…and how do educators play a role in classroom, community, and social leadership?
What will you do with the leadership potential you possess?
I received an email yesterday from the instructor of my Coursera Fundamentals of Personal Fiance MOOC course that began with the sentence:
There will be a final exam in this class, as stated in the syllabus.
Puzzled, I stared blankly back at the screen. Maybe I didn’t read the syllabus closely enough, but for the life of me I couldn’t completely remember a final exam. The last time I took an exam for anything I was in college and the last time I was in college was, well, a million years ago. I started to wonder what this “final exam” would be like. I’ve taught a few online courses throughout my teaching career, but Coursera claims to be in a league all of its own. What would their final exam look like, how would it be administered, and most importantly, how would the instructor grade thousands of student entries?
Even in traditional classrooms, more and more students are submitting their work through email or educational portals hosted by the school. I don’t accept hard copies anymore just like I certainly don’t accept hand written assignments. I give my students a due date and they know the rest. The tricky part is getting meaningful feedback back to them in an efficient manner. It would be silly to print everything out and mark their papers with a red pen, but its always a hassle to save their work to my hard drive and fuss with track changes or editing software. Multiple choice is one thing, but what about written responses? Its gotten to the point where I simply type out a paragraph at the end of the paper expressing my notes, praises, and/or corrections and then put a grade. But is that enough?
First, start with these 6 Examples of Teachers Using the THREE RING Portfolio System for Authentic Assessment and then below are some ideas of tried-tested products that may aid in online course assessments and evaluation:
1. Dragon Naturally Speaking takes voice and moves it into text making it easy for instructors to speak their corrections rather than type them all out. When you have over thirty, 30 page papers to grade, you don’t want to spend all week at your computer. I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely loosing my eye sight.
Dragon Naturally Speaking
2. I’m also someone who would rather write out my corrections by hand, as opposed to type them on screen. I find this quicker and more authentic. “Inking” or “Digital Inking” is a way to literally write out what you want to say on a tablet and then that written message can be sent to anyone. Your handwriting stays intact. Digital inking is also great for drawing pictures or diagrams. You can use the technology in programs like Photoshop.
Digital Ink
3. Another great thing that teachers can use in their classrooms and for evaluations is screen capture or screeningcasting. I found this great WP blog that has a video about how one teacher used screencasting in his classroom. If you’re too lazy to click on the link, the video is embedded below:
Jing is another product that allows users to take screenshots, capturing an image of what they see on their computer screen, and also record screencasts. Screencasts are recorded video of up to 5 minutes of onscreen footage. On the website, Jing claims that this service is great for education: “Give your students the information they need, when they need it. Use Jing to record your feedback as you grade papers, or take a snapshot to share with your class. Your students can even use it to collaborate, or ask questions!” Sounds good to me.
Jing
4. Google Docs is nothing new, but for those who have been using Google applications and products for a while, you may have noticed its become much more user friendly over the years. Google Docs is a free software product through your Google email that allows you to store 2 GB of documents online. Google Drive is a great and easy way to share documents with other people. They can edit, view, or both. This service is great for teachers because each student can send in their document, you the teacher can make edits online and then share it with that student. No need to print, no need to save documents to a hard drive. You can ever make folders to keep every class organized.
Google Docs
I hope you read this entry closely because I’ve emailed you the final exam. I expect it back to me by Friday. Good Luck!
- Dr. Drew
Stand up and say something worth saying…
Need something to do this weekend? I’ll be at the BIL Conference in Long Beach this Saturday listening and networking with some of the nation’s most brilliant and progressive minds. There are literally hundreds of talks (if you also count the one’s given by random audience members) to enjoy and learn from. Here is a sample of some of the talks on the table:
Your privacy is no longer valuable
In such an inter-connected world, we’re required to share data about ourselves that would have been considered completely off limits 15 years ago. Where we are, what we like, what we think, what we buy – it’s all public and makes the web we’re all a part of more robust, powerful, and, in turn, valuable. While some people try in vain to protect their private data, the fact remains that people prefer the benefits of sharing their data than keeping it private. People simply don’t care about their privacy as much as they think they do.
