Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts

Monday, September 5, 2011

The Circle of Academicians

The last 5 weeks of my doctorate studies focused on the realm of academics. We discussed many topics about traits and characteristics an academician should acquire to be successful in this field. Good discussions took place. Out of these two topics, I want to share here two concepts that was raised. Both of them were mine. One I shared with the rest of the team, the other one I kept to myself, and now for you.

The first idea was related to Clifton's strengths. I made a bold statement that a successful academician should have at least one of the following strengths: Ideation, Intellection, Learner, Connectidness or Restorative. I would if my idea will pass the research test. it could be a thesis for one of my assignments.

The second idea is the Community of Practice. Some of the participants doubted the rules of the academic world. At the same time, during my MOOC course, I discovered that the Mooc'ers wanted to adapt their approach to the academic world. I am opposing this approach. I feel the academic world is a different community of practice than the Mooc'ers, which are different that common wisdom of the layperson. Each one follow different set of rules.

As an illustration of the situation, I like to use the following two scenarios:

(1) Consider a person who does not drink alcohols joining a wine tasting club. That person will be counterproductive to himself and the members. it is the same story. A person who does not appreciate the academic environment and wants to obtain a PhD will lose himself and make the experience of the other PhD'ers bad.

(2) Consider a person who gambles by playing Poker. If her tries to play Black Jack with the poker rules will definitely lose all his money, even if he won a couple of rounds. Consequently, if you want to study PhD, you should play by the rules of the PhD otherwise the study will be a total of loss, even if he won some arguments.
Just two illustration I wanted to capture before i perish.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Learning: Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality is a new science that is emerging where technology act as an extended tool for our reality. Such tools allow us to recognize more facts about the physical reality that human faculties (like memory or 6th sense) does not recognize. One of the first layperson such tool was the MediaLab 6 sense I showed it an earlier post. With the sophistication of the mobile devices, augmented reality is becoming more popular than anticipated. I think this has a major impact on teaching and learning. Future education, if it survives, will find teaching facts to students is obsolete. The real focus will be developing basic faculty skills and train on methods of utilizing knowledge obtained from AR tools. An example:

As you can see from video, education is trying to get the AR into the classroom. But I think, real AR technology will take learning away from school into real life. Wait for more posts about the topic.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Learning: Two modes of Learning

This is an old idea that I mentioned before and now I want to express it in a different way.

Now I believe that learning has two modes: natural and forced. In natural learning mode, we want to learn because we have a natural drive to learn. This drive comes from our talent and who we are. The force learning mode is when something want us to learn in an area that is not natural force. Theat we find difficulty to relate in a natural way. For example, trying to learn math when we hate math. Or to play basketball when we do not like sports. It could be more global. Like wanting to drive a car when the State does not permit it. Or learning to enjoy straight sex when you are gay! Or forced not pray when you have an urge for it.

Schools are created to promote forced learning. People do not need teachers to learn their talent. Most poets never went to school to learn poetry. Musicians do not need formal teaching to develop their music ability. They go to school only to complement their and enhance talent. I still need to find a real musician who does not have talent and a school system helped him to develop it. Similarly artists.

I just wanted to jot down these ideas while they are fresh in my mind.

Mobile Learning: The 3 Challenges of Mobile Learning

Background information: The below argument is based on applying mobile learning at my work in a community college.I am sure I will face far more than 3 challenges when implementing mobile learning. I tried to group the challenges I will face under three big groups:

(1) Managing the Change: Introducing mobile learning in my organization follows the usual change resistance that poses multifaceted challenges. The first one, is the buy-in from top management to allocate resources to support the project. The second one, which is the most fundamental, is the required shift in the educational paradigm from "knowledge resides in the brain" to the notion that "brain knowledge is augmented with outside knowledge". The third one is the shift in assessment paradigm from "students should be assessed based on a norm that is determined by the curriculum" to a new paradigm that allows students to grow based on their own talent and abilities. The fourth paradigm shift is from "students should learn on their own" to "learning happens through social interaction".

(2) Training and Resources: Using mobile devices will require a lot of preparation work to ensure its success. Basically, it is a two legged race. The first leg-work is to train and/or educate the instructors on the usefulness of mobile devices in learning and the different approaches that could be applied. The second leg is to identify the right mobile tools and resources that are suitable for each program or course. Most of the available mobile resources did not reach its mass suitability for the learning process. They are still device and operating system dependent which poses technical challenges that most educators would like to avoid. At the moment, the only two effective educational tools are the eReaders and the social media tools. Unfortunately, most publications used in education does not promote a mobile-friendly format, and social media is not widely accepted as a learning tool.

