I have modified my infographic to include trends and issues that I am currently studying in my Education 8341 course. I still haven't figured out how to make my links live on an image when added to a word document. Hopefully, I'll become more tech savvy as the weeks continue.
Friday, June 26, 2015
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Module 2 Assignment 1: MOOCs give education a digital face lift
The traditional perception of a quality
college education from notable schools such as Stanford University, Harvard, or
MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) include: unaffordable and
out-of-my-league. However, with the inception of Massive Online Open Courses,
better known as MOOCs, high quality courses
from these schools are now free and accessible to anyone with an internet
connection. According to Yuan, Powell, and Cetis (2013), the promise of MOOCs
is that they will “provide free to access, cutting
edge courses that could drive down the cost of university-level education
and potentially disrupt the existing models of higher education (HE)” (pg. 5). Although
they are not currently accredited and only offer certificates of completion,
MOOCs will essentially give “education a digital face lift” and will hopefully
become the new norm for acquiring transfer credits when entering college
programs (Rodriguez, 2012, pg 12).
Current applications of MOOCs and open
course platforms are available through:
Alison Free courses in 10+ Course
Categories."
Apnacourse -
course on PMP, ACP, CFP, CFA, FRM, ISTQB
Canvas Network by Instructure
Carnegie Mellon University Open Learning Initiative
Class Central -
Stanford, Coursera, MIT and Harvard led edX (MITx + Harvardx + BerkeleyX), and
Udacity
Curricki -
open curriculua
FutureLearn, the Open University's MOOC branch
iTunesU - some courses - guide from DIY University (Apple
doesn't provide a list of courses, naturally); list of affiliates
iversity -
Berlin-based MOOC provider, listing courses in English
Janux -
the University of Oklahoma
Miríada X - Spanish / Portugese courses
MIT Open CourseWare (course
materials only
MOOC.fr - dédié à des MOOC francophones
(premier MOOC, Internet : Tout Y est
Pour Apprendre)
NovoEd - a series of online classes from top
institutions including Stanford GSB, Babson, and the Kauffman Foundation, with
the majority free of charge.
Open2Study (Australia)
Open Education Europa,
a Web site that aggregates MOOCs and other free online resources from European
universities.
Open HPI, Hasso Plattner Institute
信息技术在线互动课程的公开平台 OpenHPI
Chinese-language MOOC portal.
Open Learning courses
Open Learn -
Open University (UK), see menu at left
P2P University -
courses
Qualt - Qualt advertises "Free mobile
courses in internationally recognised professional qualifications. Anytime,
anywhere." The courses are available for mobile devices only.
SyMynd courses from NYU, University of Washington,
McGill University
Universitat Politècnica
de València -
Spanish language
University of the People -
course catalogue
Unow offers MOOCs in french (including this
one reviewed here).
Wikiversity - 'schools'
What do MOOCs enhance?
The driving motivation of higher
institutions adopting MOOCs is altruism.
Education should be accessible to all and in order to do that, education must
first be affordable and accessible to those who want it. Kolowich (2013)
believes “MOOCs will drive down the cost of earning a degree” and “free online
courses will make college less expensive in general.”
Although there was an
initial fear that expectations in an online classroom setting would be lower
than that of an actual campus. A survey conducted by Kolowich (2013) refuted
that claim after surveying professors before and after using MOOCs who claimed
their online coursework expectation was “significantly more rigorous and demanding
than an on-campus version.” A Duke professor who originally struggled
with “captivating a vast, fickle audience” in the MOOC classroom setting
improved his teaching style by “honing [his] pedagogical presentation to a far
higher level than [he] had in 10 years of teaching the class on campus”
(Kolowich, 2013). Some professors who participated in the Kolowich (2013)
survey simply hoped that MOOCs would “increase their visibility, both among
colleagues within their discipline, with the media, and the general public”
through their online exposure.
What do MOOCs make obsolete?
With the low cost of MOOCs and availability to anyone
with an internet, they essentially drive down the unaffordable high cost of
higher education. As teachers switch from face to face lectures to video-taped
recordings and from textbooks to EBooks and digital articles, the cost for
classroom resources essentially drops, as well. Pappano (2012) hopes that
through the usage of MOOCs, these “free courses can bring the best education in
the world to the most remote corners of the planet, help people in their
careers, and expand intellectual and personal networks.”
What does it retrieve?
MOOCs still incorporate traditional teaching and learning
models, material presentations, and assessments, but in a digitalized format.
Professors who once “tired of delivering the same lectures year after year,
often to a half-empty classroom” now have the ability to use videotaped
lectures and supplementary recourses that support their curriculum online
(Vardi, 2012). Many professors in a Kolowich (2012) survey improved their
teaching strategies after teaching MOOCs, but teaching with MOOCs took a lot out
of them because professors were spending over 100 hours on MOOC preparation by
recording online lecture videos and adding supplementary online reading
material. Unfortunately, with all the required preparation time needed for the
MOOCs, most colleges do not yet have a “protocol for integrating their
instructors’ work on MOOCs into normal faculty work flow” (Kolowich, 2012).
What does it reverse?
Pappano (2012)
claimed that “three things matter most in online learning: quality of material
covered, engagement of the teacher and interaction among students.” The
presentation of the material does not seem to be the problem with MOOCs. The
problem seems to be in providing instructor connection and feedback, including
student interactions because “Classmates lack a common knowledge base and
educational background” which can drag down discussions due to the material
being out of their league (Pappano, 2012). A study by Vardi (2012) also claimed
the entire MOOC format lacked teaching pedagogy due to the “essential feature
being short, unsophisticated video chunks, interleaved with online quizzes, and
accompanied by social networking.” Clow (2013) conducted a study that compared
MOOC learning models to formal learning and concluded that “there tends to be
much higher rates of drop-out, and steeply unequal patterns of participation”
(Pg. 4).
