Lesson Design

Analysis:

"College Success" it is a course that centers on self-discipline, self-appreciation, study habits, life as a student in the real world, and lots of self reflection and idea sharing. So what I am considering is a two-phase approach to the study habit area as well as the sharing. Having the students set up a bookmarking account and sharing it will help them with both online and library research (since I will also have them use the bookmarking tool to create their own personal article or book reference using proper citation ( citation will be a new lesson module as well) The idea, is to give them a personal bookmark foundation which they can use throughout their college career.

The second aspect would be to have then set up a social networking site. For this, we will be using s social networking tool that is academically oriented called Graduate Junction. This will move our discussions out of blackboard and into this tool. The logic here is that within Blackboard, the students lose access to the discussions when the class ends. By using a networking site, we can not only retain the discussions, but that site can exist beyond the class as a peer networking site through college, and perhaps beyond.

The coursework is already developed and has been evaluated, so what will be implemented and evaluated here is the deliver and facilitation modes. A redesign of the learning modules will direct the instruction with the web 2.0 applications involved. Basically, the segment will appear as follows:

For the assignments regarding research:
. ASSIGNMENTS: Week 4: Online Topics research**: Select one of the subjects from lesson #5 from page 37-38 of your textbook, On Course. FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS ON THE SUCCESS TASK HANDOUT to gather at least 4 web links (links to web pages) that discuss that subject. Post each of these links on your ZooLoo account and leave a comment or link on at least two other student’s page from the class.

And for the social networking:
ASSIGNMENTS: Week 4: Journal Entry 5**: Complete Journal Entry #5 from page 37-38 of your textbook, On Course. FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS ON THE SUCCESS JOURNAL HANDOUT AND THE DIRECTIONS FOR JOURNAL ENTRY 5 IN YOUR TEXTBOOK VERY CAREFULLY!! DIVE DEEP!!! FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR JOURNAL ENTRY in your Graduate Junction Profile.To submit your journal entry, use the Week 4: Journal Entry 5 assignmentlink on the left in the Table of Contents.

evaluating the use

Since this was a developed and evaluated segment of the course. My analysis would center on the usefulness of the web 2.0 tools as they are used to create interaction, learning and engagement among students. So a good part of the end-of-course feedback form will consist of questions regarding these learning activities. This should give me ideas for improvement and revision with the use of the tools, as well as the instructions. Through the social networking site, I will also send out a feedback for after a few years to see how many of the students continue to use the tools.

Results will be shared among the faculty and will hopefully help them shape their use of web 2.0 tools in the best manner possible for learning. Of course, it's use -and usefulness- will vary from course to course depending on subject matter. But for any online course, the bookmarking could be useful for research or for just gathering a list of sites relating to the subject matter.

A Rough Draft

Analysis:

"College Success" it is a course that centers on self-discipline, self-appreciation, study habits, life as a student in the real world, and lots of self reflection and idea sharing. So what I am considering is a two-phase approach to the study habit area as well as the sharing. Having the students set up a bookmarking account and sharing it will help them with both online and library research (since I will also have them use the bookmarking tool to create their own personal article or book reference using proper citation ( citation will be a new lesson module as well) The idea, is to give them a personal bookmark foundation which they can use throughout their college career.

The second aspect would be to have then set up a social networking site. For this, we will be using s social networking tool that is academically oriented called Graduate Junction http://www.graduatejunction.net/ .This will move our discussions out of blackboard and into this tool. The logic here is that within Blackboard, the students lose access to the discussions when the class ends. By using a networking site, we can not only retain the discussions, but that site can exist beyond the class as a peer networking site through college, and perhaps beyond.

The coursework is already developed and has been evaluated, so what will be implemented and evaluated here is the deliver and facilitation modes. A redesign of the learning modules will direct the instruction with the web 2.0 applications involved. Basically, the segment will appear as follows:

For the assignments regarding research:
. ASSIGNMENTS: Week 4: Online Topics research**: Select one of the subjects from lesson #5 from page 37-38 of your textbook, On Course. FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS ON THE SUCCESS TASK HANDOUT to gather at least 4 web links (links to web pages) that discuss that subject. Post each of these links on your ZooLoo account and leave a comment or link on at least two other student’s page from the class.

And for the social networking:
ASSIGNMENTS: Week 4: Journal Entry 5**: Complete Journal Entry #5 from page 37-38 of your textbook, On Course. FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS ON THE SUCCESS JOURNAL HANDOUT AND THE DIRECTIONS FOR JOURNAL ENTRY 5 IN YOUR TEXTBOOK VERY CAREFULLY!! DIVE DEEP!!! FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR JOURNAL ENTRY in your Graduate Junction Profile.To submit your journal entry, use the Week 4: Journal Entry 5 assignmentlink on the left in the Table of Contents.

thoughts on Wikis

The quoted definitions of what a wiki is are somewhat hard to understand. But for me, visualizing Wikipedia as an example makes it more clear. It's a place where information and knowledge is shared in the form of definitions, instructions and references, including web links. So how would this be good for an educational or training atmosphere? lets just say it's about as good for that as water is for plants. Akin to a devoted Knowledge management system, a wiki provides a centralized location for definitions, job aids and training materials that make a company's training accessible 24/7. Need a workflow diagram? Information about company leave time? A schedule of upcoming training seminars. It can all be linked in one ay or another in a wiki. But due to the public, or at least somewhat insecure nature of information on a wiki. A company would likely be more comfortable using a dedidcated KMS (knowledge Management System) such as Microsoft's Sharepoint. But in a way, one might even be able to argue that the flow of a KMS is really just a different form of wiki.
For education, the wiki really shines. So much of learning comes from the exploring and interactions with peers. Being able to share this, and even build upon other's experiences could create a learning tool that can be shared with future learners, and even be a source of research. A wiki is perfect for group activities, for discussions, and for sharing projects - not just with the rest of the class, but also with the world.

But the key to wikis is the self-monitoring. In fact it is a critical aspect. Since information can be posted anyone in a group, or in the case of a public site like Wikipedia anyone in the world, can post and edit information. From my own experience and as a simple test, I challenged the self-monitoring if Wikipedia once. By editing information within a page about Elvis Presley, I changed the information to indicate that Elvis was alive and living in a small house in Roswell New Mexico. I monitored that post for three days before someone deleted it. (I would have eventually fixed it myself, of course) The point is, as much as wiki can provide acuurate information, it can also provide inaccurate information. But herer is no doubt it has tremendous value in learning. Personally, I find myself often visiting Wikipedia to learn about something from history, or to find out a definition (I even used it to look up the meaning of Wiki. Derived from the Hawaiian term wiki wiki, meaning fast)

So for this week, I am going to try out a demo of GroveSite which is a wiki development software. Impressions to come!