Well, things have been crazy in my life - just busy. It all means the end of the semester is near.
For this blog, I read chapters 8 and 9 in Bonk and Zhang. These discuss phase four of the R2D2 model, hands on learners. Phase four is the phase where learning is made active. The learner is now responsible for applying the theories and concepts that were taught during the previous lessons and demonstrating their knowledge base. As we have learned throughout this course, online learning has become the way of the future. The author of the text points out that an important component of phase four is simulations. Using simulations allows the student to participate in as close to a real life scenario as possible without actually being situated in that scenario. These are useful when providing practice for events such as performing life saving measures or demonstrating critical thinking in emergent situations. Simulations are becoming widely used not only in the medical field, but also in the education, business and military training communities.
Another valid point made in the text speaks of the importance of using wiki's for combined group projects. I thought it was very interesting that it has been referred to as the acronym for "what I know is..". Truly a wiki can become a place where one can post what they have researched and learned on these sites.
Chapter nine gives 25 examples of activies that are hands on learning styles. These include crosswords, monopoly games, virtual encounters up to designing ones own course web site. Within the pages are many ideas and suggestions that will facilitate learning as we develop our own online courses and further endevor to educate the students entrusted into our care.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Week 10
The readings from Morrison, Ross and Kemp were of great help. I especially enjoyed the readings in chapter 5 as it oulined the appropriate criterion for writing objectives. The three types of objectives are cognitive, psychomotor, and affective.
The steps involved in writing a behavioral objective involve using a verb then connecting that with content reference. It may include a achievement level step and conditions for performance (Morrison, Ross, & Kemp, 2007). Page 111 gives some commonly used verbs for the cognitive objectives.
Chapter seven reminded us of the importance that our instructional design must be created in a way to ensure the learner has understood and comprehended the objective. The six areas of content to review are fact, concept, principles and rules, procedure, interpersonal, and attitude (Morrison et al, 2007).
The chapters give basic examples to follow that are outlined in easy to read and easy to understand ideas. They have given me great insight as to how and why curriculum is developed as it is. I think I have a better grasp on the importance of disecting my lesson plans and instruction to ensure my students are clear with understanding my directions. I am looking forward to creating objectives with my newfound knowledge.
Plus, I learned I have been making a PBJ wrong all my life!!! LOL!
The steps involved in writing a behavioral objective involve using a verb then connecting that with content reference. It may include a achievement level step and conditions for performance (Morrison, Ross, & Kemp, 2007). Page 111 gives some commonly used verbs for the cognitive objectives.
Chapter seven reminded us of the importance that our instructional design must be created in a way to ensure the learner has understood and comprehended the objective. The six areas of content to review are fact, concept, principles and rules, procedure, interpersonal, and attitude (Morrison et al, 2007).
The chapters give basic examples to follow that are outlined in easy to read and easy to understand ideas. They have given me great insight as to how and why curriculum is developed as it is. I think I have a better grasp on the importance of disecting my lesson plans and instruction to ensure my students are clear with understanding my directions. I am looking forward to creating objectives with my newfound knowledge.
Plus, I learned I have been making a PBJ wrong all my life!!! LOL!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Reflective Summary 2
Reflective Summary 2
Question 1
Computer supported collaborative learning is an effective method of instruction that allows students to participate and interact with their peers via the internet learning community. The purpose of these types of learning environments is to promote the learning focus on the student. This type of learning will help those students to build upon the knowledge they have already obtained and allow them to stimulate ideas within their peers. Learning also involves a social interaction and this, too, will is achieved when students collaborate with their peers in the online environment. Adult learners have shown they learn better with the use of self directed learning (Bonk & Zhang, 2006).
With any learning technology, it is important that the learning tool be a useful, easily implemented for optimum success (Renninger and Schumar, 2002). A study was performed with tenth grade Biology students whereby they wore computers called Thinking Tags. When the students interacted with each other, the Thinking Tags interfaced. The student’s “tag” would record those it had met (other students) and whether that person was a virus carrier and sick or whether that person was healthy. It was not known to the student what caused the virus, how the virus was transmitted or when a person became infectious. The students were to discuss with each other reasoning of what contributed to the outbreak of the virus and who were the carriers of the virus. The instructor’s role was minimal. He would observe and serve and a guide through the game. The goal was to show the students how a virus could destroy an entire community and how easily a virus could spread. The theory behind this study was based on Dewey’s principles of interaction and continuity. The students interacted with each other and developed hypothesis and ideas while the virus continued to spread. Technology enables the teacher to allow the students to formulate ideas and responses according to their learning styles.
Question 2
The PBwiki site I have set up for my students has been a great tool for discussion and learning. This site allows me to post case studies online that are congruent with the content being covered in the class room theory for the students to review and synthesize. Students are then asked to review the comments made by their peers and post their responses. The site allows for me to create a page for the students to view and comment. One of the features I like about how the site is how it shows the posting of comments. It allows them to view the comments made by prior posters and follow them sequentially. By having the ability to visualize what others have posted, it enables the students to follow the conversation each time they open that page. This helps to scaffold their learning as they gain insight from their peers. One of the functional capabilities of the site is to allow the administrator of the site to assign privileges to the members. One can be a writer, editor, reader or can have full site authority, based on the assigned roles. The site also has templates for designing pages for those who may need some extra assistance in setting up their account.
