Group Project Week 3

This week we continued work on our redesign of the class. We are narrowing our focus and I think we may do a power point presentation to the instructor on the ways we recommend for her to redesign her course. It is still just John and I. Our third partner must have dropped the class. Not really a lot to blog about this week. We will be wrapping up the project as it is due at the end of April and I will blog more extensively about our final product then.

Case Study Week 2

Good news! My group mate reappeared so I am not flying solo on the case study. I was surprised to see no new info this week. It looks like the instructions are sort of open ended and as an instructional designer I am free to pursue the case study as I see fit. John and I discussed the prelim questions a bit more and we are debating how to handle the final recommendations. We worked on some new work flows and we may offer web site redesign suggestions. Really the case is not too complicated, the web site for the course is horrible and it is no wonder the students are confused.

It is interesting that in the case study the course instructor was very enthusiastic about online leaning and felt that her course would convince other professors that these courses would be viable. Then she proceeded to shoot herself in the foot by not designing the course correctly. In addition to redesigning the course, our recommendations will include suggestions to seek help with the technical side of the course design in the future from somebody with experience.

Case Study Week 1

This week I am supposed to be blogging about my experience working with my group on the case study. I am not sure if either of my group members are still around. Looking at their twitters and blogs they are definitely not up to date. I went ahead and answered the questions myself so I will discuss my observations in this blog.

The problem with the course in the case study is the poor quality of the web site for the course. The site does not have crucial information and the students are confused as to when assignments are due and how to access certain points on the site. The problem is compounded because the professor seems to think the web site is fine and is frustrated because she does not understand why the students are having problems.

The weekly progress report was a bit difficult to fill out. Without knowing what the next two weeks assignments are it is hard to say what needs to be done or to make plans to do it. As always in this class, directions are pretty vague. I posted in my group forum a few times and I guess I will see if either of my group members are still around. If not I will just go solo on this one.

Podcasts

I listened to a couple podcasts of The Teachers' Podcast for this assignment. This is a podcast about news, reviews, research, and resources you can use as a teacher. It is a 2 person operation consisting of Dr. Kathy King and Mark Gura. I was especially interested in the content of the pods I listened to as one of the topics they discussed was online teaching certification. I am about to enroll in just such a program so this was relevant information to me.

As a student I think I would have preferred to read the text as opposed to listening to their discussion on these topics. I do not think that opinion would hold true for every topic or situation. I think a large part of any podcast is the person speaking and I did not find the hosts of this pod particularly compelling or enjoyable. Their information and opinions were fine, I just felt I could have gotten the information faster if I could read it myself.

I have had other courses where lessons were provided via downloaded audio and I enjoyed them and found no problem with that content delivery method. I also listen to multiple podcasts for entertainment. I think it would vary on a case by case basis as far as which subjects would lend themselves well to podcast delivery. Any lecture based class would be deliverable via pod and would probably provide more benefit to each student as they would be able to pause, rewind, or listen multiple times.

Mind Mapping Part 2... The Mind Map Strikes Back!

After doing the mind map activity for this week, I am tasked with identifying some potential benefits of using this technique when designing instruction. I enjoyed this assignment because it has a great deal of practical benefit. Mind mapping is something that might not be thought of as a lesson design tool, but it is a very useful one for an instructor to add to their toolbox.

Some benefits:
1. Easy and fast way to get ideas out- mind mapping is a very quick way to get your ideas onto paper or a computer screen. You can get your brainstorm thoughts down without worrying about minor details which could cause you to forget major points.

2. Easy to rearrange or alter the lesson- with a mind map you can change your connection lines or add or remove bubbles to change the structure or content of the lesson very easily. With the software based plans you can even save multiple versions to see which one works best.

3. Good for collaboration- mind maps are easy to share with others to brainstorm about the lesson. When in a team teaching situation this is a good technique to use to get everyone's input.

4. You can visually cue in on important topics- with a mind map you can easily highlight important topics by making their bubble or box bigger. This can help you identify the key parts of a lesson.

5. Simple or complex- a mind map can be very broad or very detailed. It is up to the instructor to determine how much information is needed in the mind map.

Overall I found mind mapping a great technique and I was very pleased to learn about the bubbl.us site. I plan on using that in the future for any mind maps I might make.

Mind Mapping

The lesson I designed is for PE and is designed to teach elementary school children the sport of Floorball. It helped me remember to include different aspects of the sport that I wanted to teach. I think this method allows you to really visualize what you are including in your lesson. It is also excellent to see how different elements of your lesson connect and relate with each other. This is also a quick way to do a preliminary lesson without a lot of writing. You can edit it easily without wasting a lot of time.

I am attaching my hand drawn mind map to this posting.

