So today I'm supposed to evaluate the idea of games and simulations in my storyboard. Where might they be appropriate? This is really difficult for me, because I am unsure about the appropriateness of games and simulations for a lesson on the MLA format for paper writing. The idea becomes even more difficult for me to think about when I have never come across games and situations in any of the e-learning situations in which I have found myself. Because I only know the theoretical aspects and not the practical ones, I am uncertain as to how they are to work in the e-learning field.
To be perfectly honest, I have been anticipating this post, and I have been thinking about this for the past week. I am going to be honest. I just can't see where a game or simulation might be appropriate for my particular lesson. As far as I can tell, there is not an appropriate placement for games or simulations within my lesson, considering the nature and topic of the lesson.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Research Based Guidelines
The principles discussed in my last post are from research-based guidelines, of which there are more than fifty. That is too many to discuss at once, so right now I'm just going to talk about the ones relevant to my storyboard that I had to create. Table 17.2, on page 404 of E-Learning and the Science of Instruction, divides them like this:
1-23 apply to all forms of e-learning.
24-34 apply to e-learning designed to teach job tasks.
35-40 apply to e-learning with collaborative facilities.
41-44 apply to design of asynchronous e-learning navigation.
45-56 apply to e-learning to build problem-solving skills and simulations and games.
Since the storyboard I created was not meant teach job tasks, this eliminated guidelines 23-34. Guidelines 45-56 can also be eliminated because I did not create it to build problem-solving skills with simulations and games. This leaves me with a little over 30 guidelines.
Guidelines 1-23 are guided into two sections. The first is for those who are using only visual aspects, just text and graphics. They don't apply to my storyboard because I also use audio. The first of these is using relevant graphics with the audio narration, which is part of the multimedia and modality principles. The next guideline that applies is an exception to the modality princple: maintain information that the learner needs time to process as text on the screen, which is something else that I've done with my storyboard.
My visuals and audio are always linked, as are my visuals and text. That's number 16. Number 17 is also followed because I don't present words as both text and narration As per guideline 18, everything is relevant, and as per 19, I keep a conversational tone using first and second person for my audio.
I skipped 20 and went to 21, which is all about the segmentation principle, ensuring that the learner can use a continue or next button and that the lesson is in manageable chunks. Also, as per guideline 22, my one animation does have a replay button. It's a movie, so the learner can stop, restart, and replay all he or she wishes. Finally, I adhere to guideline 23 by using the pretraining principle.
My storyboard includes a collaborative project as a part of the lesson. It definitely requires asynchronous communication, with synchronous communication optional. Because it is a collaborative assignment, it is a group assignment by definition, and I have ensured social interdependence by making it clear that this is a group grade, thus covering guidelines 35-38 and 40.
I've skipped guideline 41 and gone straight to 42, having limited learner choices on topics as the lesson is designed for learners who are novice to the content. I've skipped 43, but I've utilized 44, allowing them to work at their own pace in a reasonable manner.
The guidelines are redundant, I know, but these are what the principles are based off of, and it's important to understand the base before reaching for the top.
1-23 apply to all forms of e-learning.
24-34 apply to e-learning designed to teach job tasks.
35-40 apply to e-learning with collaborative facilities.
41-44 apply to design of asynchronous e-learning navigation.
45-56 apply to e-learning to build problem-solving skills and simulations and games.
Since the storyboard I created was not meant teach job tasks, this eliminated guidelines 23-34. Guidelines 45-56 can also be eliminated because I did not create it to build problem-solving skills with simulations and games. This leaves me with a little over 30 guidelines.
Guidelines 1-23 are guided into two sections. The first is for those who are using only visual aspects, just text and graphics. They don't apply to my storyboard because I also use audio. The first of these is using relevant graphics with the audio narration, which is part of the multimedia and modality principles. The next guideline that applies is an exception to the modality princple: maintain information that the learner needs time to process as text on the screen, which is something else that I've done with my storyboard.
My visuals and audio are always linked, as are my visuals and text. That's number 16. Number 17 is also followed because I don't present words as both text and narration As per guideline 18, everything is relevant, and as per 19, I keep a conversational tone using first and second person for my audio.
