Written on 10:46 PM by Christian Olson
Lately I've been reading differing materials online about online education. I came across this quote:
A major part of the job of a good educator is to equip students with the necessary mental tools to be able to continue learning on their own. Those skills are likely to be less developed in younger students, making face-to-face teacher intervention more necessary. (Source: http://mashable.com/2009/08/31/online-education-teachers/)
This is an article with the purpose of summarizing the "future of education." That quote, however, stopped me in my tracks. Do people really need to be given the tools to learn on their own? Without the teacher, people would be doomed to a life without the ability to learn? That seemed ludicrous to me.
What made this even more interesting was that I had just finished reading articles from a pro-home school advocate who wants liberation from teachers: http://blog.allisonweiss.com/2008/01/26/curiosity/
I personally think that people will learn to learn by themselves if they are allowed to do so. Teachers walk a fine line between pushing or guiding students and inhibiting them. However, teachers are so helpful as resource and guiders. I've done completely self-directed learning and guided learning and I've always the guided learning more. Also, I feel that the guided learning was deeper and better.
Anyway, I thought me blogites (Hi Mom!) would enjoy that quote. Share your thoughts below! I'm a big boy, if you disagree with me I can take it.
Written on 11:59 PM by Christian Olson
Currently I'm studying articles about the best practices for distance education. The article du jour comes from a great Utah State ITLS professor named Nick Eastmond. He is assisting me with my internship and I thought that I should read an article containing his thoughts on distance education.
He believes strongly in Needs Assessment and Evaluation. I've taken numerous classes on evaluation and I'm a strong believer in its effectiveness, but I've never taken the time to really think about Needs Assessment. I'm finally doing it and it is fascinating to me.
As I go throughout life I encounter many problems, as do most I'm sure. These problems nag at me and cause me stress and grief until I finally solve or remove them. However, I never rid myself of these problems until I define for myself what the need is.
For example, I bought a junker car that needs to last me six months (keep your fingers crossed). However, I got an initial inspection and they told me that I had a torn (insert technical car part name here) and a possible crack (insert other random car part that I currently can't remember) that was causing a leak. I asked them how much it would be and they responded $900. I started panicking, then anger set in, and so on until I completed all the steps of acceptance. I spent most of the day stressing about this and telling myself a lot of awful possible outcomes.
That's when it occurred to me: I need to define the problem (or "need", if you will) and then I can find a solution. The problem was that there were to parts of my car that needed repair. Well, as I thought about possible solutions, I remembered that the guy who sold it to me had fixed something and got grease everywhere. I wiped off all the grease and all-of-a-sudden my "cracked" part stopped leaking. Now I just need to fix the torn other thing which is a $7 repair. Crisis averted.
Anyway, my point is that I couldn't find the solution until I discovered the need. This seems to be the case with any instruction you design. Until you define your needs and constraints, everyone is spinning their wheels and stressing out. Needs Assessment is crucial!
Written on 12:11 PM by Christian Olson
I'm currently a student at Utah State University and I love the program. There is so much going on that is on the cutting edge of education. I'm in my last semester, so I thought that I'd share some of the amazing stuff going on around me. (If someone is considering Utah State, then I hope this helps them see what is going on up here. I remember trying to choose a university for my M.S. degree and something like this would've help me)
Anyway, without any further ado:
Educational Gaming: http://cle.usu.edu/CLE_HEAT.html
Right now USU has some huge innovations in educational gaming. They are taking the idea that most people have of incorporating games into education, and successfully pulling it off. A lot of planning, work, and testing has gone on with these technologies.
Groundbreaking Research: http://itls.usu.edu/news/itls/2009/apr/20/itls-rocks-aera
The Professors in the Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Department has loads of groundbreaking research that is being conducted and disseminated. Don't just take my word for it, the American Educational Research Association agrees (see link).
Assessability: http://webaim.org/
Helping people with various disabilities have access to instructional materials is another goal with some researchers at Utah State. This will become increasingly important as the world shifts to web-based information.
International Cooperation: http://itls.usu.edu/news/itls/2009/apr/15/building-international-connections-research-development-and-evaluation
Researchers are also building connections across the globe through various projects. Utah State is being recognized as a leader in education throughout the world.
Teaching Tools: http://enlvm.usu.edu/ma/nav/index.jsp
Researchers and developers are creating tools that are being placed in the hands of educations. Teachers are helping students understand concepts and ideas through interactive simulations.
Instructional Evaluation: http://fivestarperformancesolution.com/
Evaluators are going into different learning environments and helping facilitators and educators increase their learning gains. This helps improve on existing instruction and improves the experience for learner and facilitator.
Open Education: http://ocw.usu.edu/
USU has been a leader in providing Open Education (some call Free Education... although that's not true for the institution housing the information). The University has built a variety of courses that anyone can take according to their time/needs/desire. USU researchers have even been heavily involved in the new Utah Open High School program.
Of course, this isn't all that's going on, but I think it is a nice list in which to begin. There is a lot going on and it is great to be a part of it.