Using this forum for an instructional site allows the student to have interaction with their peers but also gives opportunity for the students to further their learning in their own leisure. The technology allows the student to post their discussion on a secure site. One of the nice things I have found about the online learning communities is the freedom students have to express themselves. Many times in the traditional classroom setting, it appears those who have a more reserved, shy personality are hesitant to speak up in class and those who have a more outgoing personality tend to be the ones who have the most input. In the online forum, discussion is required of all students so this is no longer an obstacle.
The instructor’s role in the online community is one of a facilitator. The instructor is responsible for presenting the material and then guiding the discussion as it progresses. The instructor is also available to serve as a mediator, should the need arise.
Since I have already implemented parts of this idea, the response has been positive. I developed case studies for my students to complete in lieu of completing a written assignment for their final week of obstetrics clinical. Not only did they complete the assignment, the response with which they completed them was overwhelming. I did a follow up post asking how they felt about the assignment and if they felt it was useful (requesting both positive and negative comments) and all responses I received were positive with them stating they felt it helped them retain the information better and assisted with their studying for the exam.
Koschman, T., Hall, R., & Miyake, N. (2002). CSCL 2, carrying forward the conversation.
Mahwah, New Jersey. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Renninger, K. A., & Shumar, W. (Eds.). (2002). Building Virtual Communities. Cambridge University Press.
Question 1
Computer supported collaborative learning is an effective method of instruction that allows students to participate and interact with their peers via the internet learning community. The purpose of these types of learning environments is to promote the learning focus on the student. This type of learning will help those students to build upon the knowledge they have already obtained and allow them to stimulate ideas within their peers. Learning also involves a social interaction and this, too, will is achieved when students collaborate with their peers in the online environment. Adult learners have shown they learn better with the use of self directed learning (Bonk & Zhang, 2006).
With any learning technology, it is important that the learning tool be a useful, easily implemented for optimum success (Renninger and Schumar, 2002). A study was performed with tenth grade Biology students whereby they wore computers called Thinking Tags. When the students interacted with each other, the Thinking Tags interfaced. The student’s “tag” would record those it had met (other students) and whether that person was a virus carrier and sick or whether that person was healthy. It was not known to the student what caused the virus, how the virus was transmitted or when a person became infectious. The students were to discuss with each other reasoning of what contributed to the outbreak of the virus and who were the carriers of the virus. The instructor’s role was minimal. He would observe and serve and a guide through the game. The goal was to show the students how a virus could destroy an entire community and how easily a virus could spread. The theory behind this study was based on Dewey’s principles of interaction and continuity. The students interacted with each other and developed hypothesis and ideas while the virus continued to spread. Technology enables the teacher to allow the students to formulate ideas and responses according to their learning styles.
Question 2
The PBwiki site I have set up for my students has been a great tool for discussion and learning. This site allows me to post case studies online that are congruent with the content being covered in the class room theory for the students to review and synthesize. Students are then asked to review the comments made by their peers and post their responses. The site allows for me to create a page for the students to view and comment. One of the features I like about how the site is how it shows the posting of comments. It allows them to view the comments made by prior posters and follow them sequentially. By having the ability to visualize what others have posted, it enables the students to follow the conversation each time they open that page. This helps to scaffold their learning as they gain insight from their peers. One of the functional capabilities of the site is to allow the administrator of the site to assign privileges to the members. One can be a writer, editor, reader or can have full site authority, based on the assigned roles. The site also has templates for designing pages for those who may need some extra assistance in setting up their account.
Using this forum for an instructional site allows the student to have interaction with their peers but also gives opportunity for the students to further their learning in their own leisure. The technology allows the student to post their discussion on a secure site. One of the nice things I have found about the online learning communities is the freedom students have to express themselves. Many times in the traditional classroom setting, it appears those who have a more reserved, shy personality are hesitant to speak up in class and those who have a more outgoing personality tend to be the ones who have the most input. In the online forum, discussion is required of all students so this is no longer an obstacle.
The instructor’s role in the online community is one of a facilitator. The instructor is responsible for presenting the material and then guiding the discussion as it progresses. The instructor is also available to serve as a mediator, should the need arise.
Since I have already implemented parts of this idea, the response has been positive. I developed case studies for my students to complete in lieu of completing a written assignment for their final week of obstetrics clinical. Not only did they complete the assignment, the response with which they completed them was overwhelming. I did a follow up post asking how they felt about the assignment and if they felt it was useful (requesting both positive and negative comments) and all responses I received were positive with them stating they felt it helped them retain the information better and assisted with their studying for the exam.
Koschman, T., Hall, R., & Miyake, N. (2002). CSCL 2, carrying forward the conversation.
