Monthly Archives: May 2013

Week 2: Web 2.0

(Please forgive my late posting.  There was a medical emergency in my family.)

How is learning presumed to occur within the context of Web 2.0?

As Brown and Adler discussed in their article, Minds on Fire…, learning is presumed to happen in a social context while both consuming, creating, and sharing knowledge.  Facilitating this experience, Web 2.0 assist this by providing resources that allow people from a variety of places, backgrounds, and interests to come together, collaborate, and exchange information in “innovative ways” while focusing on “how we are learning” and not “what we are learning”.

What are the differences in the role of the learner and the facilitator as compared to ‘traditional’ learning environments? (Do you consider these roles and processes viable/valid given your philosophy of learning?)

Traditional learning environments are top down, teacher directed, didactic instruction where the learner was supposed to “soak up” information that was presented, connect it to other bits of previous information, and form chains of transferred knowledge that we, as the learners, could then put into action.  Now, both the teacher and the learner are expected to have active participation, collaboration, and creation of knowledge in a more socially constructed environment.

Personally, I feel there is space for both methods.  If I am taking a music class and learning how to play the violin, I expect the lesson will be teacher directed and I am to be a sponge.  This is something technical that I have no understanding of at that moment.  I would have to be trained.  Training, although the most basic form of teaching, occurs when there is a lack of base knowledge and/or a behavior needs to be created.

Bear with me just a moment as I try to explain my thoughts….

When I joined the military, I had no idea how to really be a soldier other than what I heard from vets or saw on TV.  In an environment like the military, behaviorism (creating a behavior) most certainly has its place – afterall, it was the miltary.  It was in the military that I learned how to stop thinking and start doing.  Now, before some rush to judgement on that statement, these were examples of things I had to learn to do as a natural extension of myself since I was an immature soldier (not to be confused with an immature adult).  As a brand new soldier, I had to learn how to follow orders and not question them; jump out of an airplane in the middle of the night with equipment that weighed more than me; rappel facing the ground instead of looking up at the sky; rush into a scene with bodies broken, bruised, dead, and dying (although it was portrayed by actors in the training phase); march even though my body ached and blisters covered my feet; and fight with another human until one of us won.

Much like a young child is potty trained, trained to eat with a spoon, and trained to conduct proper hygiene, an immature soldier has to be trained too.  One can not interact with the immature as one would act with the mature.  As a soldier professionally matures, the training changes to education.  This is all part of a soldier learning to be a soldier.

Much like a pre-teen/teenager starts to construct their identity, a mid-grade soldier learns to construct his/her own image of the soldier they want to be as well as the professional path they are going to take.  For example, a mid-grade soldier is normally at the point they have to decide if they are going to stay in or get out, is this to be a career or just a stepping stone to another career, will they change jobs within the military, for enlisted – will they stay enlisted or become a warrent officer or even an officer.  At this point, education is starting to consist of participation but is mainly driven by a top-down model of knowledge but there are choices that can be made by the learner as to where the instruction will occur.

Finally, with professional maturity in place, the professional military education (PME) changes to the connectivism (collaboration, participation, creating personal connections) paradigm and the soldier learns how to analyze his/her position, the military at large, and the military in a more global, social, and cultural l sense.

To add confusion to the matter, this overly generalized discussion changes according to the job a soldier holds or during times of conflict like we have seen for the past 10 years.  For me, basic training and airborne training were based in behavorism, learning to do my job as an intelligence analyst was based in constructivism, and training to become a non-comissioned officer (a middle management rank) was based more on a hybrid of constructivism and connectivism.

I do not see a one style fits all when it comes to learning environments but an appropriate learning style for the learning environment.

What implications do these shifts have for how we think about designing learning environments?

The biggest shift I see is considering what prior knowledge the learner possess.  A learner cannot necessarily collaborate if he/she has no prior knowledge.  With the increase of the learner’s knowledge base, comes the freedom of creating participatory environments that are social in nature.

 

Thoughts on Week 4 Texts

As I read the texts for this week, I felt a little “technologically overwhelmed.” As the Horizon Report 2011 shared: “Gesture-based computing” is gaining interest and exposure. I simply can’t wrap my mind around the thought of controlling a computer through body motions rather than with a mouse and keyboard. I was also shocked to read that attendees were asked NOT to turn off their phones at an Abilene Christian University performance. Can’t the summaries, clarification of Shakespearean language, and live-blogging hold off until at least the end of the performance? Are we taking this too far? As I read in The Horizon Report, the impact of technology is “indicative of the changing nature of the way we communicate, access information, connect with peers, and colleagues, learn, and even socialize”.

