Week 4 Project: Future Report

REFERENCES:

Sclater, N. (2008). Web 2.0, personal learing environments, and the future of learning management systems. Educause, (Vol. 13, June 24, 2008). Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERB0813.pdf

Wilson, S, Liber, O, Johnson, M, Beauvoir, Sharples,P. (2007) Personal learning environments: challenging the dominant design of educational system. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1820/727

Images have been cited in the order they were used.

Moodle image retrieved from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wytze/3182118530/

UDUTU image retrieved from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosefirerising/4519236879/

Web 2.0 image retrieved from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bensheldon/212159782/

Create image retrieved from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/she-who-photographs/2493198675/

Control image retrieved from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/samidoodle/2920952673/

Confused student image retrieved from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elinee/2377996703/

VLE image retrieved from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/balador/301810610/s

Group of students image retrieved from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlos_restrepo/3023524338/

Tools image retrieved from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/13639732@N02/4399911842/

World image retrieved from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bass_nroll/4024895023/

Institution image retrieved from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/2550661153/

Dollar image retrieved from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bikeracer/14738944/

Teacher training image retrieved from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/communitycolleges/4566020034/

Week 4 Comment - John Harvey

This course is a good place to start in the development of a full-on Angels vs. Demons simulation game geared towards kids in late middle school/early high school. It is, of course, a very rough representation of the idea that I originally presented in this video for Game Strategies.

John,

You always have such a unique project! I am always impressed with you video creations and how professional everything looks. This was an awesome way to incorporate games and education!

Week 4 Comment - Erica Culbreath

I must admit, I have wanted to check out Udutu for at least a year. I remember stumbling upon it as I was googling open source applications. Of course, I sent the link to all of my instructional designer friends as I was so amped about this free tool. I figured we could work with Udutu during our free time. While no one I know seriously has free time, I was glad to come into month 10 to work with Udutu. Somehow I started with a very basic concept but ended with plenty of detail, as I continued to add more and more slides and ideas to the module.

Erica,

This is a very nice presentation. I will assume that the students will have some background knowledge on the topic before beginning the lesson. This brought back some memories of this information from my biology experience. I like that this is a specific lesson to teach. Many of us chose to do complete units or courses, but this is a great idea for how to use it for a single lesson.

Week 4 UDUTU Project

I have created a UDUTU course to upload all of my curriculum for my HOPE class. HOPE stands for Health Opportunities through Physical Education. I will be able to use this UDUTU course both for teaching in the classroom, and for students to complete their assignments at their own pace over the course of the week. All documents and information about the course are available for parents and students as well.

Because I have only two days in the classroom to teach my curriculum, this online course supplement will allow students to access the information at home. I have created tutorials on how to create an email address make posts on the class blog as well. These two steps will be necessary to complete future assignments. I have begun to create week 1 of my curriculum as well. This is a slight modification from what I planned in my original UDUTU plan, but pretty close. If anyone has figured out how to access the course without the watermark, please let me know. I was able to upload the course to my Edline page, but it is distorted. Also, please take into account that this is a work in progress! Please leave me some feedback on what could be improved.

(I know I need to figure out how to resize the images to get rid of the blur.)

The course is available on Facebook by searching HOPE: Health Opportunities Through Physical Education

or

Here is the link:

URL http://publish.myudutu.com/published/launcheval/22097/Course39887/Launch.html

Week 4 Comment - Sharon Jones

As we begin a new school year, it is my task train the new teachers on the use of our LMO, Edline and GradeQuickWeb. Due to some major cutbacks in staffing this year, everyone is covering more classes and extra curricular duties, making the scheduling of training very difficult.

Sharon,

I use Edline in my school as well. Luckily we have some really good technology trainings where they helped us learn to use the program. The gave us a condensed flip chart as well. Your UDUTU lesson would come in very hand though, if a teacher forgets something or just needs a refresher. I'm sure the new teachers in your school would find this very helpful. I thought your idea for assessment of the lesson was perfect. Great Job.

Week 4 Wimba

I really enjoyed the advice about just walking away when you get to THAT point! I have been there a hand full of times over the past months. I did not have too much trouble uploading documents and images, but the images did appear distorted. I will have to go back to review the tutorials on how to adjust them. I do wish I had been able to attend the live Wimba session, because I have followed the steps to get a live link to my UDUTU project, but have been unsuccessful. FSO support was not able to help either. Even with the problems, I have really enjoyed creating my UDUTU course, or I should say beginning work on my UDUTU course. This program was just what I have been waiting for.

