the future is online: Week Four-Whew

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Week Four-Whew

Well, what a week. Cooperative learning online is a very challenging concept. I think it can be made easier by setting up the environment that the students will be working in. After experiencing some major problems, this would be my suggestions for teachers considering this activity in the future. First, define roles for the students or create a list and have them each select a role. Secondly, I would establish a chat-room (or discussion room if time was an issue) for students to use strictly for their group. Finally, I would orient them towards several group venues, such as blogs or googledocs, in order that they have a place to start. Anyways, there are a lot of different tools out there and it was interesting to see what they had to offer for the online teacher.

Here is a link to our group toolbox:
http://docs.google.com/View?docID=dcx98mfh_2cpq5c5hp&revision=_latest

4 comments:

Swedee said...: Group projects can be challenging. You mentioned that the group had some major issues. Is there anything that you would do differently next time or do you feel it was the structure of the project that caused the problems? Glad to see you included a link to your project. Your group had a nice, informative project.
Jennifer Jenkins; July 17, 2008 at 6:45 PM
Datta Kaur said...: Peggy, I am looking for your Week 5 posts that will include a link or upload to your personal taxonomy table.

Please let me know when this is done. Thanks so much. ~ Datta Kaur; July 23, 2008 at 5:54 PM
Datta Kaur said...: Peggy, thanks I just found your taxonomy table at the bottom of the page. Thanks. I will add points. ~ Datta Kaur; July 23, 2008 at 5:55 PM
finnegan-assessment said...: Hi Jennifer and Datta: I am sorry for not responding sooner. I have to get used to facilitating my blog. This is a good lesson for me, especially when I will be running a pilot course this fall. As far as the problems, basically it was communication issues and lack of participation...something that is not uncommon in group situations. I do not believe that there is anything we could have done differently. It was a group dynamics issue. This happens sometimes. Peggy; August 3, 2008 at 1:52 PM

Reflections on The Perfect E-Storm

What an interesting article. After reading the article, two things came to mind. The first thought focused on one of the technologies Bonk discussed, which was video papers. I was just making a comment the other day, as to whether or not universities were looking at the 'digital' thesis. This application could certainly alter the delivery style of papers, essays, etc... I see this technology booming at the secondary level. The students love to combine various media applications in their presentations. What a perfect activity for that non-linear reader:) This article referenced some great technologies for instructional resources. As teachers in this online series, we are fortunate to be exposed to some of these technologies that are out there.

The author also talked about how open source software will become more important in education arenas, especially if lack of funding is an issue. We all have seen how various technologies are soon replaced with something better and quicker. Its hard to keep up sometimes. I am not sure about the collegiate level, but at the k-12 level, if we want new technology, its either find a grant, find a hand-me-down, or dig deep in my own pockets. Thus, open source software is definitely important at my level.

My Interview from Chris Danula

Reflection/Discussion for Module 7

I finished the first draft of my final project this week and posted the link in my blog. I was very pleased with the advice offered by the classmates. I can feel myself winding down, which is also partly due to the month of August being here. School starts soon.

I did manage to get time to play around with micrograde. I use making the grade in my district, as it is compatible with macs. I found micrograde to be fairly easy to navigate. I did not see any place for uploading class lists, however, that may be an oversight of mine. I think I will spend more time on this one, especially if the district will not place my online course on the server system.

Below is the list of comments that I will be using when revising my final project.

Peggy,

I found your final to be very thorough and well laid out. It looks like a good class to teach. The only problem I had with it was in viewing it: some of the pages had the fonts scrunched up so I couldn't read it very well.

Dan

Peggy,

Well done. The conntent is complete and the presentation is colorful and fun.

Mary Lou

Hi, Peggy. Your content is very thorough. My only question was about the learning objectives; are they supposed to be the learning objectives in your course rather than the objectives of the tool?

Also, does Google Presenter allow you to have a non-linear presentation so you could have a main menu with all 4 learning modules and we could click from there rather than the seqential style?

Thanks for a great example! :-) Jodell, MN

Peggy

I was going to use google presenter as well but wanted to try out sliderocket. I think your presentation is well organized and visually appealing. I think you did a great way of highlight the Bloom's Taxonomy references.

Hi Margaret.

Your Powerpoint has attractive visual elements and it’s concise. The applications you chose are perfect. I like the E portfolio tool. How easy is that! Your Blogger page entitled Peggy Finnegan the future is online is beautiful! I am always amazed at how colors are matched. Did you have a flood or is that just a visually stimulating picture?

