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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
alexandra m. pickett

Factors Influencing Faculty Satisfaction with Asynchronous Teaching and Learning in the... - 0 views

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    Eric Fredericksen, Alexandra Pickett, Peter Shea State University of New York William Pelz Herkimer County Community College Karen Swan University of Albany Abstract "…100% of faculty reported that they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the SUNY Learning Network." Spring 1999 SLN Faculty Satisfaction Survey The State University of New York (SUNY) Learning Network (SLN) is the on-line instructional program created for the 64 colleges and nearly 400,000 students of SUNY. The foundation of the program is freedom from schedule and location constraints for our faculty and students. The primary goals of the SLN are to bring SUNY's diverse and high-quality instructional programs within the reach of learners everywhere, and to be the best provider of asynchronous instruction for learners in New York State and beyond. We believe that these goals cannot be achieved unless faculty receives appropriate support. This paper will examine factors that have contributed to the high level of faculty satisfaction we have achieved in the SLN. The analysis will be done on several levels. This first section will look at the SLN at a program-wide level and will provide information regarding the systemic implementation of our asynchronous learning environment. The second section examines issues that contribute to on-line teaching satisfaction from a faculty- development and course-design perspective. This section will present the evolution of the four-stage faculty development process and a seven-step course design process that was developed by SLN and comment on lessons learned. The third section presents results from the SLN Faculty Satisfaction Survey conducted in spring 1999. This section examines factors from a quantitative analysis that significantly contributes to faculty satisfaction with on-line teaching and offers recommendations for course and program design based on these factors. The fourth section e
Catherine Strattner

Applying Bloom's Taxonomy to teach thinking skills in e-learning « Jen e-blogger - 0 views

  • 4. ANALYSIS: This level is defined as the ability to break down material to identify its components and to analyze its organizational structure and content. E- Learning activities that focus on scaffolding thinking at this level includes those that guide students to identify different components of a particular object, to better appreciate the relationships between the parts. It requires students to identify different aspects of a process to appreciate the working principle behind the process.
  • 4. ANALYSIS: This level is defined as the ability to break down material to identify its components and to analyze its organizational structure and content. E- Learning activities that focus on scaffolding thinking at this level includes those that guide students to identify different components of a particular object, to better appreciate the relationships between the parts. It requires students to identify different aspects of a process to appreciate the working principle behind the process.
  • 4. ANALYSIS: This level is defined as the ability to break down material to identify its components and to analyze its organizational structure and content. E- Learning activities that focus on scaffolding thinking at this level includes those that guide students to identify different components of a particular object, to better appreciate the relationships between the parts. It requires students to identify different aspects of a process to appreciate the working principle behind the process.
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  • 4. ANALYSIS: This level is defined as the ability to break down material to identify its components and to analyze its organizational structure and content. E- Learning activities that focus on scaffolding thinking at this level includes those that guide students to identify different components of a particular object, to better appreciate the relationships between the parts. It requires students to identify different aspects of a process to appreciate the working principle behind the process.
  • 4. ANALYSIS: This level is defined as the ability to break down material to identify its components and to analyze its organizational structure and content. E- Learning activities that focus on scaffolding thinking at this level includes those that guide students to identify different components of a particular object, to better appreciate the relationships between the parts. It requires students to identify different aspects of a process to appreciate the working principle behind the process.
  • 4. ANALYSIS: This level is defined as the ability to break down material to identify its components and to analyze its organizational structure and content. E- Learning activities that focus on scaffolding thinking at this level includes those that guide students to identify different components of a particular object, to better appreciate the relationships between the parts. It requires students to identify different aspects of a process to appreciate the working principle behind the process.
  • 4. ANALYSIS: This level is defined as the ability to break down material to identify its components and to analyze its organizational structure and content. E- Learning activities that focus on scaffolding thinking at this level includes those that guide students to identify different components of a particular object, to better appreciate the relationships between the parts. It requires students to identify different aspects of a process to appreciate the working principle behind the process.
  • 4. ANALYSIS: This level is defined as the ability to break down material to identify its components and to analyze its organizational structure and content. E- Learning activities that focus on scaffolding thinking at this level includes those that guide students to identify different components of a particular object, to better appreciate the relationships between the parts. It requires students to identify different aspects of a process to appreciate the working principle behind the process.
  • 4. ANALYSIS: This level is defined as the ability to break down material to identify its components and to analyze its organizational structure and content. E- Learning activities that focus on scaffolding thinking at this level includes those that guide students to identify different components of a particular object, to better appreciate the relationships between the parts. It requires students to identify different aspects of a process to appreciate the working principle behind the process.
  • 4. ANALYSIS: This level is defined as the ability to break down material to identify its components and to analyze its organizational structure and content. E- Learning activities that focus on scaffolding thinking at this level includes those that guide students to identify different components of a particular object, to better appreciate the relationships between the parts. It requires students to identify different aspects of a process to appreciate the working principle behind the process.
  • guide students to arrive at a certain concept, rule, principle or method and use the concept, rule, principle or method in a workplace or simulated workplace environment.
  • require students to construct a new product from the components given or apply different aspects of their prior learning to put together a product.
  • require students to critic or review materials or ideas.
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    This blog post outlinse different learning activities that address the different levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.
alexandra m. pickett

