Welcome To Month 11 edm613

Welcome bloggers!

Time flies when you are having fun but it is time to move on. My blog has moved on to month 11. Take this journey with me as we discover the wonders of Media Asset Creation.

wk 4 udutu - Yesenia Martinez

First off I must say I am glad I am not in middle school anymore. I don't remember having to learn that. You did an excellent job with your tutorial. I must admit I had to do it twice because I was determine to get the answers right. I am sure your students will enjoy this.

PS. I like the picture at the end and I'm sure your students will also.

wk 4 udutu - Micheal McCurdy

Micheal,

I really enjoyed your tutorial. I myself like to write music and thought about how the different types of chords represent emotions. I myself like minor chords and keys. I hope my music doesn't make people sad. Something to think about.

Wk 4 udutu - Melissa Caruso

Melissa,

Wow! Your lessons were easy to follow. The audio went perfectly with your pictures. I want to know how you were able to add audio and get your video and pictures so clear. That is something I need to fix on mine.

WK 4 Udutu - Patricia Yawn

Patricia,
I enjoyed your udutu. It was very easy to follow with a great mix of video and audio. Thumby says I know my primary colors now.

Wk4 Project: Future Report

WK 4 Udutu Project

Here is the Link to my Udutu project

http://lms.myudutu.com/LMSGadget/courses/lms/20430/Course36264/2083/v2010_6_24_8_8_27/course/Course36264.html

Wk 3 - Comments Travis

"This is the strongest point of the authoring tools available to those looking at creating their own e-learning environment. “Some tools are very simple to use with templates, wizards, and features that work just like...Word or PowerPoint.” (Alcorn, page 2)."

I think that if we want teachers to move to and incorporate e-learning in the curriculum in the classroom these tools need to be easy to use. Not only for the tech novice for time management in general. Most teachers just don't have hours to spend with a intricate content tool. As the teachers become more proficient they may explore more advance tools. First we want to explore e-learning before they get bogged down with "semantics" so to speak. These tools can open a wonderful door but first we need the teachers to knock.

WK 3 - Comments Sarah

"The physical situ-atedness of learning is an interesting concept, a class does not define learning, it is our body and minds that defines learning."

I think this is very true. It is hard for some in an instructional capacity to recognize that learning can and will take place where ever new knowledge is gained. Students learn in the streets, on the bus, riding in cars. For some moving education out of the four walls has been difficult. Maybe they feel that they cannot control the environment in a virtual world.

Wk3 - LMS Choice

LMS Choice

When selecting and LMS there some things to consider.

- “Do not allow the LMS to define your learning processes.
- nor to make its selection the starting point of your strategy development .
- nor to assume that any LMS is adequate to manage the totality of the learning that might take place. (Parkin, 2005) “

The decision of which LMS to use should be made by a team of stakeholders from different arenas of users. This team should consist of the It department which will oversee deployment, the instructors who will manage it and if possible an objective outsider. This team will decide on the strategic and operational processes to manage the learning. This process will follow the objectives that have already been determined. These objectives should be determined by the goals that are need to be accomplished by the learner. “In term of process decide on what do you want to do, who is going to do it, how is it going to work (Parkin, 2005).” Then create a list of requirements the system must satisfy and critical success factors. Other considerations would be can the system be customized or will it be used “out of the box” -as packaged. Decide whether the system will be hosted “in-house” on your infrastructure which will require more IT involvement or third-part hosting. Reports are another big part of the selection process. “Vendors impress you with all the features that house the architecture; however, one of the biggest problems is data out, i.e. reporting (eLearning Guild, 2006, p.5).” Will these reports supply your needs and are they easy to access and read?


