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Feedback and suggestions are always welcome. Please take the survey and provide your thoughts and experience with Module 4. Thanks.

Thanks for the kind words. Next week-end we have out-of-town guests, so that's one of the reasons for my early focus. Your directions were fine and helped the logistical process. I prefer this to a screencast, but that might be reflective of my technology knowledge and learning style. Two things, though, that took me a while to figure out were: 1. Sharing. It might be a default setting, but new documents I create have a privacy share indicated. You have to specifically change the setting (the share button is on the top of the screen) for people to be able to access it. 2. Editting. When you go back into Google docs, I got an excel spreadsheet. To actually update the form, you have to go to the form button and select "edit" in the pulldown screen.

I had fun responding to your survey, Ann! You did a great job--I liked the questions and the color format!

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.

This is the activity for Module 5. I really like this open learning system. If you go to my blog you will find that they ( Canvas) will work with you whether you buy their system or not. Please watch video #2 on my blog. (Note: I wrote the last two paragraphs on my blog here. Then I cut and pasted it to my blog because it took up too much space on Diigo.)

Free is never really free, but it's a good way to learn about how these systems work. I'm currently investigating it for a project, and should find out actually licensing costs soon. I've got some quotes on other systems and it just blows my mind how much we pay for this stuff.

Thanks for posting those two videos on your blog -- informative. I am in the process of looking at LMS to use at my workplace...thought Moodle looked good. I will now do a thorough review of Canvas. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

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!

I thought I'd try something a little bit different for Module 5, and do a CMS review of a current online course that I've been working on, called Visual Storytelling. It's a review of a Blackboard/Vista-based online class, but I'm also blending a couple of presentation technologies together to create this - SlideRocket and Camtasia. If you take a look at it, you'll want to make sure your audio is turned on - otherwise, it won't make much sense... It runs just under 10 minutes. This was a useful exercise for me, because I became aware of numerous changes I'd like to make for the next iteration of this class. These presentation tools are now very powerful and easier to use than in the past. SlideRocket has only been around for about 2 years, and it keeps getting better! You can also access this presentation by way of my Web2.0 Chronicle blog.

Thanks Bruce for showing how you use Blackboard for one of your courses. I do agree that some of the mature LMS need to make it easier to use Web 2.0 tools. Jennifer's comments about being able to use these tools is so appropriate. All of these wonderful tools are available, the problem is learning when and how to use them in our online teaching.

Thanks everyone for your feedback and comments! Mary Ann, I did see your photos from the Galapagos, and it seems like they will make great material for an online class presentation especially with your underlying message - the importance of biodiversity to our long term survival. I'm really glad you're teaching this material... I wish we were more aware of these dire issues 50 years ago! The Visual Storytelling class will be offered again in Fall 2011. Susan... One useful application of online lectures/presentations is that they can free up classroom time for more exploratory dialog and hands-on activities, as appropriate. Students also like them, because they can stop and review material at their own pace. Jennifer - I'll be happy to give an overview some presentation media I use during your office hour on Thursday. This would be a good experience for me, since I've never taught a session using Elluminate. If you could give me some quick tips beforehand, that would be welcome. I can't do it this week, but Feb 24th or following Thursdays look open.

Jennifer's email to us was a catalyst for this post to inquire about your digital prescence experience. I, like Jennifer, have aliases that I use on social networks. It is a challenge, though, to manage multiple presences and even when I do, often have a feeling of unease about the information. For example, in this course a suggestion was for us to update our profile. Although I don't feel secrative that I am taking a course at Bellevue College, the email/signature I use for this course is also the one I use for some other professional endeavors (such a technology consulting). I is not something that is a "need to know" by everyone. I chose, in this situation, not to update my general profile. When we are conscious of what/how we are posting and putting up, is one thing. Often though, I get on a mailing list, that I have no idea how I was included, as I probably forgot to check a "do not include me" box on something I have bought on line. This article was particularly interesting to me, as it talks about a survey that 23% of children get a digital presence even before they are born - having a lasting imprint.

Good article to bring things into perspective about 'online presence.' I found a similar article that compared statistics relating to age and online presence. 92% of children by age 2 have online presence thanks to parents and grandparents. As Jennifer mentioned in her discussion of facebook -- maybe we don't want the world to see what we did in our high school days...we were 15/16. Can we separate a personal online presence from a business profile...

I do separate my profiles by having different email aliases. There is overhead in having multiple ones, however, so not ideal.

This is a Google Reader bundle of the portfolios I've seen so far. (Bruce, are you going to use your blog site? I need to grab an RSS feed to add you.)

