This week is for the final project. I am also serving on a WASC visiting committee, so I have had to work double time to get everything done.
I created an outline based on the schedule we received in this class--I admit it, it was a good format so why recreate the wheel, and besides you would recognize it. I have also created the online quizzes I would use that support the weeks' content and an explanation of the technologies used. I have included a sample of the type of activity I would use, I am not sure if all of this was expected, but once I got on a roll I thought the explanation was not quite sufficient without a sample, so I threw it in.
www.lindafaulk.com/Session_topics.docx
www.lindafaulk.com/Techologies.docx
www.lindafaulk.com/cereal_box_problem.docx
www.lindafaulk.com/quizes.docx
Yes, I realize that technologies and quizzes are spelled incorrectly, but I have had a glass of wine after a 14 hour day and by the time I realized the misspellings, I had already uploaded the files under these names.
I used the topic of probability because it is a very good topic for online instruction. Some other topics would probably not be as good of choices, due to the intensive math symbolic language involved. But probability? Almost all can be explained using common language and concepts that most people are familiar with. I have enjoyed this class, and look forward to next quarter to exploring more online content.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Week 9: Engagement and Motivation
I missed the live broadcast of Talkshoe due to a work commitment, but listened to the recording. Much of the engagement and motivation parallels the classroom experience for me and it was interesting to see where the differences were. Obviously the more motivated the individual, the less the instructor will have to work to get the student involved. From Talkshoe as well as some of the readings I did earlier for the annotated bibliography, a successful online course requires planning, preparation and organization to keep both the student and instructor engaged and motivated.
Planning means knowing who the students are, what their goals are, needs, skills, etc. In one article I read the course was to help adult students learn basic math skills so they could continue with their education. Knowing the prospective student, the instructor spent months analyzing the type of person and what their anticipated struggles might be in order to develop strategies. One of the things they did was to provide small successes early so students would feel more capable, and therefore continue. Helping students overcome math anxiety was one of the non-academic goals of the course so the student would be able to perform academically. This would also include knowing the level of the student high school, under grad, masters because that might indicate their possible motivation level as well. Another reading offered a class in higher math that fulfilled a course in the students major. It was assumed that students would be interested because it was in their major, and from the reading it appears the materials were the same as used in the classroom class. The instructor found students unprepared, unmotivated, immature and very unsuccessful--but this was because the instructor had a lot of assumptions about the students that proved to be untrue. And that lack of planning was obvious.
Preparation: Designing the activites and how the content will be delivered, the product students will create and how the communication will be structured is part of the preparation. In the Talkshoe class it was mentioned all the time involved in creating all the online lecture, and compared this to classroom. I think this depends on the teacher. Even though I have taught a course several times, I still re create the activities and prepare as much (if not more) than I did that first time. However, I have colleagues who use the same lesson they created fifteen years ago. Since Online requires making the materials available in several formats to accomodate students with special needs, I can see how this would add to the preparation time, but after the first course, the materials could be reused, just as they are in the classroom. To me as an instructor, it is this continual reflecting on the material and if it is effective that keeps me revising it, I would imagine it would be a similar process for an online course. Preparation would also include knowing about the technology details, ie. server.
I agree that small, frequent tasks are ideal. I am a recovering procrastinator, so I would be one of the people who put off a task until the very end. Also, knowing that there are options to the tasks give the flexibility to people to do what they are interested in. In this course, I loved the captioning activity. It was very frustrating, but since it was an option, I was free to choose to do it.
Organization: This includes all the little details, such as how to obtain good email/contact information as was discussed: making this a students task was ideal. The structure of the course, the outline, the grading, and knowing how and when things are do. This also includes anticipating all the little details that might go wrong. It was not an accident that the Talkshoe was scheduled the week before the end of the quarter. This provided an opportunity for students to ask questions and feel supported, keep everyone focused on
The other point about motivation is something that became evident before the holidays last year.The students have to have a goal they want. I was making some activities for my students to do in the computer lab, and decided I would let them do a Christmas Trivia Quiz, it was just for fun and I put in 30-40 questions, and the format was similar to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. If they got an answer wrong, they had to start over. If they could answer 20 questions correctly in a row, they got 25 points extra credit. They were so intent on getting the extra credit that they played the quiz constantly. I had asked one question that I knew no one would know (because they are teenagers) "When Grandma got ran over by the reindeer what was she going to get?" but they played so much, 3 months later, all the students still know this answer. This type of repetition would be impossible in a classroom (and boring), but students chose to do this because the goal was worth it. Providing the content in such a way and giving students a purpose and goal that is relevant to them is the key to both motivation and learning.
