BlendKit Course

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• Jennifer Imazeki

  http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/EconomicsForTeachers/~3/eKDtahp4pW0/teaching-portfolio.html

  Well, I managed to go the entire five weeks of the Blendkit course (and then some) without actually blogging about it (or about anything else for that matter). For awhile I was mired in mid-semester grading (I thought I was being so smart the way I spread out exams and papers but instead, as soon as I finished one stack, there was another one coming in), and then, well, life happened. I'll try to catch up with the blended stuff eventually...
  
  One of the things that has been distracting me is putting together my 'teaching portfolio'. My chair would like to nominate me for a teaching award, which is very cool, but I need to put together a teaching portfolio that he can submit with his nomination. Although I have a statement about my teaching that I wrote for my tenure and promotion reviews, this portfolio needs to be much more extensive. Specifically, the guidelines for the award say it should include "such items as: recommendation letter(s), summaries of student evaluations and evidence of awards, content expertise, instructional design and/or delivery, mentoring, student accomplishments, and commitment to improving pedagogical practice." Unfortunately, I don't think I can tell the committee to just read my blog so I've been trying to organize and succinctly explain all the various things I do in my classes. I found a couple of good resources about what should be in a teaching portfolio and that has helped a lot with the organization part; I'm still working on 'succinctly explain' part...
  
  One of the unexpected benefits of doing this has been that I can see, in one place, all the things I've accomplished with my teaching. It's only been a couple of years since I went up for promotion to full professor but my teaching portfolio contains a lot of information that wasn't really explicit in my RTP files. And while I do use this blog as a way to chronicle the various things I try in the classroom, going through and systematically listing those things has been kind of neat. As we slog through the daily ups and downs of classes, it's too easy to get lost in the weeds; it's good to step back and look at the overall picture and realize how much we've actually accomplished. I highly recommend it... 
  
  

  Mon, 19 Nov 2012 21:14:00 +0000

• trueyankees

  http://trueyankees.blogspot.com/2012/11/blendkit-2012-week-4.html

  
  

  Blending the “Old China Trade”: Week 4 Readings Reflections
      In redesigning a course on the “Old China Trade” toward a hybrid or blended format, I am more wary the readings for Week 4 of BlendKit 2012 have left me even more wary about the pitfalls of communication.  As I mentioned in my first blog posting on this subject, the readings both the history of the China Trade (again, we should be using a broader term such as the “Indies trade”) and hybrid teaching challenge the instructor to master multiple languages—those of the 18^th- and 19^th century Atlantic community, of 18^th- and 19^thcentury Western commerce, of 18^th- and 19^th century Asia, and of separate domain, modern educational technology.
      My aim is to build on a one-week summer institute in local history that Kimberly Alexander and I taught in 2008 called Everyday Life in Early America.  Kimberly and I taught the course on-site at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth New Hampshire, where she was Chief Curator, instilling a sense of vicarious experience through lectures and discussions that took place in historic homes and workplaces.  A key element of the institute was the blog—which we still maintain—that posed questions for the students’ evening reflections (http://everydaylifeinearlyamerica.blogspot.com).  The prompts included quotes from the course readings, a Thanksgiving Prayer composed by a Stratham, New Hampshire shoemaker, and epitaphs from a 19^th-century graveyard.  We saw truly thoughtful responses to our daily posts, and many students returned to the morning class feeling (they reported) quite connected to the course and its several themes.
       Applying this format to a course on the “Old China Trade” next semester will, I anticipate, be more of a challenge.  In past iterations, a number of students were impressed by what they described as a “crossing borders” experience of meshing the US History and Asian History courses they had taken previously; others, however, reported feeling a bit overwhelmed by the complications of the approach.  Consequently, this course needs to offer a broad medley of assignments that can appeal to the variety of students’ learning styles.
      One advantage of a hybrid course is that it offers additional layers of communication and assessment beyond the traditional face-to face course.  So, briefly, an instructor can reconsider the conventional formats:
       Lectures.  I like face-to-face lectures.  I don’t think I am very good at them, but many of students say that would rather watch and hear “the expert” present an organized body of narrative and analysis.  Mine are not strictly monologues, but more socratic discussions, that describe a chain of events and ask the class to consider causation (“Why did American merchants need to move beyond their familiar Atlantic and Caribbean domains after the Revolution?”) and experience (“Considering the readings from Shaw and Delano, what did it feel like to be one of the first Americans in Canton or Bencoolen?”).  And, in this way, students’ responses provide an opportunity of assessment—even in a lecture.
       On Canvas (or a similar platform). I can augment the face-to-face lecture by posting the Powerpoint lecture, adding more material and even posing questions to consider in the slides.
       Discussions.  Not my strong point, but, again, many of my students enjoy the give-and-take conversations we have.  Many like, also, the opportunity to ask questions?  Other, still, like to show off what they have learned.  Perhaps the major obstacle to classroom discussion is time—there is never enough to allow everyone enough time to participate.  The “talkers,” it frequently seems, could talk all day long.  The “wallflowers” want to participate, but are held back by shyness or an inability to articulate complex ideas.  This is where the technology has been a great benefit.
       Having recently instituted asynchronous online discussions on Canvas, I have been quite impressed with my students’ conversations.  They appear able to reflect more deeply on what they have read and to express their ideas more clearly.  And, these become threaded conversations in which many actually respond to what others have published earlier, so I can see and analyze how well the class understands the my lectures, particular readings, and even the broad course themes.  And, the discussions provide another assessment opportunity.
       As for assignments, there is too much to say about the variety of tasks an instructor can design in a course on the Old China Trade; I’ll explore a sampling in a later blog.

