Distance Learning Reflections

                  Technology use transcends across geographic borders, religions, and cultures and has an uncanny ability to unite people around the world.  To stay competitive in the marketplace, many businesses are building project teams with members from different countries and time zones, which enables them to operate 24x7.   These workers need to collaborate by using cutting-edge technologies.  With the growth of businesses setting up shop in locations around the world, companies will demand that training programs be implemented in an online environment as this modality typically provides the best return on investment. 

Norms are what most people think and do. With technology being ubiquitous in our daily lives, we have entered a new age in where distance education is growing in acceptance in the higher education and business setting (Siemens, 2012).  K12 settings have not on large scale adopted distance education, which I believe is attributed to the power of the teacher unions and lack of understanding by local school boards.  As the iPad, iPhone and other technology devices become prevalent in the K12 environment, I believe the K12 landscape will change greatly over the next 5-10 years, and the new norm will be blended learning with some instruction direct and others facilitated via the web. In 10-20 years, the majority of the world will participate in some type of distance education experience.

                  The power of distance education is amazing and for me personally has enabled me to complete courses and is assisting me to reach my goal of attaining my Masters.  Without, the flexibility of distance learning courses it would be an impossibility for me achieve this goal due to my family and work obligations. 

As an instructional designer and proponent of distance education, I have found that people are uneasy with the unknown.  Everyone who I know has taken an online case felt that it was beneficial and not as hard as they thought it would be.  When we were assigned to conduct an independent review of one of the open courses, I was blown away by the depth, variety and quality of free online courses out there.  This is something that was on my list to do but didn’t make the time to take free course until this recent assignment.  All of us have our own hobbies and areas of interest. I will continue to suggest to others that they explore the wealth of free online courses out there as a way to test drive and become familiar with what online courses have to offer.  This approach may help the skeptics dip their toe in the water of an online class with just the minimal investment of their own time.

                  As part of our discussion assignment this week we interviewed friends and colleagues to ask them to share out their thoughts and perceptions about distance education.  All of the people I interviewed expressed to be successful in an online setting that they would need a great communicator as an instructor, would need the ability to ask and get answered questions in a timely way and would want an engaging and supportive environment.   Best instructional design practices address the concerns my interviewees had as the designer would include a plan (syllabus) for the course with clearly defined learning objectives, instructors would understand the lesson plans from end to end and instructors would be adept and knowledgeable of the technology platform (Simonson et al., 2012).   Through my Walden Masters program, I am learning best practices and gaining the necessary knowledge, which will enable me to be a proactive force and advocate for online learning.

-Michelle

References

Siemens, G.. (2012).  Future of distance education [video]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_1373693_1%26url%3D

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Converting training modules from F2F to Distance Learning Environment

To improve the quality of trainer to trainee communications one must focus on standardization of communications such as the course syllabus, interaction, frequency and facilitation of communication exchanges, and train the trainer workshops. These are all key aspects that effect and can improve quality.  Additionally, these are key elements that are instrumental in course evaluation and assessment (Simonson et al, 2012).  This guide provides suggestions and ten steps to follow as you transfer training modules from a face to face to blended learning model.

Here is my link to my best practices guide that includes tips and ten steps for success. Guide to convert F2F training modules to distance learning

Cool Tools for an Interactive Art Museum Virtual Tour

             A high school teacher located in the west coast is interested in finding a way to use technology to enable his students to virtually tour art museums in New York, connect with museum curators virtually and allow students to post and share critiques to a class website.  As described in the Interactive Art Museum Tour solution challenge, there are three critical requirements , which I then used as the foundation for my research and identification of two possible solutions.  The primary three requirements are:

1)     Ability for students to see and tour art exhibits over the web

2)     Ability for students to interact with museum curators

3)     Ability for a group critique of two pieces of artwork

Before you select a technology platform and resource, you need to identify the requirements and determine the learning outcomes and understand the learners characteristics (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012).  With these important concepts in mind, I researched and discovered two very exciting innovative technology tools that met the requirements outlined above and will also enable the teacher to achieve their desired learning outcomes.  The two technology solutions I recommend that the teacher implement are Google Art Project and Google Hangout. 

The Google Art Project is technology tool that solves the requirement of interactive web access to over 100 museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery in DC and museums across the world (Google Art Project, 2012).  Many schools and teachers have had a great experience using this tool and FAQ’s posted on the site share the success stories.   There are three school districts that had very successful experience swith Google Art Project that I like to highlight. Students from East Aurora, West Aurora, Indian Prairie and Oswego schools districts helped launch Aurora University STEM partnership.  “Students from Aurora University’s after-school programs participate in exhibits at the invitation-only launch of the Google Art Project on Tuesday morning at the Art Institute of Chicago. The project will give students an up-close look at pieces from the world’s most famous art museums in their classrooms (Sturges, 2012).

Another success story is described in the blog that shares why Rudin Museum recently joined the Google Art Project and how held the museum held a workshop for many educators.  Stafne, who is the Rudin Director of Education touted the praises for this innovative use of technology that provides access and brings works of art to students across the globe (Stafne, 2012).