Mahwah, New Jersey. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Renninger, K. A., & Shumar, W. (Eds.). (2002). Building Virtual Communities. Cambridge University Press.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Week 7
3-D technologies are emerging. In a 3-D environment, the learner is able to move about a community. Members of some groups can create an "avatar" for themselves. The avatar is a computer generated character which they can design to look like them. 3-D environments create an interactive place where one is able to be a contributor and learning to the community. Learners are able to interact with each other. The hope is that communication will continue even after the learning goals are met. Jones and Bronack state the following assumptions about learning:
- "Knowledge is created and maintained through social interactions
- Learning is participatory where students take an active role
- Development proceeds through stages and among more and less experienced peers within a community of practice
- A specific and general knowledge base emerges from learning through meaningful activity with others
- Learners develop dispositions relative to the community of practice"
So from the reading we learn that knowledge is a social situation. Learning occurs through participation. As we develop our learning, we are able to interact with others and share our learnings scaffolding our knowledge base with others understanding of the concepts. This model allows for a continuing development of knowledge and the possibililties of the scope of knowledge can be exponential. The author states that learning environments are most effective when represented by a social learning method. Thus we can conclude that the learning available through social online groups could be endless.
Reliving the revolution was designed to teach history and develop critical thinking about the facts of history as taught in the textbooks. Using strategies from augmented reality games, the writer developed a game using PDA's and GPS in the actual site of the Battle of Lexington. Students were placed into teams of two that represented one historical figure from this time period. They were to "interact" using PDA's with other virtual historic figures. At the end of the allotted time, they were to meet together to decide who fired the first shot at the Battle of Lexington thus beginning the American Revolution.
In beginning his design, the author developed goals for his project. He spent a year developing ideas and elements for the game. He then had two test groups use the game and redesigned the game with their feedback.
He used teams of two for one historical figure to assist them with problem solving and also so they could bounce ideas off of each other. They were also able to better develop a plan on how to complete the steps of the game. The teams were able to communicate with each other and ask for advice and plan secret missions. The PDA's gave them information on a specific historical figure and they were able to "interview" that person to get their point of view about a specific problem.
This really seemed like a neat project and I would have liked to have something similar when I was taking US history in High school. For those that learn by interaction, this is a good model to follow.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Reflective Summary 1
Virtual learning communities (VLC) are becoming the new forum for learning. Technology has advanced to the degree where a great deal of traditional classroom learning can now take place online. Belonging to a VLC gives the opportunity to broaden horizons from different cultures, styles and awareness that was once not readily available in the conventional classroom. The style of learning in the VLC can be asynchronous (by posting at one’s leisure) or synchronous (real time chat, live communication). This is an initiative that gives those in rural areas greater access to obtaining a better education.
Concept
I teach first year nursing students. When they begin their clinical rotations, the time spent in the classroom is diminished. Often times I find myself needing a way to communicate with my clinical group between clinical times. I would like to work on developing a site for asynchronous learning for my group. I want to develop a format similar to Desire 2 Learn or Angel that will be a secure site. On this site, we will post announcements for the coming week and share general information with each other. The main purpose of the site would be to discuss scenarios that were encountered during the rotation and give feedback on varying ways to handle the situation. The site would include drop boxes for which care plans would be submitted for grading, upon completion. This would speed up the turnaround time for the students receiving their feedback from the instructor. As part of their clinical grade, case studies would be posted which would require students to address and develop their critical thinking skills.
Each student would be responsible for submitting their work in the prescribed time frame. Grades and some instructor comments would be available for only the individual student to access. All other postings would be available to all students who are enrolled in the clinical group. Students would be responsible for obtaining their own computer with internet access from either home, library or school computer lab.
While this would be a task-based learning community for the students, I would hope the faculty would embrace it and it would develop into a knowledge-based learning community. Task-based communities are communities that come together for a specific time to produce a specific product (Riel & Polin, 2004). This would be true for the students. They are involved only for input into that particular clinical setting and then they leave that site and move onto other areas of knowledge. Knowledge-based learning communities are committed to keep and share knowledge with the community (Riel & Polin, 2004). The faculty would be aimed towards knowledge-based learning as they would need to commit to the project and continuing it on from clinical to clinical. My hope would also be that the faculty would be able to present our idea and concept one day to encourage other schools to incorporate such learning into their programs.
Strategies
Most important would be to have all other clinical faculty in agreement with adopting this type of learning with their clinical groups. Students are notorious for comparing notes with other students, so to assign this type of assignment, such as additional case studies, to one group and not another would not be fair. Once faculty was in agreement with using a web portal, a format design would need to be created. For the first time the program was implemented, it would be a labor intensive process. The formatting and instruction strategies would need to be critiqued and programmed into the program. Trial runs would need to be performed to work out as many kinks as possible before running the program “live” with the students.
Each clinical instructor would be responsible for facilitating their own group. Each group would have their own login and password, as well as their own assigned site. No two clinical groups would be allowed to lurk onto each other’s sites. Weekly assignments would be made by the individual instructor. Especially with the first clinical run, much time would need to be given to monitor, update and critique the site. Students would be expected to participate by adding knowledge and sharing with their peers to increase thought provoking ideas.
