Concept Mapping and Inspiration

Concept mapping (and the Inspiration software) is a great tool for teachers to develop ideas and use as a classroom tool. The concept map is a great way for teachers develop ideas, link ideas, and create assessments. I have also participated in a workshop where teachers, from different subjects, worked together and combined concept maps to create to seem common elements, in their classes and develop common cross-curriculum assessments. It was a very powerful way to see common benchmarks, learning objections, and collaborate with teachers from other subjects.

Concept mapping (and using Inspiration) involves technology and software. Many teachers are still ‘afraid’ of software. In the classroom, it involves access to the software and allowing students to develop their skills with the software. In the classroom, I have found that concept mapping does not apply to all learning styles. Using concept mapping is a way to differentiate learning, but might not be effective with all students.

I have personally found that many students use Inspiration at the elementary and middle school level. However, at the High School level, they find it ‘juvenile’ or not a tool they want to use in High School. I experienced some resistance when having students create inspiration-based assignments.

Can Bonk's Perfect Storm be stopped ?

he Bonk article infers that the e learning is an education institution that will inevitably become part of mainstream American education. As an online teacher, and witness of the benefits and success of online learning, I agree with Bonk’s arguments. I have been comparing online education with the “alternative” school concept that originated in the 1980’s and was fully implemented in many Wisconsin schools in the 1990’s. Traditional schools were forced to create ‘alternative’ schools for their at-risk, credit deficient, or non-traditional students. With emerging technology, changing learning demands, pedagogy shift. and budget benefits, public schools districts (and universities) will be required to offer online learning options for all their students.

The two elements Bonk’ storm arguments that I agree the most with are pedagogy and budgets. I could not agree more with Bonk’s statement that “millions of learners are signing up for online courses. Unfortunately, many of them quickly become bored online learners who plead for more rich and engaging online experiences.” I experienced this first hand. I have had the unique opportunity to become involved in the beginning stages of an online high school. When our program began many of our classes used out dated textbooks and an education model that involved reading the book, doing a worksheet “type” activity with a Word document, take an online quiz, and complete a multiple choice assessment with a few essay questions. I feel, as a result, our course completion rates were less than 50%. Over the last few years, with new vendors, working with our course content builders, and allowing teachers to redesign and modify class content, the content, quality, and interactivity of our classes has improved tremendously. As result, we are beginning to see improved course completion rates. The emerginging technologies and changing demands of students with force teachers (and online content providers) to constantly re-evaluate and re-design online courses and assessments. In tradtional education, with my redesign a class when a new textbook is purchased. Online classes will have to be reviewed and updated on an annual basis.

The ‘financial’ reality of our countries economic situation is going to continue to impact publicly funded education, at all levels. Corporations or educational organizations cannot ignore the inherent cost savings of online classes. The ability to attract students (and tuition) from any geographic area can be practiced at both the University level and High School level. My employer, The School District of Waukesha, has never denied that one of the main reasons for starting the IQ Academy Charter High School was the potential to increase revenues for the school district of Waukesha. The geographical mixture of students from this class, outside the Menomonee, WI and traditional UW-Stout area is a strong example. The present and rapidly emerging cost effective technologies and potential additional revenue streams can be applied to all areas of education and training.

Week 3 Reflections from the Online Office..

What are online assessments? ... As we continue to be exposed to more information in this online assessment class, I am coming to the conclusion that Assessments are not Episodic, in an online class. I argue that teachers do not fit the traditional roles in an online class. Online Teachers 'set-up' e learning class with a variety of traditional and web-based content and activities and allow students to work independently. During the course of a semester the teacher does not provide direct instruction, but serves as an educational mentor. Traditionally, I felt my roll, as an online instructor was to monitor progress. However, I am beginning to change my view and realize that my role also includes providing a variety of frequent of assessments. These assessment’s can be varied, on traditional, and yet to be defined. Traditionally my classes have been set up with traditional exams and discussion board posts as assessments. However an end of the semester episodic exam or student created project determined the bulk of the student’s grade. This class is making me realize that a well designed class features of variety of frequent assessments with less dependence on a few episodic exams or projects.

I am also becoming more aware of the need (and lack) of communication between traditional education organizations and online programs. In my situation, at IQ Academy of Wisconsin, we have operated on an organizational island. I do not think our district department head’s, administrators, and traditional high school personal understand the operations of our program. In order for online programs to develop and advance we need to work with representatives from across our educational community.

