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Week Eight...No it Can't Be...................
I Enjoyed reading:
Content Analysis of Online Discussion in an Applied Educational Psychology Noriko Hara, Curtis J. Bonk, & Charoula Angeli November 20, 1998
This article was a brilliant look at the challenges, rewards and negatives faced within the online instruction realm. The research questions asked were enlightening for anyone teaching online. The questions posed good self reflections. I can relate to the statement: “The other key disadvantage that CMC users often fail to recognize is that "active listeners" or "lurkers" might read but not respond to the conferencing. “ That’s were that online instructor jumps in and tweaks out the information, right? The idea of starter and wrapper is a new one to me; one while worth looking into. I could see using this technique within several courses and would need to figure out the grading. Within the study the researchers noted differences within each week of discussion, I too see this within the online environment from week to week and from class to class. Bradshaw and Hinton also noted that social cues decreased as the semester progressed. I think we too witnessed this within our class. Interestingly, cognitive skill rose over the weeks. Kind of like us…and now onto the final we said.. I will have to research if something a bit more research has come it. Week Seven:
Great week! I enjoyed writting the paper, it's been years since I have written within the APA format. Here's the result:
Final Draft.docx - on Jul 31, 2010 12:40 PM by Alfi Hurst (version 1) Remove Well my learning objectives evolved again to finally read:
1. After reading Chapters one and two of text, students will analyze, post, and discuss key concepts of the characteristics and behaviors of bullies, their victims and the bystanders on the weekly discussion thread toward the standard rubric. 2. Using Scribblar.com to create a Venn diagram, students will be able to identify correct attributes of bullies, the bullied, and bystanders behaviors, with 90% accuracy. 3. Using Survey Monkey.com, students will create a school climate survey to be administered within their classrooms to 90% of the rubric standards. 4. Students will demonstrate their ability to design a school safety plan with peer teachers online using a WIKI format, according to the Rubric provided. I noticed the instructor had commented about using four different assessment instruments. I didn't catch that the first time. Makes total sense. So I had to change number three and actually came up with a more creative instrument. Week Six:
My four learning objectives that I will use for my final are:
I have enjoyed learning about so many new tools in this class. Here is my survey from SurveyMonkey.
Week Five:
I didn’t realize there was an “assessment movement”; it is interesting to note that it has osculated back and forth between gaining and losing popularity. I can understand this from being in the classroom, and going from what I call lackadaisical education and rigor in thought. Glad we are now into research driven educational practices. Quite something that University of Wisconsin has the oldest assessment program in the US. So true, that good assessment benefits many stake holders and good to continually review the seven purposes of assessment: (Kellough and Kellough (1999). 1. Improve student learning; 2. Identify students’ strengths and weaknesses; 3. Review, assess, and improve the effectiveness of different teaching strategies; 4. Review, assess, and improve the effectiveness of curricular programs; 5. Improve teaching effectiveness; 6. Provide useful administrative data that will expedite decision making; and 7. To communicate with stakeholders. I can understand how course-embedded assessment can benefit the instructor and the school system. It may also take some pressure off those students that have test anxiety. It would seem the instructor would weight certain products/learner outcomes heavier than others for a total score…hmmm such as this course is doing. “The Closing the Loop” process is what we are doing within our school improvement. I will have to share the diagram with team mates at school.
Blooms Taxonomy Table: What assessment activities would you recommend keeping and which ones would need to be adjusted or eliminated? Provide the class with one "higher level" online assessment activity and please attach your taxonomy table to a post when it is completed. Number three : Why does the author claim that Bush voters made their choice based on bad information? Could be adjusted for e-learning by using a discussion forum to gather different viewpoints and see where the thinking of the class may go. The question could read: Discuss the authors’ claims that Bush voters made their choices based on bad information. Number Five: Identify 2 examples of censorship that are revealed in the article. Could be adjusted for e-learning by using a WIKI and stated as: Each student identifies two examples of censorship revealed within the article or others you have researched. Number One: Students will pick one story and investigate the reasons that each may have been censored. Could be adjusted for e-learning to : Your assigned team will use; WebEX to investigate the reasons the assigned story may have been censored. Evaluate if this could have been beneficial to the society at this time in history. Post your final product on the discussion board. There are many other activities and most would be able to be adjusted for e-learning. This is a good exercise because it showed us how we can alter our current f2f classes. Assessment taxonomy table template Review the course objectives and activities from the Casey course. Then decide which objectives and activities belong in which ‘Bloom’ category. This type of analysis will help you, not only develop your course assessment plans, but will also help you decide which assessment activities are most valuable.
