Course Outline: Developing a Learning Moduel System

This week is all about creating modules (I call them units), at least enough for five units so here are my five.

Unit 1, Watch the Predators beat the Stars.

 

Unit 2,  next day watch the Titans beat the Jaguars (no surprise there).

 

 

 

 

 

Unit 3 Take dog out for her Tuesday run after a heavy rain the night before.

 

Unit 4 Go to a Dan and Shay concert in Birmingham
This takes 2 videos in order to ensure the objectives are understood.

                                                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUNv_EHdzcE&feature=youtu.be

                                                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCyCGBOcnfo&feature=youtu.be

 

And the best for last, Unit 5, pie. Cook youngest son his favorite pie as a 24th birthday gift. (I have only one domestic skill, I can cook.)

 

So what does all my above units have to do with this week, everything.  My objectives for the week were to attend the hockey game and watch the Predators wins since we have season tickets. The tasks included cheering, drinking a diet coke and eat popcorn while booing the other team and go home happy.

My objectives for the football game was to attend. The tasks for the football game were, walk down to LP field, watch the Titans beat the other team, eat a pretzel, drink a diet coke, cheer for our team, boo the referees, and walk home. (We own a home in Nashville).

My objective for Tuesday was get Alexis out for her morning run. The tasks were, dress properly, keep the pace steady and finish strong.  As with all plans sometimes there are a few obstacles to hop over, like fallen trees and dogs who love water, but the objective was met.

You get the point.

 

This is our last blog for ED 308 class.  We’re reflecting on course development. What I discovered is, an outline is no longer short sentences and writing the objectives is the easy part. Where it gets difficult is putting what you know for an absolute fact is, what you want the students to do to meet the objectives, using words.  Me, I hate writing, my spelling is terrible and my ability to create a flowery sentence is almost impossible. An example of how the process works I give you this example;
One of my objectives states, “evaluate and create a map of the site.”  This is how I plan to get the things completed; meaning the tasks needed to meet the objective;
 1). Travel to the site,
2) measure the area available,
3) note all possible obstacles such as, water spout, underground cable sign, and so on.
4) Take pictures of the site from all angels
5) Note the position of the sun, any areas that are shaded, and the time of day.
6) Make note of the location of any trees, buildings, waterways that is near the site.
7) Get back into whatever means of transportation used to arrive at the site and travel back to the school.
8) Once at the school students will take all that information gather and create the first proposed design of what the outdoor classroom will look like using the CAD. (In a previous unit the students had  hands on learning of how to create with CAD software.

That’s a lot of words to put into an outline.  When I was in elementary school we were taught how to create outlines. Back then outlines were short sentences about the main idea and anything that supports the main idea is the supporting idea, which goes below the first line but indented a little. In order to meet the requirement for this requirement we have to build the curriculum but instead of using one of those formal formats you had to use while you were earning your teaching degree to we have to put it in an outline form.  The idea is, the Learning Management System (LMS) gives the students a better understanding of what, how, and when they'll meet each of your objectives, by completing the tasks you've asked them to accomplish. It's really not an outline, it’s an expanded time line with things to do to meet the objectives and my timeline is 15 weeks (by my choice). We're told with the use of the LMS our requirements will be better organized for us as teachers and for the student's knowledge of what they need to do. We didn’t have to read 970 pages to learn about the basics of the LMS but we did have a watch a video, if you missed it, the link below will take you to it, bring popcorn, throwing is permitted. (Dr. Gale told us it is better to link to the actual source, sometimes I do listen.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaiRRrOG43o&feature=youtu.be

Of course before you even get to the objectives you'll place in your LMS, you need to introduce yourself, give the students a syllabus, dates when assignments are due, how to find the additional tools you’ll be using in the class, such as a wiki, how to create the wiki, and so-on, you get the point.  Nothing about creating a LMS is simple be we have been assured by Dr. Gale that it’s only the first time that’s hard, after that it’s still hard but somehow, like magic, it will get easier (okay he didn’t say like magic). The organization of a LMS makes it much easier for students to know where they need to be from week to week in terms of assignments, test, and grades. For me its a pain where I sit since it's labor intensive, which is why I have an antique watch makers desk that's meant to be used standing since its tall. Below is from the black board for this class it stats what we need to include in this blog in order to demonstrate our ability to  meet the objectives; and my statements showing how I met the requirements. I can answer those questions.

