online learning

DC: This is not right! When will there be justice?! We need to help Native American colleges, universities, & communities out!

On 12/04/2020, in Access to Justice (A2J), adjunct faculty, Amazon, Apple, business, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, culture, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, economics, education, education reform, education technology, ethics, Facebook / Meta Platforms, faculty, faith, funding / grants, future, future of higher education, geography / geology, Google, health, higher education, history, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, Michigan, Microsoft, mobile technologies, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, morals/values, new media literacies, online learning, platforms, policy, remote teaching and learning, society, student-related, surviving, technologies for your home, telecommunications, ubiquitous learning, United States, universities, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, youth, by Daniel Christian

The Digital Divide for Tribal College Students — COVID, CARES Act, and Critical Next Steps — from diverseeducation.com

Excerpt:

In this episode staff writer Sara Weissman shares a story that focuses on the digital divide for Native Americans by bringing in voices of tribal college leaders and their students during the COVID 19 pandemic.

Many don’t know but Native American colleges and universities have long struggled with the worst internet connectivity in the nation while ironically paying the highest rates for service. Hear first-hand how students from Diné College and other institutions are currently affected. Carrie Billie (Big Water Clan), President & CEO of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) and Dr. Cynthia Lindquist (Star Horse Woman), President of Cankdeska Cikana Community College in North Dakota, break down the data and lay out critical next steps necessary to address the digital divide.

Many don’t know but Native American colleges and universities have long struggled with the worst internet connectivity in the nation while ironically paying the highest rates for service.

From DSC:
When will there be justice!? Let’s join in and make amends and provide the funding, concrete assistance, products, and services to Native American colleges, universities, and communities. Some potential ideas:

For the short term, could there be Loon balloons deployed immediately to provide free and stronger access to the Internet?

Could our Federal Government make amends and do the right thing here? (e-rate program, put Internet access in, make policy changes, offer more grants, other?)
Could Silicon Valley assist with hardware and software? For example:
- Can Apple, HP, Microsoft, and others donate hardware and software?
- Can Zoom, Adobe, Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams, and others donate whatever these communities need to provide videoconferencing licenses?
Could telecom providers provide free internet access?
Could MOOCs offer more free courses?
Could furniture makers such as Steelcase, Herman Miller, and others donate furniture and help establish connected learning spaces?
How might faculty members and staff within higher education contribute?
How could churches, synagogues, and such get involved?
Could the rest of us locate and donate to charities that aim to provide concrete assistance to Native American schools, colleges, universities, and communities?

We need to do the right thing here. This is another area* where our nation can do much better.

* Here’s another example/area where we can do much better and make amends/changes.

Addendum on 12/7/20:

How to Implement Long-Term Remote Learning in a Rural Area— from techlearning.com by Ray Bendici

THE Journal 2020 New Product Award Winners

On 12/03/2020, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, CMS/LMS, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, distance education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, engagement / engaging students, graphics, innovation, instructional design, interactivity, K-12 related, languages and translation, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, mobile learning, multimedia, online learning, platforms, remote teaching and learning, robotics, STEAM-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, tools, United States, vendors, videoconferencing, by Daniel Christian

THE Journal 2020 New Product Award Winners

For THE Journal’s first-ever New Product Award program, judges selected winners in 30 categories spanning all aspects of technology innovations in K–12 education, from the classroom to the server room and beyond. We are proud to honor these winners for their outstanding contributions to the institution of education, in particular at this time of upheaval in the way education is being delivered to the nation’s 50 million students.

Distracted Minds: The Role of Tempo in Good Teaching — from chronicle.com by James Lang
To help students stay attentive in class, think like a conductor, and recognize that students need you to change the pace and the action.

Excerpt:

In this third installment of a series on distraction and attention in education — based on my new book, Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It — I want to draw inspiration from creative artists who have long counted it as one of their tasks to keep audiences attentive to works that stretch over long periods of time. Directors and playwrights, conductors and composers, all recognize the limited attention span of an audience, which is why they structure the work itself and its performance in particular ways.

The classroom is one of the only places where we expect humans in seats to maintain their attention through an extended, uninterrupted performance of an hour or more. I suspect that’s the case because we (the teachers) are able to keep ourselves fully engaged during the class period: We’re managing our slides, thinking about the next discussion question, writing on the board, and more. It’s all very engaging — for us — but not necessarily for our students.

From DSC:
I appreciated reading this solid article by James Lang — in it, he offers up some excellent points and suggestions. I would guess that the top reasons why these things don’t occur most offer are:

The design of a class takes time. Time is hard to come by. That’s why instructional design is very helpful but is sometimes put on a backburner…to the students’ detriment.
There aren’t enough Instructional Designers to go around.
Faculty don’t seek out Instructional Designers or, when an Instructional Designer is around, they may have a queue that’s way too long and they’ve become a bottleneck.

