Review of Palloff and Pratt’s Lessons from the Virtual Classroom: The Realities of Online Teaching

For the IDT 545 course, Emerging Technologies and Issues in Teaching, one of the two required texts was Lessons from the Virtual Classroom: The Realities of Online Teaching by Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt. This is probably one of the best books that I read in the Instructional Design and Technology program at CSUF.

I should start by saying that this book is geared towards online teaching in a post-secondary situation, not in the corporate world, but there are many facets of its content that can be used in both environments. For example, the section on administrative issues and concerns spent a lot of time on academia issues such as intellectual property, tenure, and faculty compensation (which was actually fascinating), but it also discussed the planning process, which is a universal subject for learning.

The authors provided a good introduction to online learning, providing an overview of technologies and discussions of what content should be taught and who should be teaching these classes. Good examples were provided, including some that showed the pitfalls of online learning that was not appropriate or properly planned.

There was a more in-depth look at the tools of the trade, describing Web 2.0 applications and the technologies involved in providing the learning. This would not be complete without including a section on money and accessibility issues.

One important area that was addressed was the conversion of instructor-led materials to the online learning format. It is not enough to simply post the PowerPoint online and tape lectures, and there were hints and tips for making learning more interactive. This was followed up with a discussion of teaching online materials that have been developed by others.

There was also a lot of solid information about the online students, their learning styles, and why they may or may not succeed. These students will also hopefully become part of a learning community and there were instructor tips for making this happen, as well as giving warnings about things to avoid so that learners are not excluded. After reading this, I saw a lot of truth when comparing it to the online community that we formed in Cohort 13.

I guess one big question would be, “Does any of this stuff actually work?” The answer is “yes,” and it is easy to verify. As I have now completed an entirely online graduate school program, I was able to witness many of these techniques in action, and have encountered some of the problems that were discussed in the text. The MSIDT program follows a lot of this book’s advice, and I can say this the authors provide excellent guidelines for online learning.

For $38 ($22 used), Palloff and Pratt’s Lessons from the Virtual Classroom: The Realities of Online Teaching is a must buy, and will probably be a book that you will want to keep so you can use it as a reference. I have shared portions of it with my colleagues and they were impressed with it too!

Thank you for checking out the blog today. I will not reviewing Dreamweaver CC: The Missing Manual as I did read the whole thing but did not actually use the content very much. Next time we will start taking a look at the courses for the 5th and final system for the CSUF Instructional Design and Technology program.

Thank you!

Palloff, R., & Pratt, K. (2013). Lessons from the virtual classroom: The realities of online teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

MSIDT 545: Emerging Technologies and Issues in Teaching

Hello!

The other course in my fourth semester of my CSUF MSIDT program (Fall 2015) was MSIDT 545, Emerging Technologies and Issues in Teaching. According to the university website, this course “Focuses on the theoretical basis, issues, and strategies for improving teaching and learning through the use of emerging technologies.” To support this, the course instructional objectives are:

- The ability to develop a curriculum-based instructional project that incorporates one (or more) emerging technology.

- Describing and evaluating ways in which emerging technologies are likely to change the teaching and learning process.

- Locating, analyzing, and synthesizing resources that identify and describe the development and use of emerging technologies in teaching and learning.

These are not exactly the same objectives that were outlined in the course syllabus, but they are pretty close. According to the syllabus the instructional objectives were to:

- Examine and explicate the theoretical basis and issues regarding a variety of emerging technologies

- Assess a learning activity that incorporates one (or more) emerging technologies;

- Evaluate and compare a variety of emerging technologies as they relate to theories of learning and curriculum development;

- Create, investigate, analyze, and discuss ways in which emerging technologies are likely to change the teaching and learning process; and

- Locate, analyze, compare, and select resources that use emerging technologies for effective teaching and learning.

This is a lot of stuff, but this course was able to address all of these objectives in one form or another. Many of the activities for this course were designed to introduce the learners to various social media formats that could be used for instructional purposes. These included:

Discussion threads. This is a common instructional method that was used for every class in the first four semesters of the IDT program, so the learners were already familiar with posting and responding to these threads.