Each of the Design Blog Assignments needs the following information: (Let's see if I checked the blocks)

1.Name of the Assignment (Course Outline or Module Assignment) – At the top of this page.

2.Summary of the Work Conducted Since the Last Blog – The middle stuff.

3.Item of Interest – In this day and age outlines are no longer numbered using Roman numerals nor are they short, to the point sentences with sub-lines supporting the main idea.

4.Problem or Concern – How am I ever going to get this right?

 

We had another requirement to read 700 pages about support materials and visualization for distance education.  It was so dry my mouth felt like the Sahara Desert; I know how that feels, I've been there.

 

Since this is our last blog I couldn't leave without at least one last video. The pictures were taken at the end of our backyard. More popcorn required.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_urCwPFzSy4

 

 

The Best Part Of Outdoor Classrooms

 

Misty and Me

It is true, blogs are not my favorite thing to do in a class, because teachers want educational things so, that's what students put into them.  That is just wrong, blogs can educate but they don't have to be dull, dry, and hard to swallow.  I am creating this blog to educate but more importantly to share my joy. This week I attended one of the many programs the Alabama Wildlife Federation (AWF) offers to schools and the general public. AWF certifies schools' outdoor classrooms and provides the Huntsville Botanical Garden with some good educational tools.  You ask, what is an outdoor classroom, it is an area build outdoors that is used for educational purposes.  It can take many forms and include something as simple as a bunch of vegetables growing boxes or host plants and nectar plants for butterflies, to large areas that includes a pond or lake that will support an entire eco- system. The goal of an outdoor classroom is to link all subjects to the outdoors.  Kindergarteners can go out an count flowers for math, high school students can conduct biology experiments on water and soil, and all grades can use it to study weather.  The uses for an outdoor classroom is only limited by imagination or the teacher who is not willing to look beyond the smart boards at the front of the class. For ED 308 we have to build a curriculum on any subject we want and mine is to have a high school environmental science class build for an elementary school over the course of two years. So now why this is worth blogging about.
While at the training I talked with the people that do the support and certifying of outdoor classrooms and found out what I thought was going to be tough, became easy. April gave me enough information to get me to about week 10 on my curriculum and this week I'm going to her Huntsville office to get information on what I would need to have my students accomplish until the project was completed (if the schools were actual schools).  I only need to do 15 weeks for this assignments but I'm excited because I'll have all the information I need and if I ever create my own school (which I would love to do), I'll be able to build an outdoor classroom at my school.  April told me, I can have the students, parents, teachers, everyone that wants to help us be a part of the project and I don't have to work with contractors if I don't want to.  I do want to build contractors into my curriculum but only because I want the students to learn how to coordinate with organizations outside the academia world, but it doesn't have to be as much as I feared it may be.  That is reason one for this blog.
Reason two for this blog is because Dr. Gale helped my figure out how to start an assignment I don't want to do but need to, in order to complete this class.  The requirement is valid because the purpose of this entire technology education minor is to learn how to teach using technology but I don't want to teach online classes.  Of course once I got the site set-up it put me in a happy mood and then I realized how useful the Learning Management Site would be, even for a live class since I did that my entire time I was at ASU. That also made me happy.
But the thing that made me the happiest is where and what Misty and I were doing on the muddy river.  We attended the session that covered ways to use outdoor water for education. It had poured rain the night before so, the river was flowing fast and had a ton of sand and mud on top.  The requirement was to take that big net, scoop a bunch of the bottom of the river into it and see what you get.  Misty stayed on the bank holding one end and I waded out into the water and scooped the "stuff" into the net.  We found all kinds of life forms.  It was worth getting my jeans wet to my knees. It put me in such a good mood, the rest of my day had no chance of being anything but perfect.  Who wouldn't want to go out, into a cold rushing stream, early in the morning, looking for living things.
Three great things happen all in the same day, who wouldn't want to blog.

Engagement and I don't mean the "will you marry me" type

A mind is a terrible thing to waste and so, I have mapped my mind therefore nothing is wasted.

 

The requirement stated:

1. Name the assignment

2. Summary of the work conducted since last blog

3. Item of interest

4. Problem or concern 

I have checked all the blocks.

