domingo, 25 de abril de 2010

writing reviews on one annotated bibliography and one learning object published by colleagues

Processos Pedagógicos em Elearning
Unit 2: Act 3 - Review of AB & LO
 

Review of a Learning Object
Emanuel Teixeira presents this Learning Object
On his Blog http://emanuel-mpel4.blogspot.com/


As you see this object is attractive, clear and concise. I really enjoy this Emanuel's LO. And
 I am very pleased to know that this tool http://www.xtranormal.com have also Portuguese voice.



Review of a Annotated Bibliography

On unit1 I chose Ana Marmeleira’s Annotated Bibliography because Ana's work completes my work.

Now, in unit2, I choose again her AB. If we join the Ana's AB to my AB, as they have different content and style we can achieve a better AB.

1) How to manage your Online Teacher workload (Kate Butler)
http://community.flexiblelearning.net.au/ManagingFlexibleDelivery/content/article_4180.htm
This article focuses on time and information management, on course design and activity types, and on technical issues.

2) Manual Web 2.0 para professores (org. Ana Amélia Carvalho)
http://www.erte.dgidc.min-edu.pt/publico/web20/manual_web20-professores.pdf
This Guide Web 2.0 for teachers is for all those who want to learn to use the Web in elearning

3) Interview to Stewart Mader – Wiki in Education (Debora Batello)
http://www.contosdaescola.net/interview-with-stewart-mader-wiki-in-education/
This interview takes us back to the book Wiki in Education (see the book) which presents reports made by U.S. professors who used wiki with their students.

4) Is There a Space for the Teacher in a WIKI? (Andreas Lund; Ole Smørdal)
http://www.wikisym.org/ws2006/proceedings/p37.pdf
It analyzes functions and meta level affordances found in the MediaWiki application and presents a case in which the MediaWiki was used by a class of Upper Secondary School learners in Norway.

5) Wikis in Plain English (commoncraft)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY
In a playful manner, this video gives a full introduction to wikis: what they are, what’s their use and how to use them. It’s based on a fictional situation in which a group of friends need to prepare a camping trip. A Wiki is the best tool for them.

6) Student-Centred Collaborative Learning Via Face-To-Face and Asynchronous Online Communication: What’s the Difference? (Ainslie Ellis)
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/melbourne01/pdf/papers/ellisa.pdf
We can read about the advantages and disadvantages of the online forum.

7) Teaching with Online Discussion Forums (Mark Fullmer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3xo1RipS-c



More reviews that involves possible judgement of the works made and that I consider as private matter will be send, in Portuguese language, to the colleagues by private email.

segunda-feira, 19 de abril de 2010

Online Teaching Techniques - Learning Object

Processos Pedagógicos em Elearning
Unit 2: Act 2 - Learning Object

This LO try to illustrate different techniques in online education to alow interactions from: One-alone ; One-to-One ; One-to-Many ; Many-to-Many

FULL SIZE at http://www.wix.com/apedru/ppel-u2-v2


Free website - Wix.com

To learn more about Online Teaching Techniques see my Online Teaching Techniques / Annotated Bibliography

Licença Creative Commons This blog entry and this LO are licensed under a Creative Commons License

quarta-feira, 14 de abril de 2010

Comentário sobre a noção de cibercultura e três exemplos significativos, segundo Lévy

A cibercultura, como nova "forma cultural" (pg. 15), dotada de características programáticas (in) definidas, constitui-se motivada por factores tecnológicos e sociológicos específicos ganhando consistência no prolongamento das formas culturais anteriores (respectivamente a oralidade e a escrita).

Tal como acontecera com as formas culturais que a precederam, a cibercultura nutriu-se principalmente de coordenadas históricas e sociais que, de um modo ou de outro, lhe deram a essência de ser «universal sem totalidade». (pg. 111) Lévy defende que "o universal" é "a presença virtual da humanidade para si mesma." (pg. 247) Quanto à totalidade, "trata-se (…) da unidade estabilizada do sentido de uma diversidade". (pg. 247)

Para Lévy, a  cibercultura é um "conjunto de técnicas (materiais e intelectuais), de práticas, de atitudes, de modos de pensamento e de valores que se desenvolvem juntamente com o crescimento do ciberespaço”. (pg.17)

Desencadeando profundas transformações socioeconómicas, a cibercultura está indissociavelmente ligada ao conceito de ciberespaço, também designado por Lévy de rede, "o ciberespaço (…) é o novo meio de comunicação que surge da interconexão mundial dos computadores." (pg. 17)

Assim sendo, como Lévy indica, não poderão ser ignorados, como elementos motores de uma cibercultura empenhada, factores como a evolução tecnológica, o universo oceânico informacional que daí advém, assim como os seres humanos que sustentam esse universo. (pg. 17)

O ciberespaço é uma espécie de sistema operativo de código aberto que assenta sobre a sociedade e o mundo físico. Sendo de código aberto, cada um pode ir desenvolvendo e aperfeiçoando o ciberespaço à medida das suas necessidades. Pelo menos é o que fazem os grandes grupos económicos; o que não significa que seja mau para os biliões de homens que partilham este espaço.

