Blog Response #3 - Cathy Anderson's Thoughts on Learning

Use the following website to find my third blog response at Cathy Anderson's blog (#change11 - Thoughts on learning.)   http://www.cathyandersonblog.com/?p=439&cpage=1#comment-2182

619 Virtual Worlds in Education

I can see where there can be some educational value to sights like Second Life, but by the time a teacher explains how to work within a virtual world, you've wasted lots of valuable teaching time. And students are going to view it as a video game - maybe too much fun - and not enough learning taking place.

And I've heard that you can purchase things on Second Life with REAL money. Purchasing virtual items with actual money . . . Hmmm . . .

Kids are so easily wrapped up in virtual reality. It seems like making it a part of their education only promotes it. We want them to be contributing members of society, not contributing members to their own private worlds.

And I'm not so sure it's a fad. They've been around for decades and just keep getting more sophisticated. Virtual worlds are a lot like books - they are a place where you can live in another world for a while. This is part of the lure - pride of ownership in a world they've created.

Plan for 619 Final Project

I'm going to do a Web Quest because I like the way they work - a lesson with all the resources necessary to complete it all in one spot. I checked the Web Quest Garden website, and I didn't find any on the USS Indianapolis, so that's going to be my topic. I've read 2-3 books about it, and have personally heard a survivor's story. I will refer to these books as references and will use information from websites to put it all together.
What do I hope to learn from this? Hmmm - how to keep an interesting topic in line with goals and standards instead of just doing "fun" assignments.
This doesn't connect with my current teaching position as I work with special needs students on a very individual basis, but I think it could be an important part of a future position. History matters so much, but is often taught in such a textbook manner, that kids can't relate to it or enjoy it. I want to change that boring image of history to one that is cool and worth studying. I even think that tech classes should be taught with historical themes, so that students aren't just learning about computer functions, but are gaining historical insights as well. How unappealing is it to make a class schedule in Excel? Or a random bar graph project on students' favorite pets? If we teach these technology skills with an underlying historical theme, students will learn about history WHILE learning about technology. Two for one. Such a simple way to slip another topic into the curriculum~

Critique of Online Classes

I used to think the best thing about online courses was the flexibility, but then I took a couple and realized that there isn't much flexibility in the way I had hoped. A friend of mine took online courses in Indiana and said that she was given all of her assignments at the beginning of the semester, and that she could complete them at her leisure. She finished the course 3 weeks early. But that's not how it has ever worked for me. You can't work ahead on weekly discussions.

Some of the best adaptations I've seen are: 1) giving students a week off from discussions when big projects are due, 2) NOT ASSIGNING GROUP PROJECTS, 3) providing actual tools/websites/resources that I can use in my career, 4) heavy teacher involvement such as in EDT 629

Some things I didn't like: 1)GROUP PROJECTS (They do nothing to further my educator or career. There's always someone who doesn't pull their weight or isn't as capable. I don't need an assignment to teach me how to get along with others. At the college level, I think we are all beyond that. Plus, we've got families, jobs, activities. I don't need one more project to coordinate into my life. The same project done without classmates allows me to complete it on MY time - which is especially precious when you're taking college classes, raising a family and holding down a job!!!!!! 2) Wiki assignments (the communication felt forced - gotta post something) 3) Podcasts are a little dry. 4) I don't like having a big project due at the end of the semester. Put it somewhere in the middle so we can coast at the end. 5) Having to go to a real classroom for the final project presentation. Why can't we just turn them in to the instructor? If the teacher wants other students to be able to view them, just post them for viewing. Is is about proving that we can do an oral presentation?

Sean, I've never taken an online course that's been as thorough as yours. You put in lots of time to be a part of the class. Your presence created a comfortable atmosphere for our discussions.You answered every question anyone ever asked. You pointed us to websites for anything that was pertinent to our discussions. Any sites with examples were helpful to me.


About the only thing missing from your discussion posts was the availability of a thesaurus (right click.) Is that an option with Moodle discussion boards?

OK - so one more question about open source. When the source code is available to anyone, doesn't that make it easy for other countries to use our products and then make them better - as they've done with so many of our other ideas?

EDT 629

Good thing I have to do this because I'm a little unclear on what I'm supposed to be doing. My thought was to create a website for my special needs kids. It would contain links to sites with interactive activities for extra practice. (I get lots of parental requests for this sort of thing.) A problem I see with this is how to manage goals and objectives as each student has an individual plan. How could I simplify that? Maybe this idea is not appropriate for the assignment - or maybe there's a better way to go about it.

