Reflection Week 10

This week was by far my favorite. I don't know if it was due to researching on the upcoming new technology tools or how to stay relevant with change and reminisce the past. Whatever the case was, it was very interesting. While reading my peers blogs, I noticed that we are all on the same page. Matthew mentions how we need to choose a tool that will best fit in our objective. I think teachers and non - educators get caught up in the "new" technology and forget that some of these tools are not useful to use in a classroom. I know people who will trade in their phone when a new one has been made. Now, for me I still have the old iPhone, but am having extreme problems with it. So soon I will trade and buy a new one or change to a phone that's not an apple product. What I have found with my phone and my husbands is once the warranty expires our battery dies super fast and our blue tooth has quit working. The reason I mention this, is with technology everything breaks or stops working at sometime. It's important to stay relevant with the new tool, but know when to upgrade and buy new. Iphones are always updating their phones and marketing new ones. Students could get caught up in the marketing scan, but if they're educated they can save a lot of money. It's important to choose which tool is going to be worthwhile to use for the certain activity or back to teaching, lesson you have planned. It's also important to know how to fix the tool you are working with. My document camera and promethean board continuously has glitches. When you're teaching a lesson, you can't be reading the guide on "how to fix it." To stay relevant, you need to know the tool inside and out. Ali mentioned it's important to have team support. Creating a course has many different sections. It's important to work as a team and have everyone create a certain part. It's like the sport swimming, you race individually, but earn points to help your team. The team with the most points wins the meet. This can be looked on as the same when working as a team when creating an online course. This week, we have decided to not make our own online courses. Mia and I were creating a course that 6th grade teachers could use when teaching about Matthew Henson and Robert Peary. During our class meeting, we have decided that with survivalcraft, the teachers registered are relying on us to present a successful training for them. With all of the other activities we have planned, there wasn't enough time, so we decided to use our training as the online course we're creating. We are going to work as a team. I have the role of creating online tutorial videos for the teacher tools. A challenge is to make the videos 5 minutes or less long. This means, I need to create many tutorial videos for each tool. From our last survey, we received one response and the teacher said they would prefer online videos rather than a face to face meeting. During this week we also discussed how the Lord of the Flies scenarios were probably not school appropriate. I did some research and found some articles that I shared with the group. Turkey is actually thinking of banning Minecraft and Microsoft  is fighting for them not too. It all has to do with survival mode. LOTF scenarios are about the students killing and surviving. I'm worried that if students do this in school, our whole project will be banned in the schools participating. We decided as a group to change the scenarios and make it where the students build the World War setting and work as a team to survive. I hope the scenarios work and there is no negative press from this.
We are meeting early this week to discuss our online training course. We have a lot of work to do, but with team work I'm sure we will create a very successful and informative training for the teachers.

Week 10

HOW CAN WE REMAIN RELEVANT IN DISTANCE LEARNING IN A TIME OF CONSTANT AND ACCELERATED CHANGE?

            In this time of age, things are always drastically changing. I remember when I was a child and my dad was showing me his record collection. He then went on to explain how they would probably not exist anymore-even C.D.’s which was just the new fad at the time. He said it will probably be a little chip that holds all your music in one device. I was sure that it was a off the wall thought, but to my surprise years later the iPod was created, then the IPod mini. It’s amazing how things have changed in just a short amount of time.

            I remember receiving my first cell phone in 8^th grade. Comparing it to the phone now, amazing how it has become super thin, small with a lot more functions on it. When the iPhone first came out, they were extremely expensive. They still are, but the older versions are at least with a discount. For the longest time, I refused to get an iPhone. I didn’t think it was smart to have all of my “eggs in one basket.” I had a Sony camera and iPod and a flip phone/blackberry at the time. I refused to go over to an iPhone. It wasn’t until my husband decided we should go on our own phone plan and my friend kept accessing pinterest on her phone. I was planning my wedding, so pinterest was really on my new watch list. I started to like the iPhone and thought it was actually better that I had a camera and music on one device. Easier to pack and travel with.

            For me to stay relevant in a time of constant and accelerated change is to stay up with the times. It’s important to “stay continually educated and evolve with the changing educational landscape” (Lancaster). I remember the thought of never having an iPhone as I was holding my first one in the AT&T store. The thought of silliness and “why did I ever think that” crossed my mind. It still does. Every vacation my husband and I have taken, I have always used our phone for a picture or a “selfie!” Now with the iPhone you can upload the photo directly to Facebook. I would have never known this, unless I observed my friends on their iPhone and learned from others.