Para Lévy, o ciberespaço desenvolveu-se inicialmente de acordo com três princípios a saber: "a interconexão, a criação de comunidades virtuais e a inteligência colectiva". (pg. 127)


A cibercultura evolui sobre este sistema operativo, alimentando-se da programação que cada um vai desenvolvendo e como qualquer cultura vai distorcendo o nosso conceito de realidade. Quando olhamos para o que nos rodeia, apercebemo-nos dos seus contornos através dos filtros que temos na nossa consciência, tal como a história do "Bezerro de Ouro" (pg. 45), a nossa tela está programada para ver o mundo de todos os ângulos. No entanto, as pessoas conectadas não são amorfas construindo e partilhando a inteligência colectiva sem submeterem-se a qualquer tipo de restrição político-ideológica. O nosso mundo real/virtual é influenciado pelas constantes trocas de informação que vamos efectuando com a cultura. Haverá realmente uma diferença entre o mundo real e o virtual?

Se interpretarmos a realidade através da nossa cultura, então o que é verdade hoje pode não o ser amanhã. A sociedade em rede em que vivemos permite trocas culturais quase instantâneas. Lévy afirma que, à medida que se vão juntando indivíduos ao ciberespaço, mais este se torna "menos totalizável" ,pois cada indivíduo pode dar início a uma nova ideia que poderá dar origem a um conjunto de seguidores (pg.111)

Com o passar dos séculos, cada vez que a cultura se emancipou dos poderes e permitiu virtualizar sociedades diferentes, os Imperadores (ditadores de leis) mandaram destruir tudo o que colocasse em causa a ordem estabelecida. Por sorte, a Internet foi criada para resistir a uma guerra nuclear e por isso a informação que ela contém não será facilmente destruída. Vários governos têm tentado controlar a informação que circula na rede e ameaçam restringir o acesso à Internet aos prevaricadores. Entretanto, novas formas de comunicação estão a ser criadas e já existem comunidades independentes dos fornecedores de serviços de Internet, que mantêm contudo conexão à internet, a partir dos nós onde ela estiver disponível. 

Tudo indica que a Internet permanecerá livre e por isso a cibercultura permanecerá como uma etapa no nosso desenvolvimento.


Exemplo 1

Para Lévy, a simulação ocupa o lugar central dos modelos de conhecimento trazidos para a cibercultura e permite aumentar a inteligência colectiva na medida em que amplifica o cálculo, a memória e o raciocínio (pg. 165)

Os Super-computadores são utilizados por empresas com grandes capacidades financeiras para fazer simulações, num processo exaustivo são variados pequenos parâmetros na procura de uma configuração que se ajuste à resolução de problemas de investigação cientifica.

Pequenas empresas e grupos de investigadores com poucos recursos financeiros não conseguem alugar tempo de processamento nestes super-computadores e sem capacidade de efectuar simulações as suas investigações ficam paradas.

É do conhecimento geral, em virtude dos média e dos boatos, que alguns hacker tornam escravos milhares de computadores individuais com o objectivo de crackarem encriptações. Talvez já não seja do conhecimento de todos que existem projectos de computação voluntária que criam Super-computadores Virtuais um deles é a iniciativa IBERCIVIS em que o cidadão doa tempo de inactividade do seu computador fornecendo à comunidade científica uma poderosa ferramenta de cálculo. Todos podemos aderir a esta comunidade Ibérica que se encontra ao serviço de investigações como:

Exemplo 2

Such Tweet Sorrow O grupo teatral Royal Shakespeare Company iniciou no dia 12 de Abril de 2010 um teatro interactivo baseado no texto dramático Romeu e Julieta em que os actores encarnam durante alguns dias as personagens da obra clássica, adaptando a linguagem aos dias de hoje, as suas falas vão sendo transmitidas à comunidade através de mensagens no Twitter. Os espectadores espalhados por todo o mudo podem seguir cada uma das seis personagens através do Twitter e interagir com elas.

