A post from Class

One technology that I find interesting but I believe will not take off is the Game Based learning. I don't believe this will take off in the direction that people think it has because we have had game based learning for a long period of time already. But I do believe that mobile devices and electronic books will provide to be very useful in the class room. Just like you would integrate study habits into your schedule if you implement the class work into the students mobile devices then it is much easier for them to assimilate the class and their life. How often to people check their phones? How often are they online? How often are they on facebook? If you tie the classroom to facebook via a group or class discussion you have an instant connection with the student. You have brought the class to their life. The gesture based hardware is a great addition but I don't know if we have seen the potential of it yet. Just the studies and experiements that people have been able to do with the kinect. An example is as follows; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWmVrfjDCyw . It will take someone really creative to break new ground and do something that we haven't even thought of yet. Also we have to keep in mind that our technology has been growing at a faster rate in the past 100 years, the amount of information available now is incredible. So in some ways we have become difficult to impress with the amount of information that we are subjected to on a daily basis. Most peoples phone's are smarter than the computer that I had when I grew up.

It is an exciting time in education and the world in general in regards to technology but we would have a hard time estimating on what people will come up with next.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s5EvhHy7eQ here is another example of a wii remote that is hacked to turn into a very cheap multi-touch whiteboard.

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I posted this answer to a discussion question from my class because I think it embodies a bigger question or way of looking at technology in the classroom. What is next? I don't think anyone can answer that. But! I think we can ask, "what do we have available and how can we use it?" This, to me, is how we take the next step. Or "what do we want to accomplish?". Anything to think outside of the box and have distance education and traditional education take the next step.

-Matt

Week 5 some observations

I have been working on some of the material for week 5 after some setbacks in my course work and the thought of social interaction with distance education really started rolling around in my head. I was wondering not only the implications of social interaction within the classroom of online learning. But how our personal web 2.0 social media interact affects our learning patterns. We are all well aware of the implications of the immediate gratification but how does this affect our online classroom? Do things move too slow? Should we have a "tweet" like option to allow for more rapid fire discussion to speed things up? I think one way or another this will have to be integrated for online education may be  pooled together with traditional education due to its speed in comparison with social media.

Distance Ed Discussion

http://www.reddit.com/r/education/comments/10cfcx/what_is_your_opinion_of_online_learning/



With social websites such as reddit on the rise and information even more accessible than ever. I think it is imperative that we keep our eyes open for the new sources of information and learn how to use them to their advantage. For instance: I created a subreddit for distance education, submitted it in the forums to a previous class, and received no responses on the topic. But the people who would benefit the most from finding out about distance education may not be receiving it. We have to almost be better sales people and knock on doors. (not literally). I think this is something that more people need to get used to.


-Matt

http://www.reddit.com/r/distanceeducation

Technology and Distance Education

With the focus in distance education being steered towards pedagogy and the means more so than the end, it is important to steer thoughts on to what is truly critical for distance educators. The pedagogy is key but it is important to trim off the other unnecessary things as well. "...technology deployment is not a primary concern for distance education and should not be allowed to steer the learning processes." This quote out of Flexible Higher Education by Elizabeth J. Burge truly captures steering the point of direction for distance education. While I personally don't think that distance education is plagued by an over saturation of technology I do think the idea behind this quote still rings true. Things that are not essential for the current trends of distance education should not steer distance education. And students should not be viewed as numbers and statistics by those doing the reviews of distance education, the goals should be focusing on what the future of distance educations affects will be on the future. That is why we are seeing more things such as Khan academy and Coursera thriving and the idea that education should be free and almost a basic human right. There are many changes coming for education in general and I believe that distance education is at the forefront.