    As an educator I am constantly learning new things to implement into my classroom. This week, I went on a website you may have heard of it, teacherspayteachers.com, If you haven’t heard of it, this website has all different lessons and activities you can do with your students. All you have to do is download them to your computer. All of the lessons are free or $1-12 at the most. On the website you can also sort by grade and subject as well. You can also follow the teacher for any upcoming new products. The website also allows you to upload units for sale. I think the site gets a commission, but some teachers have retired and only use this website for their income. It’s amazing how many teachers use this website and pay for other ideas. This is how you stay relevant.

    You have to “learn as an active rather than a passive process.” (Anderson and Dron). I am constantly learning new things to use in my classroom. I’m taking any training I have extra time for and trying to implement new strategies while teaching. The YouTube video shows ten new future technologies that will change the world. It’s very interesting and disturbing at the same time.

         I can’t find the article, but recently on BBC it explained how students in rural England and India are using a virtual teacher. Throughout the whole reading this week, I kept thinking about this article. Basically the students would walk into the classroom and there would be a computer for them to log in. The students would then start discussing and learning from the teacher that was being projected onto the screen.  In rural areas in Alaska students are given an opportunity to take certain classes that are not offered to them by distance. “Students can learn wherever they are located from instructional resources wherever they are located” (Moore and Kearsley) and this is what distance education is all about. It’s providing an opportunity for students who don’t have the access or the ability to take a course.

         The reading mentioned how some of the videos teachers have created are of low quality and hopefully in the near future have “high-speed access to the World Wide Web becomes more generally available” (Moore and Kearsley) I think this has already occurred. Accessing the web on my phone, laptop, iPad or at school is quite fast. I understand in the areas of the world such as Africa for example, they might not have the ability to receive quick bandwidth. I know when my husband and I visited Africa; it was eye opening and definitely a third world country. The fact that there is some distance education occurring is mind boggling to me. While touring there we didn’t see any homes made out of wood, brick or clay. We saw earth home that were made out of dirt and had bamboo roofs. We met a peace core women who was staying with a family and the description of her environment made me very thankful for what I had when I returned home. Another way to stay relevant is to travel and see what has already started to be developed in other countries.

         This week my students are learning about Johnny Appleseed. Today they had to write how they would change the world for the future. After watching the video and reading the new upcoming technologies, it’s interesting to me that some of my students “inventions” were pretty close to the ones mentioned. Some mentioned were flying cars, robots, 10 foot bed with arms to get breakfast and help people from being late to work (I had to put that one in to make you smile) and from the reading “emotionally responsive toys and robots” (Moore). Whatever the invention is it’s important to remember to choose the technology that will help your students be the most successful.

         There are many technologies that are going to be developed and explained how to implement them into your life or even the classroom, as an educator we need to be knowledgeable of the tool and use with caution. Not every tool is going to work for a student or the class. Depending on the activity, it’s important to choose wisely. To stay relevant it’s important to stay educated and attend trainings as much as possible. It’s also important to travel and experience new things in person and to read literature, watch tutorial videos and follow other educators.

         While working on my bachelors I took a computer class. A consultant from Smart Technology came to present to our class. I remember the presenter mentioning there are “65,000 technology jobs that will be available for your child and we don’t even know what they are yet.” Now, I know what you’re thinking, because I had the same thought. How does this person know that? Is it really that many jobs? As the times are changing and new technology tools are created, I’m starting to think this person was on to something. The key to being successful is to staying knowledgeable, (via twitter, YouTube, blogs, MOOC’s, educational trainings, peer collaboration and literature) of the items being invented and choosing wisely which ones to implement into your classroom and/or job.

Technology Events Timeline

This is an interesting read!  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/7625680.stm

Resources

Moore, M.G., and Kearsley, G. (2011).  Distance Education:  A Systems View of Online Learning, 3^rd Edition.  Belmont: Cengage Learning.

Lancaster, M. (2014, March 27). Retrieved March 26, 2015, from https://farfromhomenearathand.wordpress.com/2014/03/27/how-can-we-remain-relevant-in-distance-learning-in-a-time-of-constant-and-accelerated-change/

Anderson, T., & Dron, J. (2011, March 1). Three Generations of Distance Education Pedagogy. Retrieved March 26, 2015, from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/890/1663

The International Association for Distance Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2015, from http://www.iadl.org.uk/Article17.htm

10 Future Technologies That Will Change The World. (2014, November 30). Retrieved March 26, 2015, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMymFYJWW5M

       

Reflection

This is quite late due to our cancelled flight and delay out of state for four days.... As I was reading my peers blogs this week. Matthew mentioned this in his blog "Distance programs need to be flexible to change the technology to meet the needs of its students. In places where internet is not fast and robust, then another form of distance education needs to be used". I think this is spot on. From this week, we learned that there are many distance learning opportunities for students. We also learned that there is a lot of expectations for education in countries. I think to have a successful learning experience by distance, there does need to be more opportunities for students. Not every student can access a computer or have a good internet signal. The part that will be the most difficult is to figure out how we are going to give every single student a quality education. Not everyone has salaries that can afford a distance education program. I think it's important to find a way to give every student an opportunity for an education.