(3) Study Habits: Another major challenge is the acceptable mode of study. The widely accepted and recognized approach to learning is that it requires organized, preplanned, dedicated study and in most cases, quiet time. It is still very difficult for many educators to comprehend studying in a different mode. Since mobile learning encourages studying during unplanned idle time, anywhere and on demand, addressing this shift at the teacher level, on the curriculum level and the assessment is a major hurdle that I hate to face.

References

Anderson, Terry, (2011), “Three Generation of Distant Education“, presentation website, last accessed on 10 March 2011.

Araya, Daniel (E), Peters Michael (E), (2010), “Education in the Creative Economy: Knowledge and Learning in the Age of Innovation” Published by Peter Lang Pub, ISBN 9781433107443

Kukulska, Angel (Editor), Traxler, John, (2005), "Mobile Learning: A Handbook for Educators and Trainers (The Open and Flexible Learning Series)", Routledge, ISBN: 0415357403.

Tapscott, Don (2009), “Grown up Digitally” Published by McGraw Hill, ISBN: 978007150863

Weiten, Wayne (2010), "Psychology: Themes and Variations", 8th Edition, p. 28, Cengage Learning, ISBN: 0495601977.

Psychology: Themes and Variations, 8th Edition / Edition 8 by Wayne Weiten

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Online Learning: Khan Academy in Numbers

I think we should put Khan Academy in perspective. It is not suitable for all. It is good for 1 in every 90 individuals. Is it worth it? let's do the analysis:

First Pedagogy: Based on Paul Kurucz, there are 3 types of learners: those who learn by seeing the big picture, those who learn by seeing the process and those who learn through networking. Coupled with Kelb ideas, it is easy to recognize that Khan's style is suitable for the learners "who like to see the process and observe someone else doing it!". It is not suitable for all.

Mathematically: combining Kurucz 3 criteria and kelb 4 styles, and for simplicity let's assume that an individual can be only one of them, it is easy to calculate the permutation: 1 in every 90 people find Khan's method suitable for their learning. This means, the other 89 finds it useless.

Demographics: Roughly, if 40% of the world population are learners (students, lifelong learners, adult, informal, etc..), and there are there 1.8B users of the internet in the world, then there are 720 Million active learners around the world who have access to the Internet.

Conclusion: as we said, only 1 in every 90 of these learners can learn based on Khan method. This means, there are 8 Million learners around the world who have access to the internet and who are in benefit from Khan's work. 8 Million!

Isn't this phenomenal? One person (i.e. Khan) offering a suitable learning material for 8 Million people, for free... around the world? the way they like to learn? Isn't it outstanding! Or should we focus on the the other 712 Million to prove it futile? I am on Khan side. I like to see the droplet in an empty glass!!

P.S.

1) I am ready to offer data to submit my arguments.

2) An opportunity: we still need to figure out a good teaching tools for the remaining 712 Million people. I see a lot of money here! Any partners?

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Mobile Learning and Social Media

While reflecting on mobile learning, I recognized that our focus should shift slightly when thinking about the use of mobile devices in learning. The focus should not be on the hardware, the operating System nor interfaces only. The focus should be on its ability to offer "social media" services. Will anyone buy a wireless phone if it does not offer texting, Facebook interfaces, or any of Google gadgets?

Consequently, Social Media should be considered when discussing mobile learning! Your thoughts? I leave you with this video to give you more insight on the topic:

Friday, June 3, 2011

Mobile Learning: The mobile nomad

Who do I consider a mobile nomad? First, let's agree that learning is converting the public information to personal knowledge.

The obvious answer is that the mobile nomads are the busy workers who seeks education anytime and anywhere. The one who spend so much time idling waiting for the next process of his work. Those who commute. Or those who work in modern corporate world where they have to spend 8 hours at work while their actual work load needs far less than that. Or those who live in locations that lack traditional cable internet connectivity.

The non-obvious answer is still unclear. I think the real mobile nomads are the lifelong learners who can learn when new knowledge is needed. Information is exponentially changing and knowledge need to be created based on the most up to date information. This is a new breed of beings who are among us but not widely recognized by education. The wikipedians (i.e volunteer collaborators and open source developers) are very good example. They contribute to their knowledge and the global information anytime, anywhere and with any device.

