My "Author's Notes" are legion to the How I Teach post. They warrant their own post. 1. I have used portions of my research proposal for ED603 to jump start my response to this assignment. 2. Why I teach is far different than "How I Teach" I make a salary that cannot cover my expenses as a single mother. I supplement my income by teaching and by being a landlord. TEACHING IS FAR more rewarding than being a landlord. 3. At the eleventh hour I considered a great image…
Teaching and learning are completely integral but my arguments may be clearer by tackling one at a time. How I Teach I used to sit firmly in the situated learning camp. Then I began to tilt; I still lean heavily toward the constructivist approach--what I think situated learning evolved into--but I feel that it is essential instructors present students with tasks that scale into real-world activities thus preparing them for their chosen field. Little did I know I'd read about active-learning and forward looking assessments this semester and…
This post to serve as Weekly Writing #8 (Unit 5 Week 1) In order to summarize--and reflect in a purpose-driven manner--on my curriculum plan it was essential to spend time doing the reading, writing up notes, drinking tea and thinking. I had a hard time focusing on how I might respond to the weekly writing prompt. Every time I thought I'd make notes for my submission my mind wandered to items like "how are you going to change your course to engage the student more, to ask the…
My Tool Review is going to seem a bit graphic heavy, but that's to show you the interface of a pretty cool tool: Quizlet. During the course of my independent learning for Online Pedagogy, I've had the opportunity to peruse materials posted by students from the spring semester course. I enjoyed their write-ups of different tools. Going in and actually playing with one is completely different from reading another person's experience or recommendations. Quizlet is a great tool that has a few easy to implement functions. Until…
https://mm.tt/439491301?t=ZDuWyXoNjb Your browser is not able to display frames. Please visit the mind map: CITS 222 Designing for a client on Mind Mapping - MindMeister. I've thought (for the last two semesters) that jQuery was just too advanced. Asking a student to download a library--minified or not--and then to upload that library, link to it, and properly perform function calls... it's a bit tricky. So, I do think that I can take the 20 point assignment that was jQuery tabs or accordion and replace that with a…
First draft (notes to the student): Read it, practice it. Experience sites. Evaluate YOUR likes and dislikes. Learn the basics of html and css. Figure out how to upload to a server. Once you've done MOST of those things you will create a page for a client. *WHEW* Not all of the items shown below will be assigned for points. Some of the steps you will need to do in between others just to prepare for the next graded step. You'll have help all along the way.…
Originally posted 7/25/2014 Weekly Writing for Online Pedagogy I'm stealing the fifth article review to go over an Open Source text resource: Flatworld. I have a new instructor who is not tied to the existing syllabus or old, very expensive, textbook that has been in use for this course. We've looked at a variety of resources to replace the text. I came across the following in the second chapter of an online text, Exploring Business, the BA 151 instructor will use for fall 2014: I've encouraged faculty to…
Originally posted 5/29/2014 You can look on something anew, but it would not be with the eyes of a child. You can try to put yourself in someone's shoes, but ultimately when it comes to a teacher being taught, I'd say it depends on how long she's been teaching. I agree with Benander, "taking a class as a novice learner can be a valuable form of reflection on the teaching and learning interaction." (Benander, 2009, p. 36) However, seasoned faculty would find it difficult to take on…
Originally posted 6/24/2014 This week I'm thinking along the lines of how to merge a few items I've read and distill them in such a way as to share them with a rather larger audience: the Teaching Tips readership. I've been brainstorming a few ideas. It lead me to the concept of a mind map for this. Right from there I went to the Ishikawa Diagram. Yup. Old school, that's me. Let's trade on my early years with Total Quality Management and see if we can have…
First posted 6/22 This post to serve as article review number one for Online Pedagogy. In the Use of Learner-Centered Assessment in US Colleges and Universities, Webb describes a utopia where instructors have given (through learner-centered assessment) “ a mechanism for prompt feedback to students, fosters collaboration with peers and faculty; and results in increased student-faculty contact.” (Webb, 2012, p 203) I agree with the need for multiple drafts of written work and constructive feedback. Getting other students involved in group work and providing feedback is also a great idea. This is…
Originally posted 6/12/2014 This post to serve as article review number two for Online Pedagogy. As one of the five article reviews for my Online Pedagogy course I submit the following: Marissa Carl Acosta posted to Google+ about this text. I saw it and immediately wanted to read parts of it. Grabbing a random chapter, I dove in. This text, by evidence of chapter five: Into Our Classrooms, has lessons each instructor and student can benefit from. Chapter five has several sections. I read both An Octopus in Every Lesson and…
Originally posted 6/10/2014 As an instructional designer I help faculty with their courses. The faculty member is the content expert; I'm a support person. I want to help them make the course easy to navigate, engaging to the student--learning can be fun--and, whenever possible, inspire or remind the teacher why he or she loves doing this. This last week, in part due to recent reading, I asked a faculty member to remember his favorite assignment from when he was in school. His face lit up immediately; he…
Original posted 7/09/2014 This is to serve as article review number three for Online Pedagogy Polly & Hannafin write extremely well. There are select items I particularly like about this article: the layout is clear, the type setting is much better than most I’ve seen. Of course this could be due to the Journal of Educational Research and not the authors. However, complimenting the layout or the writing of a research article is not getting to the guts of our analysis.Let’s dive in! The abstract lead me…
Originally posted 7/11/2014 I know much more about the Khan Academy {history, samples, growth} than I do peer instruction. However, I took the opportunity to sign up and log in versus just searching for one or two examples inside of the Khan Academy collection of resources. By doing so, I found that a few days later I was receiving emails that included inviting images. I pretty much felt compelled to follow the link provided in the email. Very welcoming. It was fun spending 5-10 minutes doing a…
This post to serve as article review number four for Online Pedagogy. In reading New Learning Environments for the 21st Century Exploring the Edge by John Seely Brown I came across formal methods for having students teach each other in a controlled environment. I found it so interesting I tracked down another similar article. While I admit I only read thoroughly through page 23 of 55 pages, what I read moved me. Around page 23 I started skimming looking for points that I wanted to read more about. Over…