YouTube as a PLE

Now, you're probably wondering how YouTube could possibly be used to capture your learning in a Personal Learning Environment (PLE). This idea came to me after my daughter explained how she was using her YouTube Channel.

Her school does not have a formal music program. However, she is very musically inclined, having sung before she could speak. She studied piano outside of school for 4 years. Recently, she has pursued her interest in music (as did my son) via YouTube videos that give piano, guitar, and singing lessons.

Without our knowing, she opened up a YouTube Channel in August. At first, I was a bit wary. However, after she showed me how she was using the channel and the security measures she was taking, I allowed her to keep the Channel open.

Lately, she has begun to update some of the original pieces she originally put up, looking at the feedback she has received and trying to improve these original pieces. Her intention is to keep a record of her progress. Not bad for a teenager.

Integrating YouTube into the curriculum as a PLE

This got me to wondering: 1) what other tools primary and secondary schools are using to record student progress, especially in behavioral changes, 2) how schools are preparing students to become aware of their own learning, 3) other ways to analyze non-formal learning or learning outside of the classroom, and 4) how people use feedback in social networking sites such as YouTube, facebook, and blogs.

YouTube is interesting because it can capture a person's performance and get feedback on it. Imagine using it for work performance at different times of a person's career, to demonstrate skills as an auxiliary to a resume, to make a person aware of their strengths and weaknesses in performing a task, and keeping a record for them to reflect on their progress in learning.

Public vs. private learning

I currently am setting up my courses (three different ones) for next semester. As I do so, I need to determine the best tools for my students. One issue that has come up repeatedly each semester is how to maintain privacy laws (Family Education Privacy Act), but allow access to learning in a public manner.

FERPA laws require that I have tools that students are either guaranteed anonymity when they use the tool (school based secure tools) or are given the choice of how much information they reveal about themselves, including the option of not participating in a "public" forum. This leads to a number of restrictions when deciding on which tools to use and how to use them.

Last semester I used Ning. In many ways, this is a great tool for public discussions. Even the private emails and the use of the approval function for video uploads allowed for a certain amount of privacy. However, I still did not trust Ning's privacy controls enough to upload grades or receive individual assignments. As a result, this semester I decided to use Blackboard's grading and assignment features. In designing the new course, however, I remembered why I don't like Blackboard. The assignment and grade features are very time consuming and cumbersome to set up. As I've mentioned before, I miss the ease of Prometheus, which was bought by WebCT, but whose features seemed to be discarded.

I have yet to find an easy syllabus program that fit the ease of Prometheus's. I could set up a course in a day, using the Prometheus template. I know it will take about 2-3 days per course to set up the courses on Blackboard. In addition, I want to still use the Ning and a Wiki for the interschool projects I am designing for two of the three courses I'm teaching.

All of these have made be wonder about the importance of having both public and private learning spaces. I use Private learning spaces to help motivate my students to take chances, fail, and learn from their mistakes. I use public learning spaces to help students feel a sense of responsibility for their own and others learning, help create synergy in learning, and create a sense of community in learning (rather than learning being something that is done in isolation).

So what are the differences in private and public learning spaces? How can we work with administrators to create both? How do we balance security issues with sharing of knowledge and community building?

Learn Trends 2009

The third Learn Trends 2009 is taking place this week. For anyone who has never taken part, it is well worth the time. What I especially like is the interaction during the presentation as there is often a very active chat. This year (tomorrow morning) they have a session in French. I hope this will expand in the future as I would love to see what else is going on around the world in the area of professional training and elearning.

Residents and visitors

Andy Coverdale had an interesting post on his blog about Dave White's idea of digital "visitors" and "residents" in place of the concept for digital "immigrants" and "natives". I feel much more comfortable with the idea of visitor and residents as it allows for different generations and levels of engagement with technology, applications, and tools. As I commented on Andy's blog:

This appears soooo much more useful than natives and immigrants. It also makes me wonder about the students (regardless of generation) who are visitors, but we want to become residents. Does this also tie into online communities (i.e. you might be a visitor in one type of community, as I am to facebook, but a resident at another, as I am with ning)? How do we get people to become “residents”? I think the question of trust is a big issue.

