Week 5 The Impact of Open Source

The Impact of Open Source

Human Happiness – PSYCH 156 UC Berkeley

The Open source class that I chose was found on www.openculture.com/freeonlineresources, and viewed on iTunes at the following site http://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/psychology-156-fall-2008-uc/id354824220?mt=2 .

It is taken from the Psychology Department at UC Berkeley.  This course is downloaded via iTunes and is a series of lectures.  The course was recorded in 2008 and definitely lacks the technology available today. 

When looking and listening to the course itself it is very evident that there has been much preplanning and planning to create the course.  There is a clear syllabus explained by the Instructor.  All course objectives seem to be clearly stated and the Instructor explained all required elements that are included in the course. The course is designed as a lecture series for the classroom setting. It is not initially designed to be a distance course.  You can hear the instructor lecturing to the students in the course.  There are times when he introduces another speaker that is not micro phoned properly and you cannot hear them.

Because this course was established as a lecture course it does not meet the guidelines for online learning.  There is one module (lecture) per week. The instructor does not mention any email, chat or discussion group options which would be crucial in online learning.  The assignments are clearly stated in the syllabus, yet not available to the listener. The discussion questions that are presented are in the lecture format and open to the class listening, yet no effective for the online learner. There would finally be no progress reports given to the listener or any feedback in general. (Simonsen, Smaldino, ALbright, Zvacek, 2012).

 The students participating in the face to face are getting the full feedback and experience in the classroom which is not available to the online listener.

The activities in the course are not available to the online listener, even though they are discussed in the lectures.  When listening to the course content it could easily lend itself to the online learning format. The lectures could be broken down into shorter lectures (listening exercises) included with discussion forums, activities and assessments. I found the content to be very fun to listen to and brought humor to the classroom.

Currently the course is not conducive to true online learning, but with a few tweaks it could be a great online course.

Resources
www.openculture.com/freeonlineresources, and viewed on iTunes at the following site http://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/psychology-156-fall-2008-uc/id354824220?mt=2 .

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

Interactive Tours

  Interactive Tours

Example 2 - A high school history teacher, located on the west coast of the United States, wants to showcase to her students new exhibits being held at two prominent New York City museums. The teacher wants her students to take a "tour" of the museums and be able to interact with the museum curators, as well as see the art work on display. Afterward, the teacher would like to choose two pieces of artwork from each exhibit and have the students participate in a group critique of the individual work of art. As a novice of distance learning and distance learning technologies, the teacher turned to the school district’s instructional designer for assistance. In the role of the instructional designer, what distance learning technologies would you suggest the teacher use to provide the best learning experience for her students?

As an Instructional Designer you must look at your situation and determine what the needs of this course/learning experience are. In this example, the history teacher is looking for:

• Tours of the Museums in New York
• Way for students to interact with Museum Curators
• Ability to see the art Work in the Museums
• Ability for students to critique selected works of art

In order to complete these tasks the teacher would be best served by utilizing two technology resources: Media Sharing sites and a Blog.

Media Sharing Sites are websites that facilitate the sharing of text, pictures, videos, presentations, and audio file. Examples include Flickr and Youtube (Week 3 Media Resource.)

Blogs are online journal sites where one can post views on various topics, can include text, images, audio links, and video links to other web pages. (Week 3 Media Resource.)
 

In the example the teacher would like to show tours of Museums to her students and allow them to see the works of art in these museums. The best way to do this would be to use a Media Sharing site. YouTube currently has many Interactive tours of various museums being offered on their site. There are already some postings for museums in New York that the teacher could just have the students view. For example the Metropolitan Museum of Art has this tour posted http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHrmoSlfLD0&feature=related .

Another option would be for the school to create their own YouTube channel that the students could go to. Many schools are creating channels where the students view specific YouTube content, as well as information on the school itself.

“Among those using YouTube effectively are the Guilford County Schools (GCS) in Greensboro, N.C., with 338 videos uploaded to its channel since it was created in January 2010. GCS’s videos have been viewed 29,420 times and range from features about students and school events, to panel discussions among educators about learning trends. At last count, 60 viewers “subscribe” to the GCSchoolsNC channel, which means they’ve chosen to receive video feeds from the district on their own YouTube pages” (McCormack, 2012.)

Utilizing a Media Sharing Site or developing a Channel of Media Sharing Options would allow for students to view many different museum tours, including specific works of art. They could comment directly to the postings on the media site, but a more effective way to incite specific critiques and discussion would be to create a blog.

