ED 307 Constructivism Assignment

This week we have been studying the Constructivism theory of education.  The Constructivist theory is based on observation and scientific study about how people learn.  It says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences.  The 3 main founding fathers are Dewey, Piaget, and Vygotsky.  In the constructivist classroom, the teachers role is to prompt and facilitate discussion.  Constructivist teachers assess students learning in the context of daily classroom investigations, not as seperate events.  Students are actively engaged, and are responsible for their learning.

ED 308 Blog Assignment 3 - Design

Week's Summary
This week we learned about creating a collaborative learning environment which will allow students to work together and communicate together.  This weeks main focus is creating an instructional menu to the course outline.

Items of Interest
One of my assignments is "Cultures in Our Community" which will be done through discussion boards.  This assignment will consist of students answering essential questions such as:

• What makes up a culture? 
• Why is it important?
• What are the critical attributes of culture?
• How are cultures similar and different?
• What can we learn about ourselves by studying cultures in other places?

Students will research these questions and post this answers on discussion board.  They will also be required to discuss these answers with 2 peers through discussion board.

Problems or Concerns

The only concern that I have right now is making sure that my students understand the assignment.  Any suggestions on what to do if a student completes an assignment but it is not done correctly?

Blog Assignment 2 - Assessment

Weeky Summary
This week we are working on assessments on our course outlines.  Assessments are a way that teachers can determine if the students are understanding and learning the curriculum.  Assessments should be done before, during, and after each lesson so that teachers are able to correctly assess students learning.

Item of Interest
I am designing a 13 week 3rd grade History unit.  My course will be face to face only and I will use several different types of assessment throughout this unit.  I will use formative and summative assessments.  Examples of the types of assessments that I will use are:

• Index Card Summaries/Questions:  Periodically, I will distribute index cards and ask students to wirte on both sides, with these instructions: (Side 1) Based on our study of (unit topic), list a big idea that you understand and word it as a summary statment. (Side 2) Identify something about (unit topic) that you do not yet fully understand and word it as a statement or questions.
• Student Conference:  One on one converstation with students to check their level of understanding.
• Observation:  Walk around the classroom and observe students as they work to check for learning.
• Exit Card:  Exit cards are written student responses to questions posed at the end of a class or learning activity or at the end of a day.
• Reader's Theater:  From an assigned text have students create a script and perform it.
• Unit Test - End of (topic unit) test to assess student learning of topic in full detail.

Problem or Concern

I am concerned with the reliability of my assessments throughout this 13 week unit.  How can I determine if my students are trying their best and their results are staying consistent over the 13 week unit?  

The Flipped Classroom ED 307

The flipped classroom is a deliberate shift from a teacher-centered classroom to a student-centered approach, where in-class time is meant for exploring topics in greater depth and creating richer learning opportunities.  Flipped classrooms allow for a variety of learning modes; educators often physically rearrange their learning space to accommodate the lesson or unit, which might involve group work, independent study, research, performance, and evaluation.  They create flexible environments in which students choose when and where they learn.  Students move from being the product of teaching to the center of learning, where they are actively involved in knowledge formation through opportunities to participate in and evlatute their learning in a personally meaningful way.  Students can pace their learning by reviewing content outside the group learning space, and teachers can maximize the use of face-to-face classroominteractions to  check for and ensure student understanding of the material.

Blog Assignment 1 - Analysis

SUMMARY:
This is week one of ED 308 Blog.  We are focusing on the analysis phase of the ADDIE model.  The ADDIE model is analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. There are many steps and considerations that are involved in designing effective instruction at a distance.  The process of planning and creating a distance education course must occur well in advance of the scheduled instruction.  Visualizing information is a very important part of planning and creating just as instructional goals, instructional analysis, learner analysis, and learning objectives are. 

ITEMS OF INTEREST:
When designing effective instruction at a distance one very important thing to consider is visualizing information.  Visualizing information is not something that most people even think of.  The choice of text size, color, font, and even the amount of words is critical to engaging your students.  

PROBLEM OR CONCERN:
Can you easily read this line?  Do you even want to try to continue reading this tiny print?
This size font is much easier to read.
How about this color font?  This font is really hard to read, focus, and become engaged.  Just imagine if this was a whole unit!
These are just a few examples of visualizing information so that you can see first hand the importance of visualizing information during the analysis phase. After reading visualizing information in the text, page 160, I can see how critial this is to instruction at a distance.  Do you have any suggestions on how I can make sure that when I am creating my distance education course that I use visualizing information correctly?  Any websites, links, animations, etc.