healthy. At the same time academics all around the world will make judgements about the intellectual quality and rigour of the institutions that have exposed themselves in this way.
  • With such support MOOCs provide a great opportunity to develop new pedagogy. In a world of abundant content, courses can draw from a pool of open educational resources (OER) and provide their students with better and more varied teaching than individual instructors could develop by themselves.
Alicia Fernandez

The Use of Alternative Social Networking Sites in Higher Educational Settings: A Case S... - 0 views

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    Study suggests that education -based SNSs can be used most effectively in distance education courses as a technological tool for improved online communications among students in higher distance education courses.
alexandra m. pickett

No Significant Difference Phenomenon Website - 0 views

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    No Significant Difference Phenomenon\n\nThis website has been designed to serve as a companion piece to Thomas L. Russell's book, "The No Significant Difference Phenomenon" (2001, IDECC, fifth edition). Mr. Russell's book is a fully indexed, comprehensive research bibliography of 355 research reports, summaries and papers that document no significant differences (NSD) in student outcomes between alternate modes of education delivery, with a foreword by Dr. Richard E. Clark. Previous editions of the book were provided electronically; the fifth edition is the first to be made available in print from IDECC (The International Distance Education Certification Center).
Lauren D

Benefits of Peer-Based Learning.pdf (application/pdf Object) - 0 views

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    Forums, online communities, and professional networks are these new learning environments, where people find and share information, collaborate and learn on demand. A significant challenge is to motivate people to participate in the knowledge-sharing and learning process. Especially in peer-based learning environments, where learning depends on the effort of all participants, it is essential to provide enough incentives to participate and share information with others." Implementing systems fostering trust through reputation can enhance the learning effectiveness, and provide alternatives for the traditional pedagogical approaches still in place in current e-learning courses. Formal education could profit from such new learning environments adopting these pedagogical approaches and related technical systems."
ian august

Can YouTube enhance student nurse learning? - 0 views

  • is
  • Constraints
  • Constraint
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  • students becoming powerful consumers of education and demanding up-to-date interesting and interactive models of teaching and support.
  • Hall (2010) acknowledges that there are benefits to technological approaches in teaching and learning, but rejects the idea that technology is a “panacea” for the netgen (net generation). Skiba (2007, p.100), however, strongly argues that these emerging technologies “will transform the way nursing education is offered” in the future.
  • Today's students are experienced in digital interaction from an increasingly early age
  • The first benefit to using YouTube in teaching and learning is that it is a recognised tool from the digital environment of the netgen
  • already being used as both an informal and formal learning tool by many
  • it can be accessed anywhere at any time.
  • students can engage with their learning at a time and place to suit them.
  • YouTube as a tool in the classroom can lead to increased engagement in several key ways.
  • keeps students' attention focused. This is especially pertinent in the digital era with the reducing attention span
  • visual methods of delivery is an established method of keeping material ‘memorable’
  • Therefore our students no longer need to trudge to the library and join a waiting list to access a suitable supporting material.
  • Kellner and Kim 2009 Kellner, D., Kim, G., 2009. YouTube, Critical Pedagogy and Media Activism: An Articulation. Accessed online at http://gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/2009_essays.html.Kellner and Kim (2009) confirm that UTers (YouTube users) who responded to a video either through text comments or video responses showed higher motivation in the discussion.
  • ouTube offers a medium to provide multiple viewpoints to provoke comparison within the lecture environment .
  • YouTube opens the door to find alternative representations of anything you might want to say
  • Freeman and Chapman, 2007 B. Freeman and S. Chapman, Is “YouTube” telling or selling you something? Tobacco content on the YouTube video-sharing website, Tobacco Control 16 (2007), pp. 207–210. Full Text via CrossRef | View Record in Scopus | Cited By in Scopus (27)Freeman and Chapman (2007) point to the risk of YouTube being used as a mode of subversive advertising and report on a wide range of underhand tactics used by tobacco companies to sponsor their products.
  • Kellner and Kim 2009 Kellner, D., Kim, G., 2009. YouTube, Critical Pedagogy and Media Activism: An Articulation. Accessed online at http://gseis.ucla
  • Therefore the role of the lecturer is to stimulate discussion
  • They describe this as the: ‘process of video postings as self education, UTers thus practice the pedagogy of learning-by-doing as “performative pedagogy” that they effectively engage in their everyday lives as a fundamental process of meaning-making’ (Kellner and Kim, 2009, p. 15).
  • Good techniques to use are presenting alternative sides of arguments and allowing discussions about the appropriateness of choices.
  • YouTube is a resource of user-generated content with no quality regulation
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    benefits of using youtube to learn, and some constraints
Joy Quah Yien-ling

Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century - 0 views

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    This white paper (Jenkins et al., 2006) identifies the three core challenges: the participation gap, the transparency problem and the ethics challenge, and shares a provisionary list of skills needed for full engagement in today's participatory culture.
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    We have also identified a set of core social skills and cultural competencies that young people should acquire if they are to be full, active, creative, and ethical participants in this emerging participatory culture: Play - the capacity to experiment with your surroundings as a form of problem-solving Performance - the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery Simulation - the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real world processes Appropriation - the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content Multitasking - the ability to scan one's environment and shift focus as needed to salient details. Distributed Cognition - the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities Collective Intelligence - the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal Judgment - the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources Transmedia Navigation - the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities Networking - the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information Negotiation - the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms.
Danielle Melia

Archived: What Are Promising Ways to Assess Student Learning? - 0 views

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    New forms of student assessment are designed to demonstrate what students are learning and what they can do with their knowledge. Known variously as "alternative" or "more authentic" measures, these assessments require students to "perform" in some way--by writing, demonstrating, explaining, or constructing a project or experiment--so they are also called "performance-based" tests.
Lauren D

Increasing Student Interaction in Your Online Course - 0 views

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    create a Dear Abby discussion forum in your online course that allows students to post problems they may be having with a particular concept or assignment assign a few new students to the role of Abby each week and have them respond directly to any peer questions encourage other students in class to confirm "Abby's" suggestions or provide alternative suggestions
Joan McCabe

