Assessments

I use both formative and summative assessments in my classes. I use formative assessments to acquire feedback from students, in order to make improvements and progress basically as teaching and learning continues until the course is over. Typically, I ask students as we move along, to evaluate the course, submit outlines for papers, presentations, and answer questions about lectures, or any given material on a weekly basis.

As far as summative assessment, I take a much deeper approach, attempting to measure students proficiency against a standard that is given to students by rubrics before each assignment. According to Online Assessments different rubrics can be effective if implemented properly. I assign grades, evaluations, final papers, and presentations. Sometimes I notice that when asking students about possible improvements during the course, may not actually help because most students in my experience, are not comfortable being expressive or critiquing assignments or someone that is giving them a grade. I notice as time passes, they become much more open and forthright. I believe taking the time to consider that you may not always get the results that you want, but understanding that some results are still a resource for the instructor and student.

I would like to incorporate more practice exercises. I notice that if I add more practice type formative assessments, I can give more feedback to students. From watching the videos and completing the readings I will incorporate more face-to face meetings with my students by just sitting down and talking with them. I also like the idea of projects, which can be more of a summative approach. An idea that I learned from Kearns is creating a list and not just a rubric, (Kearns, 2012).  Rubrics can sometimes be confusing whereas a list of requirements tells the student exactly what is needed. Sometimes rubrics can be good in theory and limited in practice.

Assessments in general can be used all different types of ways. I want to make sure I use assessments to provide better experiences for them and better results for me.  After the readings, I would benefit from incorporating more technology – infused assessments (Prineas, 2011). Online reflection posts is a good idea I read about. There is also a lot of writing in my classes. A good suggestion after completing the readings is to have students write different drafts for papers as assignments throughout the semester. Also have can have them peer-review their final papers before submission.

Blended Learning….ongoing change

I really enjoyed Jen Johnson’s video on ” Blended Learning vs. Technology Integration”. It presents a very clear definition of what blended learning is not. I also thought it was extremely helpful in conceptualizing blended learning techniques. As a higher education Instructor that teaches blended learning courses, my learning environment and classroom is already structured with a blended learning format in place. I mainly use Desire to Learn (D2L) as the Learning Management System (LMS).Typically, I use discussion posts, peer to peer assessments and incorporate a discussion and PBL to integrate the two settings together.

In general, higher education institutions are changing and technology often plays a central role in their transformations. Educational changes benefit from a supportive environment. The implementation of blended learning is one of the changes. Jen Johnson stated in her video, that the implementation of blended learning often brings confusion to educators (Johnson, 2015). Oftentimes, the successful blended course has a lot to do with the institutions success at blended learning, and the culture and faculty’s perceptions of blending technology and traditional type learning designs within their universities. Structured and supportive leadership, relationships, participative decision making, and tools that specifically focus on technology supported learning, is needed for implementing a successful blended learning course.

A strong connection to online and off-line work is true blending learning. What a student is doing in the online environment has to be represented in the classroom. The online classroom and collaborative classroom gives students an enhanced way to learn. Content instruction, discussion questions, and assessments is what I mainly use. It also allows for more time for learning when using LMS. I would like to incorporate blogs and wikis as well to further learning integration.

What I took from the readings and videos is that blended learning is not all about technology integration, but is more about instructional design, and that technology is leveraged intentionally to restructure the classroom, increase student involvement, engagement and input (Johnson, 2015). The tools tell only one story, so we must incorporate both settings strategically to create the best learning settings for students.

I am completely comfortable with the blended learning format. I view the adoption and acceptance of blended learning through a whole-system approach-which is a more systemic way of looking at instructional designs. It also makes me comfortable with blended learning approaches and tools.

PLN’S

I just began to build my personal learning network. I do get involved with my universities professional learning community, where they tend to collaborate with the other branch campuses here and there. I also go to the major conferences in my field, so I would have to say in the past my PLN’s  usually involved some sort of acquaintance from the conferences and then a follow-up or exchange of emails after.

The reason why I began to build a personal learning network was to connect with other educators and researchers around the world. I believe that having a personal learning network that allows me to individualize my specific needs, will help me to gain better knowledge. It will also help me to become a much more effective instructor. To help me propel to the next level-making connections with like-minded people is pivotal. I look forward to learning from different leaders, and networking globally while learning outside the classroom.

I started to build my networks by following Twitter, EDU blogger and Ted Talks. In particular, this VOLT program is actually instrumental in helping me begin my own blogging. I really have found great value in each of these social mediums. I am also a member of LinkedIn but I haven’t found much value in that as an educator.

