Golden's Adult Education Technologies Blog

Week 8: My colleagues’ URLs

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 05:27:00 +0000

Digital Citizenship, Ethics, and Netiquette

The three colleagues’’ blogs having the URLs that interest me are as follows:

Marian Perkins: http://www.beyondthebinders.blogspot.com/

Lenora Butler: http://newtechwithnora.wordpress.com

Jennifer Pierson: http://jp101473.wordpress.com/

What does digital citizenship mean to you?

I found Marian’s blog on digital citizenship interesting from Microsoft. “Microsoft” teach us what digital citizenship is. The URL is located at the following URL: http://www.microsoft.com/security/resources/digital-citizenship.aspx.

According to Microsoft, “Digital citizenship is usually defined as the "norms of behavior with regard to technology use.” It encompasses digital literacy, ethics, etiquette, online safety, norms, rights, culture and more. Microsoft recognizes that good digital citizenship, when you use computers, gaming consoles, or mobile devices, promotes a safer online environment for all. The visual whitepaper, "Fostering Digital Citizenship," discusses why digital citizenship matters and outlines the education young people need as they explore, learn, and essentially "grow-up" online.

The next interesting digital citizenship URL comes from Lenora’s blog from YouTube at the following URL:

“In this talk, Rosalind Wiseman addresses the complex problem of bullying in schools, and how administrators and parents need to support kids to make schools the safe places that they should be. Rosalind Wiseman is an internationally recognized expert on children, teens, parenting, bullying, social justice, and ethical leadership. She is the author of Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and the New Realities of Girl World, the groundbreaking, fully revised edition of her bestselling book that was the basis for the movie Mean Girls.

The third URL is as follows http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html. It comes from Jennifer Pierson's blog. According to this cite, “Digital citizenship can be defined as the norms of appropriate, responsible behavior with regard to technology use.”

References

Butler, L. (2014). Retrieved from http://newtechwithnora.wordpress.com

Perkins, M. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.beyondthebinders.blogspot.com/

Pierson, J. (2014). Retrieved from http://jp101473.wordpress.com/

Week 7 Digital Citizenship, Ethics, and Netiquette

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 05:16:00 +0000

Digital Citizenship

The two technologies that I chose to talk about this week that have the potential for enhancing adult education through the training of digital citizenship, ethics, and netiquette are the following:

Universal Class URL: http://www.universalclass.com/i/course/etiquette-training.htm.

Kantola Productions URL: http://www.kantola.com/.

My first digital citizenship, ethics, and netiquette choice comes from Universal Class. This website offers many courses for adult learners such as Self Improvement courses, spiritual studies, teacher tools, test preparation, writing skills, writing improvement, social science, entrepreneurship, cooking, homeschooling, and computer training, etc. Besides the movie about Etiquette 101 offers students historical information about the concept of “etiquette” from the ages of time up to today.

The next digital citizenship and ethics website is about email etiquette by Kantola Productions. This website offers a plethora of adult educational courses for on the job, immediate, and just in time training. One course that really caught my attention was “Email Etiquette.” Kantola says Email is fast becoming the preferred method of contact for sharing information and resolving problems. The impression you leave with others about the quality of your organization and your own personal competency is largely based on the courtesy and professionalism of your email correspondence. I truly agree with that notion. According to Kantola, adult learners learn about the following:

· Email etiquette and best practices.

· Openings and closings.

· Proper formatting and subject lines.

· Grammar and punctuation.

· Writing “bad news” emails.

· Email customer service.

I selected both URLs because they are teaching tools that I would incorporate in my writing literacy course. The first URL is for teaching students how to behave online with each other. I would use this movie as an icebreaker to provide students Q&A where they will generate answers to questions to discuss ideas about netiquette and etiquette, digital citizenship, and ethics. I would use the second URL for teaching in my literacy-writing course, as braiders need to learn how to interact with the public online, f2f, and via phone.

Learn to write in English―English writing practice and correction for FREE!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 01:05:00 +0000

LiveLesson® Session: Inside the Online Classroom

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 00:09:00 +0000

What is Udemy?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 23:48:00 +0000

“Open Online MOOCs”

Udemy Open Online Courses URL: https://www.udemy.com/courses/.

