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Michael Lucatorto

Unshielded Colliders: Poverty and Education - 0 views

  • For example, Mel Riddile points out that when one conditions on various measures of poverty, instead of trailing other nations, the U.S. actually comes out on top! He concludes that "when it comes to school improvement, it's poverty not stupid." Poverty causes educational deficiency.
  • or example, Mel Riddile points out that when one conditions on various measures of poverty, instead of trailing other nations, the U.S. actually comes out on top! He concludes that "when it comes to school improvement, it's poverty not stupid." Poverty causes educational deficienc
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    For example, Mel Riddile points out that when one conditions on various measures of poverty, instead of trailing other nations, the U.S. actually comes out on top! He concludes that "when it comes to school improvement, it's poverty not stupid." Poverty causes educational deficiency. Now, I like to actually have data to play around with, in part because people have been known to lie about politically charged issues and in part because I like to have nice graphs (which are not provided by Riddile). Anyway, it turns out that international poverty data is pretty hard to come by and fraught with interpretational difficulties. On the other hand, the National Assessment of Educational Progress provides test data for most of the states in the U.S., and the U.S. Census Bureau provides data on the percentage of people in poverty by state. I took the NAEP data for 8th grade science achievement and regressed on the percentage of people below the poverty line for the measured states. The two are negatively associated: as poverty increases, science achievement scores decrease according to the relationship in the plot below. (Alaska, Kansas, Nebraska, and Vermont did not meet NAEP reporting guidelines and are not included in the plot above.) The association is highly significant (p=9.98*10-6). I also took pilot NAEP data for 8th grade mathematics achievement and regressed on the percentage of people below the poverty line for the measured states. (Evidently, the NAEP has only just started testing for mathematics achievement, and only eleven states were included in their pilot.) Again, the two are negatively associated. The slope of the relation turns out to be almost exactly the same as for science achievement. The association is not as significant, but it is still significant (p=0.0186). (My guess is the association is less significant in this case because fewer states were measured.) Clearly there is an association between poverty and achievement in science and mathem
Irene Watts-Politza

Thirty-two Trends Affecting Distance Education: An Informed Foundation for Strategic Pl... - 1 views

  • As universities shift toward competency and institutions cater more closely to learners’ specific needs, the distinctions between high school, undergraduate college, and graduate programs will dissolve. “Incentives will be given to students and institutions to move students through at a faster rate [and] the home school movement will lead to a home-college movement” (Dunn, 2000, p. 37). As leaders in the effort to cater to learners’ needs, distance education programs may be a dominant influence in this trend.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      P-20 pipeline
  • Accreditation and program approval will be based more on educational outcomes. Testing programs will be put in place by discipline organizations, federal and state governments, corporations, and testing companies. Large corporations will develop their own approval systems. By 2025, there will not be one national accreditation system, although the U.S. Department of Education will provide a basic safety net for quality. (p. 37; see also Pond, 2003) Distance educators must plan to accommodate this emphasis on accountability if they are to maintain accreditation and meet consumer demands.
  • Much of distance education programs’ success or failure can be attributed to how it is organized.
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  • the academically decentralized/administratively centralized model
  • Changes in the institutional landscape may magnify competition among educational providers and allow new models and leaders to emerge.
  • Knowledge proliferation may increase content-breadth demands on higher education, spreading distance education resources ever thinner and complicating development decisions.
  • An NEA survey reported that faculty members’ top concern about distance education was that they will do more work for the same amount of pay, apparently a merited concern.
  • As long as distance education contributions are not considered in tenure and promotion decisions, and as long as professors have their own, traditional ways of delivering their courses, many faculty members will be reluctant to participate in online courses (Oravec, 2003). Concerning this reluctance, Dunn has predicted that many faculty members will revolt against technological course delivery and the emerging expectations their institutions will have of faculty members. Dunn forecast that some of the resistance will even be manifest through unionization and strikes (Dunn, 2000). Some have suggested the labor-intensive and time-consuming demands required to develop online modules as reasons for faculty resistance (Brogden, 2002).
  • The results of de Alva’s 2000 survey support this trend: governors rated “maintaining traditional faculty roles and tenure” as the least desirable characteristic of a twenty-first century university (p. 34).
  • Faculty members tend initially to try to use their conventional classroom methods to teach at a distance and then become frustrated when attempts are unsuccessful (Dasher-Alston & Patton, p. 14). In Green’s (2002) survey of the role
  • Distance education teams include administrators, instructional designers, technologists, and instructors/facilitators (Miller, 2001; Williams, 2003). The functions of instructors and facilitators then include being a “facilitator, teacher, organizer, grader, mentor, role model, counselor, coach, supervisor, problem solver, and liaison” (Riffee, 2003, p. 1; see also Roberson, 2002; Scagnoli, 2001). The role of faculty members in distance education requires “some specialized skills and strategies. Distance education instructors must plan ahead, be highly organized, and communicate with learners in new ways. They need to be accessible to students [and] work in teams when appropriate” (PSU, 1998, p. 4). Distance faculty members must be experts in maintaining communication, because there is increased demand for student interaction in distance learning (NEA, 2000). Finally, they may have to assume more administrative responsibilities than is true in a residential model (PSU, 1998).
  • “Rather than incorporating the responsibility for all technology- and competency-based functions into a single concept of ‘faculty member,’ universities are disaggregating faculty instructional activities and [assigning] them to distinct professionals” (Paulson, 2002, p. 124). Doing this involves a “deliberate division of labor among the faculty, creating new kinds of instructional staff, or deploying nontenure-track instructional staff (such as adjunct faculty, graduate teaching assistants, or undergraduate assistants) in new ways” (Paulson, 2002, p. 126
  • Online students are becoming an entirely new subpopulation of higher-education learners. They are “generally older, have completed more college credit hours and more degree programs, and have a higher all-college GPA than their traditional counterparts” (Diaz, 2002, pp. 1-2). For example, Diaz has noted that online students received twice as many A’s as traditional students and half as many D’s and F’s.
  • One result of the highly competitive e-learning market will be institutions that specialize in meeting particular niches in the market (Gallagher, 2003). Morrison and Barone (2003, p. 4) observed, “We can see the beginnings of the trend toward the unbundling of courses, credits, services, and fee structures.” Dunn foresaw a similar trend, predicting that “courseware producers will sell courses and award credits directly to the end user and thus, through intermediation, bypass the institutional middleman” (Dunn, 2000, p. 37). The transition may also blur the distinction between two- and four-year colleges and universities (Carr, 1999). In this context of greater “portability,” more educational “brokers” (e.g., Western Governor’s University, Excelsior College, Charter Oak State College, etc.) will exist (Pond, 2003). Further, as de Alva has asserted, “Institutional success for any higher education enterprise will depend more on successful marketing, solid quality-assurance and control systems, and effective use of the new media than on production and communication of knowledge” (de Alva, 2000, p. 40).
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    Trends that affect distance education. The part that shows how different online students are now is very interesting.
Anne Deutsch

