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ian august

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

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

Spirit, trust, interaction and learning: a case study of an online community of doctora... - 1 views

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    The concept of community is examined using Rovai's four dimensions of community: spirit, trust, interaction and learning (Rovai, 2000)
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    The concept of community is examined using Rovai's four dimensions of community: spirit, trust, interaction and learning (Rovai, 2000)
Diane Gusa

Why have learning communities - 0 views

  • learning communities have been shown to increase student retention and academic achievement, increase student involvement and motivation, improve students� time to degree completion, and enhance student intellectual development.
  • Students involved in learning communities become more intellectually mature and responsible for their own learning and develop the capacity to care about the learning of their peers.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      This makes me think that online learning communities will lead to retention in course, engagement, motivation, and increase learning
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    F2F learning communities findings in one college
alexandra m. pickett

Lost in Translation: Importance of Effective Communication in Online Education - 0 views

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    How communication differs f2f vs. online, and considerations for effective online communication
Diane Gusa

A dialogic approach to online facilitation - 0 views

  • Social construction of understanding has long been a significant underlying principle of learning and teaching
  • Learning through dialogue with others has a long history.
  • main themes of learning theory
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  • cognition is situated in particular social contexts (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989; Lave & Wenger, 1991); knowing is distributed across groups (Cole, 1991; Perkins, 1993); and learning takes place in communities (Lipman, 2003; Scardemalia & Bereiter, 1996; Wenger, 1998).
  • "a space where conversation can occur
  • Although reflective dialogue has strong connections with Lipman's notion of multidimensional thinking, in that reflection allows synthesis, there may be difficulties with the use of this term as it has been used elsewhere with different connotations (Brookfield, 1995; Schon, 1983).
  • The learning process must be constituted as a dialogue between tutor and student" (1993, p. 94)
  • Community of Practice and Community of Inquiry theory
  • The Community of Inquiry model is based not on the Community of Practice model but, at least in part, on Lipman's work with children (2003) in which "tutor and children collaborate with each other to grow in understanding, not only of the material world, but also of the personal and ethical world around them" (Wegerif, 2007, p. 139)
  • the integration of concrete experience and abstract thought; the integration of reflection and action; the spiral nature of these two; the relationship between separate and connected knowing; and the balance between collaboration and leadership.
  • Yet students often find this kind of thinking difficult to express when they are learning something new, perhaps because emerging ideas are very vulnerable to criticism
  • the dialogic space is broadened to include other types of dialogue which contribute to the development of understanding yet which are easier for students to express. Creative dialogue opens up a reflective space in which issues can be explored with encouragement and trust.
  • Another technique is "thought shower" - similar to but perhaps less intense than brainstorming - in which even implicit judgement is suspended. Creative thinking, or dialogue, is not the same as creativity, which is often associated with art and design, yet it appears to have an important role in discovery
  • A third aspect of this reflective space is caring dialogue,
  • each of the participants really has in mind the other or others in their present and particular being, and turns to them with the intention of establishing a living mutual relation between himself and them."
  • Buber calls this intersubjectivity
  • The focus is on listening and understanding (Bakhtin, 1986), or reading and understanding in an asynchronous online environment
  • Caring thinking also includes caring about the topic or subject (Lipman, 2003, p. 262), which Sharp (2004) calls pedagogic caring,
  • Identifying (information responsive): Students explore the knowledge base of the discipline in response to questions or lines of inquiry framed by teachers ("What is the existing answer to, or current state of knowledge on, this question?") Pursuing (information active): Students explore a knowledge base by pursuing their own questions and lines of inquiry ("What is the existing answer to, or current state of knowledge on, my question?") Producing (discovery responsive): Students pursue open questions or lines of inquiry, framed by tutors or clients, in interaction with a knowledge base ("How can I answer this open question?") Authoring (discovery active): Students pursue their own open questions and lines of inquiry, in interaction with a knowledge base ("How can I answer my open question?") (Levy, 2009).
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    AJET 26(1) Swann (2010) - another approach to think about for my discussion forum.
ian august

Learning community - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • esults of learning communities
  • but learning communities can offer more: curricular coherence; integrative, high-quality learning; collaborative knowledge-construction; and skills and knowledge relevant to living in a complex, messy, diverse world.
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    wikipedia definition of learning community
cpcampbell88

Using Audio Feedback to Promote Teaching Presence - Spectrum Newsletter Spring 2009 - 0 views

