J-OMDE+610

OMDE 610 Teaching & Learning in Distance Education Spring 2010 This Learning Journal is a required element in the OMDE 610 curriculum (this description is a near identical copy of that assignment description). In this learning journal I intend to document my journey through the course. To do so, I will incorporate a number of techniques into my writing including: Some Initial Reflections about How I Think & Learn Author: Stuart Adams Created: 1/30/2010 I am offering this as a baseline for comparison as I increase my understanding of how I think and learn.
 * 1) Selecting critical incidents from either the course and describe them, detailing how they contribute to my awareness of myself as an online learner. What did I learn about myself from this incident? How will Iu capitalize on that learning as I proceed through this course as a learner? How can I capitalize on that learning in a teaching role (if applicable)?
 * 2) Using incidents or parts of class discussion to make links to other aspects of my program learning.
 * 3) Reflecting on readings or activities in greater detail than I did online.
 * 4) Referring to outside readings or other sources of information to elaborate upon my learning.
 * 5) Referring back to previous journal entries with follow-up observations about my own process.

First and foremost, I am a verbal thinker and learner. My thoughts don't come out as mathematical equations, they come to my mind as words. More specifically, they seem to arrive as spoken words, as if I am explaining something or making an argument. I have found that I can "present a lecture" to myself to think through an idea. I am typically very specific about word choice and sentence construction and will often re-work a sentence to get the idea straight.

Often, the verbalization will take the form of an argument. This leads to the next key point about how I think and learn: I have to wrestle with ideas to accept them. I need to get into an argument with new concepts and ideas. I need to challenge them and to "fight" with the author (figuratively). I argue against the new concept, insist on seeing proof that it’s true. I need to see how the new information squares with what I already know. I am often skeptical of ideas. To the degree that the idea/concept survives my a challenges, I can incorporate it into my thinking.

This is not the same as being unwilling to accept new ideas, but it speaking to the process that I go through to accept and incorporate a new into my thinking. Also, I reserve the right to drop an idea if and when it doesn't comport with reality or prove useful in some way.

I like thinking theoretically and conceptually and this goes to the third key point. I conceptualize from the top down and need to see the big picture to have the perspective that allows me to fit in the details. I am much more comfortable starting to learn from the 30.000 feet view.

The fourth point: As a learner, I frequently cross the lines of a discipline to make connections, find useful metaphors, and apply learnings. I don't think ideas exist in a vacuum and I think that some of the most interesting areas for consideration are at the seams between two disciplines. For example, one cannot gain a true understanding of politics without an understanding of economics. Or, there are interesting things to learn in the business world if one considers the cultural aspects of a business endeavor.

Captstone Project Considerations Author: Stuart Adams Created: 1/31/2010 The article "How to Be a Good Graduate Student" by Marie desJardins ([]) generated an idea that I though I should include somewhere in my Learning Journal. That is, I should begin to consider what I want my capstone thesis to be about. Here are some preliminary considerations: Just some opening thoughts...
 * I have always been interested in distance education for what it might offer to the effort of reforming K-12 public education. So, my capstone must focus there.
 * I think that public schools will need someone who can help them to understand how to "get it done". Thus, I should like to focus on policy and implementation issues.
 * It will be important to be able to speak to each/all stakeholders in the public K-12 area. As such, my capstone should have an interdisciplinary perspective that brings all aspects of DE into the picture - I should strive for breadth rather than depth as much as possible.
 * Leading Change will be an important aspect (see DEPM 604).