Barriers
Setting up the site and proctoring the clinical group is a time consuming process. Human nature is such that one wants to be compensated for their time. If faculty is not willing to donate their time to this endeavor, funding would need to be provided from the school. This is not always possible, so the program may end up being scrapped. In this techno savvy generation, younger students may thrive at the opportunity to participate in an online study community. Students who do not have immediate access to the internet or those who feel they are technology challenged may have difficulty adjusting to a required online VLC.
Conceptual Development
By reviewing the literature regarding the different types and styles of online learning, I have had the opportunity to gain insight as to which approach may be more effective in instituting my plan. Originally, my plan to was to form a blog page but through the work I have observed and learned about through this class so far, it appears that using a learning site would be more efficient and in the long run would be a tool that could be used to develop critical thinking in the students. For this program to be a success, I would like to see that students are stimulated by the experience and that their exam scores show an improvement in critical thinking skills, but more than that, I would like for this to become an experience that is replicated and used by other schools. If the students consider this to be another task in a series of tasks, the program cannot be successful and may end up cast aside, such as programs like MediaMOO (Renninger & Shumar, 2002).
References
Renniger, K. & Shumar, W., (2002). Building Virtual Communities: Learning and change in
cyberspace. (pp.21-33). Cambridge University Press.
Riel, M. & Pollin, L. (2004). Learning communities: Common ground and critical
differences in designing technical environments. In S. Barab, R. Kling & J. Gray (Eds.),
Designing for Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning. Cambridge, MA:
Cambridge University Press.
Virtual learning communities (VLC) are becoming the new forum for learning. Technology has advanced to the degree where a great deal of traditional classroom learning can now take place online. Belonging to a VLC gives the opportunity to broaden horizons from different cultures, styles and awareness that was once not readily available in the conventional classroom. The style of learning in the VLC can be asynchronous (by posting at one’s leisure) or synchronous (real time chat, live communication). This is an initiative that gives those in rural areas greater access to obtaining a better education.
Concept
I teach first year nursing students. When they begin their clinical rotations, the time spent in the classroom is diminished. Often times I find myself needing a way to communicate with my clinical group between clinical times. I would like to work on developing a site for asynchronous learning for my group. I want to develop a format similar to Desire 2 Learn or Angel that will be a secure site. On this site, we will post announcements for the coming week and share general information with each other. The main purpose of the site would be to discuss scenarios that were encountered during the rotation and give feedback on varying ways to handle the situation. The site would include drop boxes for which care plans would be submitted for grading, upon completion. This would speed up the turnaround time for the students receiving their feedback from the instructor. As part of their clinical grade, case studies would be posted which would require students to address and develop their critical thinking skills.
Each student would be responsible for submitting their work in the prescribed time frame. Grades and some instructor comments would be available for only the individual student to access. All other postings would be available to all students who are enrolled in the clinical group. Students would be responsible for obtaining their own computer with internet access from either home, library or school computer lab.
While this would be a task-based learning community for the students, I would hope the faculty would embrace it and it would develop into a knowledge-based learning community. Task-based communities are communities that come together for a specific time to produce a specific product (Riel & Polin, 2004). This would be true for the students. They are involved only for input into that particular clinical setting and then they leave that site and move onto other areas of knowledge. Knowledge-based learning communities are committed to keep and share knowledge with the community (Riel & Polin, 2004). The faculty would be aimed towards knowledge-based learning as they would need to commit to the project and continuing it on from clinical to clinical. My hope would also be that the faculty would be able to present our idea and concept one day to encourage other schools to incorporate such learning into their programs.
Strategies
Most important would be to have all other clinical faculty in agreement with adopting this type of learning with their clinical groups. Students are notorious for comparing notes with other students, so to assign this type of assignment, such as additional case studies, to one group and not another would not be fair. Once faculty was in agreement with using a web portal, a format design would need to be created. For the first time the program was implemented, it would be a labor intensive process. The formatting and instruction strategies would need to be critiqued and programmed into the program. Trial runs would need to be performed to work out as many kinks as possible before running the program “live” with the students.
Each clinical instructor would be responsible for facilitating their own group. Each group would have their own login and password, as well as their own assigned site. No two clinical groups would be allowed to lurk onto each other’s sites. Weekly assignments would be made by the individual instructor. Especially with the first clinical run, much time would need to be given to monitor, update and critique the site. Students would be expected to participate by adding knowledge and sharing with their peers to increase thought provoking ideas.
Barriers
Setting up the site and proctoring the clinical group is a time consuming process. Human nature is such that one wants to be compensated for their time. If faculty is not willing to donate their time to this endeavor, funding would need to be provided from the school. This is not always possible, so the program may end up being scrapped. In this techno savvy generation, younger students may thrive at the opportunity to participate in an online study community. Students who do not have immediate access to the internet or those who feel they are technology challenged may have difficulty adjusting to a required online VLC.
