Module 7

We are at the end of the course! This week I worked hard on creating my final project. I created 4 assessment tools and related them to my course about food safety and HACCP. I feel I learned a lot through this project. It helped me try to relate my content to an online course and how to use different assessment tools.

I received great feedback from an individual student. She helped me drastically create my final project. The small errors I did not see, she did. Classmate feedback is great because as the person developing the project you may not see the little thing

Module 5 Reflection

Module 6 was a great way for me to look at different learning exercises. By looking at the other students charts it gave me a feel of what they would do and made my mind think how I could implement different exercises in my online courses.

One student asked if I would be able to use online chatting in as a discussion. I think this a great way to get instant feedback from students. I have used it in a small group before when doing a project for an online course. It worked great! I just wonder how many students would be able to meet at a specific time each week, I think it would be hard to gather the entire class to use online chatting.

Bloom's Taxomony

Sometimes I wonder how my content will be able to fit into an online course. I feel that a lot of my content for classes I will teach is more of a hands on lab experience.

Looking at the Bloom's taxomony I could relate to putting the information online easily. There are so many tools to use that are available to discuss, work as groups, collaborate, etc. Like many other students have commented on using Wiki or Google docs. I think these are great tools for the students to collect all their thoughts. splitting the class into small groupsand trying to solve the issue is also a great way to work online. I think it is important to make them small, having more than 3 or 4 people in a group makes it very difficult for students to work together in an online enviroment. Disscusion boards are also a great tool for students to throw around their different ideas and make comments on other students. Discussion boards can serve as the only discussion in the online classroom. Having an active discussion is important because there is no face-to-face contact.
Harke taxonomy.doc (92 KB)

New Link to Midterm!

https://bluedrive.uwstout.edu/users/students/stagerg/flash/toolbox.html

Here is a new link that should work.

This project really turned out great. Stags had great skills to put together this great and creative website. I enjoyed working with everyone on this project. Everything came together perfect. Communication was kind of hard for me. It seemed like a lot of the communication took place while I was at work, so I missed out on that.

Midterm Project

For the midterm project we used the "jigsaw" method of doing group work. Jigsaw is where a project is divided up evenly through the group members. Through this project I worked with:
* Gregory Stager- reviewed Adobe Captivate
* Dustin Miller- reviewed E pals
* Nancy Chapko- reviewed Quia
* Christopher Danula- Microsoft Grove

http://https://bluedrive.uwstout.edu/users/students/stagerg/flash/toolbox.html

Emerging Technologies

Something that sparked my attention right in the beginning of the document was "Emerging technologies." I was speaking with one of my instructors about online courses. He has been teaching at Stout for about 30 years. He is being forced to facilitate online courses. He does not like online courses because he likes the face-to-face interaction of students. This is a very hard thing for instructors to move to when they have always taught in the classroom. I have notice in my program that the majority of classes are offered online. Why is this, why is everything going online? In 10 years, do you feel like everything will be onlnie? Another question I have is cost for online course cheaper or more expensive? Does the school pay money to have a online system to teach classes?
Some great benefits of the emerging technologies is that instructors are now able to have their grade book online. As a student I really like this concept. I am always able to keep on top of how I am doing in the course. This also helps the instructor because they do not have to keep calculating grades for students. Another perk is that instructors are able to have the exams/quizzes all online. This is helpful because the instructor does not need to correct the exams, unless they are short answer.
I have been a teachers assistant for a couple years at Stout, helping instructors with grading and duties. I have had the opportunity to enter grades and upload content. Entering grades was not easy to me. It seemed to be hard to navigate around, because only so many students were listed on each page. I have also heard my instructors complain about the Learn@UWsystem. I believe that this will change. After time new upgrades will occur and make things easier for both the student and instructor.

** I got quite the response on this topic.

Module 3

Module 3 was something new for me to explore again. I have never used Inspiration or have done a course map. Inspiration was a great tool and I would like to become more familiar with it. I haven't figure out what I all can do yet with it. I think using a map can be easier for some people to understand rather than words in an outline. One thing I think is very important is to make it as clear as possible. Sometimes maps can get confusing and people get lost from where each "bubble" goes from one another. I did the same web in word before I discovered I was suppose to use Inspiration. One question I still have is, is there anything different between the two?