Overall, reading tweets on Twitter has proved to be rewarding.  I started by selecting different well known universities and scholars that typically have great information to share. I was so surprised how much you can learn in minutes that fit into 140 characters or sound bites! As time goes by, I will continue adding to my learning network by joining more social networks, subscribing to more blogs, and commenting and tweeting.

Data & Privacy

Audrey Watters article raised some valid points. The article definitely creates awareness.  At the very least, I began to do more research on data and privacy. My conclusion, is that learners should have a right to privacy. I teach in higher education, so I do not have extensive knowledge on adaptive learning techniques within the school system, but I do believe (from the limited knowledge that I know and read) that it has some amazing properties,  and has quite progressive techniques to assist in providing better educational efficacy. As long as the right to privacy laws are not breached, than I am all for most learning tools.

I am not worried about student data and privacy, because I believe that privacy without the use of adaptive learning tools is already a salient issue. Meaning, if I were worried, I should have worried long before now.I would say I do have some questions about data privacy. Technology is moving so fast,  that data privacy issues can go overlooked and unchecked. Again, don’t get me wrong there is much to be gained, but like anything, there can be a downside, so awareness is key.

“One of the great challenges we face with collecting and analyzing education data is that it often exists in a murky and uncomfortable overlap between the public and the personal” (Watters, 2013).Presently, the internet is now often titled, “the information super highway”, where privacy, in my opinion is constantly being violated. Other people’s private information and students, is at your fingertips by searching online whether you access it for free or pay for it:/

Social Learning in Online and Blended Environments – What kind of interaction is happening among students in your classroom?

How do your students interact and learn socially?

I teach blended courses, so I am able to see how my students interact in a particular environment- whether it is online or in a face-to-face session. The behavior is parallel across the board, but inconsistent. Honestly, it depends on the class and the students. For example, typically my Business Law students interact about the same as when they are online in a discussion forum, as they do in a four hour class. Interesting enough, participation is graded and encouraged so that may have a lot to do with it. On the other hand, my Psychology and Organizational Development students interact much more in the face-to-face setting. I am not sure what the motivating factors are, but if I were to take a guess I would think it has to do with how well they already know one another, how comfortable they feel with using technology, if there is an incentive associated with social interaction-such as a grade,  and is social interaction important to them.

Do students prefer face to face interaction while learning?

Again, I am not sure do to the inconsistent nature of courses I teach. There are too many other correlating factors that could be at play. I suppose one could measure the outcomes individually by looking at how much interaction is done online as opposed to face-to-face.

Is providing a space for online discussion in a learning platform or other safe space integral to your courses?

Yes, it is definitely needed. Parallel to information given in The Odyssey of the Mind article, I noticed that students used the discussion forum to relate content to their own experience “The social network also provided students a place to discuss their problems regarding online teachers or courses” (Barbour, 2012). Oftentimes, students would talk about their jobs, the culture of their jobs, particular managers, and oddly, different courses and teachers that they had in the past. This came up quite a bit in our ethics discussion. The students also posted freely, but at the same time being very careful not to mention names of people or particular businesses names. Overall, I believe it is a great idea to make sure students are socially interactive. As long as it is regulated and implemented properly. A social networking option as the article suggestions seems to be a great idea and a move toward progression. As long as they consider the four issues: maintaining children’s safety and security, making the social network a volunteer activity by protecting autonomy,  implementing an  acceptable use of  policy and finally, implementation of monitoring the sites ( Barbour, 2012).

Are you currently fostering a participative culture?

“The concept of ‘presence’ in the online environment is in itself complex, involving thought, emotion and behaviors (Lehman and Conceicao, 2011).”

Teaching blended courses in the university setting allows me to weave together classroom and virtual education. Essentially, the work that is presented in the online space drives the work that is done in the classroom. Group discussions, the use of collaborative methodologies helps to promote equality and increase learning throughout the course.  I also like students to participate by using a “clicker” to answer questions that foster “evaluative thinkers”. Feedback is essential (I noticed) for adult learners. They do not hesitate to ask or email for the slightest of misunderstandings. I encourage constant discourse to minimize confusion.

According to Garrison, presence can be divided into categories of social, cognitive and instructor presence pertaining to the online environment (2003). I do not typically experience students feeling like I am “not there” because outside of online delivery, I see them for 4hrs per week. I do notice that some students will have questions as soon as class starts. This tells me that establishing presence is necessary for effective learning. For students to experience a sense of presence online, the technology must become transparent – the web enabled device, the platform, or site is invisible (Kupczynski, L., Ice, P., Wiesenmayer, R., & McCluskey, F., 2010).

