Session 9: Online Class Structure

Describe the students (one paragraph):

Students will be staff and faculty of a community college. Students have little or no knowledge with website development.

Describe the content, including at least three objectives or goals (one paragraph):

This course will train staff and faculty how to develop and maintain websites by providing them with the basics of:

• Effective usage of online resources for communication, interaction and discussions
• HTML tags
• Dreamweaver (widely used software for website development)
• Using templates
• Developing your own website

Describe how you will know your students have met each objective or goal (one paragraph):

Students will be evaluated on how well they perform on each specified tasks:

Assignment 1 = 20 points: Establish communication with instructor and other students using email and Facebook. Post personal experience with web development and Facebook.

Assignment 2 = 10 points: Online discussion of basic HTML tags. Post to demonstrate understanding of HTML.

Assignment 3 = 20 points: Online discussion of the basics on how to use Dreamweaver to develop websites. Post advantages and disadvantages of using Dreamweaver.

Assignment 4 = 20 points: Online discussion on how to use templates in Dreamweaver. Develop a webpage using a template.

Assignment 5 = 10 points: Online discussion on how to update contents on the website. Post on how you will perform certain updates to the website.

Assignment 6 = 20 points: Develop your own website using Dreamweaver.

Describe the interactions your online class will include for each session.

Session one goal:

Course Technology Requirement

Session one interaction description:

Student-Content: Develop Facebook account and post

Student-Instructor: Email and Facebook

Student-Student: Email and Facebook

Session one products or evaluations:

You are required to sign up for a Facebook account and send instructor a friend request. Once accepted, you are then required to join the course by accepting instructor’s request. After you are in the course, you are required to post your previous experience with website development and Facebook. Email instructor once you complete your post.

Technology or Technologies that will support the interactions:

Email and Facebook

Session two goal:

Learn basic HTML tags for developing websites.

Session two interaction description:

Student-Content: HTML

Student-Instructor: Email and Facebook

Student-Student: Email and Facebook

Session two products or evaluations:

Post at least 3 times to demonstrate your understanding of HTML tags for website development. Respond to other students or instructor questions and comments.

Technology or Technologies that will support the interactions:

Facebook, email, video, pdf file

Session three goal:

Learn the basics of Dreamweaver for developing websites.

Session three interaction description:

Student-Content: Dreamweaver

Student-Instructor: Email and Facebook

Student-Student: Email and Facebook

Session three products or evaluations:

Post advantages and disadvantages of using Dreamweaver for website development.

Technology or Technologies that will support the interactions:

Email, Facebook, Dreamweaver

Session four goal:

Learn the basics on using templates in Dreamweaver.

Session four interaction description:

Student-Content: Dreamweaver and activity

Student-Instructor: Email and Facebook

Student-Student: Email and Facebook

Session four products or evaluations:

Develop webpage using a template in Dreamweaver. Webpage must meet minimum requirements and must be free of errors. Email instructor the link to your webpage.

Technology or Technologies that will support the interactions:

Facebook, email, Dreamweaver

Session five goal:

Update existing webpage in Dreamweaver

Session five interaction description:

Student-Content: Dreamweaver

Student-Instructor: Email and Facebook

Student-Student: Email and Facebook

Session five products or evaluations:

Perform required updates and must be free of errors. Email instructor the link(s) to the webpage(s) where you performed updates.

Technology or Technologies that will support the interactions:

Facebook, email, Dreamweaver

Session six goal:

Develop your own website.

Session six interaction description:

Student-Content: Dreamweaver

Student-Instructor: Email and Facebook

Student-Student: Email and Facebook

Session six products or evaluations:

Website must meet requirements. Design and layout must be organized and meet basic standards for website development. Email instructor the link to your webpage.

Technology or Technologies that will support the interactions:

Facebook, email, Dreamweaver

Session 7: Technology Comparison

Deliver Lectures: Personal Website vs. Facebook

How can educators deliver lectures without putting their students to sleep? With so many technologies readily available to make your classes more enjoyable and interesting, it is hard to choose which to implement. Delivering your lectures via the Internet makes for a more interesting outcome, specifically through your own website or facebook.com (one of the most popular social networking program online).

When making your own website, you should check with your school’s Webmaster to see if they offer teachers free web space through the school’s server. Then you will have to figure out what you want included in your website, the layout, color scheme, text designs, etc... Because you are building the website, you decide what to include and not to include, it is teacher-centered; thus, social presence. On the other hand, media richness can be increased by including images, audio and videos to deliver your lecture.

Another way to deliver your lectures can be done through facebook: http://www.edumorphology.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/fb_classroom1.pdf. You can create a teacher account (http://apps.facebook.com/courses) and add the courses application. You can create your own course, post assignments, start a discussion, make announcements, etc...