Some scenes from a wonderful, artistic, creative “Bitmoji Classroom” [Clay, Young, Thomas, Smith, Koch, & Verddugo]

On 11/29/2020, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, animation, art, attention, collaboration, content development, aggregation, repositories, Daniel S. Christian, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, distance education, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, engagement / engaging students, Google, graphics, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, interactivity, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, love of learning, mathematics, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, neurodivergent/special needs, online learning, online media, parents/guardians, platforms, professional development, reading, remote teaching and learning, science, STEAM-related, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, United States, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, writing, youth, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Our oldest daughter showed me a “Bitmoji Classroom” that her mentor teacher — Emily Clay — uses as her virtual classroom. Below are some snapshots of the Google Slides that Emily developed based on the work of:

Kayla Young (@bitmoji.kayla)
MaryBeth Thomas
Ms. Smith
Karen Koch
The First Grade Creative — by C. Verddugo

My hats off to all of these folks whose work laid the foundations for this creative, fun, engaging, easy-to-follow virtual classroom for a special education preschool classroom — complete with ties to videoconferencing functionalities from Zoom. Emily’s students could click on items all over the place — they could explore, pursue their interests/curiosities/passions. So the snapshots below don’t offer the great interactivity that the real deal does.

Nice work Emily & Company! I like how you provided more choice, more control to your students — while keeping them engaged!

A snapshot of a Bitmoji Classroom created by Emily Clay

From DSC:
I also like the idea of presenting this type of slide (immediately below, and students’ names have been blurred for privacy’s sake) prior to entering a videoconferencing session where you are going to break out the students into groups. Perhaps that didn’t happen in Emily’s class…I’m not sure, but in other settings, it would make sense to share one’s screen right before sending the students to those breakout rooms and show them that type of slide (to let them know who will be in their particular breakout group).

The students in the different breakout sessions could then collaboratively work on Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides and you could watch their progress in real-time!

A snapshot of a Bitmoji Classroom created by Emily Clay

$A snapshot of a Bitmoji Classroom created by Emily Clay$

A snapshot of a Bitmoji Classroom created by Emily Clay

Also see:

Educators Turn to Bitmoji to Build Community and Engagement — from edutopia.org by Emelina Minero
Both fun and practical, Bitmoji classrooms are adding some levity to fall planning this year.

Maths mastery through stop-motion animation — from innovatemyschool.com by Rachel Cully

Do you want your learners to be resilient, confident mathematicians with secure conceptual understanding and a love of Maths? Well, come with me to a land of stories and watch the magic unfold.

Also see:

Another good resource of interactive math games to use with students in class — from educatorstechnology.com
The 8 best free online homeschool math curriculums — from makeuseof.com by Shari Talbot
These free online math programs can help enhance your child’s homeschool education.

New York, NY – November 26, 2020 – The Intercept has published a video investigation by filmmaker Emily Cohen Ibañez on the impact of the switch to remote learning –– and the Coronavirus pandemic –– on students in an agro-industrial town (Watsonville, CA) and an affluent Bay Area suburb (Pine Hills, CA).

The Intercept: https://theintercept.com/2020/11/25/remote-learning-school-education-covid/

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/7_YoSFNe2lM

“Life at Watsonville High was fast-paced, full of a lot of energy, a lot of really amazing students,” said Dr. Sara Roe, an English Learner Coach at Watsonville High. “Watsonville High is 98 percent Latinx, Latino, Latina. We are made up of a higher percentage of first-generation students. Socioeconomically, we’re predominantly a low-income area, so 100 percent of our students receive free and reduced lunch, and most likely, their parents or someone in their family has worked in the fields or is currently working in the fields.”

“If we thought then that kids had social, emotional challenges, their needs weren’t being met in particular ways,” said Dr. Roe, “If we thought there were issues then, I don’t think we could have ever imagined what the implications of going online would uncover for us in terms of issues for students.”

