Alternative Assignment Research and create an artifact on 21st century learning and how one might plan for introducing these concepts in our schools & create and include a rubric checklist for this alternate assignment option? For this final project, I decided to create an artifact about project based learning PBL in form of multimedia magazine. I wanted to start my research to investigate in depth:
What is PBL?
Why should we use PBL?
How can we implement PBL?
Integration of technology in PBL
How can we achieve effective PBL?
What challenges face the success of PBL?
Sample case studies that shows success or failure of PBL
What is the difference between project based learning & problem based learning?
After I set my research questions I started my online investigation & worked on my rubric at the same time, below you can find the rubric strip I have created for this assignment, click on the image to find my assignment rubric
Click on the image to view the rubric I have created for my alternative assignment
The online investigation journey started at Albertson Library to find peer reviewed articles & in Google scholar. In addition, I wanted to add mini chunked online resources to ease the navigation of my magazine & make the process of information more digestible. After reading and viewing the resources I added the ones that best fit my project question & excluded all unrelated resources. Finally, I summarized the resources in few lines to help my readers to have an idea what they are going to read, watch & hear. Below you can find my multimedia magazine, click on the image so that you can visit it
Click on the image to view my online multimedia magazine about PBL
After reading the Horizon Report (2014) for Higher Education Edition. I chose to conduct my research on one of the fast tech trends in Integration of Online, Hybrid, and Collaborative Learning that will drive changes in higher education over the next one to two years – HyFlex Model P.12
HyFlex (hybrid + flexible) is an adaptable learning framework that enable any individual student to participate in his/her course activities in both modes at the same time if they wish, face to face and/or online (no need for physical attendance) without losing any activity or from achieving the main ultimate goal of the course and most importantly this model allow for full interaction between students themselves and with their instructor. The students have the option to participate in each mode weekly or topically freely when and where they want to depending on their circumstance or liking. This new tech trend hybrid model originally designed by Dr. Brian Beatty (2010) for his graduate courses at San Francisco State University–Instructional Technologies master program. The HyFlex idea aims to help students who is trying to find a balance between their jobs, academic achievements and family. The flexibility of HyFlex model enables learner to engage more with the course material, because they own and control their learning experiences and have the choice to complete the course activities in their preference mode. In addition, the HyFlex model can also support the need of the non- traditional students who wishes to continue their studies online. It can also support institutions that are challenged financially to offer more spaces for the increased students’ numbers. HyFlex is one of the fast tech trends in the online education but still has not yet been widely adopted, there is a need for a lot of researches that will show how this trend will be applied to large courses, where it can show its real value in helping wide range of students, faculty members and institutions. But most importantly it will show the profile of the students are most likely to succeed with this open framework and the appropriate types of courses for which it will be most effective.
What are the used technologies in the HyFlex model?
HyFlex is not a software, it’s a framework to apply. Instructors can choose from numerous technologies available inside their institutions or over the web, the trick is not in the picked technology or how much it’s trendy, it’s the successful technology choice that will affect the impact of this the model, the tool should be assessed first to evaluate whether it will serve the model need or not. In addition, technological compatibility, cost, and accessibility should be considered while evaluating the tool
Technologies used in blended learning – HyFlex
The Ohio State University uses for their HyFlex model tablet PCs, wireless microphones, wireless Internet, and web-based applications like Adobe Connect and Poll Everywhere, not to mention students’ texting capabilities. Ohio University believes that building strong community behind the stage is critical to success in the course, students can participate and respond to class polls via text in real time, whether they were in campus or outside
San Francisco University uses Moodle for their HyFlex model as an online delivery system. For creating content they uses streaming video connection, PPT, Word, Acrobat, Camtasia, Dreamweaver, Audition, Podifier
Arizona State University Selects HapYak Interactive Video for eLearning Video Initiatives for their hybrid courses to add interactive elements such as quiz questions, chapters, and links . I chose to investigate this tool and found it very easy to use, below you can find my demonstrative video about Hapyak. Click on the video were you can see my original video before adding any feature and at the end of the video you will have a link to my Hapyak video, or check my Hapyak video immediately in this link
Challenges!