Conceptual Development
By reviewing the literature regarding the different types and styles of online learning, I have had the opportunity to gain insight as to which approach may be more effective in instituting my plan. Originally, my plan to was to form a blog page but through the work I have observed and learned about through this class so far, it appears that using a learning site would be more efficient and in the long run would be a tool that could be used to develop critical thinking in the students. For this program to be a success, I would like to see that students are stimulated by the experience and that their exam scores show an improvement in critical thinking skills, but more than that, I would like for this to become an experience that is replicated and used by other schools. If the students consider this to be another task in a series of tasks, the program cannot be successful and may end up cast aside, such as programs like MediaMOO (Renninger & Shumar, 2002).
References
Renniger, K. & Shumar, W., (2002). Building Virtual Communities: Learning and change in
cyberspace. (pp.21-33). Cambridge University Press.
Riel, M. & Pollin, L. (2004). Learning communities: Common ground and critical
differences in designing technical environments. In S. Barab, R. Kling & J. Gray (Eds.),
Designing for Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning. Cambridge, MA:
Cambridge University Press.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Case Study 1
For this case study, I examined MySpace, Facebook and YouTube. I chose these for different reasons, but for the same concept. All of them I use related to school, but in various ways. MySpace, I was familiar with because last year during my clinical group, I had several students who talked about “MySpacing” each other. Most of them were already members of the group. So I told them I would like to be privy to their discussions, since it seemed most of what they were “MySpacing” about was questions regarding clinical. I became a member. I used this form of communication to dole out Kudos to those who performed exceptionally well and to keep them posted on upcoming events. I did have a few people I found that I knew in MySpace, but overall, it seemed to be something that required too much time for me to keep up with and too labor intensive to build a page. Maybe it is just my age, but it seemed too busy for me.
MySpace has a logo, “A place to meet friends” and I suppose it is. The community is set up for communicating with others and letting them know your personal preferences. It appears to be more of a social site. There does not appear to be any educational learning accomplished in this site. There is an array of options for decorating the individual site and some seem content to decorate their hearts out. There are also games that can be played online. One of the more common ones I found was a game called Mafia. It would appear that they play against other MySpace members, but I am not sure of the object of the game.
When one signs up on MySpace, they are immediately befriended by Tom. According to his bio, Tom is 33 years old and lives in Santa Monica, California. He is the President of MySpace. One has the option of deleting Tom from their friends list, but always know that Tom is there to answer any questions that arise, which is a nice thing to know.
Communicating on MySpace is not difficult. One picks a person they would like to send a message to, types in the message, and sends it to the other person’s page. Not very difficult. When signing up on MySpace, one has the option of setting their profile to private. This is to protect privacy and an attempt to prevent predators from obtaining information. Most MySpacers profiles are set to private. When perusing through different profiles, I saw some young girls who did not have their profile set to private and anyone could look at their information, pictures and comments. This concerned me, especially since some of their pictures showed other people, some who were babies, and could give information on where a person lived.
I began a Facebook page for one of the requirements of this class. I had heard positive and negative comments about Facebook, but since my experience with MySpace, figured it was the same and had no interest in developing a page. I must now admit that Facebook has opened a new world for me. I have come into contact with a person that I have not seen or heard from in 22 years. I have been able to chat with friends from all over the United States. Since we have lived on both coasts and in the middle of the country, our friends are spread out and this is a great way to connect with them and see how they are doing. It appears to me that Facebook is easier than MySpace to navigate in and do not feel the need to decorate a page. Facebook has a side bar that lists friends of your friends that you may know and that has helped me find people. I did notice last time I was on MySpace, that they have the same option. I had not noticed that before. The Facebook community seems to be geared more towards a more mature community than MySpace does. There is an area where one can link with groups with similar interest. In that grouping, I have found nursing groups, nurse educator groups and groups for those who favor certain television shows, such as LOST. Included, also, are groups from schools across the United States where one can reconnect and post memories of classmates.
The other site I visited was YouTube. I have had videos from YouTube sent to me prior via email and had also used YouTube in the classroom. YouTube is a site where one can make a video and post it to the web. Others are able to view videos at no cost to them. Videos are available to view from funny dog stunts to guitar players to educational training. There are also movie trailers and clips from television shows. To post a video, one must be a member of the YouTube community. Being a member is also a requirement to post a comment regarding a video in this site. One can also send a posted video to Facebook, MySpace or Digg through this page. Videos are also available to be sent via email to anyone. I have used some of these videos to reinforce learning in the classroom. One such video I used was scenes from the television show Scrubs. I was teaching first year nursing students on bowel elimination. There is a clip from Scrubs entitled, “Everything comes down to poo”. In this clip, for every reason a person comes into the emergency department, they are required to give a stool specimen. I used this clip to illustrate the importance of bowel function and elimination. A fellow instructor has also used the clip of the Brady Bunch theme song to serve as a visual reminder of what a blended family is and used the movie trailer to Dances with Wolves to visualize assimilation.
