A blog focused on discussions surrounding what it means to be literate in the 21st Century especially with the rapid changes in technology. This blog focuses on the role of technology in public education.
Community. This is an important aspect of human life as humans are social beings. In the classroom this is a word that captures an idea and helps to determine both the depth of interaction and levels of learning that a student can achieve. In an online classroom it can be the difference between an enriched learning experience and one that is tedious or complicated.
So, why is it that community can play such a huge role in the online environment? Boettcher and Conrad (2010) discuss the differences between the community that forms in a face to face classroom where students have more casual contact and the requirements for more structured and intentional community building because of the fact that students can be separated by space and time. Community in an online environment is important because it sets the stage for information sharing and creating an environment of support (Boettcher & Conrad 2010). According to Boettcher and Conrad (2009) this kind of environment can be created and maintained by active planning on the part of the course designer, maintenance of presence by the instructor, and the creation of spaces for student sharing. Students maintain that this kind of community is important (Ouzts 2006; Xiaojing, Magjua, Bonk & Seung-hee 2007) though the manner of the community and the role of faculty is still something to be researched.
Some essential elements are dialog, grouping strategies, and presence of both the instructor and the other learners (Boettcher & Conrad 2010). In addition to these essential elements, some researchers argue that utilizing specific learning theories as a backbone of design and implementation can increase a sense of connectedness, specifically constructivist learning theories (Ouzts 2006). Additionally, different activities can lead to a better sense of community as Perry, Dalton, and Edwards (2008) discuss; in fact they explain in their conclusion that now that community has been shown to be important to learning experiences, it is the duty of instructors to look for additional ways to increase student engagement.
Over time a community can be sustained online through design and facilitation. The specific learning goals and the instructor's presence can help to inspire the community to support each other and the learning activities and groupings can bring students closer together. Students value a sense of community and a variety of technologies can help to provide students with multiple ways to connect. In the end, the success of the online community will fall back on the intentional design of the course and the meaningful facilitation of the instructor.
References:
Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. (2010). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Ouzts, K. (2006). Sense of community in online courses. Quarterly Review Of Distance Education, 7(3), 285-296.
Perry, B., Dalton, J., & Edwards, M. (2008). Photographic Images as an Interactive Online Teaching Technology: Creating Online Communities. International Journal Of Teaching & Learning In Higher Education, 20(2), 106-115.
Xiaojing, L., Magjuka, R. J., Bonk, C. J., & Seung-hee, L. (2007). Does sense of community matter?. Quarterly Review Of Distance Education,8(1), 9-24.
They
look at me blankly as if what I said was in a foreign language. Perhaps it is
not that it was foreign in terms of the words, but the concept seems to be at
odds with their everyday experience of the world. Then there is a tentative
stutter as one of them reaches through the veil to clarify the concept, “Wait…so…um…so,
even though I bought the CD and paid to be able to play it whenever I want to I
can’t actually use even a piece of it – what I paid for – in the background of
my YouTube video?”
“Well,
in short, no. You can’t. You could, if you were going to be reviewing the song
or album, but only a certain amount of time from the CD, like less than thirty
seconds…and that might be pushing it. But other than that, not really…well,
unless you were talking about the author’s life and it was important to the
story you were telling. Well, except that there is a difference when you are a
student and you are going to be using it as part of a project, but only if you
are going to turn it in for the teacher or play it to the class and a wider
audience is not going to be able to see/hear it. You see it comes back to the
issue of copyright infringement which is really unclear right now in the courts
with the–“
“Wait,
Mr. W! The courts don’t know what is copy whatever but we might get in trouble?
What about the other music I downloaded? the movies I torrented? the files I
copied? the Wikipedia article I used in my paper? (I mean, we don’t even know
who the heck wrote that so I can use that right?)”…
And
so began my discussion of academic (and real world) honesty in the seventh
grade classroom. Since then, I have had the same conversation with every age
group from middle school to graduate school. At each step along the way I have
had numerous questions from the students but also from my own experiences
culminating in a final varied view of what it means to be academically honest
and where the concept of academic honesty falls in the realm of the classroom
(and the instructor’s responsibilities). This leads us to today’s topic:
Plagiarism and more specifically plagiarism checkers.
There is no doubt that plagiarism is a potential
problem in the information age (of course I would check the stats twice
myself so I knew where they came from – oh wait, they aren’t cited
appropriately...oops). The fact that students are growing up in a world where
information is literally available on just about every technological device and
many times reposted without attribution begs students to consume and resample
information. What then is to be done, especially in distance learning classes
where the instructor is removed in time and space from his or her students? In
fact, this smorgasbord of content without clear guidelines about usage can be
difficult for students to understand.
