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Joy Quah Yien-ling

The "V-PORTAL": Video Online Repository for e-Teaching and Learning... - The World Is Open - 3 views

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    List of 27 videos: 1. Planning an Online Course 2. Managing an Online Course: General 3. Managing an Online Course: Discussion Forums 4. Providing Feedback 5. Reducing Plagiarism 6. Building Community 7. Building Instructor and Social Presence 8. Online Relationships: Student-Student, Student-Instructor, Student-Practitioner, Student-Self 9. Fostering Online Collaboration/Teaming 10. Finding Quality Supplemental Materials 11. Blended Learning: General 12. Blended Learning: Implementation 13. Blended Learning: The Future 14. Online Writing and Reflection Activities 15. Online Visual Learning 16. Using Existing Online Video Resources 17. Webinars and Webcasts 18. Podcasting Uses and Applications 19. Wiki Uses and Applications 20. Blog Uses and Applications 21. Collaborative Tool Uses and Applications 22. Hands-On/Experiential Learning 23. Coordinating Online Project, Problem, and Product-Based Learning 24. Global Connections and Collaborations 25. Assessing Student Online Learning 26. Ending, Archiving, Updating, and Reusing an Online Course 27. Trends on the Horizon
Irene Watts-Politza

Online Teaching Effectiveness: A Tale of Two Instructors | Gorsky | The International R... - 0 views

  • We propose, as have others (i.e., Shea, Pickett, & Pelz, 2003), that the community of inquiry model (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) reflects the principles of good practice in undergraduate education and can accurately quantify them.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Go, Dr. Pickett!
  • issues of pedagogy, dialogue, and interaction
  • guide the coding of transcripts.
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  • Social presence is the perceived presence of others in mediated communication (Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 1999), which Garrison et al. (2000) contend supports both cognitive and teaching presence through its ability to instigate, to sustain, and to support interaction. It had its genesis in the work of John Dewey and is consistent with all theoretical approaches to learning in higher education.
  • Teaching presence is defined as “the design, facilitation and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing [students’] personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile outcomes” (Anderson et al., 2001, p.5). Vygotsky’s (1978) scaffolding analogies illustrate an assistive role for teachers in providing instructional support to students from their position of greater content knowledge. Although many authors recommend a “guide on the side” approach to moderating student discussions, a key feature of this social cognition model is the adult, the expert, or the more skilled peer who scaffolds a novice’s learning
  • Shea, Pickett, & Pelz , 2004
  • Each category of a tutor’s presence is vital to learning and to the establishment of the learning community; tutors' behavior must be such that they are seen to be “posting regularly, responding in a timely manner and modeling good online communication and interaction” (Palloff & Pratt, 2003, p.118). Without an instructor’s explicit guidance and “teaching presence,” students were found to engage primarily in “serial monologues” (Pawan et al., 2003). Baker (2004) discovered that “instructor immediacy, i.e., teaching presence (Rourke et al., 1999), was a more reliable predictor of effective cognitive learning than whether students felt close to each other. Studies have demonstrated that instructor participation in threaded discussion is critical to the development of social presence (Shea, Li, Swan, & Pickett, 2005; Swan & Shih, 2005) and sometimes not fully appreciated by online faculty (Liu, Bonk, Magjuka, Lee, & Su, 2005). Shea, Li, and Pickett (2006) proposed that teaching presence – viewed as the core role of the online instructor – is a promising mechanism for developing learning community in online environments.
  • students ranked instructor modeling as the most important element in building online community, while instructors ranked it fourth.
  • Shea (2006), who completed an extensive study of teaching presence and online learning, concluded that two categories (“design” and “directed facilitation”) sufficed to define the construct.
  • Kalman, Ravid, Raban, and Rafaeli (2006) argued that interactivity is an essential characteristic of effective online communication and plays an important role in keeping message threads and their authors together. Interactive communication (online as well as in traditional settings) is engaging, and loss of interactivity results in a breakdown of the communicative process.
  • Research indicates the existence of a relationship between learners’ perceptions of social presence and their motivation for participation in online discussions (Weaver & Albion, 2005).
  • Northrup (2002) found that online learners felt it was important for instructors to promote collaboration and conversation. When interactive activities are carefully planned, they lead not only to greater learning but also to enhanced motivation (Berge 1999; Northrup, 2002).
  • Researchers have suggested that timing of messages can serve as a proxy for a sense of social presence (Blanchard, 2004), as an indication of attentiveness (Walther & Bunz, 2005) or respect (Bargh & McKenna, 2004), and as a clue to the sociability of a community (Maloney-Krichmar & Preece, 2005). As such, the frequency of messages may serve as a signal for how engaged participants are with the community.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Agreed.
  • Eom found that the most significant factors for increasing student satisfaction with online classes are paying attention to students and responding to their concerns.
  • The highly esteemed instructor was especially active from semester midpoint to semester end; she more than doubled her active participation in both teaching presence (especially discourse and instruction) and social presence (all three categories).
  • the lack of specific, progressively structured inquiry tasks and/or the lack of facilitation skills (teaching presence/facilitating discourse) may have contributed to the relatively limited occurrences of cognitive presence.
  • something else accounted for the extreme satisfaction and dissatisfaction experienced by students in the two forums. The something else may be the two exceptional events that occurred during the third month: The instructor held in low esteem became nearly dysfunctional, while the highly esteemed instructor exhibited very high teacher presence and social presence (see Table 3 and 4).
  • Shea, Pickett, and Pelt (2003) found that students’ perceived teacher presence also correlates with perceived learning as well as with students’ satisfaction with the forum. This correlation points to the tentative conclusion that teaching presence affords learning by setting a convenient climate.
  • we suggest that students’ perceived learning in course forums has a significant impact on their participation
  • the table is suggestive of the eventual possibility of having an “objective” tool for evaluating the quality of a given forum.
  • (Anderson et al., 2001).
  • Teaching effectiveness may be defined as how an instructor can best direct, facilitate, and support students toward certain academic ends, such as achievement and satisfaction. Teaching effectiveness has been investigated extensively in traditional classrooms for more than seven decades (for a meta-analysis of empirical studies from 1995-2004, see Seidel & Shavelson, 2007). Over the past five years, research has become directed toward teaching effectiveness in online or virtual classes. As a preface to our study, we discuss findings and conclusions concerning teaching effectiveness in traditional classrooms.
  • Journal Help ISSN: 1492-3831 Journal Content Search All Authors Title Abstract Index terms Full Text Browse By Issue By Author By Title User Username Password Remember me Article Tools Abstract Print this article Indexing metadata How to cite item Review policy Email this article (Login required) Email the author (Login required) Post a Comment (Login required) Font Size Make font size smaller Make font size default Make font size larger SUBSCRIBE TO MAILING LIST 5,591  subscribers Select Language​▼ function googleTranslateElementInit() { new google.translate.TranslateElement({ pageLanguage: 'en', autoDisplay: false, layout: google.translate.TranslateElement.InlineLayout.SIMPLE }, 'google_translate_element'); } Home About Register Archives Announcements Resources Submissions http://www.irrodl.org/
  • One of the most widely cited sources for teacher effectiveness in traditional classrooms is Chickering and Gamson (1987), who suggested seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education.
  • encourages student-faculty contact, encourages cooperation among students, encourages active learning, gives prompt feedback, emphasizes time on task, communicates high expectations, respects diverse talents and ways of learning.
alexandra m. pickett