Note: That discuss about how the email goes our individualized with a comment may have been "obvious" to everyone else, but I appreciated it. I have wondered how that happens, knew it had to be automatic somehow, but the simple explanations sometimes escape me...Thanks for that, I am going to develop my own spreadsheet and experiment.
Planning means knowing who the students are, what their goals are, needs, skills, etc. In one article I read the course was to help adult students learn basic math skills so they could continue with their education. Knowing the prospective student, the instructor spent months analyzing the type of person and what their anticipated struggles might be in order to develop strategies. One of the things they did was to provide small successes early so students would feel more capable, and therefore continue. Helping students overcome math anxiety was one of the non-academic goals of the course so the student would be able to perform academically. This would also include knowing the level of the student high school, under grad, masters because that might indicate their possible motivation level as well. Another reading offered a class in higher math that fulfilled a course in the students major. It was assumed that students would be interested because it was in their major, and from the reading it appears the materials were the same as used in the classroom class. The instructor found students unprepared, unmotivated, immature and very unsuccessful--but this was because the instructor had a lot of assumptions about the students that proved to be untrue. And that lack of planning was obvious.
Preparation: Designing the activites and how the content will be delivered, the product students will create and how the communication will be structured is part of the preparation. In the Talkshoe class it was mentioned all the time involved in creating all the online lecture, and compared this to classroom. I think this depends on the teacher. Even though I have taught a course several times, I still re create the activities and prepare as much (if not more) than I did that first time. However, I have colleagues who use the same lesson they created fifteen years ago. Since Online requires making the materials available in several formats to accomodate students with special needs, I can see how this would add to the preparation time, but after the first course, the materials could be reused, just as they are in the classroom. To me as an instructor, it is this continual reflecting on the material and if it is effective that keeps me revising it, I would imagine it would be a similar process for an online course. Preparation would also include knowing about the technology details, ie. server.
I agree that small, frequent tasks are ideal. I am a recovering procrastinator, so I would be one of the people who put off a task until the very end. Also, knowing that there are options to the tasks give the flexibility to people to do what they are interested in. In this course, I loved the captioning activity. It was very frustrating, but since it was an option, I was free to choose to do it.
Organization: This includes all the little details, such as how to obtain good email/contact information as was discussed: making this a students task was ideal. The structure of the course, the outline, the grading, and knowing how and when things are do. This also includes anticipating all the little details that might go wrong. It was not an accident that the Talkshoe was scheduled the week before the end of the quarter. This provided an opportunity for students to ask questions and feel supported, keep everyone focused on
The other point about motivation is something that became evident before the holidays last year.The students have to have a goal they want. I was making some activities for my students to do in the computer lab, and decided I would let them do a Christmas Trivia Quiz, it was just for fun and I put in 30-40 questions, and the format was similar to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. If they got an answer wrong, they had to start over. If they could answer 20 questions correctly in a row, they got 25 points extra credit. They were so intent on getting the extra credit that they played the quiz constantly. I had asked one question that I knew no one would know (because they are teenagers) "When Grandma got ran over by the reindeer what was she going to get?" but they played so much, 3 months later, all the students still know this answer. This type of repetition would be impossible in a classroom (and boring), but students chose to do this because the goal was worth it. Providing the content in such a way and giving students a purpose and goal that is relevant to them is the key to both motivation and learning.
Note: That discuss about how the email goes our individualized with a comment may have been "obvious" to everyone else, but I appreciated it. I have wondered how that happens, knew it had to be automatic somehow, but the simple explanations sometimes escape me...Thanks for that, I am going to develop my own spreadsheet and experiment.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Week 8: ADA and Other Issues
This was the week for ADA and either the review of a page for ADA compliance or A captioned movie.
I chose to do the movie. I have serious obsessive compulsive issues, which made this a perfect option for me. I purchased the quicktime pro program, it was relatively cheap, and easy to use and I already was familiar with it. I did not want to learn new software. I used the instructional video on resizing a photo to caption.
This is what I learned:
1. People talk too fast. This may seem like a given, but when you are trying to write a script of what they say, it is much more noticeable. Needless to say, I had to watch the video several times and even then I am not sure I got all the words right. This reminded me to take a little slower pace when making any type of instructional videos.
