tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68030697302875574822024-02-20T06:55:47.427-08:00From Paper to Pixelsemoodyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13201974360629183541noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6803069730287557482.post-54346489955190451932012-07-01T14:22:00.000-07:002012-07-01T14:23:37.101-07:00Blog Reflection 3<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I still thought about what teaching next year will be like,
mostly because I decided to dedicate myself to this course while it was here
and then devote myself to designing my face-to-face course afterwards. For as
much as I have thought about, visualized, and worried about upcoming teaching
experiences, I hope I equally finding assurance by thinking back to this course
to as a guide.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I feel like I have a better grasp of designing a course for
its content progression, but now I also know that there’s nothing like actually
getting down and trying to put a course together to see what it looks like when
all of your proposed projects and lecturettes are available and next to each
other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I knew that the internet had potential as an educational
tool, but wanted to know what that potential was and how to utilize it from an
instructor’s perspective, which I appreciatively learned about during this
course. I also knew that online courses were different from face-to-face
courses, but I didn’t know that both offered benefits and concerns unique to
their environments. I believed that online courses lacked student engagement
and that anything a student learned online simply wouldn’t stick. I’m glad I
got to learn about creating meaningful online communities and providing intrinsically
purposeful content, because it helped changed my perspective of online learning.
I’m also glad that while I got more acquainted with wikis and yodios, I also
have further possibilities I can try to better utilize the technology for the
purpose of the pedagogy as a result of our group discussions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I will not forget the resources of today’s technology and
how they can be relevant to classroom work. I will not forget that there are
articles, videos, and other online materials that are accessible and could
greatly contribute to students’ learning experiences. Also, I will not forget
to look at course design as many pieces, resources, and concerns coming
together into a constructed whole instead of getting lost at the daunting
immensity of taking on an entire course, design and content, as an object in
itself. I did it once; now I know I can do it again.</span><o:p></o:p></div>emoodyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13201974360629183541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6803069730287557482.post-64693884461213935662012-06-17T08:37:00.003-07:002012-06-17T08:37:50.701-07:00Blog Reflection 2<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While I’ve participated in this course, I’ve thought about
the online courses I took as an undergraduate and how they didn’t utilize most
of the information I’m currently processing. Those online classes weren’t bad,
but they certainly didn’t stick with me and they gave me a jilted understanding
about the usefulness of eLearning. Also, I’m visualizing what it will be like
to teach face-to-face next year and imagining how that teaching will be
different from the kind of teaching I’m learning about in this course. I feel
anxious whenever I work for this class because I think about how I’ll have to
be a different medium of teacher next year. I get incredibly nervous because I’m
not sure how to interact with a classroom of students and I’m not sure that I’m
enough of a content expert to be confident as an instructor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve learned a lot about the different online technologies
available. I feel more comfortable having discussions about open source
technologies, mLearning, and different roles teachers play for their students
(scaffolding, constructing presentation of information, discerning course
content, etc). My attitude has changed because, since I’d never seen eLearning
done well, I didn’t think technology could be an effective medium for
educational development before I participated in this course.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I knew online learning had situated course hubs (like
Blackboard) and was flexible for student time and location. I wanted to know theory
for organizing courses and to have an opportunity to practice being in an
instructor-like position. I’ve learned how structuring matters and to organize
course content so that students can see themselves building from what they
already know to construct new knowledge with an understanding of that
information’s application; I will not forget that tomorrow!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also learned about developing community through
technology, which I didn’t think technology capable of prior to this course. I’m
afraid I’ll forget things like the names of teaching philosophies and their
ideas (like progressive, humanist, etc.); I liked having that language at the
forefront of my mind.</span><o:p></o:p></div>emoodyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13201974360629183541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6803069730287557482.post-75653290708206411232012-06-10T14:12:00.003-07:002012-06-10T14:12:53.240-07:00Podcast Review<br />
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Soukhanov, Denis. (Producer). (2011, April 20). <i>The Pros and Cons of Online Learning:
e-Learning Today TV</i> [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/edtech-tools-e-learning-today/id363273990</div>
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This podcast as a series provides an overview of information
concerning resources, articles, news, and apps for teachers of K-12 students.
