SIGOL Forum: Connect, Collaborate, and Create with a MOOC

This is a panel format, where several people share their learned lessons. 

Tom Woodward - Ds106.com has already been mentioned. @mishelleyb and I have talked about that. It's a place that aggregates using RSS feeds. Students create assignments or choose a Pre-made assignment. Use tags to aggregate and see what others have done. A student created a radio show. It also contains a remix machine which will take two assignments and mix them. Also students have created a "best of" where students showed other students' work. 

Unknown presenter name - university gave grants for game-based learning. Looking at the meta-idea of what online communities look like, what discussions look like, and how this learning can "morph into a guild of educators." Lurkers use social network knowledge construction as a way of learning. Just lurking is a way to get the basics and begin to understand. Badges are a way for people who are over achievers to get what they need when they complete EVERY assignment. 

Unknown presenter - international MOOCs being used in emerging markets (limited) but heavily in higher Ed and some are for credit. Emerging markets do not put as much credibility into online degrees as established markets. Business world thinks this is new. But it's constructivist style learning. MOOCs are not as valued now for what they are doing, but more for how they are CHANGING education. 

Unknown presenter - many in education think that the MOOC is a "sky is falling" kind of mentality. 

However, his main point is the constructivist vs Stanford model (connectivist). There is defined content, but the connections made are more important. Khan Academy has delivered >300 million lessons. How do we build a MOOC that attracts students?

Chunk the information 10 minute videos with inline quiz (engages, not grading) requires students to check understanding. Also offers feedback. Cannot proceed w/o "getting it". Informal presence of the instructor. Think about the "lesson" module in Moodle. There must be deadlines. 

Shifted into breakout sessions - I followed Tom Woodard. How does this thing work? Must be open to change because this will evolve over time. The fact remains that we have a group of people who are engaged in something about which they are passionate. What if our OIT were a MOOC which was done as a cohort? The current group is creating content for future groups. That OIT is a free course anyway. We are using people who may or may not be right for online teaching. If they finish, great. If not, they don't teach. This needs to be something done in conjunction with other CCCU schools. 

One interesting idea of this is that these things can snowball and become much larger than the original intent. Sometimes there is a "creative-spiraling" where assignments get remixed. Students work hard when they see other's work and make it until they get it to the point at which THEY are satisfied. Not the point at which the minimum standard of mastery is met. Tom is self-described as "kind of fringy."

At this point I was supposed to switch tables, but I stayed. I'm interested in what this looks like from both the student and the admin side. Tom keeps referring to the "hippy Montessori" style of learning. The big idea here is to write on your own blog/place and tag it and its aggregated to the course through the RSS feed. The other big idea is to have students pitch assignment ideas. They become the course designers. These ideas then trigger ideas in others. This can lead to the "spiral of creativity" alluded to earlier. 

Linear learning is the fastest path, but is it the best? The less structured learning is slower, but maybe it's better? Are each useful in different situations? It seems the less structured way is good for specialization, while structure is more content driven, i.e. mat leave with "these basic skills."  

Big ideas: the things that yield the greatest results require the greatest risks. AND you must be prepared to fail. You must be willing to risk. How does this play out in a K-12 environment? What one person can achieve might not be possible in EVERY place. Work within your boundaries but push those boundaries to advance students' learning. 

Great thoughts. Interesting session. A whole lot to chew on. 

Opening Thoughts on ISTE 2013

It's the end of June and that usually means the International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) annual conference for me. This is my 3rd year, although I did miss going to San Diego last year. We are in San Antonio and the atmosphere here is quite exciting. I'm not sure why it seems different this year, but there's a buzz in the air that seems a bit... I don't know, "heightened" is the only word I can think of. 

Michelle and I arrived last night, late. We did something a bit different, we rode the train to get here. We rode down to Fort Worth and then switched to a nicer train for the remainder of the trip. Upgrading to first class (roomette or bedroom) is worth the money. Meals are included on that ticket which basically pays for itself. We ran late, but who cares? I got to nap instead of drive!

