Category Archives: DevLearn

Reflection for 11/10/14 to 11/14/14

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It’s Monday, so I’m hoping to get on track. I think that it’s important to do this every day to be most effective. I’m having a good start to the week. I was able to get to much of the grading for the online course that I’m teaching already.

IST 402 Big Data continues to be an unknown that I’m not sure I’ll be able to figure out before the beginning of the Spring ’15 semester.

I’m thinking about DevLearn and how great an experience it was. But I’m also thinking about the travel to Las Vegas and how difficult the last two weeks were. I’m leaning toward finding something closer to home.

It’s Tuesday, and I’m glad to have gotten something down two days in a row. I have spent time today cleaning up email and other odds and ends that I have been trying to get done lately. It feels good to be getting caught up. I’m hoping that tomorrow will allow ample opportunity to get completely caught up.

Ronda, Tisha, and I met in the afternoon to discuss IST 402 and how to complete everything necessary to finish up labs. We had a productive session and are all set to get things to the lab testing stage.

Spent some time with zyBooks. It looks like a good way to teach IST 230. I’m planning on meeting a representative tomorrow.

I met with the rep from zyBooks and decided to go with it for Spring ’15. Really excited about how this will make the course better.

Dealt alot with 402 today. Hope for better days ahead.

Met with WC folks for lunch. I felt like today was a day that I needed to take my time. This strategy worked out well for me.

Ended Thursday a bit miffed. I’m a bit tired of having to go through channels to get approved for everything when I’m doing the right things. But I can see that this can be a problem in the long run if I miss the right step.

Today was a similar circumstance with a revision that I’m being asked to help with. I’m not sure why certain people are being tapped to do things if they aren’t doing things the way that we are asking. I just am not that worried about how things are done if they are done well. On a related note, I’m so excited to be moving to the Canvas pilot. I’m hoping that it goes well so that we can put the cms to rest once and for all.

Thus ends a busy and productive week. It wasn’t without its issues, but no one said that life is simple.

 

 

Reflection for 10/27/14 to 10/31/14

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At this point, it is 11/3/14. I didn’t get a chance to do this because I was preparing and went to the DevLearn 2014 Conference. It was a great event. Here are a few notes from sessions that I attended:

We started with the opening keynote by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. He started by making the claim that we are all born scientists but parents and society take it away from us. It is done by placing rules like at the table. Why not allow children to investigate the world by making a mess? I have personally been so glad that I have a liberal arts education. Even though my degree is in math, I have been exposed to many other subjects which allows for different thought. Neil was a big proponent of LA education. Neil spoke strongly against the education of the 1950’s. I tend to agree that although we appeared to be making progress there is so much that is exclusive and wrong. He mentioned the essays by Isaac Asimov called The Relativity of Wrong. Neil talked about this in relation to how we assess students. I always felt like there were some answers that showed more understanding than others. I tended to give move partial credit to an answer that showed more understanding.  Great talk.

I got a chance to attend a session by an instructor of one of my former bosses. Allison Rossett is a retired instructor from San Diego State. During the session I found myself going down memory lane by search on web quests. Allison talked about instructional design. I found myself wondering why behaviorism was considered a possible learning theory. I’m not disagreeing that it exists. It doesn’t apply to what I’m doing. I liked when she talked about designing activities so that students have success but are also stretched a bit. This reminds me of game development. She also talked about motivation and its role in teaching and learning. One of the things that I noticed during this session is the number of people who got up and left the session. It was a good session, and I wondered why so many felt like it was okay to do this. I’m not saying that this doesn’t and shouldn’t happen. It just seemed like someone had given people permission to do this as they pleased.

One of the more entertaining sessions that I attended was Meme-ing the Future of Learning by Cammy Bean, Chad Udell, David Kelly, Jane Bozarth, and Jennette Campos. I found what Chad Udell had to say resonating the most with me. He had alot to say about making sure that we don’t just think of putting everything we have on mobile. Instead we should think about what fits best in the mobile environment.

