My students are gaining 21st century skills by . . . completing authentic assessments that don't allow for a yes/no, true/false, multiple choice answer but instead require the students to be creative, collaborate with classmates, and think critically. By integrating technology into these authentic assessments, the students are learning in a hands-on, exploratory manner and are demonstrating the NETs standards in their work.
I understand the Virtual Schools Legislation in Wisconsin and am excited about . . .the opportunities virtual schools provide for students who don't excel in the traditional classroom setting. Virtual schools certainly aren't just for struggling students but for any student who will excel and learn more in a non-traditional classroom setting as well as students who are disciplined and will take responsibility for their own learning. The VS Legislation provides some basic "definitions" that clearly spell out the layout of this type of schooling. I find it encouraging that all teachers must complete 30 hours of professional development in order to be certified to teach an online class. I'm glad that part of the legislation was included!
My system involvement in online learning includes . . .
We are currently exploring the option of offering the required personal finance class as an online class so all students will have experience with this type of course prior to graduating. I am excited to be part of this process and research. I think once the personal finance class is up and running and students/parents/teachers see and experience the success, more and more courses will be offered in this format.
During the module I was excited to learn about . . .I was most excited (and nervous) about the synchronous facilitiation that I was responsible for this week. I had no idea what to expect as I had never done anything like it before. It was a nice, safe environment to practice some of the skills that we've seen our instructors demonstrate and use over the course of the term.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Shift Happens Narrated Reflection
Well, after spending a good amount of time on an assignment, I am realizing that I don't think I needed to do it. There isn't a place for me to submit the assignment or a discussion board for it anyway so I'm guessing I could have skipped it but I'm not totally sure. Because I don't want to think I just spent some time on an assignment that isn't going to get looked at, I'm going to share it here just to make myself feel better about the time spent on it. :)
Striking content, data, or statistics:
•India & China – more honor students than we have students in USA
•Today’s learner will have 10-14 jobs by the age of 38. 1 out of 4 people are working for a company that they’ve been employed by for less than a year. 1 out of 2 people are working for a company that they been employed by for less than 5 years.
•Top 10 in demand jobs in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004 & we are preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist.
Implications for Teaching & Learning:
•Most of these statistics are interesting but not surprising with how quickly the world is changing. The one fact that really put things into perspective for me was the first one listed above regarding the honor students in China & India being more than the total number of students in the USA. The USA has always been so highly regarded in so many areas but it is somewhat frightening to think about the USA falling behind many countries in regards to education, innovation, etc. What do we do about this? Give our educational system a complete overhaul? What are China & India doing differently? Maybe we need to take a peek at what they are doing and consider making some changes on our end to keep up?!
•Because students have been born into this digital age, most have been connected at such a young age. They are used to the instant gratification that is part of using technology and being connected. They’ve been brought up hearing, “You can do whatever you want and be whatever you want.” I think we need to proceed with caution with students feeling the sense of constant connectivity and “I can do whatever I want” mentality. Maybe this is contributing to people bouncing around to so many jobs. If they don’t feel that instant gratification, they move on too quickly to the next opportunity without using some of those 21st Century skills like problem solving, teamwork, cooperation, creativity, etc. ??
•The last stat listed above talks about preparing students for jobs that haven’t been created yet. Interesting! I think it goes to support the idea of getting away from so much memorization of facts and moving toward teaching 21st Century skills which can be applied to any future.
Striking content, data, or statistics:
•India & China – more honor students than we have students in USA
•Today’s learner will have 10-14 jobs by the age of 38. 1 out of 4 people are working for a company that they’ve been employed by for less than a year. 1 out of 2 people are working for a company that they been employed by for less than 5 years.
•Top 10 in demand jobs in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004 & we are preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist.
Implications for Teaching & Learning:
•Most of these statistics are interesting but not surprising with how quickly the world is changing. The one fact that really put things into perspective for me was the first one listed above regarding the honor students in China & India being more than the total number of students in the USA. The USA has always been so highly regarded in so many areas but it is somewhat frightening to think about the USA falling behind many countries in regards to education, innovation, etc. What do we do about this? Give our educational system a complete overhaul? What are China & India doing differently? Maybe we need to take a peek at what they are doing and consider making some changes on our end to keep up?!
