Group items tagged

I'm surprised to read "working in groups" and "being asked to introduce myself" are in the bottom. Seems like the Top 10 are all about quick access to information/clear guidelines. Some of the Bottom 10 require more reflection and time on task. This is disappointing to me but a revelation.

Your characterization is right-on. I was thinking that perhaps this reflects how maybe college students are - which is to get through the courses to get a degree and not always on the what they can learn component. What I personally find more challenging on internet courses is finding who I really resonate with. There is a delay in the dialog and reading something is different than inflection.

Hi Joy (and fellow classmates) - we were out-of-town for a week. Internet was available, but for a price $.75 per minute. I had planned on using some of our vacation time to work on this course without the hassle of juggling work commitments. At a price per minute, this idea didn't pan out. To get caught up, I checked out our Diigo communications and visited your blog. I like the way you insert YouTube videos to add dimension to your ideas! The two I looked at addressed the LMS system - Canvas. I was particularly fascinated with the young techy who ended his presentation, asking his audience about how they might define the role for SOCIAL MEDIA in both course structure and as a learning tool. Interesting how our course materials (and we) have also been pondering this same issue! Thanks for finding and sharing a very relevant presentation. I also enjoyed your thoughts as well.

Today our senior population is aging at a rapid rate. Is it possible we, as a society, are sending them to an early end of life dead line because of our attitudes and out moded beliefs regarding aging in America? Can we not help keep their minds alive and well by changing some of our society's institutions...of higher education?

Joy, I just finished reading your blog posts and viewing the videos. I agree with Bruce. . . they are quite sobering. I am angered that there is so much age discrimination out there, excited that Japan has such a unique way of addressing the needs of its aging population, and frustrated that a college degree does not necessarily translate into a job. My own daughter is in that position--she has a teaching degree earned two years ago and no prospects of a job anytime soon. Her income is earned through subbing in the Sultan School District and managing a horse stable. All of this translates into 7 days of work per week, a very minimal income and burnout. She is 37 years old (not quite a senior, but in line with the unemployed GWU grads shown in the video you posted). Your passion definitely comes through in all of the blog postings, Joy. What you say about assessment aligns with my beliefs as well. I have never been a proponent of grades--to me, they are just part of a hoop that must be jumped through in order to achieve a goal. With that in mind, I was overJOYed when authentic assessment came onto the education scene as it offered a way to monitor and guide students in their learning, not just give them a letter or number that was supposed to signify that they had "learned" the course content. In my experience, most students who memorize course content for tests within a given course, will not retain it once the tests have been taken. There is simply too much competition for good grades at all levels of education and not enough desire for a true understanding of ideas and concepts.

Wow! The background of this course and what you taught is fascinating. I'll limit my comments to a few points, but definitely look forward to an interactive, in-person session. 1. Video Logistics. You sounded poised on the video, as opposed to me, where I felt self-conscious knowing I was being recorded. I was also interested in how clearly you transition from one screen to the next - I used multiple windows, but it felt you had a different technique. 2. Course logistics. As for the course, one thing was interesting is how - like Jennifer - you posted a new lesson each week. Our prior class in this series we were provided everything at the beginning. I like the pacing, however, for the most part, as it keeps you focused. As for feedback, which you indicated you would do more explicitly, my guess is that your weekly audio sessions where you went into the studio, provided feedback as part of the process of teaching the lesson. 3. Content. Very interesting. Thanks for including the second video which provided texture on what you were teaching. The metaphor of the Christmas tree, with students putting "decorations" on the wiki was a good one.

I agree with Ann...what a great resource for the rest of the class. Putting the presentation together, I can tell you followed all the best practices of this tool...very polished. Showing how elements of your online material relates to the best practices was thoughtful and student centered.

Ann and Susan, Many thanks for your comments! One of the great benefits of this class and the Conrad/Boettcher textbook is getting a solid framework for understanding how to build and run an online class. Up until now, my learning process for creating online classes has been 1) suggestions/advice from colleagues 2) experimentation (flying by the seat of my pants!) 3) feedback from students 4) online resources. I really enjoy the dense concentration of information provided in the class and our ongoing conversation. The University of Tasmania class gave me the opportunity to pull out all the stops, and integrate everything I'd learned up until that point. Thankfully I made it through that stretch of white water, with an approach that seemed to work pretty well for that teaching situation. The final project exercise gave me a chance to identify key areas of every course that need to be attended to.

