Digital Students Do Not Need Analog Teaching

http://jamieedutechassignments.wikispaces.com/file/view/Graphic+Organizer.ppt

Effective teaching today consists of being able to bring the technological tools that learners are using outside of the classroom into the educational process. The ability to do this is becoming essentially the difference between motivating and not motivating students. As I have stated many times before, we as educators must not teach digital students with analog methods any longer.

Including social media, such as blogs, wikis, text messaging, and chat rooms, into the classroom are necessary tools in reaching today’s learner. I have included various social media into my curriculum. I teach technology classes, such as computer science, web design, and computing concepts, while one might feel it would be easier to integrate these technology tools into this environment versus an academic setting, I disagree. I still found it necessary to include strategies to better assist my students in using these tools. Without these strategies, there was no structure and students tend to get off task.

My courses are project based and the three C’s are of great importance in being successful. Without having collaboration, communication and content knowledge, students cannot be successful in this type of course or any that integrate online learning. When I consider the strategies I used in the integration of outside technologies into my curriculum, I find that peer evaluations, frequent communication, small group interdependence, and the overall task appropriateness of the project itself are the important factors of success. These strategies allowed the students to understand completely what is expected of them and what the outcome should be.

Social Presence Storyboard

This is my Social Presence video storyboard and I would appreciate any feedback. I placed the storyboard on a wiki I started for my assignments.

Jamie Oliver's Educational Technology Assignment Wiki

I Have the Water, You Bring the Horse - Assessing Collaborative Efforts

When assessing collaborative efforts in the online community, one must definitely consider several factors. These factors being the participation level of all members, the skill levels of these members and the various knowledge bases that each member brings to the discussions independently. This being said, these factors play a significant role in the direction a particular course goes, so to speak, in relation to the fair and equitable assessment of the learning process. One then can only question, how should participation in a collaborative learning community be assessed?

Assessments are a very important part to the learning process as a whole. In fact, assessment should be an evaluation of students' performance through their "demonstration of the ability to apply knowledge in real-life settings" (Edelstein & Edwards, 2005, p.2).However, it is up to the instructor to decide how important online participation relates to the learning process, thereby balancing the workload of the course. These assessments can be determined in a variety of ways, but no matter which way is decided upon, a clear set of guidelines must be presented to the student that outlines the grading criteria for participation. The forms of guidelines that work the best are found in rubrics. This form of qualitative data helps the student and the instructor to understand what needs to be completed for the maximum points available for online participation.

Through using rubrics, the instructor also combats the other dilemma in online participation, concerning the varying levels of skill and knowledge students bring to a course. The rubrics outline what is expected of the student, such as the amount of discussion that must occur for each topic presented and how these responses must be presented to the rest of the online class. Through having these clear instructions, the student, regardless of skill level or knowledge base, knows what is expected of them and how to effectively communicate with the rest of the online class. The instructor then has the ability to assess the participation of students based on the rubric and there is no ambiguity in how each item is graded based on the point values already addressed in the rubric. While having a rubric for online participation assessment is beneficial, there is another aspect that needs to be discussed.

I am reminded of an old cliché, “one can lead a horse to water, but they cannot make him drink.” This is true in the online environment, as well. If a student does not want to network or collaborate in a learning community for an online course, the other students and instructor must find a way to continue the online conversation in a productive way. The students must first continually reach out to the combative student for their opinion, but must not allow this to impede on their learning. They must continue the discussion with or without the other student, so they further their learning process. The instructor, on the other hand, has the task of finding out the why in the situation. If a lack of knowledge of how to interact collaboratively online is the reason, help must be given to the student to allow them to feel comfortable in the online community. On the other hand, if the student just does not want to be apart of the online community, then this has a direct impact on their assessment plan. The student has the same rubric as everyone else and should understand, through communication form the instructor, which electing to not participate will have a negative impact on their grade. They, the student, should also understand the value of knowledge everyone brings to a discussion and their electing not to participate diminishes the possibility of the maximum learning process in a given course.
Edelstein, Susan and Edwards, Jason (2005). If you build it, they will come: building learning communities through threaded discussions. Online Journal of Distance Education Administration. Retrieved from http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring51/edelstein51.html on October 6, 2010.

Elements of Distance Education Diffusion - Collaborative Interaction

Collaborative interaction has transformed distance education into an effective learning experience and has helped form its’ own identity in education. In the more traditional or F2F format of education, one is given the opportunity to collaborate because of the students involved a given course. In distance education, one is given the opportunity to collaborate based on the individuals in a given course, as well. Where then does the distinct difference between these two formats lie? The difference is found in the type of students involved. While F2F formats are beneficial, one is confined to the limitations of the expertise around them. Distance education is brings the idea of collaborative interaction to new levels only hoped to be attained through F2F formats. The Internet is global and reaches various intelligences on certain topics. The need for this collaborative interaction drives the courses into learning opportunities that only F2F courses dare to consider. The various areas of expertise that distance education courses offer will assist online students in being well rounded and in having a level of expertise in the subject matter that they normally would not have attained in a F2F course. This collaborative interaction can be found in numerous innovations found in distance education courses today.

Through online tools, such as Microsoft SharePoint, Blogs, Wikis, and podcasts, the medium in which one collaborates is very diverse. Online collaboration tools are emerging in education today at an alarming rate. These different innovations provide ways in reaching far greater numbers of students than ever imagined before. They provide a collaborative interaction that is easily attainable from any location, which allows the learning process to be available 24 hours a day. George Siemens proposes the idea that online education is gaining popularity because geographic distance is not as significant to learning as it was 5 years ago. He goes on to explain that there is an increase in online communication and populations have a practical experience with new technologies, which motivate learners with distance education. This only goes to show that distance education is providing students with more effective learning experiences and these learning experiences are only as effective as the collaborative interaction tht takes place within the course itself.

Distance Education and the Next Generation

The next generation is in dire need for distance education programs. Through the articles written by Moller, Foshay, and Huett (et al), one can definitely see this to be true. These articles show that the technologies available in distance education will help to target a larger audience than in more traditional formats. In fact, in these articles, Moller gives us the idea that various and new ways in using technologies must be accepted by educators and basically if educators use these technologies in the same way as they did before rather than in a more efficient manner then that is wasteful (Moller, 2008). Learning new technologies related to distance education might be a hindrance for some educators, but these educators are becoming few and far between.

In the video by Dr. Simonson, he states that distance education is becoming more and more widely accepted (Laureate Education, 2008). I feel this to be very true as several of my peers have stated in their views of distance education and this video. With computers being in most homes, with reliable Internet access, there is no reason that distance education programs cannot thrive in our technology driven society.

The evolution of distance education into the next generation is already happening, in my viewpoint. The positions of the authors of the articles and the video seem to hit the head on the nail, so to speak. Distance education programs are going to be essential in the development of leaders for the business, education and political industries. For these reasons, we as educators must assist the process in evolving distance education programs to the next generation.