This website provides a simple explanation of Bloom’s categories: http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learn/program/hndouts/bloom.html
My four learning objectives that I plan to use for final project will be:
Week Four:
This week I read articles about assessment practices within K- 12 schools. Good to read Furger (2002), from this article it does seem apparent that more educators are using performance bases assessments within their classrooms. So important because the student will see his/her personnel growth instead of focusing in on competition amongst other classmates. For the Midterm I have choosen to present Scribblar and do my write up on this whiteboard tool. It was great meeting with my team on Scribblar. We used the tool for chatting and then showing our outlines for the mid-term paper. We will meet again on Thursday to pull it together or to revamp. Thursday: The team was able to show all their work on the whiteboad and we were able to comment on each others information. Really great to do it real time, review and make changes as needed. Good team to work with.
Here is the Link to our Mid term Assessment piece: https://acrobat.com/#d=Gda3SpEftapMMnbfRnbBPQ
Week Three: I worked on my mind map:
and found a quote I like : "To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of Reflections about reading on http://www.publicationshare.com/part1.pdf The Perfect E-Storm Lots of good information. A classmate pointed out some info not really correct. But good stuff to ponder about. The further of e-learning is definitley on the raise, we as a society need to understand and come up with the money to create a Best Practice enviornment. Again cynical me thinks education is what you what it is depending upon how much you pay. Unless there are great exceptions.....There are some that work for intrinistic rewards. Anyway, good thoughts and I'll continue tomorrow. I still think educator should be paid as much as doctors! So now I have that off my chest. Back to assessment....
Reviewing Nine Principles of Good Practice for Assessment of Student Learning, Authored by: Terri Largan @ Wisconsin. Thoughts to ponder: Assessments are: outcomes and experiences Have clearly stated purpose Are multidimensional and intergraded Reveal performance over time Have educational value Are on-going Bring about community involvement Illuminate what people really care about Part of a larger set to promote change Educator responsible to student and public Black Box Article:
Week 2
Classroom Assessment WIKI:
Tested Self: Results showed I am definitely a student centered teacher with learning and assessment.
Student-centered assessment methods personalize the learning outcomes by permitting mistakes and allowing students to learn from them. In learner-centered environments, teachers search to understand what students know and how they know it (Huba & Freed, 2000). Teaching, learning and assessment are intertwined and ongoing, providing supportive guidance, timely and continual feedback in an environment that encourages risk-taking behavior, creative ideas and experimentation with teamwork.Student-centered assessment methods personalize the learning outcomes by permitting mistakes and allowing students to learn from them. In learner-centered environments, teachers search to understand what students know and how they know it (Huba & Freed, 2000). Teaching, learning and assessment are intertwined and ongoing, providing supportive guidance, timely and continual feedback in an environment that encourages risk-taking behavior, creative ideas and experimentation with teamwork. Reflection on this: While teaching in a small private school as a fourth grade teacher I created this type of inviting classroom environment. Most class work was not graded, but gone over to correct mistakes. Students helped each other by looking over each others work and showing their partners different math formulas or by helping them better understand concepts during science or social studies, grammar or creative writing. Risk taking behavior had to be retaught by the fourth grade because the students and parents thought everything must have a grade placed on it. Administration also thought everything needed a grade. It was interesting to see how students became more and more willing to stretch their thinking and allow others to make comments about their work. Initially they became angry or annoyed. As an instructor it was awesome to be a part of this environment; students did not want to leave school, go to recess (sometimes) and I was charged to do a better job and challenge my charges. Our test scores were great! It was a recall shame when a new administrator came to the school and insisted "teacher" be a the front of the class and all should be quiet and swallowing the instruction. I think it's easy to say to have a student centered environment but it is definitely a hard sell.
Engaged learning occurs when students can grapple collaboratively to solve problems and create something new – something that is intriguing, important, beautiful and “they believe that their work will be considered fairly and honestly …(where) they can try, fail, and receive feedback from expert learners in advance of and separate from any summative judgment of their efforts” (Bain, 2004). People learn most effectively when they can make a substantial, positive, influential impact on their own thoughts, actions and feelings, and those of others. Reflection: I see learning as being meaningful. Students, all of us need a reason "why" so when we share with students why this learning is important and how they will benefit from learning this they will usually embrace the learning activities. Students given the skills can also create, with guidance, a Rubic that can be used to assess learning. I like this because now all are stakeholders.
Bloging : The unedited voice of a person - Webblog Just some thoughts I had.......... Wiki represents an interesting amalgam of many voices, not the unedited voice of a single person. www.educause.edu/eli Good site for future information about Wiki and Blogs. This traveling and working on-line is a bit stressful. I'll be happy to get back home. Will have to show more of a routine while traveling in RV and working/learning. Week 1
First Week was hard for me....I haven't had the flu in years and really couldn't even keep my eyes open or head up.
I did think the three assessment tools were a good idea and can understand in rudimentary form, on how to utilize them in the future.
Using alternative assessment is a part of the special education enviornment and is used with lower IQ challenged students.
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