When Andy asked me if I thought that this was determined by socio-technical or platform factors, I replied:

I guess one problem I had with the digital natives or immigrants was that fact that there was a uniform amount of knowledge in “technology”. I have a greater understanding of the technological underpinnings of new technology than my husband or children. But I would be considered an immigrant. But the fact is that technology continually changes and with it the socio-cultural structures. I was on Facebook within the first year that it was developed as a member of our University. It changed drastically when it was “opened” up. My kids use it differently than friends and relatives of my generation.

Within the technological structures, there can be multiple socio-cultural structures and practices. Just like habitat structures can be similar between urban, suburban, rural, and different countries, structures between technology can be similar. However, the town next to mine differs because of a different community feeling. Experience, ties to the community, understanding of communication cues between members of the community affect the way someone feels coming into a new community. My husband and I lived in a neighborhood for 7 years and never felt a part of the community and felt as if we were considered “visitors”. However, our current community, we feel like residents as we know how things work, who the players are, and the subtle communication cues.

I feel it is the same with technology in that some will always feel like technology visitors as they learn new technology. Some may always “fit in” immediately and be a resident where ever they go. Still others will be a visitor initially and then move to resident status depending on the technology and community support in using the technology. And finally, others will be visitors at some technologies (usually by choice) and residents at others. I think there is a lot more choice in the use of technology and a lot more community influence that creates trust in using a certain technology.

In a related post on wirearchy blog, they discuss the importance of revisiting socio-technical systems business design field. As they contend, the "social business design" sounds very similar for the socio-technical systems business design theories in organizational development. However, the education field has continued to this body of literature over the last decade.

I think what is relevant in both of these fields is that it is hard to disassociate the tools that have been adapted for use in education and business from the social structures that continue to evolve. New tools are created as there is a social need; and tools are "retooled" with new social practices that develop around the new tools and the "retools". This is especially important to recognize in virtual groups, organizations, and workplaces. However, it also spills over into the personal life and the line between "personal" and "work" becomes blurred.

Integrating elearning into the classroom: Technology

This next section, I am not going to recommend any specific technology. In fact, as I found out the first semester I taught an educational technology course, often instructors and instructional designers have little or no input into WHAT technologies they can use.

So the first step in developing elearning is to befriend the ITS department. Don't start with, "What technologies are available that I can use in the my teaching?" as most will list the technologies as they understand instructors using it (i.e. blackboard is a classroom technology that we have so you will use that because that is why the organization ordered it).

Instead, describe to your ITS friend what you would like to do WITH the technology. For example, I am looking for technology that will allow my students to access elearning from any computer, post their work, and then be able to discuss it either simultaneously or asynchronously, work at the same time on making corrections to their work (written or multimedia), and maintain a record so that I, as the instructor can give them regular feedback as they work on the project. They may come back with questions of their own. Will they be working from home or school? What level of skill do you have? How much control/support do you think you will need?

In presenting the technology choice as a problem for the ITS worker to work with you on, you are giving them greater choices to choose from that they may have experience with. Often, they will go with what technologies other use based on their limited experience of what goes on in the classroom. You can't assume that they understand what happens in eLEARNING. However, it is also important not to underestimate their expertise. After many years of working with faculty, the best ITS personnel know how appease faculty who have "heard about a great technology" yet have not taken in into consideration the technological requirements, the security issues, and the type of support needed by the users.

Categories of affordances

Another useful tip in speaking with ITS is to understand the affordances that any given technology can provide. Often technology designed for one affordance, can actually have a different affordance or use. ITS may be limited in what technologies they can use due to security concerns, user patterns and traffic, lack of resources, or knowledge of the technologies within ITS.

I have had my students look at their instructional design and identify the "uses" or affordances of technology. For example, a music teacher had one of his students studying at Juliard School of Music in New York City as part of their chorus. He wanted his student's classmates to be able to interact with him about concerts and even listen to the chorus. He decided to use streaming media after he discussed with his technology person what was available. However, when I asked him how he would coordinate schedules with his student in NYC, he realized streaming might be difficult. He went back to the tech directed and asked what technology was available where the student interact with the other students. He suggested using the streaming technology, but having his student uploading the video (this was a few years ago before YouTube) on their system and then streaming the video on demand when the Music Teacher needed it.

