Lift Off

Equivalency Theory can be considered as an information exchanges for the purpose of learning between a teacher and a student, a student and a student or a student and some vehicle of content presentation. In the case of this online class, Nathan has designed a balance between all three of these exchanges. Compared to a classroom which typically relies on teacher to student interaction, this course offers opportunity across all three types of information exchange. Returning to the principles presented within the the article on critical thinking, one could say that employing all three dyads of information exhange under the Equivalency Theory is an effective strategy to get your students thinking on a more critical level.

In a previous post by Eileen, she made the comment that “a person can be more careful, editing [their] remarks and opinions” when using distance education. She continues by pointing out that “teachers and students can access each other when they want interaction, in many cases”. I appreciated that Eileen pointed out these important characteristics of distance education.

Nathan, Julie and I had a conversation in which Nathan brought up two important points related to Eileen’s post. If within the time lapse communication items tend build up, learners can then become either overwhelmed and “shut down” (let’s show hands of the people in this course who are fighting this tendency ) or they can use the time to employ critical thinking.

Nathan brought up another interesting notion in his post addressing Social Presence. In his post, Nathan states that writing presents fewer social cues compared to audio.

In my previous life as a Technical Assistance Specialist, the majority of my work was conducted via distance. My coworkers and I spent endless amounts of time on group conference calls and email. Although productive, it was amazing to me just how many misunderstandings occured while solely using audio channels.

Often when a miscommunication or confusion occured, we would tend to resort to writing for the very reason that Eileen mentioned….writing offers the advantage of timing and editing! I don’t know how others feel, but I spend more time thinking about what I am going to type compared to what I am going to speak out loud . I also believe that as we rely on more and more distance correspondance that we are adapting our writing to include social cues (i.e.the smiley icons).

I also appreciated the notion that Nathan shared regarding the definition of social presence, that “no person can judge his/her own social presence”. That must go hand in hand with the saying; assume the best in people, because those same people are assuming something about you.

Isn’t communication great!

CRITIQUE OF ARTICLE: “HOW TO PROMOTE CRITICAL THINKING” by Daithí Ó Murchú and Brent Muirhead

The focus of this article is on the concept and practice of critical thinking. Daithí Ó Murchú and Brent Muirhead use thought provoking examples to demonstrate the influence that critical thinking has on learning, reading, and writing. The authors begin the article by introducing a philosophy of “action with vision can change the world” (R. Barker, 1978). This philosopy is congruent with the author’s position that true education is goal oriented. They assert the premise that a, “wise teacher seeks to guide his/her students toward greater maturity which translates into new skills and knowledge.” Therefore, a “wise teacher” utilizes meaningful learning strategies. Meaningful learning requires learners to actively process their experiences and assign meaning according to thieir previous experience. As a result, learners must actively engage in new experiences beyond information aquisition. Learners must utilize critical thinking at all times through careful examination, astute perception, skillful interpretation, and practice.

Although I agree with the authors and I fnd little aurgument with any of their concepts , I believe they underplayed three important characteristics of active learning: interest, emotion and generalization. Within the article, Murchú and Muirhead reference a study by Courts and McInerney (1993) and offer that “student’s did [do] not engage fully or energetically in learning something they did [do] not want to learn or see any reason to learn.” The authors support this notion later in the article by pointing out that “students find recall of knowledge easier from a novel than from a book. Novels hold two of the characteristics that I mentioned: 1) people tend to chose novels in which they have interest and 2) novels tend to instigate emotion.

In my experience, I find that learners are more actively engaged and employ more critical thinking skills towards topics in which they are interested, passionate or in which they need to utilize the information on a frequent basis. Even in my field, working with children who are deaf-blind, we try to start the learning process by utilizing what children enjoy or like. This facilitates the childrens’ interest to further engage and explore.

A question I would like to pose to our group is what strategies as “wise teachers” can we employ to ensure that our online courses draw interest, emotion or relevance?