My favorite session of the conference was by Beau Lotto. He talked about humans and their tendency to be delusional. It was a large group but very interactive. He had us to exercises to test our perception. I hadn’t thought about how much perception affects learning. I walked away wondering how human really know anything. There were several important points that he made. 1) Be aware that we have assumptions (biases). Learning really begins with humility. 2) Learn your assumptions (biases). This is difficult since these biases are often hidden from us. 3) Question your assumptions. This is difficult because we hate uncertainty. We can do this by working in groups. If we listen to other members we can find our biases and learn to work with them. Another way to fight our dilemma is to play. Play is evolution’s answer to uncertainty. It encourages diversity. Beau referred to it as play with intention. Another item that Beau brought up is that efficiency is valued over creativity. We need to learn to balance this.

Another session that I really like was by Sharon Boller. She talked about remembering. We have this big debate about organic memory and e-memory. Many say that we don’t need to memorize anymore. She was able to bring up reasons why we should improve our remembering. She also talked about a few strategies to improve memory. 1) Spaced intervals – every 8 days revisiting material. 2) Repetition – this means doing exercises that are similar in nature not exactly the same. 3) Timely feedback and require to fix mistakes. 4) Use stories since they improve memory by evoking emotion.

I had a great time and learned alot. On the way home, I had a claustrophobic episode. I think that I need to talk to my doctor about this. I also slept around 4-5 hours a day which I’m sure didn’t help. It’s difficult to do a conference because I don’t want things to slip back at work. I’m thankful for my colleagues who helped this not to happen. I need to figure out a way to fix this in myself.

Blog on Fleming

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This should catch me up on the blogs. It’s been relatively crazy lately to say the least. Here are my reflections on the Clark blog about Fleming.

Quote: “In education during the 1980s and 90s we saw the rise of learning theories that were weak on research but strong on marketing.”
Reflection: As someone involved in teaching and learning, I have seen much of this emerge. We had a teacher whose purpose was to help students leverage learning styles to improve their study skills in the Middle School where I spent 15 years. In casual conversation, I hear people talking about what they gravitate toward in terms of learning styles. But I hear a different story from the those who focus on the research. 

Quote: “An unfortunate offspring of the pseudoscience that is NLP, Neil Fleming’s 1987 variation on VAK, was the VARK learning styles model. This took the unproven proposition in NLP that we approach learning with a dominant sensory mode, namely visual, auditory or kinaesthetic.
1. Visual learners
2. Auditory learners
3. Kinaesthetic learners”
Reflection: This puts things in perspective. I had no idea that this spawned from the NLP which I reflected on in my last blog. I guess it is true that understanding NLP and its place in teaching and learning is important.

Quote: “Despite being a crude categorisation, unresearched and taken from a field of learning widely regarded in academic and professional psychology as bogus, this classification has been widely adopted in schools.“
Reflection: This is what I have found. It is almost like a truism in our field that this is something that should be considered when designing courses.

Quote: “Fleming’s (Dunn and Dunn in the US) claims seem to be based on supposition and not researched evidence. Learning styles in their many guises proved wrong on a number of fronts.“
Reflection: It is easy to assume that what we feel is true is indeed true. Anecdotal evidence is something that many, including myself, base many decisions on. This definitely challenges me to rethink a bit. I’m so glad to be going through this exercise to be be challenged.

Quote: “First the research backing the VAK scheme did not exist. According to Coffield in a damning Government funded report on learning styles, “Despite a large and evolving research programme, forceful claims made for impact are questionable because of limitations in many of the supporting studies and the lack of independent research on the model.” Second, the scheme is far too simple and heavily criticised by neuroscientists and professional psychologists as being at best a gross simplification at worst, misleading and wrong.“
Reflection: This forces me to rethink several notions that have been reinforced over the past few years.

