Tag: learning

Learning Technologies, Open Education

TEC VARIETY

Laura Pasquini

Online learning requires motivation and engagement for success. Learners need to feel connected and empowered to support their involvement for online education. Curt Bonk explores motivation and retention in various e-learning environments. His latest publication, The World is Open, explores how technology is revolutionizing technology itself.

bonk bobble

Here are a couple of other worthy finds from Curt that may be useful for your next your virtual learning environment planning:

  1. Empowering Online Learning
  2. Tech-Variety – guide for motivation and retention online
  • Tone – how do learners describe themselves? set expectations & set goals?
  • Encouragement – provide means to give feedback to learners
  • Curiosity – online field trips, activities, remote sites, local correspondence, etc

 

  • Variety – hands on, visual, reading integrated text, providing options
  • Autonomy – choice, empowerment over learning, options, scaffold learning skills
  • Relevance – meaningful activities that relate back to the content
  • Interactivity – problem solving, case studies, working with a group, discussion threads, blogs and more!
  • Engagement – drafts due for projects, check-ins, experience the process of learning
  • Tension – role-play, alternative perspectives, controversy, e.g. devils advocate for positions
  • Yielding products – post to the web, present a gallery of students’ best work, showcase, share with an audience beyond a teacher – experts, peers, etc.
Learning Technologies, Professional Development, Social Media

Keeping Up With Technology

Laura Pasquini

With 2.5 online graduate courses, it’s easy to be consumed with everything digital this semester. In thinking about technology and how to best “keep up” with everything happening online, I stumbled upon a great video from Alan Levine (who will be leading a session in the EC&I 831 course), that reminds educational technology users to:

  1. Establish a network of colleagues & maintain these connections with online social tools, e.g. e-mails, RSS, blogs, Twitter, etc
  2. Tap into a sense of play & willingness to experiment.
  3. Don’t be afraid to continue to grow & learn new things.
EC&I831, Learning Community

Open, Connected & Social With EC&I 831

Laura Pasquini

The next online, open education course I am involved with this semester is EC&I 831: Social Media & Open Education from the University of Regina with Dr. Alec Couros that meets only every Tuesday evening (8-10pm CST). I first learned about this course through a few online networks in the ed tech arena, and I thought it may be an interesting lens to review curriculum and content development for learning. Here’s the 5 minute elevator pitch for the course:

The Tuesday evening elluminate session provided the basic introduction to the course schedule and outline. I am looking forward to connecting to other students to further explore the role of the educator/learner in terms of media literacy, knowledge and social networks.

It was great to hear the parallels between my personal philosophy of education, and how it ties into the learning objectives of this course.  Dr. Couros’ believes that there are great strengths in learning relationships and connectiveness amongst students, rather than just the specific content or knowledge.  It will be interesting to see how this sentiment is interpretted by the various weekly session speakers and participants throughout the course of the semester.

Although this course is similar to CCK09, I think that EC&I 831 will challenge me to:

  • get perspectives of social media education – history, ideas & development
  • expand my social learning theories & applications
  • experiment & play with NEW social learning & open educational tools/resources
  • provide a critical lens for curriculum development with social media & open education
  • build up my learning network – connect & enage with new online peers
Learning Community, MOOC, Professional Development, Social Media

Open Learning Courses: EC&I 831 and CCK09

Laura Pasquini

Summer always leads to much needed time outdoors and away from the computer. It’s nice to be off the grid, but also good to plug in and reconnect with friends and learning ideas online.

To kick off the new academic year, online education, and career development I have signed up for a couple of online, open education courses to compliment the grad program I start this fall.

open

Here are the two courses that I am connecting with mid-September:

1. Connectivism & Connective Knowledge 2009 (CCK09)

This course is led by Stephen Downes and George Siemens. The CCK08 Syllabus and supporting content can be found on the CCK09 Wiki.

You can register to receive course information here. Learners can also get formal credit as part of the Certificate in Emerging Technologies for Learning can enroll through University of Manitoba’s Extended Education Faculty. The course will begin on September 14, 2009.

