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Eric Calvert

Toward a Theory of Online Learning - 0 views

cde.athabascau.ca/...ch2.html

Anderson online learning theory Athabasca

shared by Eric Calvert on 09 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Toward a Theory of Online Learning
  • Terry Anderson Athabasca University
  • There is nothing more practical than a good theory. ~ James C. Maxwell (1831-1879)
  • ...54 more annotations...
  • Theory has both been celebrated and condemned in educational practice and research. Many proponents have argued that theory allows—even forces—us to see the “big picture” and makes it possible for us to view our practice and our research from a broader perspective than that envisioned from the murky trenches of our practice. This broader perspective helps us to make connections with the work of others, facilitates coherent frameworks and deeper understanding of our actions, and perhaps most importantly allows us to transfer the experience gained in one context to new experiences and contexts. Critics of theory (Wilson, 1999) have argued that too strict an adherence to any particular theoretical viewpoint often filters our perceptions and blinds us to important lessons of reality.
  • Wilson (1997) has described three functions of a good educational theory. First, it helps us to envision new worlds.
  • Second, a good theory helps us to make things. We need theories of online learning that help us to invest our time and limited resources most effectively.
  • Third, Wilson argues that a good theory keeps us honest. Good theory builds upon what is already known, and helps us to interpret and plan for the unknown. It also forces us to look beyond day-to-day contingencies and to ensure that our knowledge and practice of online learning is robust, considered, and ever expanding.
  • online learning is a subset of learning in general; thus, we can expect issues relevant to how adults learn generally to be relevant to how they learn in an online context.
  • effective learning is learner centered, knowledge centered, assessment centered, and community centered
  • Learner Centered
  • Learner-centered learning, according to Bransford et al., includes awareness of the unique cognitive structures and understandings that the learners bring to the learning context. Thus, a teacher makes efforts to gain an understanding of students' pre-existing knowledge, including any misconceptions that the learner starts with in their construction of new knowledge. Further, the learning environment respects and accommodates the particular cultural attributes, especially the language and particular forms of expression, that the learner uses to interpret and build knowledge.
  • Knowledge Centered
  • Effective learning does not happen in a content vacuum. McPeck (1990) and other theorists of critical thinking have argued that teaching generalized thinking skills and techniques is useless outside of a particular knowledge domain in which they can be grounded. Similarly, Bransford et al. argue that effective learning is both defined and bounded by the epistemology, language, and context of disciplinary thought.
  • Each discipline or field of study contains a world view that provides often unique ways of understanding and talking about knowledge. Students need opportunities to experience this discourse, as well as the knowledge structures that undergraduate teaching affords. They also need opportunities to reflect upon their own thinking: automacy is a useful and necessary skill for expert thinking, but without reflective capacity, it greatly limits one's ability to transfer knowledge to an unfamiliar context or to develop new knowledge structures.
  • Assessment Centered
  • The third perspective on learning environments presented by Bransford et al. is the necessity for effective learning environments to be assessment centered. In making this assertion, they do not give unqualified support for summative assessments (especially those supposedly used for national or provincial accountability), but rather look to formative evaluation that serves to motivate, inform, and provide feedback to both learners and teachers
  • Understanding what is most usefully rather than what is most easily assessed is a challenge for the designers of online learning.
  • Baxter, Elder, and Glaser (1996) found that competent students should be able to provide coherent explanations, generate plans for problem solution, implement solution strategies, and monitor and adjust their activities.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 10 Aug 10
       
      BTW LRND 6820 students... this is the standard we're working toward in the LRND program.
  • the enhanced communications capacity of online learning and the focus of most adult online learning in the real world of work provide opportunities to create assessment activities that are project and workplace based, that are constructed collaboratively, that benefit from peer review, and that are infused with both the opportunity and the requirement for self-assessment.
  • A danger of assessment-centered learning systems is the potential increase in the workload demanded of busy online learning teachers.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 10 Aug 10
       
      Limited time and financial resources, in addition to perceived objectivity, are probably the main reasons why our education system and policy frameworks rely so heavily on standardized tests, despite the fact that hardly anyone believes they're the best way to assess individual learners.
  • Thus, the challenge of online learning is to provide high quantity and quality of assessment while maintaining student interest and commitment.
  • Community Centered
  • The community-centered lens allows us to include the critical social component of learning in our online learning designs. Here we find Vygotsky's (1978) popular concepts of social cognition to be relevant as we consider how students can work together in an online learning context to create new knowledge collaboratively. These ideas have been expanded in Lipman's (1991) community of inquiry and Wenger's (2001) ideas of community of practice to show how members of a learning community both support and challenge each other, leading to effective and relevant knowledge construction. Wilson (2001) has described participants in online communities as having a shared sense of belonging, trust, expectation of learning, and commitment to participate and to contribute to the community.
  • In short, it may be more challenging than we think to create and sustain these communities, and the differences—linked to a lack of placedness and synchronicity, that is, mutual presence in time and place—may be more fundamental than the mere absence of body language and social presence.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 10 Aug 10
       
