Adult 642, final reflection

What are the opportunities for adult learning emerging from new communication technologies, especially around new information access and social media? What are the challenges in designing instruction for the new technologies?

We’ve talked about MOOCs so much in the program, but I still think they are one of the best emerging and growing ways for adults to learn. I’ve seen stories on MOOCs on morning talk shows. So many stories in the big papers are popping up.

When I did the student services for Summer Studies, I would get calls daily about teacher recertification courses. Coursera is expanding their offerings to include continuing education for teachers. I think this is a fantastic idea–one of the best programs to come out of MOOCs. K-12 Teachers are required to take recertification classes and keep up with the latest in classroom technologies as well as new developments in the topics they teach. It is brilliant to bring these classes online. I know many K-12 teachers–most are very educated young women and many are new mothers. An online recertification program would allow them to stay home instead of spending so much time outside of the house. Making a course self-directed over a semester would also work with busy teacher schedules.

A record number of teachers are retiring all across the country and I think the educational system would really benefit from making something easier for current and future teachers. I often don’t think of this as adult education, but it is a huge market and potentially, someone could make a lot of money of of this.

I tried to take a MOOC–sadly, I didn’t have enough time–but I was blown away by the rate of self-organization among the students, particularly on social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs etc.). MOOCs are showing what is possible for other hybrid and online classes. The Facebook group was so well-organized that there many documents on the page that gathered the social media sites of the students. Once I put my name on the Twitter list, I had twenty new followers, including the class’ instructor.

I don’t think Dr. Cowles’ students would be as motivated as the students in the MOOC I was in (it was about educational technology so the participants had a vested interest in the topic and the use of ed tech), but if we build a culture around online meetings, self-organization and social media, I think education–particularly adult education, since, according to some theories, adults are better at self-directed learning, which is more common in online education.

Designing instruction for these kinds of courses will differ greatly from in person instruction. There will be more videos, podcasts, webinars, message boards and social media to keep students engaged. I think this will require technology-savvy adult educators to step forward and move education in this direction (I’m thinking of Lindsey and Joanne designing training for older educators–it is a tough job).

I think Jeff’s class last semester opened our eyes to the amount of technologies available that can benefit instruction. It would be very difficult to keep up with all these new apps and social media sites. Departments like the CTE should exist at all universities that can sustain a program like it. Without a core group of designers and technologists doing the research, it would be difficult for teachers to find out methods to improve instruction through technology.

I fear that sometimes it will be difficult to strike the right balance in designing online courses–I, personally, love new technologies but I don’t want them to get in the way of quality information. Designers will have to judge, based on research and knowing the audience, if having the students read about the Abilene paradox (hey, 612!) is better than a video of the writer. Find a balance between technology and traditional instruction is not new, but it is becoming a tougher challenge in the digital age.

Photo of the child from the Netherland’s Photo Archives & computer lab photo from San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive, both on flickr.

Adult 612, reflection five

What will I take with me through the rest of the program and beyond?

• The idea of a charter. This has been a particularly prescient topic at work lately, as I have witnessed a terribly ineffective group try to complete a very important task. There was no set time table, even though there is certainly a deadline, and the leader, who has never been on a committee like this before, is having difficulty getting people to make decisions. I floated the idea of a charter to my supervisor, who works closely with these committees and ALSO went through the Adult Learning program. She agreed that maybe a formal charter is not the best idea for these folks but maybe completion of a task timeline that everyone agrees will help streamline the process. There have been many arguments that my supervisor has had to facilitate over email that probably wouldn’t have happened if there was something in writing.
• Going to Abilene. I know this essay affected other classmates as much as it did me. I think that sometimes going to Abilene is necessary, especially if you are not a risk-taker and stay firmly in your comfort zone all the time. Maybe I’m an insane optimist, but I like to think that you can learn from even the worst life experiences, so being open to Abilene is a positive trait. I will definitely look at my choices differently and ask how it will affect my life and the lives of others before I do it.