The Impact of Online Education
The MOOC revolution is disrupting the nine hundred year old institution of higher education. There has never been more cause for optimism about the future of education. First we will look at the early data on the impact of MOOCs from Coursera. Then we will examine the economic and political realities driving the adoption of MOOCs and speculate on what changes are to come.
Disruptive Manufacturing: Trends, Controversies, and the Future
Only recently has software become powerful enough, affordable enough, and available enough, that we’re seeing shocking new technological shifts: an event horizon is approaching. Rapid Prototyping is quickly changing the game. Combined with several flavors of CAD software, nearly everyone has access to tools that our grandparents only dreamed of. The RepRap project, GrabCad, 3d printed guns, and so on, these challenge old paradigms of manufacturing as well as philosophy. This talk is a “State of the Union” from an industry insider.
A College Education FOR FREE
College is great. Except they don’t teach you the most critical things you need to survive, flourish, and be happy as an adult. – how to fail and recover – how to have ideas – how to sell those ideas – how to execute on those ideas – how to fail AGAIN and come back AGAIN – how to network – how build a foundation of health that will help you survive the trials ahead. . I can describe a basic approach that you can apply to any life situation to turn it around, learn form it, survive it, sculpt it into art, turn it into something you’re proud of.
Planning to Innovate: Or how good business operations win in the marketplace
Did you know the #1 cause of business failure is planning – either no planning at all, or just plain bad planning? And 9 of the top 10 causes of business failure are related to lack of experience – not in your chosen field, but in business operations. What is the right balance to strike between getting your message out there and execution? What does business planning have to do with agility? How does careful planning unleash innovation and enable you and your colleagues to win in the marketplace? What is the risk of bad operations, and how do you mitigate it? Ethan will share best practices learned from working with numerous startups at various points during their life cycle. He’s on a mission to turn business planning from a check-the-box activity to one that generates value and cultivates success. Ethan is a former television producer turned entrepreneur, and the insights he’s gleaned are sure to help you and your organization.
Most of you have heard of TED or watched the talks online, but do you know about BIL, the quirky, populist, un-conference taking place nearby? Open to the public and fully participant powered, BIL features a wild mix of technologists, scientists, artists, hackers, and those with a passion for community awareness.
Here are 5 very recent and fairly recent press releases from some of the top educational websites available.
AP Biology Online Help with Educator.com: Educator.com releases Advanced Placement (AP) Biology online courses taught by Dr. Carleen Eaton. These courses are in addition to 60+ courses already available for high school, college, test prep, and professional subjects.
Khan Academy Receives $5 Million to Accelerate the Reinvention of Education: Funding will quintuple faculty, enable crowd-sourced contributions, and develop curricula for physical environments.
Tutor.com Partners with Actress, Mathematician and Author Danica McKellar to Inspire Girls to Excel in Math: Everyone who purchases Danica McKellar’s new bestselling book, MATH DOESN’T SUCK, can receive 75 free minutes of on demand tutoring from Tutor.com.
Coursera Secures $16M From Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and New Enterprise Associates to Bring Online Education Platform to Millions Globally.
Brightstorm Makes It Easy To Find Tutorial Videos For Textbooks: New website feature helps students locate tutorial videos related to their textbooks in a matter of seconds.
So apparently Computers May be Just as Effective as Classrooms… really?
Faculty Focus has some really great articles on the topic of online learning and education. I highly recommend!
I was going to spend time writing about the Coursera course I took on the Fundamentals of Personal Financial Planning and tell you all about what I learned. But honestly… I don’t feel I learned much. The class did force me to do some self-reflection about my own financial choices. However, I’ve lived a while now and I’ve been around the money tree more than most. I knew many of the things discussed in the course. It was nice to have a refresher on certain topics such as:
- Describing the difference between Defined Contribution plans, and Defined Benefit plan
- Explaining the basic differences between Roth and Regular IRA’s
- Explaining the basic formula for calculating Social Security Retirement benefits
- Describing the choices that are available in choosing when to take Social Security Retirement Benefits
- Explaining what is paid for under Medicare
- Describing what is not paid for under Medicare and the insurance possibilities to ameliorate those risks
- Explaining what Long Term Care Insurance will pay for and the criteria which activate it
This article basically explains my sentiments toward mass online courses and their ability to somehow save higher education. It is definitely worth the read.
- Dr. Drew
