Plan for at least 5 hours of instruction (about an hour a day). It will be easy to put in more time than that. We hope you’ll find the information so interesting that the time will fly by.
Do I have to login at a specific time each day?
The course is completely time shifted. It’s designed so that participants can enter the online classroom 24/7 and still interact. This let’s you fit the class to your schedule. We’ll go Monday – Friday, with the following Saturday to wrap things up.
What will I learn how to do?
Create a Google account
Upload documents to Google docs
Share a Google document with a colleague
View the revision history of a shared document (a wiki like function of Gdocs)
Publish a shared document as a web page that automatically updates when the source document is edited.
We also have an optional independent study module on how to use Google Docs offline.
How is this course taught?
Instruction includes the use of illustrated webpages and video. Additionally Dennis O’Connor will be facilitating this class. (Dennis is a highly trained online teacher.) There are discussion forums where participants can share ideas. The instructor will also be monitoring the class for questions and be available for trouble shooting help.
What about teaching resources?
You will find many resources with ideas for teachers and librarians interested in using Google Docs in the classroom.
How long will I have access to this course?
The course remains open to you for at least three months so you can continue study and have access to the resources.
How do I register?
First establish an account on http://21cif.mrooms.net. Note the graphic on the course home page. (Each person taking the class should create their own account.)
Next login using your established username and password.
Click into the Gdocs online classroom.(Found in the Information Fluency Category.)
When you first enter you’ll be presented with a PayPal registration page.
Click through to pay for the class by credit card.
You do not need a Pay Pal account to use this secure system. (We do not store your credit card information.)
Once you have paid you’ll be returned to the Gdocs class.
Great teachers are natural lesson design experts. You observe your audience, diagnose their learning needs and create lessons to meet those needs. This process can be so intuitive that you aren’t even aware of the steps to your own methods.
It helps to break down the process to better understand how ‘natural lesson design’ works.
In business the action mapping process describes how to go about rapidly planning training. Rapid training/lesson development is a survival skill for all of us.
Cathy Moore: “I’ve been using a quick, visual process to design projects. I call it action mapping because it helps you change what people do, not just what they know.”
The action mapping process:
1. Identify the business goal
2. Identify what people need to do to reach that goal.
3. Design activities that help people practice each behavior.
4. Identify the minimum information people need to complete each activity.
It’s always better to show, rather than tell:
In the E-Learning and Online Teaching Graduate Certificate program at UW-Stout we like to limit classes to 20. Sometimes we’ll get 21 – 24 students and have to make the decision to split the group into two classes or use grouping with a single course. I find that groups of about 15 are perfect. Otherwise I prefer to divide the students into different class sections.
Groups help you achieve a sense of intimacy and reduce the stress students feel when facing large numbers of unread posts.
Here’s how I divide students into small groups within the course management system.
I start with a whole class icebreaker, then divide the class by alphabet into balanced sized groups.
I like to ask folks to post to their assigned groups first. Then give them permission to visit and post in the other group if they want. This is a form of differentiation for those high achievers who want to do it all.
At mid-term we change up the groups so everyone works with everyone else.
At the end of the course, in the presentation of projects and journals, we join together again as one class.
This allows ’smaller’ discussions, while fostering a sense of overall community.
Additionally, I offer optional discussion threads open to all. This is another differentiation method that allows me to present value added resources on topics that may not appeal to everyone. (In my E-Learning for Educators classes this includes additional research into blogs, podcasting, and wikis.)
From: Bill Jackson <bjackson@greatschools.net>
Subject: GreatSchools looking for elearning experts/ companies
Dear friends and colleagues,
Sorry for the impersonal group mailing…I’m hoping you’ll forgive me and help GreatSchools out with a new challenge.
As some of you know, we have embarked on a major new project to develop an online parent training service that helps parents guide their children to K-12 education success. Aimed at low- and middle-income parents and available in Spanish as well as English, this service aims to inspire and teach parents to do things like the following: communicate high expectations for their children’s learning; prioritize education highly in the household; coach their children to help them develop personal and academic qualities; advocate for their children’s interests at school; save for college; etc.
To help us develop this service, we are looking for people and companies that can help us produce powerful e-learning experiences for parents.
Specifically, we are looking for a person/company that has the following: experience with developing adult e-learning for a large-scale consumer audience; ability to develop highly interactive and engaging content; ability to break the learning experience into small chunks; ability to build in incentives and recognition that inspire participation. We don’t have the luxury of requiring parents to participate; we’ll have to draw them in and keep them engaged in this service, so we need a person/firm that understands how to do this.
Any leads would be much appreciated!
Bill
Bill Jackson
President
GreatSchools
301 Howard Street, Suite 1440 | San Francisco, CA 94105
T. 415.977.0700 x 111 | F. 415.977.0704
bjackson@greatschools.net www.greatschools.net
This is an opportunity to work with the JASON project. If I lived in Virginia I’d be applying
Producer, Content (Ashburn, VA)
National Geographic Society | Washington DC 20036 USA | Full Time – School Year, Full Time – 12 Month
Admin/Support Curriculum, Writer/Editor
Grade Level Middle School/Junior High
Summary of Position
Content Producer will oversee the planning and development of grades 5 and higher inquiry-based science curriculum. The Content Producer must be able to determine and develop appropriate content and have excellent curriculum writing skills including the development of expository science text and inquiry-based lab experiments. In addition, he/she must have a strong knowledge of middle school science curriculum, National Science Education Standards, NAEP Framework and AAAS benchmarks.