The opening session this afternoon was exciting. There was an interesting/funny MC (@shareski) and two groups of 5 who spoke in an Ignite format. If you're not familiar, you have 20 slides and 5 minutes. The slides advance whether you are ready or not. Brilliant. I'm a big fan. We will definitely be doing something similar at the CCCU COT conference next year. Having your own people share their ideas and passions adds a component to the session which is missing when you bring in an "outsider". Most of the 10 speakers today were enthusiastic and interesting. Well-played ISTE. 

The opening keynote is next. Jane McGonigal is up. She's a strong advocate for gamification. I'm excited to hear what she has to say. The keynotes at these always tend to inspire me and my expectation today is nothing short of that. 

Impact of Faculty Learning Styles

Who: John Knight

Where: CCCU Conference on Technology at Moody Bible Institute

What would training look like if we designed training for faculty in terms of learning styles instead of topics?

Everyone is talking about education. Tech is changing almost daily. We are competing in a global market. How do we affect positive change in education?

Everyone is willing to invest, but they don't know how to use it. However, students know how to use it. Additionally, students don't want lecture in the classroom. They would rather watch a video or see an online lecture. Students know that our methods are outdated. They don't respond to those methods anymore - by and large. Devices are ubiquitous. 

What tools do faculty need/have access to to be be able to keep up with students needs?

Technology is framed here as the "silver bullet" to be the affectation of change in education. (JB - I disagree. This is part of what's wrong. We've got to continue working to teach tech skills. The tech is there, but faculty are unable/unwilling to adopt for a myriad of reasons. Mostly because current faculty grew up learning a certain way and are unwilling to bend and flex to the new education world. I know that's a bit harsh, but it's what I see.)

There's a new Kolb inventory for learning styles that is only available online. There's also an app for learning style. 

(JB - part of my issue with all of this is that the most current research on this is over 20 years old. I really struggle with that. At what point do we stop focusing on the technology and start looking at ways to integrate rather than making it all about it. I think we put too much focus on it. Although maybe I'm not one to talk since my graduate work is in technology.)

This research focused on identifying 4 technology learning styles. KD1 is directed, has high ease of use and low usability. KD2 is a delegating with high ease of use and high usability. KD4 is supporting and is high on use ability and low ease of use. KD3 is coaching and is low usefulness and low ease of use. I can see these traits in my own faculty. However, what do we do with this? Where do we go?

(JB- Side note: how much good could we do if this were shared with everyone in an open journal rather than "starting a company" to sell this to people. Why not start a foundation and give it to faculty and get funded from non-profit? Does it really take that much money to run a website? It's valuable and has a value, but I am a proponent of the open movement rather than the keeping it behind a "pay wall.")

Next steps are to take the survey ($28) and use the info. And/or hire their firm to come and help you understand the results. :-/

My Side of the Story #bowiefire

I teach a class at SNU Tulsa called Earth's Natural Disasters (which likely has a new perspective for me). This past Wednesday was the first night of that class. I talked to my mom on the way to Tulsa, nothing new or exciting. Just before I got to town, Michelle called. We had offered our home as a place for a couple of friends to have an indoor picnic since having a picnic outside on that day was pretty much impossible.

We have a fireplace and they asked if they could build a fire and why wouldn't we oblige? It was a couple and fire makes things much more "romantic." A birthday, indoor, picnic with a fire. What could go wrong?

I talked to Michelle on the phone about whether or not the flue was open and I was pretty sure that it was. They checked and agreed. I assume at this point they lit a fire using some very wet wood and the natural gas "helper". I arrived at the campus and went inside. I talked to Michelle and our she told me that our friends were having a nice time and loved the smell of a campfire so this was really nice. It's not at all unusual to smell a little bit of the fire when we use the fireplace.

By this time it was right about 6pm, which was the time class normally starts. I got a phone call from Michelle telling me that the house had filled with smoke and asking me about using the fire extinguisher. I reminded her to pull the pin and point it at the base of the fire. I assumed at that point that we must have been wrong about the flue being open. She told me they were going to call 911 and I figured she would put the fire out in the fireplace and call me back to tell me that everything was okay.

