To prepare for my summary of learning for OLTD 505 I created a mind-map with Coggle. (also attached it as a PDF below)
oltd_505_mind-map.pdf |
An Education Journey |
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To prepare for my summary of learning for OLTD 505 I created a mind-map with Coggle. (also attached it as a PDF below)
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RIP: A Remix Manifesto Dean Shareski: Sharing the Moral Imperative OLTD 505 Where the comic was made: http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/ So I want to let you in on a little secret about me. I have always wanted to write an article and be published in a journal. I can't remember not wanting to do this. I think it was a leftover from my Dad. He is a geologist who has worked on numerous publications (his most recent book: Cape Fear River Indians). In grade 4 I decided to be a teacher; sometime after that I knew that I wanted to see my name in print. This blog, alas, does not fill this dream. I want to be in one of those journals I remember perusing when writing my papers at UVic or seeing with my Dad.
I have recently been hearing about Open Access Journals and how some educators are boycotting traditional journals in favour of Open Access ones. I thought that I would have a look, to see what I think about the subject. Where to start? I came across an article called called A Very Brief Introduction to Open Access by Peter Suber which seemed like a good place. For those of you familiar with the concepts he has a much more detailed version called Open Access Overview and Six things that researchers need to know about open access (It also has a lot of resources). The Open Access movement is meant to remove barriers from others reading the information. Journal subscriptions and articles are very expensive to purchase. University libraries can spend quite a bit of money on having access to information. If someone does not have access to a university collection, it can be very costly to become or remain informed. There are two aspects to the Open Access movement. One is the journals themselves. The second is Open Achieves or Repositories. The first difference that I see between these two is peer review. Repositories or achieves are not required to perform a peer review, anything can, in theory, be deposited there. This does depends on the archive though. It does not mean that journals are not peer reviewed, so make sure you know what you are looking at. Journal authors are encouraged to archive their work so it can be found by others. Open Access does not necessarily mean free. As journals traditionally do not pay for the article, the reviewers or even the editor, this continues with Open Access Journals. There are still cost associated with Open Access but the funding model looks different and can be different for each journal. Pros of Open Access Journals: - Access, Access, Access. There is access for everyone, not just those with money. - Articles, and the people who write them, are not hidden behind walls but are visible to all. - Less established people can publish. Cons of Open Access Journals: - There are some terrible journals out there, full of mistakes & plagiarism, willing to publish is payment is received. Science had a flawed 'spoof' paper published in a variety of journals. - In order to receive tenure, faculty often must publish in traditional format journals. By not doing so, one may risk career security. Overall? I think Open Access Journals & Repositories are the way to go. I think I have to do a lot more research on the matter. In all things, research the journal, the source before using it. Make sure you search from a quality list. Try one of the ones listed below. I am not at the point where I have to worry about publishing. I want to get there one day, but I hope by then, I will be more familiar with the system. My Goal: USE open journals next time I have to research for a paper. If I run in to a payment wall, maybe don't log in with my University ID but try another route. Further Information: Here is a list of what various people and institutions can do to promote open access and what you should know about it. There are also publishers like Open Book Publishers that have a great repository of Open Books. The Directory of Open Access Journals has a list of Open Journals. You can also check out the Open Access Journals Search Engine. For Repositories try Directory of Open Access Repositories and Registry of Open Access Repositories. Today I realized something, when driving alone in my car (listening to CBC for those who wonder) and I had a bit of an epiphany. When I was going through my teacher training 15 odd years ago, I never reflected on how I teach or how I even learn. I had to develop a philosophy of education but I didn't think any further. I also realize that over the past year taking all the course for OLTD that I have spend a lot of time reflecting how students learn and how I teach.
