MOOCs again!

MOOCs Big Story of 2012...

     Before today I had never heard of MOOCs (I confess: I originally read my RSA #4 article because of the title--any article that starts with the "word" moocifying had to be one in which I'd be interested), and after today, I've seen and read two articles on them.

The wave of the future....

RSA #4: Creating an Open Classroom

Moocifying High School Learning Environments

     MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) have been part of higher education for a few years. Recently there has been an initiative to offer these cost-effective (and previously provided only in high education) at the high school level. The beauty of MOOCs is that they can be delivered to and accessed by those who previously were unserviced educationally. MOOCs are student-centered rather than teacher-centered; learners access information in which they are interested rather than information that is arbitrarily required.

     As Palloff and Pratt discuss in Building Online Learning Communities, Ch. 9 "Transformative Learning," students who engages in online learning cannot remain complacent. They are no longer tethered to a geographically centered campus; students from all over the world will cause them to dig deeper into themselves and really learn the material. Learning is no longer institute-driven; rather, students will have to anticipate being questioned about their knowledge. Other students will provide feedback, not necessarily the instructor, which will cause students to reflect, revise and transform their learning and themselves.

     The author of this blog, Verena Roberts, is an Innovation Lead with ADLC (Alberta [Canada] Distance Learning Centre) who is looking for online courses in order to create an open classroom for her children. She has done extensive research on this subject, and this article (which is really an essay or paper) presents her findings to those who are interested in learning about MOOCs.

     In her presentation and evaluation, she also provides a model of her own MOOC and how it might be implemented at the high school level that she calls a Continuum of Open Learning, which includes a design model called the Open Classroom Model. She anticipates providing more information in subsequent blog entries.

References

Palloff, M. & Pratt, K.(2007) Building Online Learning Communities: Effective Strategies for the Virtual Classroom  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Roberts, V. (6 December 2012). Moocifying High School Learning Environments. [Web log post]. Creating an Open Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.openclassroomonline.com/121/

Classroom wikis--PBWorks

This article spotlights a teacher who discovered wikis years ago and implemented them in his 4th grade class through PBWorks.

Cultivating Tech-Savvy Teachers

Cultivating Tech-Savvy Teachers Should Be a Priority...

Interesting article from Business Week.

Cool Tools for 21st Century: Google Docs
Ideas for efficient and effective tech integration, created by Susan Oxnevad

These days a good way to capture the attention of an audience is to present information visually. For this reason, I created a glog of popular ways to use Google Docs for Learning to share with the teachers at our middle school. Just look at the glog, find something that interests you, and click on a link to see snippets of samples implemented by our teachers. Looking for more information or about any of these topics? View my Google Docs for Learning page on this blog.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir: Lux Aurumque

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir: Lux Aurumque

The future of music? A future of music? With the virtual choir, a musician can sing with anyone, anywhere. It's a beautiful piece; we're singing it in my church choir for our Christmas concert (though it may not be as beautiful as this video).


Eric Whitacre's TED Talk: Virtual Choir process

Here's his TED Talk detailing how the original video came together and previewing the next one, Virtual Choir 2.0. He speaks of the connections to others people felt as they recorded their individual parts and how far people would go to connect to others.

RSA3: Can Online Learning Communities Foster Professional Development?

RSA3: Can Online Learning Communities Foster Professional Development?

http://uisbrookenslibrary.worldcat.org/oclc/811569370

http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/LA/0894-mar2012/LA0894Research.pdf



     One of the most frustrating aspects of teaching today is the lack of appropriate and pertinent professional development. The question the article "Can Online Learning Communities Foster Professional Development?" asks is "What types of professional development are most useful to inservice teachers as they consider issues relating to multiple literacies, digital literacies, and the literacy heritages of children from diverse backgrounds and with diverse ways of making meaning?" (p. 256). Critical to effective professional development is ongoing coaching, reflection on lessons, collaboration with colleagues and a focus on student outcomes (p. 256). The author, Richard Beach, says that professional learning communities (PLC) are a way to implement and integrate these components into schools. Of course, it can be a challenge for teachers to find the time and energy to learn what is necessary to effect the change necessary. Online PLCs can solve both of these challenges. Beach describes four major components to an effective online PLC:

1. a central social networking/discussion forum for teacher collaboration
2. teachers' personal learning networks (PLNs)
3. students' online work collected in blogs, wikis, podcasts, or e-portfolios
4. a schoolwide online curriculum repository containing lesson plans and units addressing standards (p. 257)

Beach describes each of these four components in the rest of the article and describes how they work to support the whole of a PLC. The sense of community a shared purpose generates makes the PLC successful as a whole and for the individual teachers (and, ultimately, the students).

