It's the end of the class as we know it....

Sometimes good things come out of bad situations....

Before I get to the post for this week, I just wanted to thank the good people of Perrysburg for all the assistance they have shown my sister and her family after the fire that nearly destroyed their home this past weekend. It certainly says alot about the character of people when they pull together to help like this.

Anyway...on to the questions;

we were asked to conside the following:

-Do you see any patterns in your responses?
-What do your entries tell you about yourself in a DE environment?
-What do you think you could have done differently or would do differently next time as a learner in DE?
-What do you think you did well?
-What values did this experience give you unlike other on-campus courses you have taken?
-What suggestions would you give to someone else who might consider DE in the future?
-Would you take another DL course? Why?

Patterns that I have followed since the first day of the class would be to consider the ideas asked for along with my own experiences and see if I can find some patterns that both I and the readers of this blog can follow up with and learn from.

what makes me different, or sets me apart is that I try to look for connections outside the DL world and beyond the class to see if we can fit these things we are discussing in class into what I think is real world practical experience. Sometimes these things are mundane and somewhat silly (like my homage the Morris Day and the Time) and sometimes they dealt with issues of the class directly...but I think it's critical that we always try to tie real world experience with the class ideas, otherwise it becomes something of an old dusty lesson that goes back to the shelf when the class is finished.

I think I kept this idea in mind, and I think that it served me well in my work. I think that the values that are important transcend the physical classroom though, and it is important to keep this in mind becuase unlike the classroom environment, when you get behind or cannot understand the ideas in place of the DL class, there is not one person other than yourself that is going to notice or be able to ask for assistance. it has to make you think very carefully about what time and effort you are putting into the class, because it is the only way to try to keep up with the class.

my suggestions for the future would be to integrate more of the web conferences, and web discussion areas and times for the class in order to build more cohesive understanding and agreements I think that would allow for each of us in the class to gain a more detailed level of comprehension from both the material and the others in the class. I think that was one of the things that was missing in this class...there was very little direct connection with anyone else in the class.

I think that looking back all the way through my posts, I see that it is perfectly clear that my understanding of the DL classroom has grown, and I am certain that I will be taking more DL classes, and hopefully even teaching one in the near future. I think that DL is a great option to those of us with little time during the day due to work and family concerns, and fully allows us to utilize our time and effort when it is convenient for us. I think that the future using this application and technology is very bright.

not to mention the fact...I enjoy it. I think that is one of the more important, and most overlooked areas of learning. If we have gotten that far, we are doing a very god job.

thanks,

Russ

the waiting is the hardest part

"Don't Let em Kill you babe...dont let em get to you"

Sage advice from Mr.Tom Petty that has come in handy in the last few weeks of the class. It's been interesting to see how grading and observation of students in the DL environment can be both subjective and objective given the situations. I think that the primary cause for the subjectivity in the assessment phase has been that there has been no online, real time contact with each other. In prior semesters classes that I have taken online, we've had at least 1-2 sessions in which we have used chat, voice chat, or technology like Second Life in order to have some real time interactions. While I think that some would view this as not in the core interest of DL education, I think that anytime you can have class while in your living room wearing fluffy bunny slippers, the better your education is going to turn out.



I think that this type of real time activity would be great to help us judge where people are coming from...it doesnt always come through from the written post or email as well as from real live experience.


as far as my paper goes, I'm making some progress. I've always been concerned with the political climate we have these days affecting how we learn, and with the advent of the widespread use of distance learning and web based learning it has made me crazy to think what could be posted on the web that could be used against you.

Academic Freedom, for me, is one of the pillars of defense of the democracy, and in out current age of technology we need to take steps to see that it stays that way. With a sweep of the mouse, you can find any number of things that were written either by or about academics and in some cases that has been used to level claims of terrorism or being unpatriotic. I'm not going to get into the vitriol here...but it's a serious issue that demands serious attention.

Random Topic for class or Journal Post #7

Well this week I think that I learned something that was totally unintended...the power of assumption. The negative power of assumption that is.

in many ways, the last few months have been a struggle for me to move into a place where I think I should be in many areas of my life. Like many people these days, there is a certain degree of financial stress, demands from the workplace that seem unreasonable, and a never ending pull on my time that seems to come from every direction except the one that I want at the time.

So with this seeming pull in every direction from the beast we know as stress, i fell victim to the wide eyed beast of assumption. In the last assignment, I thought that I know what was coming from the web site, and wrote the page on the basis that my audience knew what I was trying to do. For a moment there, I went away from what I knew, which was that this was an online web piece in which online learners were going to be drawn in to by the sheer draw of the subject matter.