#digitaldivide #education #remotelearning #K12 #edtech #digitalequity

Saving — and Enhancing — Music Education With Online Learning [Washington]

On 11/24/2020, in attention, CMS/LMS, collaboration, content development, aggregation, repositories, digital audio, digital learning, distance education, education, education technology, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, Google, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, love of learning, media/film, multimedia, music, new media literacies, online learning, online media, productivity / tips and tricks, project-based learning, student-related, teachers, teaching online, tools, United States, vendors, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Saving — and Enhancing — Music Education With Online Learning — from edcircuit.com by D. Travis Washington

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

I teach Choir and lead the Young Vocal Scholars Program, and before COVID arrived, we were excited to move forward on the culmination of learning through live performances. With school closure, all that changed, and we were forced to adapt to virtual learning. Through the initial transition, we discovered that online learning options such as Soundtrap could not only extend projects we were currently working on but expand music learning to previously unimaginable heights.
…
When Covid hit and we couldn’t continue with the traditional choir program, my school looked for remote solutions. Soundtrap was exactly what we needed. We began conducting Young Vocal Scholars choir sessions remotely through Soundtrap and filled our extra Soundtrap seats with students from the District 8 Choir who weren’t being served music at all — doing similar projects that we had been creating previously in my classes. It was incredible to suddenly recognize that there were far more students interested in music who could connect via their laptops and tablets at home.

Also see:

Soundtrap revolutionized my classroom in a virtual setting. Students became more engaged than ever before. My “4-star artists,” as I refer to my highly motivated students, kept making songs. I recall one of them saying to me, “Music class was cool because we sang together, but Soundtrap is cooler because it allows us to make projects together and they sound good.”

What’s causing the kinks in the “cognitive hoses” out there? How can we remove them? [Christian]

On 11/20/2020, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, change, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, distance education, education, education reform, engagement / engaging students, face-to-face, faculty, formal learning, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning theories, liberal arts, library / librarians, online learning, parents/guardians, participation, productivity / tips and tricks, reinvent, society, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, user experience (UX), Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, web-based collaboration, youth, by Daniel Christian

What's causing the kinks in the cognitive hoses out there? How can we remove them? -- Daniel Christian

https://www.kxan.com/pass-or-fail/students-meet-in-austin-churches-for-free-virtual-learning-pods-during-pandemic/

Ann Arbor church transformed into schoolhouse so immigrant children don’t fall behind — from mlive.com by Martin Slagter

Understanding the learning pods landscape — from crpe.org by Ashley Jochim and Robin Lake

Mapping the Pandemic Learning Landscape — from medium.com by Carolyn Gramstorff

Today we launched a national database that will catalogue and make sense of #learningpod initiatives across the country, with an eye toward equity.

Explore data on the 160 pods and hubs we've found so far: https://t.co/uAINWVPdqr

Read the blog: https://t.co/2yGqKVgSdL pic.twitter.com/Ts3Q9YiIYx

— Center on Reinventing Public Education (@CRPE_UW) November 19, 2020

As with most things, it takes practice...practice...practice. Daniel Christian re: edtech

How Can Schools Prepare for VR/AR Integration? https://t.co/X3FhkUPyfZ via @VRScout

— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) November 15, 2020

Pushback is growing against automated proctoring services. But so is their use — from edsurge.com by Jeffrey R. Young

Excerpt:

Many students have pushed back, arguing that remote proctoring tools result in a serious invasion of privacy and create stress that can hinder academic performance. More than 60,000 students across the U.S. have signed petitions calling on their colleges to stop using automated proctoring tools, meaning that the technology has become arguably the most controversial tool of the pandemic at colleges.

From DSC:
We have an issue oftentimes within higher education — including graduate schools/professional schools as well — where the student and the professor aren’t always on the same team (or at least that’s the percaption). To me, the professors need to be saying (and living out the message that), “We ARE on your team. We are working to help make you successful in the future that you have chosen for yourself. We’re here to help you…not monitor you.”

It’s like I feel when I walk into so many public places these days (and even out on the roadways as well). When I walk into a store, it’s like the security cameras are whispering to me and to others…”We don’t trust you. Some of you have stolen in the past. so we’re going to carefully watch every single one of you. And we aren’t just going to watch you, we’re going to record you as well.”

The message? We don’t trust you.

This severely hampers the relationships involved.

And I’m sure that cheating is going on. But then, that makes me think that perhaps it’s time to change the way we assess students — and to help them see assessments as opportunities to learn, not to cheat.

Lower the stakes. Offer tests more frequently. Provide more opportunities to practice recall. And be on their team.

Present and accounted for? Coronavirus-related school closures create attendance challenges — from educationdive.com by Linda Jacobson
Experts say regardless of the method used to track e-learning participation, ongoing contact with students will be essential.

Excerpt:

Alisa Belzer, an education professor at Rutgers University, says K-12 teachers can learn from those who teach online in higher education.

“When instructors stay on top of evaluating the work they are asking learners to complete, they can easily determine who is ‘there’ and who’s not. A key ingredient in this process is creating engaging assignments with clear deliverables,” she says. “When instructors give feedback that is specific, clear, and actionable, students know their instructors are very much a part of their learning process. This also encourages ‘attendance.’”

