AZ Friends of Animals

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Defining Distance Learning

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Defining Distance Learning
Distance Education is rapidly changing keeping pace with technology changes that are happening all around us. The definition of distance learning as described by Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek (2012) is a separation of teachers and student either through time or geographical location (p. 33). This means that the teacher may have a lesson planned taped or written and delivered to the student to be viewed at a later time. The tools that we use in our education have evolved rapidly.

During the early years of distance education, the term was called Correspondence School. This was where the course materials were delivered via the mail and all assignments and grades were mailed back and forth. The university where I currently work started this way with PhD in Education programs. There were residencies, however, which allowed the students to come together a few times during their program to meet face to face with the professors. Other than that, everything was done via mailed correspondence.

Growing up, I remember seeing commericials for schools that offered classes via the television. In fact, Public Broadcasting System channels still have painting and art classes shown this way. All a student needs is access to a T.V and the painting materials to be able to follow along with the teacher. Very effective way to show painting and art techniques which is interactive and entertaining as well. The programs were previously recorded to be broadcast in different timezones than the students.
As technology changed, eventually the instruction was designed to be put onto the internet and we have the early years of our current online classrooms. Most online instruction now is delivered asynchronously meaning that you do not have to be online at the same time with everyone in class. The lectures are pre recorded and students are given access to class through webpages complete with th media software required to view the lectures.

As interactive video and conferencing softwares develop further, there is an opportunity to actually bring the students and teachers together this way. Live classroom lectures can be held through Skype or other systems. However, having to have this type of interaction takes away a little bit, in my opinion, of the flexibility of the program. Many of my students that I advise in my daily conversations are looking to do online programs because they do not want to have a time commitment to be logged into class.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearsonansitional.dtd"> Untitled Document Defining Distance Learning

Distance Education is rapidly changing keeping pace with technology changes that are happening all around us. The definition of distance learning as described by Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek (2012) is a separation of teachers and student either through time or geographical location (p. 33). This means that the teacher may have a lesson planned taped or written and delivered to the student to be viewed at a later time. The tools that we use in our education have evolved rapidly. During the early years of distance education, the term was called Correspondence School. This was where the course materials were delivered via the mail and all assignments and grades were mailed back and forth. The university where I currently work started this way with PhD in Education programs. There were residencies, however, which allowed the students to come together a few times during their program to meet face to face with the professors. Other than that, everything was done via mailed correspondence.
Growing up, I remember seeing commericials for schools that offered classes via the television. In fact, Public Broadcasting System channels still have painting and art classes shown this way. All a student needs is access to a T.V and the painting materials to be able to follow along with the teacher. Very effective way to show painting and art techniques which is interactive and entertaining as well. The programs were previously recorded to be broadcast in different timezones than the students.
As technology changed, eventually the instruction was designed to be put onto the internet and we have the early years of our current online classrooms. Most online instruction now is delivered asynchronously meaning that you do not have to be online at the same time with everyone in class. The lectures are pre recorded and students are given access to class through webpages complete with th media software required to view the lectures.
As interactive video and conferencing softwares develop further, there is an opportunity to actually bring the students and teachers together this way. Live classroom lectures can be held through Skype or other systems. However, having to have this type of interaction takes away a little bit, in my opinion, of the flexibility of the program. Many of my students that I advise in my daily conversations are looking to do online programs because they do not want to have a time commitment to be logged into class.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Welcome Distance Learning classmates!

Hello!

I am continuing my Instructional Design journey and am in the Distance Learning class. Time has flown by and I cannot believe this year is almost half over.

I started this blog originally, as a way for fellow animal lovers to come together to share tips and pictures of their animals. I did have some pictures of my dog Roscoe and my cat Teddy but I took them off. I think I will put some more back up to spruce up the look of my blog.

Kathy

Sunday, February 24, 2013

University Phone System Upgrade

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Change can do you good!

There has been a lot of change since I posted into my blog a while back. I am about to finish the first course in my MSIDT program which was about Organizations, Innovations, and Change.

I researched a change the I am currently experiencing in my organization and will be posting a short presentation of it in blog tomorrow. I have added an excerpt from my assignment below which give a history about the organization environment that I work in and the type of change we are currently experiencing.

