In this class, we have had the opportunity to read about and use a variety of online tools, to discuss the tools which we see as useful and relevant, and to add our own list of tools to our blogs.  When designing an online course, an instructor should use the tools necessary to insure good communication with students, collaborative learning, timely feedback, and flexibility.  The interface needs to be user friendly.  The tools needed to make this happen are very basic:  Internet access, common interface (such as Blackboard), word processor, PDF reader, Internet browser, and email service.  Tools that have enhanced my learning experience this semester are the gator feed, blogging site, and TappedIn for exploring our math teacher’s links and interests.  Yet the most beneficial “tool” of all has been the human factor, the sharing of information and ideas.

So are course objectives a fact of life or wishful thinking?  I think it can be a little bit of both.  When a teacher designs a course, whether online or traditional, there are goals that we hope to accomplish (the fact of life part), yet there are circumstances beyond our control which keep us from accomplishing that goal (wishful thinking).  In the traditional classroom, snow days take away from the time needed to prepare students for state testing, student motivation (or lack thereof) can speed up/slow down the pace for covering material.  In the online world, network failures/computer glitches or crashes can sidetrack the best of plans.  In my own world, I see course objectives as goals to be met.  I have yet to have a year when I have met all my objectives, but I do get closer each year.  Maybe this will be the year I make it across that finish line.

Yesterday and today, I was in Louisville getting certified for Quick Recall and Future Problem Solving for our school’s academic team.  The governing agency for these competitions is known as the Governor’s Cup.  For those of you who are not familiar with Future Problem Solving, students compete in teams of 4 to come up with solutions to a futuristic problem.  This year’s topic for research is simulation technology, and Second Life’s web site is one of the suggested readings.  The other readings involve military, medical, economics, and tourism.  Here is a link on creating a virtual tour of Pompeii that was fun to read.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3954659.stm

This week’s assignment asked us to look for innovative course design.  I did a Google search using the phrase “innovative course design high school” and after looking through several pages, I came across a name that I am very familiar with–the Massachusetts Department of Education.  I have extensively used their public domain state testing questions as they are very similar to CATS questions.  The link for those multiple choice and open response questions is http://www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/testitems.html.  The main part of the page has 2007 questions, but there are hyperlinks on this page for 2006 and years before.

Their innovative course design is for improving mathematics scores.  The link to the article is http://campustechnology.com/articles/50670/.  The program they use is called Simcalc Mathworlds, and there is a link at the bottom of the article to the download site.  What I like about the program is that it is available in three formats:  TI-83/84 calculators, computer program, or TI-Navigator (a networking system for TI graphing calculators).  The computer download is 100 megabytes.  From a glance, it appears that it teaches students about different types of graphs (linear, quadratic, exponential, etc.).  I will play and post my thoughts this week.

I bridge the gap between standards and lesson plans by building a map.  Being a relatively new teacher, I had to pour over the standards for teaching high school mathematics with a fine tooth comb.  My principal my first year of teaching was very strict about all departments showing that all standards were addressed somewhere in the curricula of Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Geometry, and what week of the year it was taught.  We were supposed to design a curriculum map as a guide and show what we were teaching daily.  Having never done a map and not finding anything relevant on the Internet (and did I ever try), I came up with my own system.  I took the Core Content 3.0 and carefully mapped all the lessons in the textbooks of each of the three math classes to it.  It took a lot of time, but it was positive proof that we were trying to address the standards.  Then, Core Content 4.0 and the new Program of Studies comes out the next year, and all my work begins again because of the massive overall of the core content “content”.  I have attached my massive body of work to this post so that you can see what I did. 

But getting to the question at hand, by rebuilding my curriculum map, it is much easier to create lesson plans because I know what needs to be addressed for each lesson and each standard.  A simple checklist of each section taught during the year lets me know that each core content statement and each program of studies is taught and when it is taught.  Yet, there is always a catch–and here it is–I never get as far in the curriculum as I plan, and there are standards that get left out, that don’t get taught.  Do I believe the list is too broad?  YES.  Do I believe it all is relevant?  NO.  So I do the best I can do with the time I have and the lack of motivation of students to always learn the content.

