s
See Lars Mueller Publishers
https://www.lars-mueller-publishers.com/sites/default/files/preview_spring2018_e_es.pdf
An accurate commentary on our times.
Marcie Hans
Reflections on a give of Watermelon Pickle…and other modern verse.
I was awestruck by this poem while teaching a 7th Grade Literature class. The kids understood the poem and made some thought-provoking comments. One student commented on how surface thinking we are and how, every day, we miss out on the true beauty all around us. 7th Grade!
Michael Webb Two Journeys
A monograph on the work of Michael Webb, an artist trained as an architect and operating at the intersection of art and architecture. Webb, a founding member of Archigram, takes us on the two journeys of his lifeworks and unique perspectives. All inquiries about the book and the Two Journeys Lecture Series can be directed to michaelspiderwebb@gmail.com. Please include nancywozniak@gmail.com with your contact information.
Fair Use in Online Instruction
I didn’t know there was a Fair Use Week, but as an educator, it’s good to know. Here is an interesting and helpful blog post on Fair Use by Anali Perry, Arizona State TeachOnline, Fair Use in Online Instruction.
Facebook Popularity
Interesting data on social media and the American Public’s news sources from Pew Research. A majority of Americans now say they get news via social media, and half of the public has turned to these sites to learn about the 2016 presidential election. See PewResearchCenter, Social Media Update 2016, www.pewinternet.org/2016/11/11/social-media-update-2016.
Media Literacy-The Need Is NOW!
A PewResearch survey reported that 62% of U.S adults get their news on social media and two-thirds of Facebook users (66%) get their news on the site. That’s over half the U.S. population lo…
Source: Media Literacy-The Need Is NOW!
Media Literacy-The Need Is NOW!
No matter the discipline or topic, ALL educators need to take some class time to discuss media literacy issues. Facebook and other social media forums are being scrutinized for “Fake News.” A PewResearch survey reported that 62% of U.S adults get their news on social media and two-thirds of Facebook users (66%) get their news on the site. That’s over half the U.S. population looking to social media for local and national information. Social Media users often taint their news posts with their personal opinions and embellishments. It becomes Fake News. We saw the effects during our last Presidential Campaign. Many folks, particularly our youth, aren’t able to analysis news stories or know how to recognize credible news sources. They can’t discern what is real and what is fake. Just because the news comes from a major network broadcast operation, doesn’t mean it’s credible. Public Radio Internation CEO, Alisa Miller provides an excellent segue into a media literacy class activity with her Ted Talk on the power of the news to distort our worldview. Media Literacy must be included in our core curriculums.
How the News Distorts Our Worldview
A must see TedTalk by Alisa Miller, CEO, Public Radio International (PRI)As the CEO of Public Radio International, Alisa Miller works to bring the most significant news stories to millions — empowering Americans with the knowledge to make choices in an interconnected world.
ASU TeachOnline Blog Site
WOZ’s Blog of the Week
One of the best online teaching and learning best practices and support sites is Arizonia State University’s (ASU) TeachOnline Resources for Teaching Online. The group includes timely, useful information on Course Design, Tools, Tutorials, Gaming, Social Media, and a Faculty Showcase. Of particular interest to me is the post, Integrating Technology with Bloom’s Taxonomy, Obiageli Sneed, May 9, 2016. Sneed explains, “The purpose of Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy is to inform instructors of how to use technology and digital tools to facilitate student learning experiences and outcomes.” Included is an infographic by Ron Carranza demonstrating activities with digital tools and outcomes. Excellent!
Infographic by Ron Carranza, Arizona State University
The site is full of up-to-date tips and best practices for the online professor. Instructional Designers will fully appreciate Marc Van Horne’s and Robert Kilman’s, Introducing the ASU Instructional Designers, infographic and outline of the tasks and talents of an instructional designer. Spot On!
Blog Post by Marc Van Horne and Infographic Design by Robert Kilman Arizona State University
The freshness and creativity of this site makes it this week’s WOZ Blog of the WEEK. Outstanding job Arizona State University!
5 Digital Tips for Infusing Cultural Responsiveness in Your Course-2
Culturally-responsive design strategies allow students to realize they are important as participants in the class community and respected as unique individuals. Please contribute your ideas and designs for creating cultural responsive learning in your face-to-face and/or online classrooms.
Source: 5 Digital Tips for Infusing Cultural Responsiveness in Your Course
Compress Yourself – Blast from the Past
Tag Cloud Your Resume
I was browsing through my WP site and came across this poast. Remember when this was all the rage? I would have my students take their resumes and paste it into a word cloud app. I also knew colleagues who would have their students paste their essays and compositions into a cloud maker so the young authors could visualize their work. The students would post the image with their compositions in their portfolios. Talk about early multimodal composition! TagCrowd is still operational. Here’s what I look like today.