MERLOT - Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching - 0 views

    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      hi! join this resource and browse the collections of materials. In MERLOT you may find simulations and other cool resources in your discipline that might assist you to achieve one of your learning activities. happy exploring! me
    • Shoubang Jian
       
      I heard so much about MERLOT, now finally have a chance to explore it. Great!
    • Melissa Pietricola
       
      There is a wealth of information here! Its almost too big unless you are looking for something specific!
    • Kimberly Barss
       
      This is an amazing resource!
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    Putting Educational Innovations Into Practice Find peer reviewed online teaching and learning materials. Share advice and expertise about education with expert colleagues. Be recognized for your contributions to quality education.
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    Alex has this website in our course, but I find it very interesting for exploration purposes. I came upon this website when searching "multimedia"
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    LOVE Merlot - always have - always will! Lol
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    Educator resources and professional interest groups.
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    This site has groups you can explore and/or join in areas of interest. There are materials in ready to use formats too.
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    educator resources and forums on many topics of interest
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    educator resources and forums on many topics of interest
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    Seems to be more geared toward higher ed, but still a great source of ideas and inspiration.
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    Free and open online community of resources designed primarily for faculty, staff and students of higher education from around the world to share their learning materials and pedagogy. MERLOT is a leading edge, user-centered, collection of peer reviewed higher education, online learning materials, catalogued by registered members and a set of faculty development support services.
lkryder

ISTE Standards Essential Conditions - 0 views

  • oactive leadership in developing a shared vision for educational technology among all education stakeholders, including teachers and support staff, school and district administrators, teacher educators, students, parents, and the community Empowered Leaders  Stakeholders at every level empowered to be leaders in effecting change Implementation Planning A systemic plan aligned with a shared vision for school effectiveness and student learning through the infusion of information and communication technology (ICT) and digital learning resources   Consistent and Adequate Funding Ongoing funding to support technology infrastructure, personnel, digital resources, and staff development Equitable Access Robust and reliable access to current and emerging technologies and digital resources, with connectivity for all students, teachers, staff, and school leaders Skilled Personnel Educators, support staff, and other leaders skilled in the selection and effective use of appropriate ICT resources Ongoing Professional Learning Technology-related professional learning plans and opportunities with dedicated time to practice and share ideas Technical Support  Consistent and reliable assistance for maintaining,  renewing, and using ICT and digital learning resources  Curriculum Framework Content standards and related digital curriculum  resources that are aligned with and support digital age  learning and work  Student-Centered Learning  Planning, teaching, and assessment centered around  the needs and abilities of students  Assessment and Evaluation  Continuous assessment of teaching, learning, and  leadership, and evaluation of the use of ICT and digital  resources  Engaged Communities  Partnerships and collaboration within communities to  support and fund the use of ICT and digital learning  resources  Support Policies  Policies, financial plans, accountability measures,  and incentive structures to support the use of ICT  and other digital resources for learning and in district  school operations  Supportive External Context  Policies and initiatives at the national, regional, and  local levels to support schools and teacher preparation  programs in the effective implementation of technology  for achieving curriculum and learning technology (ICT)  standards
  • Proactive leadership in developing a shared vision for educational technology among all education stakeholders, including teachers and support staff, school and district administrators, teacher educators, students, parents, and the community
  • Shared Vision
Amy Varano

TechTiger's Weblog - 0 views

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    "Uncanny" may be a feeling that most of the parents of students in my online course may be feeling as they support their child in taking an online class.
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    Some of the students in my online course may identify with the character TechTiger. Being part of the millennial generation, they may feel misunderstood by their parents and teachers.
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    According to Michael Wesch, 112.8 million blogs have been created over the last five years. Anyone could be a published writer!
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    Click on Kanying's name. We are familiar with blogs and journaling, however it is amazing to see a blog that is written in a different language. It is even more amazing to think about the 112.8 million blogs that are created and how many of them are in foreign languages. If we were cultural anthropologists, what could we learn from viewing these diverse digital journals?
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    This is a common misconception for parents. They think that because their child is working on a computer it is unconstructive. In some ways their theory is true, especially if their child is not taught how to constructively use the computer as a learning tool. How do we instill in our children and students that the computer is a powerful learning tool?
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    These are just a few things students could do using a web blog. What if they were instructed on how to use this technology based environment in an educational setting? The child's learning possibilities would soar.
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    Parents, teachers, and administrators need to be instructed on how to create meaningful learning activities using new technology such as the computer. Students are longing for this kind of authentic and meaningful learning. What is the purpose of school if students are not presented with critical thinking and problem solving activities that bring them to a higher level of thinking and learning?
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    The resource I would like to add for the MERLOT project is actually a resource that I submitted to MERLOT back in April. The resource is a blog/power point presentation that is designed to be a resource for parents. The information in this power point presentation comes from Victoria Carrington's article "The Uncanny: Digital Texts and Literacy". The power point presentation is designed in an easy to read story book format which tells of a modern day child named "TechTiger" who changes the perspective of his parents, teachers, and other in the older "uncanny" generation due to his media literacy and experiences with contemporary culture. I will incorporate this resource into my online course by adding it to my parent corner. Since my Life Cycle course is intended for a third grade audience, I have designed an area for parents so that they are aware of what their child is learning in this course as well as ways they could enrich their child outside of my course on topics they are learning. Some parents who have their child enrolled in my online course may be "uncanny" to media literacy and have some of the concerns that are addressed in the resource TechTiger's Space. The resource TechTiger's Space may put into perspective some parent's fears with technology as well as the added benefits to put their minds at ease and support their child's online learning experience.
Maria Guadron

