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Would they get credit/points for that content mastery? and how would that transfer with grading? Good points for setup and things to consider...

For my Spanish classes, this would be an exciting concept for those students that learn the language faster and can work ahead or enhance their communication to a higher level - they would not be "stuck" in a concept they've already mastered & would be able to get to more complicated grammar/sentence structures, become more fluent.

There are so many new initiatives being implemented and talked about - in my district/curriculum area they spend so much time talking - when can teachers start getting the time to develop and try out their ideas and not talk it to death?

I can very much see that this would be a far less traditional approach to teaching. For principals that have a very traditional view of education, it could make it difficult for teachers to try. 

People (students are people also) always work harder and dig deeper when they are on the inside not on the outside being told what to do. 

The goal should really be to prepare students for a future career like the author stated. That is the type of environment they will be working in.

I think this would be one of the more difficult things to do. I would want to give choices and freedom but I wouldn't want it to be completely wide open. 

It's important to think like the end user. It might be a good idea to enlist the help of a second set of eyes. Like proofreading an article, having someone "test drive" your website might be a good idea before actually sharing it with the intended audience. 

Again, it's so important to keep the end user in mind. Consistency helps the end user know how to use and navigate your site. In web design, and also in Soft Chalk created lessons, users really don't like to be surprised. They want to know what to expect. 

What is your message or goal?  After determining that, you can plan how to prominently place the most important items on your web page. Size and color are two ways of creating hierarchy. I guess I had never really given much serious consideration to this. 

Does Fitt's law have something to do with the number of clicks it takes to get to information from the homepage? Is there a rule of thumb that says no more than 3 clicks? 

I don't know much about photography, but I have heard about the rule of thirds. Again, something I didn't really think this when I considered adding photos to a web site or to a Soft Chalk page. Not all photos automatically ascribe to the rule of thirds, so it might be helpful to know a little bit about photo editing as well. Just one more thing to consider! 

Sorry, I don't see the dog. :-)

In the center below the large dark section. His head is down like he is smelling the ground sniffing toward the upper left.

This is essential to remember. What we are trying to say is so much more important than making something "pretty." We always need to start with the message or content. 

Not much more to say about this. It's all about the content!!

Collaboration is so important. Ask for another pair of eyes to help you. Make sure as well, that your colleague will be willing to critique your work. Sometimes that's difficult to do, but it key to the success of your design and usability. 

No matter what is done, the message still needs be visible. Enhancement helps to engage viewers.

This is something that I have never considered. Surface feel is an interesting concept.

The designer is in control of what the viewer sees. This reminds me that I need to look at my work from the eyes of those viewing content and what the take aways should be. 

I have found this to be true for all viewers. It used to be just kids but now adults as well. Once additional component to remember is the load speed. Resize your images before they are uploaded.

I would also suggest consistency so they don't need to relearn the site with each page.

It's important for me to remember all of these tools...moving from a face to face environment to an online setting is vastly different, and these tools are what I as a student need, so I need to be incorporating them as well. Without a good position, color that catches my eye and various design elements I've lost interest. If I've lost interest with the lack of tools, then so will my students.

I find this very frustrating as well. I took an online class a few years ago, (not an AEA class:)), and the various links were not embedded. So, when I would click on those links, I'd be taken completely out of the course and would have to constantly log back in.  

This is such an interesting statement - as I parent I know and agree with this statement, but it seems we're often encouraged to give students as many choices as possible for assessment and/or project purposes.

This is so interesting and I've noticed the importance of this "white space" as I've been looking at Softchalk lessons. It also reminds me how we've learned that when designing our lessons, using shorter paragraphs (separated by white space) is better than traditional paragraphs given on a handout in a face to face classroom. 

This is so true as well and it's important for me to remember as I move forward with my Softchalk lesson - if they can't figure out how to move around, they will become frustrated and give up. It's not that we should not teach them to problem solve, but the training in how to move around the lesson will be important.

White space on a page can make the really important content stand out. My issue is that sometimes, I have a difficult time finding images that allow me to hit the "right" amount of white space and the text I want/need to have on the page.

When I'm looking for something, the logo or branding is so important to me. I want to know immediately if I'm in the right spot. Logos help me do this. When I see the logo I'm looking for or that I expect to see, it puts me at ease, because I know I'm in the "right" spot.

