EDUC251

I was able to watch some of this while it streamed live. It's worth watching the recording if you have time. "Tune in to this rare opportunity to see the "best living historian of education" (Washington Post) and America's "soberest, most history-minded education expert" (Wall Street Journal), give one of the best-informed analyses of the current state of American education-what's broken and what are the best ways to fix it. Diane Ravitch is a research professor of education at New York University, senior fellow at Brookings Institution, renowned education historian, and author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System (2010). Her book, which takes issue with both the political right and left, has been called a "must read" for education policymakers at all levels of government."

I found this website while I was searching for some information about eLearning. I think this website will help many kids who study online! :)

This looks like lots of fun. I'll have to share it with my kids. They love online learning games.

On my blog is my reflection of this course and fellow learners. I truly appreciated everything I learned and experienced this quarter with everyone!

Wow!

Hey Jen ! I've missed you and your thoughtful connections! Thank you for finding this fascinating artist who shares a wealth of wisdom regarding creative capacities!! Austin has made an amazing discovery about this state of being. And, what a refreshing collection of thoughts from a writer/ visual artist (musician, too) who struggles with all those personality complex demons - "Not creative enough, not original enough! I struggle with writer's block! Is it art if no one appreciates it!" He goes right to the heart of the matter and encourages us to be playful, have hobbies and allow ideas to perculate. Most important, be mindful of this entire process and connect with other likeminded "processors." "When you open up your process and invite people in, you learn. . . Figure out how to make a website. Figure out blogging. Figure out Twitter and all that other stuff. Find people on the internet who love the same things as you and connect with them. Share things with them." The amount of thought and energy that goes into being creative should be a communial activity which the internet has made possible. Thanks for sharing these thoughts.

A few days ago, I went to an excellent workshop sponsored by the Center for Career Connections at Bellevue College about using LinkedIn. This Web 2.0 networking application has now become the most important online tool for presenting your professional profile and work experience to the public. One of the speakers, Web tools guru Miles Austin, said that if you don't have a developed presence online, you don't exist as far as potential employers are concerned. According to a recent survey, 78% of all job recruiters use LinkedIn as their primary application for finding new employees. The link above provides some useful background information about LinkedIn, based on the workshop. It also reinforced in my mind the importance of developing strong network contacts and carefully building an online persona. If you have an account on LinkedIn or create a new one - please add me to your network!

This was interesting, as I personally thought it was too inclusive - anyone can post and your network was too broad to be meaningful. But obviously this type of "advetisement" does make a difference in employment.

LinkedIn is very different from other social networks. I'm extremely careful about my connections there. I only connect with people I know in person, people I've collaborated with online for a while, or people who already have a good reputation. I don't even connect with all my family members there, only the ones with careers related to mine.

Free eLearning books!

This is the tool I use to record screencasts.

For the final presentation, I chose 'Jing' because it is the easiest tool to use that the teacher recommended to us. When I actually tried to make a sample video, I could easily apply this tool. There was five minute limit for free users, but my final presentation has also five minute limit. After I applied this tool for my final presentation, I learned about the new technology, and how to apply this technology in my future online class.

Interesting perspective on attention. This addresses some of the issues we've discussed this week. I'd be interested to know if you're able to watch the entire video without doing anything else. I'm 6 minutes into it, and I'm composing an email for work, writing this, and texting a friend in the UK.

I finally had a chance to watch this talk by Rheingold. He's covering some of the issues that we've already discussed over the past couple of weeks. One of them is the need for our educational institutions to change in response to global communications changes (1 billion online users, 2 billion cell phone users). He says we need new forms of literacy both in terms of how to use these new technologies, as well as how to communicate effectively using them. He said this isn't a new situation - in the past, societies had to adapt to the technologies of the phonetic alphabet, the printing press, telephone, television, etc. One interesting quote: "Our educational system, our schooling system is very well tuned to creating good citizen workers for 19th and 20th Century industries."

