Final Questions... for this course at least..

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Date:  13 August 

What five adjectives do you feel best describe your participation in this course? What metaphor might you use to describe yourself as an online learner?  

Interested - I did enjoy the opportunity to read as much as I did in this course.  Writing the annotated bibliography in the middle was a great way to force us to read in preparation for the final research project.  I have a whole lot of material I'd still like to read as time permits..

Hesitant  - even though I enjoyed the class a lot,  I felt like the standard of the comments on the discussion board were high and that made me feel like what I had to post was perhaps less interesting - or maybe the thought that I was the only one really interested in the k12 arena made me hesitate to write exactly what I wanted as I felt a little "off" from the rest of the class.  As I got toward the end of the class, I felt a little more confident but that's also normal for me.  It's takes  while for me to fit the little pictures into one big picture and I often don't get it until the last few weeks of class - that's when the AHA moments start happening. 

Enlightened:  obviously some of the learning theories were already known to me but the review is always good, especially with the input from other students who had completely different perspectives.   Also, there were some new theories that I didn't know about and the concept of 'connectivism" really sent me off on a reading trail.  I'm not sure if that was simply because it was new, or because it really tapped into what I believe about learning and libraries.   Also - I did enjoy the websites you posted in the webliography - I had no idea there were so many learning theories out there and enjoyed reading the summaries.

Inspired:  I ended up being quite active in a few professional discussion boards with AASL and iNACOL while looking for information on librarians in virtual K12 schools.  I'm now in touch with a few other like minded individuals as a result of that search....

Questioning:  When I was growing up - my dad always said that a good course/teacher should inspire more questions than it answered.  I think that this course really made me think deeply about a lot of things and although I did find the answers to some questions, there are so many more things that I now have on my list to read/peruse and ponder.  Perhaps I veered off into my own topic of librarianship and DE at the K12 level - but there really are more questions that I want to read about.  I know now that  I'm not the only one asking the question about librarians at the K12 level in online schools - but I want to know how we're going to get the first librarian and how research can be done that will positively impact the question.  I also barely scratched the surface with the discussion of how to use web 2.0 tools in the online classroom. there are so many ways to use web 2.o tools in the classroom and I'd like to spend more time looking at how to incorporate what we are allowed to use in the online classrooms.  So many things are "banned" in the K12 arena. 

What strength(s) do you feel that you brought to this course?  How/when were those strengths exhibited?

My strengths - I know that I was challenged in this course.   I think perhaps one of my strengths is to imagine how things might be but I need to concentrate more on what is/ has been proven.  With the discussion on Augmented reality - I can really see, if given the opportunity to use it, what a great tool this might be.   I have always seen the usefulness of tools ahead of time.  I had to really fight to be able to set up a wiki 6 years ago and had my hands slapped for setting up a web site for our family support group in 2003 when the guys went off to war.   Now, the Army uses facebook.. what a change.  I always seemed to have "off the wall" questions but I'm not sure if that's a strength, a weakness or if it's just a reflection that my area of interest was so different from everyone else's?

What area(s) of weakness, if any, did you discover in your own learning?

I definitely need to be more organized with my time.  Some weeks, I managed to get to the reading quite quickly but mostly it was the weekend, which is a little late to be adding to the discussion.  I spent a lot of time reading and enjoying it but wasn't as focussed as I could have been - which meant that I ended up doing last minute work. I like to sometimes stick to the way of doing things that works.   I practiced daily writing but not on the computer - I have an old fashioned journal and write for about 10 minutes each day.  Perhaps it's better to do the journal on the computer each week but I find it better to write just as the thoughts come to my brain and then reflect on them at a later date. The reflection isn't a weakness - for me it's a necessity.  It does take longer to do it this way, but I get more out of it.  I also need to learn to write more succinctly.  I'm a very verbal person but it's important to remember that posts need to be kept very short.  It's just hard sometimes to describe what's on my mind. 

Describe one thing that you learned about yourself as an online learner through your participation.

I learned that I really enjoy the discussions when I feel like I have something to contribute.  I don't like having to write something just for the sake of having to write something as I don't want people to think I don't know what I"m talking about.  I'd much rather just read on those weeks.   I do take a long time to read about topics, not as a slow reader but because I inevitably get sidetracked looking up other articles mentioned in the first article.  

Develop a self-improvement plan for the rest of your MDE program.  

Interesting.  When I first decided to take some classes,  I signed up for the 4 class certificate program - and this should be the last of my 4 classes.  I guess it's a good comment on the classes that I am actually going to go for the full MDE, rather than be done with studying.  I do think that the 2nd Master's degree will ultimately be useful, and perhaps more so that the PhD.. which is an interesting twist.  

1.  Develop a plan to have more time for reading.  Even 30 minutes a day would help.  It shouldn't be difficult to set aside 30 minutes of uninterrupted time each day to simply read the "asides" that I tend to get lost in.

2.  Develop a plan to write for at least 30 minutes a day.   I prefer to journal with a pen and paper but that daily note-taking this semester really did help when it came to writing this journal.    Those daily reflections helped to clarify my thoughts. Actually, I had attended a "how to journal"  workshop just a few months ago and had developed the habit of daily journal writing first thing each morning with my coffee and it has really helped to keep my thoughts straight this semester.  I need to expand that from just journaling about general thoughts into a 30 minute journal about the specific courses that I'm taking.  I'm not sure I'll ever journal online -but the concept of keeping a journal in some form is definitely beneficial. 

