Massive Online Open Courses for education (MOOCs) do have some benefits such as enhancing accessibility, lifelong learning, and perhaps increased student engagement (until students begin to drop-out). However, considering “an essential characteristic of open education is the removal of barriers to learning” (Bates, 2014), there are many challenges to MOOCs, especially when trying to design a “one size fits all model” assuming it will benefit learners from all over the world. Yuan and Powell (2013) discuss implications for higher education:
1.   Pedagogy:

Do MOOCs follow a sound pedagogy and organizational approach to online learning that will lead to quality outcomes and experiences for students?

What new pedagogies and organizational mechanisms might be required if MOOC are to deliver a high quality learning experience?
2. Quality and Completion Rates:

Compared to most online courses, MOOCs lack structure and rarely include the role of an instructor.  Drop-out rates are also significantly high, for example “MOOCs offered by Stanford, MIT and UC Berkley were 80-95%” (cited in Yuan & Powell, 2013, p. 11).
3. Assessment and Credit:

These courses are a platform for tremendous knowledge-building, but most of them do not actually qualify as being “recognized” courses for employment or for credible institutions.

Other issues to consider when thinking about MOOCs and developing countries:
Language barrier – still remains to be the biggest issue as in most parts of the developing world, English is not the primary language, even though it could be the official language.  They also demand a certain level of digital literacy from the participants, which has raised concerns on inclusivity and equality of access.
Community Priorities – MOOCs are designed with a specific topic or focus in mind and unless the course reflects community priorities, then how will it strengthen capacity?
Cultural Divide – What is the context of the course being offered? Translations are taken literally and often have no familiar cultural context.
References:

Bates, T. (2014). MOOCs; Chapter 10: Trends in Open Education. Teaching in digital age (online book)

Yuan, L., Powell, S., & CETIS, J. (2013). MOOCs and open education: Implications for higher education.

I have never created a digital story before and I appreciate the opportunity to do so.  It took a while for me to decide on using Powtoon. It was actually my initial thought to use it and then I spent a couple of hours exploring other possibilities.  There are lots of options available but did end up back to my first thought for various reasons.  For one, to get the full experience of various tools you need to subscribe to it.  Other reasons included the time needed to learn the tool and the limitations in going with set themes.  I ended up creating a Powtoon as an intro to my Digital Citizenship course.  I hope you enjoy it 🙂

https://www.powtoon.com/show/gh8TA3WVr3E/digital-citizenship/#/

Shafali

1. What type of authorship license you would chose for your Learning Module Project (the Assignment 2 or Assignment 3)?

I have always shared my work and ideas with others and have always appreciated when others do the same for me.  I see every child as a student of mine even if they aren’t in “my class”.  So if sharing is going to inspire or help another child then why hold back?  I feel the creative commons license is the best authorship license for my Learning Module Project.  Having said this, I feel strongly about attributing the original creator and it would be wonderful to reach a point where students and colleagues are naturally doing this consistently.

2. If that is a group project, what your colleagues would choose? What negotiations procedure, you would offer to your group members to come to an agreement on the licensing options for your project?

My colleague in this project also agrees that Creative Commons is the way to go.  In working through this project he has been open in sharing many ideas that have worked for him in the grade group he is teaching and so there were no negotiations needed to reach this decision.

3. How does the discussion of copyright and internet freedom influence your teaching?

As I teach young children, I have always talked to them about “copying” and why it is important to not do it.  We work together in research projects and I teach them how to “put it in your own words”.  I never had them reference their work because they are only 6 & 7 years old; however, as I think about it now, I could have easily made citation slips where they could fill out the author’s name and date.  This way they start recognizing the importance of this at a young age.  Young children also get excited about doing things like this and would probably use more resources so that they could fill out more slips 🙂

1. What new learning outcomes could the use of social media help develop?

-networking beyond the four walls

-knowledge building

-improved digital literacy skills

-improved communication skills

2. Consider an example of popular Social Media, use the SECTIONS model for evaluation: explain to what extent, you think, using this media would improve the instruction, if at all?
I have chosen to evaluate Twitter for my future Grade 4/5 students using the SECTIONS model:
S – Students:  My grade 4/5 students are in the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) program.  They come from all areas of Calgary and are high functioning students who need to be challenged.  They work well independently and thrive on inquiry projects using technology.