•Because students have been born into this digital age, most have been connected at such a young age. They are used to the instant gratification that is part of using technology and being connected. They’ve been brought up hearing, “You can do whatever you want and be whatever you want.” I think we need to proceed with caution with students feeling the sense of constant connectivity and “I can do whatever I want” mentality. Maybe this is contributing to people bouncing around to so many jobs. If they don’t feel that instant gratification, they move on too quickly to the next opportunity without using some of those 21st Century skills like problem solving, teamwork, cooperation, creativity, etc. ??
•The last stat listed above talks about preparing students for jobs that haven’t been created yet. Interesting! I think it goes to support the idea of getting away from so much memorization of facts and moving toward teaching 21st Century skills which can be applied to any future.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
CED0 550 Week 5
In reflecting on my teaching experiences to date, I would say that the proportion of teacher centered versus student centered lessons has been …
Most of my teaching experiences during my first year of teaching were very much teacher centered but since then I've really focused on making my lessons student centered. I think my first year I was in survival mode, which I'm sure every teacher can related to during the first year. So much is new - the content, the classroom management, the grading, lesson planning, not to mention all of the other non-classroom related things to learn, monitor, be responsible for. After getting a few of those variables under control, I felt much more relaxed and able to give up some of the control in the lesson delivery as well. There are times when lecture is important to give the material and teach key concepts but I really try to be the facilitator and let the students guide their learning process in an hands-on manner whenever possible.
I was able to identify more than one authentic assessment to measure mastery of a single concept lesson when I …
For the assignment this week, I only described one authentic assessment to measure mastery of the lesson but with a bit more time to think about it, I could come up with multiple assessments for the students to choose from to demonstrate the mastery of the learning objectives. Time to develop these ideas and corresponding rubrics is always the issue.
The rubric I created for my lesson clearly defined expectations and scoring for the lesson so that my students could …
Easily understand the expectations of the assignment. As with all assignments with rubrics, it gives the students basically a checklist to use during the creation process as well as prior to submitting the work to make sure all key concepts and elements have been covered and included in the assignment/assessment.
While working on this module I had success/difficulty while doing something new involving …
This week I've been spending much of my time developing and going over my synchronous facilitation which I have tonight. I'm very nervous about it, especially after trying to get into the virtual classroom early to get files loaded, breakout rooms set up, etc to find out that Elluminate is now been purchased by Blackboard, right? The log-in screen looks different with "Blackboard" on it. I hope the interface of the virtual classroom isn't different that that of the room that I practiced and played around with in our small groups. In addition, I don't have the moderator privileges yet to be able to upload my presentation, etc. Deep breaths...everything is going to be fine...and what doesn't go as planned will be a learning experience. :)
Most of my teaching experiences during my first year of teaching were very much teacher centered but since then I've really focused on making my lessons student centered. I think my first year I was in survival mode, which I'm sure every teacher can related to during the first year. So much is new - the content, the classroom management, the grading, lesson planning, not to mention all of the other non-classroom related things to learn, monitor, be responsible for. After getting a few of those variables under control, I felt much more relaxed and able to give up some of the control in the lesson delivery as well. There are times when lecture is important to give the material and teach key concepts but I really try to be the facilitator and let the students guide their learning process in an hands-on manner whenever possible.
I was able to identify more than one authentic assessment to measure mastery of a single concept lesson when I …
For the assignment this week, I only described one authentic assessment to measure mastery of the lesson but with a bit more time to think about it, I could come up with multiple assessments for the students to choose from to demonstrate the mastery of the learning objectives. Time to develop these ideas and corresponding rubrics is always the issue.
