Discourse Analysis

This module’s focus on discourse analysis caused me to once again be amazed by the range of individual reactions and responses to the readings and discussion prompt. We all read the same material but each of us understood it differently, applied what we understood differently, read between the lines differently and evaluated the information differently. I believe the variety of responses to be both a strength and a possible area of weakness.

I consider the range of responses to be a strength because of the number of experiences and diversity represented. As someone once said, the whole is greater than the sum of all the parts. I can see the variety of the responses to be a possible weakness, also because of the differences in what individuals bring to their reading and interpretation. I think, a caveat is in order for the person who chooses the reading. That warning is this: if a uniform message is to be delivered, choose the delivery vehicle carefully.

Tenacity and Empathy

This week brought another lesson in tenacity and empathy to me. My hard drive crashed two weeks ago, I got my computer back with a new hard drive a week and a half ago, and still I worked for 10-14 hours per day on the final project for this class and the Web Design class I am taking. Getting up and going back to work on these projects day after day was the lesson in tenacity. It also made me realize that I was able to spend so much time on the projects because I was able to put everything else on hold. Most people can’t do that. So, it made me realize that anyone with a family or a life (a joke) would need extra time to complete a project like this after having lost all their folders in which they had placed references, ideas, and some writings. It was a good lesson for me. I thought the crash couldn’t have come at a worse time but now I think it came at a good time to make me see what can happen.

As a result of working so many hours on my projects I didn't get to interact in the discussion areas. In addition, I proof-read projects for several other students. I started getting anxious about my lack of presence on the discussion board but then decided it was more important to help the others than it was to get noticed on the discussion board.

After reading some of the postings I realized I had forgotten about including information on what I was going to do to minimize plagiarism. I need to add something about that to my project.

Cyber-Coaching: An Emerging Model

This DimDim conference this week was interesting. I am glad I got this chance to take part the way I did because it made me think about things I would do the same way and things I would change. Those I would do the same way are the following:
• Make it voluntary and get people to sign up.
• Showing the power point presentation while discussing the PPP is great.
• Posting that PPP in the announcements section of the class helped reinforce the message.
•
The things I would change if possible when I run the meeting are the following:
• Limit the number of people in the group to 3 (the number of microphones) plus the instructor.
• If people don’t have a microphone the number of people in the group can go up.
• Give a mini tutorial on the things we discovered in our DimDim session,
o Only one person can use the whiteboard tools at a time
o For some reason private conversations don’t work with some people’s computers
o The textbox for written contributions is below the frame on the right side. You have to scroll down to find it.
o As we can’t see other people to read the clues that tell us when they’ve finished speaking, using the word ‘over’ when you are finished alerts the other people.
o Remind everyone to face the microphone, speak to it, and to speak slowly and carefully. Different microphones and speakers may cause someone’s voice to be delivered in a way that degrades the quality.

I think DimDim would be a wonderful tool to use with a small group in a class, especially for people with technology issues. Some people are wonderfully brave, given their lack of technology skills, to take an online or blended class at all. They will need more support. This could also be used for small group discussion if only a portion of the class missed an important concept or needed a boost to get to higher-level integration on a subject.

I love the way Jennifer Jenkins is willing to try new things and take chances with us. It makes her so much more approachable and takes a lot of weight off my shoulders and mind, seeing that she’s willing to be wrong, doesn’t always know the answer, and admits as much to us. We’ve been very lucky to have her assigned to our class for her practicum.

I discovered software that can be used to create movies on the computer. I’m looking at two different ones, Snapz ProX and Wink. Snapz ProX works for Macs and Wink for pcs. Wink is free and Snapz ProX is $70. Snapz works with Windows for Mac. They look like wonderful tools to have at your disposal if you are teaching classes online. They could be used for an orientation as well as within the class.

I’ve been looking at Google docs as a peer-to-peer tool. It’s easily accessible, easily used, and secure. The chat area in Desire2Learn is also a great peer-to-peer tool, providing a free, safe, and easy to use Instant Messaging tool.