Assessment Design and Cheating Risk in Online Instruction - 0 views

  • It would be a mistake to minimize the problem of cheating in f2f classes. Four stylized facts emerge from a survey of the literature on cheating in f2f undergraduate courses. First, cheating by college students is considered widespread (McCabe and Drinan 1999). For example, estimates from five studies of college students reporting having cheated at least once during their college career range from 65% to 100% (Stearns 2001), and Whitley (1998) reports an average of 70% from a review of forty-six studies.   Second, cheating by college students is becoming more rather than less of a problem. Estimates from five studies of the percentage of college students cheating at least once in their college career have been steadily rising over the period 1940 to 2000 (Jensen, Arnett et al. 2002). A study administered in 1964 and replicated in 1994 focused on the incidence of serious cheating behaviors (McCabe, Trevion et al. 2001). This study reported that the incidence of serious cheating on written assignments was unchanged at 65-66%, but the incidence of serious cheating on exams increased from 39% to 64%.  Third, the format of assessment is correlated with cheating. Whitley (1998) reviewed 107 studies of cheating by students over the span of their college courses (published since 1970), and reported that from 10 studies a mean estimate of 47% for cheating by plagiarism, from 37 studies a mean estimate of 43% for cheating on exams, and from 13 studies a mean estimate of 41% for cheating on homework. Fourth, student characteristics of age and GPA are negatively correlated with cheating.  Whitley (1998) reviewed 107 studies on college cheating (published since 1970), and found 16 studies reporting a small negative correlation between GPA and cheating and 10 studies reporting a negative correlation between age and cheating.
  • In the growing literature about online instruction there are two opposing views on the integrity of assessments. One view is that cheating is as equally likely to occur in the f2f format as in the online format of instruction.
  • The alternative view is that proctored exams are the only way to protect the integrity of grades by guaranteeing both that a substitute is not taking the exam and that students are not working together on an exam.
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  • Summary and Conclusions This study reports three principle findings.  First, from a survey of student opinion it is reported that 59% believe that the frequency of cheating is the same in both the online and the f2f instructional format. The proportion is significantly greater than 50% at the .05 level. It is also reported that the responses to the question of cheating and instructional format are significantly different depending on whether the student came from an online class or a f2f class, but only at a p-value of .1060.  Recalling the literature review in Table 1, which reported mixed findings by previous empirical studies, an interesting implication for future research is whether student experience with each instructional format influences student perceptions of differences in the frequency of cheating. Second, on proctoring and the frequency of cheating on essay exams and multiple choice exams, it is reported that roughly half of the respondents perceive unproctored assessments as having greater cheating risk than the same assessment in a proctored format, and half think they have equal cheating risk. These findings are consistent with the conventional perception that in a side by side comparison of two courses with comparable content and predominately multiple choice exam assessments, the course with unproctored exams is viewed as having greater cheating risk. Third, in our analysis of assessment design in 20 online courses it is reported that 70% base roughly half the course grade on unproctored multiple choice exams.     These findings imply that online courses, which have unproctored multiple choice exams, can reduce perceived cheating risk by proctoring some of their multiple choice exams without significantly altering the original mix of assessment types. Gresham’s Law suggests that online courses debased by assessment designs with high cheating risk will displace courses with relatively lower cheating risk. Institutions of higher education tone deaf to the issue of proctoring online multiple choice assessments may understandably find other institutions reluctant to accept these courses for transfer credit.  The benefit of proctoring is not without cost.  A proctored exam limits the spatial and the asynchronous dimensions of online instruction, which may have been the core reason the student enrolled in the online. These costs can be mitigated to some extent by early announcement of the time and date of the exam, by allowing for some flexibility of time of exam, and by permitting use of alternate certified proctoring centers. The costs to individual instructors are formidable but there are potentially significant economies of scale to be realized by integration of online courses with an existing system that administers proctoring of exams for f2f classes.  Proctoring of some multiple choice exam assessments will reduce cheating risk. The elephant in the room, however, is the cheating risk on non-exam unproctored assessments (for example term papers, essays, discussion, and group projects). These are widely used in f2f instruction and, as online instruction evolves, will likely become equally widely used in online courses. These assessments are valuable because they encourage learning by student-to-student and student-to-faculty interactions, and because they measure Bloom’s higher levels of learning. These assessments have higher cheating risk than proctored multiple choice exams. These assessments, more so than multiple choice exams, challenge the ability of faculty and administration to inspire students to behave ethically and to refrain from academic misconduct.
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    Two views on online assessment. Student and teacher opinions on online assessment. How to reduce cheating.
alexandra m. pickett

one small step for blogging…one giant leap for me - 4 views

  • Someone please explain to me the whole “hashtag” thing. PLEASE!  I feel so out of the loop!
  • I guess I just assumed that she was the exception,
  • I realize now that I was taking this, as well as all of my other skills, for granted.
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  • Twitter
  • not getting feedback on my course profile or course information documents. 
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      I am still trying to figure out how to not be overwhelmed with the volume of interaction in this course. : )
    • Lisa Martin
       
      I realized since I wrote that how much more you have to do than usual...I can't imagine!
  • I also realized that my ideas come from a desire to incorporate social networking more into online courses. 
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      take a look at this http://www.masternewmedia.org/ning-alternatives-guide-to-the-best-social-networking-platforms-and-online-group-services/ - i think you are thinking about a social networking site. In the future you may want to consider this as a companion to your course.
    • Lisa Martin
       