References:
Clow,
D. (2013, April). MOOCs and the funnel of participation. In Proceedings of the
Third International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge (pp.
185-189). ACM.
Kolowich,
S. (2013). The professors who make the MOOCs. The Chronicle of Higher
Education, 25.
Pappano, L. (2012,
November 2). The year of the MOOC. The New York Times, p.
ED26. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/massive-open-online-courses-are-multiplying-at-a-rapid-pace.html?
Rodriguez,
C. O. (2012). MOOCs and the AI-Stanford like courses: Two successful and
distinct course formats for massive open online courses. European Journal of
Open, Distance and E-Learning.
Vardi,
M. Y. (2012). Will MOOCs destroy academia?. Commun. ACM, 55(11), 5.
Yuan,
L., Powell, S., & Cetis, J. (2013). MOOCs and open education: Implications
for higher education.
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Module 1 Assignment 1: Challenges with Current Educational Technology
Challenges with
Current Educational Technology
Christina N.
Adkins, MSEd
Technology
Director and Lead Teacher, Village Academy of Village Behavioral Health
christina.adkins@waldenu.edu
As technology continues to evolve at an exponential rate,
the technologies educators are taught to use during their schooling often
become obsolete by the time they actually begin their teaching career. The evolution
from an emerged technology into one that is obsolete stems from issues with the
functionality of the hardware, pricing, and impact on student learning. The
SmartBoard, an interactive white board that uses touch detection for user input
in conjunction with a computer and LCD projector. According to SMART Technologies, SMARTboards can “improve pedagogy and student engagement.” As you walk the
halls of each high school within Knox County School District in Knoxville,
Tennessee, you will see a SmartBoard housed in every classroom room. There are
quite a few drawbacks to its use that may phase it out as the software for such
Interactive White Boards continues to develop and modestly price alternatives
become released.
Why educators need
the SMARTboard Interactive White Board technology
Often times,
student cannot take notes as fast as the teacher speaks. By the time the
student is caught up with notes and attempts to write down what the teacher has
written, he or she erases the board, which leaves the student behind and
frustrated. The Interactive White Board technology offers an interactive
flipchart software that saves all notes written on its surface and allows it to
be printed or replayed. This prevents repeated lectures and allows the entire
lesson to be replayed for students to review work or lessons. The SmartBoard
technology allows teachers to create audio and visual images for their lectures
allowing them pre-record lessons in the event of their absence and to enhance
language lessons. The board also comes with Smart Pens in various colors that
offer different colored text on the screen. Once a pen has been removed from
its assigned holding spot, students can use their fingers to write on the board
in that particular color. This prevents wasted spending on replacement markers
and pens leaving less cleanup.
The price for
SmartBoards is still relatively high despite the technology being mature
The cheapest price for the actual SmartBoard device not
including the projector, stand, and podium ranges from $1999 to $6999 according
to the SmartBoard website. The accessories and
replacement parts pricing for various Interactive White Boards can be found HERE. When schools are limited on funding, more cost efficient versions of the
Interactive White Board should be considered to offset the costs of purchasing
and maintaining an actual SmartBoard and its accessories.
The bright screen
can cause eye fatigue and visual challenges for students
Similar to how your eyes feel after watching TV for long
periods of time, students have complained of eye fatigue from long exposure to
SMARTboards. One medical practice claimed there were “potential visual
challenges that can arise from prolonged use of digital technology” such as
SMARTboards. To avoid this issue, limit the amount of
time you use digital technology for lectures and presentations to allow the
audience time to adjust their eyes and model their learning at their desk.
Cheaper Alternatives
to SMARTboard Interactive White Board technology currently exist
When I moved classrooms and was forced to leave behind my
SMARTboard, I decided to use my school resources to purchase a cheaper
alternative to the SMARTboard: MIMIO software which offers various options for less than $500. The device itself is portable,
attaches to ANY flat surface, and converts it into an interactive white board
using a projector and the MIMIO wall device that is the size of a television
remote.
As with any
purchase, always compare the price and reviews
Not every technology works the same just as not every student
learns the same. If your students are a rowdy bunch or if they are simply
clumsy, you will have to budget for replacement pens and hardware. As I stated
previously, the MIMIO is a cheaper alternative with replacement pens selling for
$25. The SMARTboard pen tray for the SMART board sells for $250 and does not
include the pens and erasers. Those average $50 and up depending on the style. Both
options offer software that includes audio visual recordings, flip charts,
templates, and interactive pens. The functionality of both devices depends on
the placement of the projector and the calibration of the screen. If any
glitches occur with the software or projector becomes bumped, they must be
re-calibrated to restart the program. I have tried both options and enjoyed the
functionality of both; however, those who are more technologically inclined
might prefer one over the other, which is why I highly suggest that before
purchasing either of the two that you compare cost and reviews for both
options.
My first INFOGRAPHIC!
For my Trends and Issues in Educational Technology course,
we were assigned an Infographic to display our current Professional Learning Network.
we were assigned an Infographic to display our current Professional Learning Network.
The infographic had to include:
Our two preferred social media accounts, professional organizations we were members of, authors that we followed, scholars & practitioners we networked with, and professional conferences we planned to attend.
The link to the infographic template site can be found HERE
The link to the infographic template site can be found HERE
Tell me what you think!
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