When I past the RSS feed to my OLTD 505 blog into wordle, it automatically copies the text from my blog into a word cloud. I do set the maximum word limit to 500. It is interesting to see what the most frequently used words are from my blog.. The larger the word in the word cloud, the more frequently the word was used in my blog. Words that summarize my learning in OLTD 505 are : students, share, learning, resources moocs, content, video, blog online, teaching and information.
After our Saturday morning session with guest speaker Steven Downes, I started to rethink the concept of Putting a Creative Commons License on my work. Creative Commons has free tools that allow users to share knowledge and resources. Although it is a non-profit organization, there are several internet companies, like Google and Flickr that use Creative Commons Licenses. Because a Creative Commons licenses can be used by an author to give people permission to share, reproduce, adapt and redistribute content, user do not have to worry about copyright infringement as long as they “abide by the conditions” outlined by the author. With a license, “I have the ability as the creator to choose if I give people the right to share, use, and even build upon my work” (Cameron, 2013). Although I would expect that with a license placed on my work, people would abide by the rules. By putting a license on my work, does it really guarantee people will abide by the license? According to Steven Downes “When I put a license, I’m saying this is what I want, I hope you respect it” (2013) If someone does not respect my license, would I spend the time, energy and money making sure that my license is “respected.” Another thing that I found interesting on our Saturday morning meeting was when Stephen Downes talked about cMOOCs and xMOOCS. Prior to taking OLTD 505, I had no concept of what a MOOC was let alone the different types of MOOCs. After looking at the slide 23 slide of his Stephen’s presentation, I notice a link to Lisa’s Online Teaching Blog. So I decided to investigate her blog. According to Lisa M. Lane there are three types of MOOCs: Network based MOOCs, Task based MOOCS and Content based MOOCS. Although each type of MOOC has a more dominant goal, they all contain the three elements. Network-based MOOCs are the original MOOCs, taught by Alec Couros, George Siemens, Stephen Downes, Dave Cormier. The goal is not so much content and skills acquisition, but conversation, socially constructed knowledge, and exposure to the milieu of learning on the open web using distributed means. The pedagogy of network-based MOOCs is based in connectivist or connectivist-style methods. Resources are provided, but exploration is more important than any particular content. Traditional assessment is difficult. Task-based MOOCs emphasize skills in the sense that they ask the learner to complete certain types of work. In Jim Groom’s ds106 at UMW, the learning is distributed and the formats variable. There are many options for completing each assignment, but a certain number and variety of assignments need to be done to perform the skills. Similarly, our POT Certificate Class focuses on different topics for each week, and skills are demonstrated through sections on design, audio, video etc. in an effort to expose learners to many different formats and styles in online teaching. Community is crucial, particularly for examples and assistance, but it is a secondary goal. Pedagogy of task-based MOOCs tend to be a mix of instructivism and constructivism. Traditional assessment is difficult here too. Content-based MOOCs are the ones with huge enrollments, commercial prospects, big universityprofessors, automated testing, and exposure in the popular press. Community is difficult but may be highly significant to the participants, or one can go it alone. Content acquisition is more important in these classes than either networking or task completion, and they tend to use instructivist pedagogy. Traditional assessment, both formative and summative, may be emphasized. Mass participation seems to imply mass processing. (Lane, 2012). After reading and developing a better understanding of MOOCs and the different types of MOOCS, I felt I needed to look into the history of MOOCs. This lead to a Blog post by Jeff Dunn titled “A Quick Quide to the History of MOOCs.” According Jeff Dunn, the first Massive Open Online Course was first offered in 2008 and by 2013 there are over 100 courses being offered. Additionally, in a blog post titled 5 Potential Ways MOOCs Will Evolve Dunn points out four guiding principles behind MOOCs: - Aggregation. The whole point of a connectivist MOOC is to provide a starting point for a massive amount of content to be produced in different places online, which is later aggregated as a newsletter or a web page accessible to participants on a regular basis. This is in contrast to traditional courses, where the content is prepared ahead of time. - The second principle is remixing, that is, associating materials created within the course with each other and with materials elsewhere. - Re-purposing of aggregated and remixed materials to suit the goals of each participant. - Feeding forward, sharing of re-purposed ideas and content with other participants and the rest of the world (Dunn, 2012). I also found it interesting when Stephen Downes was talking about the future. The future is “created through a process of change” and it “grows out of the present” (Downes, 2013). When I do a web search