Well, it is hard to believe but this is my final post for this class. Seems like I have been on a whirlwind tour of some kind. The experience though has been invaluable. I have learned so much and much of it can already be taken back to my job for implementation. This is the sign of a well designed class. My classmates as well have made this experience one I will never forget. As I have mentioned previously, I am so not a fan of group work but this class actually made me enjoy it. I am not sure how he did it, but whatever method Jim used to put together our group was great. We had some bumps in the road but we were all understanding that life happens. Made me realize that this is how I need to live my life as well.
I am on to the next phase in my Grad School career which is finishing up the "course" work so to speak. I have to complete the e-Learning Practicum this summer and the Portfolio class. Once those are complete, I am done with course work. I only need to complete my thesis and I will be a teacher with her Master's in Education. I remember in the '80's watching the movie "The World According to Garp" (which is great by the way - personal bias I am sure) and his children as talking about the students their mother teaches. The youngest son cannot say graduate students so he calls them "gradual students". This is what my family has been calling me for almost two years now. In a way, that little child is actually correct since it should be a gradual process of learning. If we rush things, there is so much which can be missed. Even though this course was only a short eight weeks we really didn't seem to rush it at all. We covered many aspects of assessment and I am sure could have covered many others given time. But then again, even in a semester long course there are still things at the end which could have been covered so it isn't necessarily a matter of time but what you do with that time.
Ending the course with the unit on Discourse Analysis was quite interesting. I especially enjoyed learning about the different types of people we encounter in life or in an online world. How many have you encountered from supporter, informer, and flamer? Believe me, I have met them all and do not enjoy being around a flamer as there is no reasoning with him or her whatsoever. The other aspect I enjoyed learning about was the type of people who call in to CSR centers and how they should be handled. It was quite interesting to think back on my days in retail and see many of the people I have dealt with fall into one or more of the categories. Interesting if you really look at it but as teachers aren't we in the customer service area too? I am sure our parents could easily fall into one of these categories as well if we truly thought about it.
Time to take a final bow and say "Au Revoir". The ride has been grand, educational, and a learning experience I will never forget. Thank you Jim for showing us what a great teacher is all about in so many areas. After obtaining my Master's, my goal is to teach online at the university level. If I can be half the teacher you have been then I will be a success. Here's to pursing that dream and making it a reality!
Monday, March 28, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Assessment in eLearning - Module 7 Reflection
Whew! This is the latest I have made a post to my blog but I never realized how much being a perfectionist could take over your life! Knowing I wanted to put my Final Project in Google Sites, it only seemed to make sense to put it with my ePortfolio since it would need to be there eventually. Once less task to complete, right? Yes and no! the write up was completed a yesterday but today was spent setting up my site just the right way. Now, I realized changing the way it looked today might not have been the best idea but after reading something Dr. O'Connor posted about which templates might look good for ePortfolios I thought it was the right time - WRONG TIME! Only from the stand point time was my enemy today.
What really saved me with my project was doing my Bloom's Taxonomy Table the way I did. I created my objectives, activities, and assessments at the same time. Being a visual learner I needed to see the complete picture to wrap my head around what we were doing with this project. So I thought it would be best for me to put it together this way. In the end, it saved me quite a bit of time. I only needed to refine bit and pieces to it while adding the missing parts such as extended details. This also allowed me to reflect On what I had written and come back to it a day later to see if it was something which needed changing. I believe this lessened the pressure on this part of the project.
Now the presentation part of the project is where I can get too wrapped up and I really did (as usual). I like things to look a uniform way so I needed to make sure my ePortfolio site was uniform. Once that was corrected and the theme changed (see the story about that one in the first paragraph), I set about putting the pages in and formatting those just the right way. For part of the project, I called upon my use of Elluminate but then realized not all of my fellow classmates are familiar with this wonderful project. So I knew I needed to create some detailed explanations for what I was discussing. More time to complete some extras for the project such as creating screenshots, a step sheet, creating some PDF's and of course my favorite creating a Jing to visually and verbally explain what I meant. No wonder I feel exhausted right now.