Buttons or menus across the top of a webpage are very helpful when it comes to navigating a website. One issue I've had is that sometimes my buttons make sense to me, but to the new visitor the language I use to explain where it is taking the visitor doesn't make sense. Take for example, on our website we have something called "Instructor Center". This is the place our instructors who teach PD for us go to get information. To me this makes complete sense. That being said, I know that we consistently get questions about where to find instructor information. The label, "instructor center" doesn't resonate with the visitor. I have seen websites where there is a brief description appears on the screen when you roll over the button, but before you click. I'm not sure if these things help or if they add clutter.

A rule never rang more true, but at the same time it is so hard to follow. So often I find myself getting lost in the complexity of what I'm trying to do. Add this to my love of "little bells and whistles" and I find myself creating things that lack real substance.

This makes me think of what I call the "learning curve". If the learning curve is to long, people just move on to find something different that doesn't have this learning curve. Take for example graphic design tools. Over the years, I've downloaded gimp and seashore, but for some reason I've never quite gotten the hang of them. Instead I use a web-based tool called pixlr. It is easy and I've met with some success. That being said, would Gimp or Seashore provide me with more options and features, probably, but the learning curve is steeper so I've chosen to use pixlr. When I think of learners, I wonder how we can scaffold things so that the learning curve isn't so steep.

There are lots of ways to achieve unity: theme, banners, fonts colors, and object placement all contribute to a unified feel.

Also consider the space between chunks of information. Sometimes changing the size of a "blank" line greatly affects the overall design.

This final polish is an attention to detail that really makes a difference in professional looking design and audience appeal. It is worth the time and effort!

For educators, this would translate to "educational objective." Is the truly important educational information given prominence?

Yes, choice within limits so as not to overwhelm to the point of inaction...

Limiting the number of words per line is a design strategy that I hadn't considered before. 

"Typography" -https://diigo.com/08f26r I'm curious about different typography.  I was always told to use very readable font and avoid anything fancy. 

Students are even less patient than adults, so it becomes imperative that overall flow and navigation makes sense. 

This is important to remember.  I don't have to pack every slide/page on Soft Chalk full of stuff.  It was really overwhelming to create a power point presentation and stick an image on every slide - I thought it was too repetitive, esp. based on all the examples we've seen.  

This idea came up last week - and even in video examples that white space is ok, it is also ok to only have an idea, or a few key words on a slide/page, etc.

I'm not sure if the Fibonacci sequence is the same as the golden ratio, but it reminds of the rule of thirds in photography. 

Great!  Less pressure to feel like we have to cram a page full of content. 

It is essential that if a teacher is going to use the technology with their students that they first have a strong knowledge base of the technology.

Yes, an online teacher would definitely have to be positive and patient to deal with students like me.

This makes such perfect sense and sounds like it would be so easy.

Using google forms and the flubaroo script (add-in) makes quick feedback an easy part of my class. 10 quick questions on the iPad and feedback almost immediately. I wait until everyone is done then send it to them. Then we can look at it again as a whole group.

It seems important to me that the evidence is for both students AND teachers.

Thanks for sharing about the Google add-in, flubaroo. It seems like it provides quick, easy feedback that would be useful to students.

I think too often we do not involve the students in even formative assessment. A test, quiz or any other assessment is usually seen by the student as something that is done to them. The teacher gives it to them, grades it and show the grade, rather than it being more of a cooperative project involving both student and teacher with the clear goal of finding out what is being learned in order to improve future learning opportunitites.

This goes back to the argument of how and why we grade. Why do students expect a grade for everything they do? Because we, as teachers and society, have taught them that the grade is important. Lost in that approach was the idea that the learning is the important aspect of school.

I had students tell me that they don't try as hard if it is not graded. So I tell them everything is graded (some is completion, some is accuracy. If it's going to be like the real world/a job, all the things you do are looked at in your performance review, not just one assignment/project. It shows me a lot about work ethic and accountability for my own learning if they don't take the activities seriously. Some are meant to be fun, but they are also educational and chosen for a purpose.

Good point comparing quality school work to job performance. In the world of work, each day contributes to a person's performance evaluation.

This seems to be a part that is skipped sometimes. Teacher are actively involved in formative assessments, but are kids always involved? Do the kids know when they need further instruction or reteaching?

This sometimes seems like the hardest part to me - getting kids to realize that they are responsible for their own learning. Sometimes students want to take a more passive role and it becomes quite a challenge to engage and motivate them to become active participants.

Agree! Especially second semester of senior year!

I do not feel that education has done a great job of making learning relevant to THEIR lives. I am hopeful the Core will push us to give projects, assessments, etc. where the kids see their connection (relevant now- not when they are 25) to the world & learning- not just something a teacher assigns.

I went to the AEA 11 TIC/TOC presentation on Project Based learning. It was eye opening to see teachers really challenging their students with a project. I do know some students that just want the easy grade of an objective test instead of projects.

