lifelong learning…

Alex’s breeze presentation tied directly with “A Follow Up in the Investigation of Teaching Presence” the article she developed with P. Shea. I noticed that there were many recurrent themes, which I thought lent itself to being redundant, which Alex says is a good thing in the Online learning environment. I would agree. Not only did she present this info as a breeze slide show, which appeals to the visual learning style, she also tied it to auditory. Re-reading a lot of what she said in the Breeze presentation in the article reiterated important themes. I think the part of the breeze presentation that impacted me the most was the idea that teaching presence is knowledge centered, learner centered and assessment centered. I am really trying to re-organize my learning activities by renaming them and making them more kid friendly. I am also trying to focus on how I am going to assess student learning in each of the modules. I am toying with the thought to switching the placement of 2 of my modules, the first and the second, to make them flow a little better and allow students to get into content that will serve as a review for them for the most part while they are learning the new course management system. 

I took a look at the courses for observation again and looked at a virtual field trip of an art gallery that really looked neat. I was thinking that a virtual field trip would tie in perfectly with my composers and time periods module. It would be really neat to allow students to get a glimpse of Vienna or NYC without actually traveling there. 

The most difficult part for me this week is trying to keep the online and offline activities separated making sure that the activities I choose are going to be the best fit for the learning environment. This hybrid learning business is much harder than I was thinking. Sometimes I start to think about the possibilities of what I could do and I overwhelm myself thinking about how to make it work in the online environment and how much writing it will be. I need to tell myself to take a step back and look at the big picture to get a better sense of what is important with regard to big ideas, and back off a little on the details. 

What is working is using a new organizer for managing my learning activities in MS word. In the manual Alex said that drafting out the learning activities would be a paper and pencil activity, but I think this is working ok for me. I made a table that outlines each module and lists both on and offline activities and allows me to look at them next to one another. I am hoping that this is going to be an easier way for me to reorganize everything and find the logical patterns of how to present knowledge that is learner centered, develop community spirit and then assess the knowledge. Like I said before, the assessment part is the difficult thing for me, but I am working on it. The manual gives some neat ideas for activities and assessments which I am going to consider using in each module. I just still really have to think about what I am doing a little more and play with some things. (4)

What I learned that I did not know before was that it is possible for authors to come into the discussion and offer insight into an article they wrote. I found Bill Pelz’s presence in the course to be extremely cool! I couldn’t believe it when I checked my e-mail and found a response from him! This pairs nicely with Alex’s suggestion for me to invite a young composer into my course during the composer’s unit. I think that this suggestion to add a place where students could talk with a person who actually composes music would be wonderful, however finding out how to contact the person seems challenging to me and I wonder if there is some way to screen these people before allowing them to interact with children in 6th grade. I didn’t add this activity to my module on composers, but I think that the possibility to does exist. In fact, now that I think of it, there is a local artist Jared Campbell who went to Vestal Central Schools, where I teach who comes back into school each year to do a performance for kids. It would be really neat to ask students to watch one of his performances F2F, and ask him to come to class and talk with the kids about his life choices. I think this would be a wonderful “blended learning” opportunity for students to be able to get into a real live discussion with a famous artist, who is also a composer.

A few decisions I have made for my course are adding group work activities, as well as individual activities. I have also chosen to use assessments that are more project based rather than quizzes or tests. I have always found that I have produced my best work in areas that allow me to apply the content I have learned to a real life situation. This may be why I always did better in art and music classes which allowed me to create unique expressions of ideas. Multiple choice tests have always been a source of anxiety for me and I don’t want to put that kind of pressure on a 6th grade student. I could never choose the best answer because I would always second guess it and think that it was a trick question. I would spend 10 minutes thinking about the possibilities of the answers for one question and never feel confident with my answer…I suppose we all have our own preferred learning styles. I’m going to do my best to appeal to all of them!

During the creation of these learning activities I found that I had already thought through many of my activities but found myself pondering the subtle differences between a web-enhanced course and a hybrid-learning environment were. I am realizing that adding F2F components that allow students to interact in the classroom can allow them to get a better idea that the people they interact with on the Internet are real people, from their class and not just machines. I still am exploring how to create an environment that will be able to best utilize elements of being in a F2F class and blend these elements with the content presented in the course. One of my main goals is to allow my online course to do most of the teaching to keep class time free for students to interact with one another, discuss ideas they also discuss in their online discussions and give me time to be more of a “guide on the side” rather than a “sage on the stage”. Finding that balance is something I think I am going to learn more about when I am using the course to teach actual students.