      One of the topics we'll talk about in the second half of the semester is how to overcome some of these obstacles.  
  • These potential barriers argue for a theory of online learning that accommodates, but does not prescribe, any particular boundaries of time and place, and that allows for appropriate substitution of independent and community-centered learning. To this requirement, we add the need for a theory of e-learning that is learning centered, provides a wide variety of authentic assessment opportunities, and is grounded in existing knowledge contexts.
  • Affordances of the Net
  • Online learning, as a subset of all distance education, has always been concerned with providing access to educational experience that is at least more flexible in time and in space than campus-based education.
  • Much of the early work on the instructional use of the Internet (Harasim, 1989; Feenberg, 1989) assumed that asynchronous text-based interaction defined the medium.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 10 Aug 10
       
      Bear this in mind as you read older research.  Because our field is changing so rapidly, we always have to be mindful of the definition of "online learning" the author was working from in order to make sense of the author's findings.
  • The Web's in-built capacity for hyperlinking has been compared to the way in which human knowledge is stored in mental schema and to the subsequent development of mental structures (Jonassen, 1992). Further, the capacity for students to create their own learning paths through content that is formatted with hypertext links is congruent with constructivist instructional design theory that stresses individual discovery and construction of knowledge (Jonassen, 1991).
  • Education is not only about access to content, however. The greatest affordance of the Web for educational use is the profound and multifaceted increase in communication and interaction capability that it provides.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 10 Aug 10
       
      We will spend a good deal of time "playing" with different tools for facilitating communication for learning this semester and reflecting on their usefulness.
  • Defining and Valuing Interaction in Online Learning
  • I will here simply accept Wagner's (1994) definition of interaction as “reciprocal events that require at least two objects and two actions. Interactions occur when these objects and events mutually influence one another” (p. 8).
  • Interaction (or interactivity) serves a variety of functions in the educational transaction. Sims (1999) has listed these functions as allowing for learner control, facilitating program adaptation based on learner input, allowing various forms of participation and communication, and acting as an aid to meaningful learning. In addition, interactivity is fundamental to creation of the learning communities espoused by Lipman (1991), Wenger (2001), and other influential educational theorists who focus on the critical role of community in learning. Finally, the value of another person's perspective, usually gained through interaction, is a key learning component in constructivist learning theories (Jonassen, 1991), and in inducing mindfulness in learners (Langer, 1989).
  • As long ago as 1916, John Dewey referred to interaction as the defining component of the educational process that occurs when the student transforms the inert information passed to them from another, and constructs it into knowledge with personal application and value (Dewey, 1916).
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 10 Aug 10
       
      "Make and take" vs. "sit and get."
  • It can be seen that, generally, the higher and richer the form of communication, the more restrictions it places on independence.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 10 Aug 10
       
