This post is found in my blog under the title noted above. It is my Portfolio10 activity. As a side note, thank you ALL for your " presence" to me as fellow students. We had a wonderful journey together, I learned from all of you, and am now looking forward to our next class together!

Here it is--at last!! This is my Final Course Framework tour with 8 of Boettcher's Best Practices featured. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out considering that 100% of the knowledge required to create it was new to me at the beginning of this quarter!!

This is a simple Survey Monkey feedback form I created for my Galapagos Course Framework. It is designed to be inserted into Module 1 of the Course as one way of meeting Boettcher's BP 6--Ask for informal feedback early in the course. This is also my Portfolio9 activity.

This posting on a new page in my Blog is to satisfy the Portfolio 8 activity. I noticed this as a possibility in the spreadsheet of portfolio ideas our class has been creating. I'm in the process of converting my "plain blog" to a professional looking one that will serve as my ePortfolio for the time-being.

This is an interesting article giving the NSTA's position on the use of online education for science teachers. Oops! The title is actually: The Role of E-Learning in Science.

This website is a repository for "policy research from leading think tanks worldwide." There are many articles posted in PDF format for your perusal. I looked at several, among them, one regarding blended (hybrid) learning classes in Colorado Public Schools and another about the impact of digital learning in the US and the world.

I designed a 5 question form that asks you to think about what you did during this Module and to respond with brief text answers. Enjoy!

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.

Ann, your idea about "extensive use of posts at the beginning of a course might be utilized, whereas a collaborative document during the middle of the course might be beneficial" is a good one. I, for one, feel overwhelmed when I sign into DIIGO and find that people have been posting, posting, and posting while I have been doing other tasks, therefore, switching etools or cutting back on their usage would be useful for me.

This well written article gives pointers to teachers on how to discourage plagiarism in their classes as well as how to teach students about plagiarism in a positive light before it occurs. Very helpful!

Using Google, I found this source for math support for online educators. It is very well put together and extremely easy to use. Although I'm not a math instructor, if I were, I would enjoy using this support program because it seems well organized and flows in a logical fashion. There are links to all of an instructor's basic questions.

This is the title of an article in today's Seattle Times (2/7) in the NW MONDAY section B-1. Basically, it is about a proposed plan to partner Washington State with WGU (Western Governors University) which is located in Utah. If adopted, the "plan would expand a nonprofit online university in Washington as a way to increase access to higher education." It is a thought-provoking read that has implications for all of us aspiring to become online educators.

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.

Just a short survey from Mary Ann for Learning Module 4.

Joy, consider the process of Metacognition--thinking about your thinking. You may want to do a little reading about it. In my teaching, I have often used metacognitive strategies to find out just how well the students "understood" what I was hoping they would "understand". Using journals and guiding questions that force a student into reflecting on what was learned is always a good one. Another favorite of mine is the Self-Reflective essay in which students would write a 1-2 page discourse on the learning process they had just gone through--what did they do, what did they learn, what was the thinking process they engaged in to get to the completion of the learning project, who might have engaged intellectually with them and what was that process all about, etc. I hope this little bit will help in your quest. Assessment is always tricky because how can a person (instructor) TRULY KNOW what was or was not learned by a student? That's why multiple assessment strategies are used. Among them are peer evaluations (these can be verbal or written), conferences/interviews with instructors, portfolios, projects, rubrics, demonstrations and oral presentations, as well as a variety of tests or quizzes. I often built in a CHOICE factor which allowed students to choose two ways they wanted to be assessed for the learning that took place for them. This was a helpful strategy, but again, it was difficult to truly know if the student "got it" completely! The use of a particular assessment strategy is also dependent upon what the instructor is looking for. That might vary from facts to concepts, to a universal principle that has broad application. The Understanding by Design model looks for the latter.

I think your questions that were shared yesterday by Jennifer are excellent! It will be great to see what you end up with in your completed learning framework!

I posted an URL for an article discussing this topic. I am really interested in hearing from and/or discussing with any of you, its application in your professional lives. Learning how you have successfully incorporated these skills or, difficulties you have experienced in the work place would be most welcome!

"The current and future health of America's 21st Century Economy depends directly on how broadly and deeply Americans reach a new level of literacy--'21st Century Literacy'--that includes strong academic skills, thinking, reasoning, teamwork skills, and proficiency in using technology.", says the 21st Century Workforce Commission National Alliance of Business

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.

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!