When I thought back to my practicum days teaching Science in a high school I realized I only had ONE reflection on my teaching. Yet, that one moment has shaped who I am as a teacher. My practicum evaluator was concerned that wandered around to much all class. I was in constant motion. He was worried that I would not be able to sustain that. As I valued his opinion and advice I thought about that, and how I wanted to teach, for a couple of days. I realized that the energy and movement was important to me and how I wanted my class to be. It was important for me to be who I naturally am as a teacher in the class. I feel like a switch is being flipped on when I teach so I need to be true to that. This moment of reflection has profoundly affected the way I am in the class. So why haven't I reflected for the last decade and a half? I am not sure. I don't remember being taught, or maybe I didn't pay attention. I never thought about that moment and how it affected me. I am now though. Last weekend I attended the UBC Okagagan Learning conference on Reflecting on Scholarly Approaches. The conference was well organized, well attended and an excellent opportunity for learning. Overall themes were collaboration, innovation, reflection and engagement. I thought that I would take some time and reflect on some of the sessions I attended, and what key ideas I will take away. Thus modeling some of what I was shown. Plus, if I record them here, I will know where to find them again! Keynote: Dr. Marsha Lovett on 'How Learning Works: Knowledge and Application' (the link is a link to a similar talk as ours was not recorded). She spoke from her book. She sees teaching as both an art and a science. The three principles: 1. Prior Knowledge helps or hinders learning. 2. How students organize knowledge influences how they learn. 3. How development of mastery works. Session: LOOC's I have to admit, I am apprehensive about MOOC's (Massive Open Online Courses). I have not tried one. I am resistant to it currently but, as I am studying about online learning right now, I thought I would check out LOOC's. LOOC means Local Open Online Learning. UBC has had a few LOOC's. They are billed as place based education with local content and global relevance. Badges (gamification) are awarded. While most students came from the local area, there were learners from all over the world. Here is a link to their video: LOOC: Adventures in Applied Sustainability. I think I would participate in a LOOC. Session: Address the needs of today's learner: A 'modified' flipped approach In class, students frantically write down the words of wisdom from the professor or PowerPoint. The problem? In classes that require a practical demonstration of knowledge like in nursing, math or physics, students do not get to practice. As the presenters said, it doesn't make sense for the coach to run the plays, the players need practice. Why not put the theory and learning before class so time can be spent practicing. For success need: Faculty development, Goals & objectives, Tools, IT support. Suggestions: Have as much ready ahead of time as possible. Make sure anything mandatory, especially pre-class learning, is worth marks. Worksheets to guide learning can be helpful and encourage students to use the book they bought! This is something I am slooowly working on doing. I am attempting this in a lesson in two week. Hopefully it works! Session: Using Technology & Innovation: Making assignments matter Key points: Distance Ed is twice as much work as regular. Teach how to be a good consumer of information. Turn assignments around so students create something useful as they will see the value in creating it. The instructor can be immersed as a participant in a whole class project - easier to evaluate. MERLOT was recommended as a peer reviewed site to get interesting assignments and lessons. After the conference, I took a look. I really struggled with the search engine. I liked how detailed it was but I was constantly getting too many or too few results. While the material is peer reviewed, it wasn't always helpful or suitable. I am not sure that I would use it. Session: Creating Video Resources to Support Teaching & Learning in a Flexible Learning Environment This topic goes hand in hand with flipping a classroom. I discovered that there is quite a large learning curve to doing this. Thankfully the Centre at VIU can support me in this. There is also an initial large time commitment. Video lectures are effective both for students who know a topic (and can skip material) and those who need a slower pace or additional time (as they can watch as much as they need). The easiest way to start is to start is to create a PowerPoint with a voice recording. It a good idea to give questions or a worksheet for use during the presentation. Session: Strategies to Empower & Engage Adult Learners 1. Increase interaction during class. Brains need to process every 10 - 15 minutes. "Chunk & Chew" 2. Include Individual exploration opportunities. What is the student's passion? What topic will they engage in? This allows them to be in the 'flow' 3. Build collaborative and real world assignments 4. Let students choose how to demonstrate their understanding 5. Invite students to provide input into the course design. Perhaps have a 'loose outline' where collaboratively they determine how much each aspect is worth. Session: Engaging & Empowering Students 1. Engage students in learning 2. Teach students how to learn. For example: Reflection on a test. "How did I study? What worked & didn't work?" Metacognition 3. Encourage student reflection 4. Motivate students by sharing power. Get students to do the work themselves 5. Encourage Collaboration. Session: Transforming Learning Through Experiential Learning
"If we teach today's students as we taught yesterday's, we rob them of tomorrow" John Dewey. This quote resonates with me as the environment that we are living in now, is very different from before. We need to teach differently than we ourselves learned. The presenters of this session focused on Kolb's Cycle of Experiential Learning. Reflection is an important piece to the model. For online learning, which is changing so much, reflection is a very important aspect. There is a war going on, and I didn't notice.
