Today, I was searching for my Blog to post and I ran across a post that said Facenook means to hook up with a sexual partner on Facebook! The joke's on me for not doing my research on the name. I should know it was probably taken, but no idea the word had such meaning. No wonder I have numerous page views, it's not because of my sharp witted writing.

My research paper was fine. It took me longer than I would have liked due to a very heavy schedule. Ironically, I was too busy working on designing an actual online course then to write a paper about designing and online course. I enjoy writing papers, actually. The research process, putting it all together really makes sense to me. The whole process helps me to understand a topic and how it fits in the larger knowledge pool. My topic expanded some because as I was writing about motivation theory I thought about the learning theories and how they would fit nicely into the the motivation theories. What I learned the most was there are evidence based theories to use to guide the design process. This paper also emphasized another theme I found throughout the semester, which is design is not about using cool technology and flashy graphics, it's about intentionally using technology and research to help students learn.  I also learned that putting together the ideas from the theories while designing can help me produce a better product. I look forward to designing another class!

IBooks and Beyond

I attended the presentation today (April 4) about Apple iBooks and how to publish your own iBook to use as a textbook. The technology is exciting and I think that is the direction textbooks are headed. It goes beyond posting a pdf file of the pages of a paper book, the books are interactive with a combination of text, video, audio, photos, 3D photos and others. I can see this technology to go beyond being a book. I can see it become the class itself with each "book chapter" becoming a unit of a course. The course designer can add all components needed for the course and the students can navigate through the content. There are even quizzes embedded. It is missing the social piece of a course, but with plenty of social media choices students can connect with each other in another forum. These types of books also have the danger of turning into ebook with videos stuck in them here and there. I find it interesting to see how learning materials are evolving.

A thread I've seen through this course is how a designer needs to be intentional with their course design. Technology is cool and fun and using the latest technology is exciting and brings with it some prestige, but what is the student learning? How does it move the student forward? Does the component of the unit meet learning objectives or is it just the latest tech trick of the week. This is the direction I am going with my project because I am interested in knowing how design can help students succeed and what kinds of designs can not only provide learning content, but can help motivate students.

Another Week

My presentation is over. it was a mad rush to get everything prepared. The interview part was only ok. It wasn't the interview of the century and more confirmed what my research warned about, and that is taking care to plan use of Facebook and other social media. Asking students to post or friend is not a good plan. It's much better to tailor your use of social media to the lesson while considering student demographics and status. There were some good comments about my presentation. One comment I saw, but did not address said they would have liked to see more examples of Facebook being used in the class. I would have liked that, too and that's what I expected, but after my research and reflection I probably would have needed to scour the country for instructors using Facebook beyond the let's all post, friend, and perhaps we'll have a community. Perhaps we will see more instructors using it for educational purposes once the newness and others start intentionally using it for education. I liked being able to connect one of the presentations with my own research. The presenter talked about how her interviewee used social media in a somewhat haphazard way and they finally called in a instructional designer. In my research I found which kind of socail media you use will depend on the intention and goal of your program or learning. For instance, most people who use Facebook use it to meet social needs and build relationship. ON the other hand, people who use Twitter do not use it to meet their social needs, but use it for intellectual stimulation. This research would drive how ID will choose which social media to use for which lesson plan. This research may generalize to companies who wish to use Facebook and Twitter, but are unsure how to use them.

Share

I couldn't help but notice the first interview projects while not the same topics or tech tools were remarkably focused on building relationships in the online learning environment. For instance, using polls to help students work together or compare results and using wikis for student collaboration of a writing project. I am interesting in student engagement and building student relationships. I have been thinking about how to use the obvious tech tools like Facebook and Twitter to increase student interaction, but have not considered other ways to build collaboration and engagement. The presentations this week sparked my interest in using different tech tools for student engagement.

I've been enjoying sharing and interacting with classmates in Twitter. It's not difficult at all to make the posts and respond to others. My follower list has always included ID folks and other educators so it is no hard task to find links to read and share. Meg and I have been meeting by Skype and discussing class material and other topics of interest relating to ID. This week we discussed the future of jobs in ID. Meg gave me a link to an internship in the cities. It really got me thinking about the possibilities in ID and how there will probably be many jobs in ID not only in the education sector, but in the business sector, too. There will always be a need for employee training materials, technical training, etc. Not only will ID be needed to build courses, but also to update courses as technology and organizational needs change. Talking with Meg helped me view ID in a different way and also created excitement in me for the future possibilities in ID. Now, that's what I call social learning.

