Week 4 The Future of PLEs and LMS Video

Week 4 Wimba Session

Wimba Session Week 4

Well it appeared that sharing the UDUTU projects was not a simple task in the Wimba session but it was great to hear everyone discuss their projects and talk about UDUTU. Jordan shared his UDUTU on music geographically, or at least he tried to but there were technical difficulties. It seems that several people had a little nit of trouble with UDUT and saw it has a huge learning curve. I have to agree with Stacy that I liked the fact that I was able to have the freedom to choose my templates, and I liked the flexibility. If I wanted to make each assessment question appear differently I was able to do so and that was a nice trait of UDUTU in my opinion. Thanks for another great Wimba!!

Week 4-Comment on Abbie Toy's UDUTU Project

Screenshots taken from Abby's UDUTU Project.

http://publish.myudutu.com/published/launcheval/21382/Course38199/Launch.html

I found Udutu to be difficult to navigate, which in turn made creating my lesson harder than I had planned. It took me several days to set up my account, read through tutorials on the program, and then get my lesson up and running. Even after creating my lesson for this class, I am still feeling a bit confused by the Udutu program. Although I understand the concept of Udutu, I feel like there are probably other programs that I could use in order to create interactive lessons for my students that would be easier and more time-effective.

Amanda said...

@Abbie-
Your UDUTU lesson was nice in the fact that it went through step by step of the process of creating a ning site. If I might make one suggestion it would be to make the font a little smaller so that it fits on one screen. It seemed like I had to scroll a few times to be able to read all of the directions. Nice job!

July 28, 2010 4:41 PM

Week 4-Comment on Kathy Kellen's UDUTU Project

Comment on Kathy's UDUTU Project, Images take from Kathy's UDUTU project.

SILLY STAFF

This unit/project is targeted for 2nd grade music students and links directly to my Action Research project for EMDT. I feel it will be a powerful tool as I teach my music note-reading unit next spring to my students.

@ Kathy-

Your UDUTU project turned out really nice! Colorful, eye appealing and highly functional. This is such a fun lesson and I know your students will enjoy using it. Great job and thanks again for all the help with my UDUTU project!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010 - 03:32 PM

Week 4-Comment on Joe Huber's UDUTU

Comment on Joe Huber's UDUTU Project- Screen shots taken from Joe's project.

My UDUTU lesson:

This lesson is designed to introduce students to the Bill of Rights and also to have them interpret them as they attempt to deliver a verdict in an actual U.S. Supreme Court case.

@Joe- Your UDUTU project is very nice. The use of pictures and video was a great touch as well. Your directions were very clear and I think the user will appreciate that! nice job!

WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2010 - 04:22 PM

Week 4-UDUTU Project

http://lms.myudutu.com/LMSGadget/courses/lms/21313/Course38069/2267/v2010_7_29_6_58_10/course/Course38069.html

Above is the link for my UDUTU project. You can also find it under Social Skills Kindness & Cooperation on UDUTU Learn on Facebook.

My UDUTU lesson focuses on the Social Skills of Kindness and Cooperation.

Wow, what an experience! At first I was frustrated with UDUTU but after working out a few kinks and talking to a few friends (thank you Kathy!) I was well on my way to creating a lesson on UDUTU. Once I got going, I decided that I really like this tool. It was easy to create an assessment and link the pages to the correct answers. I did find it frustrating that some of the fonts were difficult to change and make larger. I can certainly see this being a nice tool to use in the future!

Week 3 Reading Activity 11-The MMOG and Simulation

Week 3 Reading 11 The MMOG and Simulation

Jayakanthan (2002) likens the influence of the computer gaming industry on youth today to the influence of music, religion, and politics in previous decades. In fact, computer games are so popular that blockbuster films are being made about them (e.g. Super Mario Brothers). Let’s face it, gaming is a huge part of our youth’s lives and this will not change anytime soon. Gaming does have a place in education as this article points out, the demand for MMOGs will continue to rise.

Games can help students focus on specific skills or competencies and might tap or foster user creativity and adaptive, higher-level thinking skills. MMOGs are addicting and highly graphical in terms of 3D.

