While researching instructional sites, I didn't want to limit myself to just my own subject matter, because my focus is then on teaching. I wanted to look at the pages and focus on learning. Since I know my own content area, I can't state an unbiased opinion. All of the images that I see dealing with Spanish make sense to me. What this lesson is attempting to do is take a teacher- like me- and force me to look at the images or appearance from the perspective of the learner. Teachers tend to focus on teaching. While we know all student learn differently, we spend our time focusing on how to teach to different styles. It is a different point of view to take a look from the other side of the proverbial desk. Since I carry the title of STEM Academy Lead Teacher in my face to face job and do my best to help teachers in the STEM Academy find instructional materials to help students learn, I thought that would be a good perspective to take here. While completing the research, these are the sites that I considered and my assessment of the sites based on the questions outlined in this course, which are: Can the students tell what to focus on? What items are more important than others? How do students know where content ends and assessment begins? How do students stay engaged with the content? Keeping these questions at the forefront of my mind, I again reevaluated some of the online learning sites that I previously visited.
Best Practices with Appearance in MindAgain, the questions TOOL uses to gauge the appearance of online learning platforms: Can the students tell what to focus on? What items are more important than others? How do students know where content ends and assessment begins? How do students stay engaged with the content? Keeping these questions at the forefront of my mind, I again reevaluated some of the online learning sites that I previously visited. I wanted to choose two sites that I really liked, but also choose some sites that had some flaws. I want to look at the sites that I found with flaws. Now, this does not mean that the sites are all bad, and for that reason, I do not want to name them. I just want to point out what it is about them that I do not feel meets all of the attributes of a learning platform that uses best practices. What I like: It's important to specify there are positive aspects to this site. First of all, each topic has an explanation, and then it has a video to help illustrate the content. In some of the videos, you can change the variables to see how it works. What I don't like: I don't like how small the print is. I feel it is very difficult to read. If I had some type of visual impairment, I would not be able to read this. Also, there is nothing to check my learning. There is no way for me to self-assess or for the program to assess what I know. I don't like that the topics are offered by just that: topics. Full courses are not offered. What I like: The material presented is very comprehensible and is infused with videos and images. The font colors are easily legible. The course offers formative and summative assessments both. The course is very chronological and it takes you from one end of the content to the other. Even test study guides are provided. What I don't like: I don't like the size of the fonts. It is difficult to read the material. I don't like that the order is a suggestion; students do not have to work from one end to the other. I don't like that there is nothing to engage me throughout the course. There are videos where someone is talking at me, but there is no guarantee of engagement. There is also not much to grab my attention. Sound Design Ideals Two of the sites that exemplify sound design ideals are: GAVS, Open Learning Initiative, and BrainPOP. Let's take a look at why and how these sites demonstrate best practices. Open Learning Initiative Carnegie Mellon University STEM Foundations:
GAVS AP Chemistry I already have a job with GAVS... including this online learning platform is not based on an attempt to get hired. I have been working with GAVS for 5 years now. There are times when I, as an instructor, find areas where improvement is necessary, but after looking through other other learning platforms and reviewing the standards, GAVS does an exceptional job of employing best practices. Let's look at some examples:
The Georgia Virtual learning platform is most certainly the highest example of best practices as outlined in TOOL. The questions asked previously are answered in excess. Can the students tell what to focus on? Absolutely! Again and again the focus is highlighted in images, charts, formative assessments, and then in the summative assessments. What items are more important than others? I think this was already answered... should I say it again? The focus is highlighted in images, charts, formative assessments, and then in the summative assessments! How do students know where content ends and assessment begins? The first and last picture above illustrate how to know where the content is located as well as what the assessments are. How do students stay engaged with the content? GAVS includes reviews, interactive activities, videos, images, etc. Knowing GAVS from the inside out, I know that the assignments require engagement, as do the assessments. I am proud to be a part of the GAVS faculty... the GAVS family.
