Making Online Learning Accessible Article

Colleagues, I apologize for the link in the previous post for this article being inaccessible. The citation is listed below if you would like to reference the article in the library database.

Brunvand, S., & Abadeh, H.. (2010). Making online learning accessible :Using technology to declutter the Web. Intervention in School and Clinic, 45(5), 304-311.  Retrieved February 22, 2011, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 2029601821).

Podcast - Creating a Custom Search Engine

Please check out my Podcast on creating a custom search engine with Google. I created the Educational Technology Journals Search Engine adding the informative links from the course syllabus as the journals for searches on educational technology.
Creating a Custom Educational Technology Journals Search Engine

Reflective Blog #6 - Week 6

I sound like a broken record; however, I learned so many great things this week! Although I have listened to Podcasts, this week’s project was my first experience producing a Podcast. I recorded it many, many times! It is hard to listen to my own voice in recorded format, in spite of this, scratching the surface of the uses of Jing and Camtasia were great fun.  One of our fellow colleagues in this class, Kathrine (Betty) Garza, mentioned the use of Camtasia to me and I utilized it to visually improve my Podcast in order to display the full screen of my Jing Podcast on one page.

The possibilities for the uses of Podcasts and other audio/visual technology abound in the educational environment. The opportunities to engage learners with various learning styles and abilities can enhance the learning experience for the student and instructor through the incorporation of technology. This course is an excellent example in how to design an online course and of the interaction, critical thinking skills, and active learning taking place using technology. We witness and learn from our colleagues and see great examples of how they are utilizing these tools to create rich learning communities for our students each week. The articles for the week and those presented in the journal article critiques were very informative. My journal article, Making Online Learning Accessible: Using Technology to Declutter the Web, provided examples of resources available to educators to aide in course design. Google’s product for creating a custom search engine, Awesome Highlighter, TrackStar, Readability, and TidyRead are all free resources. This is a great article; I encourage you to read it.

https://proxy.tamu-commerce.edu:2048/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=2029601821&Fmt=6&clientId=3613&RQT=309&VName=PQD

What is preventing us from fully embracing the potential of these tools is lack of knowledge on several levels. A lack of knowledge of what is available is one. When reading the posts in our discussion groups, frequently the phrase, “this is new information,” or “I can’t wait to try these out” are used. There are so many resources available it can become overwhelming. Another form of lack of knowledge is the talent to effectively designing a course incorporating technological tools. Educators must continually develop their own skills in order to create environments for learning.

If I could change anything it would be, what I have discussed in previous posts, the “all or nothing mentality” in the discussions surrounding educational technology. Instead of focusing on the benefits of incorporating varying teaching methods and forms into course delivery, conversations often resemble opposing boxers in the ring. In one corner the face-to-face traditionalists, who give a slight nod to technology incorporation and in the other corner the technology gladiator fighting to make all things techie. The real issue is how well the methods are deployed in the learning environment in order to do what we as educators are called to do, to educate. I would require some form of continuing education element in new teaching methods, course design and instruction for current educators and administrators in order to stay abreast of the rapidly changing world of education. Each method provides tremendous opportunities for inspiring students to be active participants in learning and instill lifelong learning.  

Reflective Blog #5 - Week 5

“If I had known then, what I know now.” This phrase kept running through my head this week as I completed the MAPping information activities and the technology project. The answer – more informed and organized researcher! Although I can be quite skeptical concerning data on the Internet because of the very opinionated and sometimes-misguided information discovered in previous searches, the tools learned this week will be extremely valuable in future research. I learned the meanings of new and not so new terms such as "crawlers," "crawler-based results," "directories,” "human-powered results," “cached results,” and “Web 2.0.” Learning how search engines return results gives me a different perspective on the results.

I researched the bigredhair.com domain. I did not recognize the name and if one just examines the domain name one would probably not connect it to Victorian-era robots. It is registered under Network Solutions, LLC, a company that helps small businesses market their site. In researching the archive history of the site it started out as a very personal web site similar to a blog, with personal histories of the site owners, strong comic book themes with comic books they created and sold , Halloween pictures, etc. The original site names were bigred@teleport.com and guinan@teleport.com but ultimately developed into a site focused on Victorian-era robots.

Web sites linked to this domain ranged from other personal sites, businesses, sites on science, recycling, steam – metal companies, and inventors/inventions. Some of the comments included on external sites rated it as an exceptional site concerning Victorian-era robots to all the information being fictional. Based on the research and links I would question some of the information on the site and would cross-reference information for confirmation if I were researching robots.

When I searched this site on other search engines, I discovered depending on the site, advertisements were the first entries on the page, which included toy retailers. The results will depend on how the search engine processes and returns data and how I enter my search terms. I will utilize other search engines in addition to “Google” in any future extensive research endeavors. Based on the information I learned this week I will be doing a presentation with our Education department at the hospital where I am employed on conducting more informed research.

The technology project on Social Bookmarking will be extremely useful for me in my educational and current professional career. I did not use social bookmarking previously. The ability to organize and save important web sites and links are an educational, personal, and professional benefit. It also saves a tremendous amount of time. I added a bundled tag in Del.icio.us entitled “Informed Researcher” so that I will not lose some of the helpful information learned this week. Bundling the information in one spot puts this information in one location.