      This is a real issue even in the LRND program. We're grappling with finding the right balance in using "rich" tools like Elluminate that allow exploring and discussing multiple media in real time (but require students to do the same thing at the same time) and asynchronous tools that offer more flexibility and choice but perhaps less richness.   Any early opinions?
  • Student-student Interaction
  • Modern constructivist theorists stress the value of peer-to-peer interaction in investigating and developing multiple perspectives.
  • Student-teacher Interaction
  • Student-content Interaction
  • Eklund (1995) lists some potential advantages of such approaches, noting that they allow instructors to •   provide an on line or intelligent help facility, if a user is modeled and their path is traced through the information space; •   use an adaptive interface based on several stereotypical user classes to modify the environment to suit individual users; and •   provide adaptive advice, and model the learner's use of the environment (including navigational use, answers to questions, and help requested) to make intelligent suggestions about a preferred individualized path through the knowledge base. To these advantages must be added the capacity for immediate feedback, not only for formal learning guidance, but also for just-in-time learning assistance through job aids and other performance support tools.
  • Teacher-teacher Interaction
  • Teacher-content Interaction
  • Content-content Interaction
  • Content-content interaction is a newly developing mode of educational interaction in which content is programmed to interact with other automated information sources, so as to refresh itself constantly, and to acquire new capabilities. For example, a weather tutorial might take its data from current meteorological servers, creating a learning context that is up-to-date and relevant to the learner's context.
  • A Model of E-learning
  • The model illustrates the two major human actors, learners and teachers, and their interactions with each other and with content. Learners can of course interact directly with content that they find in multiple formats, and especially on the Web; however, many choose to have their learning sequenced, directed, and evaluated with the assistance of a teacher. This interaction can take place within a community of inquiry, using a variety of Net-based synchronous and asynchronous activities (video, audio, computer conferencing, chats, or virtual world interaction). These environments are particularly rich, and allow for the learning of social skills, the collaborative learning of content, and the development of personal relationships among participants. However, the community binds learners in time, forcing regular sessions or at least group-paced learning. Community models are also, generally, more expensive, as they suffer from an inability to scale to large numbers of learners. The second model of learning (on the right) illustrates the structured learning tools associated with independent learning. Common tools used in this mode include computer-assisted tutorials, drills, and simulations.
  • A key decision factor is based on the nature of the learning that is prescribed. Marc Prensky (2000) argues that different learning outcomes are best learned through particular types of learning activities. Prensky asks not, “How do students learn?” but more specifically, “How do they learn what?
  • Prensky (2000, p. 56) postulates that, in general, we all learn: •   behaviors through imitation, feedback, and practice; •   creativity through playing; •   facts through association, drill, memory, and questions; •   judgment through reviewing cases, asking questions, making choices, and receiving feedback and coaching; •   language through imitation, practice, and immersion; •   observation through viewing examples and receiving feedback; •   procedures through imitation and practice; •   processes through system analysis, deconstruction, and practice; •   systems through discovering principles and undertaking graduated tasks; •   reasoning through puzzles, problems, and examples; •   skills (physical or mental) through imitation, feedback, continuous practice, and increasing challenge; •   speeches or performance roles through memorization, practice, and coaching; •   theories through logic, explanation, and questioning.
  • Online Learning and the Semantic Web
  • Campus-based education systems are constructed around physical buildings that afford meeting and lecture spaces for teachers and groups of students. The Web provides nearly ubiquitous access to quantities of content that are many orders of magnitude larger than those provided in any other medium.
  • The Web offers a host of very powerful affordances to educators.
  • Thus, I conclude this chapter with an overview of a theory of online learning interaction that suggests that the various forms of student interaction can be substituted for each other, depending on costs, content, learning objectives, convenience, technology, and available time. The substitutions do not result in decreases in the quality of the learning that results. More formally: Sufficient levels of deep and meaningful learning can be developed, as long as one of the three forms of interaction (student-teacher; student-student; student-content) is at very high levels. The other two may be offered at minimal levels or even eliminated without degrading the educational experience. (Anderson, 2002)
  • The challenge for teachers and course developers working in an online learning context is to construct a learning environment that is simultaneously learning centered, content centered, community centered, and assessment centered.
  • Table 2-1 illustrates how the affordances of these emerging technologies can be directed so as to create the environment that is most supportive of “how people learn.”
  • However, we can expect that online learning, like all forms of quality learning, will be knowledge, community, assessment, and learner centered.
  • The task of the online course designer and teacher is to choose, adapt, and perfect (through feedback, assessment, and reflection) educational activities that maximize the affordances of the Web. In doing so, they create learning-, knowledge-, assessment-, and community-centered educational experiences that result in high levels of learning by all participants.
  • Toward a Theory of Online Learning
  • Eric Calvert on 09 Aug 10
     
    Chapter by Terry Anderson from "Theory and Practice of Online Learning"
Eric Calvert

EBSCOhost: Of mind and media - 0 views

0-web.ebscohost.com.maurice.bgsu.edu/...detail

shared by Eric Calvert on 12 Aug 10 - No Cached
  • When children are told to watch a television program not for fun but to learn something from it, their expenditure of mental effort rises dramatically, and with it, the quality of learning outcomes. [14] Quite clearly, children's differential perceptions of the media and of symbolic forms of representation ("pictures are realistic and hence require less mental effort than print") reflect the views of the social world around them. Where or when television is perceived as a serious medium (as was the case in Israel in the early days of television), processing capacities become mobilized, and much learning takes place. Not so when the medium is taken to be "just pictures." The socially held and communicated views of the media appear to affect the way children handle them, the depth with which they process their offerings, and thus what they actually learn from them.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 12 Aug 10
       
      This raises a question for me related to learning games.  If the "learning" part is too carefully disguised (and some learning games are sold with statements like, "it makes learning easy!" or "students don't even know they're learning!") is there a risk that it's educational value will be compromised?   Do you think it's better to disguise learning as a video game, or create learning games that are EXPLICITLY designed to be used to promote learning/thinking?
  • Significantly, I and others have found that children often tend to handle a medium more on the basis of the general image they hold of it than on the basis of its particular offering or intrinsic attributes. Symbolic forms of representation that are perceived to duplicate reality closely (e.g., pictures) are taken to require no knowledge of authorship and no skill for processing.[12] Television, as a general rule, is perceived to be fun, simple, easy to understand, and generally useless. Comprehending televised content is perceived to require no brains, while failing to comprehend it is a sign of stupidity. On the other hand, print is generally perceived to be highly demanding, and success in comprehending a story in print is regarded as a matter of ability. Failing to comprehend print is expected because it is "tough." Do these differential perceptions make a difference in learning? Indeed, they do! In line with such perceptions, children do not expend much mental effort on a televised story, even when it is quite poetic and requires effort. Thus they learn far less from it than from an equivalent story in print. The largest and most impressive difference in responses is found in the more intelligent children, who mobilize their capacities to learn from the print story but forgo doing so when it comes to TV.[13]
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 12 Aug 10
       