Last year, I was fortunate enough to buy a Gateway tablet PC for my own personal use.  I had a multimedia projector in my classroom, and was using my own regular laptop and a PC Notestaker as my “chalkboard.”  I would use the white wall as my screen.  With the tablet PC, I can use something called a Windows Journal which has a background that looks like notebook paper.  I can change it to graph paper when needed (I teach math), and I can open pdfs with guided notes, Powerpoints that can with my textbook, etc.  I has revolutionized my classroom management.  My back is never to my students, and the desks in my room are arranged in an L shape in short rows so it is easy to get to students and I can make eye contact with all of them.  I found a blog that is devoted to discussing the tablet PC.  The link is:

http://tabletpceducation.blogspot.com/

For those of you who have never seen a tablet PC, they look like a regular laptop, but the screen will spin around and lie flat, and you write on the screen with a stylus.

Yesterday in the mail, I received the October copy of NEA Today, a magazine for members of the Kentucky Educators Association.  On page 42, there is an article called “Educators Got Game.”  It is extremely supportive of gaming with students, and includes mention of “The Political Game” and “Dance Dance Revolution.”  The link to the article is:  http://www.nea.org/neatoday/0710/trythis.html

The world of Wiki is like having the old Encyclopedia Britannica at your fingertips.  It is an online collection of information, a database, which can be edited by others.  I have used the Wikipedia site for almost a year now.  Recently, it was helpful on findings MUDS and MOOS.  I found several versions of Wiki I did not know about.  The first one was the Wiki Wiki Web, located at http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiWikiWeb.  What I found when researching this page is that it has lots of hyperlinks, and I ended up getting lost in a circular pattern of reading hyperlinks.  The page has a more programmer oriented discourse.  I decided after 15 minutes of exploring not to use this site as a resource for teaching. 

The one that was more user friendly was wikiHow.  Their main page is http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page.  On the left side are most recent posts of articles posted by users, and I now know how to crack a master lock.  The articles I read were very insightful.  Creating a page was very easy, and it included an RSS feed, too.

The article on the top 100 Toolbox items were a very comprehensive list, and I hope that many of us are now putting them to good use.  I went back and thought about some of the tools that I use that make my life easier as a teacher, and here are mine.

CutePDF Writer:  http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

On this page, you will also see a link to install the Ghostscript 8.15.  You will want to do that, too.  What this program does is gives you a virtual printer and creates pdf files from any program.  I use it with my TestGenerator software because I can have the software generate multiple versions of the test, but if I sent it to a regular printer, it would print the test, answer key, Kentucky state standards, etc.  A six page test results in twelve pages of print.  By creating the pdf file, I then go in a choose only the test pages and the answer key, and I can pick the version of the test to give the student, which is great for eliminating cheating and for makeup tests.  You can use it to make a backup copy of your STI gradebook, too.  The system requirements are minimal.

The second tool I use is Adobe Acrobat Professional, although I am looking for something better. I use its graphic capture tool to clip pdf documents and use them in PowerPoints (like review games for tests).   The images don’t always clip well, and tend to be fuzzy when enlarged.  If someone has a screen capture tool that you like, please post and let me know.

Coming from a computer background, I still highly recommend system utilities like backup, disk defragmenter, scandisk, regclean, ccleaner, spybot, adaware, to keep your hard drive free of trouble. 

For CCleaner, you can also use it to uninstall a program that won’t show up in your Add/Remove programs, it gets rid of temporary internet files, and basically “crap”.  The website for it is: http://www.ccleaner.com/

Spybot Search and Destroy and Adaware take care of the spyware which slows down your system.

Spybot is located at http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10122137.html  This is the most recent copy I could find.