Para Lévy, teremos acesso através do ciberespaço a um meta mundo virtual onde poderemos experimentar "a beleza que repousa na memória das antigas culturas, assim como aquela que nascerá nas formas próprias da cibercultura" (pg. 146)


Exemplo 3

Desde há alguns anos que se iniciou a colocação de microcomputadores nos diversos aparelhos que utilizamos durante o dia, no início apenas foram contemplados equipamentos exclusivos. O objectivo quer dos fabricantes, quer dos clientes é que todos os equipamentos para além de "inteligentes" possam comunicar entre si. Infelizmente o número de endereços IP disponíveis não era suficiente para tantos equipamentos. Já foi feita uma nova codificação de IPv4 para IPv6, um dos resultados desta migração, que ainda está em curso, foi o aumentar do número de endereços da Internet e assim permitir que todos os aparelhos construídos possam se conectar à Internet.

No vídeo abaixo, podemos ter uma noção como as nossas cidades estão a mudar e como a cibercultura está a influenciar os objectos com que nos vamos passar a relacionar todos os dias.

Video featuring, from IBM: Mike Wing, Andy Stanford-Clark and John Tolva.


A internet das coisas fará nascer novos conceitos de cidade em que se perspectiva o controlo em tempo real do equipamentos colectivos, tornando as cidades cada vez mais atraentes. Para Lévy, uma das formas de relacionar o ciberespaço e a cidade é a assimilação pela infra-estrutura da cidade de redes de comunicação interactiva que incluam as vias de comunicação, os transporte colectivos e os serviços de água, gás, electricidade, etc.


Referência

Lévy, P. (1999), Cibercultura,1ª edição, Editora 34 Ltda, São Paulo.

domingo, 11 de abril de 2010

Palavras com o prefixo Cyber

Estando a preparar uma entrada no blog sobre cibercultura, decidi começar por procurar palavras em inglês (língua universal) cujo prefixo seja cyber.

Ao procurar no Goolge palavras com o prefixo cyber, encontrei um site com a palavra CYBERPLAGUE. Nesta página o autor exclama que cyber é um prefixo fora de controle. Segundo o autor, a primeira palavra em Inglês com o prefixo cyber apareceu com cybernetics por Norbert Wiener num livro em 1948.

É um facto que o número de palavras com o prefixo cyber cresceu e se, no início, estas palavras estavam relacionadas com a ficção cientifica, hoje uma parte delas faz parte do mundo real. De facto, com o passar dos anos, a evolução tecnológica permitiu à realidade ultrapassar o que no passado era apenas uma visão fictícia.


Na tabela seguinte está uma lista de palavras inglesas com o prefixo cyber. As palavras contêm ligações para o significado dado pela wiktionary (mais uma palavra que pertence à nossa cibercultura)

Cyber+

sábado, 10 de abril de 2010

Online Teaching Techniques / Annotated Bibliography

Unit 2: Activity 1

(This image is a wordle of text below)


Online Teaching Techniques / Annotated Bibliography
 
[1] If we consider that to better understand the techniques of online education is necessary to know what is behind the distance learning then we can read this book:


image The Theory and Pratice of Online Learning, Terry Anderson  and others, second edition, May 2008, Athabasca University Press

It presents, in an easily readable form, the theory, administration, tools, and methods of designing and delivering learning online (Raj Dhanarajan, President Commonwealth of Learning, in http://cde.athabascau.ca/online_book/index.html)

Starting with a comprehensive summary of relevant educational theory, the book revisits, in a lively way, the great dichotomies that have marked the history of open and distance learning. How should we balance the social and individual aspects of study? What is the right mixture between independent and interactive learning? Should courses be paced for cohorts of students, or unpaced for the benefit of individuals? Succeeding chapters give helpful and well-informed guidance on vital aspects of online learning practice, such as copyright, multimedia editing, supporting asynchronous discussion, library support, and quality assurance. The concept of the value chain is used to set online learning in the context of today competitive educational marketplace in order to help institutional leaders decide where their own advantage might lie. (Sir John Daniel, Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO in http://cde.athabascau.ca/online_book/index.html)


The Online Learning Series is a collection of works by practitioners and scholars actively working in the field of distance education.

The authors of this text have shared their expertise to distance education practice to help to make choices regarding the pedagogical, economic, systemic, and political characteristics of the distance education systems within which they participate.

The authors suggest how to combine different theories to develop effective online materials.