-Matt

Are we looking in the wrong places about distance ed?

http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/a_master_list_of_500_free_courses_from_great_universities.html


In education we are often worried about theories and pedagogues, things to tell us we are on the right path.To me there appears to be a new trend, forget about what we did, what are we going to do? Easy answer, we are going to do what works. But that is the hard part really, but not for everyone. I have included a link to free courses online. Which is becoming a huge trend lately, and the public seems to think its an awesome idea. But what I would like to look at is how are the creators of online environments like khan academy (http://www.khanacademy.org/) and wonder why does this help/work? It is breaking the mold, but on top of that it is helping the way we used to do things. Teachers are using online resources such as this to supplement in the classroom and as a result are more conservative with their time while getting better results. And in today's current trend getting bigger results with less is becoming the expectation.

Google+ and other things....

Google+ and other things.... It occurred to me this evening as I was thinking about distance education I felt as though something was missing. I have taken a few classes at this point and while I do enjoy it, I've found I miss the element of camaraderie. I do get to know some of my classmates and recognize them when I sign up for additional classes but it is entirely different than a face to face cohort of a program. Sure webtycho is partly to blame, but are the facilitators or the students to blame? I don't think so. Distance education is still growing and I think we are still learning about how to teach with online education and how to provide the best experience for all parties involved. This is where I think Google+ and other services might come in handy. What I feel is missing are the general conversations, "what did you think about that paper?", "was that test hard?", while we do have those conversations its as if you are in the classroom the whole time. There isn't any one on one time. In the institution I work at they have lots of mentor programs, I don't think this is a bad idea (and I think there is one, I should have taken advantage of that if I remember correctly). But how often do you get to ask your classmate the same things you would in a face to face environment? I think Google+ allows for enough privacy for students but allows them to interact with each other, have a more personal dialogue

maybe I'm crazy?

6/12.

Supporting Students

I'd like to think that in an educational environment everyone is maintaining the focus to support students. But we have to think, what is supporting students? Is this going above and beyond in every way to help them accomplish their goals? No. Is this bending to their every whim? No. What it is, is taking every single moment of everyday and seeing what is the best way to turn it in to a teachable moment. That, to me, is truly supporting students. Different generations are confronted with different environmental challenges. Baby boomers, gen x etc.... Currently we are serving the generation of everyone wins and everyone gets a trophy. Life doesn't work that way. Not everyone passes, just as not everyone fails. Some students have not been equipped with the ability to make constructive decisions in situations where they feel they have anything at stake. And where they don't have anything at stake they don't place themselves within the situation.

What to do? Turn every moment into a teachable moment. Because every moment is a teachable moment.

Encyclopaedia Britannica

First off here is a link to this article.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/after-244-years-encyclopaedia-britannica-stops-the-presses/?smid=tw-nytimes&seid=auto

And basically it appears as though Encyclopaedia Britannica  will no longer print their volumes. I can't count the hours that I've poured over pages in a library learning how to do research (if its been that long you'd think I'd be better at it) and these were always my first stop. Then the internet became readily accessible. Even with technological advances I still prefer using books for research (although the wealth of knowledge to be found online is beyond comparison). I work in a tech industry and I feel as though the traditional book will never go away. But we are at a point where people are really going to have to show their support to keep it around.

Back in my day you had to read everything on paper!

Reflection of the activity

This activity has shown me the value of blogging about my travels in distance education. Reflecting on reading in forums and having discussion is great. The topics are previously decided and topics that spawn off of those are encouraged as well. But, with a blog it is truly, for lack of a better analogy, "your canvas". Sure there are factual accuracies that need to be upheld and citations should always be given. But, it is your space to accomplish what ever you need. I believe this allows a certain amount of personal freedom to create an audience for yourself. By creating an audience for yourself I mean the following: distance education students and professionals may read your blog but, the only ones that will consistently return are the ones that want to hear or related to what you have to say. This provides a level of comfort for me that I enjoy. I have been criticized as writing how I talk, informally. My grammar leaves something to be desired and my formats are probably intolerable for many. But I like to think that when I write anything it has some reflection of who I am and does not just achieve a goal (i.e. fulfilling a requirement).

So I think I've gotten a lot out of this project. I didn't provide updates as concurrently as I should have but still feel I learned something that I should keep up with.

