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Amy M

Original iPad Open to Attack Due to Lack of iOS 6 Update - International Business Times - 0 views

  • Apple has released an early beta version of iOS 6 to developers - which we have reviewed - but when it is available to the public in the autumn it will only work on the iPad 2 or newer, iPhone 3GS or newer and the 4th generation iPod touch or newer.
  •  
    iPad 1 not supported in new iOS release
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.
alexandra m. pickett

My New Adventure in Online Teaching - 1 views

  • I also was reminded that in many cases, our students technical skills often far surpass our own and that our course development and approach to online teaching should be informed by that fact. 
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      how do you come to this conclusion? is it supported in the SLN demographic data? are you sure this it true? do you buy into the digital native vs. immigrant assertion?
  • I already recognize that this will require me to sacrifice spontaneity and creativity at times but I think on balance it is the right way to go.
  • online teaching requires me to do something I hate - completely rethink my approach. 
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  • theory is easy and practical application is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. 
  • I’ve constantly considered and reconsidered the importance of my role as the teacher as I’ve laid out Module after Module.
  • I am still not entirely sold on the need to have the entire course completed ahead of time – though who am I to argue with the experts? 
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      hey bill. our research findings support this assertion and i want you to know that there is a positive and significant correlation between the percentage of course completed prior to the first day of the course and student (and faculty) satisfation and reported learning. Seems like building the airplane whilst in flight is not a good idea - the faculty experience is negatively impacted and the students also notice...
  • In other words, modifications can be done in a controlled setting. 
  • My emotions ran the spectrum from a little bit of anger at being asked to complete a task that I didn’t entirely think was realistic, to disappointment in myself that, even though I thought I had caught up, I obviously was still just treading water.  I’ve settled somewhere in the middle but regardless I decided to just put and shut up and make my way through the remainder of the course development process.
  • what I will take away from it is so much more than any all-nighter I might have put in.  I now feel confident to teach my own online courses and hope to begin implementing a hybrid online program in the 2010-2011 school year.   This class has given me that kind of confidence and I’m all the better for it.
alexandra m. pickett

Thoughts About Teaching Spanish Online - 0 views

  • In an online environment it is fundamental.  Discussions generate questions, and questions promote critical thinking.  I now firmly believe, and understand, that in order to promote a higher level of language usage, I need to help my students learn how to think critically through questioning.  This is best accomplished through a dialogue format, where all students are expected to contribute in a relaxed and supportive learning environment.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      Brilliant!!! yes! you are getting it!
  • I am wondering if there is a way to copy a module set-up, and then simply customize the web pages within each module. 
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      i wish there were in moodle but to my knowlege there is not. Believe me, i understand.
  • Suddenly, the student is propelled to think clearly and critically, as now their core ideas have the potential to be shared with anyone, anywhere.
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  • t occurred to me that real learning requires the removal of classroom walls in the sense that students need to be made to feel empowered  in their ability to learn independently, as well as in the amount of information they learn. 
  • Personal stories give life to a faceless person, just as they do in literature.  We come to know, like, love, despise, and sympathize with characters the more we know about them.  Online it is very different in the sense that we are communicating interactively, but unless we become ‘real’ to our students, there will be a disconnect between instructor-student that must ultimately interfere with knowledge acquisition, particularly since effective teaching presence has been shown to directly affect the quality of education in online environments based on interactions between students and instructors (Alex – Breeze presentation module 5).
  • Specifically, I need to ask myself:  Do these questions simply ask student to use their  foundational knowledge, and book resources,  in order to answer the questions? Or do they need to think, analyze, research and push themselves cognitively in order to understand, and answer, the posted questions?
  •   Online learning requires a different framework of thinking and behaving.  It requires a sense of self-reliance, responsibility and an openness to collaboration and reflection. 
  • Many of our high school students are not equipped with these survival skills. 
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      barbara: it is my experience that students rise to your expectations. I have seen remarkable work by k12 students and lower level college students. And even if it is true that they are not well equipped, they will have a fantastic teacher in you to get them there : ) me
  • online learning not only allows students to learn according to their favored multiple intelligences (visual, auditory, tactile, etc.), it also allows students to learn according to their own rate of information reception.  While the classroom forces us all to be quick thinkers, and immediate responders, many of us are not.  We need time to formulate ideas, responses and concepts.  Students who cannot respond immediately are left out of the learning environment and many may eventually ‘check-out’. 
  • Seeing others accomplish things that I had either not thought of, or was too intimidated to attempt, made me take chances. 
  • This is what learning is all about – moving out of our comfort zone and pushing our possibilities.
cpcampbell88