I was at the Verizon Wireless store in State College today trying to fix an issue with the speakers on my iPhone, when I heard an employee try to sell a smart phone by saying, “People are on their phones more than anything else today. They are on their phone more than they are in their car. They are on their phones more than they spend time socializing with their family and friends.” First of all, I couldn’t believe this was a part of his attempt to sell a phone to a customer. Secondly, I began to wonder how true his statements really were, and after the readings for this week, I am starting to think technology (specifically phones) might be taking over our lives. Let me step back for a moment..

People who know me well would probably be surprised to hear me say I feel “overwhelmed”, since I use my phone often for emailing, social networking, FaceTiming, etc. and find it to be extremely convenient. I am not saying that we would be better off without these technologies by any means. Now that I have finished “going off on a tangent”, I think technology has changed our lives for the better and I cannot picture the day when we no longer have these resources at our fingertips. Specifically as a teacher and student, technology is an integral part of learning in today’s education system.

Web 2.0 Technologies as Cognitive Tools of the New Media Age listed 5 Web 2.0 Implementation Recommendations For Teachers. I really made a connection with #2 (start small and be realistic) and #5 (Make it a big deal). In order for teachers to be successful, they must feel confident and comfortable with the technologies they are using in the classroom. I believe using Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom is absolutely motivating for students. Not only is it beneficial for students, but this “new-generation of Web technologies has lowered the technical threshold required of teachers and allow for relatively easy learning”.  Yes, we still need to start small and be realistic, but with hands-on practice, teachers can be successful with Web 2.0 technologies and using “contemporary teaching methods”.

I believe the most significant insight about the application of technology into the classroom from this chapter is how teachers are using blogs as learning and reflective Journals (E-Portfolios). The teacher in the text, Mr. Smith, was successful in the way he organized his blog. As #5 highlighted, he “made it a big deal”. His students were organized, motivated, and were able to track their own learning throughout the entire year. His 8th grade students were able to reflect on what they had learned and what their classmates had learned. Through the use of these portfolios, metacognitive and self-regulated reflection is enabled. “Learners were more likely to be motivated to devote effort in preparing their blog posts to demonstrate their knowledge because the e-portfolio would be published on the Web and accessible by audiences worldwide” (p. 365).

Melissa’s Week 4 Reading Reflection

The Hsu et al. chapter identifies different categories of Web 2.0 tools and how they accommodate student learning (specifically table 1). What is your perspective on the classification and application of tools based on your own knowledge and work with various Web 2.0 tools?

While I mostly have experience using the category of journaling or blogs, I did feel that the cognitive processing involved was correctly classified in Table 1 for each Web 2.0 technology type.  It helped to go back over the table after I read the rest of the chapter with examples of the use of each type of technology.   I have some minor experience with group use of Goggle Docs and feel that you could categorize the use of that tool in the “Organization and Integration with Prior Knowledge” cognitive process as well, especially when information needs to be placed in a certain category of a document.  But the authors themselves point out on page 356 that all three applications could promote all of the types of cognitive processes in the table.

What do you see as the most significant insights about application of technology into the classroom based on this chapter?

The tagging scenario on pages 358-359 helped me to think about a future application for my own course.   I am looking into the use of Pinterest as a helpful study aid for my anatomy and physiology students.  I recently attended a short presentation about Pinterest and its use in an undergraduate course.  I took a look at the number of anatomy figures that were already present on Pinterest and feel that maintaining boards on certain categories would allow students to find images to study, and also allow them to pin images that they find.  One of the biggest issues that occurs on anatomy quizzes is that students feel that they knew the information from one image (the figure in the book, for example), but couldn’t identify that part from a 3-dimensional model in lab.  I have found that the more a student studies from various sources, the more they understand the correct anatomy, no matter how it is presented.   Pinterest would allow students to find images and organize those images into the correct category to be used for future study.