In the end though, I learned quite a bit about how to make sure to develop student centered activities. When the students are actively involved and engaged in the lessons the greatest learning takes place. I plan to share what I have written with my teaching partners so we can work on developing the decimal skills our fifth graders will need now and in the future.
Like Cinderella, the clock is about ready to strike midnight and this is my signal to call it a night. This coming week is our final week so I shall me making one last post for this class. Until next week, I am heading to the land of slumber! Night all!
What really saved me with my project was doing my Bloom's Taxonomy Table the way I did. I created my objectives, activities, and assessments at the same time. Being a visual learner I needed to see the complete picture to wrap my head around what we were doing with this project. So I thought it would be best for me to put it together this way. In the end, it saved me quite a bit of time. I only needed to refine bit and pieces to it while adding the missing parts such as extended details. This also allowed me to reflect On what I had written and come back to it a day later to see if it was something which needed changing. I believe this lessened the pressure on this part of the project.
Now the presentation part of the project is where I can get too wrapped up and I really did (as usual). I like things to look a uniform way so I needed to make sure my ePortfolio site was uniform. Once that was corrected and the theme changed (see the story about that one in the first paragraph), I set about putting the pages in and formatting those just the right way. For part of the project, I called upon my use of Elluminate but then realized not all of my fellow classmates are familiar with this wonderful project. So I knew I needed to create some detailed explanations for what I was discussing. More time to complete some extras for the project such as creating screenshots, a step sheet, creating some PDF's and of course my favorite creating a Jing to visually and verbally explain what I meant. No wonder I feel exhausted right now.
In the end though, I learned quite a bit about how to make sure to develop student centered activities. When the students are actively involved and engaged in the lessons the greatest learning takes place. I plan to share what I have written with my teaching partners so we can work on developing the decimal skills our fifth graders will need now and in the future.
Like Cinderella, the clock is about ready to strike midnight and this is my signal to call it a night. This coming week is our final week so I shall me making one last post for this class. Until next week, I am heading to the land of slumber! Night all!
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Assessment in eLearning - Module 6 Reflection
Another crazy week in terms of needing to get things completed. This week, I needed to work on the Final Project for this class and make changes to my proposal for the IRB so I can begin my research for my Thesis. Needless to say, I have had some late nights. The IRB paperwork has been corrected, submitted to my advisor who has signed off on it, and now I get to send it back to the IRB. Hopefully by the end of the week I will have full approval to begin my research.
I am sure you asking "What does this have to do with your blogging for Assessment in eLearning?" this week. Well, it really has a lot to do with it since we needed to construct a Pre-Course Survey as one of this week's activities. One of the changes I needed to make to my IRB proposal was to include a survey which I had not yet constructed. I was looking at the various "free" versions of survey software available but nothing made a very favorable impression for what I wanted it to look like. Then I remembered the various surveys I have received from people here at Stout through Qualtrics. I looked into Qualtrics and was quite impressed with what it was capable of doing. When I looked into it, I realized every student and faculty member at Stout is given a Qualtrics account. This is where I created my survey for my thesis and then created the Pre-Course Survey for our assignment. Both turned out much better than I thought they would!
This worked out great since I created a Pre-Course survey for a 5th Grade Math class. In fact, what I did was create a pre-test to assess what students knew about various topics being taught in the coming year. The final two questions asked the students to assess their knowledge of the basic math facts and how they felt about their abilities/skills in math. This type of data would really help drive the instruction in the class while assisting the students as well.
The topics covered within our reading this week - Cybercoaching and Plagiarism can also be addressed with the survey software I used. Depending on how you phrase the questions, the teacher can encourage the students to be reflective when working on math problems. Carefully wording a problem can change whether or not a student is successful in managing to solve it. When we help to develop the students self-confidence through coaching, they in turn will believe they can accomplish many things even if they are a challenge. Plagiarism is addressed since each student is taking the survey online from their own computer and would not be be near another student (at least in the environment where I teach). Also, the questions ask for the answers to be given in various formats thereby helping to reduce plagiarism as well.
