Walden Contest on Creating Change

Through Walden, I am becoming a change agent. I am not all the way there yet, but by the time I am finished, I hope to make a significant change for children that are growing up in poverty.

Virtual Worlds Video Project

This has been such an amazing process. What a sense of accomplishment :) It was a lot of researching and learning how to use new technology, but it was worth all the work. I used trial versions of Camtasia and Magix, and YouTube to learn how to use them. These are both programs that I would like to eventually purchase. There is so much more to learn and different strategies to incorporate. It was at moments frustrating, but when I got over a hurdle, it was exciting. This project was a reminder that I need to set more short term goals.

My project was on Virtual Worlds in Education from a Higher Ed perspective. There is also a focus on collaboration through professional organizations and professional development. I believe that there are many opportunities to use this type of technology in the classroom. The strategies need to be developed, but the possibilities are limitless. I hope you find the information informative and gain a little stronger understanding of how Virtual Worlds tie into learning.

Dynamic ans Static Learning with Technology

When I think about static and dynamic uses of technology, I am reminded of a typical day for my son. He is on his x-box gaming with a friend with his headphones on collaborating during the game. At the same time, his is Instant Messaging his friends and looking up content in his itouch. It is a total immersion in technology that slides up and down the scale of static and dynamic.

I think I spend more time on the static end of the spectrum for everyday use due to my job and what is required. I have to read and send emails, analyze data, and create Power Points etc. I really don't have time or the job description that allows for dynamic use of technology.

On the flip side, in my school and personal life I spend more time in the dynamic side of technology. For school it is 50/50. Many of my classes require me to step outside my comfort zone and create with technology. On the other side, I am working on my KAM and that is straight reading and writing. In my personal life I am a digital scrap booker. I try to learn new ways to use technology on a regular basis. I have taught myself PhotoShop Elements and I am currently learning how to use flash. I am signing up for a class on using Jata so I can learn how to create objects. My goal is to someday to have a job that allows for a more dynamic use of technology.

Engaging Learners with New Strategies and Tools

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.

Project Story Board

Story Board PP

Project Outline

This is going to be very general at this point. I am one of those people who has to see the big picture before I can put it in small pieces. I still have a few articles to read. I have read quit a few already and the information is interesting, new, and intriguing. There are so many facets to virtual worlds in education. Limiting my information to 5-6 minutes will be difficult. However, 5-6 minutes of good video is a little intimidating :) I am going to develop the information around my mock speaker who is on of the creators of AET, which is a university that takes place in a virtual world. All of the students go to school as avatars. So I am still developing a plan, but this is an idea of the sequence.

I. Virtual Worlds in Higher Education
A. Where they started and where they are today
II. Bringing a physical sense through teaming
A. Harvard (Second Life)
B. Experiments and Projects
III. Developing Professionally
A. MIT (Second Life)
B. SLED
C. List Serves and Professional Organizations
IV. Online classrooms
A. AET Active World
B. What does it look like
C. What do the students have to say
D. Challenges of on-line learning
V. Background and Introduction of Guest Speaker

Assessing Collaborative Efforts

In my opinion, participants in a collaborative learning community should be assessed on both their individual contributions and their contribution to the group. These two scores should be added together to get a final grade. Of course, this depends on if the project shows individual contributions along with the group contributions. If it is only a combined effort that shows up on the final project, peer evaluations would be a key factor in determining the grade.

As Siemens (2008) pointed out, a "balanced diet" is a focus for collaborative work. There needs to be a balance between individual work and group work. It ties back to learning styles. Some participants will prefer individual work where as others will prefer group work. However, it is important to grow student's week areas as well, so it it is a balanced approach, then not only will the individuals strenghts show, but their area of weakness will grow.

If students do not want ot work in a learning community, then the members in that community should first try to break things down into assignments and build a relationship with that student. They may just need encouragment. If that does not work, then the instructor should become involved. Ultimately, if a student does not participate in the project and this is varified, then it should hurt only the individuals grade and not the groups. Expectations and how grading will be handled in all situations should be set at the very beginning. Contracts and group goals should be set before the project begins (Palloff & Pratt, 2005).

Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Principles of Distance Education. Baltimore: Siemens

Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning together in community. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Communication in Distance Learning

Communication is an evolving feature of distance education. Communication is different for both the teacher and the student. Teachers of distance learning facilitate knowledge more compared to just providing knowledge. Students are active learners in a distance learning class compared to being passive learners. In order to do this, “The teacher's role online is to guide, direct, and equip students with the skills and abilities to provide for their own educational needs in the future” (Siemens, 2002). This is accomplished through strong communication. Communication is developed through a variety of venues. George Siemens suggest that this is started by forming connections, or in my words, relationships, early in the class. He suggests that both teacher ad students share information about themselves, both professional and personal. He also suggest including a picture. By doing this, you find attributes that form connections with other individuals in the online environment. It is a warm and fuzzy ice breaker that is effective for the majority of students in an online environment. The teacher is taking on a leadership role instead of a dictatorship role. I am of the opinion that the characteristics that make a good leader are the same characteristics that make a good online teacher. Ten characteristics on a good leader are: authenticity, desire to serve others, empowering people, guided by heart, passion, and compassion, recognize their own shortcomings, lead with purpose, build enduring relationships, are clear on where they stand, refuse to compromise their principles, and they continue to develop themselves (Parker, 2005). As John Maxwell puts it; “Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them” (Maxwell, nd).

