I have learned a lot about e-learning after my first reading, and I also have some concerns about his applications to attends people that for some reasons have not the opportunity to receive education or improve the quality of it. But after all, I want to make a briefly description of my experience with distance learning, because These experiences are helping me to understand the advantages and disadvantages of distance learning, but I to see the differences with e-learning. During the 70’s, my mother and I took classes through lesson plans received by mail twice a month. My mother studied haute couture, and I learned photography. Twenty year later, I work as voluntary at Radio Fe y AlegrÃa’s distance literacy program. There, I learned a little be about radio’s pre-production, production and post-production.
After reading, I learned that there are three generations of distance education: teaching, multi-media teaching, and the new interactive communications technology generation. I also learn that “distance” is not a defining characteristic of e-learning. Distance educations is non-contiguous communication, and classroom sessions are not the primary goal. Distance learning education is designed to students that could not attend a conventional educational institution. This type of education wants to overcome the barrier of time, space, social class, and family obligation. In addition, it is a cheaper educative solution than regular formal education.
I thinks e-Learning is a definition that try to explained learning experiences produced during the interaction between a person and the information delivered via computer, as for example, multi-media games, e-mail, internet surfing, chap groups and some other new formats. According to the e-Learning book, It is a way of instructional delivered and a kind of content that help people to learn. The most important e-learning features are: the content is relevant to the objectives, use words and pictures to deliver content and methods; it could be instructor-led or self-place individual study.
E-Learning’s content has been classified in five types: fact, concept, process, procedure, and strategic principles, and e-Learning’s conceptions distinguish three kinds of objectives: inform, perform procedure and perform principle objectives. The quality of the content, his relation with objectives, and the use of a cognition theory are the successful are the most important considerations to be applying during the production of an online course.
Paraphrasing the most recently Larry Cuban’s book, I say “ Distance Education and the e-learning: Why these Can't Be Businesses.” While I was reading, I main erroneous assumptions about e-learning came from high technology industries. They were expecting to win billons of dollars selling computers, software, online courses, and many other technology infrastructures. I think that people are not simple target clients for the industrial model of distance education, well know as e-learning at this moment. Time and space are two important barrier to have access to education, but these reasons are the consequence of a economic and political model in which the school system is organized to attend a determine population target.
Unfortunately, some e-learning visions respond almost only to a business conceptual framework. For my, this visions will give millions of dollars to some companies, but it will not solve the gap between millions of people and his right to receive education.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Evaluation/Critique of e-learning/Distance Learning Program/Module
I like to see a movie without any clue about the movie’s plot, and after have heard movies reviewer talking bad about the movie. When it happening, I could appreciate much better as positive as negative movie’s aspects. After I visited, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Open Courseware (, I had similar experience. I had a little information and experience with a place that offer e-leaning experiences, and after I visited this place I like very much. Now I need go deep and learn what is happening with this educational way to deliver instruction.
MIT Open Courseware is a webpage produce by MIT. The project’s objective is to offer free access to the knowledge that is produce at the university. Users could find courses offer in each of the five MIT Schools: Architecture and Planning; Engineering, Humanities, Arts, and Social Studies; Management; and Science. There are courses relate with 33 degree programs. There are courses in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and
Thai.
Each course offer instructor name, course meeting times, level. Users could download the course, and they have the opportunity to send feedback about his courses. Each course offers readings, lecture notes, assignments, and projects. Some lectures could be downloading from iTunes in two formats; postcast and imovie.
These are the courses by department:
Aeronautics and Astronautics, Anthropology, Architecture, Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation, Biological Engineering, Biology, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Chemistry, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Comparative Media Studies, Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, , Economics, Foreign Languages and Literatures, History, Linguistics and PhilosophyLiterature to name some.
However, Users cannot receive a degree, a certificate, or credits for study any of these courses.
MIT Open Courseware is a webpage produce by MIT. The project’s objective is to offer free access to the knowledge that is produce at the university. Users could find courses offer in each of the five MIT Schools: Architecture and Planning; Engineering, Humanities, Arts, and Social Studies; Management; and Science. There are courses relate with 33 degree programs. There are courses in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and
Thai.