Authentic On-line Learning - 3 views

  • I suppose one of the assumptions that I have about my own on-line course is that if a certain percentage of my students are of the Generation Y population, they may very well know more about the technology than I do.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      question your assumptions!!!!
  • 20 to 22
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      it's 20-24 yrs old- that is 38% Fifty-one percent are over 25 yrs old.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      the larger percentage are OVER 25 years old!
  • so I guess that will most likely be my audience.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      check your assumptions!
    • Donna Angley
       
      You're right; I don't really know who my audience will be. I also assume that the Generation Y population have the technology down pat; that's not necessary true.
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  • While I think the technology has to be embedded in instruction whenever possible, it can’t be left to teachers alone to solve this problem.
    • Donna Angley
       
      I feel teachers need much more support from administrators as well as the Education Department. I know that SED is currently addressing the problem of making technology accessible in our classrooms, but even as they are planning it, the technology is increasing exponentially. It's going to take major educational reform -- Our new commissioner has been personally involved with the Technology task force.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      This is a wonderful analogy, which I plan on using in my instructions for discussions!
    • Diane Gusa
       
      This is my struggle too. I am spending this weekend stopping in. I do like the post titles, it helps me to priortize what I want to read.
    • Donna Angley
       
      I think a lot of my difficulty is that my only comparison for online learning are the 2 courses I've taken prior to this. One was okay, the other not so good. So, I'm only realizing now that the online environment and experience can be a lot more robust that I had thought.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      I work to 2AM every morning to keep up...as I teach an online course and take care of a 18 month old. However, I am enjoying the late night flow as I work! I have enjoyed your posts, and I can see your hard work.
    • Donna Angley
       
      Thanks Diane, a lot of this is new to me as well, but I'm working through it.
  • I had to question what the objectives were first, and then create an assessment that tied into the objectives. 
    • Donna Angley
       
      This is probably one area that still scares me. I think I'm going to have to come up with a rubric for the forum in my course, and I don't have any experience creating a rubric. I've Googled it and there are many rubrics out there, but I don't know if I can just "borrow" a rubric and tweak it or is this plagarism?
  • what I need to do is think of these posts as mini research papers.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      exactly!!! i actually say "Every post you make in this course is an exam. " in the interaction course info document for the course!! : )
    • Donna Angley
       
      Now that I realize this, I'm finding the workload a little easier. I had to adjust my schedule. I'm used to doing most of my online work on weekends, but that's not enough for this course, so I made changes. Now I come home from work and put aside about 2 hours each night specificallly for addressing posts.
  • I don’t feel like I can get to it all.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      you can't. just really digg into stuff that interests/engages you.
    • Donna Angley
       
      Whew! Thanks Alex. I'm feeling a little more comfortable this week as far as what I should be doing to stay on top of things.
  • I’m doing my best.
    • Donna Angley
       
      I am making it work, and I don't feel as overwhelmed as I did just 2 weeks ago. Feeling more confident in the whole process of posting and working in the course shell.
  • I decided to give it a try.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      excellent!! give your students the gift of having high expectations : )
  • 1) Will it help you present content in a more effective or engaging manner, 2) will it facilitate collaboration or interaction between students in an more effective manner, and 3) will it help provide feedback or help assess students more effectively.  I feel the blog will get students interacting in a more casual setting regarding the stories, and the Wiki will definitely facilitate collaboration.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      brilliant!!
    • Diane Gusa
       
      Your assessment of the first 4 weeks is so correct, (in my opinion). I am into the end of the 4th week in an online course I am teaching now and my students are finally soaring, It is soooooo exciting for me to see the growth. The only problem is that my class is only 6 weeks summer....The course I am planning is a 4 week winter term course, so now how to I get my students to soar within one week? My dilemma.
    • Donna Angley
       
      Wow, 4 weeks is not very long. What kind of class will you be teaching in the winter session? I'm not sure you can push the timeframe of when they begin to soar...that happens when it happens. I guess if you can somehow get them interacting with each other right away, that might help promote discussions that lead to those 'aha' moments.a little quicker.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      I decided not to do winter term...I will no less than 8 week courses...which as an adjunct is a $$$ decision that will hurt. However, I do not believe that 16 courses squeezed into 4 weeks is ethical.
  • My Avatar
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      WOW!!! cool
  • I really hope I get the opportunity to teach this course
  • I really hope I get the opportunity to teach this course
  • the course unfolded slowly
  • the course unfolded slowly
  • the course unfolded slowly
  • the course unfolded slowly
  • the course unfolded slowly
  • the course unfolded slowly
  • the course unfolded slowly
  • the course unfolded slowly
  • the course unfolded slowly
  • off.  Luckily, the course unfolded slowly and in a very specific order, and I had time to reflect, prepare, and digest the information coming at me.  I’ve learned that I can take on a rather monumental assignment and with a lot of hard work and perseverance, I can complete
  • flect, prepare, and digest the information coming at me.  I’ve learned that I can take on a rather monumental assignment and with a lot of hard work and perseverance, I can complete it.  This was a BIG deal for me and it’s given me a sense of empowerment.   It’s also come at a good time, because I’ll be taking my last course in September in order to finish up my degr
  • flect, prepare, and digest the information coming at me.  I’ve learned that I can take on a rather monumental assignment and with a lot of hard work and perseverance, I can complete it.  This was a BIG deal for me and it’s given me a sense of empowerment.   It’s also come at a good time, because I’ll be taking my last course in September in order to finish up my degr
  • the course unfolded slowly
  • the course unfolded slowly
  • the course unfolded slowly
  • the course unfolded slowly
  • ’s also come at a g
  • prepare, and digest the information coming at me.  I’ve learned that I can take on a rather monumental assignment and with a lot of hard work and perseverance, I can complete it.  This was a BIG deal for me and it’s given me a sense of empowerment.   It’s also come at a g
  • Never in a million years did I ever think that I would go on to graduate school, but here I am on the cusp of that achievement.  I am the first out of 6 siblings to earn a master’s degree. 
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      Congratulations Donna!!!
  • I didn’t realize that I was in charge of my own learning. 
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      any kind of learning... online or f2f is ONLY student-centered if that is how it is designed and if that is how the instructor facilitates it... now that you know that you are in charge of your own learning, i need your help : ) You can help me change the world by sharing that insight with anyone you have the opportunity to teach in the future. I have very high expectations of you Donna!!! : )
  • I came to realize that I didn’t have to give them all my knowledge — that in fact, I had to let them learn some of these things on their own.
  • I think it’s a situation where I don’t know what I need until somebody tells me that I need it.  I’m certainly open to suggestions, but at this point I feel like I’ve done what I was supposed to do; however, I realize that this is VERY new to me and that I have probably made some mistakes that will be pointed out to me.  That’s fine, and as I said, I welcome comments and suggestions. 
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      good point
alexandra m. pickett

