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Skype is a free chat and calling tool you can download to your computer, or install the app on your smart phone.

Jennifer and Helen... Thanks for the info! I've been thinking about using Skype in the classroom at BC, but there are security concerns from the computer admin folks - and I haven't tried it out yet.

I have become a Skype member and can't wait to use it. I am wondering if Ellminate isn't the superior tool. I guess I will make that judgement when I actually can Skype someone.

In today's Seattle Times, A3 section - interesting article which followed over 2,000 US students from 2005 to 2009. 45% made no significant improvements in their critical thinking, reasoning or writing skills during first 2 years of study. After completing 4 years, 36 % showed no significant gains in "higher order" thinking skills. Article also states some contributing factors, many students work part-time, however, most students only spent 1/5 time on their studies and 51% on socializing & extra-curricular. I have a strong hunch the internet is a big contributor to the socializing factor. When I read such statistics, it makes me ponder if on-line learning can truly change this social/educational trend. I am enjoying many readings on the diigo, both from Jennifer and others, however, I'm not sure I would design an on-line class which designated a considerable amt. of time to short readings and discussions. Your thoughts on this?

I too found the article interesting - thanks! I do wonder about the types of classes students completed especially in their first two years. The might be a marked difference in skills acquisition if students were completing many required large class survey classes to meet initial requirements vs. small, more focused classes in their areas of interest.

I am still trying to get the picture of "slogging" through studies! Is that what I am doing when reading all this material in Diigo? I don't think so.

This website offers chat boards for teachers in all subject areas and grade le vels. It also has free lesson plans, etc. I went to the science teachers chat and looked at many of the postings, questions asked and answered, and decided that for the time being, I would join this community.

I just finished reading E-Habits, by Elizabeth Charnock, CEO of the company who puts out this blog. It was fascinating (and scary!).

I think there's more of an opportunity for us to recognize that with so many different ways to communicate, the nuances of interpersonal communication are more important than ever. I think the people who will be successful, are the ones who truly learn to connect with their audience and make the digital seem personal. I grew up with a dad who taught English and was an Air Force public affairs officer. My writing style has always been formal, and cold, and I've had to learn to add warmth in digital spaces. I'm still trying to figure it out!

My experience with your style is you are very intellectually based in your writing style, while your personal style when dealing with this student was warm and open, encouraging and sharing. Okay, it is one opinion among many, I am certain; but this one is mine. I spent many years with the military as a family member and the mother of soldiers. One has to be careful in the civilian world when it comes to interacting with others, because military directness and crispness can get in the way of showing warmth and interest. Hopefully, I have mastered a more civilian way of speaking over the past several years.

This is an overview of a guideline for how learning occurs and how as teachers we can focus our lessons to this guideline. It is relevant in on-line education, as the on-line environment allows us to have different modes to provide information to our students. We can utilize everything from video to chat rooms.

Ann, do you have any tools or taxonomies that have helped you develop those questioning skills? And have you got any experience using the SOLO taxonomy?

I have not had experience with SOLO - Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes - but from the bit of investigation I have done, it is similiar to Bloom's in that it is based upon the notion that a studen'ts ability to grasp more abstract concepts, is based on more fundamental understandings and that you need to make sure you are not too advanced for where the student is. It reminds me of Piaget's concept that you can only learn something that is slightly more advanced than where you are (my paraphrase). As for my experience with help in developing questioning skills, which I feel is an excellent example of elearning, is that my company had us first take an interactive tutorial on Bloom's taxonomy. The "final" was taking a math problem and providing questions for each level of the taxonomy. We posted this on a dedicated discussion, with the teacher providing her response for everyone to see and learn from. We have since started another topic where teacher can post specific questions they are using and have tried and this will eventually be collected into a reference document. For example, one idea that was shared was that you after you have tested your student on a fundamental, you can ask them to give you a problem. My experience is that I often get back something I didn't expect. Like if adding decimels, they will return with a problem that might be in the millionths rather than the tenths. What I found most useful was not these specifics or having a question for each level, as much as the consciousness raising it did for me to think more creatively in helping the students. I have found that an elearning platform is very helpful in this regard. For example, they might take a lesson on adding or subtracting fractions and another on adding or subtracting decimels. I will then give them a problem in adding both - example - 1/2 + .25 = . By having an interactive whiteboard I can see how they convert the fraction to a decimal to add them and offer guidan

This is one of Wesch's more popular presentations. Definitely worth a look!

