Week 03 Update

Listen while you read: https://app.box.com/s/msdc4zwmg9xbhq9p03aac97o7hheuqm6

Continuity
We took time during Week 2, to delve into web resources, search strategies for web resources,
and methods for organizing web resources. We took time to do this now because (if you haven't
already figured this out), you're going to be exposed to a LOT of web resources in this course,
and I want you to be able to keep and retrieve stuff that you can use later on in your classroom.
(So considering your bookmarking strategy, getting comfortable with Diigo use, etc. should help
you; especially if you find yourself experiencing information overload.) And later in this course
you will need to search for curriculum-relevant web sites and supporting media such as images,
audio, video, etc. for inclusion in your development projects. (So, hopefully, this activity has
“warmed up” your searching skills.) Also, some of you are choosing to make those weekly
contributions to the information stream, so being able to find high quality content related to our
weekly theme is a good thing. However, perhaps most importantly, we’ve underscored the fact
that the web is a fantastic source for both professional development resources (so that you can
stay up-to-date in this era of accelerating technological and social change) and for resources you
can integrate into your curriculum.

I certainly saw many interesting web resources show up in our EME5050 Diigo group this week.
Many of you experimented with annotating and tagging these sites. Good for you! I’m hard
pressed to single out individuals, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t note the consistent, meaningful
annotations along with well-chosen keyword tags in multiple entries provided by Fred, Mary
M., Nicole, Neshea, Emma, Bianca, and Colleen. (Go take a look at their entries if you found
yourself uncertain how to make the most of Diigo. (If you’re not sure which submissions belong
to these classmates, just shoot them a message via Webcourses@UCF.) You should be able to
find your way back to our EME5050 Diigo Group, but if you get lost, please let me know.)

Hopefully, this exercise has demonstrated some of the ways in which Diigo can be a useful tool
for educators. After several years’ of contributions to the EME5050 Diigo Group (nearly 2,000
entries!), the group itself is a good source of web resources that are helpful in the classroom.
(TIP: You have probably noted this already, but, in case you haven’t, you can actually search
within the Diigo group to obtain helpful pre-screened resources! That is a time saver!)

In my initial perusal of your Activity Reflections, it certainly seems like many of you benefited
from the activity. However, despite the resources and examples I provided related to writing a
reflection on your performance of the assigned hands-on activity, a couple of you submitted
reviews of the web sites you visited rather than a meta-cognitive reflection on your own
performance. Also, a few of your AR submissions were a bit lacking in substance. Perhaps a
shoutout here is in order to a few classmates who submitted very solid metacognitively-oriented
Activity Reflections that showed me what they got out of the experiences I asked you to
undertake along with evidence (i.e., the specified Diigo link) that they completed the tasks. I’ll
call out Simone, Colleen, Nicole, Bianca, Mary M., and Cory as super examples of AR#1
submissions! You won’t be able to go look at their work since it was submitted in a non-
shareable portion of the LMS, but you might touch base with these classmates (via the
Webcourses@UCF Inbox or via Twitter) to discuss their approach. You’ll receive personal
feedback from me on your AR#1 submissions soon. If you have specific questions about writing
the Activity Reflections after re-reading the existing resources and reaching out to your
classmates, please let me know. I’ll be happy to discuss this with you.

Against the backdrop of general web resources, we also got a bit more hands-on with research
literature related to educational technology with the submission of the first Writing About
Research assignment. This time almost all of you posted single complete submissions at one
point in the week rather that choosing to break-up the writing process throughout the week. (I
think perhaps Alyssa and Carol were the only ones who noticeably posted a series of revisions
throughout the week.) Either approach (i.e., incremental or all at once) is fine. You might
consider which approach works better for you since we’ll have another three such opportunities
this term. (Please remember you must complete a total of three of the four WAR assignments to
receive the full credit you earn for the one submission I select and score toward the end of the
term.) While it is optional I’ll remind you that you have the opportunity to provide feedback and
constructive criticism about the writing process via discussion board replies. If you wish, you
can certainly engage in dialogue about the topic of the article you are analyzing, but that isn’t
exactly the main focus of these assignments. Instead, the reason these WAR assignments take
place in the “Discussions” area is to enable “workshopping” the written analysis of the articles
we’re reading. (I noticed that Colleen took the plunge by engaging with others about the writing
process and offering formative feedback. Thanks, Colleen. I’d love to see more of you doing that
as well!) I’ll be posting some general feedback soon in the Writing About Research 1 discussion
area just as I will for each of the WAR assignments. This will always include some general
comments in a discussion posting and the selection of one of your submissions for some specific
feedback in the studio style. (That is, everyone benefits from reviewing the detailed feedback
given to the one selection as the basis for improving their own future performances.)

