There is always something more to learn in the real and virtual world. I still remember being afraid of putting in the floppy drive in our library's Apple II, because it seemed so delicate I thought I might break it. LOL! I have come a long way since then because my motto now is, "UNDO is my friend;D"! Joined E-Learning and Online Teaching. Thanks, I didn't know about this group.
Dennis,
I'm in the group. I should have expected that you were already somewhere within Class 2.0. I've also signed up for School 2.0 but there doesn't seem to be as much activity there.
Ian, do you know the New Yorker cartoon: http://www.unc.edu/depts/jomc/academics/dri/idog.html On the Internet no one knows you're a dog?
In some ways the e-learning world is a way for those of us born mid 20th century to stay active while we leverage some of the hard won wisdom earned by years in the trenches.
I deeply enjoy being involved in such a disruptive technology. I'm also increasingly convinced that this way of learning is the key to real technology integration. Ever the optimist, I hope that learning outside of school will break down the dull lockstep education that strangles the joy and makes learning an endangered species.
So many young bright teachers are drawn to Web 2.0 and all it implies. They then must face the restrictions of risk adverse school systems that keep repeating the errors of the past. For some, it will be too much and they will leave the classroom. Some will find there's more freedom in places like this and be able to keep the flame lit while they work from the inside to help kids learn how to learn.
Thanks for the friendship offer. This space is rather fun - it's also rather sizzle-filled. (More sizzle than sausage on occasions!) That may just be the was of edspeak.
It's also neat to see the mature still with a voice (or should it be scary that some many of us are in the post-50 demographic!)
I'm glad you hear your voice James. I appreciate your active posting in the discussion treads. It takes some time, heat and patience to kindle conversation in a network. I like the way you jump right in! ~ Den
David, the short answer is I'd recommend every class in the program to my best friend. (If they had a passion for teaching and learning and wanted to evolve their practice to the Internet. 8)
In fact when I got the green light on this idea from the university I went out and recruited the best online teachers I've ever worked with (all good friends) to become the core design team. We all worked together to write the classes while Joan Vandervelde and I worked through the academic requirements with the university senate. The University of Wisconsin fully supports online learning and we're getting great support from the education department.
The result is a hand crafted program. Each instructor owns the copyright on their course which promotes both pride and a personal drive to continually revise for relevance and excellence. We all know that word of mouth is be best way to grow our program in an increasingly competitive field. This translates to small classes, a very solid sense of community, and a great deal of personal feedback from teachers who love what they are doing.
Bottom line, everyone in our program is a professional that understands how to teach and learn online.
We use D2L as the primary CMS. I do shift folks to Moodle for about half the class so I can give them instructor rights to create forums and assessments. I love Moodle.
You can find all the details on the UW-Stout E-Learning and Online Graduate Certificate homepage: http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/elearningcertificate.html
Feel free to drop me an email at oconnord@uwstout.edu or call my cell 530-318-1145 (I still have my Northern Cal number.)
Would you do me a favor and post this as a discussion starter in the e-learning group:
"I think online education will never totally replace the face to face, - I see a process where the two work hand-in-hand to create an atmosphere of learning." This is a terrific topic and I'd love to get the group thinking about it.
Your welcome! I'm teaching an online class "Introduction to the Internet" and using Moodle. I want to offer a few more classes and would love to network with the e-learning group. My Create Presentations class was not an online class.
Well if you ever miss this snow, we have our share and you now have a friend in Far Northern California. Mount Shasta right now is really bare. Last winter was light on the snow and it has been melting rather well.
I'm very interested in the E-Learning for Educators offering at UW. I see you are teaching the EDUC 760 class. I'm kind of a funny guy when it comes to education. I just finished my MBA and spent 20 months of hard studying. It feels good to have it behind me. Now I want start another program. I always find a great since of networking and keeping an ear to the rail in the education arena. I'm currently an Adjunct Faculty at our local community college and would like to move into a full time faculty position. I think online education will never totally replace the face to face, - I see a process where the two work hand-in-hand to create an atmosphere of learning. I guess I need to ask that one true marketing survey question: Would you recommend this program to a friend? ;)
I look forward to being a part of the E-Learning and Online Teaching Forum.
I've been using Moodle for about three years. I jumped in big time when I found a hosting company. (I didn't have the time or expertise to set up my own server.) I started with a Moodle Host 'Thinking Distance" which later became Moodlerooms. Terrific folks and very dependable service.
I use Moodle to teach a class called PowerSearching in a Web 2.0 World (http://21cif.mrooms.net/)
I also use it in my e-learning for educators classes (http://wiredinstructor.us)
I've looked at Sloodle and have a second life account. I agree that the bandwidth and hardware demands are more than most schools can manage. The way things grow, give it a few years for bandwidth growth and virtual environment improvements connect.
