Teaching Online

Technology has been very useful in streamlining teaching at a distance.  There have been many courses over the last few semesters who have really focused on this idea.  Education as a community is really no stranger to teaching at a distance.  Teachers have used the mail, telegraph, telephone, radio and television to teach via correspondence at a distance.  But with the invention of the Internet, educators have really jumped at the opportunity to communicate in real time.  But as the field grows at exponential rates, how do we know what is effective?  What works and what doesn't work?  As a relatively new field, it can be very challenging to measure effectiveness.  Do the traditional techniques we have used at a distance or in a classroom work as effectively online?  It almost seems as though we end up blending some of the techniques. Most old correspondence work involved self-study and exams to measure learning, where face to face instruction incorporated lectures to clarify learning materials.  In an online environment, how many times do we see classes that are either a mixture of these concepts or have gone one way or the other?  Should we be researching new ways to learn through this new medium or are we on the right track blending the methods?  Unfortunately, I do not have that answer and I'm sure it is being researched somewhere as we speak.  For those of us that aspire to someday teach online, here is a resource that you might find useful.  A site dedicated to the improvement of online teaching.  Teaching Online

Ed Tech Guy

Throughout the course of this class, and let's face it, throughout this whole program, we as students find that we can gain much by sharing knowledge and resources.  Those of us who already work in the field of education (and yes even within the government) resources are few and budgets are small. Why, as a society, we spend so little money on such an important task of educating our youth, I will never understand.  However, there is little we may be able to do about that, we can still be innovative, creative and use the tools we have that are free and collaborate to find great ideas to integrate technology into our classrooms on what may seem like a shoestring budget at times.  In the spirit of sharing, I am including a link to a blog of the "ed tech guy".  He has many free resources and some tips for integrating education that I thought might be useful to us all. 
Ed Tech Guy Blog

Technology in Education

After completing most of the coursework for the LSTE program, I have come to the realization that this whole program was not really what I was expecting.  When entering the LSTE program, I had the idea that it would be dealing mostly with online teaching.  It did not occur to me that integrating technology into education was much more than teaching online.  There are so many tools available to teachers and educators that you do not have to be at a distance to implement technology. I believe that class really brought that idea home.  Technology in education is much more than bringing students and teachers together who are geographically separated.  Technology can be used for collaboration in a classroom and to bring to life images that before were trapped in textbooks. Technology has become such an integral part of our daily lives, it just makes sense to bring  these tools into the classroom and capitalize on what they can offer us as educators.

Surveys

Surveys and statistical data seem to be very exploited in the education and business world.  It is interesting that some folks say that they can sway any results based on intended outcome.  Some surveys I have seen merely ask the "feel good" questions and then the statistical data supports whatever outcome you would like to see happen.  What was that movie quote: "70% of all statistics are made up right on the spot" I think sometimes our surveys do not always measure what we NEED them to measure.  We may be measuring what we want to measure, but I think we really should take some time to write a clear objective and be able to look at a situation and figure out exaclty what information do we NEED for improvement.  We cannot afford to wear our feelings on our sleeves and only gather data that makes us look good.  We should be more interested in program and product improvement.  Why not make the best of a situation?  How do we know what or whom to ask?  I am glad you brought that up... I have a couple of links here available to help anyone who is interested in creating a survey (or may be required to do one for a research project / work project).

I hope Dr. Seibert doesn't mind (since this is posted on the web, we can assume that she is ok with educating the masses on how to create a better survey product), but here is the link to a PDF document on how to write better surveys.  http://www.keene.edu/crc/forms/designingsurveysthatcount.pdf

And a second link on collecting survey data:

http://masscommtheory.com/2011/11/22/how-to-write-a-good-survey-questionnaire/

I hope you will find these links useful should you ever be tasked with writing a survey. Good Luck!!

Google Docs

A very cool tool for collaboration is located right here at your Google fingertips... for collaboration on documents and presentations within your groups, you can use Google Docs to create all kinds of products.  The great thing about Google Docs is that you can choose with whom you wish to share your documents.  You can also add links, videos, images from the web, and many other features to bring your presentations to life. It is much like a wiki, but a little easier to navigate, and fun to share.

