Learning Styles in Education

Here is my Video presentation on Learning Styles in Distance Education







Video's I commented on:

Seane @ http://learningsquared.blogspot.com
Michelle @ http://michellelandley.blogspot.com
Daniel @ http://daoprish.blogspot.com
Laura @ http://wojoedtech.blogspot.com
Lisa @ http://durffsblog.blogspot.com
Jerome@ http://jachenevert.blogspot.com

Moving Toward Dynamic Technologies

See link for my concept map: http://olufemi.wikispaces.com/


"As technology becomes integrated into the learning environment, the instructor or instructional designer must make decisions regarding which technology to use to achieve specific learning outcomes" (Moller, 2008). As an educator, I feel that all educators must use the best method to promote learning within their educational institution. Since we are in a technology era, integrating technology in the classrooms seems to be the best method to achieving specific learning outcomes. The most important part to integrating technology in the classroom is knowing which technology will have the greatest impact on learning. With that said, I believe that I am in the middle of the static-dynamic continuum. I began closer to the static end of the static-dynamic continuum at the beginning of this course and learned that I need to get out of my comfort zone. As a result, I began exploring some of the 2.0 technology programs and found that they are very challenging and promote learning. As I continue through this course and experience other courses in the future, I plan to continue to move completely towards the dynamic end of the static-dynamic continuum.

For additional information about static and dynamic technologies, please see the web address below:
http://minerclass.edublogs.org/2011/02/26/static-dynamic-learning-technologies-continuum%E2%80%A6/


Resources:

Moller, L. (2008). Static and dynamic technological tools. [Unpublished
Paper].

Module 4 Blog Post

Engaging Learners with New Strategies and Tools

http://www.slideshare.net/fullscreen/olufemi21/graphic-organizer-11377195/1

Collaboration:

- Stixy : works like an online bulletin board or whiteboard. It offers a work space where you can place content and collaborate with other people on the web. (Bogdan, 2011)

- Wikis: a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly. (wiki.org, 2002)

- Writeboard: a free collaborative writing software. It can be used to write, edit, track changes, and rollback to previous versions. (Brogdan, 2011).

Communication:

- Skype: is software that enables you to make free calls anywhere in the world. Skype uses P2P (peer-to-peer) technology to connect you with other users. It offers several features, including SkypeOut calling from Skype to regular and mobile phones worldwide, conference calling, and secure file transferring. You can also now share your screen with other users. Skype calls focus on video and audio quality, and secure the calls with end-to-end encryption. Read more: Skype - Download.com http://download.cnet.com/Skype/3000-2349_4-10225260.html#ixzz1lBzzDLAE

(France, 2010).

Blog: A blog is often a mixture of what is happening in a person's life and what is happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary/guide site. (Marketing Terms, 2012).

E-mail: Electronic mail that is sent and received via the internet.

Content:

Delicious: allows users to collect web-based resources into stacks which can be shared within the community and added to by others. (Marquis, 2012).

Twiddla: a real-time online collaboration tool. (Twiddla, 2012).

Wridea: Wridea is a web service first to avoid ideas being forgotten, then to organize and improve those ideas by giving you the opportunity to share your ideas with friends and necessary tools to improve your ideas by yourself and individually. (Bogdan, 2011).

References:

Bogdan, (2011). 10 Examples Of Very Useful Online Collaborative Tools. Reyrieved from http://www.topdesignmag.com/10-examples-of-very-useful-online-collaborative-tools/

Wiki, (2002). What is Wiki? Retrieved from http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki

France, J. (2010). Skype. Retrieved from http://download.cnet.com/Skype/3000-2349_4-10225260.html

Marketing Terms. (2012). Blog: Weblog. Retrieved from http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/blog/

Twiddla. (2012). Twiddla is a no-setup, web-based meeting Playground. Retrieved from http://www.twiddla.com/

