Teach-ologies - Teaching and Technology in Education

Top Issues and Policy Standards

2014-10-10T15:19:00.002-07:00

For my professional teachers, faculty, and administrators...

Just a quick update on a few articles...

Today eCampus news published an article on updates in the Distance Education Policy Standards. I believe this article, The Must-Know Changes in Distance Education Policy, is worth your time, since these policies directly influence our online instructors, students, administrators, and institutions.

In the article, Stansberry (2014, October 10), lists the five main categories of the new or updated polices as institutional context and commitment, curriculum and instruction, faculty and faculty support, student support, and evaluation and assessment. You can read her review by going to the link below.

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/changes-distance-policy-691/

Although it is not new, Ebersole's Forbes article on the Top Issues Facing Higher Education in 2014 is interesting to review at this point in the year, since it reminds us that competency-based learning, changing student demographics, accreditation reform, assessment, and quality assurance should still be logged into our higher education GPS. If you want to take another look at that article, I do not think Ebersole would mind. I will link the article below. What do you believe the top issues are for higher education today?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnebersole/2014/01/13/top-issues-facing-higher-education-in-2014/

These articles gave me "food for thought" today. Happy Friday to all!

Blue skies and full sails,

mj

2014-09-18T18:02:00.000-07:00

KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES: HELPFUL SITES FOR TEACHERS

Keeping up with the changes in technology applications in education is a daunting task for most educators. To assist my teachers, I will submit a quick list here of some excellent sites for lesson plans, classroom activities, and ways to incorporate technology into your K-12 curriculum. These are just a few suggestions for my teachers who usually do not have much time to search online. :)

www.edutopia.org

This site hosts standards-based curriculum and assessment ideas for teachers, as well as professional development opportunities. This site's video offerings are especially well produced.

www.ascd.org

The ASCD organization has an excellent reputation with professional educators and curriculum directors. The site not only has sections especially designated for professional development, it also showcases some of the best edited books and online resources. Do not miss this site. Use the search option for specific curriculum or instructional strategies.

www.pbs.org

Most professional teachers are familiar with PBS and its many activities, media and video resources for students and teachers. Do a search for your grade-level and see what you find! What many teachers may not know is that the site offers unique opportunities for teachers in its online professional development section found at www.pbs.org/teacherline .

www.learner.org

The Annenberg Foundation's learner.org site has workshops, courses, activities, suggestions, and ideas for educators to help them enrich their curriculum and engage their students. Go to their site online to see lesson plans, interactives, blogs, and more. This site is particularly good for teachers who want to align seasonal aspects to their lessons or class activities.

A personal plug? My Teach-ologies Scoop.It curated site offers many links to articles, apps, and tech tools for teachers. You can see the RSS feed at the top of this site. Here is the link for this site:

http://www.scoop.it/t/teach-ologies

Take care everyone!
mj

Common Core Standards + Social Studies

2012-03-27T17:23:00.001-07:00

Herff Jones | Nystrom
Common Core Standards and Social Studies Content

This article by Dr. Kristen Swanson on Common Core Standards gives K12 educators strategies to infuse Social Studies content in with the Standards. Reading through her suggestions may spark other ideas for K12 educators teaching in a variety of other content areas. The first step is knowing what Core Standards a teacher needs to address. The next step is aligning and working to weave these standards into regular classroom instructional planning.

Unfortunately, it does not just happen. I guess if it did, teachers would not have to continually study these "best practices" on how to teach and encourage students to learn.

mj

2012-02-08T13:14:00.001-08:00

Technology enhanced instruction begins with ideas and suggestions! Go to some of the social or teacher-based community groups online and review the posts presented by your peers. We are energized when we see activities and strategies which we can use in our own classrooms to promote student learning. Check out a few of these free site links or go to TeacherTube to see video examples:
Edutopia -
http://www.edutopia.org/groups
TEL -
http://enhancingteaching.com/category/tel/
Google Teacher community -
http://www.google.com/educators/community.html
Elementary Teachers' Network -
http://elementaryteachersnetwork.ning.com/
http://www.teachertube.com

"Flipping" Your Instruction with Videos - Faculty Professional Development

2011-10-06T10:51:00.004-07:00

In a recent YouTube video uploaded by Edutopia, Salman Khan talks about "Liberating the Classroom" by using videos. In this short, ten minute video, Salman describes how video libraries can help instructors "flip" their teaching methods by using videos as a sort of pre-homework opportunity to eliminate or lessen lecturing on the basics, since it allows students to review course content first. This pre-class video method allows the teacher to focus on answering essential questions and to create engaging, on-topic conversations in the classroom. It saves classroom time and assists in motivating students in their own learning.

