Week 1 My comments on Dana's blog post.

Kohls_Dana_A Textbook Genesis: CMS The Next Generation

The problematic nature of introducing a course management system into education looms larger than expected. Two such problems that stood out after viewing the powerpoint and listening to the audio recording of McGee, Carmean, and Jafari (2004) are the need for assessment and standards and specifications for future course management systems.




Sharon Jones said... The rapid growth and development of new products to meet a new market usually results in proprietary operating systems. Hopefully, as the field of CMS development progresses, the industry will begin to create more standard systems. The scenario of professors working at several institutions is a common one in this area. Professors will be much more likely to embrace a CMS when they know they will not have to re-invent the wheel for every location.

Week 1 My comments on Sharon Hawn's blog

Sharon Hawn's Week 1 Reading

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

The importance of knowing the history of instructional development is crucial, for the future designers of instructional media. Within Wikipedia’s article, about the History of Virtual Learning Environments, it began in the year 1728. With only seven noted years mentioned prior to 1920. It can only be assumed that there wasn’t a lot developed during those periods or instructional development had a lower degree of importance to be noteworthy enough to publish such findings.

Sharon,

I agree that understanding the history of the development of any learning theory is essential. The world in which we live is always changing. The information our students must know to be successful couldn't even be imagined as little as 20 years ago. Education, therefore, is always in flux, and must continually change to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

The progress that has been made in the development of distance instruction courses not only affects the online and distance students, but also the traditional on campus students, as educators embrace the many resources and benefits available through personal computing.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010 - 02:08 PM

Week 1 My comments on Scott's blog.

EMDT Scott

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

LMO Wk 1 Blog 1

Honestly, I am not at all surprised that our readings this week trace the origins of distance learning back almost 300 years. More importantly, I think it is critical that supporters of distance learning programs reiterate this fact in light of the many recent criticisms which have been brought to bear on VLEs within the last several months.

I think the social nature of humanity is ingrained deep within our beings. For millennia, we have communicated with each other and passed down information through oral history, hieroglyphics, pictographs, stone tablets, and virtually every other medium discovered. Furthermore, communication and negotiation between peoples is vital to the stability of any civilized community.


Scott,

I certainly agree that many of my colleagues seem skeptical about online education. Even my administrator tried to talk me into looking into a program at Georgia State (since she is currently pursuing an additional advanced degree there). I did actually look in to their programs, but my reason for choosing Full Sail was not because it is online, but because I was interested in the particular line of courses that comprise this program. I would have been interested in taking these courses even if a degree program wasn't in place.

After nine complete months with the program, I am a strong and vocal advocate of both online/distance education in general, and Full Sail in particular. I do realize that an online program's effectiveness depends on many factors, not least of which is the VLE.

Week 1 Readings comments

Wesleyan College, Macon, Georgia

As I was reading through the articles for this week's assignments in LMO, I was particularly struck by the Dartmouth Writing Program insight on "Coming up with your topic." In this article, the author, Karen Gocsik, discusses the different methods of reading for different purposes. In particular, she discusses the need for active reading in preparing for scholarly writing. Active reading involves questioning as you read, jotting notes, examining your emotional response to the material, and forming an opinion about the material. I was struck by the common sense nature of this approach.

I have always loved to read, and read a great deal for pleasure. When I am reading for research, though, I have always taken notes - generally in outline form. I have always attributed this as my personal method for staying focused on the material and keeping my mind from wandering. I have always done the same thing at lectures and talks even when they were not required for academic purposes. To the best of my recollection, I was not taught to do this in school, but developed the technique as a tool to keep my mind from wandering.

So the question is, why aren't we teaching our younger students this technique? There are many reading strategies and interventions that are being taught at the upper elementary level. Some actually touch on the ideas of active and passive reading, but most are geared toward basic comprehension, rather than the development of a new point of view. It is no wonder that many students feel overwhelmed in making the transition to institutes of higher learning.

As a new school year begins, I plan to try incorporating some reading and writing activities in my class to expose my students to active reading strategies. My field is music, and I have a plethora of materials on hand that would be perfect for just such and activity. The resultant skills would be invaluable across the curriculum.

Source:

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/ac_paper/topic.shtml

Jones_Sharon_Wk1_History_of_VLE's

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.

Correspondence schools have been well documented in both film and literature. These early versions of distance learning have formed the image many people have of virtual learning environments. As the name implies, these involved written assignments being submitted by mail to an invisible instructor, who would then grade and return them by mail. This model is still in use today as seen with "The American School."

As television became universal in the 1950's and 60's, virtual learning environments expanded to include visual material. School began subscribing to on-air classes through public broadcast channels. This was a model I participated in during elementary school. I attended a small parochial school that housed two grades per classroom. The classroom teacher was responsible for teaching all subjects to two different grade levels. Science, in particular, would see one grade level going to the media room (the only one with a television) to partake of a televised science lesson. We would return to the regular classroom to write an essay on what we had learned. We really looked forward to these sessions, and thought them quite good at the time. They were quite well-done and a lot of fun, but offered no opportunity for student involvement or interaction.

This week's reading also covered the early online classes. These apparently followed a similar video approach to education, much like the early PBS shows. The end result must have been similar to merging correspondence classes and PBS videos to form a class that involved a video presentation of the material with a submitted written response from the student. The primary advantage to the original correspondence model would be better instruction for visual learners, and quicker feedback response from course instructors.

In the 1990's, the prevalence of affordable home computers and access to the internet created a market for technology assisted virtual learning environments. The marketplace now had a demand to create an integrated learning management system that could deliver education at least equal to, or possibly superior to on site instruction. While many campuses developed class schedules to accommodate work schedules, there was no way to overcome the difficulty of distance in meeting the needs of students who had jobs or families. This was always one of the reasons, in my opinion, for the popularity of distance education, and this is one of the areas that make the new online learning environments so enticing.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_virtual_learning_environments
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_virtual_learning_environments_1990s
http://www.americanschoolofcorr.com/

Jones_Sharon_Wk1_LMO Welcome

With the beginning of a new school year, I will again be faced with the challenge of meeting my goals for my personal growth and educational development with meeting the needs of my students in an increasingly more complex world.

This blog was originally created for another class in the EMDT program at Full Sail. Since that time, it has been inactive while I have focused on other methods of designing and utilizing media for the classroom. Now it is time to return to this blog as a way to share my discoveries on this educational journey.