The book is organized according to a perspective of a producer of distance learning: Part 1 provides a foundation to educational theory for online learning, to prepare the ground for discussing the different components of the online learning value chain in Parts 2-4. Part 2 deals with inbound logistics, Part 3 with production and with aspects of outbound logistics, and Part 4 with delivery, marketing, and service to learners. The following figure illustrates the organization of this volume.





image


In chapter 2, Anderson write about "Toward a Theory of Online Learning"
I'm a visual learning so I have to mention the quality of schemes of this chapter, for example:



image
in this image: a model of online learning showing types of interaction.


In chapter 11, Anderson write about  "Teaching in an Online Learning Context"
This chapter focuses on the role of the teacher or tutor in an online learning context. It uses a model that views the creation of an effective online educational community as involving three critical components: cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence.


image
in this image: the community of inquiry.



Relative to teaching presence the author identifies three roles that a teacher performs in the process of creating an effective teaching presence.
  1. Design and organization of the learning experience
  2. Encourage discourse between and among students, between the teacher and the student, and between individual students and groups of students.
  3. Direct instruction.


    [2] Several articles of this book appeared in the research I did for Online Teaching Techniques
    Image Paulsen, M.F. 2003. Online Education and Learning Management Systems Global E-learning in a Scandinavian Perspective , 58 - 84/131. Nki Forlaget. Norway.


    In this chapter the author deals with online teaching methods, techniques, and devices. Paulsen presents four online teaching methods and several teaching techniques and devices.

    We can find this in practice in other institutions such as in Overview of Online Teaching Techniques for Computer-Mediated Communications, Queen's University




    Teaching Methods

    Teaching Techiques

    Teaching Devices

    One-online Techniques

     

     

    Information Retrieval Systems

    One-to-one Techniques

     

     

    E-mail Systems

    One-to-many Techniques

     

     

    Bulletin Board Systems

    Many-to-many Techniques

     

    Computer Conferencing Systems

    Every day there are new web 2.0 tools (see for example in this blog Learning Tools ) that will lead to new teaching techniques, but this scheme will continue to serve as a baseline.




    I chose again these tow books above for my annotated bibliography, because I think they are references in this area


    [3] The Online Education Resources section from ION represent a selected list of resources dealing with various aspects of online education and the online environment in general.

    image

    Online Education Overview
    (Online Learning Overview, Libraries Online, Successful Programs, Glossary, Tips,...)
    Assessment / Evaluation Topics
    (Evaluation of Online Course/Programs/ Resources; Student Assessment...)
    Instructional Design
    (Models, Theories, Hybrid Courses , Course Objectives, Effective Strategies...)
    Pedagogy and Learning
    (Facilitation, Guest Lectures, Learning, Successful Instructor/Student, ...)
    Communication
    (Encouraging, Synergy, Tools,...)
    Online Education Information
    (Forums, Journals,...)
    Software and Technology
    (Principles, Tutorials, Multimedia; Where to Go,...)
    Web Design
    (Accessibility, Usability, HTML, Styles, Programming,...)
    Intellectual Property
    (Copyright, Fair Use, Employee Agreements, TEACH Act... [mostly outside links used in our Copyright Course])

    We can find several pages about teaching and learning in elearning.

    In the page Instructional Strategies for Online Courses we can read "Because learners have different learning styles or a combination of styles, online educators should design activities that address their modes of learning in order to provide significant experiences for each class participant". We read about ten instructional strategies which have been effectively used in the traditional classroom and can likewise be used in the online learning environment:

    Learning Contracts Small Group Work
    Discussion Project
    Lecture Collaborative Learning
    Self-Directed Learning Case Study
    Mentorship Forum

    In the page Learning Styles and the Online Environment we can read "Everyone has their own "style" for collecting and organizing information into useful knowledge, and the online environment can be particularly well suited to some learning styles and personality needs". We read about students have different channels of perception (seeing, hearing, touching/moving) and we can read about four kind of learning styles



    Learning Style Preference for information acquisition
    Visual/Verbal Prefers to read information
    Visual/Nonverbal Uses graphics or diagrams to represent information
    Auditory/Verbal Prefers to listen to information
    Tactile/Kinesthetic Prefers physical hands-on experiences




    We must visit this page Instructional Strategies and Pedagogy for reading about:
    • Getting the information to the students
    • Being a successful instructor
    • Instructional Strategies / Pedagogy
    • Learning strategies in the Online Environment

