I am trying to post a table that I created in Word--I did not want to take the time to learn a new program to create the storyboard. I see now that I am not able to post this table as it looks in my version. Any thoughts on how to post it?


time text Images, videos
20s Introduction to Digital Teaching and Learning and Dr Christine Greenhow. Thank you for being here today at the Digital Teaching and Learning Conference to hear our keynote speaker Dr. Christine Greenhow, speaking on some of the major themes and issues surrounding DTL.

Picture of Dr. Greenhow
20s But before I introduce her, let’s work on defining digital teaching and learning. Clocks are now digital when they were once analog. We are currently moving from analog to digital television.
Video of Daddy’s clock and digital clock

Video of analogy tv→and digital tv.

20s And our taxes can be sent digitally with a digital signature. Pictures are now taken with digital cameras that have memory sticks instead of film. Video of someone signing taxes, then of the taxes sent online.

Image of film camera; video of digital camera
20s Publishing is changing. In the olden days, books and textbooks were the primary form of information transmission. Today, the Internet is the primary form information with more than 62% of people in the US connected to the Internet at home (Greenhow, et al., 2009a, p. 246).
20s People are even self-publishing, both in textual from and digitally. Every time we print something, we are publishing. Video of printer.
45s Then there are the Digital Divide,

the digital natives,

and the digital revolution. Video of Seabrook oldies, video of a group under 25

Video of preschoolers with computer

Stills of digital revolution
15 One outcome of this digitalization is the ever increasing use of social networking sites.
20s So how are we moving form “analog” classrooms to digital ones?

How are paper trails being converted to representations that are never in print?

When are we going to have roll books and diplomas that are in fact student portfolios saved to thumb drives?

How are we going to use social networking as an educational tool?
15s Defining digital teaching and learning
60s Best Practices in the digital classroom
30s Dr. Greenhow’s vita
30s Video clips of Greenhow’s presentations and tv interviews.
15s Credits and closing

Global Diversity and DE

Global diversity has been evolving since prehistoric times. As one culture encountered another, very often one was obliterated, either through conquest or assimilation. During the later half of the 20th century, after a war based on prejudice and racial hatred, perhaps some of us as a world have begun to see global diversity and tolerance as a benefit to society as a whole. This is an ongoing human development, and the desire for global diversity is not universal. New prejudices and racial hatred may be in the wind as terrorism, both international and domestic, strikes at the hearts of even the most stanch egalitarians from time to time.

Tolerance is fostered by knowledge of other cultures. Without tolerance, global diversity is dream not a reality. As Stephen Raymond, in this blog at http://sraymond-pofde.blogspot.com/ mentioned, “The world has gotten smaller, and I for one think it’s a good thing.” I for two think it is a good thing, too. As we are able to bring our friends and families closer and learn new ideas from those we may have considered less-than-friends, our global village will only thrive and strive for higher achievements.

Education and curriculum developers at all levels of education must be the vanguard of the movement for global diversity. This means that U.S. schools, especially the post-secondary ones, need to examine how they engage international students as well as how they invite U.S. students to become knowledgeable of other cultures. I agree with Karen Wondergem’s blog at http://wondergemprinciplesofdistanceed.blogspot.com/ that the curriculum design at universities must open up. I would go as far as to extend that to the K-12 curricula.

I posted comments to Luis Avila at http://farawaylearning.blogspot.com and Debra Hanks at

http://debrahanks.blogspot.com/

All of the authors seem to agree that distance education is being considered to be a quick fix for several of the problems facing education and training today. Teacher shortages, the need for more advanced courses, and an increasingly diverse learner population and geography are all reasons seen by policy-makers as reasons why distance education (DE) needs to be pursued as an alternative of face to face education at all levels.

Simonson (2000) points out that the brick and mortar environment and the distance education environment cannot be considered one in the same. The evolution of distance education must include ways to be more than a new delivery system for old pedagogy and practices. As the courses that are created for distance education proceed, new ways must also be developed to create an equivalency to the face to face education, while recognizing the unique opportunities afforded by online practices.

Moller, Huett, Foshay and Coleman posit reasoning behind a push toward distance education that seems to expect that DE will solve education ills at the high school, college, and corporate training levels. However, the stress that if the courses are not developed well with new pedagogy and educational philosophy to match the potential of tools that are usable, then the results will not be satisfactory. Instructional designers need to be a part of the systems that are developed from the beginning.

I agree with these authors that distance education is something new. We have an opportunity to create ways to educate and re-educate using research-based thinking and 21st century tools. Unfortunately much of what changes in education often is what is expedient, haphazard, and slapped together. Perhaps we can change that this time.



Simonson, M. (2000). Making decisions: The use of electronic technology in online classes. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 84, 29–34.

Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W. & Coleman, C. (2008, September/October). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 3: K12). TechTrends, 52(5), 63–67.

