Where's the sample?

This is my second class in the Instructional Design grad program.  It's no secret that going back to school after 20 years away from the academic world was a daunting task for me. EVERYTHING has changed, including me. Twenty years ago I was a young, confident teacher working on a Masters degree at night and teaching during the day...no big deal. Now, I am questioning everything I do in a class and feeling insecure with my abilities to jump into this whole new world.

 

In my first class, the professor gave multiple samples for every assignment.  This probably would have been super helpful if I had known this at the beginning of the class, but the samples were just kind of hanging out, inconspicuously, in the corner of the room and I didn't notice them.  The examples were all very different from each other.  I looked at them all and some just did not appeal to my style at all, others did provide a starting point for me.  

When EME6414 started, I got the feeling that there would be no strict guidelines and no samples to follow.  I will admit this made me uncomfortable.  What if I'm not up to par? I would love to see examples of the projects we are working on, but I know there is a purpose to not sharing examples. I am trying to embrace the feeling because after all, growth occurs at the edge of your comfort zone and that's where I'm standing.   There is a quote by Henry Ford on the wall of Ford's Garage (the burger restaurant) and it says, "If I asked the people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." This immediately popped into my head when I read, "innovation does not occur by copying an example" in Dr. Dennen's chapter. Things don't get better if you just keep doing the same old thing all the time.  

Boom! There it is, that's why there is the freedom the develop assignments in a way that works for the student. Innovation does not occur by copying an example.  I am slowly coming around to the concept of trusting the process.  I do understand the educational value and I wholeheartedly agree I get more out of assignments that are constructed this way than if I just followed a template.  If only, there was not the stress of an arbitrary grade being placed on authentic learning.  

via GIPHY

Tools of the Week

 I checked out all six of the new tools this week.  While I have been enjoying playing with most of the tools we have been learning about in the class, this week was probably the the first time I was able to visualize using some of the tools in my elementary classroom.  Edublogs was my favorite new tool.  This looks ideal for showing progress (hopefully) in a student's writing throughout the year.  I really like the options that are available for customizing, great way to bring in an art lesson also.  I love that the teacher can leave feedback for a student and the privacy settings are important, especially for the young kids.  I found an article on the site with ideas for writing prompts and different types of blog entries for students to try.  One of my students' favorite activities in History was taking on the role of a historical figure and writing journal entries for that person. It would be so much fun for the kids to do this as a blog!

Padlet is a tool that I have used once during a teacher inservice, but I did not know there were so many things you could do with it.  I liked the timeline feature and I added a tidbit of information there. I think it would be better if you could click and drag things around after you added them though.  I put mine in the wrong spot the first time and I had to delete it and redo it.  I didn't try it yet, but I saw one of my classmates post an AI-created image with a tool located in Padlet and that looks like it would be fun to use also.

I was a little skeptical of Symbaloo at first. It looked like my homepage on Google without the need for adding another tool. I dug a little deeper and realized there is more to it than I initially thought.   I recently learned how to make folders to organize my links. This has made things easier for me, but Symbaloo takes it a step further with the visual element.  You can organize links by subject and color code them so they are easy to find.  I found the ads to be very annoying though and not sure I want to pay a fee just to have an ad-free experience when my Google folders are working ok.

Hypothesis was ok. I do like being able to collaborate with other people on a document.  It was a very simple layout and easy to use, that's always a win for me!

Piazza was not a hit for me. Dr. Dennen mentioned it is used more in f2f settings and that the math/science people seem to like this one.  It was just "too much" for me.  I like the concept, but not the actual execution.

Cluster was actually familiar to me.  My son's coach uses it at, sporadically unfortunately, at swim meets to keep parents updates on the timeline, events, and results. It saves him from answering 50 texts when he remembers to update it! I have also added pictures on there to share with parents. 

I definitely added some tools to the belt this week! 

My Plant and the Water Drop

 

I should be doing homework, but I take a minute to look out the window and this water droplet catches my eye. I haven't watered this plant recently and it's an indoor plant so it's not from rain. How did it get there?  I spend the next ten minutes playing with the camera on my phone, trying to capture the drop in the most interesting way possible before it plops off.  

Got it, now I can get back to work.  