E – Ease of Use and Reliability:  Twitter is intuitively easy to use.  It’s a reliable social media tool that upgrades itself.  It’s limited with its 140 character tweet; however, this is a language that students can learn to use and interact with and gain so much from.  If used appropriately, the possibilities are endless to connect with other people and experts from around the world and build knowledge together.

C- Cost: Twitter is free to use

T – Teaching and Learning: Twitter is an excellent tool for research and sharing knowledge.  Once students have a plan, Twitter is one of many avenues to find answers and share learning.

I – Interactivity:  Twitter offers interaction with learning materials, student-teacher, and student-student interactions.

O – Organizational Issues: Students will need to set up a Twitter account and support can be provided by the teacher and working collaboratively with fellow peers.  It’s a low-maintenance tool that requires minimal support.

N – Networking: Twitter is a powerful networking tool and enables the learner to connect with others beyond the classroom walls/course.

S – Security and Privacy: Parents need to sign a consent but the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) teachers can have class accounts where the teacher sets up the account and monitors the use.

3. When you select media tools for your instruction, what criteria do you follow?
In my previous years of experience teaching grade 1/2 the most important criteria I have followed is “ease of use”.  I didn’t need to worry about privacy issues as my my students never set up personal accounts online for anything.  I also considered the purpose of using specific technology for the task or activity students were involved in.  It had to make sense and it had to be easy to use otherwise I would have 25 dependent and unhappy 7 year olds!!
November (2012) discusses the ways of using Twitter as educational tool.1. What is your opinion about the use of Twitter in instruction? Support your reasoning with examples and/or arguments.

I have never used Twitter in my classroom as I truly got into using it personally a couple years ago.  As I will be returning to a grade ⅘ GATE class in the fall, I will definitely be using Twitter in my instruction for both students and parents.  At the very least, it’s a powerful tool to read up on world news and have classroom discussions about issues, thoughts and ideas.  The most beneficial aspect of twitter is that it’s not a “read only” document.  Students can respond back with their own arguments and what they believe in and connect with people and experts from all over the world to gain some powerful knowledge.  The other beauty of Twitter is sharing what is happening in your classroom or school with parents and community.  Communication is key as parents like to be in the know with their child’s education. My sister is the AP at a French immersion school and took charge of setting up a Twitter account and inviting her staff to be a part of sharing this way.  If you have an account you should look at her feed as it’s a great example of how Twitter can be used for this reason: @kinggeorgecbe

1. How informative this observation is in the context of your professional and learning practices?

I want to open with the following statement as the Reggio Emilia Approach is one I have done a lot of research on and have incorporated much of its philosophy into my own.  Loris Malaguzzi once stated, “Stand aside for a while and leave room for learning, observe carefully what children do, and then, if you have understood well, perhaps teaching will be different from before” (cited in Fraser, S, 2000, p. 77).  This is a powerful statement as it truly supports a personalized learning approach for teachers to ensure successful learning of all students.

I have to say that I try really hard to ensure assessment is part of the entire process of the work my students do.  As I have taught grades one and two for many years, most of the feedback I give my students is verbal.  I am constantly asking them questions to help them think about their learning and how to proceed further.  As I have mentioned in previous posts, I always create a class-generated rubric during inquiry work as well as for writing.  I definitely need to get better at incorporating this for math.  This usually takes 2-3 days to create but is a “guiding light” that my students always refer to.  I have the program of studies beside me and we write our outcomes in “kid” language.  Throughout the project, I have “check points” where we have self, peer and teacher assessments of how the kids are doing.  A common question that you would hear if you were in my class is, “What grade do you want to give yourself? Check the rubric to make sure you are on track”.  I do feel I still have a lot work to do to make my assessment practice better.  I just found out I will be placed in a grade 4/5 Gifted and Talented Program when I move back to Calgary and I know that this is an age where I need to focus on “Helping students to monitor their own progress and develop skills of self-evaluation” (cited in Gibbs & Simpson, 2004, p. 12).  I look forward to reading all of your responses to get ideas, especially if you incorporate models such as the weekly oral feedback model.

