CEDO 550 - Week 5 "Prediction Time"

The future of online learning...hmmm.

Here's what I think will happen:  more and more schools from the elementary level through college will start to incorporate online class offerings, or at the very least, an online component to their instructional strategy.  Things will go well in the beginning with schools seeing an increased enrollment in these types of online formats.  Students with specific needs outside the capabilities of the physical classroom in their particular geographic location will be afforded opportunities that they would not otherwise have.  Riding this early success, schools will start to slowly convert more and more of their class offerings to the online format to attract additional students from other cities, other states, and even other nations.  Eventually schools will be daring enough to shift to completely virtual course offerings and the brick and mortar schools filled with 30 desks of students will be a minority.  Enough time will pass where we will see the products of these classrooms entering the workforce and somewhere along the line a study will show that having students attend completely virtual schools is a detriment to their social growth and makes them a pain in the arse to deal with in the workplace.  Now let me say that the workplace may have drastically changed by then and these former students might fit right in because there won't be as much need for social interaction anymore depending on the nature of the job but I'm hoping that's not the case.  The final conclusion will be that there needs to be a balance between the physical classroom experience and the online methods to create the most well-rounded individual.

CEDO 550 - Week 4 Formative Assessment

Tuttle’s Stages of Formative Assessment

I think Tuttle takes issue with those teachers that throw eClickers into student hands, ask for some responses, and then call it formative assessment.  Tuttle states the same sentiments concerning cell phones and Twitter.  So let’s take a look at Tuttle’s stages above and see where he is coming from.  With eClickers, Twitter, and cell phone responses it usually happens real-time so the format of the question(s) needs to be simple enough so that immediate analysis can occur.  A teacher should also limit the number of questions in these instances.  Sometimes teachers create elaborate surveys or questionnaires and try to administer them using eClckers, etc and then make the claim that they are giving formative assessment.  In reality, they are only going as far as Step 2 on the above graphic.  Surface analysis could occur but not enough where the teacher would reach the next levels of completing the formative assessment.

The tool that I like to use for formative assessment is Google Forms.  I’d like to qualify the use of Google Forms by explaining that I create formulas on the Google Spreadsheet where the output is created to assist with the diagnosis.  Without creating formulas for analysis/diagnosis, the use of Google Forms would not get you much farther than Step 2 of Tuttle’s stages.  A quick analysis of my Google Spreadsheet provides me with specific information about each student and the class as a whole.  For example, I could see which concepts need more attention as a whole, and by looking at the individual responses I can steer each student in the appropriate direction.  This feedback can be shared with the class and with individual students who, in turn, can use that to correct any misunderstandings.

CEDO 550 - Week 3 The 4 Roles of Online Teachers

First let's establish the 4 different roles. They are: Instructor, Social Director, Program Manager and Technical Assistant. I'm doing this blog on an iPad so creating a table inside of this blog will be near impossible so I'll just lay it out nicely and hopefully that will suffice.

     Instructor - "consultant, guide, and resource provider" hmmm...I'll agree with that description only in certain circumstances. If it a group of highly motivated advanced students, then yes. If it is a group of students taking a class for the 3rd time over the summer because they struggled with it during regular school hours within the walls of the traditional classroom, then no. Those struggling kids need more than just a gentle nudge towards the right resources. Either way, the shift from providing detailed explanations of the content to one of a consultant who stands by only helping when needed would be a big one for me. I will need to strip my lessons of most of the lecture format and find resources that allow the students to discover the content on their own with less guidance.
     Social Director - This will probably be the role that I need the most work on. I've tried to do a lot more projects this year with the regular classroom teachers to help incorporate technology into their content areas so that project-based approach will help me with an online classroom structure. That said, I would still need a lot more experience working with students in a colllaborative setting. I don't usually think to put students in groups, teams, pairs or anything else. I usually just tag along with whatever structure a regular classroom teacher has setup for the students. I will have to seek out collaborative opportunities and use a more project-based approach to be effective in the role of social director.
     Program Manager - This role covers structuring the learning process. Planning the online sessions, timetables, study guides, rubrics, etc are all part of this role. As the years have passed I have become better at judging time needed for various items in the educational process. I have learned how to create effective study guides and similar tools for students to use when outside the confines of the classroom. My weak area would have to be using rubrics. It usually takes me several versions before I get a final copy of a rubric that I really like. I guess I just don't like making them or at least not the really detailed ones that contain a lot of verbage. I know they are useful to both teacher and student and have seen their effectiveness in action but it hasn't really motivated me any more. I would have to overcome the bad taste that rubrics leave in my mouth as I feel they are an integral part of the online learning experience.
     Technical Assistant - This would be the easiest role for me. I am a technology coordinator at my school so I am the one that is responsible for technical assistance on many, many things on a daily basis. I even administer most of my lessons using classroom management software called SmartSync. This software has many similarities to online class management systems. There are technical problems that arise on a weekly basis with it and I have learned to think quickly and always have a backup plan (or two). If there was one area that I could improve on in this role it would have to be staying patient. Normally I am pretty accommodating when it comes to someone not understanding the technology side of things but sometimes I get irritated if it is a concept that seems simple to me.