2. EC & I 831: Social Media & Open Education

This is an open access graduate course from the Faculty of Education, University of Regina by Dr. Alec Couros. Although this courses is for credit, there is also an opportunity for participation from non-credit students. All lectures in this course, from September 15/09 to December 8/09 will be publicly available. To access the lectures, look for the appropriate date under “Synchronous Sessions“, then look for the weekly Elluminate link. I will also offer the appropriate Elluminate link via tweet via @courosa.

If you’re looking to learn from interesting and experienced educators, while connecting to peers and resources online, than one or both of these courses may be of interest to you. Sign up & join in the fun. Although I’ll be busy with work & school, I’ll be sure to continue to share my thoughts, ideas and resources that I learn here.

If you are currently interacting and learning from another open course… please share. Happy open learning!

Conference, Learning Community, Professional Development

Wiki Summer Camp

Laura Pasquini

Thinking about using a wiki for your learning environment? If so, you might want to head to PBWorks Summer Camp. This interactive, online forum is a great professional development opportunity for educators who wish to engage in discussion, complete assignments, watch virtual presentations and learn from other wiki mentors some best practices in the wiki-world.

happy logoHere is the PBWorks camp syllabus:

Week One: June 22-26

How to set up your wiki:

  • Wiki Structure
  • What lesson plans to wikify and how
  • Upload files – like your syllabus- and make it accessible from the front page
  • Important features used for this course
    • Folders
    • Tagging
    • Tables
  • Beginner tips from our Mentors!

Register for this week’s webinar on June 23rd at 10:00PST: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/497735667

Week Two: June 29- July 3

Interactive Media and How to use it: Review the media options on our educator site

  • Chat rooms – when they work and when not to use them
  • Videos – tips on video recording software for teachers, and how to quickly embedd videos on your wiki page
  • Images
  • What video and image services are there for educators to use for free

Round Table Chat with Kristine and the PBwiki Mentors

  • Hear from Mentors and find out where they struggled and where they succeeded with interactive media on their wiki.
  • What to be aware of when using photos, video and podcasts (aka – no personal photos on a public wiki!)
  • Learn step by step how to use the interactive media features.

Homework week two: (This should take 1.5 hours)

-or-

Register for this week’s webinar on June 30th at 10:00PST: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/913182851

Week Three: July 6 -10

Security features in PBwiki 2.0 — keep your work private!

  • User Permission levels and how to make changes
  • Folders & Folder security
  • Page level security

Demonstration of the PBwiki Security Features

  • The most important webinar of all — learn how to set security controls BEFORE your students join the wiki.

Homework week three: This should take 20 minutes

  • Create a new homework Week Three page & place it in the Week Three folder.
  • Go to the page on PBwiki Permission levels.  Read over the PBwiki permission levels and answer the questions. Respond to the questions on your week three homework page.
  • Go to the page on Folder Security.  Watch the three short videos and respond to the questions about folder security.  Respond to the questions on your week three homework page.
  • Go to the page on Page Security.   Watch the short videos and respond to the questions about page level security. Respond to the questions on your week three homework page.

Register for this week’s webinar on July 7th at 10:00PST: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/333808003

Week Four: July 13 – 17

Three ways to invite your students — including the BRAND NEW Classroom Accounts

  • Request Access
  • Upload email address
  • Automatically create accounts without email address (for students under 13)
  • How to introduce your wiki to students so it works
    • Parent permission forms
    • FAQ page
    • Sandbox
  • What to expect when your students take over
    • Wiki management

Live Discussion on inviting students and the suprising results

Homework week four: this should take 30 minutes

  • Set your notification setting in my.pbwiki.com to make sure you receive notifications of student changes
  • Upload your student email address, or print out your student accounts
  • Determine what invite menthod works for your class and discuss it on the forum

Register for this week’s webinar on July 14th at 10:00PST: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/983510451

Final:  Webinar Wrap up on July 21st

  • Review and new features for educators.

No Homework — Just new features for your workspace!

Register for this week’s webinar on July 21st at 10:00PST: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/756888211

Sounds intriguing? Then sign up HERE.