Group items tagged

Alec Couros started this collaborative document today, and in no time people were filling it with prompts. Feel free to add yours, or borrow from it for inspiration.

Another interesting read.

His comment about why he wanted this collaboration - to have a focus for his students - put the exercise in context for me in a way that made it more meaningful. I also agree with him that it was great to have everyone collaborate so quickly and thoroughly.

This is related to some of our inquiry last week about open courses. ELI is an important conference. I hope you get a chance to check out some of the free sessions online. "Educating in the Open: Philosophies, Innovations, and Stories February 14-16, 2011 * Washington, D.C. or Online Free Conference Streaming SessionsJoin us for the ELI 2011 Annual Meeting "Educating in the Open: Philosophies, Innovations, and Stories," where we as a community will explore the theme of openness in Washington, D.C., February 14-16. If you can't attend in person, participate online. We'll explore the many meanings of "openness": open textbooks, open curriculum, open research, and open resources, as well as openness to new ideas. Today's technologies have transformed the way we interact and engage with the world around us. New devices, services, and effective practices have increased access to information while new policies and philosophies that explore openness have accelerated that change. The growth of social networks and virtual communities has transformed the learning environment into an interactive place to share and build content and community using collaborative systems. * What are the opportunities and the challenges associated with educating in the open? * How might our learners benefit from becoming producers and consumers in this environment? * How can we, as a community of teaching and learning professionals, collaborate more openly? * What evidence do we have that the trend toward openness is having the impact we hope for? Through a highly interactive and engaging program, we'll also examine the value of cross-campus collaboration in the creation of new learning environments and explore strategies to develop campus environments built on engagement, collaboration, authenticity, and co-creation."

This is my favorite site to learn about powerful presentation techniques.

I think it is than...

I'm a little slow on the uptake, but the potato salad discussion was great!! I like bacon and sour cream in mine--but on the serious side--life, education, teaching, learning, ad infinitum, are rarely black and white; you are so correct, Jennifer, in the longer comment you addressed to Ann and me about the challenge centering around these things not having to be one way or the other because there are so many other factors involved.

This is an online community for people dealing with colon cancer. It is part of my course framework to have my students participate in the community, as a way to have a personal experience with the disease, as well as obtaining additional infomration. This forum is moderated, for filtering of non-topic posts, such as posts that are really advertisement hooks. You can participate as a guest or by signing-in. As someone who participates/has participated in on-line and in-person support group, both are important for providing support and information at a peer level. One interesting difference, though, based on my observation only, is that anger venting seems more prevalent in the on-line groups. My belief is that this is because when people post they are by themselves and can be more reflective rather than reactive to what is immediately being communicated.

Great additions! I particularly like the introduction.

I tried to share it without the introduction and was questioned about what it was. I think I have a better understanding of collaborative documents, now. You have to have background on the document to invite others in, or it makes no sense :)

Being a guy, I was somewhat taken aback by the startling new statistics presented at a recent TED TALK by Hanna Rosin regarding the world-wide decline in male accomplishments/status relative to women. Rosen makes the point that the Marlboro Man and alpha male top-down manager, are going the way of the DoDo bird and dinosaur. Her point is that women are better at collaboration and consensual communication - which are skills well suited to our social networks and information-based economy. For example, how come I'm the only guy taking this class on how to build collaborative online learning environments - where are my male compadres?

Here's a blog post related to that video. http://www.21stcenturycollaborative.com/2011/02/genderdiversity/

Yup, she was right on. Until these concepts change...women stay inferior and get beaten...down, too.

Teaching on-line or in a classroom requires the ability to ask good questions. I found this article to be useful--I hope you will too.

I'm not opposed to a final project that involves students re-developing this course. It could even be a group project. (But I'd probably want to write about you and brag about you all to my friends!)

I posted Bloom's Taxonomy, which is a guideline for how people learn and how education should be targetted to that model. It is similiar to the types of questioning one does to reflect where we are in the learning process. I think the same is true of our course. We all seem to have through experience and past coursework some basic knowledge of on-line teaching and learning. My preference, I think, would be to have answers/discussion to some of the questions that are coming up, not just a list.

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.

I started a thread in the student discussion area, but realize that this might be a more appropriate place to post. I agree with Downes that the on-line environment broadens the view of what a learner is, but it also brings up the issue of standardization and safety. Students working with a teacher on polar bears collaboratively is engaging and exciting, but how does this fit into education standards, for example.

I think part of the challenge is in overcoming ego, or our desire to confirm our own beliefs and stay in our comfort zones. Maybe we need to give students assignments to write about something completely off the wall, but find the sources to back it up. Then they can see how easy it is to confirm just about anything. I'll add some more resources on media literacy and see what everyone thinks.

I think confirming beliefs is wrong. If you start with a hypothsis and do not know what the answer will turn out to be, you can set aside your biases and research for an answer. Stats give you a way of looking at data. They are testable at the ratio level and the big T for truth never happens. Only the small t for the strength of the correlation between cause and effect.

An introduction to careers in the future by today's futurists. Children are an asset and treasure this country cannot afford to leave behind or to be out done by foreign governments. If they work collaboratively, what a wonderful world they could create, inspite of the not so wonderful things that exist in our world.

Cute! It's always amazing to listen to a child and hear what they imagine for the future. It will be interesting to see what they make out of some of the things we've messed up!

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.

