Session 6 Response to Prompts

1.      Describe an "Absorb" type activity for one of the objectives in the course plan your team developed.

An “Absorb” activity for one of the objectives in the course plan is textbook reading.  Students are to read the textbook and create a blog using blogger (https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=blogger&ltmpl=start&hl=en&passive=86400&continue=http://www.blogger.com/home#s01 ) or word press (http://wordpress.com/ ). Blogs will be used to post weekly assignments related to the readings. Students will use the blogs to communicate and interact with other classmates. Students will also use the blog to comment, share ideas, give recommendations or encourage other peers. Minimum of 3 replies to classmate’s posts.

2.      Describe a "Do" type activity for one of the objectives in the course plan your team developed.

A “Do” activity for one of the objectives in the course plan is Lectures in small groups- Students will be paired into groups. In Blackboard under the “Groups” tab, student will be able to view 8 groups. Each group will consist of 10 students. Each group will be able to develop their own discussion forum.

3.      Describe a "Connect" type activity for one of the objectives in the course plan your team developed.

A “Connect” activity for one of the objectives in the course plan is a virtual museum via visiting mandated websites to act as a real museum and recording a voice narration of a museum tour like a tour guide.

4.      Choose one of the above activities and discuss the process you would use to create this presentation. For this task assume that you have no additional assistance other than the instructor who would be able to write content as you describe it and perform for a recording as needed.

The process I would use to create an “Absorb” activity listed in question 1 is ask the instructor to provide and outline all the chapters he/ she would like to cover in the online course.  This should be fairly easy since the instructor has taught the class before, and he/s her does not have to create this document from scratch.  From there I would have him/ her list out all the goals and objectives for each chapter, and make sure those goals and chapters are attained by either recording the instructor lecturing the material or uploading a supplemental text document.

5.      Discuss how would your approach for the above task would be different if you were directing the development efforts of a team that included a graphic designer, a video editor and a web programmer along with all of the tools that such a team would typically use.

With the help of a development team and necessary resources I would be able to delegate the work and add graphics and video of the instructor without having to consider his/ hers lack of experience with technology.  I would be able to create more sophisticated video presentations and add graphics to the chapters to incorporate visual aids to enhance student learning.  More importantly, I would be able to complete the task in a timely fashion and as well as develop an activity that is more aesthetic then one that was created without the help of a team.

6.      The text presents test types and presents a list of common types of test questions. In light of these, describe a test that would be appropriate for the class your team planned in the previous session.

A test that would be appropriate for the class is a combination of True/ False, Pick-One and Fill-in-the-blanks types of questions.  Since this course is a factual course and require objective or closed-responses, True/ False, Pick-One and Fill-in-the-blanks are ideal for exams to gauge learners’ ability to recall facts discuss in the readings and lectures in the course.  The goal of the exam to measure students’ knowledge after every chapter and I believe a combination of those 3 types of questions will be able to produce scores that are quick and easy.

Reference:

Horton, W. (2012). Social learning. In E-learning by design (pp. 399-500). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.

Just Wanted To Share: EdTech Classroom Conference 2012

 

HOT: "Hands-On Technology"

The 8th Annual EdTech Classroom Conference will be held at California State University, San Bernardino on Saturday, November 3, 2012. The theme of this year’s conference is "HOT: Hands-On Technology".

The conference is GREEN, therefore, conference program in hard copies will not be provided during the conference. Please review the program online prior to the conference.

EdTech Classroom Conference 2012 is the place for educators and those who are interested in education to learn how technology is impacting teaching and learning in the Inland Empire.

Attendees will have the opportunity to network with colleagues, and share and discuss ways to effectively integrate technology into the standards-based curriculum.

Attendees will:

• Learn about the best practices and case studies highlighting successful (and unsuccessful) strategies and techniques for technology integration.
• Meet and hear the opinions and experiences of innovative acknowledged leaders.
• Become updated on the latest trends, major issues, and developments in technology integration.

Who should attend:
All K-12 teachers, pre-service teachers, administrators, university educators and technology specialists, parents, and those interested in educational technology.

Attendees will encounter:

• Keynote speaker
• Presentations by local teachers exemplifying technology integration
• Presentations by university educators and technology specialists in higher education
• Inland area Student Technology Showcase
• Vendor exhibits and presentations
• Student Panel
• Door prizes

Cost to Attend:

• Free

Location of the Conference:
California State University, San Bernardino, College of Education Building

Date and Time:

• November 3 (Sat.), 2012, 8:00 A.M. – 3: 30 P.M.

Session 5 Response to Prompts

My role this week were the same as it was last week and my responsibilities for this assignment was gathering information from our primary contact, creating subgoals (or manageable tasks) for the outline, tracking our thoughts for the assignment,  setting deadlines for each member, adding/ editing pieces of the outline.  An important aspect of this week I wanted to note was the challenge we as a group faced when working with remote members, one is sick and everyone has conflicting schedules.  It was extremely difficult for our group to have a conference call like we did the week prior to gather our thoughts, so we could have a general idea of where we wanted to take this assignment.  It would have been nice for everyone to get on a call together, so we can share ideas and divide task simultaneously but life happens and despite the challenge I thought we did a great job accommodating everyone’s needs  to finish the assignment.  As a result, I had a call with our primary contact, relayed the message back to the team and we communicated via email for the rest of the assignment.  Great job Team.