• Group life in general. I have discussed ad nauseum how much I’ve loved working in groups in the Adult Learning program, however, this class put theories and words to all the things I have learned. I like how the program works in that way–you get a bunch of practical experience about groups and teams before you actually learn the theory behind it. It helps make sense of all the readings (even the paradoxes!).
• Presentation skills. While the focus of our facilitations was to work with our group, I also learned so much about presenting and teaching. I really enjoyed that each presentation and learning activity was different. One of the things I’m learning in Adult 642, Design & Delivery of Online Programs, is that the best group activities in instructional design are ones you’ve done yourself. You know they work. I have been out of school for a while and I do not train (with activities) at work, so I have trouble imagining learning activities. I am now more conscious of the activities we do with Dr. Hurst and the ones we did with our groups. I’m filing all of them away for perhaps my future career.

A few of these things I covered in my last paper (in different words) but I did want to share them on my blog. What did you learn in class that you will take with you?

Adult 612, reflection four

I was pretty happy with our first presentation. I know ours was different than the other groups but once April showed us the learning pyramid we knew we couldn’t stand up and lecture:

The second presentation, which we are giving tonight, fits into the same pyramid–we’re going to be in the yellow “practice”section.

Honestly, I have never been a fan of group work until I started this program. It always made me nervous–not that I would be stuck with a loafer but that I would be that person and people would be disappointed in me. I always do the work and the readings but I think there’s always a chance that I don’t know as much as the people around me. And role playing? Fugghettaboutit. I don’t like dressing up for Halloween and being someone else for a night so I certainly don’t like “acting” in a role play situation either.

After studying how group work helps learning and discovering my own beliefs in social constructivism, I have completely changed my mind about it.

I know I keep saying it (and I will probably say it again in my last reflection) but this program and class have really changed the way I view myself, education and especially the way groups work. Learning theory in this case has informed my own practice.

One of my instructor friends, who is working on a PhD in the humanities and is insanely smart, recently told me that I was getting my degree in something useful, unlike his studies. At first I thought–I’m not even an instructor; I don’t even know what I want to do with this degree yet. But then I realized that what I am learning to practice is completely useful. Groups & Teams is another class where I will save my books and articles after it’s over and pull them from my shelf to

I wrote this in my blog for 642, but for that class I am suddenly group-less because I picked a project to work on alone. And it is lonely. There is a sense of community and fun to group work that isn’t present in solo work. Plus, having someone to bounce ideas off of is priceless. Once of my (very wonderful!) classmates invited me to go to Starbucks with her so we can work together, separately, on our projects. I’m really excited and hope that it helps motivate me even more. We talked a lot in class about the theory of finding a group and your place in it but a functional, long-lasting group is special!
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I talked a bit to April in one of our group meetings about how all three of the movies we watched in class were male-centered. While it’s difficult to think of movies where a group of women work together for a common goal here are a few:

All I Wanna Do: A group of female students band together to prevent their school from going co-ed. Written and directed by a woman, Sarah Kernochan.

A League of Their Own: The first female baseball teams during WWII. Also written and directed by women!

North Country: About the first successful sexual harassment class action suit. Directed by a woman!

Of course passing the Bechdel Test is important and I think all of these movies do that, though the girls in All I Wanna Do are boy-crazed-teenagers.

Can you think of anything else? Is all the good feminist work happening in TV? Do I need to see more indie movies?

Adult 642, reflection twelve

This week I’m a little more on task–Wednesday’s class time and conversation with Joyce my old group really helped focus my work. I think I initially thought I had time for more work, but I’m working alone so the scope of my project is smaller than a few of the others.

I’m currently

• rewriting the syllabus and calendar/agenda/etc.: this is much more tedious than I thought it would be! I have a deeper respect for teachers after working on these documents. It reminded me of a lot of the updating I do for work when I send out the Summer Scheduling Package–correcting all the dates for each session, replacing all the “2012″s with “2013″s.
• Assignments: decided to do three debates in class, which was in our original plan (and was actually my idea! YAY!), so I’m doing a bit of Internet research on this activity. I hope to have instructions and a rubric ready before Wednesday–I’ll post them to the Wiki. I would LOVE your feedback.