To see a K12 classroom teacher describe "flipping her classroom instruction," you can watch "Pocketlodge" describe how she did it and her experience. According to what she says in her video, she now feels that all of her students are engaged and challenged using this "flipping" model for her differentiated instruction.

Take a look at these videos and see how you might use this technique in your own instruction! It might be worth a try, and it should not be too scary. Hey, even if it was a bit scary, it's almost Halloween. :)

mj

Exploring Inanimatealice.com

2011-08-31T11:01:00.006-07:00

The most dynamic product of our technological society is creative involvement and integration. In our online teacher education graduate programs we encourage teachers to use creativity and technological integration in their standards-based classroom instruction.

Today in a article on Technology in the Classroom (ASCD SmartBrief www.ascd.org ), I found a link which bounced me to a new tool to encourage personal reflection on reading processes and introduce examples of media literacy. It could also be used to encourage students to write or use media tools to elaborate about their own personal experiences. The site is called Inanimate Alice and it uses different media forms to integrate media literacy into classroom instruction or it could be used by online instructors to assist students to collaborate and explore media literacy in their online activities. As explained on the Web site, Inanimate Alice uses multimodality (images, sounds, text, interaction) "to enable students to see storytelling in a new, multi-sensory light." I was delighted that I could download an Education Pack and Curriculum suggestions directly from the site.

In our online graduate education courses, I think this site could be used to further collaborative engagement for our online K12 teachers and to encourage them to write or use new media tools to create stories for their own classrooms. Their students could then redesign and/or add to the storyline their own dynamic stories and media applications.

This media-rich site is an excellent example of online resources and opportunities which can be used to integrate technologies into classroom curriculum to further engage students in their own learning.

As Dr. Seuss would say, "Oh the places you'll go..."
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A Competency-Based Learning System

2011-07-28T13:44:00.003-07:00

I often look for discussion topics for my online courses and this Journal article was perfect for my August Advanced Teaching course. In the article, David Nagel talks about the new iNacol report which promotes a "comprehensive policy redesign" with valid technology practices and professional development. Nagel refers to to this new competency-based learning as a new paradigm, and I agree.

When I submit this article for my K-12 teachers to read and discuss, I am sure that they will feel that any policy and politics necessary for any type of realignment to take place is almost insurmountable.

They are entitled to their negativity, simply because America's education system is such a huge organizational machine! It has too many leaders stirring the pot ("too many cooks in the kitchen") who have a stake (financial, political or otherwise) in the outcome. Change does not come easily to our nation's education community.

Teachers know that our education machine is a roller-coaster ride. They have all been on it. No matter what political party is in control in Washington, or in their states, teachers have to deal with whatever twists and turns they dictate. Then after national or state changes, teachers must work through with the new standards or models with their local principles and administrators. These adminsitrators, may or may not agree with their new classroom assessments and curriculum in the current standards-based system, much less in a newer competency-based system. For teachers, a new paradigm is just one more issue which may change their workload and their instruction, and in the process, uses their students as guinea pigs. Teachers are tired of new educational paradigms which may or may not affect student learning.

Even Bill Gates admits that his foundation could not discover how we create great teachers. Everyone wanted to know, since the research shows that great teachers correlate directly to enhanced student learning.

Whatever the experts come up with on the subject of "great teachers," I am sure my teachers would tell you, it does not happen by changing rules or paradigms. Let's make a difference in our teachers' lives by developing a comprehensive system for our nation's educational systems (by a team of education experts - not politicians) and then seal it for ten years to allow us to find out if it works or not. Don't keep changing the rules each year with each new idea. Even coaches know better than to do that to their players.
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Colleague Collaborations

2011-05-19T11:20:00.005-07:00

News links, ezines, e-newsletters, blogs...they all keep us informed, but which education information areas do you actually spend time reading their updates and/or sending in your comments or reflections to their sites?

