Wanted to write just a short post to explain where I’ve been. We planned trip to Indy for Thanksgiving to spend time with our son and grandchildren. Our other son came up too. Left for here Wednesday after I got out of school. The steering went out on the car when leaving a gas station. Thankfully, we were not on highway going 70. Our son drove to pick us up. It cost $100. to have the car towed. We left the car at a dealership and called them Fri. morning. They fixed it…..$770. Thanksgiving day was very nice. Lots of family and good food. Now, everyone is sick..started last night..kinda like dominoes. Not a fun weekend. Hopefully, we’ll be well enough to make it home tomorrow.
In reading the post on Phaedrus about the mob , I found I had to keep reading it over in order to understand what was being said. Basically, I had trouble figuring out what the mob was. I think, though, that it means a mob of people who are all using the network. I wrote a comment on the post, but didn’t submit it because I wasn’t sure if I knew enough to even comment. I’m sure no one else felt that way, but I just couldn’t get a handle on it.
Basically, I think he is saying that when there is a need, people find a way to fulfill the need. Technology is the answer in many cases, such as the fishermen in India who used the mobile handset to figure out what market needed their fish. More and more the network of people (mob) are going to get what they want and will use the web to do it. As far as the hierarchy that is education, change is happening. It is going to take place whether the powers that be are ready or not. The tools are there. We have been exposed to them in this class and have seen what is being done and what can be done with them. If the current educational system is not meeting the needs, there will be a way around it.
I was thinking that we (in the United States) are going to be left behind. Many people don’t see the need and we have become so complacent and comfortable that we fail to see how things could be different.
I was reading through some of the posts on Old Daily and a title caught my eye. I checked it out to see if it was what I thought. Sure enough, it was talking about how Dale’s Cone shows up everywhere. I remember early in the semester using the learning pyramid as an example for some reason, only to find that Dr. Lowell was quick to let me know it was bogus. And while I would still say from merely personal experience that I do remember more when I actually teach something, the pyramid is not based on accurate research.
I’ve been working on my capstone project along with some others from the class. My project is to design a tutorial about blogging for classroom use. I am going to guide teachers through basically the same process we used in this class to show them how to set up a blog and how to help their students to set up blogs and subscribe through an aggregator in order to be able to monitor and keep up with student blogs. My audience will be teachers and the purpose will be to help them use this tool for many educational purposes that I will also explain in the tutorial. The tutorial will be set up on a central blog with the other tutorials by my classmates. We will make sure that our blog will show up through the search engines. Hopefully, we will know it is working when we receive comments from teachers who have used it. We will also make it available to our collegues and should receive feedback in that way as well. While the teachers at my school won’t be able to use it, they all know other educators as I do who would be interested. I think the total tutorial will be a useful guide and make it easy for teachers to become more familiar with newer tools.
I am behind this week. Way behind. I am just now posting and I realize that at this point I am really too late. My posts will not be read because we’ll all be off into the next week of study. School has been mentally taxing this week and I have been working on my tutorial for the final project, here. My wife and I both turn 5o within a week of each other and our kids and grand kids came this weekend to celebrate. The house has been full for the past couple of days with family and friends for which I am very thankful. One son is still here, but the house is very quiet now. I’m sure there is not one of you, including Dr. Lowell who hasn’t experienced weeks in which it seemed impossible to get things accomplished. I’m sure for many of you, every week seems that way. I am not a multi-tasker, so I’ll just have to deal with it.
In a post about research, Dr. Lowell makes the point that many studies have been done comparing distance education and traditional education. These studies have resulted in no real value. Tippi made the comment there that we have already established that it’s not the distance that is our focus, rather it should be on the tools that we can use to reach the students. I agree that we have many more tools available (and now known to those of us in this class) with which to reach our students. We hear a lot about engagement. Do these tools really make an impact and engage our students? Is there research being done to compare the use of various tools?
I have another random thought, here. In thinking about teaching as an art. If we compare the teacher to the artist, both have subject matter to address. The artist takes stock of his subject matter and makes decisions about how to best present it to his audience. The artist may or may not have a definite audience in mind. He has to decide what media to use based on how he wants to present his subject. The teacher also considers his subject matter and how he feels it will best be presented. However, the audience is a bigger factor, in my opinion. In the secondary classroom or online education at the secondary level, the audience is somewhat captive-they have to be there if they want to graduate. Many, if not most, would rather be somewhere else, so the teacher is always trying to find ways to engage the students. The subject matter becomes secondary, and thinking back to the video we watched Did You Know?
, the subject matter sometimes doesn’t matter as long as students know how to find the answers or better, yet, know what questions to ask. The real question is how do we create a desire within students to learn?