I always try to start class with prayer as I know that school can be very stressful for adult students (and traditional) so we started it as usual. I informed the class (very) briefly what I thought was happening and we prayed and started class with introductions. I got a phone call in the middle of intros from a friend asking if my house was on fire. I kind of played it off, but she seemed concerned and we hung up. A minute or two later she told me she was in my neighbor's yard and said she could see fire coming out of the top of the house. This was the point I realized that all was not okay and that students would have to wait. I needed to get back to the City.

I summarily dismissed class and headed out of Tulsa for OKC. As I was walking out of SNU Tulsa, I called Michelle (I think) but I really have no recollection of what she or I said. I remember getting in the car and being thankful that I had filled up with gas in OKC so I wouldn't need to stop on the way.
I recognized that there was nothing I could do except get back to the City safely, so I set the cruise on the speed limit and moved along at a steady pace, focusing hard on following all traffic rules and being safe. The last thing I needed at this point was a traffic violation ro an accident.

I called my insurance agent, Jim Dunn. He's s State Farm Agent and I couldn't possibly recommend you to anyone that cares more about his clients than he does. Seriously, if you don't have State Farm insurance through his agency, you should reconsider. He has gone far and above the call of duty during this entire ordeal.

He lives about 6 blocks from my house and said he'd head over and see what he could see. I waited (im)patiently for his call. He called me about 10 minutes later and told me the situation. Smoke was coming from the attic. It appeared that there was a pretty good-sized fire in the attic and the Warr Acres Fire Department were on the scene working hard.

Jim and I talked some more after a while and he prepared me for the worst. He explained usually when there's an attic fire, the firemen have to use so much water, the ceilings in all of the rooms tend to fall in. (more on this later) He told me that he would go ahead and go to his office (about a 20 minute drive each way) and get his checkbook so he could write me an advance check. Uh, what? We don't know the extent of the damage and you are going to go ahead and write me a check? Wow. This must be bad. I not yet begun to wrap my brain around what kind of adventure we were about to embark on (and that's probably a good thing).

Jim recommended that I consider a restoration service, such as Phoenix Restoration Services. I have a ton of respect for Jim and willingly told him that he could have them contact me. He said I should expect to hear from them very shortly. They did not disappoint. The owner of the company, Jeff called me before I even made it back to Oklahoma City. Did I say I set the cruise on the speed limit?

I had basically processed that we were going to have major damage to our home. That was a given. I had no idea (really) what I was going to find when I arrived at our home just about 8:15 pm or so.

The firemen were just getting done and were about ready to back the brush truck up just to watch for flare-ups. The fire chief welcomed me to my property and asked if I'd like to walk through. I obliged.

We entered the garage (after a hug from two of the best friends a guy could have, Scott Redwine and Tod Mosshart). Immediately I could see that things were going to be pretty bad. I could see all the way through the ceiling of the garage to the sky. There was a huge access hole that allowed firefighters to get to the area around the chimney. I simply walked and tried to take it all in. The chief was talking, but I'm not sure I could tell you what he said.

We continued into the laundry room where there were more holes, water everywhere, and paint that had begun to bubble. This could be because of fire or water. I'm honestly not sure. We kept walking.

I looked into the room where we have a college student staying for the semester and saw that I could again see the sky. His stuff was all covered with a salvage tarp belonging to the fire department. Everything in the room was soaked. In fact, pretty much the entire room was wet furniture (moved from the den for dinner), a day bed, and a huge pile of soaking wet clothes. Moving on.

As I rounded the corner to peer into the den, my stomach sank. The den (which is also sunken - se ) was standing in about 3 inches of water, the ceiling was burned/torn through. Clearly we were very close to the origin of the fire. The hottest part of the action. The romantic dinner setup still sat incongruously at the other end of the room (and it is still there now). A significant amount of the stuff in the attic was now in a large pile in the den, still smoldering a bit.