Each course offer instructor name, course meeting times, level. Users could download the course, and they have the opportunity to send feedback about his courses. Each course offers readings, lecture notes, assignments, and projects. Some lectures could be downloading from iTunes in two formats; postcast and imovie.
These are the courses by department:
Aeronautics and Astronautics, Anthropology, Architecture, Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation, Biological Engineering, Biology, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Chemistry, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Comparative Media Studies, Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, , Economics, Foreign Languages and Literatures, History, Linguistics and PhilosophyLiterature to name some.
However, Users cannot receive a degree, a certificate, or credits for study any of these courses.
Comments to Chapter 9
er 10
All teachers know how import is to give a good example to explain a concept or any other complex bit of information. Chapter number 10 is about how to move from a full worked example to a practice problem.
When a teacher describe step by step how to perform a task or to solve a problem, he is applying a worked example methodology. Nevertheless, this technique has some limitations. Students usually tent to ignore the steps and them they will not archive his learning objectives. This phenomenon is known as “expertise reversal effects,” and that mean that the new knowledge adds no value. Worked example has five principles:
• Transition from worked examples to full problems via fading.
• Include self-explanation questions with you worked examples.
• Supplement worked examples with effective explanations.
• Apply the multimedia principles to the design of your examples.
• Support learning transfer thought effective design of context of worked examples.
I considered that the best idea of this chapter is how to move students from a worked example to a practice problem. While this process, students will learn how to self-explain each step of a worked example. That mean, the learner is able to identify the principle that supports each step of a worked example.
I want to underline some recommendations to be applying while we are designing worked examples. It is very important to provide details explanations, make explanations shorter, explain the connections between the steps, and apply the contiguity principle. At the moment of design a multimedia materials, It is very important to provide relevant visual illustrations, use audio to present steps, use self-explanations questions, avoid words in both text and audio, and allow learns to access each piece of information at their own pace.
The application of these ideas will reduce the student frustration. Learners could gain self-confidence if they are capable to self-explain their learning process.
All teachers know how import is to give a good example to explain a concept or any other complex bit of information. Chapter number 10 is about how to move from a full worked example to a practice problem.
When a teacher describe step by step how to perform a task or to solve a problem, he is applying a worked example methodology. Nevertheless, this technique has some limitations. Students usually tent to ignore the steps and them they will not archive his learning objectives. This phenomenon is known as “expertise reversal effects,” and that mean that the new knowledge adds no value. Worked example has five principles:
• Transition from worked examples to full problems via fading.
• Include self-explanation questions with you worked examples.
• Supplement worked examples with effective explanations.
• Apply the multimedia principles to the design of your examples.
• Support learning transfer thought effective design of context of worked examples.
I considered that the best idea of this chapter is how to move students from a worked example to a practice problem. While this process, students will learn how to self-explain each step of a worked example. That mean, the learner is able to identify the principle that supports each step of a worked example.
I want to underline some recommendations to be applying while we are designing worked examples. It is very important to provide details explanations, make explanations shorter, explain the connections between the steps, and apply the contiguity principle. At the moment of design a multimedia materials, It is very important to provide relevant visual illustrations, use audio to present steps, use self-explanations questions, avoid words in both text and audio, and allow learns to access each piece of information at their own pace.
The application of these ideas will reduce the student frustration. Learners could gain self-confidence if they are capable to self-explain their learning process.
Comments to Chapter 10
Before to produce a e-learner unit, it is very important to analyze the unit content, the concepts, and the relation between them to decide how these will be designed. Our work is to simplify the information complexity to learners. According to some cognitive theories, human memory has limits. Learners could not process unfamiliar information and complex conceptual relation because their cognitive system becomes overloaded.