I find elearning has basically 4 affordances: communication, sharing and storing information, filtering and connecting ideas (meaning making), and creating knowledge. In fact, even the simplest technology can be used for each of these categories. It is important as an instructional designer to establish the protocols that will allow students to use the technology for those affordances. For example, email could be used for communication through groups or individual messages. By attaching files and having prearranged subject headings, email could also be used to share information and keep a record. Some email programs, such as gmail, allow a series of correspondence to be grouped together, the accumulation being used for meaning making and connecting the same ideas through the conversation (the use of the forward and reply functions). Finally, documents that are edited by a group, thus "creating knowledge" could be done through emails. It would be important that the documents are given version numbers in addition to being grouped together.

In the example above, the instructor would need to scaffold student learning through the development of protocols either in the instructional design or by the students themselves. New technology would not be necessary, rather new uses for existing technologies would need to be developed.

Integrating elearning into the classroom

This post is in part due to poor reading skills on my part. Ken Allen wrote a post "the loneliness of the elearner," which I read as, "the loneliness of the elevator." This got me to thinking about the metaphor of the elevator in elearning:

Interestingly enough, I thought your title read, "the loneliness of the ELEVATOR" (I guess I should get my glasses fixed). Ironically, being alone in a space like second life is probably by being alone in an elevator. Where do you look? Is someone watching you that you can't see? What if you get stuck? You only have the disembodied voice to tell you, "Help is on the way." And if you are on the elevator with someone, you feel too awkward to speak to them unless something goes wrong. What are the unspoken rules of engagement on an elevator?

At the same time, my daughter's school has decided to integrate some days of online learning into the curriculum, partly to give teachers the opportunity to meet without students for professional development, and partly to prepare students for online learning in college. I was asked to lend my experience in developing these online activities. With that in mind, I have been thinking of the components that needs to go into the design of these activities.

In my introduction to distance learning course, I break the course up into 4 components: technology, instructional design, social presence, and assessment. Over the next few posts I will look at each of these components and what I feel needs to be considered for an online activity as part of a face to face course.

Example of assessment part 3: Online course

Below is the assessments I used for an online course in Distance education. When I create assessments for distance learning, there is a more systematic approach as assessments act as a means of dialogue between the student and myself and the students with each other. Not only do I use assessments to check student learning with the desired course outcomes, I also use it to check if the course is fulfilling the needs for the student (which might be different than what the institution requires), a means to create a class community, and a way for the student to identify their own needs, strengths and create a learning agenda for after the course.

As a result, I use multiple mediums for assessment and multiple measures including teacher, student reflections, peer reviews, group assessments, discussion, blogs, student projects, annotated bibliographies, and group projects. One thing that is missing from my assessments are standardized tests.

Below is the evaluation criteria I gave students:

A. Students will be expected to participate and contribute to online discussions, both within SLN and on outside assigned discussion boards (Yahoo, Googlegroups). Students will be expected to demonstrate they have done the readings by citing pages and ideas from the readings, but applying those concepts to the discussion activities. Minimal discussion requirements are included in the discussion instructions. This will earn students a “B-”. Students that want a higher mark will be required to post more frequently and include quality postings (a discussion of quality postings is included in the instructions for discussions in Module 1). Maximum 40 Points per module.

B. At the end of each module, students will be given time to reflect on the module’s instruction and their learning as a journal entry. They will be given some guiding questions in the journal section and asked to answer the questions and evaluate their performance in class for that module. Students may also post other issues that they find of importance for that module. Maximum 40 points per module.

C. Students will work on designing a distance learning or outreach module with other teachers. As part of the process, students may be working with other faculty at a distance. A series of preparatory activities and the journal questions will be used to help guide students through the process. Ten percent of the grade will be based on the preparatory activities and 10% of the final grade will be based on the final product. Maximum 200 points

D. Students will write an evaluative annotated bibliography using 5 resources from the resource list posted on the course website and 5 additional resources (peer reviewed article or academic book) which are related to their module and research interests. In addition to the APA style citation, the annotated bibliography should include a short summary of the resource and how it relates to their module topic. Maximum 15 points per citation.

E. Each student will write a reflective paper on the instructional design choices they made for their distance learning module. The paper should include research and references which support their choices or explain their approach. The paper should be 10-14 pages double-spaced, using APA style. Maximum 250 points.