Next would be Request for Proposal or RFP. Wikipedia defines a RFP as “an early stage in a procurement process, issuing an invitation for suppliers, often through a bidding process, to submit a proposal on a specific commodity or service.” This will allow for risks and benefits to identified upfront. Other factors besides price are included in a RFP:
- Basic corporate information and history
- Financial stability of the corporation
- Technical capability
- Product information
- Customer references
The more detailed the RFP the better the chances the product or supplier will be put on the approved vendor or supplier list. These list can they be examined by the team to determine which product best achieves its objectives.


The team proposing the acquisition of an LMS, CMS or LCMS should determine standards to judge all systems by. Learn from others. There are many templates to help the team in the decision making process. These templates can be customized to meet the objectives of the organization. A brief overview would include the following:

Learner – Usability
Manager – Usability
Administrator – Usability
Designers/Developers – Usability
Support (i.e., customer service, technical,
hosting) – Usability
Cost

eLearning Guild. (2006) 382 tips for selection of an LMS or LCMS. The e-Learning Guild. www.eLearningGuild.com.

Parkin, G. (2005). The LMS selection process in a nutshell. Retrieved June 19, 2010 from http://parkinslot.blogspot.com/2005/04/lms-selection-process-in-nutshell.html

Wikipedia. (2010). Request for proposal. Retrieved June 19, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFP

Wk 2 - Terrance Davis

“According to Carliner (2005) with rising costs CMS, LMS, Open source or customizing a system (FSO) the decision must be scrutinized further. How will they tackle technical support: on-site staff versus, outsource technical support and the higher cost associated with maintenance and down time of these systems.”

I think the failure of the public education in implementing such systems is the lack of projecting future cost. I have seen my district buy into different kinds of e-learning only to abandon them in a few years. A lot of technology in education is funded by grants but what happens when the grant runs out? Do they consider if they can maintain the infrastructure and manpower to keep these systems running? In my position as a Technology Specialist I am involved in the purchasing aspect of technology at my school. These are certainly things I consider when purchasing a new product. What are the cost over the long term and will you have the funds to keep them going. Is there a way to achieve the same goal at a lower cost?

WK 2 - Sarah Chulhan

Louria.macon@mac.com said...

"Also human being are quite adept at fooling systems and there are countless accounts poor failed implementation of these systems."

How true! We use different types of e-learning software in our school and you would not believe or maybe you do the many ways 4th and 5th graders learn to cheat the system. In my reading about these systems there is not much research on how these systems take this into account. There is not much on accountability of the learner to be honest in their learning.
June 13, 2010 7:42 PM

Wk2 LCMS: What are they for?

LCMS: What are they for?

Describe LCMS systems and their uses.

“LCMS – Learning Content Management Systems- are true content management systems (McGee, Carmean, Jafari, pp. 209, 2005).” LCMS provide:
- An authoring tool for creating content.
- A data repository for storing content created.
- An interface for delivering content.
- Administrative tools for managing content and users.
Because the content is stored in an objective paradigm it allows the content to be used across courses and curriculum. This allows for individualization of the product. Dictionary.com defines metadata as data about data. Using a metadata repository describing different aspects of the content makes to easy find relevant content by user or author. “The delivery of the LCMS begins with a pre-assessment that targets content (Ellis, 2001).” The system then can provide content to user as a course or small chunks. This the strength of the LCMS to modulate and manipulate its content.

“A LMS's objective is to simplify the administration of learning/training programs within an organization (Nichani, 2001).” A LMS doesn’t include authoring capabilities. It manages courses created by multiple authors and sources. A CMS will allow for authoring but doesn’t allow for content to be used across the curriculum. “Its objective is to simplify the creation and administration of online content (Nichani, 2001).” The content created is designed for specific courses. The LMS can manage a community of users allowing for the user to access the appropriate content managed by the LCMS which does allow creation of content..

