Week 4 Final Project Video - The Future of LMS and PLE

Here is my video for the future of LMSs and PLEs...

The UdutuTeach and UdutuLearn pages can both be found on the Facebook social networking site.

Week 4 Comment 3 Tom Kowalewski

Re-finished audio with my own creation from GarageBand. Videos and ScreenFlows are from my personal collections, including the Howard Gardner segment. My District does not allow student access to many websites so I have built the lesson as a separate site, listed third, below. Please let me know what you think as I value your opinions.

My comment:

Tom, as always you have done an excellent job. I recall this lesson from a previous class and am glad you did it again. It is a definite refresher with a way to go at your own pace. I see you really have the hang of manipulating Udutu, which is cool because it is very time and patience consuming. Keep up the great work.

Week 4 Comment 2 Joy Flack

The program was difficult to use but I think with more time it could be efficiently implemented in a fourth or fifth grade classroom. Third graders may struggle unless they were paired with at peer.

My comment:

Joy, your lesson was a great lesson on working within Google documents. The ability for a student to learn to use Google documents as a way of keeping assignments online is valuable when transitioning between school and home. Imagine a world where 'I left my homework at home' as an excuse is obsolete. With the web being everywhere we go, there is no longer a reason for homework not be hosted online.

Only recommendation I have would be about the last PowerPoint presentation transitioning too fast. I couldn't read what was on the slides because the pages turned too fast and I am a pretty fast reader.

Week 4 Comment 1 Kimberly Coast

I just finished creating my UDUTU lesson and am posting it to Facebook and will be setting it up as available to all of my former students who are on my Maestra Coast Facebook page. I am also linking it back here so that anyone who takes the course can also feel free to leave me comments on the lesson here.

My comment:

I liked your Udutu project on the Spanish verb conjugation. It brings back memories of when I took Spanish in high school to further my knowledge of my native tongue. I am now able to read, write, and speak it properly.

I enjoyed the lesson because you were very thorough and anyone taking it would be able to effectively conjugate the verbs. I especially liked your assessment screens. You really got the hang of how to manipulate Udutu...

Nice job!

Week 4: My Udutu project

My Udutu project is for my recipe, Kickin' Bleu Cheese Burgers.

The URL for the project is: http://publish.myudutu.com/published/launcheval/20429/Course36319/Launch.html

Enjoy!!

Week 3 Comment 2 - Amanda Beery

Moodle is a free Course Management System (CMS)that many teachers are using to create online courses for their classes. With the outcome features students can complete tasks on Moodle and receive a grade that the teacher can then use in their grade book. This is good for students as well because they can easily monitor their progress as they complete various activities and desired outcomes. These outcomes can be grades or statements of completion, something students can think of as a list and check them off as they go.

My comment:

Amanda, this system described here reminds me of the Accelerated Reading (AR) tests that my children used to take when they finished certain books they read. The tests would evaluate whether the student’s comprehension of the book was sufficient enough to continue to another book. Whatever grades the student received would be the grade entered into the teacher’s grade book.

I know that I am happy tools such as this exist because it will help me to create lesson plans in the future when I become an instructor. I definitely like the idea of the Hot Potatoes tool as it seems very versatile and I’m sure there is a feature that allows one to print out the exercises, crosswords, etc. created.

Week 3 Comment 1 - Kimberly Coast

Clay Shirky is a visionary with a wonderful speaking style that is open and honest and he relates well with his audience. This reading was all about the future of technology in education. I included his video because it illustrates clearly coordinated group effort and he makes a clear argument for the benefit of that structure.

My comment:

Kimberly, I love your statement, “Students and their parents and communities have a common goal of knowledge, skills, and attitudes”, because that, to me, is the only way for education on any level to succeed. If any of the parties is in contrast to the end goal, the plan will fail and education or an educational tool will be unsuccessful. And for me, this is the concept that is not sufficiently grasped in today’s educational system: “Learners need to be motivated and need to see the reason behind the learning”. If for once, educators would understand that learners need to know why they are learning, as much as they need what they are learning, then perhaps the future of education as we know it would succeed. Learning must change because this question is going unheeded, which in my opinion loses our learners.

