jenaca
I found assignment #3 to be very interesting and overwhelming at the same time. Like most of you, I spent hours trying to perfect my elevator pitch as well as my venture pitch- working out the glitches and essentially trying to gain your “investment”. I am very proud of what I created and I know […]
Continue reading Assignment #3-Comments Posted in: Uncategorized I found this weeks topic to be very interesting as I have never really thought about social analytics before. I think activity 1 says it all “the eyes are watching”. It is crazy to me to think that everything we view or read online, is monitored by websites and other people. For Activity #2 I […]
Continue reading Springer Realtime Posted in: Week 12: Social Analytics
Thanks for your post, Jenaca, and I’m glad you’re finding this week’s content interesting!
It’s true that the monitoring of our online practices through analytics can feel creepy. One thing I’ve really learned through discovering and experiencing how pervasive analytics is that I need to have a decent grip on it if I plan to develop my career in creating digital tools for learning.
What one change would you require to adopt m-learning for your own teaching and learning? I believe that m-learning definitely has a place in educational settings, however I do not see this being implemented in classrooms anytime soon. There are several reasons I feel this way and believe this style of learning may be better […]
Continue reading Day 4- To m-learn in education? Posted in: Week 11: Mobiles
Interesting points.
1. Cost. What do you think of sharing mobiles? A Chinese study gave a single mobile to a group of learners. The mobile guided them through various games to learn to read and write Kanji. Mobiles are also commonly owned.
2. Standardization. This is a real issue. What do you think of choosing a reasonable lowest common denominator? Consider how Janala and Urban Planet English are teaching using simple SMS and ringtones. Even the simplest cellphones are sophisticated enough to play simple games. Similar graphics and prompts can be used to scaffold learners through activities and refresh their memories of what they’ve learned.
3. Data plans are an issue… but why would students by using their mobiles at home? Why wouldn’t they do their homework with their computers? Mobiles are about being mobile… out in the world… Apps are one way to ensure you have a program you can use as much as you like without requiring further data transmission… or limited data transmission.
4. Time. This is a huge issue. The ALPS project determined that it made a lot more sense to set up mobiles for people instead of expecting them to do it. Similarly, a major multinational found that some people had never downloaded an app before and had a lot of trouble figuring it out. As for monitoring students… why would this be any more of an issue than if students choose to daydream or doodle on paper (favourite time wasters in my day) instead of learning? Isn’t managing distraction is a skill students need to develop?
5. I notice a real bias to the classroom with K12 teachers. How does your thinking change if you focus on the mobility aspect of mobiles? Using mobiles out in the real world… away from the classroom and from home?
Hi Jeneca,
The cost to implement m-learning in schools is one of the major deterrent. The cost of a mobile device is very expensive which does not include internet connectivity. Also many mobile users will need to buy Apps for their phones in order for mlearning to be meaningful and effective. Thus the cost of mobile devices is major factor that can affect the growth of mlearning in financial stressed world.
I’m not sure what things are like where you live, but in Canada there are many service providers who provide mobiles for free if you sign up for plans. Plans range from very basic to expensive.
Internet connectivity is a nice to have feature… but not essential for m-learning. Photography, video, audio recording and texting are all popular options. You can do a lot of learning with simple apps. Many apps are either a couple of dollars or are free.
Mobiles themselves can be shared… or can be purchased refurbished… or donated by carriers because they are returned and old.
I’m encouraging an optimistic opportunity-focused perspective in line with our “ventures” focus…
For DAY 3 I decided to add onto m-learning and have discussed the problem, solutions and challenges m-learning is currently facing… Describe a problem in teaching/learning/performance…. A reoccurring problem I see in classrooms is the lack of technology being used to teach students How do the affordances of mobiles help […]
Continue reading DAY 3- Adding to M-Learning Posted in: Week 11: Mobiles
Interesting points.
I think this bit is interesting: “are constantly purchasing devices that are not being used.” One of the key issues with mlearning is that so many people already have the devices, and that even simple devices offer most of the same affordances (albeit without the bling factor). Schools don’t have to buy mobiles. I believe I read an article where a service provider created some special deal to supply simple hardware to students. Given the share ability of mobiles, it’s not even necessary to have one mobile per student. Mobiles can be used in group learning to scaffold, coach and guide. This approach was used in a Chinese experiment for teaching learners Kanji.