Oblinger (2003) claims that the learners of the early part of the twenty-first century are accustomed to ubiquitous computing environments where multitasking and staying connected are the norms. She further notes that students who are active participants in the information age want to engage in relevant meaningful tasks rather than just complete worksheets and accumulate knowledge.

Bonk, C.J., & Dennen, V.P. (2005). Massive multi-player online gaming: A research framework for military training and education. Retrieved July 20, 2010 from http://www.adlnet.gov/SiteCollectionDocuments/archive/GameReport_Bonk_final.pdf

Week 3 Comment #2 on Kathy Kellen's Blog

New CMS Directions: Gaming in the Educational Realm

Studying the trends that are listed in the article by Dr. Ian Gibson (2008), it is apparent that change is a given for education as we know it. In the not so distant future educators will look back on this point in time and see the existence of trends that are not even evident at this time. It is important as educators to make ourselves more aware of possible, and likely future developments in e-learning, and also dream of the developments we could envision.

A goal of the Advanced Distributive Learning (ADL) Initiative is “to integrate games into the workflow of distributed learning and reduce barriers to effective implementation in support of learning and performance enhancement.” Games used in this way are complex systems and contain these three major components: activities with formal rules that players engage in, a narrative which provides clues, context and relevance, and a simulation which represents the learning space necessary. (ADL, 2008)

Amanda

I feel differently than Jordan on this one. Gaming is the students world right now and if we don't keep up with the trends in regards to gaming and technology then I fear that teachers are the ones who will lose. I for one am ready, I want to explore the gaming world with regards to student learning

Week 3 Comment #1 on Joe Huber's Blog

WEEK 3 READING 11: THE MMOG AND SIMULATION

When teachers are asked if they think that computers and LMS in the classroom will eventually replace them, it becomes a topic of debate. The weekly discussion posting on FSO for the month 10 LMO class yields results demonstrating that the majority of the participants believe that a teacher in the classroom will not be replaced.

One innovation that dares to challenge the notion that the teacher can’t be replaced is the Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS). ITSs seek to mimic human tutors by generating instructions in both real time and on demand depending on student needs (Intelligent tutoring, 2008). These ITSs function around 3 set categories: student, subject matter, and pedagogical. The ITS also provides feedback and lesson materials as a human teacher would. ITSs generate appropriate material and given hints during and feedback after lessons. These ITSs also have the capability to understand why students make mistakes and, as such, adjust delivery to compensate for the individual student’s style. In some instances, ITSs can also adapt to a learner’s emotional states and change language delivery methods to better suit the learner’s vocabulary.

@Joe- Wow, reading about ITS's is very interesting yet scary at the same time. When I listened to the Wimba session and all of my classmates thoughts and feelings on computers replacing teachers the general consensus was that computers will not replace teachers but after reading your blog entry I'm a little worried.

Week 2 Reading Activity 8-Learning Systems: The Cost of Implementation

Reading Activity 8-Learning Systems: The Cost of Implementation

According to Saul Carliner (2005):

“Analysts in the online learning industry comment that learning management systems are often the most expensive learning investment made by organizations. Costs can easily range from $500,000 to several million dollars.”

Some organizations choose a commercial or open source system that they install and manage and others choose to develop an in house custom made system like Full Sail has done.

Why would an organization choose to build their own learning system? The reason for this is simply because they may not need all of the components that a ready made learning system has to offer and thus they can save money. However, building your own system has it’s expenses as well, because you must employ the people to develop and create the learning system.

Even if an organization chooses to use an open source solution there are still costs such as installation, maintenance, support and the cost of upgrades.

Either way an online learning management system can be very costly. Each organization must decide what they need and figure out which solution works best for them.

Carliner, S. (November, 2005). Course Management Systems Versus Learning Management Systems. Retrieved from www.astd.org.

