Final Project

Blogs and collaborative Learning : 

Blogs and collaborative Learning Final Project Presentation OLIT593 Web 2.0

Project Background : 

Project Background Albuquerque School District through the NM Governor’s Graduate 10k Initiative set requirements for all teachers to complete 3 credit hours of Technology training for classroom instruction. APS Technology Department is in the process of training teachers across the school district in the use of Blackboard LMS.

Problem Statement : 

Problem Statement Most of the teachers surveyed showed interest in learning a new technology tool to help them engage their students into communicating and working on class assignments together. Current State- School teams use a education site gaggle.net to communicate with their students and share with the students parents work that is being done in class Desired State- Utilize a web tool that will allow for more open access to create, easier for students to communicate, and site to allow for collaboration

Project Design : 

Project Design The blog course that I designed is Teaching with Blogs using Edublogs educational site. The course is designed to introduce teachers to web 2.0 tools like blogs and required them to participate in a online collaborative learning activity. The blog course is an extension of a Learning Activity introduced in OLIT 538, a eLearning course being developed using the Learning Management System- Moodle

Learner Analysis : 

Learner Analysis Formative survey identified interest from elementary teachers for support of technology in the classroom. 8 years average of education experience 100% female; 50% Hispanic; 25% Native American; 25% Caucasian 90% of teachers surveyed have undergrad degrees in education 75% of teachers have graduate degrees 40% learn through auditory/visual methods, 25% learn in group settings, 25% learn by observation, 10% learn from text

Design Process : 

Design Process The course will focus on the blog for creating interaction with content and writing process for course discussion thread The course will create social construction through collaborative learning activity with group The course will engage teachers into the process of learning how to use blogs beyond the classroom The course content will be aligned to the LMS curriculum and to constructive learning

Learning objectives : 

Learning objectives At the end of this course learner will be able to: Enter a comment in the course blog with self-directed approach by using the discussion thread Contribute to collaborative learning activity by doing activity research using blog web links Given a blog the learner will create blog to use in classroom instruction and facilitate online instruction

Learning outcomes : 

Learning outcomes Learner will demonstrate beginner comment replies while using blog Learner will share in writing their research work about LMS applications Learner will apply learning strategies from blog curriculum to complete group activity

Development : 

Development Teaching Strategies: Constructivist learning theory is a constructive process in which the learner is building an internal illustration of knowledge, a personal interpretation of experience (Bruner,Piaget, Vygotsky) Collaborative Learning Model (five phases for designing instruction for collaborative learning): engagement exploration transformation presentation reflection

Learning Strategies Design : 

Learning Strategies Design Based on Oliver, R. (1999). Exploring strategies for online teaching and learning. Distance Education, 20(2), 240-254

Implementation : 

Implementation Course designed in Edublogs was created for elementary teachers Course was initiated in OLIT 538 as a added learning web tool for teaching with technology Course is about 5-10 days long Course will contribute to usability testing evaluation and design assessment Learning activities for teachers using blog will self-directed with small amount of instructor facilitation

Evaluation : 

Evaluation Usability testing has been administered to 30% of teacher participants Summative surveys have been administered to the same 30% of teachers Learner observation of 15% of teacher population was conducted with the interface of LMS course as well as use of blog site Blog collaborative learning activity will be assessed by instructor

Edublog : 

Edublog http://gmluna.edublogs.org/

References : 

References Alessi, Stephen M. & Trollip, Stanley R., Multimedia for Learning Methods and Development, 3rd ed., 2001 Pearson Ed. Moore,Michael & Kearsley,Greg, Distance Education: A Systems View, 2nd ed.,2005 Wadsworth http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/index.html http://edublogs.org/

Web 2.0 tools : 

Web 2.0 tools Edublog Screentoaster Authorstream Social Networking Bookmarking Video