ELN 103 Lesson 8 What I have learned in this course

Blog prompt: Reflect on what you have learned in this course.

First I'd like to look at what I already knew coming into an eLearning class on Instructional Technology and Media for learning.

I've been using technology since 1964 when I first used a computer IBM 360 in the Math and Geology departments at Indiana State University. The math department included in it's program of study computer science and programming. The Geology department had began to use computer mapping of geological formations. So I came to technology from the early years of computer programming on an IBM 360 in FORTRAN. I was familiar with online classes having taken them for professional development and my master's degree. I had also taken writing classes online. As I progressed throughout my teaching career after graduation, I was an early adopter of technology. One thing I learned from this class was that I was way head of  the learning curve as a classroom and community college teacher. I began my teaching career at the community college because I was one of a few teachers who knew how to set up a network both WAN and LAN, install a computer lab, install software and teach software programs. I am currently using  wireless network at home for my computer, mouse, printer, iphone, and kindle fire. When I started teaching other teachers were still using typewriters. I taught the first laptop lab to engineers at the generating power plant. I taught computer programming and repair. I taught HTML web design. I taught using an electronic whiteboard, video, voice and blackboard. I've used many platforms. I've used apples, PC, e-readers, laptops, tablets, graphic design, electronic publishing, networks, ipads, ipods, iphone, kindle fire, pc's, digital graphics, graphing calculators, and many other types of hardware and software.
I taught community college classes thru distance e-learning by using audio and video and blackboard.
 I was lucky enough to be the math department chair at my high school so I could implement a computer laptop lab into the math department classes. I also worked with my fellow tech guru to have an apple lab for mathematics for alternative school and remediation. I had to literally force some of the math teachers to use email.

So when I started this class I knew how to use a computer, internet, Office Suite, Desktop Publishing, and HTML programming (although I am keen to learn Java next). I had 20 years teaching experience in community college and high school, and now pre-K through 6th grade.
I knew how to prepare graphic designs because I was a technical writer and illustrator as well as a graphic artist while I went to college. I also taught web design and HTML programming at a community college.

I knew the difference between teacher centered and student centered learning because I turned my whole department's curriculum upside down by changing from traditional sage on stage pedagogy to a more cooperative learning student oriented environment. I changed from text only to a blended classroom in one semester. Shock to the system of many math teachers!

So what did I learn?
Blogs, Podcasts, wikis, RSS, amazing videos, wonderful educational resources, and professional organizations. I had the most fun and gained the most knowledge by doing the research, and the activities. The assignments were spot on. I learned how to blog. I had never really gotten into this form of media. That was fun. I will keep it up. I'm planning to have my own blog on education issues, and my writing. I started to listen to more educational podcasts.I want to do my own podcast in the future. They were informal and delightful. I had listened to TED Talks, and Dave Ramsey on my own but I had no idea the depth of mathematical podcasts, For that I am very grateful. I found a new software program called "mathematica" that is absolutely the most amazing visual mathematics software I have ever seen. I've gotten lots of creative ideas from videos I have watched. I think for me the last few chapters in the text helped me the most:Video  and Audio Learning. In fact I was so captivated by the subject matter I wanted to do further reading so I bought the following book: Classroom Blogging, A Teachers Guide to Blogs, Wiki's, and other tools that are shaping a New Information Landscape by David F. Warlick. www.http://landmark-project.com

I wasn't too impressed with the textbook just because it's rather out of date especially as fast as technology moves. It's copyrighted 2008. It takes about 2 years for a textbook to be published even a revised edition. Why are we even using a textbook? A printed one that is.  I think an e-book would be much better for all these Rio Salado e-learning classes. The resources in the book were very good. What an opportunity it would be to actually read the textbook as an e-book! You could go instantly to all the suggested web sites and media. Although I have found that I don't like reading charts on an e-book, I have many e-books on my kindle even mathematical and scientific. The pictures in the textbook are woefully out of date. The meat of the text is good, but it definitely is out of date. The software in the book is Windows Vista, which Microsoft doesn't support. I'm glad I hung onto my old Windows 7 computer because the computer I normally use is Windows 10 OS and this software wouldn't even play. So for the entire course I used a 5 year old computer rather than my new one because I found out real fast that the software you use for the class was not happy working with my new computer. There were quite a few broken links in the Rio Salado Lessons, and typos. I think every link and assignment should be tested at least once or twice during the semester in every course. I would hate to be a "newbee" just starting out on an online course at Rio Salado because you would definitely have to hit the ground running in addition to your classwork. The broken links would drive me crazy if I didn't have the knowledge beforehand to try an alternative site, which I did. I also informed my instructor, the technology department and the education department.

