A reflection on building my first virtual learning environment

Over the past few months I went on an adventure that I believe has fundamentally changed the way I teach. Through the use of Moodle, I have created my first LMS unit of instruction. What follows is a reflection of sorts on the design and pedagogical decisions that I had to make as well as the theoretical foundations that I established to guide my thinking through this process. I also want to share with you some of the pitfalls that I ran into so that you may avoid my mistakes, should you embark on a similar adventure.

Some LMS’s are aesthetically pleasing and have a bunch of cool features for the teacher to take advantage of, and some are rather utilitarian. Often times, teachers won’t be part of the decision making process when a LMS is adopted for their district. At the outset of my design, even before my LMS was chosen, my chief objective was to use it as a ‘launch pad’ to discovery for my students. I did not want to limit myself to the tools provided within Moodle, I wanted to construct the most effective learning environment possible. I found out that this wasn't any one tool, rather it was a conglomerate of tools.

With this in mind, I set out to have a distinct structure to every lesson within the unit. This is why every unit has three parts to it. These parts have consistent names so that my students are familiar with what their expectations will be. Even though the content changes and evolves, students are supported by a good class structure which limits unfamiliarity.

One thing that any online course designer should keep in mind is to keep things simple. LMS design takes a TON of time and effort because since the lessons are scripted so tightly. Focus on big ideas and supplement those ideas with engaging activities for your students. Perhaps my greatest advice is to make activities open ended for students. The internet is a vast resource so there is no need to limit exploration with ‘seek and destroy’ lines of questioning. Challenge their creativity by allowing them free reign of their learning experience and they will surprise you with how engaged they will be with it. As educators we have a tendency to restrict learning environments, for fear of students learning in the wrong way. Perhaps the wrong way is the right way that we never thought of.

Piaget, Dewey, ROFL.

What if some of the most influential learning theorists in history were Facebook friends? Cluttered news feeds for sure.

Locke the Cupboard

Locke the Cupboard was originally inspired by Locke’s idea that new born babies come into the world with a “blank slate” as a mind. I switched the metaphor to an empty cupboard for his status update and in doing so turned it into a double entendre. The empty cupboard represents both his learning theory and an actual empty cupboard in need of some canned goods. The obvious antagonist would be Plato so I tried to think of a clever way to refute Locke’s “blank slate” argument with something out of Plato’s “recalling what the soul had forgotten” playbook. I couldn’t resist the urge to evoke the Windows System Restore utility, as it is a tool that allows a Windows OS to revert back to a previous state. It might be a little bit out of context, but out of context is often the norm in the world of Facebook.

I wanted to make Plato one of the main contributors to the conversation, but strangely enough I reached a roadblock. My brain took me in a different direction as I thought about how my girlfriend organized the can goods in my cupboard a few weeks back. She actually spent the time to group the soups together by type, and also PUT THEM IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER! Crazy as she is, it made me think of Gestalt theory. How something is organized affects how the learner perceives the content. So in walks Koffka stressing that Locke organize his cupboard as he fills/learns.

Then Lev Vygotsky jumps into the conversation to bring about a solution to the problem. Since Locke does not know what to put in his cupboard, Vygotsky offers to take him out to Meijer so that Locke can learn to shop by imitating him. Keeping with Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development. But not until after he watches the final episode of Lost, a TV series in which one of the characters is named after him.

Study Party at Lev’s Place

Study Party at Lev’s Place starts off with Lev Vygotsky making a status update letting all his “friends” know that he’s putting together a study party for CEP800. Vygotsky and Dewey are enthused about the opportunity to get together as a group and share their ideas so that they could learn from one another while Piaget, Plato, Locke, and Kohler would rather work individually. This status update attempts to illustrate the contrasting views amongst educational theorists about the role of the learner. The social constructivists (Dewey and Vygotsky) placed heavy emphasis on the role of society on the learner while theorists like Piaget, Plato, Locke, and Kohler depicted learning as something that happens to the learner as an individual. Dewey suggests that they ask the instructor if they could work collaboratively on their final project for the class (Ironically, by having this conversation they actually helped me to complete my project!) and the non-social constructivists chime in with opposition.

This is obviously a gross simplification of the ideals that these gentlemen believed. However, I like that I was able to place these ideas into the context of a group project discussion. Anyone who has ever worked in a group in school or in their career  on a project will identify with the different types of group members represented. Some people thrive while working cooperatively, while others would rather be an island.

For a little added humor, the Behaviorists (Pavlov and Skinner) also make an appearance. Pavlov, being of the classical conditioning variety, acts like one of his dogs would and drools at Vygotsky mentioning the study party. Pavlov has been to Vygotsky’s study parties before and they had snacks there. The study party has become a conditioned stimulus that makes him drool even though Vygotsky makes no mention of snacks. Skinner simply inquires to the schedule that the snacks will be distributed, alluding to a reinforcement schedule.