Quote: “Many claim that learning a complex and integrated process that is put in jeopardy by the practice of learning styles.  Some researchers accuse teachers of pigeon-holing students, leading to stereotyping. Even worse, it may lead to impoverished learning as the student is not building the right range of learning skills. The weaknesses may be the very things that need attention. The great danger is that we label learners and limit progress, rather than enhance, their educational aspirations. Guy Claxton makes this very point regretting the use of VAK in classroom practice on the basis that it restricts learning. Stahl claims there has been an “utter failure to find that assessing children’s learning styles and matching to instructional methods has any effect on their learning.” Roger Schank believes that teachers are confusing ‘learning styles’ with a much stronger phenomenon, ‘personality’. He quite simply thinks that learning styles do not exist. “
Reflection: This is a strong section that warrants my attention. I’ll need to spend more time reading and reflecting on this notion. It was one of the items mentioned at the DevLearn conference 2013 during Day #2, during the E-Learning Myths: What Research Says by Clark and Udell.

DevLearn 2013 Day #3

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Since this was the final day, and I need to catch a flight, I was only able to attend one session.

AGILE Instructional Design: Keeping Pace with the Speed of Change by Conrad Gottfredson
This turned out to be not only informative but also entertaining. Conrad had a way of getting his point across while making us laugh along the way. I have to say that much of the session was over my head. In order to make this concept useful, I’ll need to do more in-depth study and application.

One of the main points in the session is that we need to move away from the train only mode of e-learning. There needs to be training that transfers and is sustained in the learner to be effective. This is an important piece that we don’t always build into our concept of what makes a course. In higher ed, we are often more interested in how students perform on an assessment than how it moves into the future. I guess we just assume that what a student learns goes with them into their future. But this is not a wise assumption.

Another great point made by Conrad was about consequences of failure. We need to consider which part of the content are critical and base that analysis on the consequences of failure if they are not addressed. Here is a picture that I took of Conrad’s slides on this topic.
View image

I need to reflect on this and think about it applies to courses

DevLearn 2013 Day #2

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It’s been a few days since the conference has ended, but I have a few thoughts on day 2 of DevLearn.

Design Models & Patterns for Creating Better e Learning by Cammy Bean
Cammy made some excellent points during this session. I liked how she started by saying that what she was presenting was by no means complete but a work in progress. I agree that much in e-learning is in flux and needs to be adapted and changed over time. Why wouldn’t our ideas and philosophies go through a similar transformation?

She also talked about the need to create a common language. This helps with the important aspect of communication within the team.

There is also this notion of templates and patterns that arose. I have been thinking of how important templates would be in order to be efficient. But there is this notion of patterns which has arisen that is more flexible. I need to spend more time reading and thinking about this. Right now, it looks like we are talking about a more flexible and adjust way of creating mini modules that can be assembled to create large e-learning modules.

Cammy broke most of the session into three categories of learning:

  1. Inform or raise awareness
  2. Build knowledge and skills
  3. Solve complex problems; change attitudes and behaviors

To address the first aspect, she suggested several ideas:

  • e-magazines
  • infomercials
  • almanacs

These made alot of sense. It would interesting to include these types of learning objects in a course just to increase variety.

To address teaching/building skills, she started by invoking Gagne and his philosophy. Here is a recent reflection that I wrote based upon Clark’s blog on Gagne: https://sites.psu.edu/rep129blog/2013/09/26/reflection-on-gagne/. I don’t believe that any philosophy should be completely rejected, but I have a strong stance against the philosophies held within this theory. It is interesting that even though Cammy leans upon this theory, there is much that can be adjusted to include a more social learning environment. To me this is what needs to be done to make Gagne’s theories better. Here are the main ideas presented in this part of the presentation:

  • Gain attention
  • Set direction
  • Present content
  • Practice
  • Assess & Summarize
  • Call to action

Like I said these are good, but it is important to remember that there are a variety of ways to accomplish this without falling into the same pattern. Cammy was all about that from what I could see.

E-Learning Myths: What Research Says by Clark and Udell

Here are the myths that were mentioned:

  1. We should adapt to different learning styles. – Adaptation to learners has not been shown scientifically to work. Use best practices in learning design. Design learning for the outcome.
  2. We should measure the differences in the learner. – Different analytical tool results can change over time based on the individual. A valid analytical tool based upon psychometric analysis has not been found. Also, using psychometric instruments reinforce stereotypes.
  3. Young people are naturally good with digital technology. – Younger generation capable of using technology but not all that well but struggle with analysis. Develop for all ages. Don’t assume good tech skills.
  4. Generations differ in meaningful ways. – Based upon a study, there was no difference in what individuals value in work, by age. Considering these types of differences is biased and may incorporate ageism into design.