I have two questions for you about writing learning objectives . Should we be writing learning objectives that deal with specific curriculum or a general outcome? Should the learning objectives be for the students or for the instructors? For example, the learning objectives you wrote for Survey Monkey are for instructors.

Provides instructors with a web-based venue to assess the effectiveness of programs and courses (what we did well and what areas needed improvement).

·Instructors are able to acquire relevant information to use when making changes in the curriculum and instruction in their respective program and/or courses.

One of your objectives for Blogger was, “Discussions. Students will post at least three comments to other students’ blogs.

I like using the verbs of each taxonomy as they are laid out in Bloom's Taxonomy. Using verbs from Bloom’s taxonomy for Comprehension and Apply I would write:

· “The student will discuss the ideas presented in a post and how they relate (agree/disagree) to their own opinion of the topic.” OR

· The student will paraphrase or restate ideas presented in the post and give their own examples.

When I wrote mine, I used the site that was recommended I think by Daniel. Here it is http://www.teachervision.fen.com/tv/printables/misc07/BloomsTaxonomyVerbs.pdf

Writing objectives is not easy. Hope this suggestion doesn’t stress you. I got one from Gregory about the endless scrolling on my Web site. He was absolutely right. But I’m not that happy I need to do more tinkering on the presentation of my information. But I am a perfectionist, so I’ll do it. Perfectionism sucks. Larry

Peggy,

I just reviewed you project and was very impressed!! I like that you included the screen shots of your tools. After a brief, cursory look at your project I did not see anything that jumped out at me. I can look more closely if you would like, but to me it looks very professional and well thought out.

Great work!

Ann/Monroe

Reflection/Discussion for Module 6

Authentic assessment was used in both courses, such as “research, reflection, discussion and action (Khalsa and Hildreth, 2000) and allowed the students to use various higher level thinking skills. Students in Khalsa’s study, also reported an improvement in writing and technology skills, as well as developing research skills. All of these components could also be found, especially the development research and writing skills with Casey’s projects.

Cyber-coaching is used as a motivational process; a way to support students in the online learning process. There are many different type of ways one can pursue this, such as 24/7 phone contact, email contact, discussion boards, virtual office hours (including instant messaging), and video/audio components.

In my courses that I will be delivering this fall, I will be implementing a video advisor component. The plan is to meet a minimum of once a week. The goal is to work more in the advisory capacity, such as answering questions, listening to problems or concerns, directing students to other resources, offering suggestions, acting as a communicator or messenger for student, etc… I also like the idea of virtual office hours. I think this will add a bit of structure and stability to the overall cyber-class.

Side note: This past week, while on a road-trip up north to the cabin, my 8 year old niece said, “Do you know that more people are killed by donkeys than by airplanes”? Trying my hardest to refrain from hysterical laughter, I asked her, ”Where did you hear that?” “Oh, it’s true. I read it on the internet.” she replied. I am constantly amazed by what these younger kids come up with (I did ‘snope’ it and sure enough, it was there) and their skills on the web. Our students have so much more information readily available to them via the web, so the level of learning can be so much more involved. But I also believe this is an area that could use a bit of cyber-coaching during the learning process, as we all know we can’t believe everything we read (and see) on the web.

Reflections for Readings, Module four

In the Assessment and Online Teaching Guide, written by Flexible Learning, the document takes an overall look at online Assessment. Some of the areas looked at include curricular needs in regard to vocational education, current uses of online assessment, issues such as fairness, reliability and honesty, management processes, key research projects related to this area, and current hurdles for assessment in the online environment.

Assessment plays an important function in both evaluation and guiding learning. Good assessment strategies are needed not only for the student, but the educators and programs as well. The guide listed a number of reasons why valid online assessment is crucial:

Assessment affects student behavior and learning.
If the use of online teaching is to be put to greater use, assessment criteria and constraints determine the general layout and presentation of the course.
Flexible scheduling also requires appropriate types of assessment in this non-traditional environment.
Authentic assessment is the “new wave of pedagogy” that promotes giving more responsibility to the student in the “active participation” learning process.

Currently, online learning assessment is difficult in your classes that require demonstration of skills. However, as technology improves, this can also change how online assessment may be adapted to these types of classes. Many of the questions this guide had in assessing students participation in discussion and activities brought up similar issues that traditional classroom teacher would find, such as how do I assess participation in a fair and equitable manner? Group projects find similar issues as well. In fact, within my own group project this past week, our group lacked definition of group roles and a good method of communicating with one another.