Dan Meyer's interesting process for math assessment.

Dear to my heart is any video or blog teaching us the dangers of bullying.

This is a great topic to research in relation to eLearning. There is so much more risk of bullying than there is with other types of "safety" issues that get more media attention.

Amen. One day when working on the crisis line at the office of EDVP, a woman called me regarding her daughter and a incident of bullying. I gave her tons of resources and some of them were geared toward her 6 -10 year old daughter.

If you're interested in corporate eLearning, and informal learning, Jay Cross is an interesting person to follow. I really appreciate the way he's brought attention to informal learning. I used to have his poster on my office door http://www.scribd.com/doc/2243876/Informal-Learning-Poster

I loved this video as a way to wrap up a course!!

You might not get this while it's still streaming, but I thought I'd add it anyway. I'm watching the live feed with the First Lady surprising the visitors on the White House tour.

There are conversations going on all over about the video of the bullying victim who fought back. It's also interesting to read the comments on this interview.

My husband went to Curtis High and was bullied all through grade school and finally through high school. He was the poor kid in a school of rich kids. When he went to the US Air Force, the bullying continued. He happened to make friends with a US Army/Delta sargeant. One night when they were out together in a bar, they ( other military men in the bar) started taunting my husband. These men were airmen not children. The sargeant interceded and told them that one day Curt would snap and to back off. He spent most of his school years locked in the the attic of his house, by his own choice, working on tapes and listening to music. This is why today he is a great sound man and band manager. The US AIr Force gave him confidence and the bullying drove him to music. Although he is slender and wiry...He is strong as an ox! While working in two state prisons as a corrections officer I found, the men the hardest to take down when filled with adrenaline, were the small and wiry people. So bullies of the world beware! Loved the video Jen.

How might this process look for an on-line course? I don't think the QM folks would think highly. Do you? A great idea to have a two-pronged approach to the rubric - Make your own rubric while you're planning the unit. Figure out what students need to demonstrate to master the objectives. In class, explain the project. Place students in think-pair-share groups to discuss what criteria they would use to judge the project. Ask for a volunteer to take notes for the class on the whiteboard and take criteria suggestions from the crowd. Circle those items that have more than one vote. Underline those that you have in your own rubric. Talk about the products and how each criterion will be evaluated. Show the class your rubric and add suggestions from the class's discussion. By having this pre-work discussion, students can show their creativity on the front end of the project. They have a say in what distinguishes a successful project from one that doesn't meet expectations. The students have ownership and have begun the thought process that will lead to the project development. This isn't a waste of class time; it's think time. Best of all, when you receive the students' projects, you'll have a rubric to guide you. You won't be surprised with a clay sculpture when you expected a lab write up. And you'll be assured that your lesson's objectives, the students' work, and everyone's expectations all line up.

Helen, I enjoyed reading this article on the value of clearly stated assignment rubrics. As the author Diane Trim says: If students don't know what product they should turn in and I don't know how to grade the random essays I receive, how can I assess whether or not a student understood the material?

This is a research article where the authors studied classroom teachers who were required to convert to on-line learning. Some of the results I found interesting, was how the teachers who taught in traditional classrooms had challenges in re-structuring the information - primarily in the area of control information flow. More assessments, for example, had to be added. There is also a discussion of increased workload by the instructors and how this was a variable in the enthusiasm of the teacher's embracing the technologin.

The amount of time is always a big shock. And most of the time, it's difficult to get administration to understand that. It's something faculty unions are definitely taking into consideration with contract negotiations. I read this book a few years ago http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0787987700.html and while it has some good ideas and information, I think they were also providing a huge stipend for redevelopment of courses.

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I had to make this important correction for my course design.

Amazing problem solvers at work globally. I invite you to watch and enjoy and ponder.

The career options for these students is certainly broader than the doctor, lawyer, fireman options I thought of as a child. I can't help, but think, how access to information via the internet that young people have enables them to dream more broadly.