Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Video Presentation Storyboard

Here is my storyboard for my video presentation.


LaKeisha Coleman’s Storyboard

·      Title Slide – Collaboration
·      Definition of Collaboration – working together to achieve a specific goal
o   With the increasing demand for distance education, teachers and course designers are challenged with creating appropriate opportunities for learners to collaborate.
·      Types of Collaboration
o   Asynchronous – not occurring at a predetermined time
o   Synchronous – occurring at a predetermined time
·      21st Century Collaboration Tools (replace words with images)
o   Skype
o   Google Docs
o   Blogs
o   Wikis
o   Facebook
o   Elluminate
o   Writeboard
o   Web Conferening Tools
o   Discussion Boards
o   Instant Messenger
o   SMS
·      Research – Beldarrain, Y
·      Research – Hoake, J. & Pfister, H.
·      Research – Keeler, L. C.
·      Research – McEwen, L. A.
·      Research – Pattison, S. A.
·      Research – Scott, D. M.
·      Research Implications – course design, appropriate tools, ongoing professional development for teachers
1·    Summary
·      Reference Slide

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Module 3: Assessing Collaboration Efforts


According to George Siemens (2008) collaboration should be assessed based on student feedback from online communities, peer evaluation, student contribution, and learning management metrics. I agree with Siemens that students should be assessed based on these four things however the data that can be pulled from a learning management system can be misleading. A query can be conducted to see how often a student has accessed a course or a particular area within that course, but this information is not detailed enough. This information will only tell you how many times this person clicked on an area, but it will not determine what the student did in this area. Depending on the course setup and the tools that are available to students, the best way to assess a student would be from the discussion board. In this area, you are able to see how many times a student participated and how they contributed.

Also when assessing students an educator should also take into account a students growth. This could be a students first experience with online collaboration and therefore may need time to adjust to this type of environment. Siemens (2008) pointed out that learning used to be an individual activity. Meaning assignments were completed individually and assessments were based on what an individual knew. Now learning happens collaboratively.

In a collaborative environment it is important for the educator to be involved. I think to a certain degree it is the educators job to ensure collaboration is occurring by encouraging students to participate and setting expectations. If an individual is not participating in the group then the rest of the group should inform the instructor and let the instructor decide what to do. In the meanwhile, I believe the group should continue completing the task at hand.

Reference:
Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Assessment of collaborative learning.
Principles of Distance Education. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Learning communities. Principles of
Distance Education. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Palloff, R.M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning together in
community. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Module 2: Elements of Distance Education Diffusion

More and more people are staying connected by communicating with one another online. As a result of this, distance education is becoming more widely accepted (Siemens, ). Throughout the years our communication choices have evolved from the use of telegrams, snail mail, and the telephone, to email, text messaging, and social network sites. Through the use of these tools, distance is no longer an issue.

In distance education, students and teachers are able to communicate with one another synchronously and asynchronously through the use of discussion boards, instant messenger, skype, wikis, and blogs.