I think the chat feature sounds awesome. I also thought it was interesting of her to point out the dean concerned about the freshman and independent learning. I never considered age a factor.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Interview
Here is my lovely neighbor who agreed very last minute to let me interview her, then when I had technical problems, ie I accidentally deleted the entire audio, she did it again! She was not comfortable with an on camera interview and she did not want to state where she worked. I hope you enjoy!
I think the chat feature sounds awesome. I also thought it was interesting of her to point out the dean concerned about the freshman and independent learning. I never considered age a factor.
I think the chat feature sounds awesome. I also thought it was interesting of her to point out the dean concerned about the freshman and independent learning. I never considered age a factor.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Audio/Video / Podcast: Pros and Cons for Adult Learners
I remember when I first heard about Podcasts. I was working as a student worker in the admissions college of my undergrad and the assistant director was trying to explain podcasts and how they would be such a cool addition to the website. Me and two of the other student workers were not getting it. I specifically remember thinking no one is going to listen to a podcast or watch short videos on the internet! I clearly was wrong on both accounts.
Using podcasts, videos, and other similar technologies can be useful when used sparingly and when it makes the most sense. I think videos and podcasts are the set of technologies are the highest risk for instructors using technologies just for the sake of using technoligy and not adding to instruction in anyway. Video and Audio is becoming easier to use and I think some instructors can be get excited to use it but if the assignment is ill fit with the subject it can just become cumbersome to the students.
There is also the problem of unless the student is very meticulous about taking it down then those videos and podcasts are out there on the internet for anyone to find. This causes some privacy issues for many. When I was looking for instructor to interview I had the first person back out because they were not willing to have the information they shared be so public. I could also not find one that would be willing to be video taped because of it was on the blog.
One great thing about blogs and podcasts are there is some great information and it is a nice change up from reading if the instructor uses what is available on the internet. It also makes is more portable and easier to get the infomation done. For example, while filing at work, I was able to listen to most of the podcasts. I do this a lot and have often wished that I would be able to get an audio version of assigned readings for while I am in the car, filing, or exercising. It certainly would ease up the amount of time I spend reading! Especially since I already listen to podcasts from NPR and This American Life while I am doing those things.
I hope your interviews projects are all going well!
PS Here is a link to my favorite This American Life. If you like short stories these are very entertaining and will make any hour go faster.
Using podcasts, videos, and other similar technologies can be useful when used sparingly and when it makes the most sense. I think videos and podcasts are the set of technologies are the highest risk for instructors using technologies just for the sake of using technoligy and not adding to instruction in anyway. Video and Audio is becoming easier to use and I think some instructors can be get excited to use it but if the assignment is ill fit with the subject it can just become cumbersome to the students.
There is also the problem of unless the student is very meticulous about taking it down then those videos and podcasts are out there on the internet for anyone to find. This causes some privacy issues for many. When I was looking for instructor to interview I had the first person back out because they were not willing to have the information they shared be so public. I could also not find one that would be willing to be video taped because of it was on the blog.
One great thing about blogs and podcasts are there is some great information and it is a nice change up from reading if the instructor uses what is available on the internet. It also makes is more portable and easier to get the infomation done. For example, while filing at work, I was able to listen to most of the podcasts. I do this a lot and have often wished that I would be able to get an audio version of assigned readings for while I am in the car, filing, or exercising. It certainly would ease up the amount of time I spend reading! Especially since I already listen to podcasts from NPR and This American Life while I am doing those things.
I hope your interviews projects are all going well!
PS Here is a link to my favorite This American Life. If you like short stories these are very entertaining and will make any hour go faster.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
collaborative research paper
I tried to be very specific in my last post about the wiki the students would do, which is lucky for me because that made this week so much easier!
I choose to use the Collaborative Research Papers in chapter 4. This was mainly due to the fact the students for this lesson are basic education students, trying to learn about the supreme court. It would not be fair for to the students to expect them to do much written analysis on the supreme court or their decisions. While there will surely be in class discussions on particular cases, think asking them to use the wiki, and do the research and present it in a pleasing manner is enough.
Now for making the assignment into a Collaborative Research Paper.
First, I would take West and West advice have an individual Wiki for each group and the home page contain the following:
1. Assigned case
2. Group Members and have them identify their role
3.Deadlines
4. Outline of paper and questions needed to be answered
Now if you are following along with book you will say but wait, they say goals, you have deadlines. I think goals for this project are already pretty set up on the questions that needed to be answered. Also when is it due is really the first thing any student wants to know when first hearing about the assignments.
