Kay Teehan (2010) offered several suggestions on what type and how to implement wiki’s in the classroom in her book Wikis: The educator’s power tool. She suggested a library wiki, a reciprocal wiki, a student-produced wiki, and activities to implement them. I work with adult learners who have experience and opinion to share. Although they may vary in their technical skills, I believe a wiki would be a good alternative to the Blackboard threaded discussion system. Threaded discussions do not provide a final product. They are more like a collection of public emails threaded together in a message board. Wikis offer the ability to create a final product. In my class I could use a reciprocal wiki. Teehan (2010) defines a reciprocal wiki as one, which “invites user participation in completing a task, making lists, collecting documentation, and exchanging ideas.” I would setup a case study situation on a particular leadership situation or ethical dilemma commonly faced by leaders. I would break my class into groups of four or five and assign them roles. I would present the problem and ask open-ended questions to help them evaluate the case. They would be required to use the wiki to discuss and argue their points of view. I would require they cite their sources in APA format and to present supporting evidence for their ideas. The wiki would allow the groups to see how their case research and discussions evolved over time. They would be able to track how thought processes changed and were influenced by others.
The future leaders could take the knowledge of using wikis to their professional organizations. They would be able to use the principles learned as an alternative to the email project management system. Wiki’s are transferable from the classroom to the corporation. The problem solving skills and collaborative, critical thinking platform are practical in both sectors.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Web magazines to get ahead of the rest
In order to help you keep a competitive edge over your peers, I recommend two web magazines that cover what is on the horizon with Web technology. They are primarily written for Web designers and developers, but there is plenty of good articles for business and education as well. They focus on best practices.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/
http://www.alistapart.com/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/
http://www.alistapart.com/
Blogs as educational tools
Deng and Yuen (2010) proposed a four dimensional framework for blog use: “self-expression, self-reflection, social-interaction, and reflective dialogue.”
In the adult learner classroom, blogs would work well because adult students have experience and expertise to share on various topics. They are more confident to communicate and want to share what they know. They have an emotional investment into their experiences. The content would be focused on educational leadership: leaders as teachers and teachers as leaders. The Army currently uses threaded discussions to train leader/educators. Non-commissioned officers are the primary educators for Soldiers. I would have my students blog about ways that adults serve as both leader and teacher within the community, in private and public industry, and other areas outside of the military. What are the implications of being a leader/teacher in the larger context of society? How can we shape the community through mentoring others? The capstone project would be to develop a leader/teacher program to train adults in the community sector. The blog would allow the students to post their ideas of various elements of their plan.
De Almeida Soares (2008) stated obstacles to blogs included “lack of free time at home” or other “technical issues” and suggested creating a blogging tutorial to give at the beginning of the class. Most adult learners will have a learning curve unless they are technologists already. I too would create a tutorial to blogging. Currently the first two courses Army online learners take are “Introduction to Blackboard” and “Introduction to the Army Leader Graphical User Interface.” We make sure they know what all the buttons do before releasing them on the system.
To address the issue of “lack of free time at home” I would recommend that students use their smart phones to read blogs during down times such as waiting in line. (Blackboard threaded discussions would make this a painful experience.)
Blogs are unique in their ability for personalization and expression of identity, thoughts, and feelings. This allows for a deeper investment of thought and time. Threaded discussions belong to Blackboard or another learning management system, blogs are personally owned (for free). Threaded discussions are only available for a semester; blogs are permanent (Richardson, 2010). Threaded discussions are limited in the content that can be attached; blogs are Web 2.0 standards compliant (means freedom to express with multimedia).
Blog reading is important for personal confirmation (“am I on the right track?”) as well as gaining new ideas from peers instead of emotionally distant, journal articles.
Deng and Yuen (2010) identified weak comments (less in-depth) to blog posts. Threaded discussions usually reap deeper responses because of how the rules are structured. I would apply similar guidelines to commenting on blogs as well as teach blog owners to probe the “I liked your post” commenters by instructing them to ask “why” or “what specifically resonated with you.”
Richardson (2010) states that blogging is continued conversation and synthesis; it requires evaluation of blog posts for accuracy and trustworthiness as well as self-evaluation. This puts blogging on the highest level of Bloom’s (1956) Taxonomy and Anderson and Krathwohl (2000) Taxonomy if done right. Blogging can improve critical thinking as well as broaden the minds of teacher/leaders. Students recognize connections to content and will increase their understanding of networking and collaboration (Richardson, 2010).
I think blogging would work well; it would also give teacher/leaders a technical skill to teach to others in the community.