One of the most interactive discussion areas I frequent is the Linkedin Groups site. Linkedin sends you e-mail updates (if you wish) on current discussion topic posts so you can easily follow the comments from colleagues around the world. I have recently added new applications and methods to my online instruction by reading these posts.

Currently, the Linkedin Technology-Using Professors group is discussing online strategies which translate to student retention in their online courses. The posts are laden with practical tips for faculty who want to increase successful online student learning.

The Chronicle's Wired Campus and Edutopia's ezines also allow online instructors to see reviews on new applications and instructional techniques to assist faculty in online or technology enhanced instruction.

Do you have a discussion area or ezine you would like to share? We're open to ideas which help us grow and enrich our professional development.

mj

It's All Learning...

2010-12-28T14:47:00.008-08:00

During our holiday break, I am continuing to develop several online courses for our university. As I work on designing the curricula and creating the objects and assignments, I am firmly convinced that more emphasis must be placed on prompting university faculty to spend additional time updating their skills to utilize 21st Century technologies in their instruction.

I find that I spend as much time mentoring adjunct faculty and assisting in technical course development, as I do teaching and assisting my own graduate students. All higher education faculty should endeavor to work toward using these new technologies and blending technical applications and content-specific opportunities into their instruction--whether they teach online, blended, or face-to-face courses. Upgrading technical skills should be included in university contracts toward continuous faculty professional development.

Soon there will not be a differentiation between online learning, blended learning, or Web assisted learning--it will all just be referred to as "learning." Education will use all of these options and resources to provide differentiated instruction for all students.

Bill Gates sees the demise of strictly "on campus" learning, too. At a conference in August he said: “Five years from now on the web for free you’ll be able to find the best lectures in the world. It will be better than any single university." It is already true that MIT and other universities now offer excellent lectures online at no cost. How will universities begin to reinvent themselves to assist our new digital student learners?

According to the online article in TechCrunch, Mr. Gates believes that"no matter how you came about your knowledge, you should get credit for it. Whether it’s an MIT degree or if you got everything you know from lectures on the web, there needs to be a way to highlight that. "

The article summarized many of Gate's remarks:

Educational institutions are still vital for children, K-12.
He is positive about charter schools, where kids can spend up to 80% of their time deeply engaged with learning.
Colleges need to be less “place-based." "It’s just too expensive and too hard to get these upper-level educations. And soon place-based college educations will be five times less important than they are today."
Gates said that technology is the only way to bring education back under control and expand it. (Siegler, 2010)

"Place-based" instruction often is not student-friendly or conductive to student learning. Listening to lectures is not conducive to critical thinking and deeper learning. Human beings shut down and stop listening after 20 minutes. As most students would attest, online or blended courses usually allow students to make their own schedules, save transportation time and energy, allow for translation and transcripts of sessions, and assist them to learn new technologies or applications at their own pace, skills they will probably continue to use after their university course ends.

While I may not totally agree with Mr. Gates that all our higher-level learning will use free online opportunities, I do believe that more of our courses and student learning must embrace new Web instructional resources, open source software and technology applications. I intend to help my colleagues learn to be able to see and use these technical opportunities in their courses.

Now, I'm back to creating the assignments for Unit 2.

Happy New Year!

mj

Shanghai Students Blow Away U.S. Students' Test Scores

2010-12-07T13:05:00.006-08:00

Today I attended the ASCD hosted Webinar on 21st Century Curriculum with guest speaker, Heidi Hayes Jacobs. During the Webinar, she referenced today's New York Times article on the results from the Program for International Student Assessment tests administered to 15 year old students from 65 countries. The Chinese students blew away the competition. Why? Experts believe that the Chinese system is focused on competitive testing. Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, said it is "a wake-up call" for the United States (In most of the assessment's content areas, the U.S. placed 23rd or 24th).