For Week 3, we’re going to resume our broader consideration of different categorizations of
educational technologies, but we’ll do so by focusing our attention on what is arguably the most
vast educational technology: The Network. That is, having looked at web resources last week,
during this next week we're going to consider the various "networks" that underlie such
resources. Specifically, we'll examine the Internet, the World Wide Web, Web2.0, Personal
Learning Networks, and related concepts. Some of these are purely technological in nature, and
others are a combination of technology and social interaction. While some of these concepts will
be familiar to most of you, I would guess that at least some of the ideas will be quite new, so in
addition to reading the module text, please do follow all the module links and check out the
supplemental content links shared via Twitter as well as conducting your own Search-&-Read
activity. (In later weeks, we’ll look at some more traditional educational technologies, including
some new twists.)

Logistics
Please note that in Week 3 we’re back to a regular routine of module reading supplemented with
your Search-&-Read assignment. You’ll also make your second Learning Journal entry on your
personal blog. However, please remember, from this point forward, the specific topics of your
postings are up to you. Whatever your specific topic, your focus should always be on your
engagement with and thoughts about using educational technologies. If at all possible, you
should try to connect to each week’s theme. (If you need clarification, you’ll find the weekly
theme in the course “Schedule.”) Perhaps a particular idea from our readings resonates with you,
or you may find inspiration in one of the links posted in our information stream by one of your
classmates or me. The topic is up to you, but your Learning Journal entries should still align
with the Learning Journal rubric. As with Week 01, make sure to comment on the blog postings
of your classmates and use the online form to rate the comments your classmates post to your
blog.

Many of you have been doing well to provide short, clickable links on Twitter to good resources
along with enticing and informative mini-annotations. I’m hard pressed to single anyone out, but
perhaps I’ll just comment that a few folks were tweeting away right at the beginning of Week 02
(avoiding the traffic jam of posts that can happen on the following Friday). Those folks were
Nicole, Colleen, and Emma.

All of you please keep up the great work with the information stream (and please don’t despair if
I didn’t single you out by name.) I’ll be right there with you tweeting out a number of
supplemental links related to our theme each week. However, now that you’ve gotten some
personal experience with Diigo, I’m going to expand our information stream beyond Twitter. For
the remainder of the course, you may share supplemental content links by posting to Twitter as
many of you have been doing, or you may alternatively post annotated web sites to our
EME5050 Diigo group. (Watch our Webcourses@UCF home page for a new widget that will
display our Diigo group entries.) So, you may feel free to post to Twitter, Diigo, or alternate
between each as you wish in the weeks ahead. (Please remember to search the Diigo group first
so that you don’t duplicate resources that are already there.)

A note on grading and feedback… As you read in the Syllabus, you can count on receiving
grades and feedback on your Activity Reflections within one to two weeks. I do oftentimes
manage to beat this goal. Watch the grade book for your Activity Reflection #1 grades. (Please do
make sure that you access the completed scoring rubric and written feedback from the link
provided alongside each assignment’s score in the grade book. I tend to provide more written
feedback earlier in the course to help shape your understanding of the assignments. The written
descriptors in each cell of the rubric will always provide a certain level of feedback. However,
please bear in mind that each column of the rubric represents a range of point values, so there is
some latitude for scoring within this range. If you ever have any specific questions, please speak
up and ask.) For more information, please see “Rubrics” within the “Syllabus” area of the course.

While I’m not providing a Secret Word for extra credit this week, I am offering a similar
opportunity. Include a photograph in this week’s blog posting that supports visually the
message in your written Learning Journal entry to receive 10 points (1% of your final course
grade) extra credit on this assignment. NOTE: 1) The photo must be taken by someone else (not
you) and be free for you to use via Creative Commons (not via clip art sites, public domain, or
other means) and 2) You must attribute the source properly alongside the photo. Take a look
back at Module 2 for resources, but also watch Twitter this week for additional helpful resource
links.