To avoid this problem, we have to learn how to applied two principles: segmentation and pretraining. When we have material that are complex to understand, we have to broke the material into short segments, lighted his concepts, and to show the relation between them. The second principle is pre-training. It is well know that nobody could understand and remember huge amounts of unfamiliar information. According to Mayer and Chandler (2001,) “learners who received the segmented presentation on lightning formation preformed better on transfers tests than learners who received a continues presentation…”
Segmenting and Pretraining are two principles that could apply daily to design our lesson plans, instructional multimedia materials, webpage and any others material used in e-learning. For me, these concepts are product of the application of the common sense.
We learn more if we are familiar whit the subject that we are study, and if the information is presented into bite-size segments. We cannot forget that learners learn more when they are able to identified concepts and his relations.
To avoid this problem, we have to learn how to applied two principles: segmentation and pretraining. When we have material that are complex to understand, we have to broke the material into short segments, lighted his concepts, and to show the relation between them. The second principle is pre-training. It is well know that nobody could understand and remember huge amounts of unfamiliar information. According to Mayer and Chandler (2001,) “learners who received the segmented presentation on lightning formation preformed better on transfers tests than learners who received a continues presentation…”
Segmenting and Pretraining are two principles that could apply daily to design our lesson plans, instructional multimedia materials, webpage and any others material used in e-learning. For me, these concepts are product of the application of the common sense.
We learn more if we are familiar whit the subject that we are study, and if the information is presented into bite-size segments. We cannot forget that learners learn more when they are able to identified concepts and his relations.
Motivation or Love for the Computer
Summary:
The eSchool News staff published an article titled Technology helps boots student’s writing skills last Tuesday, April 15, 2008. They report that the use of writing software tools could have help students to improve writing skills. During the last five years, State and federal efforts to improve education have been focused on poorly performing students. The Nation’s Report Card 2007 showed that teen for eight to twelve grades have obtained better scores this year. The article talk about four software that teacher are using in many states across the nation. These programs are Writing Matters, Write ToLearn, My Access, and Criterion, and these were produced by non-profit and profit groups. Each program offers a variety of tools and resources to help student to identify their weaknesses, and to help teacher to evaluate students writing organization, structure and grammar. Software designers have used Knowledge Analysis Technologies
(KAT,) artificial intelligence, other sophisticate tools that could analyze meaning, content, and discourse characteristic. These applications also give feedback to student about they writing problems and progress. Nevertheless, some teachers think that these programs need to be use in combination with other effective pedagogical methodologies.
Personal Responses.
It is interesting to know that teacher could use some sophisticate tool to help their student to improve their writing. It is also interesting to hear that poorly performing students are progressing in their academicals performance. As a teacher, I have to recognize that time is the main teacher’s limitation at the moment to help students with their essays or any other writing assignment. 20 students could write at least 300 pages in a month. To read and grade this amount of pages, a teacher need at least eight hour more. If a program could give students feedback right away, teachers could use these eight hours to attend person to person their student. Maybe, the real reason of these changes is those teachers have had more time to teach. It is true, I agree with the implementation of these kinds of instructional technology tool all across the Earth. Finally. As Charles Chaplin said at The Great Dictator, “More that machines, we need humanity,” and “…focused intensely on poorly performing students” is a good sign of humanity, and have more time to attend students need is a big demonstration of humanity.
The eSchool News staff published an article titled Technology helps boots student’s writing skills last Tuesday, April 15, 2008. They report that the use of writing software tools could have help students to improve writing skills. During the last five years, State and federal efforts to improve education have been focused on poorly performing students. The Nation’s Report Card 2007 showed that teen for eight to twelve grades have obtained better scores this year. The article talk about four software that teacher are using in many states across the nation. These programs are Writing Matters, Write ToLearn, My Access, and Criterion, and these were produced by non-profit and profit groups. Each program offers a variety of tools and resources to help student to identify their weaknesses, and to help teacher to evaluate students writing organization, structure and grammar. Software designers have used Knowledge Analysis Technologies
(KAT,) artificial intelligence, other sophisticate tools that could analyze meaning, content, and discourse characteristic. These applications also give feedback to student about they writing problems and progress. Nevertheless, some teachers think that these programs need to be use in combination with other effective pedagogical methodologies.
Personal Responses.
