Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Week 11 - Research

I chose to read articles from the section on “Podcasting and Blogging”. The reason I chose this section is because I have been considering developing a series of short podcasts for employees who work at the facilities owned by the company I work for, HCR ManorCare. These podcasts would focus on ways to improve customer service to our patients and families. Therefore, I felt that these articles may provide some insight into ways to make these podcasts an effective learning method for employees.

The following blog will begin with a brief review of the three articles I read for this assignment. Following the review, I will provide an overview of how I can use this information in the design of podcasts I am considering and how classroom teachers may find this information useful as they consider utilizing this technology to help students learn.

Article 1:
Distance Education Trends: Integrating new technologies to foster student collaboration and interaction By: Yoany Beldarrin

The purpose of this article is to explore the benefits of emerging technology tools such as wikis, blogs, and podcasts to foster student interaction in online learning. According to the author, distance education emerged in response to the need of providing access to those who would otherwise not be able to participate in face-to-face encounters. Technology is responsible for distorting the concept of distance between learner and instructor, and enabling learners to access education at any time and from any place.

The authors covered numerous technology tools (i.e., wikis, blogs, etc) but I was most interested in podcasting so I spent most of my time reviewing this section of the article. The versatility of podcasting may impact the way distance educators deliver instruction as well as the manner in which students are engaged in learning. Although podcasting is not a synchronous activity, it provides students with information that will help them feel connected to the learning community. It may even be pedagogically appropriate in some courses to allow students to create their own podcasts for the rest of the class members.

As educators become more aware of the power of podcasting, not only can they create their own feeds, but they can also tap into the many educational podcasts already available. Pushing information to the learner can be beneficial when the instructor wants to provide course updates, communicate group feedback, or introduce the discussion topic for the week.

The author concludes the discussion in the article by presenting ideas related to implementation. Proactive implementation of emerging technologies is dependent on the comfort level, monetary resources, and visionary leadership. This is a common theme seen throughout the three articles I read. Time is of the essence for both learners and instructors, activities and content must be relevant and up to date.

Today’s workplace requires that individuals create and collaborate within constraints of time and place. These need have given way to technological advancements that allow for real-time communication among peers and co-workers who stay connected over the internet.

Article 2:
The new “Podogogy”: Incorporating podcasting into journalism eduction
By: Michael Huntsberger and Alan Stavitsky

This report documents the results of a pilot study of the use of podcasting technology in a lower division course at the University of Oregon school of Journalism and Communication.

The authors begin the report by discussing how the proliferation of devices, such as Ipods, will continue for several years. As a result, it’s no surprise that educators are experimenting with podcasting to deliver lectures and other content to students. The classroom need not be the end of discourse. Instead, through the Internet and other emerging technologies, students and teachers can engage in continuing, often asynchronous discussions of the topics salient to the day and subject.

The authors also discuss some of the criticisms placed on podcasts. For example, podcast lectures have been criticized as an attractive substitute to class attendance, and some assert that students will skip classes if they have a more convenient method to access course materials. Researchers have found that “most professors who podcast admit that they take special steps to keep students from simply tuning in to class on their IPods”. Concurrently, podcasting professors express concern about their ability to sustain student interest.

Article 3
Blogging in the classroom: A preliminary exploration of student attitudes and impact on comprehension
By: Nicole Ellison and Yuehua Wu

This article was specifically about podcasting but the topic did spur a tertiary interest because I often teach classes as an adjunct professor and have considered implementing blogging beyond simple responses to posts for topics on a platform like Blackboard.

This exploratory study explores student perceptions of blogging in the classroom. Many educators are excited by the potential of new Internet technologies, such as blogs, wikis, and online groups to reinvigorate student engagement and learning. The inclusion of new technologies may be more intrinsically engaging to today’s college students, whose daily media practices may include a wide range of technologies including instant messaging, blogging, downloading media files (i.e., podcasts), and on-line role-playing games.

This article was more of a pure research study as compared to the other 2 articles. The researchers had upper level undergraduate students complete some of the assignments for a class in the traditional paper format and some in a blogging environment. Fellow students then needed to comment on their fellow students’ blogs.