In the adult learner classroom, blogs would work well because adult students have experience and expertise to share on various topics. They are more confident to communicate and want to share what they know. They have an emotional investment into their experiences. The content would be focused on educational leadership: leaders as teachers and teachers as leaders. The Army currently uses threaded discussions to train leader/educators. Non-commissioned officers are the primary educators for Soldiers. I would have my students blog about ways that adults serve as both leader and teacher within the community, in private and public industry, and other areas outside of the military. What are the implications of being a leader/teacher in the larger context of society? How can we shape the community through mentoring others? The capstone project would be to develop a leader/teacher program to train adults in the community sector. The blog would allow the students to post their ideas of various elements of their plan.
De Almeida Soares (2008) stated obstacles to blogs included “lack of free time at home” or other “technical issues” and suggested creating a blogging tutorial to give at the beginning of the class. Most adult learners will have a learning curve unless they are technologists already. I too would create a tutorial to blogging. Currently the first two courses Army online learners take are “Introduction to Blackboard” and “Introduction to the Army Leader Graphical User Interface.” We make sure they know what all the buttons do before releasing them on the system.
To address the issue of “lack of free time at home” I would recommend that students use their smart phones to read blogs during down times such as waiting in line. (Blackboard threaded discussions would make this a painful experience.)
Blogs are unique in their ability for personalization and expression of identity, thoughts, and feelings. This allows for a deeper investment of thought and time. Threaded discussions belong to Blackboard or another learning management system, blogs are personally owned (for free). Threaded discussions are only available for a semester; blogs are permanent (Richardson, 2010). Threaded discussions are limited in the content that can be attached; blogs are Web 2.0 standards compliant (means freedom to express with multimedia).
Blog reading is important for personal confirmation (“am I on the right track?”) as well as gaining new ideas from peers instead of emotionally distant, journal articles.
Deng and Yuen (2010) identified weak comments (less in-depth) to blog posts. Threaded discussions usually reap deeper responses because of how the rules are structured. I would apply similar guidelines to commenting on blogs as well as teach blog owners to probe the “I liked your post” commenters by instructing them to ask “why” or “what specifically resonated with you.”
Richardson (2010) states that blogging is continued conversation and synthesis; it requires evaluation of blog posts for accuracy and trustworthiness as well as self-evaluation. This puts blogging on the highest level of Bloom’s (1956) Taxonomy and Anderson and Krathwohl (2000) Taxonomy if done right. Blogging can improve critical thinking as well as broaden the minds of teacher/leaders. Students recognize connections to content and will increase their understanding of networking and collaboration (Richardson, 2010).
I think blogging would work well; it would also give teacher/leaders a technical skill to teach to others in the community.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Three educational blogs to follow are:
Online Learning Update
http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/onlinelearning/
News and research from the University of Illinois at Springfield
Free technology for Teachers
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/
Free Resources and Lesson Plans for Teaching with Technology
Mr. C's Class Blog
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
The Official Blog of Mr. C's Class at Noel Elementary School! Modeling the use of technology to teachers and students.
Online Learning Update
http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/onlinelearning/
News and research from the University of Illinois at Springfield
Free technology for Teachers
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/
Free Resources and Lesson Plans for Teaching with Technology
Mr. C's Class Blog
http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/
The Official Blog of Mr. C's Class at Noel Elementary School! Modeling the use of technology to teachers and students.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
A response to Teaching the iGeneration
Rosen (2011) suggested that “teachers relegate much of the content dissemination to technology” to free up time to facilitate learning. He suggests having the students review content as homework and do the work in class. I think it is a great idea and will improve the quality of our kid’s education. This would work with students whose parents can afford the $100 monthly data plan and smart phone or personal computer with high-speed Internet service. However, according to a 2003 technical report from IPED, only 35.1-42.9% of El Pasoans had Internet access. The digital divide in El Paso would only allow certain economic classes to use this method of teaching. Is it right to hold back the financially able to be fair to the unable? Who should pay for the other half of the population? Tough questions for the policy makers to answer.
Rosen (2011) also stated, “Technology is all about engagement…we can clearly see that they [children and teens] are engaged.” True, but we need to look at “why” they are engaged. All but one of the technologies mentioned were social media technologies. One could argue that even games are social media once you add a “live” account. They have the ability to chat or talk with friends while playing your favorite game.
What we need to do as educators is apply what we have learned from the addictive social interactions that make technology so exciting, and design our active learning experiences based on their best practices. It is not the technology that is important to them (most don’t understand “how” it works); it is what the technology allows them to do with their friends and their time.
Rosen (2011) also stated, “Technology is all about engagement…we can clearly see that they [children and teens] are engaged.” True, but we need to look at “why” they are engaged. All but one of the technologies mentioned were social media technologies. One could argue that even games are social media once you add a “live” account. They have the ability to chat or talk with friends while playing your favorite game.
What we need to do as educators is apply what we have learned from the addictive social interactions that make technology so exciting, and design our active learning experiences based on their best practices. It is not the technology that is important to them (most don’t understand “how” it works); it is what the technology allows them to do with their friends and their time.
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