     In Building Online Learning Communities (2007), Palloff and Pratt argue that the a sense of community and trust are two important components of effective professional development. Online learning communities can provide that sense of community that can lead to the trust so necessary for teachers to make effective use of professional development. Too often, however, teachers are thrust into collaboration groups or professional learning communities not of their choosing; when that happens, it is difficult to feel a sense of belonging so crucial to effective collaboration. As a result, there is little to no follow through, nothing is accomplished, and everyone is frustrated.  However, if teachers are left to generate issues that are important to their PLC and given the time to make them work, they are far more likely to be successful.

References

Beach, R. (March 1, 2012). Research and Policy: Can Online Learning Communities Foster Professional Development? Language Arts, 89, 4, 256-262.

Palloff, M. & Pratt, K.(2007) Building Online Learning Communities: Effective Strategies for the Virtual Classroom  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Live from the First iPad Summit

http://plpnetwork.com/2012/11/15/live-ipad-summit/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PowerfulLearningPracticeLLC+%28Powerful+Learning+Practice%29


I wish I had known about this summit prior to this article. Although I wouldn't have been able to attend, I would have tried to follow it as it was happening. All the high school teachers in my district received iPads in preparation for all incoming freshmen (and any other student who is willing to rent to own) to have iPads next year. Every few weeks, instead of regular tech training, an Apple-certified trainer comes to demonstrate tools for our use. Unfortunately, without regular practice, these tools will never be implemented. Of course, if we followed the bottom line of this article, we would determine what we want to do in the classroom that technology can help with and then find the iPad app that can accomplish that goal. I can dream.

Teaching with Smartphones

http://plpnetwork.com/2012/11/21/teaching-smartphones/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PowerfulLearningPracticeLLC+%28Powerful+Learning+Practice%29

Here's an interesting article about the use of smartphones in the classroom. The article includes some practical uses for smartphone technology to take advantage of the ever-present devices.

My PLE: 7th grade student shows her professional learning environment

RSA #2: Successful PLCs

http://web.ebscohost.com.cucproxy.cuchicago.edu/ehost/detail?sid=e5eefb42-6d78-4e27-a710-f8affcc55a33%40sessionmgr112&vid=6&hid=126&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWNvb2tpZSxpcCxjcGlkJmN1c3RpZD1zODQxOTIzOSZzaXRlPWVob3N0LWxpdmU%3d#db=aph&AN=74029559

Professional Learning Communities: Practices for Successful Implementation

Roberta A. Linder, Gina Post, and Kathryn Calabrese

Although these university faculty members began this study to facilitate forming PLCs and develop positive relationships between university and school teachers, the article was interesting to me because it underscored what I've gradually become aware: when teachers get out of their rooms and work together with other teacher on a common goal to improve their teaching and student learning, both tend to improve dramatically.

Under the old system, teachers would attend a workshop outside school and come back excited about what they had experienced. Unfortunately, if no other teachers were at the same workshop, the excitement soon fizzled out and the great ideas (delivered by someone outside the school) went away. It seemed as though teachers couldn't learn or improve themselves; someone else, more educated, more experienced, costing lots of money, was the only person qualified to deliver. However, teachers working together, holding one another accountable and creating common assessments for common lessons improve their individual teaching and the learning within their classrooms. (Perhaps because they get the opportunity to see that they are not alone in their challenges and successes and have others of like mind to help support them and learn from them.)

"Recent research provides evidence that PLCs can produce positive effects on teachers and their instruction, which in turn can lead to improved student performance.... Monthly professional development workshops led teachers to feel a sense of camaraderie with colleagues, connection to their schools, and ownership for the content of the workshops..." (Linder, 2012). As teachers meet together on a regular basis, they become more confident in their abilities to create assessment, manage their data and implement changes in their teaching.

