Collaborative Interaction

According to Dr. George Siemens, acceptance of distance education is growing due to the increase of online communication between people, whether they are family members, colleagues or strangers with whom they need to collaborate. Communication and collaboration with diverse and global groups has become much easier and more efficient in these last years. Dr. George Siemens believes that distance education will be impacted by new communication technologies, and that the higher education institutions will all gradually adopt distance education technologies although he also believe that face-to-face education will not be abandoned. Dr. Siemens did nevertheless not believe that k12 education would adopt national requirements for distance education. I also believe that online communication has become very important, and that people whether they are young or old are starting to use this technology to communicate among themselves.

According to Palloff and Pratt (2005) collaborative activity is important both in the face to face education and in distance education as it promotes the development of critical thinking skills; reflective thinking; creation of knowledge and meaning with collaborative group and transformation thinking.

Collaborative online communication is a very important aspect of distance education. The collaborative tools are more by the day; there are the wikis where participants are able to collaborate in the creation of documents, blogs where participantes are able to share their work, interact and collaborate, some social networking sites such as wiggio where students are able to collaborate and even use the tools in the classroom. There are google docs, google groups; voicthreads, there are also tools for videoconferencing among which we find skype. There is also Elluminate, Webex and Dimdim5 for webconferencing.

Maria

Distance Learning

Distance Learning

"Distance education can be defined as Formal education in which the learning group (teachers, students, resources) are separated by geography and sometimes by time." (Simonson, 2010)
Distance education is not identical to face to face education, it is equivalent. The courses have the same learning outcomes but in distance education learning experiences need to be provided in order to accomplish the outcomes.

Distance education is becoming very popular in post-secondary education. According to Moller,Foshay, and Huett, (2008, July/August) distance education will become dominant with concerns such as course development, workload, intellectual property rights, collaboration and salary. In the future competition will be in favor of institutions which provide the best and most effective distance education.

K12 education does not have as much demand as does college education. In the k12 site based distance education is becoming very popular. In rural areas site based distance education allows highly qualified teachers to instruct students, that otherwise would not have any teachers.
Some online high schools allow students to take courses from home while others require computer labs supervised by teachers. In the case of K12 instruction, there are few opportunities for personal interaction and the student may feel isolated. The amount of independence, the synchronous versus asynchronous environments and technology required needs more research. I personally think that distance education is a breakthrough and that through distance education students all over will have e access to education.

References:

Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W. & Coleman, C. (2008, September/October). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 3: K12). TechTrends, 52(5), 63–67.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Distance Education: The Next Generation [Webcast]. Principles of Distance Education. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008, July/August). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 2: Higher Education). TechTrends, 52(4), 66–70.

Reflection

As this course comes to an end, I can´t help but feel a little sad. The time I spent in the whole program was wonderful and I learned so much from the teachers and my peers alike. I wish all of you lots of success as teacher leaders in the integration of technology in your school districts.


I am so excited to start using emerging technology in my classes as well as inspiring my administrators and colleagues to start using them as well. As was stressed by Johnson, L., Levine, A., Smith, R., Smythe, T. (2009) in the Horizon Report, there are new technologies which will be adopted within the year, others in the near future and others still, in four to five years time. All the tools I had opportunity to try out seemed so wonderful and will be able to be used in the classroom by me or by other teachers. I had the opportunity to see some tools that are fantastic for student motivation and commitment. I have seen other tools that would work so well in some of my colleague’s classrooms because of the specificity of the work they need to do with their students. After this course I realize that what I knew about technology was not really much compared to what I have come to learn, especially in this course. I also realize that I still have a long way to go and that I need to be prepared to adapt new technologies in my classroom and that I need to guide my fellow colleagues so that they too may do the same.