My computer crashed this week taking everything on the hard drive with it. I was pretty proud of myself that I didn’t cry. I was lucky that I had my laptop from school to use as a backup even though that computer drove me nuts.

This experience reminded me of some things and taught me others. The fact that I was proud of myself for not crying reminded me that we all have attachments to inanimate objects and that someone else is not a good judge of the depth of those attachments. It also reminded me that all computers are not equal and taught me to be a little more patient with people whose computers don’t read their minds like mine does.

Bloom's Taxonomy and the Online Environment

Transfer of the Casey articles to an online environment

I think a lot of the activities that were included in the Casey lesson plan were great. I thought even the activities that fit into the lower levels of Bloom’s taxonomy required a lot of higher level thinking that I thought they didn’t get credit for, like coming up with a definition of words that are hard to define.

As far as transferring the activities to an online environment, I thought it many would easily transfer. The following are some ways in which I thought this could be accomplished:
Discussion board postings:
➢ Find examples of redefined vocabulary -posting on the discussion board
➢ Consider the idea
➢ Research to explore how standards have changed
➢ Analyze these scenarios.

Group projects
➢ Discuss research on the changes in the news and the role of the journalist; post your group’s response
➢ Create guidelines for some of the vocabulary

Drop box
➢ Understand the 1st Ammendment
➢ Understand the laws of libel and their application
➢ Explore sensationalistic v newsworthy stories
➢
Asynchronous, synchronous
➢ Have all members of the class watch one of the movies. Have them meet in an IM area in groups to discuss the movie.
➢ Recognize propaganda- meet in IM area as a group to develop guidelines for recognizing propaganda
➢
Some of the activities could be rolled into one. For example, groups could discuss and post their response to the research on changes in the news and the role of the journalist. Then, when the discussion starts to stagnate, they could be told to continue the discussions by talking about how the standards have changed. The same could happen with the scenarios Casey provided for analysis. At some point during the discussion, some of the questions she asked could be thrown in like, “Does it make a difference that the person was a police officer?”

Holly Jeffrey
Assessment taxonomy table template
Review the course objectives and activities from the Casey course. Then decide which objectives and activities belong in which ‘Bloom’ category. This type of analysis will help you, not only develop your course assessment plans, but will also help you decide which assessment activities are most valuable.

This website provides a simple explanation of Bloom’s categories:
http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learn/program/hndouts/bloom.html

Assessment Toolbox

I spent so much time and effort on my group project this week that I completely missed the discussion board postings of problems. When I did go into the discussion board I discovered several of the teams were using the space for discussions about their projects. Reading those postings made me feel like a peeping Tom but I learned about tinyurls, and the code with which to load the Our Story widget to a wiki, and that it would be possible to create a video paper in which one would look at a short video clip of each product in the toolbox. I also saw and was very jealous of the site set up by Stags for his group.

Our group was wonderful, working as a team, and everyone trying to do their fair share and more. There were supportive comments and helpful suggestions at every turn. We discussed things and made decisions as a team. It was a wonderful experience.

We communicated via UWStout email and home email. We used a Google.docs site for our discussion as well the Learn@ UW chat room for synchronized communication. A team member posted our completed portions in a pdf file on her school site. It was easy to use google.docs except when I wasn't granted editing access for two days. A team member added my home email address to the group members list and that seemed to fix the problem. Within google.docs we were able to post our sections, then make corrections, or suggestions when proofreading. Those could be highlighted or written in a different color, making them very easy to see.

Our group chose to write about Adobe Acrobat Connect and wiki for peer-to-peer collaboration tools, ePals as a blog/reflective tool, and 1st Class Grades for the course-tracking tool. Each piece was well-researched and good reports were generated.

This was a way to get to know classmates and I really enjoyed that aspect of the collaboration. Of course, the experience was positive because, other than the member who was almost completely absent because of vacation, the rest of the group's level of commitment to the project was at the same level as mine. That made for a compatible group.