To
make sure that we are clear, perhaps what we need to
do first is agree on what academic honesty is. This may be a little
difficult as even schools who are members of the Center for Academic Integrity
differ on the language used to define academic honesty. While the main points
are the same, the details can differ. So perhaps we need a better explanation
for exactly what constitutes
fair use and copyright infringement. A quick search for fair use landed
over 4,600,000 results among which were many sites like
this one from Columbia University that attempted to give an idea of various
fair use examples for students to look at. So perhaps fair use is a more confusing concept in practice
than on paper. In any event, we should be able to agree on the fact that taking
someone’s work without attribution and trying to pass it off as one’s own is
against the standards of the academic community. (Unless we consider different
culture’s approaches to the idea of learning, look at different disciplines, or
at different purposes for the publishing, all
valid points raised by Bob Jensen or people on his discussion).
Okay,
so now that the water is significantly muddy, let me try to form a clear
picture of the idea of plagiarism and checking for plagiarism in the 21st
century. I believe that to take another’s work without citation, reference, or
credit is inappropriate and undermines the quality of discussion in an academic
setting. I also believe that student’s should be taught to be responsible with
work done by others. Students should be taught the value of thought and to this
end it makes sense to check their work for signs of plagiarism.
At
the same time I say those things, I also believe that using one of the
myriad of online plagiarism checkers out there (this resource gives a great
description of their capabilities, therefore I won’t copy it here!) in some ways
undermines the very quality in students that we are looking for, especially when
it is found that those plagiarism checkers have flaws (Heather 2010). It is
interesting (and ironic) that plagiarism checkers like TurnItIn routinely
take students’ work regardless of whether or not the choice to submit the
work was the student’s in the first place. Of course, the courts have agreed
that this is okay for these for profit institutions to do – as Turn It In tells
us proudly in detail. So then, how do we rationalize for students the
allowances made for those checking for plagiarism while telling them to avoid
the same behaviors themselves?
Perhaps
the issue is not with the plagiarists so much as with the assessments those
students are asked to complete. I would argue that as instructors it is our job
to understand and support our students, to tap their creative potential and
produce innovative creations. If instructors create assessments that require
creative and critical thinking perhaps the students will be unable to simply copy
and paste their way to a better project. Perhaps the construction of
assessments should be tailored to individual students à
la personalized learning. One of the components of that particular resource
is the fact that the learner must be engaged and that the instructor must be
involved. If all learners were engaged (participating) and instructors were
involved (monitoring) the instructor would get to know the student and be able
to comment and guide the student without the need for plagiarism.
With
this kind of system the learning might be more relevant, tailored to the
student’s Zone of Proximal Development (Boettcher & Conrad 2010), and
plagiarism would be more difficult for the student to attempt (or at least less
inviting as an option). While the capabilities of plagiarism checkers
(comparative databases, phrase and keyword searches, and archival structures)
are a quick fix for the instructor worried about plagiarism, perhaps more care
should be put into the teaching of academic honesty than the punishment of
academic dishonesty. Perhaps instead of making every student turn in every
paper they write to a plagiarism checker, a common practice in many institutions,
campuses should
follow the example of Princeton and focus on their honor code.
I
might be an idealist, but at the core of academics and (life) is the tenet that
students will take the right action more often than not if they find that
action to be clearly defined. As an instructor I would hope that I could explain
to my students the reasons that their own work is important, the reasons that
work by others should be cited, and what a quality product would look like. In
addition, I would also hope that students would feel they had support
throughout the learning process and that they could ask for help or
clarification on their own ideas instead of sampling the works of others. Part
of being a great instructor is being able to inspire students to take risks and
to be proud of their own accomplishments. Should we check for plagiarism when we are convinced there is a reason –
absolutely, but maybe we ought to know and support our students so well that
they have no need to plagiarize in the first place.
References:
Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. (2010). The
online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Heather, J. (2010). Turnitoff: identifying and fixing a hole in
current plagiarism detection software. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher
Education, 35(6), 647-660. doi:10.1080/02602938.2010.486471
In the north eastern corner of the art store there is a section of colored miniature bricks that my wife understands holds the potential to create images from the well of creativity. Landscapes, characters, and still-life's could be brought into being with a series of purposeful strokes, subtle blends, and dustings of shallow breath. Every one of the colors, shades, and textures has a role as she would craft those images I can only grasp at. She swears that with practice I could breathe life onto the canvas, but I am not sure that I believe her. Every image I have ever tried to create with those pastels is an abstract and nightmarish version of the scenes in my mind's eye. The pastels are not any different in my hand than in hers, the colors are no different, the pressure is the same, the canvas the same, and yet at the end of the session she has a product of beauty and I have a product of twisted, asymmetrical abstruseness. Both images leave me with the same feeling, sublime awe; hers through the unseen vision and beauty, mine through the absolute and utter lack of talent.
The same is true in many other aspects of life. A master can make a product or idea come to life where a layman may make such a misstep as to cause an observer question the validity of the medium as well as the one wielding it. technology integration is a prime example in education. In the hands of a master instructor technology tools and multimedia can make a learner's experience sublime in a good way and add layers of complexity, depth, understanding, and purpose to a lesson. In the hands of an incompetent the technology and multimedia can add layers of discord, frustration, anger, and complexity. Notice that complexity is used in both a positive sense and a negative sense in the example above because for a learner who needs extension complexity is a great concept, but to someone who is overwhelmed and purposeless, complexity can create additional obstructions to the learning experience. So, what then is the role of technology and multimedia in an online course? A simple and yet complex question...