I have been in several trainings that would have refuted what was being stated in this session. I think that a debate may have been a better way to present the material. Just my opinion…

Using Design Thinking to Fill in What’s Missing from ADDIE by Malamed

To start this session, we were reminded that everyone was born to be creative. I fundamentally agree with this, but I know many who don’t believe this. How do we change that? Not sure if I have a specific answer. Here a shot…. You have to show people by giving them a challenge that reveals it. That is what we were asked to do. We had to think about several elements in the presentation room that involved design. 

We were also reminded through IDEO founder David Kelly that diversity, collaboration, and empathy to the user are important elements of design. Here are a few links relating to this part of the discussion:

According to this notion of design, here are the main principles:

  • Empathize
  • Define
  • Ideate – constraints can help to bring structure
  • Prototype
  • Test

There is much to research and reflect on here. I am getting the feeling that there is no specific way to address design from a theoretical level. You need to use ideas and adjust to fit your needs. The biggest part is getting started.

Great day at the conference. Enjoyed the sessions and energy from all of the speakers.

Reflection 10/21/13-10/25/13

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Accomplishments:

  • Prof Dev
  • Fall ’13 revisions/developments
    • IST 220 (Giacobe)
      • Received materials
      • Upon further inspection, there wasn’t much done with this materials. Hopefully, everything will stay on schedule.
      • Had to move back the latest deadline to Thursday 10/17
      • Received materials and need to add them to ANGEL
    • IST 402 (Jansen)
      • Meeting set up by Amy S for 6/12 to discuss new topic around Jim Jansen’s f2f 402 “The Google Online Marketing Challenge”
      • Sounds like a good idea from several perspectives:
        • student engagement via competition
        • marketing to students in other majors for minor
      • Few possible obstacles
        • Not enough students from other majors with complementary skills
        • Large need for synchronous meetings
        • Large time commitment
      • Email sent on 6/12 to Jim to set up meeting for June 24-28
        • Meeting planned for June 24 from 3-4
          • Looks like lots of captivates
          • Need to put together a process to share with him to make this streamlined
          • Need to have a drupal space created
          • He probably won’t be able to get me product until August 1
      • Put in request to IST Helpdesk to create ist402gomc site for Jansen’s course
        • received notification on 6/26 that this was done
        • sent a footprints request to set up the site on 6/27 to Ranjani and Will
        • Will overlayed template on the course
        • Allison enabled a few pages for course information & made a template syllabus
      • Amy S contacted Jim on 7/30
        • Jim got right back & asked about videos from the course, specifically screenr
        • after consulting with Will & Allison decided b/c of the changeable nature of the course that screenr process to mp4 to embedded in the course would be the best way to go
        • Jim sounded hesitant about process after I laid out the steps, but it is b/c he’s never done this before. Reassured and asked for feedback to improve process
      • Note from Jim on 8/8 about where to put content
        • Repurposed Saab’s 402 for Jim to use
      • Also asked by Jim about one lesson a week format
        • Told him to put things together using a topical approach, and we can figure out timing later
      • Received materials on 8/12 but it needs to be parsed out, added to the couse space, and send feedback to clarify expectations
      • Got this going and sent a note. Plan to meet f2f when he comes to the building on Wednesdays
      • First meeting was this Wednesday at 1:30. Went well and felt like I got through about the need to complete things asap
      • Updated info for WC on Monday 9/16
      • Sent a note on Tuesday 10/1 about needing to get materials.
      • Jim responded that he would dedicate the weekend to getting materials into the ANGEL dev space
      • Few emails over the weekend to clarify
      • Plan to meet on Wednesday 10/9