Thinking and Feeling Author: Stuart Adams Created: 2/2/2010 I have a clear understanding of the difference between "thinking", "feeling" and "believing." "Thinking" refers to an intellectual or cognitive understanding. It may be derived from reason or from experience. "Feeling" refers to an affective, sensate, or emotional activity. It can also refer to an intuitive perspective. "Believing" generally involves values and religious or spiritual elements. Many people confuse these three. They will say "I feel that such-and-such is true" when they mean that, through some level of thinking or from experience, they have come to a conclusion that it is true. Some people think that an idea is of a higher order of truth if they "feel" that it is true. Some say that when one makes the statement "I think that so-and-so," they are expressing doubt or ambivalence, as if they are not sure. Instead, I take it to mean "I have thought about this and have decided/concluded so-and-so." As such, I am happy when I hear someone say he "thinks" some thing; I'm happy when some says he "thinks"! Just a pet peeve of mine.

Am I a Cognitivist or a Constructionist? Author: Stuart Adams Created: 2/6/2010 I tend to be an eclectic thinker rather than a dialectic thinker. So, in trying to sort out the differences in how I learn and how others might learn, I am inclined to take parts from each theory. I have coached kids sports and have found that, to get to kid to kick a soccer ball or dribble a basketball, it is best to break the activity down and do repetitious actions. This is a Behaviorist approach, it works and I include it my understand of how we learn. As I look at my own academic learning, I tend to see things as through a Cognitivist lens. The activities that I go through seem to mirror those activities that a computer does. Sensation (I/O) becomes transient memory. Transient memory may find its way into long term storage or not. The processing of the sensation does seem to contribute to the likelihood of it finding its way into long term memory. So, processing, reflection, application and articulation are critical to learning. The first of two things that I find important in the Constructivist view is the idea that learning involves choice on the part of the learner, the learner as active participant. I can choose what to "sense" (i.e.: read, watch, hear, experience) and how much significance that I assign to that sensing. I also have control over the second important element of constructing knowledge, how I add that new knowledge to my base of knowledge. The concept of building knowledge onto existing knowledge structures argues for the rational and thorough development of a useful knowledge base. E. D. Hirsch makes this with regard to basic literacy. One needs knowledge structures as foundations for further learning. (If you've ever seen Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" it's hard to imagine how any of his subjects can find their way around). I don't know how either of these models takes into account the matter of the intensity of the experience. I know that I have been intensely thrilled as well as intensely scared and the intensity of such an experience itself has forced the sensation into long term memory. I have learned to avoid hot things based on the insensitivity of the burning experience with little processing involved. There certinly is learning there. So I am trying to develop a hybrid of the various perspectives. I have noted what appear to be some overlaps. For example, reflection - from the Cognitivist" model - seems similar to knowledge construction, that personal dialog where knowledge internalized. There are other examples which taken together suggest validity to the theories. I think that Ally's model "Components of effective online learning" does a good job of pulling together various elements of each theory.

How Much to Post? Author: Stuart Adams Created: 2/10/2010 One of the students in my class brought up the idea of how online classes with async conferences can have the conferences get loaded up with posts. This, in her view causes anxiety in the form of feelings of falling behind or not performing adequately. For me, this is a two-edged sword: On the one hand, I like the conferences where there is a lively and challenging give and take between the class members. On the other hand, the interaction can be overwhelming. There can be a lot to try to keep up with. Right now, I'm behind schedule in readings and assigned writings. I know I'll get it all done, but the best part of this educational process is to reflect and consider. That processing is where the learning takes place. It seems as if I have to reserve that kind of work to the weekends because I don't have time to sit and think, and use my writing to compose my thoughts and ideas during the week (Got a job, ya know). My plan is to try to develop 1-3 ideas in the form of more thorough posts per week and see how they fly. In this context, I am going to air my pet peeve: the "Me too" post. This may be the result of a student being under pressure from all sides, trying to meet the "post regularly" responsibility. But it doesn't add anything to the conversation besides the annoyance of having to spend the time to read it. (Sorry to bitch but it is my LJ).