    [4] Talking about new techniques of teaching with web 2.0, I advise the reader to view this site

    image Teachers TV is a website and free-to-air television channel, which provides video and support materials for those who work in education in the UK, including teachers, school leaders, governors, teacher trainers, student teachers and support staff.
    Its aims include raising educational standards, saving the workforce time, and boosting professional development. It also provides classroom resources and all content is available to watch or download for free. Further professional and practical help is on hand from its active online community, and the website has more than 350,000 registered users. The service was launched on the 8th February 2005, and is managed by Education Digital Management Ltd, and funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (this text came from Wikipedia, click to red more)

    [5] And to see where walk one of the largest providers of proprietary software for construct Learning Objects see http://www.adobe.com/products/elearningsuite/workflowvideos do not forget to open the tabs Rapid Authoring and Traditional Authoring.




    Later I will add new entries in this space. However you can find more Annotated Bibliography on the blog of my classmates, see links to the left or on the page http://ppel4.pbworks.com (ask for unit2 AB)
     

    Conclusion

    The Online Teaching Techniques are influenced by the administrative politics from the emitting entity (suppliers), and from the receiving entities (client). There are  companies who are intransigent with the models and formation techniques that they want for its employees.  And It is logical that the emitting entities need to look for the production costs to maximize its profits.
    Online Teaching Techniques is also influenced by the technological evolution. Learning Objects and Teaching Devices that are considered good some years ago can now seen as obsolete.
    Any  good Online Teaching Technique always need to be related with the learning style that the pupils/students prefers.
    Learners have different learning styles or combination of styles, online educators should design activities that address to their modes of learning in to order to provide significant experiences will be each class participant.
    If it will be possible to identify previously the class learning style, it will be possible to the teacher to choose the best technique. Otherwise the teacher will have to diversify strategies to meet diverse styles of learning.


    If you are a student then you must have Online Dreams with the best from Elearning...

    Online Dreams

    related [www.studymentor.com]
    Online Dreams

    sexta-feira, 9 de abril de 2010

    Mais uma lista de ferramentas web 2.0



    http://theconversationprism.com

    Learning Tools 2009, 2010

         
    LEARNING TOOLS DIRECTORY 2010

    Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009 by Jane Hart

    View more presentations from Jane Hart.


    segunda-feira, 5 de abril de 2010

    One Question Interview To Professor Terry Anderson

    Processos Pedagógicos em Elearning
    Unit 1: Act 4 - One Question Interview 

    One Question Interview  To Professor Terry Anderson 
    Terry's Blog: Virtual Canuck


    (One question by António Pedro Pereira e Manuel Pimentel)
    Question: Most e-learning courses have an opening and ending date, equal to all students. Therefore, can we effectively talk about freedom of pace and time in that situation?
     
    Answer: Athabasca University, unlike most Open universities offers continuous enrolment. We find this maximizes student freedom, but also results in lower completion rates than we would like. Sometimes students can not handle the freedom afforded by self pacing- especially since they have so little practice at lower educational levels. So it is question of freedom to choose - more or less freedom and only individual students can answer this. I like options and alternatives.
     
    (One question by Ana Maria Marmeleira and Paula Silva)
    Question: According to Paulsen’s Cooperative Freedom Theory, there’s a balance between cooperation and freedom. However, having work group activities isn’t a limitation of individual learning pace? How you do personally, or the institutions you are familiar with, deal with the pedagogical challenge of providing online education that combines individual freedom with meaningful cooperation?

    Answer: I am struggling to convince our University that self pacing does not necessarily mean independent study. I think we should and can offer opportunities for cooperation, but this is challenging with self pacing. However I think new social software and web 2.0 tools make this more possible. We are trying to build optional activities and allow students to see and contribute artifacts of learning to ongoing user generated resources such as links, wikis, blog posts etc .

    (One question by Margarida Marmeleira)
    Question: In an article of yours, you talk about a seven dimension of freedom – the freedom of relationship. Do you think that the fact that some e-learning courses demand for their students to work in group is a limitation for the students freedom?
    Answer: Again it is a limitation, but some people need and want the freedom to create learning relationships with others- we are social beings, so I don't like systems that are so hung up on freedom, that they do not allow cooperation and learning relationships to be formed.

    I see three generations of Distance education pedagogy. The first based on behavioral/cognitive designs and focused on independent learning and delivered by books and one way mass media. The second based on constructivism with paced online learning groups using both synchronous and asynchronous technologies. And an emerging 3rd generation based on networks and connectivist designs. These allow, but do not require that relationships be formed with current and past students studying the same materials. You might want to read works by Jon Dron and myself on the difference between second generation groups and 3rd generation networks.