The delivery of knowledge and understanding technology seems to be integrating these days. Telling stories is a great way to help engage students. The power of external resources can be used to supplement your teaching skills. I noticed that providing clarity and introducing new ideas and telling funny or interesting stories re-engages students. My thoughts are parallel to Dr. Jenkins when he describes “participatory culture” as a general sense of culture, and how the elements of culture is essentially a part of learning. This is the type of culture I promote in my classroom.

The most important reason to understand online teaching and learning is…….

…….because change is constant, and ways to deliver knowledge has changed rapidly through technology. It is imperative that educators understand the different tools that are accompanied with the delivery of knowledge. You never know when you maybe faced with delivering knowledge online. It is important to understand that there are pedagogical differences between teaching and delivery methods. Technology makes things easy states Dr. Bill Cope, such as ubiquitous learning—anywhere, anytime, collaborative learning—knowledge you can reach out and use, recursive feedback-formative assessment and multi-modal meaning-text, image, sound and data (2014). Listening to the lecture,  my understanding is that the relationship of knowledge is exactly the same. Most importantly, students are retaining knowledge, differentiating between learning methodologies, (which are personalized) each according to their own interests and needs.

The dominance of asynchronous activity, and the gift of choice demands that, when developing concepts we must also enhance our understanding and practice of education as intentional learning (Cochrane, 2014). Learning is constant and happens at even given place, all the time. Creating knowledge and educating is something that is a choice. The world as we know it has become technologically prominent right before our eyes. Demonstrating ownership and exercising choices will attribute to the fluid delivery of how technology is used for the better.

Students continuously use technology as informal teaching, whether it is YouTube, Twitter, Periscope and other social networking tools they participate in/with—learning is taking place. I believe online learning needs to be fully understood in order to integrate formal and informal learning. Combining the two, or creating similarities can prove to be a great way to increase the delivery and understanding of education.

New Assessments for Knowledge Building

Generally, 21st century skills are normally associated with knowledge, skills, work habits and character. The paper titled: White Paper 4: New assessments and environments for knowledge building focuses on two particular constructs “working backward from goals” and “emergence of new competence” (Scardamalia, 2012) .According to Scardamalia et, al.,  the normative educational procedure takes shape when “working backward from goals” is used for educational assessment and objectives-based instruction (2012). On the other hand “emergence of new competence” is needed in the 21^st century to help keep education and the delivery innovative by implementing new objectives.

This paper is interesting because I am noticing both approaches throughout academia. There is this struggle with implementing new objectives and goals while still pursuing a traditional educational foundation. In my experience, technology is the major factor that is driving this change. Academic institutions have very complex environments that essentially have demands that are constantly competing. I believe by implementing “emergence of new competence” –basically seeking to identify what in the educational system obstructs or enhances the change in the institution (educational reform) should be re-evaluated and examined through the lens of socio-economic, political and the technical features of education-to begin to reinvent new practices. This approach, if done properly, may help reduce the complexity of educational institutions. I also believe there is an opportunity for disruptive trends in technology and educational culture to converge.

Instructional Design Perspectives

I must admit that I am learning so much when it comes to educational learning theories. Overall, I believe I apply different learning theories pertaining to different environments. I relate most of my experiences to two learning theories– systemic eclecticism and constructivist theory. Systematic eclecticism is by far used most throughout my educational years. Ertmer et.al describes this instructional design perspective as combining all theories by aligning them with your particular teaching goals (2013).  This theory is most parallel to adult students in my opinion because it relates to the way people learn with what they experience. I too can relate to this thought process. I oftentimes explain concepts by providing an example or a story associated with my life or something I read or heard about. Overall, depending on which course I am teaching and how I perceive my teaching environment to be, is how I implement different goals.

Another learning theory that I use is constructivist theory.  I use this method by assigning case studies in and outside of class. The case study approach is used to analyze something in order to illustrate a particular principle. For example, in my business courses that I teach, I will provide students with a general background about a company, then a scenario is presented that typically has some sort of problem or dilemma. The student then needs to provide solution(s) for the problem. This methodology works well in business courses and helps students think more strategically.

Video Presentation Tool #2

Hi, this is a brief presentation of an educational online tool called Prezi. Prezi  is a  presentation software, and storytelling tool for presenting ideas on a virtual canvas while seemingly bringing a presentation to life (Prezi, 2015). My rationale for choosing this tool is because it represents innovation.It is also a new, engaging and memorable technological tool that students can enjoy, that is technologically forward (which is important in the every changing world of technological practices).