That was was my assumption, and it really screwed up what I was trying to do, because if there is any hard and fast rule that should be followed in anything, especially education, it is that we should never think that just because we know who or what we are talking to, or about that everyone or anyone else will. We as educators must follow three rules- know thyself, know your audience, and know your audiences position as well as your own. This is the stuff of true learning- whether in the online classroom or in a physical building.

By not identifying or tailoring my assignment to a particular group, I took a step toward thinking that people would "get" my ideas just because they are there. That is a critical problem, and not only lost direction and audience, but it also lost some of the creative process that is so necessary to stimulating the critical thought that I was trying to gather in the project.

Long story short...it cost me some points, but delievered a lesson that I can use in the future. I think it's a draw at this point.

more to come....thanks for reading.

Notes on a collabrative scandal -or- since I didnt label my last post "Journal #4"

Well I suppose I better get to it and make sure that I have this posted! I dont suppose that I actually looked at the calendar correctly to realize that it's the third week of October and we are getting ready to round third and head for home to quote a cliched baseball term...

Well my analysis and discussions with Junetheia were productive in the sense that it gave me a very clear example of how easily we can overlook each other if we are truly not communicating. what I thought was a pretty obvious tendency in Distance Learning with individuals communicating actively with each other was certainly not the case for Junetheia. She mentioned that her family impression was just the opposite in that they tried to just do the assignments and get the grade.

it's interesting to me, because as I mentioned in the discussion piece this past week, sometimes we have to get beyond the grades and get into active learning...but in order to do just that, we need to make sure we are all on the same page and are talking to each other as a general rule of thumb.

overall, the assignment confirms for the value of the DL environment as we continue to learn just a little more from each other every day.

Just a few thoughts in October

I'm not sure what this picture has to do with anything, but it's always a good idea to reference Morris Day and the Time....

What have I learned through the first month to six weeks of the class, I think in a nutshell it's that we all have a lot to offer, and that we often don't look to all of the sources that we have available to us. We are quick to look to the basic sources for our information- the news, the media, the internet sources which are quickly available to us, but don't always give us the full breadth of information. Junetheia made a great point that she would not have seen much of the ideas that I posted to this little old blog- and I havent even gone political, so I feel great that I was able to have an effect.

I think that we can add alot to each other, and if we are willing to share and work with our friends- we can go far. I think that we are all going to get a lot from this class and our sharing of information and ideas in this last exercise has been a great example of this.

Plus I got a great chance to reference The Time!!! Life is good indeed!

Human Involvement is such a Novel Concept

I dunno...it just seemed to fit the mood of the post, or just my mood at the moment.

I think that this week has gone substantially better than the last few weeks of class. In the first place, I feel reasonably organized in working toward my goals, and moving to get things done in class and on time. So in many circumstances I think I'm moving at a good clip.

One thing that truly appealed to me was in the Building Online Learning Communities reading for this week about the need for human interaction. I think the reading was very appealing to me, because until I was able to get organized, I felt very very alone in this venture. In some ways, this is a very lonely activity...even though we are looking a community based concepts for online education.

Feelings...oh whoa whoa whoa feelings..

Yes..those over 30 will remember this cheezy song and it's whoa whoa whoa chorus.....

but anyway, when the Journal entry for this week asked me how I felt this week, what my whoa-whoa-whoa feelings were about this experience so far I just had to find a way to work old Morris into this.

but how do I really feel here...I think that I will start with the ideas that Palloff and Pratt in their holding (pg. 5) that institutions entering the DL arena must be prepared to tackle issues and problems that are out there, and to develop new plans and skills to create empowered learners. I think this is critical, as empowered learners are critical to building both and enlightened society, and a more successful educational experience.

I think that we have hit among the group about the positives of DL from a convenience standpoint, and from an expense area..and that it might be something that brings more and more people into the fold. However, if it's something that is worth doing, it is something that is worth amking sure that the educational experience adds value to the students, and is not just something that the University lists on the bottom line.

More to come....as there is plenty to read

Feelings on the start of a new DL experience

Something Wicked this Way Comes....

I remember my first experience on the internet. I was in one of my first days of College at BGSU, and a friend of mine connected me to the BBS (a Bulletin Board Service for those of you under 30) for Star Trek and gaming buffs. I remember thinking that it was interesting that we were talking with people half way across the world about Data and Picard versus Spock and Kirk...the truth didnt much matter, it was just that we could say it, and *poof* there were are comments for the world to see.