  Mon, 05 Nov 2012 03:22:00 +0000

• trueyankees

  http://trueyankees.blogspot.com/2012/11/blendkit-2012-week-3.html

  
  

  Week 3 Readings Reflections: Assessment
       Assessment has been a gray area in my courses.  For one thing, the study of History—as opposed to the objective exam civics that passes for historical study in most secondary schools—calls for high order thinking.  For another, objective questions take an inordinate amount of time to make up and make cheating too tempting. 
  * How much of the final course grade do you typically allot to testing? How many tests/exams do you usually require? How can you avoid creating a “high stakes” environment that may inadvertently set students up for failure/cheating?
       I use a constellation of brief essay papers, discussions, and essay exams.  These challenge the student to describe a term (who, what, when, where, why), situate events in chains of cause-and-effect, and account for significance, covering a range of levels.
  In a follow-up paragraph, students are asked to write a personal reaction to the document or narrative that they have read, and here most seem to find it easy to develop their ideas or relate an aspect of constitutional history, the American Revolution, or the China Trade to their own lives.  The whole essay is structured to balance student learning, and student control, in the language of
  Hoffman and Lowe (January 2011).  In addition, the coursework is structured to reduce cheating to negligible levels; papers are submitted online and I can easily Google suspicious phrasings.  The most common challenge that students ask about is keeping their writing to the one-page suggested length; they are free to write more, and I have seen seven-page offerings for this one-page assignment.
  * What expectations do you have for online assessments? How do these expectations compare to those you have for face-to-face assessments? Are you harboring any biases?
  When I began online assignments (submitting papers and exams via email or Canvas), I expected only that this was another option for students.  The benefits have astonished me.  Not only is the quality of essay-writing far better, but it turns out that digital papers are far easier to grade (and this I did not anticipate).  Furthermore, we can now use the papers as a jumping-off point for asynchronous online discussion.  Biases?  Hmmmmm.
  * What trade-offs do you see between the affordances of auto-scored online quizzes and project-based assessments? How will you strike the right balance in your blended learning course?
  I would not use an auto-scored quiz, and the formula I am using seems to offer students an interesting intellectual challenge.
  •    How will you implement formal and informal assessments of learning into your blended learning course? Will these all take place face-to-face, online, or in a combination?
              Overall, this week’s readings have been the most problematic in thinking about ways of adapting my courses to a blended format.  The readings on a transfer of learning strategy, emphasizing application “to something tangible or if it can’t be used in real life,” does not seem directly relevant to the study of History or, rather, what we study is “real life,” although in the past.  Certainly, though, it has been true in my courses that “[t]echnology is useful in simplifying this task of transferring the learning strategy.”  In this case, by utilizing Canvas to display my PowerPoint lectures and historic documents, I do not have to cover as much material during class time, and my students are not rushed in note-taking, enabling them to think more about the issues that we are discussing. 
              What I had not given much thought to is the argument that “[s]upplying examples to read as text online or offline proves to be helpful.”  Although I generally supply model answers for the misterm and final essay exams, I do so often as an afterthought and in response to student requests.  Nor had I considered using Bloom’s taxonomy to inspire alternative design strategies.  As part of my foray into blended teaching, then, I will be exploring fresh design strategies and incorporating the tools suggested in the Week 3 readings.

