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Melissa Pietricola

Study hits 'grade inflation' in New York state testing of pupils | SILive.com - 0 views

  • middle-school students who passed their math and English Language Arts tests are likely to struggle on their high school Regents exams
  • tudents who scored a Level 3 on their state tests -- which is considered passing -- would likely earn a 65 on their Regents exams, but that a score of 80 was typically needed to earn college credit for a course, according to the News.
  • Steiner is also calling for longer tests with more rigorous questions.
    • Melissa Pietricola
       
      Does longer mean better? Does a longer test necessarily mean it will better assess the learning objective?
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  • Critics have long been saying the tests appeared to be getting easier, and have wondered whether the scoring was adjusted to make politicians look better.
    • Melissa Pietricola
       
      Do regents and middle level state tests give kids "false sense of hope" as she states? My kids could care less what the state says. They are worried about their daily grades.
  • "But by any measure -- including the highly respected NAEP exams, state tests, and graduation rates -- due to the bold reform agenda implemented by this administration, the significant progress made by New York City students has far outpaced that of students in the rest of New York state."
  •  
    NYS example of grade inflation; focusing on the middle level
alexandra m. pickett

lifelong learning... - 1 views

  • I feel like every discussion, article and assignment I have done in this course has really made me question why I do things the way I do.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      i am, of course, thrilled with this observation, aubrey. thanks for sharing it. If that was the only thing you got out of this cousre i would be very very happy. thanks for your willingness to consider the possibilities . : ) me
  • This was the most challenging course in my Master Degree career at UAlbany. I loved every minute of it. I think that pushing students to perform at higher levels helps them to break the plateu of what they think they are capable of. Usually they are capable of more than you think. It also helped my learning to use diigo and rate my posts. At first I thought it was painstaking and hard, especially when I spent an hour on constructing a post only to recieve a 2, but as I learned that it was more about teaching others, I began to perform better and was more motivated to teach something new and provide a cool resouce in diigo.
  • My feelings about this course are great! I would recommend anyone interested in online course development to take the course with Alex. She makes everyone in the course feel welcome and comfortable, which is the key to being successful and having students who are motivated to working with her
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  • Relationships and feelings are one of the underlying keys to success in a course. If you have a teacher you like, don’t you want to work harder to please them? I know I do…and I know that I don’t really feel like working for someone who berates my feelings and is insensitive.
Jarrod McEntarfer

Perceptions of Online Course Communications and Collaboration - 0 views

  • Physical proximity appears to enhance student retention and achievement by minimizing perceived psychological distance. For instance, research involving students who live on-campus during their first year in college has demonstrated higher levels of retention than for those students who live off-campus during the same period (St. John, Hu, Simmons, & Musoba, 2001). Additionally, Braxton, Johnson, and Shaw-Sullivan (1997) have suggested that higher degrees of social integration lead to corresponding levels of commitment to the institution. In other words, students with clear social involvement on-campus were found to persist at a higher rate than those who are socially isolated for one reason or another.
    • Jarrod McEntarfer
       
      The point being made here I believe is that the greater the detachment. This creates less retention of material
  •  
    Some research on how distance can affect retention
Jessica Backus-Foster

Tools for Teaching - Fast Feedback - 0 views

  • fast feedback
  • fast feedback
  • Informal sampling of students' comprehension
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  • informal requests for constructive criticism
  • how well students are learning the material
  • the effectiveness of your teaching strategies
  • focus on what can be changed during the semester--for example, the pace of the course, turnaround time on exams and assignments, or the level of difficulty of the material
  • three or four weeks after the semester begins
  • teaching a course for the first time or have significantly revised a course you have taught previously, you may want to canvass students as early as three or four weeks after the semester begins
  • Distribute blank index cards during the last five or ten minutes of class
  • Ask students to complete a brief informal questionnaire
  • four to six short-answer or multiple-choice questions
  • issues posed should be ones you can respond to during the term; otherwise your students may develop false expectations about the remainder of the course
  • Consider asking students to list the one or two specific behaviors or incidents that weighed most heavily in their ratings
  • Arrange for your students to be interviewed
  • Select a spokesperson who will also write down the groups' comments. Name something in the course that they find helpful or worthwhile or that has helped their learning. Name something that has hindered their learning and that they would like to see changed. Suggest how the course could be improved
  • groups of five or six
  • Respond quickly to students' comments
  • Consider carefully what students say
  • Let students know what, if anything, will change as a result of their feedback
  • Thank your students for their comments
  • Ask students to write a "minute paper."
  • "What question is uppermost in your mind at the end of today's class?"
  • Ask students to list key concepts or ideas
  • Ask students whether they are understanding you or not
  • avoid the generic "Any questions
  • refrain from posing general questions that might put students on the spot: "Who is lost?"
  • Have students briefly paraphrase a lecture or a reading assignment
  • Ask students to provide a closing summary
  • Encourage students to form study groups.
  • Have students turn in class notes as an assignment
  • Encourage graduate student instructors to give you comments about the course
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.
Diane Gusa