Our students are the twenty first century digital natives who use technologies on a daily basis and we as educators need to implement these technologies as educational tools to support, transform, expand, and deepen students learning. Brann, A., Gray, T., Piety, P. J., & Pacuilla H.S. (2010) believe that there are five key dimensions of science education for struggling students which are:

1. Physically doing science or “getting a mechanic grip” on the natural world

2. Visualization, representation, and modeling

3. Science literacy, vocabulary, and discourse

4. Questions, argumentation, and use of evidence

5. Student engagement and identity with science

Multi-user virtual environments for professional development and for student participation in learning networks such as teen second life, skoolaborate and flatclassrooms fulfil these dimensions. I have already started using some cloud based and collaborative tools such as voicethread, blogs, wikis, prezi, glogs, webquests, surveys, virtual field trips and simulations. I have already motiveted some of my colleagues to start using some of these tools as well.

www.flatclassroomproject.org

Flatclassrooms are ideal for activities that are performed on a worldwide scale where students are able to exchange ideas and experiences that will definitely be extremely beneficial for all involved. One of the flatclassrooms projects this year is “the way the World Wide Web changed the world” which is ideal for my “Science, Technology and Society” students which have a module on Technology. This is a wonderful opportunity for these students to learn more about technology and share their ideas and thoughts with students in the same program from schools anywhere in the world.

http://www.skoolaborate.com/

Skoolaborate is a Multi-user virtual environment prepared for educational purposes so it is the ideal setting for educators to use with their students. My “Quality, Environment and Security” and my “Science, Technology and Society” students have a learning module on sustainable development which gives me the ideal opportunity to have them do a project on sustainable constructions and have them construct a sustainable home in this virtual environment.

I enjoyed the videogames and know that there are many wonderful games out there. I just wish there were more good games for secondary school science. Hopefully they will start appearing soon. I saw good math games and good games for younger students.

I am going to commit to the purpose of changing my colleague's views on the integration of technology in the classroom and I am going to keep myself updated with the emerging and the disruptive technologies that may be of use in education. I have also joined the Kappa Delta Phi Honor Society, which is a good way to keep myself updated on what is new in education and educational technologies. I am also thinking of continuing my studies at Walden.

Maria

Brann, A., Gray, T., Piety, P. J., & Pacuilla H.S. (2010). Using Technology to Support Struggling Students in Science. Center for Implementation of Technology in Education.1-23.

Johnson, L., Levine, A., Smith, R., Smythe, T. (2009). The 2009 Horizon Report: K-12 Edition, Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Online Learning in K-12 Schools

We do already have Moodle at our school, which goes from 10th through to 12th grade. This Education Management System and collaborative learning environment is used by very few teachers and mostly is just used as a file storage where students are able to access extra resources for their courses, very few teachers use moodle for quizzes and even less use it as a collaboration tool or online comunication device.

I have therefore chosen a presentation using glogster to motivate the teachers in a further use of this tool.

http://doloresjardim.glogster.com/Moodle/

Rcampus which is also a very good comprehensive Education Management System and collaborative learning environment with very interesting features for those who definitely do not appreciate Moodle.

McLuhan's Tetrad

Mc Luhan´s Tetrad considers four complementary aspects which are:
Enhances
Obsoletes
Retrieves/rekindles
Reverses.
This tetrad of the effects of technologies is simultaneous.

Computer-based learning suppliers transform schooling by introducing technology to compete against non-consumption.

E-books:
This technology ENHANCES through innovation by supplying online versions of school textbooks. This technology is already starting to appear through virtual learning environments for students supplied by the book editors and some books also have e-versions. These e-books could eventually also contain content for differentiated instruction, supplying specific content for all students, at all grade levels as well as comprehension levels. Christensen, C and Horn, M (2008) state that computerbased learning software must be introduced disruptively, by letting it compete against non-consumption. They also state that software makers should customize software for different learning types.

This technology OBSOLETES and replaces the heavy books which also contain content that the students never learn but have to carry around with them throughout the school year. With ebooks the technology may provide for the different learning styles of students substituting the normal books that, although the editors try to appeal to all students are not able to. Computer based books could have multiple paths leading students to study through different processes according to learning style. It could turn the learning process much more individualized.

This technology RETRIEVES/REKINDLES information from the past, the fact that the student gets access to the information they are looking for without having to waste time searching through several chapters in books and contouring around unnecessary content, brings us back to the times where teachers would give the notes to the students which only contained the content she wanted them to learn at that moment. They just got the information they need. This technology would go further giving the students what they need respecting their individual learning styles.

This technology may eventually be REVERSES by being substituted in the future, by online libraries, or one big information center, with accessible content to everyone at every grade level all over the world. It can also be replaced by something else we do not imagine that can appear and that can revolutionize the course of education, another disruptive technology.

