Friday, February 28, 2014

Week 4 Links and analysis

Building e-learning

by Keenan Kibrick

Good afternoon Pepperdine University audience, I wanted to have one more link group to focus on the topic of best instructional design practices in the classroom.  I believe these resources are very useful and I hope you will find them useful as well.


Learner help to build e-Learning

Why I opened it:  This article was opened because it appeared to help facilitate a great theory of education, making the classroom based on what students want/need, and seeking out student opinion.  I was curious to see how to improve classes before a class starts based on previous year data.  I always follow this theory after a class finishes, but I was curious to see how the data could be used for the next semester.

Why I kept reading it:  It divides tips for how to reflect on your class before you start it.  It’s all about developing new courses, but it could also be used for someone who is trying to re-develop a course they are teaching. It takes tips from the idea of thinking like a designer with the purpose of teaching to a specific audience.  This designer method is very good for faculty, but even more important in an online class or blended classroom.  Online and blended classes should be laid out as much as possible on day one because more of a class is public at a time in an online environment then a face-to-face environment.  Students need to be able to navigate the different tabs to know what to expect for the class.  Building a fully prepared online class before the first day is very important, and these steps help make sure that the class which is built mirrors best design practices.

For more information about this I also recommend the following Extra Credit Video:


It’s on thinking like a designer.  While the video is for game design I find a lot of it can be applied to class design. Both this video and the article provide great ideas to help prepare for a new class, and how to re-examine to improve a class. This idea overall of thinking like a designer is a great practice and the document really helps follow user experience feedback methods to improve an online class.


It’s perfect for:  Online faculty, faculty who use courses to improve their class, and faculty who want to learn best design practices applied to the field of education

Evaluating eLearning


Why I opened it:  I found the above link while looking at this link.  http://elearningindustry.com/the-anatomy-of-great-e-learning-quiz-questions.  The first link was about ways want to improve the type of questions faculty can provide on exams, and when they mentioned it was about e-learning I was curious to explore the differences between e-learning questions and face-to-face questions.  The article though wasn’t that good, to me, but it did have a link to an article about evaluating our own online classes. This link turned out to be worth it and a great article about evaluating a person’s own online course. 

Why I kept reading it:  It’s a simple short blog post about 3 ways people can also think like a designer for classes.  I highly recommend reading this article after the two posts from the first article.  It talks about user testing in online classes, feedback forms inside classes, and tracking student achievement after a class.  It has great strategies that are worth exploring for a class, and can even expand past the online and blended classroom for ideas.

It’s perfect for:  Class improvement, more info. to think like a designer, faculty who want to read a short but valuable way to re-think the learning process.



Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Ice Breaker: Image Scavenger Hunt

Breaking the Ice

Find an Image that Represents Your View on the Subject

by Alan Regan

There are many ways to "break the ice" in an online or blended class, or even weeks before a face-to-face class begins. As they say, a picture says a thousand words. Why not combine both?

This is an example I created for the Social Entrepreneurship and Change program at GSEP.

ACTIVITY DETAILS

  • Introduce yourself and then briefly explain your understanding and vision for social justice philanthropy by searching for an image that you feel represents this for you.
  • Through this exercise, you will connect with one another, become comfortable with using the discussion forum tool, and have fun!

ACTIVITY INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Visit http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/ 
  2. Search the creative commons repository for an image that represents your viewpoint on social justice philanthropy. Spend no more than five (5) minutes.
  3. Get the web address for the image and add it to your post.
  4. Write 1-3 sentences explaining how this image represents your viewpoint.
  5. Be sure to cite the image author by linking to the Flickr web address for the picture.
  6. Post your answer!

 TECHNICAL HOW-TO STEPS:

On Flickr
  • Visit http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
  • Click "See More" below the "Attribution License" section.
  • Search for your image. Short, simple terms are best.
  • Click the desired search result. 
  • On the right, scroll down. Click the "More Actions" button and then select "Download / All Sizes."
  • Click "Medium" (in most cases -- about 500 pixels wide)
  • Right-click and select "Copy Image Location" (or equivalent to copy the web address to the image)
  • Don't close the web page! You'll need the photographer's name for your citation!
On Courses/Sakai
  • Click "Start a new conversation" in the top tool bar.
  • In the text editor, click the "Image" button in the toolbar (second row, toward the right between the flag and the red "F" circle).
  • Paste the web address to the image in the URL field.
  • Click "OK."
  • Enter your reason for selecting this image. How does it represent your viewpoint on social justice philanthropy? Limit your response to 1-3 sentences.
  • Click "Post."
  • Done!

Resources:


Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Keenan's Week One: Web Resources Review

 Web Resources Review

 by Keenan Kibrick

It is a pleasure to be a new contributor to the technology and learning blog.  My name is Keenan Kibrick and I am one of the new Instructional Technologists on the team.  I wanted to begin by posting a series of links to interesting articles towards improving classroom education.  Each one is easy and quick to read, but offers a lot of good advice to help improve the classroom.  I hope you will enjoy reading them as much as I did.

10 ways to teach for the google generation

Why I opened it:  I always want to know more about the next generation of students so I can help improve education delivery to a group of students that grew up with different values and beliefs in education then I have.
Why I read it:  Once I started reading the tips I couldn’t stop thinking about them.  Having students grapple with big questions without answers was an amazing idea, and from there they went into all the ways online education tools can be used in the classroom.  I would love to see these ideas used in more classes.  The rest follow suit as great ideas that could easily be implemented in a classroom.  It’s a quick read with great ideas that could revolutionize classrooms.
It’s perfect for:  Faculty who want to try new education strategies, faculty who are struggling to relate to students, and faculty who want to design innovative curriculum

Gamification Roadmap infographic

Why I opened it:  Gamification is a passion of mine and when I read of the idea of a roadmap I wanted to see one person’s opinion of proper gamification.
Why I read it:  Once I opened the link realized my first opinion was wrong in a very good way.  This isn’t a roadmap of a specific type of way to look at gamification, it’s a roadmap to designing gamification anyway you want.  It’s not made for education, and has a little bit of a business edge, but the concept can easily be applied to the classroom.  It goes over all aspects of gamification from the type of people that are gamers, to the types of different ways to gamify an area.  It is very good, and if a step doesn’t apply to you, just keep reading more and you’ll get great gamification ideas.
It’s perfect for:  Faculty who already know only the basics of gamification, Faculty who want to design gamified classes, Faculty who want an illustrated guide to a subject.

Extra Credits: Fail Faster

Why I opened it:  Extra Credits is one of the best video series there is, and has many inspirational ideas for design and gamification.  My favorite is even an episode on the Gamification an education http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuDLw1zIc94.  When they made one on the concept of failing faster (a concept I believe deeply) I had to watch it.
Why I watched it:  This was everything I imagined.  It quickly discusses the importance of failure in creating and generating improvement.  It’s a great video to make you think about the importance of trying and failing and how through failure we grow and improve.  They do it in a quick funny way I appreciate.  They did a great job and they really made a good explanation of the importance of failing early a lot so you don’t fail when it counts.
It’s perfect for:  Faculty who want to become more comfortable with the concept of failure, faculty who want to take a risk and improve their class in a radical way, faculty who want to learn the importance of trial and error in the class