The teacher could create a blog for her class. The blog could contain anything that has to do with her courses and information being taught. In this specific example she could post images of specific pieces of art and have the students comment directly on the art.
 

Teaching Today explained the benefits to blogging in education.

“In addition to providing teachers with an excellent tool for communicating with students, there are numerous educational benefits of blogs. Blogs are:

• Highly motivating to students, especially those who otherwise might not become participants in classrooms.
• Excellent opportunities for students to read and write.
• Effective forums for collaboration and discussion.
• Powerful tools to enable scaffolded learning or mentoring to occur.(2006)

Specifically they explain how blogs can be used in discussion.

“A class blog opens the opportunity for students to discuss topics outside of the classroom. With a blog, every person has an equal opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions. Students have time to be reactive to one another and reflective. Teachers can also bring together a group of knowledgeable individuals for a given unit of study for students to network and conference with on a blog.”(2006)

Not only could the blog be used by the teachers and parents it could be easily accessible to the Museum Curators. They could post an image of a specific work of art. They could give historical information and ask discussion questions of the students regarding the art or artist. Students would be able to respond and post additional questions.

Combining the use of YouTube to show students the actual museums and then having a blog to discuss as a class as well as with curators would create a complete learning experience. Using technology in this way not only creates interactive learning, it also motivates the learning by allowing students to use resources they are familiar with and excited by. Creating a truly interactive technological learning experience helps increase student achievement, motivation and overall learner development.

Resources

McCormack, E. (2012, January 10). How schools are effectively using YouTube. Retrieved from http://schoolcommunications20.com/?p=410

Multimedia Program: "The Technology of Distance Education"

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

Using blogs to integrate technology in the classroom. Teaching Today (2006). Retrieved from http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/educationupclose.phtml/47

Defining Distance Learning

When I began this course I would say that I would have defined distance learning in a very broad sense. I would have defined it as learning that does not take place in the typical classroom setting, yet given through online, video, or self-paced instruction. As a former teacher these were the experiences that I had with distance learning. I had seen online courses and even taken them. I had a colleague that had taken a video course to get their continuing education credits. This same colleague had also taken a self-paced workbook style course to continue their education as well. Actually I also had a former colleague leave the traditional classroom setting and became a teacher at a virtual school. I am not exactly sure how that works or what virtual school entails for the students or instructors.

In the media resource included with this week’s assignment we were given the Distance Learning Continuum. That gave me so many ways in which distance learning has been use throughout the years. Some of them I had thought of, and even used yet never thought of them in the same context of distance learning I see today. The continuum gave us Distance Learning through the years from 1833-2009. Distance Learning developed from correspondence courses, to radio broadcast, television broadcast, Telephone learning, through video and video tapes, Satellite and Cable television, Internet and online courses, to virtual completely online schools, and branching into business even further with computer based training systems. Today people seem to be using many of these distance learning elements all over the world depending on their accessibility to technology and distance learning options.

Having all of these different types of distance learning and technological advances has definitely changed my definition of distance learning. I would now say that Distance Learning is learning that is created in one setting and available to learners through various mediums. Distance learning can be given through print, online, blended (online and another medium which could be face to face, print or another form), or any other form of communicative technology.

Distance learning will continue to grow and develop. As new technology changes so will learning. Businesses can offer training courses to their employees on Smartphones or IPad/Tablets, so the learning can be done at any available time. Training updates and new developments can almost instantly be upgraded to the phone or application to keep companies in the newest information. Universities can continue to courses and programs to students completely online. Issuing of new technology with the course will allow students to become familiar with the technology they will use in their chosen field and be proficient in it when they begin their employment. K12 Schools will be able to have textbooks, assignments and interactivity easily accessible to their students through laptops, tablets or new technological advance. The Distance Learning options are endless.

In order for distance learning to continue to be successful there needs to be ways to monitor who is taking the course and submitting assignments. It would currently be very easy for someone else to do another’s work. There also needs to be greater emphasis placed on the quality of distance education courses offered. Moller, Foshay and Huett (2008) discuss the lack of quality and consistency in distance education courses currently offered as well as the strain of producing courses in a cost effective timely fashion while still producing a quality learning product. This is a struggle I face in my course building. I am constantly faced with making choices of quality production or timely results. Developing standards for course production and allowing for quality course development will only push distance learning to become the strongest learning resource available.