In the meantime what about integrating Moodle with Ning to create a social network supported learning environment? I also just found Rafi.ki a UK based non-profit that promotes international collaborations for high schools (they have a primary group forming too.)
Learning Environments and software: reminds me of the old song phrase: if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.
How long have you been using Moodle for? I started using Moodle this year and have found it to be great especially because I can create my courses from home and track students progress and access.
I have seen blackboard which seems to be used by quite a few Universities in Australia. I do not know why Blackboard is purchased, often at considerable cost, by some learning institutions as as far as I can tell it does the same thing as Moodle. It must be that Blackboard looks a little sexier but hey Moodle is open source and so far we have have very few problems. Often we have up to 90 students logged on doing online quizes and viewing captivate flash movies and while the server does slow down, only 4 Gig of ram and a standard processor, things run reasonably smoothly.
What I would LOVE to see is Moodle integrated with an open source virtual world solution that we could host on site. I have heard of Sloodle but having students accessing an external VR world would kill our band width and not allow enough control and monitoring of students interactions - my school is rather stick about these issues. I guess a Croquet|Moodle system would be a killer LMS online teaching environment.. .hmm that would be very very nice.
Hi Dennis.. I currently use Moodle for delivering online learning to students from year 4 to year 10, roughly 10 year olds to 15 year olds. Moodle is an excellent system but much of the hard back end slog has been done by my colleague Colin Jones, also a Classroom 2.0 member. My main role is to quality check content and migrate existing intranet based learning content to or Moodle system.
Jamison, delighted you're here. We'll all have a chance to explore a social network while we work together in the program to understand how to teach online.
This space can be a relaxed place to just shoot the breeze too. I suspect a lot of folks from our class and others will be drifting in over the next few weeks.
Thank-you so much for inviting me to be a part of this innovative communication structure. I was just sitting here pondering the possibilities available via this resource. It is a mind boggling thought.
I will be presenting at the all staff inservice this week. :-)
A cyber colleague from Guam wrote to me recently and ended the e-mail with a haunting thought that so well captured the unique voice I've come to recognize:
As your are aware, fish are the last to recognize water.
This is one I'll ponder while floating in the pool!
Wow, Dennis! Thank you so much for taking the time to post to my page at C2.0 and tell me about VoiceThread. It looks like a great system - and I really like the IDEA of using it to facilitate a group building a narrative in a fun way. Have you tried to make a voicethread and include it in on a Ning-based page/blog? I'd like to add one to my blog at We Are Teachers, for instance, to experiment with it there. Any luck?
Like YackPack ( http://yackpack.com ), VoiceThread ( http://voicethread.com/ ) is a free voice oriented site builds on the idea of voice tags added to pictures. This helps build a narrative. Posting is included for those without mics.
This system does seem a little slow, which could be a problem.
Great potential for clever e-learning applications. I can imaging icebreakers or group building activities based on this.
Both Yackpack and VoiceThread seem tailor made for language teachers.
This page catches the spirit of the space and gives you a good conceptual overview: http://voicethread.com/pachy.php
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I'm intrigued by all you're accomplishing/doing online...keeping an eye on you and learning throughout the process. =) Thanks back atcha!
I'm in the group. I should have expected that you were already somewhere within Class 2.0. I've also signed up for School 2.0 but there doesn't seem to be as much activity there.
Ann
In some ways the e-learning world is a way for those of us born mid 20th century to stay active while we leverage some of the hard won wisdom earned by years in the trenches.
I deeply enjoy being involved in such a disruptive technology. I'm also increasingly convinced that this way of learning is the key to real technology integration. Ever the optimist, I hope that learning outside of school will break down the dull lockstep education that strangles the joy and makes learning an endangered species.
So many young bright teachers are drawn to Web 2.0 and all it implies. They then must face the restrictions of risk adverse school systems that keep repeating the errors of the past. For some, it will be too much and they will leave the classroom. Some will find there's more freedom in places like this and be able to keep the flame lit while they work from the inside to help kids learn how to learn.
Ok, I'll put away my soapbox for now!
Den
It's also neat to see the mature still with a voice (or should it be scary that some many of us are in the post-50 demographic!)
In fact when I got the green light on this idea from the university I went out and recruited the best online teachers I've ever worked with (all good friends) to become the core design team. We all worked together to write the classes while Joan Vandervelde and I worked through the academic requirements with the university senate. The University of Wisconsin fully supports online learning and we're getting great support from the education department.