3.  I'd like to look into Action Research in the online classroom more deeply.  If there really is a lack of research, perhaps I can start where I can.. in my own online classroom.  Developing higher level thinking skills for my students is definitely on my mind as I work on developing a new German curriculum at work. I'm also interested in how we are going to connect museums and online schools. Obviously, field trips for online schools aren't always an option (although some online schools do actually do an annual field trip) but museums can still be part of the online experience.  If our community is spending money on libraries, museums and schools, they should all be fully utilized  and there has to be a way of bringing them together in the virtual world. 

4.  Continue to develop my own professional networks within iNACOL, AASL and Linked in groups.   I found that pushing myself into new professional areas was fun and interesting.  It was good to find out that I'm not the only one interested in the area of DE and librarianship at the K12 level.  

Individualized education

how does f2f and online learning compare?
What about blended learning?
best practices in online learning
conditions

This report is interesting from the librarian point of view.  I was not able to find much research about K12 librarians.  In fact, if anything I found more reports lamenting the lack of research into K12 education.  Even in the AASL forums and the iNACOL forumes on linked in or on their sites, there was little to be found abou the issues of online librarians at the K12 level.   Is this just because there is no specific research on the concept of online librarians for K12?   Most online schools don't employ librarians and since education doesn't really make a decision unless it's based on research, we're hardly likely to move forward in this area. It's not even a topic for most people in online administration.  The answer I got in informal conversations was that most online students were not full time and therefore had access to a school librarian with a collection centered around the general curriculum.
It was interesting to see that the DOE also found that too little research had been done.  Perhaps a report like this will free up some funding and we'll see more research done into K12 online education.

If 43/50 studies showed that online learners did better than f2f, "if they were older"  does that mean that elementary online studies were not done or does it mean that elementary online teaching is not as effective?  Or does it mean that there are simply too few online elementary students to really figure it out?  If students spend more time on task to learn more in the online environment, what does this really mean?  Is the online environment more challenging - and therefore more successful?  Is it that f2f classrooms don't spend enough time on a topic to really require learning?

Online education has been around for a while, and it's growing exponentially. There is definitely room for research into this area.   Traditionally, action research is a way of gathering information from classrooms yet we're not seeing much action research coming out of online schools.   Part of this is simply because teachers at the k12 level are not full time, may teach only one course online in addition to a full time job and do not have the time/energy/resources or the push from administration to get involved in action research.

Studies indicate that "self monitoring of understanding are effective" - reflection works in the f2f classroom as well.  Is this better or more effective in online learning?  This didn't seem to compare it with the f2f efforts at reflection.
The authors do point out that it's possible that what works for older students /adult learners may differ from what works for K12 - which leads us back to the real necessity for more research to be done in this area.

"policy makers will lack scientific evidence of the effectiveness of these emerging alternatives to f2f instruction"   In an industry that is research driven- there's no way that new policies will be emplaced without more research.

As I think about this report - I realize that I can possibly do some action research in my own online classroom..  I'm sure that it's possible. After all, learning about teaching is something that we do each day... and documenting what works and what isn't working is good practice for any classroom.  

The Sloan Survey

This was an interesting week, discussing various things about DE as outlined in the Sloan Survey.

1.  It's obvious that DE is still considered by many to be "not the real thing" when it comes to education.   I wonder why we think that education can only take place in the classroom with a teacher?  Maybe that's the way it was earlier - but just because we had a teacher at school in the 60's didn't mean that was the only place we learned.. We talked with friends, went to the library, discussed assignments etc.   I think a lot of people dismiss DE because they have never really looked at it and it is different to what they grew up with.


Reading this survey brought up some interesting questions for me.  Why do so few institutions require formal training before putting their teachers online?   We require so much training for a k12 teacher, yet the switch to online is on average a 5 week online class.  Certainly, a classroom teacher already has a large background in learning theory etc, but even then, 5 weeks is barely enough time to scratch the surface.   My real question is more about how training for online teachers will look in the future.  There will be an increase in demand for teachers (and hopefully for librarians) as more and more states begin to require online classes at the K12 level as part of the graduation requirements.  So how will they be trained.  There are three possibilities that I see, and it will be interesting to see which one eventually takes over

a.  teachers can become classroom certified and then do a CE class on how to teach online.  This is the current format and, in my opinion, it's not that effective.   Teachers see it as an easy way to make some extra money - it's not a full time job.

b.  Teachers will be required to get an online certification - in the same way that we now get a certificate to teach a specific subject.   So I would train for and get a certification as an online teacher.    This is possible in TX in 2 different ways.  Once you have a certification as a teacher, you can take the test for another subject.  So if you are certified to teach German but you also speak Spanish, you can simply take the exam for the Spanish Certificate.  If you're already a certified classroom teacher, you could study on your own, or with a variety of CE courses and then take the exam and become a certified online teacher. This would then require a certain number of hours of CE every 5 years to maintain the certificate.

c.  When a teacher is in college and training/learning to be a teacher, then they would decide if they wanted to become an online or classroom teacher.  At the moment, they choose whether they want to teach elementary or secondary and their classes revolve around what /where they plan on teaching.  Education schools will eventually offer online certification classes for each level.  After all, elementary level classes online are very different to high school classes.


Hopefully, online teaching will eventually be considered as a full time position - maybe a district position rather than a job with a specific school .  At the moment, many online instructors are contracted by the semester and receive no benefits.  For teachers in the classroom full time, this is seen as a way to make extra money but it's not a good full time job for those that need benefits.

Until there is a chance to be fully employed, not many student teachers would be likely to select an option that would limit them to only online positions.  Of course, school districts also see online learning, paying only for students taking the class as a viable alternative to keep costs down.  After all, why employ a full time teacher for a few students and pay benefits to the teacher?


