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Luke Fellows

Boudreault - The Benefits of Using Drama in the ESL/EFL Classroom - 0 views

    • Luke Fellows
       
      Student centered learning
  • Drama puts the teacher in the role of supporter in the learning process and the students can take more responsibility for their own learning.  Ideally, the teacher will take a less dominant role in the language class and let the students explore the language activities.  In the student centered classroom, every student is a potential teacher for the group.
    • Luke Fellows
       
      Student centred learning
  • Students are encouraged to express their own ideas and contribute to the whole
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  • 'Improvisation, then, is an organic experience where skills are constantly being refined.  In particular, students develop an increasing facility to meet changing or unknown stimuli with immediate responses.  Ideally, improvisation leads to a blending; the students create the personality traits as he/she simultaneously identifies with the character as it evolves
  • we sometimes do not spend enough time on encouraging our students to use their imagination
  • It is with imagination that the ordinary is transformed into something significant.
alexandra m. pickett

The Digital Citizen - My Sojourn in the World of Web 2.0 by Irene Watts-Politza - 3 views

  • “You are interacting with one single individual at all times.  There is no ‘class’ …”
    • Lisa Martin
       
      Thinking about this really helped me redesign my course profile :-)
  • “Design a course with the student perspective, one who has never taken an online course before” (Pickett, What Works?).
    • Lisa Martin
       
      Great advice! I have a hard time sometimes with this, because there's part of me that also wants to design it for someone who not only hasn't taken an online course, but perhaps isn't very tech savvy :-)
  • I must find a balance, however, in order to complete the necessary tasks well so I can savor the doing of those that have salience.
    • Lisa Martin
       
      I need to find balance myself. I think the only reason the way I'm doing things right now is ok is because I live alone. I will eventually have a family, and I want to be an online instructor...I will certainly need to figure this out!
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  • I realized that the online environment is actually a type of classroom; is that why course language includes such terms as “area”, and “room”?
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      e u r e k a ! ! !
  • The resulting ah ha moments became the core of my entry …
  • One activity that I am especially excited to observe is the students tweeting from their placements when they make a course- to- practice connection.
    • Lisa Martin
       
      great idea!
    • Maria Guadron
       
      AWESOME idea! Love it.
  • How am I simultaneously learning how to be an online student and instructor?
    • Lisa Martin
       
      Great way to think about it
  • Something that has been proven to work is frequent, immediate instructor feedback.
    • Lisa Martin
       
      This is a HUGE difference I notice between Alex and other instructors. She has definitely built her social presence with me this way. Her podcast on my learning activities was an eye opener for me. It made me feel so good that she had ACTUALLY looked at my work! I have often wondered if other teachers REALLY did that.
  • Aug 04 2012
  • Reflecting on the online course design process, I realize I have made a tremendous transition from first-time student to instructor in the space of one semester. What I have learned about myself is that I have an affinity for designing in the online environment. 
  • I am technology-proficient.
  • While I am not yet a full technophile, I am surely no longer a technophobe!
  •   I so deeply enjoyed the reading and studying portion of this course … it opened a new world of theory to me, made more exciting by the historic proximity of the leading researchers in the field. 
  • I kept telling myself, “You need the experience if you want to be an instructional designer!”
  • So, reflection has proven its worth yet again:  reflecting on my work in designing EED406 thus far is proof that research-based best practice works.
  • discussion is the heart of online learning. 
  • students’ learning is demonstrated through the vehicle of discussion.  
  • blog posts are personalized records of learning, thinking, and being. 
  • It is not about what the instructor wants to hear, it is about hearing the student’s articulation of what is being learned that is essential to evaluating the content of a blog post.
  • Through trying to be “fearless” about using technology, as Alex advises, I have come to learn that confidence is something that one must exercise in all spheres of the online environment.
  • we can not help but to teach when we learn and to learn when we teach.
  • “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” This is certainly true of discussion forum.  We learn with and for each other: as  you learn, I learn. 
  • (Think Twitter, Irene!) 
  • It causes me to reflect on the similarities between online and physical communities, something I had not thought of before.  Could it be that we really are, slowly and steadily, growing into a genuine community?
  • I am a student whose understanding of connectivism and heutagogy is being developed experientially through taking this course.
  • Teaching presence also involves anticipating students’ needs based on monitoring progress and being ready to find that perfect something to support the student’s learning.
  • I have spent my academic life I believing that I have to ‘go it alone’, since I walked home from school alone the first day of first grade.  Strangely, this course, in which I spend so much time alone, is teaching me that I don’t. 
  • complaints, above, I think about the layout of the course; if it’s too many clicks away or the explanations aren’t clear, students become anxious, lose interest, and possibly
  • I just finished what may be my last discussion post for ETAP640. As I went through the post process, I was cognizant of each step: read your classmates’ posts; respond to something that resonates within you; teach (us) something by locating and sharing resources that support your thinking;  include the thinking and experiences of classmates; offer your opinion on what you are sharing; cite your resources for the benefit of all; tag your resources logically.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      hi irene!
  •  
    Student Reflections @wattspoi on "Heutagogy & its Implications for Evaluative Feedback" http://t.co/xiuWsCsD #lrnchat #edchat
Tina Bianchi

