Saturday, September 19, 2009
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Friday, September 15, 2006
Blogging in the Classroom
Reflection
Reflecting on how to encourage student self expression through the use of a blog in my classroom is as simple as scrolling down and reviewing the discussions and comments from a previous class. We used it much like we would the discussion forum in Blackboard; however, we found that we were much more open and free with expression in the blogging venue. This of course was a graduate course and all correspondents used "Netiquette". I believe that Netiquette and appropriateness would have to be taught to some students, but then we are teachers, so it stands to reason that that is what we would do. The main negative consequence of incorporating publicly available web space in the classroom is that it puts the student at risk. Since even the slightest chance of putting a child in danger is unacceptable, I believe all classroom blogs should be password protected and all postings and comments monitored by the teacher, if not pre-approved. A computer and internet safety course or workshop should be a prerequisite for any computer use by a student. A signed contract with the student on the proper use of the computer and internet is not a bad idea.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Time Again
According to Anita Reach, “Most people who have taken online courses will tell you that it is more ‘labor intensive’ than onground courses.” (Ko & Rossen, 2004, p. 186)
“Beyond 30 or so students, you will find it difficult to operate without the assistance of a TA.” (p.202) “Each student presents a unique profile and must be responded to as an individual.” (p.237)
I decided to put all my quotes from this book in one lump sum. Although there was tons of great information in the chapters, my focus happened to be on the time issue because that is one of my biggest concerns right now. I am feeling much better about things and online courses in general as far as the time issue goes, but I am not sure how to break classes or lessons into bite-size chunks. (Now you have me doing that food thing) In an onground course, the objectives determine what must be taught and a teacher can pretty much use the textbook to outline the course with a few decisions to spend more time on this and less time on that and throw in a few activities. If simply converting the onground course to an online course does not work, how do you know how much is too much or not enough or just right with the different strategies that are used in the online course?
“Having a well-developed rubric assists the instructor with the ‘How am I doing?’ questions that often emerge in an online course. (Palloff & Pratt, 2005, p. 44) I really like having the rubrics attached to our assignments. Reading about the importance and advantages of using rubrics and having the use of them modeled for us in this class has convinced me to spend the few extra minutes to develop rubrics for the assignments I make from now on.
“The instructor needs to feel comfortable truly turning over the reigns to the learners in the learning process in order for collaboration to be successful.” (p.36) I can see how that is very true and could solve some of the time issues that concern me. It was also interesting to note that if collaboration is used in a course, then it should be used consistently throughout the course. It had not occurred to me that lectures and collaboration might not be compatible in the same course.
Speaking of collaboration I found an interesting article in eSchool News online about six schools in Europe that are planning to link their classrooms so that the students can collaborate in learning foreign language skills. “The aim of CTLI reportedly is to link up European classrooms, enabling teachers and students ‘to communicate, collaborate, and share information, resources and techniques to support teaching of the curriculum’.” http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showclips.cfm?clipid=1461
“Beyond 30 or so students, you will find it difficult to operate without the assistance of a TA.” (p.202) “Each student presents a unique profile and must be responded to as an individual.” (p.237)
I decided to put all my quotes from this book in one lump sum. Although there was tons of great information in the chapters, my focus happened to be on the time issue because that is one of my biggest concerns right now. I am feeling much better about things and online courses in general as far as the time issue goes, but I am not sure how to break classes or lessons into bite-size chunks. (Now you have me doing that food thing) In an onground course, the objectives determine what must be taught and a teacher can pretty much use the textbook to outline the course with a few decisions to spend more time on this and less time on that and throw in a few activities. If simply converting the onground course to an online course does not work, how do you know how much is too much or not enough or just right with the different strategies that are used in the online course?
“Having a well-developed rubric assists the instructor with the ‘How am I doing?’ questions that often emerge in an online course. (Palloff & Pratt, 2005, p. 44) I really like having the rubrics attached to our assignments. Reading about the importance and advantages of using rubrics and having the use of them modeled for us in this class has convinced me to spend the few extra minutes to develop rubrics for the assignments I make from now on.
“The instructor needs to feel comfortable truly turning over the reigns to the learners in the learning process in order for collaboration to be successful.” (p.36) I can see how that is very true and could solve some of the time issues that concern me. It was also interesting to note that if collaboration is used in a course, then it should be used consistently throughout the course. It had not occurred to me that lectures and collaboration might not be compatible in the same course.
Speaking of collaboration I found an interesting article in eSchool News online about six schools in Europe that are planning to link their classrooms so that the students can collaborate in learning foreign language skills. “The aim of CTLI reportedly is to link up European classrooms, enabling teachers and students ‘to communicate, collaborate, and share information, resources and techniques to support teaching of the curriculum’.” http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showclips.cfm?clipid=1461
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Week 8
Before I start my official blog, I would like to comment on an “aha” moment that occurred for me last week. When Dr. Dawley slacked up on the homework because she read between the lines or sensed that we were maxed out, it made me realize that if I become an online teacher, I will need to develop that “sense” or skill as well. It seems like it could be a difficult task.