Research Page:
According to West and West this will eventually become the reference page but during the project it could be a work table, however, in my assignment it would be the reference page that when ever they find a source they are going to use it automatically goes on that page. This is for student on in person class so their "work table" can be an actual table.
Paper:
While the goal the Colloaborate Research Paper is to create one, I am hoping more for accurate information that is citied and using some other media in the wiki that adds to the page. So while the there should be plenty of type, it may not look like a very traditional paper.
You might be wondering what the activity was and not willing to go back to my last post, so here it is for you because I like to make it easy for you!
This activity has students working in research groups to
find information on an important Supreme Court case and develop an information
poster to share with the class.
Divide students
into groups of four to cover as many of the cases as necessary.
Have each group
research their assigned Case and create a wiki about their Case. Allow
creativity with this project giving them
free range of how they want design the Wiki. The only requirements is they
answer the following questions:
1.
when was the court case decided
2.
What was the case about? What was issues that brought
it to the supreme court in the first place?
3.
What was the decision of the supreme court?
4.
What was it impact on the country?
Have students discuss
on threaded questions or in class the court cases and what they learned on
their subjects. Use debriefing questions below if necessary.
Debriefing Questions:
Which cases
involved Constitutional questions surrounding the Bill of Rights or the power
of one of the branches of government?
Which cases
involved judicial review?
Which cases
involved the executive branch? The legislative branch?
Did you agree with
the Court's decision in the case you presented? Why or why not?
Did you strongly
agree or disagree with any of the other Court decisions presented? Explain why.
Thanks for reading this week!
PS I have discovered another problem with technology, I only have West and West on my Kindle, so I cannot cite any page numbers! So sorry about that!
West, J. and West, M. (2009). Using
Wikis for Online Collaboration: The Power of the Read-Write Web. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Lesson Plan
This weeks blog was hard for me. I do not have any thing I am train for that last longer then a day or two where it seemed Wikis would be inappropriate. So I found this lesson plan online for basic education and modified it.
Here's the link for the orignial:
Title:Supreme Court: A closer look.
Target Audience:
Basic Adult Education Students.
Learning Objectives:
Students will understand:
·
h How the Supreme Court is part of the checks and
balances/separation of powers established by the U.S. Constitution.
·
important cases of the Supreme Court that help
define the role of the government in protecting citizens' rights.
·
the rights and responsibilities of citizens as
defined by the Supreme Court decisions where liberties have been expanded or
limited.
Materials/handouts/Websites needed:
Media components:
Newshour with Jim Lehrer Extra
Web site
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/
lessonplans/socialstudies/scotus_powers.pdf
THE SUPREME COURT Web site
http://www.pbs.org/supremecourt
Supreme Court Landmark Case
Timeline
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/educators/sc_timeline.html
Oyez Web site
www.oyez.org
Supreme Court Concentration
www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/educators/concentration.html
Supplies:
Pencils, pens, paper
Handouts:
Ranking the Importance of Supreme Court Cases
Landmark Supreme Court Decisions Information Poster Activity
Defining Limits on People's Rights
Class Outline:
Introductory Activities
Separation of Powers and Checks
and Balances among the Three Branches of Government.
Have students examine the three branches of government and the Supreme
Court's role within the checks and balances system. Go to the "Newshour
with Jim Lehrer" Extra Web site at
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/
lessonplans/socialstudies/scotus_powers.pdf and conduct the activity on
"Declare Your Powers."
How is the Supreme Court relevant?
Divide students into small groups of
three or four.
Distribute the handout, "Ranking
the Importance of Supreme Court Cases" to all students.
Review the directions with them, having them
read the case descriptions and discuss their importance.
Then have them rank each case's
importance according to a consensus of the group.
After each group has completed the
rankings, hold a discussion on the reasons for the students' rankings.
Learning Activities
Landmark Supreme Court Decisions Information Wiki Activity
This activity has students working in research groups to
find information on an important Supreme Court case and develop an information
poster to share with the class.
Divide students
into groups of four to cover as many of the cases as necessary.
Have each group
research their assigned Case and create a wiki about their Case. Allow
creativity with this project giving them
free range of how they want design the Wiki. The only requirements is they
answer the following questions:
1.
when was the court case decided
2.
What was the case about? What was issues that brought
it to the supreme court in the first place?
3.
What was the decision of the supreme court?
4.
What was it impact on the country?
Have students discuss
on threaded questions or in class the court cases and what they learned on
their subjects. Use debriefing questions below if necessary.