Assessment and Online Teaching
Australian Flexible Learning Quick Guide Series
www.flexiblelearning.net.au
July 5^th, 2004

In the second reading, Assessment for Understanding, by Roberta Furger, the author discusses authentic assessment-project based learning. It was discussed how it is important to have a good performance assessment by using a rubric. By using a rubric, the student knows what they are to learn from the project and is a guide to how they will be assessed on their work. It is important that these rubrics be well constructed, measuring only for what skills, knowledge or other abilities are needed to show a good understanding of the project at hand.

Being an Industrial Arts Education teacher, I have used a system of competency based assessment since the late eighties. The students find the rubrics to be a very important part of their learning process. The administration also likes rubrics to be used as well, because if a parent or student should ever question a grade, the rubric is pulled out and explained in a manner that is usually acceptable.

Assessment for Understanding
Edutopia online
www.glef.org

Reflections on Concept Mapping

I found the article to be interesting, but I did find myself getting bogged down with some of the business references. But the auther describes a great activity. Mapping is an activity I used in reading as a way to ignite prior knowledge on a subject the students were going to read about. This article discussed concept maps having a similar purpose. They are certainly meant to be open ended, because students will come to the table with different backgrounds and knowledge base. Concept mapping is very similar and can be used in all subject areas.

I tried the Gliffy site, which was pretty user friendly, as a source to create mapping. Does anyone know if this site works with some of the course management softwares, such as moodle? Look below to see an example of my concept map. I started a map on what a student will confront in online learning. It is still a work in progress, and I hope to have it completed for the fall. But I have more research to do in regard to this.

Assessment Taxonomy Table

Assessment taxonomy table

Using

Studying the First Amendment: Exploring Truth in Journalism

Christine Casey

Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts

Prepared by

Peggy Finnegan

July, 2008

Bloom categories

Learning objective verbs

Activity

Knowledge

(recall, list, define, identify, collect, label)

Research

Define

Explore

Distinguish

research

explore

find examples

Define

Research

Activities

1- Research. What was the Sullivan ruling and why is it important?

Using the text and class discussions, students will be able to define basic

journalism terms in order to discuss the role of the journalist in upholding the First Amendment.

Students will do research to explore how the standards of taste have changed with time.

Define the Fairness Doctrine. Research who, what, when, where,

how and why. (this activity leads into next one down).

Comprehension

(summarize, describe interpret, predict, discuss)

Discuss

Explain

View

Analyze

discuss

Expand on research and discussion by reading and analyzing the

article, “The Disinformation Society” excerpted from Crimes Against Nature by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Students will view Media Hype: When News Coverage Goes Too Far.

Application

(apply, demonstrate, illustrate, classify, experiment, discover)

Write

Persuasive

Explore

Students will write a persuasive essay on How Ads Affect Viewers of Online News?

Analysis

(analyze, classify, connect, explain, infer)

Analyze

redefine

Lead

Analyze

Support

Analyze

Inform

Explore

Students will analyze a 6-point Code of Ethics for Journalists.

Code of Ethics for Professional Journalists.

Students will pick one story from the top 25-censored Media Stories of

2002-2003 and investigate the reasons that each may have been censored. Who

censored it?

Students will work in small groups to analyze the following scenario in regards

to ethics and taste. They

Write an essay to support your stand on the issue (review supreme court decision to review $10 million libel suit against Masson).

After viewing the film, War Spin: The Media and the Iraq War, students will analyze and discuss the role of the journalist in times of war.

Students will write an informative essay that explores this issue.

Synthesis

(combine, integrate, plan, create, design, formulate)

Group

create

After viewing the documentary Media Ethics, students will discuss the ethical dilemmas journalists face. Students will work in groups to share their research.

Students can create their individual guidelines for questionable language,

subject matter and photographs.

Evaluation

(assess, recommend, convince, compare, conclude, summarize)

Persuasive essay

(convince)

Persuasive essay

After reading “How Ads Affect Viewers of Online News” in Journalism &Mass Communication, students… Students will write a persuasive essay where they explore this issue.

Students will write a persuasive essay supporting or rebutting her (Malcom’s) theories.

the future is online

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Week Four-Whew

4 comments:

Peace Moth

class wiki activity

efolio site

Sclipo-live video How to Teach

Reflections on The Perfect E-Storm

Learner centered verses teacher centered

My Interview from Chris Danula

About Me

Blog Archive

Reflection/Discussion for Module 7

Reflection/Discussion for Module 6

Reflections for Readings, Module four

Reflections on Concept Mapping

Assessment Taxonomy Table

Concept Mapping