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The TOOL course states that content maps are used to ensure heightened productivity and time management. As an instructor for GAVS, I am familiar with the courses that I teach and the different projects assigned. I am also familiar with the differences of learners and know that it is often crucial, especially for students with a 504 plan or an IEP, to break down larger projects into steps for them. I have never seen a student that didn't benefit from that. Each chapter we complete, no matter what level of Spanish I am teaching, there is always a Vocabulary and Grammar Project. Students are to take all of the knowledge gained in a chapter (vocabulary and grammar) and employ it together in a project. They are also required to use images and create audio for the assignment. There are times when this project seems too big to wrap our mind around, and this is when a mind map becomes most useful. Please see the mind map below that was created for one specific assignment in a course I have taught to help break down the steps of the project. This content map contains all areas of the content (vocabulary and grammar) that are required in the project discussed. It is broken down including the different options offered by students, instructions for completing different aspects via links, and all of the requirements that must be included. Online learning demands a self-directed learner. Sometimes students that begin an online course are not self-directed, but they learn to be. A tool such as a mind map can help them in their pursuit to take their education into their own hands and be responsible for their own learning. This is what we want to do for all learners- we want to help them learn on their own. While these characteristics are difficult to directly teach in an online setting, instruments like this make it possible. Take a look at it; would you be able to complete the assignment given these tools?
As a full time teacher in the face to face classroom and an adjunct instructor in online learning, time management is something that is very important in my life. Even after working in a brick and mortar school for 15 years and online for 5, I still need to improve in leaps and bounds. Everyone would like to believe that they do what is best for their time, but to make true improvements, we must be brutally honest with ourselves. I suggest first taking the Time Management Quiz. This quiz is only 15 questions and it breaks your time management skills down into 5 characteristics: goal setting, prioritization, managing interruptions, procrastination, and scheduling. Identifying your areas of strength and weakness are important to make changes in the correct areas. I also found an article extremely helpful in my rationalization of what work to prioritize. I have never considered the clear difference between what is urgent and what is most important. Oliver Emberton makes a comedic analogy in his article How Does One Manage Time More Effectively. This site is provided in the lesson Create 1.1 by GAVS within TOOL, but I am including it because I think it is something that I needed not only to read myself, but also to introduce to my students. It gives an important message, considering our current culture in a way that is relatable by both adults and youth. Take a sneak peek at one of his images below:O The previous links listed are learning tools to provide knowledge that will enable us to make the right choices about our time management. A similar site for education of the same respect is the article Thirteen Timely Tips for More Effective Personal Time Management. Before picking apps or methods to help you in your time management quest, first give these three things a read. I have also been introduced to various instruments that can assist in improving the specific qualities necessary to have good time management. Take a look at the different tools that I have found helpful: RescueTime is one application that can be used to track the amount of time spent on different applications and websites so that you can have an accurate picture of your day. You can access reports about your activity, set alerts to advise you how much time you have spent on any specific activity, keep track of the highlights of what you accomplish, block distracting websites for specific blocks of time. This application runs securely in the background on your computer and mobile devices so that you can focus and be more productive. RescueTime does provide a free service, but you can also pay for additional settings. Toggl is another time tracker to help with productivity (obviously, this is where I need assistance). Most services actually cost for Toggl but basic tracking is free. Toggl also provides detailed productivity reports so that you can see where your time is spent. These can be used in different ways, such as maximizing your project profitability and staying on top of team performance. It also provides an app for mobile use. I suggest taking a look at the feature list because it offers some really useful aspects of time management. The ultimate goal of Toggl is to improve efficiency. I also like Nirvana because it not only provides tools to work on productivity, but it helps you through the steps of getting there. It is important to use a new system in the most effective way, and Nirvana shows you how to do that. It takes you through the following steps: capture your to-do's, organizing and clarifying (which includes managing your task by importance as well as by time commitment for each!), reflecting and engaging, and then focusing. It takes you beyond that with a weekly review so that you assess how you did and helps you create goals to improve. It also takes you through time saving computer settings. If Nirvana cannot help or if it can be more effective linked to another system, it also suggests those for you! One of the most annoying parts of having two different jobs is keeping all files organized on a plethora of topics electronically, remembering where they are, but without slowing down my computer by taking up too much space. Launchy is the tool to use in this case. Launchy indexes programs in your start menu and will help by allowing you access documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes! One last resource I would like to share is one that I would like to use in the face to face and online realm- not for my own time management, but to help students with theirs. List.ly is an application that is used to build lists. These lists don't necessarily need to be, for example, a to-do list, but it is any type of list that can be customized and embedded anywhere (like D2L!). It can be connected to all types of mobile devices as well as different types of software and apps to help people with all preferences come together (especially for a group project). Educators can use this to curate links and media for different projects, giving a break down of steps or different parts of the assignment, it allows students to contribute and collaborate. It allows item level tagging, as well. I will be using this app to help my students in their fist steps toward proper time management! |