Mobile Learning: mobile technology and education

The majority of educational institutions will find using mobile learning a major challenge. They are busy marking tests, ensuring students do not cheat, checking plaigarism and copyright issues and arguing about classroom management. Mobile Learning adds another layer of headache they do not want to address.

Educational institutions that focus on student learning, student success, student growth and/or preparing lifelong learners recognize the potential of mobile learning. They recognize a tool that can help students at risk to be more productive. A tool to shift the infamous bell curve to the left. Something similar to what the calculator did in the 70-90's to those who found arithmatic a challenge: it allowed them to become productive in the industrial economy. Consequently, emerged the growth of franchises like Walmart and Mcdonalds who can now hire anyone without worrying about giving the wrong change.

Should we worry about devise, OS, size of screen, application to use, etc...? Yes for now. But very soon, Web 2.x (or another name) will emerge to solve this issue. The browser will handle the conversion to make the transition seemless. HTML 5 started the process by unifying the video format. I am sure, in no time, OS/browser/device will not be an issue. Google is trying it with its Chrome OS and Apple with its iOS. Who will prevail? I do not care, as long as they make knowledge avaialble seemlessly to me.

Should educational institutions worry about the design of the learning activity? Yes. But not because of the emergence of mobile technologies. They should worry because the present educational methodologies serves a dying breed. Robenson, Clifton, Siemens and others are talking about it.

Learning: Disposable Knowledge and Learning

I was in the middle of the following discussion that ignited in the Mobile Learning Course. The Professor wrote:

In reviewing the blog posts, I came across some interesting comments. Some of which I am bringing into the class for further discussion:

Anas' comments to Brandy's post read
"Hi Brandy, like you, I am still researching and checking all Apps as much as possible. I haven’t made my mind what would be really useful. So far, I find myself heavily attached to Media Apps (Movies and news). I use the How To apps (cooking, do it yourself) a lot. Those help me get things done quickly but I do not retain the information. For example, I can cook the best disk from Betty Crockers App, but I cannot repeat it unless I have the app next to me. Is this learning? Don’t you agree that these small devices are forcing us to redefine the term “learning”.

Good post. Thank you."

What is learning in this respect? Has retention been relegated to rote learning and therefore dated? Does the fact that most of the information we need are available on the mobile device, in our hands or the computer hard disk at home, prevent us from retaining knowledge? Where do you think the future of mobile learning could lead to when we consider what is retained and what is not? When can we apply the "sixth sense" as provided by our mobile devices and when are we allowed not to? Can we ask our job interviewer to wait while we contact our mobile device for a response to his/her question?

Here is my answer:

Yes, definition of learning needs to be modified.

According to earlier work of Clifton and Buckingham, and recently by Robinson, we have certain talents and strengths that in many cases ignored by the educational systems. Very few individuals align their talent to the requirement of education. These individuals become high academic achievers. The majority have talents that does not match the educational requirements. These individuals are forced to learn things they do not feel comfortable with. Those students memories the information and rarely convert them to knowledge or apply them. Consequently, due to modern knowledge tools, they can use mobile devices to learn on demand. We do not have to retain them for they are readily accessible. Does this mean we stop learning? No! Because we have tendency to learn concepts related to our talents with no problems. We will continue learning them. It is those we do not like, or have talent to do, we capture them through the knowledge tool and dispose them when not needed. This is good. Developing such an attitude will help to endorse change instantaneously. It will increase the human ability to evolve. I like to call this "disposable knowledge"!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Customizing Teaching for Personalized Learning

Philosophy Statements about Teaching and Learning, v. 4.1

I. Abstract

In my opinion, the best instruction is the 1-1 approach. Not in the traditional sense where a teacher teaches one student. This is not feasible using traditional teaching methods. In an ideal teaching scenario, the learners need to have “customized”, “personalized” and “individualized” teaching that caters for their learning style and talent through the innovative use of technology in all its facets. This applies in the face-to-face setting as well as online teaching.

II. Concepts and Values

This post highlights the set of values and definitions that governs my philosophy about teaching and learning. It includes a set of practices I follow when designing as well as delivering my courses, whether face-to-face or online.