2. My hearing is going. Some of the words I heard one way and when I replayed the video, it was something else. I think this is a cognitive thing as well, your mind 'fills in' the most natural words to make the sentence complete. So instead of "and click save", it became 'click save'.
3. How accurate does it need to be? When making a video we may say something that is not accurate and then correct ourselves. Do we need ALL the words? Or just enough of the words to get the meaning across. Or is that doing a disservice to someone who is hearing impaired, kind of cheating them because they won't know that they didn't get all the words captioned? My OCD made me include all the words I could. I don't know which is the right way.
4. The text can't go where you think it should all the time. In this video, boxes kept popping up in different places. My first ten attempts to get the text at the bottom, did not work because a box would cover it up, even when moved to the side (this was after I got both files merged, which was another ten or twenty tries). I even tried to make the text go vertical and then I realized that it looks nice as a title, but it very odd to read. Then I decided to put the text on the right side at the top. Nothing interferred with this so it works. The ideal would have been to have the text next to the action. But then it may create a problem if it is bouncing to different places.
5. People have different computers and one size does not fit all. This looked fine on my computer and when I uploaded it, it cuts off some of the words at the top on my other computer. I think the way to fix this is to make the screen smaller, but the larger question is how to know what size to make stuff.
www.lindafaulk.com/resizea.mov
6. I can see why people get paid a lot of money to do this.
7. I really enjoyed doing this (even though it has made me crazy and I am still not happy that it is not perfect) and I will probably include captioning with any instructional videos I do.
I chose to do the movie. I have serious obsessive compulsive issues, which made this a perfect option for me. I purchased the quicktime pro program, it was relatively cheap, and easy to use and I already was familiar with it. I did not want to learn new software. I used the instructional video on resizing a photo to caption.
This is what I learned:
1. People talk too fast. This may seem like a given, but when you are trying to write a script of what they say, it is much more noticeable. Needless to say, I had to watch the video several times and even then I am not sure I got all the words right. This reminded me to take a little slower pace when making any type of instructional videos.
2. My hearing is going. Some of the words I heard one way and when I replayed the video, it was something else. I think this is a cognitive thing as well, your mind 'fills in' the most natural words to make the sentence complete. So instead of "and click save", it became 'click save'.
3. How accurate does it need to be? When making a video we may say something that is not accurate and then correct ourselves. Do we need ALL the words? Or just enough of the words to get the meaning across. Or is that doing a disservice to someone who is hearing impaired, kind of cheating them because they won't know that they didn't get all the words captioned? My OCD made me include all the words I could. I don't know which is the right way.
4. The text can't go where you think it should all the time. In this video, boxes kept popping up in different places. My first ten attempts to get the text at the bottom, did not work because a box would cover it up, even when moved to the side (this was after I got both files merged, which was another ten or twenty tries). I even tried to make the text go vertical and then I realized that it looks nice as a title, but it very odd to read. Then I decided to put the text on the right side at the top. Nothing interferred with this so it works. The ideal would have been to have the text next to the action. But then it may create a problem if it is bouncing to different places.
5. People have different computers and one size does not fit all. This looked fine on my computer and when I uploaded it, it cuts off some of the words at the top on my other computer. I think the way to fix this is to make the screen smaller, but the larger question is how to know what size to make stuff.
www.lindafaulk.com/resizea.mov
6. I can see why people get paid a lot of money to do this.
7. I really enjoyed doing this (even though it has made me crazy and I am still not happy that it is not perfect) and I will probably include captioning with any instructional videos I do.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Week 7? Can this be True?
This was the week for ADA, captioning a movie and learning how to make materials accessible to all students.
Instead, we are submitting our annotated bibliography for articles on elearning. Which is a good think because now I have an additional week on that captioning, and figuring out how to upload on this blog.
www.lindafaulk.com/annotbib.docx
I was frustrated by the articles, I thought it ironic that many were not available online. I was looking for specific mathematics online learning topics. Some of the articles involve hybrid classes where the tutoring was done online. One was about using web based homework which I am going to explore further. This is really a great idea to not only free up instructor time, but also give students the feedback they need.
I also read a lot of nonsense articles that really offered nothing. I only included one of them in the bibliography. I think what I learned most from this assignment was the planning, design and preliminary work that is necessary in order to have a successful online course. The amount of planning that some of the authors described is extensive, and far beyond what I expected. I guess I expected what the one article did, decided to offer a class, put up the material and then wondered why people were not successful. Then make excuses why it didn't work. The excuses offered could have been true, but there appeared to be a lack of planning.
