E-brary
Week 1 –Schools Maximize Free Content
This article, written by Jessica Terrell, was a fairly straight forward article that explained OERs. The article talked about how schools, in particular the Tullahoma City Schools, can use OERs in the classroom to get free content and more up to date content then traditional textbooks. Although a lot of the content was information I already knew, this article could be a great resource to send out to teachers through my school district, as well as use in a future professional development about OERs. This article can also help me finding OERs as it contains a list of OERs for teachers to use (Terrell, 2016, pg. 51).
Reference
TERRELL, J. (2016). Schools Maximize Free Content. Education Digest, 81(9), 48-52.
Week 2 – Will Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) Change Education?
This article discusses an upcoming panel, moderated by Daniel M Russell from the company Google, and Scott Klemmer of Stanford Unviersity. During this panel they are going to discuss and answer the question stated in the title, will massive online open courses change education. The article makes it fairly clear that MOOCs will change education but makes the reader think about if it is changing education in a positive or negative way. For example, in the article it states “Will Stanford still be Stanford when the majority of people with Stanford degrees have never visited California (Russel & Klemmer, 2013), which is where Stanford University is located. The article is designed to make the reader think, as well as encourage them to attend the panel.
Reference
Russel, D., & Klemmer, S. (2013, May 27). Will Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) Change Education? Retrieved from http://hci.stanford.edu/publications/2013/MoocPanel-CHI2013.pdf
Week 3 – Fad or Future: The Advantages and Challenges of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
This article, written by three individuals, discusses both the advantages and challenges of MOOCs. The article is packed with great information about MOOCs, but the key takeaway I took from this article is all of the challenges it really discusses are really simply because MOOCs are still so new, in the grand scheme of education. One issue is trying to get institutions on board with the idea of using MOOCs, especially since many of them are worried about having to hand over a lot of their power to companies such as edX, Udacity and Coursera (Chen, Barnett & Stephens, n.d., pg. 8). Simply put, administrators, students and instructors are still testing the waters of MOOCs, since change can be a scary, especially with something like education that has essentially been unchanged for so long.
Reference
Chen, X., Barnett, D., & Stephens, C. (n.d.). Fad or Future: The Advantages and Challenges of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Retrieved from https://post.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-3108077-dt-content-rid-25195211_1/courses/EDU639.901202035910/Documents/ChenBarnettStephens.pdf
Week 3 – MOOCs Come of Age
This magazine article by Sam Herring discusses MOOCs and using them in the corporate world. In the article it mentions four themes of how you can use MOOCs in the corporate setting. First, companies are using MOOCs for specific purposes and topic, such as computer coding, a field that is in high demand but not enough talent to meet that demand. Secondly, companies are using MOOCs to educate their customers. Third, companies are developing MOOCs to identify, and develop talent outside of the company. Once the MOOC is completed they offer jobs to the students they feel will be beneficial to the company. Finally, companies are building internal and private MOOCs for training. I found this article interesting because it shows a way to use MOOCs outside of the traditional education field.
HERRING, S. (2014). MOOCs Come of Age. T+D, 68(1), 46.
Week 4 – Higher Education Migrates to YouTube and Social Networks
The article discusses colleges and universities using YouTube and Social Media for education in more of a official capacity. For example, if you were to type in Computer Science on YouTube you would get thousands of hits, however using YouTubeEDU, you will find 200 or lectures on the topic (Gilroy, 2010, pg. 18). To me this is important because it is a way to get rid of the videos posted on YouTube that are not of quality. The content on YouTubeEDU is peer-reviewed. In addition, schools should be creating official social media pages because otherwise an alumni or someone else will create one of them regardless (Gilrory, 2010, pg. 21). It is important that the school keeps control of their identity, rather then someone else doing it for them.