Second Life Education/Resources - Second Life Wiki - 0 views

  • The education community is the fastest growing and among the most vibrant, active, and dynamic in Second Life.
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    The education community is growing in Second Life. Check out this site for many resources for educators in Second Life, such as general learning resources, videos showcasing educators in SL, and more!
Jessica M

Educators: Are Web - based Resources an Effective Means for Increasing Knowledge in Hig... - 0 views

  • Previous research has shown that online instruction has aided in the preparation and retention of special education teachers (Dymond & Bentz, 2006; Knapczyk, Frey, & Wall-Marencik, 2005).
    • Jessica M
       
      Online instruction is research proven to help benefit special education students
  • positively affect attitudes, knowledge
  • lack of training during their preservice years in proper interventions for students with disabilities, including modification, accommodations and assistive technology
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  • outcomes, and perceptions of educating students with disabilities in general education (Carroll, 2003; Cook, 2002; Kirk, 1998; Powers, 1992).
  • For example teacher educators identify time constraints as one of the biggest barriers in providing an effective overall class on how to educate students with disabilities in the general education classroom
  • ill-equipped
  • Assistive Technology Outcomes and BenefitsFocused Issue: The Role of Higher Education in Preparing Education Professionals to Use AT
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    Many facts about students with disabilities and how educators can benefit from online courses and learning to better support the needs of these students. Benefit of taking this course online - community, sharing..
Nicole Arduini-Van Hoose