Asia Society - 0 views

shared by Tina Bianchi on 30 May 12 - Cached
  •  
    Asia Society is the leading educational organization dedicated to promoting mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships among peoples, leaders and institutions of Asia and the United States in a global context. Across the fields of arts, business, culture, education, and policy, the Society provides insight, generates ideas, and promotes collaboration to address present challenges and create a shared future.
Lisa Martin

evaluating online learning - 0 views

  •  
    article from the u.s. department of education on evaluation the quality of online learning
Irene Watts-Politza

E Pedagogy - 2 views

  •   E-Pedagogy: Does e-learning require a new pedagogy?  5 The emergence of e-learning  As part of the technological revolution, the use of e-learning, or blended learning, isincreasing. This is particularly true of Higher Education, which offers most programmespartly or wholly online. In the future, e-learning is likely to be more widely used in thetertiary and school sectors. Another driver for e-learning is life-long learning, whichrequires on-going training and re-training of the adult workforce.In many cases, e-learning is delivered through a virtual learning environment (VLE),which is a custom built environment designed for online learning. VLEs, such as  Blackboard and Moodle , typically provide all of the software tools required for onlinelearning such as communication and file sharing facilities. These environments are oftenmodelled around the traditional campus, providing ‘virtual staff rooms’ and ‘onlinecommon rooms’. E-portfolios provide the digital equivalent to the traditional paperportfolio; these typically provide online storage for a range of media types (such asdrawings, photos and videos). Dedicated e-assessment systems, such as Questionmark ,facilitate large-scale online testing, providing many of the question types that arefamiliar to teachers.Some academics have pointed out the potential of e-learning to improve current practice.Garrison and Anderson (2003) write:“E-learning has significantpotential to alter the nature of theteaching and learning transaction.In fact, it has caused us to face upto some of the current deficienciesof higher education, such as largelecturers, while providing somepossible solutions or ways tomitigate these shortcomings. Seenas part of pedagogical solution, e-learning becomes an opportunity toexamine and live up to the ideals of the educational transactiondescribed previously.” New learning opportunities The changing environment facilitates new kinds of learning. Teachers have traditionallyfocussed on content; indeed, many consider the identification and delivery of learningmaterial to be their prime role. But it has been argued that the traditional skill of contentcreation is redundant in the information-rich learning environment. Some of this contentis very high quality, even world class, and certainly superior to a hurriedly producedhandout of the type often used by busy teachers.It has been suggested that the contemporary teacher should be more “guide on the side”than “sage on the stage”. The ready availability of information makes  facilitation moreimportant than direction . The pedagogic issue is not too little information but too much:the contempora
  • changing learning landscape poses fundamental epistemological questions about thenature of knowledge and how it is acquired. Dede (2008) writes: “In the Classicalperspective, knowledge consists of accurate interrelationships among facts, based onunbiased research that produces compelling evidence about systematic causes […]Epistemologically, a single right answer is believed to underlie each phenomenon […]The epistemology that leads to validity of knowledge in Web 2.0 media such as Wikipedia  is peer review from people seen, by the community of contributors, as having unbiasedperspectives. Expertise involves understanding disputes in detail and proposingsyntheses that are widely accepted by the community
  • hatever new theory of learning emerges in thenext decade, it will likelybuild upon thesepedagogie