 

Sources:

 

Harris, J. (n.d.). Virtual Architecture's Web Home. Virtual Architecture's Web Home. Retrieved October 20, 2012, from http://virtual-architecture.wm.edu//index.html

Horton, W. (2012). Social learning. In E-learning by design (pp. 399-500). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.

Session 4 Response to Prompts

5. Each individual member of the team will make a blog post this week discussing their role in the group project and their thoughts on the instructional design process.

My role for this project is to take lead in terms of organizing the thoughts and ideas of the group and turning those ideas into a final product.  In a way I equate my responsibilities to that of a project manager, where I manage the process of a product from start to finish, but without the authority of a manager because I trust my teammates are more than capable of doing the work without having someone micromanaging them.  More importantly, I think my major contributions to the group is simplifying the process to this assignment, and turning it into manageable tasks where everyone gets an opportunity to share their skills set.  Not only am I quite pleased with how we have communicated and delegated the work thus far, this group is a prime example of how seamless and effortless working in an effective group can be when creating projects of this scale.   I am super excited to see this project in its’ final form, and hope my teammates feel the same way.

After reading the text on the instructional design process, I was kind of overwhelmed by all the steps because I was not sure how it would unfold in real life.  But after putting it into practice with this week’s assignment I realized I was overwhelmed for nothing.  The steps to the design process is simple and follows a logical pattern of reasoning; plus, it has a scaffolding effect that can be a problem if you do not know or unclear about a particular step.  I personally ran into that problem today when I was trying to add more questions to one of the steps, but was coming up empty because those questions should have been based on the answers to a previous step.  Overall, the process is not as complicated as I thought it would be.

Session 3 Responses to Prompts

A. Download the interactionsmatrix.doc file. Note that this is a table listing the three types of interactions at the top, with some sample activities on the left. Place an X in the cells to indicate which activities correspond to which interactions. Add some additional activities of your own and mark the cells appropriate to the types of interactions each represents.

 

	Learner-Content	Learner-Instructor	Learner-Learner
Video Presentation	X
Lecture	X
Chat		X	X
Discussion		X	X
Email		X	X
Blog		X	X

 

B. Discuss of the types of interactions that are most often used in the content area for which you expect to design instruction. Be sure to explain the content area, the types of students and types of objectives with which you will be working.

Guidance Course

Content: This course is a guidance course at a community college.  It teaches students to understand the roadmap of community college: how to register for classes according to their Educational Plan, how to transfer into to a 4-year university, earn an Associate’s Degree, and how to utilize all the resources available to them.

Students: Students that have been attended college for over 5 years and have not transferred or earned a degree.

Objectives: Learn how to register to classes, learn what sequence of classes to take and when to take them, and learn resources available to them

 

Interactions: Learner-Learner and Learner-Content are the types of interactions often utilized by the students in this course (with minimum interaction with the instructor), because the goal course is for students to be successful and self-sufficient.  Learners will have lots of connect activities such as: research, job aids and evaluating their current situation and assessing what their next steps should look like.  Keeping in mind that these ideas are fluid they can always come back and reevaluate.

C. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of the Horton text discuss three categories of activities: Absorb, Do, and Connect. After reading these chapters you are to locate one or more online classes and identify one Absorb, one Do and one Connect activity. Present your findings using this format:

 

Activity: Absorb
URL: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/management-in-organizations-top-middle-low-level-managers.html#transcript

Course Content: Management in organizations: Top, Mid and Low-Level managers, their roles, functions and responsibilities.

Intended Students/Probable Student Characteristics: Business/ Management students

Instructor Characteristics: Knowledgeable in Business/ Management basics

Identify and Discuss the Interactions in the Activity: The activity in course is presentation.  Students view and animated presentation to learn the different types of management levels and functionality within those roles.

 

Activity: Do
URL: http://www.gcflearnfree.org/word2010/14

Course Content: Students will learn how to insert a shape and format it by changing its fill color, outline color, shape style, and shadow effects; plus, apply 3-D effects to shapes.

Intended Students/Probable Student Characteristics: Students learning how to

Instructor Characteristics: Knowledgeable in Microsoft Suites

Identify and Discuss the Interactions in the Activity: Students in this course experience hands-on activity by creating shapes, shadow effects and applying 3-D effects to their work.

 

Activity: Connect
URL: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=397625

Course Content: How active young people should actually be, and discuss how PE teachers can ensure they are making an effective contribution to this area of public health.

Intended Students/Probable Student Characteristics:  Students are beginner/ experienced Physical Education teachers or anyone interested in public health.

Instructor Characteristics: extensive knowledge and background in physical and public health
Identify and Discuss the Interactions in the Activity: This course includes ponder, questioning, and original work activities.  After each section of reading there are discussions that require students to evaluate the material and their own opinion(s) of the material and at the end there is a part that incorporates the student’s original work.