      Thanks Alex!
  • ~I continue to be astonished every week with how much I am growing and learning in this course.  Not only am I learning how to be an effective online instructor and everything that it entails, but I am also learning a lot about myself.~
  • I lose track of time and hours have gone by without me even realizing it. 
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      that is the definition of "engagment"
  • “What young children perceive that their teachers do plays a more significant role in their socio-emotional outcomes than what teachers report they do” (p. 30).  We have an EVEN bigger impact than we thought!
  • “Am I providing a bridge for my students from their prior knowledge to where I want them to be and where THEY want to be?” “What am I doing to facilitate their growth not only in building a positive self-image, but also as learners in general?” “Am I REALLY taking into consideration their interests, passions and motivations?” And finally, “What Would Alex Do?”
  • “I really like how you tell them you are there for them.  A lot of my teachers give us confusing assignments and I never feel like I can ask them questions.” 
  • When she was done going through everything she said, “Are you actually going to teach this class? Can I take it when you do?” 
  •   I was spending so much time figuring out the tools that I felt like I wasn’t spending time on content.  I realize now that I needed to spend that time and those tools were part of the content of this course. 
  • I LOVE learning in general!  I liked learning before…well I never disliked it anyway…well unless it was math…or science…I had no idea what it was like to truly LOVE learning.  Its sad to me that it took me 30 years to experience this.  Did I work A LOT in this course?  Did I give up much of my social life?  Did I stay up too late?  YES, YES and YES.  Was it worth it? Absolutely!  Did I mind? NOT ONE BIT…Reflecting on the fact that I worked so hard and so much on something and not only wasn’t bothered by it, but enjoyed every moment was a HUGE wake up call to me. 
  • You just have to have passion and a belief in yourself.
  • This was the only course I have EVER taken in which I will walk away having truly internalized knowledge.  I know that I internalized what I have learned because when I was reviewing my classmate’s courses I didn’t have to refer to a book or a checklist, it was all in my head.  When I look back at my undergrad education, I have always said that I didn’t feel like I actually “learned” anything until I student taught and learned by DOING.  That’s exactly what happened in this course, I learned by doing.  This is only course that has ever provided me with this type of experience and it has shown me what quality education should be, not only online but in a face-to-face situation as well.
  • We(myself, my classmates AND Alex) worked together in this course to contribute to the construction of our knowledge. 
  • It wasn’t until this summer when I turned 31 that I finally experienced being a student in a student-centered, constructivist environment that actually got me to THINK.  Not just think, but think critically…It took 31 years for me to experience a true community of learners!  I don’t want other students to have to wait 31 years to experience what its like to REALLY LEARN!
  • I want to CHANGE someone the way that Alex, ETAP 640 and all of you have CHANGED me.
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    I'm posting the link to my blog so that I can practice adding bookmarks to diingo
Melissa Pietricola

Student Evaluations, Grade Inflation, and Declining Student Effort - Innovations - The ... - 0 views

  • The less rigorous professors even get good performances out of their students in the courses taught but those students subsequently, in follow up courses, do poorer than the more rigorous professors who do more than teach to the standardized test. Sounds reasonable to me.
  • would note that student evaluations began to become popular during the 1960s and early 1970s as a common evaluation tool for faculty. I would also note that most of the great grade inflation in America has occurred since evaluations began, with national grade point averages probably rising from the 2.5 or 2.6 range in about 1960 to well over 3.0 today
  • The colleges of education, which in my judgment should be put out of business (topic for another blog), are the worst offenders, but the problem is pretty universal.
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  • Alternatively, colleges could by mandate or the use of financial incentives encourage faculty to become more rigorous in their grading
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    Inflations as a reaction to student evaluations
Amy M

'Badges' Earned Online Pose Challenge to Traditional College Diplomas - College 2.0 - T... - 0 views

shared by Amy M on 05 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Traditional colleges and universities are considering badges and other alternative credentials as well. In December the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced that it will create MITx, a self-service learning system in which students can take online tests and earn certificates after watching free course materials posted by the university.
  • a teaching job. "It's
  • So far that Hero badge isn't listed on the student's résumé, but she might add it if she ever applies for
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    A chronicle article on badging and college diplomas.
Joan McCabe

Social Networking - Create Online Identity - 0 views

  • Online Profile Tips for Students Managing Online Identity is a key digital literacy, and an important thing to discuss with students when using online tools for learning and teaching. Additional to the tips above, it's worth considering the following when discussing online profiles with your students - particularly if you are working with young people who are under 18 years old: Using Real Names: In general, younger students should be taught to protect their privacy online by avoiding publication of their full name and other personal details. Using first names and/or aliases can be a good way of managing this. Ensure that you discuss privacy and the implications of publishing personal details online with your students.Choose appropriate profile pictures: Younger students should be encouraged not to publish identifying images online. Rather, they can be engaged in a range of activities to create representational avatars and profile images.Students should only share only information that is safe for the Internet. Establish a classroom policy that teaches students to avoid publishing a specific addresses or names that a reader might use to locate them.Ensure students understand how to respect the privacy of others by obtaining permission before publishing images of and information about their friends or family.Discuss the issues around internet safety and ensure students do not provide personal details to others online. There are lots of Internet Safety resources available - check out our Social Networking Safety for further information . Consider holding a class discussion or online activity to assist students in understanding the issues around publishing personal details online and online profiles. Creating Codes of Conduct or Rules of Engagement with your students can be an effective way of establishing appropriate classroom policies which provide them with a clear framework.
  • 3. Etiquette - Using Your Online Manners!