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  • George Siemens introduced this theory in his paper Connectivism: Learning as networkcreation (2004) to address “the shortcomings of behaviourist, cognivitist andconstructivist ideologies”.Connectivism conceptualises knowledge and learning as a network, consisting of nodesand connections. Knowledge, at any point in time, is a particular (probably temporary)configuration of nodes and connections (a sub-network). Learning creates newconnections between existing nodes (changes to existing knowledge) and/or creates newnodes (entirely new knowledge). Learning, therefore, is about network (node andconnection) creation.His theory differentiates between data, information, knowledge and meaning: •   Data : raw elements •   Information : data with intelligence applied •   Knowledge : information in context and internalised •   Meaning : comprehension of the nuances, value and implications of knowledge.“Learning is the process that occurs when knowledge is transformed into something of meaning.”Connectivism embraces eight principles:1.   Learning and knowledge rest in diversity of opinion.2.   Learning is a process of connecting specialised nodes or information sources.3.   Learning may reside in non-human applicances.4.   Capacity to know is more important that what is currently known.5.   Maintaining connections is needed for continual learning. (function() { var pageParams = {"origHeight": 1276, "origWidth": 902, "fonts": [3, 1, 2, 4, 0], "pageNum": 9}; pageParams.containerElem = document.getElementById("outer_page_9"); pageParams.contentUrl = "http://html2.scribdassets.com/4o2mjijnuo850n3/pages/9-7fefce237b.jsonp"; var page = docManager.addPage(pageParams); })(); Scribd.Ads.addBetweenPageUnit(9);   E-Pedagogy: Does e-learning require a new pedagogy? left: 3830px; top: 276px; color
  • Rote learning of factual information, which typifies behaviourism, isvalueless when students are one click away from Google and Wikipedia. The “teacher-knows-best” idiom of cognivitism is questionable in a time of “the wisdom of the crowd”.The constructivist approach (and, particularly, social constructivism) appears to be abetter fit for 21st century learning – but needs to be updated to embrace the modernlearning environment that includes virtual worlds such as Second Life. ‘Connectivism’,‘E-moderating’, ‘E-Learning 2.0’ and ‘Assessment 2.0’ may not provide the answer – butdo highlight the problems with the status quo and emphasise the need for a newapproach to teaching, learning and assessment
  •  
    "Does e-learning require a new approach to teaching and learning?" This is an interesting paper about pedagogical approaches to e-learning and e-teaching. Do you believe we need a new approach for online learning? What is your pedagogical approach to e-learning and e-teaching?
  •  
    What is your pedagogical approach to e-learning and e-teaching?
b malczyk

Paulo Freire and informal education - 0 views

  • emphasis on dialogue
  • informal education is a dialogical (or conversational) rather than a curricula
  • should not involve one person acting on another, but rather people working with each other. Too much education, Paulo Freire argues, involves 'banking' - the educator making 'deposits' in the educatee.
    • b malczyk
       
      This is in line with our module reading that describes knowledge as being joint constrcuted rather than a top down approach where an expert or textbook guide the instruction.
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  • action that is informed (and linked to certain values).
  • enhancing community and building social capital and to leading us to act in ways that make for justice and human flourishing.
    • b malczyk
       
      This is comprable to Brown and Adler's learning to be rather than simlpy learning to know
  • great significance to those educators who have traditionally worked with those who do not have a voice, and who are oppressed.
  • developing consciousness, but consciousness that is understood to have the power to transform reality'
  •  
    Description of Paulo Freire and his work. He was an influential educator and sought to use education as a means of helping individuals develop a critical consciousness about their life situations. His work was geared towards groups who were oppressed and lacked opportunities.His most famous work was a book titled "Pedagogy of the Oppressed."
Amy M

Technology for Online Standardized Testing vs. Technology for Teaching, Learning, and C... - 0 views

  • And for the network folks, it's geek fun time to see if the wireless network has enough bandwidth for all those multiple choice "A, B, C, or D" answers zipping through the air
  • Fun times.
  • one year from now?
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • two or three years?
  • four to five years?
  • trends
  • challenges
  •  
    using tech for multiple choice tests
Lisa Martin