Week 3 Comment 2: Dana Kohls

After reviewing new directions and trends in CMS's, that of cloud computing and Web 2.0 grabbed my attention. The Epsilen Environment combines a social collaborative environment with e-learning capabilities allowing users full advantage of moving between. It uses Web 2.0 social networking tools to engage students and create a familiar environment for learning. Marc Prensky stated that we need to meet digital natives on their terms and teach with the tools they use everyday. It appears that the Epsilen company is doing just that. It exhibits a similarity with e-Chalk another platform that combines social networking and e-learning in a collaborative environment for students, parents, and teachers. The trend is an all in one learning environment that is very appealing.

@ Dana

The idea of the cloud is an excellent idea for students. It goes along with what Shirky was talking about on how each contribution, even if it is a single one, is still a contribution. Plus the clouds are a simple, cost effective way to introduce technology to a hesitant crowd.

Week 3 Comment 1: Christian Legere

This is all very complicated and I am coming to the conclusion that a topic area like Learning Management Systems and Organization could easily morph into its own year long program. As the previous two weeks have shown, there is a plethora of tools and systems available for not only developing learning content and organizing that that material per the needs of a specific student or institution.
This is all very complicated and I am coming to the conclusion that a topic area like Learning Management Systems and Organization could easily morph into its own year long program. As the previous two weeks have shown, there is a plethora of tools and systems available for not only developing learning content and organizing that that material per the needs of a specific student or institution.

@ CHristian

I liked that you felt that teachers should be involved in the decision making on new technology coming into our classrooms. I think it is important for the people using the tools to want to use the tools. You also mentioned how long the creation of different systems can take. While I agree that some time is required to make everything work in sync, I am in shock and awe at UDUTU and the easiness of creating a great tool for myself and my students. The content is there for us, but we now have so many wonderful options to aid in our delivery.

Week 3 Reading: New CMS Directions

Clay Shirky's comment on institutions giving up a quarter of the value of a learning system, really stood out to me. I think it is a great thought that even though that quarter of a group may only contribute a below average amount, it is still contribution. Also that-that particular single contribution might be a key piece of the puzzle. I think that it is so important to remember as a teacher, that each student has something to offer in a class, and it is my job to facilitate that student's contribution. The collaboration of all students produces a greater finished product.

I think a negative spin on the contribution concept though is the overwhelming number of CMS, LMS, LCMS systems to choose from. It takes an education in itself to learn what each of these systems have to offer. Then comes the cost and implementation into the chosen system. How does a school system decide what is best for them? The likelihood of the quarter of the value being given up will be the choice of the institution. I often wish they would ask those of us that will be using the product to give our input. It is always, "our district has chosen _____, please attend training on _____). It would be great to have an opportunity to sample different products and vote on what teachers think would be best. Then have a comprehensive training. I don't think the institution of education will change to collaboration any time soon. It's all smoke in mirrors.

Shirky also goes on to comment on the stages an institution goes through. Putting my prior negativity aside, I completely agree that education is in the anger and acceptance stage. Schools are still blocking social sites like Facebook, but are training and urging teachers to bring in technology and to collaborate. Teachers continue to push the boundaries of what is allowed, but are showing that the benefits of certain prohibited sites out way the negative.

At the end of the day, teachers main focus is to make it possible for our students to learn, and to continue to push ourselves to learn as well.

Image retrieved from http://blog.art21.org/2009/02/18/hope-and-change-part-2

Shirky, Clay. (2005) Clay Shirky on institutions vs. collaboration. Retrived from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/clay_shirky_on_institutions_versus_collaboration.html

Week 2 Comment - Jeff Kohls

With the advent and growing popularity of LMSs and CMSs, more and more companies and educational institutions are looking for ways to manage their staff, faculties, and students. This includes very large institutions such as the United States Military, which has several thousand individuals that it must not only manage, but train as well. In many cases, companies or educational will hire-out the development and building of these systems. However, there has been a trending shift that many of these institutions have followed, and that's building their own systems. The cost for pre-made LMS/CMS provided by specialized companies runs high, especially when serving large populations. The cost to develop and run an in-house LMS/CMS can often be double or more the cost of a specialized company's cost.

@ Jeff

I think that it is great that Full Sail recognizes the quickness in which new information becomes available. It has been said by many of our instructors that the information we are learning will be replaced with new almost immediately. Remembering back, several instructors talked about how they had changed their course from month to month based on the feedback of students. It is nice to know that our comments do have a purpose in that they make the content more effective to us as individuals. We are lucky to be able to retake classes with our degree path in the future without additional cost.