On to the kitchen. Wow. I might have said a bad word or two. More sky. More holes in the ceiling. More smoldering. Water, sheetrock, and masonite all over the floor. Nasty. Like you can't even imagine, nasty. I didn't look at anything in the cabinets. (side note - I saw all of our dishes undamaged being packed for cleaning - yay!) However, I did see bare electrical wires hanging from the hole in the ceiling. Crazy. Weird. Very weird.

Then things get miraculously better. We move into the living room, there are only a couple of fist-sized holes in the ceiling that were likely used to see into the attic. There's significant water damage on the kitchen side, but other than the floor, things don't look that bad. Things are roughly the same throughout the rest of the house. Water dripping, but the ceilings are all miraculously intact.

I am amazed and blessed that our house sustained such a reasonably small amount of damage considering the magnitude of the fire. This may be a bit of hyperbole, since they haven't started tearing pieces off of the house to begin reconstruction, so I might reconsider my "small amount of damage" statement.

We are in the very early stages of restoration, but I'm feeling really positive about it. So far, our clothing and curtains have been completely removed from the house. Additionally, a significant amount of our belongings inside the house have been packed and/or removed.

As for the family, Michelle and I are firmly ensconced in a hotel until we are able to move into a rent house. We expect to be there for 3-4 months. Maybe 6 months at the most. Our furniture will be delivered on Wednesday. I've already got internet set up there, the electricity is on, and the water is on. Fortunately, we don't need gas because only the heat uses that and I think we can survive the one or two freezes left without the heat on.

The kids? Jessica and JC are both in the dorms. Jess is going to be working on campus, so she has the option to live there during the summer. Timing? Awesome. JC has a couple of options with friends/family. While that hasn't all been worked totally out, I have no doubt that it will be nailed down very soon.

Our family is blessed. We have been inundated by the kindness of our friends, family, and community. If you are reading this and wondering what we need, prayer is what that is. We don't need any gift cards to anywhere (except Ted's). Thanks to each of you for your concern, prayers and gifts. We appreciate you so much. We also appreciate your continued prayers so much as we try to work through/itemize all of the things that have/had and make decisions about the rebuilding of half of our house. The important pieces are all safe, it's just a matter of figuring out what to do with what's left.

Keynote by Dr. Vincent Tinto at the 2013 Transformative Learning Conference

Transformative Learning Conference - 2013

Mobilizing and Assessing Student Transformative Learning - Threshold of Change

Introduction to the conference - Transformative Experience - in a few words by students: engaged, impactful, uncomfortable, one student said they understood what a transformative learning looked like after they were finished studying abroad and came back to Oklahoma.
There is a delegation here from Thailand. When asked why they were here replied, “We want to learn something new.” I hope that’s why we are all here. The question is, what are students learning and how are they learning it? In fact, how do we know they are learning it?

Dr. Vincent Tinto - Keynote - Transforming the Learning Experiences of Academically Underprepared Students

There is educational inequality in the US.

Very few students who start even just one level below college, finish a gateway course. So if we keep seeing this problem, why are we still doing what we are doing?

**If you keep doing what you’ve always been doing, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten.**

FYI, nobody rises to low expectations. Student quote: “My favorite teachers were always the ‘ass-kickers’.”

What we need to do is provide contextualized support. They need support for the class in which they are working, i.e. bridge, supplemental instruction, embedded faculty support, etc. This all sounds like good pedagogy. Differentiated instruction. The students who need help get help. They engage with the information multiple times, they form study groups.

Learning Communities - overlapping classes in which students are taught the same information in both classes where the context of one supports the context of the other. Co-curricular and co-teaching.

Accelerated learning. Instead of being placed in lower courses, students at a lower level are placed in “normal” courses and they get up to level by also enrolling in a supplemental study course. Contextualized support. This begs the question of assessment.

Power pedagogy is a must in transformative learning. This can look like project-based learning, cooperative learning, collaborative learning, learning communities, and/or service learning. There’s a difference between group work and cooperative group work.