Two sides are fighting to determine who owns an idea. It is being fought on computers, in homes, and yes, in the courts. On one side, the copyrighters, is made of a lot of powerful businesses, they own more than 90% of media in the united states. You may have heard of a few of them: Disney, BMG, Time Warner, Viacom, GE, Newscorp. They earn considerable profits from owning idea and letting consumers use them. That is, as long as the way that they are being used falls within particular parameters and they are being paid. They are controlling our culture in a very clever way. A person cannot take a song, change it or sample it, and then produce it. The Verves "Bittersweet Symphony" used too much of an orchestral version of the Rolling Stones song "The Last Time". The Verve had to give all their royalties & credit for the song to the Stones. What is interesting is the Stones got the idea for their song from The Staple Singers' gospel song "This May Be The Last Time". This side produces the anti-piracy ads. If you try to use an idea, paint a mickey mouse on the side of a daycare or download a song, without payment and permission, you are a criminal. The other side, the remixers, including copyleft, creative commons and others, believes in the free access to knowledge and the ability to reshape and rework ideas. Public domain should be protected and shared. A remixers manifesto: 1. Culture always builds on the past 2. The past always tries to control the future 3. Our future is becoming less free 4. To build free societies you must limit control of the past. The first point, that culture builds on the past has long been acknowledged. Bernard of Chartres said in the twelfth century that we are "perched on the shoulders of giants [the Ancients]" and so can see further. Essentially we are always building on the past or from the past comes the future. In his 2003 book According to the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards stated the song The Last Time: "was basically re-adapting a traditional Gospel song that had been sung by the Staple Singers, but luckily the song itself goes back into the mists of time...At least we put our own stamp on it, as the Staple Singers had done, and as many other people have before and since". What I find interesting is that as a society, we should limit the control of the past. I admit, it is not something that I have thought of before. When you have a child, you teach them your belief system, and your ways of knowing. Initially a child's every move is controlled but as time passes and they grow and develop this control is gradually relinquished until they are 'being' on their own. Sometimes, they ask for advice, sometimes they accept advise, but ultimately who they are is up to them. They have grown up and we need to respect their ways of doing. I am not sure why our creative creations or intellectual property. are different. When we first create our creation, we have control, but over time, control should be relinquished as it has its own life. Our children and our culture are the future. We need let go and admit that we have outgrown the archaic and oppressive copyright laws. I have been interested in using an Open Textbook since I heard about them last year. The idea appeals to me - you can choose your content, students can have the text as a PDF , online or a printout, it is open sourced. All of these things appeal to me. The difficulty? Working out HOW to do this when no one else in my department is using them (at the moment), So, for this weeks blog, I thought I would explore how easy it is to start the process - find & evaluate - an open source text for my Biology class. For more information on why Open Textbooks are important, check out this short video about Why Open Education Matters Step 1: Where to start I need to decide where to start my search for a textbook. For me, this was the easiest part. I want to support a local initiative (BC is leading the way for Canada). BCcampus has been working on first year Biology textbook which is suitable for a Adult Education (grade 12 equivalent) course. BCcampus also has a resources page full of other open texts in case I cannot find one I like though them. Step 2: Get Informed Before I started looking at the biology texts, I thought I better get informed on how to adopt an open textbook for a class. I read through a faqs page. There is a 101 page with an overview of the steps involved and a more detailed page full of information specific to BCcampus. I am now feeling a little more overwhelmed. I need to look at the textbooks to see if there is one suitable for my class. If I find one, then I can worry about how to adopt an Open Textbook, if not then I will move my search to another place. Step 3: Finding a text
There are three different first year biology textbooks. I was expecting one, so this is a pleasant surprise. As I look through the three choices, only one seems to be appropriate for the content that I teach which emphasizes the Cell and Human Biology. Taking a look at the Table of Contents, all the topics that I talk about in class seem to be present. There is only one small section missing which could easily be done as a separate course-ware package. The next step for me is to evaluate the textbook itself to see if the content level is appropriate. I will focus on that for next week as I suspect it will take a bit of time! I am a recent convert to Google+. I have started using it in the past year and thoroughly and completely love it. I am addicted to checking out my communities at least every day, if not more. I quite like Twitter, Diigo and others but not in the way I enjoy Google+. I do not have a Gmail address, I like to keep that separate, but I have used almost everything else Google has to offer. Thus, when presented with the challenge of building a non-LMS (Learning Management System, platforms like Moodle and D2L) that would support a community of learners, once part was quite clear; my central hub would be Google+, other tools would branch from there. Google Communities: Most discussion , information, notices would be housed in a Google community. The advantage to using this as the dashboard is the ability to create subcategories to help learners finding the information that they need. There are a variety of different ways to search for posts (person, subcategory, hashtag…) that make information easy to find. This is where students would go first. Google drive: Most content would be housed with Google drive. It has fantastic file sharing capabilities suitable for a group of people. An individual learner can download a copy of an assignment, notes, review package etc. and modify it as they need. They could also upload any