There is truly something for everyone on YouTube. Although one may think it is a site for jokes and humor, it also contains information that is useful and instructive. They have a help page that will attempt to answer any questions one may have concerning technical or non-technical items. This site continues to grow because there is a market for people who want their “fifteen minutes of fame.” As society continues to develop, there is becoming more and more ways to video through the use of cameras and phones and people are anxious to share their moments with the rest of the world.
All three of these communities I visited could be used for pleasure or work. While they are the latest, current trend, in a few years society will have become bored with them and will move to a different type of community. What will that be? Who knows, but of this one thing we can be sure of: it will be a newer, better form of communication and those who are not current with the technology will surely be left behind.
For the second part of this case study, I viewed the websites www.merlot.org and http://wisconline.org. Since I teach at the college level, I thought those would be more geared towards my specialty. On MERLOT, I found many activities for various fields of education. In this site, there are examples and ideas of different learning activities. There is also a link where one can visit with another colleague in the same field. In the virtual speakers bureau, one can watch experts speaking on various topics. Although I have not spent much time in this area yet, there is an area where an instructor can construct assignments for students. I have joined this website as a member so that I may return to it for ideas, suggestions, and interaction with peers.
Visiting wisconline I found a community that was a little different. I just examined through this site and did not join, nor participate in any activities. It did not seem to have the organization that was found with MERLOT. It showcased more game activities for students to do. It did not seem to have the organizational structure that MERLOT did, and that is not necessarily a negative. I will spend more time browsing through the site in hopes of obtaining ideas for use with small group activities. This site is geared more towards the student than the instructor. It, also, will be a useful resource in the future.
Based on the readings in Riel and Polin, both of these sites were task-based learning communities. They require that the members collaborate for a specific task which is assisting the educator. The main goal is using the expertise of others to support the others in the community. When all members contribute their know-how to the community, the learning occurs. As new members become aware of the site, they are able to glean from the knowledge of others and also have the opportunity to input their wisdom into the community. When the user has gained all that the site has available for them, they can amble away and are not required to continue to confer input to the community. The opportunities for both of these sites are endless.
I have previously searched for databases and communities such as these two and not found them. Maybe I was searching for the wrong sites or using the wrong search terms. My only suggestion for improvement would be to have them more accessible to searchers. There are many ideas and input that I found would have been useful in my past semester teaching. I wish I would have known about them then.
What I really enjoyed about these sites was the ability to view into another instructor’s toolbox and see some of the learning activities that they had found useful. Through the sharing of ideas and support the members of these communities allow a time for each other to reflect, share and learn from others in the same field. Through the continual posting of new members, the community is able to grow and prosper.
As a new instructor, I look to those who have years of experience teaching to learn what teaching tools work best. These sites will be of utmost importance to me in the coming months and years. Knowing that while I am in my master’s program my time is limited, I can look to other members of these communities for guidance and direction. Hopefully, at one time or another in my career, I will be able to give back to the communities that helped me when I first started teaching.
Riel, M. & Polin, L. (2004). Designing for virtual communities in the service of learning. In S.A. Barab, R. Kling, & J.H. Gray (eds.)
For this case study, I examined MySpace, Facebook and YouTube. I chose these for different reasons, but for the same concept. All of them I use related to school, but in various ways. MySpace, I was familiar with because last year during my clinical group, I had several students who talked about “MySpacing” each other. Most of them were already members of the group. So I told them I would like to be privy to their discussions, since it seemed most of what they were “MySpacing” about was questions regarding clinical. I became a member. I used this form of communication to dole out Kudos to those who performed exceptionally well and to keep them posted on upcoming events. I did have a few people I found that I knew in MySpace, but overall, it seemed to be something that required too much time for me to keep up with and too labor intensive to build a page. Maybe it is just my age, but it seemed too busy for me.
MySpace has a logo, “A place to meet friends” and I suppose it is. The community is set up for communicating with others and letting them know your personal preferences. It appears to be more of a social site. There does not appear to be any educational learning accomplished in this site. There is an array of options for decorating the individual site and some seem content to decorate their hearts out. There are also games that can be played online. One of the more common ones I found was a game called Mafia. It would appear that they play against other MySpace members, but I am not sure of the object of the game.
When one signs up on MySpace, they are immediately befriended by Tom. According to his bio, Tom is 33 years old and lives in Santa Monica, California. He is the President of MySpace. One has the option of deleting Tom from their friends list, but always know that Tom is there to answer any questions that arise, which is a nice thing to know.
Communicating on MySpace is not difficult. One picks a person they would like to send a message to, types in the message, and sends it to the other person’s page. Not very difficult. When signing up on MySpace, one has the option of setting their profile to private. This is to protect privacy and an attempt to prevent predators from obtaining information. Most MySpacers profiles are set to private. When perusing through different profiles, I saw some young girls who did not have their profile set to private and anyone could look at their information, pictures and comments. This concerned me, especially since some of their pictures showed other people, some who were babies, and could give information on where a person lived.