The researchers found that students enjoyed certain aspects of blogging- the novelty and convenience of the medium, the less formal writing voice it encouraged, and the interactivity inherent in the assignment, specifically reading other students’ ideas and getting feedback on their own. They also found that being forced to critique others’ ideas was stressful.

There are several implications of this work. Most importantly, blogging is not a panacea and will not independently or automatically increase student learning. Sound instructional techniques must be developed and practiced in order to achieve increased student learning.

This study also points to several implications for good teaching practice. First, students may come to the classroom with pre-existing notions of what a blog entry should look like and what voice to use. In other words, students believed blogging was less formal and often reported not taking them as seriously as a formal written assignment. Second, instructors should consider which technical implementation of blogging will best support their pedagogical goals and needs of the student. Finally, the data suggests that instructors wishing to implement peer feedback should give students guidance about how to provide constructive feedback.

Concluding remarks
I found these articles to validate many of the thoughts I had about podcasting and blogging but also brought forth some new ideas that I had not considered. For example, I am often asked to conduct training sessions so I am aware of the importance of a good trainer to deliver a message that will be remembered. This is also important when creating podcasts because if the voice on the podcast is dull and boring then the student or, in my case, the employee will tune out. Also, with a podcast, the learner is missing important parts of communication (i.e., the nonverbal aspects) which makes it even more important that the material is engaging and the point is brief.

A good way to understand and differentiate between a good and bad podcast is to listen to a sampling of them. I have downloaded numerous podcasts from ITunes University and some are good while others have interesting content but are delivered poorly. Listening to them will help an instructor to avoid some of these problems.

Another key point I got out of these articles is that technology will not replace a good teacher and good teaching methods. Technology is there to help supplement the material being taught, not to replace the teacher. This is important to remember because some people perceive technology as a “silver bullet”.
The bottom line, to me, is find ways to appropriately use technology to meet your education needs and the learning needs of the students.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Psychological Theories Assignment

Engagement Theory

Well, I decided to work ahead and get this week’s assignment done early. After reviewing the theories posted for this week , I chose “Engagement Theory” to discuss in this blog. The following text provides a summary of the main ideas of this theory and relates in to this class along with other research on engagement.

To begin, Engagement Theory proposes that, in order for learning to occur, students must be meaningfully engaged in learning activities through interaction with others and worthwhile tasks. As I read this basic definition, I did not feel that Engagement Theory was truly adding anything new to our current knowledge of helping people learn. Further reading about the three basic principles helped to separate this theory as it’s own theory for learning that can be easily applied to information we have learned in this class.

The first principle, Relate, emphasizes team efforts that involve communication, planning, management and social skills. The modern workplace demands proficiency in these skills, yet historically students have been taught to work and learn on their own. When students work in teams, they often have the opportunity to work with others from quite different backgrounds and this facilitates an understanding of diversity and multiple perspectives.

The Relate principle made me reflect on research done by the Gallup Organization on employee engagement. The idea of employee engagement was first introduced in the book, “First, Break all the Rules”. This research claims that employees need to have basic needs met before they can move to higher levels of engagement and thus be more productive in their jobs. The Relate principle is similar to the “Base Camp” idea in the employee engagement research. In the base camp, employees want to know what’s expected of them at work and do I have what I need to be successful. The is similar to the Relate principle because I can’t move to the next principle, Create, effectively if I don’t have the communication skills and teamwork required in the Relate principle similar to I can’t move to camp 1 effectively without meeting the needs at base camp in the employee engagement research.

Also, as I read about the Relate principle it reminded me of many of the discussions, blogs, videos, etc posted for earlier weeks in this class on the importance of other people for technology to be engaging for a student learner.

The second principle, Create, makes learning a creative, purposeful activity. Students have to define the project (problem domain) and focus their efforts on application of ideas to a specific context. Conducting their own projects is much more interesting to students that answering sterile textbook problems.