Well...wait just a second. I have this picture that I think is pretty interesting, I should do something with it, but what? My family is still sleeping and I doubt they'd share in my enthusiasm if I woke them up to show them my picture.  

I think I will just leave this picture of my plant and the water drop right here on my blog.  Maybe it will bring a moment of peace to some of my classmates who are feeling the stress of a heavy course load or who are being stretched too thin with the demands of life.  Take a moment and find the little things in life that bring you joy! 

Networked Knowledge Activities

image by freepik

 I enjoyed the readings this week. I always appreciate the Choose Your Own Adventure approach where we can take what we want/need and skim or leave the rest.  This week I was having FOMO so I had to read a bit more from each of the sections!  I think all of the puzzle pieces are starting to come together and I see how they fit with each other.  It's like I have the edges done, now I'm working on the middle.  

As I was reading, I couldn't help but think way back to my early days of teacher prep classes and Bloom's Taxonomy.  Maybe it is because there are six parts to NKA and six parts to Bloom, maybe it is because the NKAs also fall into a loose hierarchy.  Maybe it's because when I got to the end of the chapter, the parallels were spelled out right there! 

The activities associated with Networked Knowledge Activities are: collecting, curating, sharing, brokering, negotiating, and constructing.  

1. Collecting - Gathering information.  Similar to the remembering level of Bloom, although in the digital world we can use something like a Pinterest to help us remember.  This would be considered one of the lower level activities.  

2. Curating - User creates an intentional collection for a specific purpose or audience.  Understanding, for the Bloom model, would be a user explaining why a certain artifact belongs in the collection.  

3. Sharing - Taking something that has been collected and sharing it with other people. When sharing, a user has to evaluate what the audience wants and needs. 

4. Brokering - This involves connecting groups with information that both groups would find useful.  For instance, I belong to a Homeschooling High School group and a College Athletics Recruiting group.  There have been several times that a parent in the high school group has wondered if their student can participate in college sports and also times that parents in the other group wonder if their highly competitive athlete would be better served in a homeschool environment.  I'm able to share my Pinterest Board with both of them and help them do their own research.

5. Negotiating - For this activity learners have to work together and communicate effectively to determine meaning.  

6. Constructing - This is where all the pieces come together and learners create something new with all of the things they have collected, curated, and shared.

Connections in my Digital Worls

I could not have planned this any better if I tried.  We have been learning about intellectual property rights and it was kind of just something that I had in the back of my mind and wasn't too worried about it on a personal level at this point.  UNTIL...a connection was made between student life and my teacher life.

I was reading comments in a FB group that consists of tutors for the literacy company I work for, but the FB group is not affiliated with the company.  We recently had to sign a new contract to continue working with this company and one of the things that changed pertains to intellectual property and materials that tutors create to use with the students during a tutoring session.  The discussion naturally got a little heated, not within the group but tutors vs. company. Since there are no company reps in the group it was really more of a venting session than an actual discussion.  Keep in mind, tutors are contract employees, not direct employees of the tutoring company. 

Image by pikisuperstar on Freepik

The new contract states that the Company has ownership rights to anything the tutor creates that is related to reading instruction while the tutor is under contract with the Company. So if I make an activity about sorting words with short vowels, the company now owns that activity.  If the activity is an extension of a company-created activity, using their materials, I can understand that. However, according to contract, I can make something completely from scratch, not at all related to a specific story or lesson within the company-provided materials, and the company says they still own it.  None of the tutors were asking for compensation for the materials, but why should the company own these materials? Many teachers either sell their materials or freely share materials they create with other teachers, but this new contract would prohibit that.  I think that's a huge disservice to the tutors and students who are ultimately the ones who benefit most when teachers collaborate. 

Image by pikisuperstar on Freepik

What do you think? Should a company own the rights to materials a tutor creates on their own time for their own use with students? 

SumItUp Sunday

Write a blog post that reviews your daily Instagram activities for the challenge and your new insights on the medium. Okay...well for starters I completed this challenge over the course of three days, instead of the whole week so as a research participant, my experience would probably have to be thrown out! As a blogger, my experience is 100% valid and that's the cool thing about blogging, apparently there is no wrong way to do it. 