Blast From the Past Post – July 10, 2008
Recently, I received a message from my colleague, Htay Hla, Director of Information Technology at University of Arizona. Htay is a member of our Epsilen Web 2.0 group. He had put one of my posted journal articles through a tag cloud generator, Tag Crowd. He sent the generated tag cloud to me in a pdf format. I thought, “AMAZING! Could this be a tool for the classroom?” I tried it. I put my resume through the Tag Crowd. Look! It’s me, professionally compressed!
Go to the site – http://www.tagcrowd.com and catch a vision. I see it used in visual arts, economics, writing, history, biology … you name it. Try it. Let me know what you think.
eLearning Instructional Design
Excellent infographic posted in the Best Education Infographics by SH!FT Disruptive Learning Blog. It’s an excellent blog and they’ve posted it for public use. I’m still investigating. This might be coming down quickly, so soak it in while you can. 🙂 Comments? I am a strong supporter of Ryan’s and Deci’s Self-Determination Theory. I use it in my classrooms and with my student workers. It’s a no-brainer to me and I don’t understand why the theory on autonomy, relationship, and self-efficacy (competence) isn’t practices universally in every situation where people must work and learn collaboratively.
Designing eLearning for Motivation Infographic by SH!FT Disruptive Learning
Simply stated, motivation is what people WANT to do, CHOOSE to do, and COMMIT to do. Motivation is the WHY that makes people do what they do. It is the WHY that makes people choose an object or a goal over another and forego something pleasurable to pursue his object of desire.
As an eLearning designer, you want your learners to be motivated about taking a training program and keep alive the motivation throughout the course.
Motivation is critical to achieve effective learning. Unfortunately, it is hard to achieve if you cannot address the WHY of the learner. To compound matters, adults are notoriously short of motivation. The challenge for eLearning designers is to create and cultivate motivation in learners.
Knowing what drives people to learn is crucial to create high engagement levels in your eLearning courses. Psychologists and scientists have developed three theories to help explain the way the human mind works. As eLearning professionals, we should apply them to create courses that inspire and persuade people to move forward and complete the required tasks.
The Designing eLearning for Motivation Infographic presents the basic tenets of these motivation theories:
1. Flow Theory
Being in the flow is the ultimate manifestation of intrinsic motivation. It is that state of intense focus when you are so absorbed in the work at hand that you forget the passage of time.
In eLearning, being in the flow happens when the learner is fully and voluntarily engaging with the course and can control the pace and flow of the learning according to his/her needs and preferences. Being in a state of flow maximizes the effectiveness of every training activity.
2. Self-Determination Theory
You want focused, willing learners who are driven by some innate urge to take your course. Truth is self-motivated participants absorb and internalize learning much more efficiently than those who approach a training program with skepticism, unwillingness, and apathy.
The Self-Determination Theory focuses on human being’s natural tendencies and psychological needs. Fulfilling these needs facilitates self-growth and promotes well-being. You can apply the tenets of this theory to create courses that appeal to the basic needs of your learners and let them respond according to their innate tendencies.
3. Path-Goal Theory
The Path-Goal Theory is based on the basic human tendency to follow examples set by others. In a learning environment, who better than the trainer or the eLearning designer to BE the motivation that learners will want to learn from?
This theory, developed by psychologist Robert House in 1971 and later refined in 1996, lays down the principles of how leaders spur followers to action. The foundation of it is the belief that learner’s motivation and consequently, his/her performance is heavily influenced by the behavior of the instructor.
The above-mentioned motivation theories peek into the minds of your learners and lay bare their expectations so that you can create eLearning courses with different flavors.
5 Digital Tips for Infusing Cultural Responsiveness in Your Course
First think, what does cultural responsiveness mean to you? What is your definition?
Our own, personal, cultures are the essence of who we are and how we interact with others in community settings. Our cultures, also, provide the foundations and preferences for how we learn, process information, utilize knowledge, communicate and relate to others. The challenge for educators is developing the ability and creativity to include culturally responsive learning design and activities in our courses to foster more understanding of the ways in which each student approaches learning, relatedness, communication, and life. Culturally mediated instruction creates an environment in which multicultural perspectives are the norm, and the learning is relevant to each student. The learning is authentic. When students are allowed to learn in different ways or to share viewpoints and perspectives in a given situation based on their own cultural and social experiences, students become active participants in their learning. (Nieto, 1996). They develop self-determined, lifelong learning habits and take ownership of their learning experiences.