on the “Future of MOOCs”, I notice that there are not a lot of people making predictions about their future. Although Jeff Dunn does make a few suggestions about how MOOCS might evolve, Ryan Tracey has produced a more comprehensive list of predictions related the Future of MOOCs. One point that resonates with me is how “the role of the teacher will evolve.” As there is a mass amount of educational content being offered to the world as Open Educational Resources, the difference will be in how educators use the content “to support the learning “ (Tracey, 2012). Additionally, Tracey predicts that a hybrid MOOC will emerge: "Sooner or later, the powers that be will remember that an instructivist approach suits novices, while an increasingly constructivist and connectivist approach suits learners as they develop their expertise. Hence, the MOOC of the future may resemble an xMOOC in its early stages, and morph into a cMOOC in its later stages" (Tracey, 2012). What predictions can you make for the Future of MOOCS? References
Downes, S. (2013, May 25). Oer's, moocs and the future. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/2013-05-25-couros-course2013 Dunn, J. (2012, October 04). 5 potential ways moocs will evolve. edudemic, Retrieved from http://edudemic.com/2012/10/moocs-past-present-future/ Dunn, J. (2012, December 24). A quick guide to the history of moocs. edudemic, Retrieved from http://edudemic.com/2012/12/a-quick-guide-to-the-history-of-moocs/ Lane, L. (2012, August 15). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://lisahistory.net/wordpress/2012/08/three-kinds-of-moocs/ Tracey, R. (2012, November 26). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://ryan2point0.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/the-future-of-moocs/ Over the past month and a half, I have been attempting to get a class blogging site set up for my grade 5 class. After reading some suggestions from colleagues in OLTD 505, I decided to set up a class blogging site with Kidblog. After signing up with Kidblog, I was able to set up a class blogging site within 2 hours. Once I had the blogging site setup, I talked with the AO at the school about what I wanted to do. He responded by telling me that he would support me setting up a blogging site for my students, but he needed to check with the Assistant Superintendant. Thus, he sent her an email outlining what I wanted to do. After one week, he did not get a response, so he sent her another e-mail. This time, she responded within a few days. As long as “Parent Permission” was given for each student, she could see no problem with going ahead with setting up a class blogging site. My next step was to create a student permission form that outlined what I wanted to do with my students and the benefits. After sending home a permission form on Monday, May 13th, half of my students returned their permissions forms and where blogging by the 16th. For their first blog post, I asked my students to give their opinions on the new novel we started reading in class. And for their second blog post I asked the students to “Do a google search on M.C. Escher (we were doing an M.C. Escher inspired art lesson in art class) to find out more about him. Add your findings to the class blog.” Based on my observations, the kids where highly engaged on posting their responses and reading the responses from their peers. For our next computer period, to compliment our math class on area and perimeter, I asked the students to find a video on the internet that explained how to calculate area and perimeter. Once they found a video they liked, they were to blog about the video and paste a link to the video on their blog. This was some very powerful learning taking place. Students were watching videos, of their choice, about area and perimeter. And not only that, they were so interested in what video links their peers were posting, they would watch those videos to. Some students were watching 3-4 videos about area and perimeter. I think my students had learned more about area and perimeter in that 30 minutes than they did in the three lessons I had taught. Although that was pretty powerful, the next series of events had even more of an impact. One of my students (Jayden) posted on his blog on Sunday: "some people might like to change up their photo so its not always a grey outline of a person. Maybe people will ask permission from parents/guardians for changing the avatar for the account. I might change my photo sooner or later. You don’t have too change it to yourself you can change it too anything! (Must be apropiate) If I change my avatar I would change it too a nice picture such as… My dog, a leaf, myself ect." I responded to Jayden: "Awesome idea Jayden. Once you are able to add a picture, would you mind writing the directions in a blog post so that others can do it too. Please remember that if you use a picture of yourself or a family member, you need to get your parent’s permission. Thanks Jayden for sharing your ideas" Well, the next thing I knew, Jayden made a video on “How to change your avatar on Kidblog” using Bandicam screen recording/capture software. Then, he uploaded the video to Youtube and posted it on our class blogging site. Jayden informed me that he spent about two hours after school, on his own time, making the video. He chose to do that so he could share his learning with the rest of the class. Since then, I have had another one of my students create a very similar video, uploaded it to Youtube and posted on the class blog. Chris made a video on “How to Change Your Background Theme (Video Description).” I was amazed at how motivated students have become to share their knowledge with their peers. I guess they just needed an online space to do it in. It also amazes me how powerful peer-to-peer teaching can be. Although it took a little longer than I wanted to get set up, I think our class blog is turning out to be a great way for my students to communicate, share, and learn together. Here are a few comments made by my students about blogging:
As week #3 was a challenging week trying to sort through the large amount of content, I’m still trying to digest information. After reading a blog post by Tracy Cameron about Creative Commons, I decided to try and create a CC license that I can put on my blog. While reading over the different licenses, I was able to create one for my blog. With a CC license, “I have the ability as the creator of my work to choose if I “give people the right to share, use, and even build upon” my work” (Cameron, 2013). This week I’m going to try and gather tidbits of information from a variety of sources and then “share” them with others on my blog. As a first step, I have decided to watch Dean Shareski in his video Sharing, The Moral Imperative. At the beginning of this video, I found myself thinking back to some of the people I have shared with and who have shared with me over my teaching career and to my early days of teaching. I remember the days when (I know I may be sounding like your parents, but you will be saying it one day) I was given a few older resources to use to teach my students. If I wanted anything new for my students, I had to go out and buy it myself. Often I found myself spending hundreds of dollars for individual units and thousands of dollars every school year. Today, with the availability of teaching resources on the internet, I am finding myself not spending any money on teaching resources. I have created, borrowed, modified and redistributed a lot of material from grades 4-7 in a variety of subject areas throughout my career. Similar to Dean Shareski , I have a difficult time claiming ownership for work that I have created (Shareski, 2010). Most of what I have created is a remix of what others have created. As I have mentioned in a previous blog post, I am always open to sharing material that I create/remixed with my colleagues around the district and I am open to allowing them to adapt and modify the material. I am even open to sharing material with other teachers around the province, country or world as long as users agreed not to take ownership of the content. When it comes to student learning, teachers have a habit of sharing knowledge and resources. Although many teachers are very open to sharing, there are some teachers that are very reluctant to share their resources. According to Greg Webb, the reasons teachers unwilling to share resources include: lack of quality, fear of being judged by peers, loss of intellectual property, inequity and loss of power (Webb, 2000). Much like Dean Shareski, many of the people that have contributed to my learning, embrace “a culture of sharing” (2010). In my OLTD course, there is a tremendous learning network where we all get to share our knowledge, resources and experiences so that we can learn. As educators who see the learning potential of online learning, we have a new “obligation of sharing” (Shareski, 2010). I also found it very interesting listening to Dan Meyer describe how he has created some math resources and shared them for free online. I too am very interested in doing something similar. One of my goals over the next two years is to take twenty art lessons that my students enjoy, and create videos to use and share online with other grade 5 teachers. Just imagine creating a data base of art videos from all grades that could be shared around the world. As I continued to search the web for information on sharing, I came across a blog post by Di Mace titled “Why Copying Inspires Creativity.” According to Di Mace “we are in a continuous cycle of copying” and “are inspired to remix, recreate and reimage new and different derivatives of the original.” “The true essence of this argument is the ‘thinking’ that’s done behind the copying. (Mace, 2011). When educators share their work and allow others to remix, recreate and reimage, they are allowing others to learn by creating their own reinterpretation. After reading this blog post by Di Mace, I think back how have learned by copying and how I have progressed as teacher over the last 20 years. By sharing information and resources with others and allowing them to copy remix, recreate and reimage what I have copied, remixed, recreated and reimaged, I have continued the cycle of learning. According to Jason Cohen “copying is one of the best ways of learning, growing, evaluating, and exploring. It’s a valid tool so long as we regard it as a means to an end (2012). Although I have always believed that technology itself is the most important factor to enhance the learning potential of our students, I have now begun to shift my thinking. Because technology is allowing greater access to information and resources, technology is allowing educators and students to share, copy, remix, recreate and reimage more information and resources. It is the sharing, copying, remixing and recreating of information and resources with technology that is enhancing the learning potential of our students.