I think a lot of times people are afraid of internet technologies, because they see the data they leave behind. Most people don't think twice about the data they leave every place else. (Grocery club cards, credit and debit cards, library cards.) The Numerati, by Steven Baker, is an interesting book about how our data are tracked and used.

I think credit cards have chips to track your purchases and maybe even your what-a-bouts! Not to mention my Safeway, Albertson's and etc...discount cards. I will have to locate that book on break.

This week the focus is on assessment and evidence of understanding. The emphasis is, of course, on how we assess our students. However, eteachers can be more easily observed, so I thought the community might find it interesting as to how I, as an eteacher, am assessed. (The students do an automated self-paced lesson and then take a practice quiz. If they have questions during the lesson or in order to go the next one, we interact. Based on the quiz and other questions/discussions we have, I pass them to the next lesson. I have up to 4 students in one session.) Once a month, my supervisor listens to one of the recorded sessions and writes up an assessment. What I find interesting that is unique to elearning, is that my use of the technology environment goes into my assessment. I need to be logged in on time, I need to effectively switch among my students, etc. Also, if an area is weak, a request by my supervisor to re-take an automated class I have taken before - such as effective questioning - might be assigned.

The online environment provides for easy capture of the session. The requirement for teaching include having a degree and a background check, but not a teaching certificate. I feel the monitoring is an extra check and balance on both how we are teaching and our online presence. We go through training and have guidelines on what we can and cannot discuss with the students - such as sharing emails, contacts outside of class, etc. Recently this has come into focus, as the regular school teachers at the school I am tutoring with (we are a scheduled once a week class during the school year) encouraged the students to ask where we live, etc., to feel more connected. On our teacher platform, the teachers and our supervisor were able to post and share with each other on how they were and should be handling this. It is a balance - just as in a regular classroom - to be connected, yet have privacy. I do not find what information I should and should share or ask to be a problem for me, but the time focus is. The students are used to texting all the time and feel comofrtable with using the time that way. I have now developed my own transitions - from the explicit: "we've chatted enough for right now, please go on with your lesson" to a softer transition by using the information in our dialog to set-up a problem: You got so much snow! So if you had eight snowballs and split them evenly....".

This is fascinating! I've honestly never seen an instrument for a supervisor to evaluate an online teaching session. (Or maybe I just don't remember.) For distance education at BC, instructors/divisions can opt in to the online student evaluations. I don't know if Norma signed up to have this course included in the evals. If so, you may have received access to that today. As far as I know, that's the primary way teachers are evaluated here. It compares to how they are evaluated in f2f classes. For me, I like to get constant feedback from students, and that's why you see me poking around a lot, sending lots of email, and including self-checks. It's always an awful feeling to get to the end of a course and discover you could have made changes early on that would have made a big difference in learning. (But I always expect to discover some of that at the end, as well!) Thanks for sharing this!

Here are some thoughts about creating a framework for a course I might teach. I posted them on my blog.

"Multi-disciplinary instruction must make meaningful connections among all subject areas." I think eLearning enables this connection. For example, in tutoring math online, audio doesn't always work well and I use a chat room with the students. This underlines their need for spelling in English.

This is a jing.video of a 10 Best Practice Assessment for the on-line tutoring class I am teaching. I decided on this portfolio activity because: 1. I wanted experience with jing. Jennifer indicated she uses it all the time for screen capture and I agree with her - an awesome tool! (I felt like I was "on-stage" making a jing-case, knowing everything I was saying and doing on the screen was being recorded.) 2. I wanted to understand Best Practices better by applying them to a good yardstick. 3. I wanted to share my experience as an on-line teacher. As a note, I found jing, easy to install and use, although there were a few "operator" issues - like finding the sun/icon on my desktop. I did not do the tutorials they offered, but it was easy to figure everything out. Also, after you save the jing, to have others be able to view it, you need to save it on screencast. (I downloaded it my computer and then uploaded it to screencast.)

Looked at your Jing presentation...very interesting how the tutoring works. Also, shows great use of the tool. Learning how to use the tools available to make the course material engaging for online classes takes time and patience. Thanks for showing how this tool can be used. I intend to download and begin to learn how to use.

I reviewed your Jing presentation and got a clearer idea of how you interact with students to problem solve math problems in real time on your class white board along with ongoing chat sessions. Thanks for a peek into your online classroom!