Tools of the Trade Author: Stuart Adams Created: 2/13/2010 I have come to understand how important the two tools, a pencil and a highlighter, are to me in my learning. Simply reading a text is an incomplete method of reading,; I need to mark the source up. I use the highlighter to identify those ideas that I find valuable and/or noteworthy. Definitions, key ideas and good examples are likely to get highlighted. And, generally I don't use the highlighter sparingly. Sometimes, I try to be restrictive and discriminating as to what I mark, but more often, I just mark… almost intuitively. I can read news and fiction without any need for the highlighter, but if I am working to understand the content and it is at all challenging, I need to mark it up. Beyond that, I need a pencil to mark comments and observations on the test. My daughter was taught to use this approach in high school. I watched her doing this and initially, I was appalled. But I realized two things: 1) it was just a paperback, not that valuable a property (the ideas were what was valuable) and 2) it was a really productive way to interact with the text at the time of its reading. So now, all of my readings are marked up. One added value of this is that it is easier to find things that I thought were valuable, when I come back to the work n the future.  The Emperor's New Clothes? or Am I just Obstinate? Author: Stuart Adams Created: 2/17/2010 I recognize that my typical reaction to new information/learning id to doubt it, disagree with it, be skeptical of it, challenge it. I almost always am nearly hostile to a new idea or concept, even if it isn't all that new. __The Good News__: I am often the guy who will say "BS" when "BS" needs to be said. I don't need to follow and I am disposed to speaking honestly when the emperor has no clothes. __The Bad News__: I can be slow to buy into ideas tat are new to me. My kids say that I am "stogy." It often takes a number of tries, working the idea around in my head, for me to buy into a new concept. This is not because I have trouble understanding the new concept. It is generally because I need to test and re-test it intellectually before I incorporate it into my worldview. Guess that's constructivism.

High Order Thinking (Am I Buying All This?) Author: Stuart Adams Created: 2/20/2010 I need to consider just how much of this idea of higher order thinking I am willing to buy into as a legitimate goal of education. I find myself at a crossroads as to how much I accept the importance of "21st Century Skills" as a legitimate goal of public education. Now I am confronted with the theoretical work of Dirk Morrison. I have no doubt that I can parrot back the key points of his theory but, I'm not sure I want to internalize it.

I went off to college thinking that I was going there to study Government and Politics, and its inter-relationships with economics and the activities of business that were key undergirding processes. I understood that I wanted to know the experts knew, and, just as importantly, I wanted to be able to think like the experts thought.. That is, I wanted to think like a political scientist (sorry, there's no "science " there) thought or how a political activist thought, how an economist thought, how a business person thought. Somewhere in behind that, I recognized that my two intellectual role models, DaVinci and Jefferson, where great thinkers in a way that I wanted to be. That is, they were both broad, eclectic thinkers for whom every discipline and "science" was an area that they could comfortably discourse in - Renaissance men. (BTW, nobody told me that I was supposed to be engaged, as Morrison puts it, in "superficial understanding of the subject matter" where "learners [were to] passively accept knowledge as it is presented to them, rather than critically examining and constructing it..." Perhaps I should have been drinking more beer as an undergrad).

I don't know that I expected the university to take me there, but that I would have to, as a habit of mind, make myself such a Renaissance man. In fact, I knew that the university wanted to make me into a specialist, not a generalist. The Government & Politics department, where I was majoring, wanted me to specialize, not just in the study of G & P but in something even more specific, such as public policy, international affairs or public administration. But I had different ideas. I was interested in breadth. And, I expected to become one who could read, write, articulate and act in the realms that I was studying. So I guess that I intended to go beyond "content." If I had been asked whether I thought analysis, critical thinking, and other high-order thinking skills, were a part of what I intended to get out of my studies, I would have said "yes." But, I would likely have confined my expectations to the fields that I was studying, not expecting that those skills transcended the disciplines. Also, I recognized that the university didn't take those goals of mine as theirs, at least not in any active sense. Perhaps if I had attended a smaller school, rather than a huge state university, the school would have taken a more active role in forming me as a thinker. I now recognize that liberal arts colleges are more directed towards this role of forming minds. ( My nephew studied at St. John's College and his education involved reading the classics and learning to think. I don't know if he gained any discipline-specific knowledge to speak of but he can construct a logical argument.)