Picture courtesy of px1666
In fact, it is not only a question for instructional designers, but I would argue that it is the question for instructional designers and instructors. As a writing teacher I have instructed my students to figure out their purpose for the piece they are going to embark on before ever putting the pen to the page or the key to the...um...switch? See, setting a purpose and understanding that purpose is the key to having effective and intriguing writing (something I am not entirely sure I have achieved in this piece up to this point). Understanding a technological tool and understanding your purpose for weaving it into a curriculum is also important and will determine the effectiveness and impact of the tool in the course. This is partly because many tools offer a variety of functions and different layers of application. It is much the way that a pastel can have different tones, moods, shades, and hardness of pressure line depending on the hand wielding it. Prezi can be used as a way to make people motion sick, as a substitute for PowerPoint, as a way to collaboratively work with others to create a variety of products, or as a way to metaphorically layer information for impressive and symbolic representations of information. The purpose and depth of the experience will be determined in large part by the instructor's purpose and skill at integrating the tool into the classroom.
This means that the designer/instructor needs to understand the capabilities of the tool within the learning context and in terms of the audience of the class. A tool will only be as effective as the user of the tool whether the tool is being used by the instructor to produce content for the learner or the learner is producing content for the instructor. In fact, Boettcher and Conrad (2010) encourage instructors to chose (wisely) a handful of tools that support their learning goals and focus on those tools until they are well known. This speaks, in some ways, to the idea that instructors need to understand the purpose and functionality of a tool before beginning to use it in a class. While they begin with an overview and analysis of different approaches to technology integration in learning environments McCabe and Meuter (2011) conclude the results section of their paper with a discussion of the waves of technology integration in instructor approaches. They argue that these waves go from the first where the instructor uses the technology to process parts of the class to wave two where the instructor replicates a traditional environment to wave three where the technology adds functionality, depth, and creativity to the learning environment. This must be intentional on the side of the instructor though or it can lead learners to be distracted or overwhelmed (McCabe & Meuter, 2011).
With this in mind, the most important elements that an instructional designer/instructor must keep in mind are the purpose of the tool, the pedagogical use, the expectations, and whether or not the tool adds an essential function to the learning environment (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010). In addition to those items, the instructor's familiarity with the tools and the cognitive load of the tools on the student are important factors according to Boettcher & Conrad (2010). When implemented well, these tools can be used to increase student learning or their perception of their learning (Davis, 2011); as Pang (2009) showed, multimedia can be as effective if not more effective than a face to face environment. This is true when the use of the multimedia is intentional, well done, and provided with clear expectations. Without these qualities the tool becomes the same to a student as the pastel when held in my hand. It becomes a tool with great potential but that is unclear and mysterious. As we look towards the eventual goal of making content and learning experiences accessible to an ever increasing audience, the role of technology will continue to increase especially as it relates to mobile technologies (Johnson, Smith, Levine, & Haywood, 2011). New technologies make content available to a much broader audience than in the past and have increased the functional use of tools in the classroom.
Picture courtesy of verzerk
Of course, this does not mean that all instructors or all students will share the same preferences for the tools available. Just like my wife (as an artist) has a range of tools that she prefers from the art store and is therefore masterful and selective in her approach to the artistic process and the types of pastels that will produce a specific effect, I am selective in my use of tools as a designer and instructor. It is safe to say that if I were given a soft pastel versus a hard pastel versus a pencil pastel versus an oil pastel I would simply use them the same for the job without knowing the specific functions, benefits, drawbacks, and techniques (much to the chagrin of my wife); my wife, if the situation were reversed would do the best that she could in terms of picking the best technology tool for a classroom situation with probably the same approach and probably the same result. We would end up with an abstract version of something that could have been very powerful if we had had a better idea of what we were doing.
That having been said, I would include a variety of technologies in an online classroom. I would use a content management system like Blackboard, Angel, or SharePoint in order to organize course information in a central location and run class discussions. I would also use video hosting from a site like YouTube, TeacherTube, or Screencast.com in order to provide students with videos/multimedia associated with class. Because of the way that blogging and microblogging have changed the face of online publication I would post to a blog on a site like Blogger or Wordpress and utilize Twitter. I would also use demonstration programs like Prezi, Capzles, Brainshark, or SlideRocket to provide students with information in a visual and text based form. Audio recordings hosted on a site like Podbean or Libsyn could be powerful as well. I might even use concept mapping programs like Mindomo to provide students with a single resource on a topic or a site like Delicious or Diigo (I love the annotation features of Diigo) to house collaborative resource libraries that could grow and adapt throughout the course and be available beyond the course's conclusion. I love to include widgets for fun on my sites as a way to engage the learners and would use social networking on a site like Facebook to interact with students on their mediums. This does not include email, the programs I would use to create the images and multimedia (Photoshop, Illustrator, Garageband/Audition, Camtasia, etc.), or the collaborative technologies (like wikis, Cover It Live, Elluminate, etc.). All of this is, of course, dependent on the learning goals, the student proficiency, and access of the students in the course. I am pretty tech savvy though and am probably not the best person to explain the use of technology without a clearly defined audience and course purpose. In any event, the tool is not as important as the intentional use of the tool for the specific purpose required in each specific element of the course. I strongly believe that each technology component in a course should be used intentionally and as part of an overall vision where each piece of technology used strengthens and deepens the learning experience and understanding of the rest of the tools so that each component is not a tool scattered around the garage but is part of a cohesive toolbox.