2. Are there other methods that are equally as economical, particularly in terms of instructor time, that are more suitable for assessment in a digital age? For instance, do you think automated essay grading is a viable alternative?

The automated essay grading system sounds like an effective and economical method but the first thing that comes to my mind is, “how personalized is this?”  Perhaps when considering grammar and spelling this would be ideal, but I would hope that the teacher still reads over the work to check for authentic writing.  As for multiple-choice tests, I agree with Bates, T. (2014), in that this kind of test is limited for assessing high-level intellectual skills.

The idea of e-portfolios captures evidence of student learning over time.  It can be documented in multiple formats and contexts, and includes a student’s own reflection on his or her learning.  As long as assessment takes place during the process of creating these portfolios then it is a fantastic digital tool for documenting learning.

2. Would it be helpful to think about assessment right at the start of course planning, rather than at the end? Is this feasible?

Absolutely! It makes so much sense to plan with the end in mind (Wiggins and McTighe, 1998).  Having a clear vision of what is ahead allows for:

-thoughtful planning

-personalized learning

-better understanding of where you are and where to go next

-purposeful task design and mastery learning

-students better understanding their goals

References:

Fraser, S., & Gestwicki, C. (2002). Authentic childhood: Exploring Reggio Emilia in the classroom. Albany, NY: Delmar/Thomson Learning.
Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2004). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and teaching in higher education, 1(1), 3-31. Wiggins, G. P., McTighe, J., Kiernan, L. J., & Frost, F. (1998, October).

Understanding by design (pp. 0-87120). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

(2014). Teaching in a Digital Age – BC Open Textbooks. Retrieved July 2, 2015, fromhttp://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/.

1. What are some of the examples from your teaching experience, which fit the Anderson’s learning attributes?

A lot of my more recent teaching experiences have included an inquiry based approach.  I feel that this approach fits Anderson’s (2008a) learning attributes completely.  Prior to moving to Denver, my Grade ones did an inquiry about “Water”.  This was sparked by them wanting to raise pennies for a charity and chose to donate to Free the Children- pennies for Clean Water.  Students researched all about water, from what is usable water to water on earth.  They questioned how water can be cleaned, hot we can help provide clean drinking water to people who need it, illnesses that occur with unclean drinking water, and much more. With the use of many technologies from iPad’s, online videos, Smart Table activities, and video conferencing, all four of Anderson’s (2008a) learning attributes were evident.  Students added what they knew and what they wanted to know in one document and collectively found answers to all their questions.  Class generated rubrics are also a huge part of my classroom learning and my students use rubrics to assess their learning and ensure they are on track.

2. How well this classification reflects your learning experience with the interactions organized for educational purposes?

At this point in my life, an online learning environment is ideal only because it is convenient.  I am also a more shy and reserved person; therefore, I feel that my participation in terms of sharing my thoughts and ideas in an online course is far greater than my participation in courses I took for my undergrad. Part of that reason is also because I have the time to collect my thoughts and think about what I want to say before “posting”.  Having said this, the discussion threads in online courses does an excellent job of helping to create a community-centred learning environment because everyone has to participate and more knowledge is shared because of that.