ETAP640student FIR reflections - 1 views

shared by Diane Gusa on 07 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Fook and +Askeland (2007) explore the benefits of critical reflections. They point out that reflection is an intentional practice of exploring underlying assumptions in thought processes, for the purpose of achieving growth.  They explain that this practice is useful for an individual to be able to understand their own thinking, and gain better insight into what drives their behaviors.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      link please!
  • Did You Know Video
  • Ian’s post about faculty ignoring technology forced me to reflect on my own biases.
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  • It has taken nearly 2 years for the administration on our campus to support the request of one of our faculty members to provide infrastructure and equipment to use Elluminate. Elluminate (http://www.elluminate.com) is a web based tool that provides opportunities for distance learners to stay in their location and participate in synchronous, real time lectures, seminars, or presentations with other members in a different location.
  • Furnborough and Truman (2009)
    • Diane Gusa
       
      Hi Francis, I too am guilty here, and this course has taught me the importance of redundancy. I beleive it will cut down on the many emails I get by students who "forget" what is expected.
  • June 20th, 2011
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      francia: there are 2 blog posts due for each module. for module 2 they were due between june 6-19th.
  • it is ideal to make the online environment as effective as possible to meet the learning objectives, and the learners needs.
    • Donna Angley
       
      Yes, very good point - and as I'm learning week after week, there are many technologies out there to help with meeting the objectives. What I've realized in the past 2 weeks or so is that I didn't have very clear objectives. Once I clarified those, I found it easier to begin to build my course and visualize the modules.
  • This includes the feedback I so diligently write on their assignments.
    • Donna Angley
       
      I am so guilty of this; Alex had left me feedback in several areas, and I didn't realize it. I wasn't checking back frequently enough. Live and learn.
  • I honestly don’t see how all of this technology has necessarily improved life for the poor, the hungry, and the uneducated
    • Donna Angley
       
      I agree that perhaps these populations aren't benefiting from the technology yet, but the potential is huge. Imagine being able to reach out to poorer communities via online learning. Urban schools have a really difficult time recruiting and retaining quality teachers. It's not unheard of for an uncertified teacher to teach in an urban school, because they are so desperate for teachers to man the classrooms. If some of the learning can happen online, or if they could offer blended classes, it could have real potential to raise graduation rates. Online learning is still fairly new in the grand scheme, but it is spreading like wildfire. More people will come on board, great minds will (have) come together for Best Practices, and the proof will be in the student outcomes.
    • Diane Gusa
       
      Hi Francia, Sorry for spelling your name wrong in last sticky note. What you are trying to achieve is a paradigm shift....it takes time, but it can happen Diane
Diane Gusa

RESEARCH IN ONLINE LEARNING COMMUNITY - 0 views

  • RESEARCH IN ONLINE LEARNING COMMUNITY
  • High Social PresenceLearning in an online learning community occurs as an active social process that is defined as: "the level of social presence depends upon social context, online communication, and interactivity (Tu & McIsaac, 2002)." Online social presence (Hiltz, 1998) is required to ensure the online interaction necessary to sustain community activity. Social presence is a critical factor that affects the online learning community. Gunawardena and Zittle (1997) found that social presence is the predictive of the satisfaction of online learners with their learning. Social presence, online learners' social relationships, tasks being engaged in (Tu & Corry, 2002b), communication styles and personal characteristics have impacts on online learning (Tu & McIsaac, 2001). Therefore, researchers concluded that to foster an ideal online learning community, one should increase and idealize the level of social presence
  • Computer-mediated communication democratizes the online learning environment (DiMatteo, 1990; Rheingold, 1993; Sproull & Kiesler, 1991a
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  • ..for anyone to become an information provider for others, thereby both democratizing information access and enabling new roles for network users. In the most successful online courses, students assume some of the roles that traditionally belong to the instructor" (p. 208).
  • Because of the blurred roles of students and teachers, more weight is placed on the learning process/experience than upon roles. In other words, both students and teachers, as learners, share their responsibilities in online learning. Morrison (1995) argued that the learning process is unbounded by time (when one learns), space (where one learns), mode (how one learns), pace (the rate at which one learns), level (the depth of learning) and role (with whom one learns). Therefore, it is not merely learner-centered; in fact, an online learning community is a learner-driven process. While the learning is in transition from teacher-centered to learner-driven, the focus which had emphasized the needs of organization, government, and institutional is moving to a focus on community-centered needs. This shift has made lifelong learning more important.
  • Effective learning occurs in active approaches that present learning as a social process that takes place through communication with others (Hiltz, 1998; Mead, 1934)
  • Social interaction is a key component in social learning according to Vygotsky's theory.
  • "The level of social presence depends upon social context, online communication, and interactivity. When the level of social presence is high, there is a potential that online learners will engage more interactively in online activities (Tu & McIsaac, 2002).
  • In a knowledge construction community, one should have the opportunity to make contributions that will enhance the total learning value of the community. L
  • Chih-Hsiung Tu
  •  
    conference paper
Diane Gusa

