Final Presentation

Well, we have come to the end of class. It was great to get to know my classmates, but it feels a little surreal since the only two I have met in person are Tama and Chen. I think some of the others have also been in some of my previous classes. I wonder if web cams would add a desirable dimension to class, that of "seeing" others in the class. My next task is to get busy on finishing my starred paper.

12 Days

That's how many days are left on my countdown calendar. I finished the final paper for IM 554 today and submitted it to the drop box. I still need to prepare a presentation for this assignment. I submitted the final paper for IM 623 and I have almost finished the presentation for that assignment. I sent the remainders of the emails for my Starred paper research today. I hope I get some responses so I can have something for the research portion of my paper. One last item to finish is the paper I am writing for one credit entitled : Professional Development for Information Media. Most of the projects I am working on for the CTC are complete. I may need to assist the student workers in entering the new curriculum materials into the Access database. We will finish the shelf list inventory of the children's literature collection this week. It has been a busy semester and I have learned a lot.

Three weeks left in the semester, counting finals week.

And four weeks left for my daughter before she graduates Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with a minor in Mathematics from UMD. After listening to her graduate symposium yesterday, I would have to agree that her undergrad science degree was probably much more demanding than my IM graduate degree. But, we both get gold tassels with a 12 on them - that means a photo op sometime this summer.
Now to start working on writing my paper.

Ahhhhh, technology

I got to work this morning and the main library computer had a post it note with a very sick face on it. Apparently it is not long for this world. Every document I had is inaccessible; I cannot even access the spreadsheet I was using temporarily between library management systems. Now I wish I had set it up as a Google Doc instead of as a Windows spreadsheet. If I had done that, I would not have lost all the data about who had which book checked out. Live and learn.

Week 12 or 13 depending on how it is counted.

I am afraid I rather dropped the ball on the Wiki assignment. Holly did a great job setting up the wiki and classmates contributed awesome resources. I had a crazy busy week at work and school and did not check in as often as I should. We go so fast in this class it is hard to catch up once a topic has flown by. One week on a topic doesn't seem like enough to really learn it. On the other hand, we seem to be spending a lot of time on other topics such as Twitter, which is still ongoing. I want to spend some more time investigating podcasts on my own. So far, that seems like the best Web 2.0 tool with applications for school that I have found. I have at least two teachers who are interested in learning more about it and using it in classes next year.

It is already Week 11; yikes!

Time apparently flies when you want it to slow down. We have just six weeks to the end of the semester. Six weeks to write a proposal for the final project, research the topic, work on the design document, begin the project, do formative assessment, finalize the project and prepare a presentation about the project. And this is just this class. Plus also, continue tweeting 10 tweets a week, weekly assignments, responding to classmates tweets, and on it goes. I am already exhausted just thinking about it. Time to go to bed.

Week 8 Over Break and beyond

Wow. Lots to do in the next week or so. I have been looking at articles about Wikis for our class discussion that I am coLeading with Holly. I will double check her paper's references to see if I have duplicates or not. This coming week I have my interview presentation. Two weeks from Monday, I have my first committee meeting for my research proposal for my starred paper. I should read through my paper a few times before then. Spring break has been good. I did a moderate amount of house cleaning, some personal (not for class assignments) reading, and am up north visiting my parents. We are taking a field trip to Maplelag today and attending a family bridal shower tomorrow. Sleeping in later than 5:30 has been nice, also.

Explaining the QR code

I hope I did this the way it was assigned. After missing the directions in class, and not getting very prompt replies to my queries ( I do understand; after all, we are on break.) I decided I could probably figure this out by going to classmates blogs to figure out what they had done. Some had listed codes that led back to their blogs. Tama had text. I decided I would just make a code with text explaining my process in case someone else also needed to know what to do. I hope I have not led anyone astray. If I have, let a millstone be put on my neck.

my QR code, finally...

Week 7 Snow/leap day!

