Action Research Workshop

I will be attending a workshop on Action Research this weekend as part of the mini networks here at AEIN. My interests tend to be about the technology component. How can the bar be low enough so everyone can successfully navigate whatever technology we're using? There are two aspects: the human and the machine. The machine aspect -does the individual have the right tools for the task-interests me less. I am interested in the attitudes, knowledge and skills for success navigating the waters of facilitating in the online world.

I see this as applicable to both the mini networks and my work with distance education.

Even more specifically, what are the resources, tools, pedagogies, etc. that I can use to teach people how to use these tools when we are working at a distance -via phone, elive, etc.

This is my first cut

Taking a Stand

I confess, I am not naturally one to take a stand publicly... hence some discomfort arises for me as I write this blog. Today, I go out on a limb a little bit.

My stand today is the curmudgeonly one... I wonder what happened to the initiatives we adapted the College of Education over the last few years. I wonder what's going to happen with the writing rubric we developed a couple years ago. How are we using the Learning-Centric Education Model that we adapted last year?

Several faculty members did a great deal of work developing the writing rubric. It would be a great little research project to assess how it's being implemented and its effectiveness. Heck, we could use the Learner-Centric Education Model to look at the state of our writing initiative. It would be good to see the Learner-Centric Education Model in action. How are we addressing the issues of metacognition, dialogue, scaffolding for differentiation, and data-informed decision making as we look at our writing initiative? Maybe a great deal is going on and I just missed it somehow. Looks like I have some questions to ask.

Distance Ed Presentations

Today we held 2 meetings of faculty who have worked on their distance ed classes over the summer. Great stuff all around. I see advances in comfort with technology. I see experimenting. I see people actually incorporating the suggestions that Teresa and I made.

There is interest in the following tech sessions:
-Jeopardy in Elive
-audacity
-application sharing tips and tricks
-images and sound in powerpoint
-learning objects

People derive great value from the sharing. I wonder how to foster ongoing sessions. I could ask individuals to present on a topic... so it isn't me always presenting. I could have meetings around a given theme... maybe seeded with some presenters.

Sheila had a great shell she build for Early Childhood Special Ed that is for advising them. Students enrolled in her program are automatically enrolled in her shell. I asked about creating a generic account that she could give to prospective students to log in and check out the shell.

Cleo shared an example of students developing a shared understanding of division of decimals together in Elive. In this instance, students were able to collaborate together and learn better than they could of in a face-to-face class. This was an epiphany for her.

Sunny created Powerpoint templates to use in her class that take advantage of the whiteboard to increase interactivity. She took all this away from the Interactivity in Elluminate session at our May workshop.

Susan developed a great newsletter to succinctly advertiser her course. It included her learning objectives, class dates, etc. It's much more alluring that the NCATE boilerplate syllabus. I think it was Deb that created a learning unit for her syllabus- it was 10 pages long, and easy to navigate to the topic of interest.

Several instructors reported that students would like a more standard Blackboard shell across their courses. They have to learn the idiosyncrasies of each instructor's organization. This is an issue worth bringing to the Leadership Team.

I see that we are focusing well on design and delivery. This is the easy point of entry. We still need work, I think on the enduring understandings and learning objectives. For that matter, we still need work on on design and delivery, but it's come a long way.

Thoughts for Tuesday

It's my second day back at the office. I liked sliding back into work slowly by working at home last week. Getting caught up what's been going on, sharing my pictures of Italy, thinking about new projects.

Talked with Pat about Learning Town Network and how they send out regular emails to encourage discussion on topics ranging from "to scroll or not to scroll" to issues around inducting new people to an organization - the new term is "onboarding". I was lured in to check out what's going on. There's got to be value-added and a lure to get folks to want to visit a network. And even though I get 2-3 emails per week from Learning Town, they don't bug me.

As we look at the AEIN Network, I can see the advantage to the continuing invitations extended by Elliot at Learning Town.

Pat is working on a presentation for AERA on Network Learning. A concept she told me about today from the NCSL folks in Britain is the idea of "brokering" for a group rather than facilitating. When one brokers, one helps find resources. I like it.

Student Services Online

I've been reading the chapter on call centers in distance education in Terry Anderson's recently updated The Theory and Practice of Online Learning. As we've developed our online offerings in the College of Education, I'm not sure how much we've developed systems for tracking and supporting online students. I think each of our programs has its own contact point. We have information on the web, but I am not sure how complete it is on the web and how easy it is to access.

Lastly, I wonder if we are logging the contacts made by students to see the distribution of questions. We could start developing knowledge about the systems and figuring out ways to improve services and perhaps reduce staff time for these important tasks.

What can I do? I can ask questions. Maybe share the chapter from the book.

Back to Work

Watching a video of Dan Roam talking at Google about his book Back of the Napkin. It's about using visuals to solve problems in business. I like the concept. Can we apply it to teaching? To the extent that learning is about solving problems, one can do an overlay of the concept on to education. Creating visuals can be a powerful way to create/share meaning.I find that I want to share things with faculty ... this video of Dan Roam is one of them.