Week 2 Comment - Tamara Collins

Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) are fast becoming a way for training individuals within corporations as well as some educational institutions. It allows for authoring, publishing, and managing learning content (Nichani, 2001). The LCMS can create instant Reusable Leaning Objects or RLO’s to satisfy the needs of the learner. For example companies can foresee the needs of what the employee (learner) will need and create a new course required to train them on a new product, which may launch in the near future (Nichani, 2001).

@ Tamara

I'm jealous that your school is progressive enough to be providing personalized training! I also liked your comment on "all day training session". I will be attending several of "those" training in the coming week. It would be so nice to be able to pick and choose where I would like to be trained.

Week 2 Reading - LCMS Systems

After reading the articles about LCMS Systems, I remembered an experience I'd had several years ago when going through the certification program to become a teacher. I was not an education major, so I had to meet several education requirements in order to earn my permanent teaching certificate. I chose to participate in Alternative Certification Program (ACE) offered by my county. This program was taught by national board certified teachers, and required completion of approximately 60 tasks divided into 12 competencies.. In many cases the project required a lot of busy work, but state requirements made the task necessary.

I was fortunate enough to be part of a trial group that was offered an optional nine-hour test by a University. This test would identify which of the 12 competencies I was lacking in and which of them I was not. The test went even further to assess which of the individual tasks under the competencies needed to be completed. Upon completion of the test, I was assessed as being competent in the majority of the competencies. I had only 17 of the original 60 tasks to complete in order to apply for my teaching certificate.

I believe that the test was a form of assessment in an LCMS system. In the article by Bill Perry on training professionals, he discusses some of the benefits of using an LCMS. These included increased efficiency, reusing content, reducing training time, meeting compliance, and delivering learning on demand (Perry, 2009). The amount of time saved by eliminating the majority of the tasks from my requirements was significant. It also saved the teachers grading my tasks time. The content in the assessment was specific to the competencies and could be used again and again. By passing the assessment, I was able to meet state requirements. Less time was spent in training sessions, because I no longer had to attend classes where I had tested out of the tasks. I received a personalized outcome, and was able to focus on my weaknesses, and work toward improvement.

This assessment fits in the definition of an LCMS system by recording each students progress, score, and reported the information back to the instructors. Ryann Ellis stated that, "an LCMS gets the right content to the right people at the right time" (Ellis, 2001). The value of tests like the one I took are immense.

Ellis, R. (2001). LCMS roundup. Learning Ciruits. August, 2001. Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20071012195821/http://www.learningcircuits.org/2001/aug2001/ttools.htm

Perry, B. (2009). Training professionals gain agility and power from LCMS technology. Learning Circuits. Retrieved from http://www.astd.org/lc/2009/0309_perry.html

Week 2 Wimba

The overview of the Alphabet Soup was a good review from watching the videos last week. These concepts were all new to me, so I am still becoming familiarized with the terminology. I continue to be excited by the tremendous growth of the CMS/LCMS platforms. Upon graduation, I would love to work in a field of curriculum development.

The overview of what is expected for this week's UDUTU was helpful. I am a bit nervous about the learning curve, but I think this is probably the most exciting resource for my that has been introduced throughout the Full Sail program. This is just what I have been looking for.

I appreciate the reminder not to procrastinate. The I told you so is never a good thing to here.

Wk 2 Project Udutu Setup

1. Jerue, Julie
2. Student Sign-up: Email, Edline, Blogger, Facebook, VOKI, and Voice Thread
3. An online tutorial for students to learn to sign up and use email, Edline, Blogger, Facebook, and two Web 2.0 tools, VOKI and Voice Thread
4. EMDT Month 10: To be deployed during the first quarter of the school year to students in my classes. The lesson will be housed on my computer and backup storage device. I will ask to have the lesson uploaded to the Edline system to make it available for other teachers in the district.
5. Upon reviewing the different scenarios, I think I have decided to use the self-directed scenario. I am feeling some frustration, because I was not able to find a tutorial explaining each of the different scenarios and their best-use examples. I will assume this is part of the learning curve, and will continue to research each of the scenarios functions. I chose the self-directed scenario, because some students may already have these accounts created. These students would not need the lessons. The assessment would be for students to email me their email addresses, invite me to their blogs, subscribe to my blog, and email me their VOKI introduction. If they were not able to complete these tasks, I would know that they did not use the tutorials.
6. I will be building my lesson from scratch, with the exception of a Screenflow developed for using VOKI.
7. The following URL is a temporary location. My school district does not allow access to Facebook, and there is a strict policy against teachers friending students, so I do not think the Facebook applications will work. I am not sure at this time how to make this work.URL http://publish.myudutu.com/published/launcheval/22097/Course39887/Launch.html

Week1-Wimba

Wow! Lots of questions asked and answered! I think the part of the Wimba that stuck out most to me is the conversation about LOA’s. I have been on the verge of taking a LOA now for about three months, but have been hanging on by a thin thread. I am one of those people though who most likely will not resolve the problem, so I better stick it out!