When I look at my wife's art supplies I am overwhelmed, but when I look at her pictures/paintings I am awed. I can see the strokes, the gentle movements, and the blending. I can appreciate the craftsmanship, the attention to detail, and the artistic vision. When I know the tools that she used and the time that she invested in each piece I can appreciate it more, but knowing the capabilities of the tools that she used is not necessary for me to see past the two dimensions of the original canvas and be caught up in rapture at her creation. That she is an expert and knows the right tools to use and how to use those tools allows me to see a glimpse into the content she works with, the soul of the artist, and her mind. In the same way, technology integration in a class should allow the learner to be caught up in the content, to learn the beauty of knowledge, and to see into the instructor's mind. The tools should be captivating and transparent at the same time unless the tool is the focus of the learning objective. Each tool has layers of application and each tool has functions that make it a good choice or a poor choice for any given educational situation. Each can be used to create a variety of products and a variety of learning experiences; the power of the tool though comes from the intentional use of it by the instructor/designer. If you give me pastels I will make a fool of myself and leave you thinking I am disturbed in significant ways, but I just might be able to leave you reflecting if given a choice of technologies and freedom to create; as always, the biggest impact on a classroom a does not come from the curriculum, the technology or the content management system, it comes from the instructor who is the master artist in the room.
References:
Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. (2010). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Davis, R. (2011). Socreates can't teach here! Faculty and student attitudes towards technology and effective instruction in higher education. Review of Higher Education & Self-Learning, 3(10), 1-13. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Johnson, L., Smith, R., Willis, H., Levine, A., and Haywood, K., (2011). The 2011 Horizon Report.
Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
McCabe, D. B. and Meuter, M. L. (2011). A student view of technology in the classroom. Journal of Marketing Education, 33(2):149-159.
Pang, K. (2009). Video-Driven Multimedia, Web-Based Training in the Corporate Sector: Pedagogical Equivalence and Component Effectiveness. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 10(3), Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
The slogan for my district is, “Every student prepared for a world yet to be imagined.” It was interesting this last year as I served on a committee that attempted to re-envision an educational system that would actually do just that, and yet our facilitator, a consultant named David Gregory from Gregory Denby and Associates, brought up the point that if we can’t predict the future then we can’t prepare our students for it. I feel that this is kind of the same situation that we are in for distance learning. If asked what distance learning would look like in ten years, five years ago I would have had a very different prediction for the future of distance learning than I would if asked the same question today. With the pace of technology inception/production/integration and the interplay between the lowered costs widespread adoption of different platforms, the future of distance education is somewhat difficult to predict. That having been said, I think that there are some predictions that can be made with some certainty.
First and foremost, the role of distance education will continue to grow as new technologies allow the connection of disparate groups of people. This is something that Siemens (Laureate, 2011) discusses. He also talks about the ways that new capabilities for communication and new tools that allow a variety of interaction types have led to more widespread acceptance of distance learning as a viable way to learn. With these new technologies universities, businesses, political organizations, etc. have the ability to economically address the needs of a wide variety of audiences in a multitude of ways (Laureate, 2011).
One of the biggest shifts that I see coming once new technologies allow for an increase in communication as well as an increase in the modes for communication is the fact that more and more powerful technologies are being produced in smaller, easier to carry packages. When looking at mobile computing and the amazing evolution of phones, it is not hard imagine that in the next ten years mobile devices will be able to substitute for powerful desktop machines. This is an idea supported by the Horizon Report and others. Though relatively new as a platform (so new in fact that the technology seems to have changed by the time empirical evidence on its effectiveness can be gathered and verified) mobile devices like smartphones and tablets have already made a fairly large change in the way that both students and educators of all levels are viewing content.
Tied to this increase in mobile communicative technologies is the idea that a wider audience now has access to the kinds of distance learning experiences previously only seen by a privileged few. As more schools, both higher education institutions and K-12 schools, begin to adopt distance learning as a core part of what they offer, more students will have the opportunity to experience distance learning and to form opinions about the effectiveness of distance education for them as individuals. This individual response to distance education is something Schmidt and Gallegos discuss in their study as being instrumental to the success or failure of a distance learning experience. As more students are exposed a greater percentage of them should find that they operate well in a distance learning environment, especially since many of these students will have been taught some strategies for self-direction earlier in their scholastic careers.