Well, it's about 20 years later, and the technology has changed, the pages are cleaner, brighter, faster, and there is waaayyyy more porn...but the underlying truth about the blogs/BBS posting is about the same. We can say whatever we want about the world, about our fantasies, or our way of life and it's still really cool to see it posted out there.

what I am concerned about, and what I think led me to the image above is the idea that something wicked has indeed come this way, and we are not questioning or using reason or critical thought to analyze this wealth of opinion and information that is out there in the blogsphere. we are trusting people who like to believe what is out there on the web as the truth in many ways...political truth, social truth, philosophical truth all without questioning whether or not there is value added to our experiences.

I'm guilty in many ways..I dont read as many books (the info is on the web after all) I text instead of call, and I am willing to sacrifice the connection of a true conversation. However, this is not to say that a forum like this one cannot add substantial value to the experience. I think that we need to remember the basics of conversation and of research in the blogsphere, and we'll be just fine.

Just a few initial thoughts...better late than never I hope.

Old Blog....New Class

Yes, In the interest of being green and conservation and also the fact that I am inherently lazy, I have decided to utilize this recycled blog for our class this fall.

I do promise clean up and topics of relevance once I figure out what excatly that is...more to come I swear.

tap tap tap tap tapped in

I attended the Tapped in Chat “SPECIAL! Social Studies Forum PBS NewsHour Extra” in the Social Studies Forum room. The session was attended by about a dozen teachers, educators, and students from all over the country. The purpose of the session was to familiarize the teachers with the student and educator resources for the 2008 Presidential Election that can be found on the Newshour with Jim Lehrer website. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra

The “Extra” section of the website is an area that is dedicated to teacher and student resources about the political system. It is full of stories, photos, maps, polls, and interactive features for classrooms about the 2008 elections. All features are developed by a staff associated with the PBS news show, and all stories are written at a 10th grade level, and come accompanied with reading and study guides.

I was pretty impressed by all of the material that the people from the website presented to us, but more so with their ability to share and explain the site to us. They went into great detail to show the various resources that were available to educators, and also to take suggestions from us for further changes and improvements to the website. I thought these people did a great job of putting this together.

In my experience with Tapped In, I think that I liked the setup and structure of the website best. This system reminded me of a computer file system with the various offices and rooms that can be restricted or opened based upon the users needs…actually it would not surprise me if that was the way the java software worked on the system.

I also liked the chat feature that allowed for the interaction that we saw during the sessions. All of the people within the room were able to interact with the authors in the form of asking questions and also presenting URL links to the authors as well. It was an easy to follow chat program with accessibility options to make the screen pop out, or make the text larger (which is a very nice feature after you have been working at a computer all day long.)

I believe that a site like Tapped In can be a real benefit to teachers, but I think that it might take a leap of faith for many teachers to fully realize the potential, as a site like this will most likely find most of its use after hours when teachers are at home and away from their co-workers. I didn’t see a lot of activities that were scheduled for the times when teachers in the class, or even the classes themselves could be there to use them together.

However for a college class, or group of high school students, I think this could be a great benefit. If we can make facebook or Myspace such a success- then if sold right, I think this could also be a great success because of its interactivity and group collaboration functions.

hey...someone put computers in my classroom

Well this weeks topic for discussion dealt with the role of the classroom once all students are connected to the internet.

I think that the first thing that I would do, after I picked myself up off the floor and recovered from the shock of seeing a functional and robust internet infrastructure installed in t he classroom in a public school, would be to follow the newest buzzword in the educational arena and assess the level and needs of my students with regard to their skills and abilities online.

The resources that were available for us this week pointed to the needs of what I would want to teach my class- resources like Media Awareness Network and their Web Aware site point out the obvious to children about the web...that it's not a very nice place and people are often times not what they seem. This is important for children to know, but should also be part of a general and well thought out policy on access setup and controlled by the school district IT group.

I'm more interested in the kids learning from the net...not learning to fear it.

Cyber Citizen, the Digital Divide, and Equitable access sites are also full of information that is important for the students to understand, but not a part of what i would want to make my core curriculum in the class. I want the students to get the idea of cyber crime and understand that greedy record producers could be monitoring your downloading habits with a supoena in hand. That's important to understand, but again not the focus of what I would want learned in the classroom.

I think the the "if these walls could talk" video speaks volumes about where I see the challenges of the new computerized environment coming into play.

How you are doing and feeling about what you have learned this week? Did the group experience help or hinder your learning experience?

Well this was the week for the obligatory group project that is always a part of these online experiences. I've been in a few of these classes before, and it's always interesting to try to work with people that I have never met in person.

We got off to an interesting start- trying to schedule via email, and contacting each other via wiki and yack pakc. We had the usual hardware issues with failing microphones and questions as to the times we were to actually meet (was it 7 or 9 PM?)