Culturally responsive design strategies allow students to realize they are important as participants in the class community and respected as unique individuals. Infusing these design strategies into your online course creates a venue for the students to establish identity and create an organics learning community. The University of Alaska Anchorage includes culturally mediated design as a major development strategy for their Robust Online Learning Program (Title III Grant) focused on General Education Requirement (GER) online courses. The goal is to create online environments that nature and support cultural exchange and community. One thing to remember, when designing cultural responsive activities, is that students learn best, collaboratively. They learn effectively by discussing their ideas with one another and by participating in peer-to-peer learning activities and reviews. Here are 5 digital tips for infusing cultural responsiveness in your course.
- Make the Learning Social and Safe. Use Blogs and Microblogs.
Create a culturally responsive learning community that organically expands as students establish their identity. By creating a safe, engaging learning environment, students can develop mutual respect and trust for one another in a multicultural setting. The use of interactive discussion forums keeps the topics relative and current. In this case, social media, such as blogs and microblogs is highly recommended. Create active exchanges and presentations in VoiceThread. Consider the tools the students use to communicate in their everyday lives. The learning exchange and community continue long after course completion. - Use ePortfolios
Transformative reflection is the hub of integrative and culturally responsive learning and portfolios provide a rich venue for reflective practices. The learning is authentic and develops culturally-responsive behaviors and mindfulness. Portfolios also promote peer learning and cultural understanding. An excellent example of a culturally responsive learning experience and reflection is VishwajaMuppa’s Writing 303 course portfolio with her personal essay and digital story. Dr. Cynthia Davidson, Stony Brook University Writing and Rhetoric Program, includes culturally-responsive prompts with her multimodal assignments that students post as artifacts in their portfolios. - Tell Us Your Story
Digital storytelling provides an engaging way to build a culturally responsive learning environment. The creative storytelling process fortifies communication, presentation, creative and critical thinking skills. Have students digitally tell a short, 3-minute story about themselves. Allow them to select their own presentation technology (Buncee, Storyfy, iMovie, Flickr with ezvid, Prezi, StoryKit). See Story Center for examples of culturally responsive digital stories at www.storycenter.org. Darren Chase, Librarian, Stony Brook University, publishes an excellent guide for Digital Storytelling and Multimodal Literacy. - Gamify. Develop Games and Simulations.
Games and simulations bring an experiential touch to the classroom and the learner takes an active part in the learning. Research shows that games take the learning to a deeper, more authentic level. In his article, “Simulations”: Are The Games?, author Marc Prensky, lists a host of definitions of “simulations”, ranging from:
1. any synthetic or counterfeit creation,
2. the creation of an artificial world which approximates the real one,
3. something that creates the reality of the workplace (or whatever place),
4. a mathematical or algorithmic model, combines with a set of initial conditions, that allows prediction and visualization as time unfolds.Prensky quotes Elliott Masie, author of Learning Rants, Raves, and Reflections,
“You can have a game that’s not a simulation and a simulation that’s not a game, but when yu get on that does both, it’s a real kick-ass situation”Students can apply the learning to other areas of their academic, professional, and personal lives. Have students collaborate in groups within interactive digital venues and design their own games to lead the class in synchronous and/or asynchronous play (Metaphors and Analogies, Word Play, Lesson Review). A possible culturally responsive simulation involves students interviewing and introducing a classmate from a different culture or with different life experiences to others in the class using a discussion forum, class blog or portfolio. Students reflect on the experience and what they have discovered in the forums and their personal portfolios. It is important to emphasize that these activities are student-controlled forms of interaction. Provide prompts, but provided the students with opportunities to design and control a significant portion of these learning experiences and exchanges. Autonomy is key. Make the learning their own. See 10 Tips To Create Learning Simulations For Non-Game Designers, eLearning Industry. Try Articulate Storyline as a simple tool for creating games and simulations. Join the E-Learning Heroes Community.
- Digital Badges
Use digital badges to credential achievements, such as leadership, communication, critical thinking, creative thinking, and teamwork. Digital badges dig deeper to realize skills and abilities that are not recognized with graded assignments. Use badges to encourage cultural respect and to reward self-determined learning behaviors (autonomy, self-efficacy, and relatedness) and professional achievements. Include students in the design of the course badge constellation. Encourage the students to post their badges in their LinkedIn accounts and portfolios. Unsure? Credly provides a good starting point.
Use Peer Review Learning Strategies
Bring students into the assessment process. Peer reviews are a learning tool that facilitates communication between students and can help students drill deeper into the concepts of a course and learn from each other.