Benefits of Digital Storytelling - 0 views

  • Digital storytelling enhances not only the students literacy development but also their social-emotional development.
    • Lisa Martin
       
      The more I saw about digital storytelling, the more I realized it's potential for building self esteem. There is no "wrong" answer here. Everyone can be successful.
    • Lisa Martin
       
      As I looked at countless resources for self esteem building activities, I realized that I was lacking a truly collaborative activity in my course. I thought that digital story telling would be a fun, stress-free way for the girls to work together and connect with each other.
  • is that with digital storytelling students may use a real and authentic voice. This is of course very empowering in terms of motivation.
    • Lisa Martin
       
      I love the idea of the girls being able to use their "voice" as soon as possible in my course. I want to use this activity in the first module as another "icebreaking" activity on top of my voicethread.
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  • but their ability to tell their own story, students with learning difficulties tend to do well with digital storytelling projects.
    • Lisa Martin
       
      I also like that digital storytelling allows for girls of all ability levels to participate. I could really make it a fun activity with the emphasis on the story itself, not their writing abilities.
  • another benefit of digital storytelling, is that students, when given the choice, most often will choose to talk about something they are passionate about; thus creating engagement for the creator of the digital story
    • Lisa Martin
       
      I love that this activity will give students freedom and choice to add anything they want. We all know that giving students choice leads to them being for satisfied :-)
  •  
    As I looked at countless resources for self esteem building activities, I realized that I was lacking a truly collaborative activity in my course. I thought that digital story telling would be a fun, stress-free way for the girls to work together and connect with each other.
Irene Watts-Politza

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

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

ScienceDirect.com - Computers & Education - Learning presence: Towards a theory of self... - 1 views