Role of Teachers: Following Entwisted (1990) line of thought, I believe that the primary professional responsibility of teachers, trainers and online courses is to maximise the learning opportunities of their learners. Some would use the term “facilitator” but I still like to use the traditional term, teacher, with added contemporary connotations.

Learning, Information and Knowledge: Information, knowledge and their relation to learning is one of the vaguest concepts in the literature (Fox, 1991). Harris supplied the definition which is closest to my heart:

“knowledge is private, while information is public. Knowledge, therefore, cannot be communicated; only information can be shared. Whenever an attempt to communicate knowledge is made, it is translated into information, which other learners can choose to absorb and transform into knowledge, if they so desire” (Harris, 1995, p.1)

According to this description, I believe that learning is the process of personalizing information and experience thus creating knowledge. Collective knowledge includes skills, attitudes and beliefs. Teachers’ role is to create the desire in the learner to absorb and transform the information and experience into their own knowledge.

Assessment: is defined as “the process of documenting, usually in measurable terms, knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs” (Wikipedia, Assessment). I believe that this definition mixes up between knowledge and information. In my courses, I like to define assessment as “the process of documenting, usually in qualitative terms, the incremental knowledge attained during the teaching process”. How to do this? I have few ideas that I hope will be firmed in version 5 of my philosophy.

Curriculum: I like to categories the curriculum into two types: the regulated curriculum where outcomes are clearly quantified and regulated (like army training, government regulated courses, professional tests) and free-form curriculum where the outcomes depends on the learners’ achievement within clear guidelines (example: art classes, architecture and medicine). I believe courses in the regulated curriculum address learning at the information level. Free form courses tackle the learning at the knowledge level. Each of these two types requires different teaching styles and methodologies. The difference is recognized in the design and delivery of each type, although, personally, I avoid handling regulated courses as an online course.

Learning Spaces: Brown (2005) used the term “Learning Spaces” to replaces the traditional classroom term. I like to use the same term to indicate any space that induces learning in individuals: a classroom, my office, a cafe, over the phone, on a forum, blog, wikipage, online, offline, and all the new medium of learning that is available.

Learning Styles: My teaching recognizes that individuals learn in multitude of ways. Consequently, the process of creating the desire in learners to learn should match the learners’ style. The literature offers at least 13 different schools of thought in this area (Coffield et al, 2004). Out of these schools, I find that Allinson and Hayes Cognitive Style Index to be the most suitable because it has “the best psychometric credentials” (Coffield et al, 2004, p139). I believe, to use learning styles as motivators to learning, I must include other factors like the set of intelligences acquired by the learner (Gardner et al,1995) and the set of strengths that determines their talent (Clifton & Nelson, 1992). My teaching should include drivers that ignite the learning desire based on the learners’ profile. Technology makes achieving this approach more plausible. I find the 4MAT approach to learning styles (McCarthy, 1990) the most suitable. This approach advocates that teaching should:

(1) Promote self reflecting, analysing, and experiencing.
(2) Inspire transitioning of information into knowledge
(3) Allow the individuals to digest and create content
(4) Encourage learners to express themselves

And I like to add a fifth one:

(5) Facilitate creation of knowledge through collective collaboration and network communication (Tapscott and Williams, 2010)

Learning Theories: As outlined by Anderson in his CIDER Webinar of April 2010, effective teaching should apply a mix of learning theories (behaviorism, cognitive, constructive and connectivism). I am a strong believer in this approach.

Generational Differences: Tapscott (2008) coined the term NetGen to describe individuals who were born in the digital age. I agree with him that NetGen learns in ways different than what traditional education is able to offer. Consequently, my delivery will recognize the different learning drivers dichotomies as presented by Coffield, (2004).

Parallel Education: As suggested by Brown (2010) and McGonigal (2010), new learning paradigms are emerging where the younger generation are building their knowledge outside the traditional educational systems. Some refer to this as the parallel education. The learning in this paradigm is naturally motivated and based on discovering personal talents through “virtual-real-life” experiences in areas not recognized in the traditional educational understanding. In my courses, I need to identify learners who are following this approach and encourage them to exploit it in the learning of the material. This is not easy especially that the concept is new. Maybe it will be the core driver for my philosophy version 5!

Technology in Learning: In my educational realm, technology helps to customize, individualize and personalize learning. For many thousand years, human learned based on one-to-one teaching (Toffler, 1980) until the industrial evolution came up with the idea of mass production that shaped our present educational system (West, 2001). This method is becoming obsolete to meet the new challenges (Tapsott & Wilson, 2010). With the advancement of the technology, we can go back to the natural way of human learning, i.e. one-to-one by customizing teaching to satisfy individualistic learning drivers through online courses and activities.

