The first week of certification courses I am facilitating is now complete. I'm facilitating #50 Curriculum and Course Construction and #53 Educational Psychology. The first week is always a little hectic getting the technology and expectations figured out. Both courses have the benefit of being filled with learners with a wide variety of educational and experiential backgrounds. Sometimes people who might be seen as having the least amount of experience in a given topic are the ones who have the ability to see things the oldtimers overlook - similar to not being the best person to proofread your own paper. On the other hand, those who have been around teaching and learning for awhile have great stories to illustrate points. The mix creates a rich learning environment.
I'm also using the Curriculum and Course Construction course as my practicum for the E-Learning for Educators graduate certificate from UW-Stout. It's interesting being a facilitator and learner at the same time. Though I do just as much learning as a facilitator and facilitating as a learner - there's something in that thought...
These facilitating and learning experiences are enjoyable and enlightening. But note to self for next year - running the courses sequentially rather than concurrently might be better for everyone involved. I love chaos. I must; whenever I put one thing to rest I seem to replace it with at least one new thing. (My husband is a bit apprehensive about what will replace our children leaving the nest.) From Margaret J. Wheatley's book Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World (1999), "But the greatest challenge for me lies not in adopting any one new method, but in learning generally to live in a process world. It's a completely new way to be. Life demands that I participate with things as they unfold, to honor the mystery of it, and to see what emerges...It's not easy to give up the role of master creator and move into the dance of life" (153-154). My goal: Let go, embrace the chaos, dance.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Branching Out
I've just expanded the purpose of my blog to reflect on the teaching and learning going on in the two courses I'm facilitating over the next two months. The courses are Curriculum and Course Construction and Educational Psychology; both are certification courses for technical college instructors. It looks like there are some dynamic individuals with diverse backgrounds that will lead to some interesting discussions. I'm looking forward to it!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Week 8 Relfections
The final week of the course has ended. If you haven't had the experience of online interaction, you might not believe it when I say I will miss the other students in the course. I do look forward to logging in to the discussion board to see what others thought about the readings, projects created, feedback on my thoughts and projects. The varied backgrounds of the other students provides multiple viewpoints.
This week we finalized our final projects and read a couple of articles on using discussion boards. One article titled, Benefits of An Online Discussion List in A Traditional Distance Education Course, by Bradshaw and Hinton (2004) made a couple of points that interested me. One is the idea of exposure versus transformation in learning situations. A second is "if the course content is meaningful within the student's particular social context and their cultural and value system, learning is more likely to occur."
Many years ago I taught grammar and punctuation to middle school students and adult learners. Students are exposed to grammar and punctuation starting in first grade, though for many the concepts never seem to click and stick - no transformation occurs. In my mind, the secret lays somewhere in the second concept listed above. There lacks meaning in their social context, culture, and/or value system. The issue is not exclusive to English. When I figure out how to redesign learning systems to address this, I'm sure you'll hear about it.
My classmates have developed interesting projects for this course. I hope they continue to update their blogs as they implement them. I would like to see their results.
This week we finalized our final projects and read a couple of articles on using discussion boards. One article titled, Benefits of An Online Discussion List in A Traditional Distance Education Course, by Bradshaw and Hinton (2004) made a couple of points that interested me. One is the idea of exposure versus transformation in learning situations. A second is "if the course content is meaningful within the student's particular social context and their cultural and value system, learning is more likely to occur."
Many years ago I taught grammar and punctuation to middle school students and adult learners. Students are exposed to grammar and punctuation starting in first grade, though for many the concepts never seem to click and stick - no transformation occurs. In my mind, the secret lays somewhere in the second concept listed above. There lacks meaning in their social context, culture, and/or value system. The issue is not exclusive to English. When I figure out how to redesign learning systems to address this, I'm sure you'll hear about it.
My classmates have developed interesting projects for this course. I hope they continue to update their blogs as they implement them. I would like to see their results.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Week 7 Reflections
Developing the draft of our final project this week was a perfect example of an assessment that can be used in an online course that fosters high-level critical thinking skills and creativity. It would be nearly impossible for a student to find anything that could be plagiarized.
I asked a question on the course discussion board about utilizing information from the midterm assessments completed by our classmates. This was not done to be a smarty-pants; I could see a reasonable argument for either side. The "do your own work" side keeps participants from selecting assessments already completed to save themselves some work - even if they may not be the most appropriate assessments for their course. Also, by doing your own research on the selected assessment tools, you may find some information or features that were not uncovered in the work done by your classmate.
The argument for the "collaborative" side is that sharing work already completed reduces the duplication of effort. Teachers are notorious for working in solitude and often spend hours redeveloping work that has already been done by others. Starting with work that has already been completed frees time for adapting for the new learning experience and expanding on the work that has already been started. As long as permission is asked and credit is given, using and expanding on the work of others is a reasonable, and even desirable, task.
It will be interesting to see the many approaches to this final project by my classmates. I'm sure each will have a component or strategy that will spark an idea for me.