Small Town Girl in the Big Cyber City - 1 views

  •  My original goal was to get an A in the class, and every other class until I reached my objective of  my Master’s w/ a 4.0. Now my goal is to become a teacher that is there for my students, who isn’t assuming any good or bad about them, who’s only goal is to help them grow and learn, (and hopefully to get at least a B in this class.)
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      B R I L L I A N T ! ! !
  • Again, I find myself writing for a college professor rather than a middle school student. Even this past September, I handed out my “course syllabus” to each of my classes. Looking back now I wonder if they knew it was one of my course information documents or is they were trying to figure out how to clap out the syllables.
  • Why did I need to call it a syllabus? That wasn’t for them, it was for me. 
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      i LOVE this observation!
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  • I want them to know that I understand that some activities will suck and be difficult and that they’ll want to rip their hair out but that I also know which activities are the most fun and how rewarding and accomplished they will feel when it’s all said and done.
  • I really don’t know why I do things the way I do. Is it from years of routine as to this is how it needs to be done? Is it from no one stopping and helping me break these habits?
  • At first my fear was that I was a “dead-thinker”
  • I was predispositioned to not question, to memorize and regurgitate information. I was scared that I was passing this trait on to my students.
  • I’m losing that with all the hours it takes to create these.
  • I really began to question whether I am a teacher or a web designer.
  • After Alex asked me to think about how this may hold true in my daily life and routine I realized I really don’t speak up any where let alone in class.
  • I think this is not only my biggest challenge in this class but in my life as well
  • I think I’m just scared. 
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      This is a brilliant self-reflection. Now what are you going to do about it? There is NOTHING wrong with being shy, or an introvert ( http://www.diigo.com/user/alexandrapickett/introvert ) WATCH this NOW! http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts.html You need to get MAD and use that anger to get over the fear that is preventing you from doing/being/experiencing. Anger is a powerful force that can help you stop focusing on yourself -when you flip it to use it to advocate for those less powerful than you - your students!
    • Erin Fontaine
       
      Oh, I'd love to get angry and actually stand up for myself and others. Unfortunately that only seems to happen with a few glasses of wine in me. Not too feasible in the classroom, lol. That should be my next goal, find strength without liquid courage!
  • Ya know Alex, I love you and all and this class has been amazing but I honestly think you are killing my laptop!!
  • Well no more soul searching I have a course to design. Best of wishes to all my fellow classmates as we begin to wrap up this amazing journey!
  • Lisa, I can’t believe how amazing your course is! I want to take it!!
    • Lisa Martin
       
      Thank you, thank you, thank you...I'm finally now starting to spend a good amount of time looking through other people's courses. Looking forward to seeing yours!
  • Less than 24 hours later this article appeared in my inbox. At first I was really aggravated by this article because it seemed like it was ripping to shreds everything I have been working at this summer and I felt like he was sitting at home with an “I told you so” smirk. This quote just floored me “In terms of learning on the college level, the Department of Education looked at thousands of research studies from 1996 to 2008 and found that in higher education, students rarely learned as much from online courses as they did in traditional classes.” Really, what study? Everything that we have read seems to be in the complete opposite direction of this statement! I agree that for some there will be a financial obstacles and internet issues like we’ve all had but that’s where as a teacher we come into play and offer solutions and options. Upon reading it for a second time I feel that this article and any other article discrediting online teaching should be looked at as a challenge! I am strong and passionate about this endeavor of mine and no article or fuddy duddy teacher is going to come in the way of that. Well I hope you all have an amazing weekend. I will be attempting to cool my boiling blood as I sit by the calming cool waters of the Kinzua Dam with a delicious glass of Riesling.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      That article prompted response from the online learning community. Here is a particularly excellent articulate and respectful response: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology-and-learning/open-letter-professor-edmundson
    • alexandra m. pickett
  • As this class come to an end and I look back at where I was in May, I can only say I wish I knew then what I know now. This class has given me so much academically, personally and technologicially, lol. In only a short time I feel like I have grown so much as person and as a teacher.
Erin Fontaine