References

O Murchu, D.O. & Muirhead, B. (2005). Insights into Promoting Critical Thinking in Online Classes. Retrieved September 1, 2005 from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/June05/article01.htm

September 2, 2005
Special Education Internet Resources

The National Information Clearinghouse on Children Who Are Deaf-Blind
http://www.dblink.org/
The National Information Clearinghouse on Children who are Deafblind (DB-LINK) provides access to an extensive collection of resources related to deaf-blindness. The website is constantly updated and it is very user friendly. For individuals who do not have internet access, you can reach the librarians by phone at 800.438.9376. DB-LINK also hosts a variety of listserve related to deaf-blindness. This is a must have resource in the field of deaf-blindness.
The National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHCY)
http://www.nichcy.org
Much like DB-Link, NICHCY houses an extensive collection of up-to-date information related to children with disabilities and special education. Also user friendly, NICHY is a valuable resource for anyone desiring information on a variety of topics affecting children with disabilities.
Zoomerang
http://info.zoomerang.com/
For those of you who create questionnaires….this is a site for you. Zoomerang allows you to create, customize and send online surveys easily and efficiently. You can select from a variety of templates and question formats. Zoomerang eliminates the messy snail mail paper trail.

* Posted on: Fri, Sep 2 2005 12:48 PM

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Review of Educational Websites

Ecucational resources cited by Loana Mason on her blog: Epiphanies

#1 TSBVI (Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired) http://www.tsbvi.edu/

I am very familiar with TSBVI’s website. Loana’s summation of the website was well written. If reviewers have the time to wade through a treasure chest of information related to blindness, vision impairment, and deaf-blindness, this in an extremely valuable resource. Reviewers can also find resources from the Texas Deaf-blind Outreach Staff who are known for their innovative ideas around services for children who are deaf-blind. Great resource Loana. Thanks for sharing!

#2. SEELS (Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study) http://www.seels.net/grindex.html

I had seen this website before, but I have never had time to explore its contents. I liked that Loana mentioned accessibility issues within her review. I think accessibility is an important component to consider when writing a review of a website. Of course it helps when you know what you are talking about ;). I also appreciated Loana’s hint on how to effectivey use the information provided by the site.

#3. CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology) http://www.cast.org/index.html

For me, this is a new web-resource. This site offers a multitude of information. Loana’s review was helpful as she offered reviewers guidance towards an area that may be of particular interest, NIMAS (National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard. Loana’s review not offered guidance to important features of the website, she also offered an explanation of NIMAS upfront, that might even further catch the readers attention.
It seems that the more detailed website reviews are, including accessibility and key or valuable features, the more likely reviewers are going to explore the website beyond the homepage. Luona did a nice job of all of these things. Thanks for letting me pick on you Loana

* Posted on: Fri, Sep 2 2005 12:46 PM

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August 30, 2005

What Other People Should Know about Distance Education

I believe any distance education strategy should be consistantly evaluated for effectiveness. Distance education is a good fit for some activities, yet I believe people select distance education strategies purely for the point of using it (not because it is the optimum educational strategy). I have seen projects who have written distance education in their grant, and then use it, just to say they have whether it matched their purpose or not. I think as educators, we must not forget the value of human contact. Especially with parents of children with disabilities who may already be isolated.

Therefore, I believe everyone needs to know when to use and when not to use distance education. I also believe evaluation should go hand-in-hand with any distance education course.

* Posted on: Tue, Aug 30 2005 3:42 PM

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Defining Distance Education

For the past six years, I worked for a national technical assistance project assessing needs and implementing strategies to improve services for children who are deaf-blind and their families.

The project had four offices and served 48 state and multi-state projects.

During my time with the project, distance education meant access. Access to people and information regardless of time or geographical barriers.

Since enrolling in Nathan’s class, I define distance education in a whole new way (which I will not mention here Sorry Nathan, I think I have made it my personal goal to give you a bit of a hard time (smile).

A few upsides of distance education are its relative convience, the equality it offers participants, and the flexibilty it offers in terms of using a variety of mediums to convey or obtain information.

A downside to distance education is that it removes us from human contact.

* Posted on: Tue, Aug 30 2005 2:21 PM

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August 26, 2005

If your blogging and you know clap your hands! Blog entry 1 of hundreds if Nathan has his way!

* Posted on: Fri, Aug 26 2005 2:03 PM