References: Cameron, T. (2013, May 07). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://tracyslearningjourney.weebly.com/12/post/2013/05/creative-commons.html Cohen, J. (2012, February 28). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://blog.asmartbear.com/learn-by-copy.html Mace, D. (2011, August 25). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://writetodone.com/2011/08/25/why-copying-inspires-creativity/ Shareski, D. (Producer). (2010). Sharing: The Moral Imperative [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://blip.tv/k12online/sharing-the-moral-imperative-4216381 Webb, G. (2000, October 31). Why teachers don't share resources, and what we can do about it. Retrieved from http://nw2000.flexiblelearning.net.au/talkback/p41.htm As I have mentioned in one of my blog post from OLTD 502, I believe that Salaman Khan has created a tool that with both enhance learning and enhance teaching. With more than 3000 online lessons, the subject material being taught at Khan Academy is continually expanding. Although the original content focused on economics, math, and some of the sciences, today they are offering courses from art history to computer animation (Duffy, 2012). Students will be able to access Khan Academy videos when they need assistance with their learning and from anywhere in the world. They can go at their own pace and will be able to review and playback the video’s as many times as they need to. Something they are unable to do within traditional learning environments. More recently, Khan Academy has added features that allow students who are hard of hearing or deaf to access English transcriptions or turn on subtitles. In addition students can enroll in Khan Academy classes and access “coaching” and “goal-setting” features. (Duffy, 2012) Teachers can also use videos from Khan Academy to enhance their teaching by using Khan Academy videos to review concepts prior to teaching them. Often teachers have one way of teaching new information to their students. This does not always work for every student. Khan Academy videos can teach teachers how to teach concept more effectively. Having a “Guest” speaker come into the classroom to enhance the everyday teaching, is a great way to motivate students. In addition, teachers can easily create links to a class wiki of Khan Academy videos. Daily assignments can be scanned and posted onto a class wiki with links to a Khan Academy video. This allows students have some instruction on a specific concept anytime/anywhere. Teachers do not have to spend a lot of time re-teaching curriculum. Users can set up a Khan Academy account using their Facebook or Google accounts. By doing this, a record is kept of achievements, goals (still in beta form), activities, focus, skill progress and progress over time. Students can choose to “learn” from a variety of different subject areas. Teachers can set up classes so that they can manage a track the progress of each individual student. Although I have become addicted to Khan Academy, I feel like I should expand my horizons and see if there is a better OER. After checking out some other OER’s, I found cK-12. Like Khan Academy, cK-12 has some front end technology partners like Apple, Amazon, Google and Stanford University. “CK-12
Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing access to high quality educational materials for K-12 students all over the world. We offer free high-quality, standards-aligned, open content in the STEM subjects. By providing these free resources, CK-12 is working toward educational equity for all.” According to their website, cK-12 is a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing access to high quality educational materials for K-12 students all over the world. Although they claim to have resources K-12, I have only been able to find resources from 6th grade to 12th grade. It is a repository of free educational resources that range in subject areas from Math, Sciences, Technology, English and History. Units of study can be customized to meet specific state requirements (no option for Canada). Subject areas begin at grade six (as far as I can tell) and go all the way up to grade 12. Content can be read online, printed and copied or used on a variety of personal electronic devices. Although I have looked for it, I am unaware of any features that allow students who are hard of hearing or deaf to access English transcriptions or turn on subtitles. In addition, A cK-12 Creative Commons License Agreement is provided on their website that is easy to understand. They offer content in multiple modalities, or ways a concept can be explained, including textual descriptions, video lectures, interactive models, flashcards, quizzes, definitional and difficulty scaffolding, concept maps, and more. There are two great features that are built into cK-12: Flexbook, studyHELP and Braingenie. Flexbook: are an online platform for assembling, authoring, and distributing interactive, multi-modal content and fully customizable and can easily be kept up-to-date. You can rearrange the chapters or even add, remove, and edit content. studyHelp: is a peer-to-peer social learning application