  Mon, 05 Nov 2012 03:20:00 +0000

• http://hardbutfun.edublogs.org/2012/11/03/teaching-effectiveness/

  We had a new baby this week! Just when I thought I can finish the Blendkit 2012 course before the baby came Now that we are all safe and happily home. I am going to write about our weekly reading … Continue reading →

  Sat, 03 Nov 2012 22:58:43 +0000

• http://learningjourneyblog.edublogs.org/2012/11/03/response-to-lesson-5-readings/

  The Blendkit Reader, Lesson 5 1. “Thus, there are no universal standards for blended course quality” (46). My response:  I can understand how this would be true because each institution might define blended learning in a slightly different way.  For example, … Continue reading →

  Sat, 03 Nov 2012 21:53:12 +0000

• dbeloved

  http://johnoke.blogspot.com/2012/11/blended-learning-and-paperbacks-in.html

  Blended Learning and Paperbacks in Schools

  Continuing conversation with Dr. Kelvin Thompson @Blendkit2012
  Like most other outmoded technologies, paperbacks are gradually going. Perhaps not into extinction but they are surely getting reduced used with increased use of other technologies that can assist/aid learning.
  
  Presently, the public K-12 schools in Nigeria are given free text sponsored by the government and a whole sector is dependent on that. With instructional designs considering other aisle of learning which would make paperback not the sole contributor to students and in fact might be relegated by the student body themselves when there is a more convenient way they can learn, blended learning stands to be discredited by the publishers (save for those who are ready to brace up).
  
  How can this be resolved?
  
  In adoption/deployment of blended learning, we are looking at everything that could be an issue and preparing ahead to know what probable options we can take.
  
  Anyone with a reference, case study etc on this from blendkit people will be appreciated.
  
  Thanks

  Sat, 03 Nov 2012 10:22:00 +0000

• dbeloved

  http://johnoke.blogspot.com/2012/11/blending-learning-as-service-3.html

  Blended Assessments of Learning

  Like the no-child left behind policy, assessment helps the tutor to measure in qualitative terms if the central message of the subject is passed across.
  
  
  #Blendkit2012 noted, teachers who evaluate their students' performances by using a mixture of tests - some online, some offline - have experienced more fruitful outcomes.
  
  
  The most crucial step needed in each lesson is the preparation of transfer of learning strategy. If learning is not transferred from the point of learning to practical application, there can be no positive return on investment of the time needed to create, implement, and evaluate the lesson.
  
  
  The learning standards must be addressed, yes, but also find a real life application to better your students' understanding of the materials covered. If this is not done, much of your time, and your students' time, has been greatly wasted.
  
  
  Interaction encourages a teamwork approach while assessment is simply an individualistic thing. Each student of the course has a responsibility to show proficiency of the course materials. The tutor hence has to test with various means and patterns as possible to measure every student's grasp of the service rendered.
  
  
  Assessment has to come through the same means of learning too. The informal must always precede the formal in order to make all the participants grow without restrictions.
  
  

  References

  Blendkit Reader http://blended.online.ucf.edu/blendkit-course-blendkit-reader-chapter-3/

  Thu, 01 Nov 2012 17:12:00 +0000

• dbeloved

  http://johnoke.blogspot.com/2012/11/blending-learning-as-service-4.html

  Blended Content and Assignments

  This is the meat of the blended learning experience, HOW do you offer the learning experience?
  A consistently well-thought plan needs to be used at this stage to integrate and cause a synergy of all the instructional strategies you have in order for the student to perceive a consistent learning notion while they take the course.
  
  
  Continuing in the service perception, after production, it is imperative to sample how the product will be conveyed to the target audience. How is the blend presented in a way that excites the customer and attain utility in the learning experience.
  #Blendkit2012 gave us a thinking point before we go out and offer the service to the clientele
  
  

  • the technology used
  • the learning desired
  • the context of use
  • the learner experience
  • the instructor experience
  • the nature of content
  Questions must be raised for all the above and an organic chart opened to continually record and measure results as we implement.
  
  
  The 21st century learner is tech-savvy from a unilateral look so, ask them questions before the class starts, present things in diverse dimensions, measure each person's readiness to use the tools that has been designed to convey learning and consider based on the data the evaluation has provisioned.
  
  
  #Blendkit2012 infers, how we as educators teach, present content, allow learners to interact with content and with each other, and how we keep content sources current require new approaches. If we are open to combining the best of online and face-to-face courses, we may come to realize the promise of blended learning.
  
  
  The above is so true.
  
  
  Growth is intentional and in Blending Learning it is more emphatic. A mix of the Learning Activities means you have to be ready to know more than your course outline. Identification of the departmental guys that can help or even an organization that does that is imperative for success.
  