Time to end this week's post. Did you remember to "Spring Forward" this morning? If not, you are an hour behind schedule. I think I better check all of the clocks in the house now before the work week begins. See you next week!
I am sure you asking "What does this have to do with your blogging for Assessment in eLearning?" this week. Well, it really has a lot to do with it since we needed to construct a Pre-Course Survey as one of this week's activities. One of the changes I needed to make to my IRB proposal was to include a survey which I had not yet constructed. I was looking at the various "free" versions of survey software available but nothing made a very favorable impression for what I wanted it to look like. Then I remembered the various surveys I have received from people here at Stout through Qualtrics. I looked into Qualtrics and was quite impressed with what it was capable of doing. When I looked into it, I realized every student and faculty member at Stout is given a Qualtrics account. This is where I created my survey for my thesis and then created the Pre-Course Survey for our assignment. Both turned out much better than I thought they would!
This worked out great since I created a Pre-Course survey for a 5th Grade Math class. In fact, what I did was create a pre-test to assess what students knew about various topics being taught in the coming year. The final two questions asked the students to assess their knowledge of the basic math facts and how they felt about their abilities/skills in math. This type of data would really help drive the instruction in the class while assisting the students as well.
The topics covered within our reading this week - Cybercoaching and Plagiarism can also be addressed with the survey software I used. Depending on how you phrase the questions, the teacher can encourage the students to be reflective when working on math problems. Carefully wording a problem can change whether or not a student is successful in managing to solve it. When we help to develop the students self-confidence through coaching, they in turn will believe they can accomplish many things even if they are a challenge. Plagiarism is addressed since each student is taking the survey online from their own computer and would not be be near another student (at least in the environment where I teach). Also, the questions ask for the answers to be given in various formats thereby helping to reduce plagiarism as well.
Time to end this week's post. Did you remember to "Spring Forward" this morning? If not, you are an hour behind schedule. I think I better check all of the clocks in the house now before the work week begins. See you next week!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Assessment in eLearning - Module 5 Reflection
We have turned the corner and now are on the last half of our class which means we are working towards the final project. Seems like we just finished the mid-term project! Wait - we just did finish it but since this course is only 8 weeks long we have no choice but to start working on it right way in order to get it completed. Dr. Erbe posted for us the details of the final project (here is a brief synopsis from his description):
You will need to choose an online course that you are currently teaching or may teach in the future and begin to plan learning objectives, associated activities and the assessment piece and tech tool you could use for assessment.
So within our final project, we need to include well-written objectives, engaging activities, as well as assessments using tools we have learned about in our class. I think my head is spinning just thinking about it again. However, I really appreciate how we are actually taking this bit by bit or step by step.
For example, this week's assignments and/or discussion topics could be drawn upon what we are using for our final project if we want. If we want?! Considering I can get feedback from my peers to know if I am going in the right direction or am totally out in left field, this is a no brainer for me. I am going to be using information from my final project for these two items. Boy am I glad I did use my topic since the feedback I received help me to know I needed to make some changes along the way.
One thing I realized is well-written objectives take time and thought. These are not something you can simply whip out and hope/pray they work. Chances are if you did not take the time to think these out you will find your students struggling along the way and you the teacher feeling a sense of frustration due to a lack of proper planning. It was actually nice to have to think deeper about my objectives for the final project. I am not saying I throw mine together when working on lessons, but I can certainly tell when I do not devote the proper amount of time necessary to develop well-written ones. This task certainly opened my eyes once again. I also discovered I needed to see the "whole picture" when it came to the final project in order to help with not only the objectives but also the activites.
What I ended up doing was create what might look like a mini lesson plan under my taxonmy table. I had thought of my activities but needed to see these paired up with objectives as well. So, I wrote these objectives too which was great since these needed to be posted in the discussion board for one of the discussion assignments - 2 things done at one time is great thinking! Then knowing I needed to have assessments to go along with each activity/objective I created a tentative listing of my assessments. These will be evaluated to see if any changes need to be made but I feel good about the start I have going and I am certainly starting to see this picture emerge. As a visual learner, this is something which truly helps - seeing the big picture.
