Artefact from OLTD 503
Group 1 Online Tools
Summary:
This was the first group to present to the cohort and to model how the following weeks were to roll out. I think they did an excellent job at planning and communicating their goals to everyone. I noticed that other groups followed their example in terms of clear pre-planning and effective communication.
Reading with most meaning for myself:
Teachers’ Perspective on Motivation in High School Distance Education (Murphy & Roriguez-Manzanares, 2009)
It was great to read a journal article written for high school teachers since that is what I currently teach. Most of the articles in the literature are on postsecondary schools. This article touched on how to keep the adolescent learner motivated in online studies and touched on attrition rates for this age group. They then went on to discuss best practices in the article. I was a bit surprised to see that the best practices for online teaching were so similar to those you would see in a face to face classroom.
Tool I have tried/would try:
Socrative Survey
Group 2 Communicating Online
Summary:
For the synchronous session, this group presented the materials from Karen Kear’s book and then had us work in break out groups. In the break out rooms, we discussed different case studies that described different aspect/challenges of communicating online. The discussion in the groups was helpful to see the issues from everyone perspectives.
Reading with the most meaning for myself:
Chapter 4 from Karen Kear’s book
I enjoyed reading this chapter because the beginning of the chapter contradicts the end of the chapter in such that some aspects of online courses work well for some students but at the same time, for other students, the same attribute could have a negative effect on learning. The chapter goes on to describe the different types of students that take online. It reminds me of how adaptable a teacher needs to be to meet the needs of his/her student and that the environment of the instruction doesn't matter.
Tool I have tried/would try:
Google slides to create and share a slide presentation with group members
Great facilitating done by the group in the synchronous session
Group 3 Too Much Information
Summary:
This was my week to present to the cohort. We worked on creating a survey to gather information to present to the group on their perception of information overload. We presented our findings by using an infographic. Another part of our presentation covered the material in Chapter 5: Too Much Information. We also used a variety of different activities based on learning styles for others to investigate.
Reading with the most meaning for myself:
Structuring computer-mediated communication systems to avoid information overload (Hiltz, S and Turoff, M., 1985)
The reading that I found most useful was this article from 1985. I found it interesting that information overload was a societal issue even before the wide use of the internet, smartphones and web 2.0 tools. Although written 20 years ago, this article has a great grasp on the concept of information overload and suggestions on how to reduce the anxiety of being bombarded with information.
Tool I have tried/would try:
Fluid survey
Piktochart
Group 4 Online Communities
Summary:
For this week, we were asked to join a Google+ community. Not being on Facebook or any other social networking tool, this was a new world to me. Although time consuming to keep up with all the posts in the community and creating post myself, I did feel that I did get to know the member s of the cohort better. It was a very informal setting with many individuals sharing the more personal side of their lives. I can see this community being very beneficial as we continue forward on in the program.
Tool I have tried/would try:
Google+
Google Hangout
Group 5 Supporting online learning
Summary:
For our final week, we are working entirely asynchronously by following a website that the group has created. This week, we are looking at a literature review, social bookmarking and creating a learning artefact that summarized our learning experience thus far. I am looking forward at getting more acquainted with Diigo. It looks like a very useful tool for sharing interesting articles with people that are following the same learning path. I also notice that this is one of the tools that we need for the next class, so getting a head start will be helpful. I originally wasn't keen at creating this artefact, but like most things in this program, once I get started, the process is rewarding.
Reading with the most meaning for myself:
The flip: the end of a love affair, a blog by Shelly Wright retrieved from
http://plpnetwork.com/2012/10/08/flip-love-affair/
I chose this article because I have been thinking of moving towards a flip and/or blended classroom. The title of this blog intrigued be because all I ever hear is that the flipped classroom is the ‘way to go’ in education. I agree with Wright’s ideas that students don’t need to spend more time at home doing after spending 5 hours at school. I can see this being a large issue with the flipped class because there would be an expectation that students come to class already being exposed to the material. I do like how she shifted her classroom to collaborative learning groups where students worked at their own pace and discovered their own resources, yet were able to stay together as a group when it came to summative assessment. In the end, Wright demonstrated an interesting model of a blended classroom that I might try some day.
