Week 13

My final project is going to be my overall plan on developing a hybrid class for pre-algebra.

As far as PLN- The videos cover a broad topic on bringing together multimedia and multiple ways to connect with other and then incorporate this into, teaching and learning.

Twitter for me has not been a good form of communication or a way in which I have networked. I usually have friends who are also on facebook and I hardly ever tweet.

As far as networking I mostly use facebook, google plus and linked in. Their are several groups who have educational discussions. Groups such as AET association of educational therapists comment on these platforms.

using web sights to learn from and articles written by other people in our field has also been a good source for my PLN.

I would like to add a way to communicate in the classroom other than raising a hand to ask a question. Maybe tweeting (although it is not anonymous enough for the students I teach. It would be better if they could text me questions without others seeing them.

My PLN is not only limited to my work, but also to many other topics I am interested in.

Over all the PLN is an excellent way to connect with people who work with us and people outside of our people.

Week 12

My experience on creating web enhanced and blended classes, has been limited to Hybrid classes. I found that students did better when they met a couple of times during the quarter. During the meetings they could ak questions, develop projects and take the topic more in the direction they were interested in. Now I teach a face to face class that I intend to hybrid by next quarter.

In my face to face class I noticed that students comment on what I put on the blog and are spending the time to look at what I posted. If I post that I have a test or a quiz, more students show up. These students are college aged in pre algebra and are considered by the department as unable to follow steps and lectures. What I am finding is many function just like any other students and are up on technology. So they use it, and then they are happy to know I keep up with the blog.

My plan is to create the math class as an online class but still run the hour of class with available notes, practice time and question and answer sessions. It always surprises me what they come up to ask me. Some students are still asking about the week before, others are a chapter ahead. In theory if I put everything online, then students can pace themselves and finish as early as they wish and maybe prepare for the entrance exam too, skipping pre-algebra and going straight into algebra. Students who need more review would have review pages available online and tests and quizzes can be taken by the time they are ready rather than having the student who is behind get an anxiety attack because they don't know how to solve the problems and the student who is ahead miss half the classes.

The end goal is to personalize the course to fit the variety of students I am teaching, by using online black board.

Week 11

Learning online

I wanted to mention that the video on Pedagogy is great and I linked to it last semester for my online educational Psychology class that I teach twice a year.

How does all of this fit to online learning? the internet? social media? mooc's?  The articles give the pro's and cons. My discussion with my friend Claudia (after reading the articles) became, well it all applies. It depends on who is teaching and who is the learner. The medium (a text book, a chalkboard or a web page and video) don't really matter.

Really what is this virtual world (put together by silicon valley geeks)? My view of the geeks is the red nosed guy next door who sent the first connection between UCLA and Stanford University, my husband who is an antenna and system engineer and got me on wifi in the 90's with his companies wifi connection. Are these the silicon valley geeks? In answer to the New York times article that mentions geeks as the creators of the internet; They are the designers (and not young kids by the way although the developers kids are now involved in creating technology or software too) but not the creators of the internet as a whole. The internet is made up of all the contributions made by people from all over the world.

My question when I first got online in the late, late 80's was how do all these people have time to do all of this?   Just like this course, each of us pitch in our time and contribute to the virtual world. That is probably my favorite aspect about the internet in general. Whatever people are interested in or study or create or commercialize they can put it up online. Then other people can use it, copy it (hopefully giving credit to the original writer creator), create something new from it, or even complain about it and get angry that so and so misused the internet.

 My thesis for my bachelors, was education using video games with children. I tested my kids on reader rabbit, the jumpstart series and various other games (age 5 and 6). I then did research by looking for books on the topic and articles. My results with my kids were; great at math games, terrible at reading games.  My conclusion, if you are not sitting beside them and guiding them how to learn the material, they will do best at what they are good at learning, and find a way to go around their challenges. Hmm so much like the classroom. The other side of the coin was that they were having fun and felt like playing the games. Did they learn to read faster and better no (they needed special reading lessons because of dyslexia) did they learn math faster or better? they learned as quickly as it was given to them. They had the same results once they went to school. If they were accelerated in math they were very quick at learning. Reading took years and hard work that paid off.

In conclusion, the internet is a medium that the pedagogy applies to as it has always applied in any teaching environment. The pedagogy I would choose online is the same as I choose in the classroom. My technique is about individualized education plans while keeping a base of information uniform. The sources are dynamic and can be found in books from the students themselves or online. One thing I have found is when I switch to in class teaching, many times I miss the dynamics of online teaching. I don't have internet information at my finger tips and the time needed for the students to read or see the videos. I set it up as a blog so students can look at it on their own time.

Week 10

Learning management System at my extension is very cumbersome.

When I send in a page that is designed like a Blog the tech group then places it into the above categories. To the designers of the program the list looks like a logical setup for a course. What actually happens is that most students can not find the materials the instructor posted and have no idea what to do.

In the above system the Calendar becomes the control, what to do each day can be posted with a link to an explanation. The forum is separately loaded with questions or statements. Messages again separate from the forum, Chat room is non visual so no one is there. It also does not tell the instructor someone tried to contact them in the chat room. polls ? Roster is good. Syllabus is good but not downloadable so students have to go back to it. Lessons this is the big issue lessons, resources and assignments are all one big lump! I tried my first quarter to use this and the whole class was upset. They could not figure out which was which and how to use them. Test, quiz and Gradebook are self explanatory.

Taking this POT course made me fall in love with the blogging system. A lecture at the top and a list of assignments or videos one can watch. Then what is expected of the student.

My solution: After starting the POT class I decided to build a blog and link to it from announcements. Students loved it but the admin didn't. So I sent in my blog and it was all categorized appropriately to the LMS. I then decided I could blog within the system by placing a Word document linked from the calendar under Announcements.

This worked very well. I could put all my web page links, videos and page numbers for the text in the word document. I could also build my own video, and link it in the word document.

This LMS felt like a brick wall yet I was able to find a way to open a Window in it, and this seems to be working well.

This solution allowed me to make a broad course (research based) without being limited by my LMS. Students would receive the assignment and then were able to follow the document to read the lecture and then see any links I posted. This system also helps keep communication with the students more open because the could respond back to me via a link to email, or google hangout which vibrates my phone when I get an invite (my classes are small and made up of instructors and prek-12 teachers so I don't have to worry about being contacted to much). eventually through my LMS I would like to develop an LMS.

Chat between Personal Learning Environment ( PLE ) and Learning Management System ( LMS )