The HyFlex model can’t be applied easily in any educational institution, the culture and the learning context of the institution will affect the implementation process strongly. This model can be easily applied in institutions that already uses learning management system with available technologies to capture lectures digitally and set a path for its instructors to create online courses, but most importantly is having instructors with good technological background and willing to take some effort to improve what is missing in their technology skills. Moreover, the technological background of the students will also affect the success of this model, because they will be the user who will use this model and decide its future
One of the major things Educational Technology members need to master while practicing their gathering and analyzing of information how to conduct a research online. Conducting an online research demand more than a couple of resources, it’s the process that must be taken while pursuing online information. In the past two weeks our assignments in EdTech 501 focused on the process that we need to follow in our first stage of conducting online research and this process started by knowing how to cite resource in APA format using Purdue and then creating an Annotated Bibliography paper that needed a lot of preparation. The whole process was new and very exciting for me, because I learned a lot about the process and the topic that I was looking for. Below you can find my 1 m podcast about the definition of Annotated Bibliography and few notes from our meeting in Adobe Connect with Dr.Anthony Saba
Preparing an Annotated Bibliography paper need a lot of preparation and knowledge, the hardest part might be in choosing the topic and finding related reliable resources, but extracting the main ideas in summarizing the resource is more challenging, because you need to have the full picture of the article before you decide what to include in your summary and this need a lot of thinking. Below you can find my journey in writing my first Annotated Bibliography, it was an exciting journey and challenging at the same time
Writing Annotated Bibliography bath – Click on the image for full view
In my first Annotated Bibliography I decided to conduct my online research to find more about the use of Augmented Reality in Education, its current and future potential. I also wanted to research a real case studies that showcase the power of such new emerging technology on students learning. I chose this topic because I wanted to know more about the new fields and aspects were AR can be applied with supported studies. I found the used resource to be very valuable to my research, because it helped me a lot to understand the AR concept and gave me a lot of answers . It was very interesting to find that there are many dedicated group on Pinterest that share all things about AR, here is one group. Below you can find a sample Augmented Reality video that uses voice recognition technology and virtual reality. Hope you enjoy it!
This video demonstrate Aurasma Augmented Reality platform that uses image recognition technology, it uses a smartphone’s or tablet’s camera to recognize real world images and then overlay it with rich media on top of them in the form of animations, videos, 3D models and web pages.
This week in EdTech 501, I investigated RSS feed in depth. I heard about the RSS feed before, but didn’t knew how it could help me till this lesson, I wished if I knew it before I drowned myself in 1600 emails. These emails were the result of building my personal learning network (PLN), I used to subscribe myself in every website with precious information to track its content, but afterwards my inbox becomes uncontrollable and I couldn’t catch or read every newsletter from each website. Now with RSS content aggregator like Feedly I will be able to organize and share the content I wish to track in my PLN from blogs, podcasts, YouTube and news sites, the list will go on as I’m exploring new ways to organize the content I surf on a daily basis, but this time bringing the content will be more easily and organized
Feedly is an easy to use content aggregation website, enable you to organize your content and stay connected with it through its Chrome extension. Below you can find my demonstrative video on how to use Feedly in less than 4 minute, hope you enjoy it
RSS possibilities of use are endless, it saves time and help you get the content you wish in your reader rather than pursuing it over the web, and by this it helps individuals with low internet speed to get information fast. For this assignment we were asked to create lesson plan in Google document for using RSS in education. I’m not an expert in this field as this is my second lesson plan I do in my whole life, the first one was in EDCI 718. I enjoyed planning these two lessons, because I’m learning new things in the teaching field. While planning my lesson plan on how to use RSS in education I was thinking of my inbox, and wished if the assignments was asking or challenging us to use the information we learned in this lesson to solve a certain problem in our life that we suffer from , because of our bad content accumulation. Of course my challenge would be how to reorganize my content once again and take everything from my inbox to Feedly. I know that the process will take time, so I started to bring links to my Feedly account from my most visited websites and unsubscribed myself from their newsletters.