The rubric I created for my lesson clearly defined expectations and scoring for the lesson so that my students could …
Easily understand the expectations of the assignment. As with all assignments with rubrics, it gives the students basically a checklist to use during the creation process as well as prior to submitting the work to make sure all key concepts and elements have been covered and included in the assignment/assessment.
While working on this module I had success/difficulty while doing something new involving …
This week I've been spending much of my time developing and going over my synchronous facilitation which I have tonight. I'm very nervous about it, especially after trying to get into the virtual classroom early to get files loaded, breakout rooms set up, etc to find out that Elluminate is now been purchased by Blackboard, right? The log-in screen looks different with "Blackboard" on it. I hope the interface of the virtual classroom isn't different that that of the room that I practiced and played around with in our small groups. In addition, I don't have the moderator privileges yet to be able to upload my presentation, etc. Deep breaths...everything is going to be fine...and what doesn't go as planned will be a learning experience. :)
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
CED0 550 Week 4
While I haven't taught an online course, I have used many of the elements in my face-to-face classes, especially my Web Tools course which has a natural fit to organizing the course in this type of manner. Many of the classes were exploratory time working with the various web tools as well as putting together projects. As I continue to teach this class, I will modify how the content is organized. While still having the students in my classroom, I hope to organize the content in a way using some sort of LMS so I can transition more into a facilitator rather than the teacher.
So far I haven't had any problems navigating the course management system and utilizing the discussion boards. In the beginning of the course, I did have trouble accessing a Google Doc but after contacting the instructor I was able to open it up. Since then, I haven't had any issues but know that if I do, the instructor is only an email or phone call away which takes away any anxiety of encountering tech issues.
I can imagine using Elluminate Live! for a web conference in order to meet for various committees and groups. I am part of the WI Business Education Association and we meet a few times a year for an executive board meeting. It becomes pretty costly for the organization because they pay for mileage for everyone to travel to attend the meeting. If we could meet virtually with a tool like Elluminate, we could accomplish everything that we need to. There are sub committees but even those could meet in breakout rooms and then bring the conversation back together as a whole group. I know there is a cost associated with Elluminate with over 3 users but it would be interesting to do a cost analysis to see what the subscription fee would be in comparison to the money spent to cover everyone's mileage/lunch cost to attend the meetings.
I tried something new while working on this module and it made me think that . . .I sure have a lot of work and research to do on online learning but the resources shared in this class have been very valuable. In fact, many of the sites and resources I've also shared with my principals who are forward-thinking and interested in online learning. I wish I could dedicate more time to doing the necessary research to set up an online class/program but there are only so many hours in the day!
So far I haven't had any problems navigating the course management system and utilizing the discussion boards. In the beginning of the course, I did have trouble accessing a Google Doc but after contacting the instructor I was able to open it up. Since then, I haven't had any issues but know that if I do, the instructor is only an email or phone call away which takes away any anxiety of encountering tech issues.
I can imagine using Elluminate Live! for a web conference in order to meet for various committees and groups. I am part of the WI Business Education Association and we meet a few times a year for an executive board meeting. It becomes pretty costly for the organization because they pay for mileage for everyone to travel to attend the meeting. If we could meet virtually with a tool like Elluminate, we could accomplish everything that we need to. There are sub committees but even those could meet in breakout rooms and then bring the conversation back together as a whole group. I know there is a cost associated with Elluminate with over 3 users but it would be interesting to do a cost analysis to see what the subscription fee would be in comparison to the money spent to cover everyone's mileage/lunch cost to attend the meetings.
I tried something new while working on this module and it made me think that . . .I sure have a lot of work and research to do on online learning but the resources shared in this class have been very valuable. In fact, many of the sites and resources I've also shared with my principals who are forward-thinking and interested in online learning. I wish I could dedicate more time to doing the necessary research to set up an online class/program but there are only so many hours in the day!
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
CED0 550 Week 3
What is the greatest challenge that I have encountered as an online teacher/facilitator and how did I manage it? (If you have not yet taught online what do you think would be the greatest challenge for online teachers/facilitators?)