assignments for grading. Peer evaluation is also straight forward as the author of the piece could share any work with another for feedback before ultimately handing it in. Google Calendar: The calendar function the Google offers would work as learners can import an initial calendar of dates provided by the instructor. Further events can be added by the community (such as a synchronous meeting time or a peer meeting) and accepted by those who are involved. Google Calendar is able to be synched to a mobile making it easier for people to remember important dates. Birthdays are also put on the calendar (option for each user) supporting a sense of community as people can send birthday wishes. What I like about Google+ is the way it incorporates a variety of tools in one location. I makes it easy for both students and educators as a starting place. Many people use Google in their daily life (hence the term ‘googling’) thus the learning curve isn’t too steep. Google alone, however, will not provide all the tools that are needed for a robust learning experience. For that one must move to other tools. Collaborate: Moving away from the Google world, I would use Collaborate as way to meet synchronously. I like how customizable the site is as students can not only watch a presentation from the instructor, a guest, or students, but also be subdivided in to breakout rooms for smaller group activities. As each participant can upload a picture and chat in a text-box, a sense of community is built as students can put ‘faces to names’. Collaborate also offers large flexibility for instructor control of who, or how many, can speak, who can draw or show images etc. Twitter: Twitter is a fantastic way for people to stay connected. Students can connect with other students, with the instructor, and with experts in the field. What is fantastic about twitter is it can be used both synchronously and asynchronously, for community building and content sharing. Students who wish to participate solely for content can check certain times to get the latest information. Others may wish to tweet for community building reasons or have a discussion about a topic. Calls for help can be quickly answered by the instructor or peers. Study sessions can be built at unexpected times. If a couple of students happen to be at the library, they can put the word out for more to join them. Engrade: After a bit of searching, and some peer recommendations, the grade book I would likely use would be Engrade. It is free, seems to be quite customizable, and simple to use. There is an added benefit that multiple choice quizzes can be given from this site. Depending on the course, this may be a good way to provide some quick feedback to see if students are grasping the material. For another assessment tool Socrative seems like a good choice. It lets an instructor create multiple choice, true-false and short answer quizzes. It also lets an instructor set up an ‘exit ticket’ to assess students understanding at the end of a class. Padlet: Padlet is a great way for a class to work on a collaborative assignment. It is easy to learn and use. As a community wall can be built, it would work well at the start of the course for community building exercises. Later it could be used to house student information about a topic, or as a graffiti wall for a brain storming activity. It is useful both synchronously and asynchronously. There are a myriad of tools available to an educator to create a rich and vibrant on-line world that either does not require an LMS or enhances it. No one place is enough to create a deep learning experience so an on-line educator must be prepared to explore the possibilities.
I have a student who because of his personality and the program he is planning to attend is demanding of himself that he earns an A+ in my class. He is a delightful student who regularly helps his peers if they miss a class or a struggling. The problem? He is so hard on himself. When we discuss difficult topics in class he is worried and stressed about learning them for tests. On test day he is worried and stressed about doing well. When he makes mistakes on labs he worries about it. If his class average goes down half a percent I will often get an email (all my students have access to their gradebook).
I routinely, when I see him worry (f2f) or get his emails (online class), I tell him he will be fine, that he will get the grade he needs to enter the program. I remind him how hard it is for adults to go back to school, especially when they have been out for a long time. I see myself and my cohort in him. I am incredibly fortunate to have him in my class; not only because he is the kind of student every teacher is fortunate to have, but because I can see us in him. I make the same demands on myself. I stress about obtaining perfection in my classes. I am demanding A+’s from myself as, way down the road, I hope to get my PhD and I know top grades are demanded. Who is to blame for all this? Is it the programs that require an A+ to enter, whether warranted or not? Is it the student who, being out of school for so long, knows the sacrifices that they, and their families, are making so that they can attend school and achieve their dream? I suspect it is both and more. It is important for students to remember that “it’s about progress, not perfection” and while doing well can be very important, you should do your best, being present, and recognize that sometimes you will not get the A+. Now I just need to practice what I preach I was very apprehensive to use D2L when VIU switched from Moodle. I was very comfortable in Moodle. It was a warm, cozy nest where I tucked all my learning materials for students. I had only used D2L once before, without any training and so took an instant, and arbitrary, dislike of it.
VIU decided to switch to D2L as D2L houses Canadian student information on Canadian soil. I agree that this is good, but I was dragged in to the new Learning Management System (LMS) at the last minute and unwillingly. I liked my Nest! Now, of course, I wonder what all my issues were about. I enjoy D2L and find it very robust! It does what I want it to in a variety of ways. No longer do I have a cozy nest tucked full of interesting things but now I feel like I am a creator of a gathering place. Not only are there books, but there are areas for creative discussion, assessment, places to hand in work. It feels bright, open and airy. Part of these changes may be the way I have grown while taking the OLTD courses, but part is also the way I can use D2L to create a community of learners. It enhances learning rather than driving it. What I like about D2L:
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