3. What are some examples of the digital tools that are conducive to the Andersons’ classification types?

In my 510 course, I came across this global weather project put together by a teacher in Australia.  She uses a LMS called Schoology to collaborate with students all over the world in deciding where in the world is the best place to live?  As this was a blended-learning approach, the online component clearly demonstrated a dominant student-content interaction that engaged learners in the global community to connect and learn together with the same objective in mind.  I personally feel that this approach incorporates all four attributes of learning discussed by Anderson (2008a).  You can view the video at:http://www.schoology.com/group/25228991/blog/post/96508089

4. What digital tools you never implement in your instruction and would not recommend for educational use?

What are the reasons for this?I’m not sure I have come across digital tools that I would not recommend.  Again, I teach gr.½ and so if I were to discourage using any tools it would be because they are not age appropriate.  I think there are many fantastic tools out there and yes, they must be evaluated before having students use them.  However, what does not work for one, may work for another, and that is why digital tools are best for a personalized learning approach.

“The net provides opportunities to “plunge ever deeper into knowledge resources”-grow knowledge, find your way around knowledge, benefiting from thousands of formats/contexts” (Anderson, 2008).

References:

Anderson, T. (2008a). “Towards a Theory of Online Learning.” In Anderson, T. & Elloumi, F. Theory of Practice of Online Learning. Athabasca University.

The wiki is one of the web 2.0 tools where collaborative learning and active participation occurs.  People with common interests have the ability to publish, contribute, share resources, and build knowledge through engaging in such an environment.  The wiki lends itself to many affordances from the ability to edit content quickly and easily by anyone visiting the page, to all the different versions of pages being accessible.  Participating in a wiki around the affordances of Moodle allowed for intelligent discussions around entries which led to a more intense review process.  I love the idea of knowledge building and how a group can collectively build knowledge together.  I feel today’s learners thrive on active participation in digital and media literacy, and their engagement in wikipedia stimulates intellectual curiosity on many levels.  Peer reviews and debates alone lead to intelligent discussions and thoughtful entries.

1. Give an example of organizational policy that regulate “use of mobile technology” or “mobile devices”. What is the purpose of these rules?

In the elementary school I use to work at, mobile devices needed be kept in a locked cabinet in the office at the start of the day, and at the end of each day students would pick them up.  They brought their devices to school to stay in touch with their parents or use it on their bus ride home.  The only reason for locking them up was to avoid lost or stolen devices.   I work for the Calgary Board of Education and there is an administrative regulation for Responsible Use of Electronic Information Resources:  http://www.cbe.ab.ca/GovernancePolicies/AR1062.pdf

This organizational policy applies to staff, students, parents, volunteers, contractors, guests, visitors, and those who are authorized to act on behalf or are associated with the CBE.

Purpose of regulating:

• Security: viruses, password protection, device encryption
• Applications: allowed and not allowed (i.e. YouTube is not allowed without teachers overriding → control over content, i.e. adult material).
• Control of endpoints: ensure compliance with policy, FOIP, emails (sensitive info).

2. In what way mobile-learning affects the instructional design practices?

Once the needs, audience and available resources have been analyzed in the design process, using mobile games and apps to support learning, I believe, will “make an activity both intrinsically and extrinsically motivating for a learner” (Ciampa, K., 2013).  In a previous course, I did a research project on gaming and I can see a strong correlation between the elements outlined in Ciampa’s (2013) article: challenge, curiosity, control, cooperation, competition and recognition, and how they all contribute to engaging and meaningful learning.  According to the MIT paper “Moving Learning Games Forward,” gaming can be used as: authoring platforms, content systems, simulations, trigger systems, technology gateways, exemplars of point of view, documentary, texts to be critiqued, and for research assignments (Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S., and Salen, K., 2009).  With all of these entry points, the instructional design practice now becomes more flexible and personalized.

3. What could be some of the mobile-learning specific rules for creating educational materials?

• Teaching copyright and fair use is important for all educators to do.  Using a creative commons is a great tool for communicating what rights an owner allows a user.  Only use material which is Fair Use.
• Ensuring FOIP and security issues are addressed.
• Teach digital citizenship!

References:

Ciampa, K. (2013). Learning in a mobile age: An investigation of student motivation. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 30(1), 82–96. (PDF)

Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S., & Salen, K. (2009). Moving learning games forward.  Retrieved from

http://education.mit.edu/papers/MovingLearningGamesForward_EdArcade.pdf