Since I don't teach them actual classes, this is more like supplemental information.

Maybe I should create a totally different site even if it's not what I teach. I love history  . . .

Webquest

http://questgarden.com/97/44/6/100228193919/

Linking East and West

At first I thought this was going to be a transcontinental railroad lesson because of the title. I was wrong. Nevertheless the old West drew me in. I love the adventure and lifestyles of pioneers from the Old West, so I picked this website. It explores what it might have been like to be either a telegraph operator, a pony express rider, a railroad worker or a stagecoach driver.

PROS

1. Introduction - Discusses the importance of changes in transportation and communication that took place in the 1800s. Good reasoning for assigning the lesson

2. Task that is doable and interesting - Research is to be conducted on one of four careers from that time period. The old pictures show a realistic view of these jobs.

3. Do learners know what to do and when - It states that the teacher assigns roles to each of the students ahead of time. The websites needed for researching their roles are clearly laid out and have the appropriate information. They are to take notes on the websites and write a 5 day journal. Pretty straight forward.

4.Evaluation - The rubric is straight forward with room for objective opinions

5.Conclusion - Brings up the idea that these advances in communication and transportation help make our world what it  has become today.

CONS

1. Introduction - Too much information here. The task is revealed here - too soon.

2. Task that is doable and interesting - It's so wide open. The students are not given any ideas of what to look for when researching their roles (such as what hardships they might have faced or how weather affected their jobs)  May be hard for them to understand where to start.

3.Do learners know what to do and when - They know what do to, but HOW is the bigger question. HOW do they create an imagined life? Once they take notes, will they understand how to fictionalize their findings?

4. Evaluation - One area gives points based on how many websites the students visited. But how does the teacher know how many they looked at? Kind of vague.

5.Conclusion - Pretty weak. No summary here. No extension ideas. Just some quick general thoughts. 

Would I use this Webquest without changing it?  No. It definitely needs modifications. (But then again, I modify almost every lesson I teach for some reason or another.) I would provide a lot more guidance in the task and process areas. For journal entries, I think I would supply some 'daily information' to consider when journaling. For example, I might give the railroad workers a weather report that says, "An unexpected snowstorm has started." Or for the stagecoach driver: "Highway robbers took all of your money last night." Or for the pony express rider: "Your horse has a sore foot today." If they have some events to work with, they I think they can imagine some better stories. Also, I would allow the students to choose their own roles.

629 Online Teaching Plans

So far, my online teaching experience has been pretty minimal - As a special needs teacher, I've taken my students to various interactive websites (for spelling, reading, and math.) But I don't have a blog or website that contains all of these links in one spot. I only use these games on occasion because the students get more out of working directly with me. For example, one of my first grade students needs LOTS of help learning basic sight words. There are a few that just aren't sticking. If he works one-on-one with me, I will review those 'difficult' words over and over with him in different ways. In the online games, he may not come across those words as often, and even if he does he simply guesses (right or wrong) and moves on without guidance on why he picked the right or wrong answer. When I'm sitting with him, he knows I'm going to check for understanding. The computer doesn't.
My goal is to have a class website (is that the right term?) where I can have all of my links in one spot. Since I am more of a supplemental teacher, my online site would serve a different purpose than regular teachers. My general platform would be to supply students and parents with optional learning resources. I do get lots of parents wanting to do additional work with their children at home, and I usually email them ideas or links to interactive websites. Maybe a blog would work better for this kind of set-up?
I so love to view photos online, but I don't think photos would be appropriate for my site as it would sort of point out the special needs kids.
So far, I prefer Google's version of online learning versus Moodle because of all the user-friendly tutorials and videos that can get me started. Also, Google's large font size appeals to me more than Moodle's (what is it, size 8 or something?) tiny font size. I'm telling you, small font sizes give me the impression that the site is jam-packed full of information that is going to take forever to get through and understand. Large font sizes tell me they've simplified it. It's psychological, I know, but it's less intimidating to me. Tech engineers - take note! When I create my own site, it will be designed for special needs students. I will be sure to give them nice, big link choices that are obvious and easy to figure out.
The only barriers I face are lack of experience and knowledge. Only two, but they're the most important ones. Darn! Guess I gotta start sometime. Might as well be now~