Group Part 2!

I've been reading alot about 21st Century skills and collaboration is one of these skills which should be cultivated. Our kids in K-12 LIKE to work with others on projects. So I just don't understand where we fail at the higher ed level with these collaborative efforts. As adults, we don't work in isolation in our workplace, at home and even in our leisure activities (sports for example). Just look at teamwork and collaboration in motion with the NCAA basketball playoffs. Butler who? Go Green! (Michigan State Spartans! Sparty Hardy!)

So why are students so adverse to working in a collaborative project? It seems that I have about half of the students in CIS 115 involved in their groups.


My project is pretty low-risk and fairly simple as far as group projects go. Each student will receive an individual grade for their contributions. This is how I've set it up:

• Step 1: Students must select a group and join the small group discussion on Web 2.0 applications. Each group will create a wiki page with 4 individual contributions, one from each of the group members. So, initially, the student will receive a grade for their discussion in this small group. We just completed this part of the project and it was like pulling teeth. I had to "remind" students almost every day to join their group. I let them choose their own group (through the D2L group tool) and eventually I had to put the most of them in groups because of their slow response. Maybe it was because of spring break? At the very end of the discussion, more people joined in but this was way more stressful than it should have been.


• Step 2: The student selects a Web 2.0 application which they will research and write about. Again, this is an individual grade for the student. This is where we are now.


• Step 3: When the research is completed, the student will enter the information about their app on their group's wiki page.


• Step 4: As per the technology and purpose of a wiki, each student will then add contributions to each of the other wiki pages.


• Step 5: Finally, the student will evaluate the project, their efforts and the final result.

I'm not grading the entire group's project and using that grade for everyone. Each student will receive a grade based on their efforts so this is a loosely organized group project. None of this work is very difficult, even tech-wise and about half of the students seem to have gotten the point of the project. I don't get the rest of them.

Summerzcool -- chair hat

There are several items on my Bucket List to accomplish before I'm vertical and one of them is to get to a Jimmy Buffett concert. I totally enjoy his world music and listen to Radio Margaritaville through the computer. His latest CD, Buffet Hotel, has a song about Summer School or as he says, Summerzcool.

Well, it's time to get serious about summer. We have 6 weeks left in this semester and as chair, things are popping for summer already. We got our booklist in and schools are starting to register for summer (and fall). What are you doing?

1. Faculty: Have you checked in with each of your faculty to determine their intentions for summer? I send out two or three emails to follow up if I haven't received a response from a particular faculty. Usually, this email is the one that everyone notices and responds to quickly.
2. QA: Have YOU checked into each instructor's performance this semester? It's getting late in the semester and I have not heard if we will have a new QA person. So that means YOU should do a run-through the classes to determine if your instructor has been doing OK with D2L and fulfilling teaching expectations.
3. Dupes: Once you start building your faculty list, you should verify from each instructor, which section they want duped for summer. Don't assume the section they are teaching in Spring 1 will be OK for summer, especially if they have a Spring 2 section that is already configured for ten weeks. Asking the faculty which section to dupe shows respect for the instructor and recognition of their work.
4. New faculty: Now is the time to follow up with them and, if you need to, bug them to get their paperwork to the office. I have one potential faculty who was very gung-ho a few weeks ago, but I haven't heard from her since. When do you realize that this person isn't going to follow through and that you need to find someone else? Can't say but there does come a point in that process for me.
5. Misc: Have you ordered books for your new faculty? Have you chosen a mentor for them? How about training, got them on the list yet?

I love summer and our summer semester will be here in no time. It's best to get organized now so that you can enjoy your hammock and umbrella drinks later on. Take some advice from Jimmy...

You need to go to Summerzcool
Get to the beach or at least to the pool.
Time to go to Summerzcool
Remember what is and what is not cool.

http://buffethotel.margaritaville.com/welcome.html

Communication and Collaboration

I have a vested interest in K-12 education for several reasons:

• That's what I wanted to do when I grew up (high school History teacher).
• I enjoyed working the classroom when my daughters were in elementary school.
• We have two little grandchildren who will be going to school in the not too distant future.
• This is my program area (Elementary Ed and Early Childhood Ed).
• K-12 education is moving ahead in technology and what happens in the lower level effects us in higher ed.

The International Society for Technology in Education has developed 6 Standards for (K-12) Students "What students should know and be able to do to learn effectively and live productively in an increasingly digital world …” http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/NETS_for_Students.htm

• Creativity and Innovation
• Communication and Collaboration
• Research and Information Fluency
• Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
• Digital Citizenship
• Technology Operations and Concepts

In my Intro to Computer classes, I'm about to embark on a group project that would fit right into the Communication and Collaboration standard.

Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:

1. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.
2. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
3. develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures.
4. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.

http://www.hotchalk.com/mydesk/index.php/all-articles/888-iste-netss-part-2-communication-and-collaboration

We are just getting started this week and the first part of the assignment is to choose a group and participate in the small group discussion about the project. They will choose a Web 2.0 application to research and write about and then upload that short report to a class wiki. I'm using D2L's Groups tool which allows students to self-select their own groups. I will keep you posted about the progess of this project.

Moving Forward with Technology

How long do you plan on teaching with CCCOnline or online in general? More than for the next two years or so? There’s a lot going on in the field of K-12 education that will impact us in the very near future.

Over the past couple of weeks my email mailbox has been flooded with all kinds of information about online learning and technology. One item that caught my eye was an email announcing the New Education Technology Plan released by the Department of Education. This plan is aimed at K-12 and teacher education programs. So why should higher ed be mindful of these proposed changes?

If you plan on teaching for more than the next couple of years, the students who will be impacted by these proposed changes in this report will be our students in the future and they will demand more and better technology from instructors and colleges. Remember we’re talking about K-12 students here and the teachers (and future teachers) that are in the classroom with them. I would even venture to say that we should extend some of these ideas to Pre-K.

This report calls for an increase in online learning opportunities for K-12 and the development and use of technology to “to reach all learners anytime and anywhere”. It suggests using the “power of technology to improve learning” which I’m guessing is more than having 5th graders put together a PowerPoint or first graders using Reader Rabbit. Online learning opportunities for K-12…….so in the not too distant future we will have a population of students who will have been involved with online learning for several years prior to walking through our virtual doors. I can hear a lot of you saying “Great!” and I would agree with you all. But, are we ready for them?

If they have previous experience with online learning, then their expectations will be high for our programs and for each instructor. Do you think they will be content with posting to a discussion board and writing papers when they were building content through student wikis, telling stories through digital storytelling, taking virtual field trips and editing video, audio and images in addition to posting these online or even collaborating online with students in different states or countries?

Equally important are the recommendations for teachers to have opportunities to learn new technology AND how to effectively use these technologies in a classroom. This report also suggests educators should design and participate in online learning communities themselves to further their collaboration and knowledge and provide access to sources of teaching and learning research and practice. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve heard my Intro to Computer students say they are taking my class because their kids know more about computers than they do. This is probably the case in a lot of K-12 classrooms as well. Finally someone is realizing that classroom teachers need support to learn and implement new technologies and to keep current with this field. Here’s an example of an opportunity for K-12 teachers: International Society for Technology in Education http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/2010/program/sessions_by_time.php

Will higher ed, and our program specifically, also start to move up the technology ladder to provide access and learning opportunities for faculty to investigate new technologies and to reward faculty for working with and using new technologies in their virtual classroom? I know in the ECE program, we are moving both our faculty and the statewide faculty up the tech ladder as we incorporate more technologies in our ECE classes. We’ve talked with employers who have told us that our students are not technically prepared when they leave any of our programs. It’s time we realize that we can’t stay technologically stagnant in preparing our students for real world situations.

So even if you are in a different academic area, the references below give us a lot to think about for our kids and for our future students:

“Transforming American Education: Learning Powered By Technology”:

• Abstract: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/os/technology/netp-executive-summary.pdf
  
• Full Report: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list"/os/technology/netp.pdf

What are they thinking????

This has been a frustrating week. Technology and I haven’t been getting along at all and while I’m not one to give in to any piece of software, I’m ready to say “uncle” and give up the fight. I am having a bad case of spring fever which I get every year about this time when the hint of spring is in the air and the sun and warm weather are calling me outside. But what really put me over the top this week are the students, my students and my program’s students. What are they thinking? Or are they????

From the “You just can’t make this stuff up” file:

• An email from a student who is enrolled in a spring 2 course who hasn’t been in class yet “Oh…I didn’t realize I was in this class (now three weeks into it). Can I make up all the work?” And you've been where all this time???


• A student grousing about test questions: “I want you to speak with your boss and have them hire me to QA the test questions.” Yea, right…let me get my checkbook.


• From a student who turned in a six sentence file for an assignment requiring a thoughtful one page observation: “How come I don’t get any points for my assignments? You don’t help me. I’m going to speak with your dean!” This is in spite of the fact the instructor gives extensive feedback and an opportunity to resend revised homework for a week after due date.