I also found this interesting: “education world is not yet ready to jump into mobile solution learning, especially in the classroom” There are two ways to look at m-learning. One is any learning with a mobile device. THe other is learning while roaming around in the world. The roaming around concept means that mobile learning is an extension, not a replacement, a way of connecting what is learned to how it’s being used in the real world.
What do you think?
You have cited some very important point. It seems like several educators have technophobia, I am still seeing several teachers avoiding the use of technology in their class. During the second teaching practicum for student-teacher at my college, I supervised eleven practice teachers which appeared to be afraid to use the technology in class. Only two of the eleven students who supervised used technology in their teaching exercise approximately 35% over a three week period. This reinforced your idea that our educational world is not yet ready to jump into mlearning.
Interesting point… but is anxiety over using technology something we expect people to resolve for themselves, or is it something we help them resolve through exposure, discussion and “play time” with the technology?
Do you have a good m-learning device? Apply Koole’s framework to your own mobile. Would you use your device for m-learning? Why or why not? Going off my first post, I do “have” an m-learning device, but do I “use” it? No! Would I like to? Yes! I am going to pretend that I have […]
Continue reading Day 2- Mobiles for M-Learning Posted in: Week 11: Mobiles
Data plans and small screens are a recurring issue for mobiles.
Consider however that download an app means you don’t have to have regular data streaming on your mobile. You can use the app whenever you like and it can be self contained (or you can have apps that are aware when you have WIFI and only transfer data over WIFI).
The screen size is an interesting affordance issue. What kind of information works best for that size of screen? What kind of pill-sized content and performance support could we implement with such devices to help us with more authentic learning… and reminding what and how to USE what we’ve learned… out in the field?
What, when, where and how are you doing m-learning now? As we are referring to cell phones, I am not using any kind of m-learning. This may be for several reasons… A) I am living in Germany and I am not sure how long I will be here for (getting a smartphone plan is at […]
Continue reading Day 1: My lack of m-learning… Posted in: Week 11: Mobiles
Data plans are a huge issue with m-learning. They are the entire reason I still have a feature phone (and it’s a handset I find highly frustrating). Speaking with a multinational about their m-learning strategy, data plans came up as a major issue… a small video could cost $20 on one person’s data plan… multiplying that by the thousands of employees could quickly add up to huge costs for a single video!
The limitations of web-browsing for mobiles have likely led to the explosion of specialized apps for phones. Apps allow you to store most of the content on your phone instead of having to browse & download every time you want to learn something.
Do you use your mobile for checking news, weather, Google, Wikipedia or maps? (performance support). How do you think your m-learning might change if you had an unlimited data plan?
I *completely* get what you’re saying about being, beautifully ironically, too mobile for for a smart-phone plan (always contract-based). I was also mobile until quite recently, and I’m still not sure how settled in Vancouver I really am. I’m not keen on committing to a contract that is punitive should one be.. too mobile.
In Canada, the company Wind is addressing this through their “windzone”‘ concept*; you can take your plan with you to other major cities in the country with ‘windzones’. It’s useful for people going betwixt and between places like vancouver, calgary, toronto, though less so if you’re posted to a rural area, small city, or anywhere east of Ottawa.
*they’re also one of the newer wave of contractless providers in Canada; however, unless one wants to pay dearly upfront for a phone, one is on a “tab” (which I find possibly worse… it de facto locks you into the company, and if you leave before paying off the cost of the phone, you’re stuck paying the balance for a phone that is in all likelihood obsolete).
Take a moment to write your final post about which PBA future emerging market tool (product or service) you have used and which one you would like to see more of. As many have already mentioned, I would like to see the use of blogging become more common in classes and in my daily life. […]
Continue reading Final Post: PBA tools are key!!!! Posted in: Week 10: Product-Based Assessments
Thanks for the post Jenaca.