allowing students to ask questions whenever the need answers, form study groups, and explore a rich library of K-12 content. Linked into social media likefacebook. Braingenie: builds deep mastery and sharpens problem-solving skills. Learn, practice, and quiz yourself on 5,000+ skills. Compete in real-time multiplayer matches. Win badges and go for a top spot on the leader board As I see great benefits with both of these OER’s sites, I will be using both of them when designing more online content for my students. Although Khan Academy meets the visual learning experience, CK12.org meets the visual, and the digital textbook experience (WEEBIT, 2011). No matter which OER resources are chosen, it is important to remember that online learning is the future of education. According to Bill Gates, “I see four main 'flavors' of online learning: reimagining textbooks, scaling our best teachers, connecting through social networks, and personalizing learning” (Gates, 2012). Duffy, J. (2012, October 17). Khan academy. Retrieved from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2397123,00.asp Ferenstein, G. (2012, February 07). How bill gates' favorite teacher wants to disrupt education. Retrieved from http://www.fastcompany.com/1728471/how-bill-gates-favorite-teacher-wants-disrupt-education Gates, B. (2012, March 12). the gates notes. Retrieved from http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Topics/Education/Technologys-Promise-to-Education-Reimagining-Textbooks?utm_source=Googleplus&utm_medium=SocialMedia&utm_term=Info&utm_content=Billgates&utm_campaign=Regalix WEEBIT. (2011, December 08). Review of ck-12.org and khan academy. Retrieved from http://gygo.getyourgeekon.info/2011/12/review-of-ck-12-org-and-khan-academy/ I found Rip : A Remix Manifesto by Brett Gaylor to be a very though provoking video about how copyright is limiting the creativity of society. It has certainly made an impact on me. As a first step, I have to admit that I am, like so many others teachers that I work with, a copyright criminal. Why? Out of the best interest of my student’s, I am always trying to find ways to get them excited and interested in their learning and I am always looking for ways to allow my students to be creative. As technology is changing the way people express themselves, it is also changing the landscape of the education system. According to George Siemens “The power is in the pipe - the Internet has changed how people communicate, share, disseminate information, and interact with others” (2003). If we continue to impose the archaic copyright laws that are about making people money, then we are limiting the creativity of so many.
Within the educational system, we need to provide students with opportunities to express themselves and be creative. If we can allow educators to “build on the work that came before them,” (Gaylor, 2008) then we will allow the education system to evolve. The education system is continuing to evolve into something bigger, better and more individualized. Copyright laws are attempting to stop it from happening while creative commons will allow it to happen. As the internet was designed for people to share information, then why not let it happen? If the internet allows users to “download the worlds culture and transform it into something different” (Gaylor, 2008), then it allows society to evolve. And, as society evolves, so too does the role of a teacher shifting away from being an instructor to being more of a facilitator. As automation technology has affected many industries around the world, the internet and computer technology has had a significant effect on the publishing industry. Is the publishing industry afraid that the internet and computer technology will make their industry obsolete? So, they use copyright laws to attempt to stop people from sharing information? Technology, whether good or bad, has had and will continue to have a significant impact on our lives. Siemens, G. (2003, March 10). Open source content in education: Part 2 - developing, sharing, expanding resources. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/open_source_part_2.htm Gaylor, B. (Filmmaker). (2008). Rip : A Remix Manifesto [WebVideo]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdwN6rRU0Xk As an elementary teacher working in an f2f school, I teach a lot of different subject areas and need a lot of materials for my students. With shrinking school budgets and aging materials, I often find myself copying more and more materials for my students. Although, I have “Hard Copies” of all the materials I copy for my students, I often wonder if I am breaking copyright laws. The materials I use have been purchased by my school, I just copy them to extend their life. Again, with shrinking budgets, I need to find creative ways to extend the life of the school resources. Recently, with the addition of a new photocopier, I am able to copy my material into a digital format and then project it onto a screen in my classroom. As technology is changing, so too is the way students are learning content. Being able to take materials and modify it to meet the learning need of students is a great way to benefit learning.