The biggest issue facing proponents of distance education right now though is not a question of technology, capability, or the potential for awesome learning experiences. The biggest issue facing distance education right now is the branding and marketing of distance learning as a substantial force in education with the rigor, relevance, and depth expected in traditional educational experiences. As it stands now this branding issue has led to some concerns about distance learning because of the perceived lack of quality (even prompting a section on the US Department of Education website that starts off with, “Not all online degree programs are diploma mills.”) The implication that distance learning can be less rigorous than traditional forms of education is something that needs to be addressed both by the students who have had successful experiences and the instructors and instructional designers who develop, implement, and evaluate learning experiences in a distance setting. In another ten years I do not think that this will be the case; I firmly believe that within the next ten years distance education will be a staple of learning environments as opposed to an offshoot of traditional schooling.
To do this though, distance education must continue to adapt to new methods, new technologies, and new expectations/capabilities of students. As an instructional designer, one has the responsibility to continue to enhance offerings according to research, pay attention to new capabilities, and speak up for the value of distance learning as a viable platform for a number of students who would potentially be unable to learn in another format due to spatial or chronological separation. While distance learning is a fact of life in America and many western countries, this is a new phenomenon in many “third world” countries around the globe. As technologies in these countries begin to allow it, many of these countries are beginning to look for educational opportunities that they would not otherwise have. The instructional designer, therefore, has the unique responsibility of both arguing for the power of distance learning as a viable resource for those who have become used/skeptical to it and arguing that it is a valuable resource for those who have never seen education delivered in any modified format.
As an individual currently involved with both instructional design in face-to-face, blended, and online learning environments, I see my charge as being an advocate for all types of learning. There are places and times for just about every educational platform/method available to us. At the end of the day, instructional design is really a balancing act of knowing when to use what strategies with which audiences and for what specific purposes. Once this has been determined it is also the role of the instructional designer to explain and promote the learning experiences (especially distance learning experiences) that he/she has designed so that others will begin to see that they have been given a powerful learning opportunity. This is especially important with distance learning experiences so that they are no longer just considered convenient but also valuable. Students need to be able to consume these educational experiences, but they also need to be able to provide feedback and guidance on the requirements of distance learning experiences. I see it as my duty to bring a whole new level of consciousness to high school and adult students. Once we empower the students of tomorrow with the ability to shape their learning experiences through thorough analytical and evaluative processes, they just might truly be able to prepare themselves for the world that they imagine and instructional designers will be able to craft learning experiences that encourage and support them.
References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (2011). “The future of distance education”.
It is interesting that in a world of K-12 standardized testing that is dumbing down our youths' natural curiosity, higher education institutions are offering learning to the public for the simple pleasure of learning. Is just offering content the same as providing an education though? This is the crux of the matter in terms of instructional design, and it is no small question to ask. The idea that teaching is something that requires little skill or preparation is an old idea, as Bernard Shaw tried to point out in 1903, yet even in a digital age there is more to learning than simply being shown content. So what is the validity of the design of courses being offered through iTunesU and the like for free online?
To answer this question I looked at some of the courses offered by Stanford University through iTunesU. Specifically, I looked at a course on Virgil's Aeneid. The content of the course is very good if one strictly looks at the information being presented. The professor is well informed and provides a lot of information on the topic in a series of five segments. It is important to note that the information contained in the class was not the item I was looking at though; I was looking to see if this course offered high quality instructional design of the kind that Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek (2009) describe.
Unfortunately, on that account, the course failed. While the average user now has access to the information about the Aeneid and though the information was presented by a scholar, the course itself was little more than a lecture recorded in a face-to-face setting. In this sense, this was not a course at all but rather the equivalent of a recorded book online. Without any visuals to help the learner, without interactivity, without feedback, and without assessments, all items referenced by Simonson et. al (2009), it is difficult to see how this is actually an online course. There are no outside references to additional resources and there is not even a link provided to the actual work being discussed...even though a five second search on Google showed that the Aeneid is available for free from the Gutenberg project.
While a quick search on the Internet can turn up any number of assignments for this work of literature (storyboards, summer reading, etc.) none are provided from the actual institution offering the course. It is hard to see how offering a simple set of five two hour lectures is good instructional design. In addition to the glaring issues of this course, providing the information in a block of two hours is itself questionable. As Dills and Hernandez (2008) explain, classes that meet more often provide better results for student learning. While the length of the online offering may be somewhat mitigated by the fact that students can pause, rewind and fast-forward through the lecture, I would postulate that by structuring the course in two hour segments the ability of students to interact with the content is limited by the design of the lecture.
Even, Kupczynski, Ice, Wiesenmayer and McCluskey (2010) who point out that direct instruction can be an important educational tool in distance learning do not discount the active role of feedback and interaction with the instructor in the learning processes of students. With many of the Stanford courses, and indeed many of the other online "courses" offered in iTunesU, all you are really getting is content delivery of face to face lectures. A lecture does not included any interactivity for the learner and therefore he/she becomes a passive party in the room. While this can happen in a regular classroom, the student on a roster is still able to interact with the instructor in meaningful ways if he or she desires to. With the lecture based offerings on iTunesU the learner is only able to get out of the class what they are able to figure out and understand on their own. I wonder if this kind of course offering will lead to a misinformed populace over time as people who think they are capable of understanding scholarly approaches to topics are partaking of the offering and then redistributing their own understanding of the information on the Internet as stated facts.