Rubrics - 1 views

  • A rubric is an authentic assessment tool used to measure students' work. It is a scoring guide that seeks to evaluate a student's performance based on the sum of a full range of criteria rather than a single numerical score.
  • It is a formative type of assessment because it becomes an ongoing part of the whole teaching and learning process.
  • use a range to rate performance.
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  • focus on measuring a stated objective
  • contain specific performance characteristics arranged in levels indicating the degree to which a standard has been met (Pickett and Dodge).
  • improve students' end products
  • provide the scaffolding necessary to improve the quality of their work and increase their knowledge.
  • help students become better judges of the quality of their own work.
  • allow assessment to be more objective and consistent.
  • force the teacher to clarify his/her criteria in specific terms.
  • provide students with more informative feedback about their strengths and areas in need of improvement.
Diane Gusa

Humor, Analogy, and Metaphor: H.A.M. it up in Teaching - 0 views

    • Diane Gusa
       
      Very strong statement!
    • Diane Gusa
       
      I am a metaphoric person...when I want to remember or learn deeply a metaphor helps me.
  • Garner (in press) found that participants who were exposed to a series of lectures containing course-specific humor demonstrated increased retention of the course-content information as compared to those who received the same material without the infusion of humor.
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  • Better comprehension,
  • increased retention of material,
  • more comfortable learning environment
  • effective use of these strategies.
  • Humor has been defined as “the mental faculty of discovering, expressing or appreciating something that is comical, amusing, or absurdly incongruous” (Merriam-Webster, 2001, p.564)
  • The use of humor as a pedagogical tool has been shown to reduce classroom anxiety, create a more positive atmosphere, as well as facilitate the learning process (Berk, 1996, 1998; Garner, 2003, in press; Glenn, 2002; Hill, 1988; Pollio & Humphreys, 1996).
  • The proper use of humor, analogy, and metaphor appropriate to the topic can provide benefits in the college classroom.
  • According to Glenn (2002), humor may physiologically help to connect left-brain activities with the right-brained creative side
  • teaching philosophies of highly-rated teachers finds the use of humor as an important component of their teaching strategies. Humor can increase (Civikly, 1986) and sustain (Dodge & Rossett, 1982) student interest in learning and provides a means to engage in divergent thinking. Instructors’ use of effective humor in the classroom can foster mutual respect (Kher, Molstad, & Donahue, 1999), provide commonalities and connections between the instructor and students (Pollio & Humphreys, 1996) and even increase class attendance (Devadoss & Foltz, 1996; Romer, 1993; White, 1992). According to Bergen (1992), “teachers who use strategies that promote the connection between humor and learning usually provide students with their best school experiences” (p.106).
  • Metaphor and analogy have historically been used as an effective teaching tool. Greek myths, religious texts, and fairytales all use metaphor, analogy, and parables to teach and help us learn expected conduct (Gorden, 1978). The use of metaphor and analogy is pervasive in society in both language and communication
  • According to the National Research Council (2000) the effective use of metaphors and analogies is an important educational strategy.
  • . In teaching, using either analogy or metaphor allows the instructor to relate a potentially unfamiliar idea with that which is familiar.
  • Pedagogical use of analogy and metaphor can enhance learning and retention, but they must have a high degree of resonance for the listene
  • be most effective, an analogy or metaphor must transfer ideas from a familiar concept to one that is less familiar or unknown. According to Bowers (1993) the metaphorical relationship must be clear and accurate—possessing face validity.
  • Williams (1986) suggests that vivid metaphors have the capability to teach in a way that is not always available with the use of words alone.
  •  
    I am comfortable using metaphors, but will need to work on the humor aspect. New goal for the Fall semester.
Diane Gusa

Making Assessment Personally Relevant | blog of proximal development - 0 views

  • I want my students to realize that learning is not about making your work conform to some standard imposed by the teacher. Learning is about creating your own standards and adjusting them based on your goals. Learning is about setting your own goals and monitoring your own progress. It is about having conversations with yourself and others.
  • needed to help them visualize their progress, their level of engagement, and their sense of ownership and not simply ask them to rate their own work using the traditional percentage or letter scale. Most importantly, I wanted them to see that an entry that contains lots of facts and links to many valuable resources is not necessarily as valuable as one that shows personal engagement with ideas, one where the readers can hear a unique, personal voice.
  • student self-assessment and personal progress charts is a work in progress.
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  • They understand that collecting information and putting it on their blog is not a challenging task. They understand that an entry that paraphrases information found online is not as interesting and valuable as one that shows the author in the process of analyzing and reflecting on his or her research. Finally, they can see and understand how much effort is needed to produce an entry that makes a personal statement, that constitutes a valuable and unique contribution to the studied field. In other words, they now understand that in order to produce something uniquely their own, they first need to have a solid grasp of all the facts and spend some time reflecting on them and their own thoughts about their research.
  • Making Assessment Personally Relevant
Kristen Della