 

http://www.mindmeister.com/390443709/design-blog-assignments

There has been an on rush of research conducted on the importance of engaging students when using online courses. Reach has shown that when students are engaged in collaborative, formal learning activities students are more willing to participate.  It's important to note that the instructor be willing to adapt to the students’ needs while using meaningful activities that are motivating. This week’s reading noted several experts have studied ways in which people learn. Malcolm Knowles notes that adult learners are more likely to be self-directed and prefer activities which allows them to use their own experiences as part of the learning process. Bruner states that development is essentially bound up with interaction and that humans have a need to respond to others and to work jointly with them towards an objective. Vygotsky coined the term “zone of proximal development.” Simply stated this means students learn from those that are around them. Piaget believed that learning must be connected to the learner in order for it to be meaningful. He believed in engaged learning or constructivism.  Piaget believed that when two equal partners are collaborating they are more likely to find a solution. Peer-to-peer discussions are more valuable to the individuals as oppose to student to teacher. Piaget’s constructivism concept is driven by the fact that it considers interaction central to learning. It is the acquisition of knowledge build on prior experiences that is important.

The goal of an online course is the same as it is for a classroom setting, provide increased knowledge but, in an online course the instructor must create an environment that ensures a “high degree of interactivity and participation.” Engaged learning is the process in which the student and instructor are partners in constructing knowledge. This partnership is needed in order to create an atmosphere that encourages engagement.  Asking students, especially older students to engage in collaborative activities needs to be introduced in phases. These phases are; 1) new comer and the instructor is the social negotiator, 2)cooperator with instructor role as structural engineer, 3) collaborator and instructor becomes the facilitator, 4) finally initiator/partner at this point the instructor becomes the community member/challenger. With each phase the students become more adapt at working in a collaborative environment. The task that needs to be accomplished is to create the best types of activities that will encourage the engagement. During phase one (weeks 1-2) the focus should be one introducing the students to each other.  Create a method that is fun and allows the members to introduce themselves in creative ways. Don’t begin with content related activities, which most likely will scare students off. Phase two (weeks 3-4) students work in pairs sharing content on something that needed to be read and discussed. An activity for this phase could include peer reviews or critiques.  Weeks 5-6 phase three is utilized for the learning and collaborative processes. Small group activities are introduces. Students will be asked to solve problems and reflect on their individual experiences. Consider debates or content discussions for this phase. Phase four encourages the students to be the designer or allowing students to be the presenter of the content, they become the ones who dispense the knowledge. Group presentations and discussions led by the students are two of the activities that are suited for this phase. The fourth phase would begin during week 7 and continue for the remainder of the school term.

The purpose of creating any activity is to create opportunities to engage learning. The activities need to have the students using higher levels of thinking. When it is time to assess ask yourself did this activity require critical thinking, did it ask the students to; apply, analysis, synthesis and evaluate. The use of rubrics is a way to evaluate activities.  The rubric will define to the students what each of the required elements are and delineate what the levels of effort are.  Points are assigned to each level of effort and the total number of points determines the final grade.  With a rubric students are in charge of what level they will operate at. Team assessments should also be used for collaborative activities. Finally reflective self-assessments are important, they require the students to be reflective of the online process.

Now that you have read what I've learned from this weeks 970 pages I have some food for thought.

 Have you ever felt like this is how fast we are learning and working in an online class? 

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-UgXCyCULs

Collaboration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pFrzUkg9vA

Death by PDF.  I think we had to read 1000 pages this week about collaboration or at least that was how it felt.  I think our instructor found the most dry reading he could dig up from someone's grave. Normally I would have looked up the author, but I fear if I knew who wrote the paper, I to would be dead. I think just that mere bit of additional information would most surely kill me. Even worse, we have to write something that we gleamed from the PDF about collaboration.  The torture never ends.  Have you ever read the Iliad and the Odyssey, I did, it was less painful. The Iliad had the redeeming feature of war. The Odyssey was simply the journey of Homer heading home after the war; we only cared that somewhere the book would end, it did.  Of course those two books were less painful than Catcher In the Rye, that was a really bad book, it rated up there with David Copperfield, death by boredom, and unlike Oliver Twist, nobody asked for more. Needles to say none of those came close to my beloved, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, East of Eden, Anna Karenina or Pink and Say. Okay I'm off the path, it's the reader geek in me and the 1000 pages about collaboration. The paper that holds the words of PDF will be fuel for the fire, I don't care if it is still summer. I fear for my dog's life if I don't burn it, she may attempt to tear the paper up since she is prone to tearing up paper. The paper would most definitely be the death of her with all those collaborative words.  She chewed up my memory stick once that had my "20 decades of history" homework assignment for the behavior management class.  I took the broken stick to class to prove to Dr. Hodges that my dog ate my homework.

