I often found myself overwhelmed in learning new technologies but at the same time I was impressed with the variety and availability of online assessment tools and my ability to figure them out. I never knew there were so many. I really appreciated the jigsaw method and it's value in collaborative learning. I also broadened my knowledge of Bloom's taxonomy and appreciated being able to apply the concepts in the final project. That was an "ah ha" moment for me in terms of creating an online course.
I received some useful suggestions regarding my final project and I edited it to reflect those changes. I sure have learned a lot. I plan to enjoy the break but I'll be back for the next course in the spring.
Module 7: I spent several hours each evening this week working on my final project. I was initially a little overwhelmed in figuring out how to present it. I settled on Google Docs which proved to be an effective, user-friendly tool. You have no idea the satisfaction I got when I created links within my document and they actually worked.
I participated in the "live" conference on Wednesday night which was a good experience and clarified a few things for me regarding the project. What I learned:
1. the difference between the summary and conclusion
2. what they are looking for in terms of diversity
3. what should be included in regards to plagiarism
I look forward to reading my classmates projects as well as receiving feedback on mine.
Here is the link for final project:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ASf89PM-uixvZGdieGM2bmJfMTBuZzh6Z3NoYg&hl=en
or see the link on the navigational bar.
Module 6: Spent most of the week working on my final project. Here is the link to my pre-course survey created in Zoomerang:
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB229UF5EMDGD
I guess it is time to start working on the final project for which I plan to convert the traditional course I am currently teaching to an online or blended course format. I teach a First Year College Experience course that is required for all new, full-time community college freshman. My reservation with facilitating the f2f course in a 100% online format is that one of the course objectives is to orientate and familiarize the students with the physical campus and location of available services and programs offered by the college. Therefore, the course may be best delivered in a blended format in which the students come to the campus for a one-time orientation and tour the campus facilities and then other modules can be delivered online. I want to use this course for my final project because there has been some ongoing administrative discussion regarding this course going online and I'd like to be a step ahead in researching if and how it can be done effectively. I also want my research and final project to be relevant, meaningful, and hopefully applicable to me.
Another part of this module is to compare and contrast the readings of Casey (module 5) and our instructor, Dr. Khalsa. I had not heard the term cybercoaching before. But reading up on it, I guess it is basically interacting and motivating students in an online environment. Isn't that what all good online instructors do? I am sure there are best practices and proven strategies and I look forward to learning about them. Before beginning the comparison I also needed to clarify for myself the difference between formative and summative assessments.
Module 5: I am familiar with Bloom's Taxonomy and explain the multi-tiered model of thinking in my in my unit on critical thinking in my First Year College Experience class. I incorporate several small group activities that practice the use of higher level thinking skills. But I must admit that I don't necessarily refer to the model when building my other class activities.
I didn't expect to struggle so much with the assignment of charting the activities in the Casey study to Bloom's taxonomy. I guess I struggled because I wasn't sure what the assignment was asking us to do. There were so many activities in the case study and they seemed to cross over many of the categories in Bloom's taxonomy. It was a bit confusing. I read through the case study at least twice and hope I completed it as it was intended.
I believe the content and activities in the journalism study could be presented and applied in an online course. The research could be done by Internet, discussions in blogs, presentations in E-portfolios etc.
Use this link to view my Bloom's Taxonomy chart:
http://www.box.net/shared/keg8sto9ff
Module 4: This week finds us halfway through the course, hence the midterm.
For the first time I feel relaxed and not overly anxious about the technologies. I am actually enjoying the new tools that I'm working with. I love this blog. I find myself checking it all the time and editing my posts often. I was both surprised and delighted to find comments on my blog yesterday which prompted me to review my classmate's blogs and figure out how to post comments on their blogs. Great success!