Continuous Improvement: My courses will always contain learners feedback to continuously evaluate means of improvement. This philosophy will continuously evolve based on new discoveries, emerging technologies, my acquired knowledge and interactions with my learners.

III. References

Brown, D., (2010), An Open Letter to Educators, YouTube Video.

Brown M., (2005), Learning Spaces, Educating the Net Generation, Educause eBooks.

Clifton, D. O., & Nelson, P. (1992). Soar with Your Strengths, Dell Publishing.

Coffield, F. J., Moseley D. V., Hall .E & Ecclestone, K. (2004). Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning: a systematic and critical review. London: Learning and Skills Research Centre/University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Entwistle, N.J. (1998). Improving teaching through research on student learning. In JJF Forrest (ed.) University teaching: international perspectives. New York: Garland.

Fox, S. (1991). The production and distribution of knowledge through open and distance learning. In D. Hylnka & J. C. Belland (Eds.), Paradigms regained: The uses of illuminative, semiotic and post-modern criticism as modes of inquiry in educational technology. Englewood Clifs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications.

Gardner, H., Kornhaber, M. L., & Wake W. K. (1995). Intelligence: multiple perspectives, Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Judi H. (1995). Educational Telecomputing Projects: Information Collections, The Computing Teacher journal, published by the International Society for Technology in Education.

McGonigal, J. (2010). Gaming can make a better world. TED Presentation.

Tapscott, D. (2008). Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World, The McGraw-Hill.

Tapscott, D., & Williams, A. D. (2008). Innovating the 21st-Century University: It’s Time!, EDUCAUSE

Toffler, A., (1989). The Third Wave, Bantam Books.

West, E. G. (2001). Education and the Industrial Revolution, Liberty Fund Inc.

Wikipedia, Assessment, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assessment

Zukas, M., & Malcolm, J. (2002). Pedagogies for lifelong learning: building bridges or building walls? In R Harrison, F Reeve, A Hanson and J Clarke (eds) Supporting lifelong learning. London: Routledge/Open University.

IV. Appendix: History of the versions of My Philosophy

Version 1: articulated in 1981: The focus was on curriculum and teaching.
Version 2: articulated in 1992: The focus was student learning and success.
Version 2.5: articulated in 1996: The focus included the use of Technology.
Version 3: articulated in 2000: Constructivist concepts were adopted.
Version 3.5: articulated in 2008: Web 2.0 concepts were included.

Monday, April 12, 2010

It’s Here: Next Generation of Online Learning

Tomorrow is here now: Free courses with no instructors, no credits, no charge and from Carnegie Mellon University! The future of teacherless courses is emerging… not there yet, but I see the light at the end of a loooong and winding tunnel!

From their site:

Using intelligent tutoring systems, virtual laboratories, simulations, and frequent opportunities for assessment and feedback, the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) builds courses that are intended to enact instruction – or, more precisely, to enact the kind of dynamic, flexible, and responsive instruction that fosters learning.

The URL is: http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/forstudents

Regulated Online Courses

This was my reply to a post about "difficulty in creating online courses for regulated courses and programs".

Doug: This is so very true. We have a dilemma. Trying to use the wrong tools for the solution. It is the curse of living at the verge of change.

This reminds me of an Australian movie about something that happened in 1920’s. The scene shows a farmer who owns a lot of horses and oxen that he use to plow and harvest his field. His young son, who just graduated, came back to the farm driving one of those newly invented cars. He told his father that this machine is the future and it will replace the animals in the field work. His father rode on a horse and told him “show me”. Obviously, the horse was much faster running on the field terrain and the car got stuck in the mud after few yards. The father sat triumphantly on his rocking chair and cynically asked his son: “It will never replace my animals. How do you feed hay to this machine?”

Obviously the car was the wrong tool for the period. Few years down the load, the car evolved into a tractor and replaced the animals and changing the farming industry and proved Malthus wrong. The son was right, but the father did not see at the time.

We are in a similar situation. Online courses and technology are not the solution for everything yet. We still have to use the horses until online courses and education evolves to become suitable. Until then, we have to use the “cars” where they are applicable. Like driving from the city to the farm and not more.