Looks like Week 5 is now over and we are on to Week 6. Hard to believe only 3 more weeks left in this class. Until next time - I am signing off for now!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Group 1's Mid-Term Jigsaw Project
You can visit Group 1’s Midterm Project here! - https://sites.google.com/site/educ763/
Assessment in eLearning - Module 4 Reflection
Wow! What a week this was. This was the midway point of our Assessment in eLearning course and that meant MIDTERM PROJECT time. Yikes! Last week, we were assigned our groups and chose what each of us would evaluate. Next came the challenges or should I say LIFE! I really like how one of my teammates put it. She called them "incomings" - something that needs to be dealt with right now while you still have all of the other things needing to be dealt with too! All three of us seemed to have many incomings at the beginning of the week which meant we couldn't really devote as much time to the project until midweek (or in this case Wednesday).
Well, when Wednesday arrives we all start to work vigorously on our portion of the project. Since mine is Excel, I am very comfortable with the program. The problem lies in remembering to think as someone who might not be familiar with it all. This was quite the challenge and took much more time than I thought it would. However, it was a great lesson in remembering where I started and how I can best help others when they are struggling with the program. Not only that, it made be realize once again why I use Excel for so many of the things I need at work and in my personal life as well. It was wonderful to delve deeper into what Excel is capable of as a grading program especially re-learning about the graphs and charts which can be made once you have your data entered. Nice refresher there! There can be a large learning curve with Excel and reading books and tutorials will help but other resources will probably need to be sought out as well.
As we come to the end of the project, we realize we need to decide how to present this to our classmates. Having viewed some of the others, I think we are feeling our presentation won't be much if we can only do a WORD document. Friday night as Margot and I were working and talking in Groove Workspaces (shameless plug here) I thought of an idea to use Google Sites to set up our presentation. Having used this for my portfolio allowed me to feel quite comfortable in looking at it and seeing if this would work. Well, I found what looked like the perfect template and set to work giving us the skeleton which would be our final presentation.
Finally after many hours of work between all of us such as editing our documents, editing the site, getting pictures and quotes, etc. we put the final touches on our site. I have to say I am feeling pretty proud of this project. Normally, I do not like group work. This project, however, was one where having the right teammates made all of the difference in the world. I think without all of us supporting one another as well as encouraging each other this could have been a major disaster. Instead, it turned out to be something incredible and I am proud of having been a member of Group 1! Way to go Ladies - We did it and did it well!
Until next week's entry, I am taking a much needed break (only for a few hours and then it is back to the grindstone aka Grad School work).
Well, when Wednesday arrives we all start to work vigorously on our portion of the project. Since mine is Excel, I am very comfortable with the program. The problem lies in remembering to think as someone who might not be familiar with it all. This was quite the challenge and took much more time than I thought it would. However, it was a great lesson in remembering where I started and how I can best help others when they are struggling with the program. Not only that, it made be realize once again why I use Excel for so many of the things I need at work and in my personal life as well. It was wonderful to delve deeper into what Excel is capable of as a grading program especially re-learning about the graphs and charts which can be made once you have your data entered. Nice refresher there! There can be a large learning curve with Excel and reading books and tutorials will help but other resources will probably need to be sought out as well.
As we come to the end of the project, we realize we need to decide how to present this to our classmates. Having viewed some of the others, I think we are feeling our presentation won't be much if we can only do a WORD document. Friday night as Margot and I were working and talking in Groove Workspaces (shameless plug here) I thought of an idea to use Google Sites to set up our presentation. Having used this for my portfolio allowed me to feel quite comfortable in looking at it and seeing if this would work. Well, I found what looked like the perfect template and set to work giving us the skeleton which would be our final presentation.
Finally after many hours of work between all of us such as editing our documents, editing the site, getting pictures and quotes, etc. we put the final touches on our site. I have to say I am feeling pretty proud of this project. Normally, I do not like group work. This project, however, was one where having the right teammates made all of the difference in the world. I think without all of us supporting one another as well as encouraging each other this could have been a major disaster. Instead, it turned out to be something incredible and I am proud of having been a member of Group 1! Way to go Ladies - We did it and did it well!