MIT Open Courseware URL: http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm.

Udemy offers free or inexpensive Ivy League education online and Udemy connects people who want to teach with people who want to learn. Most courses on Udemy are open online courses—dubbed (MOOCs) or massive open online courses that focus on work/professional skills such as Excel, Photoshop, Mobile Apps, User Experience, Web Design, Game Development, Start-Up/Entrepreneurship, Writing, Film making, Video Editing, Presentations, etc. This site invites instructors from all lifestyles (Webutation, n.d.).

The reason I chose Udemy is that it offers anyone, anywhere, and anytime connections to learn from world experts. Courses are taught on demand, which means they are taken at the user’s own pace. Courses include discussion boards to interact with instructors and fellow students and most courses are free! Moreover, the paid courses are purported to cost far less than what you’d pay at a local college or university (Udemy, n.d.). I would offer my adult learners hyperlinks to good and free writing courses on this site to familiarize them to the site where they learn writing skills development or any other subject of their choosing.

The next open online course that I chose this week that I would introduce to my adult learners to is MIT Open Courseware from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “The idea is simple: to publish all of our course materials online and make them widely available to everyone” is the mantra of MIT’s OCW. Open Courseware or (OCW) makes the materials used in the teaching of almost all of MIT’s subjects available on line and free of charge” (MIT, n.d.).

MIT touts, “OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity.” MIT is an Ivy League university that is respected around the world. This site is an excellent resource for adult educators because through OCW improves courses and curricula, making schools more effective according to the site’s literature. Moreover, it claims that students find additional resources to help them succeed; and independent learners enrich their lives and use the content to tackle some of our world’s most difficult challenges, including sustainable development, climate change, and cancer eradication” (MIT, n.d.). Learners can order any course that interest them for whatever their reason. Students have an opportunity to test drive eLearning from world experts from many academic disciplines. I, personally, would use this MOOC to brush up on my math skills. This site also offers students of limited English speaking abilities opportunities to learn English and it helps native English speakers knowledge for understanding the challenges such students face living in the USA.

Students do not need to register or enroll in course offered nor do they receive grades or credits. Moreover, MIT does not provide interaction or direct contact with MIT instructors, staff, or students. Teachers are encouraged to use, reuse, and mix (repurpose) content as long as they follow MIT’s terms of use. Furthermore, MIT hope users will “share” their content with friends, family and colleagues (MIT, n.d.). Teachers and learners are provided information on how “begin their educational journey” via “finding a course by topic or department; perusing courses on the site’s Cross-Disciplinary Topic Lists such as: energy, entrepreneurship, environment, introductory programming, life sciences, and transportation. Each OCW course offers some type of instruction that may include a syllabus, lecture notes, reading list, or calendar, and a learning activity such as assignments, quizzes, or exams.

References

MIT. (n.d.). MIT OCW. Retrieved from http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm.

Udemy. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.udemy.com/courses/.

Udemy. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.udemy.com/seeing-the-big-picture/?couponCode=UDEMY25.

Webutation. (n.d.). Open Website Reputation. Retrieved from http://www.webutations.org/go/review/udemy.com.

My BrainPOP – Setting Up a Class

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 05 Apr 2014 18:15:00 +0000

My BrainPOP – Setting Up a Class

Educators can setup their own classes using BrainPOP! This short video shows you how. Let's get started.

Week 5 Games, Simulations, and Virtual Environments

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 05 Apr 2014 17:00:00 +0000

“Games, Simulations, and Virtual Environments”

BrainPop’s URL: http://www.brainpop.com/english/seeall/.

5 Minute English URL: http://www.5minuteenglish.com/grammar.htm.

Fun Brain’s URL: http://www.funbrain.com/cgi-bin/gg.cgi?A1=m&A2=0&A3=0&AFUNCT=1&ALEVEL=1

The two web-based, virtual environments that I chose to talk about for this week’s blog post is called “Brainpop.” “Brainpop English language-learning program” uses lively, engaging content to teach English to speakers of other languages and native speakers of English. This program is loaded with content, games, movies, words and their usage. The audience for this virtual learning environment are for all academic levels and disciplines such as science, math, social studies, health, engineering & tech, and English. This site host loads of information for the teacher such as lesson plans, a free BrainPop educators section with Common Core Standards for every subject for all fifty USA states. The interface has animated, lively colors, large font, and appears to be user friendly and easy to navigate. The part that really passions me is Brainpop ESL/ELL. The downside of this site is every character is an animated cartoon, which my irate some adult learners.

