ESPY 408 Final Project – Consumer Education
Learners:
High school seniors (ages approximately 17 -18 years old)
Institution Infrastructure & Administrative Support:
I am currently working in a smaller semi-rural school district approximately 30 minutes south of Springfield, Illinois. The over all school population is approximately 1,500 students and the high school population at 450 students currently. The administration within the school district is currently very supportive of technology within the classroom. They believe that this is a wired generation that is used to using the technology and we need to use this to help teach them. Currently, we have 3 mobile computer labs within the building I work in along with 2 traditional computer labs. Most of our teachers have SmartBoards within their classrooms, so working with multimedia with students is very easy to do and accessible to us. In most cases, if we can justify why we would need additional technology within our classrooms and there is money in the budget or grant monies that have been found or available, we are able to get what we need or want.
Learning Situation:
Currently, the State of Illinois requires that all students must pass a Consumer Education course before they can graduate high school. Within this requirement, there are fifteen subject areas that are to be covered. These areas are: (1) The Consumer In The Marketplace, (2) The Consumer In Our Economy, (3) Budgeting, (4) Saving, Investing, And Financial Services, (5) Consumer Credit, (6) Taxes, (7) Insurance, (8) Consumer Services, (9) Housing, (10) Food, (11) Transportation, (12) Clothing, (13) Health Care, (14) Recreation, and (15) Home Furnishing And Equipment. In order to cover all of these areas effectively, it can be very difficult in a traditional classroom especially in a semester – 18 weeks. While covering these topics, it does help to group related topics into together so that the materials and the knowledge that the students are learning and gaining all works together and builds on one another. For example, Budgeting, Saving, Investing, and Financial Services, and Consumer Credit all work together and have several interrelated topics. It is possible to cover all the areas; however, the previous knowledge of the students varies greatly. I believe that we can create a program in that will incorporate not only some traditional class instruction but also incorporate online or computer based instruction that will allow all of our students to learn at their own pace. This would allow the students to spend more time on the areas they are unfamiliar with and less time on the areas where they are already familiar and knowledgeable in. This would also help make sure that all of the areas within the Illinois State Learning Standards for Consumer Education are covered.
The creation of a successful program will be a challenge. Not only will it have to cover all the areas as defined by the learning standards, but it will also need to encourage and explain to the students the importance of life long learning. These students need to know that the information that is given to them during this course is one that is ever changing. It is not something that is like a math problem where 2 + 2 is always going to equal 4. The financial institutions are always changing as are the laws that govern them. As a result, we the consumers must keep ourselves informed of these changes so that we know what is or is not happening to our money. Also, by being an informed consumer we can make better choices for ourselves and our families. We need to teach the students that learning and being informed is part of being an adult. Part of this is showing them what to look for when evaluating information along with where to go in order to get up-to-date and accurate information about products, services, and new laws. Part of the challenge will be not only getting the students to buy into this new curriculum, but also the administration. Even though the students are very tech savvy and our administration is supportive of technology, it can be difficult at times to get them to change habits. Online learning is not something that many of our students or administrators have experienced, so there may be some apprehension at the idea of changing the curriculum in such a way.
Pedagogy and Motivation:
In order for us to be successful teachers we must be motivated. In order for the students to also be successful, they must have a “motivation to learn – or a tendency to find learning activities meaningful and worthwhile.” (Ormrod, 2008, p 501). My role within this course is as a facilitator. In order to have the students be more active within the course, they need to take a more active role in the learning process. I want the learning to feel a “need for affiliation” (Ormrod, 2008, p 469). This is not to mean that I will not take an active part within the course, but I want the students to show some initiative and take an active role in the learning process.
Review of other e-learning courses:
I have looked at the syllabi of several different courses. Two of these syllabi are from courses at K12, an online high school, and I also looked at the syllabi of the two previous courses that I have taken through the University of Illinois Global Campus. The K12 syllabi and University of Illinois syllabi were very different. The K12 syllabi only gave you topics to be covered while the University of Illinois syllabi gave you the requirements, expectations, and a course calendar.
Learning Styles, Memory, Identity, and Motivation:
As I look at all of the courses that I currently teach and the ones that I have taken, I realize that not all instructors take into consideration the different learning styles of our students. At the beginning of this Consumer Education Course, I want to create a small survey to see how the students feel they learn the best. Once I have done this, I will modify different activities so that throughout the course all of the different learning styles are addressed so that all students will feel successful. I want find out what kinds of items they have discovered that helps them with taking the materials and committing it to long term memory not short term memory. I want to make sure that each student as his/her own identity within the course, not one that is preconceived based upon previous knowledge of the student. I want to find out what motivates them to do their best. I want to find ways to motivate all of the students to do their best and learn as much as they possibly can.
Technologies to be utilized:
The creation of a program such as this one is very difficult due to the amount of information that needs to be covered within the course and the technological knowledge of the different students. I believe that the best way to set this course up currently is to create a course that has a blended approach. Part of the course needs to be computer based while we still keep a more traditional classroom type of setting for some activities and while the students become more comfortable with this type of course. As the students become more comfortable and more familiar with what will be expected of them, then the course may adapt and change to become more computer based and less traditional.