Note the level of choice students are given, yet there are also standards established (i.e. APA style) that are required by the department and profession.

In addition to the above evaluation criteria, I include the following at the beginning of each discussion area (entitled "Instructions for discussion")

Quality discussion responses
A high quality response contains information from the textbook or other valid source, or applies a concept from the text or course in a meaningful way, or facilitates understanding of the course material or topic. This could include posing questions, clarifying others ideas, giving alternative view points or interpretations of the same reading passages, giving real life examples that apply the concepts, and citing additional resources. Responses such as: "I agree.", "Good question" or "Good answer" / Any response that is just an opinion, or is unsubstantiated may add to the discussion but will not be evaluated as part of your discussion grade. Any response that is carelessly typed, poorly thought-out, grammatically incorrect or confusing / any response that is disrespectful of another student or any other person, etc., are not acceptable.

Netiquette
As discussion is of a public nature, please observe proper "netiquette" -- courteous and appropriate forms of communication and interaction over the Internet (in online discussions). This means no personal attacks, obscene language, or intolerant expression. All viewpoints should be respected. Because there are no communication cues, such as a smile, eye contact, nodding, and tone of voice, to help identify when someone is jesting or being sarcastic, you should be careful not to be insulted if a comment is misunderstood or misinterpreted, but rather to clarify its meaning. Likewise, you need to expect that others might misinterpret or be insulted when using subtle humor, so reread what you intend to post to make sure there will be no misinterpretation of your intentions. Emoticons can be used to express your intentions.

This sets a stand criteria on which I am evaluating the discussions. I find it difficult to "grade" each discussion post, but instead grade holistically. I give each student a grade for discussion after each module. In some cases, students may post a few very high quality posts or they may post a number of very thought provoking questions, both of which are evaluated highly. Other times, they may post frequently, but just very superficially in which case they are not evaluated as highly.

In developing discussing questions, I make sure students are required to apply reading concepts and class activities to their own situation and/or class problems. Below is an example of the discussion question I used to evaluate their understanding of distance learning assessment:

Work though each of the activities before you start this discussion! Since you will have more than three weeks for this discussion, I would not expect a high level of participation until April 14-26.

Analyze each of the activities listed in the activities section above using Philip's design dimensions. How would you categorize each of those activities? Which activities/design dimensions were you most comfortable doing as a student? as an instructional designer/teacher? Which were you least comfortable with as a student? as an instructional designer/teacher? Which do you think would be most relevant for your students? Why? What type of support do you think would be necessary for those activities above? Why? Look through at least 3 other students that were not part of your team and discuss the types of problems they had and how you would have supported them as an instructional designer.

The following are instructions for peer review on students projects:

Attach a draft of your project for the class to review and give feedback. Remember when you are giving feedback that the author of the draft 1) is probably still working on it so it is a work in progress, 2) has put a lot of time and thought into the project, 3) might want you to only look at certain aspects of the project, 4) may have a different teaching situation than your own, 5) is posting this for constructive feedback (saying" this looks good" is not enough, explain why it looks good, what you like about it; likewise, "you need to change X" is not enough, explain why you feel there needs to be changes, such as I wasn't able to understand what you wanted the student to do in X), and can't see your face (you might want to use emoticans).

Notice how I try to create boundaries for the type of feedback peers should be giving. This is especially true for online assessment as there are no social cues that will help to temper constructive criticism.

Below are the instructions for the project required by the students. Notice how, again, they are given a great deal of choice, yet within a very structured framework.

Each module, students will be asked to submit a different part of what will be their final project. Each student will be expected to develop a distance learning module. While more than one student may collaborate on the distance learning activity or module, each student will be expected to tailor the module to their own situation (in other words there needs to be some components that are their own original work). The module will follow this format:

Module Name
Author Name and Date Prepared
Target Group: Who will use this module (student, teachers, institution, general public); academic domain (i.e. ESL, science, history);level of education (elementary, secondary, higher ed, adult).
Institution (s): A brief description of the institutional context where it will be used including location (s), mission or goals, relationship between institutions if there are multiple locations, institutional structure (including required approvals and resource allocation).
Technology: List primary and secondary (or back-up) technologies that will be used. Include whether these technologies are currently available or will need to be procured by the students or institutions. Also include technology support that will be available including help desks or websites.
Module Description: Include a summary of the purpose of the module and how it will fit into the curriculum and/or standards and any prerequisite requirements
Module Goals and Objectives
Dates and/or Activity Schedule:
· Identify due dates and/or time frames for activities. Specific dates are not necessary (i.e. you may use Day, Week, or Month 1).
· Identify and briefly describe module activities
Module Content: Include auxiliary information including readings (in PDF or Word files), CD’s, Websites (addresses), Video or Audio clips (web address or on CD’s), scripts, or accompanying manuals (i.e. video conferencing).
In class activities: How will this module be integrated into your course or class? This section should be different for each student, even if you are collaborating with another teacher. It may include discussion questions unique to your group, separate activities, or separate assignments.
Evaluation: Method and basis for evaluating achievement of module goals and objectives. These might include a grading rubric, module evaluation by students, and/or end of module assignment or exam.
Supporting documents: This includes websites, worksheets, or articles for teachers.

Some samples of previous modules are posted in the shared reference area and on the course website.

Another aspect of this project was the submission for feedback by both the instructor and peers and the negotiation of standards based on that feedback.

Example of assessment part 2: Blended course

I taught an intensive course on computer supported writing across the curriculum. This was a one week course (8 hours a day) followed by 2 weeks of independent work. In this class, I had students from primary-adult education from language arts, history, science, and foreign language areas. In addition, the majority of the students were working professionals.

It was important, because of the diversity of the class, to incorporate variety and choice in the assessment tool. In addition, because the course was part of a educational technology institute, it was important that students demonstrated some technological ability, but appropriate for their own situation. For example, if a student worked in an environment in which certain technology was blocked, it would be a useless to have them demonstrate the use of that technology as it would be irrelevant in their work. Finally, in all of my assessments for education classes, it is important that students demonstrate their understanding of WHY they make choices and are able to justify it with research.

The following is the assessment tool I used for that class:

E-portfolio: (50%) Students will need to demonstrate their understanding of the course concepts by putting together an e-portfolio of their own completed examples of work they did in class (while we might begin the work in class, they may not be completed until after the course in finished). The portfolio should include a finished piece that demonstrates: 1) CSW (computer supported writing) that develops communication skills, 2) CSW that demonstrates writing to learn, 3) Collaborative CSW, 4) CSW appropriate for your level of teaching and discipline (or a discipline you are interested in), 5) research or data collection in CSW, 6) an analysis of CSW technology, 7) an example of hypertext, 8) a CSW assessment tool. In addition to the completed pieces, students will need to include explanations as to how each of pieces meet the criteria for each required element (e.g. what makes a piece a hypertext and how does your finished product meet that criteria). We will discuss this further in class (separate handout and rubric).

Learning Blog: (25%) Students will need to reflect on class discussions, activities, and required readings for each day (both readings due before and after the class) and write a blog that addresses each day’s questions (listed above). Students should label each post with the day and topic, with a total of 5 separate posts. The blogs will be used to evaluate your understanding of the course concepts AND readings, therefore, it is important they you reference the readings in your reflection.

Project: (25%): You will be given some time in class to work on this; however, this time might not be sufficient to complete the project during class.

Option A: Students can put together a CSW project that can be used in their classroom. This might include a lesson plan integrating CSW software, the development of a CSW software or website, a wiki or blog that outlines guidelines or compares CSW software attributes, a prototype of an OWL (online writing lab) or the design for a research project on CSW. In addition to the project, students will write a two to three page justification for the project and its design, based on readings.

or

Option B: Students may conduct a literature review on a topic in CSW and write a summary (6-10 pages) of major findings, issues, and gaps in the literature. Students need to have at least 10 resources and should use a standard style format (APA, University of Chicago, MLA, etc…).

Gadgets you can't live without

In the January 2 US edition of the Financial Times, there was an article on "The gadgets I never leave home without...". I saved the article to read through at a later time.