Oh, how I wish I would have know about this when I started the doctoral program! I would have organized and stored articles of interest and those used in the completion of research papers in a more efficient and effective format. I would have a leg up on my dissertation articles. I will probably switch to Diigo. I believe this site will lend itself to my dissertation work. I will definitely use this for my literature review organization and archives. The ability to highlight, attach notes, and saving on paper and ink costs are particularly appealing. I also like the ability to link to Del.icio.us from this site. I was not drawn to Blink. I did not find it as user friendly as Del.icio.us. I would probably consider using Stumble Upon and Toobla for more personal interests. I liked the visual aspects for these interests. I will also use the social bookmarking in my current employment. I spend a tremendous amount of time researching and a site like Diigo will be beneficial.

In closing, the information learned this week would allow me to incorporate the techniques into future work as an educator in the classroom or in administration. Social bookmarking is another example of incorporating technology into the learning platform that allows the learner to create and participate in the learning process. The ability to connect with other learners, educators, or administrators creates an environment of social learning. Completion of the research activities from the November Learning site should be a part of all educational institutions’ web sites. What better way to show a commitment to responsible education and research.

Reflective Blog #4 - Week 4

This week has been another great learning experience. In reflecting on the many uses and examples of portfolios, I found myself wishing I would have known about and began the building of a portfolio since the beginning of my doctoral program. Beginning a portfolio upon first entry into college would have provided me with an opportunity to see my own growth academically and personally. In particular, when I reflect on my writing skills, I can see great improvement since the beginning the program in 2009. As a result, I gravitated to the assessment for learning tenet of the learner’s capacity for self-assessment, reflection, and self-management. Why, because it makes me an active participant in my learning and provides me, the learner, the ability to view assessment as more than a grade. It provides an opportunity to be creative, insightful, and the opportunity to display learning with more than words. It allows the learner to see the power of his or her potential. It is assessment for learning that utilizes all the senses and provides evidence of application of knowledge and a picture of the individual learner and how he or she is learning.

In the future, I can see portfolio programs becoming a major part of an institution’s evidence of accountability, assessment for learning, and career planning. I see the potential of portfolios being used in some form from K-12 to document learning outcomes. I can also see portfolios being used in place of written comprehensive examinations. A portfolio program is a comprehensive picture of what has been learned, its application, a learner’s growth in critical thinking, and writing skills and not just one’s ability to regurgitate a list of facts, names, and figures for an exam. As supported in the many demonstrations of its uses, portfolios can follow the individual beyond the academic walls. I will definitely work to develop the portfolio I start in this class for future courses, my career, and for other personal endeavors. True learning motivates an individual to apply skills learned in other situations and continue lifelong learning.  

Reflective Blog #3 - Week 3

Get Wiki With It!

As I worked on my first wiki space this week, my mind was on information overload! I began to think of the many uses of wiki spaces for educational, personal, and work related reasons. In creating the wiki space for this week, I tried to focus on my educational technology philosophy and my future administrative goals of keeping students connected to campus resources, meeting their needs, and receiving feedback from them. I also considered the times, as a student, in which I have spent countless hours trying to find an answer to a question by searching the university web site. I thought of particular times I had many questions as a student and orientation would be one of those times.

My internship and practicum experience working in the Dean of Students office at SOSU and working during orientation helped me realize even though a great deal of information is provided many questions remain for students. Evidence of the many questions students have after orientation is verified by the questions received in the Dean of Students office on things discussed in orientation concerning housing, organizations, food establishments, etc. My creation of the “I Didn’t’ Get That” wiki space is an example of giving students another option for asking, sharing, and learning from other students and university personnel during an exciting and sometimes scary time. A good time to allow students to access the wiki space would be at the end of orientation giving them the opportunity to sign on to the wiki space using their cell phones or providing computer access at the orientation site. Staff may use the feedback received from the wiki page to gauge where emphasis is needed during orientation.

The use of wikis has several advantages, one of which is the ability for students and educators to share and collaborate on class projects. A wiki is much more conducive to sharing and posting comments, videos, questions and editing of documents in one space without being bogged down with a mountain of email entries in one’s inbox. This would be particularly advantageous with group projects, considering the locale of students. A course discussion area could be added to a class wiki, similar to the “Sounding Board” used in eCollege for this course. As noted in the EDUCAUSE article on wikis another advantage to wikis is their familiarity to other web pages, the instant availability of changes made on the page, and the ability to export information to Microsoft Word, all of which makes the use of wikis a great place to collaborate and create projects. Wikis may be used as a way to engage the digital natives that are more accustomed to collaborating and sharing on other web pages and sites such as YouTube or Facebook and they can do it from their cell phones. They may also import their own video creations, audios, chat, and instant message through the wiki space.

The article also highlights some disadvantages in the use of wikis. Because users can edit the pages, information may be deleted, intentionally or unintentionally. There is the possibility for students to use inappropriate language or post inappropriate links to the page. Digital natives and digital immigrants used to having no boundaries on other social sites may mistakenly assume they have the same freedoms on a class wikis. Another possible disadvantage is the comfort level of students in the use of this technology. Although a vast majority of students may have access to a cell phone or computer, there are students; even some digital natives unaccustomed to the creation or collaboration used in a wiki. Therefore, time and effort must be expended in the design and monitoring of the pages. Setting appropriate ground rules and expectations for students is crucial. If not incorporated well, a wiki could potentially become a space where some students feel alienated so instructor monitoring and feedback is crucial. It is also important students be given thorough instructions on how to participate using the technology and other ways to participate, create, and ask questions in the course.

 The ideas posted by my colleagues will be useful in my future career as an educator. I hope to also be able to use wikis on my current job. I have used what I learned about wikis to set one up for my church’s Wednesday night prayer group that meets through a conference line. It is another way for us to share and collaborate spiritually. I continue to learn a great deal from this course.