Aside from the logistics, how did you get involved in doing this and how did the lab get started to begin with? It sounds fascinating for the locations to be so far away. Its a wonderful example of elearning in the "one" world concept we are developing into.

Ann, Tom Furness started up the Human Interface Technology Lab (HitLab) at the University of Washington around 1988 - he's been called the "godfather of virtual reality". At the HitLab, he was on the forefront of virtual reality technologies, working on immersive displays for medicine, engineering, architecture, education, etc. Before then, his background was in designing virtual cockpit simulations for pilots of high performance military jets. They needed to augment the pilot's cognitive field, in order to manage the complexity of 50 onboard computers, while flying the plane at supersonic speeds. He decided that he wanted to apply this technology to civilian, rather than military uses, which is how he ended up at the UW. About five years ago, New Zealand and Australia decided to set up their own HitLabs because of their remote locations. They see virtual world technologies as way to develop an exportable information-based industry for real-world applications. Video games and interactive simulations are currently leading the way in terms of artificial intelligence, information design, and sustained attention (entertainment) experiences. I've been teaching a class in game theory and interactive entertainment for the past five years at BC, which is how I got involved with this University of Tasmania course. You might be interested to know that one of the offshoots of the HitLab work in Seattle is the retinal scanner, which is pointing the way to portable immersive multisensory experiences. Microvision of Redmond is working on these wearable computing devices which may provide a new alternative to desktop/laptop/smartphone devices. And I agree, Ann - culturally and socially, the world is shrinking exponentially because of the Internet.

A small world. I was in technology development and management prior to a career transition to teaching. My first job out of college was working on out-the-window portion of cockpit simulators. I was the program manager for the B-52 simulator program at Singer-Link. We called the people that did the actual design of the scenes via computer softwre illustrators, which when I first heard the title always thought of someone drawing pictures on the code, rather than comments. Anyway, I checked out Tom's page, very interesting. Thanks.

Interesting comments. The postings in Diigo are very interesting as well. In a strange sort of way they do fit the course topics of the week. Each person is building on their own finds and thinking about the others perceptions and contributions. As for myself, I just want to know how to put a course together and make it the best possible learning experience. Sorting and read all the material is just loading my computer ( memory tapes) and eventually there will be a focus point to download what I am learning on to paper or a course in progress.

One of the main advantages I find in taking in course is that someone has organized the vast amount of data in a focused a way for me to expand my own knowledge in an area. So in response to the question on the blog, I prefer and would use in my course design the one-at-time posting approach. I find it to be focusing in an environment (the internet) that lets me be expansive.

I too am finding the organization of the course very helpful - and Diigo especially - in viewing and thinking about the material. I anticipate that the aggregate of the readings, responses, and activities will help in my understanding of how to construct an online course.

I left a comment at the bottom of your In post in Behind the Scenes.

Thanks for all your feedback. I'm glad you feel comfortable sharing so honestly. I'm very fortunate!

Interesting article. Rather similiar to the way lawyers are educated to question people in a court room, wth the exception of questioning to inspire well thought out answers of an academic nature.

I always like these condensed lists of pointers for making life easier: One of the biggest challenges for me is coming up with a decent topic of conversation for online discussions - which is usually posed as a single question or series of related questions. This list is very useful for thinking about types of questions to ask.

This is a great starting point for thinking about online discussions. It's not easy coming up with the right questions to stimulate discussion. Sometimes I tell myself that if there's a "right" answer to the question, it probably won't work for a discussion.

I loved this site! The home page is very concise, informative with good examples. And, "yes" we should do some additional sharing, research and practice regarding what types (structure) of questions illict good, reflective responses (let you know the learner has synthesized course material). In clicking around to other links on this site, I noticed Leslie Owen referred to educator/author H. Lynn Erickson as a man. Not that it's a big deal, but, HL Erickson is a woman and is a curriculum consultant who lives locally. Seems like we all struggle with this aspect of teaching - good questions for discussion. Perhaps we could come up with a simple exercise where we post questions we might use which address our course readings? What ya think?? Thank you Mary Ann for this great teaching resource.