CEDO 550 - Week 2

I used Creately to do my Venn diagram comparing Synchronous and Asynchronous online learning.  The tool set looks phenomenal and it is free as long as you only want to do one drawing at a time.  Not sure why it looks blurry when inserted in the blog.  If you click on it, it looks just fine.

CEDO 550 - Week 1

After seeing some of the sample courses and packages that are being offered in today's online learning "game" I have to admit that I am pretty impressed. I spent some time on the discussion boards saying how I thought that online learning was more geared towards advanced, self-motivated, organized students but now that I have seen actual sample lessons (K12 website) I think that there is much more hope that these online programs can help struggling kids as well. The GUI is impressive and caters to visual learners and there is enough variety among the ways that material is presented and evaluated that I think a wide range of students could have an excellent chance at success when finding failure in traditional classroom settings. The main topic of discussion during our web conference (group work) was how we thought that self-motivation was key to the success of an online learning program with students. We were leery of its potential effectiveness with unmotivated students but after seeing how attractive the online schools and their programs look it has given me reason to believe that there might be hope. I have seen unmotivated students at my school turn over a new leaf with opportunities provided by technology. Case in point, 12 out of the 14 struggling students given iPads have shown marked improvement in the areas of motivation, organization, and creativity over a 3 month period. Technology has that positive effect more often than not on today's youth. It is not always able to be explained but we can certainly take advantage of that allure to reach students in ways that we couldn't reach them before. Online learning is a perfect example.

CEDO 540 Stats - week 5

This week we covered some interesting statistics sites like the CDC, NCES, and WINSS.  I haven't been to most of those sites so it was interesting to explore them a little more in depth.  I also thought it was interesting because I was exploring the sites from a statistical analysis viewpoint.  One of the statistical sites that I chose on my own was the Mapping Service provided by the City of Greenfield.  I love GIS/Mapping and there are similar services provided for almost any decent sized city or county.  It is so interesting to look at the different layers of information that encompass a parcel of land.

Another tool we looked at was Google Trends.  It was interesting to see how certain hot topics or search terms fluctuated in popularity in relation to events that might have happened.  It was also interesting to see how certain search terms compared to each other in popularity over certain periods of time.  I am hoping that the social studies teacher will find some way to incorporate Google Trends into their current events assignments.  I could also see other teachers using this with students to show them how interest in certain topics is influenced by major events in politics, sports, Hollywood or even the world.

CEDO 540 Stats - week 4

This week we worked some more with standard scores (or z-scores) in the guided practice.  I have to be honest that it seemed a lot harder this week.  Our instructor gave us some sample problems that helped but analyzing the data using this method is pretty tough.  I'm guessing it gets easier with practice but I'm pretty turned off by it right now.  At this point, if I ever ran across a situation where I needed/wanted to analyze some data sets and show the implications of the z-score I'd be very likely to find someone who could do it more painlessly.  Or even better, I'd find a piece of software or an application that could do it for me.  Don't get me wrong, the data is extremely valuable...the path to getting that final data is the painful part.

Our survey group assignment is finally finished except for the final analysis part.  We decided to use Google Forms to administer the survey because of the ease in creating a survey and the ease in sharing the resulting spreadsheet among the group members but I almost wish we had tried something else.  Gathering the raw data through the Google Form is not an issue at all.  It is manipulating the data that causes some minor headaches.  I am pretty good with MS Excel so writing some of the formulas came pretty easy but Google spreadsheets are not nearly as smart as Excel when it comes to auto-fill and dragging your formulas around.  I knew what I was getting into with Google Forms - I just wish we had tried something else that did the reporting for you.

Finally the Bill Tancer video.  It is not surprising to me what kind of data is being mined by ISPs and the such but it is the mystery of where that data is going and how it might be used that is scary.  Internet privacy, or lack thereof is one of those things that you try not to think about.  I remember putting together an advertisement on Facebook when I was working for a Social Sports League and the detailed specifics when it came to choosing what demographic we wanted it to hit was amazing.  We could specify an age range, geographic area, salary range, people interested in sports, and the list goes on.  Its not going to get any less invasive either.  Not sure what can be done besides "unplugging yourself from the grid" and that is not going to happen anytime soon for me lol.