I also appreciate the clarification on how grades will be tallied. This does take some of the pressure off. Also the description of what you are looking for in the individual assignment is much more clear now that I have heard your verbal explanation. I still miss the pictures in my readings these days.

Week 1 LMO

COURSE MGMT SYSTEMS (CMS): A CMS is an online learning platform of classes through a program. A good example of a CMS in e-learning would be the FSO platform. Everyone involved in the EMDTS program will follow an identical path through the learning platform. Our grades will be recorded as well as our personal information recorded in the registration process. The expected outcomes are identical for all students involved, and no particular skill level is required to complete the course other than those stated in the registration process.

LEARNING MGMT SYSTEMS (LMS): A LMS deals with a specific company or group of learners. A specific type of skill will be taught and will be industry specific. Skill levels must be examined carefully in order to tailor the learning to the individual. These programs are seen most often in the commercial industry rather than the education industry, but there is some crossover. Tracking that a employee has completed required training my be used, which is a feature of the CMS system.

LEARNING CONTENT MGMT SYSTEM (LCMS): This system was created for a military purpose, but can be used by other large corporations or institutions. These systems prepare students to complete a task at the completion of the program. This content can be very detailed, but is organized into small lessons that can be used over and over again.

SOCIAL NETWORKING: This is a potential emerging category. This social networking has become common place among students and educators alike. The proper way to use this system in education or e-learning is still being explored. The video “Networked Student” is a great reminder of how educators can encourage our students to take charge of their education through social networking.

The videos by Dr. Gibson really helped to clarify the differences and similarities between the CMS/LMS/andVLE’s. The reading material for the week provided an extensive amount of information, but the videos gave a fantastic summary to tie it all together. The mind map visual combined with the audio made it all come into focus. It has been a while since my brain has had to be in the “remember terminology” mode, but I can do it!

Week 1 Comment 2 - John Harvey

At first, one may view Course Management Systems (CMS), Learning Management Systems (LMS), Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS), and Virtual Learning Environments (VLE), as just about the same. I know I did, and now I know how mistaken I was.

John,
The EMDTS program has really emphasized how individual each of us really are both as educators and students. I think each of us has shown in various classes where our strengths or interests lie. I agree that the CMS/LMS/VLE's all speak to different individual strengths. What is most important is that the chosen system meets the needs of the audience.

Week 1 Comment 1 - Sharon Jones

I have always been fascinated by history, be it the history of art, music, religion, culture, or education. In reading about the history of virtual learning environments, I was shocked to see the time-line begin in 1728, however after reading the entry I find that if fits quite neatly into the tapestry of distance learning.

@ Sharon

I too remember getting to watch documentaries in school, but I remember them more as a "get out of work" activity. It wasn't until college that I took advantage of televised classes, but still there was no interaction between the 100's of students and the little man on the stage in front. Even in high school, my family had a computer, but it was so slow on dial up that I only used it as a type writer.

It is very exciting to see how far VLE's have come. My own children have the opportunity to take elementary classes in virtual school for credit. It is my hope to begin teaching virtual school in the next year, so that I can allow my own kids to attend virtual school full time.

Week1Reading-HistoryofVLE's: Televised Classes

The first time I remember being really excited about a technological advance in education was during my junior year of college. The University of Florida allowed you to register for sections of certain classes that you could watch on television at home. I had no idea that televised classes would be considered an advance in the history of VLE’s. The ability to watch a class at home when it was convenient to me was very exciting. I would record the classes at their scheduled time on a VHS tape! Then I would watch them and re-watch them at my convenience. The material was difficult for me to master, so I would rewind the class to make sure I had gotten it all down in my notes.

When reading the Wiki, I was very surprised to find out the the first college classes to be televised began in 1953. The University of Houston was the first to offer these classes. Other colleges, like the University of Chicago and Stanford University, soon followed suit. Some of the colleges offering televised classes used public stations, while others used stations dedicated to the University.

Although televised classes may seem like a primitive form of a VLE at this point, I was very appreciative of the convenience this form of VLE offered. When I think about my students, televisions are still the most common outlet that I could reach my students through; however, I do think it is time to move on. VLE’s like Second Life, podcasts, and other online outlets have become somewhat of the norm. Using these new (not really), VLE’s allow us to give students a better opportunity to have an individualized education plan. It is now my obligation to go from student to educator and push myself out of my comfort zone in order to teach my students that are part of the digital age.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_virtual_learning_environments

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewestel/6379815/