Helen, I like your idea of creating some questions around our course readings that we could post and discuss. I also think some of the questions on the new collaborative doc Jennifer just posted would be excellent discussion points. There is so much to think about in that one!

I enjoyed your presentation Bruce. Looks complicated!

Bruce, your work is amazing! Story Boards have long been a feature of teaching in the elementary and middle school grades with students creating original work or using the format for a book report, but to see this technique translated into an online format is thrilling. I can just imagine how much more engaged my former students would have been had I known how to use the digital tools you showcased. Will your course be offered during Spring Quarter? Please let me know.

P.S. to your post to me regarding my blog entry for Module 5--You referenced what I wrote about eLearning trends--that post was for my EDUC250 class. Did you have a chance to see the pictures I posted and read the entry for this week's module that referenced one of the activities on our class portfolio activities spreadsheet? What I spoke about is a very RUDIMENTARY story board (I realized this after viewing your post). Thanks, Bruce for YOUR "luminous presence" in EDUC251!!

This recording is an excellent example of what I'm looking for in your final project (only about half as long). I hope everyone gets a chance to view it. It's a great way to give a tour through a course and explain how to address the best practices. Great work! Would you be interested in taking over one of our office hours sessions to teach people how you used these tools?

Thank you for sharing this. Our interrogation of "presence" has been interesting this week. I've been looking forward to seeing each of you make decisions about personal online presence.

Susan, In your second article on your blog you describe a PLE or 'personal learning environment' by saying: "The purpose of a PLE is to gather and process information, act on the learning that takes place, then showcase the results of what was learned to include how one arrived at those results." I'm curious to know how you set up a PLE, and maybe 1 or 2 examples if you could direct me there. Is this related to Microsoft's OneNote , or Evernote, which lets you copy, scan, and store web-based information? Also, could you explain how you have found this to be useful for you or your classes? Thanks!

Bruce: The blog is my ePortfolio. You can use different tools to establish your personal learning environment...I began with a blog. There is a nice example of a PLE by a 7th grader who used a different tool to showcase her science project. I think you will find it an excellent example of how web 2.0 tool are being used at the grade school level. Here's the link...it's a youtube video narrated by the student. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEls3tq5wIY Susan

Thanks, Susan For some reason, I thought a personal learning environment was a fish of a different color. I get the concept now, thanks to Wendy, the 7th grader who I found using your YouTube link. The personal learning environment can be a blog, a wiki, or note gathering app, that allows you to quickly organize, filter, and access the online information that makes up your personal knowledge universe. She was using a tool named SYMBALOO, which I'm definitely going to try out - as well as some other useful apps - Evernote for note-talking and Glogster, for building a collage of related information. I really liked Wendy's tutorial on the PLE - it covered a lot of information in a short span of time, while effectively communicating her ideas visually.

Here's a screencast I made about my PLE when I did a guest week in EDUC250 last quarter https://www.screencast.com/users/ccchit/folders/EDUC%20250/media/f974b78d-3c78-4a44-b231-b758bb54cdbd

Thanks, Jennifer This was very helpful. Also your strong endorsement of Twitter as a way to quickly connect with communities of common interest is giving me more motivation to become more engaged with that world. I've been a slow adopter of Twitter - but this week's events in Egypt organized by a younger generation on Facebook and Twitter are a strong testament to the transforming power of these media.

I've made the understandings entry to my blog.

This is my first Camtasia project. I realize that there is room for improvement. As I use it more, I'm sure I will begin to develop better skills. I can see where this is a good application for getting information up in an online course.

So glad you posted this! I'm in the middle of a similar process, and I appreciated seeing how you're comparing products.

Thanks for your comparison of Moodle, Joomla, and Blackboard. I was quite surprised to find out that Moodle leads the pack - since I assumed that Blackboard/Vista would have the majority following. It's been around since the mid-1990's. Great comparison chart, and use of Camtasia!

After looking at Joy's post about Canvas, I need to review this and compare to these three vendors. Will, then, have to update the comparison chart to include Canvas.

