Online collaboration

The video has been borken up into two different parts in order to allow the video to upload successfully.

Collaborating has been a tool that has been used to enhance the learning environment of the students that the teachers are working with. In most cases, this has been done face to face and not via the internet. In online learning communities the use of collaboration has been a key way to educate the students that are in the programs. With the use of the internet, it opens a new way to collaborate with other professionals. Teacher from different parts of the nation have different skills and tools that they use that can help other teachers. The internet is a new tool that can be used for this process.

References:
Palloff, R. M. & Pratt, K. (2007)Building online learning communities. Jossey- Bass. San Francisco, Ca.
Palloff, R. M. & Pratt. K.(2005) Collaborating online Jossey-Bass. San Francisco, Ca.

Static Versus dynamic

 

When looking at the different ways of communication that has came out recently and how it affects the learning of the students that we are working with affects the way that we teach and the students learn. It is important to understand when a type of teaching, communication, or collaboration method has become static and why. By keeping up with what the students are learning and how they are learning it, the instructor can make adaptations to the new methods that are being explored. Communication is very important in all levels of education and work, but when people are no longer able to visit face to face, it is important to have ways to getting the same material to different people and to have proper interaction with each other. Collaboration is the way that new ideas get used by people in the same industry. 

Content generation is the means of gaining new information. Traditionally instructors have used podcasts, teacher websites, and text books to get the information to the students. Although the methods have been successful in the past and still may be successful it still requires a lot of the students to remember to watch, read, or listen to what is going on with the class. The instructor still layout the design but the students are still overly responsible for the knowledge gained.  The traditional method of distance education can still be efficient and according to Elliott and McGreal (2010) streaming video “when implemented wisely, video can alleviate the page turning boredom of many online courses.” (p.148). Content generation using newer technology such as interactive online classrooms and web conferences allow the instructor to interact with the students more often and give quicker feedback when the students are in need of quality feedback. 

Communication and collaboration can use a lot of the same tools to meet the same goal. Traditional communication required time to get responses to the questions or statements that students and instructors may have. E-mail when it came out was a key important new tool that people were able to use for quicker responses in the online learning environment, but e-mail also required time for the other person to respond. Another communication tool that is static is the classic telephone; teleconferences had been around for a long time and were effective tools when it came to the educational scene. The last static method that was first use as a distance education tool is the traditional mail. This takes even more time than the other two methods. By the time the students had gotten response to the question the question was either answered another way or it did not matter anymore to the student.

Dynamic communication often involves Skype or other internet based communication. This allows the students to be on the internet doing other things and still interact with the educators or other students. Internet based communication requires that the others who are involved with the class or program have the same tools on their own computers. Wikis and blogs allow the users to see what other people are seeing at the same time. They simply post a question or statement and get feedback from the other people who are reading or subscribing to their blogs or Wikis.  Instant chat rooms allow the instructors as well to interact with the students who may need assistance or who can help with other issues that may been coming up in the program.

Collaboration as a whole is still a new skill that is being developed in both the traditional level and the online learning environment. According to Palloff and Pratt (2005) instructors continuously searching for ways to improve student-to-student interaction to create more personal and relevant learning experience” (p. 4) Collaboration is a tool that is always being refined. The traditional static method of collaboration is face to face, telephone, and leader is the decider. Face to face works well with the people who can physically meet but they do not always have the benefit of different views from different areas of the country. Telephone is a nice way to talk with each other but when deciding how to do something the telephone often gets cumbersome and costly as most collaboration take time and time is money when using the phone. The leader takes all concepts are not collaboration but a discussion making body.

Dynamic collaboration allows the team to have a place to express all of their ideas and work together using the material that are provided. Blogs, Wikis and Web conferences allow the team to use their own resources, to post them to a website and then to make comments about the topic that is being discussed.

Reference:

Anderson, T. (2010) The theory and pracutce of online learning. AU press, Edmonton, AB.

Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2004) Collaborating online Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.

•StaticStatic

•content generation

•Podcasts

•teacher webpages

•lectures

•communication

•Telephone

•e-mail

•postal

•collaboration

•face to face interaction

•chat rooms

•leader decides all

•DDynamic

•Content generation

•interactive discussion boards

•Webconferences

•Online classrooms environments

•Communication

•Blogs

•Wikis

•Skype or web based communication

•Collaboration

•Blogs

•Wikis

•interactive social networks

•Web conferences

Engaging students

 

Graphic organizer

•Content

•Smart boards

•Powerpoints

•interactive boards such as the ipads

•e-readers such as the Nook and Kindle

•Pod casts

•Communication

•E-mail

•instant messager

•chat rooms

•social pages such as facebook.