It is interesting to know that teacher could use some sophisticate tool to help their student to improve their writing. It is also interesting to hear that poorly performing students are progressing in their academicals performance. As a teacher, I have to recognize that time is the main teacher’s limitation at the moment to help students with their essays or any other writing assignment. 20 students could write at least 300 pages in a month. To read and grade this amount of pages, a teacher need at least eight hour more. If a program could give students feedback right away, teachers could use these eight hours to attend person to person their student. Maybe, the real reason of these changes is those teachers have had more time to teach. It is true, I agree with the implementation of these kinds of instructional technology tool all across the Earth. Finally. As Charles Chaplin said at The Great Dictator, “More that machines, we need humanity,” and “…focused intensely on poorly performing students” is a good sign of humanity, and have more time to attend students need is a big demonstration of humanity.
Bill Gate Good Intentions
Summary:
Bill Gates published his concern about education in Forbes.com at the beginning of this year. He began his reflections mentioned article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He underlined how the education has progressed during the last 60 years; more children attend school, literacy rates increase, and thousand of students attend at universities. Nevertheless, he said, millions of young people don’t receive an education adequately for life beyond school, and the scale of this situation could be worse if we do not act quickly to solve the problem now. For Bill Gate, the combination of some software, internet networks, and some other technological tools could create a high-quality educational environment to help students and teachers. He used some examples to illustrate his thought. First, he mentioned MIT’s Open Courseware as a example of how technology is used to created educational materials that could be used for millions of people by free. He also mentioned Microsoft’s online portal called Innovative Teachers Networks. Today, more of half a million teachers shared lesson plans and ideas of how to use technology in their classrooms at that online portal. He also recognized that technology by itself is not the answer to all the educational issues. He proposes a holistic approach that includes teacher training, relevant curricula, technology, and the participation of parent, nongovernmental organization. From his point of view as parent, philanthropic and businessmen, his approach could guarantee access to high-quality educational experiences.
Personal Responses:
I agree with Bill Gate’s analysis about educational present problems and their future solutions. I also accept that technology could be use to create better educational opportunities. In addition, I agree that we have to act now to avoid more complex educational problems. Nevertheless, I do not trust Bill Gate’s good intention and philanthropic spirit. For instance, He did not mentioned open free source software as a part of the solution; on the contrary he only mentioned his company’s product. He also said that “…more than 1 million people visit the MIT’s Open Courseware website,” but it is a half of the true. According to 2005 Program Evaluation Findings Report, MIT Open Course Ware, published in June 5, 2006, p. 17 -19, they use the word “visitor” instead “people.” Mr. Gates probably played with those words to exaggerate the real instructional impact of this service. I know that 1,4 millions of “visitors’ from Latin America/Caribbean have used this webpage. That number of visitor represent only 8.4 percentage of the total population of that area, 601 millions of inhabitan.Fianally, I rememeber another Bill Gate’s interview is which he talk about his love for money and his political ambitions. After all ideas, I conclude that Bill Gate is promoting a novel, and I aggre with him. However, I also think that he is trying to add more millons to his personal saving account.
Bill Gates published his concern about education in Forbes.com at the beginning of this year. He began his reflections mentioned article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He underlined how the education has progressed during the last 60 years; more children attend school, literacy rates increase, and thousand of students attend at universities. Nevertheless, he said, millions of young people don’t receive an education adequately for life beyond school, and the scale of this situation could be worse if we do not act quickly to solve the problem now. For Bill Gate, the combination of some software, internet networks, and some other technological tools could create a high-quality educational environment to help students and teachers. He used some examples to illustrate his thought. First, he mentioned MIT’s Open Courseware as a example of how technology is used to created educational materials that could be used for millions of people by free. He also mentioned Microsoft’s online portal called Innovative Teachers Networks. Today, more of half a million teachers shared lesson plans and ideas of how to use technology in their classrooms at that online portal. He also recognized that technology by itself is not the answer to all the educational issues. He proposes a holistic approach that includes teacher training, relevant curricula, technology, and the participation of parent, nongovernmental organization. From his point of view as parent, philanthropic and businessmen, his approach could guarantee access to high-quality educational experiences.