Instead, we are submitting our annotated bibliography for articles on elearning. Which is a good think because now I have an additional week on that captioning, and figuring out how to upload on this blog.
www.lindafaulk.com/annotbib.docx
I was frustrated by the articles, I thought it ironic that many were not available online. I was looking for specific mathematics online learning topics. Some of the articles involve hybrid classes where the tutoring was done online. One was about using web based homework which I am going to explore further. This is really a great idea to not only free up instructor time, but also give students the feedback they need.
I also read a lot of nonsense articles that really offered nothing. I only included one of them in the bibliography. I think what I learned most from this assignment was the planning, design and preliminary work that is necessary in order to have a successful online course. The amount of planning that some of the authors described is extensive, and far beyond what I expected. I guess I expected what the one article did, decided to offer a class, put up the material and then wondered why people were not successful. Then make excuses why it didn't work. The excuses offered could have been true, but there appeared to be a lack of planning.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Week 6: Assessment--A struggle all around
This was the week I was looking forward to and it has turned out to be the most frustrating. I looked at all the options listed for creating a test and some of them had clear advantages depending on the circumstances:
Softchalk offered a free trial, but you needed to purchase the program if you wanted to use it long term. The program is expensive, but it does have a "student" option which would make it affordable. I LOVE this program, because it does more than just assessment and would make lessons online as well as accompanying assessments. I played with it a little, but I like to cut and paste and was having difficulty with it. Being able to type in some of the math symbols stumped me totally, and even though I did find symbols, the ones I wanted were not there...
Hot Potatoes (http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/hotpot) needed to run on the individual computer, it was freeware, so there was no cost, but for students that I needed to take to a computer lab, I would not be able to load software on a computer for them.
Epistema--was really more powerful than I needed for this activity. And I was having to work too hard to find out not only how to use it, but what the specifics were...didn't want to take a tour, just the facts.
The great thing about Respondus was that I needed to download the program, but it worked with textbook publishers, so all those questions that matched the curriculum were available. And it was available in a print version to post to a blackboard or moodle environment. I am not sure I would use a print version, but it was nice to have that option.
Considering all my options, I decided Quizstar would be the best choice. For THREE days I tried to sign up, but they won't send an activation email so I can use it. I have also contacted them about the problem but so far (WED, 10:30 pm) I have had no success. Thurs: I emailed them and they had to manually activate my account and then I created a quiz. I finally got a quiz created, but could not upload any graphs or diagrams, there appears to be a learning curve and I am below it...lol
This quiz is for my Algebra 2 students who will actually take the quiz next Thursday. We are working on a unit of Probability and Statistics and I tried to create questions that would determine if they knew the fundamental concepts and not just computation questions (though you need to compute to get the answers). I tried for a couple of days to figure out how to access the quiz online for you to take, but I think I have to enroll students in order for them to take the quiz. I also had to be careful of the types of questions that are asked because symbolic language is not available on many of the sites (without going thru a LOT of trouble) and I like to cut and paste from a pdf file, but while 'media' is allowed, it is not in the form that is available to me...This has definitely been a week where I did a lot of experimenting, trial and error on the quizzes, and reflecting on the nature of assessment and how much is enough when evaluating learning.
www.lindafaulk.com/onlinequiz.pdf
As far as the rubric is concerned, it is all about the right answers...sorry, but that is the fact...however, I ususally let my students do "test corrections" after a test is returned so they can find their mistakes and correct the work for additional credit. So I have included the rubric for the test corrections.
www.lindafaulk.com/testcorrections.pdf
Summary of discussion this week:
We have discussed everything from types of assessment, grading and evaluating students online to a discussion of cheating and using computers for CST's. It has been interesting to read all the different opinions about using Turnitin as well. I was unaware of all the controversy, because I know CSUSB uses this program for masters and doctorate submissions, so I figured it was safe. Now that I read some of the posts regarding it, I am thinking that there are some serious issues with it, so I have changed my mind about using it.
I have also had to really think about my own views of assessment and how to really know when students have learned content. I have high expectations, and my classes always score well on the benchmark tests, but perhaps I grade a little harsh. This is something I need to reflect on.