Expanded engagement in learning - when students talk to each other about the class, they learn more. Just getting involved with students more in the class is increasing their learning.” - anecdotal, I’d love to see research on this. Learning together is better and students’ sense of self is transformed. “If you are constantly having to think, re-think, and even re-re-think in light of other’s feedback, then you know something like you are not dumb.” Constructivism. Student learn to make their own meaning of the knowledge.

Transformative learning is purposeful. IT IS NOT AN ACCIDENT. It must be the result of intentional, structured, and proactive actions that are systematic and coordinated in application. Since this isn’t happening for students at home, it has to happen in the classroom. In the same way that we cannot leave student success to chance, we cannot leave good pedagogy, assessment, development theory, etc. to chance. Our faculty must be trained. They must be required. However, we must eat the elephant one bite at a time. We can’t this overnight. We must take this in pieces.

So why do learning communities not work? Faculty are the problem. They have to collaborate. Look for courses that share characteristics. Learn in groups in ways that allow them to apply what they are learning. The communities scale up best within a major and/or best early in the career.

How do you best implement this learning strategy in online settings? The success of students from high income to low income is a large disparity. The intent of MOOCs should not be just an electronic lecture class. Consider which courses should be online. The best predictor of student success in online learning is how quickly faculty give feedback.

How do we apply the same concepts to academic advising? Focusing on student learning and activities. We often talk about extra-curricular and the “process” of college. So students are learning outside the classroom, as well. They are just learning through their experience.

Service learning. What could this look like? Do we have anything that could incorporate service learning into our classes?

Create an Effective eLearning Environment with Confidence

Create an Effective eLearning Environment with Confidence

by Dr. Tami Moser and Ms. Karen Sweeney

Abstract: 

Join us as we build confidence in effective eLearning instructional design. As instructors we have subject matter expertise and that does not necessarily translate into an effective eLearning environment without coupling the expertise with sound design knowledge. This presentation offers attendees an opportunity to learn about the fundamental principles of sound e-Learning design.

Opening thoughts: 

The hard part is engaging students and helping them understand what the "rules are that you've set up for online learning."

Creating a Class: 

When you create an online class, use the instructional designer. (that's ME!)

Start with a template that's been created by a competent designer. There's a stigma associated with "online rigor." At least in F2F courses you know that students were "there." They were in the class (physically). 

Template:

Welcome

These are the 5 things you need to do to be successful in this class.  

• partcipate
• turn in all assignments on time (can't proceed until they have, even if it's not for credit)
• apply feedback to future
• ask for help
• read all instructions carefully 

(JB - these are all included in our template under online expectations)

PDFs of everything are included. This could be more comfortable for students. 

Lay the course out linearly. It should be in chronological order. 

If you put dates in the course (and we don't at SNU) do so only in specific places so that you can update later.

Standardize dates for assignments. Plan ahead!!

Create a syllabus quiz that ask questions about the things listed above. 

Each module should include: 

• Outcomes - Goals of the course/module
• Objectives - what you will do to meet the goals (activities must tie to this!!)
• Assessment and Activities 
• Planning for disaster? (What to do in case of emergency, aka Life Happens) - Staying on track is key. Setting high expectations is key. 
• expectations for assignments - it's okay to say these things over and over
• Optional - what does it look like to think critically in this course? Maybe a link...
• Communicating with the prof (set up virtual office hours - think about setting an expectation for weekends - so include an expected response time) What if the student doesn't get a response? What then?

(JB - Think carefully about the process for opening a course. Maybe encourage an email from faculty to students? What would that look like?)

• Engagement by students - Build a foundation for good discussion in your instructions. Give examples like: "Based on xxx in the reading by xxx, I see that XXX and this is what I think that means..." or "I also read xxx, but what I take that to mean is XXX..."
• Assignment Checklist

Consider putting resources from the library in the course (instructor loads them in to the course and students can download without going to the course)

• Module Introduction (consider this as a video instead of reading), include resources here
• Activity Instructions - maybe tell them what you are specifically looking for in the assignment (think about that this looks like in a live classroom - instructions lead to questions, which leads to more questions, so anticipate)
• Include rubrics for SELF ASSESSMENT
• Module Wrap-Up (what we are calling weekly transitions) (JB - I like for this to be fresh for each iteration of the module. That way it can be personalized). 