What a blessing to have the chance to work from home today. I had time to actually read through the papers done by the four presenters at tomorrow's class as well as catch up on some cleaning and baking that needed to get done. (and if I don't do it, no one else will. They all like to eat banana bread and caramel rolls, but they refuse to learn how to make them.)
  I am amazed by the variety of projects everyone did. So far no duplicates and I learned from each one. I am glad I will get to work with Holly on the 'wiki' presentation. I would like to try this with our third graders. The teacher is technology teachable and this class is unusually bright and compliant - a good combination for a pilot project. I printed her paper to share with our administration and the teacher.
  I think I have at least nine blog posts this semester, but I will continue to post as I feel the need to record learning experiences and frustrations. The Twitter assignment has felt like work, but that is how you learn a new skill, by working at it. I like how I can check it on my iPhone.

Week 6 Before class

Just a word to say about Twitter: exhausting
I usually think of Twitter as something ephemeral and off the cuff; having an assigned tweeting schedule seemed forced. I am not sure how successful it is as a class communication tool. I had a lot of communication from some members of the class, and not very much if any from others. I can see it as an informal communication tool for groups, but I prefer texting on my phone for most informal messages.

Week 5 of Learning Online

I finally figured out what Dr Park meant about tabs on Twitter to find the resources shared. It is actually listed under her favorites. How do some of my classmates find time to tweet so much? I guess it is something like developing a habit. I have to think about what to tweet, decide if I have something worthy to say, find the device upon which to tweet, type it up and send it out. One minor annoyance is using the hash tag. Not so bad on a keyboard, but requires several layers of choosing keyboard on the iPhone.
From this week's readings, I am reminded of my favorite tool for online learning: my MacBook Pro. If I was not taking classes online for the Educational Media degree, I would probably not be using it right now. How sad, because I love my computer. It has been so easy to learn to use - intuitively easy. Lots of people who have notebook computers use some kind of wireless mouse, but the mouse pad on this MacBook is just fine. If only it could do laundry.

later weekend musings

Twitter is great, but the pressure to think of two tweets a day that relate to class and read through the potential of twenty something tweets can be uber-whelming. BTW-I am distracted by my new current read. Finished with Hunger Games for IM623, I had to purchase Catching Fire. Can't put it down without great effort and self-discipline. I mean the family does have to eat and I have company coming for an overnight tomorrow.

early weekend musings

I thought Twitter was going to be another of the Web 2.0 tools I would learn and quickly abandon; however, this could be a great way for a small group to communicate ideas quickly. I must share this at school. It is way more efficient than email.

Week 4 Just keeping track of ideas for Thursday night's discussion.

It seems like we have been talking a lot about learners and how they learn. With online learning, there is a new emphasis on collaborative learning that was not a part of the online learning of a few years ago. I took a class from the University of Iowa in 1998 that had a distance component. There was no collaborative learning at all. I have always preferred to work on my own. I am old enough that when I was in school, group work was rare and mainly used to put underachievers with high achievers so the former could actually pass. At least that is what it seemed like. This class is quite a turn around for me. I am on unexplored territory. I have studied learning theories, but it seems as if we are coming up with new paradigms for online learners. Technology has not only had an effect on learners, but on learning as well. I know I struggled for the last year to bring my own technology skills up to an acceptable level. It still feels like something I put on rather than being a natural part of me to find things on my computer, to make posts on my blog ( which I still do only as part of an IM assignment). I am a chalkboard person in a Smart board world.