This is a big statement. It requires a solid rubric, checklist, or whatever the assessment may be in order to have students see exactly what they did and keep us from comparing it to other students.

I think that with the grade removed, the ease (and temptation) to compare students to each other is reduced. Summative assessments for a grade almost mandates comparisons since you have to rank students, either to each other or to a pre-existing scale. Providing feedback for each individual to do better doesn't have this built in competitive dimension.

I did this in the writing process. It was difficult for students but powerful. I know now that I needed to model what suggestions for improvements & positives looked like besides, "spell better" or "it was good."

How does the teacher get the students to give positive descriptive feedback? I would be concerned that students would just give their friends the "ok you did great" kind of feedback.

I think that this is particularly challenging in foreign language, where students are still acquiring skills of writing. To do this effectively, I think you need to scaffold it, and then have the student look at his/her work with a definitive list of criteria and then have a peer look at it with the same list and ultimately have them compare it. I am not sure how to account for kids who don't have the skills to do the task....

This is the important part for teachers to understand. We often think, or hear other complain, about every new idea being somethign new added to their workload. This is actually a purposeful planning of many concepts that you already employ, just being used for a more structured and planned purpose.

Collaboration between the teacher and students takes time to establish. As a librarian, this is extremely difficult for me to do. I drop in and collaborate with the classroom teacher for a short lesson.

This is such an important point. Teachers and students need to be "on the same page" - understanding where they they are going, why, and how they will get there.

Another important thing to remember. Sometimes, as teachers, we can lose sight of how important it is to MODEL MODEL MODEL in order for students to truly understand and be successful.

I like that it repeats the importance of the process here. I noticed that in the official definition it does not mention a means of ranking students, but rather a process intended to improve student achievement. I think too much emphasis gets place on the grade by both students and the teacher and not enough emphasis on the learning.

I agree with your comment about emphasis on the grade--parents seem to be in the same "boat". How can we get that turned around?

While I believe that teaching the subject encourages deeper understanding, the counselor me is more cautious about the potential harm in pairing the wrong students. I think it would be imperative to choose the right partners to insure optimal learning.

I think an instructor of a course that was completely online could find him/herself overwhelmed with the amount of communication taking place. It takes time to navigate around, read everyone's posts on each topic, and comment, all while working to be both professional and approachable. In a face-to-face class, you can visually monitor how long it's going to take the instructor to respond to you. (How many other hands are in the air? How many people are lined up?) The instructor can also view facial expressions and body language to determine if his/her students are "getting it" and buying in. It seems like this element, in an online course, would have to be done entirely by computer interactions. I'd be completely overwhelmed if I had to teach a course completely online!

It is challenging at times. I've had a few of you call me, if you have a Moodle problem. I also agree that you need to be very clear when you communicate online because you don't see those facial expressions and body language. You also have to be careful about joking with people online, because again you don't see facial expressions, body language and hear tone of voice.

This is where I think online learning can really be utilized to the benefit of every student. Online learning can be personalized for each student's need.

I think that Moodle is great for providing that immediate feedback. It lets students know if they are on the right track!

I think collaboration and group work is great for students in preparing them for life after high school if done correctly. Too often I see groupwork done where one or two students do the majority of the work while other students do little or nothing. Online classes can can either help or hurt group projects depending on how they are set up and the work required by each individual student.

I think more teachers would add an online component to their classes if they felt more comfortable. I was hoping my school district would choose one online platform (Moodle for example) and then train all of our staff to create pages. Some teachers have created their own websites but it would be much easier for the students if all teachers had the same online set up for their classes.

I completely agree with having all teachers use the same website. It seems easiest, most cost-efficient, and just smart, best practice for a district to do that. Good call!

I too agree--and my district is trying to move forward on the decision making path. BUT deciding which of the CMS to go with is challenging/daunting.

I believe this is an important element of online learning. There are so many tools that can be used to get the same point across, and if it engages the students they will be more likely to want to learn it.

Brings up a good point. Most districts have the right to keep students off the internet if they have abused it in the past. What happens when it is required for a class?

That is a good question Bethany! What does happen??

I think policies need to be developed by schools and school districts to address such issues.

This seems to be a particularly relevant standard for this field in particular, perhaps more so than in any other area. Not only do "new" technologies enter the educational setting, but familiar ones are updated/upgraded. There is also such a broad range of technology available, as well as slightly different "products" to do similar tasks.

I agree Erin this is so important and so challenging as an educator to stay on top of the new learning that is needed to teach native tech students in todays world.