Traditional school and online programs need to work together in the area of assessments. The School District of Waukesha has an emphasis on common assessments. Operating in an online high school, I feel I am being encouraged to develop assessments and conform to the practices of the traditional face-to-face schools. How can an online teacher be encouraged to develop a common assessment with a face-to-face teacher? How can I help a face-to-face teacher develop a comment assessment that would benefit their traditional classroom? The reality is that in order to work together on common assessments, we need to develop a mutual understanding of face-to-face and online pedagogy. The reality of Bonk's perfect e-storm needs to be acknowledged and embraced by representatives across the entire educational community. How can the two forms of education work together? I ask this question? In the next 5 years will traditional learning classrooms look more like online learning? or will online learning look more like traditional face-to-face classrooms?

Who is this Guy ? Partner Interiew

Eric Lehmann taught Social Studies for 14 Years at the high school level in the School District of Waukesha. He has since been teaching 4 Years online as part the IQ Academy Virtual High School in Wisconsin. IQ is an open enrollment charter school that has students from the entire state of Wisconsin.

Before teaching he worked 2 years for both Senator Kohl's re-election campaign and with the Milwaukee Bucks. To his surprise politics and pro sports were over-rated and inter connected.

Something we would never guess about Eric is he sails and power boats. His goal in life is to boat all the continents (North and South America so far..) and he wants to snorkel/dive the Great Barrier Reef before he dies.

Eric cherishes his family and 3 kids, 12 Year old daughter and 9 Year old twin boys..

Teacher-Centered vs. Learner-Centered

Online learning is the ultimate Learner-Centered education experience. I feel, it is an essential paradigm shift for teachers that gravitate to an online position. The teacher's main role is a coursework designer and education mentor. The teacher no longer controls the content through lectures and deadlines. Ultimately the student is an autonomous learner that processes knowledge on their own with limited assistance from a teacher or peers. The teacher and professor must make available clear content and resources for students, online.

I have seen several great collegues struggle as online teachers because they can not control student learning, in an online environment. Several teachers are use to having a classroom where they control the content and learning on a daily basis. The teachers struggle because, in the online environoment teachers must make content available in large portions (or an entire semester) and trust students ability to work without teacher supervision. The "ultimate" student centered education experience is the program, without deadlines. Students are free to explore content on their own time schedule and sequence.

Edu Blogs - Work Alone or in Collaboration ?

Wang – Pro’s and Con’s

The Wang and Fang article was a case study on the benefits of Blogs in cooperative learning. During the article I developed my own thesis. How do the online learning styles of students at various levels differ? Do you High School; Undergraduate, and Graduate students have different online learning styles?
I found the article very interesting and relevant to my online classes. I have found that online High School students are very autonomous learners, in our program. I have tried to incorporate some group activities into my classes, but the activities and tasks have not been successful. I have attempted group break out sessions in our Elluminate web-conferencing sessions, group Discussion Board posts, and traditional partner or group research projects. The participation the activities have been minimal and the quality unsatisfactory. I have not attempted to create a group blog page.
However, this my third online graduate level course, as a student. The two previous classes (and this class) have relied heavily on cooperative learning concepts and developing collaborative assessments. The online classes that I have participated in have had more positive interdependence compared to the autonomous learning that takes place in the online classes, that I teach. Is this related to prefer learning style or class design?
I am very intrigued about using Blogs to promote writing, assess student work, and foster cooperative learning. However, the frame of reference that I compare a Blog to is the Discussion Board feature of Blackboard. (Similar to the Discussion area, of this class). Several of the negatives conveyed in the 7 Things you should know about Blogs article can be addressed if the Blog is hosted in a controlled area, not on the open web.
The posts are ‘not’ public. The teacher has the ability to structure the process, edit, and control posts. Personally, I see the most potential by using a Blog as an e-portfolio where students can post and share their own writing, thoughts, work, projects, etc…. It would allow students to have ownership in their work and web-space. Students would have the ability to view and comment on their classmates work. As teacher, it would also give me a central place to view and assess student’s work.
Several of the negatives conveyed in the 7 Things you should know about Blogs article can be addressed if the Blog is hosted in a controlled area, not on the open web.

IQ Academy - Wisconsin - School District of Waukesha

I received a lot of questions about 'where I work...' I am High School teacher employed by the School District of Waukesha. Waukesha offers an Open Enrollment Charter High School called IQ Academy. Since it is an open enrollment charter school, our students are from the entire state of Wisconsin. Waukesha operates the schools as a partnership with KC Distance Learning, which also co operates IQ Academies in other states. I am full time IQ teacher that does not report to a face to face traditional school building each school day. I do maintain two athletic coaching positions at Waukesha South High School. (Another students, in this class, Amy Rosno, is a colleague)

To learn more about IQ Academy, click on the How it Works button.