      Do you think it's possible that part of the reason why the Web has been resisted as a learning tool by some educators is that they associate it primarily with entertainment, whereas books/paper are seen as "serious" media?
  • Forms of Representation As Tools of the Mind Last, and perhaps most important, we need to ask whether the different symbolic forms of representation not only offer different meanings, require different mental capacities, and are differentially perceived, but also whether they leave some differential cognitive residue. That is, do they somehow affect the way we come to perceive or represent the world to ourselves? Do they affect our cognitive apparatus in some lasting way, thus coming to serve as tools of the mind?
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  • Children exposed to novel symbolic forms of representation typical of film and television (e.g., zooming in and out, long shots and close-ups, animated breakup of space) have shown evidence of coming to use these forms in their thinking. As one student commented, "I have learned to think of my life as a series of frames partly overlapping each other and dissolving into each other." My findings came from both controlled experiments and natural field and cross-cultural studies. The latter, being of greater ecological validity, are of particular relevance here. I found that children's prolonged exposure to TV, provided that they expend effort in processing its messages, results in measurable changes in their mastery of relevant capacities.
  • One way to describe comprehension is as a network of relations among "nodes" of knowledge. It can be argued that a single bit of information cannot be comprehended except as part of a network of relations with other such nodes. For example, the difficulty of trying to memorize historical dates is that they often remain unconnected, free-floating in one's cognitive space, and thus quite incomprehensible and meaningless. It is only when the study of history is turned into a narrativelike web of connected themes (a story) that the single event or date becomes meaningful. The denser the web of connections, the richer the meaningfulness of the single item. Coming to comprehend something means networking -- creating a network or web.[19]
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 12 Aug 10
       
      Does this sound a bit like "connectivism?"
  • The Internet and other computer products and possibilities (particularly multimedia programs) are similarly based on the idea of a web, this one connecting sites, information packages, and participants. All these technologies afford quick and efficient connectivity and easy access to the different "nodes." This, of course, is their strength, allowing serf-guided exploration and targeted information searches, in the best of the constructivist spirit. They also seem to be gradually changing the meaning of "knowledge," from something that is possessed to something to which we have access .[20]
  • But this could as easily be their weakness, even their cognitive downside. For what these developments allow is an undisciplined, free-associational, yet tempting wandering among the various nodes ("web surfing"). Students have been observed to start exploring the life cycles of elephants in Central Africa but to very quickly find themselves following a lead that takes them to the biography of Napoleon or to the political situation in Turkey.
  • Mind and technological media are not two unrelated entities. They affect each other in a variety of ways. Technological media are, of course, the creation of the human mind, but they in turn affect their creator. Media's symbolic forms of representation are clearly not neutral or indifferent packages that have no effect on the represented information. Being part and parcel of the information itself, they influence the meanings one arrives at, the mental capacities that are called for, and the ways one comes to view the world. Perhaps most important, the culture that creates the media and develops their symbolic forms of representation also opens the door for those forms to act on the minds of the young in both more and less desirable ways.
Eric Calvert

What are Learning Analytics? (Siemens, 2010) - 0 views

www.elearnspace.org/...what-are-learning-analytics

analytics learning Siemens

shared by Eric Calvert on 26 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Learning analytics is the use of intelligent data, learner-produced data, and analysis models to discover information and social connections, and to predict and advise on learning
  • I’m interested in how learning analytics can restructure the process of teaching, learning, and administration.
  • LA relies on some of the concepts employed in web analysis, through tools like Google Analytics, as well as those involved in data mining (see educational data mining).
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  • Learning analytics is broader, however, in that it is concerned not only with analytics but also with action, curriculum mapping, personalization and adaptation, prediction, intervention, and competency determination.
  • For now, it’s sufficient to state that our data trails and profile, in relation to existing curriculum, can be analyzed and then used as a basis for prediction, intervention, personalization, and adaptation.
  • Effective utilization of learning analytics can help schools and universities to pick up on signals that indicate difficulties with learner performance. Just as individuals communicate social intentions through signals well before they actually “think” they make a decision, learners signal success/failure in the learning process through reduced time on task, language of frustration (in LMS forums), long lag periods between logins, and lack of direct engagement with other learners or instructors.
  • Curriculum in schools and higher education is generally pre-planned. Designers create course content, interaction, and support resources well before any learner arrives in a course (online or on campus). This is an “efficient learner hypothesis” (ELF) – the assertion that learners are at roughly the same stage when they start a course and that they progress at roughly the same pace. Any educator knows that this is not true and will eagerly resist the assertion that their teaching assumes ELF. But systems don’t lie.
  • Learning content should be more like computation – a real-time rendering of learning resources and social suggestions based on the profile of a learner, her conceptual understanding of a subject, and her previous experience.
  • Eric Calvert on 26 Aug 10
     
