Engaging Learners with New Strategies and Tools

Content	Communication	Collaboration
Chat Rooms can be used to for teachers to explain content to students and as a result students will experience increased satisfaction and therefore social presence will increase (Swan & Shih, 2005, p. 129).	Chat Rooms can be used for teacher to student and peer to peer communication, and as a result students will experience increased satisfaction and therefore social presence will increase (Swan & Shih, 2005, p. 129).	Chat Rooms can be used for collaboration on assignments and as a result students will experience increased satisfaction and therefore social presence will increase (Swan & Shih, 2005, p. 129).
Problem-based learning is great for encouraging a learner-centered interactivity approach to real world problems (Durrington, Berryhill, & Swafford, 2006, p. 192). Go To Meeting provides video chat, audio chat, and people are able to type and show their desk top. This means presentations and data can also be shared.	Problem-based learning is great for encouraging a learner-centered interactivity approach to real world problems (Durrington, Berryhill, & Swafford, 2006, p. 192). Go To Meeting provides video chat, audio chat, and people are able to type, which means communication can be visual and auditory.	Problem-based learning is great for encouraging a learner-centered interactivity approach to real world problems (Durrington, Berryhill, & Swafford, 2006, p. 192). Go To Meeting provides video chat, audio chat, and people can collaborate through this by sharing ideas.
Grockit is an on-line social media community with an education feel. Students can study with friends, predict their performance on standardized tests through diagnostic testing, target weaknesses, find tutors, and watch video instruction. https://grockit.com/	Students must feel comfortable and respected in the online community and an instructor can create that atmosphere by showing the expectations for the course and setting guidelines (Durrington, Berryhill, & Swafford, 2006, p. 191).	Skype can be used to connect with people all over the world and collaborate with them under the same topic. http://www.skype.com/
Educreations allow both students and teachers to create video lessons with their iPad or their browser. The app is free to download. Teachers can use this to clarify information that students read or watched through video. http://www.educreations.com/	Email can be used to communicate and send direct messages.	ePals is used to connect with other learners in cultural-exchange and language learning projects. http://www.epals.com/
On-line educational games (for example, www.funbrain.com) or apps on the iPad can be used to reinforce skills being taught.	Message boards can be used to make public announcements, share information, critique information given, analyze new concepts, and provide feedback to other people.	OpenStudy is an interactive message board and chat room that has people logging in from 180 different countries. Students have the opportunity to log in and study with people. They can share study plans and collaborate for information. www.openstudy.com

Reflection

The technological tools learners are using outside the classroom should be brought into the educational process because students are already familiar with these tools. We are in a technological era where it is absurd if someone does not have experience with a computer, an Apple product, or a cell phone. Utilizing these in the educational process can enhance student learning. There are a number of tools and strategies that can be used to increase student learning. For example, the iPad has thousands of apps that can be downloaded for free to reinforce skills. Different apps mean different opportunities to reinforce skills without feeling like the same skills are being taught over and over again. Tools that especially work well in an on-line community are chat rooms and applications such as Go To Meeting, because they can mimic in-person learning. For example, Go To Meeting has a video portion and this allows for people to see others’ facial expressions.

Resources

Durrington, V. A., Berryhill, A., & Swafford, J. (2006). Strategies for enhancing student interactivity in an online environment. College Teaching, 54(1), 190−193. Use the Academic Search Premier database, and search using the article's Accession Number: 19754742

Swan, K., & Shih, L. F. (2005). On the nature and development of social presence in online couse discussions. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 9(3). Retrieved from http://sloanconsortium.org/jaln/v9n3/nature-and-development-social-presence-online-course-discussions 

Module 3 Responses

I responded to both posts for Module 3 on:

http://ena-spoonfulofsugar.blogspot.com/

and

http://marytolsoneds.blogspot.com

Assessing Collaborative Efforts

The point of collaboration is to address "issues that cannot be addressed individually." I think a big problem with collaborative learning is that instructors give assignments that require working in groups when collaboration is not necessary. For example, I for one have never worked in a group on a topic that I could not have researched alone. Many times the assignment is tedious and requires a lot of work that is easier split up amongst different people to save time, but the topic is not so intellectually stimulating that more than one brain is required.

When asked the question, "If a student does not want to network or collaborate in a learning community for an online course, what should the other members of the learning community do?" it makes me wonder if the collaboration is truly necessary. This video explains that not all students learn the same way, some need to be left alone:

However, if an assignment truly needs collaboration, it requires multiple people working together, the person will not request to be alone because the person will need the help of others.

If the instructor firmly believes that the assignment requires more than one person's help then the instructor can explain that. If one person can adequately accomplish his/her work without collaboration then I think the instructor should allow the person to work alone. It is not a challenge to the person and the assignment should be reconsidered for next year.

A collaborate learning community needs a different rubric than an assignment that requires individual work. George Siemens explains that the assessment of the project should include information on how many times a student logged in to work on a project or how many hours the student spent working with the others in the group (Laureate Education, Inc, 2012). This is because the collaboration portion is critical to the assignment, otherwise collaboration would not have been necessary. Other people from the class should also have the opportunity to rate the quality of the information presented and rank the usefulness (Laureate Education, Inc, 2012). This could also go into the grading of the individual and group. The varying skills and knowledge students bring to a course would be reflected in the rubric the same way it is during an individual evaluation, but in collaborative learning, it is more important how that individual shared that information with the group.

Resource
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2012). Assessment of Collaborative Learning. Baltimore, MD: Author

Video Presentation: Post Storyboard on Blog

Please provide feedback for this, I do not know if I am going in the right direction. I am not sure if I should be explaining the articles.

Visual	Sound
Me	Definition of Intellectual Property
Me	Provide an effective and specific summary on Intellectual Property
Me	Explains 1st Article
Me	Explains 2nd Article
Me	Explains 3rd Article
Me	Explains 4th Article
Me	Explains 5th Article
Me	Explains 6th Article
Shows a short video of an impact Intellectual Property has on educational technology	Sound is included
Shows a graph explaining the influence of educational technology on Intellectual Property	Explanation of graph provided by me
Me	Asks a thought-provoking question