Reflections Blog - Just another Edublogs.org site - 1 views

    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      Hey Bill: i completely get the "technologically connected" fatigue. i am very plugged in... but, i remind myself that i am in control. I have boundaries. Also fyi - i don't have a cell phone. I know i know... hard to believe, right?! I just don't want to be that connected. me : )
    • William Meredith
       
      I envy you for not having a cell phone!  I took mine to France but told people not to call me.  One of the best parts of being away!
  • it helps remove the filter.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      interesting. really? say more about that. : )
  • Alex mentioned her desire not to allow students to unsubscribe from the posts.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      Bill: i am actually really torn about this. I myself don't use the email subscription AT ALL. I find it confusing and disconnecting from the context and flow of the discussion. I have mine set to subjects only as a daily digest and i mostly just delete them... before even opeining them. I use the cousre interface to interact and view the interactions. I wish i could give students the option. But i can't. I have tried it both ways and talked about it with students from past courses. I even tried it once where i initially forced but then gave students the option to opt out... And i have come to the very reluctant decision that i have to force. I force the subscription, becuase frankly students don't login to the cousre. They disappear for days, and then claim they didn't know or couldn't find...and then claim they are overwhelmed. You also just can't "catch up" once a discussion has ended. The flow has moved on. There are also students that for some reason just prefer to get the posts via email. I've had several students tell me that they liked to view posts from their cell phones... So, i force subscription to all/only the essential forums in the course. The reality is that I can't force students to login to the course and click on the discussion and other areas of the cousre to see all that is happening. And i need a way to make sure that they are aware of the level of activity in the course and what is happening. me
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  • I feel as though students must be subscribed to forums, but be forewarned that they need to develop a system for themselves to allow for tracking of the dialogue and how they want to participate in that dialogue.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      i don't remember this being a problem in past semesters and i wonder if a default was changed at the system level. I thought everyone got a daily digest of subject lines and that highlighted new forum post tracking was automatically enabled by default... based you your feedback here, i have added "forewarning" : ) to 2 of the course information documents (contact and evaluation). : ) me
  • my presence could be demonstrated in other ways than just logging in daily or talking to students.
  • I came to realize that
  • in this course I feel as though everything I learn is huge.
  • it feels as though I am letting the students go without my assistance.
  • This is were the “earth-shattering” part comes in.  I am learning that I am not letting the students go.  I am going to be there.
  • I can fully see the difference between f2f and online teaching and WHY those differences exist.
  • In the beginning of this course my intention was to translate my f2f assignments and activities to an online format.  This made me feel comfortable as I knew that these activities worked for me and for most of my students.  Yet, as I began to learn about presence and community it became apparent that these f2f activities did not embody presence or community building.  They represented ease for me, and that cannot be the focus in online learning.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      this is a brilliant observation bill!
  • Yet, I know I will always want to be tweaking my activities!
  • My two issues with online education before the start of this class dealt with the actual education being offered as well as the connections being formed.
  • But the theory in this course has allowed me to see that in practice, online education can allow for a sound education and a classroom community that can match that of most f2f classrooms.
  • Online learning allows an instructor the opportunity to put everything into place before the course starts so that students come in being able to see all that they need to be successful.  This may not always be the case with f2f courses.  Additionally, to make sure that such theories as presence and community are present in online courses online instructors often have to do more to ensure success in their classes.  For these reasons I am starting to believe that online education, when combined with effective theories can eventually surpass f2f learning.
  • I am not decisive as I would like to be.
  • While it probably should not be surprising that I feel prepared to teach online at the end of a course in online teaching, for me, I feel as though it is quite a surprising development and one I hope to pursue.
  • The article  written by Mark Edmundson, a professor at UVA, questions the validity of online learning. 
  • I have discovered that my thoughts are completely different on online education as a result of this class.  While this is probably not a huge development it has been interesting to watch my opinions change so much.  So, for the moment that is where I am.
  • I discovered that just inserting technology does not suddenly make things better. 
  • I leave this course knowing that presence is more than just responding to students. 
  • Being truly present requires that the students feel your presence as they are completing assignments and learning – knowing what is expected of them and what they expect of the instructor.
  • if a student knows what to do and how to do it (presence) he/she might feel more comfortable branching out in discussions and discussing points with a majority of students instead of just discussing with the same people at the same time.  But community depends heavily on presence and the two really work in tandem.
  • Yet, the blame lies solely with me for just assuming that my students know how to do something.
  • Instead, instructors, both f2f and online, need to assume that their students do not know how to do something.  Taking the time to explain something may seem tedious but it will provide for greater clarification, greater learning, and more meaningful assessments.  Taking the time to just let students know what to do and how to do it has the potential of increasing the enjoyment of learning for all involved!
  •   I truly struggled with this course and I walk away feeling fantastic about it.
  • Coming into this course I figured we would read a few articles about online education and create a course shell for an online course.  Additionally, I came into this course assuming online education failed to meet the standards of f2f education. Now, my thoughts are completely changed. 
  • Leaving this course I feel as though I could write an effective rebuttal of that argument and I believe that illustrates a great amount of growth for a person who entered this class questioning the merits of online education.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      what would you say? i would like to read that rebuttal.  : ) 
  • Yet, I feel as this is one of the first courses that will let me leave with having a profound change in thinking. 
  • Online education is the way of the future and more important, it needs to be done correctly.
  • o in my new “educated” role, I would like to try and be an advocate for online education.  I will try to discuss the field more often and when I hear someone mention online education I will ask them what they know about it and what they think about it.  Striking up conversations allow for the spread of ideas and maybe eventually online education will gain the same prominence that many f2f courses currently possess. (4)
Hedy Lowenheim