        • Good meeting. Here are items that we discussed:
          • Peer evals – sounds like we are going to be using google forms
          • Guest speak recording
            • Talked to Emily Spokus about how we could do this
              • Need to get more specifics so that we can use our resources
  • Fall ’13 Courses
    • IST 421
      • Sec 001 (Ocker)
        • Answered question about extended time on an exam
          • I learned that the Interaction Settings are not 1-to-1. If an exam is timed, there is no way to set the exam to unlimited time in the advanced settings. You have to put a time that is longer than what the base settings state.
  • Spring ’14 Courses
    • IST 110
      • Secs 001 & 002 (Jan)
        • Sent a note on Tues 10/1 about populating her sections for Spring ’14
        • Need to follow up since haven’t heard back
      • Sec 003 (Borge)
        • Spoke with Marcela informally on Monday at Hispanic Heritage Lunch and she was okay with me copying over materials
        • Exported/Imported materials into Spring ’14 section on 10/8/13
          • Updated course schedule and set the course
          • Sent a note on 10/8/13 about completion
      • Sec 004 (Garbrick)
        • in Blackboard
    • IST 111S
      • Sec 001 (Folkers)
        • Sent a note on 10/9/13 about getting the okay to copy materials into her Spring ’14 section
    • IST 210
      • Sec 001 (Aebli)
        • Sent note about putting mateials in his course space
          • Still hasn’t received approval to teach
          • Looks like he will teach, so will copy Summer ’13 materials into his section
            • Completed on 10/8/13 and email sent out
      • Sec 002 (Gary)
        • Sent note about putting materials in his course space
        • He thought that was a good idea
          • Completed on 10/8/13 and email sent out
    • IST 220
      • Sec 001 (Lee)
        • Sent note about putting materials in her course space
        • She thought it was a good idea
        • ANGEL upload on 10/9/13
      • Sec 002 (Mike)
        • Amy S sent note about new strategy to make courses more fair
          • Mike replied that he doesn’t even know that he’s approved
    • IST 230
      • Sec 001 (Newcomer)
        • Sent note on 10/9 to confirm that he will be populating and setting up his own section.
    • IST 240
      • Sec 001 (Fred)
        • Planned meeting next week hopefully shores things up to populate his space
          • Hasn’t happened yet as of Wednesday 10/9/13, so I sent a note.
          • Met on 10/11/13
            • Plan is to populate Spring ’14 section with materials from his UP Fall ’13 section.
              • I’ll update the dates to reflect Spring ’14
              • Check in with him early next week to move to next step.
    • IST 250
      • Sec 001 (Wilson)
        • Asked about whether he would like to have his Fall ’12 section copied in or dev space
          • He said he’d get back to me next week
    • IST 260W
      • Sec 001 (Long)
        • Asked about whether he would like Fall ’13 or Spring ’13 copied in
          • He said Fall ’13, so plan is to populate next week
    • IST 295A
      • Sec 001 (Bertin)
        • Asked about whether she wanted me to set up the space or if she would do it.
          • She replied that she would like me to put materials in the section but would like more materials about teamwork.
    • IST 295B
      • Sec 001 (Kari)
        • Plan to populate and contact her next week
    • IST 420
      • Merged Sec 001 & 002 (Hill)
        • Based upon our discussion from last week, I populated the course with Fall ’12 materials
          • Required some unpublishing of materials

     

Ongoing Projects:

    • Updated google spreadsheet for Spring ’14 with known instructors
    • Emails to instructors to set up Spring ’14 spaces

Immediate Decisions / Issues:

    • Need LMS that better integrates and includes tools that we use in our classes.

Important Dates:

  • October 7 – Individual Sick Time (8h)
  • October 17 – Vacation Time (2h)
  • October 29 – Vacation Time – AM (4h)
  • Feb 4 – Family Sick Time in AM (4h)

DevLearn 2013 Day #1

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They say that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. This doesn’t apply for an experience like this one. I’m so excited to have the chance to attend DevLearn 2013. Here are my thoughts on the first day.

