Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Note from the University Registrar 9/25/2013

A message from UNIVERSITY REGISTRAR


Dear Students:

As we approach the middle of the Fall 2013 semester, please be mindful of the following:

  • You may now drop all but your last course with a grade of W online via myBama through October 30th. All students are strongly encouraged to contact their academic advisor before dropping a course. A change to your schedule can result in delayed graduation. Also, dropping below full-time status* can impact the following:

    • Insurance (health and auto)
    • Financial Aid
    • Scholarships

By dropping a class through myBama, you assume full responsibility for this action.

*Full-time status is 12 credit hours for undergraduate students and 9 credit hours for graduate and law students.


  • To drop all courses/withdraw from the University, go to the Student Tab of myBama and select


  • Registration time assignments and advising locations for Spring 2014 have been posted on the University Registrar’s website. To view your assigned registration time, go to the Student Tab of myBama and select ‘Registration Status’ located under the Registration Tools menu.

Recap of 9/23/2013

Monday's lecture was a little haphazard due to Prezi being down.  Here is the link to the presentation in case you would like to go and view it:
http://prezi.com/x8fatg9jik4k/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

The majority of the presentation went over the DPA System.  The DPA System is a well designed instructional planning system that helps teachers produce effective lesson plans.

There are 3 stages to the DPA System
1.) Design
2.) Plan
3.) Act

The most important stage is the Design stage, which we spent the majority of the time going over in class.  If you have the design stage well defined then your plan and action stages fall into place.  "Its like building a house, you have to make sure the foundation is solid before you can make the walls".

Design Stage:
There are many templates that you can use to help you develop a sound design for your instruction.  The book, and myself, like the Dynamic Instructional Design (DID) Model.  The DID goes as followed:
6 Steps are taken to produce effective Instruction within the Design Stage:

1.) Know Your Learner
  •  Physical and cognitive developmental stage(s)?
  • Cultural and language differences?
  • Incoming skills and current knowledge base?
  • Individual characteristics (learning and cognitive styles, intelligences, etc.)?
  • Group similarities and differences?
  • How will the above affect the design?
2.) State Your Objectives
  • Use Performance Objectives 
  • State what the learner will do after the instructional event 
  • Focus objectives on skills and competencies of students
  • Objectives should be clear, reasonable, and measurable
        Performance Objectives:
                Contain 4 components: Stem, target performance, assessment method,
                criterion for success
                Bloom's taxonomy:
                        Consider Bloom’s taxonomy when articulating objectives
                        Bloom’s Levels of Cognition
                                      Knowledge – recall of facts
                                      Comprehension – interpreting facts
                                      Application – applying information to new situations     
                                      Analysis – recognizing components within data
                                      Synthesis – creating new ideas for the data provided
                                      Evaluation – making thoughtful value judgments
3.) Establish the Environment
  •  Adjust the physical space to support learners (physical space)
  •  Provide a positive nurturing environment (attitude of teacher)
  •  Keep learners active and engaged
  •  Prepare well-organized and articulated lesson plans
4.) Identify Teaching and Learning Strategies
  •  Teaching strategies = methods you use to help your students obtain objectives
  •  Learning strategies = techniques and activities you require for your students to master content
  •  Combined, they are referred to as pedagogy or the pedagogical cycle
5.) Identify and Select Supportive Technology
  •  Select tools to support teaching and learning strategies
  •  Once strategies have been mapped out, tools to build experience should be evident
  •  Identify the technology tools you need
  •  Select from those available to you
  •  Be competent in their use
6.) Summative Evaluation and Revising the Plan
  • Formative feedback continues throughout all steps of the DID model  
  • Summative feedback is evaluation at the end of the design
  •  Final evaluation and revision ensure continuous improvement of design

Plan Stage
 Day to day lesson plans:
               Components of a lesson plan
                       ready learners
                      daily objectives
                      prepare the lesson
The DID model provides the instructional big picture and a blueprint for the teaching-learning process
               Once design is completed, you can PLAN your daily lessons
               Lesson plans provide day-to-day snapshots of what will happen
 

Act Stage
Actions steps to move through your lesson
                      could be a to-do list
                      could be action words that prompt you
The Instructional Action Plan includes:
                     Identify learner preparation activities
                     Ready the classroom
                     List teaching and learning activities
                    Create your personal prompts
                    Identify support technologies
                    List feedback tools
                   Detail follow-up activities

Always Remember!!
Technology:
Is a tool that may support your design and plans
Enhanced teaching and learning must be well thought out
Should help you do something new or do it better
Has many options; choose wisely

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Recap of 9/9/2013

Today's lecture was conducted entirely in Evernote.  As mentioned before beginning Evernote was not designed to be a presentation software but I wanted to show you all what Evernote could do.

We went over the objectives for Chapter 2.

1.) Explain the nature of an instructional event and how technology supports it.
~Remember an event can be as small as one lecture or as big as an entire course
~An event includes all the teaching methods, tools, technology, as well as the 
  learning experiences inside the event

+ To keep in mind as you go through the Learning Behaviors= all behavior theories are perspectives of theorist, if you are an eclectic teacher, you pull from different theories at different times.

2.) Describe the process of teaching and learning within a communication framework.
~ Teachers send messages and students receive the message.  There must be
   accurate transmission of messages to the receiver.  Teachers can check this by
   using feedback.
~ Interference can cause inaccurate transmission of messages: 3 interferences
              Environmental, Psychological, Personal

3.) Explain the key theoretical perspectives for learning, including behaviorist, cognitive, and constructivist
~ We went over just an overview of these theories. Check out this chart to help
   you understand the differences between theories: http://ci484-learning-technologies.wikispaces.com/Behaviorism,+Cognitivism,+Constructivism+%26+Connectivism

4.) Describe student diversity in terms of learning styles and multiple intelligence and relate the role of educational technology in meeting diverse needs
~ Cognitive Styles- preferences and tendencies on how one thinks
~Learning Styles- conditions we learn best in
~Intelligence-Capability of learning
~Multiple Intelligence: dominant intelligence

5.) Explain teaching and learning and technology's process from a systems point of view
~Once you know your teaching style, your student style of learning, and the
  technology you have access to you are ready to prepare your instruction.  It is a
  process, step by step.

6.) Identify the key points in the evolution of education technology
" The holistic approach to educational technology has not always been the accepted model.  For many years, educational technology had a very narrow, technical definition.  The evolution from an equipment-based view of educational technology to a teaching-and-learning based view"(Teaching and Learning with Technology, Duffy and McDonald, Pg 37)... is fairly new!

7.) Articulate a personal view of the role of educational technology in teaching and learning
~Start understanding your own learning styles, preferences, tendencies, and how you think students learn.  This will be important when molding your instruction to pick up your strengths and help compensate for your weaknesses.


Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Assignment #2 Submission

How am I suppose to submit my Assignment #2 Paper?

Ok, there are 3 things you have to do to complete your Assignment #2 submission:
  1. Send an email within Blackboard to the Instructor with your paper attached (see Assignment #2 for specific directions on doing this)
  2.  Copy and Paste your Paper in a new Post on your own blog
  3.  Submit the paper as an attachment in the Assignment #2 link under the Assignments tab on the Course Menu
Remember the post to the blog is more for a reflection of your progression to through the course and less of submitting an assignment. Each assignment will be reflected in some way on your blogs as we move through the course.