Integrating Web 2.0 Tools into the Classroom: Changing the Culture of Learning | CCT - 0 views

  • This report presents findings from a two-year investigation of the ways in which Web 2.0 tools and social networking technologies are being used to support teaching and learning in classrooms across the United States.
  • Currently, there is much discussion and excitement about Web 2.0 in education, but we still know very little about how these tools actually work in the classroom. Therefore, the goal of this research was simply to interview and observe educators and students who are experimenting with these tools in the classroom to see what uses are emerging and to explore the learning affordances of blogs, wikis, and other Web 2.0 tools.
  • between school/home, public/private or youth/adult culture, it presents an emerging challenge. Web 2.0 technologies are fundamentally reshaping and realigning many aspects of the communication loop: the people with whom teachers, students, and parents communicate; how they communicate; what they communicate about; and where and when they communicate. These ongoing processes bring to the fore exciting opportunities and novel challenges for educators. As schools use these technologies to build communities, the old boundaries between public and private, in school and out of school, and youth culture and adult culture are melting away and being redrawn.
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    Study on Web 2.0 tools for educational purposes. "Web 2.0 technologies are fundamentally reshaping and realigning many aspects of the communication loop: the people with whom teachers, students, and parents communicate; how they communicate; what they communicate about; and where and when they communicate."
Aubrey Warneck

Essay & Poster Contest: Building a Classroom Community - 0 views

  • “Together we are even better: Great things happen when my class is like a community”. The goal of this essay contest is to promote discussion in Ontario classrooms about the meaning of a sense of community and the ways that students and teachers can create a positive classroom community of learners.
    • Aubrey Warneck
       
      Maybe having students do an on-line poster contest or essay contest describing/depicting what makes a classroom community work is a good place to start with community building exercises int he online classroom. It will also create teaching presence in that the students will be teaching one another about what they think creates a successful community.
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    Building classroom community.
William Meredith

Constructing Experiential Learning for Online Courses: The Birth of E-Service (EDUCAUSE... - 0 views

  • . In this environment, teachers become mentors and guides rather than the "all knowing" authority often associated with the traditional face-to-face format. In addition, new issues and challenges have begun to materialize from this new paradigm, prompting investigations related to the quality of online instruction:
  • engage distance students in their local communities through experiential learning opportunities.
  • provide community service as part of their academic coursework, learn about and reflect upon the community context in which the service is provided, and develop an understanding of the connection between service and their academic work.3
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  • t becomes difficult to develop experiences for distance students that continue to provide work-based experiences and engage them as members in their local communities.
  • Reflection is a major component of service-learning
  • When conducting online courses, e-service offers excellent outreach to community organizations and fills a void in meeting community needs. As the educational paradigm shifts to more distance learning, students will be looking for ways to gain work experience and build long-lasting partnerships with their communities that will benefit their future careers. The experiences provide rich, authentic, hands-on training for students.
  • E-learning challenges students to think in new ways, explore new ways of problem solving, and raise critical questions about their learning and service. E-service enhances student academic experience through experiential learning that reflects the complex issues of students' future workplaces. Students get the opportunity to wrestle with complex issues right in their own communities and to become a part of the solution. These solutions are shared with peers statewide, assisting other small towns and businesses that may have similar needs.
  • Because online students tend not to be the traditional age of on-campus students and usually work a 40-hour week in addition to going to school, access to a community partner can be a challenge.
  •  
    Creating service-learning in an online environment
Sue Rappazzo

Teaching at an Internet Distance-----MERLOT - 1 views

  • Several of our speakers were able to shed light on the cause of this rising tide of faculty opposition to computer mediated instruction. Andrew Feenberg of San Diego State University summarizes the situation in the opening paragraph of his "Distance Learning: Promise or Threat" (1999) article: "Once the stepchild of the academy, distance learning is finally taken seriously. But not in precisely the way early innovators like myself had hoped. It is not faculty who are in the forefront of the movement to network education. Instead politicians, university administrations and computer and telecommunications companies have decided there is money in it. But proposals for a radical "retooling" of the university emanating from these sources are guaranteed to provoke instant faculty hostility."
    • Kelly Hermann
       