Until next week's entry, I am taking a much needed break (only for a few hours and then it is back to the grindstone aka Grad School work).
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Assessment in eLearning - Module 3 Reflection
Dr. Bonk's article about the Perfect "E" Storm was very applicable to this week at least for me. I am not sure I have ever been this confused about an assignment. The concept map really threw me for a loop. It look until Saturday to finally figure out what I was doing. Not happy with myself about that one. Now that it is completed I know I have done them before but for some reason, I could not wrap my head around it this week. I think at first I like many others confused it with the midterm. Once this confusion subsided, I was still facing that "Perfect Storm" of confusion with now slightly diminished waves. Thank you Jim for clarifying even further what we needed to accomplish as this cleared the storm and it was much smoother sailing home at least for me.
Regarding the reading material this week, it was slightly overwhelming with all of the information. I realize that the main article was written over 7 years ago, but some of the information in it was new to me. This alone added to the confusion I was experiencing this week. What really seemed to resonate with me was the need to ensure you are actively engaging your students and having assessments which are authentic for them. If this is not occurring, you will lose your students. We have actually had this occur in our classroom when students have stated to us they were either playing Xbox, Playstations, Wii, or even watching TV when we were conducting our lessons online. Since we cannot see them, they simply need to log and we "hope" they are actively engaged. Well, we learned early on that we needed to ensure our lessons contained elements to engage those learners as well as assess them. I have to say we have been quite successful. Also, I am glad this class had the chance to read this article and view the video. Even though items such as this might be "old" in terms of technology, it never hurts to revisit them every once in a while. As I said, I had not heard of some things and I consider myself pretty computer/technology savvy. Always glad to learn something new.
Here is hoping I get my head out of whatever fog it seems to be in for understanding some of the activities we have to accomplish. Until next week's challenges begin I shall sign out for now.
Regarding the reading material this week, it was slightly overwhelming with all of the information. I realize that the main article was written over 7 years ago, but some of the information in it was new to me. This alone added to the confusion I was experiencing this week. What really seemed to resonate with me was the need to ensure you are actively engaging your students and having assessments which are authentic for them. If this is not occurring, you will lose your students. We have actually had this occur in our classroom when students have stated to us they were either playing Xbox, Playstations, Wii, or even watching TV when we were conducting our lessons online. Since we cannot see them, they simply need to log and we "hope" they are actively engaged. Well, we learned early on that we needed to ensure our lessons contained elements to engage those learners as well as assess them. I have to say we have been quite successful. Also, I am glad this class had the chance to read this article and view the video. Even though items such as this might be "old" in terms of technology, it never hurts to revisit them every once in a while. As I said, I had not heard of some things and I consider myself pretty computer/technology savvy. Always glad to learn something new.
Here is hoping I get my head out of whatever fog it seems to be in for understanding some of the activities we have to accomplish. Until next week's challenges begin I shall sign out for now.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Notes from Reading Interactive Inventory
I loved completing this inventory since it asked questions about how we teach. This is so what my philosophy is about teaching, learning, and assessing. I loved it. If you would like to take it as well, here is the link: Assessment: Teacher-centered or Learner-centered?
I do agree with my results. As I have evolved as a teacher over the years, my philosophy regarding assessments has changed greatly. I greatly prize learning with my students and learning from our mistakes. A simple test is not really going to tell you a student has mastered the material you have been working on in class. This is where portfolios or projects come in for assessments. The world of education has changed and I for one am very happy it has.
I do agree with my results. As I have evolved as a teacher over the years, my philosophy regarding assessments has changed greatly. I greatly prize learning with my students and learning from our mistakes. A simple test is not really going to tell you a student has mastered the material you have been working on in class. This is where portfolios or projects come in for assessments. The world of education has changed and I for one am very happy it has.