Tool I have tried/would try:
Diigo
Voki
Group 1 Online Tools
Summary:
This was the first group to present to the cohort and to model how the following weeks were to roll out. I think they did an excellent job at planning and communicating their goals to everyone. I noticed that other groups followed their example in terms of clear pre-planning and effective communication.
Reading with most meaning for myself:
Teachers’ Perspective on Motivation in High School Distance Education (Murphy & Roriguez-Manzanares, 2009)
It was great to read a journal article written for high school teachers since that is what I currently teach. Most of the articles in the literature are on postsecondary schools. This article touched on how to keep the adolescent learner motivated in online studies and touched on attrition rates for this age group. They then went on to discuss best practices in the article. I was a bit surprised to see that the best practices for online teaching were so similar to those you would see in a face to face classroom.
Tool I have tried/would try:
Socrative Survey
Group 2 Communicating Online
Summary:
For the synchronous session, this group presented the materials from Karen Kear’s book and then had us work in break out groups. In the break out rooms, we discussed different case studies that described different aspect/challenges of communicating online. The discussion in the groups was helpful to see the issues from everyone perspectives.
Reading with the most meaning for myself:
Chapter 4 from Karen Kear’s book
I enjoyed reading this chapter because the beginning of the chapter contradicts the end of the chapter in such that some aspects of online courses work well for some students but at the same time, for other students, the same attribute could have a negative effect on learning. The chapter goes on to describe the different types of students that take online. It reminds me of how adaptable a teacher needs to be to meet the needs of his/her student and that the environment of the instruction doesn't matter.
Tool I have tried/would try:
Google slides to create and share a slide presentation with group members
Great facilitating done by the group in the synchronous session
Group 3 Too Much Information
Summary:
This was my week to present to the cohort. We worked on creating a survey to gather information to present to the group on their perception of information overload. We presented our findings by using an infographic. Another part of our presentation covered the material in Chapter 5: Too Much Information. We also used a variety of different activities based on learning styles for others to investigate.
Reading with the most meaning for myself:
Structuring computer-mediated communication systems to avoid information overload (Hiltz, S and Turoff, M., 1985)
The reading that I found most useful was this article from 1985. I found it interesting that information overload was a societal issue even before the wide use of the internet, smartphones and web 2.0 tools. Although written 20 years ago, this article has a great grasp on the concept of information overload and suggestions on how to reduce the anxiety of being bombarded with information.
Tool I have tried/would try:
Fluid survey
Piktochart
Group 4 Online Communities
Summary:
For this week, we were asked to join a Google+ community. Not being on Facebook or any other social networking tool, this was a new world to me. Although time consuming to keep up with all the posts in the community and creating post myself, I did feel that I did get to know the member s of the cohort better. It was a very informal setting with many individuals sharing the more personal side of their lives. I can see this community being very beneficial as we continue forward on in the program.
Tool I have tried/would try:
Google+
Google Hangout
Group 5 Supporting online learning
Summary:
For our final week, we are working entirely asynchronously by following a website that the group has created. This week, we are looking at a literature review, social bookmarking and creating a learning artefact that summarized our learning experience thus far. I am looking forward at getting more acquainted with Diigo. It looks like a very useful tool for sharing interesting articles with people that are following the same learning path. I also notice that this is one of the tools that we need for the next class, so getting a head start will be helpful. I originally wasn't keen at creating this artefact, but like most things in this program, once I get started, the process is rewarding.
Reading with the most meaning for myself:
The flip: the end of a love affair, a blog by Shelly Wright retrieved from
http://plpnetwork.com/2012/10/08/flip-love-affair/
I chose this article because I have been thinking of moving towards a flip and/or blended classroom. The title of this blog intrigued be because all I ever hear is that the flipped classroom is the ‘way to go’ in education. I agree with Wright’s ideas that students don’t need to spend more time at home doing after spending 5 hours at school. I can see this being a large issue with the flipped class because there would be an expectation that students come to class already being exposed to the material. I do like how she shifted her classroom to collaborative learning groups where students worked at their own pace and discovered their own resources, yet were able to stay together as a group when it came to summative assessment. In the end, Wright demonstrated an interesting model of a blended classroom that I might try some day.
Tool I have tried/would try:
Diigo
Voki