• From one of my students who contacted the Help Desk the afternoon of the day the assignment was due: “The Help Desk wasn’t helpful. They didn’t explain the homework to me.” Yes, we'll work on their customer service skills.


• Another of my students who has not submitted any assignments (spring2) yet…her explanation as to why: “My first computer broke. The screen went black so I bought another computer. It doesn’t work either.” Sure hope you saved the receipt!

One of the unwritten duties in the chair job description is to be a virtual therapist for your faculty. I encourage my instructors to alert me to any potential student problem along the way, big or small, whether it turns into an issue or not. I tell my faculty to document any issues throughout the semester just in case we need it later. Usually we don’t but those times we’ve needed documentation, it was handy.

I think we need to advocate for a Spring Break for CCCOnline! I sure could use one about now.

Connecting with students or not so much

My daughter and I each got a new cell phones a few weeks ago and she figured hers out right away. Her fingers were flying on that mini keypad texting here and there. Slowly, I am still discovering new features of my phone. Oddly, strange apps pop up unexpectedly which I can't seem to delete or let alone use. I guess I am not as e-connected as the younger generation and I'm not sure I want to be.

Here's an interesting and disturbing article which I think we'll be running into more and more as our online social networking personas seem to clash with our professional lives. http://educationtechnews.com/innocent-texting-with-student-gets-teacher-suspended/. This teacher was suspended and on his was to being fired for texting a student.

What about you? Do you text, have a FaceBook page, a LinkedIn page, a Twitter account? Do you communicate with your students using any of these mediums? In your opinion, is this appropriate? We are finding that more students are not using email to communicate personally and otherwise. Is texting our students the next step? How about teaching a class through FaceBook? Will we lose our professionalism or control of our class?

I do have a FaceBook page but chose to use my maiden name to set it up specifically so that none of my students would be able to find me. I never thought, however, that two old boyfriends would be trolling through FaceBook and contact me after a couple of decades! Boy was I stunned!

Your Teaching and Learning Philosophy--Do you have one?

One common assignment throughout the ECE-EDU program is to have students write their Teaching Philosophy. While being an important assignment for both beginning teachers and seasoned veterans alike to critically think about how they teach, why and what they can do better, I’ve heard through my faculty that this is a difficult assignment for many. So I decided to do a little research and put together a few ideas for my faculty to use to help their students construct this philosophy statement.

Along the way, I stumbled upon several good resources geared toward writing a teaching philosophy statement for college faculty. It occurred to me that we don’t ask our faculty and prospective faculty for their statements, unlike other institutions of higher learning (especially the four years). Why not? Our job is to teach so that students will learn particular subject content. Wouldn’t it be appropriate to ask prospective faculty what their philosophy/attitude/ideas are toward teaching and learning, especially in an online environment? Or do you do this in the interview process?

I understand that many programs at our level of the educational spectrum do not require instructors to have taken any methods of teaching, adult learning or other education courses. We want our faculty to be SMEs or Subject Matter Experts. This does not guarantee that anyone who is knowledgeable in a certain subject can effectively impart this knowledge to anyone else, let alone assess the effectiveness of that process. I am lucky to have been trained as an educator and have taken many methods and theory courses and my faculty group are also trained educators. But what about the rest of the faculty? Shouldn't SME's have some idea about how they teach and why they do what they do?

What is a Statement of Teaching and Learning Philosophy? It’s a brief (about 1 page) statement presenting personal ideas of the teaching and learning process and the instructor’s role in these processes. It is important to give examples from your own experience, either your teaching experience or your learning experience as a student over the years. Some areas that could be addressed in this statement include answers to the following questions:

• What are my or views on how adults learn and how can I facilitate that learning?
• What goals do I have for my students and why?
• How do I transform my concepts about teaching and learning and goals for my students into classroom practices?
• How do I know that my classroom practices are effective? What assessments do I use?
• What qualities do you believe an effective teacher should have?
• What should your students expect from you?

Another interesting idea I found for college instructors was a “syllabus version” of the Teaching Philosophy which is a much shortened version of the larger philosophy. We do have a general expectation statement in every course but that was written by someone else and most of us probably haven’t read that in years. Why not write your own “syllabus version” of your philosophy? Really think about how you teach our adult and non-traditional students, why you teach in that fashion, what you expect of students, what they can expect from you and how all this relates to your goals (and the students goals) for the course. This will help you clarify the teaching process for you and inform your students of your general ideas and goals.

