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.