Since this is MY blog and I can write what's on my mind here, I must say that I am disappointed in my grades thus far. I lost a point percentage two weeks in a row on posting, receiving this comment, Please make sure to post at least 2 days and to at least 2 other students to receive full points. I feel I have been doing nothing but posting and I certainly thought I was meeting the posting requirements. I don't have the time to go back and check nor do I want to exert the energy to debate it. But I am an anal adult student and it didn't make me too happy.
Our midterm jigsaw project is going very well. It is a test of our time management, communication and collaboration skills and I think we are passing the test with flying colors. We each declared the tool we plan to research and we have the introduction, summary, and compilation tasks covered. Several of us have already posted a draft of our report for review by our teammates. I think we'll have a nice variety of tools in our toolbox and I look forward to learning about the tools that my teammates are reviewing.
It is great to get a reprieve from the supplemental readings this week in order to concentrate on the midterm project.
It is Wednesday, mid week 4 and our team has completed the midterm project. All team members did their fair share. Each one of us thoroughly researched the tool we brought to the toolbox and we all pitched in to present a comprehensive midterm project. I am moving on to module 5. Thanks, Matt, Laurie, and Andrea.
Here is a link to Group 3 Midterm Project
Module 3: My group 3 Teammates for the midterm are Matt, Laurie, and Andrea. I am a little nervous about the group midterm. I am always apprehensive about group projects especially in online environments. I want to contribute enough to the project but at the same time I don't want to be controlling and try to take over. What makes me even more stressed this time around is that I am going on vacation for a few days during which time I won't have Internet access. I had the vacation planned before I enrolled in the class. I decided to enroll anyway and figured I'd just work extra hard to keep up with my assignments but I didn't know there would be a group project due around the same time and others would be relying on me for their grade.
I chose to research Zoomerang, a survey building tool provider. I started on my research right away and it is going well.
Other than being stressed about the group project this has been my favorite module so far. I really enjoyed the Perfect E-Storm (Bonk, 2004) document. I never knew there were so many new technologies and since I am unfamiliar with many of them I printed it out and will save it for reference.
I am having fun with the Inspiration software and creating a concept map. It's a cool, user-friendly program. I so appreciate an activity from which I am learning something new without being overly stressed by the 'new' technology. I hope I am not speaking too soon. I haven't completed the map yet and I haven't posted it.
Yep, spoke too soon. I just wasted two hours and got very frustrated trying to save my concept map as a .jpeg or .gif. The module instructions said, "when saving your Inspiration concept map, go to File export and then choose .jpg or .gif". I didn't have those options. The drop down box only offered saving it as a Microsoft Word doc or AppleWorks doc. I was thinking perhaps I had an older version of Word or something. I spent way too much time trying to figure it out and then out of frustration I googled..."save Inspiration concept map as .jpeg" and I found the missing link. I had to click on file export and THEN the graphics tab and then I had the option of choosing to save it as a .jpeg or .gif. Grrrgg....frustrating. People like me need step-by-step instructions. If one step is left out we are frazzled. I am a problem solver though. I figured it out. Thank goodness for the Internet.
Here is my concept map:
Module 2: Module two had us discuss the difference between assessment and evaluation. The activity required us to create a blog. I am fairly experienced in social networking (i.e. My Space, Twitter, and Facebook) and I follow several blogs but I've never created or maintained a blog. I struggled with the technology a bit. I started out with Edublog but became too frustrated trying to set it up and aborted the project. Then I found blogspot. I was frustrated there too but eventually set up this blog and I am satisfied with it. Now that I have successfully completed the activity I must say that I enjoyed learning the new technology.
I know I spend a great deal more time than I should have to when it comes to completing technology-based assignments. The "newer" technologies just don't come easy to me.
Module 1: This module provided an overview of assessment, types of assessment and a discussion as to why assessment is important. The module activity required us to find a partner and introduce him/her to the class (see Introductions below). I considered that activity more of an icebreaker than an assessment tool. It was nice to "meet" fellow classmates. I always find it very interesting to learn where people are from and why they are pursuing these course.