Bringing Life to Online Instruction with Humor - 1 views

  • Based on our experience using humor as an instructional strategy in traditional and online courses, we explain how instructors can incorporate humor into online courses
  • Of the personal dimensions of teaching, humor is the most human of them all. T
  • Humor is not a pedagogical panacea, and the mere inclusion of humor will not assure that learning will occur. I
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  • The challenge for instructors teaching online courses is to learn to use humor to create interesting and inviting virtual learning environments while minimizing any potential pitfalls of humor as an instructional device
  • e, the educational purpose of the humor is the most important consideration. As a pedagogical device, humor can promote various objectives, such as to increase student interest and attention, facilitate the student-teacher relationship, provide students with a “mental break,” or promote the understanding and retention of a concept. In contrast to humorists, who gauge success by laughter, educators measure the effectiveness of humor by how it promotes learning. Although humor can be used to increase students’ overall enjoyment of the online experience, most of the humor incorporated into an online course should serve an instructional purpos
  • simpler forms of humor that would “bomb” in a comedy venue, such as word-play (e.g., puns, oxymorons) and clever or witty observations, can be used successfully in online course
  • nstructors recognize that potentially offensive humor, such as sexist or racist jokes, is not appropriate (Perlman & McCann, 1998). The safest target is the instructor, because self-deprecating humor avoids offending or alienating others, and allows students to view the teacher as more “human.
  • several ways that instructors can enhance visual humor for the online environment
  • journals devoted to humorous research (e.g., Journal of Polymorphous Perversity, Annals of Improbable Research).
  • Visual humor is especially effective in online courses, and cartoons, illustrations, and photographs, can easily be integrated throughout the course
  • e, we strongly encourage instructors to consider the guidelines for pedagogical humor mentioned in the previous section. First, does the humor promote an educational objective? Second, will the students understand and appreciate the humor? Third, is the target of the humor appropriate for the course?
  • For this type of humor to be effective, the visual punch line needs to be hidden behind a hyperlink.
  • We strongly believe that integrating personal photographs or “home movies” into online instruction adds a more personalized and intimate feel to the often sterile nature of online courses
  • use an extra-credit activity called the “Contributing Editor” that requires students to locate potential sources of humor on any course topic.
  • For instructors who are comfortable using humor in course examinations, there are several approaches for adding humor to multiple-choice tests. First, an additional distracter (e.g., choice “e”), such as a joke at the expense of the instructor, can be added to select items. Second, names that appear in items can be reformatted by inserting the instructor's name or creating fictitious names. Third, a “final” item can be added with the setup “The test is over and you...” with funny distracters targeted to the students, instructor, or course. (See Berk, 2000 for additional strategies for infusing humor into multiple-choice examinations.)
  • the most suitable joke formulas for the online course are word-play and exaggeration. A word-play joke involves the modification of a word, clichés, definition, common phrase, or concept. Examples of word-play pedagogical humor include silly names, funny unit subtitles, oxymorons, and factitious definitions. Word-play is a relatively simple form of humor, and instructors should expect smirks (or moans) rather than big laughs. Also, word-play jokes will only be successful when instructors follow the principle of “knowing your audience” (i.e., students must recognize the word, concept, or phrase that is being reformatted or embellished).
  • The final step of humor writing is to edit the joke by following the four principles of “aggressive editing” (Sankey, 1998)
  • The placement and duration of humor used in online lecture modules are critical to the flow of instruction.
  • Humor can allow students a brief “mental break” from an online lecture, and instructors can use transitions to illustrate a concept with topic-related tangents or self-deprecating stories.
  • ules as an opportunity to use humorous personal examples and commentary to expand on previously discussed lecture topics. By clearly identifying the tangent, students recognize that the rant is separate from the lecture
  • For a more detailed explanation of the techniques and principles of humor writing, instructors can refer to various comedy writing books (e.g., Carter, 2001; Helitzer & Shatz, 2005).
  • course, we strongly encourage instru
  • course, we strongly encourage instru
  • luding funny quotes, jokes, and cartoons, and in this section, we identify resources for locating pedagogical humor. When deciding which material to use for the online course, we strongly encourage instructors to c
  • we strongly encourage instructors to consider the guidelines for pedagogical humor mentioned in the previous section. First, does the humor promote an educational objective? Second, will the students understand and appreciate the humor? Third, is the target of the humor appropriate for the course? The Internet is the best resource for pedagogical humor, and although any search using a discipline and “humor” as descriptors will yield numerous web sites, we recommend more narrowly focused searches (i.e., “humor” and a specific discipline topic). Additional resources for pedagogical humor include supplemental instructional materials provided by book publishers and journals devoted to humorous research (e.g., Journal of Polymorphous Perversity, Annals of Improbable Research). When using humor from other sources, instructors need to adhere to copyright considerations. Visual humor is especially effective in online courses, and cartoons, illustrations, and photographs, can easily be integrated throughout the course. Although visual humor is usually self-contained (i.e., a caption or the illustration delivers the punch line), there are several ways that instructors can enhance visual humor for the online environment. Visuals, such as photographs or illustrations, can be used as a punch line for a joke. For example, when discussing the difficulty of course examinations, the setup would be “And this is how students often feel after an exam…” with a photograph or cartoon of frighten individuals delivering the punch line. For this type of humor to be effective,
  • we strongly encourage instructors to consider the guidelines for pedagogical humor mentioned in the previous section. First, does the humor promote an educational objective? Second, will the students understand and appreciate the humor? Third, is the target of the humor appropriate for the course? The Internet is the best resource for pedagogical humor, and although any search using a discipline and “humor” as descriptors will yield numerous web sites, we recommend more narrowly focused searches (i.e., “humor” and a specific discipline topic). Additional resources for pedagogical humor include supplemental instructional materials provided by book publishers and journals devoted to humorous research (e.g., Journal of Polymorphous Perversity, Annals of Improbable Research). When using humor from other sources, instructors need to adhere to copyright considerations. Visual humor is especially effective in online courses, and cartoons, illustrations, and photographs, can easily be integrated throughout the course. Although visual humor is usually self-contained (i.e., a caption or the illustration delivers the punch line), there are several ways that instructors can enhance visual humor for the online environment. Visuals, such as photographs or illustrations, can be used as a punch line for a joke. For example, when discussing the difficulty of course examinations, the setup would be “And this is how students often feel after an exam…” with a photograph or cartoon of frighten individuals delivering the punch line. For this type of humor to be effective,
  • we strongly encourage instructors to consider the guidelines for pedagogical humor mentioned in the previous section. First, does the humor promote an educational objective? Second, will the students understand and appreciate the humor? Third, is the target of the humor appropriate for the course? The Internet is the best resource for pedagogical humor, and although any search using a discipline and “humor” as descriptors will yield numerous web sites, we recommend more narrowly focused searches (i.e., “humor” and a specific discipline topic). Additional resources for pedagogical humor include supplemental instructional materials provided by book publishers and journals devoted to humorous research (e.g., Journal of Polymorphous Perversity, Annals of Improbable Research). When using humor from other sources, instructors need to adhere to copyright considerations. Visual humor is especially effective in online courses, and cartoons, illustrations, and photographs, can easily be integrated throughout the course. Although visual humor is usually self-contained (i.e., a caption or the illustration delivers the punch line), there are several ways that instructors can enhance visual humor for the online environment. Visuals, such as photographs or illustrations, can be used as a punch line for a joke. For example, when discussing the difficulty of course examinations, the setup would be “And this is how students often feel after an exam…” with a photograph or cartoon of frighten individuals delivering the punch line. For this type of humor to be effective,
  • ll the students unders
  • A wide range of hum
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    "The challenge for instructors teaching online courses is to learn to use humor to create interesting and inviting virtual learning environments while minimizing any potential pitfalls of humor as an instructional device. In a commentary noting the need for humor in online courses, James (2004) observed that "Because humor is one of the major traits of the best, most effective teachers, it is a characteristic that all teachers should want to hone, practice, and nurture, regardless of medium" "
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    Thinking back to our conversation on humor. (I was only a lurker in that conversation, but maybe now I have time to revisit this idea). Hope this adds to your thoughts.
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    explain how instructors can incorporate humor in an online course, the enhancement humor can bring, guidelines for locating, selecting, developing, and integrating humor into an online courses, and examples of humor in various online components.
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
Diane Gusa