As Thornburg, D. (2008) states:
“A new technology carries with it the seeds of destruction paving the way for the next one to follow.”

References:
Christensen, C. M., Horn, M. B., & Johnson, C. W. (2008). Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns (1 ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.


David, T. (2008). Emerging Technologies and McLuhan's Laws of Media. Thornburg Center for Space Exploration, 1-8. Retrieved July 9, 2010, from http://www.tcse-k12.org

Universal Design for Learning and Differentiated Instruction

As I reflect upon this course I think of the guidelines given by the three principles of the Universal Design for Learning which parallel the learning components and networks in the brain: recognition, strategy, and affect:

1.      Provide alternative formats for presenting information (multiple or transformable accessible media)

2.      Provide alternative means for action and expression (write, draw, speak, switch, graphic organization tools, etc.).

3.      Provide alternative means for engagement (background knowledge, options,

             challenge and support).

I discovered in Differentiated Instruction the answer to many questions and doubts I had about reaching every child. I came to realize that I could match content to the different learners differentiating according to readiness, I also discovered how I could try to compact content for more able students, use learning contracts and differentiate product depend on the student´s level of readiness, interests and learning profiles. I am thinking of using surveys to determine the students learning styles, learning profiles and their readiness in order to determine the preferred style of my lessons.

I have already started working with the technology tools that we have been learning about throughout the masters program and have been introducing these tools in my lessons and have given the students the possibility to use the technology tools that work best for them, having students prepare projects and work use technology they identify with. I have come to realize the importance of diverse tools for instruction in order to motivate students with diverse learning styles. It was fascinating to learn about some of the assistive tools for students with learning difficulties. With these tools students will all have the opportunity to learn the content they need to using the technology to overcome their shortcomings. I plan to use the summer break to master all these tools in order to start using them when they are needed in my lessons.

This course gave me the opportunity to see how enriching the experience of exchanging and sharing with peers that we have come to know through posts in the discussion board and work groups using wiki, google groups and skype is. With the wonderful resources my peers in the differentiation station and I were able to find for determining learning styles and preferences, assessment tools, curriculum materials, assistive technology, instructional technology I will be able to start taking steps to become a better teacher, using differentiated instruction. I will be starting with tiered projects.

As many of my peers pointed out throughout the course, many of us have used some differentiated instruction through intuition, not having any planned support; this has been given to us through this course. We now need to move forward one step at a time.

Maria

Surveys

MY SURVEY

I tried to prepare a survey that may give me an idea of the learning interests, a little of the multiple intelligences and learning styles. This information may give me the students profile.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CQMNKZ2

INTEREST SURVEY

The interest survey I prefer for my students is found at:
http://www.union.k12.sc.us/ems/Teachers-Forms--Student%20Interest%20Survey.htm

This is a nineteen question survey which is quite complete. The survey covers interests in reading, travel, movies, food music, sport, hobbies, friends and curiosities. The students are also surveyed to find out how they are capable of analyzing their friends and themselves.

LEARNING STYLE SURVEY

The learning style survey I appreciated the most is the survey found in:

http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html

This learning style survey belongs to the NC State University, but is very interesting for my students. It has 44 interactive surveys which will be able to give us a complete idea of the students preferred learning styles. They may be visual, auditory or kinesthetic learners.

MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES SURVEY
The multiple intelligences survey I chose is the survey in:

www.mvanhecke.net/MI-Survey.doc

This survey is a very complete and interesting multiple intelligence survey which is composed of 55 questions that determine:

Verbal Linguistic Intelligence;

Logic Mathematical Intelligence;

Intrapersonal Intelligence;

Interpersonal Intelligence;

Visual Intelligence;

Musical Intelligence;

Kinesthetic Intelligence;

Naturalistic Intelligence.

There is a section for the results which sums up the preferences very nicely.

LEARNER PROFILE
The learner profile information I prefer is:

http://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com/file/view/Learner_Profile.pdf

This site contains a learner profile which is absolutely wonderful. It is in a card shape and yet contains all the information needed, such as: learning styles; interests, favorite subjects and multiple intelligences.

Maria