My beef with the argument that schools are in the business of creating thinkers is that to some degree, this is seen as a task apart from conferring knowledge. This is a mistake for two reasons: first, sometimes one simply wants to gain knowledge. For years, people have gone to school (including DE) to learn things or to learn how to do things. Correspondence schools have offered auto mechanics and art lessons for generations. I have taken classes at the community college in Art History, HTML programming, and Soup Cooking. All were well worth the money that I spent, all legitimate forms of learning, no higher order thinking skills. Second, and this is perhaps more important, knowledge is foundational to further knowledge. The Formalist perspective on learning takes the view that what you learn is unimportant, how you learn is what matters. I don't accept this. E.D. Hirsch effectively makes the case that teaching a child to read requires not simply that decoding processes be learned but that content be mastered for one to be literate. I think that this applies to all learning. And, I take the roles of primary and secondary education to provide a strong foundation for all future learning. At the beginning of tertiary education, a student is still learning foundational knowledge, but in a specific discipline or disciplines. During the later years of secondary and post-secondary education significant advances in higher order learning should take place.

Well, back to Morrison. I guess I accept the legitimacy of his first four levels of learning outcomes (from Costa & Garmston). I think that the fifth level is a little too ethereal, a little too "new age (crystals and pyramids)" for me. It is insufficiently defined perhaps to sell me. But, I guess I can go along for now.

Talking and Writing Author: Stuart Adams Created: 2/22/2010 I had an interesting realization this weekend. It came to me as I was writing the above post and another commentary for another class. I have always been a verbal thinker/conceptualizer. Unlike those engineers and accounts and theoretical physicists who think in numbers, I always think in words. (I think that's why I typically score so much higher in verbal that math skills on standardized tests). But, when I think, I verbalize...That is I talk out my ideas. I'm best if I have a whiteboard (with colored pens!) that I can use in my internal "lecture" but I have been known to work around my shop mumbling to myself, working out ideas. (Drives my wife nuts!) It is critical, in these mumblings that i get teh words right, that the grammer is correct, that my sentences are well structures. That way I know I'm getting a coherent idea composed.

SOOOO?!

Well I discovered that I was working out ideas in written form, which I have never been able to do in the past. After 2 1/2 smeseters in MDE, I think with a pencil; or more exactly, I think with a word processor.

So you can teach an old dog new tricks!

Brain Research Author: Stuart Adams Created: 2/24/2010 Morrison comments on the need to bring pedagogy in line with current research in brain research and cognitive science. This seems to me to be of critical importance in advancing the theory and practice of education. The cognitive model of psychology attempts to understand how sense data becomes held knowledge, stored and available in the brain for future use. Understanding how this happens and how it happens best could remove some of the voodoo that passes as knowledge in the field of education. I don't know that we get to a point where knowledge gets electronically plugged into the brain; I don't think I want to see learning de-humanized. Learning might be one of the most "human" things we do. But, it seems as if there is a lot being done by the neurologists to understand how the brain functions. Wouldn't you expect that "how we learn" would show up in the neurologist's agenda? And, if it has, shouldn't that show up to prove, disprove or focus attention on key pedagogical/educational theories?

