Jul 23 2009
Working on final project (week 1)
I have been working all week on the design of my class – using online resources to improve teaching and learning. I got the objectives polished and the outline of the class done. Then I worked on my assessment tools, which will be 1)threaded discussion (using a Ning, since it’s the easiest for organizing threaded discussions if you don’t have ready access to an LMS) and using a rubric, 2) wiki, 3) survey, 4) blog. I still haven’t tied all the learning objectives to one of the tools, but I’m not sure I have to do that – I think it’s tie the tools to some of the learning objectives.
I noticed in creating my objectives that I don’t have much at the low end of the Bloom taxonomy. I have a lot of analysis, application, and evaluation, and a major piece of synthesis.
I struggled with the best way to present the project. Of course, I could do a Word document or a PowerPoint, but those are so linear, and don’t use the hyperlinking capabilities we all seem to take for granted. So I created a new blog to organize the materials. I also created a Ning, since I need a place for the course itself to take place. As I don’t have access to Moodle (yet), I decided to use a Ning, something I’ve used a lot; these are billed as social networking websites, but are so versatile you can use them for many different things. I’m going to use it for my LMS because a Ning allows for organized and threaded discussions, as well as individual blogs for each user of the Ning. Links can be included in posts, and materials can be uploaded, as well. While it doesn’t have all the features I’d like in an LMS, it will do.
I also created a wiki for use by the class, with separate pages to be used by each group doing work in the class.
I feel like I have too many learning objectives and the contents of different modules in the class probably need adjusting, but I have worked on this so much I can’t look at it for a few days.
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Hi Fran, You have done a lot of work on your final project – I’m very impressed. I’m not familiar with Ning. It’s a new resource for me. I love the design of your Ning – it’s very pretty.
Regarding your comment on learning objectives, I found it helpful to revisit Blooms Taxonomy and the Measurable Verbs document that was shared. Fine tuning the verb in the learning objective and deciding where it fit in Blooms taxonomy helped me to decide what assessment tools to use.
Good luck in your work the rest of this week.
Ruth
Dear Ruth – good idea to return to Blooms. I will do that. Thanks, Fran