The lesson I have prepared for this assignment aims to help instructors to use Feedly to bring and organize related content to the subject they teach from the web. They will use these information to create a collaborative lesson for their students in Popplet, teachers will continue improving their professional skills in this lesson by transferring their practice and knowledge to other colleagues in the school to speed up bridging the digital inequality that might exist.
I enjoyed this assignment a lot and will be using the concept of RSS to solve many of my personal issues in building up my new learning resources. Below you can find the road map of my lesson plan created in Popplet, click on the image to view the process and let me know what I have missed
Sample lesson on using RSS in education. click on the image to track the road map of this assignment
I have been conscious of the digital divide and digital inequality since I started my e-educational business officially back in 2012. I have prepared my business plan based on countries in the Middle East who have widespread access to internet and found out the huge gap between neighboring Arabic countries. The reason for this gap can’t be summarized in few lines, but the obvious reasons for any observer that this gap is due to difference in economic situations, culture, stability and wise management.
In my startup I realized the huge gap between the digital skills of the instructors I worked with, but didn’t knew that all what I have dealt with back then refer to the soul definition of digital inequality. Digital inequality is not the reason of digital divide if you think that they are the same, digital inequality is explained as the inequality among Internet users in regards to the amount of benefit they actually receive from their use of Internet technology (DiMaggio et al, 2004).
Though the issues of digital divide and digital inequality are completely separate problems they have a push-pull relationship with each other. As an entrepreneur and now educational technology learner I feel that solving digital inequality issues become more critical than digital divide, everyone is concerned about increasing access to internet, especially to developing countries and I’m afraid that while we work to narrow the digital divide we will inadvertently be widening the threat of digital inequality.
I decided to continue my master degree in educational technology not only to improve my personal skills and knowledge, but also to polish my project with the information I’m introduced to. Digital inequality is one of the main issues I had in the past with the instructors I worked with. and we should work on bridging this inequality, the use of technology will enable instructors to promote the development and appreciation of critical thinking . In the near future when I complete my degree I intend to create another digital project for instructors who wishes to go online, the purpose of this project is to offer support and information on how to:
• Create quality content
• Merge technology in their daily life to improve their productivity in work/life
• Transfer their knowledge and practices to others
digital divide and digital inequality sketch – click on the image to view full size
This is my digital divide & digital inequality presentation created using voice thread , YouTube and Google document, creating a presentation in these two programs helps you to brain storm ideas on what to include: text, images and narrate. The process of creating such presentation require a lot of planning on what to include, especially in designing your narrate script, because you want to engage all your audience senses with your presentation without the um um. I’m not English native so the process is more complicated for me, I don’t consider it as an excuse, but a motive for me to improve my skills in expressing myself in another language
I think this assignment would be more interesting if we were asked or have time to dig more on major EdTech initiatives in the developing countries that helped bridging digital divide and/or digital inequalities, it would be great to know how can simple individuals or entrepreneurs make a change in this world. For the time being I hope you enjoy my presentation and I will be more than happy to hear your comments or
suggestions.
Chapter 11 in Educational Technology book focused on the Code of professional Ethics. This Code serves to guide us as technological educators in attaining ethical manner while integrating technology in different educational field or aspects anytime anywhere, especially with the growth of new technological tools that develop new opportunities for using it in ethical and unethical aspects. The growth of unethical practice in using technology knocked the doors of the AECT association to create a community of practice among its members to protect them from mistakes while they practice their duties, prepare them for future issues and give them a chance to analyze their actions. The community create real and fictional scenarios for the members review and analysis, educational technology members solve these dilemmas by applying the principles to find a solution using their own experience or thoughts. Check my scenario for this assignment.
