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Vanessa Vaile

How This Course Works | Critical Literacies Online Course Blog - 0 views

    • Vanessa Vaile
       
      critical literacies similar to multiliteracies but not as multi
  • This type of course is called a ‘connectivist’ course and is based on four major types of activity: 1. Aggregate
  • wide variety of things to read, watch or play with
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  • PICK AND CHOOSE content that looks interesting to you and is appropriate for you
  • 2. Remix Once you’ve read or watched or listened to some content, your next step is to keep track of that somewhere. How you do this will be up to you.
  • Here are some suggestions: - create a blog
  • - create an account with del.icio.us and create a new entry for each piece of content you access. You can access del.icio.us at http://del.icio.us
  • take part in a Moodle discussion.
  • - tweet about the item in Twitter. If you have a Twitter account, post something about the content you’ve accessed.
  • - anything else: you can use any other service on the internet – Flickr, Second Life, Yahoo Groups, Facebook, YouTube, anything! use your existing accounts if you want or create a new one especially for this course. The choice is completely yours.
  • 3. Repurpose
  • We don’t want you simply to repeat what other people have said. We want you to create something of your own. This is probably the hardest part of the process.
  • What materials? Why, the materials you have aggregated and remixed online.
  • What thoughts? What understanding? Well – that is the subject of this course. This whole course will be about how to read or watch, understand, and work with the content other people create, and how to create your own new understanding and knowledge out of them.
  • the critical literacies we will describe in this course are the TOOLS you will use to create your own content.
  • 4. Feed Forward
  • you don’t have to share. You can work completely in private, not showing anything to anybody. Sharing is and will always be YOUR CHOICE.
  • Critical Literacies 2010, the course about thinking
  • How this Course Works Critical Literacies is an unusual course. It does not consist of a body of content you are supposed to remember. Rather, the learning in the course results from the activities you undertake, and will be different for each person. In addition, this course is not conducted in a single place or environment. It is distributed across the web.
Vanessa Vaile

Reflections on Open Courses: Curation, Ombuds, and Concierges | Learning and Knowledge ... - 0 views

  • Part of the focus in LAK11 is to explore how we can better use data to make sense of complex topics such as:
  • How students interact
  • patterns of activity
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  • How knowledge is “grown” as individuals interact with others
  • How individual learners develop their conceptual understanding of a topic
  • How teams solve complex problems
  • tools and activities that are most effective
  • How individual learners “eliminate” unneeded or irrelevant ideas and concepts
  • explore various methods for analyzing data
  • tools that aid that analysis.
  • limitations of an algorithmically-defined world of education
  • Google’s search algorithm has been ruined
  • Reflections on Open Courses: Curation, Ombuds, and Concierges
  • focus in LAK11 is to explore how we can better use data
  • methods for analyzing data produced by learners and numerous tools that aid that analysis
  • Google’s search algorithm has been ruined argues
  • What’s the solution? Well, a return to curation, of course.
  • What does this have to do with LAK11?
  • over the last five years, social networks and social media have taken over the web
  • Google is driven by the mission to organize the world’s information. Facebook is driven by the mission to “help you connect and share with the people in your life”. The two companies are on a collision course: is the future informationally or socially based? Eventually, social bleeds into informational. And vice versa.
  • We trust people we like, people with whom we feel a connection
  • All social interactions are information. Many information interactions are social.
  • urators – they present their views and spin existing stories within the framework of their beliefs
  • “temporary centres”.
  • problem of how to create temporary centres
  • ome commentary or facilitator posts
  • LAK11, we’ve taken a different approach. We’ve retained similar course design elements to previous open online courses (OOCs – I’m starting to think that M=Massive part of MOOCs is misleading or even off-putting
  • What we gain in our decision to run this course on various sites, using more or less accessible tools, is the demonstration that anyone with an interesting topic/idea and a willingness to experiment can open up a course for a broader audience.
  • What we lose – and I’m still uneasy about this trade off – is the integrated archive of activity in the course.
  • Complexity cannot be understood solely through algorithms
  • Curation is an important component in the process
  • data mining, visualization
  • wayfinding and sensemaking in social systems
  • human aspect of data, sensemaking, curation, and trust
Vanessa Vaile

The Technological Dimension of a Massive Open Online Course: The Case of the CCK08 Cour... - 2 views