Such an assignment as this needed something more than just words.  I could not justify simply writing about collaboration so I created a Glogster.  Do not fear, it's the same verse, just a different choir.

http://24liz.edu.glogster.com/collaboration/

 

 

 

And now...the rest of the story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in-SV59JLp8

ADDIE Model - Design

                                                                        

 Clearly the teacher did not design the activity in such a manner that took into consideration the personality of all his students since it appears Egor did not meet the objective.

 

Oh my goodness design, did my instructor remember that during the design phase it is important to “consider the personality of the audience?” I know several of my classmates are very creative since I read their blogs, even though I only responded to the one I liked best but for me; this blog stuff is killing me. Did he take me into consideration when he designed this method of presenting the materials? What objective am I meeting, aren’t there better methods to assess my ability to understand and implement the design phase of the ADDIE model? These are important questions that need to be asked during the design phase. I did some research, does he know that the first recognized blog was Links.netLinks.net and that it was created by Justin Hall in 1994.  It wasn’t called a blog back then and in fact it was referred to as a “weblog” a word created by Jorn Barger in 1997. The first known blog on a news site was done during Hurricane Bonnie for The Charlotte Observer in 1998. The word weblog was shorten to “blog  by a programmer Peter Merholz in 1999, five years later Merriam-Webster declared it the word of the year. What does the history of bogging have to do with the design phase of the ADDIE model, not a darn thing except we're using a blog for this assignment and blogs are very boring if all they’re used for is to put a bunch of educational information on it.  

The Design Phase

Focusing on the instructional strategies in blended and on line courses is critical since there is either decreased or no face-to-face time. Thinking of learning outcomes in broader terms will help encompass a wide variety of options to use.  The products of the analyze phase will be used during the design phase.  You need to ask yourself questions, what do I want my students to learn, what is the general make-up of my students, and what means of delivery will best meet the training objectives I want to achieve.  This phase is the time to also consider how you are going to assess the learning since the method of assessment is directly linked to the various instructional strategies used during the instructional process.  Think of how you are going to approach the objectives, consider how they will be learning the material and what learning activities and assessment you’ll want to use. The strategies you’ll use needs to enhance the students interface with the course content. Consider whether you will conduct the course in a synchronous, asynchronous or blended environment. The final product of this phase will be an outline of the teaching method/instructional tactics and learning objectives.

In this ED 308 class our final product is to create a curriculum covering a time frame of 5 to 15 weeks.  I have chosen to have a high school environmental science class coordinate and help build an outdoor classroom for one the their feeder elementary schools. My learning objectives will cover a wide range of subjects since they will include aspects of business for creating budgets, technology  in many different forms to include learning how to use CAD software for the physical concept and design of the classroom and of course science.  In addition the students will have to communicate and collaborate with the elementary student’s since they will be researching what type of wild life is native to their outdoor area and sharing that information with my students.  The elementary students will also be building bird houses as part of their 4H participation along with gathering seeds to start preparing them for planning as the classroom is nearing completion. Collaboration with the Alabama Wildlife Federation, landscape architect and the construction company will be included as part to the objectives. For each of the requirements that must happen in order to build the outdoor classroom I will need to design what methods I want the students to use in order to meet the objectives I stated in the analysis phase. It’s not enough to state the students will use CAD to design a classroom, I will need to build activities that first teach them how to use the software in order to meet the requirements that must be included in the design of the space. Every objective will need to be addressed.

References:

Shibley, I., Amaral, K. E., Shank, J. D., & Shibley, L. R. (2011). Designing a blended course: Using ADDIE to guide instructional design. Journal of College Science Teaching, 40(6), 80-85. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.athens.iii.com/docview/873895708?accountid=8411

 Design Phase of ADDIE (2003)

Retrieved from:  http://www.instructionaldesignexpert.com/design_phase.html
 

A Brief History of Blogging (2011) Retrieved from:

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/03/a-brief-history-of-blogging/
 

Big dog and little dog’s performance and juxtaposition (2014) Retrieved from:

http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/sat3.html

 Course development at Rensselaer, design/development (2007) Retrieved from:
http://www.rpi.edu/coursedevelopers/DesigningInstruction/DL_D/DI_D_index.htm

ADDIE Model – Analysis

Welcome to ED 308 Curriculum Design and Assessment for the e-Classroom

This first blog requires me to name my assignment, do a summary of the work conducted since the last time I blogged, add an item of interest, and note any problems or concerns.  Now I know that is of no interest to the person reading this except maybe the professor but in defense of myself, I’m not sure I can be as serious as he seems to think we should be.  I mean the purpose of a blog is to convey something of interest that others may gleam some knowledge, entertainment, or incite a discussion.