There was lots of material to comment on this week from the textbooks. The question posed by the authors “How comfortable do I feel letting go of control and allowing learners to take charge of the process?” (Palloff & Pratt, 2005, p.20) was an interesting thought to me. There has to be better terminology instead of “letting go of control”. I say that because I think that one fear is a huge stopper for teachers. Maybe if they could think of it as restructuring or changing the format, the use of group activities and collaboration would not be so frightening. One point that stood out for me was the statement, “You need not participate in group activities, but your supervision will encourage participation by all group members and ensure that an individual’s contributions to the group are recognized.” (Ko & Rossen, 2004, p.113) In one of my other classes, a group was obviously getting aggravated with each other. It was a learning experience for me to see how the instructor stepped in and gently, but professionally handled the situation. It turned out fine. Something else that I have noticed in all of my classes is that students respond more if the instructor is involved in the discussion in some way. It is interesting to read in the text the situations that occur actually occur in class. I have more than once looked back to make sure my instructors were not the authors of the textbooks.
I am very interested in the role playing and simulation aspects of online teaching. I am hesitant to delve into those approaches right now, but I intend to attack them vigorously as soon as I complete my studies.
After reading the next two chapters, I found myself with more questions than answers. If you know the answers, please share it with me. Briefly, the statement “it’s a good idea to send the webmaster an email explaining what you are doing” in reference to linking a multimedia element from your web page. (p.160) I had to look in the glossary to make sure I knew what a webmaster was and I still did not understand why it is a good idea. How do you find the webmaster?
It doesn’t seem to matter how many times I read and reread copyright law. It is always somewhat confusing to me. The expression “legal ownership of material you create is a very gray area at most institutions” (p.172) makes me think gray could be synonymous with confusing. I did not read this, but I have heard that if you write something at the institution on their time, then that gives them the rights to the work. After reading this chapter, I am led to believe that an agreement on ownership should be established before the work is done.
The Web site that caught my interest this week was http://www.metamath.com/multiple/multiple_choice_questions.html
which offers a survey to determine your preferred learning style.
There was lots of material to comment on this week from the textbooks. The question posed by the authors “How comfortable do I feel letting go of control and allowing learners to take charge of the process?” (Palloff & Pratt, 2005, p.20) was an interesting thought to me. There has to be better terminology instead of “letting go of control”. I say that because I think that one fear is a huge stopper for teachers. Maybe if they could think of it as restructuring or changing the format, the use of group activities and collaboration would not be so frightening. One point that stood out for me was the statement, “You need not participate in group activities, but your supervision will encourage participation by all group members and ensure that an individual’s contributions to the group are recognized.” (Ko & Rossen, 2004, p.113) In one of my other classes, a group was obviously getting aggravated with each other. It was a learning experience for me to see how the instructor stepped in and gently, but professionally handled the situation. It turned out fine. Something else that I have noticed in all of my classes is that students respond more if the instructor is involved in the discussion in some way. It is interesting to read in the text the situations that occur actually occur in class. I have more than once looked back to make sure my instructors were not the authors of the textbooks.
I am very interested in the role playing and simulation aspects of online teaching. I am hesitant to delve into those approaches right now, but I intend to attack them vigorously as soon as I complete my studies.
After reading the next two chapters, I found myself with more questions than answers. If you know the answers, please share it with me. Briefly, the statement “it’s a good idea to send the webmaster an email explaining what you are doing” in reference to linking a multimedia element from your web page. (p.160) I had to look in the glossary to make sure I knew what a webmaster was and I still did not understand why it is a good idea. How do you find the webmaster?
It doesn’t seem to matter how many times I read and reread copyright law. It is always somewhat confusing to me. The expression “legal ownership of material you create is a very gray area at most institutions” (p.172) makes me think gray could be synonymous with confusing. I did not read this, but I have heard that if you write something at the institution on their time, then that gives them the rights to the work. After reading this chapter, I am led to believe that an agreement on ownership should be established before the work is done.
The Web site that caught my interest this week was http://www.metamath.com/multiple/multiple_choice_questions.html
which offers a survey to determine your preferred learning style.
Friday, March 03, 2006
Pre-evaluated Sites and Syllabi
I find the statement, “Because of the enormous growth of the Internet, open-ended research is becoming increasingly frustrating and difficult” (Ko & Rossen, 2004, p. 59) to be extremely true; not only in the classes I take, but even more so in the classes I teach. While I feel I have developed a fairly good system of using advanced search and keywords, I still appreciate the sense of direction that an instructor’s pre-evaluated site gives me. I found the list of sites at the following resource in the book very well mapped out and useful:
http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc/idmodels.html
Another way of gaining a sense of direction is through the course syllabus. I was amazed at the amount and extent of information that should be included in the syllabus, but I can clearly see how a well laid out syllabus is a map of the course. Chapter 4 emphasizes, “In an online environment, redundancy is often better than elegant succinctness.” (p.76) That statement answered a question I had in my mind about having menu items listed in several places for easy access plus the importance of having directions and items found in the syllabus in other locations in the course for ease of use. It had seemed redundant and now I know it should be.
http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc/idmodels.html
Another way of gaining a sense of direction is through the course syllabus. I was amazed at the amount and extent of information that should be included in the syllabus, but I can clearly see how a well laid out syllabus is a map of the course. Chapter 4 emphasizes, “In an online environment, redundancy is often better than elegant succinctness.” (p.76) That statement answered a question I had in my mind about having menu items listed in several places for easy access plus the importance of having directions and items found in the syllabus in other locations in the course for ease of use. It had seemed redundant and now I know it should be.
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