Going back to relating this theory to the employee engagement research, the second stage in employee engagement is camp 1. In camp 1, employees begin asking whether they are doing a good job, am I excelling in my role, do others feel I am excelling, etc. In other words, the employee is focused on his/her individual contribution and other people’s perception of it. This is related to the Create principle in that the Create principle appears to focus on the individual and his/her understanding of a problem or project. Does the person know how to attack the problem? Will others feel that I have adequately addressed the issues in the project? Further, it appears that both Camp 1 and the Create principle are addressing issues with the individual’s self-esteem and worth. If the student does not feel that the project or if the employee does not feel that his/her work adds to their feelings of self-worth then they are less likely to be engaged in the learning or in their job.

The create principle made me think a lot about the Youtube video posted for this class where it has a classroom full if students holding up signs with phrases written about how a majority of the assignments and lectures for a class are irrelevant to them. In other words, the student wants to work on a meaningful project and if given that opportunity they will focus their efforts.

The third principle, Donate, stresses the value of making a useful contribution while learning. Ideally each project has an outside "customer" that the project is being conducted for. The customer could be a campus group, community organization, school, church, library, museum, government agency, local business, or needy individual. In many cases, the projects can be work-related, i.e., an activity that fits into a team's occupational or career interests.

To finish relating this theory to the employee engagement theory we need to move to camp 2 and camp 3. Camp 2 has employees asking whether they belong here. They want to know if others share their values. For example, the employee may be very customer-service oriented but wants to know is everyone else as customer focused as they are. Camp 3 is now focused on the employee knowing whether they are making things better, learning, growing and innovating. Similar to the Donate principle they want to make sure that they are making a useful contribution to their customer.

Further research in employee engagement research has found that employees who are at camp 3 are significantly more productive and committed to the organization than employees at base camp or employees who are actively disengaged at work. This has to be similar with the learning engagement theory. When a student has all three principles in place from this theory then it would make sense that the learning outcomes for these students would be significantly better than those who may only have the Relate principle being met.

When the employee engagement research was first introduced it required a lot of time to get managers to think differently about how to engage employees at work. In other words, it was much more than just a paycheck or a pay increase that would engage employees. It was about knowing your job and feeling you were making a difference.

Similarly, the learning engagement theory will mean teachers will need to change the way they do things to get students more involved in technology. Teachers will need practice in organizing and conducting collaborative activities, particularly the facilitative role that is needed. A lot of attention has to be devoted to ways in which student teams can most effectively present and share their results with each other. And both students and teachers will need training and support in the use of all online communication tools.

It is important to remember that the role of technology in the theory is to facilitate engagement. The use of email, online conferencing, web databases, groupware, and audio/videoconferencing significantly increases the extent and ease of interaction amongst all participants, as well as access to information. The vast array of software tools available for analysis, design, planning, problem-solving and making presentations make enable students to do sophisticated and complex tasks. Technology provides an electronic learning milieu that fosters the kind of creativity and communication needed to nourish engagement.

I was excited to read about this theory and see how it related to engagement research I read about often. Other theories noted on the page also piqued my interest but I have also read about several of them in the past with my educational background in Psychology.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Assignment 8.4 - Challenges

Pretend you are a K-12 teacher or university professor. Everyone in your class has a personal computer connected to the Internet. Describe in 300-500 words what you think will be several of the most significant challenges you will face when using the Internet in your classroom.


In my write-up I tried to avoid simply discussing some of the obvious challenges like students not paying attention to a lecture since I would probably have to change me teaching style entirely based on the fact all students had a computer and dealing with students accessing sites they shouldn’t during class. I tried to focus on deeper challenges.

I think the first challenge I will face is my own personal issues especially past training with using the internet in my classroom. As an educator, my primary goal is to ensure that students achieve and master the skills and knowledge in each grade and course. Being an educator, I was trained to utilize lecture and basic multimedia outlets (i.e., videos) as the primary methods to deliver content. Therefore, I am comfortable teaching through these methods and may even believe they are more effective than using the internet in my classroom.

The next challenge I would face would be the fact that many of the people I would be teaching may in fact be far more competent and experienced with various internet applications that are available. As I watched the Youtube video that showed students holding signs in the classroom it made me realize the students I would be teaching in college would have been raised on the internet and would use this as a prinmary form of communication. Therefore, they may find information and resources that I am unaware of and need to be constantly checking sources for accuracy when reading papers and assignments. In a similar thought, these students may need to have unique assignments created for them that I am uncomfortable creating like Wikis.