Organization Profile: Structure, Culture, and Leadership

Call centers are an integral part of an organizations infrastructure and this is no different for most large schools and universities. At the university where I work, the culture is very structured with the leadership of the university, the president and vice presidents, making all the decisions from the head office. There are several smaller offices around the country that have center heads, however, all decisions are made at the head office. All of management at all of the sites are content with letting all decisions come from the main office. The site directors and all managers of the advising departments do not question the decisions made. They pass them along to the employees, so it is an environment of ” this is the way it is going to be done and there is no discussion”. All the way from the dress code to whether or not there can be a casual jeans Friday are made at the home office.

Several of the sites located in a few different states are for the Enrollment and Academic Advisors and they are organized in just such a way as a company call center. Large rooms with many advisors in cubicles. All advisers used to be able to prioritize their day with new prospective students and continuing student phone calls and appointments. Each morning every advisor would get a list in their database with new inquiries from people looking into degree programs and requesting information. These would come into the individual advisor’s names, so in the morning each would have a list of people to call. There were also calls to be made to other people that were in various stages of the application process for the degree programs. There was the ability to organize calls how based on preference such as calling by what state they lived in, when they preferred to be called, and other such sorting options.

About a year ago, leadership at the university made the announcement that a new phone system was going to be installed. There was no reason given at that time that I could remember and after speaking with other colleagues, no one could recall the reason other than it was time to update our phones. It was announced that there would be a pilot team of advisors that would work with the new phone system before it was distributed to everyone. Since it was something new, everyone was interested but there was no further communication for many months. Just as quickly as it was announced originally, new phones arrived for the school that advises for all of the Bachelor degree programs. C.Gallahand is an advisor on that team and he said it was announced to his team in a meeting that they would be the pilot team for the phone system and that training would begin the following week (personal communication, January 23, 2013).

The phones were linked to the computer and had all sorts of new features like preset voice messaging, touch screen dialing of the phone number. It also does all of the call the prioritization and there are no personal lists any more but instead everything comes into a shared queue for all of us to log into and press a button to get a “new inquiry”. This is the next person that the system deems requires a call back at this time.

The training consisted of a 3 hour training class to cover the phone system and how it worked. There was a question and answer session, however, it was made known that the phone system was being installed and there is no turning back. There was not a feeling of openness in the classroom to bring up any real concerns, so no one did in the training class I personally took part in. I did hear from other employees it was the same in their training classes we well (personal communication, January 24, 2013). During the training, leadership never clearly communicated why this type of phone system was needed. Everyone was already meeting goals and the new phone system was expensive. In order to map out a successful change, Beach, in Leadership and the Art of Change, mentions that clear communication of the vision is important and that there are 6 rules to follow to ensure this takes place (2006, p. 78). Beach states that concrete goals of the vision and the reason for the change should be communicated. The only reason given was that all other large schools were moving to this type of call environment using this very phone system, so we needed to do it as well.

After the pilot team started using the new system, C. Gallahand said that the number of calls he made a day almost tripled with the newer, faster dialing and messaging systems that the phone has (personal communication, January 23, 2013). As the rest of the schools in our university are getting the phones installed within the next few weeks, we are also being told that we should see an increase in the amount of work we do each day. This has some employees now starting to speculate if that will equate to a decrease in the number of advisors that will be needed in the future. Since there were no long term goals communicated, this could be a vision of the university and another change in the future. For now, everyone is getting prepared to take part in learning this new system.

After speaking with a few other team members on my team and other teams that have the system as well, there are both positive and negative effects being felt so far from this change. Everyone that I have spoken with all have the feeling of “flying blind” as one woman named B. Parker put it (personal communication, January 23, 2013). Instead of knowing how the day will be organized by the number of people we need to reach out to, we now just spend the day pressing a button and calling whoever the phone system puts in front of us.

E. Stark mentioned that on her team, the few people that get in the earliest manage to call all of the new inquiries so by the time she comes in there is nothing for her to call except the few students she is currently working with (personal communication, January 23, 2013).