Because I haven't been in the online teacher/facilitator role yet, I am going to predict what might be the greatest challenge. I predict that finding a way to keep all students actively engaged and on task is going to be the greatest challenge when facilitating the online synchronous class. While reflecting on this challenge, it actually isn't that much different from one of the challenges of face-to-face instruction.
Some things that I feel are really important to consider about synchronous and asynchronous facilitation as I prepare to facilitate my threaded and web conference discussions are. . .
Posing an open-ended, thoughtful, well-written discussion prompt (asynchronous) and trying to think through/prepare for whatever might happen during the synchronous class. Because this is the first time through doing this type of facilitation/instruction, I don't really know what to expect. The key to it all for me will be the reflection piece after I'm done with my facilitator role to really think about what went well and what I'd change/do differently next time.
I choose my particular discussion topic because . . .
I have been asked to get creative in the way my department can offer classes to students, especially those classes that don't typically get enough enrollment each year to run a traditional classroom section. I am going to try to have some students working independently and using an online class format so I chose the topic of "Starting an Online Program" because I'm faced with doing this research right now/over the summer for my job anyway.
One thing that I thought about when developing rubrics for the 2 different discussions is. . .
"Why recreate the wheel?" When looking at the rubric that we are graded with each week for our synchronous class, I thought it looked pretty good and applicable to my topic, etc. Then when meeting with some group members, another example was shared and I REALLY liked it. Instead of wasting time trying to come up with a few synonyms to make the wording a bit different, he said I could use his rubric for one of them that we had to create. I did create one of my own but like his much better! I also thought about modifying the wording a bit and using this rubric for my face-to-face class participation. So many of the things I do in class are hands-on activities/simulations/etc that don't always produce something for me to grade but grading them on their active, thoughtful participation using an objective rubric would be very helpful.
Because I haven't been in the online teacher/facilitator role yet, I am going to predict what might be the greatest challenge. I predict that finding a way to keep all students actively engaged and on task is going to be the greatest challenge when facilitating the online synchronous class. While reflecting on this challenge, it actually isn't that much different from one of the challenges of face-to-face instruction.
Some things that I feel are really important to consider about synchronous and asynchronous facilitation as I prepare to facilitate my threaded and web conference discussions are. . .
Posing an open-ended, thoughtful, well-written discussion prompt (asynchronous) and trying to think through/prepare for whatever might happen during the synchronous class. Because this is the first time through doing this type of facilitation/instruction, I don't really know what to expect. The key to it all for me will be the reflection piece after I'm done with my facilitator role to really think about what went well and what I'd change/do differently next time.
I choose my particular discussion topic because . . .
I have been asked to get creative in the way my department can offer classes to students, especially those classes that don't typically get enough enrollment each year to run a traditional classroom section. I am going to try to have some students working independently and using an online class format so I chose the topic of "Starting an Online Program" because I'm faced with doing this research right now/over the summer for my job anyway.
One thing that I thought about when developing rubrics for the 2 different discussions is. . .
"Why recreate the wheel?" When looking at the rubric that we are graded with each week for our synchronous class, I thought it looked pretty good and applicable to my topic, etc. Then when meeting with some group members, another example was shared and I REALLY liked it. Instead of wasting time trying to come up with a few synonyms to make the wording a bit different, he said I could use his rubric for one of them that we had to create. I did create one of my own but like his much better! I also thought about modifying the wording a bit and using this rubric for my face-to-face class participation. So many of the things I do in class are hands-on activities/simulations/etc that don't always produce something for me to grade but grading them on their active, thoughtful participation using an objective rubric would be very helpful.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
CEDO 550 Week 2
My experience with online communities has been …
Before answering this question, I am going to clarify what I think "online communities" refers to. At first my mind immediately went to "online classes" but online communities certainly also speaks of social networking online communities as well. My very first experience with an online class was during my undergrad program at UW-Whitewater during my freshman year. That online class was very "sterile" with essentially no communication or interaction with the professor or my classmates. As the student, I basically read from the textbook, answered some questions to a forum that nobody ever read, and took a true/false & multiple choice timed test at the end of the chapter. My experience with online classes at Cardinal Stritch has been much different. In fact, I feel like I know my cohort classmates better than I knew my classmates in other grad classes I've taken prior to starting the MEIT program. My first experience with social networking was 4 years ago, actually just a few months after my son was born. I was sick of trying to send emails with attached pictures to my family and having the emails get bounced back. My sister, who is 4 years younger than me & then still in college, showed me her Facebook page and suggested that I create an account so I could post pictures and share them that way. I cautiously did and have been hooked ever since. Since then, I've been able to connect not only with family members who live hours and states away, but also with classmates and long lost friends. It is a neat way to keep those connections with people who you'd normally lose touch with over the years and miles. In fact, I'm planning my class reunion for this summer and Facebook is the main method of keeping all of my classmates up to date as well as finding out where some of them are.