Opening General Session: Things started off with David Kelly recalling his DevLearn 2012 which he spent battling Hurricane Sandy. After explaining some of the specifics about how the conference would operate, David turned the mic over to Jeremy Butsche who energized the group talking about how to Exploit Chaos. Here are a few items mentioned by Jeremy that resonated with me:

  • questions don’t change, just the answers
  • we are in a time where we are no longer selling product, but experience
  • it’s important to know your customers
  • culture beats strategy – fulfill, adapt, motivate
  • there is no point in innovating if you think you already know the answer – be open to possibilities
  • 3 ways to exploit chaos – viral creation, viral mediums, well-packaged story
  • portray your product as average and that’s all it will ever be
  • challenge: describe what you do in 7 words or less
  • to make message stick -simple, direct, supercharged

Expo – impressed by the crew that I interacted with.

Gamification on the Go: This session was about a topic that has been on my mind for awhile. But there is something that bothers me about the idea. While I can see that there is a chance to accomplish more by using gaming techniques, it seems almost subversive in its approach. One item that reinforced what I have been learning is that status in the community is more important than getting rewards for learners.

Redesigning Learning Design to Meet Today’s Challenges: This was an interesting session. I liked the layout. It was clear what was going to be covered. I took this session as a challenge to rethink learning design to think beyond ADDIE. Here were some of the suggestions to research:

  • HPT (Human Performance Technology)
  • BPR (Business Process Re-engineering
  • Six Sigma
  • Lean
  • Agile
  • CMA (Critical Mistake Analysis)
  • SAM (Successive Approximation Model)

There was alot of conjecture about what has happened over the past 40 years in e-learning. While most of it resonated with me, I’m not completely confident that society is going in the right direction and that we don’t play a part in the problem.

One thing that has bothered me lately is the speed with which we are trying to put together courses. In order to do this, there needs to be some give and take. From my end, I have come to terms with the fact that the initial product will be unfinished and unpolished. But the problem is that it cannot stay that way. It is important to continue to address issues as the course progresses to fit learner needs.

Back to the challenge that Lance Dublin issued, he would like us to think about how we can take the different models and create a new model or a combo model that helps to better address design than our old friend ADDIE. I have thought this for years. When I went through school at Philadelphia University, we as a cohort were almost anti-ADDIE. I remember doing an assignment in Dr. Russ Pritchard’s course where I amassed my own ID model to glowing reviews from him. It inspired me to consider my philosophy. This session helped to further reopen my investigation. I’m so glad that I have been reflecting on the Clark blog. Now I need to keep going down this road by looking at an overall framework that we can use to better address course design, development, and growth.

The Real Power of Games for Learning – This was my favorite session of the day and sparked conversation afterwards with my good friend and colleague, Kent Matsueda. Ian Bogost helped to lay out the differences between Game Design and Gamification. He did a tremendous job, & I will be forever grateful for his efforts on this.

He started by making a statement about games as an underdog. This was of note to me because I don’t see it that way from my perspective. At least I didn’t until I heard Ian explain his position. To me, games and sport are ubiquitous and drive our society. By Ian is not talking about sport, necessarily. He is talking about games which often are associated with youth, violence, and sloth. It gave me a new perspective which I needed.

He went on to describe the 7 differences between Game Design and Gamification while adding examples and infusing important game design principles into the talk. Here are those ideas:

Game Design Gamification Underlying Game Design Principle
Complexity Simplicity Modeling
Context Isolation World Building
Conditions Authority Emergence
Transformation Engagement Role Play
Relationship Reward Kinship
Discourse Quantification Deliberation
Understanding Compliance Process

I liked how Ian clearly laid out his points in a way that he wasn’t attacking gamification. He has a strong opinion, but he wasn’t trying to shove it down our throats. He explained his view in a coherent and transparent way that opens up a discussion that he need to have.

I get the feeling that many would rather move forward with gamification and not worry about the impact of the movement. To me this is not wise. We are going to impact our craft and our learners, so we bettter know if this is something that is good for them and society in general before fully committing to this strategy. To me, this is the time. We finally have a dialouge started. Thanks again to Ian for starting this dialouge. I look forward to participating for the betterment of the appropriate use of games in teaching in learning.