Adventures in Education

Week 7 in Review:

Week 7 was dedicated to completing the first draft of our final project.  The project was a continuation of our midterm jigsaw assignment, without the group element.  Our assignment was to select a online course that we would like to teach.  Once the course was selected, we were to identify 4 tools which would be used to assist in assessing our students in their completion of the course.  In my case, I designed my project around an online photography class for high school students.  Student assessment involved Zoomerang, wikis, EduBlogs, and Flickr.  In addition, learning objectives were identified for the course and linked to the appropriate tools and level of Bloom’s taxonomy.  The final presentation was made using iWeb and the results can be seen here.

Overall Experience:

This project pushed me to expand my understanding of assessment and how it ties into student learning.  Rather then try to determine the best assessment tool at the last minute, I now understand that assessment methods should be identified and selected in close association with learning objectives.  I enjoy the intellectual challenge of identifying the ideal learning objective/assessment combination.  I look forward to applying this knowledge in the future.

This past week has been all about completing the first draft of my final project.  The project looks at four assessment tools that would be used when teaching an online photography class.  The draft of the project can be viewed here.

Week 6 in Review:

Week 6 saw us exploring the concept of cybercoaching, an educational approach that emphasizes a student’s continuous awareness of their own success in developing transferable skills.  This exploration involved reading and comparing Casey’s journalism class (previous analysis can be found here) with an online journalism course described by Datta Khalsa (2001).  The comparison was interesting, particularly the degree of control students in the online course were given over their own learning.  Rather then depending on an all knowing expert to dispense knowledge, cybercoaching emphasizes the use of group collaboration to make real-world accomplishments.

We also explored online surveys, creating a pre-course survey for an online class of our choice.  I chose to use Zoomerang, an online site that permits 30 questions surveys to be created and distributed at no charge.  Professional accounts are available, and offer many advanced features, but are beyond my current needs.  My survey can be viewed here.

Finally, we continue to work on our final exam project, for which the rough draft is due next week.

Overall Experience:

This week was instructional but hectic.  I spent the later half of the week attending a photography conference and was not able to complete several of the assignments until the end of the week.  I also was not able to participate in the discussion forums as much as I would have liked.  On the plus side, my access to the course while on the road clearly demonstrated that participating in an online course is possible provided internet access is available.  As for the material, I am intrigued with the concept of cybercoaching. While far less linear in format, cybercoaching can result in highly motivated learning environments where students can approach learning in their own unique way.  This is a concept I look forward to exploring in more detail in the future.

This week we practiced creating online surveys using Zoomerang. For my first attempt, I chose to create a pre-source survey for a fictional online photography course. The idea behind the survey is to gain a better understanding of where my students are coming from at the beginning of the class. To online survey can be viewed here.

Week 5 in review:

The focus this week was on Bloom’s taxonomy, a learning hierarchy developed in 1956 that shows different levels of higher order thinking.  There are six levels to Bloom’s taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.  As one moves up the hierarchy, the learning process becomes more detailed and multi-faceted.  Ideally, lessons will incorporate activities that touch upon all six levels.

True to the spirit of Bloom’s taxonomy, our class moved beyond a simple introduction to the levels.  After all, that would have only exposed us to “knowledge,” the lowest level of learning.  Instead, we were asked to take our understanding of Bloom’s taxonomy and use it to breakdown and analyze the activities of a class on how the 1st amendment impacts journalism.  Once this analysis was completed, we then applied what we have learned (both this week and previously) by creating alternative assessment strategies that would permit the class to be taught online.

Overall Experience:

I found the intellectual challenge of this week’s activity to be interesting.  As a teacher, it is easy to take the path of least resistance.  Walk into class, open your notes, present the material, assignment homework, give quizzes and tests.  We have all been in those types of classes, both as students and as teachers.  The challenge is to create learning opportunities that force students to move beyond simple knowledge and fact recall.  Instead we want to make students think.  We want them to process information and look at it from different angles.  We want our students to participate in activities at the higher end of Bloom’ taxonomy.  The challenge as I see it is for teachers to put in the time to develop activities that really challenge their students and to have the courage to step back and the let the students learn without constant support.  Suprisingly, it is often this last requirement that teachers struggle the most with.

Just when I thought I was finished with my latest analysis, Datta Kaur, dropped this observation/question.

“From my perspective in order for Casey’s class to ‘survive’ there would need to be a great deal of change and reorganization.  My point is that moving a f2f class to an online course might not fit a constructvist method of teaching, nor allow students the freedom and interaction required for online success.  Please argue with me:). ~ Datta Kaur”

Of course, when your instructor drops a comment like that there is nothing to be done but argue.   Here was my reply.

I agree with you when you say that the course would have to undergo major changes and restructuring if it is to be moved into the online environment, however, I believe the core concepts behind the course and the overall objective can be maintained.  The key is to identify what those objectives are and how they can be approached in a non-F2F format.  In this case, the overall goal of the class is to introduce students to the impact of the first amendment on journalism in the United States.  Beyond that, everything is just a path to achieve that objective.

In its current form, the teacher is heavily dependent on in-class discussions.  This will have to change in the online environment.  Discussion forums and live chats can help fill this void (they do in our class), but the experience is not the same as having a energetic, passionate teaching standing in front of you (I assume the teacher for this class is passionate).  Instead, the focus of the class will need to shift into new areas that will require some creativity on the teacher’s part to produce the same results.