I enjoyed reading the "30 Emerging Technologies in Education" article. The different topics were very interesting and I gained a lot of knowledge by reading it and reading the different postings other students had about the article.

Module 2 Reflection

This week I finally figured out how to successfully create a blog. After reading the provided readings I came up with some good thoughts about blogs. I really believe it is easier for individuals to sit at a computer and write their thoughts vs. writing on paper. For a younger student, using the internet to journalize could be an incentive. I really like the fact that others can look at the entries and make comments.

I had a very difficult time just getting a user name set up. I tried every site provided in the content and only one worked. Once I got it set up I didn't like that I wasn't able to create an attractive page. Finally I got this to work and so far I like it. I look forward to learning more and becoming more familiar with blogs!

Educational Blogs

The following are advantages and disadvantages of educational blogs. They are related to the case studies in the course content.

Advantages
-create cooperative learning groups- group students into groups to work together and show how group work can be integrated into online course work.
- Use of technology- sometimes this can motivate individuals because the like using technology rather than writing on paper
-Increases their writing ability- students don't feel as pressured to write
- Students lead the learning- they are able to communicate more effectively with the class as a whole. Students learn to manage their time, process information, and evaluate their learning.

Disadvantages
- Students can sometimes say too much. Since blogs are a place to journalize students are free to say their opinions, ideas, and attitudes.
- Time management- Some students will not take the time to read each students blogs.
- Inaccurate information- Some information provided in the blog may me incorrect information from the student.

Getting to Know Me

I was first interview by Erica Hartman. This is how she introduced me...
I was a bit naive, I thought everyone in the class would have a K-12 Education background. However, as I found out by interviewing Holly Harke, there is quite a bit of diversity when it comes to back grounds.
Holly lives in Menomonie Wisconsin and is a full time graduate student. She graduated in May with an undergraduate in Hotel, Restaurant, and Hotel Mgmt. She plans to teach at a technical college after a few years working in the hospitality industry.
Three adjectives she would use to describe herself is hardworking, determined, and level-headed.
Holly is a "digital native" because she grew up using computers and technology. Some of her favorite websites are facebook.com and careerbuilder.com.
Her favorite form of assessment is anything that requires "hands on" - "it demonstrates that the students really know how to do the concept"

I was also interviewed by Holly Jeffery. She chose to interview me because both of our names are Holly. This is what she said....

Given that both of us are named Holly, we discussed what attributes we share. We agreed that over achievement must come along with the name Holly. Holly Harke always takes on loads that seem to be too heavy but she does well anyway.She plans to work in the hospitality field for a couple of years as well as teaching part-time. However, although she loves the hospitality field, she can’t see herself remaining in it for the rest of her life because of the hours. So, when she needs to cut back to just a full-time-hours position, she plans to teach full-time.Holly H. would like to remain in the Fox Valley, teaching at the Appleton campus of the Fox Valley Technical College. Actually, she hadn't planned to go to college but when she was at loose ends after high school graduation, her father, got her into some classes at the FVTC.
Holly H. has been taking the E-learning classes because she needs some 700-level classes for her masters in CTE. She plans to take enough of these classes to complete her masters degree requirements, possibly taking the remainder for certification at a later date.

I think interview classmates is a great way to interact in a online class setting. It gets students acquainted with a couple different students in the class. I know that if I have a problem throughout the course I can go to either Erica or Holly easier, knowing that I have interacted with them already. Interviews are also a great because you get the sense of who everyone is over the internet and creates a relationship. I always enjoy learning what everyone is doing in their career.

Intro

Welcome to my blog! I have never done a blog before, so this is all new to me. I intend to keep this updated through my Assessment of E-learning class and use it as a reflection tool. I look forward to becoming very familiar with the tool, so I can hopefully use it in the classroom.