The Recalcitrant Student <span style="color: #114488; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Author: Stuart Adams Created: 2/24/2010 I wonder if you could learn anything useful on the subject of Social Constructivist theory if you purposefully behaved as the "Recalcitrant Student" in an online learning conference? What if you made a point of challenging all of the key points made by the text and teacher? What if you offered "creative" interpretations and analysis of the course material. Or just wrong ones? Supposed you took well aimed shots at all of the seminal writers and thinkers. I'm not talking about raising legitimate issues and challenging questionable theories. That's what you're supposed to do in a social constructivist-oriented group online discussion. And I'm not talking about being disrespectful of classmates, or the teacher, being nasty, abusive or rude. That would demonstrate nothing but one's boorishness. I'm talking about purposefully posting obscure, confused, or perhaps nit-pickity arguments against the prevailing wisdom. I think that after a very short time, the classmates would simply ignore you. No one would step in to try to correct or challenge your posts, to present counter-arguments to your claims. You would not get "brought around" because no one would waste the time on you. I would expect the teacher to try to re-direct such a student's thinking and understanding. But an uninvolved or weak teacher might not take the time. Then what happens to the person who depends on the class for the social construction of his knowledge? I must admit that, if I had the time to try it, I might. Sorry…I'm too busy just trying to keep up. Might make a good thesis, though.

Puking Facts <span style="color: #114488; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Author: Stuart Adams Created: 3/3/2010

I have been holding back on this one for a few weeks so as not to offend any specific person. It's come up in class earlier this semester and it just makes me ill. I'm getting a crusader complex about casual boorishness and lack of civility. So, if anyone happens to use this phrase I reserve the right to offer this commentary: I have to protest the continued use of the phrase "regurgitate facts". Not only is the phrase trite and overused, but it's disgusting. I guess that if the term "regurgitate" is used instead of "vomit" or "puke up" it's supposed to be more erudite and less revolting. Sorry, but the visual image is impossible for me to avoid. So, please, in a sophisticated intellectual academic setting, could we refer to it as "simple recall of facts"?

OK That's fair warning!

Media Equivalence vs. Gardner's Mutiple Intelligences <span style="color: #114488; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Author: Stuart Adams Created: 3/10/2010 There is a long-running controversy in distance learning on the subject of "media equivalence", the idea that there is no meaningful difference between the effectiveness of different media used in DE. This topic came up in the Mayes reading. Mayes cited Clark's (1983) "argument that there were no differences in learning benefits due to employing a specific medium for instruction." He further pointed out that different benefits…if they exist, will due to differences in the way in which information can be located and operated on". This seems reasonable to me. However, a question came to mind: what does this say to all those teachers that are using Gardner's concept of multiple intelligences as the basis for designing class work. Gardner's idea is that different people have intelligence in different forms, e.g. 'logical-mathematical, linguistic, visual-spatial, etc. Gardner (1991) said that the existence of different intelligences present a "challenge an educational system that assumes that everyone can learn the same materials in the same way" He goes on to prescribe an approach to teaching that takes into account different "learning styles". This approach manifests itself in approaches teachers take to include different learning styles in their class plans: visual, sound, printed word, movement, etc. So my question is this: if media doesn't matter, why try to include different ways of conveying content? Why try to present an idea visually and in print, and kinesthetically?

Kudos <span style="color: #114488; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Author: Stuart Adams Created: 3/10/2010 I meant to post this in the Week 6 Leftovers section, but I time got away from me. For those of you who didn't notice, there we a terrific exchange between Michelle and Jen on Kirschner, et.al. (posts 121,129,162, & 177). Witness two engaged minds working over an idea. For me, the quality of their interaction was the best argument supporting social constructivist learning that I've seen.

Normative or Empirical Statement <span style="color: #114488; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Author: Stuart Adams Created: 3/17/2010 I wrote a post in class again on my favorite subject (Constructivism) and I'm sure that I did a feeble job in explaining myself. I have captured the essence of that post (which is to say I have edited out some of it) and I am, for my own sake, going to attempt to elaborate and or clarify on what I'm trying to say.

My post was in response to Jen Keer's observation that for people in other cultures, constructing knowledge may look different than it does to us. Jen asked "do you think that they are constructing knowledge when they are memorizing? Are they being active by memorizing? " (Jen can always be counted on for insight and great questions). Her question asks whether or not any form of brain function can be considered a part of active knowledge building if the learner is "active." The Constructivist theory argues, as Ally puts it, that "the individual learner interprets and processes what it received through the senses to create knowledge." My question: is this a normative statement or an empirical statement?