Student Support

Universities and colleges have provided many different support services for students over the years. Most services have been for traditional aged students. Distance education presents renewed challenges for instructors and administrators. Students attending online may need some of the same support as traditional students, however they present new challenges in the areas of engagement and community building. Ludwig-Hardman and Dunlap (2003) argued that building relationships with students is vital for retention and student success. The authors said building relationships with online students should start in recruitment and continue through the education process according to Smith, etc. There are many tools to use for relationship building. In our class we have been using some of these tools like blogs and twitter. I like using twitter I think the idea of it is so simple and yet, brilliant. There are many ways instructors can use it  for communication and sharing between the students and between the student and instructor. Students can also use it to communicate with experts and students from other programs with similar interests. We haven't talked much about using Facebook in education, but I can see that as a valuable tool. I would like to see interfaces like Facebook and twitter embedded in the class management system. Students should be able to communicate and share with each other and the instructor within the classroom. If these tools were embedded in the classroom they would also be private. I've never used twitter in an academic setting and i must admit I really liked it. Although I've been using twitter for about 4-5 years I've never used it in the classroom and I really enjoyed posting and reading the posts of others. Twitter helped me understand better how my students would experience it. Overall, I think the education field has only skimmed the surface of the tools available to use for student engagement. The years ahead will bring a rich and interactive online learning environment far removed from the traditional lecture hall.

Social Media

I really believe in interactive learning and collaborative learning. Online learning presents some challenges in this area, but it's very possible to build communities and relationships with others in the online environment. However, students need to skills to fully use the tools available. Not all student shave the skills. A couple of interesting points for this week's lesson that struck me were disparity in skill levels of students and how the tools can change your brain and how we can change them. I always made the assumption that all young people were computer literate and adapted to computers like fish in water, but that is not always the truth. Some students do not have access to technology due to poverty, disinterest, poor teachers, or other reasons. This puts them at a disadvantage as they join the digital divide meaning they will be left behind in work and the occupations they can pursue in the future. I'm not sure how to solve this problem, but the problem will continue to come up in time.  The other interesting part of the readings was the article about Google and how the internet is changing our thinking. At first, I felt a bit alarmed about this, but then when I was thinking about it, reading and writing are not instinctive skills, but are learned. The way we read and learn will undoubtedly change as the internet slowly takes over like the printing press took over and changed us many years ago.

I'm not crazy about the synchronous discussions. Having an online discussion is not the same as having a face-to-face discussion. From my experience, it takes longer and needs to be more clear and simple due to no visual paralanguage cues. I think it might help to include readings or sources for presenting online before attempting a discussion. Facilitating an online discussion is also a skill that needs to be learned because it's again, different from face-to-face. It's nice that we are practicing the skills along with the content, but it seems like a hit-or-miss. I look forward to seeing how the students will present and what I can learn each week from others' experiences.

I've decided to change my interview project person. Upon reflection, I know more about social media than she does and I will interview either a dean from Walden University (I know from FaceBook) who participates in social media or a professor in Canada (who I know from Twitter) who teaches in the teacher ed department about how to use social media. My project will focus on using social media to build student/teacher relationships. I will focus on college age students and not K12 students. I have started some of the research, but haven't gotten far. I noticed how people used social media in the Komen/PP clash last week and thought about how social media tools can be powerful for building and maintaining relationships in the classroom, too. What I want to get out of the interview is a glimpse into the future. My research will focus on the past and the interview will focus on what the future might bring in terms of using social media in the classroom.

Trends

Online learning is exciting in and of itself, but new trends are even more exciting. It's very difficult for many people to think in new ways. Or at least think of old things in new ways. In psychology we have what's called "functional fixedness." Yes, a strange word, but psychologists can be strange birds. Do you remember the candle problem from psych 101? If not, look it up, I'm not doing your work for you. Functional fixedness is when we find it difficult to look at an object and find new ways to use it. A person may look at a cell phone and fail to think of how it could change. They are so used to how it is that something new doesn't occur to them. There are many examples of this and the internet is bringing on even more. For instance, the newspaper industry. The internet comes along and absolutely trashes the entire industry. What do they do when they see the internet will butt into their news territory? They take their news and put it online, for free. Ok, nothing has really changed except instead of paper it's electronic and the free part, of course. For them to compete they need to shake things up drastically and do something completely differnt. And here, I bring up Steve Jobs and Apple computer. Jobs took something that was already on the market (a cell phone) and changed it to be something different, not totally different, but different enough to be new, fresh, and exciting and makes you jump up and holler, I want one!" And indeed, millions did jump and holler. Education is at the crossroads, too. When online learning became the rage many school took their curriculum and plopped it online. Ok, it's the same stuff only it's online instead of in a classroom. To be truly revolutionary and effective online education needs to change the way it presents material. It's interesting that the online revolution in education will no doubt change all of education even the face-to-face classes. In fact. I think it already is changing face-to-face. When students and teachers) understand how much better active learning, collaboration, and a non lecture format is they will switch over. They will have to, because students will demand it. I think trends will be not only a shake-up of online learning, but a shake-up of face-to-face.