  • Abstract In 2008, a new term emerged in the already crowded e-learning landscape: MOOC, or massive open online course. Lifelong learners can now use various tools to build and manage their own learning networks, and MOOCs may provide opportunities to test such networks. This paper focuses on the technological aspects of one MOOC, the Connectivism and Connective Knowledge (CCK08) course, in order to investigate lifelong learners’ attitudes towards learning network technologies. The research framework is represented by three perspectives: (a) lifelong learning in relation to open education, with a focus on the effective use of learning tools; (b) the more recent personal knowledge management (PKM) skills approach; and (c) the usability of web-based learning tools. Findings from a survey of CCK08 participants show that the course attracted adult, informal learners, who were not concerned about course completion. Time constraints, language barriers, and ICT skills affected the participants’ choice of tools; for example, learners favoured the passive, time-saving mailing list over interactive, time-consuming discussions forums and blogs. Some recommendations for future MOOCs include highlighting the purpose of the tools (e.g., skill-building) and stating clearly that the learners can choose their preferred tools. Further research on sustainability and facilitator workload should be conducted to determine the cost and effectiveness of MOOCs. Investigation is also necessary to understand MOOC participant profiles as they relate to course outcomes and retention and whether terms such as course and attrition are appropriate in this context..
Vanessa Vaile

Getting Students to Do the Reading: Pre-Class Quizzes on Wordpress - ProfHacker.com - 1 views

  • learning as a two-step process: First there’s the transfer of information (from a source of knowledge, like an instructor, to the student), then there’s the assimilation of that information by the student
  • students need to have their first exposure to the course material happen some other way—like reading their textbook
  • in all fields, there’s still the challenge of motivating students to actually do the pre-class readings
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  • short, online reading quizzes consisting of open-ended questions that are due several hours before class starts to do the job.  Most of the quiz questions are meant to help students focus on and make some sense of key concepts
  • Students submit answers to these questions online before class, and I grade their quizzes on effort.
  • pre-class reading quizzes allow me to practice what is often called “just-in-time teaching.”
  • pre-class reading quiz questions as a clicker question during class,
  • how do I implement these quizzes?
  • local course management system, but I found the system to cumbersome
  • I find it much easier to post course documents to a WordPress blog, and I like that it makes my course more open to those not enrolled in it. 
  • I create a Facebook fan page for each of my courses
  • that pulls in the course blog content via RSS
  • So I now post my pre-class reading quizzes on my course blogs, tagged with a “PCRQ” for easy locating
  • default comments feature on WordPress to have students reply to them.  This meant that students could read each other’s answers, which, for these questions, only enhanced the learning experience
  • So I looked around for a way to have students comment on posts semi-privately—where I could see their comments but they couldn’t see each other’s comments.  I found a WordPress plug-in called, appropriately, Semi-Private Comments!  (Plug-ins—yet another reason I prefer WordPress to a course management system.) 
  • he main limitation is that it doesn’t help me grade those quizzes
Vanessa Vaile

Rather Random | How to participate in an open online course - 0 views

  • The first few weeks of an open online course are the most disorienting. As a learner, you approach the course with expectations that have been defined by previous learning experiences.
  • Let go of those expectations
    • Vanessa Vaile
       
      yes, I might (not will) encounter that node again; on the other hand I might not or it might be years later
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  • You contribute to shaping and defining the course.
  • steps to participating in a MOOC:
  • first orient yourself to the environment and space of learning
  • wayfinding - learning the cues, markers, and spaces
  • Secondly, you have to orient yourself to the course content.
  • 5. Think about how you’ll manage course informatio
  • 1. Somewhat define your goals.
  • A MOOC is a network. If a node of information is truly important, you’ll encounter it again.
  • 2. Declare/Define yourself
  • 3. Plan your interaction habits
  • 4. Build your network through participation and interaction with others
  • comment on course participant blogs, share ideas with them, connect on Twitter
  • where can people find you?
  • 6. Create and share
  • 7. Fix what’s missing
  • 8. Manage you expectations.
  • 9. Persistence
Vanessa Vaile

Artifacts of sensemaking | Learning and Knowledge Analytics - 2 views

  • sensemaking attempts include: blog posts, summary Moodle forum posts, images, analysis of discussion forum activity, social network analysis, etc.
  • Creating and sharing artifacts of sensemaking is an important activity in open online courses.
  • filtering (or forming sub-networks/groups/discussion clusters) happens once the course is underway
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  • learners are a diverse group
  • uniformity of university program tracks masks the differences of learners.
  • In an open course, participants aren’t filtered in the same way.
  • Higher education generally homogenizes learners through pre-requisites or subject streams (programs).
  • we begin to connect with those who respond favorably, we gravitate toward those who we find interesting (but not so interesting that we feel no connection),
  • One of the primary ways of connecting with others in an open course is through creating and sharing artifacts of sensemaking.
  • When our learning is transparent, we become teachers.
  • Essentially, we form small sub-networks that connect (lattice-like) to other sub-networks
  • fluidity of interaction across novice-intermediate-expert networks is one of the main points of value in open courses.
Vanessa Vaile