I have taken this as an empirical statement, "this is how people learn." If it is an empirical statement, "people learn by taking in sense data of various forms and building personal knowledge structures", then they always learn that way. Ally says that in "constructive learning ... learners are given the opportunity to construct their own meaning". But if Constructivist theory is correct, learners don't need to be "given the opportunity" to learn, they learn by constructing knowledge in all cases, That's how learning actually happens and opportunity has nothing to do with it. Thus, Constructivism would be the operational definition of how learning happens. In any and all cases, "Individuals consciously strive for meaning to make sense of their environment in terms of past experience and their present state", says Tony Bates. So any input that a person receives could become knowledge, whether it comes from a teacher, an activity, a book or otherwise, if the learner actively uses it to construct knowledge. So the teacher can be a source of the sense data, and in some cultures, the legitimate source. As Jen suggests, the teacher's presentation " is actively being interpreted by the learner." But a book, an activity, a discussion all could be sources of the sort of sense data that one might assimilate or accommodate into their store of knowledge.

As we discussed earlier in this course, a theory is the best available explanation of how something is or how something works. Constructivism deserves to be a held theory of learning if/because it's the best explanation as to how learning works. Otherwise, it is, at best, an incomplete theory.

As a normative statement, the theory asserts that this how people 'should' learn or how they 'best' (most effectively) learn. We are told that we should strive to make learners be active, to interact with the content and with others, so as to 'best' capture the knowledge (our red ball returns). The value of Constructivism as a normative statement would be in you were to assert that this is the best way, or the most effective way to get learners to learn and therefore should be considered "best practice." Reconcilliation on the Cutting Rooom Floor <span style="color: #114488; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Author: Stuart Adams Created: 3/21/2010 <span style="display: block; font-family: 'arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">In writing my critical analysis of Mohamed Ally's g, I wrote that Ally could have tried to reconcile the three schools of learning theory and used that as a basis for his model. I took the time to postulate what such a reconciled, integrated theory might look like. This paragraph was the result. Unfortunately, it ended up on the cutting room floor. So, rather than loose what I thought was some interesting and useful speculation, I am placing this here.Foundations of Educational Theory for Online Learnin

The “big picture” might identify Cognitivist psychology as the overarching model of how sense data comes to be held in memory, a rudimentary definition of learning. From the proverbial hot iron to a classroom lecture to observations through a telescope, these sensate experiences provide the raw material of knowledge. Behaviorist learning, a subset of these experiences, can be seen as appropriate to simpler knowledge and skills, including physical and kinesthetic skills as well as rote learning, such as memorizing spelling words. The higher learning that we strive for must include more than merely the capture of memories of sensations. Here, Constructivism explains the mechanics of those processes. This is but one possible “big picture” model. Ally hints at such a model (page 39) but doesn’t attempt to explore or develop it.