I am still struggling to embrace everything Instagram so I'm really glad I did this challenge. I learned more of the ins and outs, but I still needed some help.

For the Monday challenge, I may have gone in a different direction than what most people think of when they think of technology.  Hopefully, it doesn't turn into anything controversial or break any rules of the assignment.  I just want to motivate everyone to vote in their local elections as well as the state and federal elections.  

The Tuesday challenge was the first one I posted and I noticed a comment on that one. Hopefully, the app will transform someone else's life as well! Honestly, there are so many recipe apps available now, but this one is simple and clean without an overwhelming number of options.  I used Canva to create the post very easily. It took me a while to figure out how to post it directly from Canva, but I think I've got it now. I've only been able to do it from my phone though. I create the post on my desktop and post it from my phone. If anyone knows how to post directly from the desktop, please let me know. I'm all for cutting out extra steps.

Wednesday - The reel.  This was something completely new for me.  I did it, but not sure I completely understand the difference between a reel and a regular post.  Again, I used Canva to create my reel.  I did watch some reels from previous students and while I love watching videos of other people on their reels, my comfort level isn't quite there yet.

Thursday - I modified an infographic that I made for another class.  I don't know if there's a way to post it without all of the white space, but I wasn't able to figure it out if there is.

Friday - Create a poll. This one was definitely the biggest challenge for me.  I had to call for some expert help on this one.  I do like using my computer more than my phone so apparently that's part of my problem.  My son, the same one from the mac and cheese post last week, interrupted his golf practice to walk me through this! What I did not like about this one though is that is went back to posting on my Facebook page!! I tried to delete it without deleting it from Instagram and I was making a huge mess. In the end, I just left it.  Maybe my FB friends can weigh in on my poll and give me a bigger sample group.

Saturday - I wasn't quite sure if this meant one post with multiple pictures or a post where you have to scroll to see all the pictures. Since we already did a post like that I opted for one post with multiple pictures. Canva came to my rescue again for this one. 

So that was the week of challenges in a condensed version.  Check out my page if you haven't already. I am eme6414_kellyg. 

        

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An update and thoughts on OER

UPDATE on the mac and cheese post:

This is what I received after dinner last night. It's GIF that says, "I have not been entirely successful" and was followed by a picture of some interesting, yellow, gloppy stuff that most likely ended up in the trash. I think the Redditors would have a field day if he posted the picture of his culinary masterpiece. Alas, mom is still good for something.

"Open Educational Resources: Enabling universal education" was an interesting article. This is a topic that I have very little experience with.  I absolutely love the idea of education being free to all (who can access it).  I love everything about it, but as I was reading the cynical side of me wondered what is in it for the university.  Towards the end of the article the author did talk about this and I like the point that "if educational materials can bring people out of poverty, and information can now be copied and shared with greater ease, there is a moral obligation to do so." Information should be shared, because it is the right thing to do. Education, in my opinion, is the key to solving the problems in the worlds: war, hunger, climate change, and the list goes on.  Sharing IS the ethical thing to do and in the end, it will benefit all of us.  Now, that's all great in theory, but I was curious about these courses so I did a little digging. To be fair, at the time I'm writing this I only looked at the MIT OER site, but the courses offered are probably not going to lead to the end of hunger in under-developed nations y bringing people out of poverty.  Quantum Physics and Programming in Java are great courses for people who already have an education, but what about a course where an illiterate adult can learn to read? Again, that's probably available somewhere, just not MIT's forte.  My mom, who is not a native citizen but has lived in the US for over 60 years, would like to learn more about our Constitution. An OER course in American Government seems like it would be ideal for her. 

Interestingly enough, there was a segment on the Today show this week about a new-ish website called Quill. This is free and uses AI-assisted technology to help high school students learn to write.  It's not the same as OER, but definitely something exciting to watch as it becomes more widely used.  The students highlighted in the story all felt it was helpful and they are getting ready to take their first standardized tests since starting the program so teachers and developers are eager to see the gains students have made.

I definitely want to learn more about OER. I can see myself becoming a user of this resource if I could find the right course.  

Caswell, T., Henson, S., Jensen, M., & Wiley, D. (2008). Open Educational Resources: Enabling universal education. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 9(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v9i1.469