Another Professor from my Alma Mater, the Unversity of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. He is a professor of Political Science.Taken from his blog the follow excerpt: "He received his Ph.D. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in 2003. He currently teaches introductory politics, international politics, and a U.S. Foreign Policy course at Steven's Point through the Collaborative Degree Program. His current research focuses on how the U.S. military has adapted strategies and tactics in stability and reconstruction operations. Contact Eric at: egiordan@uwc.edu" We both are Political Science majors with an interest in Law and Diplomacy and the U.S. Military.

I love reading reflections on implementing new strategies in teaching and learning. That's one of the best things about posting your reflections online. You never know when someone will find you and feel connected, or at least less alone!

I can't wait to see what you come up with for this. Actually, I wish we had time for all of us to create a full course. There are such interesting topics coming up!

I liked the term "research team" - says it all about collaboration!

Mary Ann, You really have a lot of great visual material to pull from to create your science safari of the Galapagos. Have you thought about incorporating any satellite and other ground level images of these islands from Google Earth?

As an optional resource, a youtube introduction to MOOCs ((Massive, Open Online Courses) is given. As I understand it, MOOCs the "term" basically describing a collaborative "blog" on a topic. The concept is that courses can be offered with everyone who wants to to participate and/or take the course. The above link, I think is a good example of a MOOC and it is on eLearning. Similiar to EDU251 there is content proferred, as well as ways to comments and connect to other relavent websites. You can explore the site, but liked the definition of elearning: Elearning is the use of any type of technology in improving learning. At it's most basic level, it is email...at it's most advanced, it is an online course (or simulation, or virtual reality, or...well, you get the point)

Oh darn, I have to go to work. I will look at this one too.

Jenkins is an important player in this online learning stuff. This piece brings up some important considerations. We will be talking about assessment next week, but I wanted to toss this to you now, to get your gears spinning.

I cannot understand why he is so worried about open book testing of indivduals; rather than thinking about how to set up a test that would allow all contributors to weigh in and answer. What is the point of the process of collabrative learning then? Or am I just naive?

One response to this article was the practical - give the questions before the exam and the students can do whatever they want prior to the test, but when the test is actually given, make it closed book. This emphasizes information retnetion more than information retreival, which seems to be his concern. That being said - whether a test or not - his points are interesting and requires a great deal of thinking through. Allowing collaboration, for example as Joy profers, during a short course time brings up the issue of bandwidth and accessibility, so a teacher needs to spend time on logistics.

For Module 5 assignment, I wanted to share a wonderful, collaborative project done with VOICETHREAD (I'm not sure the link is working!)

The author of this study is Penny Ralstom-Berg, a Senior Instruction Designer at University of Wisconsin, where a survey of what makes a good course from a student perspective was conducted. The summary of the study starts on slide 20. The top 10 desires is consistent with what we've been focusing on in this class, however the bottom top is somewhat at odds and seems, to be, counter-intuitive to what I would have expected. Top 10: Assessments are appropriately timed, varied and appropriate; Instructions on how to access resources are sufficient and easy to understand; Course components are web-based or easily downloaded for use offline; Requirements for interaction are clearly explained; Opportunity to speak with instructor, classmates through email, bulletin boards, any time / any place; Technologies required are readily available - provided or easily downloaded; Clear instructions tell me how to get started and to find course components; Criteria for how I will be evaluated is descriptive and specific; Navigation is logical, consistent, and efficient; The grading policy is clearly stated Bottom 10: I find course-related content and share it with the instructor and classmates; I use wikis, shared documents, or other online collaborative tools to complete group work; I am asked to introduce myself to the class; I coach other students and help answer their questions; Opportunity to speak with my instructor and classmates through… same time, same place technology; Instructor does not participate in class discussions Course contains interactive games or simulations; I author / create course-related content and share it with instructor and classmates; I work in groups with other students; Course contains audio and video content

Reading through these student recommendations was very helpful, and as you say - they complement the material presented in the Boettcher textbook very well. I was somewhat confused by Penny Ralton-Berg's differentiation between the Top 10 and Bottom 10 items. My impression is that there is a low student positive response for their contributing course materials for a class site.(??)

I am not certain I grasp the meaning of that slide presentation. Some of it I get and agree with.

This link is to my development of a learning activity that maps to a course learning objective for Module 7. The activity I've chosen to work on for this project is in response to one of the learning objectives for a class called Visual Storytelling (CMST 115) that I'm teaching for Bellevue College. The learning objective (or understanding) I'm addressing is a final project that has students demonstrate their ability to put into practice a selection of visual storytelling skills that were taught during the quarter. This activity was designed to make use of authentic learning principles, derived from the ideas of Marilyn Lombardi - which are available in complete form in her article, Authentic Learning for the 21st Century: an Overview.

Very impressive, Bruce! This assessment piece is definitely in line with Lombardi's ideas AND is a perfect showcase for student understanding of the objective you set forth. I imagine your students jumped at the challenge you presented them, producing outstanding work! You continue to inspire me with your thinking and creativity!

Thanks for your comments, Mary Ann. One of the big take aways I've gotten from our EDUC 251 class so far, is the idea of relinquishing progressive amounts of control throughout the quarter - so that students at the end are teaching part of the class and demonstrating their acquired skills in some kind of collaborative, hands-on project. I've been exploring this idea over the past few years as I've become more comfortable with my teaching - and both the Boettcher reading and Jennifer's course structure validate this approach. One of the more interesting recommendations for "authentic learning" is having ill-defined goals - meaning that students have to fill in gaps with their own solutions - derived from general or even vague instructions. This enhances creativity, innovative pathways, and problem solving. Cool idea!