I'd Like to Be Part of a True/Functioning BLK <span style="color: #114488; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Author: Stuart Adams Created: 4/2/2010 I don't identify with the group, with the class. I recognize exemplary participants, those who post comments that are thoughtful, insightful, and/or helpful for my learning. I also recognize those who have little to contribute. With some classmates, I eagerly await their comments and I even look for their approval of my posts. I have developed a level of respect for them. At the other extreme there are the one or two classmates in each class who are so limited in their understanding that I will only skim their posts to avoid getting confused or misled, and to save time. These students (while I respect their efforts and their right to participate) simply don't contribute meaningfully to the building of knowledge. Last semester there was a guy whose posts were so inane and self-absorbed that he actually annoyed me and distracted me whenever I read his stuff. The point is that I have yet to feel a shared sense of enterprise with any whole class or even a large segment of the class. Wilson's article about BLKs talks about the group coming together to support each other's learning, to engage in progressive discourse. I haven't yet experienced this in 5 UMUC online courses. Still, I have to admit that I typically have made poor use if the resources that others offer. I have been more dismissive of, or less attentive to classmates observations than I should be. The folks between the two extremes that I have mentioned above have more to say than I typically give credit for. In my defense, the deadlines that I have faced in two classes have made me pretty short on patience over the last three or four weeks. But... So, as of my return from overseas, I am making a point to pay better attention to my classmate's posts. Even those that are somewhat off the mark may be pointing to something that I'm not seeing. Or even their misconceptions offer some insights. Also, I could take more time and try to help clarify points that I think are being missed. It helps the other students learning as well as my own if I can articulate the clarifying point. Cognitive Pressence and The Quality of Posts <span style="color: #114488; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Author: Stuart Adams Created: 4/10/2010 As I reflect on the idea of cognitive presence in the OLL environment, I have to make an observation on the quality and value of posts that I have read over the course of 5 UMUC MDE classes. Recognizing that there is nothing scientific or truly quantitative about my estimates, I will bold offer this: 15% of the posts that I have read are painfully wrong and stupid. Either the student didn't make much effort to really understand the material or his/her interest is more in irrelevant self-revelation that simply has no place in a learning place. 30% of the posts are of the "Me too" variety, offering no new information or insight, simply repeating what has been said by someone else. I always wonder how many of those posts are there just to up the student's participation grade. 40% of the posts are also about repeating, restating, or providing personal examples of the material. These posts are valuable in performing the "integration" function (as are the "Me too" posts, to some degree). Though I don't always learn something new, these posts have the useful effect of confirming my knowledge and understanding and offering concrete examples of what is being presented. The remaining posts, about 15%, are the ones that I really look forward to. These are the ones that provide the "Aha" moments" in my classes. These are the ones that shift my paradigm, confront my biases, lift my understanding. Clearly the writer of such a post has put some time and thought into these posts. Not surprisingly, a small number of classmates provide the lion's share of these contributions. Along with providing special insight to the subject under discussion, these posts inspire me. When I write my posts, my ideal is to produce high quality posts. I want to take the time and make the effort to see the bigger picture, present a challenging view or bring ideas into the discourse from other disciplines. I want to be able to give someone else an "Aha!" moment.

Conversationwith a Pro <span style="color: #114488; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Author: Stuart Adams Created: 4/10/2010 Over this past week I had the pleasure of meeting and befriending a practitioner of DE. The fellow holds a PhD in Distance Education and works in the business world. He assured me that I wouldn't burden him on his family vacation with discussion of distance and online learning, that he could talk about it all afternoon. So, I took him up on his offer. Some of his thoughts and comments were helpful, confirming what I am learning, challenging my learning as well. This journal entry documents some of his comments and observations. On the subject of constructivist online learning, he said that it is clearly the best, most effective way to learn, online or otherwise. Actively engaging in the material is essential and effective and asynchronous learning modes work well…If you have the time, because they are a time-intensive processes. He and his wife are both in the business of corporate learning and both noted that in the corporate world, time is a much more valuable commodity, and constructivist OLL doesn't work. Their business requires that "learners" have access to timely and accurate information in real time. As such, the learning model more resembles that which Stephen Downes describes. Also, in training employees in methods and procedures that the organization requires that the employee follow, there is little room for exploration and discourse. The activity in question there is a process or procedure that must be followed to the letter. In such a case, he told me that old-fashioned behaviorist principles of learning are most effective. On a separate subject, one that in near to my heart, he offered the unhappy assertion that DE/OLL can do little to help the state of affairs in K-12 public education. He observed that adding a layer of technology to the mix will only add confusion. His view, which I didn't find entirely compelling (since I know that K-12 OLL providers are experiencing growth in the range of 25-45%), was that curriculum ambiguities and government regulation are at the root of public education's woes and that K-12 Oll was not useful as a solution. He did make the case for high quality instructional design and noted that in his business a good ID person - -especially one who understood effective assessment - was much in demand. He had other observations, but these are the ones that stand out.