#PLENK2010 PLEs and learner autonomy « Jenny Connected - 0 views

  • PLE is a counter concept arising from discontent with centralised course management.
  • they have always been around, it’s just that the wide range of open source tools available at the moment, means that learners now have greater opportunity to learn independently and autonomously than ever before.
  • Sebastian was concerned that we focus only on the personal learner model for adults – which he suggested was one where adults are self-functioning, self-co-ordinating, self-controlling (self monitoring), self-developing and self-projecting.
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  • personal learner model for adults can apply just as well to young children, who can be taught to be self-functioning, self-co-ordinating, self-controlling (self monitoring), self-developing and self-projecting and in small ways can achieve all of these.
  • High Scope approach
  • In this approach children planned their own daily curriculum. Their choices were of course monitored. If they were choosing to play in the sand every day without doing any other types of activities, then they would be gently steered to make more balanced choices, but they were beginning to work as autonomous learners.
  • Which brings us to the question of what we mean by autonomy.  
  • further work is needed to define what we mean by learner autonomy in relation to PLEs.
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    PLE is a counter concept arising from discontent with centralised course management
TESOL CALL-IS

Open for Learning: The CMS and the Open Learning Network | in education - 0 views

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    "Abstract: The course management system (CMS) reinforces the status quo and hinders substantial teaching and learning innovation in higher education. It does so by imposing artificial time limits on learner access to course content and other learners, privileging the role of the instructor at the expense of the learner, and limiting the power of the network effect in the learning process. The open learning network (OLN)-a hybrid of the CMS and the personal learning environment (PLE)-is proposed as an alternative learning technology environment with the potential to leverage the affordances of the Web to dramatically improve learning. Author Name(s): Jon Mott David Wiley"
TESOL CALL-IS

10 Tools for Increasing Engagement in Online Courses - Nik's Learning Technology Blog - 0 views

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    These are very interesting tools. Besides Moodle, Nik talks about various vide-based conversation tools, Vyou, a learning journal on Keek, and so on. There are also tips on how to use the tools in an online course.
Vanessa Vaile

Complexity, self-organization, and #Change11: reactions to Siemen's presentation on onl... - 1 views

  • presentation from George Siemens on Self-Organization in Online Courses (embedded below) that addressed some aspects of learning complexity (through the context of a MOOC)
  • we need to sift through the chaos to create signal, perhaps even a pattern language
  • I liken this process to language itself and the alphabet. The alphabet developed to take a series of meanings and weld it to one symbol (a process more pronounced in Chinese and ancient Egyptian perhaps) that everyone might recognize and accept.
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  • It reduces the complexity, yes, but more importantly it provides a starting point for a common process. Without it, we would be lost in theory. 
  • The same holds for learning to some degree. We look for structure, but if none exists on sight, we combine things until some structure emerges. That structure can be represented in a single symbol, but its foundation might shift as new understanding emerges. Occasionally, there is need to ditch the symbols or invent a new one altogether as emerging learning dictates. That is a healthy and complicated process. The MOOC captures this process a bit and adheres to an open structure to allow pattern language to emerge, a shared vocabulary, a knowledge construct (however ephemeral).
  • Feedback as friction as forces interact. A spark, a collision, waste, and occasionally a nova. A big (learning) bang. This makes me think a learner's responsibility (among many others) is to be open to this collision of actors, agents, feedback, waste, noise, and then, ideally, pattern, understanding. The only way out is through.
  • Disturbing- an ontological disturbance, an unknown, an uncanny sense of veering through uncharted, potentially treacherous waters. It is a good place to be as a learner, but it requires a strength and confidence that only an empowered learner could put forth. But in that disturbance, that mess, there is the friction, that meat-grinder of understanding.
  • This is learning as curiosity and sometimes it can be quite scary. 
  • Often we seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge (anyone subjected to my endless banal history lessons will understand this), but I do believe that most learning is action oriented. To learn not only to get a job, to live in a world, to subsist, but rather for acting as best as we can. For improvement, for progress, for self-actualization.
  • disaggregated, emotive, functional machine of interaction. One that has to be tinkered with constantly. 
  • self-actualization (the development of self) can only be realized through sharing, group interaction
TESOL CALL-IS

How to use Moodle from Teacher Training Videos - 0 views

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    A nice set of short instructional videos by R. Stannard on how to set up a Moodle course, add materials, and manage the learning environment for your students. Looks carefully at some of the problematic areas of Moodle. This set of videos looks at Moodle set up on your own school's Moodle; however, much of what is done will apply to one of the free Moodles online.
TESOL CALL-IS