I asked a question on the course discussion board about utilizing information from the midterm assessments completed by our classmates. This was not done to be a smarty-pants; I could see a reasonable argument for either side. The "do your own work" side keeps participants from selecting assessments already completed to save themselves some work - even if they may not be the most appropriate assessments for their course. Also, by doing your own research on the selected assessment tools, you may find some information or features that were not uncovered in the work done by your classmate.
The argument for the "collaborative" side is that sharing work already completed reduces the duplication of effort. Teachers are notorious for working in solitude and often spend hours redeveloping work that has already been done by others. Starting with work that has already been completed frees time for adapting for the new learning experience and expanding on the work that has already been started. As long as permission is asked and credit is given, using and expanding on the work of others is a reasonable, and even desirable, task.
It will be interesting to see the many approaches to this final project by my classmates. I'm sure each will have a component or strategy that will spark an idea for me.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Final Project Draft
The final project for Assessment in E-Learning is an in-depth analysis of how four assessment tools will be implemented in our online course. My final project draft is posted on my Google electronic porfolio as "Andrea's Final Project." All questions, comments, and revision suggestions are welcome.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Week 6 Reflections
This week's focus topics were cybercoaching, constructivism, and analyzing different course plans to clarify and identify components of effective learning.
As I was reading the article, "Cybercoaching: Rubrics, Metacognition, and Feedback, Oh My!" by Naomi Jeffrey Petersen, I studied the diagram of Chang and Petersen's Harmonic Feedback Loop with interest. In that diagram I could connect the process we use at WITC to develop and implement curriculum. The course design and stated objectives of the diagram parallel with our course outcome summaries and the teaching, learning, and assessment feedback loop represents what happens in the learning experiences designed by the instructors.
The Cybercoaching article contained many additional applications for implementing sound pedagogical practices online including personal feedback directly related to improving performance on the designated outcomes and using rubrics to facilitate learner independence and self evaluation. In my upcoming course, I want to pay particular attention to the coaching techniques regarding feedback to learners.
We also developed a pre-course survey to send to learners to gather information we can use to assess skills and knowledge learners have coming into the course. My survey focuses on technology and background in facilitating learning.
The final project draft is due next week. I want to get my learning objectives out on the practice post for feedback since they are in a format that is different than I'm used to. Looking at the objectives from a different perspective provides an opportunity to further clarify them - always a good practice.
As I was reading the article, "Cybercoaching: Rubrics, Metacognition, and Feedback, Oh My!" by Naomi Jeffrey Petersen, I studied the diagram of Chang and Petersen's Harmonic Feedback Loop with interest. In that diagram I could connect the process we use at WITC to develop and implement curriculum. The course design and stated objectives of the diagram parallel with our course outcome summaries and the teaching, learning, and assessment feedback loop represents what happens in the learning experiences designed by the instructors.
The Cybercoaching article contained many additional applications for implementing sound pedagogical practices online including personal feedback directly related to improving performance on the designated outcomes and using rubrics to facilitate learner independence and self evaluation. In my upcoming course, I want to pay particular attention to the coaching techniques regarding feedback to learners.
We also developed a pre-course survey to send to learners to gather information we can use to assess skills and knowledge learners have coming into the course. My survey focuses on technology and background in facilitating learning.
The final project draft is due next week. I want to get my learning objectives out on the practice post for feedback since they are in a format that is different than I'm used to. Looking at the objectives from a different perspective provides an opportunity to further clarify them - always a good practice.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Week 5 Reflections
The discussion board was on Bloom's Taxonomy was very interesting this week. Being able to interpret the level of an activity or assessment from a few sentences is not an easy task. At what age are learners able to work at the critical thinking levels? Are there different levels of critical thinking for different age groups?
I was recently introduced to a twist in Bloom's Taxonomy referred to as EASy - Evaluate, Analyze, and Synthesize - putting creating something new as the highest level of critical thinking. An article in APA Online titled Using the new Bloom's Taxonomy to Design Meaningful Learning Assessments explains the thinking that supports the shift.
The site on plagiarism was very informative. Though, as instructors if we move toward more authentic assessments that incorporate applied and personal experiences, the ability to plagiarize significantly decreases.
The activity of just considering how an activity meets or doesn't meet certain criteria for higher levels of a taxonomy is significant for our own practice. Are we asking learners to really dig into topics and discover, make connections, create something new? Then we will have created learning experiences that can't be copied from a book or the web, can't be memorized and forgotten.
I was recently introduced to a twist in Bloom's Taxonomy referred to as EASy - Evaluate, Analyze, and Synthesize - putting creating something new as the highest level of critical thinking. An article in APA Online titled Using the new Bloom's Taxonomy to Design Meaningful Learning Assessments explains the thinking that supports the shift.
The site on plagiarism was very informative. Though, as instructors if we move toward more authentic assessments that incorporate applied and personal experiences, the ability to plagiarize significantly decreases.
The activity of just considering how an activity meets or doesn't meet certain criteria for higher levels of a taxonomy is significant for our own practice. Are we asking learners to really dig into topics and discover, make connections, create something new? Then we will have created learning experiences that can't be copied from a book or the web, can't be memorized and forgotten.
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