Jennifer, Sorry I'm running late on this, but I do have a link for your Google Reader list at: http://web2chronicle.wordpress.com/ This should bring up my most current post. Thanks... : )

I loved your site and the things you wrote. I can see your expertise. I write;but I have a totally different style. I want to take your course; but first I want to know if I will be able to take a story, see the one I wrote in my blog, and make it a video. I think story telling is a valuable teaching aid. I taught 3-12 graders religion in moral and ethic classes at a local catholic school, after hours for some 15 years. The textbook manual and other references pretty much laid everything out...including teaching aids. Today, technology has transformed what I have learned in the pass.

We worry that IM, texting, Facebook are spoiling human intimacy, but Stefana Broadbent's research shows how communication tech is capable of cultivating deeper relationships, bringing love across barriers like distance and workplace rules.

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."

"While no list of apps can ever be complete, these are the apps that were demoed at OETC's ITSC conference in Portland, Oregon in February of 2011."

It would have been great to see these demoed to see what would work. The number of them and many of the topics seem like they'd be very helpful tools. Technology is really changing - and quickly - how we do things. Not education related, but to that point, was an app recently demoed that can be a heart monitor - there is a special metallic interface between the iPod/iPhone and the person. Really amazing and revolutionizing!

I do not believe learners will cheat if they are made to feel they are capable learners with something to offer society, each other and their community. Also, seeing the consequences of cheating in their lives might make them think twice about it. Cheating denies each of us the right to self respect and earning what we have achieved, through hard work and desire to learn. Maybe cheating has more to do with the institution and instructors or professors than the learners.

Thanks for the great resource. Having only taught in a very small university, where classes average 15 students, you really get to know your students thinking, style of writing, etc. Yes, the comment made about cheating more likely to happen when a student feels "invisible" is probably common in larger university settings. I've put this link in my File section for future reference. Thanks, Joy.

Your welcome Helene. I really liked the tips this woman gave me! I intend to try them for my bog!

I have joined this learning community. My membership is still pending. I think this will be a source of valuable information. This one did not cost to join. There was another learning community that cost $45.00 per year. I do not have the funds to do this.

The ability to have specialized communities that are so focused is another faucet of how technology is enabling learning and connection in a way it never has before. This site undrlines for me the evolution of libraries. My personal experience is that King County libraries now allow ebook downloads - to your PC, if you don't have an ebook device - allowing to read something for 30 days.

I have done these downloads and I love them!

This is a powerful post. I'll let you read it and see what you think.

Excellent example of why our country scores poorly on many global studies. We do not prioritize and protect our educational institutions from some of the major declining social and economic issues we are currently facing. We shouldn't allow our school systems to suffer from current declining tax bases. This teacher's account is an excellent testimony of what results!!! and this scenario is what many of our classroom teachers are facing daily. Imagine having to face a classroom of 30+ kids everyday, by yourself, under these working conditions! Very sad . . .

An interesting comment regarding global competitiveness. It is actually my understanding that some countries - like Japan - who do better than the U.S. in math, science, and literacy - actually have larger class sizes and that per student expenditure is lower. The culture, however, supports education. Teacher's are honored.

The themes/information presented in this video are ones we are all familiar with - what the video terms exponential evolution of how things fast are moving and the sheer numbers of people using the internet. The fact that this is now part of a technology shareholder meeting was very interesting, with the final message that they don't know what it all means, but it is definitely changing the world.

Salman Khan talks about how and why he created the Khan Academy, a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in math and, now, other subjects. He shows the power of interactive exercises, and calls for teachers to consider flipping the traditional classroom script -- give students video lectures to watch at home, and do "homework" in the classroom with the teacher available to help. He says students from around the world can tutor each other. This presentation was just given a few days ago.

Bruce, I have to say that this TED video posting you put up is the most interesting post I've looked at all quarter! Salman Khan talks about a very unique "backwards design" for education now and in the future with his suggestion that the "lectures--videos" be watched at home and the "homework" be done interactively with the teacher at school. In reality, this concept is the very one I was trained to do way back when I was getting my teaching credential for elementary school. In that model, teachers interact consistently all day long with small and large groups of students and individual students as well, helping them with what they need to understand until some sort of mastery comes. The only appreciable difference that I can see is the use of today's technology tools. A good teacher, no matter if face to face in a classroom or remotely in cyber space, will take the time with each individual student until he or she learns what is being taught. Self-paced learning such as what the TED video centered on was practiced years ago with SRA reading modules and similar modules for math. They fell out of fashion in many schools when districts began standardizing learning and "no child left behind" came along with its requirement that all students meet a particular standard in a particular way. Perhaps I'm over-simplifying things a bit, but I feel compelled to share this. Someone once said, "There are no new ideas under the sun, just new ways of implementing them." Anyway, thanks for this posting--I will eagerly look forward to how the Khan University develops!

Wow...thanks for sharing this link. I've watched the documentary "Waiting for Superman" and was blown away about how our education system is failing so badly. Here's an example of what person can do and change the way we learn.