      As a red-head, I'm just glad they didn't use the phrase "red-headed stepchild." LOL
  • The implementation of online education shows both promise and peril. Computer mediated instruction may indeed introduce new and highly effective teaching paradigms, but high-quality teaching is not always assured. Administrative decisions made without due consideration to pedagogy, or worse, with policies or technology that hampers quality, may cause much wasted time, money and effort of both faculty and students.
  • In training, a particular package of knowledge is imparted to an individual so that he or she can assume work within a system, as the firefighters do for example. According to Noble, training and education are appropriately distinguished in terms of autonomy (Noble, 1999). In becoming trained, an individual relinquishes autonomy. The purpose of education, as compared to training, is to impart autonomy to the student. In teaching students to think critically, we say in effect "Student, know thyself." Education is not just the transmission of knowledge, important as that is, but also has to do with the transformation of persons (and the development of critical thinking skills).
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  • 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.
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    Love the step child reference!
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    Have I not struggled with this throughout this course?!
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    Joy and I talked about this in discussions. I am now struggling with making a project mgr. aware of this at work. The vendor training online was boring so lets deliver it all in person. Junk is Junk online or in person!
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    That body language we mentioned in discussions this week in ETAP687
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    MERLOT-Teaching at internet distance
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    module 4 merlot
Joy Quah Yien-ling

My experience in NY - 0 views

    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      francisca: don't forget to self evaluate your etap687 reflections. see the blog grading rubric : ) also, i woul like you to bring your thoughts on the course readings and the videos into the online disucssion in the course. : ) me
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      brilliant!!! ask them, make them choose!!! i hope you will take this risk!!! have high expectations and give them the opportunity to teach you something!!! trust them! let go! : )
  • they own their pages,
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  • they want to share
  • hey want
  • the teacher only has to think creatively and give the students good instructions, he hasn’t have to give them lists of words and definitions that is the most boring part of constructing a course, and a lot of work.
  • I love to think that the process of re-conceptualizing a curse to go online can change the way teachers teach this way, and as I learned too, this change is not only for online classes, in face to face too, because it opens their minds, it makes them think and evaluate their old classes, their old evaluations, and most teachers change the way they teach face to face too, because they realize that traditional teaching doesn’t work face to face either. And they don’t change because they have to change, they have an excuse for changing, so online teaching is a catalyst for transforming teachers.
  • A lot of students never felt engaged and I have never understood that until now. The kind of activity I used to do was active and contextualized to the world, but not everybody has the same word or interests, so I think the only way to engage everybody is to ask them what they want to learn, or make them choose. Something I have never done is to empower my students to lead their own learning process. I have had problems trusting in them I have never give them freedom to be creative, lead a group, do research, look for something new, let them teach me something. I haven’t tried to get out the outlines, be more risky. I don’t know how it would be not to have the control of their learning process, but I would like to try. I learned a very interesting thing: they can find their own material, they can learn the things they like and are related with their own interests, they can lead a discussion about a topic they like and engage others in the discussion. They are able to do a lot of things and we have to take advantage of that as teachers because, if we do all the work, who is learning?
  • So, as I learned form Alex, the question is not “what can I teach online?”, the question is “how can I teach online the thing that I want to teach?”,
  • I don’t know if the question is “which students can be good online learners”, the question is “how can I engage most of them and help them to learn” however they are, because we can’t control that.
  • That is why I think it is so important to have questions in order to construct our knowledge, so I really understand that to make people think you have to guide them to have questions , not answers. And how to do that? The best way to do that, according to what I read in The role of questioning teaching, thinking and learning, is making the students do things, if they are passive they are not going to have questions, and also, make them good questions that are provocative and makes them think about what they are interested in solve or understand or do, and other kinds of question that lead students to critical thinking.
  • I think that in order to achieve a sense of community between your students you have to give them diverse and frequent opportunities for interaction between them and with you, it is not about knowing each other and working in groups in some activity, you have to interact a lot with all your classmates to build a community and feel that you belong to the class. So you have to design diverse activities and spaces for interaction, sharing and communication between students and with you. Also, you have to teach and guide the students in how to interact, how to contribute, how to add knowledge to the conversation, how to give their classmates feedback, how to reinforce their opinions, how to support them, how to answer their questions, how to evaluate them, how to question them, how to agree or refute them, how to make a comfortable climate for learning and a lot of other things related to create a sense of teaching presence and a sense of belonging to the group.
  • By teaching to their classmates students can understand more deeply the content, develop other skills like being creative, they have to think deeper in how to explain a concept and create good examples, and learn from their classmates, from their questions and from the interaction between them.
  • I like the idea of having a community blog
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      i didn't realize this would be a community blog. I LOVE this idea!!! have you thought of using ning for this? that way the space can persist as your faculty commmuity beyond the end of the development cycle.
  • I needed a Blog
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      yes, it should be a blog... not a wiki... you should look at ning for this... it provides the blog functionality wrapped with additional community ans social networking features...
  • sometimes we think the only way of engaging students is entertaining them. That is not true,
    • Joan Erickson
       
      I agree!
  • And even better, how Shoubang sounds so familiar and close to the students in the welcome document without anything fancy technology, only text, but it seems so easy to find him in there and so friendly.
    • Joy Quah Yien-ling
       
      We project who we are. People don't just leave their offline personalities behind when they go online. If a person is outgoing in real life, he will also be outgoing online (I think). But apparently, the online environment is good for shy people...
  • I think that this work is very creative, and as I remember in one of the first reading of this course (”10 ways online…”),
    • Joy Quah Yien-ling
       
      This is the creative aspect of teaching which I love as well. How can we ever be bored being a teacher? We are being creative all the time.
  • I don’t know why but I love it! I can review it forever, and I always have new ideas, and I love that.
  • some faculty’s opinions is that they feel younger because they feel the same feeling that they felt when they were teaching for the first time, and I think that they feel rewarded by their creation,  their new product.
Jessica M

