The Moodle has Landed

I finished my moodle.  It is amazing.  I think I put close to fifty hours into it total.  I learned more from this project than from any other portion of this class.  The use of Nearpod and Ted Ed have me sold me on delivering electronic instruction.  I am even seeing how this could lead to flipped lessons in the normal course of my teaching. I did things to create content for this project that have changed the way I think about student centered and student driven learning. I am especially excited that my school is considering turning my work into an online course offered to our students.

How to be Good at Distance Learning Instruction

What you need to know above all is that any type of distance learning instruction needs to be miles more engaging than live teaching in a classroom.  If the content and instruction are weak the learner will find ways to distract them in their given learning environment (do the dishes, surf the web, get another coffee). 

Distance learning comes in two flavors, Synchronous and Asynchronous. 

Synchronous instruction needs to be focused on learning of simple concepts and planning for projects and further learning opportunities.  Instruction during these types of learning situations can lead to excellent discussion as students are more psychologically activated for response to one another. 

On the other hand when students will be required to deeply contemplate or research a topic it should be left to asynchronously structured learning plans.  The difference in the styles is reflective of traditional classroom learning.  Discussion and instruction of skills are done during class and the heavy contemplative work is done by students at home.

If you want them to think go asynchronous.  If you want them to discuss or share go synchronous.

In other news I got to evaluate some classmates moodles and got feedback on my own.  I was impressed with what my peers did.  I saw some simple and effective ways for delivering content that did not distract from learning.  The feedback I got was helpful and inspirational to make the final push and make my course shine.

Online learning

Online learning is not a clack-and-go process for instructors. Many assume that online learning is done for convenience of the learner and to some extent it is. That tends to be the case when it comes to asynchronous instruction where work is largely turned in by a post and learning is done independently.  with the rise of widespread broadband connections it is becoming more an more popular for online learning to by synchronous and in real time.  The instructor and students are in active discourse during a meeting time but in separate locations.  The downfall of this being that students can easily go off do what they want while instruction is occurring.  The key to combating this is to have synchronous instruction that is engaging and requires active participation by the learners.

Connectivist Learning Environments

The week started off with making my first GIF file ever.  I always found GIFs impressive and mystifying, however they are much easier to create than I thought.  I made one for my moodle using pictures American civil rights movement leaders.

The reading for this week was incredible.   Connectivist learning environments are coming and in my opinion not fast enough.  I like any tool that aids in the effective dispersion of knowledge and skills to as many potential learners as possible.  The other thing about them that I like is the student driven aspect where the student is largely charged with their own learning.  My response to the reading is here.

Vocaroo. Who Knew?

Not me. Vocaroo is an amazing audio recorder that also stores a recording online and allows it to be

No need for solid gold recordings any longer.

posted or embedded anywhere. Also, its free.  I love this tool and will use it frequently in the future. It allows for auditory learners to feel comfortable and could function as an accommodation for the visually impaired in a distance learning course.  It is a great way to get directions to an audience quickly.

I made some real progress with getting a working syllabus together for my moodle. It isn't quite there yet, but the process helped my organize my thinking and fill in some gaps that existed in what I wanted for my moodle design.

Bad Science

Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning.  This government sposored meta-study

was disappointing.  Not because it showed that on-line learning and in class learning have similar results but because the studies that were analyzed were so non-scientific that the results cannot be trusted.  I think it is time for the government to fund an unbiased, scientifically controlled study comparing face-to-face and distance learning.  The distance learning field is ever growing and educators need a clear, reliable study on distance learning validity and best practices.

Week Two

Wait, it will be animated and I wont have to draw 

ALL of it?

PowToons is awesome.  I finally got caught up and made my introduction video on powtoons.  The program appears overwhelming at first, but is really quite simple and powerful for a drag and drop application. I took me two hours to finish my project from start to finish and I was more than happy with the result.  I really appreciated the design and interface.  Adding a narrative to a presentation makes power points useless to me now, not that I ever had any love for them I can definitely see myself using this in the future in class or as an online resource for my students to get refreshers on course content or writing techniques.
Take a look at it here.

My Moodle is killing me.  I choose a topic that is important to me, but one I will need to build all of the content for from scratch.  I keep chipping away and it will get there.