Durrington, V. A., Berryhill, A., & Swafford, J. (2006). Strategies for enhancing student interactivity in an online environment. College Teaching, 54(1), 190−193.
Siemens, G. (2008, January). Learning and knowing in networks: Changing roles for educators and designers. ITForum.
Text: Anderson, T. (Ed.). (2008). The theory and practice of online learning (2nd ed.). Edmonton, AB: Athabasca University Press.
Shannon Gray
Educational Technology
Posts
Comments
About Me
- Shannon Gray
- Welcome! This blog is for my Distance Education class at Walden University. This is a learning experience for me and I look forward to your feedback. I have a wonderful husband and two teenagers that support me along my path. I am very blessed.
7 comments:
It's interesting how you focused on process in your collaboration circle, teacher presence in your content circle, and tools in your communications circle of your model. How do you think some of these overlap? It could be interesting to include all three; process, presence, and tools in each of the circles and then color-code them as such.
Your interpretation of this assignment has provided me with more information!
The way that I see content for this organizer is that it is ever changing depending on who brings what background, the way information is facilitated, and whether it grows or sits. I see communication as the way that content is interacted with. I do realize that communication is a process in itself, but when I thought of how technology played into communication; I see the means of communicating pulling together communication. With collaboration I focused on ways to extend collaboration. My focus was on the readings as I filled in the organizer so that guided the way I filled in the diagram. As I am looking at it again, maybe all of my arrows should be on the CCC in the middle instead of on each of the outer circles because my subcircles really focus on how each ties into the whole instead of the individual catagory.
I like a lot of the tools you've listed in your communications section. I'm curious, how do you incorporate some of these tools with the age group you work with? I've never worked with the younger kids, so I'm always fascinated with how tech savvy they are. Do you think their level of technology will help them as they grow older? Have you changed the way you present things because of what you've learned in these classes?
Grace, unfortunately, I am not currently in the elementary classroom. I do teach college classes, but that is different. When I came to Germany, there were no American teaching jobs; however it is looking more promising for next year :) I can tell you what I did and how I would incorporate the newer information if I were in the classroom.
Blogs are good places to have children respond to their literature journals. This can be written or you can use a web cam for them to record their response. Recorded response can be turned into podcast that are available to students. If I were in the classroom today, I would have one iPod in the library that had podcast of children talking about books that they have read so that students could decide if they wanted to read that particular book. It is also possible to use blogs for book studies. Children across schools, districts, and states can do a book study together facilitated by a teacher. One teacher from each participating classroom could take a book and work with that group. This would hit so many standards and a teacher could really focus on that one book.
Wikis can be used for group research. As students collect their information, they could compile it on the wiki so that all students in the group could access the information from school or home. Of course safety is an issue so you have to utilize sites that allow for privacy.
I am working on ways to utilize virtual worlds in elementary schools for my dissertation. I have a lot of ideas, but need to develop a platform that is safe and free from negative adult influences. I really could go on and on, but I hope this answers your question a little :)
I like the way you included what facilitator/peer could do to enhance collaborations instead of listing the applications for collaborations. I agree those actions among learners/between facilitator and learner can be a tools that we utilize to improve collaboration. Have you come across any toolz/applications that helps to facilitator those actions?
I find it interesting how each of us viewed it differently. I like how you focused on the process of collaboration, content, and communication and not just the tools. Great job.
Post a Comment