University of Phoenix How It Works - Online and On Campus - 0 views

  •  
    Our military community is a large and important part of our student population. So, whether you're active duty, a veteran, a member of the Reserve or National Guard or a military spouse, you're eligible for special tuition rates. Our course schedules are extremely flexible, so you can balance school with work, family and the unpredictable nature of military life.
efleonhardt

Examining motivation in online distance learning environments: Complex, multifaceted an... - 0 views

  • Poor motivation has been identified as a decisive factor in contributing to the high dropout rates from online courses
  • suggest that online students are more intrinsically motivated across the board than their on-campus counterparts at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.
  • Self-determination theory is a contemporary theory of situated motivation that is built on the fundamental premise of learner autonomy
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  • all humans have an intrinsic need to be self-determining or autonomous
  • as well as to feel competent
  • connected
  • SDT explains extrinsic motivation processes in terms of external regulation as the reasons for undertaking the task lie outside the individual.
  • a perception that what they do will not affect the outcome
  • an attribution of low value to the task being undertaken
  • the tendency to focus only on intrinsic motivation
  • It measures situational intrinsic motivation, extrinsic forms of motivation (external regulation and identified regulation), and amotivation
  • Case study one was situated within a compulsory integrated science and technology course
  • Case study two was positioned within an introductory social studies curriculum course that formed a compulsory component of the same programme.
  • suggests that higher quality, more self-determined types of motivation were only slightly more evident than the traditional type of extrinsic motivation–external regulation (Ryan & Deci, 2000) and amotivatio
  • suggesting that autonomous types of motivation (i.e., identified regulation and intrinsic motivation) were more prevalent.
  • associated with individuals who engage in an activity because the results may have personal value to them or because the activity is regarded as worthwhile.
  • these findings clearly show that motivation can be a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that cannot be fully explained from the perspective of motivation as either a learner characteristic or an effect of learning environment design.
  • practitioners need to be cognisant of the important role they play in influencing learner motivation when designing learning activities.
  • he relevance and value of the task
  • need to be clearly identified and linked to learning objectives to help
  • By offering meaningful choices (i.e., not just option choices) to learners that allow them to pursue topics that are of interest to them, the perceived value of the activity is further enhanced.
  • ongoing communication with learners, where they feel able to discuss issues in an open and honest manner, practitioners are in a better position to accurately monitor and respond to situational factors that could potentially undermine learner motivation.
Sue Rappazzo

30 THINGS WE KNOW FOR SURE ABOUT ADULT LEARNING - 2 views

  • Information that conflicts sharply with what is already held to be true, and thus forces a re-evaluation of the old material, is integrated more slowly.
  • Adults prefer self-directed and self-designed learning projects over group-learning experience
  • Self-direction does not mean isolation. Studies of self-directed learning indicate that self-directed projects involve an average of 10 other people as resources, guides, encouragers and the like. But even for the self-professed, self-directed learner, lectures and short seminars get positive ratings, especially when these events give the learner face-to-face, one-to-one access to an expert.
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  • The learning environment must be physically and psychologically comfortable
  • Adults have something real to lose in a classroom situation. Self-esteem and ego a
  • Adults have expectations, a
  • Adults bring a great deal of life experienc
  • Instructors who have a tendency to hold forth rather than facilitate can hold that tendency in check--or compensate for it--by concentrating on the use of open-ended questions to draw out relevant student knowledge and experience.
  • New knowledge has to be integrated with previous knowledge; students must actively participate in the learning experience.
  • The key to the instructor role is control. The instructor must balance the presentation of new material, debate and discussion, sharing of relevant student experiences, and the clock.
  • The instructor has to protect minority opinion, keep disagreements civil and unheated, make connections between various opinions and ideas, and keep reminding the group of the variety of potential solutions to the problem. The instructor is less advocate than orchestrator.
  • Integration of new knowledge and skill requires transition time and focused effort on application. Learning and teaching theories function better as resources than as a Rosetta stone. A skill-training task can draw much from the behavioral approach, for example, while personal growth-centered subjects seem to draw gainfully from humanistic concepts. An eclectic, rather than a single theory-based approach to developing strategies and procedures, is recommended for matching instruction to learning tasks.
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