The Application of Learning Style Theory in Higher Education Teaching - 0 views

  • A learning style is: "A complexus of related characteristics in which the whole is greater than its parts. Learning style is a gestalt combining internal and external operations derived from the individual's neurobiology, personality and development, and reflected in learner behaviour" (Keefe & Ferrell 1990, p. 16).
  • general tendency towards a particular learning approach displayed by an individual.
  • Riding & Cheema (1991), from an extensive review of the literature, conclude there are only two principal styles "families", the holist-analytic, and the verbaliser-imager. These two broad groupings relate to the type of cognitive activities normally ascribed to the two hemispheres of the brain. Curry (1983) suggests there are three different perspectives on styles: those relating to a preference for a particular instructional approach, those relating to the individual's intellectual approach to assimilating information independently of the environment, and those relating to the individual's intellectual approach to assimilating information with the environment.
  • ...26 more annotations...
  • Dunn, Deckinger, Withers & Katzenstein (1990), who found that teaching students based on their diagnosed learning style did significantly increase their achievement level (see also Napolitano 1986).
  • Research indicates learning style is not a stable construct, so one may alter instructional style to meet a learning style that will itself change, requiring a further change in instructional strategy.
  • Researchers have failed to address the question of how it is possible to achieve a tailoring of instructional approaches on anything other than an individual level.
  • What may be possible is to promote an educational environment developed for flexibility at the individual student level.
  • What is required is a stimulus-stimulus approach, where the student and the lecturer are actively involved in both learning and the mechanics of the learning process, the aim being to facilitate learner empowerment by developing in students a critical awareness of material studied and the delivery and structure of the material. Learners can then tailor flexible education strategies to their requirements to optimise the quality of the learning experience.
  • his ability of an individual to actively select from a personal style or skills portfolio, is part of what can be termed self-directed learning
  • In an educational setting, a self-directed learner no longer operates as a passive receiver of information, but takes responsibility for the achievement, and ultimately setting, of learning outcomes. In essence, the traditional lecturer-student divide becomes increasingly blurred, as the learner begins to pro-actively structure the programme to match their own learning attributes.
  • facilitator, and finally to that of a resource to be tapped
  • lecturer's role
  • Under such an approach, higher education ceases to be simply something that is done to people, and becomes a platform from which individuals can go on to, in effect, educate themselves
  • "causer of learning".
  • This approach will tend to create learned helplessness in people
  • Higher education should be concerned with not only enhancing learning in a specific situation, but should also constitute a catalyst for further self-initiated development of the individual, above and beyond the contents and aims of a particular course. T
  • The lecturer must avoid removing traditional barriers to self-direction, such as a rigid programme structure, only to erect new barriers through the use of prescriptive self-direction strategies imposed on the student.
  • allow the individual the freedom to define and devise learning strategies, and to make mistakes. T
  • The role of the lecturer must be essentially non-interventionist, unless the student seeks guidance
  • as people may still not choose to direct their own learning due to: a lack of belief in their own ability, a failure by them to recognise that self-direction is needed or preferable, the setting of an inappropriate learning goal(s) that fails to act as a motivator, and previous learning and education experiences.
  • That educational system primarily tends to concentrate on didactic approaches that often view learning as being of secondary importance to memory, where information acquisition and subsequent information regurgitation predominate.
  • This will require that the lecturer breaks down barriers to learning and self-direction that may be present. This covers: those barriers created by the student during the course (wrong choice of learning approach, poor motivation, lack of confidence), those barriers that the course itself may indirectly create (lack of flexibility, lack of direction and guidance, poor structure), and those barriers that the student brings to the course (reason for attending the course, poor learning skills, previous bad learning experiences).
  • In the initial stages of a programme, the lecturer will need to ensure the existence of an appropriate control structure, as students undergo the transition from being other-directed in their learning by external influences, to being self-directed.
  • caffold structure
  • clearly communicated and understood aims and objectives for the students at regular intervals.
  • allows students to progressively take control of their learning,
  • but that also offers sufficient guidance and direction in the early stages to prevent individuals from becoming lost.
  • The application of learning style theory in higher education teaching
    • Diane Gusa
       
      This would take a very brave instructor to do this. However, I know of colleges (Goddard for one) that does exactly this in their graduate program.
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?
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • 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.
dkiesel

The Technology Source Archives - Ten Ways Online Education Matches, or Surpasses, Face-... - 6 views

  • Students are empowered to learn on their own and even to teach one another.
    • Erin Fontaine
       
      Students are made accountable for their own education and are able to reflect on what they are learning.
    • Heather Kurto
       
      Students work together with professors to create a learning style that meets their needs. The students guide information that is important to them making the experience meaningful.
  • Students served as instructors to their classmates, and together they worked toward learning goals more effectively than if they had been provided with the answer by the instructor.
    • Erin Fontaine
       
      I have seen my own students achieve better comprehension when they are able to see the information through the eyes of their peers rather than my perspective.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      This also supports Shift 4 in ELA Common Core which calls for students to have "rich" conversations centering on a text.
  • When an instructor posts a question on the asynchronous discussion board, every student in the class is expected to respond, respond intelligently, and respond several times.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      This expectation is supported by the online instructor's facilitation of discourse and intellectual leadership, identified by Jones et al. as two aspects of teaching presence.
  • ...27 more annotations...
  • On a more formal note, online tests and quizzes can be constructed with an automatic grading capability that provides immediate feedback and references to text and class notes that explain the correct answers. Assignments, including grades and editorial comments, can be returned to students more promptly and usually with more detail than in the F2F environment.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      This is something to consider with respect to formative assessment, RtI evidence/data, and computer-based grade books. Wondering how it would work in an open source learning platform for collecting data on teacher effectiveness at the university level?
    • Teresa Dobler
       
      I have used online homework systems with my middle school students, and it works wonderfully. Many students use the immediate feedback to their advantage, reviewing the questions they got wrong. I know they use it well because whenever I happen to make an error in marking the correct answer, I will receive a flood of emails from students quoting resources stating why they believe their answer to be correct.
  • They say that it is common for participants in online courses to develop a strong sense of community that enhances the learning process.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Bodes well for gobalization of education, especially when supported by language conversion apps.
    • Teresa Dobler
       
      Reminds me of a community of inquiry model. See Garrison, Anderson, and Archer, 2000.
  • thrilled
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      This is indeed the perfect verb for this experience!
  • The thinking, planning, research, learning, and effort that goes into constructing and teaching an online course has rejuvenated many faculty members who were frankly going through the motions after numerous years of teaching the same courses, semester after semester, in the same classroom environment.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      As online learning increases at the secondary level, is it possible that responsibility for curriculum development will become an APPR bargaining issue under the Regents Reform Agenda?
  • the best way to teach students how to write more effectively is to have them write more often.
    • Erin Fontaine
       