- Develop a project rubric that will clearly set the criteria and expectations for the learning activity. Students will use the rubric to design, complete, and review their projects. The rubric with serve as a checklist and discussion map for peer-to-peer reviews and discussions. Set specific policies to the review exchanges and include Netiquette Rules, constructive, positive, and respectful exchange.
- Place the students in small, collaborative learning groups using interactive features in your LMS or other technologies such as VoiceThread, Google Drive, Google Hangouts, Wikispaces, Flickr, YouTube, even Facebook. Consider building a course blog for the display and peer review of the projects. As an example, see the Media Literacy & Cyber Communications course blog for Dr. Manny London’s and Nancy Wozniak’s Leadership course at Stony Brook University.
- Schedule peer reviews throughout the project production process. This will make the final review comfortable and natural. The students will be united in a community of learning.
- Be visible. Leave positive comments in the group forums to let students know you are an active part of the exchange.
- After the final review, have the students submit their reviews of their classmates’ projects. Format the rubric as a checklist. Use the reviews to give added insight to your own reviews for grading purposes.
Peer reviews give depth to individual learning. The process elevates a course learning community to a community of practice and professional exchange. These are soft skills students will use throughout their professional careers.
Using collaborative, social media tools to enhance culturally-responsive learning activities and projects fosters intrinsic, self-determined learning behaviors (autonomy, self-efficacy, and relatedness) and equips students with the professional skills necessary for transitioning into the workforce. The learning is authentic and creates an active community of practice that continues long after the course is completed. Please share your thoughts and ideas on infusing culturally-responsive experiences in the classroom. How do you create a culturally-responsive classroom? What tools do you use? We appreciate your input and contributions to this study.
Author: Nancy Wozniak, Instructional Designer 111, AI&e, Robust Online Learning
August 1, 2016
nwozniak2@alaska.edu
Resources
- Prensky, M. (2001). “Simulations”: Are They Games?. Retrieved October 26, 2016, from http://marcprensky.com/digital-game-based-learning
Hammond, Z. (2015, April 1). 3 Tips to Make Any Lesson More Culturally Responsive (and it’s not what you think!). Retrieved July 12, 2016, from http://www.cultofpedagogy.com/culturally-responsive-teaching-strategies - Culturally responsive teaching. (2016). Retrieved June 2, 2016, from edutopia,http://www.edutopia.org/blogs/tag/culturally-responsive-teaching
- Wlodkowski, R. J. (2003). Fostering Motivation in Professional Development Programs. New Direction for Adult and Continuing Education, 2003(98), 39-48. Doi:10.1002/ace.98
- Lakehead University. (n.d.). Retrieved July 10, 2016, from https://www.lakeheadu.ca/current-students/student-services/tb/aboriginal-services
- NAIT ENCANA ABORIGINAL STUDENT CENTRE. (n.d.). Retrieved August 28, 2016, from http://www.nait.ca/62131.htm
- Azziz, R. Turning It Around: Strategies for Working with Culturally Diverse Students. Retrieved August 25, 2016 from
http://www.indiana.edu/~equity/docs/
Strategies_for_WOrking_with_Culturally_Diverse_Students__Renae_Azz - Brown University. (n.d.). Retrieved August 01, 2016 from
https://www.brown.edu/academics/education-alliance/teaching-diverse-learners/strategies-0/culturally-responsive-teaching-0 – ladson-billings - Nieto, S. (1996). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education(2nd ed.). White Plains, NY: Longman.
Course Design and Online Group Collaboration — What’s the Connection?
Debbie Morrison cuts through the online design rhetoric and provides 5 course design strategies for online group collaboration and activities. This is an informative blog for online course design and professional development.
Facilitating group work in an online course for instructors is often the most challenging aspect of teaching an online class. The amount of time invested by students and the instructor in the group process can be significant; unfortunately there’s often more time spent on logistics of the assignment than on meaningful learning. But there is a solution that significantly improves the process and the outcome. It’s course design. Effective course design, which includes the timing, description and instructions for the group project, is a determining factor in the quantity, quality and type of interactivity (Swan, 2001). Facilitation skills of the instructor is another factor, more so when the instructor uses a specific skill set that supports meaningful group interaction. In this post I focus on the course design component. Though I’ve written several posts about group work, I want to share with readers findings from a journal article “Creating Collaborative Learning Groups in an Online Environment” (Brindley, Waiti & Blaschke, 2009) that emphasizes the connection between…
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Eric Tremblay’s Active Learning in the Online Classroom
I’ve been doing some research on turning the carved in cold stone, virtual learning management space into a personal, living, breathing, interactive learning place and came across Eric’s post on active learning in the online classroom in his E-Learning Acupuncture blog. This is an active, interesting blog that I’m posting in my Blogs I Follow page. He’s taking learning interactions beyond the regular read the content and comment on a linear discussion board assignment. Of course, reply to at least 3 other posts. BLAH! It’s time we move beyond the cold, virtual spaces for online learning and let the students transform the spaces into personal, interactive learning places. He breaks the interaction and learning activities into 4 different categories. Brilliant! (See below) He lists the activities under each category and is asking for his readers to add to the lists. Let’s do it! I would add interactive personal and team portfolios to the a few of the categories. And, how about under Learner-to-Learner Interactions add digital concept mapping to enhance group brainstorming? Why not? As educators our first responsibility is to ensure that our students become productive citizens in society. Like it or not, our students are transitioning into a workforce that requires mastery of digital media and cyber communication.