How can educators deliver lectures without putting their students to sleep? With so many technologies readily available to make your classes more enjoyable and interesting, it is hard to choose which to implement. Delivering your lectures via the Internet makes for a more interesting outcome, specifically through your own website or facebook.com (one of the most popular social networking program online).

When making your own website, you should check with your school’s Webmaster to see if they offer teachers free web space through the school’s server. Then you will have to figure out what you want included in your website, the layout, color scheme, text designs, etc... Because you are building the website, you decide what to include and not to include, it is teacher-centered; thus, social presence. On the other hand, media richness can be increased by including images, audio and videos to deliver your lecture.

Another way to deliver your lectures can be done through facebook: http://www.edumorphology.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/fb_classroom1.pdf. You can create a teacher account (http://apps.facebook.com/courses) and add the courses application. You can create your own course, post assignments, start a discussion, make announcements, etc...

The best thing about facebook is you can invite all your students to join your class and change the setting to make it only viewable to people on your contact list.

With your students as members of your course, they will be able to leave comments, upload pictures or videos related to the class to share with other students, read your posts/lectures, contribute to the discussion board and check what is due, increasing media richness and social presence (Distance Education; May2008, Vol. 29 Issue 1, p89-106, 18p).

There are some strengths and weaknesses associated with these two technologies. When building your own website, there are many things you have to consider: how much is it going to cost? Do you need to hire someone to make it for you or do you know how to make a website yourself? Who is going to maintain the website? On the plus side, you have control over what is on your website. You do not need to worry about your students adding inappropriate things to your site.

Facebook, in my opinion, is a much better choice because of the student-teacher interaction involved. Even though you still have to learn the technology, it is much easier than building your own website. You students may need some assistance learning how to navigate around facebook, but you can help by providing a small tutorial of the basic things that needs to be done.

Both building your own website and signing up for facebook fulfills the task of delivering lectures. The decisions you will have to make are how much time, money and effort do you want to invest in delivering your lecture?

All in all I have learned that even web services initially developed for online social networking can be use for educational purposes. Also, building your own website for your class can be really complicated and cumbersome to implement. Learning how to use technologies that is readily available can save you a lot of time, money and stress.

The best thing about facebook is you can invite all your students to join your class and change the setting to make it only viewable to people on your contact list.

With your students as members of your course, they will be able to leave comments, upload pictures or videos related to the class to share with other students, read your posts/lectures, contribute to the discussion board and check what is due, increasing media richness and social presence (Distance Education; May2008, Vol. 29 Issue 1, p89-106, 18p).

There are some strengths and weaknesses associated with these two technologies. When building your own website, there are many things you have to consider: how much is it going to cost? Do you need to hire someone to make it for you or do you know how to make a website yourself? Who is going to maintain the website? On the plus side, you have control over what is on your website. You do not need to worry about your students adding inappropriate things to your site.

Facebook, in my opinion, is a much better choice because of the student-teacher interaction involved. Even though you still have to learn the technology, it is much easier than building your own website. You students may need some assistance learning how to navigate around facebook, but you can help by providing a small tutorial of the basic things that needs to be done.

Both building your own website and signing up for facebook fulfills the task of delivering lectures. The decisions you will have to make are how much time, money and effort do you want to invest in delivering your lecture?

All in all I have learned that even web services initially developed for online social networking can be use for educational purposes. Also, building your own website for your class can be really complicated and cumbersome to implement. Learning how to use technologies that is readily available can save you a lot of time, money and stress.

Session 7: Annotated Bibliography

Citation:

Charsky, D., & Mims, C. (2008). Integrating commercial off-the-shelf video games into school curriculums. TechTrends, 52(5), 38-52.

Summary:

This article talked about how game based learning through the use of commercial off the shelf (COTS) games can create a more collaborative and valuable learning experience for both students and teacher. The authors developed three types of instructional activities based on research findings.

The first type is called learn the game, which tracked the students’ skills and information gathering for later use. Assessment for this type of activity can be multiple choice, true/false or matching tests. The second type is called cross over where students were required to compare and contrast real-life events from the game. Assessments can be short answer questions. The last type is called game as a theory of content where the students analyzed and critiqued the actual events. Assessment can be done through research papers.

“The inspiration for the three types of instructional activities has come from a variety of methods that seek to provide an authentic learning environment, inextricably relate content to context, allow for errors and learning from those errors, use a variety of tools that assist learners in developing solutions from a wealth of resources, and position the student in an environment that allows them to collaborate and communicate about the content in order to achieve the highest of instructional objectives” (p. 42).