Week 2 Comment #2 on Joe Huber's Blog

WEEK 2 READING 7: ADL/STANDARDS/SCORM

The primary purpose of Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) is to harness the power of technology to deliver and distribute education and training (ADL vision). ADL is responsible for the creation and development of the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) initiative, which would allow for Learning Management Systems (LMS) to be used interchangeably without proprietary constraints. The main function of SCORM content is that it has the ability to be used within a variety of systems in order to recognize students and relay their success and mastery of a certain subject or topic (Basic SCORM concepts, 2008). Provided that the LMS is SCORM conformant, the SCORM is interchangeable across a variety of platforms, which leads to the reusability of the original content.

My Comment:

@ Joe-
I too find ADL/SCORM very interesting and I enjoyed reading your paragraph on FLVS. Virtual Microscope labs? How cool is that? I like the fact that in addition to homework assignments the platform offers interactive games to aid in comprehension of each lesson. Sounds like FLVS has a good thing going!

FRIDAY, JULY 16, 2010 - 11:11 AM

Week 3 Wimba Session

So I just finished listening to an watching the Wimba Archive. Another great session, thank you!

Thanks for the great tip on the blogs and how we should copy and paste our comments before we hit submit since some people have to approve their comments. I have not had this problem yet but I appreciate the heads up!

I enjoyed listening to the descriptions by students of each of the different managements systems and all of the comments in the text box.

Stacie comments about CMS and the negative aspects of it were interesting. She discussed the cost as well as the ability to be a responsive teacher. This brings up a good point and one to reflect on.

When you discussed trying to fit in everything in 30 days with this master's program and how it's something that you as a professor keep trying to perfect, I appreciate that. I think that the professors at Full Sail do an EXCELLENT job fitting everything into the allotted time frame.

I enjoyed hearing my classmates discuss other platforms they have used.

I have started playing around in UDUTU and find it pretty easy to use, looking forward to developing my lesson in UDUTU.

Week 2 Comment #1 on Abbie Toy's Blog

@Abbie,

I found this article on ADL and SCORM to be very interesting. This is the way that we are moving, and I think it's great! Technology such as this is a very cost effective way to manage Global Collaboration. The fact that this can be utilized anywhere at anytime is also so important to the effectiveness of ADL. I visited the link your provided for ADL and I noticed that there are no membership costs or fees in order to be involved with ADL or SCORM. Simply become a registered user and you can stay up to date on events, articles and the latest information from adlnet.gov. Of course as you mentioned as with most things there are still bugs and improvement will be a continuos process, Thanks for sharing!

Wk2 Reading Activity 7 - ADL/Standards/SCORM

What do you get when the government, industry, and academia collaborate to provide education and training worldwide in the most interactive, cost effective, and individualized way you can imagine? You get the ADL (Advanced Distributed Learning) Initiative! This is a plan to connect learning management systems by creating tools and content based on standards that allows for use on multiple LMS platforms. You can check out their website here.

The ADL website describes the content to "standardize and modernize the delivery of training and education" as SCORM. SCORM stands for shareable content object reference model, which was developed by the ADL Initiative team. The website also outlines the requirements for SCORM: interoperability, accessibility, reusability, durability, maintainability, and adaptability. SCORM has to be able to work on many different learning management systems and be based on guidelines, specifications, and standards. SCORM is made up of metadata, which specifies language and level of difficulty, contains content objects, and allows for searches within the content.

All in all, the ADL is working hard to make online learning more accessible and easy-to-use. They created SCORM so that content can be standards-based and the best that it can be! Although I read some great things about SCORM, I also found that like any program, there are some bugs to be worked out. I truly think this is only the beginning of the ADL Initiative, and as changes are made and more ideas are sorted out - some amazing technology is going to prevail! Downes (2000) notes that the "ADL worked closely with another important online learning initiative, the Instructional Management Systems Project in the development of a standard for learning objects (a learning object is a self-contained package of educational material)." The more ADL works with others in improving the content, the more exciting online education becomes!

References

Downes, S. (2000). Advanced distributed learning network. The Technology Source. Retrieved from http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=1034

Week 2 UDUTU Set-Up

1. Wright, Amanda
2. Prior Project Selected: Social Skills- Kindness and Cooperation
3. EMDT Class created in with date: Month 4, Education Design & Evaluation
4. This lesson will utilize a previously created website where students work their way through a variety of learning tools related to social skills. They will listen to different scenarios and have to discuss with their classmates, take on a Random Acts of Kindness Challenge and be asked to take an online quiz related to Kindness and Cooperation.
5. URL where your pre-Udutu lesson can be found: http://web.me.com/abwright1994/Kindness/Kindness_and_Cooperation.html

Week 1 Project LMO Overview

Reading Activity 4 Process and Purpose

Dartmouth Writing Program

What is an Academic Paper?

