FIT Team

The FIT assignment has been a learning process on many levels! I have learned how important clear and concise communications are and how easy it is to misinterpret asynchronous communications when they are only written words, lacking the physical gestures and verbal intonations one interprets in a synchronous exchange of ideas. The communications from the FIT assignment with our instructors served as models for good mediation skills and demonstrated positive means of communication, even under difficult circumstances. By observing the 6140 assignments and participating in the grading process I realized how many skills I still need to explore and develop to truly embrace technology as a tool in my classroom instruction. Through our blogs and classroom discussions it was evident that different host instructors had a wide spectrum of expectations for their FIT students. In some ways, at the beginning of my 6140 participation I felt as if I was taking another class for which I was not receiving credit but had all the responsibilities for the grade. It was also interesting to note the difference in the styles of the instructor hosts such as their online persona and interaction with students, the number of and style of communications with their online students, and the type of assignments and organization of the courses themselves. Just as in synchronous courses, asynschronous, online courses reflect the personality and style of the instructors themselves.
The FIT group project has been a pleasure from day one! I was fortunate to have highly motivated teammates who were very responsible, conscientious workers and from whom I learned many practical ideas. I especially liked collaborating with classmates who possessed such a wide variety of skills and experiences. One of the best things I learned was the advantage of getting the work done early! I respect and admire my teammates and am grateful to have benefited from their wisdom and experience.

"Lurking" in Online Education

The practice of lurking is a term that has negative connotations in the online education environment. It refers to a student who reads posts but does not contribute to discussions. As Gilly Salmon mentioned in her book, e-Tivities, these people can be characterized as “magpies” who watch and read and steal ideas without acknowledging their sources. However, this term and attitude may be generational and does not have the negative connotations for digital natives as it does for digital immigrants. This idea was brought to my attention by me daughter, Laurel, who is eighteen and in her first year at the US Naval Academy. She is definitely a digital native, both generationally and by her exposure to the electronic world. By the time she was in 9th grade she was required by her school to use a laptop for almost all of her note taking and assignments and her papers were submitted electronically. She is also very adept at social networking and frequents such sites as Facebook, You Tube, and MySpace. It was over Thanksgiving Break during a discussion with her brother and me about Facebook that “lurking” came up. I mentioned that I needed to comment on my FIT blogs or I would be accused of lurking. They asked what I meant by that and I told them what we in online education define it as, and how the accusation is not complimentary. Both Laurel, and my son Elliott, who at age fourteen is also a digital native, thought I was crazy for worrying about being accused of lurking. Their response to the definition of lurking was that they do it all the time. Apparently that is what one does on social network sites, check out what your friends are doing, where they’ve been and with whom, their “status”, their pictures, how many friends they have and who they are, who is in their top ten, and whatever else they didn’t tell you or didn’t invite you to! This social lurking is the way the “kids” stay in touch with what is going on in their social world. The social and educational ramifications of the digital revolution are in their infancy. The transparency and self absorption of this generation, manifested in social networking sites with their soul baring lack of privacy and the personal focus on the self will have far reaching effects on our educational practices and ideas of acceptable norms and behaviors.

F2F Spcial Topic

Open Source is a topic which has intrigued me for quite some time for a number of reasons: flexibility, it is relatively low cost compared to copyrighted software, and its ability to be modified quickly when upgrades or patches are needed or because technology has, yet again, changed rapidly.
When investigating possible topics for this assignment I discussed open source with a colleague who is the technology teacher at my school. He was not enthusiastic about the topic because in his words it was very technical and I did not have the computer background to do it justice. He was right! But I found the potential applications of open source in my district fascinating and decided to investigate it more so as to become an advocate for it in my district. Thus my presentation was a bit weak in the technical side of open source, but I hope that was balanced by the knowledge I imparted on the uses of open source and its many advantages.
The Open Source movement gained momentum in the 1990’s as laws were being introduced to protect intellectual property. It was believed by its proponents as having numerous advantages over copyrighted software, most especially that its source code or language was freely available to be changed by anyone willing or able to do so. This appeals to the current trends of collaborative efforts in both the work place and learning environments.
The most satisfying aspect of this assignment was introducing my classmates to the plethora of websites and downloadable elements which are available for the most part online and free or of minimal price to cover reproduction costs. By providing links for them to open source materials they can readily use, I hope I have increased their awareness of open source resources which will help them at work, in school, and on vacation.

Technology-Adaptive and Emerging

Susan and Walli’s special topic presentations were both very thought provoking and insightful. As usual, I learned a tremendous amount about both topics and as always, left class wondering if I am the only person who is so clueless and “out of it”!