Community in the Classroom: An Approach to Curriculum and Instruction as a Means for t... - 1 views

    • Jessica M
       
      "It is essential to begin laying a foundation  for a community to emerge and develop from the first day of school; the initial experience must reflect the need for and importance of forming a classroom community." - same thing for online classes - the first activity, discussion, or contact needs to help develop class community
    • Jessica M
       
      "The teacher must remain true to the process and gradually invite students to direct their own learning." - getting students to lead discussions comfortably and be apart of a community is a process, you need to work students towards these goals and show them what you expect of them first
    • Jessica M
       
      "improving their self-concept and confidence is to work to build relationships within an intellectually safe classroom community" - very true for high school students, many often lack the confidence in their own work and understanding at first
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    • Jessica M
       
      Three key feature of communities: Inclusiveness, Participation, and Shared Cognition 
    • Jessica M
       
      "promote and develop a classroom environment where students are trusted, willing, and able to engage in responsible dialogue and inquiry and to create meaning" - students need to trust each other, be able to listen and respect everyone's interactions in the class
    • Jessica M
       
      "School is a place where students should feel safe to  engage intellectually, socially, and emotionally in the act of  learning" - once students feel this safety within their community, they are more willing to participate and openly engage in their learning
Alicia Fernandez

Becoming a "Communal Architect" in the Online Classroom - Integrating Cognitive and Aff... - 0 views

  •  
    Authors discuss several online and offline community-building strategies that may be used to foster a positive social dynamic in online courses.
alexandra m. pickett

Transformation via Online Learning - 4 views

  • original target audience,
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      who is your target?
    • Alicia Fernandez
       
      Nontraditional, commuter, reentry are terms assigned to my target student population, which I refer to as adult learners. Adult learners are difficult to categorize, as the determinants are often arbitrary. Their demographic variables cut across a wide swath of the population.  Ross Gordon (2011) refers to a set of shared characteristics which include: delayed entry or reentry to college, employment, and family and community responsibilities. They are also primarily part-time students. The group is typically described to be between the ages of 25-64.  Reference  Ross-Gordon, J. (2011). Research on adult learners: supporting the needs of a student population that longer nontraditional. Association of American Colleges and Universities.  (Previously bookmarked in Diigo)
  • adult online students
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      what assumptions are you making about this population?
    • Alicia Fernandez
       
      I am assuming that adult online learners meet the six assumptions of Knowles' Andragogy learning theory. Traditional college students are often still formulating self-concepts and are involved in much more socialization on campus. Adult students are usually not seeking the social component and are driven by the immediate application of acquired skills and knowledge to life outside of the classroom.  The University of Central Florida (UCF) drilled down into the age demographics of their adult student population and extrapolated generational data. Hartmann et al. (2005) reported results of a survey of nearly 1,500 online learners at UCF that shed light on generational differences in attitudes and expectations among students born during 1946- 1964 (the cohort authors nicknamed 'Baby Boomers'), students born during 1965-1980('Generation X') and others born during 1981-1994 (the so-called 'NetGen' students). The results noted that there were substantial differences between the cohorts as far as learning engagement, interaction value, and whether they changed their approach to learning as a result of their online experience.  Hartmann, J., Patsy, M. & Chuck, D. (2005). Preparing the academy of today for the learner of tomorrow. In D. G. Oblinger & J. L. Oblinger (Eds.), Educating the Net Generation, pp. 6.1-6.15. Washington, DC: EDUCAUSE. Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/research-and-publications/books/educating-net-generation/preparing-academy-today-learner-tomorrow  (Bookmarked in Diigo)
  • students who attend fully online
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      not sure what you mean. these numbers are fully online students.
    • Alicia Fernandez
       
      Are these students that solely attend online classes?  Do they attend classes on campus as well?
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  • traditional and non-traditional students i
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      This perspective/distinction is very interesting/curious to me. I don't distinguish. I guess you mean traditional age college students vs. older "adult" students. In my mind they are all adults and they are all online students. Just an observation of my own perspective. : )
    • Alicia Fernandez
       
      The literature I have reviewed indicates that younger age college students may not like the lack of social interaction and find the online classroom's demands of extensive writing too laborious.  I have also found a distance difference between the two groups in my own experience. Of course this is a broad generalization and there are exceptions.  
  • If undergrads enroll in online courses and do not actively participate, this will impact the development of critical thinking skills and meaningful learning outcomes for all students
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      in my experience this "undergrad" or age variable is not significant. : )
    • Alicia Fernandez
       
      I think the maturity of the student matters greatly as far as motivation and level of participation. This would impact lower level undergrad courses much more. However, your experience proves that andragogy is not always defined by age. 
  • Jun 12th, 2014
  • Aug17
  • Satisfied. I am thrilled that I persevered and was able to complete the course. My Moodle course is far from stellar but I am pretty happy with the results of my maiden voyage.
  • I know that I have learned that social presence and teaching presences are as important as cognitive presence. More to the point, I learned that as an online student my reluctance to focus on the social aspects of the online classroom may have inhibited community building.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      Hi Alicia! Nice blog! don't forget to self assess each post!
  • Morrison, D. (2014, February 28). Best methods and tools for online educators to give students helpful and meaningful feedback. Online Learning Insights. Retrieved from http://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2014/02/28/best-methods-and-tools-for-online-educators-to-give-students-helpful-and-meaningful-feedback/
William Meredith

Managing Virtual Adjunct Faculty: Applying the Seven Principles of Good Practice - 0 views