Making the right choices 2 - 0 views

    • cpcampbell88
       
      Things to consider when creating a career plan
    • cpcampbell88
       
      Things to consider when creating a career plan
    • cpcampbell88
       
      choices will determine students' outcome...this is important for students to realize at an early age
  • some thought to how you will
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  • stand out.
  • choose options that broaden your
  • personal interests a
  • employers tend
  • to prefer applicants who
    • cpcampbell88
       
      Students need to include these on resumes and college app. Important for students to realize before their senior year of high school
  • responsible roles
  • led projects.
  • work experience
  • challenges
  • problem-solving skills
  • confident in communicating
  • et on well w
  • creative thinkers
  • finding solutions
    • cpcampbell88
       
      Good discussion: how will you demonstrate these qualities on resume or on interview
  • ctives,
    • cpcampbell88
       
      Create goals to help development of career plan
    • cpcampbell88
       
      This website provides information for students about their career plans. I really like the page that outlines for them how the choices they make now can help them in the future. I want to use this in my online course because I think it is important for students to see the correlation between what they are doing now and how it will help them in the future. I think I am going to add this into Module 4 to assist with the career plan. I also want to use the Structured Reflection link as an intro to the course. I think it outlines reflections and states a clear purpose to the students, who may have not done a blogging activity before.
    • cpcampbell88
       
      his website provides information for students about their career plans. I really like the page that outlines for them how the choices they make now can help them in the future. I want to use this in my online course because I think it is important for students to see the correlation between what they are doing now and how it will help them in the future. I think I am going to add this into Module 4 to assist with the career plan. I also want to use the Structured Reflection link as an intro to the course. I think it outlines reflections and states a clear purpose to the students, who may have not done a blogging activity before.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      hi catherine!
    • cpcampbell88
       
      This website provides information for students about their career plans. I really like the page that outlines for them how the choices they make now can help them in the future. I want to use this in my online course because I think it is important for students to see the correlation between what they are doing now and how it will help them in the future. I think I am going to add this into Module 4 to assist with the career plan. I also want to use the Structured Reflection link as an intro to the course. I think it outlines reflections and states a clear purpose to the students, who may have not done a blogging activity before.
    • cpcampbell88
       
      Things to consider when creating a career plan
    • cpcampbell88
       
      Things to consider when creating a career plan
    • cpcampbell88
       
      things to consider when creating a career plan
    • cpcampbell88
       
      choices will determine students' outcome...this is important for students to realize at an early age
    • cpcampbell88
       
      Students need to include these on resumes and college app. Important for students to realize before their senior year of high school
    • cpcampbell88
       
      Good discussion: how will you demonstrate these qualities on resume or on interview
    • cpcampbell88
       