As far as reviewing other blogs, I found it to be inspirational. I got to see what others are personally experiencing and found that I am not alone in many instances. Just reading about what the typical distance education user is like in a text book doesn't always sink it. While learn about distance ed, little do we realize that we are "practicing what we are preaching". And see that most other students are like me, busy or looking for a change in career. Inspires me and makes me feel like I need to push myself harder to keep up. If only there were 28 hours in a day!

Cautious at a distance?

For this blog post I'd like to pose a question. In physical life, are you more cautious at a distance? My answer is no (I'd think yours is too). Now, in distance education, are you more cautious? Moore and Kearsley seem to think you are as is stated in the following, "People are naturally more cautious at a distance, especially when they are not able to see the other participants, and more so in asynchronous rather than synchronous communication. For this reason, whatever the form of communications technology used, participation is not likely to happen unless it is well planned and instructors have training to facilitate it"(Moore Kearsley p120).

I personally don't agree. Look at forums for example, some people say things in forums that they would never say in real life. People say things in text message they may not say in real life. People get mad at telemarketers because they have the safety of being at a distance.

Sure Distance Education has its set of challenges but I don't think the distance is enough to make people cautious. This is an important topic to take a look at. Paying attention as to the challenges distance education would cause with just the physical aspects but the challenges it may cause socially/psychologically. We don't always think about how some people may not be antonymous learners. Or some may be an extreme of that and not feel the need to have conversations about the material and would want to show their grasp of the topics via assignments. But evaluation of students receipt of the concepts and topics is essential.

Moore, M. G., & Kearsley, G. (2005). Distance Education: A Systems View of Online Learning. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. (Second Edition) .

Model of the Instructional Systems Design

The idea of a model of the instructional systems design (to be referred to as ISD) when developing course designs is instrumental in its implementation. Such as a scientific method each step defines proper course development. The steps are as follows.

Analysis-Design-Development-Implementation-Evaluation with a recap on each step which I like to think of as thoroughness.

Each step truly allows the designer to construct a course that has each element to make for a productive learning environment for the student and the facilitator (instructor/professor).

"If -as is sometimes suggested-the behavior of a successful student in a given subject truly cannot be described, then indeed it would be difficult to specify a learning objective, but then it is equally impossible to construct a teaching program when it is not known what it is that one is trying to teach!"(Moore Kearsley p102).

Personally I had to read this statement multiple times for it to soak in. And it is really a statement that holds a large amount of weight. To me it means, if we look at learning as a point A to point B concept, what does the travel look like? What do their methods look like? What is the vehicle that could best get them from destination to destination. If there is no answer, then the whole course needs to be reevaluated. If you cannot explain how they are to accomplish the knowledge then it is impossible for the course to continue.

With that being said, still using the analogy of point A and point B, there is always more than one method of travel. Students can accomplish the same goal multiple ways. Not everyone achieves learning goals the same way. It can be broken down as simply as follows, a visual learner vs. someone who prefers to research the topic then approach proving proficiency. These are two rough examples of two different learning styles. So just thinking of what one example to achieving proficiency in a topic (i.e. learning) isn't enough to discredit or allow a program to continue or cease.


Moore, M. G., & Kearsley, G. (2005). Distance Education: A Systems View of Online Learning. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. (Second Edition) .

I haven't updated this blog in, well, since my last class. Recently I attended a lecture at Salisbury University. The lecture was part in a series that is a endowment sort of series known as the Rial lecture named after the lady who provides the funds for the series. The speaker Dr. Sharon Draper (www.sharondraper.com) really provided insight into her career as an educator and it really inspired me. The part that really stuck with me was what she wrapped up with, I am paraphrasing: if your life is (for instance mine) 1983- whenever you pass, what are you going to do with the dash in the middle. We focus on the beginning and end and your age but what really matters is what happens in the middle. To me this meant we should be looking to make our mark in our lives and others. And as those in the education field really should see that we have time to make a difference but need to focus our efforts and make the best of the opportunities we are provided.