You can also create an online survey using Google Docs.  Here is a quick 2-minute video on how to create an online survey using Google docs, and, yes it is free, too.  Enjoy! 

Educational Leadership

As we come closer to the wonderful time when we can purchase a cap and gown and make the LSTE program just a distant memory, I have begun to ponder the inevitable question:  Now what?
Now that we have grasped all of this well-earned knowledge, what do I expect to do with all of this information.  In the field that we have chosen, like many others related to technology, we must "use it or lose it". So where do we go from here?  As pioneers in the field of technology in education, I believe it is our responsibility to at least make an attempt to lead the way to a better learning environment, a better school or even a better staff.  But how do we get there and what is the path we follow to influence our individual parts of the world?  That is an excellent question I do not feel quite qualified to answer, so I have included some links to answer ( or at least provide some insight) that.

http://www.temple.edu/lss/eduleadership.htm

http://www.k-12leadership.org/

http://joshbersin.com/2009/05/24/modern-corporate-training-the-enterprise-learning-framework/

I have included a few links that I hope will appeal to those in different fields to include corporate training, higher education and k-12 education.  Best of luck to all as we become the subject matter experts on educational technology.

Educational Philosophy

Last week I had to write my educational philosophy as a part of another assignment.  I found that this task seemed rather daunting at first. How do you sum up what you believe about education in a few paragraphs?  What to include and what to leave out?  I actually spent several days pondering on what I really believed about how to teach and what my personal feelings were about teaching.  This is the final draft of my educational philosophy. I am sure it will change over time, but today this is what I believe about teaching:

Over the course of a lifetime, I have been both educated and trained.  As a soldier I was trained and as a college student I have been educated.  Since I work for the Army, I have a dual role as trainer and educator.  As a trainer I am responsible for ensuring that my students are capable of performing tasks to a measurable standard, but as an educator, it is my ultimate responsibility to ignite a spark that challenges students to think critically, to pursue knowledge and to acquire lifelong learning skills. 

Over the last few years, I have had the responsibility of training and educating my peers.  As a staff and faculty instructor, I teach newly assigned instructors and training developers how to do my job, essentially.   When teaching adults, especially your peers, it is essential to communicate well.  It is an absolute must to be accessible and respectful.  It is imperative to foster an atmosphere that is both professional, yet comfortable. Commonly, in the military classroom, the instructor can be rather lofty and arrogant, when teaching peers; one cannot afford to alienate students by creating a wall between student and facilitator.  Openness in communication and trust are critical. Honest feedback is also important. 

Students come to this classroom with a need to acquire skills to manage a classroom and deliver information, but I also have a responsibility to educate them in that there is far more to teaching than just delivery of information.  I believe that students should be challenged to think beyond what they have been taught and seek more information. Student should be challenged to apply the facts and principles that they are given.  I believe it is important to provide a safe place for new instructors and developers to explore teaching and writing techniques and receive honest feedback on their presentations. I often refer to my students as "delicate flowers" and remind my fellow instructors that feedback does not have to be harsh to be effective.   The main points I hope to convey to any new instructor is that:  1. There is a method to why we teach as we do.  Research and practice dictate how some task or topics are best conveyed.  Doing is always better than just talking.  Show students what right looks like and observe them practice.   2. As an instructor, never stop improving.  Just because you teach well and your students like you, you should continue to stay current in your field, improve your facilitation skills, challenge yourself to try new teaching or writing techniques. 

As a trainer of peers, it is my ultimate responsibility to practice what I preach.  If I hold my students to a high standard (and I do) then I should model appropriate behavior.  I must stay current in my field and never stop learning and improving.  I must continue to learn how to improve my classroom and how to integrate new technology and tools into how I teach.  I must share this information with my peers, both inside my classroom and within my working groups.  Taking on new challenges as a manager, trainer, teacher and colleague is my main goal.  To do as I was trained in the Army so many years ago:  “lead by example”.