Dialogue about Subways and Mac's

The below is a dicussion that happened around my "Subways and Mac's" post on another blog. I thought to copy it over here for the records. Oxana commented:

Anas, I like your analogy. It shows some of your goals you are striving to achieve. Did you think of the “counter”/delivery people? Who will serve your course, you alone or other tutors ? Are you aiming to franchise it and give other people to run it with consistent quality and outcome? Cheers

Then Doug posted:

Anas: Its a daydream because like Oxana pointed out the servers will be in control. As you must realize the objectives and outcome system is to satisty government requirements and once the funding is in place the who knows what the assessment process will provide. Teachers like MDs are controlled by a government bureaucracy. Just calculate how much is paid to institutional Presidents for X universities in Alberta…why not have X-y and put the money into back into teaching and instruction? have fun Doug
PS its all about the beef.

Then I replied:

@Oxana: (1) no servers. Learners pick and choose. There will be the cooks who are usually invisible that prepare the material, and support staff who keeps cleaning stuff and answering odd questions. (2) no franchise. It GNU based.

@Doug: (1) Servers will never be in control. Look at our course, are our Facilitators in Control? They just ensure we adhere to goals and give us support if we ask for it. Beyond that, they are almost invisible… right? (2) This is the beauty of dreaming: You don’t have to worry about what would go wrong. I understand where you come from about regulated studies. This is why I believe there must be other “restaurants” to cater for these cases. I, myself, will always avoid creating online courses for them, although in my heart, I am sure we can use the Subway method as well… but it is headache… and as Dawnn suggested in her video, I want to be happy!

Oxen, cars and Education

This excerpt was a rely to one of my colleagues who shed some doubt about the effectiveness of online courses in regulated courses:

Doug: This is so very true. We have a dilemma. Trying to use the wrong tools for the solution. It is the curse of living at the verge of change.

This reminds me of an Australian movie about something that happened in 1920's. The scene shows a farmer who owns a lot of horses and oxen that he use to plow and harvest his field. His young son, who just graduated, came back to the farm driving one of those newly invented cars. He told his father that this machine is the future and it will replace the animals in the field work. His father rode on a horse and told him "show me". Obviously, the horse was much faster running on the field terrain and the car got stuck in the mud after few yards. The father sat triumphantly on his rocking chair and cynically asked his son: "It will never replace my animals. How do you feed hay to this machine?"
Obviously the car was the wrong tool for the period. Few years down the load, the car evolved into a tractor and replaced the animals and changing the farming industry and proved Malthus wrong. The son was right, but the father did not see at the time.
We are in a similar situation. Online courses and technology are not the solution for everything yet. We still have to use the horses until online courses and education evolves to become suitable. Until then, we have to use the "cars" where they are applicable. Like driving from the city to the farm and not more.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Subways and Mac's

Daydreaming...

I want my online courses to be like Subway sandwiches and not like MacDonald buns! I want the learner to choose the ingredients of the course. To choose the style of activities that makes them learn. They cannot choose the objectives nor the duration. Subway and Mcdonalds have the same objectives: to give you calories and nutritions. One style allows you to choose the ingredients that the you want. The other gives you limited alternatives to choose from.

At Subway, if you aim is to lose weight, you choose more vegies than bacon. If you want to put on weight, you double the cheese, bacon and mayo's. At Macdonald, you do not have this flexibility. I want my online courses to be the same. They should have clear objectives: (1) the learning outcomes dictated by the curriculum; a and (2) a fixed duration by which the learner should complete the outcomes*. The course will offer a variety of activities. Paced and self paced. Traditional sequential reading material and leaping hyperlinked reading material. Videos and handouts. Synchronous and Asynchronous interaction. Learning by doing and learning by observing. Self reflection and networked interaction. Mayonaise and Catchup. Peer learning and self-learning. The list need to be completed.

The one who chooses to learn using my online course should know what they want and how they learn. Like the Subway customer: they know what they like to eat and know how to choose. For the others, let them go to a Mac restaurant (i.e. packaged courses) or to a fancy restaurant (i.e the structured-constructivist-interactiving course) . Not mine. I want my student to "Learn Fresh". ... and I woke up!

Questions: Was it a daydream or something that I can really make? Do you think there must be more objectives? Like assessment? Any suggestions for more ingredients I need to add the "menu of the course"? I know McDonals is far more popular and profitable than Subway around the world! Do you think traditional online/distant course delivery will prevail over my styles?