•Blogs

•Collaboration

•Wikis

•Blogs

•Discussion boards

•Social page

•Chat rooms

The use of the technology that is available allows educators and people who are working together to benefit from the knowledge that the students, other educators, and other people have.  The different tools that are available now days provide for opportunities that were not around before. Pod casting for example allows people to communicate new ideas without the expense of traveling. Everyone can make video using simple cameras that are now being included with computers. According to Mobile Cast media (2010) “Video is so powerful because it showcases charisma and communication skills, allowing for transparency, which builds trust” While the instructor or speaker may be hundreds or thousands of miles away they can still influence the education of their students.

Other tool such as Blogs and discussion boards allows the instructor or students to communicate and learn from each other just by simply reading the material that is available. The fact that educators can use the tools that have been used for so long by other media groups, this allow the educator to be more interactive with the students and colleges that they are around or have similar interests with.

References:

http://www.mobilecastmedia.com/podcast-and-online-video-benefits.htm Mobilecast Media (2010)

Online learning community discussion Blog question

• How should participation in a collaborative learning community be assessed? How do the varying levels of skill and knowledge students bring to a course affect the instructor's "fair and equitable assessment" of learning?

When assessing a collaborative learning community, there should be an established goal from the beginning. Once the goal is set, there needs to be an understanding of what the expectations of the members of the community is. Once this is established this will allow the students to understand what they need to in order to be able to positively contribute to the group. According to Palloff and Pratt (2005) “A simple rule to remember when assessing collaborative work is that collaborative activities are best assessed collaboratively” (p.44). The members of a group understands what the others in the group have done and what was expected of each of the group members.

            When considering the different skills and knowledge of the students in a course it is important to keep a rubric. A rubric allows the students to see what is expected and what the standard is. Once the students understand this, they can perform to the standard to the best of their ability. The rubric will also allow students to grow as learners and allow the collaborative group to grow as well. 

• If a student does not want to network or collaborate in a learning community for an online course, what should the other members of the learning community do? What role should the instructor play? What impact would this have on his or her assessment plan?

If a student choose not to network of collaborate it is important that the student has an understanding why they feel that way and what the whole reason behind the networking is. Clearly the student is not feeling like they are having the connection that they would if they were involved with an online learning group. The other members of the group need to make an effort to contact the missing group member and encourage them to keep working with the program and the learning group. The instructor in this case should be acting as a cheerleader or a moderator for the group. According to Palloff and Pratt (2007) an important way to get the involvement of the missing member “all means of communication including the telephone and face to face meetings” (p.65) If all means of communication has failed assessment should be done according to the rubric that was established for the learning community.

Reference:

Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2007) Building online learning communities. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.

Palloff, R. M. & Pratt, K. (2005) Collaborating online. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, Ca.

Story Board Online COllaboration

Section	Narrator	Item
1	Robert Carter	Introduction: Online Collaboration Speaker talking about the concept.
2	Robert Carter	Define: Collaboration: Speaker about collaboration with power point
3	Robert Carter	Define: Online Learning community speaker about online community with images of different online communities
4	Robert Carter	Demonstration  of collaboration video with in person collaboration
5	Robert Carter	Examples of online groups and types of collaboration tools
6	Robert Carter	Benefits of collaboration
7	Robert Carter	Issues with online collaboration
8	Robert Carter	Research of online collaboration
9	Robert Carter	Conclusion: Speaking about the online collaboration as a wrap up

Updated Stoary Board

Section	Narrator	Item	Action with participants
1	Robert Carter	Introduction: Online Collaboration Speaker talking about the concept.	Speaker in front of the camera about the introduction.
2	Robert Carter	Define: Collaboration: Speaker about collaboration with power point	Powerpoint presentation video outline the definition of collaboration. Robert Carter
3	Robert Carter	Define: Online Learning community speaker about online community with images of different online communities	Robert explain what an online learning community is and a powerpoint of different online communities.
4	Robert Carter	Demonstration  of collaboration video with in person collaboration	First grade PLC team of SPES actively collaborating.
5	Robert Carter	Examples of online groups and types of collaboration tools	Power point of online groups with Robert Carter speaking about the examples.
6	Robert Carter	Benefits of collaboration	Demonstration of collaboration results in action in actual classroom. 1st grade Carter’s class Subject Math.
	Robert Carter	Online collaboration	Robert speaking about an experience with a particular online learning group that was successfully done in an online reading masters program.
7	Robert Carter	Benefit of collaboration resulting from online interaction	Video of teacher reading group related with results from an online discussion.
8	Robert Carter	Issues with online collaboration	Robert Talking about issues with online collaboration.
9	Robert Carter	Research of online collaboration	Research explanation of online collaboration
10	Robert Carter	Conclusion: Speaking about the online collaboration as a wrap up	Robert talking about the whole program.