“According to Wikipedia.org, a content-authoring tool is a software application used to create multimedia content typically for delivery on the World Wide Web (Fine, n.d.).” The selection of course authoring software is vital to any course delivery system. The design of the content will determine the reusability of the content across the platform. This is done by creating RLO’s or Reusable Learning Objects. “A RLO to a small piece of instruction that targets a specific performance goal (Nichani, 2001)”. By complying SCORM –Shareable Courseware Object Reference Model – standards, authors of courses can create content that can be differentiated for the user. When deciding on a content-authoring software one must decide if the content created needs to be reusable or not. This will also drive your decision on what e-learning platform , CMS, LMS or LCMS to use.

Ellis, R. (2001). LCMS Roundup. Retrieved June 12, 2010 from ttp://web.archive.org/web/20071012195821/http://www.learningcircuits.org/2001/aug2001/ttools.htm

Fine, D. (n.d.) Choosing the right content-authoring tool for your e-learning
needs. Retrieved June 13, 2020 from http://www.syberworks.com/
articles/ContAuthTool.htm

McGee, P., Carmean, C., & Jafari, A. (2005) Course management systems for learning: Beyond accidental pedagogy. Retrieved from Idea Group, Inc.

Nichani, M. (2001). LCMS = LMS + CMS [RLOs]. Retrieved June 12, 2010 form http://www.elearningpost.com/articles/archives/lcms_lms_cms_rlos/

Wk2 Project Udutu setup

Macon, Louria
Prior Project Selected (or new project): File Management for TV Production

Project to teach students how to create and set up files for News Shows

One thing I didn’t do well with my news team this year was to teach them the file management system we use in TV Production. As a result our work was all over the place and we had a lot of offline media and broken links when we revisited those shows. This is a fairly simple process once the students learn it and understand why it is important. Last year since I did most of the post production I kept it up very well. Now that my students are working more independently this will keep our projects together if everyone uses the same system.

http://web.me.com/louria.macon/Action_Research/File_Management_Tutorial.html

wk 1 Comments - Shontale Fuller

"Institutions researching a LMS may consider purchasing a predesigned system where all components are already in place. In this case training tends to be more simplistic as it focuses on one main system in its entirety. "

The problem with this type of LMS is the improper implemention of the system. In my situation our district has purchased a system called PD 360 for professional development. It has many instructional components for the education community. As a school we were assigned a component for Differentiated Instruction in the classroom. The component was very basic and geared for first year or beginning teachers. I have been differentiating instruction for 20 years. There may have been an advanced component for this course but because of the lack of training in the management and use of the system, our facilitator failed to meet her objective with many experienced teachers. We felt it was a waste of time. Facilitators should be well trained before they are allowed to use any type of LMS. Too many times we buy CMS or LMS and assume they are going to be the solution to our problem. Even CMS and LMS systems have to be differentiated to meet the needs of the learners. We are required as teachers to assess the needs of our students in the classroom, facilitators of LMS should do the same.

Comments - Sarah Chulhan

"This then begs the question would virtual learning environments replace traditional higher education institutions? Or will they continue in advance in parallel with the traditional forms of education. Food for thought" - Sarah Chulhan

Sarah,
You pose two very good questions. However I feel that it will take the latter. In my study of the history of VLE as technology evolved so did the method of delivery of distance learning. VLEs are only one component of a educational system that has occurs to meet the needs of different learners. Because we are so different in our learning styles there will never be a one size fits all educational system although some try to make it so. It will be interesting to see however VLE's will evolve as the technology changes. Did you ever think you could take a college course on your iPod?

Macon Louria History of Virtual Learning Environments:The Beginnings

History of Virtual Learning Environments: The Beginnings


Wikipedia defines distance learning as an instructional system that delivers instruction to students that are not physically in a classroom. In the Wikipedia article “History of virtual learning environments”, virtual learning environments (VLE) are described as systems designed to help teachers manage educational courses using the computers and networks which includes distant learning. One of the first noted distance or correspondence courses was offered by Caleb Phillipps in 1728 which was shorthand. Near the end of the 1800’s a few universities offered distance courses. In 1906 The University of Wisconsin-Extension became the first true distance learning institution.