Friday, April 9, 2010

Week 3, Q4: Online Training

[This is my answer to W3Q4: Do you think that teachers who want to teach in online programs should be required to take some specialized training in the pedagogy of online learning and instructional design for online learning? If so, what should that look like? If not, why not?]

Good teachers who focus on learner’s success will be able to do well in classroom as well as online. They will not require a formal pedagogical training. They might require training on some technical tools. These teachers will always request the training themselves. In most cases, they will be happy with a self paced online course. They will prefer collaborative activities that help them discover their online teaching style.

The remaining teachers should be asked to attend formal training, on the pedagogy, andragogy, network learning, methodologies as well as the technology. The format of the training should have the following components:

An online component.

A face to face component.

A component that addresses the the style shift they need to make.

A compenent that help them master the online technologies, tools and methodologies.

A component that exposes them to different activities and methods that applies to online learning.

A self learning component.

The delivery style should have a mix between behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism. They6 need to be exposed to connectivism though this will be for the advanced earners.

Week 3, Q3: Collaborative Participation

[This is my answer to Week 3, Q3: As a teacher of online courses, how do you (or would you, if you do not as yet have online teaching experience) encourage interactions between yourself and your students, as well as between students, and network building with participants outside of the “formal” course? Expand on your answers by saying why you would or would not encourage these interactions, and identify practices that have been successful. Also reflect on the practices of your instructors related to interactions in the online courses you have taken, or are taking.]

I am a strong believer in online interaction. Whether with the learners of the course, between the learners and the outside world and with with the course facilitator. Using the f2f terminology, this interaction is like teamwork and brainstorming that yield synergy. Luckily, this approach started to penetrate our educational system.

There are many methods to encourage collaboration among online learners. All of them will require well designed activities. At the moment, I want to suggest two approaches:

Use of a scoring rubric that encourages and assesses positive collaboration.

Use of peer evaluation activities.

I hope you can enrich my knowledge by suggesting more.

The interaction fails when the assessment of the course is based on testing the acquired information rather than measuring incremental knowledge. I.e., courses that rely on route learning. The collaboration in these courses become cheating. Example: courses related to Project Management Professional certifications. Personally, I avoid designing online course for such courses.

Some successful Examples: besides the methodologies followed in this course, I can quote the following two successful examples:

(1) The Intercultural Dynamics in European Education through onLine Simulation: In this course, learners acted as members of a virtual government and each were given specific responsibility and collectively they were supposed to come up with one government plan. Each learner was from different countries with different background. The learning in the fields of politics, languages, cultural difference, teamwork and synergy was outstanding.

(2) Wikipedia Articles: A group of students were assigned the task of writing certain Wiki-articles on Wikipedia. The interaction with the virtual members of Wikipedia was rich and engaging.

Both of the above examples used suitable rubrics.

Week 3, Q1: Ownership of Learning

[This is the answer to EDDL514 W3Q1 question: What do you find is the single most significant difference (that actually impacts learning in either a positive or negative way) between teaching and learning online as compared to in a face-to-face environment ?]

The most significant difference between the f2f and OL learning is “who owns the learning”. In a f2f, the learners’ expects the teacher/facilitator to be the source of their learning. In an online course, the learner should own the learning.

An online learner who does not switch to this attitude will fail a well designed online course. On the other hand, the instructor who designs a course without facilitating the shift of learning to the students will face major challenges (I can list them if requested!)

I drew this image to illustrate it:

: Owners of Learning

For example, in a classroom setting, the “learners’ mode of thinking” expects:

Full and clear directions from the instructor on what they learn.

Constant feedback on whether the learning is going in the right direction.

Immediate response on the learners queries

(who can add more! about collaboration, assessment, note taking, etc..)

While in an online course, the successful learner knows that she owns the learning and she:

does not expect full and clear direction. She expects clear written instructions about the outcomes. But not direction.

does not expect constant feedback. She knows the feedback will be given whenever possible. But not always. (In this course, for example, I have published 16 posts and got feedback on few only!).

does not expect immediate response. She expects that the response will come when it comes. She continues learning while waiting. She does not say: oh I was waiting for your answer to continue!

(Contribute for more!)

So, in my opinion, the attitude of the learner to own their learning is the single crucial element between the success or failure of the learning experience.