I began a Facebook page for one of the requirements of this class. I had heard positive and negative comments about Facebook, but since my experience with MySpace, figured it was the same and had no interest in developing a page. I must now admit that Facebook has opened a new world for me. I have come into contact with a person that I have not seen or heard from in 22 years. I have been able to chat with friends from all over the United States. Since we have lived on both coasts and in the middle of the country, our friends are spread out and this is a great way to connect with them and see how they are doing. It appears to me that Facebook is easier than MySpace to navigate in and do not feel the need to decorate a page. Facebook has a side bar that lists friends of your friends that you may know and that has helped me find people. I did notice last time I was on MySpace, that they have the same option. I had not noticed that before. The Facebook community seems to be geared more towards a more mature community than MySpace does. There is an area where one can link with groups with similar interest. In that grouping, I have found nursing groups, nurse educator groups and groups for those who favor certain television shows, such as LOST. Included, also, are groups from schools across the United States where one can reconnect and post memories of classmates.
The other site I visited was YouTube. I have had videos from YouTube sent to me prior via email and had also used YouTube in the classroom. YouTube is a site where one can make a video and post it to the web. Others are able to view videos at no cost to them. Videos are available to view from funny dog stunts to guitar players to educational training. There are also movie trailers and clips from television shows. To post a video, one must be a member of the YouTube community. Being a member is also a requirement to post a comment regarding a video in this site. One can also send a posted video to Facebook, MySpace or Digg through this page. Videos are also available to be sent via email to anyone. I have used some of these videos to reinforce learning in the classroom. One such video I used was scenes from the television show Scrubs. I was teaching first year nursing students on bowel elimination. There is a clip from Scrubs entitled, “Everything comes down to poo”. In this clip, for every reason a person comes into the emergency department, they are required to give a stool specimen. I used this clip to illustrate the importance of bowel function and elimination. A fellow instructor has also used the clip of the Brady Bunch theme song to serve as a visual reminder of what a blended family is and used the movie trailer to Dances with Wolves to visualize assimilation.
There is truly something for everyone on YouTube. Although one may think it is a site for jokes and humor, it also contains information that is useful and instructive. They have a help page that will attempt to answer any questions one may have concerning technical or non-technical items. This site continues to grow because there is a market for people who want their “fifteen minutes of fame.” As society continues to develop, there is becoming more and more ways to video through the use of cameras and phones and people are anxious to share their moments with the rest of the world.
All three of these communities I visited could be used for pleasure or work. While they are the latest, current trend, in a few years society will have become bored with them and will move to a different type of community. What will that be? Who knows, but of this one thing we can be sure of: it will be a newer, better form of communication and those who are not current with the technology will surely be left behind.
For the second part of this case study, I viewed the websites www.merlot.org and http://wisconline.org. Since I teach at the college level, I thought those would be more geared towards my specialty. On MERLOT, I found many activities for various fields of education. In this site, there are examples and ideas of different learning activities. There is also a link where one can visit with another colleague in the same field. In the virtual speakers bureau, one can watch experts speaking on various topics. Although I have not spent much time in this area yet, there is an area where an instructor can construct assignments for students. I have joined this website as a member so that I may return to it for ideas, suggestions, and interaction with peers.
Visiting wisconline I found a community that was a little different. I just examined through this site and did not join, nor participate in any activities. It did not seem to have the organization that was found with MERLOT. It showcased more game activities for students to do. It did not seem to have the organizational structure that MERLOT did, and that is not necessarily a negative. I will spend more time browsing through the site in hopes of obtaining ideas for use with small group activities. This site is geared more towards the student than the instructor. It, also, will be a useful resource in the future.
Based on the readings in Riel and Polin, both of these sites were task-based learning communities. They require that the members collaborate for a specific task which is assisting the educator. The main goal is using the expertise of others to support the others in the community. When all members contribute their know-how to the community, the learning occurs. As new members become aware of the site, they are able to glean from the knowledge of others and also have the opportunity to input their wisdom into the community. When the user has gained all that the site has available for them, they can amble away and are not required to continue to confer input to the community. The opportunities for both of these sites are endless.
I have previously searched for databases and communities such as these two and not found them. Maybe I was searching for the wrong sites or using the wrong search terms. My only suggestion for improvement would be to have them more accessible to searchers. There are many ideas and input that I found would have been useful in my past semester teaching. I wish I would have known about them then.
What I really enjoyed about these sites was the ability to view into another instructor’s toolbox and see some of the learning activities that they had found useful. Through the sharing of ideas and support the members of these communities allow a time for each other to reflect, share and learn from others in the same field. Through the continual posting of new members, the community is able to grow and prosper.
As a new instructor, I look to those who have years of experience teaching to learn what teaching tools work best. These sites will be of utmost importance to me in the coming months and years. Knowing that while I am in my master’s program my time is limited, I can look to other members of these communities for guidance and direction. Hopefully, at one time or another in my career, I will be able to give back to the communities that helped me when I first started teaching.
Riel, M. & Polin, L. (2004). Designing for virtual communities in the service of learning. In S.A. Barab, R. Kling, & J.H. Gray (eds.)