    Elearnspace blog post by George Siemens on ideas for using analytics tools with online teaching tools and student profile data to to personalize teaching and learning.
Eric Calvert

Ginnette's blog post on the VoiceThread Debate - 0 views

blogs.bgsu.edu/clarkg

clarkg LRND6820 VoiceThread debate google

shared by Eric Calvert on 15 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • With learning design we need to make sure we incorporate as much experience and variety as we can.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 15 Oct 10
       
      You're right -- incorporating as much experience and variety as possible is important.  Equally key, however, is making sure there's some scaffolding in place to help learners connect/relate these new experiences to previous ones.  Otherwise, they are likely to be quickly forgotten.
  • People are distracted by the Internet because there are tons of things that can be done instead of homework. But to the benefit of Internet, I remember doing all sorts of things (as a elementary/high school student) instead of homework and they weren’t Internet related. We will always try to find ways to do something else when we do not want to do something.
  • When my daughter was born with Spina Bifida, I looked at every site that was available about the subject. I wanted to learn as much as I could about the prognosis of my child. Also, the Internet has connected other families together that have children with Spina Bifida. The Internet has proven to be a great resource to those people.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 25 Oct 10
       
      This is an interesting point.  "Distraction" could be "in the eye of the beholder" in some cases.  It might be quite easy for some to be very focused when using the Web for "informal" learning.  In this case, you were no doubt very motivated to learn as much as you could because you were learning about a topic that was very important to you personally.  Perhaps "focus" is less of an issue for designers to worry about if learners have choice is what they learn about?
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  • I believe that by using recorded webinars and educational seminars we will be able to teach the most people. This way, learners can access the education when they have time…they will now miss out on the things that they need to learn.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 25 Oct 10
       
      I generally agree with this, but think learning designers should build in some ways for learners to check their comprehension after viewing an online webinar.  I'll admit to being guilty of tuning in to a webinar, then at some point thinking, "okay, I'm already familiar with the content of this section, so I'm going to keep it in the background and take a quick peak at my Twitter feed..." Usually I THINK I'm doing a good job of managing my attention, but in reality I do probably miss some important stuff.  
  • Training can be done from the workplace, reducing the need for travel and extra expenses that an employer will not necessarily budget and provide for.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 25 Oct 10
       
      I think this helps explains why the demand for learning designers for both K-12 students and adult learning situations has continued to grow despite the recession.
Eric Calvert

PLE Chapters from "Emerging Technologies in Distance Education" - 7 views

www.aupress.ca/...120177

PLEs PLNs PLE PLN

shared by Eric Calvert on 14 Sep 10 - Cached
  • . Developing Personal Learning Networks for Open and Social LearningAlec Couros
  • 9. Personal Learning Environments Trey Martindale & Michael Dowdy
  • Eric Calvert on 14 Sep 10
     
    Two great chapters on personal learning environments and personal learning networks available as free downloads from this e-book.  (See highlights.)
Eric Calvert

LRND Weekly #10 "Universal Design for Learning" - Ian Poor - 0 views

ianpoor.com/...-universal-design-for-learning

lrnd6820 udl ipoor

shared by Eric Calvert on 02 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • The author mentions that UDL is meant to “level the playing field” for learners with all kinds of disabilities and I think that it has the potential to enhance the learning experience for all types of learners.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 02 Nov 10
       
      I do, too.  If a tool can help a student learn or think better, he or she should use it, whether or not he or she has a diagnosed learning disability or sensory issue.
  • As a learning designer I want to take it upon myself to promote this new approach within the learning environments I create in the future.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 02 Nov 10
       
      Good!  I think this is something that more and more future employers will expect, but it's still the right thing to do because it's the right thing to do.
Eric Calvert

mmieure's blog - 0 views

blogs.bgsu.edu/mmieure

shared by Eric Calvert on 15 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • We know the educational system has to change and be more effective, however if you are teaching a biology class of 40 students, and you are intorducing text books, smart boards, lab experiments and field trips, what more can you do?
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 15 Oct 10
       
      You're right.  The curriculum is getting very "crowded."  I think our tendency is to look at curriculum and ask, "what more needs to be added," when sometimes we could actually improve things but cutting things out -- especially where there's not currently time for students to think deeply enough about the content for it to "stick."
  • It would seem impossible to taylor the curriculum to each student.  As relative to this article, it makes the point that learning can come in a variety of packages depending on the individual, and this is true.  However,  I see it also as a difficult road to capitalize on these ideas when you have too many students, not enough time and not enough money.
  • It just brings me to another question, are the digital natives and their knack for being able to multi-task multiple technological devices at the same time really smarter than the rest of us because of it?  Or are they unknowingly being overwhelmed with too many distractions?
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 15 Oct 10
       