While designing my scenario I took a deep breath to navigate the endless ethical violations I have seen in the past till this moment in using technological tools online. Unfortunately when technological software’s and hardware’s tools were integrated in our life they had only a manual on how to use it, the manufacturers clear themselves from any dispute that could result from the inappropriate use of these tools and yes they are only technology producer. So who is behind integrating the ethics in using these tools? They are the technological educators or trainers who facilitate such usage combined with their professional ethics which will make educational technology visible. Educational technologies members are responsible on helping technology users to transfer their good manner online and this can’t be done unless educational technology members themselves have a solid ethical foundation that can’t be manipulated by a gift or relationship or a temper or any. The code of ethics exists to protect and help technology users, it’s the line we should all follow to reach our goals in a short cut
Educational technologies struggle in:
Making that balance between what is right and what is wrong which is something relative and fluctuate in each community, with the professional ethics addressed by the AECT principles
Creating that balance between their personal belief, religious and ethics ,with the AECT principle of ethics
The Code of Ethics is the line that we should all follow and obey in our profession as an EdTech members
This is our first assignment in EDTECH 501 that aims to give us the real definition of what is educational technology
according to the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) standards and what are the major elements of this definition. Before reading chapter one in the Definition with Commentary book I thought that the educational technology is only an array of tools (traditional, technological), and technique that helps educators to make information more engaging to students to enhance instruction, but honestly when I review the thirteen elements for the educational technology definition in depth I found that educational technology is more than tools or how/where/why can we use them. Educational technologist are responsible on design, deliver, facilitate and manage instruction in order to create the best environment for effective improved learning for learners and this is the aim of using technology in any place whether in school or university or other work place
The current AECT definition states: Educational technology is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using, and managing appropriate technological processes and resources (p.1).
In addition, I found that educational technology involve things generally not apparent to be included or related to educational technology in my previous understanding, like:
The ethical use of information and resources, so I had that moment to think : how important are ethics in today’s societies, especially the online communities when good digital citizenship does not exist in the dictionary of most of this generation, whether teens or adults?
The study element that involve researches done due to the new evolved emerging technologies and the need to analyze the solution it provides and its effect on performance, clearly that many institutions use technology but how much researches are done to analyze its results on all aspects?
The last sentence in chapter 1 that got my real attention and thinking: “The terms “improving” and “appropriate” are explicitly included in the definition in order to recognize the centrality of such values to the core meaning of educational technology. If the work of the field is not done “better” by professionals than it is by amateurs, the field has no justification for public recognition or support. It must represent some specialized expertise that is applied with professional soundness.”
I believe that these are the core elements:
When choosing to use technology we should keep in mind that it’s there to improve learners performance and so maximize their effectiveness to reach the desired learning outcomes with the least wasted time, effort and expense
Appropriate educational technology implies many things: for example it implies the tools or practices that is the simplest and most convenient solution to a technological challenge for certain people in a certain community, for example what works in one country might not work in the other, this diversity is also available in one country. It also implies avoidance of content that stimulates gender, ethnic, racial or religious stereotypes
The educational technologist work can’t be recognized to be professional unless it meets the AECT Standard and this what will distinguish us as an educational specialized experts from the amateurs, to be updated educational technologist we need to be updated with all new emerging technology tools, polices and theories that pop up every day
Understanding the elements of edtech
Frequent emails didn’t prove that it’s an effective communication tool among employees in x-department (study element) in organizing the tasks especially when its updated, I believe that if I use a tool (technological) that will help organize work to-do list like Trello (effective learning environment) employees will be able to manage all emerging tasks and organize them at the same time. They can address the to-do tasks, doing tasks, done tasks and ideas. I will facilitate how to use this environment by using or creating several video tutorial (resources) to be used in the workshop that will be held in the department meeting room (processes). In the workshop the employees will create their to-do list (learning) for a project they currently work on and collaborate live to practice work ethics in communication and commenting. I think that Trello is an easy to use free tool (appropriate) especially that the x-department head officer informed me that this project budget doesn’t include subscribing or buying any software~Noura Sa’d
Noura Sa'd: EDTECH Learning Log 