      One of my main concerns about creating and online class for a junior high (7th/8th) grade is about how technology is affecting their writing abilities. I was afraid of how all the short hand phrases we all use are affecting students and their abiliity to write. Yes, online courses are writing intensive and a great means of keeping students writing but as the teacher I feel like I have to make sure that the work I recieve is of quality. As I continue to research this fear I am seeing both sides of the argument. Text talk may be both positive and negative. Still looking into this... Here is just one of many articles I have found on this topic: http://www.nst.com.my/nation/extras/zero-to-12-is-technology-deteriorating-language-skills-1.89256
    • Teresa Dobler
       
      Thanks for the link. I know with my students, I emphasize the need for using conventional English in typed school work no matter what device they are using. Most of my middle school students are adept at transitioning from the language they would use while texting to the language I expect in their lab report, even if they are typing the lab on their phone.
  • Students with family or work responsibilities are often unable to commit to a traditional course because they cannot be in the same place at the same time for 15 consecutive weeks.
    • Amy M
       
      This is a huge factor is accessibility for adult-learners.
  • Although some instructors may discover more than they wanted to know about their students, my online teaching experience disproves the notion that online courses are impersonal and do not foster relationships, either between students and instructors or among students themselves.
    • Amy M
       
      I wonder what the limit on class size is for an online course to feel "intimate."
  • In the traditional F2F classroom, the instructor asks a question, and the same four or five extroverted students inevitably raise their hands. They offer spontaneous, often unresearched responses in the limited time allotted for discussion. In the online environment, discussions enter a new dimension.
    • Heather Kurto
       
      This is huge for online learning. Students are able to thoughtfully respond which deepens discussions.
  • . Online education is neither right for all students nor right for all faculty, but it frequently meets the needs of both for an exciting, high-quality educational experience.
    • Teresa Dobler
       
      How do we make the jump and empower students to actually take on the role as a teacher?
  • explain, share, comment upon, critique
  • explain, share, comment upon, critique
  • unresearched responses in the limited time
  • unresearched responses
    • Teresa Dobler
       
      I personally have seen a big difference in my thought and contributions when given time to think, research, and craft a response to an argument.
    • sherrilattimer
       
      There is also something to be said abou the "delete" button. Once you say something, you cannot undo it.
  • can refer to their course materials and think through their answers
    • efleonhardt
       
      I think this is a very important piece of online learning I hadn't thought about t before. When students are online they are able to actually process the information and not be afraid if they're processing skills are slower than other students.
    • Teresa Dobler
       
      The goal is for the student to continue learning throughout life, not just for the course. This links back to the Minds on Fire reading: http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/minds-fire-open-education-long-tail-and-learning-20
  • However, I have heard from very few faculty members who are not energized by the creative process of achieving the same instructional goals in an entirely new format.
  • On average, online courses are far more writing-intensive than traditional classes have ever been.
  • he first response that comes to mind rather than the best possible response
    • George Dale
       
      and you don't have the, "Doh! I should have said ..." as you're walking out of the classroom.
  • Many online students have indicated that this is the first time they have ever "spoken up" in class and that they enjoy the opportunity
  • Geared to lifelong learning
    • George Dale
       
      While I'm not a LMS hater, I do see this as a problem in the way LMSs keep a death grip on the content and learning. I'd like to develop a plugin for Balckboard that allows a student to easily "pack up" and take their work with them as they complete a course.
  • as a result of the relative anonymity
    • George Dale
       
      It's almost ironic that the initial anonimity can lead to deeper connections relative to F2F interactions.
  • online education can be done well,
    • George Dale
       
      It seems that some examples that are used to demonstrate a poor online course are often as good as a "normal" (i.e. F2F) class. Being as good as a traditional lecture class is a low bar to set.
    • Arnaldo Robles
       
      I can see this serving as a useful tool for writing activities!
  • In their everyday lives, individuals do not have a teacher at their side to direct them in their acquisition of new information. One of the roles that we need to perform as educators, then, is to teach students to find and learn information on their own or in concert with their colleagues. The online environment fosters self-motivated education. Students direct their own use of Internet links, search engines, discussion boards, chat, e-mail, and other media. While such resources cannot guarantee student initiative, they establish a framework that gives precedence to the autonomy of the learner.
    • Arnaldo Robles
       
      I like this!
  • develop course materials among themselves in a manner rarely seen in the F2F classroom.
    • dkiesel
       
      In f2f classes at masters public health program, we do extensive group projects. I think that k--12 classes may not have had many project-based classes of which hopefully will be more as we are seeing the influence of online teaching and how for practical learning the online environment can greatly compliment a practical session.  But I don't agree that all the practical project based work I have done for my profession with other students and teachers is not as well integrated compared to all the practical group work I have done in my profession with students and teachers. Also the quality of spoken live discussion in group work is very challenging when it is live. Maybe online is helping by giving us more time to think before we say something. 
  •  
    Sorry I didn't want these to go public. These were just my notes to myself so that I could further do some research. Is there a way to remove these or make these private again. Guess I'm still testing the water.
Irene Watts-Politza

Teachers' Invisible Presence in Net-based Distance Education | Hult | The International... - 0 views

