To start your creative juices flowing for S2, please watch this enlightening and entertaining video by Ken Robinson via TED Talks. It lasts for approximately 12 minutes, but it is time well spent!
If I may just reiterate---I've thrown most of you directly into the fire by diverging from the traditional forms of Learning Management Systems like Sakai and Blackboard for a very important reason. In order to truly experiment with and learn how to use 21st century learning tools to aid you in your future endeavors (teaching adult learners) you really have to play in the sandbox.
I subscribe to the teaching philosophy of 'full immersion,' so don't stress too much during this week's exercises. Mistakes will be made (and expected). Based upon most of the emails I have been getting, the majority of the class has very little experience with this kind of communication medium.
There were many interesting conversations and comments left under our first two postings. I've never had a class already know each other so well. Two comments (from previous students) that stood out were addressing the intensity and workload of learning (and teaching) online. Sharyn said,
Then Paul responded,
Heidi, I think that you and Jason have narrowed in on how difficult it is to take an online course due to the independence it affords. An outsider may think that having more freedom online would result in it being an easier way to learn, but it is just the opposite, especially if you are not an organized student."
Soon---you'll notice a change or two on our blog. I thought that I would introduce you the first week to a stripped down version of a blog and have it slowly evolve over the weeks, so you could see other tools and abilities.
You hit the nail on the head when you pointed out the common misconception that online courses are easy. I've found that more time and effort (and discipline) must be used in the online setting. We've been fortunate to be part of a great group of people involved in this program, I have found that working together has been so helpful!"
These are interesting points and both very true. This course is all about using online tools and resources to help you facilitate learning. Whether you are instructing f2f and adding in a few tools, or completely teaching completely online, adding tech to your lessons can be a total 'time suck'. You blink your eyes and hours have gone by and you've gotten lost in this vacuum of cool stuff to explore with not enough time in your life to play with them all. I've also noticed that the workload to 'prepare' an online course is heavier as well. If any of you become online instructors, or if you just do a hybridized/blended course, you'll find that you have to try to anticipate the questions and answer them ahead of time. Whereas in a f2f setting you can easily go back and forth with Q&A's.
You'll be spending the bulk of your time this week moving through a number of tutorials that are asynchronous and self-paced. Each one will walk you through a different element of a blog. You'll go through these tutorials and experiment. It is less important that you can envision an immediate use for this tool, but more significant that you get the opportunity to immerse yourself and think about how a tool like this (or one that has similar characteristics) forces participants to think outside the traditional classroom and encourages conversations with a wider audience.
My point with these exercises is not to give you busy work. My hope is that you try to fit these additions and capabilities into the bigger picture----that big picture is how to use tech to facilitate teaching and learning. Anyone can have their students play with fun tools; it takes a focus upon the motivation for their introduction to ensure they have merit.
You may recall that we touched upon Creative Commons Licensing and Open Education Resources during our first session. All of the tutorials we'll be using this week are freely licensed. We'll go into much more detail about CC Licensing and its benefits to you when planning future teaching or PD sessions later this semester. Let's start by watching this brief video:
Now give this page a quick skim focusing particularly on the license distinctions half-way down the page. Just try to gain an overall understanding.You don't need to memorize it. I don't expect you to be well-versed----just aware.
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Below, you will find a list of bulleted links that will take you to the exercises for Session 2. No one is going to force you to use these tools in the future, but please make a sincere effort to try them out. Blogger, like nearly all online tools, is perpetually evolving, so if any of the directions seem to be off slightly please try to work around them.
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Part 2
(Take a break and come back to Part 2 when you are refreshed.)
Let's start Part 2 of Session 2 by continuing to analyze online teaching andragogy.
First go through these links and follow the instructions, then view the readings on the
syllabus.
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