Softchalk offered a free trial, but you needed to purchase the program if you wanted to use it long term. The program is expensive, but it does have a "student" option which would make it affordable. I LOVE this program, because it does more than just assessment and would make lessons online as well as accompanying assessments. I played with it a little, but I like to cut and paste and was having difficulty with it. Being able to type in some of the math symbols stumped me totally, and even though I did find symbols, the ones I wanted were not there...
Hot Potatoes (http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/hotpot) needed to run on the individual computer, it was freeware, so there was no cost, but for students that I needed to take to a computer lab, I would not be able to load software on a computer for them.
Epistema--was really more powerful than I needed for this activity. And I was having to work too hard to find out not only how to use it, but what the specifics were...didn't want to take a tour, just the facts.
The great thing about Respondus was that I needed to download the program, but it worked with textbook publishers, so all those questions that matched the curriculum were available. And it was available in a print version to post to a blackboard or moodle environment. I am not sure I would use a print version, but it was nice to have that option.
Considering all my options, I decided Quizstar would be the best choice. For THREE days I tried to sign up, but they won't send an activation email so I can use it. I have also contacted them about the problem but so far (WED, 10:30 pm) I have had no success. Thurs: I emailed them and they had to manually activate my account and then I created a quiz. I finally got a quiz created, but could not upload any graphs or diagrams, there appears to be a learning curve and I am below it...lol
This quiz is for my Algebra 2 students who will actually take the quiz next Thursday. We are working on a unit of Probability and Statistics and I tried to create questions that would determine if they knew the fundamental concepts and not just computation questions (though you need to compute to get the answers). I tried for a couple of days to figure out how to access the quiz online for you to take, but I think I have to enroll students in order for them to take the quiz. I also had to be careful of the types of questions that are asked because symbolic language is not available on many of the sites (without going thru a LOT of trouble) and I like to cut and paste from a pdf file, but while 'media' is allowed, it is not in the form that is available to me...This has definitely been a week where I did a lot of experimenting, trial and error on the quizzes, and reflecting on the nature of assessment and how much is enough when evaluating learning.
www.lindafaulk.com/onlinequiz.pdf
As far as the rubric is concerned, it is all about the right answers...sorry, but that is the fact...however, I ususally let my students do "test corrections" after a test is returned so they can find their mistakes and correct the work for additional credit. So I have included the rubric for the test corrections.
www.lindafaulk.com/testcorrections.pdf
Summary of discussion this week:
We have discussed everything from types of assessment, grading and evaluating students online to a discussion of cheating and using computers for CST's. It has been interesting to read all the different opinions about using Turnitin as well. I was unaware of all the controversy, because I know CSUSB uses this program for masters and doctorate submissions, so I figured it was safe. Now that I read some of the posts regarding it, I am thinking that there are some serious issues with it, so I have changed my mind about using it.
I have also had to really think about my own views of assessment and how to really know when students have learned content. I have high expectations, and my classes always score well on the benchmark tests, but perhaps I grade a little harsh. This is something I need to reflect on.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Week 5: New Media Discussion
For my new media in developing an elearning activity, I would explore both Talkshoe and a Blog.
www.talkshoe.com
Because Mathematics is often about finding the "right answer", a blog in itself or a wiki doesn't seem appropriate. I could visualize posting a problem for students to answer, and the smartest students would supply the answer and the discussion would be over. However in the field of Probability and Statistics, there are real life questions and problems that students could try and then comment on their experiences that would be valuable. The talkshoe provides one place for both the "podcast", "talkshoe" and "blog" and all of these can be combined to create an environment that will help students be successful.
The problem would be introduced in a Talkshoe environment, the background and all criteria needed to find a solution would be provided and students could ask questions via the text. Then students could have time to work the problem on their own, or withing the Talkshoe environment during the presentation time, post possible solutions on their blog and then read other work. The types of problems that will work best are those problems that are real environment types of questions that students would have in a work situation.
I would add a written handout in addition to the Talkshoe recording so students could have a visual reminder, perhaps graphics as well, and the written problem details. To use Talkshoe alone would not give students opportunities to support each other in their solutions or review each others work. To use a Podcast would be a one way type of communication and while I considered this, it is more valuable to have students be able to ask for clarification from both the instructor and each other. To use a Blog alone would not give students the opportunity to hear all the details of the assignment and ask questions.