  • The stance taken in this paper, then, is constructivist – that conversation is learning in the making.
  • Any conversation, that is, draws on heteroglossia (Bakhtin’s neologism) – pools of different ideas whose elements, when exchanged, foster learning. According to Bakhtin, every utterance has a double significance. It is an expression of a 'unitary [common] language' used to conduct the conversation and, at the same time, it builds on the 'social and historical' differences embedded in the heteroglossia (1981, p. 272).
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      This is what happens in a discussion thread.
  • Yuri Lotman,
  • ...28 more annotations...
  • described conversations as multi-authored texts rather than as multi-voiced heteroglossia (see Bakhtin, 1994,
  • texts “fulfill at least two basic functions:
  • fulfilled best when the codes of the speaker and the listener most completely coincide and, consequently, when the text has the maximum degree of univocality” (1988, p. 34). The generation of new meanings occurs when there are differences between the speaker and the listener. Texts used in educational exchanges cease:
  • online adult education is not the delivery of texts but, rather, the creation and insertion of ‘thinking devices’ into conversation.
  • For this article we have concentrated on teacher and student views of teachers’ role orientations in online courses.
  • our intention has been to identify and clarify teaching ‘saliences’ that have emerged in online adult education in Sweden. In a wider sense, however, our analysis is also a response to the question: ‘Whatever happened to teaching in the learning society?’
  • the posting data support the claim that the teachers adopted an initiating role.
  • Greater activity:
  • Greater influence on topic:
  • Faster response times:
  • When asked about their views, all students felt that teachers played a central role in supporting Net-based learning. Indeed, some of them suggested that moderation in online settings of adult education is more important than in face-to-face settings.
  • Orientations to Teaching
  • Activity Orientation
  • In this perspective, teachers gave students tasks that activated them and, thereby, fostered their understanding of subject matter.
  • offered students tips about articles, books and Internet sites
  • Some students spoke about being activated by stimulating tasks that led them to engage with the Web and libraries, with one of them adding ‘seeking by your self is a pre-condition for learning.’ Active searching also meant that students came into contact with information which extended their learning beyond the task itself.
  • None of the teachers, however, was entirely satisfied with their dialogic or conference practice. Levels of engagement, dialogue, and initiative-taking were not as high as they had hoped. In response, they tried to promote conversation by encouraging students to react to each other’s postings, by organising tasks where cooperation and interaction was needed, or by introducing new aspects and questions when discussion faltered.
  • Further, teachers reported that they also tried to act as models of good behaviour by giving swift replies to student postings and by making their own postings appropriate yet concise.
  • In contrast to the teachers most of the student group were satisfied with the course conversations.
  • A few
  • felt that sharing different aspects of the subject matter with the teacher and fellow students raised fresh questions. It made them reach beyond the book, evoking learning and thinking along new pathways. Even if they thought that well-chosen tasks were the most effective way of fostering dialogue, they also expected the course leader to participate fully, developing new themes if student postings declined, and remaining alert to student proposals that might enhance the interchange of ideas and knowledge.
  • Many students emphasised the importance of teaching that corroborated or validated their learning.
  • None of the teachers, however, spontaneously offered this view as their primary role or orientation. Nevertheless, when asked whether they had any correspondence with students through private mailboxes rather than ‘conferences’ and ‘cafes,’ some of them said that they occasionally responded privately to correct misinterpretations.
  • This task raises many questions about teaching, highlighting the difference, for example, between instructionist and constructionist paradigms for learning (Wilensky, 1991). Would a too well-planned course be instructionist, thus constraining student influence and the pursuit of democracy? In their postings, teachers in this study felt that there was no necessary contradiction – that well-planned courses could, indeed, strengthen student influence. Nevertheless, busy distance education students, according to the teachers, often appreciate instructionist courses with clearly stated activities and tasks, even if the students are left with limited opportunities to ‘construct their own relationships with the objects of knowledge’ (Wilensky, 1991, p. 202).
  • Teacher’s invisible presence is exemplified in taking a stand-by role and/ or being reluctant to intervene. ‘The [teachers’] silence should be deafening,’ one teacher recommended. Although most of the teachers agreed that well-planned courses do not inhibit course dialogue, the fact that in their own online course deliberations they set aside time to discuss this issue may reflect ambivalence in their stance. The question of when and how teachers should intervene remains impossible to resolve, except in practice.
  • three different aspects of teaching,
  • a second conclusion – that the promotion of learning in an open environment requires an animating or steering presence. Such teaching, however, is not a process of instruction. And for this reason the word teacher may no longer be appropriate. In English, the word tutor is commonly used in adult education, because it has connotations of ‘supervision’ and ‘guardianship’ as well as ‘instruction’ (see Oxford English Dictionary). More recently, Salmon has suggested ‘e-moderating,’ but even moderation carries instructionist connotations – to exercise a controlling influence over; to regulate, restrain, control, rule (OED) – that may not be appropriate to all forms of liberal education. In the context of mainland Europe, the word pedagogue may be appropriate since, etymologically, pedagogue denotes someone engaged in 'drawing out.'
  • Intellectual development, however, can be an intra- as well as an inter-personal phenomenon. That is, learning may not come directly from teachers but rather from their absent or invisible presence. Online pedagogues, therefore, can be present in different ways. They may be present in person, participating in learning conversations. They may constitute an absent presence that, nonetheless, is embodied in the learning resources directed towards students (e.g., the selected readings or activities). Or pedagogues may exist merely as inner voices, inherited from the language of others, that (invisibly) steer the desires, self-regulation, and self-direction of learners. Indeed, this last pedagogic position ‘auto-didacticism,’ has always been central to the post-Enlightenment ideals of liberal adult education.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Here's the money.
  •  
    Swedish study of university student and professor attitudes toward satisfaction with and definition of teacher presence in online adult learning. Implications for course design with respect to knowing one's audience.
Diane Gusa

The Ed Techie: Using learning environments as a metaphor for educational change - 0 views