I must admit doing a blog has never been one of my favorite assignments. The only blog I read is the one my best friend does and only when she tells me I should read it. The only blog I have is this one and that is because Dr. Cowan required me to keep one while I was in ED 307. I will confess this, as much as I dislike doing a blog, discussions boards are at the top of my “things I dislike most about education courses” which is what we had to do for module 1. Uggh! I have now met the first two requirements.

The ADDIE model is simply a process to use when designing something that needs to be accomplished.  When I first starting researching the process, I felt like deja-vu since it was very similar to the process we used in the military when we had to develop any type of movement/battle plan. Then I found the chart below and realized why it sounded familiar.

In the analysis phase it’s the time to do some brainstorming. You need to know what it is you want the end product to be.  In the military it may have been to reach a supply point or move a brigade somewhere on the battlefield. In a kindergarten class, it may be by Christmas break have 45% of the class reading at grade level. List all the objectives, even if they get crossed off the list as you move through the process. Remember this is the first step, you are analyzing, meaning investigating all the parts of the relationships that will occur in the classroom, all the foreseeable problems, the timelines you’ll have, and what the needs of your students will be. Look at your brainstorming list and try putting your list into some sort of priority. As an instructor it’s important to know what is the “one thing” that all the other things depend on. I wanted my 5-7 year olds to learn how to play coquet, but first I had to teach them how to move the ball with a mallet before they could learn how to aim the ball through the different hoops. I needed to analyze what they knew, where they were in their physical development, what their attention span was, how much space they needed, and so on.  It’s no different than what a college professor must do prior to the first day of class.  This phase is not what you start two days before class begins.  It may not be the longest phase but it is the one that needs to be thoroughly thought through.

I see the biggest concern doing it the first time is at that point I most likely won't know what I don't know. I think this is the point in which I would turn to my fellow experienced teachers for some old fashion peer guidance.


Reference:
http://www.learning-theories.com/addie-model.html

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=addie+model&qpvt=addie+model&FORM=IGRE#view=detail&id=C434472924B0FD283169A62142C07021A8BF749F&selectedIndex=125

http://www.instructionaldesign.org/models/addie.html

New Term

Working on School Work Stinks When Sick

 

 

 

 

Who knew Dr. Cowan would create such a monster. Here it is a new term and even though I have a new teacher for this summer class I'm hanging on to my blog. Its a great way to vent. 

This week we had to create a presentation about Technology Integration:

1. Technology Integration: What is it? What it isn't.

2. Explain the difference in the following terms: a) technology integration, b)Education technology, c) Instructional technology, d) Information and communications technology (ICT)

3. What does the research day about the effects of technology use for teaching and learning on the academic achievement and student success of elementary aged students?

 

It had to be a YouTube video between 5 - 15 minutes in length.  We could use anything we had used in pass classes.  Not really a difficult thing.

 

So this is what happens when you get sick on the day its due: your computer gets a virus and won't let you do anything until you clean it up and you miss a great talk at church because, first you have to drag yourself out of bed. Then when you turn your computer on to put the final touches that virus you picked up freezes your computer.  I did all the things that Dr. Cowan would expect from me and then it took almost 4 hours to get my computer to work.  I had reached the 11th hour with only 4 minutes left to get it into my Black Board. When all was said and done I had to put only the tiny YouTube I created as part of the total production. You've got to be kidding me, all my work and the product I had produced is simply the final product in a blog that only I read. It couldn't be due one minute after  midnight, I'm sure I might have made it in time with just one more minute. Okay, maybe this week I'll do a simpler product for this weeks assignment. Save time, save headaches. Dr. Cowan would be proud.

 

SO THIS IS WHAT I HAD HOPED TO SUBMIT INTO BB

<a href="http://www.screencast.com/t/OwfxSHWyZ1EA">Technology Integration</a>