Leadership at the university never took into account our thoughts on whether we would like the system or not. This phone system is widely used at other large university enrollment centers, so that is why the decision was made for our school to do it as well. After reviewing Kotter’s Eight Steps to Transforming your Organization, I have to believe that our leadership did follow this because this large scale change did happen rather smoothly and quickly (2006, p. 243). There was a sense of urgency at some level and a powerful guiding coalition was created because the change was implemented. However, the failure was in the fourth step which was communicating the change to employees. All eight steps happened, I believe, at the very highest levels in the company, but not down to the users of this new system.

On the positive side of the change there has been some stress alleviated from the advisors workload. No longer do advisors have a large database to manage that each were personally responsible for making sure of compliance regulations such as calling not Hawaii before 11:00 a.m. MDT. The phone system does that for us and having a community database relieves pressure of having to have all calls completed each day.

On the other hand, it may be a little impersonal to have inquiries left open to whoever gets a hold of the person first. They are getting phone messages from each advisor that calls which may be confusing.

Enrollment and Academic Advisors have a lot to consider and think about since there was a huge lack of communication during the implementation of this change. The direction of the new phone system within the advising teams is still unclear. The assumption is there has to be a bigger picture need for it but leadership is not coming forth with sharing this information.
References:

Beach, L. R. (2006). Leadership and the art of change: A practical guide to organizational transformation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Kotter, J. P. (2006). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail (chap. 10, pp. 239-251). In Gallos, J. V. (Ed.), Organization development: A Jossey-Bass reader. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

My class reflection.

Learner Motivation- Reflection

What did you find surprising or striking as you furthered your knowledge about how people learn?

I learned so much in this class but what was surprising to me was the way that adult learners learn. I didn’t know that there was a much of a difference between adult learns and children other than the external distraction of work, family, and time management issues. However, after reading the article by Orey (2001) from the projects website, http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page, I found that the information on adult learners was very relevant and true to my experience in my degree program that I recently finished and now in this new certificate program.

How has this course deepened your understanding of your personal learning process?

I had not heard of the different learning theories prior to this class and have an understanding now about what I need to learn. I like the constructivism and the cognitivist theories as being the best match for my learning styles (Ormrod, Schunk, and Gredler, 2009). I do like to do things hands on and make the information relevant to me as a way understand and learn. Gardner’s article on Multiple Intelligence put a lot of facts behind the believe that I grew up with that different people had different kinds of “smarts” (2003). I grew up knowing the difference between my brother and I and how he was so good at math while I was not. Multiple Intelligence gives me a better understanding of people and the way our minds work.

What have you learned regarding the connection between learning theories, learning styles, educational technology, and motivation?

Completing the Learning Theories Matrix made me aware that each different learning style responds best to different technology and each has different external or internal motivations to learn. As an instructional designer, I am going to have to know how to set up class so that all the different styles of learners that make up my student base, can get the information presented to them in a style that is familiar. This class gave me some tools to work with such as reading the different authors like Keller (1999) and O’Bannon, Puckett, and Rakes (2006) who both have great ideas and opinions on how to use technology to teach visual learners and distance learners. Both of which, are of interest to me.

How will your learning in this course help you as you further your career in the field of instructional design?

Everything presented in this course will be of use as a foundation in my instructional design efforts. Knowing your different students is of the utmost importance and being able to draw from the different learning theories that I am aware of will help me be more aware of my student’s needs. The ARCS –based strategies presented by Hutt, Moller, Young, Bray, and Hutt (2008) really tried everything together for me. I believe that if I keep these principles in my class design, I will be successful as an instructional designer. It I all about keeping the Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction of the students who are in my class so that they will remain motivated to learn.

References

Gardner, H. (2003, April 21). Multiple intelligences after 20 years. Paper presented to the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL. Retrieved from http://www.pz.harvard.edu/PIs/HG_MI_after_20_years.pdf

Huett, J., Moller, L., Young, J., Bray, M., & Huett, K. (2008). Supporting the distant student: The effect of ARCS-based strategies on confidence and performance. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 9(2), 113–126.

Keller, J. M. (1999). Using the ARCS motivational process in computer-based instruction and distance education. New Directions for Teaching and Learning (78).

