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Eric Calvert

Toward a Theory of Online Learning - 0 views

  • Toward a Theory of Online Learning
  • Terry Anderson Athabasca University
  • There is nothing more practical than a good theory. ~ James C. Maxwell (1831-1879)
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  • 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
       
      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
       
      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
       
      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
       
      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
       
      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
       
      "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
       
      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
  •  
    Chapter by Terry Anderson from "Theory and Practice of Online Learning"
Eric Calvert

561 DISCUSSION-BASED ONLINE TEACHING - 1 views

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    This short article highlights some strategies for stimulating productive online discussions in online courses.  I stumbled across it tonight, and thought it might be of interest to some of you as you look ahead to your week of facilitating for LRND6820.  If you read this article, ty to read it from the perspective of a teacher or trainer.
Eric Calvert

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

  • 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.
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    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

greenm's blog - 0 views

shared by Eric Calvert on 15 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • To be honest, most of the time what I hear from teachers I automatically assumed to be true and would rarely question any of the material presented to me, until my most recent last several years of college….and quite frankly even now I often presume what I am being ‘told’ or ‘taught’ is true.
    • Eric Calvert
       
      I think this is true for most people (unless we've had some very strong, negative experiences.) Not only do I think we trust teachers by default, but there's some evidence that we trust technology by default as well.  I read an interesting book recently called "The Media Equation" that reported on a series of studies that found that people are very trusting of media (even if they say they aren't.)  In particular, if a message seems to come from a computer instead of a person, we tend to view it as being "objective."  I think it's important for learning designers to keep this in mind and use their "power" responsibly while also encouraging learners to evaluate information critically.
  • Even if the facilitator has effectively included motivation in their design, they will still need to successfully deliver this material.  If the delivery falls flat, then the design may not be reached as intended.
    • Eric Calvert
       
      What behaviors/characteristics of a good facilitator do you think are "motivating?" How could similar characteristics be built into a learning module or online environment that a learner would interact with online instead of in a face-to-face environment?
  • For some reason it is bothersome to me to read lengthy material on the web.  Maybe I have just taught myself this, but I do think there is some validity to the lack of actual reading that is taking place on the web.
    • Eric Calvert
       
      I've heard others make similar comments.  Do you think this is because LCD screens are less comfortable for our eyes than paper, because printed materials don't have links (so going somewhere else even when you're bored isn't an option), or because we see books and magazines as "linear" and online material as being "non-linear?"
Eric Calvert

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

  • 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.
  • 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.
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  • All of the tools are free as of this writing.
  • 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

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

  • 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
       
      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
       
      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

LRND 6820 VoiceThread Reflection | Aaron Carpenter's blog - 0 views

  • I am personally amused by some of the materials that take an extreme stance that it is either a gift from the gods and answer to all life’s problems or the worst thing to ever happen to teaching.
    • Eric Calvert
       
      This reminds me a bit of the Homer Simpson quote, "Ah, beer.  The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems." 
  • I believe Carr’s article makes some good points but it goes too far. I imagine if it was a more balanced piece it would not have received as much commentary, hence the inflammatory headline.
    • Eric Calvert
       
      Good point.  I think Carr's book-length work on this topic is a little more balanced (although IMHO still too negative), but he is trying to sell popular-press magazines and books.  
  • Collaboration has never been easier and this hive mind mentality where we can pool all of our resources to create will become even more advanced as more people jump on board. Conversations involving people from all points of the globe will help foster new ideas and innovations and the Internet is the thing that makes it all possible.
    • Eric Calvert
       
      Yes, and I think collaborating online involves some "learned" skills.  As people become more adept at using online tools (and as the tools themselves get more powerful and user friendly), positive effects will increase and will become more obvious to people beyond the pool of tech enthusiasts and early adopters.
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  • One answer is open source software. If we let people change what they think would improve the product then everyone wins. New ideas can be passed to others and sooner or later we end up with a solution that will work for everyone. This will let us design new learning tools that are flexible and able to change with the requirements for adverse groups of learners
    • Eric Calvert
       
      Beyond open source software, what do you think about the idea of open source curriculum? See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb0syrgsH6M&feature=player_embedded#at=15
Eric Calvert