We were hesitant, no one seemed to want to dominate the conversation (especially me..as I have a tendancy to do this) but we eventually agreed upon the logical definition of duties that the project laid out. We all took a question and agreed to find some information which would add to the project...the "above and beyond" factor.

Did the group have some confusion- yes. Did we operate optimally- probably not. Did we do some good work- I think so. I dont believe that I suffered or was affected by this in anyway that I was suprised by. I just wasnt suprised by the whole process at all. The only difference in my mind was that we used some different technologies- email, yack pack, wiki pages.

I think that the success or failure of any project comes down to the individuals that make up the team. If you are willing to put in the work to make your project a success, and if you have the ability to look at a group project as a reflection of yourself...than it's not a problem to tackle a group project. I think our team was perfectly postioned in this respect, and we did a pretty good job.

First Time - Second Life

Well, I was eventually able to make a Second Life session this week, and I think that if nothing else I am more comfortable with the software than I was before we met. I had to admit to being a little suspicious of the software as something along the lines of a Sims on steroids, and to be perfectly honest, I work on computers everyday for "real" purposes like payrolls, student registrations, and programming of alll sorts...so the idea of me creating an alternate ego for myslelf and tooling around in a Kool Aid Man costume is really not all that appealing to me personally.

I am a huge believer in the power and necessity of communication...and there is a part of me that believes that subjects in a setting like Second Life are put in a position which either inhibits this type of necessary communication, or shows people expressing themselves in ways which could cause harm to themselves in their "first" lives...through porn, exploitation, inequity, and other fun topics.

To me, Second Life just seems like something that takes away from my time that I have in my first life..which is already too darn busy. Does this mean that I think there is anything wrong with Second Life as a whole? Actually, the answer is no...I think that Second Life is a great thing, and all the problems that I described in seeing it could be found in your local library...so I'm not going to bash it. It's just not something that I think I can see myself spending a lot of time in.

As for teh educational opportunites that exist in SL, I think that they are limitless. I really liked the virtual campus environments for the University of Kentucky, BGSU, and several of the others that I later looked into. I think that a wealth of topics and information can be found in these environments and a great deal of inspired learning can go on in these environments. I think that the variety and amount of information that can be shared is an overwhelming positive of a simulation like SL, and also the format in which it can be presented - a way in which all of our senses can be stimulated. This is a great opportunity for learning which educators should not pass over lightly.

As for the dangers of this technology- I think that the dearth of communication is critical to avoid, as we dont want to make a society of folks whose only form of communication with one another is through avatar or chat session. There is also the issue of age inappropriate material in SL, as well as the problem with the veracity of the information that can be found out in SL. This isn't Fox News, so we can be sure that all the information there is true (haha.)

However , I need to reiterate that we need to temper our fears and allow this technology to play out and let our children develope critical knowledge. I'm not saying that we expose them to porn in SL, but that we not eliminate all content out of hand..this idea backfires for those who wish to ban books and ideas, and it will happen again for technology like SL if we atempt to limit it.

just some of my thoughts...thanks for listening.

In what ways will the evolution of Web 2.0 potentially change the educational process?

Changes made by Web 2.0 technology could have a definite effect on our lives. When you think about the first video in the assignment the first words that appear are "text is linear" but "digital text is different."

This reminds me of the first experiences I had with the internet in the 1990's, where some basic HTML coding changed the way that I looked at things altogether, and waiting 10 minutes for a page of text to load information about movies, baseball, or politics was something that was just cool.

However, as the second video pointed out, web 2.0 allows us to do many of these same things but only now with personalization or flash and pizzaz. We can add video or sound content and link the data across the world on blogs, wikis, and podcasts. We are seeing the dawn of the creative internet in web 2.0.

Tim Berhners-Lee (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/podcast/dwi/cm-int082206txt.html) talks of the web 2.0 technology being nothing more that "what the web was meant to be anyway" and I think that is what the appeal is with the amount of user driven content...we have progressed from the World Wide Web being something that no one owned to Web 2.0 making the intenet into something that we can all stake a claim to...the internet has become ours...and for a change we have a clue what to do with it.

if you look at the types of technology that are in play- between podcasts, blogs, wikis, social networking sites, and other content driven delivery you can see where there is potential for massive change in the educational system as well. One of the largest criticisms of the current educational system is that "cookie cutter" approach to where lessons and ideas are taught from the top down...with little input from the students. We have students learning lessons which are often times less and less relevant to their situations.

