EDUC251

I thought the questions were thought provoking and resonated with me. For example, the one on whether you should facebook with your students. I teach junior level high school students on-line and although, facebook participation does not come up, I often receive personal questions. Part of this dialog keeps the students interested in staying connected, but both in terms of privacy and needing to stay focused on the lesson, it is something I am conscious of. I find, though, that this type of document that has lots of questions, can be overwhelming. I don't really have the time to think through the issues.

I read this doc with great enthusiasm--so many excellent questions were posted--I want to refer to this one often so I can better wrap my head around the issues we face with on-line learning in the 21st century.

Here's a bit more about how they put it together. I'm sure there will be hundreds of collaborators, like he's had on other documents. http://educationaltechnology.ca/couros/1956 He just posted the link on Twitter and people jumped in.

Ann, your comment reminded me of this list of cognitive biases. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases Your point is so relevant. I always worry when I see teachers teaching kids the easy way to search and find things right away. It's scary to think how much we're capable of filtering out of our lives.

Jennifer, this goes to your point made in the other article you pointed us to - Crap Detection by Reingold. When you are learning something, your maturity level on the subject is minimal, so filtering what you are learning is difficult and we have a tendency once we have some information to not go further. When I teach, I am not only trying to impart information, but the analytical process for learning and absorbing the information.

I definitely meant to put that comment on the other article :)

All this accessibility to information is one of the greatest strength and weaknesses of online technology. You really can explore and be motivated by all the information available, but it can be overwhleming at times. There is a term "data mining" that refers to finding the information you need - mining through all that is available. If I think of the metaphor as someone looking for gold, you can often find "fool's gold", yet the difference here is how do you know what you have is real?

The logistical work that goes into an on-line course is more complex that in-person classes. There are so many options and technology that needs to be lined up. My own experience over the past week or two, where I have been computer challenged and had a delay in class participation. I liked the method that Jennifer used by allowing extra time for the first assignment, so as to minimize her (the teacher's need) for interaction on the daily things that impact our lives.

I've always been somewhat skeptical of Marc Prensky, who made the original distinction between Digital Natives and Immigrants. The skepticism comes from my impression that he's built a financially successful career out of promoting this distinction. Not to say there isn't some level of truth to it, but I'm not ready to throw the baby out with the bath water. The written word, for example - which has been a cornerstone of stored knowledge and communication - is as important now as it ever was.

Some of the things I believe hurt the most, are when we make sweeping assumptions about access to technology. In many cases, it is the privileged who have the opportunity to be "digital natives." I also think the digital immigrant idea is completely false. I used to advertise to help senior citizens with technology. I found they were some of the most eager and enthusiastic learners, because we learned things that interested them. The digital immigrant idea has also allowed us to write off senior faculty, waiting for them to retire, rather than connecting them with technologies that suit their needs. We're at a point of convergence. You don't have to understand all the technologies in order to use them. One person can compose in email, and the material can be viewed on any kind of device. I just wish the damage hadn't already been done, to so many who now feel they don't have the ability to participate because of their age.

Okay I am depressed. If we have been wiped out after being the ones that created this knowledge and technology in the first place, there is no hope for me to ever teach on line!!!

Joy, what we need are people willing to stand up and say that whatever your level of skill with technology, we all need to be able to communicate. We will all need to compromise and sacrifice. That could mean knocking on doors or hanging out on front porches, or it could mean learning a new language, or reduction of a language :)

I still don't understand where the labels are coming from. It seems like these labels are simply a way of discriminating against seniors. Now, the truth is, we were using computers before these generations were a light in their parents eyes. Some of us were designing the technology they are using today. Ok, looks like I am going to be on a lot of porches like the neighborhood dog looking for a handout! As for knocking on doors, I might need to invest in a good battering ram! Anyone ever watch the Capital One commercials? Maybe those folks are for hire!

The Digital Native/Immigrant theory came from Mark Prensky in 2001, but there's debate about whether or not he was the first to use the terms. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_native

Interesting article. Rather similiar to the way lawyers are educated to question people in a court room, wth the exception of questioning to inspire well thought out answers of an academic nature.

I always like these condensed lists of pointers for making life easier: One of the biggest challenges for me is coming up with a decent topic of conversation for online discussions - which is usually posed as a single question or series of related questions. This list is very useful for thinking about types of questions to ask.

This is a great starting point for thinking about online discussions. It's not easy coming up with the right questions to stimulate discussion. Sometimes I tell myself that if there's a "right" answer to the question, it probably won't work for a discussion.

I loved this site! The home page is very concise, informative with good examples. And, "yes" we should do some additional sharing, research and practice regarding what types (structure) of questions illict good, reflective responses (let you know the learner has synthesized course material). In clicking around to other links on this site, I noticed Leslie Owen referred to educator/author H. Lynn Erickson as a man. Not that it's a big deal, but, HL Erickson is a woman and is a curriculum consultant who lives locally. Seems like we all struggle with this aspect of teaching - good questions for discussion. Perhaps we could come up with a simple exercise where we post questions we might use which address our course readings? What ya think?? Thank you Mary Ann for this great teaching resource.

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!

Thanks for the book reference and the blog - excellent. Last week I had two e-mails from two different high school students that demonstrate points in this blog. One e-mail was one line, two half-sentences, written in 'txt'. The other was two paragraphs, complete sentences, grammatically correct. Both had the same issue but their handling, and my responses, were so very different.

I am becoming more and more frustrated with digital text based communication for the reasons the blogger specified. It is increasingly difficult to figure out why my granddaughters use a language I do not understand (text slang) and pictures on Facebook to substitute for a good "old fashioned" conversation. They are all smiles and hugs, leaving me to wonder what is really behind all that texting symbolism. I still prefer body language and the art of conversation and I am wondering where all this is leading.

My experience has been that most students know the difference between online chatspeak / textchat versus writing for formal communication. I may be in a bubble regarding this, but it's an exception, rather than a rule to run into chatspeak like - lol, imho, 4ever, omg, etc. in written assignments.

Hmmm Bruce. I think there is a void between chat rooms and classrooms. I think there is something lost and something gained in virtual social spaces. I am from an age where a hug and a kiss is the ultimate sign of intimacy when inter-relating to family members. I want to see a real smile and touch a real body. Virtual reality and cyber space leaves those human face-to-face meetings unavailable. I like body language and reading it. I cannot see, feel, touch and watch other humans in the same way. It frustrates me.

My skype ID is jendalby if you'd like to add me. I don't keep it on all the time, but if you see I'm available, feel free to start a chat.

Jennifer, Have you ever used Skype to bring a live visitor into a classroom for a presentation, or used it for multiuser conferencing? Just curious if Skype supports those ...

I haven't used it for multi-user in a while, but I know you can. I'm always hearing about teachers bringing guests into the classroom with Skype. Check out http://education.skype.com/ or just search for Skype in education.

Jennifer & Bruce - I have used Skype for collaboration on projects which require we look at and edit shared documents and simply, have the need to discuss projects for about 60 minutes at a time. For classroom use, you can't see the individual "real time," but you do hear their voice.