Location: Washington DC 20036 USA
Responsibilities
- Write science content including labs, introduction articles and expository text
Write engaging and age appropriate introduction articles
Create inquiry-based science labs for each mission
Write a culminating field assignment for each mission
- Facilitate content development process
Co-develop curriculum outline and product plan with Curriculum Team
Collaborate on topic research and strategic planning
Monitor the researcher selection process and ongoing researcher follow-up
Coordinate with content vendors to identify timeline, benchmarks and review process for curriculum development
Write and edit content
- Oversee quality assurance & editorial process
Review and validate science curriculum, videos and digital labs for accuracy
Incorporate feedback from internal and external reviewers
Provide detail edits and comments to Curriculum and content vendor teams
- Represent JASON at partner and customer meetings
Present JASON program and philosophy to partners at NGS, NOAA,
NASA and other educational organizations
Report on interaction with JASON partners
- Fulfill other duties as provided by immediate supervisor and Executive staff.
Supervision Exercised
Agency Temps
Minimum Education & Experience
Curriculum writing samples
5+ years teaching science, preferably for grades 5-8 earth or physical sciences
5+ years curriculum development experience, including experience in the development and
implementation multimedia, standards-based curriculum for science teachers
3+ years management experience
Knowledge & Skill Requirements
Knowledge and appreciation for standards-based, hands-on, inquiry-based science
Technology and Internet savvy, with strong skills in Internet/Web-based applications,
Microsoft Word products including Word, PowerPoint and Excel.
Excellent written and oral communication skills
Ability to both independently and within a team environment
Ability to be highly flexible and juggle multiple tasks at once
I’ve been researching and writing about Information Fluency since the turn of the century. My work is published on the 21st Century Information Fluency Portal: http://21cif.imsa.edu You’ll find modular online learning content including games, micromodules and assessments on the portal. (Free for all educators.)
I include information fluency training in all of my online classes. I introduce power searching and website investigation to the graduate students studying in the E-Learning and Online Teaching Certificate Program at UW-Stout ( http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/elearningcertificate.html ) because I believe that Information Fluency is a foundation skill for all online teachers and learners.
What continually surprises me is that most educators (including those with advanced degrees) lack formal training in this field. Unless I’m working with a Library Media Specialist, most have little experience in searching, evaluating, and ethical use of digital materials.
Curiously, most educators think they are competent searchers and evaluators, when they are really just beginners. Their disposition is to ask for help rather than search for answers. With simple instruction many radically improve their ability to search, and evaluate. This is empowering and greatly increases learner satisfaction. Instruction in copyright and fair use is also part of the program.
At the same time I push the idea that it is everyone’s duty to teach website evaluation and ethical use as part of any online curriculum. Too often educators assume someone else should have done the job by the time their students walk through the door. The application of information fluency to all curriculum areas is profound. Students given even rudimentary instruction in Information Fluency immediately benefit.
As online teachers and learners we work in a computer where information is just a few keystrokes away. I hope we can promote the disposition in all online teachers and learners that skilled use of Internet resources is the essential learning skill of our times.
Dennis O’Connor
Program Advisor
E-Learning & Online Teaching
School of Education
Online Professional Development
University of Wisconsin-Stout
Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University oconnord@uwstout.edu
530-318-1145 (Cell)
Skype: wiredinstructor2
I’m always dreaming of the ultimate time management system. I used to joke about the 36 hour graduate student day. Just right for getting it all done. These days I rarely have time to joke! That’s one of the appeals of this great blog article Joan Vandervelde recently sent me.
Looking for rock solid advice on how to handle the work flow of teaching online? Need a little help with your course designs? Trying to get a handle on online assessment?
This terrific blog entry is a real gem. Check it out!
Free fully featured social networking environments right out of the box. NING.com is one hot property in education at the moment. Quite the buzz. Here’s some background:
For more financial details: http://mfeldstein.com/louisiana-state-university-moves-to-moodle/ What keeps budget conscious college administrators paying through the nose for Blackboard, D2L, or E-College? My theory is they are risk adverse. They stay safe and allow inertia to rule. By sticking with the big outfits that overcharge for online services they can ‘play it safe’. Who ever lost their job by hiring Blackboard to provide an online learning environment?
But what if it becomes clear that you could save a million dollars+ over a decade by going with Moodle? Hmm… perhaps some of the savings could be invested in training professors to teach online so that students could get a ‘quality’ online education?
Could someone in admin get canned for NOT being technically adept enough to make the Moodle move?
Sure everyone knows that open source software is like a free puppy. You have to pay for maintenance. But the wisdom ULM displays is going with Moodlerooms, which supplies everything: tech support, servers, software upgrades for about $1 a student. With the big boys charging outrageous seat costs, and Moodlerooms providing world class infrastructure and Moodle… what’s keeping other struggling small schools from making the change?
It used to take vision and guts to switch to open source.
Now it just takes fiscal responsibility and common sense!
ps. I know the folks at Moodlerooms and believe in what they are doing… that’s why I’m writing! ~ Dennis O’Connor
Bio – Dr. Sharon Sutton – Ready2NetCreating a Thinking Curriculum Institute, developing information literacy and the integration of technology into the curriculum, the institute is designed to develop the foundation skills necessary for successful project-based/inquiry -based learning.
Critial ThinkingLearning how to access and manage information, think critically, solve complex problems, and use technology effectively are essential skills for living and working productively in the 21st century.
Time Management?
Social Networks from 