Communication in distance learning is accomplished using discussion boards, e-mails, blogs, collaborative activities using a variety of resources including; sharepoint, wikis, and social networking. This communication is built on how the students synthesize the material and share and discuss it with peers. The role of an effective facilitator is to observe and participate in the discussion. They ask probing questions, redirect misconceptions, create a risk taking environment for the students, and direct students to other resources that will spark the conversation. Since so much of the learning in distance education starts with the students, communication is an important part of the process because it moves the students learning further and deeper creating critical thinking and critical transfer to everyday experiences.

Blogs to check out:
http://web20teach.blogspot.com/Flash templates to embed in blogs
http://artjunction.org/blog/?page_id=1024 100 Web Tools and Resources
http://slenz.wordpress.com/ Information on SLENZ Project: Virtual communication
http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/100-awesome-free-web-tools-for-elementary-teachers/ 100 more web tools: Includes communication tools
http://cedict.blogspot.com/CEDIT; Communication, Education and Development using ICT
http://blog.opencc.co.uk/?cat=13 Creative Communications
http://kathyschrock.net/edtechblogs.htm Kathy's ed tech blog picks


Maxwell, J. (n.d.). John maxwell Quote. In Thinkexit.com [website]. Retrieved December 29, 2009, from http://thinkexist.com/quotes/john_maxwell/

Parker, A. (2005, August 11). Ten Characteristics Of Leadership. Retrieved December 29, 2009, from http://ezinearticles.com/?Ten-¬Characteristics-¬Of-¬Leadership&id=59210

Siemens, G. (2010, August 22). Lessons learned teaching online. In elearn space everything elearning [blog]. Retrieved December 29, 2009, from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/lessonslearnedteaching.htm

Evolution of Distance Education

Moller, Huett, Foshay, and Coleman (2008) believe that there is a need to evolve distance education. They state two forces that dictate why we should pursue a change. First, is the “reexamination of the process of learning” (Moller, Foshay, Huett, 2008, p 74). Our education has moved from filling students with knowledge to a problem solving environment. Yet, students are typically still taught the way they were when education began. The benefit of distance education is that it focuses on “thinking, creativity, collaboration, dialogue, and argumentation that are directed toward solving ill-structured problems” (p.74). The second force is a “reconstruction by contemporary views of what constitutes instruction” (74). Today, there is more acceptance of alternative way toward teaching and learning. Distance learning, at a higher education level, makes better use of community than the typical classroom. All students are expected to participate is discussions and are supported by both their classmates and professor. However, this type of learning is not conducive for every learner. The authors suggest that our current education system may be producing students that are capable of interacting with knowledge to learn, but they are not proficient at working with others to build knowledge. These two forces are part of the drive and thinking behind the evolution of distance education.

I do agree with the thinking behind these forces. Education still follows a one size fits all approach. There are teachers that are trying to move away from this type of thinking, but many are still content with the status quo. Not only does learning need to be more individualized, but we need to move learning into a more problem solving based approach. It has been said that we are preparing students for jobs that have not even been created or thought of yet. We need to teach children how to find information and then how to use to solve problems. We do not have information to teach that has not been developed at this point. There is definitely a need to evolve distance education to meet the needs of both the student and the needs of society.

Appalachian State University has created their curriculum in a virtual worls called the AET zone. Students move and interact within a virtual world for classes and discussion. They are taking online learning to another level. For more information an article is available at http://www.lesn.appstate.edu/edtech/IT_articles/NILE_A_190834_O.pdf

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008, May/June). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 1: Training and Development). TechTrends, 52(3), 70–75.

Welcome

Welcome, This blog is part of my distance learning class at Walden University. It looks like it is going to be an exciting quarter and I have already learned a ton focusing on my topic of virtual worlds. I have joined a couple of communities and found a Virtual World Journal that will make its debut in January. It is a peer reviewed process and looks very promising. I have gained new insight and I have new and exciting ideas for my dissertation. My mind won't stop running.

On a personal note, we live in Germany. My husband is military and this is where we landed. It has been a pretty interesting journey. We have seen a lot of Europe and are heading to Paris for the weekend I will actually get to stand infront of the Mona Lisa. I miss the American shopping and sometimes the food. I look forward to exploring technology with you!