      Create goals to help development of career plan
    • cpcampbell88
       
      test
alexandra m. pickett

Online Course Design - 0 views

    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      Joy! thank you for making your learning visible to me! I am awed and inspired by the depth of your insights!
  • So establishing teaching presence is what all the designers, Alex, and even I, am doing when we make decisions about the content of the course, the types of activities we want to include, the tools we would like to use, how we want to assess, how we provide channels for providing and managing feedback, how we want to induct students into the course, how we want to wrap up the course….Basically – everything!
  • From planning, to execution, to assessment, to revision. So this is why developing a course is an “iterative process”.
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    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      eureka!!! brilliant!!!
  • And nothing happens by chance. Everything happens by deliberate design. And I am seeing how this is happening.
  • People are important, so… (make decisions, plan activities, evaluate, discard, adapt, iterate, etc.) Thinking is important, so ….(make decisions, plan activities, evaluate, discard, adapt, iterate, etc.) Learning is important, so….. Content knowledge is important, so… Skills are important, so…
  • From this, I have learnt that it is perfectly fine to change your mind, as long as you have solid justification. This was also a useful reminder abot the importance of accurately matching the number of objectives with activities. A designer needs to avoid creating an objective that has no activity, and an activity with no objective, as can sometimes happen through oversight.
  • “You need to rethink lots of things, to be open to possibilities, opportunities to options, then you’re more likely to be successful,” says Alex. This kind of openness does not happen as a matter of course. It has to begin with an awareness. This attitude of being open to possibilities, opportunities and options has to be actively worked upon. I failed to understand this at first. So I found it perplexing that Alex would pursue what I thought was a trivial line of discussion. What do you think is not possible to teach and learn online? I volunteered several bright contributions. I was still unaware of the purpose of this apparently innocuous discussion. Of course now I know better. That discussion was supposed to challenge a closed mind. Because with a closed mind, we render ourselves unable to be open to possibilities, opportunities to options. A closed mind works against innovation, progress, improvement, expansion. This is a new frontier, and therefore the stance which can reap untold benefits and leanings should be “Let’s explore!” So the question we should be asking isn’t “What cannot be done?” but rather “How do I make this possible?”
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      thank you for this observation, joy! thank you for taking the bait and giving us all the opportunity to question our assumptions and to arrive at creativity, innovation and possibilities!! : )
  • I need to be open to possibilities, opportunities, to options. I must put aside my prejudices and temporarily suspend “logical thinking” in favor of creative thinking.
  • But we should never give up on the unwilling ones.
  • The best way to spark change is to let them attend an effective online course.
  • I am beginning to see how “developing a course is a transformative experience”.
  • I don’t think I can return to the classroom and teach anything the same way before.
  • Designing an online course has been, for me, a truly transformative experience. It has allowed me not only to reexamine, reformulate and reassess, but to also move forward to innovate and in some ways, to reinvent myself as a teacher.
  • I was therefore quite relieved Alex confirmed what I had feared. I was packing in too much. Even before even before Alex provided her completely justified feedback that my course was too packed (“for you Joy, less is more!”)
  • An online environment is different from a f2f setting. Being able to state it in a theoretical way is not the same as understanding it and translating it into practice. Of course I knew the theory. But when the time came for application in the design of the online course, my knowledge did not transfer well into practical application. This is one of the main problems when there is a failure of the student to  successfully transfer learning, which is basically one of great challenges of teaching.  So basically, what I did initially did was to replicate my f2f activities directly into my online classroom.
  • As I feared, and Alex confirmed, this large amount of group work puts a strain on the students and also poses too many logistic difficulties. Perhaps one or two group work activities might work, but not several in each module. It is unrealistic. So I have learnt, in a very concrete and hands-on way, that designing for my online classroom in this instance is different from designing for my face-to face classroom.
  • Once again, I am reminded that theory and practice need mutual reinforcement. Understanding the theory is one thing. Transferring the theoretical knowledge into action requires experience, reflection, and feedback from others.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      thank you for making your thinking and learning visible to me!
  • Having experienced a wonderful sense of community, and seeing how it is done, I do feel that I have a fair idea of the basic ingredients that go into creating a sense of community. However, Alex has set a high, high standard, and I don’t know I have the energy to sustain the community building effort, even if I knew how to do it!
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      i have great expectations of you joy! i know you can do it : )
  • this is a process
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      Yes!!! the value to me and to the others in the class is to be able to watch your process. we see how you think and refine and how your ideas change and evolve and that adds to our understanding of you and our own learning.
  • My present ideas never look like version 1! The result is that the ideas I handed up in the proposed learning activities resemble very little of what I actually have now
    • Joan Erickson
       
      Oh Joy, I can relate! By the time Alex reads my submitted writing assignment, my actual course design has already morphed a few times. I've visited your course, it looks great! the activities you set up indicatethat you have high expectations for the participants!
  • Confucius
    • Joan Erickson
       
      wow, Confucious said that? I didn't even know, and I'm Chinese!
  • In short – let the students do the work. This is the best way to learn. This principle, I think, has been demonstrated in this course. And I intend to pursue it in my own course. I see the value of giving the students both structure and space.
  • One of the insights has to do with letting go as a teacher.
  • Reading Sue’s
  • I agree with Sue.
Diane Gusa

From behaviorism to humanism: Incorporating self-direction in learning concept - 0 views