Adaware will find things that Spybot misses.  You can download it at:

http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-2007/3000-8022_4-10731194.html?tag=lst-0-1

I use www.download.com for getting freeware or shareware because their download sites have proven reliable to me over the years.

OLDaily article on “Toward a Model of Experiential E-Learning”.  Source:  http://jolt.merlot.org/vol3no3/hannum.htm

This particular article relates very well to the information discussed in Chapter 7 of the Kearsley text.  In this article, the author brings up the point that in order to make e-learning successful, the designers need to step away from the traditional learning model (i.e. lecture) and design the courses to be more student-based learning.  The first time that I heard of student-centered learning was in a course called “Effective Classroom Instruction” at MSU.  The class taught us to use strategies like KWL’s, acrostics, and jigsaw; but these strategies are just an extention of teacher-based learning.  Experiential learning is more like what learning should be: “students and teachers become more effective change agents, develop a sense of belonging to a community, and master both skills and knowledge. In an experientially-infused e-learning course, students and teachers do much the same. In placing the emphasis on student experience, teachers design and cultivate environments in which direct instruction serves only to support student learning. Students engage in multiple forms of active learning in authentic settings, draw on their individual and/or collective experiences, and make connections between lessons covered and situations they expect to face in the future; they experience, share, process, generalize, and enact their learning. Teachers create opportunities for students to reflect on their experiences in order to assure assimilation but, again, learners themselves are at the very center of this model.”

In order to make experiential learning to work, we need more involved teachers who are trained in using the new technologies and resources out there to make learning happen.  As members of this class, we are gaining the skills necessary to lead this new way of teaching.  One thing I love about teachers as a group is that they love to “steal” ideas.  Once they see some activity that worked for another teacher, they use it in their classroom, and the ideas get passed on.  They get presented at conferences and classroom activities become more enjoyable.

Commentary on Kearsley (Chapter 7)
Readings

In Chapter 7, Kearsley addresses the complex structure of designing an interface on an online course.  He discusses two different structures:  The ISD model (Instructional Systems Development) and the Minimalism model.  The ISD model applies five concepts that I learned during my undergraduate years of analysis and design.  The process begins with an “outline” of what the project will accomplish and the specific products that need to be developed to have a final successful project.  This approach is used so that there is not wasted time and resources, a big mainstay of corporate business.  The Minimalism approach builds a prototype of the specific product and makes revisions as necessary to keep the product up and running.  In my own experience, the ISD model is far superior because of its structured approach.  If you have a good game plan in place, you can adapt it to fit the changing needs of your project.  Whereas, the minimalist approach can result in going back to square one.  The one possible advantage to minimalism is the time factor saved if the development has to be done quickly.

When describing the forms and functions of the user interface for online education, the examples in the text follow the guidelines for good web page design, such as plenty of white space, subheadings, hyperlinks, and logical organization.  When I was working with students in a web design class, Dreamweaver was the program in place.  The textbook was very comprehensive, and the students learned proper web design etiquette.  Here is a link that thoroughly describes good web design qualities (and good online education page design):  http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/dwmx_design_tips.html

A vital point made in this chapter was the use of teamwork in online education design.  There are so many tools out there, many ways of presenting information, that it is a monumental task for one person to come up with a site design.  One strong point of all business endeavors is being able to work as a team.  The whole premise of online education is to develop a community of learners.  The strongest statement made by Kearsley is that quality is directly proportional to a good learning experience.  One vital accomplishment of the way that this course is taught is that we, as students, are responsible for the quality of the education we are receiving.  Our professor gives us good guiding points to work with, and we are then given the chance to explore as in depth as we choose and given the opportunity to share on our blogs the insights we gain.  I like the blogs much better than the discussion boards because the boards tend to limit the topic of conversation to a given thread, whereas the blogs inspire me to write multiple entries on different topics.  I don’t feel like such a passive learner in this class as I have in other graduate courses.  I hope that as I continue to be a teacher in the public school system, I can break that pattern of passive learning with my own students and use the techniques and skills learned in this class to make better learners for tomorrow.