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ann stephens

EDUC 251 2/15 Checkin - 20 views

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started by ann stephens on 16 Feb 11
  • ann stephens
    #1 ann stephens on 16 Feb 11
     
    Thought I would post my thoughts to Jennifer's mid-week email so others could comment as well. There was alot of explore.

    1. Student participation. Jennifer's question was how to keep up the momentum for all students when the student pariticipation varies. To me, this goes to the initial course design. As a teacher, I have to decide how much of the course I want to be contributed to peers. This class, for example, lends itself to shared experience. Expectations need to be set for student participation and, to me, a priority for that participation. eTools allow for peer collaboration that can be overwhelming and derailing to the focus, as well as expanding and helpful. We can blog, email, post, etc., in addition to the traditional ways - study groups, phoning.

    2. Eric Mazur. Dividing the education process into information transfer and assimilation was an extremely useful model to me. As he points out, technology in information transfer - i.e., providing data to students - has enhanced that part of education. Assimilation of the information - what the student has learned - can also be enhanced by etools, but to me his points were not as obviously implemented. From my own experience with on-line tutoring, I find that students learn how to learn the system. They are given automated practice tests, which they learn to "pass". When they interact with me, I find they don't always relate the information. For example, they have lessons on adding fractions and adding decimels. If I give them a sample problem of adding a fraction and adding a decimel, they have difficulty understanding they need to convert one to the other form without my intervention. He also discusses "intelligent" testing systems that can ask different questions, based on past successes, which is currently how SATs and many other standardized tests are done.
  • Jennifer Dalby
    #2 Jennifer Dalby on 16 Feb 11
     
    1. For point number 1, what kind of planning do you think needs to go into considering flexibility for course size, and other challenges? Do you think it's possible for the same course design to work for a 5 person course, as for a 100 person course? How about other challenges, such as variations in literacy and technology skills?

    2. That's a great point about your students learning to game the system. I've got a cohort in MEDIT now, that we moved from a system with quizzes and short answer problems one quarter, to a social space the next, where they were expected to expand on their ideas and think more critically. There was huge pushback at the beginning of this quarter.
  • ann stephens
    #3 ann stephens on 16 Feb 11
     
    My thoughts about point 1 - peer interaction - is based on the fact that I often feel there is an overwhelming of information. The advantage of a course is that relevant information is organized and selected for me. Its a balance, many of the posts in this course have expanded my thinking, but I prioritze the posts/selections that are provided by Jennifer.

    As for variations in literacy and technology skills, this is always a challenge, but I've not found it to be that limiting. Everyone seems to have accepted texting and emailing, so its natural. What is more of an issue to me is the content. As was suggestion, diigo is experiential in that we are doing micro-posts. This doesn't prevent someone from posting longer or entering into a 1-1 dialog, but it doesn't seem to as easily happen. Possibly what needs to considered is using different etools at different times in the life cycle of the course. For example, a more extensive use of posts at the beginning of course might be utilized, whereas a collaborative document during the middle of the course might be beneficial.
  • Mary Ann Simpson
    #4 Mary Ann Simpson on 17 Feb 11
     
    Ann, your idea about "extensive use of posts at the beginning of a course might be utilized, whereas a collaborative document during the middle of the course might be beneficial" is a good one. I, for one, feel overwhelmed when I sign into DIIGO and find that people have been posting, posting, and posting while I have been doing other tasks, therefore, switching etools or cutting back on their usage would be useful for me.
  • Joy LaJeret
    #5 Joy LaJeret on 18 Feb 11
     
    The advantage of using Diigo for posts instead of Blackboard, is when it goes away at the end of the quarter, we will have all our links and research and comments in Diigo. We can then refer to them whenever we need the information posted.
  • ann stephens
    #6 ann stephens on 18 Feb 11
     
    The "lasting" part of diigo is a positive, but the issue isn't one of having a place for information (I, for example, keep a "notebook" page for information I want later), but having too much of it to have meaning. I have expectations when I take course to learn information on a specific topic. Not all the peers who take the class with me have the same interest, knowledge, time, etc., so their contributions can and are uneven. This distracts me from the core of what I am trying to learn, if there is too much of it.
  • Jennifer Dalby
    #7 Jennifer Dalby on 18 Feb 11
     
    The interesting thing, is that this class is not very active, and it's very small. Whether or not a community forms within an LMS, or an outside space, it's not unusual to expect 100 + posts a week, for an average size class that's engaged with the material. One of the things to think about with assessment, is how you weight community participation in the grading. There will always be people who prefer to learn alone. How do we engage them, without making them feel uncomfortable? Or, is discomfort a positive thing for learning?
  • Bruce Wolcott
    #8 Bruce Wolcott on 19 Feb 11
     
    There's a friend of mine, named Terri O'Fallon, who has been teaching online courses for graduate student cohorts, that are involved in a learning community lasting over extended periods of time (1-2 years). Terri says she knows a learning community is "taking hold" when she can sense an overall feeling of comfort and camaraderie. She says this is not unlike getting to know a friend over time. In the cohort, participants are initially superficial and formal, but gradually move into discussions having greater range and depth, when things are going well. This is her touchstone for a successful program.
    I'm not sure the sheer number of posts is necessarily the best way to measure effective student learning. You can assign a grade to discussion assignments, and that will always be a motivator to participate - but I think working towards a thriving community with all cylinders firing - requires building the right conditions for rapport and engagement to take place. That's a much trickier prospect, and I'm not sure you can always be successful within the short span of a quarter.
  • Jennifer Dalby
    #9 Jennifer Dalby on 19 Feb 11
     
    Bruce, that's an important point. What can we actually accomplish within the boundaries of a "course?" There's a bit of a movement going on to redefine course, or at least explore how boundaries limit learning. That's one of the reasons I try to place such a strong emphasis at the beginning on digging up prior learning, and at the end on helping students discover how they can continue to apply what they've learned. I also think it's critical to try and encourage students to think outside the class, involving their family and friends, where they're already learning. But is all this really possible? It's a nice dream, but I don't know how much of it can be accomplished. I worry about instructors requiring a separate blog or community for their course, and not valuing the important learning spaces that already exist for students. I can allow flexibility for this, but there will always be students who don't work well with that flexibility, and want to be told exactly what to do. It's definitely not easy to balance.
  • Joy LaJeret
    #10 Joy LaJeret on 19 Feb 11
     
    I have not felt a feeling of bonding with my peers or other students in the class until I was in Norma and Sam's class. By the end of that class, I had reached a point of community or collaborative essence with three or four of the students. In this class, it seems we are often not on the same page. But, I have decided it is because of the diversity within the course. I also think it takes more than one course to bring people to the point of open rapport and deep discussion. 12-13 weeks just doesn't seem like enough time.
  • Joy LaJeret
    #11 Joy LaJeret on 19 Feb 11
     
    Ann when it comes to distraction, I just allow so much information in. If there is a post I cannot read because of time restrictins, I open it later on break. I don't get distracted in studies. I don't have enough time to do that.
  • ann stephens
    #12 ann stephens on 21 Feb 11
     
    The point for me is not the amount of time I spend in a class, but having a filter for what is important. Posts, for example, that come with a highlight of what the link about or some reaction to the link that is a youtube, is more valuable to me. So, I usually filter those out.

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