I skipped 20 and went to 21, which is all about the segmentation principle, ensuring that the learner can use a continue or next button and that the lesson is in manageable chunks. Also, as per guideline 22, my one animation does have a replay button. It's a movie, so the learner can stop, restart, and replay all he or she wishes. Finally, I adhere to guideline 23 by using the pretraining principle.
My storyboard includes a collaborative project as a part of the lesson. It definitely requires asynchronous communication, with synchronous communication optional. Because it is a collaborative assignment, it is a group assignment by definition, and I have ensured social interdependence by making it clear that this is a group grade, thus covering guidelines 35-38 and 40.
I've skipped guideline 41 and gone straight to 42, having limited learner choices on topics as the lesson is designed for learners who are novice to the content. I've skipped 43, but I've utilized 44, allowing them to work at their own pace in a reasonable manner.
The guidelines are redundant, I know, but these are what the principles are based off of, and it's important to understand the base before reaching for the top.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
E-Learning Principles and Storyboarding
As I work on my Master's Degree, one of the courses I am taking is on e-learning, something that has become more and more popular as technology continues to improve.
Our big project for the class has been a storyboard, which is basically the laying out and planning of a presentation. The big thing that we have been discussing is the principles of e-learning, principles that we have been encouraged to apply to our storyboard. These principles come from a book called E-Learning and the Science of Instruction, 3rd Edition, by Ruth Colvin Clark and Richard E. Mayer. It is a book that I strongly recommend for anyone designing an e-learning course.
Since I am an English teacher, and MLA is the format for the English field, this is what I chose to do my storyboard on. I've integrated several of the e-learning principles into it. The first is the segmentation principle. This is seen throughout the storyboard, and it breaks the lesson into smaller chunks, making it easier for the learner to understand.
On the first slide, I have integrated the pretraining principle. This means giving the learner an overview of the topic before entering the subject itself, kind of like testing the water with your feet before immersing yourself completely when you're getting ready to take a bath or go swimming. This slide gives a brief overview of the MLA format. Many teachers might also recognize the pretraining principle as frontloading.
Throughout the storyboard, I use both words and graphics, utilizing the multimedia principle. Most of the graphics are static, but the second slide is meant to have a movie on it. I also use the modality principle on several slides, using a combination of images and spoken text rather than written text. I also use the redundancy principle because most of my slides do not use both audio narration and on-screen text.
I have completely eliminated unnecessary text, speech, and graphics, thus integrating the coherence principle. I have also utilized the personalization principle because I have used less formal language, allowing the learner to better connect with the lesson.
Overall, working on the storyboard has definitely been interesting. I am a little unsure as to my exact feelings about the storyboard. I probably wouldn't do it if I were going to create the PowerPoint myself, but if I need someone else to do the PowerPoint for me, it is definitely something that will come in handy.
Our big project for the class has been a storyboard, which is basically the laying out and planning of a presentation. The big thing that we have been discussing is the principles of e-learning, principles that we have been encouraged to apply to our storyboard. These principles come from a book called E-Learning and the Science of Instruction, 3rd Edition, by Ruth Colvin Clark and Richard E. Mayer. It is a book that I strongly recommend for anyone designing an e-learning course.
Since I am an English teacher, and MLA is the format for the English field, this is what I chose to do my storyboard on. I've integrated several of the e-learning principles into it. The first is the segmentation principle. This is seen throughout the storyboard, and it breaks the lesson into smaller chunks, making it easier for the learner to understand.
On the first slide, I have integrated the pretraining principle. This means giving the learner an overview of the topic before entering the subject itself, kind of like testing the water with your feet before immersing yourself completely when you're getting ready to take a bath or go swimming. This slide gives a brief overview of the MLA format. Many teachers might also recognize the pretraining principle as frontloading.
Throughout the storyboard, I use both words and graphics, utilizing the multimedia principle. Most of the graphics are static, but the second slide is meant to have a movie on it. I also use the modality principle on several slides, using a combination of images and spoken text rather than written text. I also use the redundancy principle because most of my slides do not use both audio narration and on-screen text.