I'd never thought about what schools plan to do in the event of mass disaster?   H1N1 is (was?) an issue but who knew that schools thought they could simply go online to keep going in the event of a natural catastrophe?  That's hardly helpful for those who would have to use the library computer in a time of massive flu outbreaks...

Student retention:
It's probably a good idea for students to take a challenging online class in high school to break the perception that it's an easy option.  The problem is that without good teacher training, there probably won't be enough good courses to really challenge every high school student if they all took a course or two.

Analytics etc.

July 28th

The Horizon Report

Analytics -what are they and how will they help us teach in the future?

Analyzing data has always been helpful in the classroom.   If all my students get a test question wrong, that's a clear indicator that I need to reteach.  If one or two students get it wrong, then I can work with those students to approach the topic from a different angle.  Using classroom data clearly can direct the teaching that takes place.  However, the analytics that are possible today go far beyond the basics that I have used in the classroom to this point.

How far can we go with analytics is obviously not the right question.  It is unfortunate that we now have the ability to collect all sorts of information on what students are doing.  The right question is more about whether or not we should even think about using the information that it is possible to collect.
However, when I think about the way retailers such as amazon/google gather information about my habits, and then suggest new books/products  that I might not otherwise have come across, I can see a tantalizing possibility out there.  If we could suggest books and possible articles to students, based on what they are reading at the moment, is that helpful?  Or is it  unethical?   Or maybe it's just plain annoying to the student.  I have to admit that I like amazon when it suggests books during a book search, but find it irritating that they send me e-mail suggestions based on books that I have purchased...

I wonder if librarians could come up with some way of saying ""if you enjoyed articles by this author, you should try reading  author XXX.  Would that reduce the frustration level of students actively seeking more information?  But is that really different to the bibliography at the end of an article. Doesn't that point stuents in the right direction (as do the subject guides, to a certain extent).  Maybe it's not quite as effective as a personalized approach based on what you just looked at, but it is still an effective way of guiding students to appropriate info and it keeps their searching skills in practice. After all, if you're continuously offered  information that's relevant, you'll stop looking on your own. Sometimes the search is part of the educational journey.   Whatever we feel, there should still be some privacy about our reading and study habits.

Augmented reality - Will this really be possible in the future for our students?  Some of the things in the Horizon report were really amazing.  I think that this type of technology will open up a lot of doors for students.  I love the concept of being able to "experience" something as if you were really there.   The one possibility of being able to look at a city such as Sydney, the way it was 100 years ago by simply using an app on your smartphone is amazing.   As usual, the librarian's take is on how to make sure that type of info is available to everyone, and not just those who are rich.

If we currently have libraries as public "information stores"  whether that information is available digitally or in print, and we have museums that store artefacts and items from the past - where will this type of information belong?  Seeing a city as it was 100 years ago in digital format brings together libraries and museums in a way that is new, and if we can use this type of augmented reality (AR) to make information available in schools but also to the general public, it would be wonderful.  It's almost a shame to have something that is obviously going to be costly available to students during the school day but not have it be used during the evening or weekends.  Surely something like this could be made available to the schools during the day, but also be available to the public on weekends/evenings.    For some reason, the concept of bringing together museums, libraries and online learning is in my brain. As a community, we spend a lot of money on libraries and museums and also on schools - can we make better financial decisions about expensive software - things like Augmented Reality by having a center for Augmented Reality that could be used all day, rather than just  a portion of the day by school members?
http://www.howstuffworks.com/augmented-reality.htm   This is a link to a really interesting explanatory website.  I don't always understand how things work, but this was a good explanation.  If we spend money on this type of thing for online or offline learners - it should be made accessible to everyone rather than just one group of students.

http://augmentedrealityevent.com/  It seems like there's a convention out there for just about anything.  This would have been interesting to attend but this is definitely going to be big business in the future.... of course, that means it's not going to be inexpensive... which brings me back to my original concerns.

Games:  Games have always been popular and certainly can be educational.  Will we begin to use games more in the classroom as technology develops?   I think the potential is there but using games in the online asynchronous classroom might be difficult unless assigned as a homework or extra curricular activity.  I also think that cost will play a role.   It's not inexpensive to create a full graphic game and site licenses for a University might be prohibitive.  On the other hand, we have some very creative app designers out there and some apps are incredibly useful learning tools and are free or less than $5 - affordable for most students.  This is a form of gaming that's already here, familiar to most students and affordable.



The Horizon Report - I had no idea this existed but went back and looked at a copy from a different year.  It will be interesting to go and read them all and see how close they were with their predictions...

More about best practices in the online classroom.

Notes from July 23

Best Practices and the big picture.


First - feedback - what is this and why is it so necessary in the online classroom?

Feedback can be in the form of a grade but it's not really helpful to most students.  At the k12 level,  it's more important to use feedback to guide the student - and to help them understand exactly what they can do to improve.  This means some form of written feedback is necessary, and obviously the feedback needs to be given frequently, so that the student can use it to improve.  Simply assigning a grade at the end of the class isn't helpful.

We're reading that feedback is necessary...  but how, and in what form.  In the f2f classroom, a smile or a nod when a student is on the right track is good enough in many cases.  In the DE classroom, feedback is going to be written.  It could be in the form of a quick message, an e-mail or simply a written comment on a graded paper.  It doesn't have to be lengthy, but it does have to be honest and it does have to be timely.