Here's the link to my ePortfolio with this module's assignment

Susan, I *really like* this list of reasons why stories work well for teaching that you posted on your blog. I've been teaching class sections on storytelling, and this gives me some well considered principles for how stories can be "put to work" for real world applications in education and information design. 1. A learning event is an unfolding story 2. People craft a story to make sense of what they are learning 3. Stories are at the intersection of people's synthesis of learning 4. Stories are tools for thinking 5. You can move through complex information more efficiently through story devices than through standard forms of discourse One of my favorite destinations for interactive stories is the Second Story website. It's jammed packed with terrific examples of interactive storytelling - on all sorts of interesting topics.

Thanks for your attention on storytelling! It's something that is applicable for so many different learning situations, and works particularly well online.

While the most story telling I have done is one blog post and a short story about "I love my new Grandma" which I posted in this site...I want to do more and will hopefully b eable to get to this later. Nothing sticks like a good story!

Bruce: Thanks for the link on more interactive storytelling. I think this will help me to develop using case studies as learning activities for our courses.

Susan, your activity on identifying sepsis in pediatric patients was clear, concise, and easy to navigate. I liked the fact that we were directed to a wiki page with the "case" facts presented in story form with a very clear picture of the "rash". if I were a trainee in your course, I would be excited by this lesson and the follow-up survey you posted.

Thanks for your comments Mary Ann. This is the first time I've used these tools for a case study...I'm hoping the wiki will allow the students to discuss the case and also allow them to pose thoughtful 'what-ifs'.

The thought the story telling definition you found to be a good guideline. Cases are great. One activity I might add would be What can you do to stop it? I know the student at this point is learning, but gives them a focus to think about their involvement.

In learning the Camtasia application, I found many good tips...I share them in my portfolio posting this week.

I left a comment on your blog. I had to carefully think about what you had stated and found myself differing slightly with what you suggested. I suppose that attests to our differences. Nevertheless I appreciated the blog post Susan.

Here's the link to my blog where my final project is located.

Your question - How do you represent ideas with images? - is a very powerful one. We are bambarded with images all day. I often think of these images as trying to sell me something - such as a commerical to buy something - or sometimes a quick reference to information - such as a symbol for a restroom. I realize now that technology has allowed for the production of images to be so accessible that they are now a part of our normal dialog. It is easy to make a video or take a picture. On Facebook, we see this all the time; people adding content to their story with images.

Just looked at your portfolio which is a learning course in itself! You've done a great job of summarizing what we've been working on. Our portfolios are a perfect place to store this. You've inspired me to take a few steps back before I move forward with Module #4. Thanks, Bruce.

Ann and Helen, Thanks much for your feedback on the website. It's much appreciated!

Bruce...I have a question. I wrote a story blog this week. Can you tell me if your course would help me create a video presentation of this blog? http://joystechtool.blogspot.com/ I don't have your email, except maybe the one you have at BC. I would have to take it as a senior. Which means space available. Can this be done?

Joy, Just to let you know... the visual storytelling class won't be offered again until Fall 2011. It sounds like your story would make an interesting educational online comic or presentation - explaining the idea of backwards design. One approach, is that you could use a virtual world environment like Second Life or BlueMars to engage virtual characters/actors, and set your camera positions to tell your visual narrative. You could synchronize narration and other audio, and then post it to the Web via YouTube, Google Presentations, or some other presentation application like SlideRocket. Just a thought...

Thanks Bruce. Fall would be perfect! That is if I could get in the class. I suspect it is very popular on campus. I would like to use second life; but have not tried. Is it free. My understanding is it is very expensive. While I would like a video of the story to put with the blog, it can be done at a later date. What I do not know how to do is synchronize the narration and other audio. My husband uses camcording to capture band performances. Could you maybe email me on this issue? jal8008cel@comcast.net. Unless I am taking advantage of your knowledge here. Please?

Thank you, Bruce, for sharing the objectives of your Course. It sounds so intriguing that I would love to be a part of it! Perhaps that will become a reality for me as time passes.