This is a bit off-topic, but I try to eliminate paper and printouts by going all-electronic. For example, all my lessons and lesson plans are in OneNote. However, I’m not sure if I’ve managed to reduce my paper output in the slightest! All my lessons get printed out anyways, since I have to photocopy the materials to hand out to the students. And it goes on from there. I guess one day I’ll get it right. I hope!
cheers
Doug
Thanks week 10 for a wonderful presentation! What is my impression of the PBA? I have always been a firm believer of PBA and have really enjoyed this program for allowing us to share what we have learned through more ways than just exams and tests. I do agree that giving tests and exams motivate […]
Continue reading Discussion #1: BPA is powerful! Posted in: Week 10: Product-Based Assessments
Hi Jenaca,
Great points on PBA in MET, I agree with them. I am support your point that PBA allow students to express what they truly learned, not just what a few questions have them answer. I have always felt that written tests and examinations do not test the true potential of a person and are not a good way of identification the mastery of a concept. Although 85% of assessments I have done prior to MET program were written tests and examinations, I prefer PBA. I think this is way that most colleges and universities must test their students’ competencies of concepts.
Hi all,
In the discussion you mention that the potential of others is more harnessed and not just the limited questions that appear on an exam. I would add as well that PBAs also open a link to the content that encourages the learner to explore the topic in more depth. What do you think?
Hi Jeneca,
I noticed your feelings of frustration over test taking and exam writing. Do you think that PBA could offer students a less “anxious” learning environment? Perhaps taking the focus off the “standardized” assessment practices and encouraging personalized learning opportunities?
Although I still think that a “blended” approach is always best…learning in different ways….
I sense that PBA learning might have given you the opportunity to express yourself as a learner AND to discover your “real” strengths – and weaknesses – as a learner?
As Kristopher pointed out…PBA encourages learners to discover the content for themselves….Often, they learn more than they ever thought possible, because the “limit” of the content is based on the individual, and not the “teacher” or facilitator….All this learning may be giving you the confidence to be more creative in your “output”?
Thank you for your post,
Verena:)
I wonder how often a choice is given to students… that they can write a test if they wish or create a product. They’re two very different displays of learning, though. Tests are (sad, but true, I guess) low-end regurgitation tasks, and products can (not necessarily do) show the application and understanding of things that were learned.
I guess what I’m ultimately wondering is if students who do better with creating products could be considered a learning group / style, like kinesthetic learners?
Is the iPad a game changer? I definitely believe the iPad is a game changer. Please take a minute to think about the technology Apple has brought to our world, computers, phones, iPods, and now the iPad. I truly believe that this device alone has changed the way we view education and the ability to […]
Continue reading Discussion #3- Definitely a Game Changer Posted in: Week 09: iPad Apps
Hi Jenaca,
When I examined if the ipad was a game changer I was actually interested in how has the use of it changed the game versus the actual technologies? As you pointed out it has enabled anywhere, anytime access and increased possibilities for storage and media production but I couldn’t help thinking that other technologies have also done this so where does the ipad differ in changing the game? Your point on the apps associated with the ipad is where I really believe that the game has been changed (I expand on this is my blog).
I also agree that costs are an important consideration and I can’t help but think: ‘can we get the same affordances cheaper?’ Now that would be a real game change!
Kerry-Ann
Hi Jenaca,
Thank you for sharing your ideas and the website: http://www.ipadinschools.com/ with us. I found the website very impressive and formative. It highlights some key points for implementing Ipads in the classroom. I think these points are very importance to all educators and should be available to them.
Your post is a very informative. You explicitly outlined the reasons that Ipad is a game changer. I agree with your points.
Indeed, the deterring factor of Ipad is its cost and constant upgrading of the device. Most persons who think that Ipads would be useful in a school’s setting always complain that Ipads are too expensive. I agree that the constant upgrading of Ipads drive fear in consumers of the practically in purchase an Ipad if it will be upgraded in a year. I think the competition of other tablets on the market will cause the cost Ipads to fall in the near future.
Great work Week 9! I really like the way you have created your wiki and the use of information you provided. I have been waiting for this presentation on iPads and am so excited to learn more about them through your wiki! It looks great so far! I believe that using an iPad would benefit […]
Continue reading To iPad? Week 9 Discussion #2 Posted in: Week 09: iPad Apps
Hi Jenaca, thanks for sharing these useful tips on how using iPads in the classroom. We are glad to hear you like the way in which is delivered information about iPads through our wiki.
I loved your idea about voice recording. I use this application to record songs that I compose, or ideas that I come up with. But recording in order to check how your classes are being, how fast or loud you are speaking is very useful.