And back to lurking and promoting collaboration/

If a student lurks, there is probably a reason for it.  If it's because the student doesn't feel comfortable with other students because of lack of knowledge of the topic, then the interaction between the student and the technology and the student and the instructor is also important.  Getting the student to understand the material so that they feel comfortable contributing to the discussion can be achieved via good student to content interaction.

Support
One thing that I'm learning more about (and hadn't really considered prior to this) is the necessity for student support at the classroom and the institutional level.

Making sure that students have access to something like a library class or a writing center is obviously very important for every student. So this shouldn't necessarily be something that a teacher takes care of, but something that the institution provides.  The teacher can play a role in this by ensuring that the students are aware not only of the fact that these things exist, but sharing what they can do for the student.   Encouraging students to seek answers, but making sure the links are there for them to find the answers is a good solution. It's very easy at the k12 level to try and do everything for the student, but if they will need to be more independent at college, then it's good to start developing those skills in high school.  Perhaps, creating a webliography of useful links with a quick description of what will be found there (an annotated webliography) or use of a diigo/delicious social bookmarking site will encourage students to go hunt out the answers rather than simply giving them a link.  An FAQ page is also a good idea for immediate classroom support.

Learning outcomes

A basic even in the f2f classroom is to state the course goal/learning objective.  I think that a good instructor is always going to refer back constantly to the objective throughout the course.   It's easy to get lost in the minutiae of the conferences and readings,  so it's important to come back to the reason for the readings every now and again.  

http://www.facultyfocus.com/free-reports/principles-of-effective-online-teaching-best-practices-in-distance-education/

As I was browsing, this is one of the better sites I came across.  I liked the list format.  It made so much sense after the reading we have done.  #1 - show up and teach was interesting as there does seem to be a lot  of people out there who think that there is no teacher in the online classroom, or that the teacher is somehow less important.  The more I read, the more I realize that the only thing that's missing in the online classroom is the walls - everything else is delivered in a different format but it is still there.  The teacher is the most important (along with the curriculum designer if it's someone different)  but the discussion and the working together towards a solution along with the desperate need for feedback is really not that much different to the online classroom.
I also liked #7 - Help maintain forward progress.  I think that it is the role of the teacher to keep the ball rolling.  Not only do we have to have good lesson plans in place, we have to be present and make sure that we prod the students when necessary to keep them moving in the right direction.

How to create a sense of community?

Week f July 10-16

What is a community?   How can we promote it?  Should we worry about it?

For me, a community in this sense is a group of people that work together to learn. Wilson defines a community as a group that has made a commitment to a certain class, that has a common goal in learning.

 In a f2f classroom, creating a sense of community may be quite easy, although not as intuitive as one might think. The students are there and can see each other as well as be seen by the teacher.  Creating a group may be as easy as moving a few desks and then observing the interaction, intervening as necessary.   In an online classroom, it's obviously more difficult.  The first problem is that students are not all there at the same time.   Even if you have a synchronous classroom or instant messaging, it may not be used.  This is another aspect of having the technology available to do a job, but if it's not well thought out, then it won't be used appropriately.  Simply giving students access to a wiki won't mean that you'll end up with a creative wiki.  It may mean you'll end up with a bunch of confused students unless you give instructions on how to use the wiki and clear expectations of what  is expected to be in there.  Scaffolding for technological competence is just as important as scaffolding for content.
You can monitor discussion or wiki creation to see that work is being done - but community seems to be more than just posting responses to a discussion board or contributing to a wiki.   Even if everyone posts something, then it doesn't mean that there is a community -there's a level of communication that shows interaction in a community.  You could have 30 students all post a response, and those responses may be relevant to each student's learning but if there's no give and take in the responses, there's no sense of community.

Is being part of a community vital for all students?  Does the fact that some students don't feel like they are part of a community prevent them from learning?   For some people, not being part of a group may be more desirable and being able to work alone may seem preferable.  If the instructor believes that it is beneficial for students to be part of a group, then it's the instructors responsibility to address the issue in such a way that the student understands the benefits of group work.  This can be tough as many students may already have a poor impression of group work after unsuccessful experiences.   However, just giving a student a grade and requiring the work will not promote the benefit of group work for all students.

If students who feel isolated tend not to finish the course as a result of feeling isolated, that's obviously a problem. Being part of a group where one students feels as if they are the only ones working is also disheartening and can be discouraging.   So how do you resolve the issue of group work, yet still help students feel like they are part of a learning community?


Given that creating a sense of community among students does seem to be important in helping the students feel connected and in improving the learning, then how can an instructor or designer affect that?  If group grading is an issue, and it does often seem to the the grading that's  the issue, not the working together, then how do you resolve that?

1.  If the discussion board is going to be part of the grading system, and it normally is, then a really good question has to be the basis.  If the question promotes thinking, then the students are more likely to respond and that's how the discussion can start.  If it's a poorly thought out question, students will either respond with a rote answer or not at all.  Monica pointed out in the DB this week that each students insight into the issue will bring forth a different side of the conversation which will ultimately benefit all students who  read the discussion posts.  This is exactly why a good question, especially in an online higher education class is so important.  Students at the college level all have a wide variety of work experiences and/or life experiences that will come out in a discussion once it's ongoingThe instructor is integral to success in this aspect of creating a community.

2. Group formation.  It's probably a good idea to have students write a group "mission statement" so that everyone knows exactly what is expected of them and they have committed to it.  Create small enough groups to allow for more personal interaction.  Having a really large group can be intimidating for many students.