Critical Thinking Development: A Stage Theory - 0 views

  • We must recognize the importance of challenging our students — in a supportive way — to recognize both that they are thinkers and that their thinking often goes awry. We must lead class discussions about thinking. We must explicitly model thinking (e.g., thinking aloud through a problem). We must design classroom activities that explicitly require students to think about their thinking. We must have students examine both poor and sound thinking, talking about the differences. We must introduce students to the parts of thinking and the intellectual standards necessary to assess thinking. We must introduce the idea of intellectual humility to students; that is, the idea of becoming aware of our own ignorance. Perhaps children can best understand the importance of this idea through their concept of the "know-it-all," which comes closest to their recognition of the need to be intellectually humble.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      This is a great foundation for an icebreaker module.
  • recognize that they have basic problems in their thinking and make initial attempts to better understand how they can take charge of and improve it.
  • begin to modify some of their thinking, but have limited insight into deeper levels of the trouble inherent in their thinking. Most importantly, they lack a systematic plan for improving their thinking, hence their efforts are hit and miss.
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  • appreciate a critique of their powers of thought.
  • we must teach in such a way as to help them to see that we all need to regularly practice good thinking to become good thinkers.
  • We must emphasize the importance of beginning to take charge of the parts of thinking and applying intellectual standards to thinking. We must teach students to begin to recognize their native egocentrism when it is operating in their thinking.
  • since practicing thinkers are only beginning to approach the improvement of their thinking in a systematic way, they still have limited insight into deeper levels of thought, and thus into deeper levels of the problems embedded in thinking.
  • need for systematic practice in thinking.
  • Practicing thinkers recognize the need for systematicity of critical thinking and deep internalization into habits. They clearly recognize the natural tendency of the human mind to engage in egocentric thinking and self-deception.
  • regularly monitor
  • articulate the strengths and weaknesses
  • often recognize their own egocentric thinking as well as egocentric thinking on the part of others. Furthermore practicing thinkers actively monitor their thinking to eliminate egocentric thinking, although they are often unsuccessful.
  • intellectual perseverance
  • have the intellectual humility required to realize that thinking in all the domains of their lives must be subject to scrutiny, as they begin to approach the improvement of their thinking in a systematic way.
  • We must teach in such a way that students come to understand the power in knowing that whenever humans reason, they have no choice but to use certain predictable structures of thought: that thinking is inevitably driven by the questions, that we seek answers to questions for some purpose, that to answer questions, we need information, that to use information we must interpret it (i.e., by making inferences), and that our inferences, in turn, are based on assumptions, and have implications, all of which involves ideas or concepts within some point of view. We must teach in such a way as to require students to regularly deal explicitly with these structures (more on these structure presently).
  • Recognizing the "moves" one makes in thinking well is an essential part of becoming a practicing thinker.
  • Students should be encouraged to routinely catch themselves thinking both egocentrically and sociocentrically.
  • advanced thinkers not only actively analyze their thinking in all the significant domains of their lives, but also have significant insight into problems at deeper levels of thought. While advanced thinkers are able to think well across the important dimensions of their lives, they are not yet able to think at a consistently high level across all of these dimensions. Advanced thinkers have good general command over their egocentric nature. They continually strive to be fair-minded. Of course, they sometimes lapse into egocentrism and reason in a one-sided way.
  • develop depth of understanding
  • nsight into deep levels of problems in thought: consistent recognition, for example, of egocentric and sociocentric thought in one’s thinking, ability to identify areas of significant ignorance and prejudice, and ability to actually develop new fundamental habits of thought based on deep values to which one has committed oneself.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      What do YOU believe in? How and why do you believe it?
  • successfully engaged in systematically monitoring the role in their thinking of concepts, assumptions, inferences, implications, points of view, etc., and hence have excellent knowledge of that enterprise. Advanced thinkers are also knowledgeable of what it takes to regularly assess their thinking for clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, logicalness, etc.
  • critique their own plan for systematic practice, and improve it thereby.
  • articulate the strengths and weaknesses in their thinking.
  • reduce the power of their egocentric thoughts.
  • a) the intellectual insight and perseverance to actually develop new fundamental habits of thought based on deep values to which one has committed oneself, b) the intellectual integrity to recognize areas of inconsistency and contradiction in one’s life, c) the intellectual empathy necessary to put oneself in the place of others in order to genuinely understand them, d) the intellectual courage to face and fairly address ideas, beliefs, or viewpoints toward which one has strong negative emotions, e) the fair-mindedness necessary to approach all viewpoints without prejudice, without reference to one’s own feelings or vested interests. In the advanced thinker these traits are emerging, but may not be manifested at the highest level or in the deepest dimensions of thought.
  • our students will not become advanced thinkers — if at all — until college or beyond. Nevertheless, it is important that they learn what it would be to become an advanced thinker. It is important that they see it as an important goal. We can help students move in this direction by fostering their awareness of egocentrism and sociocentrism in their thinking, by leading discussions on intellectual perseverance, intellectual integrity, intellectual empathy, intellectual courage, and fair-mindedness. If we can graduate students who are practicing thinkers, we will have achieved a major break-through in schooling. However intelligent our graduates may be, most of them are largely unreflective as thinkers, and are unaware of the disciplined habits of thought they need to develop to grow intellectually as a thinker.