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

  • With learning design we need to make sure we incorporate as much experience and variety as we can.
    • Eric Calvert
       
      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
       
      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
       
      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
       
      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

LRND6820 Carr Debate Reflection Post | greenm's blog - 0 views

  • I am a bit undecided if I support one ‘side’ or the other……solely.
    • Eric Calvert
       
      That's okay.  I think the reality is somewhere in between the poles, too.
  • For some reason it is bothersome to me to read lengthy material on the web.  Maybe I have just taught myself this, but I do think there is some validity to the lack of actual reading that is taking place on the web.
    • Eric Calvert
       
      I've heard others say this, too.  Do you print online articles because paper is less straining on your eyes, or because not being able to follow a link means it's harder to be distracted? ( I've known some people on diets who change the route they use to drive home to avoid going by fast food restaurants so that indulging a temptation will require extra time and effort.  I wonder if printing web pages is a similar strategy for some people.)
  • Possibly in the future, maybe you could include a guideline of tasks, allow an extra day in-between rebuttals, and/or allow for peer feedback participation form of sorts within the team.
    • Eric Calvert
       
      Thanks for the feedback.  Others have also suggested adding some time between rebuttals.  I think I'll definitely build that in next time around.
Eric Calvert

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

  • 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
       
      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
       
      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
       
      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

AJET 26(3) Drexler (2010) - The networked student model for construction of personal le... - 1 views

  • A 2009 Horizon Report sponsored by the New Media Consortium identifies the "personal web" as "a collection of technologies that confer the ability to reorganise, configure, and manage online content rather than just view it; but part of the personal web is the underlying idea that web content can be sorted, displayed, and even built upon according to an individual's personal needs and interests" (Four to Five Years: The Personal Web section, para. 2).
  • The Networked Student Model adapts Couros' vision for teacher professional development in a format that is applicable to the K-12 student. It includes four primary categories, each with many components evident in the networked teacher version (Figure 2). Figure 2: The Networked Student These include academic social contacts, synchronous communication, information management, and really simple syndication (RSS). Social contacts include teachers, classmates, students outside of the class, and subject matter experts. Synchronous communication refers to video conferencing and instant messaging. Information management activities include locating experts, evaluating resources, accessing scholarly works, and finding other open educational resources (OER). RSS encompasses blogging, subscription readers, podcasts, wikis, social bookmarking, and other social networks. Students will not necessarily make use of every subcategory; however, this list represents the tools available to the student for constructing a personal learning environment on a specific topic of study.
Eric Calvert

Family Engagement | National Dropout Prevention Center/Network - 1 views

  • Embrace a philosophy of partnership and be willing to share power with families. Make sure that parents and school staff understand that the responsibility for children's educational development is a collaborative enterprise (Mapp, 2004).
    • Eric Calvert
       
      Online implications: Use social media to ask for input, feedback, ideas, contributions of time/expertise/resources.
  • When parents are involved, students achieve more, regardless of socioeconomic status, ethnic/racial background, or the parents' education level;
  • The more extensive the parent involvement, the higher the student achievement;
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  • When parents are involved in their students' education, those students have higher grades and test scores, better attendance, and complete homework more consistently;
  • When parents are involved, students exhibit more positive attitudes and behavior;
  • Educators hold higher expectations of students whose parents collaborate with the teacher. They also hold higher opinions of those parents;
  • In programs that are designed to involve parents in full partnerships, student achievement for disadvantaged children not only improves, it can reach levels that are standard for middle-class children.
  • Children from diverse cultural backgrounds tend to do better when parents and professionals collaborate to bridge the gap between the culture at home and the learning institution;
  • Students are more likely to fall behind in academic performance if their parents do not participate in school events, develop a working relationship with their child's educators, or keep up with what is happening in their child's school;
  • The benefits of involving parents are not confined to the early years—there are significant gains at all ages and grade levels;
  • The most accurate predictor of a student's achievement in school is not income or social status, but the extent to which that student's family is able to create a home environment that encourages learning; communicate high, yet reasonable, expectations for their children's achievement and future careers; and become involved in their children's education at school and in the community
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