Why did Dr. Jacobs mention this article in her 21st Century Curriculum Webinar? Because this article speaks to the urgent need to change the way we teach our young people and the need for all of us to value and respect education (as well as those who are educated). She said that" it should be cool to be educated and to demonstrate excellence."

Read the article and see if you agree. The Chinese leaders and their people value education. As the New York Times article stated, "The results also appeared to reflect the culture of education there, including greater emphasis on teacher training and more time spent on studying rather than extracurricular activities like sports."

Do you think our education leaders and elected officials will begin to see the need for change in the way we educate our children? The future will tell.

mj

Web 2.0 Wikis

2010-11-30T09:21:00.003-08:00

This semester I am teaching an online Technology in Education course for graduate-level student educators. It is interesting to see what these educators upload for their assignments as they work and create in Web 2.0 environments. One of the assignments this week is to build a wiki using Jim Holland's Web 2.0 Tools for Educators Web site . This site gives them an overview and excellent examples of how they can use wikis in their classrooms. My thanks to Jim Holland for his wiki reference area. :)

As an online instructional comment, what I have noticed working with these graduate-level educators online is that they seem to be adverse to reading directions (this is no surprise and tech help personnel would tell you that this is similar to working with the general public). In most of our course assignments online, I have had to extensively edit the course assignments to include screen shots of the LMS (Learning Management System) and educational Web sites online and include linked areas showing exactly where they need to go by using arrows and other visual aids.

As an online instructor for many years, I think I can safely say that this is usually the norm for working with students online --graduate or otherwise. Even when I believe (and my colleagues believe) we have created an assignment which clearly states what the student needs to do and why, and it includes a rubric to give them objectives, they still write and call us asking for technical help.

What can we do to better assist our online instructors and students with these issues? In my opinion, we need to (1) Clearly state what we want them to do and why; (2) Have another educator or staff person read the assignment to verify that it says what you want it to say (peer review); (3) Add visual aids or other PDF sheets as tools to assist the students and the instructors--and save them as resources in and outside of the course site (for e-mail attachment use); and (4) Create "how-to" text sheets so that each instructor who teaches the online course has these aids for their e-mail correspondence with their students.

Sharing and providing information is what professional educators are paid to do. Sharing information and helpful tools should just be part of the "education model" for online instructors. We need to continue to assist each other by sharing and saving tools and instructional information sheets in reference folders in our online course sites. It is just the right thing to do.

mj

Collaborative Planning? Teachers & Principals? Do they speak the same language?

2010-10-23T20:35:00.001-07:00

KELOLAND.com | Vodcasting: Education Of The Future

2010-08-01T16:06:00.001-07:00

This video gives a 21st Century view of teaching and learning:

KELOLAND.com | Vodcasting: Education Of The Future

Planning that Web Class Meeting...

2010-07-22T12:42:00.005-07:00

As online course offerings become more common place, making visual connections with students becomes increasingly important. Web class meetings or Webinars are one choice for connecting and energizing online learners. Instructors can use the online course meeting site (Adobe Connect, Elluminate are two examples) for one-to-one visits or for virtual class meetings. Once you have time to practice using online platforms-- incorporate these virtual meetings into your course curriculum! I think you will find, that the most important part of this process is collecting student feedback. Let your students tell you what works best and then have them present and be the host!

Here are some tips to share with your online communities.

First, purchase good equipment. Use a Webcam with excellent video quality and if it also has audio capabilities, then you can even use it with two or three of you (or students) just sitting in your office. The mic on the Webcam will pick up your conversations with the video feed. Now you have a video conference call.
Be sure you purchase a good headset with an attached mic. This allows you to hear better and blocks out some outside noise.
As in using any new tool, Webinars require practice, practice, practice. Open up your online Web meeting portal and practice by yourself or with a friend. These sessions help you determine timings and allow you to setup numerous links and screens to energize your presentation. For example, your presentation should showcase different interactions: one-two minutes with a whiteboard, switch to an Internet screen, and then return to a course concept or PowerPoint screen view.
Educators already know that changing the instructional environment, keeps the attention of your students. Just make sure that you have everything lined up and ready to go in your task bar. Then you can just click and load the screens or applications. The last thing you need is to take several minutes trying to find something you wanted to use or talk about during the presentation. For example, it drives your audience crazy when you are hunting with your curser and clicking on different Internet sites while you are talking. If you must "hunt," leave a site or slide up and showing on the screen while you explore your hard drive.