Action Items for JB: From our online template, create a word document that has all of our components of that template and have it for faculty to use for development. Then they can use that to go in and put it on Moodle. Split it up into sections: Syllabus, Week 1, objectives, assignments (tie to objectives), instructions. 

Mapping Media to the Curriculum

Mapping Media to the Curriculum

by Wes Fryer

First Thoughts

Students as well as teachers, need to be creating media. Irrespective of what you teach, students can have more options to show what they know through media. 

Won't spend as much time on the why, but maybe more on the what and how. (check out his book for more on the "why")

We need, as teachers, experiences as students. It's important to be the learner, as well as the instructor. 

"Narrated slideshow" - screencasts
"Video" - it's the killer app. Video is easy to put online.

Pioneer Spirit

We are venturing into unknown lands as it applies to digital learning. Do you have the pioneer spirit? Why or why not? 

Be a digital pioneer. Would you have left New York? Or St. Louis? It's important to have people to lead you, but be willing to go into the unknown. 

Instead of having students answer "What do you want to Learn today?" have them answer "What do you want to Create today? Digital portfolios for students. These are for students to be able to show what they have done. Have a digital footprint. What do people find when they google you? What would people find if they googled your students? 

Truth about EdTech

Zeitgeist 2012, the year in review youtube.com/watch?v=xY_MUB8adEQ A year in review video created by someone. What about using something like this in your class? What about having students research current events (related to Natural Disasters for JB) and create a video of that? Maybe have them create an annotated review of the current events related to our class? Consider this for the mid-term project. 30k neurons connect image processing to brain vs. <1k neurons connecting to hearing. 

Look into the widget effect. 

Find this resource at wfryer.me/map

Truth

You cannot tie simple increase in technology with the purchase of technology. It must be used effectively!!

Why Create with Media?

It should become the new normal in classrooms. Kids can be media creators! It's important to know how to use software, but that's no longer the minimum that students should be able to know. Seymour Papert - shout out. Encouraging us to view devices as pathways to learning, not JUST arcades or social isolators. 

Will this increase test scores? Did the ball point pen increase them? No. It was about what you did and how you used it. Creation is at the top of Bloom's Taxonomy. Shout out to Richard Marzano and Classroom Instruction that Works.

Using iPads and iPods to record to Audioboo. Connect to QR code. Students read, write a script. Record using iPad (audioboo), then students share the information (whether they like the book) and then QR codes will pull all of the recordings about a particular book. How could this be integrated into my classroom? QR codes posted on a resource page on moodle? 

Creativity isn't just about workforce skills. It's intrinsically valuable. (JB - how can we quantify this??)

Collaboration is positive and naturally a result of integrating media. Passive learning is easy to forget. Shout out to MIT Lifelong Kindergarten Effect and Mitch Resnick. Reconsider blogging as "writing interactively." Push your admin to change the ability to blog.  

(side note: Does Wes ever stop? It seems like he's always going and driven to innovate and push others to do so, as well.)

There is great value in having students share beyond the boundaries of their classroom. (I've been saying that for years.) Age appropriate might mean using a moderated blogging site (meaning no content goes up until the teacher approves it.) This could elicit public edification from PARENTS. That's significant. 

What's on the Menu? 

Storyboarding - start with synthesizing something down to about 5 images. (educreations - app, browser based)

Then move that into a narrated slide show. 

Then move that into a digital story. (JB - need some more exploration of this)

Powerpoint abuse! Consider the 5x5 rule. Aid your presentation, not crutch it with Powerpoint. 

(JB - consider starting a digital scrapbook for our families. We could do this.)

Explore resources more (http://maps.playingwithmedia.com)