Personal Responses:
I agree with Bill Gate’s analysis about educational present problems and their future solutions. I also accept that technology could be use to create better educational opportunities. In addition, I agree that we have to act now to avoid more complex educational problems. Nevertheless, I do not trust Bill Gate’s good intention and philanthropic spirit. For instance, He did not mentioned open free source software as a part of the solution; on the contrary he only mentioned his company’s product. He also said that “…more than 1 million people visit the MIT’s Open Courseware website,” but it is a half of the true. According to 2005 Program Evaluation Findings Report, MIT Open Course Ware, published in June 5, 2006, p. 17 -19, they use the word “visitor” instead “people.” Mr. Gates probably played with those words to exaggerate the real instructional impact of this service. I know that 1,4 millions of “visitors’ from Latin America/Caribbean have used this webpage. That number of visitor represent only 8.4 percentage of the total population of that area, 601 millions of inhabitan.Fianally, I rememeber another Bill Gate’s interview is which he talk about his love for money and his political ambitions. After all ideas, I conclude that Bill Gate is promoting a novel, and I aggre with him. However, I also think that he is trying to add more millons to his personal saving account.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Some Reflections About Blogging and Learning
I had heard about a new way to publish in Internet, called “blogs”, but I had never paid attention to any one. I read my first blog last April 2006, because I was searching information related to Los Angeles High Schools Walkouts. At that moment, I discovered that many people were using blogs to share ideas and to argue about many issues related with those students’ walkouts. I read “Blogs, wikis, and podcasts, and others powerful web tools for classrooms,” written by Will Richardson in August of the same year. Three month later, I created my first blog that I called “Instructional Technology with Heart”. In conclusion, I ended being a “digital immigrant”, to start being a “digital native” in less than six months.
My first perception about blogs was that they were very interesting digital places to share information, but at the same time, I felt that they were very difficult to read. Some blogs that I visited published many articles, and many people posted their comments. At that moment, I was ignorant about how blogs worked and their communicational possibilities. Therefore, I quickly lost my interest about blogs or any news about this technology.
Dr. Pearl Chen invited me to read Richardson’s book, and I accepted her invitation. Immediately, I found the book and started to read it. I have to confess that, at the beginning, I was predisposed against the author and his ideas about how to transform teaching. During my reading, however, I was changing my attitude and becoming to enjoy each of the chapters, especially the chapters related with blogs. I understood that blogs are easy to create, easy to update, an easy to publish. In other words, blogs are an easy and powerful tool for teachers.
Teachers can use blogs to created reading-writing collaborative spaces. Blogs’ users have to read and to write because blogs demand interaction among users. The collaboration among students is a great opportunity for students to improve their reflection and analytical skills. Furthermore, the constant relation with peers, teachers and others adults will help students to develop more sophisticated writing skills.
Usually teachers are the main audience for the paper written by their students. In this way, hundreds of good stories and essays do not go beyond the classroom. Blogs open the classroom door to the world and create a new audience. Now, parents, relatives, tutors, and many other people can read and give their feedback to the papers posted by the blog’s owner. This new pedagogical scenery opens the opportunity to promote different learning styles. Therefore, blogs become an important educational tool to develop metacognitive analysis and connective writing.
Using blogs, teachers could encourage their students to use learner strategies, especially metacognitive strategies. Students could use these strategies for “planning for learning, monitoring one’s own comprehension and production, and evaluating how well one has achieved a learning objective” (Chamot & O'Malley, 1994: 60) (1). Blogs let to the students time to read the responses posted on their blogs by others. Consequently, they have time to analyze, to plan and to articulate deeper thought before typing their messages.