  
  #Blendkit2012 outlined a table that can be used to startup and that is a good reference point as we start to navigate into the exploration ourselves.
  
  

  References

  Blendkit Reader http://blended.online.ucf.edu/blendkit-course-blendkit-reader-chapter-4/

  Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:41:00 +0000

• dbeloved

  http://johnoke.blogspot.com/2012/11/blending-learning-as-service-5.html

  Quality Assurance in Blended Learning

  The blendkit reader started this session with some wonderful thought provoker:
  How will you know whether your blended learning course is sound prior to teaching it? How will you know whether your teaching of the course was effective once it has concluded?
  
  
  Simply carry other people along and MEASURE!
  
  
  A definitive statement of what constitutes the best combination of online and face-to-face learning experiences is impossible. No such statement exists for the best combination of traditional practices much less for the newer world of blended learning. Singh & Reed (2001)
  
  
  Blending Learning as a service has its soul in consistent improvement perpetually.
  
  
  #Blendkit2012 noted on teaching effectiveness what we continually measure to improve
  
  

  • how well instructors organize courses
  • how well they know the course material
  • how clearly they communicate with students
  • how frequently they provide timely feedback
  • the instructor’s enthusiasm or disposition
  From the definition of Customer Service portrayed in the beginning of this discussion, quality assurance in blended learning ought to be before, during and after the whole process. QA hence instructs us to learn ourselves from anyone and everyone we can find that has implemented what we are set to do. We are saved a lot of arduous revisions if this pattern is followed strictly.
  
  
  #Blendkit2012 outline of Formative Feedback is one handy tool we should always get around with for quality assurance.
  
  

  • peer review and self-evaluation,
  • online suggestion box,
  • one-minute threads,
  • polling, and
  • focus groups.
  In the just concluded conference, I have identified several people that could be of tremendous help as I offer and lead other college colleagues to start to embrace blended learning.
  
  

  Conclusion

  John Maxwell said, Leaders are either travel agents or tour guides. Leaders who are like travel agents send people to places they've never been themselves, while leaders who are like tour guides take their people to places they know well. Instead of saying, "Here's a map-I hope it's accurate," tour-guide leaders can say, "I've been here many times; I know the best way to get around; follow me." Starting with yourself equips you with the experience, confidence, integrity, and influence you need to be a tour-guide leader.
  
  
  Blended Learning is simply a process of service and until your customers are satisfied with your offering, you don't stop examining and re-examining how you offer the learning experience.
  
  
  Ending with this quote:
  I do not know any innovation upon existing methods more radical and revolutionary than this. - Rev. Joseph H. Odell, D.D. (1910)
  

  
  

  References

  Blendkit Reader http://blended.online.ucf.edu/blendkit-course-blendkit-reader-chapter-5/
  Maxwell, J. C. (2009) The Great Separator. Retrieved on Nov. 1, 2012 from http://www.catalystspace.com/content/read/article_john_maxwell/
  Holden, J (2008) Blended Learning: Instructional Media & Pedagogical Considerations
  Singh, H. & Reed, C. (2001). A white paper: achieving success with blended learning. Centra Software. Retrieved June 26, 2011 from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.114.821&rep=rep1&type=pdf
  
  

  Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:21:00 +0000

• dbeloved

  http://johnoke.blogspot.com/2012/11/blending-learning-as-service-2.html

  Blending Interactions
  

  The definition of service is never completed without the one you are serving! It is a misnomer to act in the Information Age as if you could be the repository of all knowledge for a particular thing. The teacher will be surprised how much the student knows more than him/her when an occasion rises.
  
  
  #Blendkit2012 outlined four role-playing for interactivity to occur. Each of them has its place in shifting the responsibility of achieving the aim of education from a teacher-centric to a mutual evolution.
  One school of thought is of the opinion that since students becomes teachers and implementer  users of what is being taught; they are at the end of a chain that needs them to be completed. The interaction is not when they are made (because several will never be made due to incomprehension) interaction engenders the process of being made qualitatively.
  
  
  Two things are important in Interaction
  Collaboration: Mutuality as expressed in understanding blending learning is founded in collaboration. Learning thrives in an atmosphere of collaboration. Everyone brings what he has to the table. The tutor is simply the initiator and facilitator while the students are the collaborators. Direction is outlined by the tutor and that is where he/she stops being ahead.
  Utility: According to (Elizabeth, 2012) "The consumer needs to know what goods and services are available to him in order to maximize his utility, especially if the consumer is undecided on what he needs. Help the customer by showing him all the different products or services currently offered".
  