Walli’s presentation on adaptive technologies, which opened with a pre-quiz on our knowledge of the topic, reminded me that the term “technology” does not necessarily involve electronics and the digital age. Rather, technology means a device which aids one in a task be it something as simple as a magnifying glass or as advanced as the interactive technology of a computer program which “read” aloud typed words or a mechanical device which turned pages of a book or magazine. Instructional technology also encompasses many tools which are considered “simple” in the digital age but still have well-defined uses and purposes in our practice of the field.

Susan’s topic of emerging technologies served to get me excited about the many new tools and methods which will soon be both a normal part both of our daily lives and in our facilitation as either synchronous and asycnchronous instructors. This past weekend I read in the newspaper about a study in Japan that showed a decline in the use of personal computers and a rise in the use and purchase of other electronic devices. These devices included games such as WII and PSP and more advanced phones with internet capability and advanced audio video capability in the form of MP3 players and video players. Instructional technology will encompass all of these new tools and more as the field continues to adapt and grow to accommodate new fields, job demands and training.

Distance Learning

At the midpoint of this course I am amazed by the many aspects that must be considered when developing an online course and at the plethora of studies that exist on good practices when facilitating one. Despite the many models that exist for an online course, it seems that the essence of the planning, execution, and ultimately the success of the course lies in good communication; that is, communication between the instructor and students and between the students themselves.The methods of communication encompass many avenues-blogs, wikis, emails, course materials, and assignments are some of them. In the completely asynchronous environment of an online class, in which there is no physical interaction between participants, written communication is the only method for interactions to take place. Therefore, the style and clarity of these communication tools are of the utmost importance. In the synchronous learning environment of a classroom there exist other clues for understanding communications including interpreting body language, physical gestures, and tone of voice. Effective communication and understanding become much more difficult when the written word is the only method used. Additionally, in online distance education, students may be multinational and experiencing cultural and language differences and adjustments. This adds another element to be considered by the developer of an online course. The addition of video clips and links to audio and video resources are a way to include additional information relevant to the course which may increase the students’ understanding and opportunities to use different learning styles.
Another observation I have made at this point in our course, having had the opportunity to “observe” an online class from the perspective of the instructor, is that asynchronous classes entail a lot more work on the part of both the instructor and the student. In an asynchronous environment the instructor is never able to take a break from checking discussion boards because students can post dialog or assignments at any time. Rather than being more flexible the online course could be more demanding of one’s time because there is never a time when the instructor isn’t “on call”. Obviously, the instructor should take it upon herself to manage her time and establish a routine for running her online class, but it is not like a traditional college setting when the professor has defined office hours for appointments. Also, in the asynchronous environment, the instructor has no way of gauging a student’s participation or commitment to the class other than the assignments that are submitted electronically. From a student’s perspective, it appears that the instructors must “create” assignments, busy work, to justify the assigned work load because that is the only way an instructor can determine if a student is keeping up with the reading assignments. In a synchronous classroom setting, group discussion and collaboration are more easily evaluated by the professor.
As a student, I don’t think I want to take many courses online. As an instructor or facilitator I would not mind teaching a course, provided I had good professional training in developing and moderating an asynchronous online course.

Online Insruction

What makes a successful online course, how does one prepare for it, and how is that success measured? These are the questions which will be answered as we progress through this course. The role of an online facilitator is far more complicated than I anticipated. This observation is reflected by the measure of success of an online course, for a good classroom instructor does not a successful online instructor make. An instructor who is trained in classroom teaching has a tremendous learning curve to transition to an online based course. Just because one is a good classroom teacher does not necessarily imply one will be a good online instructor, nor does the content of a classroom based course transfer easily to a web-based course. Simply posting one’s power point presentation or links to articles relevant to a chosen topic which are available does not make a successful classroom course a successful online course. Without some sort of interaction from students, the online course is little more than a fancy correspondence course using modern technology instead of the US Postal Service. What makes an online course successful is the interaction between the facilitator and the students and perhaps even more importantly interaction amongst the students themselves. It is this interaction which creates the give and take of classroom discussion and is accomplished online through asynchronous communications such as Blackboard and blogs. Special training is required for facilitators to be successful online instructors. Success is marked by students completing courses in a specific amount of time, courses which effectively measure the content area expectations and contain thorough and effective assessment. The Special Topic Evaluation handout can be used as a guide tool when evaluating the structure of an online class and the responsibilities of a facilitator. I found in reading it that it gave me good ideas of items to observe as an FIT looking in on another professor’s online class and suggested actions I should take to be an “effective” facilitator.