If you think about Alaska compared to the rest of the United States, we have a lot of land. I was just in Michigan and where it takes 8 hours driving to get from Anchorage to Fairbanks, or 6 hours to Valdez to Anchorage... in Michigan to get from Birmingham to Troy only takes 10 minutes, or Birmingham to Detroit takes 40 minutes. My point to this is students in Alaska don't have access to classes like other's due. In Michigan there were 3 Universities and many private schools. In Alaska there are three Universities and a few private schools. Mia mentions the divide, I think it's important to think of the students we are going to be teaching to when creating a distance education course. Do they have the materials to be successful? Can they afford the course requirements or have access to the tools needed to take the course? Also there needs to be certain topics that students can't access in a face to face setting. Students who live in a rural area are given an opportunity to succeed with distance learning. I think it's important to have many different kinds of education. Distance education is occurring all over the world, as we read this week. In some countries it gives women the right to an education. I think when designing a course, we need to have text materials available for students to access anytime (timezones) and study guides as well as tutorial/instructional videos. Distance education is the key to a successful learning environment around our world. It gives everyone access to an education.

Week 9

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: WHAT LESSONS CAN WE TAKE FROM GLOBAL DISTANCE LEARNING EFFORTS?

         When you think of designing an online course, you want to think of the students that you will be creating it for. From the readings this week, I learned that distance learning is based every where in the world. I thought it was interesting, in Pakistan “The rate of literacy and education is much lower for females in Pakistan, particularly in the rural areas, due to poverty and conservative traditions” (Moore and Kearsley). Distance learning has helped girls get an education from their home. They do not have to go to a school or be seen with other men. In “Saudi Arabia, where tradition requires men and women to study in separate environments, distance education enabled women to engage in higher education by studying at home” (Moore and Kearsley). Distance education gives the opportunity for anyone to receive an education.

         It is another way to receive training. “It will be used, not only for education  and training, but as a way to integrate learning with performance on the job in implementing aid programs” (Moore and Kearsley). From this week, I learned that almost every distance learning course is either done through asynchronous or a blended learning environment with a face-face meeting time. Almost all courses have videos for students to watch, study guides for them to read and certain required texts. I thought it was interesting in The Netherlands “there is no cohort of students following a prescribed study pattern, as in most distance-teaching universities. Students can enroll at any time and generally decide for themselves when to take an examination” (Moore and Kearsley. I don’t agree with this type of distance education. I have had this same distance education course and it’s very easy to put the class on the back burner and forget about it. Also, I think there needs to be deadlines for when students apply and start a course. They need to be able to collaborate with other peers and not just join whenever, it’s need to be organized.

         In Turkey, “most programs students are assessed by means of multiple choice tests produced by the Assessment Department” (Moore and Kearsley). I think in a course, there can be some multiple choice assessments, but not for everything. There needs to be a variety of assessments completed.

         Distance education is the solution to one of the biggest problems in our world. It will “bridge the gap in knowledge and knowledge creation between  wealthy countries and poorer countries” Moore and Kearsley). It will give every student a chance to receive an education. “Public institutions in the United States are much more likely to offer online courses than private institutions: 97 percent of two-year institutions and 89 percent of four-year institutions offer distance education programs” (Hanover). Whether students are studying abroad or in their home. Since 1970 there have been “more than 50 open universities” (Walsh) available to students. Africa has the most difficult time. There’s hardly any students that go to school or get an education. “The oldest open

university in the world, believes that open and distance learning may be the only viable and affordable means of providing post-secondary education in Africa, given the constraints there” (Walsh). I think distance education is the key to success in our world.

         Distance education can be completed online, through any mobile device students have access to. Distance learning can occur anywhere in the world. “Student mobility has increased significantly over the past two decades. Four million students studied abroad in 2004, a three-fold increase over the number in 1980” (Walsh). Here are 5 things to consider when designing a distance learning course (Chaney and Eddy)

 1. Distance learning is not superior to or inferior to traditional face-to-face instruction.

2. Successful distance learning programs are driven by teaching and learning rather than technology

3.  Principles of marketing management apply to distance learning program success.

4.  Successful online/distance learning courses and programs meet the needs of multiple constituents (students, faculty, departments, professions, administrators, etc.).