I was also interested in the discussion of RSS feeds for staying updated on blog content (page 364).  I have found this to be a particularly helpful feature in our course this summer.  A problem that we face at our college is with our learning management system, students do not have good mobile access to the discussion forum.  They can get email updates, but posting is still best done on a computer, not a mobile device.  While I know that we will eventually be moving to Blackboard (which has better mobile access), in the short term of the next year or two, discussions on a blog would allow my students to interact with each other more often.  Because so many students have a Facebook app on their phones, I do know instructors who have moved their discussion forums out of the learning management system and onto a closed group on Facebook.  This allowed for better interaction between the students and the instructor as it could be used as a ubiquitous mobile tool.  I’d be interested to hear about the pros and cons of Facebook versus blogs based on others’ experiences.  And as with a blog, students can reflect on their learning by reading previous posts and seeing how far they have come since the beginning of a course.  I was excited by the scenario of using a blog as an e-portfolio as this allows the students to save multiple media types including audio, video, pictures, and text.  E-portfolios are now being used by many students to show their skills and experience for job interviews or acceptance into academic programs.

My favorite part of the article was the recommendations for implementation at the end of the article.  With all I have been learning in the past few weeks about these tools, I loved the recommendation to “start small and be realistic” on page 367.  I already have so many ideas to use these tools in my courses, but I need to refine those big plans into small steps to pilot these tools one at a time.

I did also enjoy exploring the different reports on the New Media Consortium website.  It was interesting that over the last few years, many of the same trends were reported such as mobile apps and educational games.  Recently, I was introduced to the area of learning analytics at a workshop, and it seems this could be an important new tool as well.  As an instructor, I already can use data from assessments to see where students are having problems as well as the areas in which they are doing fine, but learning analytics provide more detailed analyses that can help both instructors and administrators.

Week 4

calendar

Welcome to Week 4! Here’s what we’ve got coming up for this week.

  • Reading: Horizon Report 2011; Hsu, Ching & Grabowski, Web 2.0 technologies as cognitive tools
  • Blog post (see Lessons>Week 3 in Angel for suggested questions or topics to consider
  • Blog comments: comment on at least two other students’ posts
  • Group Blog Leaders/Curators: Courtney (Group 1); Melissa (Group 2); Shelby (Group 3)

For the Blog Curator assignment, those of you who are group leaders/curators for this week will read the posts made by those members in your group and then identify what you see to be some of the key highlights in their posts. You can look at my curation of the Week 2 posts as an example. You can see the schedule of group leaders on the Groups page of our course blog.

As always, if you have any questions, let me know.

Week 2: Web 2.0 and Learning

P/S my apologies for the late post.

For learning to occur there has to be a question to think about and content to interact with, and by content I mean credible online sources with which one can reference one’s thoughts or argument to build upon or challenge.

In Web 1.0, content created became very accessible. Then came Web 2.0 technology which allows for people to interact with contents shared; Brown and Adler described it as “a new kind of participatory medium that is ideal for supporting multiple modes of learning.” The affordances of Web 2.0 has made a great impact on social learning, which Brown and Adler described as “understanding of content [that] is socially constructed through conversations about that content and through grounded interactions, especially with others, around problems or actions.”

Prior to Web 2.0 there were some social learning in / outside traditional classrooms but with Web 2.0 more people can now interact in or contribute to a conversation.  Web 2.0 has made possible for the community of learners to have access to more ideas and learning from peers whom you don’t normally hang on with. For example, in a online course I took in Fa’12 where three generations of pedagogy was discussed, I could not understand what connectivism is even after reading the article. For one thing I have never heard of it like I have the social-behavorial and socio-cognitive approach. The instructor gave his take on it but the concept/pracitce was still unclear to me until one student described and explained his reading and understanding of connectivism from another book. That was when I first felt the power of sharing in social learning. This affected me as an instructional designer as I embark on a project to develop an open course in iTunes U. I would push for an open platform to allow the community of learners to discuss and share their thoughts in the learning journey.

Rachel

Philosophy 1.0 & Future Possibilities

In the context of participatory learning and Web 2.0, more sweat is on the brow of the student than on the teacher. Didactic instruction is tiring for the teacher and too often boring for the student. The learning is not even as enriching for students when they play a passive role in the learning. It’s their learning; they should be the one directly involved and responsible. When actively engaged in personally meaningful problems of real-world significance, students exert their energies to derive solutions, tinkering with the resources provided by the teacher/facilitator. Students become the primary actors, and teachers merely set the stage. In the interview with Henry Jenkins, Doug Thomas believes that “the role of educators needs to shift away from being expert in a particular area of knowledge, to becoming expert in the ability to create and shape new learning environments.” A defining trait of the learner in a 21-st century classroom is expert knowledge. Students insightfully report on their robust analysis of the problem and the proposed solution, which they derived on their own. Paying homage to the old adage, “Imagination is more important than knowledge,” how can students hone their imaginative abilities unless teachers provide them with the opportunity? Seeing the sparks of imagination fly in the classroom as students zestfully work distinguishes them from the teacher in the modern classroom of Web 2.0 learning.