  • have systematically taken charge of their thinking, but are also continually monitoring, revising, and re-thinking strategies for continual improvement of their thinking. They have deeply internalized the basic skills of thought, so that critical thinking is, for them, both conscious and highly intuitive.
  • As Piaget would put it, they regularly raise their thinking to the level of conscious realization.
  • Accomplished thinkers are deeply committed to fair-minded thinking, and have a high level of, but not perfect, control over their egocentric nature.
  • To make the highest levels of critical thinking intuitive in every domain of one’s life. To internalize highly effective critical thinking in an interdisciplinary and practical way.
  • Accomplished thinkers are not only actively and successfully engaged in systematically monitoring the role in their thinking of concepts, assumptions, inferences, implications, points of view, etc., but are also regularly improving that practice. Accomplished thinkers have not only a high degree of knowledge of thinking, but a high degree of practical insight as well. Accomplished thinkers intuitively assess their thinking for clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, logicalness, etc. Accomplished thinkers have deep insights into the systematic internalization of critical thinking into their habits. Accomplished thinkers deeply understand the role that egocentric and sociocentric thinking plays in the lives of human beings, as well as the complex relationship between thoughts, emotions, drives and behavior.
  • Naturally inherent in master thinkers are all the essential intellectual characteristics, deeply integrated. Accomplished thinkers have a high degree of intellectual humility, intellectual integrity, intellectual perseverance, intellectual courage, intellectual empathy, intellectual autonomy, intellectual responsibility and fair-mindedness. Egocentric and sociocentric thought is quite uncommon in the accomplished thinker, especially with respect to matters of importance. There is a high degree of integration of basic values, beliefs, desires, emotions, and action.
  • For the foreseeable future the vast majority of our students will never become accomplished thinkers 
  • important that they learn what it would be to become an accomplished thinker. It is important that they see it as a real possibility, if practicing skills of thinking becomes a characteristic of how they use their minds day to day.
  • Thus it is vital that an intellectual vocabulary for talking about the mind be established for teachers; and that teachers lead discussions in class designed to teach students, from the point of view of intellectual quality, how their minds work, including how they can improve as thinkers.
  • in elementary school an essential objective would be that students become "beginning" thinkers, that is, that they will be taught so that they discover that they are thinkers and that their thinking, like a house, can be well or poorly constructed. This "discovery" stage--the coming to awareness that all of us are thinkers--needs to be given the highest priority. Middle school and High School, on this model, would aim at helping all students become, at least, "practicing" thinkers. Of course, students discover thinking only by discovering that thinking has "parts." Like learning what "Legos" are, we learn as we come to discover that there are various parts to thinking and those parts can be put together in various ways. Unlike Legos, of course, thinking well requires that we learn to check how the parts of thinking are working together to make sure they are working properly: For example, have we checked the accuracy of information? Have we clarified the question?
  • We are not advocating here that teachers withdraw from academic content. Rather we are suggesting that critical thinking provides a way of deeply embracing content intellectually. Within this view students come to take intellectual command of how they think, act, and react while they are learning...history, biology, geography, literature, etc., how they think, act, and react as a reader, writer, speaker, and listener, how they think, act, and react as a student, brother, friend, child, shopper, consumer of the media, etc.
  • to effectively learn any subject in an intellectually meaningful way presupposes a certain level of command over one’s thinking, which in turn presupposes understanding of the mind’s processes.
  • Thinking is inevitably driven by the questions we seek to answer, and those questions we seek to answer for some purpose. To answer questions, we need information which is in fact meaningful to us only if we interpret it (i.e., by making inferences). Our inferences, in turn, are based on assumptions and require that we use ideas or concepts to organize the information in some way from some point of view. Last but not least, our thinking not only begins somewhere intellectually (in certain assumptions), it also goes somewhere---that is, has implications and consequences.
  • Thus whenever we reason through any problem, issue, or content we are well advised to take command of these intellectual structures: purpose, question, information, inferences, assumptions, concepts, point of view, and implications. By explicitly teaching students how to take command of the elements of reasoning we not only help them take command of their thinking in a general way; we also provide a vehicle which effectively enables them to critically think through the content of their classes, seeing connections between all of what they are learning.
  • if I am to develop my critical thinking ability I must both "discover" my thinking and must intellectually take charge of it. To do this I must make a deep commitment to this end.
  • the human mind, left to its own, pursues that which is immediately easy, that which is comfortable, and that which serves its selfish interests. At the same time, it naturally resists that which is difficult to understand, that which involves complexity, that which requires entering the thinking and predicaments of others.
  • When we learn together as developing thinkers, when we all of us seek to raise our thinking to the next level, and then to the next after that, everyone benefits, and schooling then becomes what it was meant to be, a place to discover the power of lifelong learning. This should be a central goal for all our students--irrespective of their favored mode of intelligence or learning style. It is in all of our interest to accept the challenge: to begin, to practice, to advance as thinkers.
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).
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • 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.
  •  
    Love the step child reference!
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  •  
    Have I not struggled with this throughout this course?!
  •  
    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!
  •  
    That body language we mentioned in discussions this week in ETAP687
  •  
    MERLOT-Teaching at internet distance
  •  
    module 4 merlot
alexandra m. pickett