  • Virtual adjunct faculty have largely carried higher education into the cyber classroom. Adjunct faculty have always been broadly used in higher education, especially in the community college setting. Nationally, adjuncts teach 30-50% of all credit courses. At community colleges, adjuncts compose about 60% of all faculty (Gappa and Leslie, 1993).
  • About 80% of all online course offerings are taught by virtual adjuncts. About 70% of the active 250 adjuncts teaching in the program reside in the state of Florida , and the other half in assorted states.
  • As colleges and universities work steadily to get full-time faculty onboard with distance learning, virtual adjuncts have eagerly stepped up to fill the void, thereby enabling institutions to respond promptly to market demand.
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  • Having familiar, collegial, and multiple points of contact helps them develop and maintain the confidence they need to be successful teachers. And, mentoring is a proven-effective strategy for support, improvement, and community building.
  • . Adjuncts who know that they are working for a professional organization are more likely to feel a sense of pride in their affiliation, and feel accountable to the institution.
  • These required training opportunities allow new adjuncts to actively learn about FCCJ's instructional culture, and build community with other instructors. They actively discuss their teaching experiences, best practices, learn new strategies for teaching online, and apply those strategies to the courses they are currently teaching.
  • In the online environment, Virtual Adjuncts need to know clearly what the institution's expectations are of them, and whether they are meeting those expectations. There is very little continuity among contemporary online programs, and each institution has its own instructional priorities, goals, constituencies, and definitions of excellence. Many adjuncts teach simultaneously at multiple institutions, and so it is important to define expectations clearly.
  • Peer-based sharing is the most effective model for the professional learning community
  • Maria Puzziferro-Schnitzer
  •  
    How to manage a growing cadre of online adjuncts.  Provides great numbers on percentages of adjuncts.
Victoria Keller

Building community in an online learning environment: communication, cooperation and co... - 0 views

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    Building community in an online learning environment: communication, cooperation and collaboration Melanie Misanchuk Ph.D. student Instructional Systems Technology Indiana University W.W. Wright Building 201 N Rose St. Bloomington, IN 47404 812-337-8707mmisanch@indiana.edu Tiffany Anderson Instructional Technology Librarian Duke University Medical Center DUMC Box 3702 Durham, NC 27710 919-660-1123 (phone) 919-681-7599 (fax)tiffany.anderson@duke.edu Abstract: This paper presents strategies and rationales for implementing certain instructional techniques to move a class from cohort to community.
ian august

Our Big Idea: Open Social Learning | blog@CACM | Communications of the ACM - 0 views

  • I was charged with explaining my "innovative approach to open social networks for learning"
  • Access. In 1996, Sir John Daniel estimated we would need to create a major university every week to educate the 100 million students qualified to enter a university who have no place to go. Fifteen years later, universities have simply not kept pace with the staggering demand for college education
  • 2007 Silent Epidemic study funded by the Gates Foundation, I had what my students would call (pardon their French) a WTF moment. Eighty-eight percent of high school dropouts have passing grades. Huh? Nearly half say they are bored and classes are not interesting.
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  • Technology doesn't help either. They find video lectures and Powerpoints boring, and they read less with e-textbooks than with traditional textbooks. These kids aren't failing out of school; they are simply disengaging.
  • What, then, engages this generation? Social media, for one. They spend 10-15 hours a week on Facebook
  • Open Social Learning. Imagine a Facebook where the point is to study together, not trade pictures and jokes. Imagine a World of Warcraft where students earn levels and points by helping each other learn. Not a video game that teaches physics; instead, let's create an educational experience that is social and game-like.
  • we built a site called OpenStudy , the first large-scale social network that enables students to connect, get help, study together, and earn social capital through game-like rewards.
  • It is a vibrant community of students and teachers, teenagers and adults, people from more than 150 countries engaged in a single activity: learning.
  • OpenStudy is built on three core ideas: open, peer-to-peer, and community of learning.
  •  
    a big idea, in online learning, social community peer facebook type tool build around learning
Diane Gusa

Relational Context of Teaching - 3 views

  • He continues that we can face the future with confidence if we know how to teach ourselves, read between the subjective lines of media, process the vast amount of information that will be available, work collaboratively, and reaching for resources that will expand our capacities – for example a resource like this course!!
  • I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps doing them until he gets a record of successful experience behind him.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      You can do this!!! You are doing this diane!!! Thank you for being brave and persisting. you just made my day!! : )
  • However, to be part of the social network and be actively involve citizens, each must become life-long learners. 
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      ... and like it or not life is now technology mediated. No matter who you end up being "when you grow up" if you are not comfortable with technology, can't assess/evaluate information, can't find information when you need it, you will be at a disadvantage.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      I agree. I am concern for the students who are not exposed to this technology. In our district, the computer teacher was laid off, yet we kept all the coaches/sports. Adults, who are not on board with the technological needs of their students, are the ones making these decisions.
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  • Eleanor Roosevelt
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      don't forget to self-assess!
  • I am going to give this blog a 3.
  • Teacher presence
  • June 21st,
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      diane: the blogging assignment for module 2 was due on june 19th.
  • What I would like is to have the option of posting and assessing it as NG (no grade)
    • Donna Angley
       
      I too feel that the blog area should be a little more relaxed. I like your idea of a NG post. I'm wondering if you could create a separate "page" just for social commentary. Just a thought.
  • Finally, I carefully considers there are no place where Alex might say “can you tell me more”
    • Donna Angley
       
      It's okay if Alex asks you to elaborate a little more, that's the role of the instructor if the students aren't providing enough feedback.
  • Since our blogs are shared work-spaces, we are suppose to engage in collaborative reflective discourses,  creating a shared understanding, leading to collaborative knowledge
    • Donna Angley
       
      Yes, it has taken me a while to figure all this out as well. I never take the straight path from point A to point B. I always take the detour, but I do get there eventually :-)
  • Dewey states: “I assume that amid all uncertainties there is one permanent frame of reference: namely the organic connection between education and personal experience. (Dewey 1939:25).
    • Donna Angley
       