3.  Encourage group interaction but grade individual projects.  How can this be done?  One possibility could be to have students work on a wiki or group document/presentation that will then form the basis of their study notes in preparation for a final exam.  If they work well, they'll have good study notes that they will probably not need as much if they worked on it.  If they don't actively participate in the group work, they will still have good study notes but will have to apply themselves to studying alone if they are to do well in a final exam.
4.  If you're going to use a wiki, a blog or a journal  or some other unfamiliar web 2.0 tool,  the student should understand clearly what is expected. A clear rubric is obviously necessary but additional instruction on how to work in a wiki may be necessary before the project gets underway.

Note
One of the things required at the k12 level (at least where I teach) is a 3 day orientation to the classroom.  This involves teaching students how to send a message, use instant messaging and completing an online  scavenger hunt to find answers from the various tutorials etc.  Each day has a checklist of activities to be completed and there is a grade for each day.   The result is that when students sit down to do content work, they are already familiar with the classroom and where to find various items such as how to create a voice board for the speaking assignments.   Creating a pre-week of orientation activities for those who want them might be a good idea.  Most students can access the online classroom during the week prior to the class.  For some students, a class may be their first online experience; for others it may not be.  The pre-week would be a good week for the teacher to get to know who is in an online class for the first time.   We've already learned that where the student starts, as far as content, is a necessary piece of information for the instructor so that material can be scaffolded.  In fact, our readings have shown us that this is perhaps more important even than the way the material is presented.   Perhaps we also need to look at where the student is starting as far as the online experience, rather than just the content.  An orientation module could be easily prepared for all classes and then inserted into pre-week automatically.  At the college level, it need not be for a grade, but just be available for new students, or students who are transferring in from other colleges but may not be familiar with web tycho.  If left available, it may also be a great resource for students who realize that they don't know how to do something and need a refresher.  The UMUC library does have some great tutorials, but perhaps a few well placed links in the webliography to tutorials on how to do APA citations etc will point students in the right direction as they find that they need the information.  Just in time tutorials can be very helpful but the key is pointing the student in the right direction at the right time.

An awareness that they are obviously not the only student who needs a quick review of something prior to starting a task should also help to reduce the sense of being the only one who needs something.  Having a list of  "how to" tutorials can really help the students feel more like they can help themselves when they need to, but not waste their time if they don't need it.

The role of the instructor in building community and social presence is important.  Students, especially at the K12 level will probably not guide themselves to where they need to be.  Teachers have to create interesting, well structured assignments that will promote real conversation, not just rote responses.    

One of the things that caught my attention in this week's reading


Learning communities can serve as a bridge between school and work environments 

My first thought here was that this was applicable to adult learners who work and go to school at the same time.  However, I then realized that it could be also applicable to high school students but in a slightly different way.  Of course, the  community in a high school doesn't generally work - but that doesn't mean that you can't invite guest speakers who do work full time to become part of the community for a day or a week of the course.  Its important for K12 students to be aware of the businesses in the communities around them and sometimes it might be possible to bridge the gap  by incorporating a guest speaker each week.


http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/PUB7102d.pdf

This was also an interesting book/chapter on facilitating community. Although she's not writing about DE specifically, there are many similarities to our class reading.  The importance of community in education is not just important in DE but we do have to look at it differently to achieve the same goals.

Best Practices

Week of  3-9 July

Best Practices in Online teaching

Interesting question:  What does the excellent online instructor look like?  And perhaps more importantly, are the best practices for K12 different than best practices for college?  After all, high school students have no choice about being in the classroom so engaging the student is vital.  At least in higher education, the student has probably selected the course (although in all fairness, this may not be the case for general studies courses which are required.)

how can a teacher help the student to interact with one another?  how does a good teacher facilitate or ensure student to student communication.


So - a good instructor will (as outlined in the conference of week 6)

should provide clear guidelines for interaction with students; provide well-designed discussion assignments to promote cooperation among students; encourage students to present course projects to one another; provide prompt feedback of two types–information and acknowledgement; provide assignment deadlines; provide challenging tasks, sample cases, and praise for high-quality work to reinforce high expectations;allow students to choose project topics.

What does an instructor do to help students learn in an asynchronous discussion?  How does a teacher promote social presence as outlined in the COI framework and how does good design of a class promote social interaction?  Is that social interaction necessary for learning for all students.

Synchronous tools - wimba -

This can be an important tool for the K12 classroom, but seems to be used less frequently in graduate school.  I've had a few classes with live classroom sessions but they are never mandatory - although I always try to attend.  Mandating attendance doesn't make sense for online students.  Often, they are online because their schedule doesn't allow them to attend class at regular times. K12 students take online classes during the school day and may have a specific time assigned to do their online work.  Most students go to a lab and do their online classes under the supervision of a specific teacher.  Schools have to know where students are throughout the day.   Even if the students appreciated the concept of a synchronous class, it's unlikely they'd be able to attend at the same time. Of course, evening classes could be offered but again, it's difficult to decide at what time.  Class during dinnertime probably wouldn't be well attended.  Students may not even have access to a computer at home.

Asynchronous tools 
the Discussion board - most online classes tend to revolve around the discussion board as a means of student to student communication.   The big question with the discussion board is obviously how to get k12 students to do more than a simple post... this is one area that the teacher can make a huge difference.  The question is the key - something that provokes thinking.   This is not an easy thing, although probably easier for some topics than others.  

One idea - keep the discussion groups small.

I liked the article that Kathy posted

Conrad, Dianne. (2002) Inhibition, integrity and etiquette among online learner: The art of niceness

Teaching students about netiquette can make the discussion board a nicer, gentler place to be.  I think that ensuring that students feel safe to post their thoughts in a thoughtful manner without worrying about being laughed at is important, perhaps more so for the K12 learners.  Teaching netiquette as part  of the orientation week is a good idea.   Students who don't feel safe writing their comments won't write comments and that will destroy any sense of  community.
 