  
  Collaboration engenders interaction and interaction enhances utility.
  
  
  #Blendkit2012 presented the following:
  + To Whom Will Students Express Themselves?
  + How Will Students Express Themselves?
  + Why Will Students Want To Express Themselves?
  
  
  With a service perspective, we will seek how to answer the questions expressly. One more thing I have found about interaction is that it cuts across all learning orientation. Visual, Verbal, Aural, Kinsthetic, Tactile (Spiller, 2011) whatever the learning orientation everyone has his/her own distinct way of communicating and a relaxed means of interaction will bring out the best from everyone.
  
  

  Reference

  
  

  • Blendkit Reader http://blended.online.ucf.edu/blendkit-course-blendkit-reader-chapter-2/
  • Michelle Elizabeth How to Tell When a Consumer Is Maximizing His or Her Utility.  retrieved Oct. 31, 2012 from: http://www.ehow.com/how_8492967_tell-maximizing-his-her-utility.html#ixzz2AtSxtmsE 
  • Spiller, M. (2011) The Five Ways of Learning. Retrieved on Nov. 1, 2012 from http://melaniespiller.com/lavender_048.htm

  Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:18:00 +0000

• dbeloved

  http://johnoke.blogspot.com/2012/11/blending-learning-as-service-1.html

  There could be two outlooks for "as a service" paradigm for blending learning:
  

  • the perspective
  • the offering
  
  
  This post is in terms of the perspective.
  The concept of service means the teacher looks at the appropriate blend that achieves the goals of enhancing knowledge of the student and purpose of the pedagogy within the ambit of the time given.
  Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase (Turban et al 2002.)
  The learner of the 21st century has changed tremendously and we've got to understand in learning terms how we will like Le_Chatelier's_Principle shift to offer education in a way that retains its standard, integrity and achieves the aim of training quality students.
  
  

  Understanding Blended Learning

  Blended Learning is a learner-centric shift. This definition fits into a service perspective:
  The importance of a blended approach to learning is that it ensures the widest possible impact of a learning experience and thus ensures...that the organization optimizes productivity and delivers value to its customers (Julian and Boone 2001)
  
  
  Note the words: impact of experience, productivity optimization and value delivery for customers.
  The above is a true perception to the blended learning delivery. Blending learning is not merely the use of technology but about satisfying the yearning of the learner both expressed and unexpressed.
  Consider a walk into the restaurant, it is the function of the waiter to reveal to the customer the several combinations and blend of cuisine that are available and based on the order given deliver an exquisite service.
  Blending learning definitely like service has the student at the heart of the production.
  The Intelligent learning system should reason about a learner's knowledge, monitor progress and adapt the teaching strategy to individual's learning pattern (Woolf, 1987)
  
  
  So the question of why is shifting from technology as a means to change the delivery method to technology as a means to enhance learning. #BlendkitReader
  
  
  An understanding of the use of a blend is conveyed in the findings of B.P. Woolf 2008 that one-on-one tutor yields over 70% of retention for student. This is not visible in a school setting but blending helps out in increasing the capability of the program deployed to better performance of the average student even in a large class setting.
  
  
  The background of our service lies in the theories that has been well postulated and of course a blend of theories (Carman, 2005)
  I particularly like the Bloom's Taxonomy and the Dale's Cone. When we develop under the auspices of those theories then we will serve continually a good blend to our customers and the result will be obvious.

  References

  Blendkit Reader http://blended.online.ucf.edu/blendkit-course-blendkit-reader-chapter-1/
  Carman, J. M. (2005). Blended Learning Design: Five Key Ingredients. retrieved on November 1, 2012 from http://www.agilantlearning.com/pdf/Blended%20Learning%20Design.pdf 
  Turban, Efraim (2002). Electronic Commerce: A Managerial Perspective. Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-185461-5.
  Julian, E.H. & Boone, C. (2001). Blended Learning Solutions: Improving the Way Companies Manage Intellectual Capital: An IDC White Paper. Retrieved from http://suned.sun.com/US/images/final_IDC_SES_6_22_01.pdf
  Woolf, B. P. (1987), Representing complex knowledge in an intelligent machine tutor. Computational Intelligence, 3: 45–55. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8640.1987.tb00173.x
  Woolf, B. P. (2009). Building Intelligent Interactive Tutors: Student-centered Strategies for revolutionizing e-learning. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2009.
  
  

  Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:18:00 +0000

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