About your last reflections, I must agree with you. As new technologies are constantly emerging we as educators must do the job of learning how to integrate them effectively and select the apps that might be useful in the classroom. It might be a challenging and time-demanding task to accomplish but I must say from my experience that at the same time it is very exciting too.
Thanks for sharing your experience Janaca. My question is how much these uses would change if it was a netbook or notebook instead of an iPad. Furthermore, how many new activities/tasks could be added to the list if a netbook/notebook was used?
cheers
Doug
Hi,
Teacher use (or lack thereof) is definitely a potential issue. This is where targeted training should come in. The issue with many schools is spending too much on hardware and not enough on support and training. Makes much more sense to get a few people trained, and then allow best practices to trickle through. Venture idea: online short training sessions for teachers on using the device in their classes…
emily
Jenaca,
Thank you for the ideas on how you would use an iPad in the classroom.
As my classroom is a computer lab, I didn’t feel a need for having an iPad. However, considering that there are teachers who don’t have their own classroom or who don’t have computer access very ofen, I think iPad is a great tool to use that you listed above.
Deb
Before you publish your posting, please make sure that you select a category (eg. Introductions) as well as assign some meaningful tags (keywords).
mcquaid 4:09 am on December 1, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi, Jenaca.
I don’t think you’re really off the mark. You’re just being honest in giving your view of how the course is made at this point – I’m sure David V. will take it as constructive criticism, too!
I don’t think anyone needs to vote anything down, either… it’s not a constructive evaluation (although I found it interesting to see how David WP’s last post started garnering negative votes, then the post’s category was taken away so that no votes were shown… obviously he must have touched on some people’s nerves if they felt like voting his post down). We have all put a lot of work into both parts of our pitches, and, as much as I wait with some anxiety, I want to see what everyone says of my pitch, good or bad. I hope reviewers do for me like I have (I think) done for others – try to respectfully give the good points and to-work-on points, while keeping (hopefully) an overall positive tone. The thoughts of ten of our peers are pretty invaluable – I’m glad to get them, “good” or “bad”. I’m hoping to finish my three big posts tonight, and then applying votes to them as well as others whose elevator pitches I fancied but didn’t have to review. I won’t be clicking any “down” arrows as I go.
Cheers,
Stephen
verenanz 5:15 am on December 1, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Good for you Jeneca! I totally agree with you…we are here to learn and make mistakes…If we had already made a milion dollars off of our product, we’d have the marketing money to put into making a “different” marketing product. Instead- we have put in our own sweat, blood and tears (it was a rough week) and I appreciate your comments.
I am in China and I am dying to see the video pitches next week! I can’t access any of them from here! I am so impressed with the quality and efforts of the work I have seen (through written pitches) but it isn’t the same without the videos…..You don’t know what you are missing..until it is gone.
Thank you for this note Jenaca.
Verena:)
Everton Walker 6:52 am on December 1, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi All,
I totally agree too! Obviously, we are not experts yet and therefore our efforts should be treated accordingly. Putting others down doesn’t help the situation after such hard work.
Everton
jarvise 7:59 am on December 1, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Jenaca and all,
I definitely hear what you are saying here. I had a really hard time voting down a few of my assigned pitches, but felt that I had to within the confines of the assignment, and felt really bad afterwards. I understand the rationale behind doing it (in the real world, those putting forward pitches would have to face rejection) but you make some good points regarding this being a learning forum and a learning community. It seems as though we can place our critiques and positive comments in the comments sections, while not having to vote down a pitch. It would still be evident which pitches are garnering the most positive support by only using the up voting options. Its difficult in learning communities to impose negative feedback on our peers; part of what fosters a good environment for learning is the feeling that you are supported (though not unquestionably) and safe taking risks.
Interestingly, at the start of the course I had asked about the pulsepress feature not being made available for individual posts (outside of the initial forum) and David had expressed that it was not on there so that people would not feel hurt by having their posts voted down. This makes sense, since the bulk of the course would have functioned to support community. Perhaps enabling it for this forum moves the focus from one of formative assessment to one of summative assessment.
There are definitely pros and cons to having it enabled for this forum. I can see both sides, and I’m not sure what I would do if I were designing the course.
Isn’t ambivalence the best?
