Soukhanov, Denis. (Producer). (2011, April 20). The Pros and Cons of Online Learning:
e-Learning Today TV [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/edtech-tools-e-learning-today/id363273990
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.
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.
Bickford, Alison. (Producer). (2011, June, 24). E-Learning Academy: #13 E-Learning Instructional
Design Approaches [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/e-learning-academy/id388852745
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.
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.