Learning Outcomes in the 21st Century

I led a 1.5 hour workshop on how learning outcomes had changed in the 21st century. It provoked much thinking in me. First I had to clarify for myself what learning objectives and learning outcomes were.

I see objectives as teaching-centered and outcomes as learning-centered. Objectives guide what we teach; outcomes are what we hope students learn. The model of program evaluation works well here. We are both the program implementers (we teach the class) and the program evaluators. Programs can be evaluated in 3 areas: efficiency, effectiveness, and impact. Efficiency is about using the resources appropriately. Effectiveness is about meeting program objectives. Impact is about how the program changes lives. I see a good correlation between efficiency/objectives and impact/outcomes. The model works for me and aligns with my current understandings. Now, to ponder the other pieces.

When I was designing the session, I wondered about participant thinking on the 21st century and on objectives vs. outcomes. I wanted to set a stage for deep understanding of the changes and nature of changes happening in our workforce and our students– I read an excerpt from A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink, provided opportunity for discussions, and showed a video on 21st century students . I appreciated that Evelyn brought up the LEAP Report and that several pointed out the banking attitude that many current students have towards education. Both enriched our thinking.

My hope was that we had shared and deepened our understanding of 21st century challenges and were then ready to talk about learning objectives and outcomes. I didn’t want to give a set answer on objectives and outcomes, hence the World Cafe conversation format. I was surprised by the variety of understandings of objectives and outcomes. Lastly, I wanted to plant a seed of possibility by having each person the story of a student describing his/her class. My hope was to create a subliminal intention to make that story a reality.

Cindy chided me later that we didn’t go back to the issues of the Conceptual Age and what that meant for our learning outcomes. I jokingly replied that I knew I was off the hook- there wasn’t time for that next level of discussion. I apologize that I didn't create an opportunity for that exploration. We set the stage nicely, I think, for that next level. I'd love to hear how the conversation and courses evolve.

Taking a Face to Face Class

I signed up to take a new course in program evaluation - taught by my friend Ed. Several of my colleagues are in the class, too, so I look forward to this as both a learning opportunity and as a way to nurture our learning community.

It's a face-to-face class, but the course materials all reside in Blackboard. So, it's a technology-enhanced face-to-face class. And my work is much more technology-enhanced than I anticipated. We have discussion board posts on the reading; I usually do my writing in Word so that I can proof it easier. Now I am using Google Docs so I don't have to remember which computer I was working on. The easy online access to my documents is quite nice.

I left my book at home (The ABCs of Evaluation by Boulmetis and Dutwin) but had bought the optional online version from Amazon. I logged in to my Amazon account and there was the book. Adding notes, tags, boomarks, and highlights is easy and fun. I can go back to any of these marked pages very quickly too.

Reading online gets tedious after awhile, but having the ability to annotate is great. This may be a great tool. Now, if I can share my markups and annotations with others in the class.....

Beginning of Spring Semester Ruminations

The start of Spring trimester/semester has been less hectic than I anticipated. A few instructors (mostly the newer faculty) have needed help. I have done my rounds of visiting offices and checking in with folks. In general, the faculty seem less frantic than I expected. We have begun our switch to trimesters and our winter break has been shortened a week.

Last fall there were fewer takers of my seminar series and the monthly check-in sessions. For whatever reasons, these were of less need to folks than in the prior year. My assumption had been that folks are busier with the extra demands at the college. Now, I have a couple other assumptions: most faculty have learned enough to "get by" with the distance technology, so there is less desperation. We have settled back into our regular routines. I would like to encourage further learning. How do I make this more enticing and get greater participation?

My two assumptions here are: try different activities (e.g. Saturday sessions) and show exemplars that could lure folks into wanting to model/learn more about them.

I have a survey ready to deploy to determine how best to facilitate deeper learning in technology and the pedagogy of teaching with technology. If one of our goals is to embrace Understanding by Design principles, then that is one area that needs more work. From my experience, this is less alluring than learning technology. I think it's critical, though.

As I look towards the May workshops, maybe one of the entry tickets could be the enduring understandings of one or more classes. I could also tie in to the College's enduring understandings and the 4-part lens that we are trying out.

Spring Semester Starts

My colleagues have made great strides with Elluminate and Blackboard in their distance courses over the past year. I wonder if I could have worked myself out of a job - or more realistically- what will be the next technology trend to incorporate into the work of teaching and learning here at the College of Education. I know that surveys and conversations will help me to determine the course. I also know that sometimes people need a model of what's possible.

I began investigating Facebook last fall. I am in the Alaska Anch network - that's UAA- and there are 4,291 members of that network. 308 of these show up when I search for education - not all are Ed majors, not all are still in school -but it's a place where we could connect with students. I wonder about Club Ed using Facebook or about programs using Facebook to connect/communicate with students.

Second Life has been an interesting process. It's a fascinating virtual world that may have great use for us. I've heard of various uses in educations such as preservice teachers building their ideal classrooms. There is a learning curve with Second Life, and I'm still on it. It may be a fascinating way to have meetings or hold classes at a distance. I will continue my explorations. My avatar is LeeMaria Hifeng.

Oh, and there is the whole creation of interesting content: podcasts, video clips, etc. that I can help folks learn.

Yes, I'll be busy for awhile...