Lets discuss Lurking.  Should we be worried by students who read but don't respond?  How do instructors know when to intervene.  Sometimes a quick e-mail to a high school student is enough to prod the student into explaining why they are not completing assignments or to get them into gear so that they do the assignments.   I think experience helps with this question but there are some common sense ideas.  If a student does nothing in the first week, then a check that they understand what needs to be done makes sense.  If a student routinely does the work but misses a week, it may not be concern for a grade, but it makes sense to follow up.   In this respect, the K12 schools have a built -in advantage.  Each student is normally assigned an onsite liaison, or in the event that the student is a full time online student, then there is normally a parent who works with and takes responsibility for the student.   This is very different to the college level, but makes "lurking" less of an issue.  I personally feel that lurking is an unfortunate term as it sounds negative.  I learn by reading and  we know that many students learn by communicating with others.  Why, then, is it negative to listen to the conversation even if you don't  have anything to add at that moment in time?  



AHA moment - I read about the concept of putting students into a small group during the beginning week to promote discussion..It's less intimidating, especially for new students.   I like this idea and will add it to my classes..   K12 students rarely want to discuss.. and perhaps the size of the group will make a difference.

More reading to do this week - see if I can find anything about cohorts of students and the development of community as they have more and more classes with one another.  If community is important - is it better to be part of a cohort that goes through school together online in the same way that we do with regular f2f high school classes.  As an aside as a parent of a military child who changed schools more times than most (8 schools in 12 years) then is it important to feel like part of a community for just the course, or for the whole school experience.

Connectivism

July 2nd

Connectivism
  As a librarian, this concept makes total sense and is worthy of full exploration.   There is no way that any individual is able to know everything - even those who can dedicate their whole  lives to a topic. Whether or not this a theory is an interesting question.  Given the amount of information, it makes sense to think of knowledge as being available to those who look for it.  Librarians have always helped students/clients to find information.  Knowing how and where information is stored is a necessary skill.  Given the fact that information is appearing rapidly, memorizing information simply doesn't make sense.. it's much easier to learn about where and how information is stored.   After all, I memorized the name of Delhi when I was growing up but they changed it to Mumbai somewhere along the way.   If I'd learned where to find the name of cities in India, rather than memorizing the names, I'd be better off.  If information can be stored in various digital formats, then the current librarian focus on transliteracies makes sense.  Students do need to be able to interpret visually presented information as well as simple print (on and off the web.)  Students should be able to interpret symbols

http://www.downes.ca/post/33034  Downes article is interesting to read.  Again, I'm back at how to define knowledge or learning.  If an apple only appears red because that's what we call that color, what is the knowledge.  Do we know the apple is red, or do we simply know that we call that color red.  This is actually an interesting problem that I looked at in undergraduate school, and one that we deal with daily as a language teacher.   If I call a house a house - I mean the type of house that I visualize based on my upbringing.  In the North of England, a house is invariably one of a row - often 50-60 in one street - all connected and all with two stories. The mining towns are all like that.   If I talk about a house in the US, I'm probably thinking about a typical ranch house.  However, if I lived in the Philippines, I might be thinking of a Nipa Hut - a home on stilts.   So simply translating the word  "house" to   "das Haus" or "la maison" may not really transfer the knowledge - in fact it may be far from what we want to say. It's important to know the culture behind the language  so that we can choose the most appropriate word to get the point across, and that may require some circumlocution. So when we measure learning (assessment) how can we measure that?  Is it not better to measure whether or not a person can find the appropriate information when he/she needs it?  Why do we give exams that require regurgitation of knowledge rather than something that shows a person knows how to learn?  Tradition of course, but we do have the opportunity with distance education to build curriculum that is not based on how we've always done it.

In Kop and Hill's article that we read this week, they discussed the necessity for students being able to "seek out current information and the ability to filter secondary and extraneous information"  When you compare this to the ALA's definition of information literacy, the ability to find information and evaluate information are included and this seems to me to be more important as far as skills go.  Of course, then in DE, you get the question that always crops up - how do you know who did the work if there is no final, closed book exam?
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The other thing we looked at this week was how to use web 2.0 tools in the classroom.   I loved the innovative concept of using the web to have two completely different classes in two countries work together. What a great way for language students to get some real life practice in an authentic scenario.
There are some interesting ways for students to use some of the web 2.0 tools to show that they understand the concepts they are learning.  Whether a student writes a blog, which is then commented on by other students, or they create a wiki together - or share their examination of museum artifact using voice thread - they are expressing what they have learned or their perception of what they are learning and this is important to the concept of learning if we use the constructivist theory.  If we use the connectivism theory, the fact that they are sharing information with others makes them part of a network and is also valid.  As I read more and more towards my final project, it's obvious that many librarians are using web 2.0 tools in the library and extending themselves into the classrooms with those tools rather than simply staying in the library waiting for students to come to them.  One librarian (Midler) was using google docs with the classroom teacher so that the librarian could insert search tips/keywords/links to databases available via the library web site into the document before it was made available to students.  Another was teaching students to use content curation tools such as scoop it and netvibes to collect information about their topic.
It's important to keep up to date with all of the new web 2.0 tools as they are introduced.  Obviously, twitter, facebook and pinterest are some of the most popular but these may not be as readily available for use with K12 students.   There are plenty of other web 2.0 tools out there and students will need to know how to use these as they enter the work world.  Teaching the content is one  thing that is obviously important but teaching them how to use the social tools is an equally important by product.  Of course, this generation of high school students may be tech savvy, in that they know of the tools, but we all need to learn how to use them appropriately and effectively.  That's just one more argument for having embedded librarians in the virtual classroom...

