Building Bridges: The “Holistically
Focused” meet the “Technically Inclined” by Dr. Selia Karsten
| Introduction | The Courses | The Participants | Course Structure |
| Specific Strategies | Asynchronous Contact | Project Examples | Summary |
This presentation highlights strategies used in facilitating two online courses: "Designing Curriculum Using Technology: Web-Based Learning” and “Enhancing Holistic Learning with Computer Technology”. Both courses were developed and are facilitated by me. Projects created by the participants in these courses illustrate the learning outcomes. Students who participate in these online courses are primarily teachers, graduate students or those who work with training programs.
Web-Based Learning is one of six courses in the Seneca College “Designing Curriculum Using Technology" Certificate Program. The program is a professional development initiative primarily for Seneca College faculty although educators and trainers from other institutions are welcome and have taken the courses.“Enhancing Holistic Learning with Computer Technology” is a graduate level course at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto in the Department of Curriculum Teaching and Learning.
The participants in both courses tend to fall into two camps though to varying degrees. There are those who are inclined to teach intuitively, from the heart who have a curiosity about using technology in their teaching but who have had little experience in doing so. And there are those who are primarily interested in computer applications as they relate to teaching and learning but also have an interest in a "holistic" approach. That is not to say that the participants are strictly one way or the other. Often however, those two characteristics are noticeably present. Some students are quite well versed in the complexities of using computers while at the other end of the spectrum one finds those who have absolutely no confidence in their ability to step through tutorials on how to download software or build web pages.
This combination of the two types of learner
turns out to be a blessing as a healthy cross-fertilization takes place.
Those who enter with trepidation - new to technology and not a little skeptical
of their ability to gain prowess with computers, gain much from the mentoring
of those who are more technically experienced. The technophiles appear
to gain from being exposed to a more right-brained
and care-giving approach to problem-solving. These participants may observe
how good it feels to receive nurturing feedback and realize how simple
they can make various complex practices in order to teach those ideas to
others.
Both courses are accessed through a main learning management system with supplemental websites and online tools. CTC203, Web-Based Learning uses the BlackBoard LMS. CTL1799 uses WebKnowledge Forum and First Class. The courses are designed along constructivist lines - that is materials are presented in order to produce learning experiences whereby students build their own knowledge using a variety of courseware and software, communicating synchronously and asynchronously. Students in both courses are engaged in reading and creating article reviews and in course-related topical group discussions. The core activities are building web-based projects which involve designing and developing both team and individual Web sites inspired by educational models and resources. Learning partnerships are fostered and mentoring is encouraged to promote collaboration (beyond the team work) among the diverse students who populate the courses. This diversity may be found in the following attributes: cultural, work-related, curriculum focus, age, experience, "newbie" and "techie" among others.
A course main page or information
site anchors each course. This page can be accessed in advance by students
who are interested in registering for the course and it is updated with
timely notes throughout the course when it is in session. As both courses
are substantially contained within learning management systems, the synchronous
and asynchronous discussions are all userid
and password protected within the course as offered by the institution
upon registration. Those students who are unable to attend a specific chat
session can read the archived log of that chat. Substantial resources are
available to students and are pointed to as needed throughout the course.
Among the resources are the following:
Course schedule: A week by week
plan for activities and discussions with due dates for assignments and
projects.
CTC203 - the fall
schedule, 2003
CTL1799 - the winter
schedule, 2003
Assignments and Projects: A summary
of the main activities and criteria
CTC203 - assignments
that become progressively more complex
CTL1799 - Course
overview for activities and expectations
Resources and Links:
CTC203 - Resources
are organized according to Sessional learning materials (example: Portfolio
Resources)
CTL1799 - The class
also uses First Class for e-mail and for sub-conferences - one of which
is Resources
Additional Forums or Sub-Conferences
include, Resources, Tips and Tricks, Technical Q& A, Cafe
CTL203 - a weekly hour-long
chat is held to keep students on track. Each team has a Team Site within
the BlackBoard LMS for the course
that allows them their own discussion board, chat room, file exchange and
e-mail
CTL1799 - Each team
has their own area in the virtual classroom (Web
Knowledge Forum is the LMS) in which they have threaded discussions
about their project and where they post chat logs (chats are held using
First Class)
Special Chat Event
Using First Class, it is possible to have more than one chat open at a time. Utilizing this, I have a special chat event for the 1799 class each semester. They are given information about a guest artist with links related to the artist for each team to explore. Each team comes up with questions to be relayed. Teams elect a "chat captain" who attends the main chat with myself as facilitator and the guest speaker. During the main chat, each team has a chat open where they can relay questions to their captain to ask in the main chat. All may attend the main chat but this keeps the main chat manageable with only a selected number of participants directly involved in writing notes. As a followup, the guest speaker chat log is posted and additional questions are collected and sent to the guest speaker for further response.
Projects produced by students (educators, primarily teachers) in my online classes - some links may be inactive.
“Designing
Curriculum Using Technology: Web-Based Learning”.
Previous Projects: login selia.karsten pwd roses
“Enhancing
Holistic Learning with Computer Technology” Gallery of Projects
Each time I deliver these courses, I revise the learning materials, finding new strategies for engaging the students. For example, this past semester, I discovered an excellent chapter on Constructivism in an online book available to my students. Using their university library card to locate this resource, they accessed the reading. Learning partners answered four questions about the chapter after deciding what course they would design using constructivist principles. They presented their discussion of the chapter and the answers to these questions (with an introduction and summary) as a chat log for the rest of the class to view.
I have always believed that by sharing my teaching strategies and learning materials online, I will inspire others. In return, I enjoy the teaching and learning ideas that others share online. I invite anyone engaged in online course development and facilitation to correspond about any of the information found here or on any of my sites and to offer strategies they have discovered in their educational adventures. drkarsten@astralsite.com