Example – In the class, the teacher uses situations to prompt discussions about ethical issues.  This could be replaced with writing prompts, but I think the teacher could get more creative.  Instead of writing out the situation, why not create a video dramatization of the situation and post it online?  The students would then be able to watch what is happening, opening the possibility of including non-verbal aspects to the ethical question.  The film could then be used as a writing or discussion prompt about the role of ethics in journalism, but one in which the students have their own information and perspective to add to the discussion.  Similarly, students might be asked to create their own videos showing examples of ethical and unethical behavior in journalism.

I do believe that F2F interactions are necessary to develop good journalistic skills.  After all, journalism is the process of learning from someone and passing that knowledge along to others.  These interactions, however, do not need to be between the teacher and student.  Even online, this class could encourage F2F interactions with others by having students practice the skills of good journalism.  Conduct interviews, perform research, investigate leads.  All of these could be used to develop journalistic stories which would then be reviewed by the teacher.  With the proper structure, these interactions and resulting stories could be used to stimulate discussions on how the first amendment impacts what they do.

These are just a few suggestions about how a class can be adapted for the online environment while undergoing significant change, but remain true to its overall purpose.

The following is an in class writing assignment I wrote in response to how a classroom based journalism course would need to change in order to be presented in an online format.  As part of the analysis, I was asked to recommend ways in which the course would need to change, particularly in terms of assessment.  Finally, I was asked to tie in the course activities with Bloom’s taxonomy.  Here is what I wrote.

My first exposure to Bloom’s taxonomy occurred 6 years into my teaching career.  Part of my transition from college to high school teaching involved participating in an alternative certification program.  This program included a series of training sessions, one of which focused on Bloom’s taxonomy.  I have to say that my first exposure to this structural approach to education came as a very pleasant surprise.  It was one of the first concrete examples I had that education was more then just trial and error mixed with natural talent (or lack thereof).  As the presentation progressed, I began to understand that there was a great deal of research focused on what works and what doesn’t in education.  I also found verification to my feelings that good teaching is more then passing along large amounts of information.  Good teaching is about helping students to learn new material (lower levels of Bloom’s taxonomy) and to learn how to use that knowledge in original ways (higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy).  In effect, our ultimate goal is to teach students to think for themselves rather then relying on others to think for them.  I regret that I often fail in my attempts at the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, but I detect hints of it often enough to encourage me to keep trying.

Regarding the Casey journalism class, I believe the core part of the course would survive a transition into the online environment.  After all, the information provided is not dependent on face-to-face interactions between classmates.  To maximize learning, however, it would be worthwhile to shift the method of assessment to take advantage of some online tools.

Obviously, in an online environment, class discussions would need to undergo a change.  Without students meeting in one location, class discussions are not possible in a traditional sense.  Fortunately, the online environment offers several alternatives.  The obvious transition would be to hold class discussions in a discussion forum, much like we use in our own class.  The numerous topics identified would provide ample discussion prompts for the forums.  Ongoing topics can be discussed at length and likely with increased depth as the asynchronous nature of discussion forums permit participants more time to analyze the information (a higher level of Bloom’s taxonomy) and prepare their responses.  If synchronous interactions are desired, software like Adobe Connect can provide the necessary support.

One challenge this class would undergo is the need to review movies for discussion.  Depending on the availability of the film, students might be required to view the movie on their own or the movie could be made available online. A series of discussion prompts could be used in place of in-movie discussion, followed by a post-movie analysis in the discussion forums.

Students would also be able to document and share their developing journalistic skills by keeping a blog style portfolio.  This has the added advantage of supporting alternative journalistic approaches, including audio (radio journalism), video (TV journalism), and photography (photo journalism).  Based on my understanding, all aspects of this course should apply equally to each branch of journalism and it would permit students to approach the subject from their own angle.

Part of our work this week was to read and analyze a case study in terms of Bloom’s taxonomy.  For those unfamiliar with Bloom’s taxonomy, it is an hierarchical system of learning.  The different levels of learning (from lowest to highest) are knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.  The idea is that while all levels constitute learning, some learning requires more effort and understanding then others.  For example, it is one thing to know what a camera shutter is (knowledge), but it is something else entirely to be able to use that information to produce different photographic effects (application).  Too often students and teachers focus on the lower levels of Bloom’s taxonomy and fail to work on more complex learning.

As part of our assignment, we discussed how a class focusing on the impact of the 1st amendment on journalism utilized the different levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.  Towards this end, I created a chart that shows a breakdown of some of the planned class activities and how the correspond to the levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.  The completed chart is linked to below.

A closer look at Bloom’s Taxonomy – By Chris Gamel

Junior was being chided for his low grades.  Little Robert, who lived a  few doors away, was held up as an example.

“Robert doesn’t get C’s and D’s does he?” asked his father.

“No,” Junior admitted, “but he’s different.  He has very bright parents.”

- Jacob M Braude

Assessment Tools in the Online Environment: A Closer Look at ExamBuilder, TeacherEase, and Wikis is now available online for your reading pleasure.  This manuscript was a collaborative project between Candice Carlisle, Robyn Kramer, and Chris Gamel (me) as part of the requirements of our Assessment in E-Learning course.