Weekend was so busy, this had to wait until Monday before work

I like to get caught up with reading on Friday, but last week, after work, we headed to Duluth to be with our daughter and take her to her MRI at St Mary's hospital on Saturday morning. We got home in the afternoon on Saturday just in time to prepare for having a couple families over. I know this looks like bad timing, but we have been trying to get together for a couple months and I did not want to postpone yet again. That left Sunday afternoon to read a lot of articles. Here's what I have to figure out. We still have a reading assignments, but no writing required every other week. We are to use the blog reflections to talk about our struggles and questions about learning online. Where do we keep track of all the ideas we pick up in the asynchronous readings? I guess I will just start a word document to keep my notes organized as I read. There is no way I can remember all the finer points of eight readings plus 1-2 of my own for the bi-weekly discussions. I suppose that is one of the things about online learning to learn. Be self-directed. Figure out for yourself how to manage time and resources.

Week 4 Questions

One thing I am really wondering about in this class is the actual weekly due dates for posting our summaries and responses. Are we supposed to have the summary posted by 11:59 pm on Sunday because it is due on Monday or is it ok to have it done by 11:59pm on Monday? Same thing for responses - 11:59 pm on Tuesday or Wednesday?

I have put together a paper schedule of assignment due dates that includes both of my D2L classes. I need to add some personal intermediate deadlines for making progress on the final product. I really should work on the design document for the web page I am creating. I already have ideas for what I want to include. Besides this class, I have another D2L class, a one credit independent project and I need to work on the research for my starred paper. That will have lots of deadlines and time constraints I do not even know about yet. All this on top of working full time and having evening classes and activities puts homework on the weekends.  Thankfully, the every other week asynchronous class allows for time to catch up on reading and research.

Weekend Musings

This class could really get out of control for me. The more I learn about online learning, the more I find myself on bunny trails to vast other sources of information. In researching the interview assignment, I have become caught up in just following my interviewee and her online information. I plan to post a link to her school web page just for the amazing professional development resources they have made available.

Byron High School professional development

I am going to post this on the web site I am developing for my final project; it will be a great resource for teachers at my school.

Week Three Reflections

    In the article "Institutions' use of Instructional Technologies in Online Education" I found some interesting information about a range of types of online programs. Basic programs allow instructors in the same institution to develop coursework independently and use a variety of means for communication with students. Advanced programs use a "systems-based approach" where different instructors in a program follow prescribed methods of communication and course delivery.
    It has long been a frustration for me in the coursework I have taken in the Information Media department because all the instructors are autonomous. In fact, I have been told that no instructor is to have any control over how another instructor runs any particular class. This puts the program in the basic rather than the advanced spectrum. One has to relearn how to navigate the system for each class. D2L pages are set up differently for each class. Methods of communication differ in each course. I think a systems-based approach would be more efficient and would lessen the transactional distance that IM students experience when they have to become acquainted with each new instructor in the program.

Week Two Discoveries

I must have missed something in class last week, but apparently, we have synchronous meetings only every other week. The even weeks are left for reflection, reading the material and preparing for the next week's discussion.
To that end, I would like to use this space to record my thoughts on trends and issues for online learning K-12.
The top seven trends I see in online learning include the following:
1. Mobile devices such as iPads, android tablets, etc.
2. Course management systems such as Moodle.
3. online instruction in PSEO courses (delivery of instruction)
4. YouTube postings of recorded lessons; think Byron H. S. Math lessons
5. Web 2.0 tools such as Blogs, wikis, etc used for class communication
6. Significant growth in small, rural school districts in use of online education opportunities
7. 21st Century skills and growth in technology literacy

reflections of the first readings

As I am reading about online learning and how it can be made more effective, I am seeing how our class can model aspects of creating effective online learning.
First, we have been assigned to create some space for reflection (this blog).
Second, according to Anderson in "Towards a Theory..., effective online instruction includes a place for student introductions as a means of understanding student prerequisite learning. This has been done in the D2L discussion page. Since I have no experience at all in designing online instruction, I hope to learn the ropes from classmates and class content.
And finally, it is up to me to search and research for ideas as I seek to construct my own learning about online learning and connect it to concepts I have learned previously.

Week One IM 554

Just getting the weekly journal blog set up. This will serve as one facet of developing skills for online learning.