In this particular episode, Lauren Grossberg introduced an online resource called
storytimeforme.com, a free website that customizes stories for younger children
to read along with. Lina Gonzalez summarized an article about the pros and cons
of online learning; the pros being cost effectiveness, a possible alternative
to traditional education delivery, flexibility, and the ability to offer
additional electives or make up classes to students. The only con mentioned was
that the quality of the time spent in eLearning environments was generally not
as productive as time spent in traditional classrooms. Grossberg then
introduced several apps that teachers could use in the classroom that allowed
children to do picture searches, read random facts, and create their own
monster characters. Gonzalez concluded the episode by describing a school where
free classes were being offered to parents so they could learn and be empowered
to support their younger students with schoolwork challenges at home.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I want apply this information by implementing customizable story
sites that creative writing students could use to analyze basic elements of
writing craft. I also enjoyed how the news report depicted a school helping to
build a community around its students; this communal inclusion in the learning
process is an element I would like to embrace in my teaching and in my courses
by providing conversation topics or other materials that eLearners could take
beyond the virtual classroom to engage with their face-to-face contacts who
aren’t in the course but could still provide intrinsically productive
discussion and a sense of real life application for the students.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Bickford, Alison. (Producer). (2011, June, 24). <i>E-Learning Academy: #13 E-Learning Instructional
Design Approaches </i>[Audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/e-learning-academy/id388852745<o:p></o:p></div>
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In this podcast, Alison Bickford introduced five approaches
to instructional design for adult eLearning courses. Initially, Bickford
suggested that educational interaction requires more than the click and reveal
progression design of earlier online courses. A lot of eLearning courses for
adults are stuck in a design that’s linear, content-heavy, and doesn’t allow
for student control over the material when what adult learners are looking for
is relevancy, application, practical learning outcomes, and take away
materials. In order to better design a course for adult learners, instructional
designers should differentiate between prescriptive “just in case” information
and performance-enabling “just in time” scenarios, giving the learners
appropriate interactions with each kind of information. Courses should also be
organization-specific and imitate real life situations applicable to those
organizations. Games can be incorporated into the instructional design to make important
content memorable. Games can also play a role in constructing payoffs for
learners via scoring systems. Adult learners respond well when they know that
what they are learning either provides a gain or helps them to avoid undesirable
consequences, and instructional designers should consider that when structuring
a course.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I want to apply information from this podcast into my course
by considering it a priority to clearly organize and demonstrate the
application of course content to tangible learning outcomes. I would also like
to develop a basic game, maybe through Gamemaker Lite, that would help students
develop creative writing skills. Games could focus on finding examples of
alliteration and assonance in different difficulty levels of text or having
graphics and music of various tones presented to participants for them to write
to; the possibilities are numerous and exciting. I also want to take the time
to not only articulate the benefits of creative writing skills, but also the
consequences that skillful writing can help students avoid; previously,
consequences where a side of motivation I hadn’t considered much before this
podcast.<o:p></o:p></div>emoodyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13201974360629183541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6803069730287557482.post-69690412743288708412012-05-30T11:27:00.000-07:002012-05-30T11:27:19.544-07:00Reflection 1: Quiz Results <span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The student online learner quiz labeled me as readily competent for enrolling in distance learning courses. However, I felt like I should have been docked points because I know I have a stronger inclination to procrastinate if the course is online instead of in person. It’s not that I disrespect the online course; I just find it easier to leave projects for later than I should because, like the internet and Facebook and viral YouTube videos, the class is always available for me. I’m not as focused on establishing a time for class work because the timing of the course is so intangible. Several of my peers still see me as a workaholic, so maybe I’m being too critical, but I don’t think I’m a 10 out of 10 student candidate; at least give me a 9 because I know I have room to grow.<br />
<br /> When I took the quiz for instructors, I received the results I expected: mostly prepared, but not optimal. I’m inexperienced with some of the technology and I’ve never had to design a course before. I understand why I felt unprepared after taking the instructor quiz; I have only recently been explicitly introduced to standard teaching concepts (timeliness, organization, learning goals). I’m thankful that C&I 438 can reinforce the pedagogical information I was exposed to in the Future Professors workshop at CTLT (Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology) because the quiz was right: I have a grasp of, but am not confident of, what to do yet.<br />
<br /> I always want to see where I can improve, and I saw that space in the student quiz. I’m not content with my preparedness after the instructor quiz, but I’m excited to practice relevant skills and for personal metacognitive examination of what kind of instructor I want to be over the duration of this distance learning course.</span>emoodyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13201974360629183541noreply@blogger.com1