Assessing Collaborative Efforts

Module 3, Blog 3

In
collaborative learning communities, participation should not be solely assessed
by only using checks and marks. Students should be assessed by their abilities
and contributions made towards the success of the group. “Not all assessments
translate into a mark” (Siemens, 2011). Some ways to assess participation
mentioned by Siemens is to allow other students to assess their peers, receive
feedback from online communities, assess on student contributions and assess
based on metrics from learning management systems. One difficulty that
educators have with assessing learning communities is keeping the assessment
fair and equitable. “In order to assess student performance in collaborative
activity effectively, the instructor needs to understand basic principles of
student assessment” (Palloff & Pratt, 2005). This difficulty is present
because students in these learning communities have varying skill levels and
knowledge. One way to combat this issue is to assess based on each student’s
individual growth. A problem that is very prevalent in these learning
communities is dealing with members that do not want to collaborate within a
group. Other members that are faced with this issue should try to collaborate
with the unwilling member to see if the issue can be resolved. If this does not
solve the matter, then the instructor should be notified. At this point in
time, the instructor should have already made some prior guidelines that
address situations like this. “Because of these issues, instructors should take
some precautionary measures at the start of a course that involves
collaborative work” (Palloff & Pratt, 2005). If the instructor finds that
the unwilling member is not cooperating, then the instructor should remove that
member from the group without giving any penalties to the other group members.
The actions of the instructor should not heavily impact the assessment plan
since the unwilling member has not made a consistent effort to do their part.



Reference
Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning
together in community. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Siemens, G (2011). Assessment of Collaborative Learning. (Approx.
9 min)

Siemens, G (2011). Learning Communities. (Approx. 11 min)

Related Articles


http://www.brighthub.com/office/collaboration/articles/74181.aspx

http://www.collaborativejustice.org/how.htm

http://www.joe.org/joe/1999april/tt1.php

Module 3: Creating a Storyboard

During Module 3, each student must put together a storyboard that represents the video presentation that covers different topics related to distance education. The topic that I chose was differentiated instruction. Feel free to view my story board and to make comments as needed. Please use the link below to view my storyboard.



http://olufemi.wikispaces.com/

Elements of Distance Education Diffusion

Module 2 Post 2

Collaborative interaction allows for multiple intelligences to come together in a single group or learning community. Each member in a learning community must be able to collaborate with one another in order to reach a common goal. Collaborative learning involves not only taking in new ideas but also creating new ideas. Smith and MacGregor (1992) illustrates that collaborative learning produces intellectual synergy of many minds coming to bear on a problem and the social stimulation of mutual engagement in a common endeavor.
Some online tools that are available today to facilitate collaborative interaction are video conferencing, web conferencing, voice over IP, virtual classrooms, blogs, and wiki’s just to name a few. “ Videoconferencing attempts to proximate face-to-face communication and web conferencing integrates the phone and networked computer screen so that an unlimited number of participants can talk to each other while viewing the same content ,” (Foreman, 2003). Foreman (2003) explains that Voice IP is a system, which bypasses the telephone and transmits audio over the same Internet lines that link users to their shared applications.

Foreman, J. (2003). Distance Learning and Synchronous Interaction. The Technology Source Archives at the University of North Carolina. Retrieved fromhttp://technologysource.org/article/distance_learning_and_synchronous_interaction/
Smith, B.L., & MacGregor, J.T. (1992). What is Collaborative learning? Retrieved from http://learningcommons.evergreen.edu/pdf/collab.pdf.

The Next Generation of Distance Education

There is a strong need to evolve distance education to the next generation. Over the recent years, distance education has become a popular avenue of teaching and learning. Distance education is in most school systems around the world and has also entered the workforce at a rapid pace. Simonson explains that there has been an increase in distance education in the last decade which illustrates a stronger demand for the upcoming generation. Some reasons that Simonson give for this rapid evolution in distance education is that it offers self-study at a distance, it's useful in linking resources and it's basically incorporated into most learning environments. The benefits of distance education is almost incomparable to any other type of education. Moller, Huett, Foshay and Coleman (May, 2008) explains that distance learning is very beneficial because it is instantly available, providing timely and on-demand learning access which is impossible in a traditional learning center. They also explain that once distance learning is developed, it is accessible to tens of thousands of e-teachers and e-learners with immediate access. The expansion of distance learning has reached higher education at a profound rate. It's the main source of education as a post-secondary educator and/or learner. Moller, Huett, Foshay and Coleman (July 2008) explains that some colleges and universities see distance education as a way of sustaining growth. As distance education continues to grow in higher education settings, it also shows growth in the k-12 education arena. Studies (September, 2008) show that online learning in k-12 schools is addressing previously unmet needs. As I dissect the resources, I agree with the positions of the authors. Distance and online learning is moving at a rapid pace in the educational arena as well as in other sectors throughout the world. Since the demand is so great, the needs of the next generation must be met in order to go to the next level of e-teaching and e-learning.

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008, May/June). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 1: Training and Development). TechTrends, 52(3), 70–75.

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008, July/August). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 2: Higher Education). TechTrends, 52(4), 66–70.

Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W. & Coleman, C. (2008, September/October). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 3: K12). TechTrends, 52(5), 63–67.

Simonson, M. (2010). Distance Education: The Next Generation