Next, I believe there would be a challenge for students to differentiate between good and bad information found on websites. I want students to have access to the most current information but cautious because it takes skill to differentiate between quality research and opinion. According to the 2009 Horizon Report: The K12 Edition, teachers using the internet as a resource are aware that the amount of content available is staggering and selecting valuable material can be time-consuming and frustrating. This same frustration could be exacerbated for a student who is not skilled in differentiating between quality research and opinion on a topic. As a result, they could turn in an assignment or reference a website, blog, etc that is not a viable source of quality information. I have been reading research for years and am still amazed by the amount of poorly designed research available in peer-reviewed journals. If this is true for journals than it has to be worse on the internet.

Finally, I feel there would be a challenge in understanding student rights as it relates to using the internet in the classroom. As noted in the article about the NYU professor found in one the first week’s readings, there seems to be a lack of understanding how technology may impact student rights. The main question in this article is whether blogging or twittering about a class is an invasion of student privacy. I wouldn’t want to be the first teacher sued by a parent who felt their son/daughter’s privacy was invaded based on blogs I was encouraging in class. In fact, the article stated this issue has never come up but it doesn’t mean it never will.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Web 2.0 App - PBWiki

Well, the name alone drew me to this site when I scanned over all of the apps on this page. Who doesn't like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? So part of the way to get people to go to your site is through the name. I guess those Marketing classes are important too.

Anyway, PBWiki is for on-line collaboration and project management. This is especially important in the company I work for because I am often asked to help teams with members across the country. In the past, when one of us worked on a document we would send it to the rest of the team for feedback. Then, the author had to combine the often confusing feedback into one document. According to the site, PBwiki Small Business Edition is perfect for small businesses and small teams/groups in larger companies looking for an easy, secure way to collaborate at work. Plus, you can make and use a PBwiki as easy as a peanut butter sandwich – no IT required.

There are different editions, business, legal and academic. After looking more closely at the academic site, I realized this is what we are using for this class. Yes, it is late and I am a little slow right now. I have to admit, this is a much better platform for a distance learning class than the typical Blackboard platform. If I ever taught an on-line class, I would consider using this too.

There are also business applications of this site that I may explore more for my job. The link is:
http://pbworks.com/

Web 2.0 App - Survs

Since I am not in Education, I decided to look at the Apps under the "Management" tag bar. Survs has the ability to create on-line surveys. This is important to me because I am often asked to create surveys at work or to collect data quickly.

Looking at the pricing, it is better than other sites I have looked at like Survey Monkey. In fact, at no cost you can create unlimited surveys and have up to 200 responses. There are multiple packages that range up to 24000 responses and 24 users for $119 a month. $119 a month is cheap if you have a strong need to collect data, which a lot of companies do. I collect a lot of data in my job via surveys and am always looking for other options. People have come to expect a survey be delivered over e-mail.

Here is the link http://www.survs.com/

Try it out. It may be a cheap option for people working on data collection for a thesis or dissertation too.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

My Experience with Podcasting

Well, to say the least I have been frustrated int he creation of my first podcast. The problem was that I couldn't get my microphone to work on Podomatic. Then I found a way to record the podcast on my computer and save the file then uploaded it to podomatic. My frustration was just learning the steps. I am settling down now but my blood pressure was up while trying to do this earlier this evening.

With all that being said, I do think that podcasts can be and are important to education. This is a way to provide "snipets" of information to students about a topic of interest. As some of the videos posted for the class note, it is also a fun way for students to do assignments. I especially liked the example of the students in the history class acting like they were interviewing a historical figure and posting it as a podcast. When I get more used to doing this I could see mysself creating podcasts for topics at work and encouraging people to download the podcast for continued education. I am excited to be exposed to creating these and will continue to experiment with theses.

Practice podcast for class




This is my practice podcast for the Educational Technology class. The podcast is on simple random sampling. I know this can be a borring topic but the assignment was to teach someone about a topic we know about and what better than research and measurement.