Final Assignment <span style="color: #114488; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Author: Stuart Adams Created: 4/12/2010 Well I was a little surprised with my final assignment in this class. When I really looked at the assignment, after trying to do something a little too creative with it, I came to find that I simply was being asked to recall the content of the course and repeat it back to the instructor. This is an approach to teaching and learning that we have spent much time this semester decrying. I was scandalized! Then a funny thing happened. As I tried to bring all of the pieces of the puzzle together to form a complete picture of what I had learned, I discovered gaps. Not gaps in what I had been taught, but in how I had assembled and constructed what I had been taught. Trying to write out the whole story made me aware of how I didn't yet have the whole story. It directed me to specific areas that I needed to clarify and further reading and research that I needed to do. I think now that I have the whole story. My father used to say that if you couldn't explain something, you probably didn't really understand it. In trying to explain what this course was about, I have been forced to really understand it. Hope, after all of this constructing of knowledge, I've got it right!

Conversationwith a Pro, Pt. 2 <span style="color: #114488; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Author: Stuart Adams Created: 4/12/2010 Another thing that my friend told me was that, according to research he is familiar with, only about 7-10% of all learners learn best in a classroom. The others learn best in some form of "doing" modality. Brown, Collins, & Duguid would smile! Interestingly, a disproportionate share of thoe who learn best in a classroom become teachers. Comfort zone!

Awards Night <span style="color: #114488; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Author: Stuart Adams Created: 4/14/2010 It's time again to recognize those who have made a significant contribution to my learning. The award for best article on the subject of teaching and learning online (Envelope, please) goes to Brown, Collins and Duguid for Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning. Professor Conrad recommended this paper early on in the course. Other papers repeatedly referred to it. It truly qualifies as a seminal work, a classic.

This article was so good that I considered turning it in for my final essay with a preface that said "I know that I didn't write this but it so effectively covers the topic that I couldn't see any point in re-inventing the wheel." Early on in the paper the authors state:
 * "Many methods of didactic education assume a separation between knowing and doing, treating knowledge as a as an integral self-sufficient substance, theoretically independent of the situations in which it is learned and used. The primary concern of schools is the transfer of this substance..."

And that pretty much covers my 2500 word essay. Their argument of how culture and learning are so intertwined was so good - it was presented over the course of a number of pages - that I did my best to encapsulate it in my paper and, I fear, didn't do very well. I'm still working on it. And I loved his references to JPFs (Just Plain Folks). All in all, one of the very best pieces that I have read in any class, so far.

Predicting the Future <span style="color: #114488; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Author: Stuart Adams Created: 4/17/2010 I'm a real "believer" in futurist thought. It is less like crystal ball gazing and more like extended trend analysis. You can look at what has been, compare it to what is and what people are working on and extrapolate to the future. Rather a simple idea for a complex practice. Not unlike predicting the weather, not foolproof but an advancing discipline. I think that if I had continued my formal education after my undergraduate years, I would have tried my hand at it. One of the most influential books that I ever read was Daniel Bell's The Coming of the Post-Industrial Society. After it was published (1973, I think) other authors popularized its ideas and mass-marketed them. Nesbitt's Mega-Trends was the most successful in doing so. Bell introduced me to futurism as a social science. Prensky's writings and certainly The Horizon Report are engaged in future analysis. Interesting stuff!

Epilogue <span style="color: #114488; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Author: Stuart Adams Created: 4/18/2010 OK that's my learning journal. I read through it once at about mid-term and need to re-read it now. Need to see how my views have developed. I haven't ever reflected on my methods of learning and haven't kept a log of what I thought of the things that I've been learning - at least not in so disciplined a way. In the past, I've just copied some of my best posts into the journal for other classes. I should do this for all of my classes in the future. It'll make interesting reading at capstone time!

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