In any case, higher education institutions providing content for the general population for free is a very exciting prospect. I hope that over time the content will be provided using sound instructional design principles in addition to the direct instruction that is currently being found online. I have faith that as technology use and capabilities expand we will see additional models of information become available online and as more instructional designers become skilled in multiple aspects of the process of instructional design, more media rich modules will find their way onto the screens of learners. I hope that over time the decision to support curiosity will eventually lead the general population into support of learning for learning's sake in our public schools because then we might get to the point where students could produce meaningful content for the masses. Imagine a world where students were taught to produce high quality content for others; they would be learning to be critical of both the content and format of online instruction and it just might help make a general population qualified to utilize and improve a resource like the iTunesU of today.
References:
Dills, A. K., & Hernandez-Julian, R. (2008). Course Scheduling and Academic Performance. Economics of Education Review, 27(6), 646-654. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Kupczynski, L., Ice, P., Wiesenmayer, R., & McCluskey, F. (2010). Student Perceptions of the Relationship between Indicators of Teaching Presence and Success in Online Courses. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 9(1), 23-43. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
With the horizon of augmented reality and mobile computing just around the corner, I wholeheartedly believe that we are on the verge of a new phase in education. The possibilities of these technologies are awesome in the true sense of the word. New avenues are available that have never been available before and have made me reflect in real ways about the potential benefits of these technologies for the regular classroom teacher. I was presented, in a course on instructional design, with a series of scenarios to look at and one of them closely mirrors a situation that I may find myself in. So, I started thinking about the possibilities of these technologies, and others, in a situation like the following:
"A high school history teacher, located on the west coast of the United States, wants to showcase to her students new exhibits being held at two prominent New York City museums. The teacher wants her students to take a "tour" of the museums and be able to interact with the museum curators, as well as see the art work on display. Afterward, the teacher would like to choose two pieces of artwork from each exhibit and have the students participate in a group critique of the individual work of art. As a novice of distance learning and distance learning technologies, the teacher turned to the school district’s instructional designer for assistance. In the role of the instructional designer, what distance learning technologies would you suggest the teacher use to provide the best learning experience for her students?"
The possibilities for learning here are numerous for everyone involved, but I think that some of the best tools to use in a situation like this would be a communication tool like Skype, a screen recording program like Screencastomatic, a wiki site like Wikispaces, a blogging tool like Wordpress, and a citation site like Bibme. I say like these tools because depending on district policies not all of these tools would necessarily be available, but all of the specified tools are free and can be adapted for a variety of purposes. As an overview, these tools would allow the students to interact with the museum staff, record the interaction on video (with the ability if software was available to break out the audio stream separately), post combined research to a collaborative workspace, cite that research in a common bibliography, and then post a finalized review on a class run blog that could be used to further conversations about the artwork while synthesizing all aspects of the project into a common information distribution tool that provides an authentic audience. This would be an interesting project to be involved with and would address numerous state standards as well as the International Society for Technology in Education NETs-S and the American Association of School Librarians Standards for 21st Century Learners. This would be a kind of real world preparation that we often times do not see in traditional high school classes.
Blogging can be a powerful learning experience (Halic, Lee, Paulus, & Spence, 2010). Though studies have mostly been done at the level of higher education, these kinds of studies show that technologies like blogs have begun to be used in academic settings. Wikis can have the same kind of usefulness in an academic setting if properly implemented and students can see the value of using the tool (Guo & Stevens, 2011). Citing sources is becoming an important skill for all students to have due to the fluidity of information on the internet so a citation machine of some sort would help students to keep track of resources and raise the level of their academic discourse. Using a screen capturing software would allow the students to archive the discussions with the curators and their virtual tour. Of course, the main tools of the day would be the distance communication platform...more about that in a minute though. All of the tools that I specified above are free, relatively easy to use, and have lots of tutorials available online that have already been produced and posted online for free.
Without a tool like Skype though, the entire day would be a bust. I picked Skype as the main tool for this experience because it would allow the classroom teacher to use a single computer, webcam, microphone, and projector or a computer lab with a one to one setting or to arrange for his/her entire history department to be involved at multiple locations within a school allowing the teacher flexibility to address the learning outcomes. In addition, Skype is now available on multiple smartphones and allows face to face videoconferencing on the move over wireless or cellular networks. That means that the curators at the museums (and other museum goers) could literally lead a tour of the exhibits in real time with the students and direct cameras to the locations students have questions about. These cameras and microphones would allow students to augment their reality and the curators could point out research topics that students could work through during the course of the videoconference or "tour". Skype is relatively easy to set up, to use, and to find tutorials for.
There are a host of issues that could arise on the day including poor connections, technical difficulties, loss of power, and a host of other issues, but many of the tools I selected have relatively stable uptimes. Each of them could be substituted for another tool if policy or circumstances required so.