Week 3 Activity 1

To ascertain the future of e-learning and Course Management Systems (CMSs), one must research and examine the current trends. Social networking and the freedoms granted by the Internet have greatly progressed since its release to the public. The Internet has created such a stir that many educators are calling for some type of government control. Another trend is the use of media and technology as an alternate way to learn versus what is already in place. Still another trend would be the use of phones like iPhones and PDAs as a means to access education content or learning concepts. Distance education is really taking off and will continue to do so as well as the idea of ‘embedded learning’, which is a system that allows users to self-education instead of have an offline course and receive help by an online support department. Lastly, online applications like Udutu and web tools will make creating, delivering, and using education much easier for the user and at a lower cost to the user.

The use of simulations and gaming is also in the future of education as technological advances are causing educators to seek other options to get the user’s attention and keep it as well as deliver course concepts. This brings me to the Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS), which is a system that teaches students without a human teacher. The ITS uses four modules that use simulations, expertise, a student module describing student knowledge and misconception, and finally the tutor model that is tipped off by the variance between the expert model and the student model. An ITS is completely reliant on the accuracy of the four models.

With all the technological advances mentioned above, the use of the ITS is only optional and reliant on how much interaction between student and teacher is desired as well as the cost of building the system and its overall productivity. This system is very effective for mass tutoring such as is needed for high volume corporate or military training. Though we are not to give opinion based information, I must say that I do not believe that ITS would assume the position of educators but can be embraced to pick up slack in our educational systems.

What we need are web 3.0 tools such as described in W3C Semantic Web systems. Tools that connect our daily usage of the internet as well as of the tools we find most useful would be great for education because it would make teaching less monotonous and could provide more time for teachers to teach new things. For example, the curriculum that is repetitious can be offered via a web 3.0 tool while new systems can teach new concepts.

References

W3C Semantic Web Retrieved June, 2010 from http://www.w3.org/RDF/FAQ

Wikipedia (2010). Intelligent tutoring system. Retrieved June 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_tutoring_system

Week 2 Project Udutu Setup

1. Ayala, Kenya
2. How-to make Kickin' Bleu Cheese Burgers: a step-by-step guide to make my spicy blue cheese burger.
3. Digital Media and Education Applications (DAE) lesson, February 26, 2010.
4. I am using the Best Practices Scenario because my lesson is somewhat linear in that steps build upon each other. I am using the true/false areas as a means to correct any errors that the user may do when acting out the steps.
5. The URL of the original lesson is http://web.me.com/sunny1way/EMD573/interface/index.html

Week 2 Comment 2 - Billy Goins

The official Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) website provides a very detailed overview of the organization’s history and purpose. Under the direct care of the Department of Defense (DoD) Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (OUSD P&R), the ADL Initiative was created in 1997 and given the task of standardizing and modernizing the delivery of training and education. On January 12, 1999, Excutive Order 13111 signed by President Clinton tasked the DoD to develop and lead a partnership with business and university groups for the purpose of creating standardized training software and related services. (http://www.adlnet.gov).

My comment:

I liked your information on ADL and standardized learning. I question whether standardized learning and training is the right way to continue in education because not all children/learners learn the same way. Standardized testing has failed child after child and should be outlawed when children can't meet the standard and fail. The standard may not have been set too high; that child may just learn in ways that the standard doesn't focus on.

What do you think?

Week 2 Comment 1 - Kimberly Coast

This week's reading was much calmer than last week. As I worked through the reading I realized that there was much more information in section 6 than in 7 or 8. I was thinking that I could deal with the cost of LCMS versus regular face to face (F2F) instruction, but that could be summed up in one sentence... It is WAY cheaper, like half the cost, to use LCMS in the long run than F2F instruction. I also considered describing ADL, Standards, SCORM but considered that something that I would easily remember. Discussing the differences between LMS and LCMS seemed mute as I did that last week and I believe that my time is best spent discussing LCMS in more depth this week. :)

My comment:

Kim, I, too thought about how we defined and explored LMSs and CMSs and I am glad that we got a good grasp of these concepts to be able to quickly acknowledge the difference between these systems and LCMSs.

I like how you summarized LCMS as 'what you want...' because it seems that LCMS is definitely accessed by the user once permissions are granted by the creator and organization. The LCMS becomes that user's PLE which allows the user to acquire and incorporate his or her own style of learning while learning content designed by the business.

Individual education is on the horizon for sure as education must eventually grasp that children don't learn equally. Education must reshape itself to the needs of the children and not to the tenures of the teachers.