Schoology - Your Digital Classroom - 2 views

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    Yet another course management system. Might be worth a try. Claims to combine social networking with learning management, and has a very nice interface. And it's free.
TESOL CALL-IS

VITAE Project Book - 1 views

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    A pdf book with papers and articles describing pedagogic models and approaches to developing the VITAE e-portfolio "Chapter 1: Teacher competence development - a European perspective, Chapter 2: The VITAE Approach, Chapter 3: Exploring Web 2.0 and Mentoring as Tools for Lifelong Learning, Chapter 4: Guided course development on the basis of an e-learning patterns template, Chapter 5: Fun and Games in professional development, Chapter 6: The VITAE e-portfolio - a catalyst for enhanced learning, Chapter 7: Community-based mentoring and innovating through Web 2.0, Chapter 8: Web 2.0 - Learning Culture and Organisational Change,"
Vanessa Vaile

Blog U.: Online Education and Blogging - Technology and Learning - Inside Higher Ed - 0 views

  • For conference presentations or article submissions there is no substitute for invested time in reflection, writing, and re-writing. For blogging - well it goes on the page as it goes through the brain.The best preparation I received for blogging was teaching online. One of the most important elements for running a successful online course involves presence. The instructor must be "present" in the course discussion boards and blogs. Teaching online gave me tons of practice in writing rapid, hopefully thought provoking, discussion and blog posts around the curriculum and the student's work
TESOL CALL-IS

100 Video Sites Every Educator Should Bookmark | AccreditedOnlineColleges.org - 3 views

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    "By Alvina Lopez It doesn't matter if you're a veteran teacher or a newbie just now taking college courses - finding new ways to get students engaged in the classroom is always a great thing. One way many teachers are reaching out is with the multitude of material found on the web, allowing them to turn everyday lessons into a multimedia experience. You can find a great amount of helpful material on these sites, including videos to augment your lessons, lectures to inspire students, documentaries to show them how things work, and loads of additional videos to help you become a better, smarter teacher."
Vanessa Vaile

News: Technologically Illiterate Students - Inside Higher Ed - 0 views

  • definition of technological literacy needs updating. In the 1990s, she explained, the U.S. Education Department defined it to mean the ability to operate a computer. These days, computers are so user-friendly that being capable of operating one does not say much about a person’s competence.
  • a line between computer users who can handle only basic programs such as word processors and search engines, and those who understand the structures and concepts that underlie modern technology, and how to think critically within them
  • less about who has hardware, but who has access to information; who has those problem-solving skills
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  • sumption that today’s student are computer-literate because they are “digital natives” is a pernicious
  • task-specific tech savvy
  • tech-skeptical
  • not mean tech-negative
  • critical capacity to glean the implications, and limitations, of technologies as they emerge and become woven in
  • ethical use of technology
  • instructors might try to do their best to integrate discussions that might improve students’ tech literacy into existing units in the syllabus
  • more collaborative work
  • source-checking websites
  • real-world examples to support their idea
  • meta-discussions about the limitations of technological tools
  • Arguing that there should be new standards for tech literacy and that most students don’t meet them implies a third piece -- one that is likely to make course designers hem and haw: You need to teach them.
  • filtering the pertinent from the misleading
  • critical thinking skills that enable them to use various technologies wisely
Vanessa Vaile

Personal Learning Networks Are Virtual Lockers for Schoolkids | Edutopia - 0 views

  • A PLN becomes a student's virtual locker, and its content changes based on the student's current course work. When I assign them a term paper, the students comb the Web to sign up for information that will feed into their personalized Web page to construct a PLN for that topic. When they get a new project, they assemble another page.
  • Perhaps the most telling response on the subject of PLNs is from my student Hope, who says, "My iGoogle page is very helpful and helps me keep things organized. It lets me know when my agenda changes." The fact that a ninth grader would talk about her own research agenda gives a glimpse into the power of the PLN; she is using a term here that is often reserved for grad students.
  • Constructing a PLN is the essential skill that moves my students into the driver's seat of their own learning. It helps them sort through and manage the proliferation of online materials that jam the information superhighway. It is also indispensable to our project-learning curriculum
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  • Tony Wagner, from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, lists assessing and analyzing information as one of the seven survival skills in the new world of work. I think the ability to create a PLN is a fundamental information-management skill that will help my students succeed in the future.
  • An RSS reader is a Web site that puts together all this information in an easy-to-read format. Google Reader, netvibes, Pageflakes, Bloglines, and my preferred reader, iGoogle, are all examples of sites providing RSS readers. The RSS reader is the raw material for building a PLN.
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    Can't resist the title ~ YES ~ my virtual cloud locker, no heaving lifting involved
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