Regarding interaction in the course, I am going to ask students to discuss ideas using prompts, work in collaborative groups and complete learning journals. I am hoping to use F2F time reflect on discussions and perhaps use some scaffolding to get into deeper understanding of content.  Rather than having the students interact with me most of the time, I would like to get them working with one another, teaching each other new things and sharing ideas about their learning. I think that another way F2F class time will best be utilized is for interaction with teaching students how to use the software they will use when they are creating their projects. Such programs include Finale Note Pad, PowerPoint, Inspiration and Microsoft Word. Using class time for teaching students the mechanics of each of these programs, and allowing them time to practice using them with me available for questions and troubleshooting seems a good way to utilize F2F time. I would also like to give students a chance to share ideas from their learning journals with the class, if they choose to do so, and use some of the time for teachable-moments and discussion. Additionally, asking students to have a discussion about how to do group work and doing a sample “Jigsaw” F2F might help them better understand how it can work in the online environment too.

The most difficult part of this module for me was trying to figure out if my module structure was going to work. I know the general rule is 7 modules plus or minus 2, and I ended up with 4- five week modules, an icebreaker and a course wrap up. This left me with 6 modules, which I wasn’t sure fit into the best practices equation of 7 plus or minus 2.  I spoke with Alex and she basically told me that what my plan was looked ok. I’m sure that as I get into actually teaching this course that I will refine the content, and evolve as I become more comfortable using Moodle as a teaching tool, and learn what is going to work. My hope is that I will constantly evolve in my own thinking about how to utilize the best aspects of hybrid-learning.

I don’t really feel like I am resistant to anything at this point. I am understanding more and more that creating a course takes a lot of time, thought and energy. I find that I am thinking about this course all the time and constantly trying to reevaluate if what I am choosing to do in my course is the best choice for the students. I want them to feel comfortable and really get a feeling that their learning is fun and not work.

What is working for me? Well, I really enjoy the set-up and ease of use in Moodle. I think that having used Blackboard to create a course before has made it easier for me to understand how the system works. The build-it presentations by Alex are also really nice to watch because in the beginning (Modules 1 and 2) I found myself trying to figure out how to build pages on my own, only to find that I should have built a web-page rather than a text page. I am also really enjoying how Alex asks us to set-up modules and course information in a Word document and then to transfer the information to Moodle. This is good because if all information is lost due to some unforeseen circumstance, we still have the information we need stored on our hard drives. It is also nice how she has sequenced the way we build the course in that it allows us to think through each of the steps of evaluation, learning activities and objectives and make it easier to move to the next step of actually structuring the learning activities in modules. She “chunked” the sequences of how to build a course nicely, and that is probably why she is a leading technology and online learning professor! She is very understanding and makes her presence in the course known in a non-threatening way, which I think is amazing and challenging.

The only thing I would change about Moodle is the way the editing tools in moving objects and adding new documents works. It is very frustrating to be brought back to the top of a page each time a change is made. It takes so much time to scroll back down to where you were working just to move the placement of a document. I suppose this could be remedied by outlining everything I wanted to add first and making sure I build in a deliberate way, however when I am adding information in the 5th, 6th, 7th frames, I have to scroll all the way back down. This is a little thing…so I won’t sweat the small stuff. Overall, I really like how this course is panning out and I’m enjoying working on my course. I have a lot to learn and I’m loving every minute of it. (4)

This course is proving to be quite a challenge to me. I have spent most of my time setting up my course shell and previewing the exemplary courses provided in module 2. Looking at the work provided by masters in online learning, I am feeling a bit humbled. The courses are very well developed and provide opportunities for students to interact with the instructor, work on individual skills and interact with each other. One thing I am learning that I hadn’t considered is how to construct questions that will provoke thoughtful and inspiring discussions. While I was looking at the questions for discussions in the exemplary courses and previewing Alex’s breeze presentation, I got thinking about a workshop I took a few years back called QUILT or Questioning for Understanding in Learning and Teaching. This workshop taught me how to develop deep questions using Bloom’s taxonomy that would get students to produce answers at the instructor’s desired level. Here is a link to more information about the QUILT model, if you are interested: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/triedandtrue/quest.html

In addition to learning about how to construct educative questions to inspire thoughtful discussions with my students I am also learning about blended learning environments. I didn’t realize that creating a course that was partially delivered online and partially delivered in the classroom was an option. After interacting in the discussions, I had a chance to investigate blended learning and found that it will likely be a nice fit with the course I am developing for 6th grade students. I also found when searching for music education courses for elementary students that there is really no model to follow. I feel like I am forging a new path in integrating technology into the music curriculum for elementary students.

In developing my own online course I found that I had to keep in mind the kind of language I use with 6th grade students. I need to make sure that what I am writing is on a level that 6th graders can understand. Having worked with 6th graders for 4 years, I have a general idea about the questions they will have about the wording of my documents, and I tried to adjust accordingly from my drafts.

I also have a better understanding of why it is important to use statements that are personal such as “You will learn…”. The Scorza article clarified for me the need to make students understand that the people interacting in an online environment are living and feeling human beings and the way the course is set up should be conducive to making students feel welcome and engaged with the instructor and with eachother. It is up to the instructor to provide an environment that mimics the personalities present in a F2F classroom.