Review:

Overall this article is a must read if you want o learn about the effective uses of games in instructional strategy. The authors provided way on how to integrate specific games with certain classes. Also, they provided the challenges teachers may face implementing this type of instructional strategy and provided possible solutions.

Citation:

Stowell, T., & Shelton, E. (2008). Challenges, frustrations and triumphs of remixing an open source game engine for educational purposes. TechTrends 52(5), 32-36.

Summary:

The authors discussed the many challenges they faced in modifying an existing game to fit their goal of teaching. Because the existing game was old, they encountered compatibility issues which required them to re-format some things. Another issue was the lack of resources to complete the modification process.

Also, the article mentioned the benefits of games being used by teachers. The benefits included the demand for collaboration and social interaction. Students will learn to interact and collaborate with other students to figure out how to advance in the game. There were four conditions of engagement in instruction called the CUPS model:

· Challenge: Players must solve the puzzles in the game to progress.

· Uncertainty: Some puzzles can be solved in multiple ways, and the player will not know the outcomes of solving the puzzles at first—this will encourage learners to play consistently to discover the next secret or solution.

· Proclivity: The world environment will spark interest and encourage exploration; the puzzles will draw the player into the activity.

· Social Interaction: Learners enjoy creating a community around the game activity both “inside” and “outside” of the game itself (p.35).

Review:

The article thoroughly explained the problems faced in modifying an existing game for educational purposes. Although the author provided specific scenarios on how games, in general, are effective for educational use; but, it failed to provide an example on how the modified game was specifically used for the class it was modified for.

I recommend others to read the article for the purposes of knowing the challenges that can come with modifying an existing game to fit a specific class.

Citation:

Summervile, J., & Reid-Griffin, A. (2008). Technology, integration and instructional design. TechTrends 52(5), 45-51.

Summary:

The article talked about how can future and current teachers use technologies in their classrooms. It mentioned several instructional design models that involved integration of technology: the U.S. Air Force model, ASSURE model, the Teacher Decision Making model and the Kemp model. The authors then pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of each model and how it does not fulfill the flexibility in design and the goal of transferring knowledge to other subjects. With that in mind, the authors provided a method they developed that was better suited their teaching needs called the Summerville Integrated Model.

The Summerville Integrated Model took a more circular approach as opposed to a linear displayed by the other methods. The circular method allows for higher flexibility in design and transfer of knowledge, which were the authors’ main goals.

Review:

I highly recommend this article for those wanting to know more about the various types of instructional design methods. This article provides the reader with images of the models, which provided for a better understanding of the process.

Session 6: Instructional Design for Online Learning

1. What is the nature, of the dichotomy between use of the Internet as a content delivery mechanism or as a communications medium?

The use of the Internet for content delivery is teacher-centered or solely dependant on the author. It assumes the author is the expert and there is no room for discussion. For example, Blackboard, the contents are structured around what the professor wants to include or not include within the course. The students take the information and task given by the professor to find a solution.

On the other hand, using the Internet as a communications medium—discussion boards, blogs, wikis—students are given the opportunity to provide their input. This in turn allows the students to have a better grasp on the subject at hand because they are actively participating in the learning process.

2a. Name of the strategy, a description of how the strategy works and technologies that you would use to support the strategy.

Self-directed learning is self-paced; the student initiates the learning process and learns independently. Because the student is proactively involved in the learning process, he/she tends to retain and make use of the information longer.

2b. Strengths and weaknesses of the strategy.

One advantage of self-directed learning is the student has the flexibility to learn the material at his/her own time and place. With the Internet readily available, information is found right at your fingertips. You do not need to leave your house and go to your local library, just go on the Internet and do your research from the comfort of you home.

One weakness of self-directed learning is obtaining too much information and worst, acquiring irrelevant information. The student will need to learn how to filter out unnecessary and irrelevant information retrieved on the web. Another disadvantage is not having the privilege of the instructors’ actual presence for a quick question and answer. The student will have to ask questions via email, IM, phone, etc... and wait for the instructors’ response.

2c. Description of how you would implement the strategy IN THIS CLASS.

Because this class is totally online and fast-paced, constructing your own weekly schedule will help you be on track. Also, because online classes are self-directed, learning how to filter out information you find on the web is important. If you are unsure about the information you find, you could always email the professor to look it over. EBSCOhost is a good place to start your research online.

3. Discuss the role and the nature of evaluation of student performance in online classes.

The challenges of evaluating students’ work in an online class would be determining whether or not the student actually gained something from the task given. An effective course design should begin by asking what you want the students to learn from the activity. Also, it is important to note that one size does not fit all when constructing your course design. One course design might work for a Math class, but not for an English class. Constructing effective course designs will help you evaluate students’ performance more efficiently.