Brainpop’s ESL/ELL virtual learning environment is built around animated movies and supporting features, it is an excellent resource for adult learners, because it reinforces vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, reading comprehension, and writing skills. It can certainly make a difference in the learning of all ESL/ELL students! It also features all conceivable learning style, such as aural, visual, and tactile. Laureate’s week five video report, “We’ve seen people learn so much through games!” I agree that BrainPop has really created mathematics, English, etc. that kids, as well as adults can learn from and love to play.

The Minnesota Literacy Council has its own website that offers a plethora of instructor material resources and aids for computer education and ABE grammar skills development and for the building of basic computer literacy for adult learners living in Minnesota. These virtual programs found on this site are prepared by members of Minnesota’s CTEP (Community Technology Empowerment Project).

I would incorporate BrainPop virtual interactive ESL, literacy, and reading content, movies, and games into my English language arts literacy-writing course via hyperlinks that connect learners to my subscription. These virtual environments will enhance and reinforce the skills that I know that adult learners of literacy writing need to excel in their educational achievement, economic success, positive health outcomes, and civic engagement responsibilities to themselves, their families, and the community. For example, students will improve their reading and writing, speaking, spelling, word recognition, word identification and pronunciations, parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and etc.to become proficient communicators and writers through the visual, aural, and interactive built in elements that BrainPop offers. As for the Minnesota Literacy Council’s website, most activities are offer limited English speaker demographics, as well as native English speakers. Another feature of BrainPop is students’ growth from being gamers to game designers.

Both environments offer students opportunities that inculcate passion and motivation for learning Standard American English. Both sites are available anytime and from anywhere students have the technology, broadband, and/or Wi-Fi to access it. Best Education website also offers numerous resources of multiple academic disciplines for adult learning via games and learning activities. This site can be accessed in one spot by downloading the Homework Simplified Toolbar.

Squire (2011) posits identifying students’ passions and using them as advantage for relating academic content should be something that skilled teachers can do regardless of technology. Squire’s narrative suggest gaming is a great way to build meaningful relations that forge friendships built around common interests that can help address academic matters related to things of interest or just by calling upon the goodwill teacher and student develop via interest and gaming (p. 46). By building relationships with others of like interest, students learn to hang out in forums, which are an excellent source for learning.

Moreover, Squire (2011) suggest there’s a coupling effect between the students’ interests and academic ones via a degree of reciprocal indoctrination involved in getting students to care about the same kinds of things teachers care about (p. 47). In my profession of teaching adult learners, I have observed that some students may not have the necessary computing experience for Online learning to play games for learning. Hyperlinks that direct such students to online content can be a welcoming sight for many older learners; hence, I use them to help guide my students along their internet browsing experiences. It would also behoove the instructor/teacher to administer the VARK, keyboarding and surfing skills tests along with the ELSA skills tests to ensure students are able and ready to engage and participate in online courses and learning.

References

Best Education. (n.d.). Language arts sites. Retrieved from http://www.bestedsites.com/Languageartslinks.html.

BrainPop. (1999 – 2014). Retrieved from http://www.brainpop.com/.

BrainPop. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.brainpopjr.com/readingandwriting/word/adjectivesandadverbs/preview.weml.

BrainPop. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.brainpopjr.com/games/readingandwriting/.

BrainPop. (n.d.). Writing a Paragraph. Retrieved from http://www.brainpopjr.com/readingandwriting/writing/writingaparagraph/preview.weml.

Fun Brain.com (n.d.). Grammar gorillas. Retrieved from http://www.funbrain.com/cgi-bin/gg.cgi?A1=m&A2=0&A3=0&AFUNCT=1&ALEVEL=1.

HomeworkSimplified Toolbar. (n.d.). You can now enjoy one-click access to the latest movie reviews, film trailers, entertainment news and more in one convenient spot! Retrieved from http://www.homeworksimplified.com/alreadyInstalled.jhtml.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Learning through games [Video webcast]. Retrieved from http://www.courseurl.com.