I often think that the publishing companies should be offering a lot of the materials in digital format. Offering it that way would cut down the cost of the materials as there would be no printing, binding, and shipping costs. Schools districts could then purchase rights to allow teachers to use the digital format of the resources. Will copyright laws that are too stringent force educators to find materials that allow them freedom to reproduce, adapt and redistribute content to suit the learning needs of their students? I have always been open to sharing material that I create with my colleagues around the district and allowing them to adapt and modify the material. I would even be open to sharing material with other teachers around the province, country or world as long as users agreed not to take ownership of the content. In turn, I would expect that other teachers would give me the same privileges. As the internet continues to grow, so too does the ability to share resources that can enhance the learning potential of students around the globe. As I read, What is Copyleft?, I began to get the impression that “Copyleft” is a term that is used to illustrate the opposite of “Copyright.” If copyright is used to stop user from reproducing, adapting and redistributing content, then Copyleft is used to allow users to reproduce, adapt and redistribute content. This seemed very simple and straight forward. That is not exactly correct. In fact, copyleft does not mean that users have complete freedom to do what they want with the content. When a user is given permission to reproduce, adapt and redistribute content, the resulting copies are bound by the distribution terms outlined by the original author (Stallman, 2010). Creative Commons has free tools that allow users to share knowledge and resources. Although it is a non-profit organization, there are several internet companies, like Google and Flickr, that use Creative Commons Licenses. Because a Creative Commons licenses can be used by an author to give people permission to share, reproduce, adapt and redistribute content, user do not have to worry about copyright infringement as long as they “abide by the conditions” outlined by the author ("Creative commons: about,"). As Creative Commons provides the legal framework for Open Educational Resources, educators can access a variety of educational materials released within the public domain or open license ("Creative commons: education"). Although Creative Commons Australia claims there are many benefits of offering and using creative commons licences, are there any disadvantages using creative commons licences? references: Stallman, R. (2010). The gnu project. Retrieved from http://www.gnu.org/gnu/thegnuproject.html Creative commons: about. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://creativecommons.org/about Creative commons: about. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://creativecommons.org/education At the end of the first week in OLTD 505, after going through a variety readings and videos, I am feeling overwhelmed with the flood of new information. Although
my first blog post for OLTD 505 focused on the affordability of the resources and the technology to access to the latest learning materials, I feel I am needed to get a better understanding of what Open Education Resources (OER’s) are. Open Education Resources generally are digital resources that are offered to educators at little or no cost over the internet and used for educational purposes. Depending on the license agreement, user of the materials may modify, remix, redistribute or may only be allowed to use the materials in its original form. As some open resources do not always comply with “accessibility requirements” there are some downsides for users with disabilities (EDUCAUSE, 2010). Open Education Resources, on the other hand, are appealing to a variety of educational institutions worldwide because “the presentation of the text, including visual appeal, organization, and readability, the online accessibility, the alignment of text content with classroom content, and economic efficiency all seem to play a part” (Bliss,Hilton, Wioley & Thonas, 2013). Although I am educator with more than 15 years of teaching experience ranging from grades 4-7, I am constantly looking for new ways to enhance the learning potential of the students that I teach. As people have the ability to acquire new or modify existing knowledge, behavior, skills or values, they have the ability to learn. When students are provided with the opportunity to “choose” and “direct” their own learning, students will become more engaged in their learning. Independent learners have the freedom and choice to engage in self-directed and open ended online learning. With the continued growth of the internet, the ability to gain and acquire knowledge through online educational resources continues to grow. Tracy Cameron points out that “With Open Education more students will have access to current information and the opportunity to further their education” and the “global movement will make education available to all” (2013). Bliss, T., Hilton, J., Wioley, D., & Thonas, K. (2013). The cost and quality of open textbooks: Perceptions of community college faculty and students. First Monday, 18(1), Retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3972/3383 Cameron, T. (2013, April 28). [Web blog message]. Retrieved from http://tracyslearningjourney.weebly.com/12/post/2013/04/why-open-education-and-open-educational-resources-matter.html EDUCAUSE. "7 Things You Should Know about Open Educational Resources". June 2010. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on April 29, 2013 http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELi7061.pdf. |