ETAP640 Summer 2011 Blog - 2 views

  • So far I am enjoying the experience
  • What are the most effective instructional technology tools available to me to help me meet my instructional objectives?
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      brilliant!
  • challenge!
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      self assess!
    • Kimberly Barss
       
      check!
  • ...37 more annotations...
  • I have been much more aware of the idea that today’s younger generations (those who are 30 and younger) are much more technologically savvy. 
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      I want to challange you, just like i challanged Ian (who is currently smitten with Prensky : ) to challenge the notion of natives vs. immigrants. Read this (http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2011/05/natives-are-revolting.html), find other articles (and there are many) that unpack the problems with this notion, and come back and tell us all about it.
  • I have been spending quite a bit of time and energy learning the Moodle system,
    • Donna Angley
       
      I think I spent the entire weekend last week playing around in Moodle, learning how things worked, and trying to set up my basic module outline. Once I got the hang of it, I kinda like it. I find with technology that it just takes time and patience (not my forte) to really grasp it. I don't think computer skills of any kind can be learned from a book alone; it needs to be hands on learning.
    • Kimberly Barss
       
      I completely agree! I am a very hands on and visual person, I need to INTERACT with the material in real life or else it's just text on a page.
  • It is ENGAGING
    • Donna Angley
       
      Very. I found myself not wanting to step away from the computer, even to eat. Eventually, I got hungry enough and forced a break.
    • Kimberly Barss
       
      Yes! The faculty on the SLN website even said that online teaching is an addiction!
  • Blackboard
    • Donna Angley
       
      The two other online courses that I took were both on Blackboard. I've never actually taken a course in Moodle. I have no idea what my course will look like when I'm done, but I'm very curious.
  • I’m really starting to get the hang of the expectations for posts
    • Donna Angley
       
      Took me a while as well, but now I feel more comfortable with my posts. I wasn't doing enough research. Once I started doing that, I felt like I was contributing something to the whole class.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      I had the same thought. I only hope that the computer lab is open during my class time.
    • Donna Angley
       
      Your sticky notes are usually "floating" so I never know what you're commenting on. Can you make them stationery?
    • Diane Gusa
       
      I wonder the same thing...this applies to several blogs ago. I guess we need to add a date or title.
  • This course has been the most difficult course that I have ever taken
  • I was teetering between dropping the class
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      i am really glad you did NOT drop the course!!! : ) me
  • punishment
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      : ) seriously teacher-centric...
  • I am still under the impression that the interactions required of us in the discussion space are too numerous. 
  • I LOVE LOVE LOVED that Bill Pelz commented on our posts!  I felt like a celebrity walked into the room and his comments could be equated to getting an autograph. 
  • I have learned a lot this module, especially: NEVER give up (this has been especially resonant with me) Passion for teaching and learning go hand in hand, and are a must-have for online educators The best training tool for an online teacher is to be an online learner BE ORGANIZED MANAGE YOUR TIME Support your students and your faculty (whatever your role is) And last, but not least (yes, this was intentional) don’t procrastinate.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      LOVE the new theme Kim! looks great!
  • half of the requirement for this class.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      please read the rubric. it is NOT required that you do 12 posts. this is your own self imposed choice if you do. The minimum is 6 - maximum 12. it is entirely up to you.
  • I was given this gift: show your students the importance of reflection. 
  • There was absolutely nothing about my course learning activities that was learner-centered, or, one could argue, learning-centered!  I was being extremely teacher-centered in my approach! 
  •   Because of that, I need to embrace these tools, explore new ideas, and for goodness sake- think about the STUDENT.
  • It took me almost two and a half hours just to set up a voicethread that didn’t crunch all of my text and pictures together!  Or get the right size and color font.  I realize that these are all things that cannot be explained to anyone, or if you did try and tell them, they wouldn’t understand how much work it is until they tried it themselves.
    • Donna Angley
       
      I, like the others in this course, understand. It's a lot of work, but the finished product will be worth it, I'm sure.
  • I think that embedding a youtube video or loading a podcast are in my future and I can’t wait! 
    • Donna Angley
       
      Two thumbs up!
  •   I made all of my assignments turned in to me, privately,
    • Donna Angley
       
      I too had made this mistake with some short writing assignments that I was going to have my students write. It was Alex's suggestion to have them blog it that really made sense. This way they could read each others blog entries and leave comments as well.
  • This week, as we are supposed to have the course “done done” I am doubting myself.  Every time I log in to my course I change something, add wording, create new links to rubrics where there weren’t any, etc.  It just seems like I’m never satisfied.
    • Donna Angley
       
      So glad I'm not alone. I keep logging in as well, looking to change something. Over the past 3-4 days I've definitely made changes, but I'm getting to the point now that I'm wondering if I should just leave it alone. I'm the same way about large writing project...always looking to edit. Thinking it might be time for me to step back from the computer.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      I thought done, done, done is at the end...aren't we going to have peer feedback next module?
  • I’ll have my master’s in December and I couldn’t be more proud. 
    • Donna Angley
       
      CONGRATULATIONS! I'll finish in December as well. It's been a long journey, and as much as I've enjoyed it, I'm ready to have my weekends back :-)
    • Diane Gusa
       