"Let's Go to the Movies" - Breaking Away / Hoosiers
I think you can probably tell from my choices where I grew up - Indiana. These two movies always remind me of home. Breaking Away is a story about four young boys from Bloomington, IN who don't fit in with the college students who attend Indiana University. They are the townies or most specifically "cutters" since their dads were cutters of the limestone. Once boy in particular, Dave, really wants to fit in and loves to ride bikes. Due to some scuffles with the college kids it is decided the "cutters" will participate in the "Little 500" a race which only the students rode in before this decision. It is a great movie about growing up, facing the challenges life throws you, deciding what you want to do, and making your dreams come true. It also showcased the beautiful campus of IU which is where I started my undergraduate work. (See trailer below)
Hoosiers is about the most sacred thing in all of Indiana - basketball! Ask anyone about March Madness and you will get an earful. This is also a movie my husband and I enjoy watching together. It is nice to see a small school in Indiana face all of the bigger schools and win the state championship. This is based on a true story and I love the message again about following your dreams no matter what life throws at you. This too was filmed in Indiana as well. (see trailer below)
As you can see, these movies are special to me for many reasons but overall I think it is the feeling of home I get when I watch them which keeps me viewing them. While I may be a Buckeye since I have lived in Ohio for over 21 years, I will always be a Hoosier at heart dreaming of my Indiana home as the song says.
Assessment in eLearning - Module 2 Reflection
This has been a trying week for me. I have had to teach my online unit about the Atmosphere to my fifth graders as well as keep up with all of the duties for our Pilot Math group – exhausting. Then I have been trying to figure out how I wanted to tackle this week’s assignments for this class. At first, I thought I would use my Google Sites for the blog, but realized this would not be the best thing since it does not really allow for interaction as a blog. Next, there was a lot of reading to do about blogs! I have been blogging for almost 2 years now but without any real information about it other than what I learn as I go about doing it. However, I so appreciate having the resources now to learn just how to use this tool in the academic arena. What a wonderful tool when used in the right manner. What is the right manner? Well, that is something the teacher will have to decide. Still so much to learn from this course and it is only 8 weeks long and we are already in week 2. Looking forward to seeing what week 3 holds in terms of learning!
Assessment in eLearning - Module 1 Reflection
Well, it is time for another eLearning class to start. I am anxious for this one as it will be interesting to see to see how different assessment might be in the online environment. We started the class by posting to a WIKI of which I was the second one to post on netiquette. This is something near and dear to my heart as we have been working with our fifth graders on this very thing. Amazing how little they know about the topic and how much they have to learn. However, I ran into a problem in the middle of the first week when I could not get a second comment to post. After sending messages to Jim about it, I finally discovered I was putting my information into the wrong field. Mentioned and noted to self – do not do work like this when you have a migraine!
Another task was a survey we took to help Jim tailor the program and help assign us to groups. I am impressed he took the time to ask us about what we wanted. Not many teachers/professors really want to know your opinion. For the discussion boards, we had to complete two tasks - write about alternative assessment techniques and give our favorite movie(s). The favorite movie(s) will be a separate post. For the alternative assessment, we were asked to think about the WIKI, survey and the icebreaker (which was about the movies) and how we could or could not use them as assessment tools. I thought the survey and the WIKI would probably be the most useful for these purposes since it is easily tailored to many different areas depending on how it is constructed but then again so could a WIKI now that I think about it. My favorite was the WIKI. I started working with them about a year ago for another class. At first, they were extremely challenging, but the more I have used them the more I want to find ways to utilize them in my classroom as well. Until next time!
Another task was a survey we took to help Jim tailor the program and help assign us to groups. I am impressed he took the time to ask us about what we wanted. Not many teachers/professors really want to know your opinion. For the discussion boards, we had to complete two tasks - write about alternative assessment techniques and give our favorite movie(s). The favorite movie(s) will be a separate post. For the alternative assessment, we were asked to think about the WIKI, survey and the icebreaker (which was about the movies) and how we could or could not use them as assessment tools. I thought the survey and the WIKI would probably be the most useful for these purposes since it is easily tailored to many different areas depending on how it is constructed but then again so could a WIKI now that I think about it. My favorite was the WIKI. I started working with them about a year ago for another class. At first, they were extremely challenging, but the more I have used them the more I want to find ways to utilize them in my classroom as well. Until next time!
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