EDUC251

Ahhh...my favorite place...second life and virtual worlds! I was watching a video and found a speaker named Terry B, a prof at Montana State U. His strikingly beautiful virtual hair lead to instant "virtual love."

Do you spend much time in SL? I have 2 avatars but haven't been in ages.

No Jen...I just got crazy after that lesson in Wiggins on Backward Design. Then when I read your postings in Diigo, I researched it a bit more. Never seen an Avatara or a virtual world (as posted in this citing) or until last night when I read this post and the one I posted on Avatara. I play Farmville on Facebook now and then and Cafe World. Other than that, I escape into the recesses of my own mind and create my own reality in cyperspace. I cannot take serious too long. Sometimes reality hits me like a ton of bricks and I retreat to the only place I feel safe...creation and humor. Intellectuals get too stuffy for me. I like action!

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!

If you have a chance, please fill out my survey so I can see how it works on Google. ******************************************************************* Yike! I just realized that I should complete a self-check survey. Here is my SELF-CHECK SURVEY form and my SELF-CHECK SURVEY RESULTS

The survey works for me, but I think you have the results set so people have to be approved to see them.

I revised the first form. I hope I have opened it to everyone! Let me know please if it works.

I needed to refer to this piece of Evan's Instructional Design advice. The Goals are relatively easy to conceptualize. The module objectives are a bit more difficult.

Authentic learning is a solid pedagogy approach, no matter the environment. However, two concepts of authentic learning that I feel can be particularly expanded on with the internet and etools are "hooks" and "experts". "Hooks" is what picques and keeps the student's interest and motivation in the activity. With the use of video, games, tools, etc., there are many more ways to do this. "Experts" is being able to bring in subject resources, which on the internet, makes accessibility easy. For my course framework activity, therefore, I expanded on the colon treatment options module. For a hook, I searched YouTube for "colon cancer comedy" videos. There were quite a few actually. I added as a introduction to the module one of these videos - two singing colon surgeons - on colon surgery. For experts, I added references to the National Institute of Health and American Cancer Society on treatment options and survival statistics. I also am having the students connect directly to true cancer experts - patients, caregivers, and survivors. This puts a "face" on the disease, as well as an experience to what it means to have colon cancer. The course framework activity: (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HZKsjzymKk1Bn2gXDt1LOp5gqEsUvOqXE4m-72b8WYw/edit?hl=en#) In my online work experience as a math tutor, hooks are particularly important, as these students would not be in the program if they weren't already performing at a lower math level. Math is not a subject they enjoy. The automated lessons they take, often have "game" quizzes they take and can get immediate feedback on their answers. As an instructor, I try to utilize their life experiences. For example, I might ask them how old they are and then tell them how old I am. I then use these facts to construct subtraction and/or division questions.

Six Facets of Understanding -stage 1 : Identify desired results

I think this is true for many endeavors in life - having goals and knowing what you want to achieve.

I agree with this. We were told to write our immediate goals and long term goals, when I was in the University. I still do this...hoping I have five years or more in front of me. I have too much to do not to.

A few thoughts to ponder.

Matthew Taylor explores the meaning of 21st century enlightenment, how the idea might help us meet the challenges we face today, and the role that can be played by organisations such as the RSA.

I know I am certainly "split" on the internet - sharing more detailed information with family and friends, than professional acquaintances. For example, I have two Facebook accounts with different emails. Its not so much the boundaries are different, but how I implement them and the time and overhead I take to do it.

Ann, it's important that you feel empowered to have that kind of control over your participation online. I hope we'll start to see more of that. I love to introduce people to new technologies, and share how they affect me, but everyone has a different experience, and it's so important that we respect the way others choose to engage.

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.

This is from last year, but it's got some important considerations in it. You've got to watch it until the end to get the full message, though.

The observation in this video is quite powerful. We have always been motivated by incentives, but the internet and technology has taken this to a new level. Small incentives can become big ones. We've always behaved this way - like coupons for food - a few cents makes a different buying decision. However, his discussion on how egames have become a major financial source for Facebook and the virtual world is replacing the "authentic" world shows how technology is transformational. The point - about how everything we do is being recorded and kept - and will this change how we behave is true.

This animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA's Benjamin Franklin award. For more information on Sir Ken's work visit: http://www.sirkenrobinson.com

Helen, I like Sir Ken Robinson's stuff, but I do take it with a grain of salt as well. Like Gladwell, he's a good storyteller and can inspire, but everything's got to be taken in context. I love that you ask your students to follow their train of thought. I do that with my kids, and find I often have to explain my own train of thought to others. I like the way you are in tune with the benefits and risks of reflective practice. It can get messy, and it isn't always the best thing for every student. It sounds like you take extra steps to make sure they understand the value of it.

Helen, thanks for underlining the Evoke game. I did find it - www.urgentevoke.com - and was impressed by what a great representative of eLearning this was. Organized, engaging, lots of information - but what I liked most was that it led to action - i.e., the gaming playing is not just on the computer - but actions you take or are encouraged to take to make a difference.

This is the girl grown. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXGwqbI37Ks&feature=related

What's funny, is that when this video was put online, it was passed around and most people didn't know it was an older video. Once we became aware of that, everyone wanted to know what she's up to now. She started getting a lot of speaking gigs, so you can find more of her presentations online now.

Your welcome Mary Ann. I did see several videos with her newest info on you tube. I did include one link above.

I am not quite sure I know what a PDP is, but assume it is a portable device. I appreciated your sharing that as I hadn't thought about how eLearning is not just over the internet, but can include auxiullary technology. In a previous post, the thought of delivery of course material over other devices - such as an iPod - was brought up, but hadn't thought about how students also use these tools in a way that I, as a teacher, don't structure. This brings up for me, how, if anything, I want to do as a student. If, for example, everyone has an iPod, might I suggest they could enter their assignment either by blog or iPod? I realize in a course technology is an overhead, but it reminds me of the possibilities and that we are at the beginning of a teaching evolution.

I made a sample lecture material for my badminton class with powerpoint.

Hyerin, I just viewed your final project, finding it filled with many good things teachers do to engage and nurture their students. I liked the buttons at the top of the home page which directed students to the various pieces of the course on badminton. As a student, I would find it easy to navigate your course and have fun learning about this sport! Keep up the good work!

I discovered something important as I went through this mental exercise. Wiggins would be proud!

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!

Another review on Turkle's "Alone Together."

OMG...how totally eerie. How predictive! Amazing, thanks for sharing that Bruce.

The "cultural rachet effect" was particularly interesting to me. (For grown-ups, learning a new skill is painful, attention-demanding, and slow. Children learn unconsciously and effortlessly. Because of this, each new generation rapidly acquires all the accumulated innovations of the past without even knowing it. ) It becomes the new "normal", so rather than the computer, for example, being something new, its integrated as part of lives. It changes our footprint in the world and, therefore, the world.

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!

I haven't had time to read it yet, but it's an important read for me each year.

Here's another useful open resource from Alan Levine, AKA @cogdog

Wow! This is one of the best tips&tricks lists that I've seen anywhere. Now, if I could just find some time to try them all out... Another interesting aspect of this Google document is that it's open for anyone to contribute - a good example of the wisdom of the crowds. Thanks for posting this, Jennifer - very useful.