Attack of the Piaget Clones

Attack of the Piaget Clones is a fake conversation between Piaget, Dewey, and Skinner. I imagined Piaget mentioning that Attack of the Clones was on TV that night so that everyone could tune in and watch. I think that I’ve treated Piaget unfairly in this parody but I couldn’t help myself. Every time I come in contact with his developmental stages, I think of humankind as a clone army. This is outlandish I know. It’s not so much the stages, but the sequential order that irritates me I think. Too rigid.

Anyways, Dewey pokes fun at Piaget’s movie choice because of the irony. Skinner chimes in about how the movie demonstrates a great errorless learning environment. Then the conversation shifts to active learning when Skinner mentiones “implanted”, something Piaget and Dewey would both disagree with since they believed learning was something that the learner did… not had done to them.

Learning Outside of School and Self-Directed Learning (SDL)

Lauren Resnick’s The 1987 Presidential Address: Learning in School and Out illustrates the stark contrast between the traditional in-school model of learning and out of school learning. Out of school learning is usually more authentic in the respect that learning is socially shared, tool centered, and all actions are directly connected to events; while the traditional school model measures students individually and uses simulations to represent real world tools. The Internet can be a great medium for learning outside of school because it offers many collaborative opportunities such as wiki’s, social networking, Google Docs, etc. It also allows the learner to use tools that are applicable to the learner’s current or future profession.

In the above video Kevin Kelly described the internet’s impact on self-directed learning. There is an ever constant fear amongst the general public that new technology will envelop our lives to the point that we become sedentary and completely dependent upon the new technology. Before I watched Kelly’s talk, I always viewed this as a black and white issue. One could either argue that technology would take over our lives in a negative way, or that tools would always remain tools from which we could always step away from; never becoming dependent. However, he categorizes the internet as a technology tool that is progressively enveloping our lives, that we are/will become completely dependent on it, and that this is in fact desirable

In his talk, Kelly provides his perspective on digital age tools by linking to similar non-digital innovations.

 Kelly says, “… I want to talk about…this idea that we are going to be co-dependent … I have now gotten to the point where I don’t try to remember things, I just Google it. It’s just easier to do that. And we kind of object at first and saying, ‘oh that’s awful’. But if we think about the dependency that we have on this other technology called the alphabet and writing, we’re totally dependent on it. It’s transformed culture. We cannot imagine ourselves without the alphabet and writing, and so in the same way we’re going to not imagine ourselves without this other machine not being there.”

While I would argue that the web is a communicator of knowledge and language (much more so than an actual language in itself), comparing the web to a language offers a good illustration of how co-dependency can be a positive thing. It touches on Resnick’s argument that tools don’t eliminate or destroy intelligence, it simply shifts responsibility. Kelly says we don’t try to remember things, we just Google them. Resnick would say knowledge isn’t lost to Google it’s just in a different location. I see no problem with this conservation theory; in fact it’s desirable that knowledge be communicable and readily accessible. However being able to export ideas should make room to construct more complex thought, not take all burden off the learner. The calculator shifts the responsibility of solving simple equations from the brain to a tool so that more thought can be put towards complex equations. Google has aided learning via the internet in a similar manner.

The web is always with us on our laptops, phones, vehicles, and other devices. Letting the web flow around us at all times allows for immediate tap in to the pool of knowledge available. I believe very strongly in the relevant timing of instruction. During the 2008 presidential race I was teaching sections of AP political science and was able to integrate current events into my unit on the American election process by way of the internet with tools such as 270towin.com. Unfortunately the curriculum rarely aligns itself to events in the outside world and the students’ current state of mind like this. In self-directed learning, the curriculum will vary depending on student interest, however content is always relevant. If I happened to be watching a movie and was interested in a particular actor/actress’s work and wanted to know more about them, Wikipedia or IMDB are resources that I might tap into to direct my desire to continue my learning. Learning in this way is always sparked by current interest, is immediately satisfied with further exploration for understanding, and is delivered in adequate doses because it is at the learners’ discretion when to cease the learning process. I take great interest in learning how I can translate this self-directed learning into the more structured environment of the traditional classroom.

Culture from the perspective of a 7th grade social studies student...

Do you think that it would be better if there was only one world culture?

Yeah a little, but it would be kind of weird.

  CEP 800 - Podcast assignment (JGer) by Jger
Royalty Free Music by Kevin MacLeod (Kool Kats) http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/index.html?keywords=007&Search=Search


Reflection of What I Learned

I really enjoyed this project because it allowed me to gauge student understanding of a subject holistically without interruption. Under normal circumstances, I would have jumped in to correct many of the errors of fact that the student mentioned. However, after lots of reflection I don't know if this is always best practice.

I intend on playing parts of the interview back to the student for purposes of self critiquing (not only on the content, but speaking skills as well). So much can be learned by interacting with recorded works of yourself and I believe the student will benefit from this rare opportunity.

The actual finished product itself can serve as a great "pre-test" of a subject that we have only begun to study in my world studies course. It was amazing to sit back and listen to this interview in the editing process because I kept noticing new things that the student said that I had missed in the live conversation. After about 6 or 7 listens, I started to gain a clear understanding of the "lense" through which this student views the concept of culture. I can now better expand on his prior knowledge, fill in the gaps in knowledge that he lacks, and correct any inaccuracies that he has on the subject; just by simply listening a few additional times.