I wish a group project had been assigned earlier in the class. That might have alleviated some of the feelings of isolation. I'm thinking along the lines of a group project as an introduction. There would have to be tools chosen, like a blog spot, and the basics of managing the blog would be taught. Then, people would be assigned to a group, either 3 or 4 members per group. They would interview each other and then each would post an introduction for someone in the group.

After looking at the projects completed by each group I am greedily wishing for one great big toolbox that would include all the reviews. Right now that would seem like Christmas!

Concept Map-The IEP Process

IEP Process
Holly J

I would use this in an intro to special education class. I’d use the jigsaw method, breaking the students into groups of three, each person responsible for educating the rest of the group and adding their portion to the blog that would be used as an assessment tool.

Module 3: The Perfect E-Storm

Module 3: The Perfect E-storm

I found the ideas presented in the Bonk (2004) article, The Perfect E-Storm, to be thought provoking. The contributing aspects of the E-storm were identified as emerging technology, enormous learner demand, enhanced and erased pedagogy. Bonk’s discussion of the emerging technologies caused me some consternation. I want to become an online educator but I am not someone who is on the cutting edge of technology. I am having enough trouble learning technology that is years old, so Bonk’s article caused me to question my ability to keep current enough to be an effective teacher.

Then, I got to the resources area of Bonk’s (2004) article. This section got me very excited and I was especially thrilled to find the particular area that identified resources available for college level instructors. This section caused the article to rise from mildly interesting to a Wow! level.

Ledlow’s (1996) article on Using Jigsaw in the College Classroom gave a name to a technique I’ve seen used on numerous occasions with a variety of success levels. I also liked the way the article formalized the aspects of the technique, taking a lot of startup issues out of the learning curve. I thought this article will prove to be one of the most valuable to me in teaching adult learners.

The McLinden and Trochim article, From Puzzles to Problems,: Assessing the Value of Education in a Business Context with Concept Mapping and Pattern Matching (1998) was a window through which we need to start viewing the world. As educators, we like to pretend we are above having to address the value of education in monetary terms. However, that value is a huge selling point that I think we need to start to address in our efforts to persuade students to remain in school as well as selling the public on providing the monetary support necessary to provide a quality education.

On the discussion board many of my peers in this class were wondering about the value of the concept mapping activity. I think, many of the people in this group are a cut above the run-of-the-mill teacher. This group seems to have many people who are cutting-edge, technology people for their districts, as well as others like me who aren’t bound hand-and-foot to the teachers’ editions. We are so used to assessing the students’ needs and what they need to get there from here that we forget that mind/concept mapping is a learned skill. Many of us in the class also tend to forget how many people in the class are not educators but business people for whom this concept mapping will prove to be a valuable technique.

I think it’s odd that in a class that meets solely online we are able to pick out people with whom we want to interact. This is the second class I’ve taken with many people in this group and I have to say this is not a particularly warm and fuzzy group. I wonder about that. I wonder if it’s just the dynamic of the particular members of this group or if something more could have been done to build the community. If more could have been done to build the community, I wonder what it is.

Module 1: Why is Assessment Necessary?

Classroom Assessment Within the Alternative Assessment Paradigm: Revisiting the Territory
Michael A. Buhagiar

This article identified what, to me, are the reasons behind the majority of assessments. The identification of what elements the student does and does not know on a subject unites formative and summative assessments with a single purpose. The Gipps (1994) quotation, “assessment does not stand outside teaching and learning, but stands in dynamic interaction with it.” Also, “multiple methods of assessment are needed to cover the full range of achievements targeted – namely, knowledge, thinking, processes, products, and dispositions” supports my idea.

Assessment Methodologies in Transition: Changing Practices in Web-Based Learning
Cathering McLaughlin
Joe Luca

McLaughlin and Luca stated that there “is now a new wave of pedagogy advocating authentic assessment.” I believe them when they say that this is new in the area of web-based learning, but this is new but this is a method those of us who teach young children have used forever. For example,
1. Can the student tie their shoelaces or not? If they successfully tie them, for what period of time do the laces remain tied?
2. Can the student read the selection? Can they identify the sequence of events? Can they summarize the story into one or two sentences? Can they paraphrase the information? Can they tell a story in which they had an experience similar to the one in the story?