  • Social presence is defined as, “The ability of participants in the community of inquiry to project their personal characteristics into the community, thereby presenting themselves to the other participants as ‘real people’
  • Social presence is the pathway whereby cognitive presence is developed.
  • As faculty and students cultivate social presence in a course through meaningful dialogue, deepened analysis and application of course concepts can take place.
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  • These roles need not be limited to simply the instructor, as students can also exhibit teaching presence in the course through such activities as leading group discussion assignments of collecting and sharing instructional resources
  • Yet, textual feedback, particularly in the context of a blended or online course, can lack rich detail and tone.
  • As textual forms of communication dominate current electronic communications, opportunities to engage auditory and kinesthetic learners ought to be cultivated.
  • Students perceived audio feedback to be more effective than text-based feedback for conveying nuance. Audio feedback was associated with feelings of increased involvement and enhanced learning community interactions. Audio feedback was associated with increased retention of content. Audio feedback was associated with the perception that the instructor cared more about the student.
  • Ice, Swan, Kupczynski, and Richardson (2008) studied the impact of asynchronous audio feedback in an online course and noted the following:
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    Community of Inquiry (COI) whereby three key elements crucial to the success of any learning endeavor are highlighted: cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence. Figure 1 illustrates the integration of these elements of the learning environment.
Alicia Fernandez

A study of teaching presence and student sense of learning community in fully online an... - 0 views

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    A study that relates the students sense of community and teacher presence to the level of learning
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    A study that relates the students sense of community and teacher presence to the level of learning
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    Paper focuses on two components of a model for online teaching and learning -" teaching presence " and "community".
William Meredith

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

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

A Preliminary Look at the Structural Differences of Higher Education Classroom Communit... - 2 views

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    Study comparing effectiveness of community building practices in the f2f and ALN environments
Catherine Strattner

ETAP640amp2012: Teaching Presence and Class Community presented by Alexandra Pickett (D... - 0 views

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    Describes the three parts of teaching presence and how to foster them. Describes how to create a class community in an online course.
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    Teaching presence cannot exist without a sense of community.
Maria Guadron

Bill Pelz Reflects on the CoI and Teaching Presence - YouTube - 1 views

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    Bill Pelz, Professor & Internet Academy Coordinator at Herkimer County Community College, shares his ideas about teaching presence and the Community of Inquiry.
Maree Michaud-Sacks

Building Learning Communities in Online Courses - 0 views

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    An article about peer-to-peer interaction, community development, and instructor communication.
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    this article discusses the 3 types of interaction needed to sustain community in an online course, as well as the immediacy behaviors that can be used in a text based environment
alexandra m. pickett

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

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

Tools for Synchronous and Asynchronous Classroom Discussion - ProfHacker - The Chronicl... - 0 views

shared by Amy M on 21 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Regardless of the tool or set of tools that you use, be sure your communication plan is clear to your students. Online communication does have rules, just like face-to-face communication. Set guidelines as well as expectations, and use only those tools that you’ve evaluated and which clearly enhance your teaching and student learning.
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    Be clear which communication strategies you will use
Luke Fellows

The Facebook phenomenon: online self-disclosure and uncertainty reduction. - Free Onlin... - 0 views

  • Facebook has begun to transform the way in which individuals perceive relationship development and interpersonal reactions, namely through self-disclosure.
  • A self-disclosure is any message or interaction between individuals that communicates information about oneself to others
  • Uncertainty reduction is the exchange of information between individuals that allows one to form impressions of others and make sense of social situations
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  • The process of uncertainty reduction thus enables individuals to predict another individual's actions, attitudes and behaviors, which can ease anxiety in initial social encounters
  • Facebook ranks higher than any other form of communication technology, including phone and email, and has become the number one choice of communication for university students
  • Self-disclosure is the process of revealing personal information about one's self through verbal communication (Sheldon, 2009). Traditional theories of self-disclosure pertain to face-to-face communication encounters, which suggest that self-disclosure allows others to know more about him or herself
efleonhardt

JOLT - Journal of Online Learning and Teaching - 0 views

  • Classroom community and student engagement are closely related to one another
  • sense of connectedness and psychological closeness rather than isolation are better prepared to become more actively involved with online learning and the resulting higher order thinking and knowledge building
  • text-based experiences are likely insufficient for participants to break down the barriers created by distance and the lack of face-to-face interaction.
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  • emphasized the need for instructors to validate all student perspectives, as well as acknowledge differing beliefs and biases, to create a safe and welcoming community that helps students become “more engaged and feel more interconnected”
  • who provide a structured and comfortable classroom environment that involves the participation of everyone in the learning activities
  • thoughtful care for instructors to help students become engaged in their learning and to design virtual classrooms that enhance a sense of community
  • carefully plan ways for students to interact, students can focus on achieving course learning goals
  • focus primarily on academic content and not as much on meaningful, interpersonal connections.
  • such as Facebook, twittering and blogging, might increase the social presence of all of the students as well as the teaching presence of the instructor.
  • collaborative decision-making related to communication protocols, and required and ongoing student postings in online discussions
  • instructors need to find ways to help students feel more strongly connected with each other and with the instructor and to facilitate activities that more actively involve students in their own learning.
Alena Rodick

Emotional presence, learning, and the online learning environment | Cleveland-Innes | T... - 0 views