I would encourage the teacher to scaffold the learning experience by having students research the artists, museums, artistic movements, cultural/historical significance of the exhibits, and other information ahead of time so that students could prepare good questions to ask on the date of their "tour" and could help guide the tour with informed and thoughtful contributions. All information over the course of the unit could be collaboratively posted to a common, private wiki. Once the students had experienced the tour and synthesized the information into their wiki, they could work to write their reviews on a public blog where their global audience could about their learning experience as well as their review of the exhibits. Assuming that the teacher in question gave enough time to prepare, we could hopefully run through a test of the software before the official day. This kind of learning experience could be at the forefront of what K-12 education will look like. As a matter of fact, I just might look into trying to do this kind of experience with my students this year.
References:
Guo, Z., & Stevens, K. (2011). Factors Influencing Perceived Usefulness of Wikis for Group Collaborative Learning by First Year Students. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 27(2), 221-242. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Halic, O., Lee, D., Paulus, T., & Spence, M. (2010). To Blog or Not to Blog: Student Perceptions of Blog Effectiveness for Learning in a College-Level Course. Internet and Higher Education, 13(4), 206-213. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Johnson, L., Smith, R., Willis, H., Levine, A., and Haywood, K., (2011).The 2011 Horizon Report.Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
Distance is an interesting concept. Our understanding of the concept is one that changes based on our frame of reference. So what does that mean? Well, it means that over thr course of years or shifts in our understanding the way that we see distance can change. When paired with the term education or learning a monumental shift occured in the last twenty years with the amazing increases in computing power and the ability of the masses to access technologies. In fact though, distance learning has been around for the whole of human history and possibly before. So how is it that we have forgetten just how long distance education has been around?
I think that part of the issue is that we have a tendency to redefine old words in order to make it seem new and cutting edge. We also have a tendancy to forget that previous civilizations were also advanced and intelligent and to forget our history when that history allows for the ubiquitous adoption of ideas. Nowadays most people would not consider a pencil or a piece of paper technology. Distance education though began with the invention of writing. To be able to educate from a distance requires nothing more than being able to capture ideas and transmit them beyond the moment and location that one occupies. In this sense, distance education has been around since the beginning of history, which is simply the record of what has happened at a specific place and time. Writing is so ubiquitous that many people have convinced themselves that it has always existed.
Now, over the past two hundred years there has been a variety of more organized approaches to distance learning. From written correspondance courses to the invention of broadcasting mediums to televised classes to online interactive courses, new delivery mediums have opened up new learning opportunities and expanded the audiences for distance learning. So with a multitude of potential definitions and applications, what does the term distance learning mean to me?
Before starting my current course, distance learning was a field of study for my father at Nova Southeastern University. We often discussed the idea that distance education was simply education removed from the confines of a traditional schoolhouse and traditional schedule. As I was getting my teaching credential I took classes from Brigham Young University and Lousiana State University through correspondance based distance learning classes. Then, I earned my MS Ed. through Walden University with interactive web based classes. After learning a fair amount in that program I began to design my own distance learning experiences as I began planning blended classes for my high school students. I have also read a fair amount and engaged in video conferencing and podcasting as well as subscribing to some amazing physics lectures from Berkeley's Physics for Future Presidents vodcasts (an amazing intro to physics that was presented by an amazing lecturer, Professor Muller).
So distance learning for me is any educational experience that allows one to learn at a time or location different from one's instructor and/or peers. Because my experience with distance learning has been manyfold, my definition for distance learning has not changed. The definition that I have always held incorporates many of the ideas presented by Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek (2009). There have been shifts in the way that different instructional design elements have begun to be incorporated so that the instructional designer has more responsibility than in previous iterations of the field (Moller, Foshay, & Huett, 2008). This leads me to believe that instructional design is becoming a more fluid field with one person taking on more responsibility than in the past. What makes this possible is technology.
That leads into thoughts about where instructional design is headed. According to the Horizon Report (New Media Consortium, 2011) mobile devices and gaming are going to be huge technologies for society in the coming years. I believe that these technologies will have an enormous impact on the field of instructional design and distance learning. When even supreme court justices are on the forefront of using games for learning (Friedman, 2011), you just know it is going to make a huge impact on the field. Mobile learning is going to be just as big with mobile devices allowing for anywhere anytime access to information but also allowing them to interact with apps and allowing the learner to literally augment the world they see with additional information on the go. Both of these will change the way that instruction is deigned, produced, and consumed by the masses. With the price of powerful mobile devices going down and the power and access going up this is where the majority of distance learning opportunities will be in the next ten years in my opinion.
We are finally living in an age when an individual will have the freedom and access to find information that will make every moment a learning opportunity.
References:
Friedman, Danielle. (2011). "O’Connor’s Video Game Revolution." Newsweek . Newsweek, n.d. Web. 3 July 2011. <www.newsweek.com/2011/07/02/sandra-day-o-connor-on-her-american-civics-video-game.html>.
Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 1: Training and development). TechTrends, 52(3), 70–75.
The New Media Consortium. (2011). The Horizon Report. Retrieved July 03, 2011 from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/HR2011.pdf
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.)