Week 2 Activity 1

Learning management systems (LMSs) are mostly for smaller businesses that require training of employees on a smaller scale. Course management systems (CMSs) are used primarily by universities, like Full Sail University that focus on the coursework and delivery to the students. Databases are similar to that of LMSs but on a scale directly related to education and focus on course rather than content. Learning content management systems (LCMSs) are used primarily by large institutions like the military that must deliver content materials to a large amount of people/learners, such as in the four major military branches. Personal learning environments (PLEs) are more learner focused like LMSs but can easily take on qualities attributed to the other systems, depending on the amount of users.

In just-in-time learning, the learner gains access to data, answers, questions and the system delivers information based on when and how it is needed. Just-in-time learning systems can be viewed as part of LMSs or LCMSs. LMSs cannot create instructional content. Learners gauge and plan learning and socially and collaboratively interact. Administrators target, track, analyze and report on the user’s learning. CMSs were designed to simplify the creation of online content and the administration of said content. From the article, the organization of the online content is also an important part as well as its management.

CMSs are organized around course development, distribution, and management of the course. By contrast, LCMSs are oriented to content development, distribution and management of content. LCMSs require pre-assessment that targets content. Learner’s profiles allow the system to extract content from a database to deliver individual content or to assemble full courses.

Successful implementation of a LCMS is contingent on the understanding of the organizational skill sets. The organization’s mission and goal are relevant to the purchasing of the LCMS, as the cost of an LCMS was over $200,000 for 5,000 to 10,000 users in 2004, according to our reading. LCMSs are combined systems that have the qualities/components of both LMSs and CMSs. LCMSs are comprised of reusable learning objects (RLOs) that can be used on their own or as part of the larger whole of instructional materials.

RLOs can be single objects like graphics or video files yet they can also be smaller pieces of learning that focuses on one goal. RLOs set the goal, the content and the assessment on a specific goal-by-goal scale.

LCMSs are able to quickly create and deliver learning content modular forms rather than the one size fits all fashion for more personalized learning. This personalization expedites the employer’s business and training goals. Benefits of an LCMS include increased and expedited efficiency, the reusing of content that may become relevant in future or alternate purposes, the reduction of training time which expedites productivity, maintaining current compliance through constant updates and changes according to changes in technology or government/educational regulations, and on-demand learning through easy search methods that enhance just-in-time learning.

LCMSs use multimedia and multiple forms of media as a delivery method which makes this type of learning system the most versatile and valuable to organizations and learners.

Week 1 LMO Project Overview

Learning Management Systems (LMS) manages learners rather than just the courses the learner will take. Learners would be in different positions, age groups, and structural levels. The LMS will be able to provide learning to each user because the LMS will assess and use the skill level of each user to build and deliver the course content that the student/user needs rather than have broad courses and curriculum that is not specific to the user.

Course Management Systems (CMS) manage courses or classes used for education such as at Full Sail University. The school is already established and the student is added to a database and the student’s courses are delivered to the student through online access. CMS is able to integrate grading, registration, library resources, plagiarism checker, etc for each student after a student has been registered. CMS are not individualized for learners.

Learning Course Management Systems (LCMS) is a combination of LMS and CMS that was designed to be used by the military because of the size of its organization, and was created to bring individualized learning functionality to content/course management. Large educational institutions also benefit from LCMS by bringing courses to their registered students with individualized information to facilitate on a user level. FSO is a perfect example in that all students in EDMT receive the same course content on the dashboard, however, each is able to work at his or her pace in whatever order and the dashboard updates according to that student’s use.

Personal Learning Environments (PLE) are systems established to facilitate the learner’s control of his or her own learning space and goals. This system could be large or small, a place or a course, provided by both the learner and the institution of learning. The user would be in charge of creating an environment conducive to meeting his or her learning such as in a quiet study environment with the appropriate materials, such as notebooks, computer, etc. The educational institution would be responsible for creating an environment that facilitates the user’s learning such as learning course management systems (LCMS) that provide resource materials, textbooks, assessments, and grading.

PLE and LCMS are the type of educational tools we presently use at Full Sail University.

Week 1 Comment 2 - Joan Lourenco

In order to move forward in education, it is important to understand current circumstances, recognize problems, and assess the instructional needs of students and teachers.

In 2004, Colleen Carmean, Ali Jafari, and Patrica McGee worked with experts to identify and develop end-user needs of a course management system (CMS). They completed this multiple case study on teaching and learning environments by assessing what was working in CMS and focusing on ways to improve current practices and...

