Group items tagged

The future of computers are not only surface with multi points of movement but holograms or actually virtual picture of the people talking or instructing. You might want to look at what the futurist are saying and predicting. This is what our students will be working with and then some. Nano tech will make it even better with less.

So there's another learning moment. As an instructor, what are our expectations about student access to technology? We used to have to be much more selective about the tools we used. We had to assume the lowest tech skills, and connections. It's not that rigid any more. Also, institutions have different guidelines. Have you seen this page? http://bellevuecollege.edu/distance/skills.asp

Oh I loved the DV telepresence Immersion Room. What a great way to teach in the future. I think touchable holograms is even better! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3seTlvQtIgc&feature=related

"The authors' goal in this paper is to initiate a dialogue among educators who continue to make assertions about the usefulness of identifying students' learning styles with little or no research support. They discuss the status of learning style instruction and the unsubstantiated claims made by authors of learning style instruments and by instructors. They explore a number of key questions: (1) Are learning style instruments valid and reliable?; (2) Do students benefit when the type of instruction matches their preferred learning style?; and (3) More specifically, is there evidence that understanding one's learning style improves concentration, memory, self-confidence, and reduces anxiety, and leads to better grades? They conclude that learning style instruments have not been shown to be valid and reliable, there is no benefit to matching instruction to preferred learning style, and there is no evidence that understanding one's learning style improves learning and its related outcomes. They urge instructors to reconsider their instructional practices, especially the advice they give students about learning styles, and base their practices on sound research."

This was a well written article with a definite point--the answering of the authors' questions about the efficacy of using learning styles as an indicator of increased learning and performance. I agree with their assertion that research does not support continued concentration on LS as teachers design their instructional tasks. What I do know from my own experience, though, is that the teacher needs to invest a major portion of his/her time in learning how their particular students learn best, employing strategies that get at the meat of the subject for each student. I have a very simplistic motto that I use in my life and in my work: "It works best when it works". On the surface, these words mean absolutely nothing, but with a deeper probe, they are pretty profound. A highly capable high school student and graduate of Cal Tech that I worked with many years ago, coined this phrase. It was perfect then and still applies today.

I just wanted to get this link up before we moved too far away from our Module 3 "presence" section. I'll be updating this very soon.

Whitney's got a nice site. That's just a wordpress theme. You could easily set up a site like that. I use wordpress on all my self-hosted sites. http://injenuity.com/ http://www.jentropy.com/ http://www.snohostories.com/ It's very easy to set up and maintain, and there are a ton of free themes.

I agree with Jennifer that Whitney does have an impressive site and I appreciate her input (link) about how to create one. I need to get on that myself in my "spare time" as my online presence or portfolio is pretty much limited to a very primitive blog. This is all new stuff for me, yet very exciting as I move forward with what I hope will become a new career.

The Blackboard Vista used by BC is a closed LMS. The Instructure Canvas is an open system.

Even though this LMS is an open one, it seems on the surface to be quite useable. What I liked about it is that it is connected to Google.

Instructure can be open or closed. When you create a course, it gives you both licensing (copyright) and access options. Also, if a campus were to pay for a subscription and adopt it as their LMS, they could manage the access at an administrative level.