      :)
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      congratulations kim!!!!
  • I feel like a late bloomer (I’ll be 26 in November
  • #1- I’m scared of the idea of  real live students actually taking my course #2- I’m really disappointed that real live students will never take my course
    • Donna Angley
       
      I'm glad you said this, because I've been thinking it for several weeks now. I really want a chance to teach it, but I'm afraid of getting a chance to teach it. I'm not a teacher by profession, so I think I have more fear than most that I won't be able to facilitate my course properly. For instance, how do I open modules, are grades recorded automatically or do I manually put them in, how do I get them to show for each individual student, etc. I've put so much time and effort into building this course, I want a chance to teach it, but having never taught at the college level, I don't know that I'll get the opportunity. I will still give it my best shot as soon as I graduate in December. If SUNY isn't interested, I'll try other avenues.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      "live students" when you do teach live students you will discover kinks you never saw...this semester I had a great activity that 18 of 19 students loved! The discussions were full of every presence. The I discovered that my student from China was so lost and overwhelmed. Now I am rethinking cultural sensitivity in my activities...how do I balance a activity that engages 99% of my students 110%, but looses one student because of a cultural difference...still thinking on this.
  • feedback
    • Donna Angley
       
      I don't know if I should have done this, but I actually have 2 evaluation/feedback areas. One is the generic resource right in Moodle. I tried to write my own questions, but when I "viewed" the forum, my questions were replaced with the generic questions. So, I created a document with my own questions and I am having students download the document into a word processor, add their answers and then post to a forum.
  • o there will likely never be online courses at Mildred Elley.
    • Donna Angley
       
      Can you teach it elsewhere? As we have learned in this class, online learning is up and coming. It might be worth looking into.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      Failures maybe because the facilitators did not "know" and "do" what "you" know...convince him to try your course as an experiment...because this is the future of education...This summer I taught one online course and had a student from China, several from the west coast, and only two within driving distance in a class of 20!
  • ETAP 680 (research seminar). 
    • Donna Angley
       
      I'll be taking the course in September...how was it? I had hoped that it was just a very long research paper...any such luck? It's my last course for my degree.
  • quality with the traditional classroom in the public eye? 
    • Donna Angley
       
      I think you're probably right, but I think it's turning a corner. At a time when institutions are scrambling for money, online learning costs them very little. They pay an instructor and that's about it. We don't need a classroom or any campus resources other than student access to the library for research if they need it.
  • prettying up
    • Donna Angley
       
      Do you mean the background or theme of the course, because I'd love to know how to change that.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      I am almost three times that....almost :)
    • Diane Gusa
       
      My dissertation chair gave me wonderful advice...Enough is enough! If we recognize that we are always evolving, growing, expanding, deepening our understanding...then we understand that a "project" is just a snap shot of one time in our progress.
  • the more effort you put into it, the more successful you’ll be.
  • One thought I had, as I look forward to getting a PhD, is that theories come from practice which means that theories about online learning come from individuals creating courses, teaching courses, and collecting feedback from courses over and over and then after all of that work is finished, turning right around and working at analyzing the data, and attempting to answer research questions.  In order to have credible research, the questions must be relevant, the measures must be valid and thorough, and the analyses of results must be comprehensive. 
  • Reflective Writing: I have to admit, at the beginning of the course I thought the blogging activities were just busy work.  I viewed the assignments as busy work, and treated my entries as such.  As time ticked on, I started getting into the blogs and realizing that it was my personal space in which I could reflect on my work on my course and my learning throughout the week/module.  So much of life and learning in school is sort of thrown at you, and if you don’t take the time to intentionally deconstruct the events and make sense of them, then you’ll never grow and improve.  I’d rather grow.
  • If I don’t place intentional emphasis on something (like making it worth a portion of their grade) then I am sending a message that it’s not important. 
  • Nothing should be an accident or “just because” in the online teaching environment. 
  • Students don’t want their time wasted.
Maria Guadron

Heutagogy & The Craft of Teaching - 1 views

  •  
    Garnett places pedagogy at the cognitive level, andragogy at the metacognitive level, and heutagogy at the epistemic level.
Hedy Lowenheim

Universities Team With Online Course Provider - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • At SUNY, which has 468,000 students at 64 campuses, the Coursera partnership is tied to Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher’s announcement this year of Open SUNY, an online effort to enroll 100,000 new students and make it possible for a quarter of them to earn a degree in three years.
    • Hedy Lowenheim
       
      Great to see that SUNY is partnering up with Coursera! This is a very exciting development for the world of online learning!
  • “We hope this will help public universities do more with the less they’re getting in state support,” Dr. Koller said.
    • Hedy Lowenheim
       
      Public education funding seems to be in constant jeopardy these days. Adding distance learning classes at an extremely low price has the potential to bring college level classes to students who might never have had the opportunity to attend a university.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Some faculty resistance has emerged recently against using online materials, even if they are blended with classroom work. This week, 58 Harvard professors wrote a letter seeking the creation of a new committee to consider the ethical issues related to edX and its impact on higher education.
  •  
    Universities Team With Online Course Provider By TAMAR LEWIN "In a move that could open online classes to 1.25 million students at public institutions, a California company is forming partnerships with 10 large state university systems."
Danielle Melia

EBSCOhost: Evaluation of Synchronous Online Tutoring for Students at Risk of Reading F... - 0 views