What do I see as my role in 2025? Equip students to thrive in society. Equip students to adapt to the future, forever in motion. Equip students to resourcefully use their mental capacities and educational training to extend their opportunities through continuous learning. In 2025, these are my roles. To remain professionally limber, I will continue my educational training: workshops, classes, and professional learning communities, to name a few. I can also see my role as a networking coach since “networking is another crucial component of participatory learning”1 (p. 18). Students will need guidance in finding their online communities with which to learn.

Perhaps an even more pressing question is will I even have a job. “From such a process, one learns and continues to learn from others met (if at all) only virtually, whose institutional status and credentials may be unknown”1 (p. 16). Will virtual schools, which potentially require fewer instructors/facilitators, replace the traditional brick and mortar academics? Such a possibility exists. “Of all of these [innovations], Darnton argues, the Internet has had the fastest and the most geographically extensive effect on every aspect of knowledge making and all of the arrangements of life around how we make, exchange, share, correct, and publish our ideas”1 (p. 19). Such an unprecedented radical change requires the restructuring of knowledge creation and acquisition in educational institutions, and perhaps they will receive a mental reconstruction, too.

Now is an exciting time to be an educator. Being on the forefront of this change from didactic teaching to dynamic learning will test our ability as learners to redefine ourselves and adapt.

1 Davidson, C. N. and Goldberg, D. T. (2009). The Future of Learning in a Digital Age.

Wordle_Philosophy1.0

Learning Philosophy 1.0

Information literacy is vital in today’s globally connected society, where the norm is the near-constant ebb and flow of news bites, blogs, and advertisements.  When often-conflicting sources of information are available, it is imperative that information users of every sort are able to evaluate statements for their validity before making decisions, big or small, no matter if the objective is researching a political candidate or trying to find a review for the new pizza place down the road.  Every day, the library community is bombarded with many options of how to find the information both formal and informal learners require for work or for play, and they must be able to judge for themselves whether or not they are finding the right sources.

Through structured information literacy training, librarian instructors can help students and patrons become proficient in locating the best possible resources on their own.  Away from the reference desk and out in the real world, library users are not always going to have a librarian to guide them, and they must be able to interact with information in an educated and purposeful way during these informal learning opportunities.  The goal is to find the most valuable information quickly and efficiently, but when flustered or rushed, it can be too easy to revert to a basic internet search that yields only popular sites, not necessarily the most reliable sources.  It is the librarian’s responsibility to create familiarity and comfort with search methods that are both user-friendly and useful.  By encouraging students and patrons to think critically about information as it is presented to them, librarians can help learners make the best choices for their personal literacy needs throughout their lives.

Wordle: Information Literacy

Thinking Collaboratively About Information

It is important to realize that “learning is happening online, all the time, and in numbers far outstripping actual registrants in actual schools” (Davidson & Goldberg, 2009, p. 10).  This informal learning is now an everyday part of many of our lives, but in formal education, people can sometimes forget that there are many types of learning and many methods of instruction.  It’s not entirely the fault of more traditionally minded educators because so much of schooling is standardized these days.  “Call this cloned learning, cloning knowledge, and clones as the desired product” (Davidson & Goldberg, 2009, p. 21).  People need to start thinking of new innovative ways to work within the structures that have been mandated by educational policy.  More participatory learning may be an answer.