  • This line of research indicated that the multivariate measure of learning represented by the cognitive presence factor could be predicted by the quality of teaching presence and social presence reported by learners in online courses. The relationship between these constructs is illustrated in Fig. 1 below.
  • Given the electronic, social, and “self-directed” nature of online learning, it seems imperative that we examine learner self- and co-regulation in online environments especially as they relate to desired outcomes such as higher levels of cognitive presence as described in the CoI framework.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Is this an aspect of assessment that is adequately addressed?
  • We suggest that this constellation of behaviors and traits may be seen as elements of a larger construct “learning presence” (Shea, 2010).
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  • self-efficacy can be viewed as a subjective judgment of one’s level of competence in executing certain behaviors or achieving certain outcomes in the future. Self-efficacy has been identified as the best predictor of college GPA and among the best predictors of college persistence through meta-analytic research (Robbins et al., 2004). Further, commenting on the state of the art in self-regulated learning research Winne suggested that self-regulation is contingent on positive self-efficacy beliefs, arguing that “learners must subscribe to a system of epistemological and motivational beliefs that classifies failure as an occasion to be informed, a condition that is controllable, and a stimulus to spend effort to achieve better” (Winne, 2005). This contrast of failure attribution as trait (e.g., “I’m just not good at math”) versus failure as occasion to be informed (“I can control, adapt, and learn from this”) is a classic view of maladaptive and adaptive self-efficacy beliefs.
  • In the current study we therefore examine the relationship between CoI constructs and elements of self efficacy in order to begin to investigate the larger theme of collaborative online learner regulation and learning presence.
  • Thus, self-efficacy is “concerned not with what one has but with belief in what one can do with whatever resources one can muster” (Bandura, 2007, p. 6).
  • Bandura has noted that slightly elevated efficacy can have a bigger impact on subsequent performance. Overestimating one’s capabilities to produce a behavior and outcome may boost performance and give rise to motivation to persist in face of obstacles and seatback, while the opposite is true for underestimating one’s capabilities, which may suppress productive goals, persistence and effort (Bandura, 2007). Thus there is an important connection between self-efficacy, effort, and subsequent performance.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      This has implications for course attrition rates.
  • Positive psychological and emotional states in the aftermath of successful execution of certain academic behaviors naturally lead to sense of competence and subsequently results in enhanced sense of efficacy.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      This is the "feeling of satsfaction" Lisa Martin referred to in her Module 3 posts on social presence.
  • We suggest here that elements within the CoI framework may serve as mechanisms for supporting self-efficacy. Specifically we conjecture that effective teaching presence and positive social presence should serve as sources of social persuasion and positive affect supportive of self-efficacy.
  • (Bandura, 1997). These and other studies have suggested that self-efficacy has a substantial role in predicting student engagement, motivation and performance ( [Bong, 2004], [Caraway et al., 2003], [Chemers et al., 2001], [Choi, 2005], [Smith et al., 2001] and [Vrugt et al., 2002]).
  • The participants in the study were a random sample of 3165 students from 42 two- and four-year institutions in New York State.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      SLN? See how many things you can learn with one really great data set?
  • Gaining knowledge about the reasons for learning and achievement of online students has attracted a great deal of attention among both researchers and practitioners. Understanding the factors that have an influence on the success of online education has significant implications for designing productive online communities.
  • Reviewing studies that investigated elements of online learner self-regulation
  • This ongoing project to document all instances of teaching, social, and cognitive presence in complete online courses also resulted in identification of learner discourse that did not fit within the model, i.e. could not be reliably coded as indicators of teaching, social, or cognitive presence ( [Shea, 2010] and [Shea et al., 2010]).
  • Additional work on the CoI model (Shea, Vickers, & Hayes, 2010) suggested that past research methods may have resulted in a systematic under representation of the instructional effort involved in online education.
  • These exceptions represent interesting data for refining and enhancing the model as they suggest that learners are attempting to accomplish goals that are not accounted for within the CoI framework.
  • In this paper we examine the Community of Inquiry framework (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) suggesting that the model may be enhanced through a fuller articulation of the roles of online learners. We present the results of a study of 3165 students in online and hybrid courses from 42 two- and four-year institutions in which we examine the relationship between learner self-efficacy measures and their ratings of the quality of their learning in virtual environments. We conclude that a positive relationship exists between elements of the CoI framework and between elements of a nascent theoretical construct that we label “learning presence”. We suggest that learning presence represents elements such as self-efficacy as well as other cognitive, behavioral, and motivational constructs supportive of online learner self-regulation.
  • the CoI framework attempts to articulate the social, technological, and pedagogical processes that engender collaborative knowledge construction. It therefore represents an effort to resolve the greatest challenge to the quality of online education
  • Learner discussions also included efforts to divide up tasks, manage time, and set goals in order to successfully complete group projects. As such they appeared to be indicators of online learner self and co-regulation, which can be viewed as the degree to which students in collaborative online educational environments are metacognitively, motivationally, and behaviorally active participants in the learning process (Winters & Azevedo, 2005).
  • the authors concluded that all the studies converged on advantageous outcomes for providing support for “metacognitive” learning strategies including self-reflection, self-explanation, and self-monitoring.
  • successfully orchestrating a dialogue demands fairly sophisticated skills. Conversational contributions need to be simultaneously parsed according to their disciplinary value, their location within the chain of collective argumentation, their relevance to the instructional goals, and their role as indicators of the student’s ongoing understanding. The outcome of this complex appraisal is a sense of the amount and quality of the guidance that specific contributions and the conversation as a whole require to support learning.” (Larreamendy-Joerns & Leinhardt, p. 591)
  • Zhao et al. also concluded that studies in which instructor interaction with students was medium to high resulted in better learning outcomes for online students relative to classroom learners.
  •  
    This article also addresses the relationships between each of the presences and proposes an additional presence- Learner Presence.
Danielle Melia

Enterprise IP Video Solutions | Streaming Live Video - 0 views

  •  
    IP Video Solutions, Streaming Live Video VBrick.com. Enterprise IP Video solutions. Record, distribute streaming video. Industry leading IP Video solutions.
Irene Watts-Politza

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

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

Virtual and Artificial, but 58,000 Want Course - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • Stanford University on artificial intelligence, to be taught this fall by two leading experts from Silicon Valley, has attracted more than 58,000 students around the globe — a class nearly four times the size of Stanford’s entire student body.
  • For example, the Khan Academy, which focuses on high school and middle school, intentionally turns the relationship of the classroom and homework upside down. Students watch lectures at home, then work on problem sets in class, where the teacher can assist them one on one.
  • Dr. Widom said that having Stanford courses freely available could both assist and compete with other colleges and universities.
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    An article about MOOCs and AI open courses, including Standford's.
Irene Watts-Politza