O'Bannon, B., Puckett, K., & Rakes, G. (2006). Using technology to support visual learning strategies. Computers in the Schools, 23(1/2), 125–137.

Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page.

Ormrod, J., Schunk, D., & Gredler, M. (2009). Learning theories and instruction (Laureate custom edition). New York: Pearson.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Adult Learning

Happy Sunday!

I am an adult learner and I have come to realize that I have special needs, as a student, that are worth considering to have a better learning experience. A few weeks back, I thought that I knew the best ways for me to learn, yet I didn’t know the underlying why. I knew how I best memorized something, but not truly how I learn something. I understood how to take good notes and that by writing notes in the margins of articles or books, I was reinforcing the information so that I could recall it later. It was memorization that I was more focused on.

After reading more from Malcolm Knowles, the “father of andragogy”, I see that as an adult learner, I best learn best when I can reflect on the information and then try to make it relevant right away to a current situation. Here is Malcolm Knowles list of the five factors that are very important in adult learning (Conlan, Grabowski, & Smith, 2003).

According to the five assumptions, an adult learner as someone who:

Has an independent self-concept and who can direct his or her own learning
Has accumulated a reservoir of life experiences that is a rich resource for learning
Has learning needs closely related to changing social roles
Is problem-centered and interested in immediate application of knowledge
Is motivated to learn by internal rather than external factors

When I look back on the reasons why I chose to go back to school, this list proves to be true with me. I thought I was externally motivated to go back to school to get my MBA degree a few years back. Job requirements and getting the validation for all the years of my corporate experience were what peaked my interest at first. However, it was an internal wanting to better myself and to get a deeper, formal education. Motivation for going back to school is that I felt I was lacking something. There was something missing and by getting my degree I would fill the gaps. Keeping up with current knowledge and business trends were the outcome of my education and I am glad I did it. So much so, that I am continuing to get further education in Instructional Design.

Constructivism and Cognitive Learning theories are best suited for the type of education that I am seeking at this point in my life. Ormrod, Schunk, & Gredler teach that in Constructivism theory, learning occurs through forming and constructing our own ideas based on our own past experience. Learners create their own learning by exploring ideas and by doing experimentation (2009). This is what I am doing when I am reflecting on the information and putting it to immediate use in a way that is relevant to me. Drawing on the past as a way to implement the new learnings into future practice is what learning is all about to me. Technology is , of course, another important piece of the puzzle. There is so much information to be found through the different weblogs , social media, internet research tools that there is no question that can be given that an answer cannot be found. I like the blogs from Karl Kapp because there are so many other blogs that stem off from there I find it a wealth of information. Here is a link to the Kapp blog I like the most: http://www.kaplaneduneering.com/kappnotes/index.php/2007/01/definition-constructivism/

References:

Conlan, J., Grabowski, S., & Smith, K.. (2003). Adult Learning. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved February 18, 2012, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Kapp, K. (2007) Definition: Constructivism.[Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.kaplaneduneering.com/kappnotes/index.php/2007/01/definition-constructivism/

Ormrod, J., Schunk, D., & Gredler, M. (2009). Learning theories and instruction (Laureate custom edition). New York: Pearson

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Connectivism

Hi everyone,

I am in the middle of moving into my new house this weekend!! Lots of work but we are really enjoying it. It really made me think of what we discussed in class this week about connectivism. I was able to schedule just about everything on line and it saved so much time! All of the utilites, cable, moving company, etc are readily accessible on the internet.

Of course, at the other end of all this technology are us humans. I need each human being at the end of my internet scheduling request to do something for me. But we are all connected via the internet and websites so communicating everything has been almost instantly.

Here is my mind map that I created showing how I am using connectivism to do my learning, my personal, and my professional business.

The below quote is taken from a Connectivism website, http://www.connectivism.ca/ and I think it best decribes what many adult learners first think about then getting started with their education.

"When learners enter complex information settings, the first experience is one of disorientation. “Where do I go?” “Where can I find what I need?” “Who else is here?” As a learner orients herself, she begins to form connections with a few others, resulting in sub-networks often based on some similarity (same country, similar interests, previous connection)".

To me, as you can see below, making connections to other humans, whether they are customers or fellow students, can be easy with technology.