5.  A culture of support at all levels of the institution enables success

As I was doing my own research on global distance education I came across an interesting tip. “Developers and institutions should not view distance learning, simply as an easy way to make money, but rather, as a systematic, educational, delivery mechanism to reach time-bound and location-bound students”. (Chaney and Eddy) The reason for distance education is to give everyone in the world an opportunity for knowledge and an education. I think what lessons we can take from is design a course that is easily accessible to your students. Make the assignments were students are using technology they know how to use and can access materials anytime of the day. Students who take distance-learning courses are in many different time zones. Materials for the class need to be available at all times.

         I was pretty impressed and surprised at how many distance-learning courses are available in different countries. I can only imagine the number of participants increasing each year and education being easily accessible to students.

Resources

Moore, M.G., and Kearsley, G. (2011).  Distance Education:  A Systems View of Online Learning, 3^rd Edition.  Belmont: Cengage Learning.

Chaney, E., Eddy, J., & Chaney, D. (2010, January 1). The Context of Distance Learning Programs in Higher Education: Five Enabling Assumptions. Retrieved March 11, 2015, from http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/winter134/chaney134.html

Hanover. (2011, February 1). Trends in Global Distance Learning. Retrieved March 11, 2015, from http://www.hanoverresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Trends-in-Global-Distance-Learning-Membership.pdf

Walsh, P. (2009, January 1). GLOBAL TRENDS IN HIGHER EDUCATION, ADULT AND DISTANCE LEARNING. Retrieved March 11, 2015, from http://www.icde.org/filestore/Resources/Reports/FINALICDEENVIRNOMENTALSCAN05.02.pdf

Week 8 Reflection

This week we talked about what we would require of the instructors who would teach our course. The first thing I would require and Ali and I both agree it's the major item in creating a successful course is communication from the teacher to the students. I would want students to understand the objectives and know that if there were any questions they had, there was a way to contact the instructor or have a "help support" system. It's also important for instructors to provide feedback 24 -48 hours is the maximum amount of time to give feedback. If the students are going to do the work required, then it is respectful for the teachers to provide feedback on a timely manner. Matthew mentioned in his post how in his courses it's difficult for his students to communicate in the web conferences. I mentioned a list of questions or agenda to post during the session. I also mentioned for students to have a chance to lead the discussion, same as students in the Diffimooc class I'm in do on Twitter. Each week a different student leads the discussion. This doesn't always have to be on twitter, but with this type of communication students can collaborate together and learn from each other. In a course, there needs to be some type of learner to learner instructing as well. On Ali's blog we all discussed our needs assessment survey and our evaluation survey we sent out. We are all disappointed in the response we received.  Out of 5 teachers we only heard back from 1. Which implied a tutorial video would have been more efficient to a live face to face meeting. Through the blog comments, we discussed how it's important to have communication with the teachers. Mia thought, having 5 instructors and Dr. Graham is a little over whelming for the teachers. The teachers were first contacted by Dr. Graham and then each one of us contacted them about something else that we have created. Where this is fine to branch out and create our own thing, I wonder if we need to think about the teachers we are working with and delegate only one person to contact the teachers. This will create a knowing "contact person" for the teachers if they have questions or concerns. I think for our future training session we should think about how we would like to communicate to the teachers and how to have them respond to our assessments we provide. Assuming what teachers need for a training, is not successful. It might be for the ones who responded to the needs assessment, but if we don't hear feedback we are lost into what to create for them. Communication and a way to contact personal is important to have in a course.

Week 8

WHAT WILL YOU REQUIRE OF THE INSTRUCTORS WHO TEACH THE COURSE YOU DESIGN? WHY?

            When I think of designing a course, lesson or unit, the first thing that I always think about is what am I going to teach? Why am I going to teach this certain topic? What do I want the students to get out of it? The most important part to “creating a positive online teaching and learning environment is the instructor needs to carefully plan the course and maintain an online presence”(UNB). No instructor designs a lesson then hands it to their students without thinking of the approach or the students background and previous knowledge. Teaching a course online is the same design approach as teaching a course to students in a face-to-face classroom.