For my self-observation during the completion of learning activities in this module, I felt myself feeling a bit overwhelmed with the amount of time spent constructing the course in Moodle and finding time to complete the course reviews and the readings. I feel that I have sacrificed doing my personal best in discussions partially because 1) I am taking another class, 2) I am working and wrapping up the school year and 3) the time it takes me to contribute a solid discussion post is almost an hour. I feel like I am making choices between spending time on developing my course and completing the readings or developing good discussion posts. In this course I am really understanding the saying “there just isn’t enough time in one day!”
I think that if I were make one suggestion for a better experience for me personally, it would be to change the interaction in the discussions to make them a little less “heavy”. By heavy I mean that the discussions are great and rating each post is good for helping students to understand what a quality post entails, but I am finding that I am working so hard to create a 4 point post, that I am loosing time in developing my course, and loosing time for reading. If the discussions were a bit less “heavy” and were more laid back and conversational, rather than extensively deep, I would feel a bit more relaxed. Part of my anxiety with discussions may be due to the fact that I am not used to so much self and peer evaluation and I am finding it difficult to adjust to this. Also, the way the discussions are displayed in Moodle makes it challenging to find your own posts and track the conversations you are having with others. It is a bit frustrating to me, but as with anything, I’m sure I can get used to it and become more skilled in completing discussions this way over time.

Overall, I am really enjoying this course and am learning a lot, including a new respect for online instructors. The sheer amount of time spent constructing the learning environment is amazing to me and I had no idea how much time and thought went into the process.  I appreciate all of the help I am getting from my classmates and from Alex. Thanks for learning with me!

(4)

This first module has been a bit of a whirlwind. I feel like there are so many new aspects of this course to learn including diigo, twitter and moodle. Diigo is a really neat tool that I wish I had in all of my other online courses. Not only does it allow you to highlight, bookmark, and make notes, you can share web site with classmates! I’m not sure I really know how to use twitter yet, but I’m sure time will help!

The course readings were very inspiring. I feel that those who aren’t familiar with the online format of taking courses should read these articles to get a better understanding of what they entail. I think that the average person doesn’t realize how much reading, writing and deep thinking is involved in the online learning environment. As mentioned in the Kassop article, Internet learning actually may surpass the traditional F2F environment in that it allows users to develop better writing skills and really allows students to elicit deep thinking about the subject materials at hand. I personally believe that as I have progressed through the CDIT program that I have really honed my writing abilities and am more careful and articulate about what I write any time I respond to written prompts be they assignments or discussions. I have also noticed that most of my online classmates are great writers, and very good at conveying their ideas with text. I feel that the discussions in this course are very challenging because they force everyone to rate themselves and their peers in every post, which I have never done before. I’m sure that as the semester progresses that I’ll be able to speed up my response times and the rating system will become second nature. 

In the discussions for this module I was able to think about how I was going to create a course in moodle, who my target audience was going to be and the best way to take learning in the traditional classroom setting to the e-learning world! I originally thought I would like to try to recreate a performance realm (like chorus)…but discovered that it might not be best suited to online learning. Steven and Alex told me about realtime applications, like Secondlife, that I could use to simulate a choir experience, but the information I found regarding this subject was skeptical. I decided to regroup and think about how I could create a different kind of learning environment. I must admit that it took some hard thinking in deciding what I would carry into my course from what I currently teach. Interestingly enough, I recently found out that I will be teaching 6th grade general music next year, which I haven’t taught in 2 years. I was actually pretty excited because there were aspects of this course that I wanted to revamp after teaching it for 2 years…now I have the chance to do so in my online course! I am going to create a course that is geared toward upper elementary students, and most likely use it with 6th grade students next year. 

The video: Did you know? that we watched in this module mentioned Alan November, which I was really excited about because I had the chance to see him speak last year at a Superintendent’s Conference Day. He came and presented much of the information that was contained in that video. I am so surprised that the number one language in China might soon be English! This fact is mind blowing when considering how large that country is. I was also struck with the fact that there are more honors students in China than there are students in the U.S. How’s that for being competitive in the global market? 

Overall, I have felt a bit scattered and at times trying to keep up with all of the activities in Module 1, but I am certain that as I learn more about how to use the new tools in this course that I will feel much more relaxed. Thanks for all the help everyone has been giving in learning thus far!

-Aubrey

(4)

Well, I managed to finally figure out that my confirmation e-mail to set up my blog was hidden in the spam folder of my e-mail program. I was wondering why it was taking so long! Anyhow, I am really excited about learning about web-design and building an online course, but I have to admit that I am a little intimidated about all of the nuances associated with it. I’m sure that my classmates and the professor will be very helpful. I have a lot to learn!