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Open Course Components & Links
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Leslie Owen Wilson 2004, restrictions on usageAssignments:
Obviously, one of the primary
intentions of this course is for you to become professionally inquisitive,
self-directed learners, exhibiting your abilities to think at highly
critical and professional levels in relation to models incorporated into
your curricula and instructional designs. Hopefully, you will become expert
in one or more of the family of models, and then continue your
investigations beyond this contact and then share that expertise with your
peers. It is important to remember that the quality of your experience
depends on your level of intrinsic motivation and your willingness to read,
write, and respond to others ideas.
The following are only suggestions.
While I reserve the right to be directive in relation to making sure there
is equality of workloads, if you have burning projects or things you think
would better meet your professional or personal needs, please feel free to
discuss your ideas and suggestions.
▄
A. Required interactive elements:
Discussions:
All of you are required to
discuss material on-line. Online discussions are an integral part of most
cyber courses. You can do this via e-mail and through D2L, a course
management software that allows students to access class materials and
discuss concepts, peer responses, and your ideas online. There will be two
types of discussions, general and pod (designated group), as you will be
placed in small discussion groups of 3-4.
After you have discussed assigned materials in your small groups (pods), then:
It will be important to meet all specified deadlines!
Overview of the pod process:
See
graphic for overall picture of how it works:
As stated, you will be divided up into your
discussion groups or pods. All students will be required to peruse all
materials. Within pod discussions, each person will offer
professional observations, extended research, and/or further questions
precipitated by text materials (see list under
possible concentrations).
Collectively, each pod will review their internal
responses to a section assignment of the text. (We will skip some of the
models in the text readings.).
Collectively, each pod will determine what concepts
and ideas were the most important within a section, and create a
prioritization list of concepts into
must, need and nice
to knows. (these designations are explained later in your packet
and on-line)
For each of the rounds an individual from each pod
will summarize and post ideas concerning the sectional materials. Because
there are 3-4 people in a group, this means that each group participant will
take a turn in summarizing the pods materials and posting those responses
for an assigned section.
From pod discussion, the designated individual will
post their prioritized concepts to a general forum offering brief comments
supporting their decisions.
Again, there are four major families of models each
pod will take a turn devising a consensus opinion. These will include a
general evaluation of the material, a general assessment of the prioritized
concepts, general opinions as to the models projected applications and
usefulness, and any resulting discussion questions, or noted or suggested
need for further investigations.
Formal online discussions will take place for all 5
Segments - once at the beginning as part of an overview developed by me, 3
times throughout the semester as part of the POD process -- one for
each of the families of models (there are actually 4 families but one group
was combined due to the size) and lastly, for the ending of the text, again
with questions devised by me.
1. Vocabulary: Brief notations of any general vocabulary that you
think needs further clarification (i.e. words like �epistemology�, �praxis�,
�pedagogical�, and the like).� You need to pinpoint words or concepts that
are unfamiliar in the contexts of their general professional usage. Please
offer definitions for these and be ready to explain them to the rest of the
group via postings prior to an on-line discussion of the material.
2. Examples and scenarios: Pinpoint any examples, charts, lists, or
the mention of authors to whom you can relate, and that you found useful or
interesting in explaining the concepts within the related, assigned chapter.
The scenarios in the book are meant to be helpful illustrations of the
model. Did they work? Do they need additional explanations?
Summarizations? Could you offer better examples or examples of personal
usage that might help peers understand the model better?
3. A prioritized listing of the concepts: These are to be arranged
into tiers of must know, need to know, nice to know. It would be
great if authors and publishers were always logically or could accurately
predict what was of equal importance. From your readings and the concepts
discussed each pod will construct a prioritized listing of material�s
importance to understanding and/or to professional practice.
4. Supportive materials: An example of any supportive materials,
either on the concepts discussed in the text or from outside sources. This
may be an article or a segment of a work from an author cited. This
extraneous information should help support the material discussed in the
text. I�ll be happy to have supportive material run off for your
cyber-classmates and sent, or if materials are online, then we can simply
post a hotlinks to the URL.
5. Reactions: Criticism, either negative or positive, as to the
feasibility and applicability of the concepts and suggestions in the text as
they might apply to real life educational applications. Candid, personal and
professional impressions about the presentation and usefulness of chapter
materials. Can you use this information in a practical way?
6. Suggestions and comments: Any suggestions or examples for the
application of the theoretical principles behind the model. And, do you have
comments on the model�s usefulness in curricular development or in the
overall instructional picture. Would this be a mode that peers could use. Is
it a model that might be useful to students, or for the district to embrace
in an in-service. 7. Possibilities for further questions or investigations: Are their other questions about this model that you can think of? Are there models that are similar that you are familiar with that need further investigating? These are a series of online investigations and emersions and you will be required to share your answers and findings with your small pod group as well as post them to me. ▄
C. Choices -
Individual Projects
- Choose one from the array below,
or create your own. Feel free to combine parts of the suggestions into a new
hybrid.
Examples:
2.
Offer a comparative analysis
of two different models not found in your, or ones found in your text that
we did not cover.
3.
Rewrite lesson plans,
curriculum, or instructional materials to reflect the adaptations suggested
by the models in your text or one�s you have found on your own. These should
be models new to you � ones you haven�t used before.
4.
Prepare a portfolio of
articles, or your reviews of a particular author or author�s works. This
option should include 3-5 articles from recent professional or scholarly
journals that relate to an area or an author discussed or mentioned in the
text, or one that is of specific interest to you.
Include links to your articles, or create a WebPage with links, or
send the articles for reprinting for classmates. Review these articles �
reviews should be brief - giving a short summary of each article, and
offering a summary of your opinion of their usefulness to classroom
practice. In your summary offer a critique on the applicability of the works
as they pertain to instruction, curricular development, group processes,
self-understanding, or classroom management skills, etc.. Be sure that you
cite each article at the beginning of the review using APA style. Choose one
article to share with your classmates in an on-line posting of your review.
5.
Read about a model we do not
intend to discuss and prepare a review - Choose a chapter not assigned and
offer an overview of the content and concepts and then offer your opinion of
the material and it�s usefulness.
6.
Plan a professional
presentation for delivery to a conference or meeting at the local, state, or
national level on one of the models from the text or on your original model.
7.
Plan a professional article
or paper to be submitted for presentation.
8.
Develop a portfolio of
materials that reflect a specific model(s).
9.
Continue an investigation of
a concept in greater depth and a related presentation.
10.
Develop a professional
bibliography and a presentation to share with other professionals in your
district. |
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