      Dewey was a great believer in the connection between the educational system and the social community. "It was forgotten that to become integral parts of the child's conduct and chracter they must be assimilated; not as mere items of information, but as organic parts of his present needs and aims -- which in turn are social" (Dewey). In his book, The School and Society, he talks about the deep connection between home and school, between home and work, and the importance of the school as the connector.
  • pay attention
    • Donna Angley
       
      I had a doctor describe ADD very aptly to me. He said think about your child's surroundings as radio waves. Your child is picking up every radio wave that is out there and he does not have the ability to ignore any of it. When my son was 11 he described his inability to understand things in school like this: it's like I'm looking through a window that is foggy. I can see, but it's not clear enough to make sense.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      This was a good explanation of ADD. Do you know that there is a college that is set up for ADD students? It is called Landmark College and it is a remarkable place!
  • then I go on an adventure and troll through the internet and my books to satisfy my desire to learn. I continue, immerse in my hyper-focus state of mind, until I feel that I have a deep understanding of whatever I am exploring.
    • Donna Angley
       
      This is a good thing; it's what online learning is all about. I realize it's probably frustrating to you because you focus so intensely on what you're doing, but I definitely see your presence in this course, so I wouldn't worry that you're not interacting enough. Just for the record, 12 posts is difficult for me as well when you consider how much research goes into each one.
  • I will investigate and use group Wikis
    • Donna Angley
       
      I've decided to have my students use Wiki as well for a group project. I think it will be a good learning activity and will give them the opportunity to collaborate outside of the forum. They will be writing their own short stories in small groups.
  • detailed rubric
    • Donna Angley
       
      I need to create a rubric for my "Book Club" forum. Any suggestions for where to start? Do I reinvent the wheel, or are there sites that have pre-fabricated rubrics that can be tweaked to fit my needs?
    • Diane Gusa
       
      Hi Donna, Whenever youi can do not reinvent the wheel. I am going to post either today or tomorrow a post on building a rubric. First I need to see what Alex wants us to do
  • plan on using Alex’s rubric for my instructional design,
    • Donna Angley
       
      Can we do this, just borrow a rubric from somebody else? That would be awesome, but I don't want to plagarize anything.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      I prefer to think I synthesize....I always search the internet for "ideas" for my rubrics and course syllabi.
    • ian august
       
      Hey diane, sometimes I never know when I am ready to write. I thought I had the pattern down. Read the material, take notes, reflect and research on what interests or inspres me, but this module I was not ready to blog and i started writing something, and some crazy stuff just came out. It might have been the two best blog posts of the semester. 
    • ian august
       
      Give this women a thousand points for quoting me :)!!
    • Diane Gusa
       
      Yes Ian I have learned much from you all. I also could use the 1,000 points! :)
    • ian august
       
      While i agree with you I think I would not push myself sometimes if I wasnt forced. I might have chosen to slack instead of worked when I was tired or busy with life.  Do you think you can use different models of teaching with different students in the same class?
    • Kimberly Barss
       
      I agree with Ian...it reminds me of doing sports in high school. If my coach didn't push us harder and harder we wouldn't ever have been successful! Alex is our coach and we can either choose to step up to the plate and work our butts off or we can sit on the bench and let the game, or in this case the learning, pass us by!
    • Kimberly Barss
       
      On a side note, I loved kung fu panda!!
  • I am saddened and concern for the positivist, behaviorist methods she employs and models. I
    • Donna Angley
       
      I don't understand this comment.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      This was base on reading only half of the rubric...
  • poor grade.
    • Donna Angley
       
      This is the second time you've brought up this issue. The way I see, Alex is the instructor, and she has designed a course with rubrics. I really don't see that the rubrics are that difficult to understand. I understand you wanting to get an "A" but if you want the "A" you have to work hard for it. If your life circumstances prevent you from doing what she considers the fair amount of work, that's not her problem. I don't feel an instructor should change the syllabus or rubrics for every student that complains about the work load, unless the instructor has received numerous complaints. I think that perhaps you have a lot on your plate right now, atleast that's the feeling I get from reading some of your posts. I can understand that, I've been through a lot myself this semester. However, it's unfair to expect Alex to change the point system just for you. May I suggest something: Clearly you are a hard working student, but circumstances are obviously preventing you from putting in the amount of work needed to earn an "A." Just accept that and work toward a "B" which is a perfectly acceptable grade. Take the pressure off of yourself. It's just a grade. A year or two from now it won't matter. All that will matter is that you learned about online teaching and came away with a robust course that you can teach. I think that's a good deal.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      Donna My comment is a pedagogical one and not an attack on Alex. The point I may not be making clearly, why the number 12? I am not the only student who has stated that a post takes several hours. Does Alex require this? No. Why I take this time is because of the quality I expect to bring to the discussion forum. I was not posting prior knowlege, but new understandings. Learning takes time and the #12 does not seem to recognize this time. I again do not see "choice" in this rubric. I agree the knowlege is the goal, and I have no problem with what I have learned and will continue to learn. However, with the exception of the last grading I have not gotten a "B" but failed every discussion forum except the last. Yes I was teaching a summer online course. I also have home responisblilites. These were stresses, but not obstacles. According to the expectations we were expected to do ~ 45 hours in class work and 100+ hours building our course. I don't know about you but the class work I have done over 150 hours just in class work. Finally, why do I bring this argument up for a second time. It is not for Alex to change; but for you all in this class to not simply copy and use Alex's rubric in your own courses. That is why I speak out.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      Again if I had scrolled down I would have seen that 12 posts were not required.
  • In the future I will build my course off line,
    • Donna Angley
       
      Good idea!
  • when a student finally understands that their discussions need to encompass teaching, cognitive engagement, and social presence, then the discussion forum truly becomes a awesome learning tool!!!!!!  
    • Donna Angley
       