“With participatory learning, the play between technology, composer, and audience is no longer passive” (Davidson & Goldberg, 2009, p. 16).  Both educators and learners can collaborate during the learning process, discussing ways to think differently about information and ways to best use the new technologies and learning collectives that are readily available.  Many of my colleague teachers had rules against using Wikipedia for research, but I took a different way of looking at it.  “To ban sources such as Wikipedia is to miss the importance of a collaborative, knowledge-making impulse in humans who are willing to contribute, correct, and collect information without remuneration: by definition, this is education” (Davidson & Goldberg, 2009, p. 29).  As I mentioned in a Diigo note last week, I told my information literacy students to use Wikipedia to their advantage.  At the bottom of every article is a list of references used to write that article, *those* are your sources!  I had previously explained that encyclopedias are often filled with information that is too general for scholarly research anyway so they shouldn’t use them.  I just tied that in with Wikipedia since it is in fact an encyclopedia.  The references listed at the bottom on the other hand are the perfect research short cut.  Why do all that again if someone has already compiled it for you?

Thinking critically about information is a priority in not just formal education, but also during day-to-day informal learning as we try to figure out the changing world around us.  “The increasingly rapid changes in the world’s makeup mean that we must necessarily learn anew, acquiring new knowledge to face up to the challenges of novel conditions as we bear with us the lessons of adaptability, of applying lessons to unprecedented situations and challenges” (Davidson & Goldberg, 2009, p. 33).  As the world becomes more wired and learner expectations change to expect more collaborative and imaginative learning experiences, educators need to plan for more interaction with information because learners are becoming more comfortable with the idea that education isn’t always a traditional classroom, but can instead be a website where they can find new information that is relevant to their changing needs.  “Given the range and volume of information available and the ubiquity of access to information sources and resources, learning strategy shifts from a focus on information as such to judgment concerning reliable information, from memorizing information to how to find reliable sources” (Davidson & Goldberg, 2009, p. 27).  Being able to judge information and interact intellectually with new sources might be the preeminent skill for the 21st century learner.

Jenkin’s blog posts about his conversation with John Seely Brown and Douglas Thomas about their book A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change brought up some interesting points about the need for imagination in the classroom as a way to move away from traditional teacher-centric education models to more learner-focused learning opportunities.  By shifting focus from a central point and instead allowing for the sorts of collaboration called for by Davidson and Goldberg, educators can allow themselves the freedom to allow freedom of imagination in learners.  “You don’t teach imagination; you create an environment in which it can take root, grow and flourish” (Jenkins, January 21, 2011).  By building a collaborative environment, both educator and learner can think differently about the information that is available now as well as any information that may become available in the future.  “Essentially what this means is that as the world grows more complicated, more complex, and more fluid, opportunities for innovation, imagination, and play increase” (Jenkins, January 19, 2011).  By decentralizing information gathering, sharing, and creating, learning can become more a playful and enjoyable experience that allows for unexpected innovations and discoveries.

Week 3: Learning Philosophy

Wordle: Web 2.0

When reflecting on my education over the years, I noticed that the way that I currently teach is very similar to the manner in which I received my learning. Most of my life, I was taught the core curriculum’s through teacher directed discussions and lectures. Occasionally we would have projects to complete, some even involving technology (mostly PowerPoint); but even within the description of the projects, our hands and creativity were bound to certain expectations. Due to this traditional learning style, I find myself striving to do my best in lecture driven classes. I prefer to have all criterion spelled out clearly so that I know the expectations for how I can get the best possible score. If I obtained that highest score, I know that I am learning what the teacher intended for me to know! After reading these articles, I could relate to them in this manner. I find myself being very competitive with peers and co-workers on a daily basis, hoping that I am the “top dog” who will gain recognition and/or approval. I seek perfection and am very afraid of risk-taking. It was not until I took a course last year at a local college that really examined how the brain works, how people learn, the impact of design, and the power of play; that I started thinking about how I could make changes in my classroom in order to allow all of my students to achieve higher-level thinking when solving inter-curriculum woven projects.

