Journal: Posting in the journal is part of attendance. Were we supposed to post in the journal or the forum about the assignments...the answer: JOURNAL. Post whether you completed all the assignments in the journal.
MENTAL NOTE: WHEN YOU TURN IN YOUR FINAL PROJECT, IT IS REQUIRED YOU ILLUSTRATE HOW IT RELATES TO A SPECIFIC LEARNING THEORY.
FINAL PRESENTATIONS:
Jill: How to Become an Active Listener
Webninar – An online seminar used an eLearning tool.
Tips:
- Observe/respond to body language
- Notice voice inflection and tone
- Use open-ended question
- Be attentive to schedule and concerns
- “Am I listening or waiting for my turn to talk?”
Claudia: From Learning Theories to Learning Organizations
We reviewed the most applicable theories to learning organiziation: Behaviorism, Cognitive Information Processing, Constructivism.
Fundamentals of a Learning Organization:
- Shared Vision
- Personal Mastery
- Mental Models
- Group Learning
- Systems Thinking
Rob: Content Management Systems and Learning Management Systems
Rob updated the ITEC 800 moodle site for next semester...He is the culprit. He took the content from Dr. Foreman’s previous ITEC 800 site and integrated it with moodle.
Each week:
- Blog entry from the previous week
- Reading assignment as a forum, so students can interact about the topic
- Assignment due that week
- Forum for that week
- Trivia Quiz
- Graphic illustrating something covered that week
- Content Management Systems are systems that allow people without web development skills to put content online (I think that it is actually there to simplify the process so everyone is on a equal playing field, so skill set is not a factor).
- Learning Management Systems do all of this, but are interactive and thereby make them a learning experience...Moodle is a LMS.
Maura: Blended Learning
Blended learning is a combination of any form of instructional technology with face to face instructor-led learning. The goal is take the best of both and create the most effective learning experience. Example: classroom instruction with online experience. You run into the issue of synchronous vs. asynchronous learning (learning as content is delivered or with a time delay). M-Learning- using mobile technology to enhance learning, for example, after a face-to-face kickoff, all material was online and accessible via the web and pdas. Constructivism is the main learning theory for blended learning because of its differentiation. Implication of using: fewer in-person interaction, more work for the learner and the instructor, courses may never end...
Britt: Teaching for Understanding
Teaching for Understanding is a method for designing curriculum to help maximize understanding by students. Understanding is more about HOW TO rather than ABOUT. We then broke up into groups where we discussed understanding...what is something you understand? How did you come to that understand it? How do you know you understand it? We then discussed our results with everyone...Getting understanding requires thinking and doing. Assessing understanding also requires thinking and doing. Students should be able to think and act flexibly with what they know.
4 Key Elements:
- Generative Topics – What do you want learners to understand?
- Understanding Goals – What do you want the learners to understand about their topic?
- Performances of Understanding – What will students come to understand about the topic?
- Ongoing Assessment – How do you know if they understand?
Check out the website: http://pzweb.harvard.edu
Nicole: Instructional Technology and Sign Language Interpreter Training
- She started with her Digital Storytelling movie. It was interesting movie about her experience in South Africa at a Sign Language Conference.
Those who seek to become Sign Language Interpreters should take interpreter training...doing this requires the use of Instructional Technology heavily. Training programs are 2-4 year programs with high expectations of interpreting students. A large portion of the community consists of mentoring and continuing education, in addition to basic video skills because of the large amount of video in the training. A large portion of training is now including IT...in fact there are Interpreter Technology Training. Each trainer needs to be able to record, play, and hear their work for training and fine tuning purpose. The technology is moving away from VHS/Analog to digital, web based, such as iMovie and webcams. They are even working on natural language processing through audio to sign language display.
Susan: Wikis
Going off the information she gave a few weeks ago, we got to learned more.
Wiki: simplest database that could possibily work. Since they are editable, how can you protect the information...simple answer, those who are interested in valid information are more involved that those who are interested in sabotage...it take care of itself, but you can set security settings, too. Wikis are open editing in simple text formatting language. They store previous versions of the site. Security is low. Multiple authorship, communal, collaborative, and constantly changing. You can easily edit the site and view previous versions. Famous Wikis: Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com)...the first ever was WikiWikiWeb (http://www.c2.com)...Corporate Version: Twiki (http://twiki.org/).
How to use them:
- Writing a collaborative research paper
- Peer editing through the wiki
- Beak-out groups at workshops/conferences can quickly publish and share their ideas with the rest of the group.
- Collaborative knowledge base like a class glossary on moodle.
Dr. Foreman then talked about learning styles:
She discussed with 3 main theories:
- Auditory
- Visual
- Kinesthetic
No one uses one of the styles exclusively, and there is usually significant overlap in learning styles.
It is our responsibility as teacher to discover the learning styles of our students so we make sure to teach to those learning styles. We don’t students to be pigeonholed by their inabilities to learn from the methods the subject is being taught.
We investigated an Powerpoint presentation about analyzing learning styles visually by breaking down learning preferences in linear space then collaborating the data. For more information, visit the iLearn site and download the powerpoint. Also, check out the learning styles web site: ( http://www.advisorteam.com/temperament_sorter/register.asp?partid=1)
Highlight of the week: This more comes from the reading from the week before and thoughts on Constructivism. I like the idea of constructivism in its holistic and deep seeded approach to learning. That being said, I worry about it. We are so interested in finding that Silver Bullet, that single explanation to solve every teaching need. I don’t think that exists...Every situation requires its own style. We lean too heavily on Constructivism in education in this country and I think many of students are coming without enough basic or vocational skills as a result.
Thoughts?
Visit the ITEC 800 website at:
http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~foreman/itec800/index.htm
Visit moodle at:
https://ilearn.sfsu.edu
===================================
Matt Harris
Director of Technology
Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School
http://www.wornickjds.org/tech
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