Learning with the Internet

Course Description

Explores the potential of the Internet to support inquiry-based learning through collaborative activities, research, and authoring/publishing. Investigates goals and methods of online learning. Examines learning theories and models of teaching/learning in relation to selected Internet activities for K–12, undergraduate students and learners in other fields outside education (e.g., work placed learning, non-formal learning).

Reflection

I will admit that when I saw that the author of textbook and the course instructor were one and the same I let out an audible groan. The fact that a neologism was featured prominently in the title compounded the dread. As I dug into the text I learned to embrace the concept of CrossActionSpaces. I attempted to modify them into “warp bubbles” in order to encompass their transformative and transportive nature. I started seeing them everywhere I looked. CrossActionSpaces have drilled their way into my lexicon like the hook of a Duran Duran song bores its way into my ear.

As much as the concept has changed my thinking, the implementation of the ideas has changed my pedagogy. After participating in an online conference I implemented NowComment into my daily lessons. NowComment is a site that allows a user defined group to comment and respond to a text. My classes collaboratively read Black Men and Public Spaces by Brent Staples and Letter to My Son by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The students were able to do an in depth reading without me telling them what to think.

This experience in online collaboration also led to me implementing a group project in my class for the first time in many years. While my students still underperformed on some of the deeper aspects of the assignment in their first drafts, I was ecstatic that they had worked together to create a CrossActionSpace. They may not recognize the significance of their actions now, but hopefully, in five years, a student will stop by and say, “You remember that website you had us make, that really helped me on my job.”

Below is a link to a collaborative website created in the class to highlight web 2.0 tools.

Top 8 Collaboration Apps For Education