The Google Art Project enables students from any location connected to the Internet to interactively explore exhibits and art from collections around the world.   Teachers can create their own “virtual” gallery of artwork and share it with their students.  Students have the ability to view the art and have a robust set of activities that connected to the specific art pieces and to modern real-world situations (How to use GoogleArtProject, 2012). It is imperative that instructors take the time to plan and organize the learning experience when in engaged in teaching at a distance (Simonson et al. 2012).  The Google Art Project does just that. This resource organizes the art work by artist, collection and exhibit, connects learners and instructors and provides the ability to share feedback using social media tools such as twitter, Facebook and Google+. 

Embedded in the Google Art Project is a menu of engaging and interactive icons that students can use to share comments, posts and exchange information through Google+, twitter, Facebook and other social media tools.  In the Google Art Project the first sharing tool found under Google+ and is called Google hangouts.  A Google hangout allows a teacher to connect with his or her students, chat face to face, and more importantly to host a virtual meeting. (Google hangouts, 2011) Teachers can schedule and invite a museum curators to a Google hangout and students could exchange and communicate with them.  Additionally, the Google hangout online tool allows participants to post an image/video and comments. This platform would work seamlessly as an interactive approach to post two pieces of art and students to provide a group critique.  The Google hangout has a limit of 9 per live session which the teacher could group their students.  Another option if the teacher desired one large group critique is to utilize the standard link from Google Art Project to a FaceBook page, or Wiki for students to make comments to art works.  All these options would work well and provide flexibility to meet the overarching requirements and are free to the student and instructor.  

The Google Art Project is a fantastic platform to bring art to life, provide access, and connect students to authentic learning opportunities.

-Michelle Cosner

References

Google Art Project by Google. (April, 2012)  Art Project how to use this site.  Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVpqTd2ndYY&feature=player_embedded

How to use Google Hangout Session. (July 2011) Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5kdr7N6nPg

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance:    

             Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson

Stanfe, M. (May 2012). Google art project for educators. Retrieved from http://education.rma2.org/the-google-art-project-for-educators

Sturgess, J. (2012, April 8). Au stem academy helps launch google art project. Beacon News. Retrieved from http://beaconnews.suntimes.com/11697261-417/aus-stem-academy-helps-launch-google-art-project.html

Technology Entrepreneurship Online Course Review

           Over the past few days, I have participated in a truly amazing and informative Technology Entrepreneurship course hosted complimentary of Stanford University.   Entrepreneurship is something that has always interested me and this course provided a fantastic window into the culture and uniqueness of the Silicon Valley and why it fosters so many successful startups. 

As highlighted in our course text learning objectives must be clearly communicated.  Distance learning course environment must address learners’ characteristics and needs (Simonson, Smaldino, Albrigth & Zvaeck, 2012).  The course thoughtfully planned and organized its course assets and instructional activities.  Each module communicated what the learner needed to do if you were taking the course at distance or a full-time Stanford student.    The course materials were delivered via a Prezi presentation with just the right amount of content and real world examples.  The instructor had a video feed with his lecture throughout each module, which for me who is a visual and auditory learner worked extremely well.  It was clear the storyboard of the course had been well crafted with keen eye to how to engage the distance learner.   Each module was 15-20 minutes in length and chunked to the ideal length and depth of content that worked well for the distance learner.  Each module highlighted one or more companies, experts or recent books which provided course resources at depth that brought their experiences to life and the learner felt like they were at a booth in Starbucks talking live with one of these entrepreneurial heroes.  You could not get any more authentic or current and its list of suggested readings follows the best practice captured in this week’s course readings (Simonson, et al., 2012).

This course followed many of the best practices and recommendations for online instruction. For example, it utilized subject matter experts video clips, and excerpts from best selling books, and theories on entrepreneurship.  One video in particular that I found extremely interesting was the video excerpt of Steve Jobs giving his commencement speech at Stanford. Jobs spoke about how dropping out of college enabled him to take classes that he was interested in such as calligraphy.  Jobs went on to share how this course and learning about sans and sans serif text and the beauty of calligraphy was at the forefront in his design of the Macintosh. He voiced without this course Apple may not of been what it is today. Lastly, each course modules had a very nice flow and build and recap summary module to and reflection to conclude the class, which demonstrated the use of ADDIE model.

Each module posed insightful questions that made the learner ponder the high level learning objectives.  Very innovative activities were woven into each module and the instructor differentiated instruction with clear directions if you were distance learner.   For example, one of the activities was group discussion and analysis reviewing insights and perspectives on the 15 worst startups.  He also did this for the 15 best startups.  This activity engaged all learners and provided learners the ability to socially engage and provide their personal opinions in fun and powerful way.   It was clear that the instructor had utilized subject matter experts suggests of types of activities that would be best to teach the content and coupled this with real-world business examples which brought the lesson home.

In summary, this course would be a great one for any entrepreneur thinking of starting his or her own technology company.  You can learn a lot from companies that either fail or succeed. This course provides a wealth of entrepreneur concepts and strategies to life and best part yet all for free!

References

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Technology Entrepreneurship Online Course from Stanford University retrieved from:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF6C0319C607DEDC1&feature=plcp