  • It appears that many adult educators today, especially those recognizing the value of self-direction in learning, operate primarily from humanist beliefs and c
  • It also has been our observation that some instructional designers (and many other educators) seem to have difficulty accepting or incorporating humanist beliefs and instead appear guided primarily by behaviorist or neobehaviorist beliefs and paradigms based primarily on logical positivism, although cognitive psychology is increasingly informing the instructional design field.
  • We consider it important to understand why some of the philosophical differences between the two disciplines exist.
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  • instructional design as a separate discipline, has developed from several forms of inquiry: (a) research pertaining to media usage and communications theory; (b) general systems theory and development; and (c) psychological and learning theory. Reigeluth (1983) suggests that the three theorists most responsible for the current development of instructional design knowledge include B. F. Skinner (1954), David Ausubel (1968), and Jerome Bruner (1966). Skinner is identified because of his work with behaviorism and Bruner and Ausubel are recognized because of their contributions to cognitive psychology. Reigeluth (1987) has also compiled information on several other authors, theories, and models he believes important to the development of instructional design as a profession. Gagne (1985), Piaget (1966), and Thorndike (and colleagues) (1928) are other scholars frequently cited as foundational for much of today's thinking about instructional design.
  • As Hollis (1991) notes, "traditionally, instructional technologists have largely ignored the humanists' ideas among all the available theories from which to draw upon and incorporate into their schemes. Theoretically, instructional technology has been based on research in human learning and communications theories. In reality, more borrowing of ideas is needed, especially from the ranks of the humanists" (p. 51
  • Humanism generally is associated with beliefs about freedom and autonomy and notions that "human beings are capable of making significant personal choices within the constraints imposed by heredity, personal history, and environment"
  • Humanist principles stress the importance of the individual and specific human needs. Among the major assumptions underlying humanism are the following: (a) human nature is inherently good; (b) individuals are free and autonomous, thus they are capable of making major personal choices; (c) human potential for growth and development is virtually unlimited; (d) self-concept plays an important role in growth and development; (e) individuals have an urge toward self-actualization; (f) reality is defined by each person; and (g) individuals have responsibility to both themselves and to others (Elias & Merriam, 1980).
  • "If an individual is concerned primarily with personal growth and development, how can that person truly be concerned with what is good for all of society?"
  • The learning environment should allow each learner to proceed at a pace best suited to the individual.
  • It is important to help learners continuously assess their progress and make feedback a part of the learning process. 5. The learner's previous experience is an invaluable resource for future learning and thus enhancing the value of advanced organizers or making clear the role for mastery of necessary prerequisites.
  • We do recognize there may be times when self-directed opportunities are minimal, such as when involved in collaborative learning or when learning entirely new content, but believe that the assumption of personal responsibility is possible in ways not tied to the type of learning or content.
Heather Kurto

The Future of Online Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: The Survey Sa... - 0 views

  • misconceptions and myths related to the difficulty of teaching and learning online, technologies available to support online instruction, the support and compensation needed for high-quality instructors, and the needs of online students create challenges for such vision statements and planning documents.
  • Adding to this dilemma, bored students are dropping out of online classes while pleading for richer and more engaging online learning experiences.1 Given the demand for online learning, the plethora of online technologies to incorporate into teaching, the budgetary problems, and the opportunities for innovation, we argue that online learning environments are facing a "perfect e-storm," linking pedagogy, technology, and learner needs.
  • cation. In this study, Keeton interviewed faculty in postsecondary institutions, who rated the effectiveness of online instructional strategies. These instructors gave higher ratings to online instructional strategies that "create an environment that supports and encourages inquiry," "broaden the learner's experience of the subject matter," and "elicit active and critical reflection by learners on their growing experience base."12
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  • When asked about several emerging technologies for online education, 27 percent of respondents predicted that use of course management systems (CMSs) would increase most drastically in the next five years. Those surveyed also said that video streaming, online testing and exam tools, and learning object libraries would find significantly greater use on campus during this time. Between 5 and 10 percent of respondents expected to see increases in asynchronous discussion tools, videoconferencing, synchronous presentation tools, and online testing.
  • this study found that the most important skills for an online instructor during the next few years will be how to moderate or facilitate learning and how to develop or plan for high-quality online courses (see Table 2). Being a subject-matter expert was the next most important skill. In effect, the results indicate that planning and moderating skills are perhaps more important than actual "teaching" or lecturing skills in online courses. As Salmon pointed out, online instructors are moderators or facilitators of
  • ), and educational opportunities.25Online Teaching Skills.
  • Instructors' abilities to teach online are critical to the quality of online education.
  • As a result, enhancing pedagogy is perhaps the most important factor in navigating the perfect e-storm. In the present study, respondents made predictions about the quality of online education in the near future and about how online courses would be taught and evaluated.
  • Our findings also indicated that, in general, respondents envisioned the Web in the next few years more as a tool for virtual teaming or collaboration, critical thinking, and enhanced student engagement than as an opportunity for student idea generation and expression of creativity.
  • What if institutions took the opposite stance and measured face-to-face courses based on whether they could accomplish all that online instruction can?
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    The study of what online teaching might look like in the near future.
Joy Quah Yien-ling