Currently, there are several different simulations and computer based training CD-ROMs that can be purchased and used with the students. These simulations are set up to help the students realize what it is like in the “real world” where they will be expected to go to work, pay bills, and be independent of their parents. They show the students how their decisions will affect what will happen to them later in life. They also show them that life is uncertain and things happen that none of us have control of. Currently, we would need to set them up on our network at the school; they would not be available to the students outside of the building. However, we would work on getting simulations such as these or different ones created and posted so students could work on assignments outside of the “normal” school day. We would also look into a CMS such as D2L, Moodle, Blackboard, etc that could be used outside of the school building for assignments. We would set up discussion boards, reading assignments, and projects that the students would be expected to work on outside of the normal school day.
In order to reach all of the students, we would still have our traditional classroom structure to start the program where we can explain the expectations and how the course will work to the students. As the course progresses throughout the semester, the course would turn more into an online learning community where the students would be expected to work collaboratively online line and post to the different discussion groups and topics that are being presented. We would still have classroom discussions, but they would be more focused on the questions that the students have about the different topics and what they do and do not understand. These discussions would also allow the instructors to bring in current events that are related to what is being discussed in the course at that point in time.
One overall factor that will have to be considered in this course is the students. In order to reach all of the students, we will have to make sure we have activities and discussions that engage all of the students and present material in a variety of ways while still covering all the topics. This will be an ongoing challenge. We will also have to look at what technologies the students have available to them once they leave our building. Even though most believe that everyone has a computer at home, we know that several of our students do not have computers or if they do, they do not have internet access. This will have to be taken into consideration when planning the course and looking at what we will be expecting of our students. We do not want to adapt the course in such a way that the students will not have a chance to be successful.
Conclusion:
We need to take a course that can be boring and monotonous to the students and turn it into something that is more interactive and forces them to take their current knowledge and add onto it creating new knowledge. We also need to force the students to become more aware of their surrounding and how one decision will affect other decisions that they will have to make later on in life. By taking our traditional Consumer Education course and moving it into the 21st century by adding more technological components to it, the goal is to make it so that students will become more successful and see how these topics do relate to their lives and where they can find information later in life when they need more assistance or have questions. The goal is to make this course so that all the students are taking an active role in the class and adding to the discussion through the discussion boards and though interactive games and simulations. This will help the students that are typically less vocal in class have their thoughts and opinions known in an environment that they feel safe and more comfortable in.
References:
Illinois State Board of Education. (2009). The Illinois Consumer Education Proficiency Test: An Information Bulletin for Schools and Districts [Brochure]. Springfield, IL:
Illinois State Board of Education. Retrieved February 9, 2009 from http://www.isbe.net/assessment/htmls/icept_school_code.htm
K12 Inc, (2008). BUS010: Business Communication and Career Exploration. Retrieved February 20, 2009, from BUS010: Business Communication and Career Exploration Web site: http://www.k12.com/stc/pdf/hs_scope_and_sequence/Electives/BUS010.pdf
K12 Inc, (2008). OTH030: Career Planning. Retrieved February 20, 2009, from BUS010: Business Communication and Career Exploration Web site: http://www.k12.com/stc/pdf/hs_scope_and_sequence/Electives/OTH030.pdf
Ormrod, Jeanne Ellis (2008). Human Learning, 5th edition, Allyn Bacon
University of Illinois Global Campus, (2008). HRE 472: Learning Technologies Course Overview Syllabus Web site. Retrieved February 20, 2009, from HRE 472: Learning Technologies Course Overview Syllabus Web site: https://d2l.global.uillinois.edu/d2l/orgTools/ouHome/ouHome.asp?d2l_stateGroups=grid~gridpagenum~mycoursesstategroup&d2l_stateScopes=OrgUnitSession~GridPageNum~Search~PageNum%5EOrgUnitUser~LCS~MyCoursesStateGroup%5EUser~Grid~PageSize~HtmlEditor~HPG&d2l_statePageId=1463&d2l_state_grid=mcg5~0~~Asc~~0&d2l_state_gridpagenum=mcg5_pgN~0&d2l_state_mycoursesstategroup=mcg5_tree~&ou=7992
University of Illinois Global Campus, (2008). University of Illinois Global Campus HRE 490 - Foundations of Online Teaching and Learning. Retrieved February 20, 2009, from University of Illinois Global Campus HRE 490 - Foundations of Online Teaching and Learning Web site: https://d2l.global.uillinois.edu/d2l/orgTools/ouHome/ouHome.asp?d2l_stateGroups=grid~gridpagenum~mycoursesstategroup&d2l_stateScopes=OrgUnitSession~GridPageNum~Search~PageNum%5EOrgUnitUser~LCS~MyCoursesStateGroup%5EUser~Grid~PageSize~HtmlEditor~HPG&d2l_statePageId=1463&d2l_state_grid=mcg5~0~~Asc~~0&d2l_state_gridpagenum=mcg5_pgN~0&d2l_state_mycoursesstategroup=mcg5_tree~&ou=7390