      I guess that's what it's all about in the end. I'm not sure all online students understand this concept when they first delve into it. I've actually added a resource that explains the generalities of social learning theory and the students part in it.
  • Alex, my  Shifu, has diligently pushed me down the road of online pedagogy. There were many times when I landed hard and bounced a few times. However, just like the panda, I too will become capable in my bumbling ways. I too realize there is no secret ingredients in 21st century teaching….it still is best practices in education with technology embedded in it.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      i TOTALLY LOVE this image : ) thank you! : )
  • I have changed in many ways as a result of this class. I am now and will continue to be a blogger, and use blogs  as one way to facilitate learning for my students. I understand the Community of inquiry approach, and have now created a rubric for my discussion forums that reflect the elements of teacher, cognitive, and social presence. I was fortunate to be teaching online as I took this class, and I observed my discussion forums going from conversations to dialogue that exhibit depth of learning. I have observed the pedagogy of my professor and will incorporate similar ways of interacting with my students, using the tools that web 2.0 affords me. I have moved from having little enthusiasm for online learning to embracing it as an essential medium for learning.  
  • I will do this because I care about their learning.
  • I knew I needed this course to become the better online teacher, what I didn’t know was the transformative change  that I would experience this summer.
  • ulnerability, especially with the knowledge that their efforts will be evaluated by their instructor.
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
  •  
    Social View of Learning
Hedy Lowenheim

1091 Ten Best Practices for Teaching Online - 0 views

  • The posting below looks at best practices for teaching online.
  • Why is presence so important in the online environment? When faculty actively interact and engage students in a face-to-face classroom, the class evolves as a group and develops intellectual and personal bonds. The same type of community bonding happens in an online setting if the faculty presence is felt consistently.
  •  
    "Community building is the focus of much research in online learning (Brown, 2001; Rovai, 2002; Shea, 2006)."
Irene Watts-Politza

Using Facebook to build community in large college classes (essay) | Inside Higher Ed - 1 views

    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Uh oh ... this is how it starts ... he'll be an online teacher within two semesters!
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Such affinity for promoting teaching presence!
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      The future of the public university ...
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  • It is definitely not for everyone -- you must be committed (especially time-wise) to using it. But knowing that you and your hundreds of students are finally seeing eye-to-eye is worth the effort!
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      We must be passionate about what makes our students passionate.
  • The success of Fb described above, as well as survey data I collected showing positive reactions to the Fb group, will lead to my continued use of this technology.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Collecting feedback to improve future course iterations ... another example of using data to effect best practice.
  • After all the years of teaching these “mega-sections” and with the tough financial situation of my state university it was clear that this type of class was not going away.
  • I was hoping to include something that would add a greater sense of community to the class, something that everyone in the class could use to better connect to one another.
  • I knew the data about how many college students were on Fb, but would students be willing to spend some of their valuable Fb time communicating within a Fb group for a college course? Also, would I be willing to become an avid Fb user, following the flow of communication several times a day? It did not take long to learn that the answers to these questions was “Yes,” and that I had reached my goal of facilitating a sense of community. Although joining the Fb group for the course was not required, a little over 80 percent of the class became members of the group.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Roughly equivalent to 76% student satisfaction rate Alex and colleagues found regarding student satisfaction with high levels of student/instructor interactivity.
  • Moreover, the students essentially ran the group.
  • These included everything from asking for notes, getting clarification on points made in lecture, posting videos and images that pertained to class material, forming study groups, noting relevant events on campus, and congratulating class members on specific accomplishments.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      This makes me wonder how to increase the visibility of the "Bulletin Board" or "Faculty Lounge" course areas.
Diana Cary

Learners' Perspectives on what is Missing from Online Learning: Interpretations through... - 0 views

  • Concerns surrounding the lack of physical presence in an online learning environment have led researchers to investigate the concept of presence when learning online
  • Early work focused on social presence and the idea of participation and belonging
  • Social presence is a factor that contributes to building a community of learners
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • "the degree of feeling, perception, and reaction to another intellectual entity in the CMC environment"
  • "feeling intimacy or togetherness in terms of sharing time and place"
  • "the ability of learners to project themselves socially and emotionally in a community of inquiry"
  • Five themes regarding what learners perceived was missing from their online learning experience emerged: robustness of online dialogue, spontaneity and improvisation, perceiving and being perceived by the other, getting to know others, and learning to be an online learner.
Diane Gusa

Interaction and Immediacy in Online Learning | Woods | The International Review of Rese... - 0 views

  • Interaction alone, however, is insufficient to create a positive social dynamic in the online classroom.
  • Research demonstrates that the integration of verbal and non-verbal immediacy communication behaviors lets instructors move from mere interaction to authentic intimacy and interpersonal closeness.
  • an instructor’s understanding of interaction and immediacy dynamics will affect the nature and quality of communication in the online learning environment.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Mehrabian (1967) defined immediacy as the extent to which selected communicative behaviors enhance physical or psychological closeness in interpersonal communication.
  • Anderson (1979) summarizes the impact of immediacy: The more immediate a person is, the more likely he/ she is to communicate at close distances, smile, engage in eye contact, use direct body orientations, use overall body movement and gestures, touch others, relax, and be vocally expressive. In other words, we might say that an immediate person is perceived as overtly friendly and warm (p. 545).
  • “Knowledge building occurs as students explore issues, examine one another’s arguments, agree, disagree, and question positions. Collaboration [learner-learner interaction] contributes to higher order learning through cognitive restructuring or conflict resolution, in which new ways of understanding the material emerge as a result of contact with new or different perspectives” (p. 55)
  • Kearsley (2000) declared: “The most important role of the instructor in online classes is to ensure a high degree of interactivity and participation” (p. 78)
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