Week 4

Selecting a research topic for the next assignment - creating an annotated bibliography

  

There are some tough choices here as I have so many areas of interest.  One thing that I find irritating is the lack of virtual libraries and information literacy instruction within the virtual schools at the K12 level and I think I’d like to explore the topic in depth.  Texas at least has acknowledged the necessity of school librarians and since 2003 has required all new school librarians to have not only a teaching certificate, 3 years of classroom experience but also a Masters in Library Science.  So, if the state education board  understands the need for teacher librarians in schools, why do we not have the same requirements for our virtual students?

There are a few reasons.

1.     Many students who attend online classes also attend full time school.  The selection of an online course is simply an adjunct to a full school day.  Students choose courses that would not ordinarily be available in their district, or because it does not fit into their schedule and if taken on campus might necessitate dropping another desired /required course.  I guess it is simply assumed that these students also receive library support in their home school.  This may or may not be the case.

2.  There are several types of virtual school in TX.  Some simply provide the courses to districts but do not enroll the students.  (Texas Virtual School is part of Region 4 and does not have students.  Instead it makes access to a wide variety of approved courses available to the various districts throughout TX, ) There are also full time charter  virtual schools, attended often by homeschoolers or those who simply do not want to attend traditional schools.  These are operated at no cost to the student (same as the public schools) but cost is always an issue at some level.

 It would be interesting to see why the full time schools have chosen not to employ full time librarians.  Is it because there is a shortage of K12 distance librarians?  Is it possibly the additional costs involved?  Is it simply because there are too few K12 distance librarians to advocate for the necessity of the introduction of  information and other literacy skills?  Is it a lack of training on the part of the administration, many of whom may not fully realize the necessity of incorporating these skills or an administration who simply assume that teachers will automatically teach these skill?   This is one of the reasons that many adminstrators give in the face to face context.   I did talk with one (f2f)  principal who said that although she understood the necessity for a librarian, she never really grasped it until she worked with a great librarian and saw the difference that it made in the school.  Maybe it will take a few great librarians at the K12 level to push the issue forward. 

  This is a timely topic given this weeks readings.

 How can we design courses that include the development of information literacy skills.  As I’m reading, I’m finding more and more information about transliteracy  or metaliteracy.  I’m not sure there’s really a difference between the two as they seem to be two different terms for pretty much the same thing.  However, I do believe that while there is a need to teach students not only how to find textual information in print and digitally, there is also a need to teach them how to find and interpret visual presentations of information  (visual literacy) as well as what is termed digital literacy, which seems to be the ability to find, locate and evaluate digitally shared information that may never have been in print.  This could incorporate multi media as well as text so may overlap with visual literacy – but that’s just one more thing for me to add to my list of reading.  I have also been reading about technology literacy.. Is this the same thing as digital literacy?  It seems like almost everyone has their own literacy to promote and they all see relevant to the 21st century. 

.  After all, if you cannot use a computer, you cannot access the digital information, nor will you be able to share /create information. 

 Although we have the “digital divide” which commonly refers to those who have access to computers and those who don’t, the digital divide is also about those who know how to use them to access information and those who don’t.  After all, it’s no use having a computer if you don’t know what to do with it.  

I was able to find some interesting websites that clarified what I’m thinking about. 

http://librariesandtransliteracy.wordpress.com/2012/06/17/exploring-transliteracy-the-new-literacies-and-libraries/

Questions to consider as I begin research?

What will /should be the role of the library in the K12 online classroom in the 21^st century?  If the traditional school librarian is acknowledged as the collaborator who ensures that students are information literate and that information literacy instruction is incorporated into the classroom, then how do we also  achieve information literate students in the virtual classroom.  Although there are many students who do one or two classes online while still attending full time school, there is also a growing number of students who choose to complete their education entirely online.    Information literacy skills are simply too important to leave for students to learn at college, especially given the fact that not everyone will go on to higher education right out of high school

Research question:  Do we need to have virtual /distance ed. Librarians in the K12 virtual schools?  What learning theories or other research  indicate the need for Information literacy skills?   How can the acquisition of information and even transliteracy skills be best addressed in the virtual K12 schools?  Is it better to have a virtual librarian that collaborates with content teachers and curriculum designers or should there be a separate,  research specific and technology specific classes or even a complete virtual library and access for the students to the librarian?    What best practices are currently recommended that would support any of the above solutions?

Keywords for searching

Librar*, K12, “information literacy”   transliteracy, metaliteracy, e-learning,  DE,

So how does this fit into what we read this week?   Well, how we design the curriculum is just as important as how we teach the content.   Incorporating collaboration is vital for understanding so having IL and other literacy skills incorporated seems to make sense to me as a teacher, a designer and a student.  If we’re learning at college how to learn all of these new technologies to  find and share information, shouldn’t we be doing the same thing with our students at the K12 level?   After all, not every high school student will go on to higher education and these skills are too important to simply leave for Higher Education Institutions to address. 

I hope that with my paper I can come up with some literature that will allow me to show the necessity for a library program at the virtual K12 schools.   If administrators are going to listen, then they will need some solid research backed information to show that incorporating transliteracy skills into the classroom at all levels not only helps our students be more prepared as citizens entering the 21st century world of work, but also will help to raise test scores as a result of improved education..