I believe the biggest benefit of collaborative groups is …
I believe the greatest challenge is/would be …
From a teacher's perspective, I can only speculate since I haven't been in that role yet with online teaching...but I think my greatest challenge is going to be organization. In order to keep track of all of the students and their assignments, it is important to have the class procedures structured as well as how students turn work in. The rubrics need to be spelled out easily so students know what is expected of them as well.
My thoughts regarding the social development and socialization issues are …
I touched on this in my forum post but to sum that thought up, I basically stated that with online classes, some of those social development & socialization issues might not be as apparent as they are in a traditional class. Students probably aren't going to be as quick to make the snap judgments about the other classmates in an online setting because they aren't all physically together in a room. They aren't going to be able to see what people are wearing or how they wear their hair or other nonverbal cues. I think the collaboration and group dynamic in an online setting is neat. By having students work together in groups for certain activities, they are able to learn about each other and socialize with those that they might not do so on their own, similar to in a traditional classroom.
Before answering this question, I am going to clarify what I think "online communities" refers to. At first my mind immediately went to "online classes" but online communities certainly also speaks of social networking online communities as well. My very first experience with an online class was during my undergrad program at UW-Whitewater during my freshman year. That online class was very "sterile" with essentially no communication or interaction with the professor or my classmates. As the student, I basically read from the textbook, answered some questions to a forum that nobody ever read, and took a true/false & multiple choice timed test at the end of the chapter. My experience with online classes at Cardinal Stritch has been much different. In fact, I feel like I know my cohort classmates better than I knew my classmates in other grad classes I've taken prior to starting the MEIT program. My first experience with social networking was 4 years ago, actually just a few months after my son was born. I was sick of trying to send emails with attached pictures to my family and having the emails get bounced back. My sister, who is 4 years younger than me & then still in college, showed me her Facebook page and suggested that I create an account so I could post pictures and share them that way. I cautiously did and have been hooked ever since. Since then, I've been able to connect not only with family members who live hours and states away, but also with classmates and long lost friends. It is a neat way to keep those connections with people who you'd normally lose touch with over the years and miles. In fact, I'm planning my class reunion for this summer and Facebook is the main method of keeping all of my classmates up to date as well as finding out where some of them are.
I believe the biggest benefit of collaborative groups is …
I believe the greatest challenge is/would be …
From a teacher's perspective, I can only speculate since I haven't been in that role yet with online teaching...but I think my greatest challenge is going to be organization. In order to keep track of all of the students and their assignments, it is important to have the class procedures structured as well as how students turn work in. The rubrics need to be spelled out easily so students know what is expected of them as well.