My philosophy of learning simply lies in the sole point that EVERYONE can learn. Wrapping my head around this concept is easy; executing it the way that it should happen is difficult. In a typical day, I find myself pacing my teaching on the curriculum timelines. I teach mostly lecture style lessons due to the time constraints we have on getting all subjects covered. I try to tie in student interests and allow them to make choices in their learning, but ultimately there is a lack of time due to expectations of performance on standardized assessments. My heart breaks every time a student asks a question related to a subject but is “outside” the guidelines of their expected knowledge and we have to hold off on researching or digging deeper on their inquiry because of the push to get everything done. At our monthly data meetings, we examine every student’s progress on standard assessments. If students are in the “green” we know that they are learning and mastering skills set for their specific grade level. To us, that signifies that learning has occurred and that our teaching has been effective. I particularly liked the quote from The Classroom or the World Wide Web? Imagining the Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age that stated, “On the K–12 level (primary and secondary public schools), governmentally mandated programs, including those such as “No Child Left Behind,” tend overwhelmingly to reinforce a form of one-size-fits-all education, based on standardized testing. Call this cloned learning, cloning knowledge, and clones as the desired product. Such learning models—or “cloning cultures”—are often stultifying and counter-productive, leaving many children bored, frustrated, and unmotivated to learn.” This quote directly impacts my thinking on what I have been trained to look for as far as student learning in my classroom. We often wonder why students today are constantly being tested for learning support and other issues or are being unnecessarily medicated, when majority of the time the core “issues” with these children in our classrooms stem from lack of interest in learning. To me, learning would happen best in a student-driven classroom setting where each individual child has the ability to take risks, experiment, play, discover, be innovative, collaborate, etc.

As we move forward, Web 2.0 tools and participatory-style teaching should become more of the norm. The classroom would look more like a chaotic office space. Students would each be working on an interest based project that stems across many curriculum’s and extends far beyond the expectations originally outlined by standardized tests. Students would be willing to discover and play. They would take risks, ask questions, and discover many outcomes or non-outcomes to their inquiry. Teachers would be facilitators that work with students to guide their research, their project building, to facilitate an experience that probes students to think deeper into what they are working on. In this instance, teachers would also become learners aside of their students. They would model what it means to be open thinkers who are free of feeling judged by their peers, educators, or selves. Students who had the ability to learn and express their knowledge in a way that is reflective of their unique interest and learning style, would be self-motivated to dig deeper for understanding in what they were researching or experimenting on.

Looking into the future, by the year 2025, I would like to see myself teaching in a classroom that is free of standardized teaching and assessing; one that is led by student-driven inquiry and the idea that collaboration across the Web is necessary and okay when learning about many core curriculum’s  I would take a role as a coach/facilitator in my students learning. I would encourage them to dig deeper, build connections, explore via the internet and other Web 2.0 tools. These tools would become essential in facilitating learning, not just an added bonus or tag-on to a lesson as it seems to be now! In this style classroom, students would be willing to take risks and to be open thinkers. I watched two videos last year from the TED Foundation that discussed the importance of play today. Both examined the idea that adults today are not associated with play. We are afraid of being judged. We don’t take risks. Both of which hinder our ability to design, create, and experiment with anything in life. If we can get past the insecurities of making mistakes, we can become better facilitators of learning in a project-based, student-led classroom environment.

Week 3 Learning Philosophy

What constitutes learning for me is meaningful/purposeful use of knowledge acquired. Learning facts and or concepts without meaningful application will be forgotten quickly, after the exams. When projects are included as part of the formative and summative assessment, it allows the students to process information more deeply and in a context that is meaningful to them.

I think learning should take place in a collaborative environment (face-to-face or online) whereby more ideas/thoughts can be generated/shared through discussion on a topic prescribed by the instructor. There should be required readings before the discussion/class so that students would have some information to process during class with peers and instructor. For on-campus courses, this approach would be called a flipped-classroom when content is read outside class and discussions during class can go deeper. As students share their thoughts on the given topic, they are participating in the learning process. In physical classrooms, seats should be arranged to facilitate small group discussions so that every student have a chance to participate (an example of a collaborative classroom design)

We can know that learning has occurred when students are able to describe the concepts and explain their understanding for application. Some visible signs of learning are: high student motivation and the questions they ask about the topics given. Sir Ken Robinson made this statement that “curiosity is the engine to achievement” -when students are curious about a topic or subject, they are more likely to learn.

I appreciate what Douglas Thomas shared about giving students “opportunities for exploration, play, and following one’s passions.”  When I took the course Introduction to Distance Education, I was allowed to write about learning objects for my final paper. At that time in my previous job, I needed to learn more about LOs, so researching articles on that topic was meaningful for me.

My philosophy on learning is that it should be engaging (interesting and meaningful), in manageable chunks (from simple to complex), involves group discussions, include assessments for learning (formative) and assessments in learning (summative), and should not be hindered by use of technologies that are unfamiliar.

P/S what is the url for Wordle? I still cannot figure how to use it since 3 months ago and how do we create a blog category for week 3

http://worditout.com/word-cloud/212548

Thanks, Rachel