From DSC:
I also think the more choice we give students will help with their levels of motivation — their sense of purpose. They will chose what’s relevant, enjoyable to them — what they are curious about and want to learn more about. I’ve witnessed this with our daughter, whose spark for writing has ignited. Her imagination is great, and she loves to write. She is going to start her own blog, which will allow her to practice. It’s highly motivating/exciting to her — to have a voice and to be able to share her work with a wider audience.

I think that if we could give students some more leeway to study what they want to study, we wouldn’t have to worry nearly as much about attendance and lack of learning. Naive? Maybe. But I’ve witnessed the K-12 runaway train that won’t stop for anyone. It travels fast, and it doesn’t stop, no matter if mastery is achieved or not.

K-12 education in America is a like a quickly moving train that stops for no one.

I’ve also seen controlling K-12 environments that create gameplayers (our son is one of them).

In these rough times, I hope we don’t throw away the chance to change what’s not working within our K-12 systems. Let not this pain go to waste. My vote is to give students more agency.

The Dice Q3 Tech Job Report | Tech Hiring and COVID-19: What You Need to Know

On 11/11/2020, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, community colleges, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, credentialing, curriculum, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, distance education, elearning, emerging technologies, entrepreneurship, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, ideas, informal learning, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, IT in HE, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, microlearning, Microsoft, mobile technologies, more voice more choice more control, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, online media, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, programming, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, society, staying relevant, streams of content, technologies for your home, technology (general), telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual tutoring, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

The Dice Q3 Tech Job Report: Tech Hiring and COVID-19: What You Need to Know — from techhub.dice.com
The report, issued quarterly by Dice, provides exclusive statistics and analysis on the tech hiring landscape, including top cities and states, top employers and the most sought-after skills and occupations.

From DSC:
One can quickly see how valuable this information would be as a data feed into an AI-based, next-generation learning platform.

The platform would connect the marketable skills with the courses, websites, blogs, RSS feeds/streams of content, etc. that would help a learner quickly and affordably build such in-demand skills. Given the shortening half-lives of many kinds of information, such a service is needed desperately…especially now with the impact of the Coronavirus.

Also relevant: See how ISTE built its upcoming virtual event!

Could/would an AI — working with a cloud-based learner profile — help here? [Christian]

On 11/10/2020, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, active learning, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, curriculum, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, lifelong learning, love of learning, more voice more choice more control, neurodivergent/special needs, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, online tutoring, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, psychology, reinvent, staying relevant, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, training / L&D, user experience (UX), virtual K-12 schools, youth, by Daniel Christian

Temperament-Inclusive Pedagogy: Helping Introverted and Extraverted Students Thrive in a Changing Educational Landscape — from onlinelearningconsortium.org by Mary R. Fry

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

So how do we take these different approaches to learning into account and foster a classroom environment that is more inclusive of the needs of both extraverts and introverts? Let’s first distinguish between how extraverts and introverts most prefer to learn, and then discuss ways to meet the needs of both. Extraverts tend to learn through active and social engagement with the material (group work, interactive learning experiences, performing and discussing). Verbalizing typically helps extraverts to think through their ideas and to foster new ones. They often think quickly on their feet and welcome working in large groups. It can be challenging for extraverts to generate ideas in isolation (talking through ideas is often needed) and thus working on solitary projects and writing can be challenging.

In contrast, introverts thrive with solitary/independent work and typically need this time to sort through what they are learning before they can formulate their thoughts and articulate their perspectives. Introverted learners often dislike group work (or at least the group sizes and structures that are often used in the classroom (more on this in a moment)) and find their voice drowned out in synchronous discussions as they don’t typically think as fast as their extroverted counterparts and don’t often speak until they feel they have something carefully thought out to share. Introverted learners are often quite content, and can remain attentive, through longer lectures and presentations and prefer engaging with the material in a more interactive way only after a pause or break.

From DSC:
Could/would a next-generation learning platform that has some Artificial Intelligence (AI) features baked into it — working in conjunction with a cloud-based learner profile — be of assistance here?

That is, maybe a learner could self-select the type of learning that they are: introverted or extroverted. Or perhaps they could use a sliding scaled to mix learning activities up to a certain degree. Or perhaps if one wasn’t sure of their preferences, they could ask the AI-backed system to scan for how much time they spent doing learning activities X, Y, and Z versus learning activities A, B, and C…then AI could offer up activities that meet a learner’s preferences.

(By the way, I love the idea of the “think-ink-pair-share” — to address both extroverted and introverted learners. This can be done digitally/virtually as well as in a face-to-face setting.)

All of this would further assist in helping build an enjoyment of learning. And wouldn’t that be nice? Now that we all need to learn for 40, 50, 60, 70, or even 80 years of our lives?

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