Joy, I could probably begin to answer your question here, and then if you have more questions we can connect via my other email address: bcweb20class@gmail.com. Probably the best online multimedia delivery application that I know of is SLIDEROCKET. I've been using it in my courses for about a year. You can upload Powerpoint slides, incorporate video directly from YouTube (or uploaded video), images, graphics, text, and integrate these all with a sound track. Everything is built online, and the interface works well. The catch is this - after the 30 day trial period, it costs $12 per month. I taught a very challenging online course this summer, and I didn't mind paying that fee because of the excellent results I got. SlideRocket saved the day by pulling me out of a jam. It also now integrates well with Google applications. Another (this one is free) cloud-based multimedia authoring application is EMPRESSR . Here's a quote from the website: Empressr is the first free online storytelling tool that allows you to create, manage and share rich media presentations online. Earlier in the quarter, Jennifer recommended another audio editing tool called AUDACITY , which is really terrific! It's simple to use and produces good results. I actually prefer Audacity for audio editing over some other commercial products that have a lot more bells and whistles. I hope that helps!

Here's my post for mapping an evidence for understanding to specific learning objectives.

Bruce, I especially liked the "evidence" requiring students to create their own business card. Each item you posted was very concrete and would definitely indicate understanding on the part of students.

I second that business card lesson. It will prepare them for job hunting in the future. I think creating ePortfolios are another good practice.

Ann, what a wonderful video! The only problem I had was watching it as a complete stream--I think my network connection is slow this morning. My 250 class was introduced to this tool and as you know, I used it in my Course Framework posting, but another student used it similarly to you. She developed a video of herself when she is not teaching (activities with family and friends) and posted it as her "Course presence", Further, she said that all of the students in her Course would be making videos of this type and together, they would become the Course Roster! It's such a simple, cool idea!! Thanks for sharing!

Ann - what a great tool for introducing everyone and making the point that learning is a social activity and works best in an "intentional forming group." Perfect for creating a "Course Roster." Thanks for creating this demo!

Bandwidth is always a problem. I like the idea of "individualized" animotos that can be combined. The more advanced tool does allow for adding video. http://animoto.com/play/ye7XT0nzKSJvOWK8XGTh0A - this is an example of how I used in a personal way. My family and friends were more responsive to seeing this in this form and its an easy way for me to sort out pictures I want to focus on from all the hundreds I seem to take with the digital camera these days.

Ann, Nice to see your new baby Lilly wrapped up in this spiffy Animoto package!

Cool Tool! I loved it!

Mary Ann, Your online course on the Galapagos Islands looks really interesting! I like the fact that you brought in and existing pre-developed course material site based on a scientific detective game, where students collaboratively take on the role as research scientists - a journey of discovery. It's a deliberate movement in the direction of student initiated learning, brought to life by your own photographs from 2004. Survey Monkey is used to get feedback regarding what students are understanding and learning during the course. I wish I had this kind of hands-on exposure to Darwin's ideas early on during my early schooling - I might have decided to become a evolutionary biologist!

I think this class is very interesting. You have really brought the content to life - knowledge in a fun way.

The logistical work that goes into an on-line course is more complex that in-person classes. There are so many options and technology that needs to be lined up. My own experience over the past week or two, where I have been computer challenged and had a delay in class participation. I liked the method that Jennifer used by allowing extra time for the first assignment, so as to minimize her (the teacher's need) for interaction on the daily things that impact our lives.

I am interested in taking a independent study to write a whole course. I hope Jen or someone like her takes on the challenge!

Mary Ann, On your blog, you say: "Often, students don't live in proximity to the best teachers for their subject matter interests as in the case of language study--a school may offer only German and Spanish whereas the student might wish to become proficient in Swahili." I think that is possibly one of the great major benefits that will emerge from Web-based classes - that us in-the-trenches teachers may be able to bring some of the best knowledge experts in the world into our classes. One example of that happened just this past Thursday, when Jennifer had Howard Rheingold - the long term media commentator luminary stop by for a visit. I couldn't believe my eyeballs when I saw his name show up in Elluminate! I was even able to have short video conversation with him.

I loved seeing the photos. Thanks for sharing!

I found it very interesting and loved the pics, too. What a wonderful world we have. How sad we are destroying something so wonderful!

This lesson activity is the opener for my Course Framework, designed for middle school students. There is a link to a short video I made with Animoto that is posted as a "tour" for the research teams. Please note that if this was a real course, I would make a long video complete with narration and music containing most of the 500 pictures I took during my own trip to the Galapagos in 2004. Comments for improvement are very welcome.

I liked that blog. I would take that class...if I was that age or any for that matter.