Challenges of Video and Audio K-12 eLearning

Discuss the challenges with the implementation of audio and video resources in k-12 eLearning.
Some of the challenges with the implementation of audio and video resources in K-12 eLearning are some classroom produced audio presentations are a little bit of amateur quality, but students enjoy hearing their own work.
Sometimes special equipment is needed to listen to audio and video files such as CD and DVD players. The price of equipment has come down considerably since this book was written. You can find DVD and CD players at garage sales. Now the technology is going to the I-cloud and iTunes which require more sophisticated equipment which schools might lack.
Streaming video also depends on bandwidth and computer availability. So a internet provider is a must. Video is good at providing visual and oral information. However the interpretation of the video has to be clarified to the students. Some students might misinterpret the meaning of the video. Some abstract concepts are not suited for video although lately I've seen some abstract concepts on video such as string theory, black holes, multi-dimension, and other higher mathematical and physics concepts that were amazing!
I have listed some videos I thought would explain where my former students were coming from. Native Americans have had a difficult relationship with the forcible removal of their children into boarding schools in the twentieth century. Students were not allowed to speak their language, and were forcibly removed from their families. Many Native Americans view formal school with much deserved suspicion. Some of the videos I found explain this well deserved attitude towards any federal government program.
Sometimes the homemade produced videos have more of a ring of truth to them than sophisticated documentaries made by outsiders.



I found a student produced video of life on the Apache REZ and thought it was excellent even when done by eighth graders.

REZ Life White Mountain Apache. Student made video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_L6FdOaOS8

Some videos are capture fleeting moment in time. Traditional foods and traditional ways of teaching are caught on this video.

Traditional methods of teaching: How to make fry bread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj3kwsmZZsA

Native American students win Gates Scholarships.

http://www.lakotacountrytimes.com/news/2015-05-07/Front_Page/Rez_Students_Win_Gates_Scholarships.html

Edgar Perry (My amazing fellow teacher and neighbor) discusses Apache History. He was one of the people involved in translating, inventing an alphabet and transcribing the Apache Language into a written language. Apache had in recent times been an oral only language.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSWSTb0siVo

Sunrise dance White Mountain Apache. This is a traditional coming of age ceremony for girls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_L6FdOaOS8

Running on the REZ. A Navajo Nation track team competes in the state finals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv0Wl3K-kac

Video produced by White Mountain Apache Tribe students

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE-rbAWnFcc

http://www.edweek.org/ew/projects/2013/native-american-education/running-in-place.html

The history of Indian Boarding Schools, education in the 20^th century and the Federal Government control of educating Native Americans by removing children from families  by putting them in boarding schools far away from their homes. A reminder of the past is the street where I live, 82^nd and Indian School road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOe-x1aUP2o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q8ZgKho-s4

 

 

ELN 103 Lesson 6 Learning Styles helped with Technology & Media

Here is this lesson's blog prompt: How can instructional technology and media help the teacher to meet varying learning styles and preferences in K-12 eLearning? Provide specific examples in your response.

"Learning styles, according to Howard Gardner, are the ways in which an individual approaches a range of tasks. They have been categorized in a number of different ways -- visual, auditory, and kinesthetic, impulsive and reflective, right brain and left brain, etc. Gardner argues that the idea of learning styles does not contain clear criteria for how one would define a learning style, where the style comes, and how it can be recognized and assessed. He phrases the idea of learning styles as "a hypothesis of how an individual approaches a range of materials."
Article on the difference between Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles.
http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-research

Article on the Future of Education and how technology is impacted the way we teach.
http://howardgardner.com/2015/09/08/gardner-on-educations-future/

Video on what defines the different multiple intelligences.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf6lqfNTmaM&feature=player_embedded

Frames of mind and using learning styles thru the use of computer technology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1J2fzzYWic&feature=player_embedded#t=150

I have always ben a fan of Howard Gardner. I read his theory on Multiple Intelligences when my school was deemed a failing school the first few years of AIMS testing. Of course all testing is done pencil paper. Black print on white paper with little dots you have to fill in to answer a problem.

At Alchesay High School on the White Mountain Indian reservation we were under the gun to help students who had failed the AIMS mathematics test. 75 seniors were facing not graduating when passing the AIMS test became a requirement for graduation. Plus the only measure of a student success after 4 years of high school was in Mathematics and a Reading/Essay.

No matter that a student could excel in other ways, this was the only way they could graduate. The only way student's learning is valued to this day and time is if they can take and pass a summative written test. The following are not tested: No art, no music, no business, no drama, no electronics, no computers, no biology, no botany, no astronomy,  no anatomy, no geography, no chemistry, no child care, no cooking, no poetry, no sports, no politics, no nature, no photography, no woodworking, no automobile expertise, no medicine, no building, nor many other areas that were just as important in real life.