Reference
Gilroy, M. (2010, March). Higher Education Migrates to YouTube and Social Networks. Retrieved from http://webpage.pace.edu/js12783n/PaceMarketing/Higher%20Education%20Migrates%20to%20Youtube%20and%20Social%20Networks%20-%20Annotated.pdf
Week 4 – All I need to Know About Twitter in Education I Learned In Kindergarten
I found this article interesting because, although I have used a lot of online tools in my classrooms, I never used Twitter. The article shows though that Twitter can be a incredibly useful tool in many different educational settings. It can be used to engage learners, lead and motivate in-class discussions to create a more student-centered approach and to facilitate process-orientated learning. In addition it is a great way to share resources to students and others in the field.
Reference
Reinhardt, W., Wheeler, S., & Ebner, M. (2010). All I Need to Know About Twitter In Education I Learned in Kindergraten. Retrieved from https://post.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-3108073-dt-content-rid-25195207_1/courses/EDU639.901202035910/Documents/2010.pdf
Week 5 – YouTube and Vimeo for Education
What I liked most about this article is not only does it point out many of the positives of why you should use YouTube and Vimeo in education, but this article can really be used as a introductionary guide on how to use them. Many of the articles we read are great on explaining why something is beneficial but it is up to you as a instructor to go out, learn the system and make the connections to education. This article really goes into detail on the how part. For example, discussing playlist, student produced reflective videos, channel management, subscribing, uploading, file sizes limits, privacy, metadata, etc. All this information is incredibly important on actually using the system. I can easily see myself passing this article along to one of my teachers who want to learn more about using videos in the classroom.
Reference
Jisc. (n.d.). YouTube and Vimeo for Education. Retrieved from http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/youtube-vimeo-education
Week 5 – Literature Review of Gaming in Education
As many people know, I am a big fan of using gaming in education wherever it fits. Gaming is incredibly engaging and makes students think way more then watching a video. This article discusses the benefits of gaming and focuses on five claims. These claims are that games are built on sound learning principles, provide high engagement for the learner, provide personalized learning opportunities, teach 21st century skills and finally provide an environment for authentic and relevant assessment (McClarty et al., 2012, pg.2).
Reference
McClarty, K., Orr, A., Frey, P., Dolan, R., Vassileva, V., & McVay, A. (2012). A Literature Review of Gaming in Education. Retrieved from Pearson website:http://researchnetwork.pearson.com/wp-content/uploads/Lit_Review_of_Gaming_in_Education.pdf
Week 6 – Five Tips for Designing Effective Online Learning Modules
I found this article great since it explains in very basic terms important pieces of online learning modules. Many of these tips were clear to me since we have discussed and learned them in previous post courses, but for someone new to developing online courses it is great advice. I could easily see myself using this article when creating professional development for my district on creating online classrooms.
Reference
Murray, K. (2011, March 24). Five tips for designing effective online learning modules. Retrieved from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/five-apps/five-tips-for-designing-effective-online-learning-modules/
Week 7 – MOOCs go to K12
What I love about this article is it discusses using MOOCs in a K-12 classroom, which is my field and where my focus is. MOOCs are typically seen as something used for students in higher education so having students in the K-12 setting use MOOCs and some of the elements that are found in MOOCs are very exciting to me. One of the biggest trends in K-12 education, and all education for that matter is personalized learning. MOOCs, as we know from this course, is all about personalized learning so using MOOCs in K-12 classrooms just makes sense.
Jackson, N. M. (2013). MOOCs go to K12. District Administration, 49(8), 34-37.
Week 8 – Game On
Written by Damon Poeter, this article discusses the future of gaming and how it will be a lot more varied and interesting then what people would expect. The article focuses a great deal on VR, which recently I have been very interested in due to a recent PD I attended. Although the content is not quite there yet, which the article mentions, the idea of being able to put a headset on and make it feel as if you are somewhere different is very exciting for education. In a social studies or history class, by putting on a VR headset you can feel as if you are in a different country or a different time period, really allowing learning to come to life for the student.
Reference
POETER, D. (2015). GAME ON!. PC Magazine, 96.
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