      We'll explore this question in great depth during the VoiceThread debate next week!
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • For instance, the non-interactive learning is more beneficial to basic skills whereas the interactive learning is more beneficial to high order skills.  Again, I believe studies such as this could benefit education enormously.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 15 Oct 10
       
      Yes.  Going back to your earlier point, sometimes less really is more.
  • According to this model, it seems that in order to enhance the long term learning of a student we should consider a “learning how to learn” class
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 15 Oct 10
       
      You might be interested in some of Arthur Costa's work on explicitly teaching metacognitive skills to young students.  
Eric Calvert

LRND 6820-UDL | mmieure's blog - 0 views

blogs.bgsu.edu/...lrnd-6820-udl

lrnd6820 udl mmieure

shared by Eric Calvert on 02 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • I have located a few more articles on the subject that I found relevant to the issue.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 02 Nov 10
       
      If you've found any you think others would benefit from, please consider sharing them via the Diigo group for the course.
  • 3)Affective Networks-The “why” of learning. —How learners get engaged and stay motivated. How they are challenged, excited, or interested. These are affective dimensions.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 02 Nov 10
       
      This is one of the elements I particularly like about the UDL framework.  We know from Hardre and others that motivation is so essential to learning, but we don't always think about it in designing curricula like we should. 
  • I do not believe that UDL is the answer to everything, however I would say it will be a great tool and measuring stick to allow us to proceed effectively in the future.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 02 Nov 10
       
      I agree.  There will still be circumstances where specialized tools will be needed to help certain individuals.  However, it's far easier to adapt materials that are created with accessibility in mind "from the get-go" vs. creating something for a prototypical "average" person and trying to retrofit and differentiate it after the fact.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • It seems that video game learning environments will spin from the “affective networks” of the brain, using these traits to tap into maximum learning.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 02 Nov 10
       
      Good observation, Matt.  Learning design could learn a lot from game design about what motivates people to explore electronic content and persist in trying to overcome challenges.
Eric Calvert

Final Reflections - Voice Thread Debate | Ginnette Clark's blog - 0 views

blogs.bgsu.edu/...eflections-voice-thread-debate

clarkg LRND6820 VoiceThread debate google

shared by Eric Calvert on 25 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • I think that the Internet has made us more efficient and better equipped to find out things that are important to us. When my daughter was born with Spina Bifida, I looked at every site that was available about the subject. I wanted to learn as much as I could about the prognosis of my child. Also, the Internet has connected other families together that have children with Spina Bifida. The Internet has proven to be a great resource to those people.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 25 Oct 10
       
      Could "distraction" be in the "eye of the beholder" then? (It sounds like you had little trouble focusing when you were trying to learn about Spina Bifida online, but that staying focused takes more energy when you don't feel as strong of a personal connection to the content.)  Is a take-away lesson for learning designers that providing choice in content can help make some of the distracting qualities of the web non-issues?
  • Learners are also busy at work and employers do not always have the budget for travel for education. Online learning modules that can be accessed at any time can serve a great amount of people that need to know things. Training can be done from the workplace, reducing the need for travel and extra expenses that an employer will not necessarily budget and provide for.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 25 Oct 10
       
      Good observation.  I think this is probably why we've seen so many job postings for learning designers despite the recession and job cuts in other fields.
Eric Calvert

Tech Tips For Teachers: Free, Easy and Useful Creation Tools - The Learning Network Blo... - 0 views

learning.blogs.nytimes.com/...easy-and-useful-creation-tools

tools nytimes online

shared by Eric Calvert on 25 Aug 10 - Cached
  • You might be looking for ways to refresh or update your bag of tricks.
  • Or perhaps you’re just curious to find out how technology tools can enhance your teaching and your students’ experience and engagement in your courses.
  • All of the tools are free as of this writing.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Ryan Goble, who often coaches teachers in what he calls the “mindful” use of technology, has written today’s guest post on user-friendly tools that enable the creation of student projects.
  • New technologies are a powerful way for teachers to take their instruction to the next level. With so many choices, the trick is to locate user-friendly tools that allow you to craft differentiated learning experiences that engage students and help them develop 21st-century skills. In that spirit, below are five ways to support student creation and “public displays of learning” using online technology tools.
Eric Calvert

hammbh's posterous - Home - 0 views

hammbh.posterous.com

hammbh lrnd6820 UDL

shared by Eric Calvert on 15 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • I am also still struggling with thinking of certain technologies that can be used to help us recognize patterns. I think that many tools are available that do aid the process, but is there a possibility for something to be developed that exclusively applied to this idea. Something that can be used just for the purpose of recognizing and organizing these patterns and experiences. I wonder if we could better track how we remember things, the connections we make in our brains, or how we mentally store information, if that would make us more aware of what we learn, how we learn, and how we can learn better. I know this seems like a slightly crazy though, but I like to dream.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 15 Oct 10
       