Getting your staff to come along with 21st Century Teaching is a matter of showing them the dire need for including technology in education because of the changes that are coming. At Doherty we had a phased approach that included the following steps:
1. Form a group of people in the building that are interested in sharing ideas about 21st Century Learning and that are open to new ideas.
2. Define a vision for what that would look like at your school.
3. Make the commitment to devote part of your professional development planning to 21st Century Learning.
4. Do a needs analysis with your staff and find out what they are most interested in.
5. Develop opportunities for staff to select their own professional development on 21st Century Skills and provide that PD at various levels of proficiency.
6. Check in with your staff and highlight great uses (Celebrate the successes)
7. Provide resources and connections for sustained PD and a network of teachers to provide a safety net.
8. Encourage the staff to have fun and continue to create an environment open to and supportive of risk taking.
That is what we tried to do at Doherty. We also archived our PD for people to look at later and review.
It started with showing the staff the kinds of technology that are coming and pointing to the research explaining how pervasive technology use is going to be. We started with questions and then provided solutions to the barriers identified by our staff. We also provided a teaser PD where we introduced a variety of tools and asked for feedback on which additional pieces the staff wanted us to look at.
Then, a few of us started showcasing what we were having students do to show people what was possible.
At the end of the presentation I was asked about what I do in my class. That was the overwhelming direction people wanted to go, so I talked about it...but it was a little disorganized. So here is how all of my tech was rolled out and connected:
I introduced email and my classroom calendar so that my students had the ability to contact me and look at classroom resources and plans. After they knew how to do this, I asked them to participate on discussion boards across classes so that they could communicate on classroom information and collaborate on ideas from/for the class. Then, I introduced my dropboxes so that they could turn in traditional assignments like word processed docs or PowerPoints. All of these steps were fairly traditional and worked off of the Sharepoint platform. I included screencasts of all the steps to access these tools so that students could review on their own time or when necessary. The selling point for your staff is that all documents and student assignments are housed in one location that can be collaborative and all resources are archived so that students can check in/review the work being done in class.
Then, I went to web tools. I showed them how to do concept mapping online so that they could organize thoughts for their discussions, work on vocabulary, and organize thoughts for their reflections/class writings. We then signed up for blogs and the students started publishing their information. I had them post the feeds to their blogs on a wiki and then created a reader account on Google so that I could subscribe to their blogs. They started doing weekly blog postings and set up reader accounts of their own to subscribe to each other. I then showed them creative commons media sites so that they could include visuals on their blogs. We then worked on citing sources using an online citation maker and we discussed the differences between written and embedded citations. After this, I worked with them on advanced searches on Google and other search engines. The students then learned how to use different presentation tools like Prezi and Brainshark to visually communicate ideas and wrote reflections on the process on their blogs.
All of these tools led to the use of a wiki and online forms to organize their information for each other. Eventually we talked about ways to research and share information and that a wiki was a good way to inform others about information that has been found but can become cumbersome when you want to share something quickly on the go, so I taught them how to share resources through Diigo. I showed the kids how to take the information from their advanced searches and share them quickly with tags and groups. I also showed them how to access programs that would allow them to podcast like Aviary and Podbean.com. We also learned about file conversions using online conversion sites. We talked about the differences between a presentation and a poster and used Glogster as a way to share information and resources interactively. Then, we talked about microblogging as a way to share resources to subscribers, a way to provide status updates, and a way to engage in social marketing.
All of this was in preparation of my end of year projects. My students created presentations for the class where they identified issues that they cared about (after using the appropriate tools above to conduct research) and they tried to persuade their peers to select their projects for us to do as a class. In these projects the students gathered resources, conducted additional research, made a plan for events to share out their research with authentic audience, partnered with community/business groups, created an online presence for their groups, and worked to address social issues in real and meaningful ways.
They are discussing the projects, interacting with self-made calendars, mapping their proposal processes, using email to engage each other/outside groups, using social bookmarking to share resources, taking pertinent information and sharing it on wikis, taking that same information and repurposing it on classroom blogs, providing status updates with Twitter, creating group pages on Facebook, conducting surveys using forms, making presentations on various platforms and making audio/video files to highlight their issues.
Each of the tools I taught in order made it possible for them to create a whole marketing campaign for authentic audiences on real issues of importance to them. Each step in the process helped give students a better understanding of the complexities of communication across platforms and audiences. At the end of the process they will be relating the process and steps to the academic content from my classes and using a web editor to create an online portfolio that highlights their skills.
In the future I plan to bring in distance learning experiences as well...
but I am a little out there. It is important to have a big picture though so that your staff knows how these pieces work together. The way I did it might not work for everyone, but it worked for me (mostly) and allowed me to take the students to a new level with their content and the interactivity in my class. As I showed what I was doing, others in my building came on board with pieces and parts. It is a long process though and it must be intentional.
It starts with the vision. I knew from the outset what my eventual goal was going to be. That is where you start with your staff and then you address their fears one at a time until you get through them all. You also need to work things slowly...it goes one step at a time.