This article discusses the differences between a college paper and a high school paper. Two very different things. “. Old formulae, such as the five-paragraph theme, aren't sophisticated or flexible enough to provide a sound structure for a college paper.” Academic writing which is the type of writing one would use in College is typically devoted to topics and questions that are of interest to the community. (Gocsik, 2005). Gocsik states that academic writing should present the reader with an informed argument.

Choosing a topic can be difficult if the instrucor has not given the writer a topic to write on. The writer needs to make sure it’s relevant and interesting. The writer should also consider their position on the subject and their audience and how the writer plans to reach the reader. Gocsik states “don't write simply to please your professor.”

The very first thing the writer should do is to find out what they know about the topic. Then the writer should figure out what is important about the topic and then ask themselves what they don’t know about the topic.

Using appropriate tone and style is very important when writing on a college level. According to Gocsik, “Remember: professors are human beings, capable of boredom, laughter, irritation, and awe. Understand that you are writing to a person who is delighted when you make your point clearly, concisely, and persuasively. Understand, too, that she is less delighted when you have inflated your prose, pumped up your page count, or tried to impress her by using terms that you didn't take the time to understand.” Interesting papers and papers that make the reader laugh, smile and really think about are the types of papers that instructors are looking for.

Comment #2 on Joe Huber's Blog

JoeHuber's Blog Entry

"One of the more astounding and surprising aspects of course management systems (CMS) is that most anyone who is associated with them, or have used them, are not about to answer whether or not they work at keeping students engaged, or if they are an accurate measure of mastery (Carmean & Brown, 2005). Faculty members embrace them for use in their classes because higher education students embrace the new modes of learning, so little effort is extended to determine their success"

Comment on Joe Huber's Blog

@ Joe

"School systems now faced with diminishing budgets must look at ways to implement CMS in an open-source environment, taking advantage of applications that they can use for free." How true! There are so many great free Web 2.0 tools that are available on the internet that can tackle many of the tasks that CMS needs to achieve. Student input is so important as well. We are the ones using the systems and therefore we are the best ones to critique it and give suggestions on improvement!

Comment #1 on Kathy Kellen's Blog

From Kathy Kellen's Blog

Dartmouth Writing Program Materials for Students:

What is Academic Writing? Tips For Transitioning Writers

In her article “What Is An Academic Paper?” Karen Gocsik (2004) addresses how writing in college differs from that in high school. She clearly defines “academic writing” as writing that is done by scholars for other scholars, such that addresses topics that the academic community is interested in, and presents the reader with an informed argument. Writers of the NACTA Journal article “Teaching Tips/Notes” explain that

Using the professional/ technical style would demonstrate that

the student not only has studied and understands the material

well but also has organized his/or her thoughts using the

professional style common for that field of study and has

therefore moved to a higher level of organization. (2010).

My Comment on Kathy's Blog

@ Kathy
This article was so interesting for me and something I still struggle with. Writing on a personal level just comes so naturally to me and having to move into a more analytical type of writing has been difficult. The list of questions would be very helpful to ask myself as I work through the writing process. At lease I can say that my writing now is much different from my writing in high school, so I guess I'm on the right path!

Week 1 Wimba 1

I enjoyed listening to as well as watching the Wimba session for the first week of class. I apologize but I will not be able to make the Wimba's this month as I have a prior engagement on Wednesday nights that usually last until 9pm.

With that being said, I love the video in Wimba! So nice to be able to actually see the person who I am listening to. So thank you for enabling video.

I appreciated all the clarification about assignments as well as the Lit Review. Thankfully I didn't have too many more changes to make to my Lit Review and I just submitted it so I'm thankful to have that out of the way.

The extra week due to the holiday was a nice surprise!