I believe the oportunity of web 2.0 is that the technologies position themselves to support and encourage critical thinking and understanding of issues and ideas. Web based podcasts and videos can show and inspire creative thinking about ideas and spur the type of question and response that simple debate without stimulus cannot. I think that this technology allows us to expand not only our grasp of educatonal topics...but the depth of them as well.

We are indeed beginning, as the video states, to practice new and creative ways to be free and equal human beings. In my eyes, this is the reason for education in the first place. If web 2.0 technology can spur that for all people...I am all for it.

More to come...Russ

Technical Difficulties

"Lets Pry Out That Motherboard."
Originally uploaded by Jezz

Well I suppose that all educational experience is not something that should be taken for granted, and that even we technical people run into things that just mystify us as to their workings.

I believe that this weekend with the Podcast, and also my systems at work (curse them and their hardware failover) falls into this catagory of problems. The Dreaded "Technical Difficulties.

However, what happens when we are not technically saavy educators and things dont continue to work for us? Is there help available from the school or organization to talk us through or even better...educate us on how this all works?

This lack of training and instruction is something that we in the educational arena are quick to criticize the business arena for, but fall victim to ourselves. We are dependent on the technology, but often leave it to the user to figure out due to bad planning or small budgets.

I believe that we need to take a critical look at this, and look at technology skills, be it Microsoft Word Shortcuts or embedded podcasts, as no different that basic needed skills. Otherwise we will continue to fall short in our goal to integrate technology into the classroom.

thanks for reading, I'm going to go work on this podcast as soon as my 11 year old son shows me how to work the DVR."

Alex's Boat

img01.jpg
Originally uploaded by alexanderwrege

This is my friend Alex's Boat...why post this you ask...because not only is Alex super cool because he introduced me to blogging and creative commons (which this picture is licensed under)-but look... he has a boat!

Why I Blog (AKA: Assignment for ETPT Class)

Well all, since I used that first post for my frivolous OSU commentary... now I guess I need to get to work.

I was asked what I think of Blogs, and whether I would use them in the Business or Education world. After much thought...I think I would. As you can read below:


In the workplace, it would be easy to easy a Blog (and in a related subject…a Wiki) for keeping up with workplace communication. In my line of work, in IT we are often separated by meetings, system problems, tasks that take us from campus to campus…so a blog would be a nice way of keeping not only the staff but also the community up to date on the comings and goings of our daily activities and projects. It could be an online update on our daily and project work that is available even when we are not.

I have seen where Presidents of corporations, and even the President of the University of Toledo, have blogged in the past. However, I think for it to be effective you need to fully embrace the technology and get people to look to that blog as the primary source of their information. If you continue to send out memos and other forms of communication in traditional styles…people will not want to look to the blog, nor will they embrace the interactive features that make the blog such a great tool for business communication.

Communication is the key element that I see in embracing blog technology in our classrooms. While the technological element of securing student information and safety for minors (that we might not have to worry about with dedicated corporate networks) would be a challenge…I think that the idea of each individual student having a blog in which to communicate with the teacher and other class members would be a great idea, and would spur both communication and results.

Imagine a child at home who forgot a homework assignment, or had questions regarding a project. They could simply look at friends blogs, or even better post a question regarding the project on the assignment section of the teachers blog…imagine getting a response to a question from Mr. Smith, the 3^rd grade teacher, at 7 PM. No more lost time due to forgotten papers and children who feel better about their place in the class because the lines of open communication are always there.

Going further with the idea of communication, I think that a blog would be a perfect accompanying piece in the classroom to spur interest in writing and creative thinking. The art of writing is more fulfilling to most people when it is appreciated, and what better way to appreciate your writing and your creativity that to put it in a place where many, many people can read it when they want to, or all at the same time? I think that the use of a blog would spur the sharing of ideas and be a boost to the art of creative thinking and spur an interest in the critical ideas that our traditional system seems to be missing.

Just one final idea…I like the idea of blogging in both an educational and business environment because it stresses the idea that opinion and thought are important. Too often we are told what to do, and what to think…what to buy and what we should look like. We are told as educators not to give opinion, but instead to stick to the material and the facts- both of which are often times simply another’s opinion. I believe that the encouragement of informed opinion is so critical for the building of citizenry and the shaping of character, as well as an appreciation of beauty and wonder…it is what keeps us young, but sharpens our minds as well.

Thanks for reading...

SEC 2 Russ And Friends 0

Well, as you can see we headed to NOLA recently for the OSU/LSU game, and much like last year...all we got was our noses rubbed in the dirt a little. But hey...the whole team is back for 2008, so start working on those Tickets, Matt...I hear Miami is nice in January.