      I think this could be an exciting area for "augmented reality" applications in the future. I'm also intrigued by data visualization applications (from basic tools like word cloud generators to advanced factor analysis software).  ManyEyes has some cool experimental tools that are fun to play with.  Check it out: http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/
  • I truly enjoyed reading "On Intelligence" these past couple of weeks and even filled out the survey. I think it's a something that has more unique ideas than just theories/theorists, tools, technology, etc. I can see myself continuing reading this book outside of class because it really is interesting and is written in a way that's easily understandable. I'm happy that we got the opportunity to read this and take a break from all of the articles. :P
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 15 Oct 10
       
      Glad you liked it!  I hope you do finish the rest of the book. I think the later chapters that get into possibilities for artificial intelligence are really fascinating.
  • I know that we've talked about UDL all throughout LRND courses, but I feel as if this is an important and relevant topic that could almost be it's own course. Learning how to properly evaluate needs of students, selecting proper tools, and creating a UDL friendly module would be a great experience for LRND students.
Eric Calvert

Aaron Carpenter's blog - 5 views

blogs.bgsu.edu/acarpen

shared by Eric Calvert on 05 Sep 10 - Cached
  • Yes, we can use fear as a motivator. It’s been used by petty dictators over the centuries and it’s always failed in the long run.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 15 Oct 10
       
      True.  The problem with fear as a motivator (apart from ethical issues) is that when people act out of fear, as soon as they're no longer afraid, they stop doing the behavior you were trying to motivate.   Fear-based motivation tends not to help people become "self-motivated," taking responsibility for regulating their own behavior.
  • It’s the job of the teacher to create this environment where learning is fostered and goals are clearly marked out.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 15 Oct 10
       
      Do you think students should also have a role in marking out the goals for a learning module or environment? If so, how could this be "designed in?"
  • We need to set the bar higher than we think they can reach, so when they fail we’re happy with the results.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 15 Oct 10
       
      Yes.  There's a lot of research out there that says people tend to work toward whatever expectations educators have of them.   However, there is a "breaking point" where people become so frustrated by repeated perceived failure that they stop trying.  Therefore, the trick is to start out with the bar a little bit higher than where the student is at the beginning, challenge them to clear it, then move it up again once they experience some success.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • All the smart phones and iPads in the world won’t help if the person doesn’t care.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 15 Oct 10
       
      I think this is literally true.  We can only learn what we pay attention to.  We won't notice/create patterns in things we don't care about.  Unless a person has an attention deficit issue, they will simply filter out stimuli that aren't relevant to the things they care about.
  • Aaron Carpenter on 05 Sep 10
     
    6820 elearning Here is a powerpoint document for everyone that breaks down the Week 2 readings on the Philosophies related to education from Heather Kanuka. Please review the information and answer the discussion questions at the end of the document.
Eric Calvert

Learning Communities as an Instructional Model - Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Tea... - 2 views

projects.coe.uga.edu/...index.php

learning communities models

shared by Eric Calvert on 03 Oct 10 - Cached
  • Eric Calvert on 03 Oct 10
     
    Open text chapter.
Eric Calvert

PLENK2010: Digital Tribes and the Social Web - 5 views

plenk10.blogspot.com/...tal-tribes-and-social-web.html

social learning social networking higher education tribes Steve Wheeler

shared by Eric Calvert on 28 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Eric Calvert on 28 Sep 10
     
    Slideshare presentation by Steve Wheeler on "How the web will transform learning in higher education."
Eric Calvert

LRND 6820 Week 9 Reflection | fkohler's blog - 0 views

blogs.bgsu.edu/...lrnd-6820-week-9-reflection

LRND6820 VoiceThread debate carr fkholer

shared by Eric Calvert on 25 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Moreover, research discovers that transferring tacit knowledge is challenging when using “traditional e-learning.” It requires shared observation to deliver effective information.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 25 Oct 10
       
      I think this is an important point, Frank.  I do think we learn more and think more deeply when we have forums for discussing ideas with others.  This is true both for adult learners and children. (For example, there's evidence that kids learn little from "educational television" unless they have an opportunity to talk about it with a parent, teacher, or peer.)
  • The Affirmative Team’s organization was great with members volunteering for roles. Collaboration effected from the Wiki with Rachel and Misty leading the research effort. Yours truly created and posted the first VoiceThread, with Wes and Melisa providing a succinct organizational statement of Affirmative Team’s supportive research.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 25 Oct 10
       
      As an instructor, it was great to see you all use some of the collaborative tools to organize yourselves and your collective efforts.
Eric Calvert

Is Google Making us Stupid? | M. Partin-Harding Blog - 0 views

blogs.bgsu.edu/...is-google-making-us-stupid

LRND6820 VoiceThread debate carr mpartin

shared by Eric Calvert on 25 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Information that took hours to find can now be found in minutes.  We still need to cross check our references for accuracy and authenticity, but that is also true when researching in the traditional sense.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 25 Oct 10
       