My thoughts regarding the social development and socialization issues are …
I touched on this in my forum post but to sum that thought up, I basically stated that with online classes, some of those social development & socialization issues might not be as apparent as they are in a traditional class. Students probably aren't going to be as quick to make the snap judgments about the other classmates in an online setting because they aren't all physically together in a room. They aren't going to be able to see what people are wearing or how they wear their hair or other nonverbal cues. I think the collaboration and group dynamic in an online setting is neat. By having students work together in groups for certain activities, they are able to learn about each other and socialize with those that they might not do so on their own, similar to in a traditional classroom.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
CEDO 550 Week 1
I have no experience teaching an online class but certainly have some experience from the student perspective since starting this MEIT program. I did take a few online classes during my undergrad but they were very sterile and not interactive at all. Basically those classes were this format - read your text, take a quiz/test online, participate in a few forum posts, and that was it. The format of the CS courses is so much different. They are still the online format but now I feel like I know my professors and my cohort colleagues. I've never met any of them but I feel like I have. If I ever have the opportunity to teach an online class I hope my students feel like they know me just as they would if I were standing in the classroom with them. With the Internet and technologies changing at such a rapid pace, the interactivity, communication, and collaboriation certainly will continue and improve the entire online learning experience.
Reflection points:
Identify at least two synchronous and two asynchronous online learning tools that would be appropriate for your targeted online learners.
*Target audience: high school students
*Synchronous online learning tools: Elluminate & Skype
*Asynchronous online learning tools: Blogs & wikis
List four different types of activities that you might use with your targeted online learners and identify an appropriate online tool to use in implementing that activity.
*Reflection – blog
*Discussion – forum
*Group project (paper) – Google Docs
*Group project (presentation) – Voicethread
Is my initial contact warm and inviting? Are there things I did particularly well or could do better in the future? Is my initial contact clear and concise and yet user friendly? What are some strategies that help to format your contacts to make them as clear and concise as possible?
I tried to cover all of the suggested points when scripting my initial contact email draft (Brief introduction of the instructor, Contact information for the instructor, Broad Overview of the course, Supplemental resource information, Course schedule or pacing, and General expectations for the course). Just like when responding to parent emails, it is difficult in this email script to write it in a manner that comes across as warm and inviting since they are just black and white words on a screen. However, I really spent some time choosing my words and hopefully they come across as warm and inviting as I intended them to be. If I were teaching this online class to high school students, I would want to also have a videoconference with each student and at least one of the parents/guardians prior to the start of class to serve as a brief introduction to me and the class as well as go over the expectations of the course and questions from the student/parent(s)/guardian(s).
In regards to making the initial contact clear and concise, I also tried to do this. Instead of giving all of the information, I asked the students to go to the class wiki where much of the class information, expectations, syllabus, instructor bio, etc were housed. The students would be able to explore this information prior to the first class and send any questions they might have to my email or call me on the number provided.
Reflection points:
Identify at least two synchronous and two asynchronous online learning tools that would be appropriate for your targeted online learners.
*Target audience: high school students
*Synchronous online learning tools: Elluminate & Skype
*Asynchronous online learning tools: Blogs & wikis
List four different types of activities that you might use with your targeted online learners and identify an appropriate online tool to use in implementing that activity.
*Reflection – blog
*Discussion – forum
*Group project (paper) – Google Docs
*Group project (presentation) – Voicethread
Is my initial contact warm and inviting? Are there things I did particularly well or could do better in the future? Is my initial contact clear and concise and yet user friendly? What are some strategies that help to format your contacts to make them as clear and concise as possible?
I tried to cover all of the suggested points when scripting my initial contact email draft (Brief introduction of the instructor, Contact information for the instructor, Broad Overview of the course, Supplemental resource information, Course schedule or pacing, and General expectations for the course). Just like when responding to parent emails, it is difficult in this email script to write it in a manner that comes across as warm and inviting since they are just black and white words on a screen. However, I really spent some time choosing my words and hopefully they come across as warm and inviting as I intended them to be. If I were teaching this online class to high school students, I would want to also have a videoconference with each student and at least one of the parents/guardians prior to the start of class to serve as a brief introduction to me and the class as well as go over the expectations of the course and questions from the student/parent(s)/guardian(s).
In regards to making the initial contact clear and concise, I also tried to do this. Instead of giving all of the information, I asked the students to go to the class wiki where much of the class information, expectations, syllabus, instructor bio, etc were housed. The students would be able to explore this information prior to the first class and send any questions they might have to my email or call me on the number provided.
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