  • It has often been noted that when a new technology arrives we tend to use it in old ways (eg Twigg 2001), before we begin to understand what it really offers
  • t has often been noted that when a new technology arrives we tend to use it in old ways (eg Twigg 2001), before we begin to understand what it really offers
  • t has often been noted that when a new technology arrives we tend to use it in old ways (eg Twigg 2001), before we begin to understand what it really offers
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • It has often been noted that when a new technology arrives we tend to use it in old ways (eg Twigg 2001), before we begin to understand what it really offers. So, for example the television was initially treated as ‘radio with pictures’
  • In an attempt to move towards the possibilities offered by a completely digital, online world, they have started with the education model we are familiar with. They are, in effect, a virtual classroom, or course, with content (which map onto lectures) laid out in a linear sequence with discussion forums linked to this (mapping onto tutorials). In one LMS (the open source Bodington system, http://bodington.org) they even went as far as to make this mapping explicit by making the interface a building which you had to navigate to your lecture room.
  • Heppell (2001) argues that “we continually make the error of subjugating technology to our present practice rather than allowing it to free us from the tyranny of past mistakes.
  • Daniel (1996) has argued that elearning is the only way to cope with expanding global demand for higher education, claiming that “a major university needs to be created each week” to meet the proposed demand.
  • f we view our online learning environments not as analogies of how we currently teach, but rather as a metaphor for how we engage with changes required for a digital society, then this provides us with some insight in to how to tackle the issues above (and others).
  • Siemens (2008) argues that “Learning theories, such as constructivism, social constructivism, and more recently, connectivism, form the theoretical shift from instructor or institution controlled teaching to one of greater control by the learner.”
  • To learn is to acquire information Information is scare and hard to find Trust authority for good information Authorized information is beyond discussion Obey the authority Follow along
  • lecture hall ‘said’ about learning,
  • Why would we seek to recreate the sort of learning affordances Wesch highlights in a virtual environment, when we are free to construct it however we wish?
  • Arguably then there has never been a better alignment of current thinking in terms of good pedagogy – i.e. emphasising the social and situated nature of learning, rather than a focus on knowledge recall with current practices in the use of technologies – i.e. user-generated content, user-added value and aggregated network effects. Despite this, the impact of Web 2.0 on education has been less dramatic than its impact on other spheres of society – use for social purposes, supporting niche communities, collective political action, amateur journalism and social commentary.”
  • "Tools such as blogs, wikis, social networks, tagging systems, mashups, and content-sharing sites are examples of a new user-centric information infrastructure that emphasizes participation (e.g., creating, re-mixing) over presentation, that encourages focused conversation and short briefs
    • Diane Gusa
       
      Mashups are web pages or applications that combine data or presentation from two or more sources -WIKIpedia
    • Diane Gusa
       
      Mashups?
  • connectivism (Siemens 2005) places decentralisation at the heart of learning:"Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual. Learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organization or a database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing"
  • Wikipedia succeeds by decentralising the authoring process, YouTube succeeds by both decentralising the broadcasting production process, but also by allowing embeds within blogs and other sites, thus decentralising the distribution process
    • Diane Gusa
       
      Two good examples
  • Knowing how to link to and locate resources in databases and search engines is a skill for a decentralised information world. The result is that online references are forced into an existing scheme, which has an inherent preference for physical resources. The traditional reference is often provided in papers, when it is the online one that has actually been used because the referencing system is biased towards the paper version.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      I wonder what Alex's PLE would look like. I also wonder what our PLE will look like in 8 more weeks, next year?
  • ‘eduglu’
    • Diane Gusa
  • SocialLearn has been conceived as a deliberate attempt to discover how learners behave in this sphere, how to develop the appropriate technology and support structures, what pedagogies are required and what are the business models for education in a disaggregated educational market.
Catherine Strattner

OER Commons - 0 views

    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      Join the OER Commons and browse its collections for resources that you might be able to use in your online course to achieve one of your learning objectives. This resource is free to join and to use any of the resources posted. : ) me
    • diane hamilton
       
      Just joined! This one is new to me. Thanks!
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      What a great resource for instructional design!
  •  
    Open Educational Resources Commons - link to hundreds of OER sites
  •  
    A great way to collaborate and get some inspiration.
Danielle Melia

Copyright and Digital Media in Education: Resources - 0 views

  •  
    Introduction Basic Issues Sources Status Prospects Resources Resources Here are some resources for understanding copyright and educational media. Last modified: Jay C. Treat, Ph.D.
Amy M

Bloom's Taxonomy and Online Education: Overview of Education Theory - 0 views

  • Bloom's Taxonomy was developed on the premise that there are six levels of cognitive learning. All of these levels together represent a hierarchy. In order to reach the next level, you must master the previous level.
  • Bloom's Taxonomy can be used in virtually all parts of the online learning process, from writing course content to coming up with topics for online discussions. The University of Virginia's OnlineLearn resource recommends that teachers of online courses spend a block of time each day monitoring class forums to evaluate the effectiveness of current online discussions (http://onlinelearn.edschool.virginia.edu). They can then add discussion questions that will nudge students to think on a higher level of Bloom's Taxonomy.
  •  
    Bloom's and Online Education.  A good resource developed for online learning.
Jennifer Boisvert

The Chronicle of Higher Education - 0 views

  •  
    Resource for educators and administrators interested in higher education
Irene Watts-Politza

INTIME - Integrating New Technologies into the Methods of Education - 2 views

    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      I added the free version of RealTime through clicking on site link on one of the videos and the videos play successfully. Although Mozilla FF is not on the list of supported browsers, I was able to get MozFF to recognize the Real Time plug-in after I installed it on my hard drive.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Perhaps there are activities that can be adapted to online course environment? Click on "Go to Material", above, scroll down and click on "Database development" and select "by grade level" or "by content"
  • INTIME provides online video vignettes of PreK-12 teachers from various grades and subjects showing how they integrate technology into their classrooms using numerous teaching strategies. INTIME is the result of a PT3 program (Preparing Tomorrow?s Teachers to Use Technology). INTIME resources are useful for (1) teacher educators creating case studies; (2) pre-service teachers learning about effective pedagogical techniques; (3) in-service teachers searching for ideas and independent professional development; (4) professional developers seeking resources to demonstrate good teaching and technology integration, and (5) administrators developing teacher quality initiatives and mentoring programs.
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  • RealPlayer8 is required to view any videos
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    I am considering whether to add the entire resource or just a few videos with a "for more of this ..." to my module on 21st Century Learning. What really excites me about this resource is the implications for case studies in methods courses in the B-6 program ... can even be shared with Secondary Ed and TESOL. You may want to share this with your grade level, Building Leadership Team, or your PD person. A GREAT free resource for meaningful, asynchronous tech integration training.
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