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008, July/August). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 2: Higher Education). TechTrends, 52(4), 66–70.

Using technology with teachers

One of my first experiences with helping people use technology occurred when I was a Title One Resource Teacher for the 1996-1997 school year. We had computers in most of the classrooms, and I was released from classes to help teachers in English and Social Studies to improve their uses of the computers. I remember one older English teacher who told me that his printer did not work. I asked him if he had turned it on. He just looked at me and said, “Turn it on?” as if I had suggested that that he should fly to the moon. Another English teacher used the computer as a door stop. I worked with another teacher who thought that computers were the tools of the devil, and she would not allow her students to touch one. She asked me what someone who felt that way should do in light of the directives to use computers and that taking attendance on the Internet was soon to be mandated. I told her to get another job.

These teachers seemed to have had the attitude that if they ignored the computers, they would simply go away. They did not use them, did not want to, did not think that computers would in any way improve their teaching, and that it was somehow my responsibility to make their responsibility disappear. They did not pay attention to the computers or the inservice workshops I tried to provide, nor did they see the relevance of classroom computers. Because they did not have computers at home, they had no confidence in their ability to use them and covered their lack of confidence with disdain for the very idea of computers. They did not seemed to think that that a) there was any need for them to do things any differently from the way they had always done them, or b) the District would really make the technology work sufficiently well to require the use of the Internet for legal attendance-taking purposes. All of these teachers were gone from the school before the District mandate to use computers for attendance became a reality, so in a way they were right.

If I were in that position again, knowing what I now know, I would have tried to gain their attention by having classroom computer activities more visible to these teachers. One way to do this would be to demonstrate success at department meetings or in small groups. Making computers relevant to those teachers who resisted was another matter. Perhaps showing better student progress in the classes where computer use was consistent might have helped, but my District did not support displaying individual teacher success as indicated by student progress in testing. Many times during the first years that computers were regular class room equipment, we had staff development sessions designed to help teachers develop proficiency and confidence in computer use. But, as the teachers that I mentioned were rather senior teachers, they either did not go to the sessions or ignored what was being presented. They took satisfaction it seemed to me when things went wrong, thereby proving their insistence that computers were never going to be permanent fixtures in schools. I finally took my satisfaction in working with newer teachers who were more receptive to developing uses for computers.

Connectivsm

• How has your network changed the way you learn? I am finding that part of what I learn comes from bouncing ideas off other people. At times, I pose a question to one of the people in my network, and merely posing it helps me to solidify the problem, cogitate the possible answers, and decide a course of action. My mind needs the other person to make meaning, even when the other person does not have answers or ideas to solve the problem. I need my reflected thoughts to bounce back to me to be able to network my brain.
• Which digital tools best facilitate learning for you? I would be lost without my iPhone. I am so used to finding data at my fingertips, I feel somehow incomplete if I don't have it. But I don't want to compose anything on it. I want my Mac laptop for travel and my HP desktop for home use. However, I still like to books and newspapers in my hands. TV is probably the digital resource I use the least for information-gathering. I have the DVR to record shows and On Demand to find shows that I missed recording, mostly for entertainment.
• How do you learn new knowledge when you have questions? Gather information, research, whine to my sister, my wikipartners, and my blogmates, reflecting on my own whining, and reorganize to solve the issue.

Reflections on Rheingold

I think that humans do have a basic instinct to “interact and work as a group” (Rheingold). Rheingold’s point that the ancients had to hunt together to bring down a mastodon demonstrates the rise of the cooperative nature of humans. I asked several of the people with whom I live in a retirement community if they thought that it was human nature to interact and work as groups, and the response was interesting. The women seemed to think that it is basic human nature, but the men, not so much. In fact, Tom said that hunters today do not hunt in groups, that they need to be alone so as not to disturb the prey. So, I used the mastodon hunting as an example of the need to hunt in groups. He made a sexist reference to the idea that women can’t hunt because they can’t be quiet. So I pointed out that it was the stealth that the group needed, not the gender.

Mary pointed out that her husband—who is in his mid-80s—was never a team player. I posited that the education and early business practice that her mate experienced were probably more competitive than they were cooperative. This leads me to think about the possibility that nature also provides leaders, alpha males and females who organize and facilitate group work on a natural level. I often times have difficulty operating in a group unless I am in charge. I know that it is a personality defect, but there it is. However, I must laud my partners in my group in 8845. They have let me be the boss, but they have also committed to and delivered their part of the group work as promised. I am lucky to have them as partners.

The Internet has certainly provided the venue for the group work on the class projects. We have worked in Skype to have group meetings and Google Docs to create the class projects. I am sure there are other web-based interfaces that can and will facilitate groups to work together. I am a little disappointed that I am not teaching any more to be able to use these programs with students.

Rheingold, H. (2005). Howard Rheingold: Way-new collaboration. Retrieved from
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html