      Good point, Melissa.  I think if we only teach students to think critically about content when they view it online, we're sending a message that they don't need to be critical of content in textbooks, newspapers, and mass media. 
  • Observation of my own behavior since reading this information has proven this true, however that is probably equally true when researching in the traditional sense
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 25 Oct 10
       
      Another good point.  Apart from novels, how many books did people really read from cover to cover? (How often do people who don't use the Web at all now read every word in every article in a printed newspaper or magazine?)
  • Learning Designers should embrace technology and the power is holds as an alternative to presenting course information in a creative and engaging format.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 25 Oct 10
       
      Yes.  I think learning designers and educators could probably find some new ways to keep students engaged by exploring the things that pull students away.  (For example, look at some of the exciting new curriculum that's starting to come from people applying lessons learned from studying how and why people play games.)
Eric Calvert

LRND6820 - Summary of UDL | wesleyp's blog - 0 views

blogs.bgsu.edu/...lrnd6820-summary-of-udl

LRND6820 wesleyp udl

shared by Eric Calvert on 02 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • I think that Frank did a wonderful job summarizing the article on Universal Learning Design.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 02 Nov 10
       
      I did, too!
  • I think that the following statement is important “UDL provides a vision for breaking the “one-size-fits-all” mold and therefore expands the opportunities for learning for all students with learning differences,”
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 02 Nov 10
       
      Yes, and I think it will be interesting to keep these in mind in reading Dai and Renzulli's work on giftedness this week.
  • Audio books are hit or miss for me.
    • Eric Calvert
      Eric Calvert on 02 Nov 10
       
      Me too, although sometimes I'll listen to them when I'm working in the yard.  I also find recordings helpful when I'm trying to memorize something or when I'm reading something (like a product manual or textbook) where my attention is likely to wander after a few minutes.  Having someone else speak the words through my headphones while I read helps me force myself to stay on track.
Eric Calvert

Chunking (psychology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/...Chunking_(psychology)

memory chunking mnemonics Miller

shared by Eric Calvert on 25 Aug 10 - Cached
  • In cognitive psychology and mnemonics, chunking refers to a strategy for making more efficient use of short-term memory by recoding information. More generally, Herbert Simon has used the term chunk to indicate long-term memory structures that can be used as units of perception and meaning, and chunking as the learning mechanisms leading to the acquisition of these chunks. Chunking means to organize items into familiar manageable units.
  • The word chunking comes from a famous 1956 paper by George A. Miller, The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information. At a time when information theory was beginning to be applied in psychology, Miller observed that whereas some human cognitive tasks fit the model of a "channel capacity" characterized by a roughly constant capacity in bits, short-term memory did not. A variety of studies could be summarized by saying that short-term memory had a capacity of about "seven plus-or-minus two" chunks.
  • Miller noted that according to this theory, it should be possible to effectively increase short-term memory for low-information-content items by mentally recoding them into a smaller number of high-information-content items. "A man just beginning to learn radio-telegraphic code hears each dit and dah as a separate chunk. Soon he is able to organize these sounds into letters and then he can deal with the letters as chunks. Then the letters organize themselves as words, which are still larger chunks, and he begins to hear whole phrases." Thus, a telegrapher can effectively "remember" several dozen dits and dahs as a single phras
Eric Calvert

5 points about PLEs PLNs for PLENK10 « Dave's Educational Blog - 2 views

davecormier.com/...ts-about-ples-plns-for-plenk10

PLENK2010 PLEs ple pln Cormier

shared by Eric Calvert on 13 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • POINT 1. The PLE differs from the general usage of the LMS in that it is not course focused, but rather focuses on the learning the student is doing over the length of their learning journey. By extension it tends to allow for the student to control the way their own work is organized.
  • POINT 2 – PLEs are (to me at least) the ecologies within which PLNs operate
  • I think that this work done by Jim Groom is the most rarefied version of the PLE in Higher Education. Students are instructed to choose their own domain, find a hosting service and create their own blog space.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • POINT 3 PLEs need not be supported by educational institutions
  • POINT 4 Ownership(personal) and Time(network) are critical impediments to implementing PLEs and PLNs in formal education. That’s not to say it isn’t possible, just that they need to be addressed.
  • POINT 5 Putting the responsibility for reporting networked open work on students is ok as long as you give them a low and high end of the amount of work that is reasonable.
Eric Calvert

A pedagogy of abundance - 0 views

www.slideshare.net/...a-pedagogy-of-abundance

abundance pedagogy scarcity Weller

shared by Eric Calvert on 02 Sep 10 - Cached
  • Eric Calvert on 02 Sep 10
     
    Presentation by Martin Weller exploring the idea that traditional schooling has been based on a "pedagogy of scarcity" in which things like information and expertise were hard to access and therefore needed to be centralized and rationed, at that new pedagogical models should be explored which reflect the fact that the Web has made information "abundant," and access to experts and learning communities relatively easy and low or no cost.
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