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Week Three
Reading in Renninger and Shumar, I found many things that I truly agree with. We have progressed from a society dependent upon internet use. In the health care spectrum, the internet can be an ally and our greatest enemy. In times past, our grandparents and parents took whatever the physicians said as the gospel and their word was gold. In the current generation, we have already diagnosed ourselves by the time we visit with our physician and we compare his findings to the findings of the internet. If they are not in harmony, we lean toward trusting the internet. Such examples in chapter 9 of our text are MMR and GM foods in the United Kingdom. But we must learn what information is valid and what information is flimsy.
Browsing through the aisles of any bookstore, one sees a wide array of books genered to help us help ourselves. Society at this time is geared to make themselves a better person. Because of the information age, we tend to spend more time researching which is a good thing, but if we are not careful of the sources we use, can be detrimental.
In reading Chapter 11 of Renninger and Shumar, I came across the example of virtual birthday parties and funerals. My mind drifted back to a seminar that I attended on communication. One of the things the speaker highlighted was that our society has become so technical that we do not speak to a vast array of people. We have minimal contact with other people. We go to the automoatic teller to get money, we go through the drive through to get food and we send email and im's and text those we need to talk to so that we do not actually interact with others. She stated this is why depression is on the rise in society. It made sense to me. So I must ask, if all learning is done online (not that I am opposed to it :) ) are we doing ourselves a disgrace by not interacting with others in the physical sense?
Having said that, reading in Chapter 12 we see that technology is a great asset for a learning community. Technology gives us so many more resources to gather information from. It is an awesome and wonderful thing to talk to someone in another state or country and gather things that have helped them in a particular situation. Their experiences can only serve to enhance our learning. The example of the Russian activity theory - tools, activity, people are the basic core of what is needed in a learning community.
And speaking of tools...
In the extra reading for this week, Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning, spoke of how important it is to not only have the tool but mostly, to know how to use it. An improperly used tool will not accomplish what it was designed for. I have a little example that occurred this past week. My sister in law's boyfriend and his friends, who consider themselves to be cowboys, we trying to get a horse to go into a small barn. They had the tools they needed: a rope, a lariat, the barn. But yet they were unsuccessful. My husband (I must toot his horn here) arrived to find them with a lariat around the horses neck and the rope tied around his back legs and four "cowboys" tugging on the ropes and pulling to try to lead the horse to the barn. Now, if you have had any experiences with horses, they are stubborn. Unless they are well trained, they will do only what they want. So my husband told them to leave the horse alone, took the rope off his back legs and begin to talk softly to the horse, petting him and letting the horse lead around for a while. Within a few minutes he had the horse in the barn.
And the moral of this story is ... although they had everything they needed to get the horse to the barn, they did not know the correct way to use them and that made them unsuccessful. When someone came along who knew what to do with the tools they had, they progressed.
So just as important is the tool, so as important is the user.
Browsing through the aisles of any bookstore, one sees a wide array of books genered to help us help ourselves. Society at this time is geared to make themselves a better person. Because of the information age, we tend to spend more time researching which is a good thing, but if we are not careful of the sources we use, can be detrimental.
In reading Chapter 11 of Renninger and Shumar, I came across the example of virtual birthday parties and funerals. My mind drifted back to a seminar that I attended on communication. One of the things the speaker highlighted was that our society has become so technical that we do not speak to a vast array of people. We have minimal contact with other people. We go to the automoatic teller to get money, we go through the drive through to get food and we send email and im's and text those we need to talk to so that we do not actually interact with others. She stated this is why depression is on the rise in society. It made sense to me. So I must ask, if all learning is done online (not that I am opposed to it :) ) are we doing ourselves a disgrace by not interacting with others in the physical sense?
Having said that, reading in Chapter 12 we see that technology is a great asset for a learning community. Technology gives us so many more resources to gather information from. It is an awesome and wonderful thing to talk to someone in another state or country and gather things that have helped them in a particular situation. Their experiences can only serve to enhance our learning. The example of the Russian activity theory - tools, activity, people are the basic core of what is needed in a learning community.
And speaking of tools...
In the extra reading for this week, Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning, spoke of how important it is to not only have the tool but mostly, to know how to use it. An improperly used tool will not accomplish what it was designed for. I have a little example that occurred this past week. My sister in law's boyfriend and his friends, who consider themselves to be cowboys, we trying to get a horse to go into a small barn. They had the tools they needed: a rope, a lariat, the barn. But yet they were unsuccessful. My husband (I must toot his horn here) arrived to find them with a lariat around the horses neck and the rope tied around his back legs and four "cowboys" tugging on the ropes and pulling to try to lead the horse to the barn. Now, if you have had any experiences with horses, they are stubborn. Unless they are well trained, they will do only what they want. So my husband told them to leave the horse alone, took the rope off his back legs and begin to talk softly to the horse, petting him and letting the horse lead around for a while. Within a few minutes he had the horse in the barn.
And the moral of this story is ... although they had everything they needed to get the horse to the barn, they did not know the correct way to use them and that made them unsuccessful. When someone came along who knew what to do with the tools they had, they progressed.
So just as important is the tool, so as important is the user.
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