I have completely eliminated unnecessary text, speech, and graphics, thus integrating the coherence principle. I have also utilized the personalization principle because I have used less formal language, allowing the learner to better connect with the lesson.
Overall, working on the storyboard has definitely been interesting. I am a little unsure as to my exact feelings about the storyboard. I probably wouldn't do it if I were going to create the PowerPoint myself, but if I need someone else to do the PowerPoint for me, it is definitely something that will come in handy.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Wordle Fun
I love Wordle. It's a great graphic organizer to show the important concepts in a text. Here are some I made for Romeo and Juliet, based on some of the most famous speeches in the play. The first one, made from Romeo's "brawling love, loving hate" speech, is especially aprapos.
title="Wordle: Brawling Love">
alt="Wordle: Brawling Love"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">
The one I made from Juliet's "What's in a name?" speech also turned out really well.
title="Wordle: Whats In a Name?">
alt="Wordle: Whats In a Name?"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">
I'm very fond of Mercutio's "Queen Mab" speech, but this one might be better for Midsummer Night's Dream...
title="Wordle: Queen Mab">
alt="Wordle: Queen Mab"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">
The one from the Prince came out a bit better.
title="Wordle: All Are Punished">
alt="Wordle: All Are Punished"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">
title="Wordle: Brawling Love">
alt="Wordle: Brawling Love"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">
The one I made from Juliet's "What's in a name?" speech also turned out really well.
title="Wordle: Whats In a Name?">
alt="Wordle: Whats In a Name?"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">
I'm very fond of Mercutio's "Queen Mab" speech, but this one might be better for Midsummer Night's Dream...
title="Wordle: Queen Mab">
alt="Wordle: Queen Mab"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">
The one from the Prince came out a bit better.
title="Wordle: All Are Punished">
alt="Wordle: All Are Punished"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Subbing
Alright, so it's been a while since I last posted. I figured I didn't have much to post since I have not yet found a job which utilizes my certification, per se.
That being said, I am subbing with both the local Catholic schools and the local public schools, and here's what I've discovered:
1) I enjoy the variety that comes with subbing. True, I don't get to utilize my degree as often as I would like, and I do sometimes have to step outside of my comfort zone, like the time I subbed P.E. at one of the high schools, but I enjoy finding new ways to utilize my other talents outside of writing.
2) I enjoy the flexible schedule. As a sub, I'm technically a free agent. If I need a day to work on something else, like finishing up a paper for my Masters, or if I need to see the doctor, I can schedule a non-work day.
3) The principal and the regular teachers always have my back when I'm working with a difficult student, or 10.
This last item came in handy the other day when I was subbing a second grade class at the elementary school up the road, so close that I walk to assignments there when the weather is nice. I had recess duty, and two girls claimed to have injured their ankles. They were faking, and I knew immediately, so I told them to walk it off. How did I know?
1) They both sustained their injuries at the exact same time.
2) One had an over-exaggerated limp that you really only see in a severe enough injury that there's swelling fairly quickly.
3) The other was doing cartwheels within minutes.
4) Both were walking normally when they thought I wasn't looking.
I expressed my suspicions to the music teacher when I delivered them to her immediately after recess. She said that she knew the two girls in question quite well, and that my suspicions were most likely correct. When I picked the kiddos up from P.E., these two girls were mysteriously all better. I suspect that either the music teacher or the P.E. teacher called them both on it and chewed them out.
The principal then thanked me for coming on such short notice and for handling things so well. :)
Monday, April 11, 2011
Jobs? What Jobs?
When I went into the teaching field, I was told that there were LOTS of jobs out there. Schools were supposedly desperate to hire fresh young teachers as the previous teaching population got older and retired. The economy tells a different story. The fact is that teaching jobs are scarce, especially for those of us in the communication arts field. It's not so bad for everyone, of course. If you're going into special ed, you can practically write your own ticket, but that really takes a certain person, doesn't it? I just don't have the right temperament. So I went to a job fair in St. Louis with my tax refund. Half of the schools didn't show up, and only one of the ones that showed up offered 9-12 English. They said that they anticipated an English position opening, but it wasn't up on their website, and when that job finally appeared, I found that I would need a degree in journalism. So I went to another job fair. There were schools that weren't on the list. Some of the schools on the list said on their websites that they would need English teachers, but they didn't, and someofthe schools on the list that said they didn't actually did. I ran out of resumes and had to resort to handing out business cards. Also, my fingers are about to fall off from filling out so many applications. Won't somebody just hire me already?