Other

• Building Self and Peer Assessment in Blackboard for the service diaries
• Jitt: Creating a Google Doc for students to answer questions weekly that will help drive class refresh lectures.

I was looking forward to doing a project on my own, especially something technical like this one. Springtime gets really busy for me, socially (birthdays, anniversaries, Record Store Day, etc.), so it’s harder to fit group meetings into my schedule. But working alone is actually pretty lonely! It’s difficult not to have anyone with whom I can discuss ideas, though my poor husband sure has gotten an earful.

Adult 642, reflection eleven

I’m sitting here on a Saturday night, watching this week’s Nashville, barely, while also working on three different school projects. This is the second night in a row of this. And Y’ALL (maybe that’s my Rayna James/Tami Taylor coming out), I am tired. Burned out.

This time of the semester is always hard for me–so many things to keep up with. But I can’t keep up with my personal life either. It took me many hours over facebook to solidfy meal plans with two of my girlfriends because we (mostly me) were all too busy. I am turning down lots of invites that I don’t get when the weather is colder and school is less stressful. I’m going away overnight this week for my anniversary and I’m worried about getting project time in before that. My job is entering the super busy season too!

So how do my fellow classmates manage this insanely crazy time of year? So far I’ve tried walking outdoors (helps, but allergies), drinking (it’s a depressant, people!), doing fun stuff (just made me feel guilty about not doing schoolwork), cleaning (same result as the previous one), making lists (not really active) and some other things that didn’t help. How do I prevent further burn out?
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I’m working on my 40% project and I have only logged a handful of hours, which seems really low. I guess I didn’t count the endless hours of thinking. I am doing it in pieces, checking things off my list, which is the only way to not get completely overwhelmed. I want to do a great job but I also don’t want to stress myself going overboard–there is a time limit and I am working within those boundaries.

Things I’m currently doing:

• Converting all the Word documents on the site to PDFs. This is very tedious, but I much prefer PDFs in Blackboard. It opens in your browser instead of a new window and, as an iPad owner, I love how tablet-friendly PDFs are. I expect this, along with the site reorg, will take the most time but will overall have the greatest impact for the students.
• Working on the class blog. Instead of the Announcements, Dr. Cowles will be able to post to a VCU WordPress blog, which I will try to collect in an RSS feed on the Blackboard site. This gives students the ability to respond to the current news and information she posts and engage more with the material. I’m posting directions and information about all of this in the site.
• So much of this is being written in Google Drive. In the past year it’s become my most used technology. I am drafting some blog verbage in it and I’m using it to keep track of my time spent, amongst other things (like keeping a draft list for fantasy baseball!). I like that I can update any of this at work when I have a random thought in the middle of the day or in bed when I’m reading, I can close my iBook and type into my iPad app.

Future thoughts:

• Dr. Cowles is switching to a new textbook and it might affect the reorganization. This is something I will have to work with her on in the next few weeks.
• Redesigning course instructions to include new technology?
• Blueprint assignment. This is done within a Blackboard process that I have to teach myself. I know very little about class creation and maintenance in Bb so this will take me longer than I would like.
• Setting up course blogs inside Bb?
• A little design work with banners and photos.
• Updating course documents for dates and new hybrid information.
• Making the course schedule a Word table and merging it with the assignments document.

Also this is the first project I’m doing without my group and I miss them a lot! I wish I was Google Plusing with you ladies this weekend!

Adult 642, reflection ten

I’m really proud of the work Katherine, Wally and I have been doing all semester! Kat and I met in person once in the beginning (when we didn’t really know what we were doing), but everything else was communicated via email, Google Hangout, or in five minute brainstorming sessions in class.