  • Those engaged in online learning deal with the effects of emotion on a daily basis, whether in designing instruction, teaching, or learning online. The work of Damasio and LeDoux independently suggests that emotion is neither an objective nor outcome of learning yet is central to cognition. The study of O’Regan (2003) showed that students express their emotions in relation to the various aspects of an online course such as design and organizational issues (i.e., a lack of clear instructions), cognitive issues (i.e., learning materials, success), social issues (during communicating), time management, or technology. Similarly, Cleveland-Innes, Garrison, and Kinsel (2007) also found out that students disclosed emotions in relation to the social, teaching, and cognitive presence in an online course.
  • Research results from multiple studies indicate that emotions are an integral part of the learning environment and influence students’ learning experiences (Cleveland-Innes & Campbell, 2006). According to Baumeister, DeWall, and Zhang (2007), emotions influence outcomes. That is, positive emotions lead to positive outcomes and negative emotions to negative outcomes.
  • Emotion may constrain learning as a distracter but, if managed, may serve as an enabler in support of thinking, decision making, stimulation, and directing. Online learning is replete, not fraught, with emotion. We conclude, with others, that emotion is present in online learning communities
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  • Given this reality, emotion must be considered, if not a central factor, at least as a ubiquitous, influential part of learning—online and otherwise (Plutchick, 2003; Stets & Turner, 2006; Wosnitza & Volet, 2005). Therefore, emotions expressed in the online experience, as explained by the CoI model (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000), indicate that emotional presence exists in social, cognitive, and teaching presence.
  • ey to online environments is to acknowledge and discuss emotional tenor as much communicative information is lost without tone of voice and facial expressions— emoticons excepted. The exploration of emotional states that are not present— hidden yet influential—needs attention.
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    In spite of evidence that more and more students are engaging in online learning experiences, details about the transition for teachers and students to a new learning environment are still unconfirmed. While new technologies are often expected to make work easier, they also involve the development of new competencies. This change may, in itself, elicit an emotional response, and, more importantly, emotion may impact the experience of online learning. Knowledge about the impact of emotion on learning broadly is available, but not about emotion and online learning. This study presents evidence of emotions present in online environments, and empirical data which suggests emotional presence may exist as a fundamental element in an online community of inquiry.
Joy Quah Yien-ling

Cognitive Apprenticeship, Technology, and the Contextualization of Learning Environments - 2 views

  • The authors (Collins, Brown, & Holum, 1991; Collins, Brown, & Newman,1989) as well as other researchers (Herrington & Oliver, 2000) have refined this model to the belief that useable knowledge is best gained in learning environments featuring the following characteristics:   Authentic context that allows for the natural complexity of the real world Authentic activities Access to expert performances and the modeling of processes Multiple roles and perspectives Collaboration to support the cooperative construction of knowledge Coaching and scaffolding which provides the skills, strategies and links that the students are initially unable to provide to complete the task Reflection to enable abstractions to be formed Articulation to enable tacit knowledge to be made explicit
  • The goal of learning, therefore, is to engage learners in legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice (Lave and Wenger 1991). Through community, learners interpret, reflect, and form meaning. Community provides the setting for the social interaction needed to engage in dialogue with others to see various and diverse perspectives on any issue. Community is the joining of practice with analysis and reflection to share the tacit understandings and to create shared knowledge from the experiences among participants in a learning opportunity (Wenger 1998).
  • The goal of cognitive apprenticeship is to address the problem of inert knowledge and to make the thinking processes of a learning activity visible to both the students and the teacher.  T
alexandra m. pickett

Sloan-C - Publications - Journal: JALN - Vol4:2 Student Satisfaction and Perceived Lear... - 0 views

  • For new SLN faculty the first stage in their development as on-line instructors is to get on-line and access the SLN Faculty Developer Gateway (http://SLN.suny.edu/developer). There, they are introduced to the SLN faculty development and course design processes. They participate in a facilitated on-line conference to network with our growing community of on-line instructors and to get the feel for on-line discussion in the asynchronous Web environment. In stage two, faculty begin to conceptualize their courses. They complete an on-line orientation to the Web course environment and they also have the opportunity to observe a variety of live on-line courses that have been selected as models to help them get a sense of the possibilities and to get the look and feel of the on-line classroom. Stage three is the SLN Course Development stage. They are asked to attend three workshops. At the first workshop, faculty receive a customized course template created in Lotus Notes, access to our networked system and on-line resources, and a step-by-step guide for building the components of their course. They are also assigned an instructional design partner to work with throughout their first course-development and delivery cycles and have access to a Help Desk for technology support. Note that it is not until stage three of our faculty development process that faculty are introduced to the technology that they will use to create their course. Our primary focus is on developing and supporting on-line faculty and effective on-line pedagogy, not on the technology. 
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      what are your thoughts on this passage?
    • Robert Braathe
       
      Getting faculty involved in the system of communicating in a new way is very effective. If we expect our students to be involved, we need to (as faculty) get immersed in communicating in these new ways to make the technology effective. Otherwise, the technology is obsolete
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    Student Satisfaction and Perceived Learning with On-line Courses: Principles and Examples from the SUNY Learning Network Eric Fredericksen, Alexandra Pickett, Peter Shea State University of New York William Pelz Herkimer County Community College http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/jaln/v4n2/pdf/v4n2_fredericksen.pdf Karen Swan University of Albany
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    doing a demo ignore this.
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