Next I used bubbl.us to recreate the lesson using software. I found it incredibly easy to use. I even added a couple categories to the shooting section of the lesson.

Finally I used Mindomo to try another software based solution. I did not like this one much. It seemed overly complicated and unituitive.

Twittering & Blogging with Bloom's Taxonomy

This week we learned about Bloom's Taxonomy and our mission is to examine how blogging and twittering can be used to accomplish learning objectives.

In this class we demonstrate the use of blogs quite well. We are responsible for writing about subjects relevant to the course. This falls under the category of creating. Creating is the highest order thinking skill in Bloom's taxonomy. Instructors can have students blog as opposed to writing traditional papers. The blog posts can be about specific subjects or themes in a course. Another way to use blogs is to have students read each others blog to critique and comment on them. This falls under the category of evaluating which is the second highest thinking skill. Students have to review the material and comment on it in context. This can help the instructor check for comprehension.

Twittering can also be used to facilitate learning. So far we have not used twitter for much in this class. I believe twitter has a number of uses. Students could tweet answers to questions posed by the professor for extra credit. This checks for understanding and knowledge retention. Twitter can also be used as a sort of message board for a class where questions can be posed to everyone. This would give students the opportunity to assist each other.

These are just a few examples of ways to incorporate tweets and blog posts into an educational setting. I believe there are many more, probably only limited by an instructional designer's creativity.

Extra Credit

For this post I am posting an image from the Ltec blog to get some easy extra credit!

Designing for learners

So this week we had the first group project due. My group was supposed to have three people, but only two of us seem to care. John and I decided to divide the 7 questions between the two of us. He took the last four and I did the first three. Our timing was not the best this week as we ran up against the deadline due to scheduling conflicts and being busy. We accomplished our mission and in the future I think we will try to schedule things further in advance since we know it is just the two of us.

The other issue to consider this week was:

Aside from learning styles and preferences, what else should we take into account regarding learners or our audience in designing instruction?

When I design instruction, I consider the skill or knowledge level of my audience first. I need to know whether to start with the basics or get right into the meat of the lesson. I also consider my ultimate goal. Am I teaching material for a future test? Is this just supplemental material? Is it just a "fun" lesson that relates to the theme? A good instructor has to ask themselves many questions when designing instruction. The best material is worthless when it is delivered in an ineffective manner.

Online Learning Myths

My blog post this week is to talk about my own beliefs regarding online learning courses. My views may be different that others in this regard. I have taken online courses for the last three and a half years with between 12-17 credits each semester. I love online courses and would not have been able to pursue my education without them.

I do find online courses much easier than traditional classroom courses. This is both due to the ability to schedule my own class time, as well as the fact that online courses tend to have less wasted time with interaction with classmates. One of my huge pet peeves with traditional classrooms is how much time is wasted by questions from people either not understanding material or simply asking questions to try to earn points with the teacher. I also read much faster than the average person so I do not find the need to devote the hours recommended for each course per week. I definitely do not spend 5-6 hours per class each week. Also many tests are effectively open book when taking online courses. Some profs try to greatly restrict the amount of time available to take the exams, but for somebody who reads quickly it is still possible to check almost every answer during a test.

One myth that I do not agree with is that the quality of online courses is less than a face to face course. I find the online courses allow for the instructor to provide a lot more material and supplemental material than in a traditional course. I would say a well designed online course is a better quality educational experience than in a regular classroom. I have seen a huge range of technologies used in my courses so far. Audio and video files, message boards, chat rooms, pictures, videos, links, etc.. Online courses enable you to go beyond what you get in a traditional classroom and really enhance your education if you so desire.

Copyright Issues

This week we were to examine how copyright laws dealing with fair use relate to online resources. I have been curious about this issue myself. When writing papers nowadays it is not unusual to take many of your references from online sources. The internet has so much accessible information that it would be foolish not to look online when writing a paper or researching a project.

“For legal purposes, publishing something to the web is exactly like publishing it to print. Fair use guidelines are identical whether you are using a work on the web, in print, or in face-to-face public performance.” (LEARN NC, 2007) When the previous statement is examined, it seems obvious that copyright would work in this way. Many people do not stop and consider this however. They see the internet as a free for all no mans land, not considering that content is owned by the creator whether it was published in print or digitally.

Linking to another site is not a violation because you are directing your reader to the content and not claiming it as your own. Care should be taken when linking to pages that are not a destinations site’s home page as it may not be obvious who owns the page you linked to. In the same manner you must take care when using frames to display another site’s content. Displaying that content in a frame with your banner above it may be seen as claiming ownership of the content. (LEARN NC, 2007) When displaying any content that is not your own, be sure to attribute ownership properly to avoid a violation.