P.S.: I truly believe that the ownership of learning should be delegated to the learner even in the classroom setting… but I believe most teaching styles still does not know how to apply it! Even the constructivist approach finds major challenges.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

My Definition of Learning

[The below discussion is a philosophecal discussion that pertains to my beliefs]

To me, learning is the process of converting information to knowledge. Below is a clarification.

Information, is a meaningful data that is accessible to everybody. Examples of information would be written text, audible sentences, an experience that is observed, a feeling that touch us or any other instigation of our senses. Usually our brain process this information and store them in its memory space. This information could be retained in our memory or it could be forgotten.

Knowledge, on the other hand, is a an information that goes beyond the mere storage in the brain... it becomes an integral part of the person whether in the conscience or the subconscieous. It becomes a personified information that affects the individual-self and that relates to him or her only. For example, when you learn driving, you are told that you have to stop at the Stop sign. You can handle this information in one of two ways: either you will remember it and everytime you see the sign, you have to make the effort of stopping consciously (an if usually, if you are busy with something you would forget!) or the information will become part of your subconscious which becomes a natural reflex you do whenever you see the sign. The first case is merly information, while the second case is knowledge. Mostly, knowledge is constructed (i.e. rediscovered) by the individual... but this is another topic about constructivism...

Basically, information is public (accessible to everyone) while knowledge is private that relates to the individual. When a person expresses knoweldge thorugh any medium (written, oral or otherwise), the knowledge become transmitted to the the other person as information. The recepient either take it as information (consequently store it in the memory) or personalize it to make his or her individual knowledge.

Teaching is the act of transmit knowledge to another individual. The other indivdual will either store as information in the memory (thus we have route learning) or s/he will interact with the information moulding it previous knoweldge to create a new knowledge thus evolving into a newer personal reality (thus learning takes place.)

So, learning is the process of converting information to knowledge.

Examples will follow in another blog applying this concept to teaching and learning... that is if I remember!

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Ideation and the Deception of Intelligence

Ideation... is one type of talent very few people posses... it is a talent owned by a person who thinks... whose brain generate ideas as the speed of thought... ideas here and ideas there... a certain situation creates multitude of probababilities....

Ideation is the core talent required for creativity, lateral thinking, logical analysis, high IQ, problem solving, and few thousand other virtues... we are brought up with the concepts that we should all have these virtues for success... or should we? Buckigham in his book: "Now Discover your Strength!" has identified ideation as one of the 34 talents. Since every a person would have 5 dominant talents, rough calculation suggests that 1 in every 170 persons around us has this ideation talent... this means, on a globe of 4 Billion people, at least 23 Million have ideation as their talent...

Here is my point: ideation without thought control becomes hindrance... in one scenario, an ideation person can be creative in creating problems rather than solutions (this is tagged as a negative person!). In another possibility, an ideation person might create a virtual reality that superseeds real reality (tagged as dreamer!) In a third scenario, which is an extreme case, an ideation person might live the virtual world created by his ideas... which many might call schizophrenic. A person who believes in the "conspiracy theory" is an ideation person whose brain can link together coincidences, relate them to actual facts then conclude that these concidences are based on a well plotted scheme... I can give a lot of negative examples of applying ideation (email me if you want a complete list!)... In all these cases, the ideation person genuinly believes he or she is living in the real world. An excellent demonstration of this fact has been portrait in the 4 Oscars winner movie "A Beautiful Mind"....

As you can see, the misuse of a virteous talent can lead to a deceptve intelligence!

In my opinion, and experience, the only way to make ideation work for you would be to learn to practice to "shut down" your brains just in time to avoid getting into the negativity realm (again, watch Beautiful Minds to see an example)... to do this, you need to learn the basics of meditation (in any form). Meditation, for me, is the excercise of controling your thought. It is a practice to discover that you, as a human being, have a higher (maybe a lower?) thought reality that you need to bring forward to control the conceived thoughts...

The simplest meditation excercie to control your thougt would be to focus one thought (it could be an idea, a sound youmake, a seen you see, anything... you choose).... when you are doing that, your thoughts will deviate you to other idea (usually a problem on your mind... this is normal)...once you recognize that, refocus on the original thought. ... practicing this excercise for a while, will give you the consciousness to control your thought and make focus on the positive ideation and not the negative... There are many other different techniques that are popularly practiced (TM, Yoga, Ziker, etc...) that would be as effective... it is yor choice....

Am I making sense? Tell me.... more tocome later.