Friday, September 3, 2010
Student Teaching
Well, my dears, it is finally that time. I have finally reached that stage in my academic career where I am just beginning to hear the first strains of Pomp and Circumstance. I have just finished the second week of student teaching, and I have come to the following conclusions.
1) Every teacher needs a liberal arts background. In the past two weeks, I have made use of experience gained in drama, physics, and history. I am slowly learning how to make use of psychology. I have yet to figure out how to make use of math outside of the figuring of grades, but I'm sure there is some other connection there.
2) Students do strange things. One of them left a SHOE under his desk.
3) Students will, for the most part, ignore a student teacher unless they need help with an assignment and the regular teacher is either busy or absent. Unless I say something truly interesting or tell my students to stop talking, they tend to act as if I am not there.
4) The importance of proofreading on one's own cannot be overestimated. We preach repeatedly to our students that they must read through their papers themselves and not rely upon their word processers, and we must take our own advice on this subject rather than let a blaring mistake hang on our walls for two days.
Aside from acknowledging these simple truths, I have learned that I cannot trust the financial aid office. They didn't get all of my money into my account, which means that I currently am not sitting with a brand new laptop. I am on my husband's computer, for now, trying to patiently wait for them to fix it, especially after being faced with a larger than expected car repair bill. Apparently, I am far from the only student that they have pulled this awful trick on.
That being said, I'm getting ready to teach some Poe. I will also be teaching The Martian Chronicles, Of Mice and Men, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, and some poetry this semester. Up until this point, I had never read The Martian Chronicles. I liked it, but it made me weep for mankind.
I also absolutely must recommend The Hunger Games trilogy. I've read the whole thing, having gotten the third book, Mockingjay, for my birthday a week ago. The Hunger Games is also one of this year's Gateway nominees. I've read another one of this year's nominees, Graceling, and can also recommend it as a good read. Other Gateway nominees that I'd like to read include The Musician's Daughter, The Compound, and The Irreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.
1) Every teacher needs a liberal arts background. In the past two weeks, I have made use of experience gained in drama, physics, and history. I am slowly learning how to make use of psychology. I have yet to figure out how to make use of math outside of the figuring of grades, but I'm sure there is some other connection there.
2) Students do strange things. One of them left a SHOE under his desk.
3) Students will, for the most part, ignore a student teacher unless they need help with an assignment and the regular teacher is either busy or absent. Unless I say something truly interesting or tell my students to stop talking, they tend to act as if I am not there.
4) The importance of proofreading on one's own cannot be overestimated. We preach repeatedly to our students that they must read through their papers themselves and not rely upon their word processers, and we must take our own advice on this subject rather than let a blaring mistake hang on our walls for two days.
Aside from acknowledging these simple truths, I have learned that I cannot trust the financial aid office. They didn't get all of my money into my account, which means that I currently am not sitting with a brand new laptop. I am on my husband's computer, for now, trying to patiently wait for them to fix it, especially after being faced with a larger than expected car repair bill. Apparently, I am far from the only student that they have pulled this awful trick on.
That being said, I'm getting ready to teach some Poe. I will also be teaching The Martian Chronicles, Of Mice and Men, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, and some poetry this semester. Up until this point, I had never read The Martian Chronicles. I liked it, but it made me weep for mankind.
I also absolutely must recommend The Hunger Games trilogy. I've read the whole thing, having gotten the third book, Mockingjay, for my birthday a week ago. The Hunger Games is also one of this year's Gateway nominees. I've read another one of this year's nominees, Graceling, and can also recommend it as a good read. Other Gateway nominees that I'd like to read include The Musician's Daughter, The Compound, and The Irreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.
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