I examined a lawsuit on the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s website. In this case, Kelly vs Arriba Soft, an initial ruling which would have set a dangerous precedent for fair use laws was overturned. Les Kelly, a photographer, sued Arriba Soft when he discovered that his website and the images on it had been indexed and displayed by the Arriba Soft image search engine. This is a technique (known as in-line linking) that is commonly used by other online search engines. The Ninth Circuit Court originally found that this practice was an infringement of copyright laws.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed an amicus brief asking the court to reconsider it’s ruling. “The Ninth Circuit subsequently issued a revised ruling, in which it withdrew the portion of the opinion dealing with in-line linking and the public display right. The fair use ruling remained intact — in other words, the Ninth Circuit turned a potentially dangerous precedent for the Internet into a complete victory for fair use!” (EFF, 2003)

I thought this case was interesting because I use image searches online quite often. If the court had not changed its ruling, many search engines would have had to change how they display results. In-line linking allows the search to be completed much more quickly and effectively. I am glad organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation are out there fighting for the public interests in the confusing world of the internet.

References

EFF, (2003). Kelly v. Arriba Soft. Retrieved February 10, 2010, from Electronic Frontier Foundation Web site: http://www.eff.org/cases/kelly-v-arriba-soft

LEARN NC, (2007). Copyright a primer FROM LEARN NC. Retrieved February 10, 2010, from LEARN NC Web site: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/media/uploads/2007/11/copyright.pdf

Typical Online Class Session

For my second blog of the week I am supposed to describe a typical online session for this course. I do not know if I have a "typical" session as I access the course both at work when I have spare time and also at home. I usually check to make sure I know when deadlines are so I can procrastinate to the fullest, then maybe do a bit of reading or knock out a quick assignment.

I take all online courses and have for the past 4 years while pursuing my Associates and Bachelors degrees. I was forced to take a couple classroom courses for things not offered online and it was extremely annoying. I prefer to work at my own pace and when and where I want to. After the freedom of online classes, sitting in a classroom was very difficult. I work full time, have a family, and maintain a number of hobbies. School is important to me, but it is not the main focus of my life. I look at it as a necessary evil to be able to accomplish other goals.

My session for this evening I guess could be a typical example. I finished looking at the different types of tests we were supposed to take and compared my results and blogged about them. I went down the weekly checklist and completed the rest of the assignments while taking breaks to check facebook, play some world of warcraft, and eat dinner. I even jumped over to another class and knocked out a discussion board post that was due this evening as well.

I guess my favorite thing about online courses is they give you the freedom to not have a typical class session. This fits my personality and schedule perfectly.

Tests, tests, and more tests!

This week we had to take a bunch of online tests to find out about our learning styles and personalities. These were all tests I have taken multiple times before in the past. I usually have issues with tests of this nature and this time was no different. I feel like many of the questions have answers that I could choose either or both of them.

First up was a learning styles test that measured learning style along 4 scales. I was very balanced on the active vs reflective dimensions as well as the visual and verbal dimensions. I moderately favored sensing over intuitive learning. I agreed with this as I like to focus on facts. I was also moderately sequential over global. This one I disagreed with as I feel I can learn either way. Sometimes I like step by step information and sometimes I like to just see the big picture and figure it out from there. Many of these questions I wanted to answer both ways.

Next I took a learning style inventory and based on the questions I scored 7 on visual, 6 on auditory, and 3 on kinesthetic. I agreed with these results and I am equally comfortable learning by reading or listening, but I do not feel the need to do hands on work to learn.

Next up was the Kolb inventory. I tested as Doing and Thinking which placed me in the analyzing category. I was reasonably happy with this broad categorization as the descriptions were all applicable.

Finally was the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator which everyone has probably taken by now. I came up as ESFJ which is Extraverted Sensing Feeling Judging. I was moderately expressed in all but judging where I was only slightly expressed. Apparently this classified me as a guardian. After reading the description I found some things I agreed with as well as some things I disagreed with. I guess the fact that I am not strongly expressed in the categories means I am harder to define.

Class Expectations

Howdy and welcome to post 1 of my new blog. This blog is about my expectations for my introduction to instructional technology class. I have had blogs in the past, but never really kept up with them. I prefer the facebook type of posting rather than in depth messages.

In this class I expect to learn more about various technologies and how they can be used in the classroom and workplace. I feel I am pretty technologically savvy, but there is always more to learn and new things to experience. I work as a PE teacher currently which does not lend itself to instructional technology as much as a traditional classroom teaching job might. I have used technology for lessons before and we do maintain a website for the PE program.

Today children grow up with technology and I think technology is needed to keep them engaged. As somebody who works with children I need to use every trick in the book to keep them interested in the message I want to get across. Technology can be very helpful in that area. I look forward to learning a lot of useful information this semester that will enlarge my pool of resources.

Till next time....