Teacher as Facilitator - 1 views

  • Develop student learning opportunities. This takes into account the course documents, the teacher's personal theories of teaching and learning, the student’s interest, their preferred learning styles and their understanding and skills. It is in this area that the teacher as facilitator is able to provide opportunities for student learning that will take hold of the students' interests and thus motivate them to engage in the learning opportunity. Harrison (1998a & b) has presented the S.P.A.C.E. model for creating optimal learning conditions. The conditions for optimal learning include the following: Self-affimation – the learner’s view themselves as effective learners and the teachers provide them with feedback to that effect; Personal meaning – the learners are able to find personal meaning in the learning. That is, the learning is relevant to them; Active learning - the learners are active in the learning, whether that activity is physically doing something (as for concrete learners) or intellectually doing something (as for abstract reflective learners). Collaborative – the learners are able to collaborate with others in the learning process and not to view learning as an isolating experience; Empowering – the learners are able to shape the learning process, to have control over what is learnt and the direction of the learning.
  • The role of the teacher is diverse and has several orientations. One important aspect is that of facilitator of student learning. The facilitator attempts to provide circumstances that will enable students to engage with the learning opportunities and construct for themselves their understandings and skills. This role will interact with those of teacher as learner, colleague and community partner.
  • A student’s beliefs about the nature of teaching and learning will interact with a teacher’s beliefs. The teacher therefore needs to understand what students expect and are willing to do as well as what they themselves expect of the students.
    • Shoubang Jian
       
      I like this statement. I've never thought of the importance of a dialogue between student's and teacher's idea of teaching and learning.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      so, shoubang... how can an instructor understand what students expect? How will you understand what your students expect? What do you expect of your students and more importantly how will they know what you expect? What mechanisms have i used in this course to achieve both of these ends?
  • ...1 more annotation...
    • Joy Quah Yien-ling
       
      Anticipating and providing students with space to make mistakes is important. Skills and knowledge take some time to assimilate. Packing a course too tightly may deprive students of the chance to experiment and explore and to reposition, when necessary.
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    Learning and collaboration
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    One mechanism you use, I think, to achieve this is to have all discussion and activity forums be completely open to all in the class. Thus the optimal learning conditions are created by creating open pathways for each person to see ways to deepen their thinking and get more from the course material.
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    It is explicit in the expectations and get the most documents of the course what you expect from your students, and how they can succeed, that is important. But how the teacher know what the students expect I think it is more difficult, maybe asking them explicitly, and provide spaces for them to talk between them, to make comments and suggestions.
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
mikezelensky

Establishing a Competence Profile for the Role of Student-centred Teachers in Higher Ed... - 0 views

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    ABSTRACT: The increasing importance of constructivism in higher education has brought about a shift in pedagogy from a focus on the teacher to a focus on the student. This has important implications for teaching and assessment. A student-centred pedagogy implies a different role for the teacher...
Liz Keeney

The importance of interaction for academic success in online courses with hearing, deaf... - 0 views

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    The importance of interaction for academic success.
Celeste Sisson

EBSCOhost: Developing Self-Regulation Skills: The Important Role of Homework - 0 views

    • Celeste Sisson
       
      Although teachers set goals and expectations for  homework, students must independently complete homework by  practicing self-regulatory behaviors such as planning, inhibiting distractions, persisting at difficult assignments, organizing  the environment, overcoming unwanted emotions, and reflecting on what they have learned
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    Developing Self-Regulation Skills: The Important Role of Homework
Catherine Strattner

The Importance of First Impressions in an Online World | Straight North Internet Market... - 0 views

  • Cliché as it may be, first impressions do last in the cyber world. Since Internet users often choose online methods because of its efficiency, accessibility and reliability, it is greatly important to offer these things as soon as a visitor lands on your page. Chances are if your prospective audience/customer cannot find what he or she is looking for in your site in eight seconds, he or she will be off checking out your competitors.
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    Context is online marketing, but can be connected to online course design.
Amy M