Minnesota Literacy Council. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.mnliteracy.org/.

Minnesota Literacy Council. (n.d.). Instructor notes and resources. Retrieved from http://www.mnliteracy.org/educators/adult/technology/computer-skills.

Squire, K. (2011). Video games and learning: Teaching and participatory culture in the digital age. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 05 Apr 2014 16:15:00 +0000

Games, Simulations, and Virtual Environments

BrainPop’s URL: http://www.brainpop.com/english/seeall/.

5 Minute English URL: http://www.5minuteenglish.com/grammar.htm.

Fun Brain’s URL: http://www.funbrain.com/cgi-bin/gg.cgi?A1=m&A2=0&A3=0&AFUNCT=1&ALEVEL=1

The two web-based, virtual environments that I chose to talk about for this week’s blog post is called “BrainPop.” “BrainPop English language-learning program” uses lively, engaging content to teach English to speakers of other languages and native speakers of English. This program is loaded with content, games, movies, words and their usage. The audience for this virtual learning environment are for all academic levels and disciplines such as science, math, social studies, health, engineering & tech, and English. This site host loads of information for the teacher such as lesson plans, a free BrainPop educators section with Common Core Standards for every subject for all fifty USA states. The interface has animated, lively colors, large font, and appears to be user friendly and easy to navigate. The part that really passions me is BrainPop ESL/ELL. The downside of this site is every character is an animated cartoon, which my irate some adult learners.

BrainPop’s ESL/ELL virtual learning environment is built around animated movies and supporting features, it is an excellent resource for adult learners, because it reinforces vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, reading comprehension, and writing skills. It can certainly make a difference in the learning of all ESL/ELL students! It also features all conceivable learning style, such as aural, visual, and tactile. Laureate’s week five video report, “We’ve seen people learn so much through games!” I agree that BrainPop has really created mathematics, English, etc. that kids, as well as adults can learn from and love to play.

The Minnesota Literacy Council has its own website that offers a plethora of instructor material resources and aids for computer education and ABE grammar skills development and for the building of basic computer literacy for adult learners living in Minnesota. These virtual programs found on this site are prepared by members of Minnesota’s CTEP (Community Technology Empowerment Project).

I would incorporate BrainPop virtual interactive ESL, literacy, and reading content, movies, and games into my English language arts literacy-writing course via hyperlinks that connect learners to my subscription. These virtual environments will enhance and reinforce the skills that I know that adult learners of literacy writing need to excel in their educational achievement, economic success, positive health outcomes, and civic engagement responsibilities to themselves, their families, and the community. For example, students will improve their reading and writing, speaking, spelling, word recognition, word identification and pronunciations, parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and etc.to become proficient communicators and writers through the visual, aural, and interactive built in elements that BrainPop offers. As for the Minnesota Literacy Council’s website, most activities are offer limited English speaker demographics, as well as native English speakers. Another feature of BrainPop is students’ growth from being gamers to game designers.

Both environments offer students opportunities that inculcate passion and motivation for learning Standard American English. Both sites are available anytime and from anywhere students have the technology, broadband, and/or Wi-Fi to access it. Best Education website also offers numerous resources of multiple academic disciplines for adult learning via games and learning activities. This site can be accessed in one spot by downloading the Homework Simplified Toolbar.

Squire (2011) posits identifying students’ passions and using them as advantage for relating academic content should be something that skilled teachers can do regardless of technology. Squire’s story suggest gaming is a great way to build meaningful relations that forge friendships built around common interests that can help address academic matters related to things of interest or just by calling upon the goodwill teacher and student develop via interest and gaming (p. 46). By building relationships with others of like interest, students learn to hang out in forums, which are an excellent source for learning.

Moreover, Squire (2011) suggest there’s a coupling effect between the students’ interests and academic ones via a degree of reciprocal indoctrination involved in getting students to care about the same kinds of things teachers care about (p. 47). In my profession of teaching adult learners, I have observed that some students may not have the necessary computing experience for Online learning to play games for learning. Hyperlinks that direct such students to online content can be a welcoming sight for many older learners; hence, I use them to help guide my students along their internet browsing experiences. It would also behoove the instructor/teacher to administer the VARK, keyboarding and surfing skills tests along with the ELSA test skills tests to ensure students are able and ready to engage and participate in online courses and learning.

References

Best Education. (n.d.). Language arts sites. Retrieved from http://www.bestedsites.com/Languageartslinks.html.

BrainPop. (1999 – 2014). Retrieved from http://www.brainpop.com/.

BrainPop. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.brainpopjr.com/readingandwriting/word/adjectivesandadverbs/preview.weml.

BrainPop. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.brainpopjr.com/games/readingandwriting/.

BrainPop. (n.d.). Writing a Paragraph. Retrieved from http://www.brainpopjr.com/readingandwriting/writing/writingaparagraph/preview.weml.

Fun Brain.com (n.d.). Grammar gorillas. Retrieved from http://www.funbrain.com/cgi-bin/gg.cgi?A1=m&A2=0&A3=0&AFUNCT=1&ALEVEL=1.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Learning through games [Video webcast]. Retrieved from http://www.courseurl.com.

Minnesota Literacy Council. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.mnliteracy.org/.

Minnesota Literacy Council. (n.d.). Instructor notes and resources. Retrieved from http://www.mnliteracy.org/educators/adult/technology/computer-skills.

Squire, K. (2011). Video games and learning: Teaching and participatory culture in the digital age. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Week 4: What Constitutes “Good” M-Learning?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 18:31:00 +0000

Argument for M-learning

What Constitutes “Good” M-Learning?

How can educators use the new technology of mobile learning to create learning activities for their students? This question is one that teachers can easily learn by studying the functionalities of their own smartphones. Educators can learn to embrace what mobile learning apps can do to enhance learning in their classrooms. Many educators today frown upon mobile usage in their classrooms as distractors that disrupt the flow of instruction. If educators learn the capacity, utility, and integrative goodies that mobile learning can produce that does not necessarily need be the case. According to a Pew Research study, “Six in ten Americans go online wirelessly using a laptop or cell phone; African-Americans and 18-29 year olds lead the way in the use of cell phone data applications, but older adults are gaining ground” (Smith, 2010).

Even with increasing numbers of investigative studies, there are still significant gaps in the literature (Litchfield et al., 2007). Little is understood about when m-technology is most useful and what constitutes good m-learning.

(Anderson & Stead as cited in Koszalka and Ntloedibe-Kuswani, 2010) posit, “Using m-technologies in instructionally sound ways offers two advantages…M-technologies can effectively bring community instructional resources and activities from the outside into the classroom, bringing similar benefits to those that were seen when computer technologies were first integrated into classroom settings” (pp. 140 – 141).

(Facer et al., 2004; Sprake & Rogers, 2006; Williams, Jones, Fleuri ot, & Wood, 2005 as cited in Koszalka & Ntloedibe-Kuswani, 2010) report, M-technologies such as Smartphone are portable and connective by their very nature; thus, they can easily provide learners with resources and new types of instructional activities ‘out’ of the classroom and into the community.

I concur; for example, a science teacher could easily integrate into a lab lesson into the curriculum that takes advantage of the portability and connectedness capability of Smartphones by having students research, identify, and categorizing and listing photographs they take, let us say, of dry rot in trees in their neighborhoods. Another use I can think about for using Smartphone technology is to download apps such as “Popplet” that is a tool for the iPad and web to visually capture and organize your ideas. It is used in the classroom, at home, or in the office. It is an excellent tool to teach literacy-writing skills.

As you can see M-learning is the new dimension of technology learning tools inside and especially outside the classroom. M-learning devices such as Smartphones and some cameras such as my Samsung Galaxy NX300 have the capacity to create and connect learning whereby learners become less consumers of information and more collaborators, researchers, and publishers on-the-go (Stead, 2006 as cited in Smith, 2010).

Always Ready to Share Your Memories

According to Samsung NX300 website, users can connect to their world—and to their smart devices. A dedicated Direct Link hot key lets the user quickly and wirelessly send images to a mobile phone, tablet, PC or Smart HDTV—directly from this camera. It is perfect for sharing moments with friends, family, and your favorite social networks. The Samsung NX300 also includes Dual band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) support so you can connect faster and with more stability to wireless networks around you.

References

Best Buy. (n.d.). Samsung NX300 Digital Compact Camera. Retrieved from http://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-nx300-20-3-megapixel-digital-compact-system-camera-with-20-50mm-lens-white/8660103.p?id=1218884672857&skuId=8660103#tab=specifications.

Edudemic.com. (2013, January 29). Using Cell Phones in Class: A primer for teachers. Retrieved from http://www.scoop.it/t/mlearning-learning-on-the-go?page=2.

Koszalka, Tiffany A. & Ntloedibe-Kuswani, G. S. (2010). Literature on the safe and disruptive learning potential of mobile technologies. Distance Education, 31(2), p. 139-157.

Popplet App. (n.d.). Visual Learning. Retrieved from http://popplet.com/.

Smith, A. (2011). Pew Internet & American Life Project: Smartphones. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2011/PIP_Smartphones.pdf

Week 3 Social Networking Technologies

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 04:16:00 +0000

URL: http://quizlet.com/mission is a free or paid resource for educators

The above screenshot depicts one of the social networking technologies I chose to talk about this week. I chose this study tool because I think it is an excellent tool for teaching adults and for teachers creating and developing content according to the objectives of learning. It provides adult educators unlimited potential to create many types of content. The content teachers create can be integrated with external and repurposed content, courses, LMSs, and social networking sites such as Facebook.

Quizlet also boasts an iPhone app for on the go mobile learning. Moreover, Quizlet touts its free study tools and states that over a million students and teachers a day – from grade school to graduate school, language learners to vocational students, at home and in the classroom, use their apps. Teachers and learners use Quizlet in every imaginable setting in almost every country – public and private schools, religious schools, charter schools, prestigious universities, and one-room schoolhouses (Quizlet, n.d.).

I use this software application tool and I will attest to its impact on learning is significant. I used it to teach Africans “microbiology vocabulary words along with audio pronunciations and definitions and students were able to learn faster, efficiently, and effectively. There is much more to this software application than what meets the eye. For example, students can play games and take quizzes that automatically grade input where teachers can track and monitor performance. The one way I would use this site is to create my own learning opportunities as CBT computer based inside an Adobe Portfolio burned on CD-ROM or stored on flash drive.

The second social networking site I chose to review and discuss is called “English Baby” at the following URL: http://www.englishbaby.com/. This tool offer adult learners a way to join the site free. Adult learners can find friends from around the world that share the same interests. You can also join using your Facebook account to log in.

The site offers free English lessons that feature real English conversations about popular culture. There are English Chat Rooms, English Forums, a place where people can “Learn English Vocabulary,” Take English Quizzes that have listening, vocabulary, and grammar quizzes to improve English, and a MP3 audio English download for iPod or MP3 player that offer learners a method of listening wherever and whenever. I think adult learners can learn English because they pressed by a community of like learners to pursue the acquisition of learning English via a social meeting place.

This is a unique social networking site because everybody engages in English conversations that help them acquire the skills needed to build a repertoire of English words, popular culture, idiomatic English, and to meet people with similar ideas and interests. I would use this site as the administrator and students would join our own Chat Room to converse in English. Moreover, I would also encourage students to participate on the “English Baby” Facebook page to find extra resources for using this social network (English Baby) at the following URL: https://www.facebook.com/englishbaby.

References

English Baby. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.englishbaby.com/.

Facebook. (n.d.). English Baby. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/englishbaby.

Quizlet.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://quizlet.com/24278842/teacher.

Week 2 Benefits & Challenges of Technologies Selected

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 19:36:00 +0000

Benefits and Challenges of Technologies Selected

The benefits of using Coursesites by Blackboard are that it has the ability to store all course materials in one place via Google Docs; it also has a built in library for Youtube, TeacherTube, and teacher created videos and audio. In addition, this application allows ID instructional designers or educators to create textual information such as welcoming students, course syllabus, resource page, and content where students can delve into learning. The superb thing is that the students are exposed to learning on many levels—visual, textual, contextual, and audio--all their various learning styles. Coursesites is an Online Learning Management System or (LMS) that has the capacity to tap into every student's lifestyle and learning style via asynchronous learning, delivery and participation.

As for building Online courses on Coursesites, the facilitator must learn the entire interface, features, and capacities of this application. It takes at least a couple weeks for a newcomer to really understand how to work Coursesites. The second challenge is for students to navigate from section to section especially for new Online learners. Finding the right LMS is key to using this platform to create, deliver, and manage learning.

To overcome that problem, "Coursesites" has learning videos and training manuals for both teachers and students. The easiest way for the teacher to overcome obstacles to online learning is to create an orientation course for online learners. Another approach is to administer the "VARK Online Learning Quiz," which provides information for the teacher to understand which students need basic computing skills from those that are ready to engage in online learning. It also provides students information that many do not know they have such as their individualized learning style(s): visual, auditory, tactile. Some people are strong in one or two of those modalities of learning. "Coursesites" has the ability for the instructor to create a "Discussion Board" where students can participate and interact with assignment and each other for the duration of the course. This provides the interaction and sense of community online learners need.

The second educational technology I am using to educate adult learners is the blog by Blogger. This is an excellent source for building a relaxed and informal form of learning community amongst adult learners. They can view other's thoughts, style, creativity, and come from that are motivated to try new ways of presenting information, knowledge, and understanding of content. It is like a network or socially mediated application for all age groups.

Reference

Resources for Procuring the “Right” Learning Management System. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/training-and-development/reference-materials/procuring_lms.pdf.

VARK (n.d.). A guide to learning styles. Retrieved from http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire.

Week 1 Emerging Technologies

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 15:48:00 +0000

Hello bloggers, I am your administrator and I greet you from snowy Minnesota, land of the Northern Star. I am on this mission to discover technology tools I will use as an enhancement for teaching adult learners English language writing skills. The literacy writing course I propose to create will take approximately six weeks to complete having one week each for each module. Students will first learn the rules of conduct for learning online. They will learn rules of conduct about appropriate and inappropriate speech for online learning. Vulgarity and disrespect will not be tolerated. I propose this course will be a hybrid-blended f2f course (Richardson, 2010).

The first technology tool I find useful is the (LMS) Learning Management System (VL environment) called "Coursesites by Blackboard." On this site students will engage in online learning anytime and from anywhere. Moreover, I will provide them a teacher invitation to enroll in the virtual learning environment for this literacy writing course via email. In this domain I am able to provide informational material resources students will need to participate including multimedia such as videos and audio from within the applications of a Prezi or Voki avatar. Furthermore, in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint I will be able to develop course content to convert using Adobe Pro XI and Adobe Presenter 8 applications. The demographic for this learning solution are adult students with little to no writing skills experience or for those that need a basic refresher writing course. I will design, develop, implement, and evaluate training to include formative and summative assessment protocols that I can create via technology tools as describe earlier. I will help students that need email accounts get one.

The first lesson of the course presents learners with information about the various parts of speech in the English language. Learning parts of speech and techniques enable students to recognize, categorize, and utilize words properly within sentences such as nouns, adjectives, action, helping, transitive, intransitive, and auxiliary verbs, adverbs, prepositions, etc.
Furthermore, students will learn how to convert base words to different parts of speech by attaching suffixes. Besides that I will provide information and steps on sentence diagramming techniques.

The next lesson in this series consist of identification of the types of sentences such as declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory, Students will recognize by writing examples of each of these types of sentences and will use the appropriate punctuation needed for each. Moreover, writing simple, compound, complex, and compound complex sentences will also be a great learning adventure for ABE students.

For the last lesson of this English language literacy writing instruction, students will learn to write paragraphs with a main idea and supporting details. A second technology tool I propose is weblogging via "Blogger." Each student will learn how to develop their own Blogger blog.

Blogs are a meeting place to build community among learners, a place where students journal daily learning activities, and the place where they will share information amongst themselves. They can make a statement; ask a question; comment in response to each other's posts...agree or disagree to a post in a civil manner by being polite while backing up points of views from life experiences, scholarly journals, and peer reviewed books using APA style format, which will be included in learning activities from the material resources in the "Coursesites by Blackboard" virtual learning and f2f learning environments.

References

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.