Debriefing Questions:
Which cases
involved Constitutional questions surrounding the Bill of Rights or the power
of one of the branches of government?
Which cases
involved judicial review?
Which cases
involved the executive branch? The legislative branch?
Did you agree with
the Court's decision in the case you presented? Why or why not?
Did you strongly
agree or disagree with any of the other Court decisions presented? Explain why.
Evaluation:
Students will show mastery of information through test.
Wiki will be graded as the following as there will mainly be
pass fail assignment.
Excellent:
Answered all required questions, Plus additional information
about the case.
Used a different media in the wiki, ie youtube links, other
widgets
All information was accurate.
Good:
Answered required questions.
Used mainly text that was formatted using different sizes
and color.
Information was accurate.
Poor:
Not all questions were answered.
Very plain formatting.
Information was mostly accurate.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Wikis: Pros and Cons for Adult Learners
The title is a bit of a misnomer for me. I find very little cons with wikis. In fact
the one drawback that I can find for the wiki was solved in this class by using
the group section K-State online. Which
allows keeping threaded discussions about the wiki so users can know who did
what but what is expected next without having to keep track of several emails.
From personal experience I like them. They are an easy way
to get collaborating with other students.
The wiki program I have used was very simple to learn to navigate and
easy to learn. I will state that I have only used one Wiki program and not familiar
with others but I would not hesitate to use a Wiki in a classroom setting. I can
see even using a wiki in my current job to facilitate more collaboration and
information exchange across the state.
For online classroom, Wikis are welcome because they bring
variety to classes. While there are a variety of options for instructors to use
on the web, most instructors seem to stick with threaded discussion and essays.
Wiki are neither but still get students diving into the content and thinking
about them more.
Since I am in the Pro wiki camp, I found West and West very
interesting this week. I did not know there was so many Wiki Options out there!
I have already started to explore some of them and astonished that they all
seem pretty easy to use. At least the free one’s . I am not so interested that
I am going to pay for a site just see how they work!
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
“Blogging: Pros and Cons for Adult Learners”
For this week’s topic we have an interesting perspective to
blog about blogging, more specifically in adult education. This could be very useful to students and
faculty, with many pros for learning.
One of the pros I am experiencing right now. Let me explain.
Usually, because I never devote enough time on the weekends to reading, am one
of the last to respond to threaded discussion. When I do finish reading on the
deadline that I am supposed to post, I usually read what other students posted
first about the topic, not only to make sure I got what others got out of the
reading but also that I to make sure
that I am not really just stating what others have said. However, due to me
reading others ideas first, I almost always feel like I am just writing what
others have said. Here on blogs, it was way to cumbersome to read what others
have said first, so I know at least I am typing what I got out of the reading, not
what others students thoughts on topics influenced my own.
Another pro to blogging is that is very reflective. King and
Cox (2011) discuss this on page 92-93. They discuss how it helps develop
critical thinking skills, something of a goal for most graduate programs. A
Study that I ran into on another class also discussed reflective writing had on
medical residents (Linked here). The study had an assignment for students to
write and comment on blogs about bedside manner and patient care. Most of the students
found the blogs helpful and discovered things about themselves they might not
have if they had never blogged.
While there are many other pros that blogs have, given the
title of the topic, we need to move on.
A major con of blogging is more for the instructor then the
students. The instructor has to be willing to make a time commitment to reading
the blogs, the comments on the blogs, and then responding themselves. This is
very time consuming as discussed in King and Cox (2011) on page 93. The instructor does not have the ease of a
threaded discussion. Each blog is an individual website.
Another con of blogging is the prep time of teaching
students about blogs and how to use them.
We all like to talk about the younger generation being more tech
savvy. As discussed the reading this
does not mean they are natural at creating a blog and blogging. Blogging is not
Facebook and twitter. Many people share their lives through the social media
sights and while reading blogs, have never had to create their own. An instructor
would be wise to ensure that each student knew where to go and how to create a
blog, no matter the age of the students, so they can be successful.
I think blogs have great potential in adult education. I
think they might be seen as less work by the students that actually might be
able to get them to reflect more. This a is based on a personal antidote, I
have to share. I recently discussing a with a co-worker, who is getting her
masters in Social Work about this class requiring me to blog. She also this semester
has to maintain a blog. In discussing the criteria for our respective blogs, her was going to be mainly based on
reflections of her experiences on an internship. At the end of the conversation
she stated “Oh well, as least its not a reflective journal, I hate those.”
Which not to burst her happiness that she basically was doing one, I did not
point that out to her.
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