One of the first use of technology in distance learning was radio. “In the years between the World Wars (1918-1946), the federal government granted radio broadcasting licenses to 202 colleges, universities, and school boards (Nasseh, 1997)”. However by 1940 there was only one college-level credit offered by radio and it did not attract enrollment. “In the 1930s yet another major development in distance education appeared—the television (Hinkle, 2009)”. In 1953 the University of Houston offers the first college course via the television. These classes were offered at night so students who worked could watch. They were delivered through their public television station, KUHT. By 1960 KUHT was offering over 100,000 semester hours.

In the early 1960 researchers at MIT, UCLA and DARPA started discussing the possibility of globally connecting computers. They explored the use of packets for communications instead of circuits. “In 1965 working with Thomas Merrill, Roberts connected the TX-2 computer in Massachusetts to the Q-32 in California with a low speed dial-up telephone line creating the first (however small) wide-area computer network ever built (Leiner ,et al. , 2010)”. In 1964 the Pennsylvania State University, College of Education establishes a Computer Assisted Instruction Lab and the Altoona Area School District in Pennsylvania starting using computers to instruct students. IBM introduce COURSEWRITER and online interactive Computer Assisted Instruction program in 1965 for the IBM 1500.

In 1975 the first personal computers were introduced. It was the MITS Altair 8800. Computer Based Instruction was being used in schools and on college campuses. The introduction of the personal computer would take virtual learning environments to another level. “Although the World Wide Web had been created many years earlier, it was in 1995 that it rocketed into public view (Knight, 2010)”.



Hinkle, L .(2009). Distance education history: The early years of distance
learning. Retrieved June 5, 2010 from http://www.brighthub.com/
eduation/online-learning/articles/24404.aspx#ixzz0q7hTrAAT

Knight, D. (2001). Personal computer history: The first 25 years. Retrieved
June 6, 2010 from http://lowendmac.com/lowendpc/history/
Index.shtml

Leiner, B., et al. (2010) A brief history of the internet. Retrieved June 6,
2010 from http://wwwisoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml

Nasseh, B. (1997). A brief history of distance education. Retrieved June 5,
2010 from http://www.seniornet.org/edu/art/history.html

Wikipedia. (2009). History of virtual environments. Retrieved June 3, 2010
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_virtual_learning_
environments

Wk1 Project: LMO Overview

Development of Professional Development in the Polk County School System.






Professional Development in the PCSB was first delivered through face to face classes. Teachers signed up for classes and went to the different classes where they met for training. The teachers completed assignments and where graded by the instructors. The content was designed specifically for teachers in the district. After the course was completed the instructors posted the points needed and the teachers could use these points for certification purposes.






About 2007 the county moved toward a CMS using Blackboard. The content is developed and managed by Polk County School Board trainers. This content usually entails readings and reflections through discussion boards. Students can only interact with students within the class. Points for certification are assigned by the instructor. Teachers within the PCSB can use blackboard to design content for classes to use with their students along with face to face classes. The teacher manages the content and assigns grades. Before teachers can use this system they have to take a Blackboard classes and adhere to the Best Practices developed by the District.









In 2009 the district moved to a LMS called PD 360. This is a professional development site managed by the company. It offers classes for teachers nationally. These classes are developed by the company for the education community. These classes can be General Education, State specific, district specific and even school specific. Our school selects which courses they want their teachers to take. The teachers however can interact with teachers across the nation through Professional Learning Communities through discussion boards. These classes can be retake if the need arises. The personnel designated to managed class activity, in our case our Assistant Principal, logs in to the management site to determine if coursework is completed. They then post points to our Human Resource department for certification purposes.

Our school district uses a combination of these platforms to deliver professional development throughout the district.

AR Survey Post

I needed my team to take the post survey so here is where I am posting the link.

The Journey Continues....

To all my followers. I will continuing my journey here in the next month. I look forward to sharing and following your thoughts.