As in all education presentations, planning class meetings or Webinars ahead helps everyone! Be concise, have clear instructions for your students and be brief. Webinars should be scheduled for an hour or less. You can always log back in together on another day!

Now it's your turn to try it! Give your online students a chance to see and hear you in real time!

Good luck!

Learning Teams - Sharing Knowledge

2010-07-06T10:04:00.004-07:00

Education Week recently published an article on Learning Teams and the Future of Teaching (June, 2010) which resonated with me (and probably other educators in my age group:).

Long ago, in a world far, far away, (1970s) teachers once collaborated in a new education effort called "Team Teaching." I have to admit, I was one of those who loved team teaching. Suddenly, you had a person (or persons) in your grade-level who helped fill in the "gaps." With team teaching, it was a win/win opportunity for everyone! The students had the benefit of more than one teacher's knowledge, the school benefited since teacher morale improved when you had someone to share the good, bad, and the ugly of managing your classroom, and the teachers were happier concentrating on teaching the areas in which they felt more confident. For example, one teacher might be better in mathematics and one more knowledgeable in social studies or state history. It was all good.

Today, there is an added advantage to team teaching: "Learning Teams" for additional teacher collaboration. The Education Week article states that teachers need additional opportunities to learn and increase their knowledge of 21st Century skills. It also quotes the survey findings from the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future:

The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, with the support of the Pearson Foundation, has conducted an extensive review of research reports and practitioner case studies to document the specific learning-team principles and practices that improve teaching effectiveness and student achievement. Based on our findings, we have concluded that the nation has a pressing need, and an unprecedented opportunity to improve school performance by using learning teams to systematically induct new teachers into a collaborative learning culture—teams that embed continuous professional development into the day-to-day fabric of work in schools that are constantly evolving to meet the needs of 21st-century learners. This calls for a cultural shift in schools, a shift that is gaining momentum across the country.

NCTAF’s review identified six learning-team principles and practices that are most effective in improving teaching and student achievement, described in the report “Team Up for 21st Century Teaching and Learning.” While there is no magic formula, we found that highly effective learning teams have the following:

Shared Values and Goals. The team members have a common vision of student learning needs and a well-defined understanding of how their collective teaching capabilities can be orchestrated to meet those needs. They clearly identify a learning challenge around which the team can join forces to improve student achievement.

Collective Responsibility. Team members have appropriately differentiated responsibilities based on their experience and knowledge levels. They hold themselves mutually responsible for each other’s success, and they are collectively accountable for improving the achievement of every student served by the team.

Authentic Assessment. Team members hold themselves personally and professionally accountable by using assessments that give them real-time feedback on student learning and teaching effectiveness. These assessments are valuable to them—not because they are linked to high-stakes consequences, but because they are essential tools to improve the team’s teaching effectiveness, as measured by student learning gains.

Self-Directed Reflection. Highly effective learning teams establish a reflective feedback loop of goal-setting, planning, standards, and assessment that is driven by the learning needs of the students and the corresponding professional-development needs of the teachers.

Stable Settings. Highly effective learning teams do not function within dysfunctional schools, but they can transform low-performing schools into successful learning organizations if they are given dedicated time, space, resources, and leadership for their collaborative work. Even the best teachers in the world can’t turn around a low-performing school by working alone.

Strong Leadership Support. Highly effective learning teams are supported by school leaders who build a climate of openness and trust that empowers team members to make decisions on how to improve teaching effectiveness that are directly linked to student needs. This support must be balanced with appropriate, positive pressure to continuously increase school performance with improvements in teaching effectiveness that are explicitly linked to specific student learning needs.

Transforming American education is the rallying cry heard throughout the country today. The Obama administration has focused the nation’s vision for education in 2020 on two basic goals: assuring that every student is college- and career-ready, and closing the achievement gaps for low-income students and children of color.