Emily
David William Price 11:43 am on December 1, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I really didn’t want to vote on anything but I interpreted it as a requirement of the assignment. As previously mentioned, my encouragement of people to do face-based elevator pitches, a comment and nothing more, was voted down prior to my removing it’s week 13 tag. I removed the tag because I didn’t see how voting comments down made any sense.
David William Price 11:46 am on December 1, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Actually, I’d add that I didn’t vote on anything until I saw people negatively voting on my pitch…. and my comment. So I thought I’d initially misinterpreted the voting requirement and went back through it again.
Allie 8:50 am on December 1, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Jenaca,
I’m really glad that you posted this, as I was feeling a little troubled all yesterday. I’m grateful for your leadership on this – and Deb G’s too. I had been considering suggesting that perhaps this component of the course should be private posts, only viewable to members of the class. However, I wanted to sleep on it.
Something that is concerning me is that some students’ professional identities are attached to their work in ETEC 522. This could be very beneficial in some ways – but I think that when people’s work is being slammed, then this could negatively impact them in their careers. This is especially the case for those of us who are early career or changing careers.
More positively, if you go to the blog dashboard, and click on all posts, you can see the positive and negative votes for everyone’s posts. I was really heartened to see that while people are voting positively, very few people are voting proposals down. Crowdsourcing at work!
A
David William Price 11:45 am on December 1, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
How do you feel anything is being “slammed”? I applied Vogt’s pitch criteria that we were given in week 2 and I simply encouraged people to do face-based pitches because they would be expected in the business world. I guess no one watches Dragon’s Den.
Angela Novoa 10:38 am on December 1, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Jenaca,
As some have mentioned in this discussion forum, I agree. I think that suggesting not to have the option of voting negatively is appropriate. One of the things that challenges us (and in my case at the same time motivates me) is that we are asked to accomplish goals in a professional manner. This does not imply that the product will be perfect, but it does imply that we must do our best to succeed. And from my experience in MET, I think that we do our best. So, I think that voting negatively on the work of others could be negative not only on the students’ perception of the effort spent on the assignment but also on what Allie mentions: as our professional identities can appear on the Web linked to ETEC 522’s postings. This could negatively impact in someone’s career.
In addition, I would suggest that this activity (as an activity of peer evaluation) could be held before submitting the assignment. It would be very constructive to receive feedback from peers before submitting the pitch. In some courses (ETEC 532 and ETEC 531) I remember we did a similar activity before the due date.
Angela.
David William Price 11:51 am on December 1, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I wasn’t surprised or upset that people voted negatively on my pitch (the negative votes on my comment about face-to-face pitches was totally different – a comment isn’t designed for voting, it’s just a point of view).
As Vogt said, most pitches fail and people evaluate pitches for many different reasons. I didn’t see Vogt’s criteria applied to my pitch explicitly, but I accepted that regardless of the comments people made, MOST people did not like my pitch based on the voting. That means I did not connect with them. That makes me go read the comments and think about how I could change that.
I have no concerns that people voting my pitch down will affect my career. I think it is far more likely that if any judgments will be made, it will be based on how we respond to critiques.
Angela Novoa 10:41 am on December 2, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi David,
I get what you mean. Maybe we did not understand the purpose of voting from the beginning.
Angela.
Julie S 10:41 am on December 1, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Jenaca,
I think you have made a good point here about constructive criticism. I am working on my participation portfolio right now and looked at the category called “constructive response”. This is what it says:
Constructive Response – Actively follows discussion threads to provide constructive responses that celebrate, elaborate and encourage the contributions of participants
I think that there is nothing wrong with the voting up or down but the feedback to our peers should be done in the spirit of celebration, elaboration, and encouragement. This is not an MBA program. This is an Educational Technology program where we are experimenting with technologies as we learn about new ventures and how to present our new ventures for funding. I know there is a difference in what I focussed on in this project than I would have if it would have been purely a venture program.
Jim 4:53 pm on December 1, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
There should be a ‘like’ button for replies such as this… 🙂
bcourey 6:25 pm on December 1, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
me too…like,like, like
Juliana 1:46 pm on December 1, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Jenaca,
I just wanted to chime in here. As Emily mentioned above, I don’t like voting people down either. I would rather give positive votes for the ones I was for and withhold my vote for the others. I think that would still work.
Juliana.