Voicethread. This technology is interactive, and required learners to use microphones to record responses through the Voicethread website. This was used for discussion on copyrights, fair use, and the Teach Act.

Podcasts. Many of the learners were already familiar with podcasts, but few of them had actually recorded a podcast before (I had never listened to one before, to be honest). We used the Podomatic website for this, and I really enjoyed this activity, and am considering supplementing my blogs with this technology.

Wiki Entries. The learners were expected to produce a website for this course using Dreamweaver, and the instructor set up a wiki so that each student could contribute tips on using this program. This seemed like a clunky way to present learning, but if the whole course was based around the wiki it would probably seem a lot more relevant.

Blog. Each student was expected to start their own blog and make a few entries related to instructional design. This was kind of a slam-dunk for me as I had already started this blog, which was pretty fortuitous.

Live Chats. The instructor set up two live chats for the learners, and these were some of the very few examples of synchronous learning that took place during the entire program. These were technically challenging for some of the students, as there were cases where some learners were not able to figure out how to log in or make their microphones work. These were learning moments, to be sure.

Twitter. Each learner was expected to have a Twitter account and Tweet relevant ID links using the hash tag for the cohort. Not all students were familiar with the technology, but this was a great opportunity for some students to embrace this social media.

Facebook. Students were also expected to maintain a Facebook account, and some of the students were reluctant to participate due to privacy issues. This was a great reminder that there is a fairly large portion of society that does not use or trust Facebook, so it might not be the greatest instructional tool.

Supplementing this was the aforementioned Dreamweaver website project, which was quite involved for me. I had difficulty translating the text to the real world when I put together my website. Lynda.com tutorials were a godsend for this course, and I was able to make a pretty respectable site on analyzing performance problems. The biggest thing to keep in mind when working on the site is to follow the rubric and make sure everything is included. Seriously.

For this course, the learners were assigned two main texts (reviews of these will be provided soon):

- Palloff, R., & Pratt, K. (2013). Lessons from the virtual classroom: The realities of online teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

- McFarland, D., & Grover, C. (2014). Dreamweaver CC: the missing manual. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media.

IDT 545 was a valuable course, particularly for learners who were not already savvy with the use of social media. One does not have to use social media on a personal basis to be an effective instructional designer, but it is important to know how it works and to acknowledge its importance to many learners. Also, I was a bit skeptical about the Dreamweaver website assignment, but when it was all done I felt that I had a lot better understanding of how websites are constructed. It was definitely time that was well spent.

Thanks for checking out my IDT blog, and next we will take a look at the texts we used for the IDT 545 course.

Review of Terry Felke-Morris’ Web Development and Design Foundations with HTML5 (7th edition)

For the IDT 540 course, Systematic Approach to Web and Multimedia Design and Development, one of the two required texts was Web Development and Design Foundations with HTML5 (7th Edition) by Terry Felke-Morris. This is an impressive book, but I struggled with it for the course as it was a very comprehensive read.

I must start by saying that if someone wants to learn how to program in HTML5, or if I was teaching a course just on this language this would be the go-to text. It starts from the beginning with the history of the Internet and goes through an exhaustive description of page layout, how each of the elements on the page is created, and CSS. There are even sections on design hints and how to promote your website and even an introduction to JavaScript.

The book accomplishes all of this with in-depth discussions that are followed up with exercises that the reader can use to actually program what they just learned about. This is what constructivism is all about. It is easy to read, but it has to be taken slowly and there is just a lot of book to go through.

This is all great stuff, but it was just a lot more than what I needed for this course, or for my career, actually (it is 704 pages long and $130). I know that I will probably not go into programming online learning from scratch, but on the other hand it did give me a lot of insight into how web sites can be built. The text is current so I went ahead and kept my copy as I can use portions of it as a reference, but it is not going to be something that I pick up every day…

Thank you for checking out the blog today. Next time we will be taking a look at the other 4th semester course, IDT 545: Emerging Technologies and Issues in Teaching.