NCTAF is answering this call by creating “learning studios” for teaching the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics that are based on the documented effectiveness of these six principles. Similar to architectural-design studios, these STEM Learning Studios enable learning teams composed of digital-age teachers, tech-savvy youths, veteran educators, and skill-based volunteers to develop innovative responses to complex learning challenges. Learning studios improve student achievement, increase teaching effectiveness, and amplify the impact of community resources. (Education Week, 2010).

Ah, so many good ideas in education are just re-invented for a new century. Team teaching and differentiated classroom instruction began long ago, and personally, I'm glad to see a new emphasis on learning teams and teacher collaboration.

New "Must Have" Tech Apps Descriptions for Mac Users

2010-07-01T07:48:00.007-07:00

Today I read a professor's list of must-have tech applications and platforms in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Ethan Watrall wrote descriptions of five of his favorites and why he uses each of them daily. If you do not have a subscription to the Chronicle, here's a clip from his review:

"We're talking about programs (and platforms) that I'd be completely lost if I didn't have. In the spirit of this sentiment, I'm kicking off a series to explore the applications that I just can't live without. While this first one is going to be fairly general, future installments will focus on a specific domain. For instance, I'll do a "5 Web Development Applications I Simply Can't Live Without" and "5 Lecturecasting Applications I Simply Can't Live Without"—you get the idea."

Here is a quick list of his must-haves:
Things - Task - organizer http://culturedcode.com/things/
WordPress - Document/Web/blog/ http://www.wordpress.org
Camtasia Mac or PC - Lecture/video casting http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp
Yojimbo Mac information organizer http://www.barebones.com/products/yojimbo/

This may give you some new applications to explore!

Take care,
MsTeach

Professional Development on a Shoestring

2010-04-25T23:43:00.003-07:00

I recently presented a workshop for the Association of Christian Schools International on Professional Development for K12 teachers. I have uploaded it here and at SlideShare.

Here is the Presentation:

ASCI Pd On A Shoestring V2

View more presentations from NNU.

Online Education Links and Free Opportunities

2010-03-27T19:45:00.008-07:00

I am preparing to present at an education conference in April, so today I was beginning to create a PowerPoint presentation with Web links of helpful Web applications and applets to give to the school administrators and educators.

As I began to type the links and the technology teaching tips, I thought about how far our society and our profession has come in my lifetime. Just think! E-mail was developed 40 years ago, and now people text message on their phones all the time! Our students are 'digital natives' who are more inclined to edit and create dynamic video presentations, than to watch them!

In order to better assist my educators, I wanted to make sure that the applications on my presentation list were free, or available at very little cost, and easy to download or use. Although, many people already know about these sites, some educators and administrators have not had time to search the Web to find useful, credible application sites.

Here is my Top Ten List for free tech opportunities for educators:

Google Docs and Applications for Educators and Students (See this video for more info: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJT3pagjd8s) The Google Apps are a group of EXCELLENT Web applications for collaboration and more...
Open Office: Openoffice.org (open source Microsoft Word program with its own version of Word, Excel, etc.)
PDFHammer (Edit PDFs) *more open source education tools are found at: www.schoolforge.net
Moodle.org: (Open Source Learning Management System)
Wikipedia, Wikispaces, Wikieducator.org (read about more about wikis at: http://wikieducator.org/Main_Page )
Audacity (open source audio editor and recorder )
Avidemux (open source video editor)
Jing (record screen and audio activity on your computer – free; and create AVI video files using its built-in SWF producer for a small fee)
Dropbox.com (A file system for educators who have multiple computers).
www.Toobla.com - (File sharing area online - runner up: SlideShare).

These are just a few of the hundreds of online and down-loadable applications which educators can use to save time, enhance their instructional skills, and hopefully use to engage their students along the way.

Until next time, see if you can add some technology skills into your instruction this week!

Fondly,
mej

New to Screencasting?

2010-03-14T13:19:00.003-07:00

If you are new to screencasting, there are many YouTube videos (www.youtube.com) that can assist you on the mechanics of doing the editing, etc.

Here are some examples:

JING - Free or very inexpensive.
SnagIt - Inexpensive ($40) and an educational discount
Camtasia ($200) and an educational discount
Screencast Free or Inexpensive - (about $100 per year)

This is a new opportunity for educators to enrich their courses and learn a new skill. Take your time and create video media which can be used in several courses and re-edited as you see fit.

