Harvard Education Letter Students in Hayley Dupuy’s sixth-grade science class at the Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School in Palo Alto, Calif., are beginning a unit on plate tectonics. In small groups, they are producing their own questions, quickly, one after another: What are plate tectonics? How fast do plates move? Why do plates move? Do plates affect temperature? What animals can sense the plates moving? Far from Palo Alto, in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Mass., Sharif Muhammad’s students at the Boston Day and Evening Academy (BDEA) have a strikingly similar experience. These two students—one in Palo Alto, the other in Roxbury—are discovering something that may seem obvious: When students know how to ask their own questions, they take greater ownership of their learning, deepen comprehension, and make new connections and discoveries on their own. The origins of the QFT can be traced back 20 years to a dropout prevention program for the city of Lawrence, Mass., that was funded by the Annie E.
'Online Learning: Developing an Online Learning Community' - Anchorage K-12 A recent article in Educational Technology Research & Development stated, "The rate of online learning has increased expeditiously in the last ten years and at least 60% of students have taken at least one online course." However, despite the increase methods of delivery the quality of the delivery has remained in question. Many have suggested that online learning has truly enhanced the learning environment and lecture halls have also benefited from some form of online learning as part of its program. Although data has shown improvement in student learning using online means of communication, many still feel that the output of these types of environments are inferior to a face-to-face lecture. Students and Learning Student’s ability to interact is based on his or her learning communities and the active learning process, which then leads to personalization, self-actualization, higher self-regard and an opportunity to connect with other people. Recommendations 1. Web-based Instruction
AJET 19(2) Brook and Oliver (2003) - online learning communities - a design framework Chris Brook and Ron OliverEdith Cowan University This paper reports the development of a design framework intended to support and guide online instructors in the development of a learning community. The study was guided by an investigation of contemporary literature focused on the community construct, online learning community development and the collaborative construction of knowledge and the practices of experienced professionals working in the field. The intended outcome is a design framework that may be useful in guiding instructors in the development of said communities. Introduction It has been suggested that the social phenomenon of community may be put to good use in the support of online learning (Bonk & Wisher, 2000; Hiltz, 1998; Palloff & Pratt, 1999; Rovai, 2002). This paper describes an investigation of the development of online learning communities. Understanding community Notwithstanding the continued debate, several features of community have general acceptance. Presage
Using Piazza to Encourage Interaction [This is a guest post by Abir Qasem, who teaches intro to programming, AI, cloud, and device programming courses for the Computer Science Department at Bridgewater College. You can find him online or follow him on Twitter at @abirqasem.--@JBJ] In my introductory programming courses, my pedagogy relies heavily on collaborative problem solving during class time. Piazza is a Web 2.0 tool that allows students to ask questions and engage in dialogue on the Internet with the professor and with each other. Click for full size. Piazza has a chatroom feel to it, while offering enough structure to be used effectively in a classroom environment. My initial goal was quite modest – I wanted to use it as an extension to the classroom discussion. Piazza captures class statistics, which can be interesting (see screenshot for “posts” vs. What I specifically did Initially I started the class with challenge questions on Piazza. The bottom line Have you tried Piazza, or a similar system? Return to Top
Traits of an effective online community leader The best online community facilitators ask for and share news of personal accomplishments—they’re tuned in to what’s going on in the professional world that surrounds this particular community. When members publish books, post widely read blog entries, garner awards and recognition, the community leader knows and makes sure the community knows. This, by the way, is something to really consider during the planning stage of community development. How are we going to celebrate what’s happening in the lives of the people who are engaged in the community? One strategy I’ve seen had the community facilitator creating a biweekly “community news” post that also invited participants to add their own news via comments. This was highly successful, in part because people who might be shy about “bragging” on themselves (a not uncommon trait, especially among teachers) felt comfortable adding to a “news blast” that already bragged on other community participants.
What Is An Online Community? What is an online community? For such a simple question one may assume there would also be a simple answer associated with it; however, as communication technology changes so do the words that define it. This is the second article in a three part series about online community management. The final article in the series will highlight what motivates an online community, but before that happens I need a sufficient amount of data that I will also be using for my communications thesis. Please take a moment to take or share this survey, and I will report back with the data. This image was adapted from images taken by Flickr users katerha and TheBigTouffe In a previous article I helped define what an online community manager is, and in doing so many other questions were raised about the different types of online community managers. Are communities closed or open? Internal vs External Who is the community? This model is not to scale, clearly. All Together Now Questions?
ETEC540: Text, Technologies – Community Weblog | A MET collaborative Weblog | Page 30 This image and quote from Richardson is representing technology and how it is evolving the complexity of the changing spaces or reading and writing. New forms of representation are developing with the use of new media and it changes the face of literacy. Communication is now done through a multitude of mediums and sometimes by using symbols, characters, emoticons, pictures, etc. The common space of reading and writing is allowing people to share information, collaborate and learn together with anyone in the world. Barriers and frontiers between people are progressively disapearing. I am an online teacher at www.apprentissageenligne.org. I got interested in educational technology while working on an online test for the adult education to determine the students’ level of competency prior to their return to school. This is my 9th course in the program and I am still very excited to be part of this great learning community. I am looking forward to learn from all of you. Johanne
What Exactly is an Online Community Manager? You’ve been to communities, you may have even created them, but what roles are evolving within them? Online community management by no means is a standard job, so I decided to seek out what other online community managers are currently doing. Like the start of all things we are curious about now, I began this fact finding mission by doing a basic Google search to see what exactly an online community manager looks like. A Dictator? According to the top ranking images on Google several alarming images are presented that shows a community manager on a pedestal above members, leading a pack, or holding a magnifying glass (can’t find his users?). There was also this random image displaying what appears to be a community manager hugging an 8-bit version of himself too, but that is an entirely different article. The community manager as a dictator via Google Images Or a Role Model? The community manager as a role model via Google Images Community Manager Job Opportunity Comparisons
Chapter 11-Teaching in an online context Figure 11-1. Community of inquiry. In a work on teaching presence, Anderson, Rourke, Archer, and Garrison (2001) delineated three critical roles that a teacher performs in the process of creating an effective teaching presence. The first of these roles is the design and organization of the learning experience that takes place both before the establishment of the learning community and during its operation. Second, teaching involves devising and implementing activities to encourage discourse between and among students, between the teacher and the student, and between individual students and groups of students and content resources (Anderson, 2002). In addition to these tasks, in formal education, the institution and its teacher employees are usually fulfilling a critical credentialing role that involves the assessment and certification of student learning. top Activities in this category of teaching presence include building curriculum materials. Getting the Mix Right Assessment Frameworks
Chapter 7-The Devt of Online Courses Chapter 7 The Development of Online Courses Dean Caplan Bow Valley College In the ideal world, instructional media developers—those who will actually create the planned instructional materials with which the student will interact—are included in the course development process from the beginning, to consult with and advise course team members on development-related topics as they arise. • the instructional designs of the learning materials are stable because they have been based firmly on sound, proven learning theories; • these instructional designs will meet the institution's identified and articulated internal and external standards for quality, usability, and interoperability; • appropriate media have been selected to meet these standards; • the designs are practical and can be developed in a cost-effective and timely way. Of course, most of us do not have the luxury of working in an ideal world. top Definition of an Online Course What does it mean for a course to be considered “online”? 1.