Blog users are also creating a new writing genre which is defined as ”connective writing” by Will Richardson. He says, “Connective writing is a form that forces those who do it to read carefully and critically, that demand clarity and congruency in its construction, that is done by a wide audience, and that links to the sources of the ideas expressed.” This idea changes my attitude against the author. After reading this definition, I understand how powerful is a blog as an educational tool. Traditionally, the writing process at the school is more akin to a monologue. Students write but nobody reads and gives feedback about their literary creations. Using blogs, students would establish continued and interesting conversations with other people. Furthermore, they will value the importance of writing as a process generator of knowledge.
Finally, you can observe that in less than six months I jumped from a skeptic position about blogs’ benefits to an enthusiastic promoter of this new tool. Today, I am working as the computer lab coordinator at Highland Elementary School in Monterrey, and I am planning some classes to introduce blogs to fourth and fifth grade teachers. I will paraphrase an Anthony De Melo’s thought to make a conclusion about what I have learned during the last six moths. I will not talk with fourth and fifth grade teachers about how wonderful blogs are. Instead, I will invite them to make their own blogs and they will discover their own paths. I hope to write a new post in six moths to report to you about how this revolutionary tool changes the writing style of our students and teachers.
My first perception about blogs was that they were very interesting digital places to share information, but at the same time, I felt that they were very difficult to read. Some blogs that I visited published many articles, and many people posted their comments. At that moment, I was ignorant about how blogs worked and their communicational possibilities. Therefore, I quickly lost my interest about blogs or any news about this technology.
Dr. Pearl Chen invited me to read Richardson’s book, and I accepted her invitation. Immediately, I found the book and started to read it. I have to confess that, at the beginning, I was predisposed against the author and his ideas about how to transform teaching. During my reading, however, I was changing my attitude and becoming to enjoy each of the chapters, especially the chapters related with blogs. I understood that blogs are easy to create, easy to update, an easy to publish. In other words, blogs are an easy and powerful tool for teachers.
Teachers can use blogs to created reading-writing collaborative spaces. Blogs’ users have to read and to write because blogs demand interaction among users. The collaboration among students is a great opportunity for students to improve their reflection and analytical skills. Furthermore, the constant relation with peers, teachers and others adults will help students to develop more sophisticated writing skills.
Usually teachers are the main audience for the paper written by their students. In this way, hundreds of good stories and essays do not go beyond the classroom. Blogs open the classroom door to the world and create a new audience. Now, parents, relatives, tutors, and many other people can read and give their feedback to the papers posted by the blog’s owner. This new pedagogical scenery opens the opportunity to promote different learning styles. Therefore, blogs become an important educational tool to develop metacognitive analysis and connective writing.
Using blogs, teachers could encourage their students to use learner strategies, especially metacognitive strategies. Students could use these strategies for “planning for learning, monitoring one’s own comprehension and production, and evaluating how well one has achieved a learning objective” (Chamot & O'Malley, 1994: 60) (1). Blogs let to the students time to read the responses posted on their blogs by others. Consequently, they have time to analyze, to plan and to articulate deeper thought before typing their messages.
Blog users are also creating a new writing genre which is defined as ”connective writing” by Will Richardson. He says, “Connective writing is a form that forces those who do it to read carefully and critically, that demand clarity and congruency in its construction, that is done by a wide audience, and that links to the sources of the ideas expressed.” This idea changes my attitude against the author. After reading this definition, I understand how powerful is a blog as an educational tool. Traditionally, the writing process at the school is more akin to a monologue. Students write but nobody reads and gives feedback about their literary creations. Using blogs, students would establish continued and interesting conversations with other people. Furthermore, they will value the importance of writing as a process generator of knowledge.
Finally, you can observe that in less than six months I jumped from a skeptic position about blogs’ benefits to an enthusiastic promoter of this new tool. Today, I am working as the computer lab coordinator at Highland Elementary School in Monterrey, and I am planning some classes to introduce blogs to fourth and fifth grade teachers. I will paraphrase an Anthony De Melo’s thought to make a conclusion about what I have learned during the last six moths. I will not talk with fourth and fifth grade teachers about how wonderful blogs are. Instead, I will invite them to make their own blogs and they will discover their own paths. I hope to write a new post in six moths to report to you about how this revolutionary tool changes the writing style of our students and teachers.
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