My comment:

Sometimes, I wonder if the creators of Course Management Systems (CMS) and Learning Management Systems (LMS) understand that to devise a system that will truly reach proper functionality, there is a need to work backwards from the user's point of reference. Only then will the system provide the desired effect and learning. It is only the user that can decide if the type of learning works for him or her as he or she is the one that will succeed or fail at learning what the system is trying to teach him or her. That is what makes these systems difficult to create because the needs and ideas of the user must come first yet the system must be broad enough to reach many types of learners.

Week 1 Comment 1 - Joy Flack

" A virtual learning environment (VLE) is a system that creates an environment designed to facilitate teachers in the management of educational courses for their students, especially a system using computer hardware and software, which involves distance learning (Wikipedia,2010).

The definition for virtual learning environments is more applicable to the present in terms of technology and applications then if it were applied to the past.

Traveling through time with the same class as now. Would you be able to earn a graduate degree with an audio/visual communication network as used in the early 1900’s? The standards have been raised and technology created to bring education into the 21st century. In 1990’s, Florida State University was still offering courses via television. The interaction between student and teacher has since tripled. Now feedback, group interaction, online class sessions, and so much more is available in and virtual learning environment. Today there are over 205 colleges and schools offering online learning and students are earning more than $300 per week with the MBA."

My comment:

It is indeed amazing that the foundation of today's online educational system was created and used for 40 years way back then yet, here we are today, struggling to prove that this type of learning works and can be better for some learners. Imagine if that type of learning would have been embraced and empowered, how many of our children would be on a better path today. How few children would there be in the judicial system if they had been given another alternative to sitting long hours in a classroom where they understood little due to the teacher's pace and not their own level of comprehension? I believe there could have been a difference. What do you think?

Week 1 Activity 1

I find it fascinating to know that the earliest distance learning was before the 1940s. This shows me that my theory that governments and school systems often conspire against progress is true. My reasoning for having this theory is shown in the many examples of distance education that I read about in the readings. The idea that Illinois Wesleyan University sponsored distance education in 1874 indicates that there was a market for that type of learning even then to change what was known about the educational system. Though distance education would not have replaced traditional education, it would have given another option for present day education. Had distance learning been embraced then, as it should have been, many of the children who dropped out of school and become statistics more than likely would have continued in school and obtained a diploma. Harvey White televised his physics lessons in 1956-1958 to over 100,000 students according to our assigned reading. This type of learning should have continued to reach the many students who could not attend regular courses but who had the desire to continue studies. I suppose that too many teachers would have become obsolete with this new type of learning and as jobs would have been lost, it was in the administration’s best interest to allow this form of learning to disappear.

According to the reading, in 1962 came the system that incorporates computers to augment learning and was called NLS, oNLine System. This is interesting as it is the beginning of what I currently recognize as OLS (online learning system), with it debuting in 1968. The PLATO system (1960) was genius at best, and this is the beginning of what we currently use (FSO). With the commission of the Internet as we know it in 1969, education changed because now the race to bring educational resources and course materials to the Internet began. By the 1980s, the technology was there to bring learning to another level; however, it seems that the development of courseware, software, and computers may have stepped on each other. The 1980s brought many technological breakthroughs however, universities weren’t releasing what they knew or had.

1987 brought online education to Norway. Europe seems to have been at the forefront of this technology. A large chunk of the technology of distance learning was overshadowed by the development of computers. As computers improved and became advanced, it seems that distance learning materials were developed. The millennium brought out a massive wave of learning management system software and ideas such as The Thinking Cap in 2001.

Learning management systems (LMS) focus on the user’s learning through the use of online systems that facilitate learning, provide assessments through collaboration between the user and the instructor/learning institution. The idea that the user doesn’t have to adhere to a classroom setting either in physicality or time is what makes the LMS work. The user can work at his or her own pace, in his or her own time frame from anywhere he or she can log on. For learners that are bound by familial or professional responsibilities, this type of learning environment is the only way he or she can meet academic desires. The solution is like the gold at the end of the rainbow at the end of what can appear to be a long, endless and lonely journey for some learners.

From early dabbling into distance education to present day online learning systems, it seems that we have always had the notion that the world of education needed to be improved yet society continues in traditional classroom and instruction methods. This is something I don’t quite understand. Is it because of the failing job market or is it because of the control government has over education? Either way, such ignorance is costing our children.

Wikipedia. (2010). History of virtual learning environments. Retrieved June 1, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_virtual_learning_environments