I think that task is harder with various groups of students. Students at higher levels of education have demonstrated the tenacity to be at the level they are. Hopefully, that represents their desire to learn and more than likely, there have been adults along the way who have helped them have that desire. As has been acknowledged in this class before, there are always going to be students who learn no matter what methods or media we use. However, the ones who need us most are those who seem to have no desire. They are the challenge. This has been a very tough week at school for me. Talk about a captive audience. Mine are all captives and it’s safe to say that they don’t want to be there. However, there are some who seem to really want to learn and I try to spend my time helping them to do so. The only tools I have available are pencils and paper.
This really has been a collection of random thoughts, but hopefully, it makes a little sense.
So, what do we study when we’re interested in Distance Education? I think the answer to that is to study how we can better connect with students no matter where they are physically.
In reading the post on Phaedrus, I began questioning my own view on questioning. I think I do question most things as I don’t blindly accept anything. Even if I don’t have a problem with what I’m being told actually being true, then my question is “why is it true?”. As a math teacher, I feel confident in assuring students that what I’m teaching them is the truth. However, I would expect them to ask “Why is it true?” I remember learning algebra for the first time and getting comfortable with the equations. The teacher would say something to the effect of just do it this way and it works. In other words, remember the formula and it will always work. I wanted to why it worked and how it was useful. What is the rationale behind it?
In research, it seems to me that with qualitative research, there are more questions that one would ask. With this type of research, there are so many different perspectives and subjective interpretations. Quantitative research, on the other hand, seems like it would be much less subjective. However, we all know what can be done with statistics….. So, it is good to question and be aware that any type of research has the potential to be misleading.
All this makes me think about something that is supposed to be unbiased research. The Consumer’s Union does research and publishes a magazine-Consumer’s Report. It is based on the premise that, since the publication accepts no advertising, the results are completely objective reports about the quality of various products and services. Like I said, this is just a random thought that may or may not relate, but if the testing results are truly objective based on the assumption that nobody has anything to gain by building in biases, there may be some correlation that can be made to education. We’ve talked about the political nature of education. Do politics influence the types studies being done and the results? More than likely.
Research in education has so many more variables than researching products and their performance. For more accurate results, you not only need to study a large group, but also over a long period of time.
I was posts by Clarence Fisher and was trying to find something he said about course evaluation. Instead, I was drawn to thisposton learning. It’s interesting to think about the state of education today and how as is stated here ” We are in between stories.” I followed the links and read much of what was said here and found it very interesting.
I think we all know that change is needed in our current educational system. The global nature of the web is bringing about some change from the inside. The time it takes to reach those who hold decision making power may be irrelevant as the change is already taking place. Collective learning communities and students taking initiative for learning are becoming more common. These may be running counter to the core content for assessment route, but it is learning taking place. While those in power may continue to focus narrowly on what is being tested for accountability, there are some who are focused on making connections and learning outside of that narrow focus.
Are goals and objectives the same in an online course? I believe the answer to that is yes, they are the same. Course design is built around goals and objectives that are based on content. These come first, therefore, how they are delivered, whether in an online format or classroom format, is secondary to the content. The online format has advantages in the different tools available to deliver content. The classroom format has some advantages as well in that some teachers and students are more suited to that environment. Both can work well. It’s just different and online learning is a little newer, but according to the research cited in the Kearsey, online course are effective and even superior for well-motivated and well-prepared students who have the necessary equipment. (Kearsey, p.47)
I definitely think the global nature of the web has an effect on evaluation in an online course. There are many different facets to evaluation and most are enhanced by the web. The fact that in an online class, we can post and everyone in the class no matter where they are, can read what we write and comment on it is very different and in my mind, superior to physical classroom. In a physical classroom, we often “give reports” on information we’ve researched. Our classmates hear what we say and the instructor takes our paper and grades it, but in an online course everyone has access to our words in text and can take the time to read and think about them (or not). It’s much easier for the teacher to grade and make comments.
I remember (seems like forever ago) the week we were required to submit our basic tool box. I asked Dr. Lowell, either on IM or e-mail (don’t remember which) if I was to write up the basic tool box in a word document and attach it to an e-mail or somewhere on blackboard. His response was, “Why would you use a word document?” He always wants us to think about things ourselves rather than giving a direct answer…. I thought about it and knew then that he wanted me to write it up in my blog. I was just so overwhelmed with everything and the whole blog idea was so new to me that it didn’t come naturally. I saw it as an assignment that had to be “turned in”. My point is that the web changes all that and makes it easier to communicate and how evaluation takes place. The type of evaluation doesn’t really change but the “how” does change and becomes better in my opinion. If I could use these tools with my students, even in a physical classroom setting, I would. There are so many different tools that can be used for many things, including evaluation, that aren’t available otherwise.