Here is one type of problem that is sufficiently meaty that would give high school students an opportunity to explore the mathematics while offering several versions of solutions:
Exploring Unemployment in the country, state, region. Students would collect data from different sources, correlation information by occupation, age, area, skill. Data would be represented by both charts, graphics and then students would "make sense" of data.
While the data is the same, students would work in teams to look at unemployment in different regions of the country and then follow the associated results of unemployment: crime statistics, housing starts, etc.
www.talkshoe.com
Because Mathematics is often about finding the "right answer", a blog in itself or a wiki doesn't seem appropriate. I could visualize posting a problem for students to answer, and the smartest students would supply the answer and the discussion would be over. However in the field of Probability and Statistics, there are real life questions and problems that students could try and then comment on their experiences that would be valuable. The talkshoe provides one place for both the "podcast", "talkshoe" and "blog" and all of these can be combined to create an environment that will help students be successful.
The problem would be introduced in a Talkshoe environment, the background and all criteria needed to find a solution would be provided and students could ask questions via the text. Then students could have time to work the problem on their own, or withing the Talkshoe environment during the presentation time, post possible solutions on their blog and then read other work. The types of problems that will work best are those problems that are real environment types of questions that students would have in a work situation.
I would add a written handout in addition to the Talkshoe recording so students could have a visual reminder, perhaps graphics as well, and the written problem details. To use Talkshoe alone would not give students opportunities to support each other in their solutions or review each others work. To use a Podcast would be a one way type of communication and while I considered this, it is more valuable to have students be able to ask for clarification from both the instructor and each other. To use a Blog alone would not give students the opportunity to hear all the details of the assignment and ask questions.
Here is one type of problem that is sufficiently meaty that would give high school students an opportunity to explore the mathematics while offering several versions of solutions:
Exploring Unemployment in the country, state, region. Students would collect data from different sources, correlation information by occupation, age, area, skill. Data would be represented by both charts, graphics and then students would "make sense" of data.
While the data is the same, students would work in teams to look at unemployment in different regions of the country and then follow the associated results of unemployment: crime statistics, housing starts, etc.
Week 4: Finally Online Again
1. After numerous problems with both my laptop battery and then a bad power cord, I am now back. This is probably the most obvious problem with online courses....lack of ability to get online. While I could access the blackboard from school, the blog was blocked.
The four types of electronic information:
Textual: documents which can be in several different formats, word, pdf. When considering files to place on my website, I prefer pdf files because it is a standard format available to anyone, sometimes word can have different versions and needs to be "converted" (which happens at school). Examples of text documents are syllabus, schedules, lessons, assignments, project information. Information which students need to have access to for reference and be able to read quickly.
Presentation Graphics Slide Show: The most obvious example of this is PowerPoint, which I use to present lessons sequentially, using both graphics, pictures and text, and sometimes including sounds. Students are visual learners and I teach Geometry, so the use of pictures and visual examples are vital to their understanding vocabulary. PowerPoint also can 'step' through each example slowly simulating what students would experience in a face-to-face setting with me explaining each step.
Spreadsheets and Database: The textbook uses the example of grading program, which the instructor would use. If this is posted for students, then they could see grades for each assignment, and if it is interactive, students could use it to predict course grades. Databases could also be used to find reference material (think library). In my Algebra 2 class I also use spreadsheets (excel) to run simulations for probability and to calculate statistics information. Students can enter data, calculate mean,median, mode, standard deviation, see graphs. The fact that it does it quickly makes it easy to demonstrate different data sets in a short period of time.
Multimedia: Videos can be used for virtual field trips, to illustrate real life learning experiences. Youtube and teachertube have videos for every topic, I have used some math videos as rewards for students, some lesson videos to add to my own teaching, some videos showing probability experiments and some videos about space (coordinate systems for Geometry) This gives students meaning beyond their own experience about subjects that are not possible to create inside a classroom.
2. Formatting: Lots of white space: I have trouble reading on a computer screen after a while, even with glasses.
Bulleted lists: Don't need full sentences, make it easy to scan and get needed information.
Text Links: to jump to areas within the documents for ease.
Chunk Information: Important info is first, short sentences, key ideas.
Fonts/formatting options: Using different fonts to visually separate headings and labels. I should have said "discrete" use of fonts and formatting--don't want to get carried away and make it too busy.
See Sample Text document: www.lindafaulk.com/geometryvalentine.docx
3. Difference between two types of communication is whether the class is meeting at the same time or not. The communication is still the same, however when it is delivered asynchronously, then there is a delay in others receiving the information. It depends on the subject, lesson to determine which kind of communication would be best, it is more difficult to get everyone together at once, however any misinformation could be addressed when the class is together.