Resources

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 1: Training and development). TechTrends, 52(3), 70–75.Retrieved this article from the Academic Search Complete database in the Walden Library.

Multimedia Program: "Distance Learning Timeline Continuum"

Welcome Again!

We are entering a new course and new Certificate. I completed my certificate in Instructional Design and decided to add the Certificate for Online Learning. So here we are blogging...

This weeks assignment was twofold. Part one was to create an Employee Development plan to encourage your company to implement new techniques in employee development. Part two was to create your own personal development plan as a program for continuous improvement.
Part One - Employee Development Plan
The following Employee Development Plan was developed to encourage my organization to increase the options available to create and motivate employee success.

Part Two - Personal Development Plan

My personal Development plan is based solely on the items needed to further my career and grow as a well-rounded person. To be included in the plan will be formal education, job enlargement, job rotation, and coaching (Noe, 2010.)
Formal Education
I am definitely a believer in lifelong learning. I would want to continue my formal education and acquire my Doctorate. I am unsure of the emphasis for my doctorate so I will begin that course when I have determined the direction I will go.
Job Enlargement
Currently I am working on my Instructional Design Internship. I have been focused on creating the print versions of courses to be implemented. I would like to expand that to include the self-paced course, face to face and certification courses. I would also like to be given the responsibility to complete either a course or other special project. Hopefully this would include the role of project manager, or just individually completing the greater assignment.
Job Rotation
Within my current company there are many opportunities. It seems as though people are often moving within the company and working in varied roles. I would like to try job rotation in order to become more familiar with all areas of the company and see if there are other places where my skills would fit.
Coaching
Developing relationships within a large global company can be difficult. Even within our workgroup there is so much work to be done that the relationship building is at the wayside. A good way to maintain efficiency while developing relationships could be through coaching. A coach could offer their expertise on the role and responsibilities at the workplace. Taking time to talk about the job, company, and personal growth could build strong relationships and better employees.
I believe that combining these elements will increase my own personal successes. Revisiting, modifying, and updating this plan is also an important key to truly developing and motivating myself to be my best.

Resources
Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Computer-Based Training (CBT) is interactive training that involves the use of the computer for teaching, learning, responses and feedback (Noe, 2010).

Initially this began with the use of the floppy disc. It has  become more advanced through the years. Today

Computer–Based Training is successful in many corporations for many training scenarios including tours of manufacturing facilities or in markets around the world.

Online Learning refers to training being delivered via computer application on the Internet or Web. Online learning can include web training, distance learning, and virtual classrooms (Noe, 2010). Modules are created utilizing various computer based applications. These modules are then encapsulated into training modules offered through electronic networks allowing development, support and updates of the modules. They are then completed into web based applications for learning. Online learning is being used in classes from high school to PhD programs, even offering continuing education for additional certification.

Simulations are another way that technology enhances training. A simulation is a training method that represents a real life situation, with trainee’s decisions resulting in outcomes that mirror what would happen if they were on the job (Noe, 2010.) Simulations are now being used in all types of training from telecommunications, customer service, management situations, even bartending. Simulations have even grown as technology has improved. Simulations have become more realistic and even lifelike with added scenery and human like avatars. Simulations can be done on any computer in any location making it feasible for any industry. They also bring the learner into the training which helps them be more involved, motivated and even have fun learning.

Finally, a great new option in Technology is making training accessible and easier for many companies – the Apple iPad or other similar tablets. Applications (Apps) are being developed in many fields to make training more efficient. The app can include simulations, coursework, manuals and anything else needed to complete the training. Many Airlines have used these for training even allowing the iPad in the cockpit for additional in-flight support. Schools and other educators have begun using tablets in classrooms as well. Textbooks can be loaded on and include self-paced classes, or interactive learning. The options using these tablets seem to be endless for training and education learners through technology.
As technology develops there will be many more ways to enhance learning while making it efficient and feasible to people of all nations, cultures, and industries.

Resources
Apple in Education, 2012 retrieved http://www.apple.com/education/ipad/
Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Week Two of my internship is underway. Things are still going well. I am continuing on the same project of reformatting course text and preparing it to become online courses. The tedium continues.  It still excites me when I hear the conversations taking place around me. I hear words like SME's, task analysis, course content, stakeholders and much more. It is great to feel as if you are really in the field you want to be and can see your future unfolding. So I keep on trucking through the tedium with some glimmers of light at the end of the tunnel.