EdTechTalk: Women of Web 3.0
Show #124
This show Women of Web is presented by Ed Tech and is hosted by Sharon Peters, Cheri Toledo and Peggy George. In this episode they discussed the book Online Education for Dummies which was written by Kevin Johnson and Susan Manning. I thought it was funny that Sherri has known Susan Manning for 7 years but only within the week of doing the podcast has she met her face-to-face! Also they all live in Illinois and are colleagues but none of them even live in the same town.
Manning is a 10 year veteran of online instruction who started as an administrator and was asked at that point to explore online education for immigrants learning English. What followed naturally was a lead into course designing and assisting faculties from many major universities in developing online courses, which is what she is still currently doing.
Kevin Johnson taught in a somewhat traditional classroom setting as well and has a Masters in Curriculum in Instruction. He began by programming education materials for others and again followed naturally into how technology and online education courses can benefit students and teachers alike, but also he wanted to find the most effective and efficient means to do this and really the two of them together have begun to head the creation of standards and ground rules for how a good online course should be run.
They discuss how helpful and beneficial the Synchronous and Asynchronous tools have been in the early stages of online courses. A wealth of information can be found regarding these online tools; here is just a few:
Mike Scheuermann, Drexel University
This is a YouTube video of a professor explaining the uses of Synchronous tools for an online course.
Tools for Synchronous and Asynchronous Classroom Discussion
A Chronicle of Higher Education article by Julie Meloni
Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication Tools
Most of what Manning and Johnson currently do involves instructional design and what institutions can do to increase job satisfaction with distant faculty. They also concentrate on “Online Pedagogy” which seems to be a growing trend in the media world as more and more we are seeing a full transition from face-to-face class time into online courses. They frequently mention the Illinois Online Network. This gives "An Online Course in a Nutshell." The two of them believe that online education is just as effective if the course is designed well and students can navigate things effectively. Yet, they stress that the energy and teacher interaction is just as important for keeping things on track and keeping the pace where it needs to be. They mention Dave Cormier’s work that is being done in the realm of online courses as well as George Siemens. Two big names in the future of online courses.
What is interesting in the discussion everyone has though is they mention the snags that can come with Accreditation agencies and those agencies assessing whether or not online courses involved the necessary standards worthy of getting accredited. I think this was the biggest “wow” moment for me because they seem to be sticking to their guns instead of really allowing faculty and students a say in the matter. In my own opinion, I would have really thought these agencies would run along side schools and universities when it came to inevitable technological progress within our education systems.
Biggest thing I thought was interesting, the question was asked “What are the top 5 must have’s for a successful online course? Student-to-student work (Collaboration, interaction with one another), Media: Manning says, “We are beyond the days of having text only courses.” Reflection is big, allows learners for metacognition and “Clean Navigation” with the presence of the instructor. This is much of what our course pertains to and I think it is great that these people list the criteria which I would say KSU’s DED 318 course works into very well.
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