            It’s important to spend “a longer time designing the structure of an online course. More time spent in design up front will lessen course maintenance time”(UNB). If the instructor doesn’t take time to design their course in an organized way, their students will always be disorganized, won’t know the expectations or the requirements of the course. It’s important to post on the course website what the student expectations are and their responsibilities. With this adds the importance of the rubric for the course. A rubric “helps students self-assess the quality of their postings and stresses the importance of active and regular participation to learn course content and make connections between topics” (Lehmann and Chamberlin).  Whenever I teach to students I always explain how they are going to be assessed. I find if students know this upfront they produce quality work.

            Instructors need to interact with their students. The most difficult part of teaching a course online, is not knowing if your students understand the concept or know the expectations. In a classroom setting, instructors are observing their students, available to ask immediate questions or concerns on the task and assessing their students knowledge. In an online course, students email instructors and wait a few days until a response. To have a successful course, it’s important to know how students react to what you have written (or say in a live session), unless you ask them to tell you through some feedback mechanism” (Moore and Kearsley).

            Our Givercraft training had very little participation. We created a recording of our training and sent it to the rest of the teachers hoping they would watch it. We then sent an assessment survey, which outlined the questions from our needs assessment. The results only showed one teacher responding to the survey. Our team does not know exactly how effective our training was. We can tell from the students buildings that they were prepared and the teachers understand the expectations of the course. However, I don’t think we guided the teachers to be “actively involved in the learning process” (Moore and Kearsley). With the response we had on the needs assessments, trainings and the post survey, teachers took it upon themselves to train for Givercraft.

            I think our online discussion board helped teachers feel apart of a small group for the training, I’m still stumped as to why we didn’t get a lot of participation. The reading this week from Moore and Kearsley explains how instructors should know their students, understand their life and work environment. I’m wondering if we should put on the needs assessment or registration form a question to help us understand more of the teachers background. This will help us create a course that will best fit their needs and we will be able to have them participate in a way that works for them.

            With an online course it’s important for students to understand the content, have interaction with the teacher and with other peers. I enjoy reading other blogs from the same reading. We all have different points of views and ideas from the required text.  Something to remember when teaching an online course, “plagiarism is a particular worry for educators in the online environment because it can be so easily located and captured electronically” (Moore and Kearsley). It’s important when students are writing to emphasize the importance of citing their sources.

            To have a successful online course, there needs to be some kind of assessment. We don’t teach students and then hope they understand the content. There is always some type of assessment that is given. In an online course it’s important to provide “ongoing feedback and respond to questions in a 24-48 hour turnaround” (UNB). A friend of mine’s son had to work on a project for three weeks. This student was up many late nights working on the project and even the parents were helping. The project was turned in and it took about a month an a half for the student to get feedback or a grade on the assignment. I remember the parent saying, if the teacher is going to have the requirement for students to turn it in by a certain date, then there needs to be a date the instructor will provide feedback.  The last thing any student wants is to complete an assignment and never hear how they did or what they could improve on towards the next assignment.

            Where it’s important for the instructors to provide feedback on a timely manner. It’s also important for students to understand the expectations on graded assignments they will complete. What are the circumstances for late assignments. Some instructors state they will “review late requests and circumstances on a case by case basis and make decisions accordingly” (Vandervelde). Lee mentioned how her first online course she didn’t like due dates. The students took advantage of the expectation and turned in all of the assignments on the very last day of the course where all students received an incomplete in the course. I think as an instructor there are going to be students who procrastinate and don’t turn assignments in on time and then there are going to be students who sometimes need an extension or an excused absence. Whenever my student is absent due to an illness, appointment or vacation I always excuse their work. Depending on the assignment the student will either complete at home or be assessed for their understanding through a different activity.

            To summarize what I would require from an instructor who is teaching my course is;

           

• Get to know the students (background and living/work environment)

• Interact with the students make sure they understand the content, expectations and requirements of the course

• Provide opportunities for students to ask questions to the whole group and on an individual basis

• Let students interact with each other and learn from one another

• Complete assessments on students interaction and completion of assignments

• Provide feedback on a timely manner

Resources

Moore, M.G., and Kearsley, G. (2011).  Distance Education:  A Systems View of Online Learning, 3^rd Edition.  Belmont: Cengage Learning.

More Best Practices. (n.d.). Retrieved March 4, 2015, from http://www.unb.ca/cel/online/info-faculty/best-practices-2.html

Vandervelde, J. (2012, January 23). Sample Late Policy. Retrieved March 4, 2015, from https://www2.uwstout.edu/content/profdev/teachingonline/late_policy.html

Lehmann, K., & Chamberlin, L. (2015, February 28). Discussion Board Topic Links. Retrieved March 4, 2015, from https://www2.uwstout.edu/content/profdev/rubrics/discuss_etiquette.html#your