Enjoy!
mej

PowerPoints to Video

2010-03-11T09:01:00.004-08:00

I recently found a valuable video on how to transform your PowerPoint slides to video for your online classes. Here is the information:

Global eLearning

2010-01-31T11:40:00.002-08:00

As an update to this Blog site, I am currently teaching online and on site at a private university in Idaho.

When my colleagues and I began this Blog, we were working together in Maui, Hawaii. Currently, I teach at Northwest Nazarene University, but I believe that it is important to continue to use this blog site to further enhance our global perspective on higher education, eLearning, and "teachologies."

I will continue to add information here, and hopefully, as educators, we can continue to work together and collaborate via the Internet on instructional perspectives and new technologies. Through this Blog we also may be able to bring teachers and professors new opportunities for professional development and toward facilitating more successful student learning. With the blessings of my colleagues, I will continue to use this Blog site to assist faculty and teachers on a global level.

I welcome your comments on ways we can interact and build on eLearning technologies and instructional concepts together.

Regards,
Ms Teach

Web 2.0 for faculty

2008-05-04T14:31:00.002-07:00

Take a look at the workshop I created for the 2008 TCC conference. It is a demonstration of the use of Web 2.0 technologies. It shows how to use readily available, easy-to-use applications to facilitate communication between faculty and their students.

New easy program

2008-04-20T19:55:00.002-07:00

I just started using a program called Windows Live Writer. You can get it free from Microsoft. It allows you to write and publish directly to your blog. You don't need any HTML knowledge - and you can add pictures, video's etc.

Below is a video that was posted on Youtube. It was made by students in the high school my daughter teaches in. The first 5 people who guess who my daughter is get 10 extra points. J I did this whole post including the video in Live Writer.

Cross-cultural Mentoring Relationships

2008-01-21T10:20:00.001-08:00

I recently read an article on mentoring across cultures.
Published in the July-August issue of Academe, Volume 93,
Number 4, a publication of the American Association of
University Professors, http://www.aaup.org/aaup,
Betty Neal Crutcher wrote on a topic which
could promote stimulating discussion in today's
higher education classrooms.

Here is a quote from her remarks:

"Faculty motivated to mentor people whose
backgrounds or identities differ from their own must be
adept at navigating cultural boundaries: personal, gender,
racial, ethnic, and geographic. Because of the complexity of
cross-cultural mentoring, mentors also need certain attributes
or abilities, including selflessness, active listening
skills, honesty, a nonjudgmental attitude, persistence,
patience, and an appreciation for diversity. In the face of
numerous challenges-dealing with difficult personalities,
maintaining boundaries, and surmounting gender and racial
tensions, for example-the mentors in my study generated many
strategies for what I call "HOPE" (helping others prepare
for education)."

The perceptions and conclusions of her mentoring
study are interesting reading. I concur with her "HOPE"
strategies, as all of us in higher education are
"Helping Others Prepare for Education" and the ongoing pursuit
of knowledge.

msteach

As I begin another online course...

2007-12-28T13:51:00.000-08:00

As I begin to design and teach another online course this spring, I am reminded again of how important it is to make each course interactive. By interactive, I mean that each part of the course must involve the participant/student and encourage them to continue and explore. If the course site is dull and uninteresting, the student must force themselves to return to the site. This negative experience not only affects their school work, but undermines your effectiveness as the instructor. At the end of the course, it may also affect student evaluations of you and your course. Here are some of my online teaching tips, which I am re-reading before I begin creating the structure of my new course:

Design a welcome page with a photo of the instructor and a voice-over (audio file). This gives your course a personality and makes it more inviting.
Make sure EACH part of your course site has clear, precise directions (duplicate them in several areas).
Create different options for students with differing abilities (See the information on Universal Design principals).
First determine the content you wish students to learn; then create assessments which will show those learning outcomes.
Ask questions and get comments from other instructors! Peer Review!
Add a weekly student survey to your course site....this will help you see what your students may be missing each week and then you can change your course to meet their needs!

If you add these notes to your course design practice, you may notice a difference in student learning.
mej:)