4. Synchronous: In blackboard there is a virtual classroom where people can meet at the same time, I have used it in the past. It doesn't work very well, there are better forms of communication outside Blackboard.
5. Asynchronous: Digital dropbox, discussion board, email
6. An assignment that I could use in an online Probability/Statistics Unit: Have students conduct surveys and collect data. Once they have their data, they would find the mean,median, mode, calculate the standard deviation, graph the results and indentify all the measures on the graph. They would post their results and be able to view each others work and ask questions. I would use a document to explain the assignment, ppt to show an example of the survey and calculating the measures, excel to complete the calculations and make the graphs or charts. Students could post work in a discussion board or in a blog. I would make benchmarks to ensure students are ontask and meeting the requirements, have the surveys and data collection due by week 1, measures week 2, charts week 3, and complete project posted and reviewed week 4. After they are posted then develop questions that students would answer about why they made certain choices and ask some "what if" questions.
The four types of electronic information:
Textual: documents which can be in several different formats, word, pdf. When considering files to place on my website, I prefer pdf files because it is a standard format available to anyone, sometimes word can have different versions and needs to be "converted" (which happens at school). Examples of text documents are syllabus, schedules, lessons, assignments, project information. Information which students need to have access to for reference and be able to read quickly.
Presentation Graphics Slide Show: The most obvious example of this is PowerPoint, which I use to present lessons sequentially, using both graphics, pictures and text, and sometimes including sounds. Students are visual learners and I teach Geometry, so the use of pictures and visual examples are vital to their understanding vocabulary. PowerPoint also can 'step' through each example slowly simulating what students would experience in a face-to-face setting with me explaining each step.
Spreadsheets and Database: The textbook uses the example of grading program, which the instructor would use. If this is posted for students, then they could see grades for each assignment, and if it is interactive, students could use it to predict course grades. Databases could also be used to find reference material (think library). In my Algebra 2 class I also use spreadsheets (excel) to run simulations for probability and to calculate statistics information. Students can enter data, calculate mean,median, mode, standard deviation, see graphs. The fact that it does it quickly makes it easy to demonstrate different data sets in a short period of time.
Multimedia: Videos can be used for virtual field trips, to illustrate real life learning experiences. Youtube and teachertube have videos for every topic, I have used some math videos as rewards for students, some lesson videos to add to my own teaching, some videos showing probability experiments and some videos about space (coordinate systems for Geometry) This gives students meaning beyond their own experience about subjects that are not possible to create inside a classroom.
2. Formatting: Lots of white space: I have trouble reading on a computer screen after a while, even with glasses.
Bulleted lists: Don't need full sentences, make it easy to scan and get needed information.
Text Links: to jump to areas within the documents for ease.
Chunk Information: Important info is first, short sentences, key ideas.
Fonts/formatting options: Using different fonts to visually separate headings and labels. I should have said "discrete" use of fonts and formatting--don't want to get carried away and make it too busy.
See Sample Text document: www.lindafaulk.com/geometryvalentine.docx
3. Difference between two types of communication is whether the class is meeting at the same time or not. The communication is still the same, however when it is delivered asynchronously, then there is a delay in others receiving the information. It depends on the subject, lesson to determine which kind of communication would be best, it is more difficult to get everyone together at once, however any misinformation could be addressed when the class is together.
4. Synchronous: In blackboard there is a virtual classroom where people can meet at the same time, I have used it in the past. It doesn't work very well, there are better forms of communication outside Blackboard.
5. Asynchronous: Digital dropbox, discussion board, email
6. An assignment that I could use in an online Probability/Statistics Unit: Have students conduct surveys and collect data. Once they have their data, they would find the mean,median, mode, calculate the standard deviation, graph the results and indentify all the measures on the graph. They would post their results and be able to view each others work and ask questions. I would use a document to explain the assignment, ppt to show an example of the survey and calculating the measures, excel to complete the calculations and make the graphs or charts. Students could post work in a discussion board or in a blog. I would make benchmarks to ensure students are ontask and meeting the requirements, have the surveys and data collection due by week 1, measures week 2, charts week 3, and complete project posted and reviewed week 4. After they are posted then develop questions that students would answer about why they made certain choices and ask some "what if" questions.
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