DuFour, D., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & Many, T. (2010). Learning by doing: A handbook for professional learning communities at work. Bloomington: Solution Tree Press.
Linder, R., Post, G., & Calabrese, K. (2012) Professional learning communities: Practices for successful implementation Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 78(3), 13-22.

Humankind is Both Art & Science

I follow a blog called Powerful Learning Practice that sends interesting posts on a regular basis. I thought this one looked interesting, so I thought I'd share....

http://plpnetwork.com/2012/11/02/humankind-art-science/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PowerfulLearningPracticeLLC+%28Powerful+Learning+Practice%29

Humankind is Both Art & Science

Posted: 02 Nov 2012 08:03 AM PDT

We asked PLP consultant and connected learning thought-leader Peter Skillen to share something from his disruptive (in a positive way!) October 2011 TEDx talk in Toronto. Here’s the result!

RSA1: Mr. Gonzalez's Classroom: Response to Intervention

http://www.educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/09/03/response-to-intervention/

I went looking for a blog that discussed the Response to Intervention (RtI) initiative because it can be confusing and discovered Alfonso Gonzalez, Educator Al (@educatoral on Twitter). He is a middle-school science teacher who is heavily involved in learning about RtI, collaboration, Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) and offers extensive commentary and classroom-implemented plans to help students learn. Although he is a science teacher, nationally board certified, and prolific grant writer (and winner), he struggles with some of the same basic issues I do: how to motivate students, how to differentiate in classes, and how to intervene with those students who have difficulties “doing school.”

RtI is a puzzle for Educator Al as it is for many teachers. In his blog, “Mr. Gonzalez’s Classroom: A blog to learn and share about my profession,” he works his way through the RtI pyramid in an easy-to-follow manner, providing instruction to the novice as though he’s discovering it along with him or her. He removes inaccessible jargon from his explanation, which makes the material comprehensible. For many teachers, student behavior, or misbehavior, results in predetermined consequences. However, there are a few students for whom those consequences do not work. An intervention would connect a student with consequences and assistance that are appropriate for that student. For example, today a student in a class (not mine, but I witnessed it) got up and walked out. Politely and quietly, but he still walked out. The usual response to that behavior is a referral. However, this boy is a special education student and, unbeknownst to the teacher, had a history of anger and frustration. At his last IEP meeting, it was suggested that he take control of his behavior by leaving the room to avoid potential frustration. (Apparently it also was suggested that he inform the teacher, but he forgot that part.) He left the classroom and walked straight to the freshmen discipline office to cool off. Crisis averted. (No referral written; double intervention.)

Gonzalez connects RtI with behavior, indicating that, at the middle school level, interventions are primarily about behavior. A teacher cannot teach a student who will not behave, and if one student is misbehaving, for whatever reason, there will be no learning in the classroom (there certainly will not be any teaching except for how to deal with misbehaving students). I find that concept illuminating with regard to my own freshmen. I am teaching a class that is set up as an intervention class for those students who do not have the skills to function in a traditional English class. The class is based on mastering skills rather than reading specific texts and taking a test or writing a five-paragraph essay. The students use rotations of small group, independent reading (a book of their choice) and computer work to build their skills. While the program might be controversial for traditionalists, thus far it is building success and confidence in some of my lowest-functioning students. Students work at their own pace within a two-block class structure while learning the skills necessary to move into a “traditional” English class. This structure supports DuFour, DuFour, Eaker and Many’s (2010) conclusion that “it is impossible for all students to learn at high levels if some do not receive additional time and support for learning. Even the most ardent advocates of the premise that all students can learn acknowledge that they will not learn at the same rate and with the same support” (108-109).

References

DuFour, D., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & Many, T. (2010). Learning by doing: A handbook for professional learning communities at work. Bloomington: Solution Tree Press.

Gonzalez, A. (3 September 2012). Response to Intervention. [Web log post]. Mr. Gonzalez’s Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.educatoral.com/wordpress/2012/09/03/response-to-intervention/

Education Technology Blog

Welcome to my EDT 6030: Using Technology to Build Learning Communities Blog.

I've set up blogs before, but I've never followed through with posting. I hope that this blog will break me of that habit!