In the discussion postings of many students, the focus was on the shared community and interaction between students that permits collaborative working. That was a point that I missed in a lot of the readings.

Jennifer J. Summarized the class discussion postings in the following way:

McLoughlin Article:
- Teachers have a new role as facilitators
- Assessment must align to the learning task
- Students should be given resources that allow them connectivity, computer modeling, and epistemological pluralism (Students are connecting through phones or instant messaging.)
- Peer support and timely feedback is important
- Students need to take responsibility for their own learning (be self-directed)
- Technology has accelerated alternative assessments as Web offers more adaptability and flexibility than traditional assessments

Burhariar:
- Teachers are facilitators, students construct knowledge
- Assessment should relate to teaching and learning within the class
- Need to assess using higher thinking skills
- Need input from all areas when reorganizing needs - involve community in process
- Different types of assessment methods needed
- Traditional pen and paper assessments are unfriendly to learners and instructors
- Need to move away from standardized testing as the only predictor of student knowledge

So far, this group seems to favor wikis slightly over surveys. Both of these types of assessments were preferred more than the interview.

Wiki - 4
- Provides great sense of ownership for student
- Serves as a repository of information for students from many classes
- Can review its evolution
- Collaborative

Survey - 3
- Good for pre-assessment
- Can be anonymous
- Provides instant feedback

Interview – 1
- Great to use in class as students enjoy talking
- Difficult to find a partner in big class
- Connects you with a person that you can contact later if needed
- Establishes community among a group

Holly Jeffrey

Assessment: Teacher-centered or Learner-centered?

I think there were two statements that should not be examined separately. The first is the following: Assessment is used to monitor learning. The second is the following: Assessment is used to promote and diagnose learning.

A definition of the verb monitor is the following: To keep track of systematically with a view to collecting information (http://education.yahoo.com). It is essential to quality instruction that you monitor student progress, especially if you are teaching something like reading that is a continuum. The assessment should consist of all aspects of the area. Therefore, someone dates and records the complexity of the material the student read, at what rate they read it, with how many errors, what strategies the student used when they didn’t automatically know the word, and their understanding of the piece. This assessment information is used to diagnose the student’s strengths and weaknesses. This is monitoring a student’s progress to promote and diagnose learning. The statements identified earlier are not separate entities, they are parts of a whole.

Module 2: Emerging Practices in Online Assessment

In the article, Benefits of Cooperative Learning in Weblog Networks, Wang and Fang (2005) were looking for an “effective, alternative avenue for fostering class discussion to course instruction in which technology is used along with the implementation of cooperative learning…” This supposes that class discussion and cooperative learning are skills the students already posses. A lot depends on the individual students, the skills they bring to the class, and their comfort level with the rest of the class and the instructor, but these skills may need to be taught. http://www.co-operation.org/pages/cl.html Therefore, class discussion and cooperative learning may be a bonus in the form of additional skills learned by the students.

Wang and Fang (2005) also said blog use promotes cooperative learning in an asynchronous environment. Assuming blogs extend the amount of time students spend working within the cooperative group because of the asynchronous aspect of the blog environment supports this theory.

I am coming to the conclusion that blogs, used in the method described by Wang and Fang (2005), can be used as discussion areas when a formal discussion board is not available, or used for small group discussion areas, like when the group is putting together a project.

I am wondering if one of the problems for the instructor might be that the blogs gain an unwieldy size? Also, knowing the instructor is going to review the blogs might inhibit some students’ participation. That inhibition might be a mixed blessing.

After participating in the discussions this week, I would like to add the following comments:
• Many people in the class have used blogs with their students and have found it to be a valuable asset.
• Other professionals have used blogs with students as young as 5th grade.
• Google Groups has been recommended as a discussion formatted, free area available for use with students.
• Most people in the group feel their students are motivated by the technological components, blogging, Google Groups, wikis, and that component adds to the desirability of working on it, thereby driving the students to spend leisure time working on their school assignments.

Holly J