  •  
    Evaluation of Synchronous Online Tutoring for Students at Risk of Reading Failure This study examined the effects of online reading instruction for at-risk fourth-grade students in Philadelphia. The authors used a multiple baseline design to assess the extent to which the students increased their oral reading rate given systematic supplemental online reading instruction. Tutoring consisted of 4 sessions per week with 50-min lessons of instruction delivered over Adobe ConnectTM. Analysis of the multiple baseline across participants revealed gains in oral reading fluency for all participants when placed into the synchronous online tutoring program. Participating students and tutors reported an awareness of increased reading skills and value of synchronous online instruction. Teachers and parents generally reported that students demonstrated increased reading skills after receiving instruction.
William Meredith

What Your Ph.D. Didn't Cover | Inside Higher Ed - 0 views

  • Now, recognizing that what these instructors need is markedly different training from their counterparts in high schools and at four-year universities, some graduate programs are offering credentials specifically for those students who plan to or already teach at community colleges as a supplement to their subject matter graduate training.
  • Those seeking the certificate do not have to be enrolled in a Temple graduate program, and there is a specific track for current community college instructors who, though they are already experts in their discipline, want a professional development opportunity to learn new teaching techniques.
  • The certificate for current community college instructors consists of a three-credit seminar on “teaching in higher education” — with broad-based lessons on various teaching philosophies and course designs — and three one-credit modules on specific topics. Current topics are “assessment,” “diversity and inclusive teaching” and “teaching with technology.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • “Having a Ph.D. doesn’t necessarily prepare one for teaching, so some are having 'a-ha' moments by the minute in the program,” Barnett said.
  • Offering teaching certificates to community college instructors or those who wish to become them is not an entirely new idea. In contrast to Temple’s more general teaching certificate, a few other graduate programs around the country have certificate programs for specific disciplines at community colleges
  • “There’s a lot of research on programs that prepare new teaching assistants and those of the like, but there is very little research on preparing community college teachers,”
  •  
    Preparing PhDs to teach at community colleges
Maria Guadron

Department of Educational Theory and Practice University at Albany, State University of... - 0 views

  •  
    "Dr. Jianwei Zhang is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice at the University at Albany, State University of New York. His research explores technology-enabled learning designs to engage students in sustained, creative knowledge work across content areas and school years in order to prepare them for 21st century careers. "
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
  • ...28 more annotations...
  • 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)
Joan McCabe

Assessment Design and Cheating Risk in Online Instruction - 0 views

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

55% of adult internet users have broadband at home or work; Home broadband adoption has... - 0 views

  • Only 10% of rural Americans go online from home with high-speed connections, about one-third the rate for non-rural Americans.
  • Overall, 48 million American adults had high-speed connections in the home in February 2004. This represents a growth of 60% since March 2003 when 30 million Americans had broadband connections at home. Fully half of this growth has taken place since November 2003, suggesting that it was a broadband holiday season for many Internet users in the winter of 2003/2004.
  • As for the pool of dial-up users who may one day move to broadband, 40% say they would like to get it and 58% say they don’t plan to get it. Of the 40% who would like to get broadband at home, many are not interested in paying more for it: 22% say they would not pay an extra dime for broadband at home and on average this group said they would pay about $9.40 per month extra for broadband. Of the 58% of dial-up users who say that they are not interested in broadband at home, half say they would not pay anything extra for it. On average these users say they would pay only about $4.25 a month more for broadband.
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    High speed internet users early 2000's
Diane Gusa

The Power (and Peril) of Praising Your Kids -- New York Magazine - 0 views

  • this self-awareness that he’s smart hasn’t always translated into fearless confidence when attacking his schoolwork. In fact, Thomas’s father noticed just the opposite. “Thomas didn’t want to try things he wouldn’t be successful at,” his father says. “Some things came very quickly to him, but when they didn’t, he gave up almost immediately, concluding, ‘I’m not good at this
  • Why does this child, who is measurably at the very top of the charts, lack confidence about his ability to tackle routine school challenges?
  • Carol Dweck and her team at Columbia (she’s now at Stanford) studied the effect of praise on students in a dozen New York schools.
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  • the puzzles. The other choice, Dweck’s team explained, was an easy test, just like the first. Of those praised for their effort, 90 percent chose the harder set of puzzles. Of those praised for their intelligence, a majority chose the easy test. The “smart” kids took the cop-out.
Teresa Dobler

To Multitask or Not? | Oxford Learning - 0 views

  • o deal with distractions and interruptions
    • Teresa Dobler
       
      A valid part of everyday life both in school, at work, and at home.
  • When deadlines loom at the office and in the classroom, it is better to complete portions of all tasks, than to only complete one. In the classroom, part marks add up to better grades than no marks at all.
    • Teresa Dobler
       
      Do we think this is true? Is it better to do one thing well or many things at a lower level? I am not sure this is arguing a positive.
  • doing a lot, but accomplishing nothing
    • Teresa Dobler
       
      Again, I wonder how true this is. It sounds overly negative to me. When I rapidly switch, I would not say that I accomplish absolutely nothing.
Maria Guadron

Current Courses | NMU Academic Service Learning - 0 views

  •  
    Service learning in French at NMU. "Students will create educational displays for exhibits at the Upper Peninsula Children's Museum."
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