The result is a hand crafted program. Each instructor owns the copyright on their course which promotes both pride and a personal drive to continually revise for relevance and excellence. We all know that word of mouth is be best way to grow our program in an increasingly competitive field. This translates to small classes, a very solid sense of community, and a great deal of personal feedback from teachers who love what they are doing.
Bottom line, everyone in our program is a professional that understands how to teach and learn online.
We use D2L as the primary CMS. I do shift folks to Moodle for about half the class so I can give them instructor rights to create forums and assessments. I love Moodle.
You can find all the details on the UW-Stout E-Learning and Online Graduate Certificate homepage: http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/elearningcertificate.html
Feel free to drop me an email at oconnord@uwstout.edu or call my cell 530-318-1145 (I still have my Northern Cal number.)
Would you do me a favor and post this as a discussion starter in the e-learning group:
"I think online education will never totally replace the face to face, - I see a process where the two work hand-in-hand to create an atmosphere of learning." This is a terrific topic and I'd love to get the group thinking about it.
David, It's good to have you as a CR2.0 friend!
Den
Your welcome! I'm teaching an online class "Introduction to the Internet" and using Moodle. I want to offer a few more classes and would love to network with the e-learning group. My Create Presentations class was not an online class.
Well if you ever miss this snow, we have our share and you now have a friend in Far Northern California. Mount Shasta right now is really bare. Last winter was light on the snow and it has been melting rather well.
I'm very interested in the E-Learning for Educators offering at UW. I see you are teaching the EDUC 760 class. I'm kind of a funny guy when it comes to education. I just finished my MBA and spent 20 months of hard studying. It feels good to have it behind me. Now I want start another program. I always find a great since of networking and keeping an ear to the rail in the education arena. I'm currently an Adjunct Faculty at our local community college and would like to move into a full time faculty position. I think online education will never totally replace the face to face, - I see a process where the two work hand-in-hand to create an atmosphere of learning. I guess I need to ask that one true marketing survey question: Would you recommend this program to a friend? ;)
I look forward to being a part of the E-Learning and Online Teaching Forum.
David
I've been using Moodle for about three years. I jumped in big time when I found a hosting company. (I didn't have the time or expertise to set up my own server.) I started with a Moodle Host 'Thinking Distance" which later became Moodlerooms. Terrific folks and very dependable service.
I use Moodle to teach a class called PowerSearching in a Web 2.0 World (http://21cif.mrooms.net/)
I also use it in my e-learning for educators classes (http://wiredinstructor.us)
I've looked at Sloodle and have a second life account. I agree that the bandwidth and hardware demands are more than most schools can manage. The way things grow, give it a few years for bandwidth growth and virtual environment improvements connect.
In the meantime what about integrating Moodle with Ning to create a social network supported learning environment? I also just found Rafi.ki a UK based non-profit that promotes international collaborations for high schools (they have a primary group forming too.)
Learning Environments and software: reminds me of the old song phrase: if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.
Den
I have seen blackboard which seems to be used by quite a few Universities in Australia. I do not know why Blackboard is purchased, often at considerable cost, by some learning institutions as as far as I can tell it does the same thing as Moodle. It must be that Blackboard looks a little sexier but hey Moodle is open source and so far we have have very few problems. Often we have up to 90 students logged on doing online quizes and viewing captivate flash movies and while the server does slow down, only 4 Gig of ram and a standard processor, things run reasonably smoothly.
What I would LOVE to see is Moodle integrated with an open source virtual world solution that we could host on site. I have heard of Sloodle but having students accessing an external VR world would kill our band width and not allow enough control and monitoring of students interactions - my school is rather stick about these issues. I guess a Croquet|Moodle system would be a killer LMS online teaching environment.. .hmm that would be very very nice.
Cheers
This space can be a relaxed place to just shoot the breeze too. I suspect a lot of folks from our class and others will be drifting in over the next few weeks.
Den
Thank-you so much for inviting me to be a part of this innovative communication structure. I was just sitting here pondering the possibilities available via this resource. It is a mind boggling thought.
I will be presenting at the all staff inservice this week. :-)
Do you prefer to be called Den, or Dennis?
Jenniffer
As your are aware, fish are the last to recognize water.
This is one I'll ponder while floating in the pool!
What's this zen like suggestion mean to you?
den
This system does seem a little slow, which could be a problem.
Great potential for clever e-learning applications. I can imaging icebreakers or group building activities based on this.
Both Yackpack and VoiceThread seem tailor made for language teachers.
This page catches the spirit of the space and gives you a good conceptual overview: http://voicethread.com/pachy.php
What do you think?
Den
Noticed some great resources on your blog. Good to see another educator from San Marcos, CA on the network!
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