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

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

Reflections - 0 views

  • “This is not going to be easy and it is going to take a lot of time and energy, but I want to do this and I know I can!”
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      yes, i am so glad, i know you can too!
    • Catherine Strattner
       
      Thank you!
  • What I do believe is that it will be increasingly important to maintain our own learning. 
  • I am truly surprised to see how many students from other states and countries are part of SLN. 
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      if you look at the numbers it is really only about 2% that come from outside NYS.
    • Catherine Strattner
       
      I did recognize that the portion of students wasn't that large, but I am still surprised that it is even 2%. I think I could have communicated myself better by noting the number of countries and states outside of New York which were represented.
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  • I would expect that most students would be located in New York
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      yes. 98% come from NYS.
  • Especially with younger students, this feeling of uncertainty can lead them to completely shut down.  If students trust in their guide, the teacher, they are much more likely to persevere through the uncertainty and attain resolution.
  • I realize that online teaching includes continuous reflection, assessment, and development of yourself as an online instructor and of the course itself.
  • K-12 online instruction does exist. 
  • Ultimately, I have learned that being learner-centered involves much more than making students do most of the work.  It involves understanding the needs of each of your individual students, both academically and personally.  It involves striving to meet those needs on an individual basis, while promoting self-directed learning.  It involves being empathetic and addressing the specific limitations each student may have and striving to break through those limitations together.  In my mind, that is what true interaction is all about, and it is one of the best ways to engage students in learning more deeply.
    • diane hamilton
       
      Catherine, I love the metaphor! Nothing to add - you said it well. Diane
    • Catherine Strattner
       
      Thanks!
  • What I am realizing is that there really is a significant difference between creating an online course from scratch and converting a face to face course.
  • I want my students to understand that these activities have a true purpose.  I want to remind them of that purpose each time they engage in these activities. 
  • I kept finding myself asking “How can this contribute to higher levels of cognitive presence?  Isn’t that ultimately the point of developing teaching and social presence?” 
alexandra m. pickett

More Interaction In Online Courses Isn't Always Better - Forbes - 1 views

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    "Cognitive theory suggests more interaction in learning environments leads to improved learning outcomes and increased student satisfaction… Using a sample of 359 lower-level online, undergraduate business courses, we investigated course enrollments, student and faculty time spent in interaction, and course completion rates… Our key findings indicate that increased levels of interaction, as measured by time spent, actually decrease course completion rates. This result is counter to prevailing curriculum design theory and suggests increased interaction may actually diminish desired program reputation and growth."
Amy M

Colleges Search for Their Place in the Booming Mobile Web - Technology - The Chronicle ... - 0 views

shared by Amy M on 20 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Most colleges do not have the resources to build their own mobile applications from scratch. The environment is changing quickly, and developing new products for each new major device—iPhones, BlackBerrys, Android phones, iPads—can be prohibitively expensive.
  • One key to these projects is recognizing the mobility of mobile devices, and not treating them as if they were small desktop computers. Among colleges, even the leading mobile applications and Web sites still function like add-ons; students and others can get much the same information on a personal computer, although perhaps not as quickly.
  • Creating a cohesive mobile platform does not mean that colleges should try to move everything from their Web sites to a smaller screen. It can be impossible to know in advance what people want to do on a smartphone, and what they would prefer to leave to a full-size computer.
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    Most colleges do not have the resources to build their own mobile applications from scratch. The environment is changing quickly, and developing new products for each new major device-iPhones, BlackBerrys, Android phones, iPads-can be prohibitively expensive.
Maria Guadron

Voicethread 4 Education - College - 0 views

  • I am using voicethreads in a college course as part of an icebreaking activity to have the members of the course introduce themselves. the audio and video features of voicethread will add to the sense of class community in the course.
  • as a tool to assist me in extending communications and professional development conversations with a community of 40+ instructional designers that I lead.
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    VoiceThread for Education. This is the section of the wiki on VoiceThread uses in college.
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