In the future, I may wish to alter the format to a complete student led production. Podcasts force students to think critically about a subject in order for the final product to be concise and entertaining. Mastery of content will be needed for a student led production and I like that innate accountability that arises naturally with the format.

Incorporating student blogs would make it interactive, offering praise and critique alike.

Requiring students to make updates/revisions as their opinions change would help to correct inaccuracies in understanding as their thinking evolved.

Reflecting on CEP 812

I think the biggest thing that I learned in CEP 812 is that web-based technologies can have very diverse applications. For example, social bookmarking is an excellent collaborative research tool. However, it can also be used as a presentation tool (Like we did for our SIG presentation). In a social studies classroom it can be used to track current events, grading students on their awareness and insights to the world around them. It’s a great structuring tool for exploratory activities.

In the past, when my technology tool set was a bit smaller, I used to fall in love with specific technologies and think that I could use it for every application. Now that I’m completing the certificate program, I think I’m getting better at identifying specific attributes of applications that will be the most effective for a given problem of practice. I initially started my TechQuest on feedback because I fell in love with Jing. While I still think that Jing is a very effective tool for providing student feedback, I’ve learned that it will most likely be more efficient to combine it with Google Docs. I guess to sum up; I’ve learned to use the tools instead of letting the tools use me.

My goal when I started this course was to learn how to better use Web 2.0 to engage students in my classes. My SIG helped me to discover how to use collaborative technologies to promote socially constructed learning. Not only that, but I myself have become a better collaborative learner in the process. I hope to stay in touch with my SIG members and continue to grow our community of Collaborators ;)

My new goal is to finally APPLY all that I have been learning. I think I’ve thought more critically about education recently than I did when I was actually in the classroom. When I finally get back into the classroom, I want to continue to evolve the strategies I’ve developed in the certificate program.

Best of luck to everyone as we go our separate ways. Hopefully we will continue to follow each other’s status, and perhaps even work together on future projects.

TechQuest Project Evaluation

Before I get to my evaluation, I wanted to share my first attempt at giving feedback using Jing. As part of our paper swap, Shawn and I utilized screencasting to provide each other with feedback on our TechQuests. Click the image below to view my critique of her work:

It was great to finally implement part of my TechQuest. Although it wasn’t on student work, I believe the premise is the same. I really learned a lot by receiving Shawn’s feedback in this manner as well. Namely, teachers will need to be taught how to create their screencasts.

I experienced this as well. How a teacher would normally speak to a student in a one-on-one conference will not translate well to screencasted feedback. The ‘umms’, ‘ahhs’, and pregnant pauses are no no’s. However, it would also be ineffective to script a screencast. So really, a big challenge of mine going forward will be iron out a technique that best integrates screencasting into the grading/review process. I realize that many of my issues can be better addressed once I’m able to implement it in an authentic situation but it never hurts to think ahead.

What stinks about how I created Shawn’s feedback is that she can only listen and watch me interact with her paper. Especially in a format like Google Docs or Word, it may be more effective to use the comment feature to directly tag specific areas of the document. This way, changes could be made immediately rather than watching/listening to the screencast and then making a whole batch of changes later. This would ensure that all areas of concern are addressed individually rather than being buried amongst others.

Most likely this could save time on the teacher’s end as well. Why mention grammatical mistakes in a screencast with it would be much more effective to just put in a comment tag saying “consider revising” or something more specific to the situation. When communicating a more complex idea, the teacher could create a short screencast and then link the student to it via a link in a comment tag. I believe this would better help the student because it’s directly connected to their actual document.

Establishing this process will have obvious growing pains initially because I plan to implement the feedback loops as soon as I get back to the classroom. It needs to be implemented from day one to have the most effect and this will be overwhelming. Personally, I foresee having an urge to downscale or even do away with providing feedback via screencast if I get frustrated with the amount of time I’m spending on it. For the sake of the project, it will be critical to continue to innovate rather than give in.

In the future, I think I’ll approach my TechQuest’s from the viewpoint that I will never quite finish them. Much like all things in education, my TechQuest will need to be constantly revised in order for it to continue to be advantageous to myself and my students. Therefore, when selecting a future TechQuest it will be important to pick serious on-going problems of practice.

Getting help and advice from peers/colleagues is invaluable as well. My SIG group members offered perspectives that made my project better, and hopefully more adaptable from teacher to teacher. Replication is a very important part of lesson planning to me. So in the future I will want to keep in mind that I’m not only designing strategies like this one for myself, but for my colleagues as well.

TechQuest Project Implementation

For the Project Implementation portion of my TechQuest, I created a podcast detailing what I hope will go well and what I may have difficulties with. If you're using an RSS reader  to follow my page use this Feedburner feed to optimize your experience.

Gerlach-techquest-podcast by Jger
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