17 ELEMENTS OF GOOD ONLINE COURSES - 1 views

  • Material presented on the web should be compatible with the course type. If chalkboard work, slides, and other visuals would be important in a classroom version of the course, web materials should include a lot of graphic images.
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    Material presented on the web should be compatible with the course type. If chalkboard work, slides, and other visuals would be important in a classroom version of the course, web materials should include a lot of graphic images.
alexandra m. pickett

How important is cultural diversity at your school? - 0 views

  • A 2007 study by Public Agenda and the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality found that 76% of new teachers say they were trained to teach an ethnically diverse student body but fewer than 4 in 10 say their training helps them deal with the challenges they face.
    • b malczyk
       
      Our course provides us wiith a place to learn to interact with a diverse group which is something we can then exemplify and share with our students.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      nicely stated.
  • Attending a school with a diverse student body can help prepare your child for citizenship in a multicultural democracy.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      nice use of a diigo sticky ben!
  • the U.S. minority population will become the majority
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    A brief article that describes the importance of diversity in schools and signs that diversity is appreciated at a school.
Irene Watts-Politza

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

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

Electronic Frontier Foundation | Defending your rights in the digital world - 0 views

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    Critically important organization for those of us leading/guiding students and colleagues in education in a digital world
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    important reality check - what is really happening in the digital world and how does it impact citizens, students, educators, communities
lkryder

CL-1: Field-tested Learning Assessment Guide (FLAG): Assessment Primer (1 of 5) - 0 views

  • There is considerable evidence showing that assessment drives student learning. More than anything else, our assessment tools tell students what we consider to be important. They will learn what we guide them to learn through our assessments.
    • lkryder
       
      If you begin a course design with this in mind, and fold your feedback loops in carefully, students will know what matters and what to work at for success
  • Assessment is more than grades To many, the word "assessment" simply means the process by which we assign students grades. Assessment is much more than this, however. Assessment is a mechanism for providing instructors with data for improving their teaching methods and for guiding and motivating students to be actively involved in their own learning. As such, assessment provides important feedback to both instructors and students. Assessment is Feedback for Both Instructors and Students Assessment gives us essential information about what our students are learning and about the extent to which we are meeting our teaching goals. But the true power of assessment comes in also using it to give feedback to our students. Improving the quality of learning in our courses involves not just determining to what extent students have mastered course content at the end of the course; improving the quality of learning also involves determining to what extent students are mastering content throughout the course.
  • Assessment Drives Student Learning The types of assessment usually performed in first-year science, math, engineering, and technology (STEM) courses--giving students tests--merely inform students about their grade, or ranking, after they have received instruction. In addition, these common testing techniques--which typically test for fact-based knowledge and algorithmic problem solving--tell our students that this is the type of knowledge we think is most important. That is, we appear to value the understanding of concepts at a relatively low level. Given that this is the type of assessment our students most frequently encounter, and that it will eventually lead to their final course grades, students learn to study the content in our courses in an expeditious way that allows them to succeed in passing many first-year STEM courses without necessarily developing deep understanding of concepts. It is our assessment that drives students learning.
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    The full primer for convenience
Melissa Pietricola

Concept Mapping As A Medium Of Shared Cognition In Computer Supported Collaborative Pro... - 1 views

  • the mode of sharing and the representation of knowledge as expressed by students are more important than the access to the distributed resources itself.
    • Melissa Pietricola
       
      Mode of sharing being of the utmost importance.
  • concept Shared cognition emphasises the mutual understanding of collaborators' perspectives and shared interpretations of the problem as an essential requirement of collaboration
  • very important that cooperating subjects acquire a common frame of reference to communicate their individual viewpoints
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • knowledge is arranged in networks with meaningful connections between nodes.
  • hared cognition is built upon the individual inputs in the collaborative process. Representing their cognitive structures and negotiating about the meaning of concepts, individuals reach a common vision on the problem.
  • Shared cognition at the same is the way a group contributes to "personal meaning" at the level of individual students
  • shared cognition is substantial for cognitive construction and reconstruction and that concept mapping is an effective tool for mediating computer-supported collaboration
  • orm in which knowledge is shared strongly influences the process of shaping, and shared cognition subsequently influences the effectiveness of collaborative learning
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