For a society (White Mountain Apache) that just had their language translated into written English barely one generation ago, this was an unbelievable way to examine learning. Everything they did was oral not written. This is the traditional way Apache s learned for generations.
One of the most interesting classes I ever took was given by an elderly Apache woman who was teaching a class in "How to make a camp dress.". It was the strangest class I had ever taken. I have always done well on mathematical/logical/visual/spatial learning. This way of making a dress threw me for a loop. This was not any way close to my learning style, but it was fun. There were no rulers, no written instructions, no measuring nor any modern text. Take a length of cloth. She showed us how to hold out our arm, that was the sleeve length, rip, rip. Hold up the cloth to your waist, rip, rip. Fold the cloth around your neck, rip, rip. Now sew the pieces together. The dress emerged! Amazing. It was the first time I could remember making something this way. This was the traditional way millions of non-literate people learned. Elders showed them how to do something the student did it until correct.
Apache dress designer.
http://www.globemiamitimes.com/the-woman-who-wears-the-dress/

When we started to integrate multiple intelligences and learning styles into our lesson plans we began to have an amazing 30% improvement in one year. The first year we concentrated on helping the seniors graduate. The next year we focused on all the other students. What we learned by helping the seniors helped other students. We went from 5 classes of failing Algebra 1 to only about 7 students out of 750 students just by teaching mathematics in different ways instead of the traditional western pencil paper math. We used the internet, virtual tour to up load other cultures, we had more hands on math, encouraged art, music and tactile math. We cooked and made things, we pretended to be on other planets. We looked at hurricanes and tsunamis. Most kids in a desert could not even imagine that much water, when the average rainfall s 6 " a year. We related it to the power of water in a dry wash swollen with water, but they imagined the flow of the water was as tall as a mountain. We took the students outside so elders could show students how to tell sun time with a stick and a shadow. Elders explained the seasons. We related mathematics to their lives.
I was lucky to be teaching mathematics in a room that had a common office with one of the Apache men (Mr. Perry) who had originally translated the Apache Language into English. He was a very respected elder. He was amazing. Maybe recording native speakers on podcasts could preserve the language. The technology is so easy now that an Apache student with a cell phone, believe me I took enough of them away from students until after class when I was teaching, could easily record their parents and grandparents speaking Apache. It would make a great project for students.
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1999-06-09/news/9906090303_1_apache-language-english-dictionary

In his interview Howard Gardner mentions his work in Italy. Italy is the home of the Montessori method of teaching. He does not recommend they revise their education system by adopting the test centric and student evaluation centric methods of the United States and Great Britain.
"Montessori students learn through sensory-motor activities, working with materials that develop their cognitive powers through direct experience: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching, and movement, ... then progress from concrete to abstract thinking."
http://amshq.org/Montessori-Education/Introduction-to-Montessori

I think one way that technology and instructional media can help a teacher is to offer students a different viewpoint. There are many different ways to solve a problem. They need to be able to think. If you look up anything on the web you find millions of ways to do something. Students need to become self learners, to go where the wind blows them. Who knows what they can learn? .

Benefits and Challenges of Using EIM & Media K-12 eLearning

What are the benefits and challenges of using electronic instructional materials and media in K-12 eLearning instruction? Consider infrastructure and instruction in your response.

I thought it would be fun to make a word cloud out of the benefits and challenges of eLearning.

 

Since I come from a Business Administration and Management background and Mathematics background I thought I would use a SWOT (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats) analysis of the Benefits and challenges of eLearning.

Benefits	Challenges
Strengths	Weaknesses
·         Classes can be taken any time any where there is an internet connection, country and border boundaries do not matter	·         Broken Links, power outages, slow dial up, insecure web portal, outdated technology equipment and software, censorship (school, parents, government, age appropriateness)
·         ELearning building infrastructure costs are low	·         No home access, student might have to work in library on public computer
·         Expenses of travel for students and teachers are reduced, no car or transportation needed	·         On-line costs for actual physical schools in blended learning situations are the same
·         E-learners can learn at their own pace, instruction is at the learners pace	·         Students must be self disciplined to get modules done on time, learners do not have unlimited time to finish class
·         Immediate access to teacher via  e-mail	·         Teachers must check e-mail and respond in a timely manner
·         Modern technology, i-pads, i-phones, internet, web, blogging, social media	·         Eye strain, back aches, carpal tunnel syndrome, repetitive motion injuries, poor posture

 

Benefits	Challenges
Opportunities	Threats
·         eLearning can be scheduled around busy lives	·         time deadlines for class work submission. everything takes much longer to work properly
·         E-Learners have access to huge databases and resources from all over the world	·         Virus attacks from anywhere
·         Different learning styles are supported	·         Blind, deaf, hearing impaired, mobility impaired (such as arthritis) need specialized expensive equipment
·         Community learning  is fostered through chat and bulletin boards	·         Learners with poor study skills, limited computer skills, and low technical skills will fall behind or be a drain on more expert learners, need more support, feelings of isolation
·         Innovative multi-media, voice, video, gameology, colors, visual mapping, real life images, virtual tours	·         Shovel ware, re-using old text based media, black and white, hands on is difficult
·         Students can log on multiple times a day, repetition of a lecture or instruction is easy as many times as needed, students can practice many times for successful learning of a concept, immediate feedback, automatic reminders of assignments due.	·         Students fail to log on frequently, students do not commit to hours of study, students do not submit work on time, students are not self-directed (especially K-12).

I also found a really good test for an e-Learner to take to see if they are up to the challenges of e-Learning.

 

http://www.unc.edu/tlim/ser/#ShowResults