NOTE  added 13August  This entry was written several weeks ago.
 I'm finished my paper but it's interesting that the last report that we just read indicated that there really has not been much research done into K12 online education, which confirmed my findings.  ...   

Week 3 - AHA moments

Interesting week of reading - and a lot of new material to grasp.  The concept of multiple intelligences has always intrigued me, and of course, the concept of learning styles made sense - and I accepted it without much thinking. Of course, we should present the material in a way that makes it easy for the student to grasp.  After all, our goal is for them to learn the material.    So, when presented with an alternative way of looking at this I needed time to reflect. Mayes' concept that it is more important to ensure the fit of the material with what the student already knows and then giving frequent feedback that is conducive to learning,  I do know that scaffolding is vital in the ESL class where the student may very well understand the concept but not have the language to share what he knows.  I also knew that in the language classroom at least, we should push the student to learn by giving them information that is just beyond what they already know so that they have to struggle a little, but not too much. Krashen's theories of i +1 make intuitive sense.  When I read a student's comments on the discussion board that her learning style varied - it suddenly clicked.  Her learning style wasn't varying - her need for additional feedback in the form of discussion and being shown the information multiple times was a manifestation of her lack of pre-existing knowledge. And then, what Mayes and Gabriel were saying made so much more sense.  A brilliantly designed lesson plan with multi media clips and engaging activities about calculus just won't make any sense to a 3rd grader struggling to grasp the concept of multiplication.   So how a student learns is less relevant than the level at which the material is presented to the student.  Mismatching - or using a style that is not specifically comfortable to the student might not be desirable all the time - but it might force the student to have to think about the material in a way that ensures his grasping the concept.

So- the big question in my mind as we leave this week (and this module) is how to incorporate an assessment of the K12 student's existing knowledge into the online classroom prior to the start of the class.  If the teacher is designing the lesson plan, that may be relatively easy.  If a team is designing a module that will be subsequently used over a period of years by multiple instructors, that may not be quite as easy.

Some suggestions that I'll be thinking about

KWL chart - Have the student share what they know, what they want to know and then, at the end what they learned.  (I'd also use Buzzeo's (2002) additional column on this.  Where I learned the information.  This would force the student to keep track of websites/books/page numbers etc - and allow the instructor to also assess research skills.  This exercise would allow the teacher to see where each student is starting from, but also give global learners a framework of reference for the whole semester.

Buzzeo, T. (2002) Collaborating to Meet Standards:  Teacher/Librarian partnerships for 7-12.  Linworth OH.   

Discussion Questions:  A well written discussion question could potentially allow students to share what they already know about the topic, allowing the teacher to guide/add/supplement as needed before going into the predesigned learning modules. This would encourage the building of a community of inquiry.

Journal:  Having the students fill out a weekly, private journal allows students to reflect on what they are learning and gives the instructor the opportunity to share.  This allows both assessment on the part of the teacher and the opportunity for feedback as well as reflective opportunities for those students who need this.

Mind Map:  Using bubbl.us or some other free concept mapping software, have the student create a mind map to show what they know and the connections or understanding.

Have the student create the outline for a website instead of a KWL chart.   The website could then be rounded out as the semester went by, with the final product being part of an ongoing digital portfolio.

The most difficult thing about assessment within a pre-designed online module is how to adapt when necessary.  High school students often come to a classroom with widely differing capabilities and understanding of the topic at hand so the well trained online instructor would have to be able to use the tools offered by the classroom and still have the flexibility to change up as necessary for advanced students or for those that require more pre-instruction or tutoring.

That then brings up the question of student support.  If tutoring is necessary - how will that be provided?  Who will decide when student tutoring is necessary - and how will the instructor and the tutor work together to assess the student's progress?  Or will they be one and the same person?   If scaffolding to existing knowledge is vital, then so is support for the student who is struggling..   Yet one more area to explore in the coming weeks.

End of week 2

As is usual in any class, there's been a lot of reading and wrapping my brain around new ideas as well as dusting off some old knowledge.

Teaching and Learning Online. 

Since I am in the middle of  a 5 week introduction to online teaching class for new, about to be, online teachers, this is a great time to be reflecting on the established educational philosophies and re-vamping my own personal philosophy towards online education as opposed to the regular classroom.  In addition to teaching a course that was designed by someone else, I'm  also playing the role of student, thinking about best practices for designing an online class.   At the same time, I'm  designing the German curriculum for the virtual high school, realizing that it truly is an opportunity to make a difference for the students.  My goal for that course is to create an atmosphere that is conducive and motivating to learning for all students. 

Reviewing educational philosophies.  Behavioral, Cognitive, Constructivist.  I was familiar with these three theories, but the Connectivist theory was new to me, although it made perfect sense when I began reading about it.  One of my goals during this course is to explore this theory more.   

Guiding question:  What is the point of a theory/philosophy in any teaching situation?

Answers:  As a teacher, I believe that it's important to be aware that we all learn differently, depending on learning styles and experience.  An awareness of how students learn can,and should dictate, at least to a certain extent, how the classroom experience is planned.  It is also important to understand that all teachers bring their own learning styles and preferences into the classroom.  Their philosophy of learning, whether clearly understood by the teacher or not, tends to dominate the lesson planning.   A good teacher in any circumstances should be able to reach all students.

AHA moment:  Learner centered is not learning centred  (Anderson)Oh how true.  We cannot keep everybody happy and people have to take a certain amount of responsibility for their own learning, no matter what we do.  Ensuring that the courses is set up in such a way that learning can take place is not the same as ensuring that everyone learns the same thing.  We all come with different backgrounds, different learning styles and different needs.