Most interesting was the visit to the LoTi Connection website (http://www.loticonnection.com/index.html)!
At this site they have 6 different levels of technology implementation. I was surprised to see that my level of technology use in instruction was no where near a 6. It fell into 4a! At this level I do integrate technology yet, it addresses the mechanical challenges brought on by myself and the students.
There was an ongoing discussion about faculty help and the need to have staff that knows the technology but understands the educational paradigm. The challenge is maintaining the balance between the two. Then the biggest challenge is having the staff member communicate and instruct the faculty member.
There was a discussion about Moodle and its use in the University down in Puerto Rico. Based on the demo I may have to take a closer look at Moodle. The platform seems better inter grated with different software programs.
Throughout the day I also came across other online programs that will be helpful resources for collaborative teaching and learning. There was rubistar for the creation of rubrics, bubble which allows for collaborative outlining and wikis' which I am still trying to master.
We then discussed Authentic Task Design based on the Herrington and Reeves article. I readily noticed the challenge of my courses and the lack of authentic design. I am starting to think about the authentic concept for my courses. I think it can be easily incorporated into my sociology courses. When thinking about the application there are some possibilities to have students experience cultural situations in a real-life scenarios. I could design a study for the students that would take them out to the community and have them "live out" the situation. This would be a lesson that would be for small groups (2-4 students). The topics most suitable would be american consumerism, political landscape or religion and politics.
When doing faculty development the one area where I think there is some authentic task design (without even knowing it before this class) is the online seminar we offer faculty who are going to teach online. By taking the online seminar the faculty as participants experience what will happen to them as instructors teaching online. In addition they also get to experience what it is like be a student in an online environment.
I guess with the conclusion of the dy I walk away realizing that there is more and mor collaborative tools
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Jim, I think utilizing some authentic examples/tasks for faculty development is an excellent idea. In fact, it is becoming very popular for pre-service teacher education. I look forward to hearing more ideas about this from you!
Jim, I completely forgot about the LoTi part of the day. Thanks for reminding me. (It probably didn't make as lasting a impression because I had no illusions about being a 6; I was just glad there weren't negative numbers to chose from.) I second Minchi's post about looking forward to hearing more ideas about your online teacher ed.
Post a Comment