Feedback Form
Remember that I’ll post a link to an anonymous feedback form each week in the
“Announcements” area of Webcourses@UCF (and via Twitter) Please use this to provide
general feedback on your experiences during the preceding week and to ask any questions that
you don’t feel comfortable asking directly. I’ll summarize and respond to this feedback in each
week’s update.

1. Most of you that I’ve heard from found the instructions clear, and on average the course
work activities took 9 hours to complete.

2. Most of you commented on your positive experience with web searching, using Diigo, or
both. I’m glad to hear this was positive for you! Now that you’ve had this initial experience
with Diigo, my hope is that some of you will continue to contribute resources to our Diigo
group throughout the term (as noted earlier in this update). Thanks to the contributions of
previous semesters of students, our Diigo group is already a fairly rich compilation of
resources helpful to teachers (all of which you may search at any point). You’ll make it even
more useful if you continue to contribute. :-)

3. A couple of people commented that they “missed” blogging during Week 02. Great! You’ll
be back at it in Week 03. Throughout the term there are weeks that you’ll be blogging and
weeks that you won’t. In the “off” weeks please feel free to stay connected by reaching out to
classmates via Twitter, the “Free Range Discussions,” or even directly through the “Inbox”
in Webcourses@UCF.

4. As you know, I typically try to summarize themes from the feedback form, but there were so
many substantive comments this week! I feel obligated to quote and reply to each in turn:
a. “Sometimes I am unsure of how much of my personal experience should be included in
response to prompts. I have included what I see as necessary to get the point across, and to
also vet what I am saying.”
Excellent comment! What you are doing sounds fine as described. Given how much I
personally value personal application, perhaps it is no surprise that many assignments
in this course encourage the inclusion of personal experience. This is particularly true
of your Learning Journal entries and the Activity Reflections. Your Writing About
Research assignments should adopt a bit more of a scholarly, analytical tone, but
personal perspective can still have a small place there as well. I hope that helps.
b. “The later it gets in the week, I feel less connected when the assignment does not require
discussions or constant feedback.”
Fair point. One of the reasons I share “shoutouts” in the weekly update (in addition to
the positive benefit of you seeing your name personally as a kudo) is to encourage
you to make connections personally. Take the initiative. Reach out to your classmates
to ask a question or offer a compliment. Don’t just wait around for interaction to
 happen. I know that can be uncomfortable and might be different than other course
experiences.
c. “…the ISTE standards were difficult to have a connection with…. can I use something that
relates to what I do….?”
I know that some of you do not work in a K12 education setting. You might be
surprised to find that even our K12 classmates are finding the ISTE standards a bit of
a stretch. It is the rare educator who has already embraced these standards. However,
they serve as an effective method of focusing attention on specific competencies
needed by educators to meaningfully integrate technology into the teaching/learning
process. I’ve found that these are easily adapted to non-K12 settings. In the future,
when writing Activity Reflections, you may certainly add standards that are more
connected to your particular work setting (i.e., ISTE plus others).
d. “I am straddling this line of being able to teach in a class with technology aiding with the
lessons, and teaching my students how to succeed via technology outside of the classroom.”
That is great! As we’ll explore a bit next week, this idea of teaching with technology
vs. helping students learn with technology is an important distinction. Both goals are
desirable. I hope you’ll all seek to do both!

Finally, I don’t do this very often, but you’ll notice that this week I included a little poll question
in the Week 2 Feedback Form. Specifically, since a student a few semesters ago suggested
periodic optional online web-conferencing discussions on edtech trends, I have begun offering at
least one such opportunity each semester. I will compile the input that I receive via the Week 2
Feedback Form and will make a decision about how to proceed this term. I’ll keep you posted.
(And, of course, if we do this, we will record the session(s) so that everyone can benefit even if
you can’t join in real time.) :-)

If you haven't yet filled out the Week 2 Feedback Form, feel free to add your comments. I'll read
them, but obviously I can't respond to them in my weekly update recording as I did to those I just
mentioned. (However, if one or more people raise an issue that needs action, the whole class will
hear from me.)

Speak Up…
A few of you are very good about speaking up and asking clarifying questions. However, that
means that the rest of you are either perfectly clear or unwilling to ask.

If you’re anything less than 100% clear on what you’re to do at any point, then email me (from
within Webcourses@UCF) or IM me or Skype me or tweet me or call me. All my contact
information is at the top of the “Overview” page in your Syllabus. I’m here to help you. Let me.
:-)