At first, I was really worried about doing enough work and giving the instructors plenty of ideas, but after the first project we quickly realized that more wasn’t better. Having well thought-out, organized ideas that are clearly presented is the key to these instructional design projects.

As I begin my “40% project,” a WordPress site and Blackboard organization for Dr. Cowles’ Marketing class, I am realizing how important the planning, pre-work stages of this project are. 25 hours is not a lot of time. I could spend that just reading about certain Blackboard attributes and learning theory about LMSes. I spent at least three times that on my final project for 641. The time limit is truly the most difficult part of the process. Time management will be another life skill I perfect in this program (along with working in groups, communication, brainstorming, setting goals and many more).

I am going to keep a good record of how I spend my 25 hours and then reflect on it here. Did I use my time wisely? How much time did I spend reading and researching versus doing? What did I learn? I’m hoping that holding myself to weekly reflections will 1. assure I work at least 5 hours a week and 2. keep me honest about my progress.

I’m looking forward to the next few weeks and the challenges this final project will bring.

Photo from the Library of Congress on flickr.

Adult 642, reflection nine

On Tuesday, I attended the first of three Digital Pragmata sessions at Cabel Library. The three panelists, along with the moderator created a lively discussion about visualizing digital scholarship. I tried to follow the discussion on #digprag but was focused on taking notes. The session was video recorded and will likely appear on the VCU Libraries’ You Tube channel, if you would like to catch up on the discussion.

Digital humanities is visualizing research so scholars can see something they couldn’t see before. It might look nothing like we imagine. This is a great way to find new patterns in a different way from text on a page.  Dr. Ayers, the president of University of Richmond, presented two of his projects involving history and visualization. The first, Valley of the Shadow, was something he began work on at UVA at the dawn of the Internet. He said it was very difficult to get money to fund this project, as many did not see it as true scholarship.

Dr. Ayers also created the Digital Scholarship Lab at UR. He showed us this map of where emancipation took place during the Civil War by date. As a photographer, I am obsessed with this project on the Latinization of the south. My wheels started turning during this presentation, thinking about ways this technology could help my husband’s portfolio or my own, which is not even online anywhere.

Amanda French from GMU spoke next, and showed a variety of ways to visual research. These were posted on her blog but since I’ve now had time to explore them I thought I’d share some opinions.

Bamboo Dirt: a very well-designed database of digital resource tools. Many of these could come in handy in our blogs and projects. I really like that there’s a section for iPad apps: there are so many out there and I’m having trouble figuring out which ones can best support my work. This site is curative, so it doesn’t include everything, but it’s a fantastic jumping off point.

Tapor.ca: If you like Wordle but are looking for a new way to visualize words, this site can help. Beyond that, there are tons of resources for extracting and analyzing data.

Image Plot: Lev Manovich is an important name in the digital humanities (he’s speaking at VCU in April!), and this software creates a visual graph of images.  I can see this being used by artists, magazines, and folks who are just interested in visual media.

MediaCommons: Amanda used this as an example, but MC is a place where scholars can put their research on the Internet and have it vetted by others–like Wikipedia for scholarly research! This does not yet count as peer-reviewed, but it’s a cool way to get very specific feedback.

I know these tools are overwhelming but they could supplement our general work as grad students and also our work as technology experts!

Like other university departments and disciplines, the digital scholars of today would like to see an increase in community and idea-sharing. Sessions like Digital Pragmata and Amanda French’s project THATcamp are an excellent start to this discussion.

Admittedly, I did sign up for these as a way for me to explore digital themes in the context of me trying to figure out what the hell I want to do with my life. I’m inspired to maybe one day apply to VCU’s MATX program, not to prepare for a future as a professor (I read enough articles about how hard it is to compete for jobs) but perhaps as a creator of visual scholarship. Or as a website designer. Or information architect. Or ????. As you can see, I don’t think I’m any closer to deciding what my future career is. I want to do IT ALL.

Wild Flag photo by me. Visualization of Time magazine covers and Manga pages from Image Plot website.