    Online Etiquette is important whenever you are sharing comments, information or feedback online, and of course this applies to social networking sites as well. Practicing good manners and respect when communicating and collaborating with others online will also enhance your online identity, demonstrating digital literacy skills and strong online communication skills.

    Consider the following etiquette tips when using social networking sites:

    • Introduce yourself when offering friendship: If you are using social networking sites for professional or personal networking, making 'friends' with other users can be an effective way of extending your connections. However, don't offer friendship without also offering an introduction and some information about you and why you are following. For example, if connecting to another educator who you know via their work online, but not personally you could try an introduction like 'Hi, I'm a regular reader of your blog, and have enjoyed your work. I teach in a similar field and would appreciate being able to connect with you in the future'. Include links to your personal identity online - eg. your blog, wiki or preferred online profile page so that person receiving the friendship request can identify you.
    • Respond to 'friendship' or 'connect' requests: Ensure you respond to request from others for friendship. If you choose not to make friends, offer an alternative or reason. Eg. "Thanks for your friendship request but I only use facebook to connect to my family members. Feel free to connect with me via my blog, or you can follow me on [insert your preferred social networking tool here]."
    • Don't abuse group or games invites: It's fine to invite your friends to join in on a group or online game via social networks. However - one is enough! Don't send repetitive requests or invites as they are annoying to other users and can be considered spam.
    • Respect the privacy of others: Respect the privacy of others. If your friend is using an alias online, don't share their real identity or post content which could 'out' them. Remember that all users of social networking sites make different decisions about how they manage their privacy online.
    • Use good tags: Apply tags to text, images and video appropriately. Tagging other people in unflattering pictures can create lots of tension with friends or family members, so remember to consider the implications when tagging content which is associated with or depicts others. If someone requests to be untagged in an image or page, ensure you act swiftly and respect their wishes.
    • Leave good comments: One of the best ways to connect with others via social networking sites is to make comments. Ensure your comments are clear, respectful and well written. Don't use inappropriate, sexist, racist or foul language. Provide constructive criticism when appropriate and respect the opinions of others. Robust debate is wonderful - abusive tirades are not! When leaving comments on blogs or fan pages, ensure to check for 'rules of engagement' or site policies about commenting.
    • Private conversations should stay private: Don't republish a private conversation or exchange (via email, instant messaging or other private communication channels) without permission.
    • Share appropriately: Don't share any information online (including text, images, audio and video) that you wouldn't be happy to share with distant relatives, friends, work colleagues and your immediate family. A good rule of thumb - if it's ok to say it to your Grandma and your Boss, it's ok to share it online!
    • Connect and Engage: Don't use social networks as a one-way announcement tool. Remember to engage with your 'friends' and follow-up on comments and feedback.
    • Balance Personal Vs. Private: If you are using social networking sites for professional purposes, make sure you balance your personal comments, images and messages with useful professional information. Consider your audience and share information that is useful to your networks.

    Watch this humorous take on social networking etiquette. Although it focuses on Facebook, many of the points it raises are relevant to all social networking sites.

    Consider how you will address social networking etiquette in your learning communities. What strategies will you put in place to ensure students understand the 'rules of engagement' on social networking sites.
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    Helpful tips on creating an online identity for students and in the work field. Also tips on netiquette.
JJ Wagner

Requirements for out of school instruction - 0 views

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    Laws on who must be given alternate instruction when not able to attend regular class
Nicole Arduini-Van Hoose

Remarks by the President on Innovation and Sustainable Growth - 0 views

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    Speech by President Obama at Hudson Valley Community College on September 21, 2009 on economic recovery, alternative energy expansion, higher education, and strengthening of infrastructures (like internet access)
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