This weekend, however, I was caught on the interstate going to pick up my son. Fortunately I had left a bit early, but I had forgotten my cell phone. Later I found out that there was a shoot out about 1/2 a mile from where I sat stuck in traffic. The highway was closed and evacuated, and I was able to pick up my son. Had I had my cell phone however, I could have found out if the alternate routes I could take home were backed up or not. I also could have used a mobile device that allowed me to access the internet to see if I could find out information on what the problem was on the internet (I thought it was a traffic accident, and was in fact moving up closer to the area where the person was shooting).

Trends for busy professionals

Interestingly enough, these are the same gadgets listed by most of those interviewed for the FT article. Most had some sort of cell phone, usually with internet access. Other interesting gadgets needed were memory sticks/flash drives, devices to recharge batteries (when are they going to invent a solar powered recharger?), and satellite phone (to be used regardless of location).

I feel that mobile technology will become increasingly important for trainers, as cell phones have podcasting features, access to the internet, mini keyboards, and camera features. Already, many of my colleagues who teach on line courses have students accessing those courses through their blackberries and iphones.

So what gadgets can you never leave home without? What gadgets could you never teach without?

My top 10 tools: Delicious

I know that Jane Hart will be compiling a new list of top 10 tools in the near future. Every time I see her call for contributors, I am in the middle of a major project. So as the year ends, I decided to do things different and spend the next 10 days listing a different tool in my top ten, and why it is important. Also, in line with my desire to begin to identify the affordances of a tool and therefore, how that tool could be used (which instructional goals can be met, limitiations of the tool) will also be included.

Today's tool is top on my list for this year: Delicious. Delicious has become a life saver for me in my teaching, my research, as I move from computer to computer, and as I try to share resources with my colleagues, especially those I am trying to help into the 21st Century.

Delicious for Dummies (I'm not saying that I think my readers are Dummies, but rather using the format used in ".... for Dummies" books!!)

For those that may have heard of delicious, but really don't know how you could use it or how it works I will give some general information. Delicious is a public site of "links". I initially used it by going on delicious and searching for resources (without joining). You type in a key word and links that people have saved using that key word can be found. Once I became more accustomed to the features of delicious (I am definitely NOT an early adopter), I found I could keep links I found when working on multiple computers, in multiple locations (home, work, the library) in one place accessible through the web, regardless of where I was.

This year, I began to use delicious as a way to keep track of sites and links I wanted to use in my classes. As I teach technology and communication courses with only one computer in my classroom, I wanted to be able to demonstrate what I was teaching. Delicious made it easy for me to identify my links quickly, so I had less set up for the various sites I was going to. In the classroom, I could not save URL's so using delicious made it possible for me not to have to type in the same sites over and over.

As a member, you will have the ability to download a toolbar addition to your browser. What this means is that an icon will be added to your browser, and when you want to add a link to delicious or access your delicious account, you need only click on the icon. The directions for adding this accessory is very easy to follow (even my sisters have been able to figure it out--and they're old!).

Two other features newbies need to know about are tags and Notes. The one pet peeve I have with delicious is that tags can only be one word. So if you have a two word descriptor, such as international communication, you will need to either use an underscore (international_communication) or put together the terms without a space (internationalcommunication). I would recommend deciding from the beginning which you will do and sticking with that. However, you then need to understand that others will use both formats when tagging their own information.

I use the notes for two reasons. First, it reminds me of why I chose a link so it helps me to find links I saved for my classes or dissertation. Secondly, it helps others decide if they want to click on the link when they come across the resource on my list.

This leads me to the social networking feature of delicious. Once a member, you can do a search using tags that will allow you to access others links. I found one member that must be doing a similar dissertation project as he not only saved my delicious account, but had many links that I had been searching for.

Affordances

At first, many might look at this as just a depository of information. However, I have also used it as a means of sharing sites (through tags with group names, such as the course number or project name). This allows groups to create a database of resources. Delicious also allows for collaboration, broadcasting of information, and social networking.

Instructional Design requirements

Integrating delicious into the classroom can be as easy as giving a link to a list identified through the class number (i.e. delicious.com/vmyonkers/ACOM203). However, if it is going to be used as a collaborative tool, the group needs to come up with a way in which they will share the information (either creating a separate account for the group, friending others to your list, or creating a common tag for shared resources).

I would be interested in knowing how others use delicious and what affordances they see in the use of this tool. Also, how do you integrate it into your instructional designs?