Felke-Morris, T. (2015). Web development and design foundations with HTML5 (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson

MSIDT 540: Systematic Approach to Web and Multimedia Design and Development

Hello!

The fourth semester of my CSUF MSIDT program (Fall 2015) included MSIDT 540, Systematic Approach to Web and Multimedia Design and Development. The course objectives were (from syllabus):

- Examine, explain and plan effective web design to facilitate instruction online;

- Utilize the internet to locate resources for research and teaching;

- Critique, assess and evaluate the design of internet pages and sites used for instructional purposes;

- Plan a website or multimedia project for instructional purposes;

- Appraise and synthesize the theoretical basis and issues involved in using the internet in teaching and learning; and

- Research and complete a literature review using APA guidelines, based on a topic related to the teaching and learning process.

These are solid and achievable objectives and I feel that they were met through the course activities and assignments. Students in Cohort 13 were expected to participate in the group discussions and critiques, complete a web search/evaluation project, design a proposal for an instructional multimedia/website project, and write a literature review.

The group discussions were standard fare, and the web evaluations were very straightforward to complete. The real meat of the course was in the project plan and literature review. As I already knew what my final project was going to be I spent a lot of time writing and revising these documents, as much of the material could be carried forward to the final semester to be used for the thesis and instructional project. I was very fortunate to have two excellent editing partners who helped make sure that everything I was writing was heading in the right direction. For anybody else who goes through this program, I cannot recommend highly enough that they make good connections and have friends from their cohort who will be available and committed to the peer review process.

Supporting the course were two main texts:

-- Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th Edition)

-- Web development and design foundations with HTML5 (7th edition) by Terry Felke-Morris

I really struggled with the HTML5 book, as it was really huge and I had trouble sifting it down to a level where it helped me with the Dreamweaver project that I was completing in the concurrent 545 course. Thank god for Lynda tutorials!

Thanks for checking out the blog today, and next we will take a more in-depth look at the Felke-Morris text that we used for this course.

Mahalo!

Review of Joyce, Weil and Calhoun’s Models of Teaching

I have not posted to the blog since the beginning of the year, but I got caught up in the final semester of my instructional design program and needed to take a little time off from writing after I graduated. Thank you for your patience!

For the IDT 535 course, Instructional Strategies and Universal Design Issues in Learning Environments, one of the two required texts was Models of Teaching (9th Edition) by Bruce Joyce, Marsha Weil, and Emily Calhoun. I still refer to this book even after I have graduated, and consider it a valuable purchase. This is saying something as this 480-page book is $140 if purchased new and $113 used. I bought the used one…

There are few things that I had to get past when I started reading this book. For starters, the general format of the text is that a real-world example is provided, and then there is a discussion of the model(s) of teaching that are applicable to the situation at hand. This did not fit is well with my note-taking style, so there were a few adjustments that I had to make, and after awhile I would usually skim the examples and go straight for the meaty stuff. The other thing that was a little tough for me is that the focus of this text is K-12 learners, so I had to put a little extra thought into how I would apply this knowledge to what I actually do in the corporate world. But, I got over both of these things after a few weeks of class.

All of this being said, Models of Teaching has a lot of great stuff in it, and the material that you will find within is very helpful beyond the K-12 setting. The authors start with a discussion of where teaching models come from and what they are, and then they cover the basic information-processing models. There are also in-depth explanations of the special purpose information-processing models, the social family models of teaching and the behavioral family of models of teaching, Finally, Joyce, Weil, and Calhoun finish up with practical advice regarding the conditions of learning, learning styles, and conceptual levels.

This book is considered a classic reference for teaching models, and since 1972 there have been nine editions, so apparently I am not the only one that thinks there is something valuable to be gained from this text. The print quality of my copy was not great (for a $111 used book, especially), but it is still a keeper, and I recommend that you buy, not rent, Models of Teaching.

Thank you!

Joyce, B., Weil, M., & Calhoun, E. (2014). Models of Teaching (9th Ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon