Module 4 Post

The information I included on my graphic organizer represents some of the technological tools that I want to integrate into my classroom this year. I've heard of many teachers and other professionals who have discussions via Twitter, but since that site is blocked at my school, I had to look for another option. I found Twiducate, and I can't wait to try it with my students this year. In addition to using Twiducate, I also want to try out Edmodo, which is similar to Facebook. This will be the first time I'm using these types of technological tools in my classroom, so I'm not going to rush into anything. Hopefully, these platforms will not only help my students and I bond and communicate more, but will also help me to convey content. I'm hoping that using technology similar to the things my kids participate in outside of school will help them to feel more empowered in our classroom. I've already shared these two sites with another teacher at my school, so maybe we'll even be able to develop some activities across grade levels using this technology.

Updated Storyboard

References

Garrison, D. R. (2007). Online community of inquiry review: Social, cognitive, and teaching

presence issues. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 61-72. Retrieved from http://www.ucalgary.ca/~nvaughan/coiissues.pdf

Hopkins, J., Gibson, W., Ros i Sole, C., Savvides, N., & Starkey, H. (2008). Interaction and

critical inquiry in asynchronous computer-mediated conferencing: A research agenda. Open Learning, 23, 29-42. doi: 10.1080/02680510701815301

Kehrwald, B. (2008). Understanding social presence in text-based online learning environments.

Distance Education, 29, 89-106. doi: 10.1080/01587910802004860

Lowenthal, P. R. (In press). Social presence. In P. Rogers, G. Berg, J. Boettcher, C. Howard, L.

Justice, & K. Schenk (Eds.)., Encyclopedia of distance and online learning (2nd ed.). Information Science Reference.

Mykota, D., & Duncan, R. (2007). Learner characteristics as predictors of online social presence.

Canadian Journal of Education, 30, 157-170.

Yen, C. J., & Tu, C. H. (2008). Online social presence: A study of score validity of the

computer-mediated communication questionnaire. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 9, 297-310.

Module 3--Assessing Collaborative Efforts

I do think that participation in collaborative efforts should be assessed, but ensuring that this assessment is fair can be tricky. The first step that needs to be taken is for the instructor to share the requirements and rubrics associated with participation in the collaboration. All members of the community need to be aware of how their collaborative efforts will be assessed. According to Palloff and Pratt (2007) instructors should place "significant weight on the level and quality of participation" and that they should recognize and reward those who exhibit a good participation (pp. 215). I agree that participation in an online course should be scrutinized carefully and assessed according to the quality of the participation that is exhibited. This can be a little tricky in terms of being fair when assessing participation since students don't come to the course with the same skill and knowledge levels. 


Dealing with students who are not choosing to collaborate in an online learning community should be done with a certain amount of care. Instructors should be certain to check in on those who are not participating to try to find out the reason behind the lack of participation. Personal emergencies (serious personal or family illness, natural disaster, etc.) could be the cause for not participating, or the student could have dropped the course. If the student is still enrolled and has no issues preventing them from participating in community activities, the instructor should then take steps to assess their lack of participation accordingly. I also think the age/maturity level of the student in the online learning community should be taken into account in some way when assessing participation. For instance, if the student is on the high school level or younger, that may play a part in the level of skill and knowledge evident in their participation. In our case, however, I think expectations should be much higher. Even if this course is someone's first experience with an online learning community, as adults, we should have a better work ethic and should be held to higher standards in terms of participating in collaborative activities.






Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2007). Building online learning communities: Effective strategies for the virtual classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.


Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning together in community. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Update on Storyboard

After seeing the reminder on the Class Cafe to review the rubric for the presentation, I'm going to take a step back before continuing to work on my storyboard to make sure I'm on the right track as far as what is to be included. I should have my updated, and hopefully on-target, storyboard up before the weekend is over.

Presentation Outline

(I'm sorry for posting late. I was out of town last night and didn't have access to the internet until today.)


As far as planning for my presentation, I have come up with a very tentative outline. The outline below includes the questions I plan to answer in my presentation in the order they will be answered. I'll get my storyboard on here as soon as possible.

• What is social presence? 
• summary of important research done on social presence
• most widely accepted definitions
• Why is social presence important to the creation of a successful online community?
• How can social presence be measured?
• How can social presence be developed?
• What are the effects of social presence?
• What are the future trends in terms of social presence?

Elements of Distance Education Diffusion

I had a very difficult time deciding which of the three elements of distance education to discuss in this post. After a great deal of thought, I decided to choose communication.  I feel that communication has changed in distance education in response to growth in the technology and methods used.  As we moved past the years when dial-up was the only connection to the Internet and only one browser existed, the ability to communicate with others online became easier, which translated into a greater ease of communication in distance education. Now, emailing others in your class is not the only way to communicate with them. Skype is a tool being used now by many distance education teachers and students to add to the experience; it provides students with the ability to see and hear those that they might never have visual and auditory contact with otherwise.  A tool that I just became aware of that looks to provide a more school district-friendly Facebook experience is Edmodo, which I hope to have the opportunity to try this year in my classroom. 


The first blog I have provided a link to is part of Edutopia. I linked to a specific post--the one that mentioned Edmodo--because it discussed sites that might provide students with opportunities to communicate with one another online. These sites would give distance education students and teachers alternate ways to communicate and submit assignments no matter the amount of time they actually spend learning online. 


Instead of posting a link to one other blog, I have chosen to provide links to a few other educational technology blogs that I have found useful in getting ideas for my classroom, especially ideas about tools to use to improve online communication with the students in my classroom. I may not teach distance education courses, but I am very interested in bringing some of the elements of distance education into my brick-and-mortar classroom.

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