Visit Eric’s blog and add to the lists. Let’s all do this. I’m adding my activities today. Again, brilliant job, Eric!
http://erictremblay.blogspot.ca/2015/03/active-learning-in-online-classroom.html
Learner-to-Learner Interactions
- Group brainstorming
- Group role-playing
- Study/support groups
- Peer feedback on student work
- Exploring a Virtual World as a team
- Creating visual posters to share with the class
- Creation of video presentations to share with the class
- Asynchronous individual or collaborative learning activities (i.e. Projects)
- Creative writing (in groups or individually) that is shared with peers
- Problem-based learning Learning activities which encourage critical thinking
- Cooperative learning group discussions (real time video chat or via asynchronous discussion forum)
Learner-To-TeachingTeam
- Tutorials
- Reflective questioning
- Relating learning to relevant current events and personal life
- Problem-based learning Learning activities which encourage critical thinking
- Cooperative learning group discussions (real time video chat or via asynchronous discussion forum)
Learner-To-Virtual Environment
- Interviewing people
- Exploring a Virtual World individually
- Learning activities which encourage critical thinking
- Online quizzes (graded and non-graded) that provide immediate feedback
- Advanced adaptive technologies like simulations and sensitivity analyses
Learner-To-Physical Environment
- Interviewing people
- Home-based laboratories
- Real-life data collection and analysis
- Learning activities which encourage critical thinking
- Learning activities with hand-on experiences and tasks
- Learning activities which apply the content of the lesson in real-life situations
– E-Learning Acupuncture, Eric Tromblay, Educational Developer, Queens University
Three years of writing about education’s future
Bryan Alexander will share his insights on the future of education at the 7th Annual Teaching & Learning Colloquium & Educational Technologies Expo, Friday, April 17, 2015 | 8:30am to 3:00pm. Stony Brook looks forward to welcoming Bryan to campus and invites you to attend this inspirational and stimulating day of sharing and conversation. See http://facultycenter.stonybrook.edu/2015_Colloquium for registration information.
It’s hard to believe that, as of this month’s report, FTTE has run for three years.
Three years ago I shared the first issue of Future Trends in Technology and Education. Back then it was just called Future Trends, and was published as a membership benefit for the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE). Its mission was the same as now: to scan the horizon for significant trends that could shape the future of education.
Over the months then years that followed categories and rubrics appeared: higher education in context, the higher ed bubble. Each additional month added to the pile of references and pointers, growing a longitudinal way of analyzing new events.
Now we can look back and see which forces loomed largest over time.
I’ll say more about those trends in forthcoming posts, talks, and… other venues.
Initially there were several dozen subscribers, then…
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Week’s Wrap
“It’s easy to come up with new ideas; the hard part is letting go of what worked for you two years ago, but will soon be out of date.”
~ Roger von Oech
Monday’s Meditative Moment
To experience in the active sense requires that one venture forth into the unfamiliar and experiment with the elusive and the uncertain. To become an expert one must dare to confront the perils of the new. – Yi-Fu Tuan, Space and Place
Is Your First Grader College Ready?
FEB. 4, 2015
Thought provoking video, Age 6 and Applying to College posted article.
“What is college? Get that thought into their heads. Even though they’re 6 years old, they can think about that until they get to high school and the process becomes real”
This New York Times article brought to mind a post from this blog in which I quoted a condescending educator, perturbed by learning from play,“young students don’t want to learn, they want to play, and presentations like the one I saw today essentially seem to be saying that we need to support this play (masked as educational needs) as much as possible in order to try to get some learning in there.” (see Instructor Attitudes and Biases)
Are we undermining the robust worth and value of play and learning? Our government and schools are in such a hurry to retire seasoned teachers, our schools are losing valuable wisdom and common sense experience. Are they still teaching the value of play and learning in our Colleges of Education? Piaget?
Lifting the Learning 