For more information see:

• Step-by-Step Tutorial U of Minnesota
• Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement: Ohio State Univ Center for Adv of Teaching

Grading with a rubric

Once you have your rubric set up, it's not hard to grade assignments with it. I open two windows, one for the rubric and one where I can see student assignments. I have my rubric typed in Word.

• Open the student submission in the Dropbox making sure the Leave Feedback window is open.
  
• Review the student's work.
  
• Copy the rubric from Word.


• Paste the rubric in the Feedback window using the "Paste from Word" button on the Advanced tab. This will paste your rubric into the Feedback box where you can mark up the appropriate grades. (Or if you want, mark up the rubric grid in Word and then paste it complete in the Feedback box.)
  
  I use bold or font color change to highlight the points earned per criteria. Add any other comments. Then total the points and enter that into the grade box. It's that simple.

Do You Rubric?

Several years ago, when my older daughter was in junior high school, she came home complaining about a project for one of her classes. I asked her what was it about and of course she rolled her eyes and said, “I don’t know Mom. We haven’t gotten the rubrics yet!” And with that she stomped off. Other than that being an example of typical junior high behavior, the word that caught my attention was “rubrics” (and the fact that she used that big of a word!). Our colleagues in the K-12 world have been using rubrics for a long time but it hasn’t really caught on in higher ed.

When grading assignments or other assessments, how do you grade? Do you grade on feeling —"I know this work is good"? Or do you have a set of criteria by which you evaluate the student’s work?

Rubrics are statements which define the requirements for the learning activity, criteria for evaluating the learning activity, and degree of quality for each criterion. While this seems like a daunting task for faculty, rubrics are not that difficult to write. They do take some time to determine the evaluation criteria (or elements) and the quality levels of each criteria.

Writing a rubric:

1. First, determine what is important in the learning activity. What will be assessed?
2. Identify these elements or criteria for evaluation.
3. What are the levels of quality for each element? How many levels will be needed?
4. Determine the characteristics for attaining each element. What are the descriptors of quality?
5. Assign point values to each element and its degree of quality.

There are advantages to using rubrics when grading assignments.

• Rubrics clearly define the activity and how it will be assessed.
• Rubrics provide a method for meaningful feedback to the student for improvement.
• All assignments evaluated against the same criteria.

Rubrics are also useful for the student by clearly defining the activity and what is needed to be successful. This helps students take control of their own learning and performance in class.
Rubrics can be used as a guide while completing the learning activity and as a self-assessment tool prior to submitting the assignment for grading.

Rubrics can be in any format that works for you and your students. Some faculty like a grid-like format, others like a narrative format. In addition, there are several online rubric-generators that prompt you through the creation process.

Rubric Design Studio

Rubric Builder

Rubistar
Advantages of Rubrics
List of Rubrics Builders

Next post, how to grade with a rubric.

Through the eyes of a child

They say that nothing makes you look at the same old things differently like having kids. Our daughters are grown and now we have little grandchildren, one boy and one girl. We get to spend a lot of time with both of them and I have revisited a lot of the books, toys and activities my daughters enjoyed. I’m back to playing with Little People; reading Cinderella, Snow White, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty over and over; making tents; zooming trucks around the kitchen and building castles with Duplo blocks. When our daughters were young, these activities became old and I lost my enthusiasm for them. Now that we have new little people, the excitement is back.

The same can be said about teaching the same class over and over. Have you lost the excitement or enthusiasm for the subject matter? Are the assignments, discussions and assessments the same as when you first started teaching this class so that you can teach it in your sleep? (I’ve heard that from fellow instructors!) It’s time to inject something new into your class!

The question now becomes “what can I do?” A quick spark would be a new discussion topic or two. I have some “canned” discussion topics that always seem to work and that I recycle in my classes, but I also incorporate new and more current topics every semester. I hide the upcoming topics from student view so that if I want to change the topic, the students have not already seen it. (Click the Edit pencil next to the topic name, scroll down a bit and you’ll see a checkbox for “Hide this topic”. Remember to “Make the topic visible” when you’re ready to open it to students.)

Or go bigger and incorporate new technologies that enhance student learning or offer students the opportunity to present their knowledge acquisition in different ways. In one of my classes, we include a student wiki project where the students choose the topics and build the content rather than having the textbook or instructor give them the content. This took some planning and it is still a work in progress but overall, it’s been successful.

Go ahead…look at your class through the eyes of a child and add some new excitement for you and your students.